watching a girl who danced in the middle of the hall; and the eyes of
Herod were fiery, like the eyes of a fox.

"The dancer was Tamar. She glistened like the snow on Lebanon, and the
redness of her was ruddier than a pomegranate, and her dancing was like
the coiling of white serpents. When the dance was ended her attendants
threw a veil of gauze over her and she lay among her cushions, half
covered with flowers, at the feet of the king.

"Through the sound of clapping hands and shouting, two slaves led me
behind the couch of Herod. His eyes narrowed as they fell upon me. I
told him the message of Caesar, making it soft, as if it were a word
that suffered him to catch his prey. He stroked his beard softly and
his look fell on Tamar. 'I have caught it,' he murmured; 'by all the
gods, I have always caught it. And my dear son, Antipater, is coming
home of his own will. I have lured him, he is mine.'

"Then a look of madness crossed his face and he sprang up, with
frothing lips, and struck at me. 'What is this,' he cried, 'a spy, a
servant of my false son, a traitor in my banquet-hall! Who are you?' I
knelt before him, protesting that he must know me; that I was his
friend, his messenger; that I had left all my goods in his hands; that
the girl who had danced for him was mine. At this his face changed
again and he fell back on his couch, shaken with horrible laughter.
'Yours!' he cried, 'when was she yours? What is yours? I know you now,
poor madman. You are Ammiel, a crazy shepherd from Galilee, who
troubled us some time since. Take him away, slaves. He has twenty sheep
and twenty goats among my flocks at the foot of the mountain. See to it
that he gets them, and drive him away.'