A Thorny Path — Complete

  CHAPTER XI.

  Melissa, too, would probably have found herself a prisoner, but thatZminis, seeing himself balked of a triumph, and beside himself withrage, rushed after the fugitive with the rest. She had no furtheroccasion to seek the house where her lover was lying, for Agatha knew itwell. Its owner, Proterius, was an illustrious member of the Christiancommunity, and she had often been to see him with her father.

  On their way the girls confided to each other what had brought them outinto the streets at so unusual an hour; and when Melissa spoke ofher companion's extraordinary resemblance to the dead daughter ofSeleukus--which, no doubt, had been Alexander's inducement to followher--Agatha told her that she had constantly been mistaken for heruncle's daughter, so early lost. She herself had not seen her cousinfor some few years, for Seleukus had quarreled with his brother's familywhen they had embraced Christianity. The third brother, Timotheus, thehigh-priest of Serapis, had proved more placable, and his wife Euryalewas of all women the one she loved best. And presently it appeared thatAgatha, too, had lost her mother, and this drew the girls so closelytogether, that they clasped hands and walked on like sisters or old anddear friends.

  They were not kept long waiting outside the house of Proterius, forAndreas was in the vestibule arranging the litter for the conveyance ofDiodoros, with the willing help of Ptolemaeus. The freedman was indeedamazed when he heard Melissa's voice, and blamed her for this freshadventure. However, he was glad to see her, for, although it seemedalmost beyond the bounds of possibility, he had already fancied morethan once, as steps had approached and passed, that she must surely becoming to lend him a helping hand.

  It was easy to hear in his tone of voice that her bold venture was atleast as praiseworthy as it was blameworthy in his eyes, and the graveman was as cheerful as he commonly was only when among his flowers.Never before had Melissa heard a word of compliment from his lips, butas Agatha stood with one arm round Melissa's shoulders, he said to thephysician, as he pointed to the pair, "Like two roses on one stem!"

  He had good reason, indeed, to be content. Diodoros was no worse, andGalen was certainly expected to visit the sick in the Serapeum. Heregarded it, too, as a dispensation from Heaven that Agatha and Melissashould have happened to meet, and Alexander's happy escape had taken aweight from his mind. He willingly acceded to Melissa's request that hewould take her and Agatha to see the sick man; but he granted them onlya short time to gaze at the sleeper, and then requested the deaconess tofind a room for the two damsels, who needed rest.

  The worthy woman rose at once; but Melissa urgently entreated to beallowed to remain by her lover's side, and glanced anxiously at the keysin the matron's hand.

  At this Andreas whispered to her: "You are afraid lest I should preventyour coming with us? But it is not so; and, indeed, of what use would itbe? You made your way past the guards to the senator's coach; you cameacross the lake, and through the darkness and the drunken rabble in thestreets; if I were to lock you in, you would be brave enough to jumpout of the window. No, no; I confess you have conquered myobjections--indeed, if you should now refuse your assistance, I shouldbe obliged to crave it. But Ptolemaeus wishes to leave Diodoros quiteundisturbed till daybreak. He is now gone to the Serapeum to find a goodplace for him. You, too, need rest, and you shall be waked in goodtime. Go, now, with Dame Katharine.--As to your relations," he added, toAgatha, "do not be uneasy. A boy is already on his way to your father,to tell him where you are for the night."

  The deaconess led the two girls to a room where there was a large doublebed. Here the new friends stretched their weary limbs; but, tired asthey were, neither of them seemed disposed to sleep; they were so happyto have found each other, and had so much to ask and tell each other!As soon as Katharine had lighted a three-branched lamp she left them tothemselves, and then their talk began.

  Agatha, clinging to her new friend, laid her head on Melissa's shoulder;and as Melissa looked on the beautiful face, and remembered the fondpassion which her heedless brother had conceived for its twin image, oras now and again the Christian girl's loving words appealed to her moreespecially, she stroked the long, flowing tresses of her brown hair.

  It needed, indeed, no more than a common feeling, an experience gonethrough together, an hour of confidential solitude, to join the heartsof the two maidens; and as they awaited the day, shoulder to shoulderin uninterrupted chat, they felt as though they had shared every joy andsorrow from the cradle. Agatha's weaker nature found a support in thecalm strength of will which was evident in many things Melissa said; andwhen the Christian opened her tender and pitying heart to Melissa withtouching candor, it was like a view into a new but most inviting world.

  Agatha's extreme beauty, too, struck the artist's daughter as somethingdivine, and her eye often rested admiringly on her new friend's pure andregular features.

