But he:
"Rachel, no more; already deep enough,
I judge, for present use, the iron has gone;
I shall not falter; thou mayst safely spare
To drive it deeper now—it rankles home.
And surely, if hereafter I should feel,
At some weak woman's moment, any touch
Of foolish tenderness to make me pause
Relaxing and relenting from my course—
A sad course, Rachel, traced in blood and tears!—
Should ever such a softness steal on me,
Surely I should but need remember thee,
Thou younger playmate of my boyhood! thee,
Mirror, that was, of saintly sisterhood!
Loveliest among the daughters of thy race
Once, to thy brother! fountain flowing free
Of gladness, never sadness, unto him!—
Never of sadness until now, but now—
O Rachel, Rachel, sister, changed this day
From all thou wert to what I will not name—
Surely I shall but need bring back this hour,
And let the image of my sister pass—
O broken image of all loveliness,
Distained and broken!—pass before my eyes,
As here I see her, separate from me
Forever, and outcast from God—that thought,
That image, shall make brass the heart of Saul,
And his nerve iron, to smite and smite again,
Until no wily Stephen shall remain
For any silly Rachel to obey!"
Fierce so outbreathing threat and slaughter, Saul
In bitterness of spirit broke away.
BOOK VII.
STEPHEN AND RUTH.
Rachel in dismay soliloquizes. She at length resolves on conveying to Stephen, through Ruth, his wife, a warning of his danger. Ruth, not a Christian, expostulates with her husband, attempting to dissuade him from his course—a course certain, she says, to end fatally for him. After a gentle, long, anguished effort on his part to bring Ruth to sympathy with himself in his Christian faith, Stephen parts from her with presentiment that it is never to return. Under the power of the Holy Spirit, he takes his way from Bethany, where his home is, to Jerusalem. His friends. Martha and Mary, with their brother Lazarus, see him going, and follow.