"The God whom thou servest will provide these," said he, "if thou
provest worthy of the trust committed to thee."
I looked again up into the cloudy veil that covered us and thought I
beheld golden weapons of every description let down in it, but all with
their points towards me. I kneeled, and was going to stretch out my
hand to take one, when my patron seized me, as I thought, by the
clothes, and dragged me away with as much ease as I had been a lamb,
saying, with a joyful and elevated voice: "Come, my friend, let us
depart: thou art dreaming--thou art dreaming. Rouse up all the energies
of thy exalted mind, for thou art an highly favoured one; and doubt
thou not that He whom thou servest, will be ever at thy right and left
hand, to direct and assist thee."
These words, but particularly the vision I had seen, of the golden
weapons descending out of Heaven, inflamed my zeal to that height that
I was as one beside himself; which my parents perceived that night, and
made some motions towards confining me to my room. I joined in the
family prayers, and then I afterwards sung a psalm and prayed by
myself; and I had good reasons for believing that that small oblation
of praise and prayer was not turned to sin. But there are strange
things, and unaccountable agencies in nature: He only who dwells
between the Cherubim can unriddle them, and to Him the honour must
redound for ever. Amen.
I felt greatly strengthened and encouraged that night, and the next
morning I ran to meet my companion, out of whose eye I had now no life.
He rejoiced at seeing me so forward in the great work of reformation by
blood, and said many things to raise my hopes of future fame and glory;
and then producing two pistols of pure beaten gold, he held them out
and proffered me the choice of one, saying: "See what thy master hath
provided thee!" I took one of them eagerly, for I perceived at once
that they were two of the very weapons that were let down from Heaven
in the cloudy veil, the dim tapestry of the firmament; and I said to
myself. "Surely this is the will of the Lord."
The little splendid and enchanting piece was so perfect, so complete,
and so ready for executing the will of the donor, that I now longed to
use it in his service. I loaded it with my own hand, as Gil-Martin did
the other, and we took our stations behind a bush of hawthorn and
bramble on the verge of the wood, and almost close to the walk. My
patron was so acute in all his calculations that he never mistook an
event. We had not taken our stand above a minute and a half till old
Mr. Blanchard appeared, coming slowly on the path. When we saw this, we
cowered down and leaned each of us a knee upon the ground, pointing
the pistols through the bush, with an aim so steady that it was
impossible to miss our victim.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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