Herodias (en Inglés) - Gustave Flaubert

Flaubertn the eastern side of the Dead Sea rose the citadel ofMachaerus. It was built

upon a conical peak of basalt, and was surrounded by four deep valleys,

one on each side, another in front, and the fourth in the rear. At the base of

the citadel, crowding against one another, a group of houses stood within

the circle of a wall, whose outlines undulated with the unevenness of the

soil. A zigzag road, cutting through the rocks, joined the city to the fortress,

the walls of which were about one hundred and twenty cubits high, having

numerous angles and ornamental towers that stood out like jewels in this

crown of stone overhanging an abyss.

Within the highwalls stood a palace, adornedwith many richly carved arches,

and surrounded by a terrace that on one side of the building spread out be-

low a wide balcony made of sycamore wood, upon which tall poles had been

erected to support an awning.

One morning, just before sunrise, the tetrarch, Herod-Antipas, came out

alone upon the balcony. He leaned against one of the columns and looked

about him.

The crests of the hill-tops in the valley below the palace were just discernible

3 GUSTAVE FLAUBERT

in the light of the false dawn, although their bases, extending to the abyss,

were still plunged in darkness. A light mist floated in the air; presently it

lifted, and the shores of the Dead Sea became visible. The sun, rising behind

Machaerus, spread a rosy flush over the sky, lighting up the stony shores, the

hills, and the desert, and illuming the distant mountains of Judea, rugged

and grey in the early dawn. En-gedi, the central point of the group, threw

a deep black shadow; Hebron, in the background, was round-topped like a

dome; Eschol had her pomegranates, Sorek her vineyards, Carmel her fields

of sesame; and the tower of Antonia, with its enormous cube, dominated

Jerusalem. The tetrarch turned his gaze from it to contemplate the palms of

Jericho on his right; and his thoughts dwelt upon other cities of his beloved

Galilee,-Capernaum, Endor, Nazareth, Tiberias-whither it might be hewould

never return.

The Jordan wound its way through the arid plains that met his gaze; white

and glittering under the clear sky, it dazzled the eye like snow in the rays of

the sun.

The Dead Sea now looked like a sheet of lapis-lazuli; and at its southern ex-

tremity, on the coast of Yemen, Antipas recognised clearly what at first he

had been able only dimly to perceive. Several tents could now