The prelate, however, calmly persisted in his demand, enjoined Orion to have a diligent search made for the gem, and declared that he regarded it as the property of the Church.  He added that, when his patience was at an end, he should positively insist on its surrender and bring every means at his disposal into play to procure it.

Orion had no choice but to say that he would prosecute his search for the lost stone; but his acquiescence was sullen, as that of a man who accedes to an unreasonable demand.

At first the patriarch took this coolly; but presently, when he rose to take leave, his demeanor changed; he said, with stern solemnity: 

“I know you now, Son of Mukaukas George, and I end as I began:  The humility of the Christian is far from you, you are ignorant of the power and dignity of our Faith, you do not even know the vast love that animates it, and the fervent longing to lead the straying sinner back to the path of salvation.—­Your admirable mother has told me, with tears in her eyes, of the abyss over which you are standing.  It is your desire to bind yourself for life to a heretic, a Melchite—­and there is another thing which fills her pious mother’s heart with fears, which tortures it as she thinks of you and your eternal welfare.  She promised to confide this to my ear in church, and I shall find leisure to consider of it on my return home; but at any rate, and be it what it may, it cannot more greatly imperil your soul than marriage with a Melchite.

“On what have you set your heart?  On the mere joys of earth!  You sue for the hand of an unbeliever, the daughter of an unbelieving heretic; you go over to Fostat—­nay, hear me out—­and place your brain and your strong arm at the service of the infidels—­it is but yesterday; but I, I, the shepherd of my flock, will not suffer that he who is the highest in rank, the richest in possessions, the most powerful by the mere dignity of his name, shall pervert thousands of the Jacobite brethren.  I have the will and the power too, to close the sluice gates against such a disaster.  Obey me, or you shall rue it with tears of blood.”

The prelate paused, expecting to see Orion fall on his knees before him; but the young man did nothing of the kind.  He stood looking at him, open-eyed and agitated, but undecided, and Benjamin went on with added vehemence: 

“I came to you to lift up my voice in protest, and I desire, I require, I command you:  sever all ties with the enemies of your nation and of your faith, cast out your love for the Melchite Siren, who will seduce your immortal part to inevitable perdition. . . .”

Till this Orion had listened with bowed head and in silence to the diatribe which the patriarch had hurled at him like a curse; but at this point his whole being rose in revolt, all self-control forsook him, and he interrupted the speaker in loud tones: