The lively opposite of Shimei's change Was meantime making Stephen's face more fair. He, at the chiliarch's mating of himself With Shimei, though in veriest raillery meant, Felt all the soul of manliness in him Stung to its most resistant; as he turned, Obedient to the chiliarch's word, and looked At Shimei, such transfigurement there passed Upon him that he stood there glorified. An infinite repellence seemed to ray From out his eyes, and put impassable Remove between him and that other, while Ascendance, as peculiar to a race And rank of being wholly different, Endued him, like a natural right to reign. Such kingly to such servile seen opposed, Surprised the chiliarch into altered mood. "Enough," said he; and, writing while those stayed, He gave to Shimei what he wrote to read. It was a letter Shimei should himself Convey to Felix governor; it ran: "Who brings this is a rascal, as I judge; He comes to accuse the Jewish prisoner Paul. Detain him, if thee please, to see the end; The end should be perhaps a cross for _him_!" Wincing, the miscreant read; he, reading, felt Draw, from Rome's hand, the coil about his neck. Choking for speech, he, ere he found it, heard The chiliarch say, with voice hard like a flint: "Thou hast thine errand; tarry not, but go. Nay, bide a moment; let the youngster see What message I have given thee to bear; Then, if so chance thou lose it on the way, He can supply thy lack of carefulness!"
His air that of the miser who, compelled, Gives up gold hoarded, like his own heart's blood, Shimei, with griping pangs, in sick recoil Of grudging overmastered to submit, Yielded, as if he were withholding it, The hateful letter into Stephen's hand. Stephen, as one not daring otherwise, Deigned a reluctant look, that, seeking not, Yet seized, the sense of that which Shimei showed; Softened, he gave the parchment back to him.
Prodded with such oblique sarcastic spur To heed of sinister commission such, Shimei withdrew, a miserable man.
The chiliarch then to Stephen--who, at once Pity of Shimei's utter wretchedness, Shame of his utter abjectness, conceived-- Said, with changed tone: "My lad, I think thee true; That miscreant vexed me into petulance. Thou hast not altogether missed thy mark In coming hither now, although I thus Seem to let Shimei for the present slip. Follow him, if thou wilt, to Cæsarea. With letter of Bellerophon in charge, He carries his own sentence thither hence; Watch it--if slow in execution, sure!"
