14 On certain Medieval Apologues. [No. 1, 



Then Moses prayed, " O God, give me that light, 



Leave me not exiled far away from truth's beams." 



" Then take thou thy station near yonder fountain, 



And watch there, as from ambush, the counsels of my power." 



Thither went the prophet, and sat him down concealed, 



He drew his foot beneath his garment, and waited what would be. 



Lo from the road there came a horseman, 



Who stopped like the prophet Khizr by the fountain. 



He stripped off his clothes and plunged into the stream, 



He bathed and came in haste from the water. 



He put on his clothes and pursued his journey, 



Wending his way to mansion and gardens ; 



But he left behind on the ground a purse of gold, 



Filled fuller with lucre than a miser's heart. 



And after him a stripling came by the road, 



And his eye, as he passed, fell on the purse; 



He glanced to right and to left, but none was in sight ; 



And he snatched it up and hastened to his home. 



Then again the prophet looked, and lo ! a blind old man 



Who tottered to the fountain, leaning on his staff. 



He stopped by its edge and performed his needful ablutions, 



And pilgrim-like bound on him the sacred robe of prayer. 



Suddenly came up he who had left the purse, 



And left with it his wits and his senses too, 



— Up he came, and, when he found not the purse he sought, 



He hastened to make question of the blind old man. 



The old man answered in rude speech to the questioner, [him. 



And in passion the horseman struck him with his sword and slew 



When the prophet beheld this dreadful scene, 



He cried, " Oh thou whose throne is highest heaven, 



It was one man who stole the purse of gold, 



And another who bears the blow of the sword. 



Why to that the purse and to this the wound ? 



This award, methinks, is wrong in the eye of reason or law," 



Then came the Divine Voice, " Oh thou censurer of my ways, 



Square not these doings of mine with thy rule ? 



That young boy had once a father 



