"Oh! poor, poor Gunrig! I'm so sorry to see you like this!--so very,
very sorry!"

She could say no more, but covered her face with both hands and wept.

"Nay, take not your hand from me," said the dying man, again grasping
the hand which she had withdrawn; "its soft grip sends a rush of joy to
my sinking soul."

"Say not that you are sinking, Gunrig," returned the girl in pitying
tones; "for it is in the power of the All-seeing One to restore you to
health if it be His will."

"If He is All-seeing, then there is no chance of His restoring me to
health; for He has seen that I have lived a wicked life. Ah! Branwen,
you do not know what I have been. If there is a place of rewards and
punishment, as some tell us there is, assuredly my place will be that of
punishment, for my life has been one of wrong-doing. And there is
something within me that I have felt before, but never so strong as now,
which tells me that there _is_ such a place, and that I am condemned to
it."

"But I have heard from the Hebrew--who reads strange things marked on a
roll of white cloth--that the All-seeing One's nature is _love_, and
that He has resolved Himself to come and save men from wrong-doing."

"That would be good news indeed, Branwen, if it were true."

"The Hebrew says it is true. He says he believes it, and the All-seeing
One is a Redeemer who will save all men from wrong-doing."

"Would that I could find Him, Branwen, for that is what I wish. I know
not whether there shall be a hereafter or not, but if there is I shall
hope for deliverance from wrong-doing. A place of punishment I care not
much about, for I never shrank from pain or feared death. What I do
fear is a hereafter, in which I shall live over again the old bad life--
and I am glad it is drawing to a close with your sweet voice sounding in
my ears. I believe it was that voice which first shot into my heart the
desire to do right, and the hatred of wrong."

"I am glad to hear that, Gunrig, though it never entered into my head, I
confess, to do you such a good turn. And surely it must have been the
All-seeing One who enabled me to influence you thus, and who now recalls
to my mind what the Hebrew read to me--one of those sayings of the good
men of his nation which are marked in the white roll I spoke of. It is
this--`God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.'"

"That is a good word, if it be a true one," returned the chief, "and I
hop