Giving thanks to God, Who had brought them out of that danger against their wills, Nehushta crept back to the cabin and told her mistress what had passed.

“May they find pardon,” said Rachel, shuddering; “but as for us, it will matter little whether we are drowned in the boat or upon the galley.”

“I do not think that we shall drown,” answered Nehushta.

“How are we to escape it, Nou?  The ship lies upon the rock, where the great waves will batter her to pieces.  Feel how she shakes beneath their blows, and see the spray flying over us.”

“I do not know, mistress; but we shall not drown.”

Nehushta was right, for after they had remained fast a little longer they were saved, thus:  Suddenly the wind dropped, then it rose again in a last furious squall, driving before it a very mountain of water.  This vast billow, as it rushed shorewards, caught the galley in its white arms and lifted her not only off the rock whereon she lay, but over the further reefs, to cast her down again upon a bed of sand and shells, within a stone’s throw of the beach, where she remained fast, never to shift more.

Now also, as though its work were done, the gale ceased, and, as is common on the Syrian coast, the sea sank rapidly, so that by nightfall it was calm again.  Indeed, three hours before sunset, had both of them been strong and well, they might have escaped to the land by wading.  But this was not to be, for now what Nehushta had feared befell, and when she was least fitted to bear it, being worn out with anguish of mind and weariness of body, pain took sudden hold of Rachel, of which the end was that, before midnight, there, in that broken vessel upon a barren coast where no man seemed to live, a daughter was born to her.

“Let me see the child,” said Rachel.  So Nehushta showed it to her by the light of a lamp which burned in the cabin.

It was a small child, but very white, with blue eyes and dark hair that curled.  Rachel gazed at it long and tenderly.  Then she said, “Bring me water while there is yet time.”

When the water was brought she dipped her trembling hand into it, and made the sign of the Cross upon the babe’s forehead, baptising her with the name of Miriam, after that of her own mother, to the service and the company of Jesus the Christ.

“Now,” she said, “whether she live an hour or an hundred years, this child is a Christian, and whatever befalls, should she come to the age of understanding, see to it, Nou, who are henceforth the foster-mother of her body and her soul, that she does not forget the rites and duties of her faith.  Lay this charge on her also as her father commanded, and as I command, that should she be moved to marriage, she wed none who is not a Christian.  Tell her that such was the will of those who begat her, and that if she be obedient to it, although they are dead, and as it seems strengthless, yet shall their blessing be upon her all her life’s days, and with it the blessing of the Lord she serves.”