w the
accursed Ishmaelites started! Did you mark, Caleb, that tall Turk in
green upon my left? By the sceptre of Jacob, he turned pale! Oh! it
shall be a day of rejoicing and thanksgiving! And spare not the wine,
nor the flesh-pots for the people. Look you to this, my child, for the
people shouted bravely and with a stout voice. It was not as the great
shout in the camp when the ark returned; nevertheless, it was boldly
done, and showed that the glory had not yet departed. So spare not the
wine, my son, and drink to the desolation of Ishmael in the juice which
he dare not quaff.'

'It has indeed been a great day for Israel!' exclaimed Caleb, echoing
his master's exultation.

'Had the procession been forbidden,' continued Bostenay, 'had it been
reserved for me of all the princes to have dragged the accursed tribute
upon foot, without trumpets and without guards, by this sceptre, my good
Caleb, I really think that, sluggishly as this old blood now runs, I
would---- But it is needless now to talk; the God of our fathers hath
been our refuge.'

'Verily, my lord, we were as David in the wilderness of Ziph; but now we
are as the Lord's anointed in the stronghold of Engedi!'

'The glory truly has not yet utterly departed,' resumed the Prince in a
more subdued tone; 'yet if---- I tell you what, Caleb; praise the Lord
that you are young.'

'My Prince too may yet live to see the good day.'

'Nay, my child, you misinterpret me. Your Prince has lived to see the
evil day. 'Twas not of the coming that I thought when I bid you praise
the Lord because you were young, the more my sin. I was thinking, Caleb,
that if your hair was as mine, if you could recollect, like me, the
days that are gone by, the days when it needed no bride to prove we
were princes,"the glorious days when we led captivity captive; I was
thinking, I say, my son, what a gainful heritage it is to be born after
the joys that have passed away.'

'My father lived at Babylon,' said Caleb. 'Oh! name it not! name it
not!' exclaimed the old chieftain. 'Dark was the day that we lost that
second Zion! We were then also slaves to the Egyptian; but verily we
ruled over the realm of Pharaoh. Why, Caleb, Caleb, you who know all,
the days of toil, the nights restless as a love-sick boy's, which it has
cost your Prince to gain permission to grace our tribute-day with
the paltry presence of half-a-dozen guards; you who know all my
difficulties, who have witnessed all my mort