King's life, which he mentioned to Esther, who revealed it to the King. The conspirators were executed, and Mordecai became known to the rulers of Persia, but was not then rewarded for the important service he had rendered.

Soon after this occurrence, an Amalekite and direct descendant of Agag, named Haman, was raised to the rank of prime minister to the Court of Persia, and in that capacity claimed personal homage from all the King's servants. Mordecai alone refrained from bowing to the favourite as he went in and out of the palace, and by this brought Haman's wrath down upon himself. In vain did the other servants of the King remonstrate with Mordecai, he remained inflexible, and courageously refused to pay the religious homage to a minister—and an Agagite too—which he thought to be due to the highest authority of the state alone. Haman at once determined to gratify his vanity and vengeance, not only by ruining this one obnoxious individual, but annihilating the whole of the Jewish people. Having called together the diviners, the day for the carrying-out of his plan was ascertained by the lot, and fixed on as the 13th day of the 12th month following, called Adar. Immediately

Decree of Extermination.

31

after, he went to the King, and having, by artifice and deception, represented the whole of the Jews to be a disaffected and dangerous people, he secured the King's consent to their extermination. Having, moreover, received the King's ring, to be used at his discretion, he issued a decree and forwarded letters to all provinces, ordering all the Jews to be destroyed on the specified day.

On hearing these ill-tidings, Mordecai went about the city, clad in sackcloth, and venting bitter lamentations. The Queen saw him approaching the palace gate, and sent him a change of raiment, which he refused, to show his grief. Thereupon Esther

commanded one of her chamberlains to make full inquiries, when Mordecai unfolded everything, and sent a message to the Queen, asking her to go to the King, and "supplicate unto him, and make request before him for her people. Now the law of the empire enacted that whosoever ventured into the royal presence without being called should suffer death, unless the King held out to him the "golden sceptre," as a token of mercy. Mordecai's proposal, therefore, appeared the more dangerous as Esther had not been sent for by the King during thirty days,

which seemed to bespeak some alienation in his feelings towards her. This she tried to impress on his mind, when he, on the contrary, returned a forcible message, insisting on her advocating the cause of their nation at all hazards. Esther's words, in answer to this message, were as follows:-"Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day : I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the King, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish."

This promise was faithfully kept by the Queen. On the third day she put on her royal apparel, and betook herself to the royal presence. When the King saw her standing in the court, he at once held out "his golden sceptre," and thus spoke to her :-"What wilt thou, Queen Esther? and what is thy request? it shall be even given thee to the half of the kingdom." The Queen thereupon requested the King and Haman's presence on that day at a banquet she had prepared. The King at once granted her request, and when he and Haman were at table with her, the King asking her again what was her desire, she solicited his and the prime minister's presence

Haman planning Mordecai's ruin. 33

at a second banquet she intended to give on the morrow. This again was acceded to. Haman, being overjoyed at this exceptional honour, went home from the banqueting-table, when he was mortified to notice Mordecai not bowing his head before him. This he could not endure. Having reached home, he sends for his friends, and, addressing them and his wife Zeresh, dwells at great length on the power and prominence he has attained above the remainder of the royal household, and the unique honour of being invited to the Queen's banquet with the King, but adds, in a jerk of passion-"Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the King's gate." It was then suggested by all those present, that a gallows should be erected fifty cubits high, and the King's permission solicited on the morrow to have Mordecai hanged on it. Haman, having endorsed this opinion, went to sleep and to rest.

The King, however, was wakeful and restless that night, and calling for the book of records of the kingdom, had the passage read to him wherein it was stated that Mordecai had at one time discovered the conspiracy of two chamberlains against the King's life. Enquiring

whether Mordecai's fidelity had been properly rewarded, he was answered in the negative. Early on the next morning, Haman made his appearance at the palace, when the King forthwith asked his advice as to the best method of showing his favours to one whom he wished pre-eminently to honour. Haman, concluding that no one but himself could be meant, proposed that the the person in question should be clothed in the royal apparel and crown, carried through the city on the King's own horse, be attended by one of the King's most noble princes, and have a proclamation made before him, "Thus it shall be done to the man whom the King delighteth to honour." Thereupon, Ahasuerus ordered Haman to take the apparel and the horse, and to "do even so to Mordecai the Jew, that sitteth at the King's gate; let nothing fail of all that thou hast spoken."

Haman, having obeyed the King's command, "hasted to his house mourning, and having his head covered," and while he was giving his wife and friends an account of the unexpected disappointment he had experienced, the King's chamberlain arrived to attend him to