now whether it becomes the son to grasp the hand of the foe who was
not to be appeased even by Death, the reconciler--who grossly insulted
the father, the noblest of men, and, in him, the son too, at the grave
itself."

The patriarch shook his head with a supercilious smile, and a hot thrill
shot through Orion as Benjamin laid his hand on his shoulder and said
with grave kindness:

"A Christian does not find it hard to forgive a sinner, an antagonist,
an enemy; and it is a joy to me to pardon the son who feels himself
injured through his lost father, blind and foolish as his indignation
may be. Your wrath can no more affect me, Child, than the Almighty in
Heaven, and it would not even be blameworthy, but that--and of this
we must speak presently--but that--well, I will be frank with you at
once--but that your manner clearly and unmistakably betrays what you
lack to make you a true Christian, and such a man as he must be who
fills so conspicuous a position in this land governed by infidels. You
know what I mean?"

The prelate let his hand slip from the young man's shoulder, looking
enquiringly in his face; and when Orion, finding no reply ready, drew
back a step or two, the old man went on with growing excitement:

"It is humility, pious and submissive faith, that I find you lack, my
friend. Who, indeed, am I? But as the Vicar, the representative of Him
before whom we all are as worms in the dust, I must insist that every
man who calls himself a Christian, a Jacobite, shall submit to my will
and orders, without hesitation or doubt, as obediently and unresistingly
as though salvation or woe had fallen on him from above. What would
become of us, if individuals were to take upon themselves to defy me and
walk in their own way? In one miserable generation, and with the death
of the elders who had grown up as true Christians, the doctrine of the
Saviour would be extinct on the shores of the Nile, the crescent would
rise in the place of the Cross, and our cry would go up to Heaven for so
many lost souls. Learn, haughty youth, to bow humbly and submissively
to the will of the Most High and of His vicar on earth, and let me show
you, from your demeanor to myself especially, how far your own judgment
is to be relied on. You regard me as your father's enemy?"

"Yes," said Orion firmly.

"And I loved him as a brother!" replied the patriarch in a softer voice.
"How gladly would I have heaped his bier with palm branches of peac