"Implacable enough to be Cæsar! And thou art not a member of the Essenic order--only a neophyte. That is disconcerting. Hast thou any influence with the brethren?"
Perplexity sat dark on the Herod's brow. Marsyas, with his eyes on the prince's face, observed it.
"Can I not help thee?" he asked anxiously.
"I thought once that thou couldst; but thou sayest that thou hast no power with the Essenes. Now, I do not know."
"What is it thou wouldst have had me do?"
"I have said that I owe three hundred thousand drachmæ to Cæsar. Unless I discharge it, under the Roman law I can be required to become the slave of my creditor. That I might secure intercession in thy behalf, I had to promise Capito and Vitellius that thou couldst help me to repay this sum."
The legionary stirred and Agrippa laid a warning finger on his lip. The two sat silent until the sleeper fell again into total unconsciousness.
"Three hundred thousand drachmæ!" Marsyas repeated. "I, to get that!"
"I knew that the Essenic brotherhood have a common treasury and that they are believed to be rich. I thought that thou couldst persuade them to lend me the sum."
Marsyas shook his head. "They are poor, poor! Their fund is not contributed in great bulk, and the little they own must be expended in hospitality and in maintaining themselves. Their treasury would be enriched by the little I bring."
"O Fortune!" Agrippa groaned aloud. "I am undone and so art thou!"
Marsyas lapsed into thought, while the Herod looked at the solid door that stood between him and liberty. He had set the subject aside as profitless and was a little irritated when Marsyas spoke again.
"The alabarch, Alexander Lysimachus, is my friend. He is rich; I could borrow of him."
"Take thou my gold and go thither," Marsyas offered at once.
"It is not so easy as it sounds, for the sound of it is most generous and kindly. How am I to get out of Capito's clutches, here?"
Marsyas gazed straight at Agrippa with the set eyes of one plunged into deep speculation. Then he leaned toward the prince.
"Will this gold in all truth help thee to borrow more in Alexandria?"
"To Rome! To imperial favor! To suzerainty over Judea!"
"Thou art a Herod," he said intensely. "Ambition natively should be the very breath of thy nostrils. Yet swear to me that thou wilt aspire--aye, even desperately as thy grandsire! Swear to me that thou wilt not be content to be less than a king!"