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[213]
Thus did the king speak. Whereupon Pheroras, who was caught in the
very act of his villainy, said that "it was Salome who was the framer
of this plot, and that the words came from her." But as soon as she
heard that, for she was at hand, she cried out, like one that would be
believed, that no such thing ever came out of her mouth; that they all
earnestly endeavored to make the king hate her, and to make her away, because
of the good-will she bore to Herod, and because she was always foreseeing
the dangers that were coming upon him, and that at present there were more
plots against him than usual; for while she was the only person who persuaded
her brother to put away the wife he now had, and to take the king's daughter,
it was no wonder if she were hated by him. As she said this, and often
tore her hair, and often beat her breast, her countenance made her denial
to be believed; but the peverseness of her manners declared at the same
time her dissimulation in these proceedings; but Pheroras was caught between
them, and had nothing plausible to offer in his own defense, while he confessed
that he had said what was charged upon him, but was not believed when he
said he had heard it from Salome; so the confusion among them was increased,
and their quarrelsome words one to another. At last the king, out of his
hatred to his brother and sister, sent them both away; and when he had
commended the moderation of his son, and that he had himself told him of
the report, he went in the evening to refresh himself. After such a contest
as this had fallen out among them, Salome's reputation suffered greatly,
since she was supposed to have first raised the calumny; and the king's
wives were grieved at her, as knowing she was a very ill-natured woman,
and would sometimes be a friend, and sometimes an enemy, at different seasons:
so they perpetually said one thing or another against her; and somewhat
that now fell out made them the bolder in speaking against her.
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