And, thinking that it was he who had brought her to this ignominy, he sometimes yearned to reach her side and whisper in her ear, and say, "Forgive me, my child, forgive me." But again he conquered the desire, for he remembered what God had that day done for her; and taking it for a sign of God's pleasure, and a warranty that he had done well, he raised his eyes on her with tears of bitter joy, and thought, in the wild fever of his soul, "She is sharing the triumph of my humiliation.She is walking through the mocking and jeering crowd, but see! God Himself is walking beside her!"The procession had now come to the walled lane to the Bab Toot, the gate going out to Tangier and to Shawan.There the way was so narrow and the concourse so great that for a moment the procession was brought to a stand.Seizing this opportunity, Reuben Maliki stepped up to Israel and said, so that all might hear, "Look at the crowds that have come out to speed you, O saviour of your people! Look! look! We shall all remember this day!""So you shall!" cried Israel."Until your days of death you shall all remember it!"He had not spoken before, and some of the Moors tried to laugh at his answer; but his voice, which was like a frenzied cry, went to the hearts of the Jews, and many of them fell away from the crowd straightway, and followed it no farther.It was the cry of the voice of a brother.They had been insulting calamity itself.
"Balak!" shouted the soldier, and the crier cried once more, and the procession moved again.
It was the hour of Israel's last temptation.Not a glance in his face disclosed passion, but his heart was afire.The devil seemed to be jarring at his ear, "Look! Listen! Is it for people like these that you have come to this? Were they worth the sacrifice?
You might have been rich and great, and riding on their heads.