doth not adopt this young Apollyon of the Wilderness, to carry down to posterity the name and honours of his line!'

"Vex not the free-born soul of the young child of the desert with gibing and injurious words, my Lord General,' said Uriah. 'I feel a yearning of pity to the lad; and, if you will give him to me, I will make him, if not the son of my adoption, my page, and the bearer of my shield and arrows. I will teach him the art of war, and he shall follow me in the day of battle.'

"The General scoffingly agreed to the proposal. The noble Uriah unbound my chains. I crept sullenly to the side of my protector, in whom I found I had a friend, and tacitly agreed to a compact, that was never broken between us but by death.

"The commands of my new lord were not conveyed in an unknown tongue, for enough of likeness existed between my own language and the Hebrew to render his speech familiar to mine ear. I became fondly attached to him, forgot my father's tents and my tribe, and cared for nothing but his favour and approbation. Although pre-eminent for majesty of person, Uriah was in the wane of life, and the snows of time were visible on the hair that

appeared from beneath his helmet. His wife, the daughter of Eliam, was, on the contrary, in the first bloom of beauty; beloved by him with the most passionate tenderness. Uriah often employed me in carrying letters and messages to his adored spouse, then abiding at Jerusalem.

"No painting of poet's words, or limner's pencil, could do justice to the charms of the young wife of Uriah, the fairest of a beautiful people. The large dark eyes, bright and tender, as those of a gazelle languishing in the desert with thirst; the clear and pearly complexion, soft as swan's feathers; the rounded limbs and slender shape, graceful as the waving branches of an arbour of ban,* powerfully drew my boyish imagination, even then tinctured by poetic fire; yet I declare to you, that her poet son, the royal Solomon, in his Canticles, never described female beauty equal to that of his mother Bathsheba.

"I had followed the steps of my lord for more than three years, when the army of Israel conquered the country, and besieged Rabbah, the chief city of the Ammonites. While we lay before the city of waters,' tales from Jerusalem, of infidelity and dishonour, reached the ears of my noble master. He

The weeping willow, a favourite Arab comparison.

received a summons from the King, to the royal city. He left me in the camp, contrary to his usual practice. On his return his worst fears had been confirmed the stern sadness of despair sat on his noble brow; nor did I see a gleam of satisfaction on his face till the morning on which he was ordered by Joab, to lead the forlorn hope in an attack on the city, of extreme danger to the assailants. As I buckled on his armour, he commanded me not to follow him as usual, but to tarry in the tents that one day. "As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth,' was my reply, 'thy servant Mahadi will follow his lord, even to the death.'

6

"Then Uriah lifted up his voice and wept aloud; he prayed earnestly, kissed and blessed me, and said:

:

"Wherefore should thy young life be wasted? Tarry, I beseech thee once more.'

"Yet I would not hearken. I buckled his warlike harness about him, and followed him with his warriors to the field.

"When the men of Rabbah perceived the perilous state in which a troop of the besiegers had placed themselves, they made a sally from the walls. As soon as Uriah was deeply engaged in the contest, on a signal from the second in command, the men

H

of Israel suddenly retreated, and left their captain in the midst of the press, combating against many foemen. He fell, mortally wounded; and the Ammonites, thinking the retreat of the besiegers a stratagem to lure them to destruction, withdrew behind their ramparts. Though involved in the thickest of the fray, and but slightly armed, by some miracle I remained unhurt after the skirmish, and was left alone with my dying lord.

"I unfastened his casque, and wiped the deathdamp from his brow, and lamented over him aloud.

"Mahadi,' he gasped, 'I die; but it is well for me, although I fall by ungrateful treachery. Carry my belt, stained with my life-blood, to Nathan the Seer; he will protect thee, and vindicate my memory.'

"My beloved lord soon breathed his last; and, after seeing him laid in the sepulchre, I sought the prophet of the Lord. The awful man received the token and heard my tidings, nor did he make comment thereon, saving a few words of comfort to myself, when, in the course of my narrative, mine agony of heart broke forth in cries and tears. With a pale cheek and flashing eyes, Nathan arose, and taking his staff in his hand, and wrapping his prophet's mantle around him, he bade me follow him to the house of the King.

"And he came unto him, and said unto him,— There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds: but the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up and it grew up together with him, and with his children: it did eat of his own meat, and drink of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter. And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the way-faring man that was come unto him: but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him. And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man: and he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die: and he shall restore the lamb four-fold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity. And Nathan said to David, THOU ART THE MAN!'-2 Samuel, chap. xii,

"And this,' I said, after musing on these events, 'this is the man after God's own heart, the highlyfavoured among mankind, the royal prophet David!' Such,' replied the sage Nathan, 'is the erring nature of the best of men, when exposed to the

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