14 On certain Mediceval Apologues. [No. 1, 



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



Leave me noí exiled far avvay 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 bis foot beneath bis garment, and waited what would be. 



Lo from the road there carne a horseman, 



Who stopped like the prophet Khizr by the fountain. 



He stripped off bis clothes and plunged into the stream, 



He bathed and carne in baste from the water. 



He put on bis clothes and pursued bis journey, 



Wending bis way to mansión and gardens ; 



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



Filled fuller with lucre than a miser's heart. 



And after him a stripling carne by the road, 



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



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



And he snatched it up and bastened to bis borne. 



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



Who tottered to the fountain, leaning on bis staíf. 



He stopped by its edge and performed bis needful ablutions, 



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



Suddenly carne up he who had left the purse, 



And left with it his wits and his senses too, 



— Up he carne, and, when be found not the purse he sougbt, 



He hastened to make question of the blind oíd man. 



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



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



When the prophet bebeld this dreadful scene, 



He cried, " Oh thou whose tbrone is higbest beaven, 



It was one man who stole the purse of gold, 



And another who bears the blow of the sword. 



"Wby to that the purse and to this the wound ? 



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



Then carne 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 



