At last her wish was accomplished. One day, while they were living at Chorasin, after some new tempest of abuse and wickedness from her husband, she slipped away into the fields to give vent to her grief and despair. There she saw in the distance a number of people on an eminence: and, on mounting a rock, she saw that others were moving toward the eminence from all directions. It flashed upon her that perhaps Jesus had come, and that now was her opportunity. She at once made for the hill—determined that if indeed Jesus was there she would get as near to him as possible. She felt as if some mighty loadstone was drawing upon her. Being unencumbered, she sped along quickly, passed many who were carrying sick people or were sick themselves, and was not long in assuring herself that it was indeed Jesus toward whom all the streams of infirmity and suffering were setting.
She quickened her steps into a desperate haste. She flew rather than ran—flew to the side of the hill where the people were fewest, pressed through them as if on an errand of life and death, saw one who was plainly the central figure, fell down before him panting, disheveled, eyes streaming, and tried to look up through her tears into his face. And she dimly saw there such gentleness, such pity, such insight, such power, that a great wave of rest swept in on her soul as she murmured, Lord, thou knowest. And he answered, in a voice strangely sweet, that somehow seemed to penetrate every fibre of her being.
“Yes, I know, thou daughter of many sorrows. Wait patiently for the hour of deliverance which will come in thy own country by the hands of those whom I will send. Meanwhile go in peace—thy sins be forgiven thee.”
She rose—all the harshness and bitterness of her soul gone, a calmness and strength and peace within that were indescribable. She did not withdraw from the scene; only fell back among the crowd. And there she saw with her own eyes the wonderful things done of which she had been hearing ever since she landed in Tyre. It seemed as if the whole country about had searched out its desperate cases and brought them together to test his power and pity. And she saw that no case was beyond him. Not an ail in all the throng but had instant relief as he touched or spoke. The number and variety of the miracles almost took her breath away. When the last sufferer had been helped she could no longer contain herself, but, as if filled and pressed irresistibly by a heavenly breath, burst forth with song, “O give thanks unto the Lord, for he has done marvellous things:” and all the people joined their voices to hers till the country side rang.
She went back to her husband, but not to her misery. The memory of that look, and that voice, and that promise was like a strong man under her cross. Her husband was no better; they still drifted from place to place, but always with a compulsion by circumstances toward the south and west. Her strength grew less as they approached the seacoast, and quite broke down at Joppa as she saw her husband, as he was hurrying her aboard a vessel for Alexandria in the night, rob and kill a man; yet even then the memory of that divine hour in Galilee was a mighty peace in her heart, and she felt that she was on her way to deliverance.
Said Seti to Rachel, after the few moments of profound silence that followed her narrative, “Did you ever notice in Miriam in former days any tendency to—exaggeration?”
“Never,” she replied. “On the contrary, Miriam was noted for great care not to overstate facts. You may depend upon it, grandfather, she is fully up to the standard of your lecture.”
Seti seemed not to notice this sally, and the accompanying shadow of a smile that flitted across the shining face, but said, “To say nothing of his marvellous deeds, the attention which Jesus pays to the lowly and uninfluential, rather than to the great and powerful, is very unlike what one would expect in a scheming impostor.”
“That he is not that,” said Aleph, “is still further confirmed by what my preceptor and friend here heard yesterday. I am sure you will agree with me if he will tell the substance of what Shaphan of the gate of Canopus related.”