"The lad Israel, whom you assisted in restoring to animation by the well of Jacob the Shepherd!"
"At the strangers' fountain!" I repeated. "This little act seems to be known to all the Hebrews!"
"Not to all, but to a few," he answered; "yet it will be heard of by all of them; for kindness and sympathy from any one, especially from a foreign prince, is so strange an event that it will fly from lip to ear. Your name, O noble Sesostris, will be engraven in every memory, and the sound thereof warm hope in every heart!"
He spoke with deep feeling. We walked some distance side by side without speaking. After a few moments' silence I said—
"Where is the youth Israel?"
"With his people near Raamses."
"I am to receive him into my service."
"He will faithfully serve you, my lord prince. He is of my kindred, and I shall be grateful to you for protecting his weakness. Every shoulder in Israel cannot bear the burden!"
"Are you then of the family of Miriam?" I asked, recollecting that the ritual transcriber, in the palace of the hierarch, had also claimed kindred with the son of the venerable Ben Isaac.
"Miriam the scribe?"