seemed as bright as sunshine, not only within but around her, as always
happened when she, the prophetess, was to behold a vision. And in this
light she saw a figure whose face startled her, not Joshua, but another
to whom her heart did not incline. Yet there he stood before the eyes of
her soul in all his stately height, surrounded by radiance, and with a
solemn gesture he laid his hand on the stones he had piled up.

With quickened breath, she gazed upward to the face, yet she would gladly
have closed her eyes and lost her hearing, that she might neither see it
nor catch the voices from the tree. But suddenly the figure vanished,
the voices died away, and she appeared to behold in a bright, fiery glow,
the first man her virgin lips had kissed, as with uplifted sword, leading
the shepherds of her people, he dashed toward an invisible foe.

Swiftly as the going and coming of a flash of lightning, the vision
appeared and vanished, yet ere it had wholly disappeared she knew its
meaning.

The man whom she called "Joshua" and who seemed fitted in every respect
to be the shield and leader of his people, must not be turned aside by
love from the lofty duty to which the Most High had summoned him. None
of the people must learn the message he brought, lest it should tempt
them to turn aside from the dangerous path they had entered.

Her course was as plain as the vision which had just vanished. And, as
if the Most High desired to show her that she had rightly understood its
meaning, Hur's voice was heard near the sycamore--ere she had risen to
prepare her lover for the sorrow to which she must condemn herself and
him--commanding the multitude flocking from all directions to prepare for
the departure.