"It is the
voice of my firstborn, calling aloud for justice! God have mercy, God
have mercy, on your soul!"
The team slowly pursued its route, and the deserted Abiram now found
himself deprived of the smallest vestige of hope. Still he could not
summon fortitude to meet his death, and had not his limbs refused to
aid him, he would yet have attempted to fly. Then, by a sudden
revolution from hope to utter despair, he fell upon his knees, and
commenced a prayer, in which cries for mercy to God and to his kinsman
were wildly and blasphemously mingled. The sons of Ishmael turned away
in horror at the disgusting spectacle, and even the stern nature of
the squatter began to bend before so abject misery.
"May that, which you ask of Him, be granted," he said; "but a father
can never forget a murdered child."
He was answered by the most humble appeals for time. A week, a day, an
hour, were each implored, with an earnestness commensurate to the
value they receive, when a whole life is compressed into their short
duration.
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