The way to save him from himself lay before her; but Joshua had not yet
ventured to disturb her devotions.

He had been wounded and angered to the inmost depths of his soul by her
denial. But as he gazed down at her and saw her tall figure shaken by a
sudden chill, and her eyes and hands raised heavenward as though, spell-
bound, he had felt that something grand and sacred dwelt within her
breast which it would be sacrilege to disturb; nay, he had been unable to
resist the feeling that it would be presumptuous to seek to wed a woman
united to the Lord by so close a tie. It must be bliss indeed to call
this exalted creature his own, yet it would be hard to see her place
another, even though it were the Almighty Himself, so far above her lover
and husband.

Men and cattle had already passed close by the sycamore and just as he
was in the act of calling Miriam and pointing to the approaching throng,
she rose, turned toward him, and forced from her troubled breast the
words:

"I have communed with the Lord, Joshua, and now know His will. Do you
remember the words by which God called you?"

He bent his head in assent; but she went on:

"Well then, you must also know what the Most High confided to your
father, to Moses, and to me. He desires to lead us out of the land of
Egypt, to a distant country where neither Pharaoh nor his viceroy shall
rule over us, and He alone shall be our king. That is His will, and if
He requires you to serve Him, you must follow us and, in case of war,