who affirmed that it was not for the king's profit to suffer them, she thus testifies to the loyality of her people and their promptness to pay the king's tribute. The anger of Ahasuerus was kindled, and he asks, with the earnestness of a disturbed and indignant mind: "Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?" And Esther said, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman." Then Haman was afraid; and the king, arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath, went into the palace garden. He knew not how to conceal, or express, the varied emotions of his mind. He must have time to look back upon the circumstances of that edict, the injustice or extent of which

he had never realized. He must be alone, till he had given way to the mingled feelings of mortification and anger which he felt at having been thus duped by one upon whom he had been lavishing his greatest honors. Haman perceived at once that there was evil determined against him by the king, and he stood up to make request for his life to Esther. Finding the queen unmoved by his earnest entreaty, he falls on his knees upon the couch on which Esther was seated, according to the custom at meals, and there pleads still more earnestly for his life. The king, coming in from the palace garden, finds him in this posture, and his exasperated mind, seeking to aggravate his crimes, is

ready to put the worst construction upon his most innocent actions. He accuses him now of too great familiarity with the queen. His servants, reading their duty in his angry countenance, cover Haman's face, thus making him as a criminal, and that they might spare the king the sight of one who seemed to be so much an object of abhorrence. And Harbonah, one of the chamberlains mentioned in the first chapter, said before the king: "Behold also the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman." So they hanged Haman on the gallows prepared for Mordecai, which, being connected with his own house, made

the punishment more ignominious. How wisely did Solomon say, “Lay not wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; spoil not his resting-place: for a just man falleth seven times and riseth up again, but the wicked shall fall into mischief. On that same day, Ahasuerus gave to Esther the house of Haman with all his riches, as some compensation for the danger to which he had exposed her; and she, for the first time, makes him acquainted with the relation existing between her and Mordecai. Mordecai is now admitted into the king's presence, and Ahasuerus is satisfied with nothing but to bestow upon him all the forfeited honors of Haman. And the king took off his

ring which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. Esther, too, committed to his care the estate of Haman, to manage it for her as he thought best. But Esther's work was not yet completed. Haman was hanged, but the edict sent forth against the Jews was yet in force; for it had been written among the laws of the Medes and Persians, and could not be altered. Esther spoke yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and besought him with tears in some way to avert this cruel decree. Then the king held out the golden sceptre toward Esther. So Esther arose and stood before the king, and said, "If it please the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and the