"I will not leave you till the King has hold of your hand," said Amer, as her head sunk on his breast.
"Are you quite sure I am under the shadow of the Cross?" she murmured.
"Yes, these are the King's own words," he answered:
"'As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.' 'Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.'"
"Then He must have come to save me," said Gabrielle, but her words were so faint that Amer could scarcely hear them.
Suddenly she raised her head from his shoulder.
"It is the King," she said, while a radiance from the City lighted her face, "He is calling to me," and Amer, as he loosed his hold of her, saw her step down into the cold waters and stretch out her hand to some Invisible One.
Then, as he stood still as if turned to stone, he suddenly fell to the ground, for an enemy whom he had never met before had fallen upon him. Rebellion had thrown his arrow successfully at him, and now stood over his fallen prey so that he was unable to rise. For the time his shadow was so deep and dark that Amer nearly lost the sight of the Radiant City: and so well did Rebellion do his work that his victim lay without so much as an effort to rid himself of him. He could only think of the one he had found but to lose again, and was full of hard thoughts of the way by which he was being led. He could not live without Gabrielle, he cried. So successfully had he hitherto managed to banish her from his thoughts, that he had imagined that his love for her could never again be roused to its full heat. But now that he had once more seen her, had looked into her eyes, had heard her voice, and had found her so infinitely sweeter than he could have pictured, he felt his will rise up against the will of his King, and so lay unresistingly in the grip of Rebellion. His strength all seemed to have vanished, his work to have lost its interest, his path impossible to tread any longer.
Suddenly in the distance he heard the sound of singing.
"If God Himself be for me