And, stammering, pale, his outraged spirit broken,
He stood and groaned his sorrow forth in sighs
That mingled with my loud, exulting cries,
While in an anguish left by man unspoken
The rebel tears gushed slowly from his eyes.

But I was unappeased and cried unto him,
Glad of his misery: " Art thou yet content?
Wilt thou believe me now, oh, prophet sent?
Ah! I demand thy brother's blood; pursue him;
Give me the high priest's carrion, maimed and rent! "

And as I shrieked in throes of rage infernal,
Upon the shattered tablets of my God,
Lying in fragments on the holy sod,
Writ with the finger of the Lord eternal,
I fearlessly and arrogantly trod!

" To me, oh Moses! how can thy wrath matter?
Thou, aided by thy God, canst by a word
Disperse and slay yon unrepenting herd,
And to the sands their bones felonious scatter,
But I from vengeance ever am deterred!

" What moots it to me that thy faith is lost thee
For one brief span? God will not let thee fall;
Thy sudden advent will the camp appall,
The shadow of pain for one fleet hour has crossed thee;
Thou canst restore thy calm, but I lose all!

" All! all! for in that camp, I, chill and clamoring,
Was seized and was despoiled of my rare worth,
While Aaron watched me in contemptuous mirth,
And loudly scoffed my sobbing and my stammering,
He the most despicably vile of earth!

" And there, bound tight with cords, cast down, rebelling,
He forced me to that very altar's side,
And made me worship my lost pledge and pride,
Fused with the rest, while in my bosom swelling
His keen laugh pierced me, mute and terrified!

" Oh, Moses! Moses! let thy grave heart harden
Toward these vile recreants, and their rites consume;
Cast them to death, to torture and to gloom;
Tear from thy soul the fragile seeds of pardon.
Moses! thy duty tells thee thou must doom! "

*****

And Moses harkened to my objurgation;
He calmed my wrath with benedictions rare;
He pacified and blessed me with a prayer;
And we went down to stay the profanation,
And Israel at our coming trembled there.

Upon the people castigations fearful
Fell, and woe wandered swiftly through the land,
And at the patriarch's supreme command
A thousand guilty heroes grew plagued and tearful,
" For God did strike them with His mighty hand. "