He shall not go.
Not yet, not yet! But three days--only three-- Beside me, and a muttering on the third, 'I have heard the Voice again.' Be dull, O dull, Mind and remembrance! Mother, ye did ill; 'T is hard unlawful knowledge not to use.
Why, O dark mother! opened ye the way ?" Yet when he entered, and did lay aside His costly robe of sacrifice, the robe Wherein he had been offering, ere the sun Went down; forgetful of her mother's craft, She lovely and submiss did mourn to him: "Thou wilt not go,--I pray thee, do not go, Till thou hast seen thy children." And he said, "I will not.

I have cried, and have prevailed: To-morrow it is given me by the Voice Upon a four days' journey to proceed, And follow down the river, till its waves Are swallowed in the sand, where no flesh dwells.
"'There,' quoth the Unrevealed, 'we shall meet, And I will counsel thee; and thou shalt turn And rest thee with the mother, and with them She bare.' Now, therefore, when the morn appears, Thou fairest among women, call thy slaves, And bid them yoke the steers, and spread thy car With robes, the choicest work of cunning hands; Array thee in thy rich apparel, deck Thy locks with gold; and while the hollow vale I thread beside yon river, go thou forth Atween the mountains to my father's house, And let thy slaves make all obeisance due, And take and lay an offering at his feet.
Then light, and cry to him, 'Great king, the son Of old Methuselah, thy son hath sent To fetch the growing maids, his children, home.'" "Sir," quoth the woman, "I will do this thing, So thou keep faith with me, and yet return.
But will the Voice, think you, forbear to chide, Nor that Unseen, who calleth, buffet thee, And drive thee on ?" He saith, "It will keep faith.
Fear not.

I have prevailed, for I besought, And lovingly it answered.

I shall rest, And dwell with thee till after my three sons Come from the chase." She said, "I let them forth In fear, for they are young.

Their slaves are few.
The giant elephants be cunning folk; They lie in ambush, and will draw men on To follow,--then will turn and tread them down." "Thy father's house unwisely planned," said he, "To drive them down upon the growing corn Of them that were their foes; for now, behold, They suffer while the unwieldy beasts delay Retirement to their lands, and, meanwhile, pound The damp, deep meadows, to a pulpy mash; Or wallowing in the waters foul them; nay, Tread down the banks, and let them forth to flood Their cities; or, assailed and falling, shake The walls, and taint the wind, ere thirty men, Over the hairy terror piling stones Or earth, prevail to cover it." She said, "Husband, I have been sorry, thinking oft I would my sons were home; but now so well Methinks it is with me, that I am fain To wish they might delay, for thou wilt dwell With me till after they return, and thou Hast set thine eyes upon them.