It was with great hesitation that Hilkiah finally made up his mind to report the words of the prophetess, exactly as she had spoken them. When the priest had finished, a deep, deathlike silence hung over the room, as if some catastrophe were impending. Josiah turned away from the little group, rested his arm heavily upon the throne and leaned his head upon it. Hilkiah, Shaphan and the others saw and felt the emotion that surged through the young king and caused his whole frame to tremble. A soft, gentle sound escaped him, as if he were weeping. Suddenly, however, Josiah's attitude changed. He ran the back of his hand over his eyes, straightened up and faced his friends. He was calm, composed, determined. He had concluded that he, himself, was the least to be considered in this matter. He needed advice from more older and more experienced men. Consequently, before the counselors present left him, Josiah ordered Shaphan to call an assembly of the elders of the entire people to meet in Jerusalem before the coming Passover. CHAPTER VI. _A New Covenant._ Josiah was determined not to give up so easily. He would not admit to himself that his country and his people were beyond hope. He figured that perhaps the prophetess had exaggerated purposely in order to recall the people to their duty to their God and to the country, more quickly and more conscientiously. He was not at all happy over the fact that he himself would escape the threatened destruction of his people. What he wanted was to discover some possible way, and to make every attempt, to save all his people. At the council of the Elders, as a first step, he suggested that the coming Passover be celebrated faithfully in accordance with the commandments in the rediscovered law book. Messengers were therefore sent throughout Judah, and even up into Israel, to announce a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the celebration of the Passover, by order of the king and the Elders. Great and happy throngs came to the Capital for the festival. It was a multitude of people far different in mien and behavior from that same multitude that had rushed to the protection of the fortified city when the Scythian invaders had threatened the country a few years before. Now, when the Passover eve, that is the fourteenth day of the first month, was at hand, it was found that the great majority of the people did not bring with them the prescribed sacrifices, either because they did not know of the custom or because they were too poor. Such a condition, however, did not dismay Josiah and his officers. He, himself, out of his own treasury, distributed the means for making the sacrifices to over thirty-three thousand people. Hilkiah and the heads of the Temple service, out of their own means, did the same for the Priests and the Levites. So that everyone present in Jerusalem that day observed the Passover properly and happily.