But Gideon's purpose was again frustrated: the impious idolaters,
refusing to listen, blindfolded him before he was aware.
But his spirit kindled suddenly, and he cried aloud--
"Yet shut your eyes wilfully, and go blindfold to your destruction.
To-morrow these walls in which ye trust, this Egypt in whom your soul
delighteth, shall be as Sodom. Brimstone and fire shall devour you; and
they that flee from it shall not escape!"
Gideon and his threats were, however, speedily thrust out at the gates,
and the answer transmitted through him was faithfully reported to the
council.
Though this heroic woman was not daunted, yet she saw her soldiers
were, at times, dispirited, by reason of the expected succours so long
delayed. The mortar-piece, too, which, if it had been well managed, was
sufficient to have laid the fortress in ruins, was an object of daily
terror and annoyance.
One of the MS. journals states,[47] "The little ladyes had stomack to
digest cannon; but the stoutest souldiers had noe hearts for granadoes,
and might not they att once free themselves from the continual
expectac'on of death?"
Her ladyship was well aware that inactivity is, of all things, the most
dangerous and dispiriting to the soldier, who, used to the bustle and
array of camps, doth fear nothing so much as a quiet home and winter
quarters.
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