'That sceptre must he gain. This fragile youth, untried and delicate,
unknowing in the ways of this strange world, where every step is danger,
how much hardship, how much peril, what withering disappointment, what
dull care, what long despondency, what never-ending lures, now lie in
ambush for this gentle boy! O my countrymen, is this your hope? And I,
with all my lore, and all my courage, and all my deep intelligence of
man; unhappy Israel, why am I not thy Prince?
'I check the blasphemous thought. Did not his great ancestor, as young
and as untried, a beardless stripling, with but a pebble, a small
smoothed stone, level a mailed giant with the ground, and save his
people?
'He is clearly summoned. The Lord is with him. Be he with the Lord, and
we shall prosper.'
It was at sunset, on the third day after the arrival of Alroy at the
cave of the Cabalist, that the Prince of the Captivity commenced his
pilgrimage in quest of the sceptre of Solomon.
Silently the pilgrim and his master took their way to the brink of the
ravine, and there they stopped to part, perhaps forever.
'It is a bitter moment, Alroy. Human feelings are not for beings like
us, yet they will have their way.
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