r means, God do so to me, and
more also, if I attempt base ones!'

'God be with you, my son, in the noble warfare!' said Synesius, his eyes
filling with kindly tears.

'It is no noble warfare at all. It is a base coward fear, in one who
never before feared man or devil, and is now fallen low enough to be
afraid of a helpless girl!'

'Not so,' cried Synesius, in his turn; 'it is a noble and a holy fear.
You fear her goodness. Could you see her goodness, much less fear it,
were there not a Divine Light within you which showed you what, and how
awful, goodness was? Tell me no more, Raphael Aben-Ezra, that you do not
fear God; for he who fears Virtue, fears Him whose likeness Virtue is.
Go on--go on.... Be brave, and His strength will be made manifest in
your weakness.' ...............

It was late that night before Synesius compelled his guest to retire,
after having warned him not to disturb himself if he heard the
alarm-bell ring, as the house was well garrisoned, and having set the
water-clock by which he and his servants measured their respective
watches. And then the good bishop, having disposed his sentinels, took
his station on the top of his tower, close by the warning-bell; and as
he looked out over the broad lands of his forefathers, and prayed that
their desolation might come to an end at last, he did not forget to
pray for the desolation of the guest who slept below, a happier and more
healthy slumber than he had known for many a week. For before Raphael
lay down that night, he had torn to shreds Majoricus's mortgage,
and felt a lighter and a better man as he saw the cunning temptation
consuming scrap by scrap in the lamp-flame. And then, wearied out with
fatigue of body and mind, he forgot Synesius, Victoria, and the rest,
and seemed to himself to wander all night among the vine-clad glens
of Lebanon, amid the gardens of lilies, and the beds of spices; while
shepherds' music lured him on and on, and girlish voices, chanting the
mystic idyll of his mighty ancestor, rang soft and fitful through his
weary brain. ...............

Before sunrise the next morning, Raphael was faring forth gallantly,
well armed and mounted, by Synesius's side, followed by four or five
brace of tall brush-tailed greyhounds, and by the faithful Bran,
whose lop-ears and heavy jaws, unique in that land of prick-ears and
fox-noses, formed the absorbing subject of conversation among some
twenty smart retainers, who, armed to the teet