Dumah sends his love. The poor lad is greatly excited over the stirring events which are the talk of the town here.
Commend me to your friend Nathan and his family. Trusting to see or to hear from you soon,
And the peace,
Amzi.
To this letter Yusuf returned the following answer:
Yusuf, at Mecca,
To Amzi the Benevolent, Medina.
My Heart's Brother:—
Your most welcome letter lies before me, and it is quite unnecessary to say with what mingled feelings of pleasure and pain I read it,—pleasure, because, whether you will it or not, your confidence in this false prophet is tottering; pain, because of the marvelous power which this Mohammed seems to be wielding over your excitable Arab populace. Strange, indeed, is his new attitude; we had not deemed him possessed of a martial spirit; yet may we hope that this procedure will be but as the stone which shall crush his ends, falling upon his own head.
It is possible that I may be in Medina ere long. I am impatient to see you and our poor Dumah again.
And so Uzza is there, too, to bring up afresh the darkest page of my history; for Amzi, it was I, in my fanatic zeal, who induced the Persian grandmother to give up his child for sacrifice. Scarcely was it over when, even in my heathen darkness, my whole soul revolted against what I had done, and against the faith which had sanctioned such deeds of blood. It was then that I began to think and strive against the mists of darkness, until at last I fought away from the creed of my country.
I fear not to meet Uzza, although I know that he bears me no good-will, and would not refrain from the assassin's knife did it satisfy his wish for blood-revenge.