“Tell Absalom to hasten with harnessing the chariots,” commanded Daniel. The servants took the hint and withdrew. Their master cast a searching glance about the courtyard, to make sure that no others were in easy earshot. “Listen.” His speech sank to a whisper. “I am in sore anxiety concerning the safety of Ruth.” “Of Ruth!” Isaiah’s grave face grew dark as the thunder-cloud. “How? Who threatens?” Daniel spoke yet lower. “This day I have received a message from friends in the palace, that the king still remembers her beauty, and desires her. His promise to Darius was a lie, to appease the envoy for the moment. I dare not doubt that some attempt will be made by Mermaza, or by others of his spawn, to carry away the girl at the first convenient opportunity. She must not sally abroad, however much she may desire it. I do not know how great is the immediate danger, but there is nought to be risked. On this account I am going to Borsippa without delay.” “Then as our God rewardeth evil for evil, so will I reward the king!” Isaiah had turned livid with his wrath. “I will slay Belshazzar with my own hand, and then let them kill me with slow tortures.” Daniel smiled despite his heavy heart. “Small gain would that be to our people. The fury of the Babylonians would grow sixfold. If the yoke is hard to bear now, what then?” “Yet will Belshazzar truly break his promise?” demanded Isaiah, plucking at the last straw of hope. “Promise?” Daniel laughed grimly. “He will break ten thousand oaths, when they stand betwixt him and a passion. Avil-Marduk urges him each day to ruin me and mine, as a lesson to the rest of our people. The Jews are to be driven like sheep to the _ziggurat_, and forced to blaspheme Jehovah. Alas! When I think of the plight of our nation, the dangers of a few of us seem but as the first whisperings of a mighty storm! If no succour comes, Ruth and you and I are utterly undone; and our people will forget its God, as He in His just wrath seems to have forgotten them.” “And is there _no_ hope?” groaned Isaiah in his despair. Before Daniel could answer, a sweet girlish voice sounded, singing from the upper casement, over the court. The two men stood in silence. “My beloved spake and said unto me, ‘Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone: The flowers appear on the earth; The time of the singing of birds is come, And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land!’” “It is the song of Ruth,” said Daniel, as in dreamy melancholy. “She has waited you for long. Blessed is she; to her Jehovah thus far is kind. She does not know her danger. The ‘Song of Songs’ is ever in her mouth, in these days of her love. You must go to her.” “Let all Belshazzar’s sword-hands take her from me!” was Isaiah’s rash boast. But then he asked more calmly: “And why do you, my father, go to Borsippa? You have not told.”