The maiden almost involuntarily complied, and the priest continued:
“Go forward with Hermon on thy right. Remember that the temple of the Fire Worshipers is overturned, its altars cold; but more remember that on Hermon humanity was transfigured in answer to prayer.”
“And so my shepherd and guide would promise me blessing and bid me God speed?” quoth the maiden.
“Thou read’st my heart, daughter.”
“The same true heart; it never gets old or weary of cheering.”
“I’m made grateful and happy, daughter, by thy words. He that saith, ‘Let not your hearts be troubled!’ and ‘comfort ye, comfort ye my people,’ is my leader. For cheering, I was called.”
“How noble such a call seems to me, now.”
“Yea; daughter, if one can not be as the stars that fought in their course for Sisera, he may be as a summer evening’s breeze, in cooling pain’s fevers, and in drying the tears from cheeks that blush through the rains of weeping times.”
Gently, firmly she guided her camel from the hillock, on which it was feeding, toward the highway, along which the caravan was departing. “We must be going now.”
At her words, Sir Charleroy and the old Sacrist each caught one of her hands.