Forty fanatic Jews were quickly found To bind themselves by a religious oath Of dreadful imprecation on their heads Neither to eat nor drink till Paul was slain. Prompt chance to slay him Shimei promised them; He would procure that, on the morrow morn, The chiliarch should desire to quit his doubt Concerning his strange prisoner, by one more Test of his cause before the Sanhedrim. Then, while from the near tower Antonia, Saul At leisure to their council-hall was brought, So large a number of sworn arms in league Might easily, with rash violence, breach their way To him amid his guard of soldiery, And, far too suddenly for these to fend, Spill his life-blood like water on the ground-- Whence could not all the power of Rome again Gather it up to store his veins withal. So Shimei plotted, with the guile of hate; But, with a wiser guile, the guile of love, There counterplotted a true heart for Paul. Rachel that ministry of grace had plied For Ruth by Saul imprisoned, and for those Of Bethany bound with her--where, meanwhile, She for Ruth's children happy kept their home-- Month after month, with inexhaustible Sweet patience and bright heart of hope and brave, Until, the soul of persecution slain In Saul converted, they were all let go Beneath their wonted roofs at peace to dwell; Rachel first welcoming Ruth safe home once more, And Ruth then welcoming Rachel still to bide. But Lazarus, toward Rachel, to and fro Daily seen moving, with that punctual truth To tryst so beautiful, more beautiful In her who was herself so beautiful, Whose every step, look, gesture, and least speech, Or very silence, seemed a benison-- Toward Rachel, such beheld--a crescent dawn Brightening upon him to the perfect day, Apocalypse of lovely--Lazarus, In secret, more and more felt his heart drawn, Through all the dreaming hours he passed in prison. Released at last, he told his heart to her, And Rachel learned to yield him love for love; So, Saul consenting gladly, they were wed. The eldest-born of Rachel now was grown A stripling youth, in face and person fair, Fair spoken, with a winning gift of grace In manner, and a conscious innocence, Becoming conscious virtue, written free In legend over all his lineaments, Where beamed likewise a bright intelligence, Alert, beyond such years, with exercise; For Rachel's had been long a widow's child, And long that widow's only, as her first. Stephen they had named their boy--for memory. It still was dark, deep dark before the dawn, When Rachel rose from wrestling sleepless dream To rouse her son from happy dreamless sleep. "Stephen," said she, "my son, my heart divines Danger nigh imminent for one we love."