Yet him I can forgive, for less as bribed He faltered, than as overcome he fell. Paul is the master of an evil art To make his subject firmly hold for true What, free from sorcery, he would know was false. He, in the very act and article Of sketching what his victim was on me To father, the illusion could in him Produce of hearing his own words from me. A trick Paul has of vocal mimicry-- Sleight of longiloquence, whereby he throws To distance, as may like, his uttered words, To make them seem another's, not his own-- Aided him here; I hardly knew, myself, Hearing him speak, but that the voice was mine. Thus I account for it, that, without blame So much to him himself, he being deceived, This worthy soldier, whom I never wronged, Doubtless an honest fellow in the main, Should in effect malign me so to thee. "In my simplicity, and in my faith Undoubting that, confronted fair with truth, Falsehood must needs take on its proper shape, Then shrivel, ashamed to be at all, I sprang Suddenly up, discovered to the pair. I never dreamed but they would at my feet Fall, and for mercy sue; which Shimei-- Soft-hearted ever for another, where Only himself is wronged, however hard He steel his heart where stake is public good-- Had doubtless weakly granted out of hand. But, to my wonder, and, I own, dismay-- This for the moment, but that weakness passed-- At a quick sign from Paul, the soldier seized Me and consigned to dungeon for the night. What followed more on deck, I can but guess. I doubt not Paul completed work begun In this poor soldier's mind, and fixed his faith That all had happened as he made report. I pray thee judge his error lightly; he Was of another's will, against his own, Possessed, loth pervert of a power malign." The soldier, hearing, was now witched indeed. Partly his sense of flaw in rectitude-- Then suffered when he paltered with the bribe Proffered by Shimei--shook him; and partly he Descried a shift of refuge for himself From dreaded blame at his centurion's hands-- Should Julius, as looked likely more and more, At length accept the Hebrew's tale for true-- In letting it appear that Paul in fact Had wrought upon him so as Shimei said, To cheat him into honest misbelief. This was the deeply calculated hope Wherein that glozer, plotting as he went With versatile adjustment to his need-- Need shifting, point by point, from phase to phase-- Provided for the soldier his escape From the necessity of holding fast, In self-defence, to his first testimony. Thus, if all prospered, Shimei, yea, might yet Save to himself the future chance to use This soldier, more amenable to use.