BOOK SIXTH.
"Is that a Death? and are there two?
Is Death that woman's mate?
*****
Her skin was white as leprosy,
The Nightmare Life-in-Death was she,
Who thicks man's blood with cold."
Coleridge.
CHAPTER I.
Our story moves forward now thirty days from the night Ben-Hur left Antioch to go out with Sheik Ilderim into the desert.
A great change has befallen great at least as respects the fortunes of our hero. Valerius Gratus has been succeeded by Pontius Pilate!
The removal, it may be remarked, cost Simonides exactly five talents Roman money in hand paid to Sejanus, who was then in height of power as imperial favorite; the object being to help Ben-Hur, by lessening his exposure while in and about Jerusalem attempting discovery of his people. To such pious use the faithful servant put the winnings from Drusus and his associates; all of whom, having paid their wagers, became at once and naturally the enemies of Messala, whose repudiation was yet an unsettled question in Rome.
Brief as the time was, already the Jews knew the change of rulers was not for the better.
The cohorts sent to relieve the garrison of Antonia made their entry into the city by night; next morning the first sight that greeted the people resident in the neighborhood
