ursed grove, it seemed to me that I had been born only
that I might find her. It seemed to me even that for ages I had known
her, that for ever she was mine and that I was hers. Read me the riddle,
Issachar? Is this but passion born of youth and the sudden sight of a
fair woman? That cannot be, for I have known others as fair, and have
passed through some such fires. Tell me, Issachar, you who are old and
wise and have seen much of the hearts of men, what is this wave that
overwhelms me?"

"What is it, Prince? It is witchery; it is the wile of Beelzebub waiting
to snatch your soul, and if you hearken to it you shall pass through
the fire--through the fire to Moloch, if not in the flesh, then in the
spirit, which is to all eternity. Oh! not in vain do I fear for you, my
son, and not without reason was I warned in a dream. Listen: Last night,
as I lay in my tent yonder upon the plain, I dreamed that some danger
overshadowed you, and in my sleep I prayed that your destiny might be
revealed to me. As I prayed thus, I heard a voice saying, 'Issachar, you
seek to learn the future; know then that he who is dear to you shall be
tried in the furnace indeed. Yes, because of his great love and pity,
he shall forswear his faith, and with death and sorrow he shall pay the
price of his sin.'

"Then I was troubled and besought Heaven that you, my son, might be
saved from this unknown temptation, but the voice answered me:--

"'Of their own will only can they who were one from the beginning be
held apart. Through good and ill let them work each other's woe or weal.
The goal is sure, but they must choose the road.'

"Now as I wondered what these dark sayings might mean, the gloom opened
and I saw you, Aziel, standing in a grove of trees, while towards you
with outstretched hands drew a veiled woman who bore upon her brow the
golden bow of Baaltis. Then fire raged about you, and in the fire I
beheld many things which I have forgotten, and moving through it was the
Prince of Death, who slew and slew and spared not. So I awoke heavy at
heart, knowing that there had fallen on me who love you a shadow of doom
to come."

In these latter days any educated man would set aside Issachar's wild
vision as the vapourings of a mind distraught. But Aziel lived in the
time of Solomon, when men of his nation guided their steps by the light
of prophecy, and believed that it was the Divine pleasure, by means of
dreams and wonders and through the mout