Motion Picture Story Magazine (Feb-Jul 1911)
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76
THE MOTION PICTURE STORY MAGAZINE.
stood before the king, he gazed long upon her fresh, young beauty. Then, turning to his counsellors, he said, "Let the search be ended. My queen is found."
Again a great feast was given unto all the nobles and princes of the land — the wedding feast of Esther — and the maiden obtained favor in the sight of all who saw her. During the days of the feast, her beauty and sweet obedience so moved the king that he placed a crown of gold upon her head, honoring her above all women. But, as Mordecai had charged her, she disclosed not her race nor family.
Among the dignitaries of the court of Susa was Hainan, who held the post of Grand Yizier of the Empire. This man was of the race of Amalekites, bitter enemies of the Jews. Advanced by the king to higher and higher honors, secure in his wealth and power, Haman was yet unsatisfied. Mordecai, the Jew who sat at the king's gates, refused to pay obeisance to the great Haman as he entered and left the castle. Angered and humiliated by this affront, Haman determined at one blow to revenge himself upon Mordecai and blot out the hated race of Jews. Representing to Ahasuerus that they were a dangerous people who insisted upon obeying their own laws rather than those of the king, he obtained a decree that on the thirteenth day of Adar all Jews thruout the provinces should be slain and their property seized for the king.
When this decree went abroad Mordecai, forsaking his office at the king's gates, stood wailing in the streets of the city, clothed in sackcloth and ashes. Thruout the city of Susa and all the provinces, lamentation and despair filled every Jewish household But to Mordecai, as he prayed, came one gleam of hope. "Esther, the child whom I have reared," he murmured ; "will she save her people?"
Praying and fasting thruout the night, in the morning Mordecai sent a copy of the king's decree to Esther, saying to the messenger, "Charge the queen to go in unto the king and make
supplication for her people." But Esther, distracted and terrified, torn Avith love for her cousin and her people, returned a message, saying: "All the king's servants do know that to go unbidden into the king's presence is death, unless the king shall hold out his golden sceptre, and I have not been called unto the king for many days. What then shall I do?"
That night, in his sackcloth and ashes, came Mordecai before the king's gates, and Esther went forth to speak with him, secretly. "Think not, Esther," said Mordecai, "that thou shalt escape in the king's house. But, my child, think not at all of thyself or of me, but of our race. Have I taught thee all the glorious history of our fathers that thou shouldst forget it in thy people's hour of need? Who knowest but thou art come into the kingdom for such a time as this?"
Then Esther, lifting her eyes filled with holy purpose, said, "Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day; I also and my maidens will fast in like manner, and so will T go in unto the king, and if I perish, I perish."
Three days after the meeting with Mordecai, Esther, faint from her long fast, pale with the dread of going unbidden into the king's presence, went timidly into the inner court. As he looked upon her beauty, the king was moved with compassion and spoke kindly : "Fear not, thou shalt not be harmed. For my subjects is the law made, not for my queen. What is thy request ?"
"If it seem good unto the king, let the king and Haman come this day to a banquet which I have prepared."
"Make haste," said the king to a chamberlain, "and bid Haman come unto the queen's banquet."
But when the king and Haman came Esther was moved to defer her petition. Exerting all her powers to please the king, she asked only that they should come to a second banquet the next day.