“Find Amabel, and say that I would see her.”
The young woman entered with a light though dignified step, and seated herself by her father’s side. She at once divined something unusual in his manner, and instinctively felt that an ordeal was impending.
“Dear father, thou didst send for me. How can I serve thee?”
“Amabel! always hast thou been a dutiful and loving child, and it now lies in thy power to relieve me of a load which is too heavy to be borne. When I bring the whole matter before thee, I am persuaded that thou wilt have respect unto my wishes.”
“Thou knowest well, O my father! that mine affection for thee is great, and if thy request be not against my duty and freedom, I will gladly render obedience.”
Just for a moment the Rabban wavered in the resolution which he had declared should be inflexible; for he had a distinct foreboding of a great trial, and of the magnitude of the sacrifice that he was about to ask of his well-beloved daughter. Be still, heart! The issue must be met!
“O my daughter! I beseech thee to be soberly mindful of the thing whereof I shall speak unto thee. I pray that thou wilt make a sacrifice for the sake of thy father. My honor, reputation, office, and religion are in the balance. Amabel! I ask thee to renounce all thought of a future alliance with Victor Serenus, and that thou promise to see him no more.”
The cheeks of Amabel visibly faded and her heart-beat quickened, but she maintained a good degree of calmness and self-command. She looked inquiringly into her [pg 203]father’s face, and read the stern purpose of an inflexible will. She instinctively felt that the crisis of her life had come. There passed a few moments of silence, though they were not required for her to make her decision.
“O my father! I love thee, and it is like plucking out the right eye to say thee nay; but nevertheless, I cannot comply with thy request.”
“Amabel! mark well the issue! The Holy City is aroused. My plea for the toleration of the new heresy hath already cost me my honor and reputation. My wisdom is scoffed at; and the leader of the time is no other than my former young disciple, Saulus of Tarsus. A wild and cruel spirit hath possessed the people, and the Sanhedrin is in full agreement. While I bewail the zeal of our people, which is not according to knowledge, and believe that its madness will soon pass by, I must bow before a storm which I cannot withstand. Even before this commotion an alliance of the family of the Rabban Gamaliel with the deluded Serenus would have been intolerable, now it would be fatal!”