Motion Picture Story Magazine (Feb-Jul 1911)
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78
THE MOTION PICTURE STORY MAGAZINE.
"It may be that God will speak to me in the night," she thought, "and show me how I may prevail with the king; or, peradventure, the king may see a vision to-night. I will wait."
The cnp of Hainan's honors seemed brimming. "Twice am I bidden by the queen to dine with the king/' he said to his wife, Zerish; "honors and wealth are mine. Yet all this availeth me not, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the palace gates."
"Why should this Jew remain to vex thy heart, when vengeance waits upon thy word?" said Zerish. "Let a gallows be built, fifty cubits high, in the court of your house, and in the morning speak thou to the king that Mordecai be hanged on it. Then shalt thou go merrily to thy banquet."
That night sleep fled from the king. Tossing restlessly upon his bed for long hours, he finally commanded that the book of chronicles be read to him. It chanced that the great book opened at the place where it was recorded how Mordecai, soon after the marriage of Ahasuerus and Esther, had discovered the purpose of two chamberlains to murder the king, and foiled the plot, even as the enemies were almost upon him.
"What honor has been done to Mordecai for this?" questioned the king.
"Nothing has been done for him," replied the reader.
At that moment Hainan sought the king for permission to hang Mordecai upon his gallows, but before he could speak the king demanded : "What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor?"
Haman, supposing the question referred to himself, hastened to reply: "Let the royal apparel be brought, and the horse the king rideth upon, and let the apparel and the horse be delivered unto him and cause him to ride on horseback thru the city, and proclaim before him, 'Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor !"
Then said the king unto Haman, "Make haste and take the apparel and the horse as thou hast said, and do even
so to Mordecai, the Jew that sitteth at the royal gates."
In wrath and shame Haman obeyed the king, afterward hastening to Zerish, dismay and terror in his heart. Fear fell upon Zerish as she listened. "This Mordecai: is~Trf"tire seed of the Jews; woe is upon us if he prevail against thee. But haste to the banquet. Twice has the queen bidden thee. It may be thou yet canst triumph thru her favor."
Esther knew not of the honor done to Mordecai, yet on the second day of the banquet her heart was lighter and she found much favor with the king, so that he said unto her, "What is thy petition, and what is thy request? It shall be granted even unto the half of my kingdom."
Her hour had come. Silently praying Jehovah's aid, Esther sank at the king's feet, her lustrous eyes turned pleadingly upward, her desire bringing a burning glow upon her fair, pure face. "If it seem good unto the king, and if I have found favor in thy sight, oh, spare my life at my petition and my people at my request. For we are sold, I and my people, to be slain, to be destroyed, and to perish, and the enemy who has done it is this wicked Haman."
Even as the wretched Haman fell down before the king to implore his life, a chamberlain entered, saying: "Behold there stands waiting, built by Haman, a gallows $ fifty cubits high. What is the king's pleasure concerning it ?"
And the king, lifting the lovely, trembling queen, understanding now the days of her terror and anguish, answered the chamberlain, "Hang Haman thereon !"
Endowed with the dead Hainan's office, honors and wealth, his relationship with the queen acknowledged, Mordecai sought Esther in the court of the palace.
"The god of our fathers is with thee, my child," he spoke joyously. "Thou hast saved thy people. Thru thee shall our race come again to strength and power. Great is Jehovah !"