"Tale of Jerusalem" - читать интересную книгу автора (Poe Edgar Allan)

That part of the city to which our worthy Gizbarin now hastened, and
which bore the name of its architect, King David, was esteemed the
most strongly fortified district of Jerusalem; being situated upon the
steep and lofty hill of Zion. Here, a broad, deep, circumvallatory
trench, hewn from the solid rock, was defended by a wall of great
strength erected upon its inner edge. This wall was adorned, at
regular interspaces, by square towers of white marble; the lowest
sixty, and the highest one hundred and twenty cubits in height. But,
in the vicinity of the gate of Benjamin, the wall arose by no means
from the margin of the fosse. On the contrary, between the level of
the ditch and the basement of the rampart, sprang up a perpendicular
cliff of two hundred and fifty cubits, forming part of the precipitous
Mount Moriah. So that when Simeon and his associates arrived on the
summit of the tower called Adoni-Bezek- the loftiest of all the
turrets around about Jerusalem, and the usual place of conference with
the besieging army- they looked down upon the camp of the enemy from
an eminence excelling by many feet that of the Pyramid of Cheops, and,
by several, that of the temple of Belus.
"Verily," sighed the Pharisee, as he peered dizzly over the
precipice, "the uncircumcised are as the sands by the seashore- as
the locusts in the wilderness! The valley of The King hath become
the valley of Adommin."
"And yet," added Ben-Levi, "thou canst not point me out a
Philistine- no, not one- from Aleph to Tau- from the wilderness to
the battlements- who seemeth any bigger than the letter Jod!"
"Lower away the basket with the shekels of silver!" here shouted a
Roman soldier in a hoarse, rough voice, which appeared to issue from
the regions of Pluto- "lower away the basket with the accursed coin
which it has broken the jaw of a noble Roman to pronounce! Is it
thus you evince your gratitude to our master Pompeius, who, in his
condescension, has thought fit to listen to your idolatrous
importunities? The god Phoebus, who is a true god, has been
charioted for an hour- and were you not to be on the ramparts by
sunrise? Aedepol! do you think that we, the conquerors of the world,
have nothing better to do than stand waiting by the walls of every
kennel, to traffic with the dogs of the earth? Lower away! I say- and
see that your trumpery be bright in color and just in weight!"
"El Elohim!" ejaculated the Pharisee, as the discordant tones of the
centurion rattled up the crags of the precipice, and fainted away
against the temple- "El Elohim!- who is the God Phoebus?- whom doth
the blasphemer invoke? Thou, Buzi-Ben-Levi! who art read in the laws
of the Gentiles, and hast sojourned among them who dabble with the
Teraphim!- is it Nergal of whom the idolater speaketh?- or
Ashimah?- or- Nibhaz?- or Tartak?- or Adramalech?- or Anamalech?- or
Succoth-Benith?- or Dragon?- or Belial?- or Baal-Perith?- or
Baal-Peor?- or Baal-Zebub?"
"Verily it is neither- but beware how thou lettest the rope slip
too rapidly through thy fingers; for should the wicker-work chance
to hang on the projection of yonder crag, there will be a woful
outpouring of the holy things of the sanctuary."