She gazed at the trembling figure and the palsied limbs. 'Perchance the sleep will be deep.'
'No, my daughter; there is time yet. Hot life burns within me, fierce life. The fire yet lives after the dying down of the bright flames. You shall find me here when you return. You shall pour into my ear the glad song of your vengeance. The young are swept aside suddenly, but the old survive and see the world decay.'
'Is this the teaching of your new religion?' she asked scornfully.
'I but spoke the mind thought. Of the new religion all things baffle belief. When your work is done, I may gladly return to the gods I have loved.'
'What is there in the new faith which passes understanding?'
'I can see nothing clearly. The doctor, who threw water on my forehead, and drew thereon a charm, told me we should love those who have made life bitter to us. It were great evil to punish them, for in the hands of the God alone lay the might of vengeance.'
'Should we then treat friend and foe as alike?'
'The doctrine is false,' he cried shrilly, as the evening shadows rose from the river. 'What is the gift of the hand when the thought at the heart is hatred? The doctor further told me that the God once lived as a man and walked the earth. More, He was even killed by the men He had called into being.'
'Why pray to One Who is dead?'
'He lives again. Now He has come through the unknown of death, no power may touch Him. Therefore is He God.'