"Sometimes he grows excited," said he, "then he longs to escape or talks
about a speedy deliverance. At other times he is as quiet as a sick
animal, although I often find him pacing to and fro in his gloomy
dungeon, murmuring, 'In order that His glory may increase, mine must
diminish.'"

Antipas and Mannaeus looked at each other a moment in silence. But the
tetrarch was weary of pondering on this troublesome matter.

The mountain peaks surrounding the palace, looking like great petrified
waves, the black depths among the cliffs, the immensity of the blue sky,
the rising sun, and the gloomy valley of the abyss, filled the soul of
Antipas with a vague unrest; he felt an overwhelming sense of oppression
at the sight of the desert, whose uneven piles of sand suggested
crumbling amphitheaters or ruined palaces. The hot wind brought an odour
of sulphur, as if it had rolled up from cities accursed and buried
deeper than the river-bed of the slow-running Jordan.

These aspects of nature, which seemed to his troubled fancy signs of
the wrath of the gods, terrified him, and he leaned heavily against the
balcony railing, his eyes fixed, his head resting upon his hands.

Presently he felt a light touch upon his shoulder. He turned, and saw
Herodias standing beside him. A purple robe enveloped her, falling to
her sandaled feet. Having left her chamber hurriedly, she wore no jewels
nor other ornaments. A thick tress of rippling black hair hung over her
shoulder and hid itself in her bosom; her nostrils, a little too large
for beauty, quivered with triumph, and her face was alight with joy. She
gently shook the tetrarch's shoulder, and exclaimed exultantly: