although the enemy could not countervail the king’s damage,” nor recompense the loss of so many of the king’s useful citizens and peaceful subjects.  Nothing could be more sweet, gentle, submissive, and truly dignified than her appeal.  And the imagination and astonishment of the king are graphically displayed in his answer.  Who is he?  Where is he that hath presumed in his heart to do so?  Who has dared to conspire against one so near my person, so exalted by my favour?

Confounded, amazed—­and probably for the first time suspecting the Jewish extraction of the queen—­Haman was still speechless when Esther made her direct and firm reply:  “That adversary, that wicked man, is Haman,” here in the royal presence—­here in the full blaze of royal favour.

In the conscious justice of her cause, she had desired to be confronted with the man she accused, and he was present, that he might enjoy every opportunity of defence, if innocent; and if guilty, that he might receive the just reward of his deeds.  The king was filled with wrath at this proof of the presumption and malice of his favourite, and he left the banqueting-room and went into the palace-garden.

Haman, quick to read the feelings of his master, “saw that wrath was determined.”  Unable to escape the watchful attendants, and moved by terror, he approached the royal couch of Esther to beseech her, whom he had greatly injured, to intercede for him.  And while he was thus engaged, the king re-entered the banqueting-house.  His wrath was rekindled.  The imprudence of Haman hastened the doom his crimes had provoked.  The excited monarch, witnessing his apparent familiarity, accused him of designs of which his previous presumption might show him capable.  His sentence was pronounced—­his doom was sealed.  The attendants covered his face, (a most significant act, still retained in Eastern courts,) and he was carried from the royal presence-chamber, and hung upon the very gallows he had erected for Mordecai.  The flowers which were gathered for the feast and the wreaths entwined for his brow were still fresh.

The succeeding interview of Ahasuerus with his still loved and more than beautiful consort, must have been one of no slight interest.  There was much to unfold and to explain; there was something to confess and to forgive; and as the character of Haman was now exposed and his acts were revealed, the king may have regarded himself as the bird escaped from the fowler.  Esther revealed her lineage; while the rising favour of Haman, the dangers to be anticipated from his hatred to her nation, well justified the prudent caution of Mordecai.  As the queen told the king in what relation Mordecai stood to her, Mordecai was brought before him; and the former honour proved but indeed the installation into the highest offices of trust, while the vast possessions of Haman were conferred on Esther, and Mordecai was appointed her steward.