onoured slave! And do I still
exist? Exist! ay, merrily. Hark! Festivity holds her fair revel in these
light-hearted walls. We are gay to-day; and yet, ere yon proud sun,
whose mighty course was stayed before our swords that now he even does
not deign to shine upon; ere yon proud sun shall, like a hero from a
glorious field, enter the bright pavilion of his rest, there shall a
deed be done.

'My fathers, my heroic fathers, if this feeble arm cannot redeem your
heritage; if the foul boar must still wallow in thy sweet vineyard,
Israel, at least I will not disgrace you. No! let me perish. The house
of David is no more; no more our sacred seed shall lurk and linger, like
a blighted thing, in this degenerate earth. If we cannot flourish, 'why,
then, we will die!'

'Oh! say not so, my brother!'

He turns, he gazes on a face beauteous as a starry night; his heart is
full, his voice is low.

'Ah, Miriam! thou queller of dark spirits! is it thou? Why art thou
here?'

'Why am I here? Are you not here? and need I urge a stronger plea? Oh!
brother dear, I pray you come, and mingle in our festival. Our walls are
hung with flowers you love;[2] I culled them by the fountain's side; the
holy lamps are trimmed and set, and you must raise their earliest flame.
Without the gate, my maidens wait, to offer you a robe of state. Then,
brother dear, I pray you come and mingle in our festival.'

'Why should we feast?'

'Ah! is it not in thy dear name these lamps are lit, these garlands
hung? To-day to us a prince is given, to-day----'

'A prince without a kingdom.'

'But not without that which makes kingdoms precious, and which full many
a royal heart has sighed for, willing subjects, David.'

'Slaves, Miriam, fellow-slaves.'

'What we are, my brother, our God has willed; and let us bow and
tremble.'

'I will not bow, I cannot tremble.'

'Hush, David, hush! It was this haughty spirit that called the vengeance
of the Lord upon us.'

'It was this haughty spirit that conquered Canaan.'

'Oh, my brother, my dear brother! they told me the dark spirit had
fallen on thee, and I came, and hoped that Miriam might have charmed it.
What we may have been, Alroy, is a bright dream; and what we may be, at
least as bright a hope; and for what we are, thou art my brother. In thy
love I find present felicity, and value more thy chance embraces and thy
scanty smiles than all the vanished splendour of our race, our gorgeous
gardens, and our