Where armies could not enter--can one angel pass alone?

"Thinkst thou that I am one to be affrighted by the dark?
A weakling to be played upon--a coward or a fool?
Nay!--I defy the Israelites!--Their weapons miss their mark,
They have roused my utmost anger: it taketh long to cool.

"But thou!" he said; "but thou! Methinks had they but threatened thee
I should perchance have known the very quality of fear;--
Thou thing of perfect loveliness! Content mine eyes will be
Though in the land of Egypt is no blossom for a year.

"But thou art queen, and thou art free;--free now to go or stay,
I would not bind thee to my side--not by one golden hair.--
Leave thou this land of peril e'er the breaking of the day,
Or give thy life to my dark life--and bear what it doth bear."

Then blanched her face to whiteness of the lilies on her gown,
And low she bowed as lilies bow in drift of wind and rain;
"My Lord," she said, "I have no will except to lay it down
At thy desire. As I have done, so will I do again.

"Thou art my king; my son is thine. It is not mine to say
That I will bear him hence.--Yet gropes my soul unto a light;
The quarrel is 'twixt Heaven and thee alone--so I will stay
With him I love within the tower throughout this fateful night."

"And if the Angel cometh through the walls of stone and brass--
And if he toucheth Egypt's son, to seal his gentle breath,
Then will we know that God is God, He who hath right to pass