Gamaliel spoke half as from reverie, Lapsed in oblivion of the present need. "Rabban Gamaliel," bold upspoke the boy, "Thy saving power I pray thee now put forth To pluck mine uncle from the jaws of death. I promise gladly then to bring thee Saul, If so I may, when, by thy counsel, I Have set him safe from those that seek his blood. These have their mouth agape already now, Their throat an open sepulcher for him. I see, I see them spring upon their prey-- O master, master, must he die like this?"
The passionate pleading boy dropped on his knees, And the knees clasped of the thus roused old man. "Yea, I remember," now Gamaliel spoke; "Weep not, my boy, but haste, my bidding do." Therewith Gamaliel clapped his aged hands, When instantly a servant to his call Stood on the roof with, "Master, here am I." "An inkhorn and a pen, with parchment; speed!" Shot from Gamaliel's lips, so short, so sharp With instance, that the man not went, but flew. "Make thou a table of my knees, and write," Gamaliel to forestalling Stephen said; "Write: 'I, Gamaliel, send this lad to thee; I know him; he will tell thee what concerns Thy hearing; thou canst trust him all in all.' There, so is well; now superscribe it fair: 'To the chief captain of Antonia.' Run, carry this--stay, I must sign it first With mine own hand for certainty to him. Up, haste thee to the castle, ask for Saul, Him tell what thou hast learned, and show him this; Saul will to the chief captain get thee brought, And thou hereby shalt win believing heed. No thanks, and no farewell, but thy feet wing!"
So sped, but of his own heart better sped, Stephen quick got him to the castle gate, Where, with Gamaliel's seal displayed--his truth, Patent in face and voice, admitting him-- He gained prompt privilege of speech with Paul. Paul heard the tidings that his nephew brought And, summoning a centurion, said to him: "Pray thee, to the chief captain take this youth; He has a matter for his private ear."
So the centurion, taking Stephen, went To the chief captain, and thus spoke to him: "The prisoner Paul bade me to him and asked That I would bring this youth to thee, who has A certain matter he would tell thee of."
The chiliarch looked at Stephen glowing there Before him in the beauty of his youth, A beauty that was more than beauty now, Touched and illumined into nobleness By the pure ardor of the soul within Kindling upon the face in flames of zeal-- The Roman, on the boy ennobled so Feasting his eye a moment in fixed gaze, Caught the contagion of that nobleness. A waft perhaps of reminiscence waked Blew soft and warm upon his heart from Rome; Clear in the mirror of the Hebrew boy Shining in sudden apparition so, Fairer than fountain of Bandusia, There swam perhaps an image to the eye Of that stern Roman father, dear with home; Perhaps he thought of a young Claudius, Who, far away beneath Italian skies, Was blooming crescent in a grace like that, His father exile in Jerusalem!