he
took, but he would not have as much as the latchet of a shoe, and thus
gat Abram much love of all the people.

After this our Lord appeared to Abram in a vision and said: Abram, dread
thee nothing, I am thy protector, and thy reward and meed shall be
great. Abram answered: Lord God, what wilt thou give me? Thou wottest
well I have no children, and sith I have none I will well that Eleazar
the son of my bailiff be my heir. Nay, said our Lord, he shall not be
thine heir, but he that shall issue and come of thy seed shall be thine
heir. Our Lord led him out and bade him behold the heaven, and number
the stars if thou mayst, and said to him, so shall thy offspringing and
seed be. And Abram believed it and gave faith to our Lord's words, and
it was reputed to him to justice. And our Lord said to him, I am the
Lord that led thee out of the land of Ur of the Chaldees for to give to
thee this land into thy possession. And Abram said: Lord, how shall I
know that I shall possess it? A voice said to Abram: Thy seed shall be
exiled into Egypt by the space of four hundred years, and shall be
there in servitude, and after, I shall bring them hither again in the
fourth generation. Thou shalt abide here unto thy good age, and shalt be
buried here, and go with thy fathers in peace. Sara was yet without
child, and she had a handmaid named Hagar, an Egyptian, and she on a day
said to Abram her husband: Thou seest I may bear no child, wherefore I
would thou took Hagar my maid, that thou might get a child which I might
keep and hold for mine. And ten year after that Abram had dwelled in
that land, he took Hagar, and anon she despised her mistress. Then Sara
said to Abram: Thou dost evil. My servant now hath me in despite, God
judge this between thee and me. To whom Abram answered: Thine handmaid
is in thine hands, chastise her as it pleaseth thee. After this Sara
chastised Hagar and put her to so great affliction that she went away;
and as she went an angel met with her in the wilderness by a well, and
said: Hagar, whence comest and whither goest thou? She answered: I flee
away from the face of my lady Sara. To whom the angel said, return again
and submit thee by humbleness unto thy lady, and I shall multiply thy
seed, and so much people shall come of it that it cannot be numbered for
multitude. And he said furthermore: Thou shalt bear a child and shalt
call him Ishmael. He shall be a fierce man, he shall be against all men,
and all men