"The mountains may depart, the hills may shake,[14] But nought thy Saviour's love from thee shall sever, The mother may her sucking child forsake, God thy Redeemer shall forsake thee never.[15] Oh, Zion, discrowned Queen! A throne still waits for thee; For glorious thou hast been, All glorious shalt thou be." [1] Isa. lx. 1. [2] Isa. xxii. 23. [3] Isa. lx. 13, 14. [4] Isa. lx. 9. [5] Mal. iii. 12 [6] Gen. xiii. 15. [7] Ezek. xxxvii. 16, 17. [8] Isa. xi. 13. [9] Isa. xix. 24. [10] Zech. ii. 5. [11] Zech. ii. 8. [12] Isa. lxii. 5. [13] Isa. xliv. 22. [14] Isa. liv. 10. [15] Isa. xlix. 15. CHAPTER XIV. A CRISIS. Lycidas, in the meantime, was chafing in wild impatience under the trial of Zarah's almost perpetual absence. He could no longer watch her, no longer listen to her, except when his straining ear caught the faint sound of her music floating down from an upper apartment. Why was she away? why should she shun him? she whose presence alone had rendered not only tolerable but delightful the kind of mild captivity in which he was retained, while the state of his wounds rendered the Greek unable, without assistance, to leave the dwelling of Hadassah. Lycidas had none of the scruples of Zarah regarding union with one of a different race and religion. The Greek had resolved on winning the fair Hebrew maid as his bride; he was conscious of possessing the gift of attractions such as few young hearts could resist, and asked fortune only for an opportunity of exerting all his powers to the utmost to secure the most precious prize for which mortal had ever contended. Lycidas beguiled many tedious hours by the composition of a poem, of singular beauty, in honour of Zarah. Most melodious was the flow of the verse, most delicate the fragrance of the incense of praise. The realms of nature, the kingdom of art, were ransacked for images of beauty. But Lycidas felt disgusted with his own work before he had completed it. He seemed to himself like one decorating with gems and hanging rich garments on an exquisite statue, in the attempt to do it honour only marring the perfection of its symmetry, and the grace of its marble drapery. A few words which the Greek had heard Hadassah read from her sacred parchment, appeared to him to include more than all his most laboured descriptions could convoy. Lycidas had thought of Zarah when he had listened to the expression, _the beauty of holiness_.