“Well, if they did not know much that was good about him, they knew nothing that was bad. Anyhow they all rose in his favour; and they seized the young King and Lysias the Governor and brought them to him, and asked him what they should do with them. He would not say, ‘Kill them,’ for, after all, the little boy was his cousin, and had not done him any harm. And he did not like to say, ‘Keep them alive,’ for he was afraid that his cousin might some day have his throne; so he only said to the soldiers, ‘Take care that they do not see my face.’ So the soldiers—they were the young King’s own guard—took him and killed him, and Lysias with him.” When he had heard this the child allowed his mother to take him away. He saw that his father, usually so calm, was anxious and troubled, and, wise with a wisdom beyond his years—the fruit of the troubled life which he and his had been leading—would not ask him any more questions. But that night, when his mother came to give him the last kiss before he went to sleep, he had many things to say to her. Poor little fellow! he had seen many terrible sights, which all his parents’ care could not keep from his eyes, and had heard of many more, and he could not help asking again, “Did they hurt him very much?” and when she had comforted him as best she could on this score, he showed that there was another trouble in his mind. “Oh! mother,” he said, “do you remember that when he ordered the walls of the fortress to be pulled down, I prayed to God that he might be punished for breaking his promise? and only the other day, when Joseph was talking about his coming back, I said—something in me seemed to make me say it almost without my knowing—‘He shall fall by the sword in his own land.’ And now he is punished, for he has fallen by the sword. Do you think that God listened to me, and did it because I said these things? But, mother, I did not hate him very much; sometimes I used to think I loved him; and oh! it would be dreadful to think that I had anything to do with his being killed!” “My son,” said Ruth, “do you remember what our father Abraham said, ‘Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right’?” “Yes, mother, I am sure that He will do right; and the King did deserve to be punished. But perhaps his counsellors told him to do it; and I am sure that if I was told to do something that was wrong by people that I loved, I should be very likely to do it.” When his mother came to see him some hours afterwards she found him asleep, but his pillow was wet with tears, and now and then a little sob showed how deeply the trouble had entered into his little heart.