together. Katharine understood the glance, and rising from her kneeling position, extricated her hand, which lay partly under that of Robert, on the back of the sofa. The movement recalled the thoughts of Emily from the new direction which they had taken, and she now recurred to the unfinished topic.
"I will trust your assurance, brother, as I know your gentleness of feeling. May you not escape this bloody employment? for my poor thought fails to perceive the good or the glory which can come of the distresses of humanity."
"It would be shame, Emily, deep shame and dishonour to avoid it; and, indeed, it may not be avoided. The persecutor pursues when you fly, and he tramples even more freely when you resist not. It is in the nature of injustice and wrong to grow insolent with impunity; and the dishonour must rest on him, who, being himself strong, looks unmoved on the sufferings of the weak, and withholds his succour. Believe me, dear Emily, I love not this strife; but defence of our country is war under God's own sanction, since it seeks to maintain free from blood and from injustice the home which he has given to the peaceful."
"You shall not persuade me of it, Robert," was the reply of the dying maiden. "You will have your arguments, I know, and they will seem wise on your lips, and I may not be able to answer them from mine. But shall I believe in any argument of man, however plausible, when the words of God are so positive? He has forbidden strife, forbidden life. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord."
"But self-defence and vengeance, dear Emily, are very different things."
"Yes, you are right there; and I did not use the right word, nor refer to the proper command. 'Thou shalt do no murder.'"
"But self-defence is not murder," was the answer to this.
"Ah! still I err! I am too poor in wit and wisdom to maintain this or any argument. But strife is forbidden, and war and violence; and smitten on one cheek, we are commanded to submit the other."
"Ah! Emily, you only prove how impossible it is, in the present state of the world, to be a Christian."
"Alas! for the world, that it should be so! Yet I fear that you are right. But I must cease. I can only pray for you, Robert.
