“And mine shall break,” gasped Miriam, “ere I will be disloyal to the Lord our God.  We have both chosen, so let what once united us be sundered before these stones.”

He rushed frantically toward her to seize her hand; but with an imperious gesture she waved him back, turned away, and went toward the multitude which, with sheep and cattle, were pressing around the wells.

Old and young respectfully made way for her as, with haughty bearing, she approached Hur, who was giving orders to the shepherds; but he came forward to meet her and, after hearing the promise she whispered, he laid his hand upon her head and said with solemn earnestness: 

“Then may the Lord bless our alliance.”

Hand in hand with the grey-haired man to whom she had given herself, Miriam approached Joshua.  Nothing betrayed the deep emotion of her soul, save the rapid rise and fall of her bosom, for though her cheeks were pale, her eyes were tearless and her bearing was as erect as ever.

She left to Hur to explain to the lover whom she had forever resigned what she had granted him, and when Joshua heard it, he started back as though a gulf yawned at his feet.

His lips were bloodless as he stared at the unequally matched pair.  A jeering laugh seemed the only fitting answer to such a surprise, but Miriam’s grave face helped him to repress it and conceal the tumult of his soul by trivial words.

But he felt that he could not long succeed in maintaining a successful display of indifference, so he took leave of Miriam.  He must greet his father, he said hastily, and induce him to summon the elders.

Ere he finished several shepherds hurried up, disputing wrathfully and appealed to Hur to decide what place in the procession belonged to each tribe.  He followed them, and as soon as Miriam found herself alone with Joshua, she said softly, yet earnestly, with beseeching eyes: 

“A hasty deed was needful to sever the tie that bound us, but a loftier hope unites us.  As I sacrificed what was dearest to my heart to remain faithful to my God and people, do you, too, renounce everything to which your soul clings.  Obey the Most High, who called you Joshua!  This hour transformed the sweetest joy to bitter grief; may it be the salvation of our people!  Remain a son of the race which gave you your father and mother!  Be what the Lord called you to become, a leader of your race!  If you insist on fulfilling your oath to Pharaoh, and tell the elders the promises with which you came, you will win them over, I know.  Few will resist you, but of those few the first will surely be your own father.  I can hear him raise his voice loudly and angrily against his own dear son; but if you close your ears even to his warning, the people will follow your summons instead of God’s, and you will rule the Hebrews as a mighty man.  But when the time comes that the Egyptian casts his promises to the winds, when you see your people in still worse bondage