Deborah sped down the long slope from the city wall to the Kedron, and across it, and up the side of Olivet. She did not see her way, yet kept it, following every turn of the footpath; for she dared not venture upon the high-road, knowing this to be sentinelled. When she heard any sound on the beaten track she crossed the fields, over ditches, around boulders, past garden walls of dried clay. She did not stumble, though she gave no heed to where she stepped. Were her senses and muscles preterhumanly alert, as those of a swallow skimming the ground and striking nothing? Did instinct assert itself over the slower-paced judgment, as in the case of frightened deer and homing pigeons? Did the angels bear her up in their hands according to the promise? She asked not, nor did she even wonder. The inner light of her purpose was so strong that her soul dominated all physical limitation--for a while. At length on Olivet, midway the ascent, she fell utterly exhausted. Then she first realized the weakness of the flesh, and rebelled against it. How long it took to steady the panting breath! and for the heart to stop its violent beating! After a few moments' rest she rose. Her feet were stones in weight. Would that they had been as hard! for a sharp pain drew her attention to the fact that one foot had broken its sandal, and was bruised and bleeding. She could not run; she trudged on. She came out upon the broad road, and passed through Bethany. No one accosted her, for the once happy village was now deserted. Even the dogs had followed the people when they fled from the invaders. The day broke. The road grew white with its dust, then ruddy with the coming light. Her faintness told her that she hungered, and she remembered that she had made provision for this. She drew from her bosom a handful of bread and dates, and ate. At a spring, where once had stood a khan, she drank amid a circle of bewildered sheep, which bleated and stared at this intruder of what for many months had been their solitude. She must rest; yet what if she should be too late? Already the tribesmen about Jericho might have begun to fulfil their threat, and move against Judas. These men had been the enemies of her people for ages. Not since Joshua crossed their plain had they been at peace, except at times when the degenerate Jews mingled their blood in marriage with that of these heathen. Toward the Chasidim, those extremists who would purge the land of all but the pure stock of Israel, these tribes had sworn special hatred. Now that the Maccabæans were facing new armies of Syria, the rumor of the fields became the open boast in Jerusalem, that the whole population of the Jordan valley was about to assail Judas' rear; for Antiochus' gold had corrupted every Sheikh from the Sea of Galilee to the Sea of Salt.