And the peace,
Amzi.

To this letter Yusuf returned the following answer: 

Yusuf, at Mecca,
To Amzi the Benevolent, Medina.

My Heart’s Brother:—­

Your most welcome letter lies before me, and it is quite unnecessary to say with what mingled feelings of pleasure and pain I read it,—­pleasure, because, whether you will it or not, your confidence in this false prophet is tottering; pain, because of the marvelous power which this Mohammed seems to be wielding over your excitable Arab populace.  Strange, indeed, is his new attitude; we had not deemed him possessed of a martial spirit; yet may we hope that this procedure will be but as the stone which shall crush his ends, falling upon his own head.

    It is possible that I may be in Medina ere long.  I am impatient to
    see you and our poor Dumah again.

And so Uzza is there, too, to bring up afresh the darkest page of my history; for Amzi, it was I, in my fanatic zeal, who induced the Persian grandmother to give up his child for sacrifice.  Scarcely was it over when, even in my heathen darkness, my whole soul revolted against what I had done, and against the faith which had sanctioned such deeds of blood.  It was then that I began to think and strive against the mists of darkness, until at last I fought away from the creed of my country.

    I fear not to meet Uzza, although I know that he bears me no
    good-will, and would not refrain from the assassin’s knife did it
    satisfy his wish for blood-revenge.

    Our friend, Nathan, and his family are well.  Did I tell you that
    they have gone to live near Tayf?

I spent a pleasant day with them not long ago.  They have a little cabin in the mountains, and Nathan has a few flocks which he herds out on the green hill-sides.  They are all so happy, and so contented with their pastoral mode of living that they think of moving back into Palestina, as the pasturage is better there.  It will be a long journey, but, with the consciousness of the Father’s care over them, and the bond of love to shorten the way, they will not mind it.  Nathan’s wife, in particular, is anxious to return to her childhood’s home, and never wearies of telling her children stories of her girlhood days, when she and her sister, whom she still loves passionately, watched their sheep on the hills of Hebron.

    Mary and Manasseh have grown quite tall.  Manasseh is almost a man,
    fiery and impetuous as ever, yet wise beyond his years, and a devout
    Christian.