. . .And fruit none from it ripening to his hand!"
"This is too foully base!" said Lysias,
And Shimei's heart misgave him with a fear.
'Too foully base insinuation mine,
Does Lysias mean?' he closely asked himself;
But calmly, with deep candor, said aloud:
"Yea, even for Paul, beyond belief too base!
Paul never meant it, I shall still insist.
He meant at most such sleep as should prevail
Over Gamaliel's scruple to take part
Willingly in his surreptitious flight.
And such a master of his arts is Paul,
[109] I shrewdly doubt if here his mark he missed.
Were Paul but now at hand to try his skill,
I should not wonder yet to see this swoon
Yield to some potent drug of counter force,
And good Gamaliel wake to life again.
Once, as they say—in Troas, I believe—
Where he all night was lengthening out harangue,
After his manner, in an upper room,
A youngster, tired to death of hearing him,. . . Read More