  When Agatha inquired of her about her father, Melissa briefly replied,that since her mother's death he was often moody and rough, but that hehad a good, kind heart. The Christian girl, on the contrary, spoke withenthusiasm of the warm, human loving-kindness of the man to whom sheowed her being; and the picture she drew of her home life was so fair,that the little heathen could hardly believe in its truth. Her father,Agatha said, lived in constant warfare with the misery and suffering ofhis fellow-creatures, and he was, in fact, able to make those about himhappy and prosperous. The poorest were dearest to his loving heart, andon his estate across the lake he had collected none but the sick andwretched. The care of the children was left to her, and the little onesclung to her as if she were their mother. She had neither brother norsister.--And so the conversation turned on Alexander, of whom Agathacould never hear enough.

  And how proud was Melissa to speak of the bright young artist, who tillnow had been the sun of her joyless life! There was much that was goodto be said about him: for the best masters rated his talent highly inspite of his youth; his comrades were faithful; and none knew so well ashe how to cheer his father's dark moods. Then, there were many amiableand generous traits of which she had been told, or had herself known.With his very first savings, he had had the Genius with a reversedtorch cast in bronze to grace his mother's grave, and give his fatherpleasure. Once he had been brought home half dead after saving a womanand child from drowning, and vainly endeavoring to rescue another child.He might be wild and reckless, but he had always been faithful to hisart and to his love for his family.

  Agatha's eyes opened widely when Melissa told her anything good abouther brother, and she clung in terror to her new friend as she heard ofher excited orgy with her lover.

  Scared as though some imminent horror threatened herself, she claspedMelissa's hand as she listened to the tale of the dangers Alexander hadso narrowly escaped.

  Such things had never before reached the ears of the girl in her retiredChristian home beyond the lake; they sounded to her as the tales of somebold seafarer to the peaceful husbandman on whose shores the storm haswrecked him.

  "And do you know," she exclaimed, "all this seems delightful to me,though my father, I am sure, would judge it hardly! When your brotherrisks his life, it is always for others, and that is right--that is thehighest life. I think of him as an angel with a flaming sword. But youdo not know our sacred scriptures."

  Then Melissa would hear more of this book, of which Andreas hadfrequently spoken; but there was a knock at the door, and she sprang outof bed.

  Agatha did the same; and when a slave-girl had brought in fresh, coldwater, she insisted on handing her friend the towels, on plaiting herlong hair, pinning her peplos in its place, and arranging its folds. Shehad so often longed for a sister, and she felt as though she had foundone in Melissa! While she helped her to dress she kissed her preserver'ssister on the eyes and lips, and entreated her with affectionate urgencyto come to see her, as soon as she had done all she could for her lover.She must be made acquainted with her father, and Agatha longed to showher her poor children, her dogs, and her pigeons. And she would go tosee Melissa
, when she was staying with Polybius.

  "And there," Melissa put in, "you will see my brother, too."

  On which the Christian girl exclaimed: "You must bring him to our house.My father will be glad to thank him--" Here she paused, and then added,"Only he must not again risk his life so rashly."

  "He will be well hidden at the house of Polybius," replied Melissa,consolingly. "And Andreas has him fast by this time."

  She once more kissed Agatha, and went to the door, but her friend heldher back, and whispered "In my father's grounds there is a famous hidingplace, where no one would ever find him. It has often been a refugefor weeks and months for persecuted members of our faith. When he isseriously threatened, bring him to us. We will gladly provide for hissafety, and all else. Only think, if they should catch him! It would befor my sake, and I should never be happy again. Promise me that you willbring him."

  "Yes, certainly," cried Melissa, as she hurried out into the vestibule,where Andreas and the leech were waiting for her.

  They had done well to enlist the girl's services, for, since nursing hermother, she knew, as few did, how to handle the sick. It was not tillthey had fairly set out that Melissa observed that Dame Katharine wasof the party; she had no doubt become reconciled to the idea of the sickman's removal to the Serapeum, for she had the same look of kindly calmwhich had so much attracted the girl at their first meeting.

  The streets along which they passed in the pale morning light were nowdeserted, and a film of mist, behind which glowed the golden light ofthe newly risen sun, shrouded the horizon. The fresh air of morning wasdelicious, and at this early hour there was no one to avoid--only thepeasants and their wives carrying the produce of their gardens andfields to market on asses, or wagons drawn by oxen. The black slavesof the town were sweeping the roadway. Here there were parties of men,women, and children on their way to work in factories, which were atrest but for a few hours in the bustling town. The bakers andother provision-dealers were opening their shops; the cobblers andmetalworkers were already busy or lighting fires in their open stalls;and Andreas nodded to a file of slave-girls who had come across fromthe farm and gardens of Polybius, and who now walked up the street withlarge milk-jars and baskets of vegetables poised on their heads andsupported with one gracefully raised arm.

  They presently crossed the Aspendia Canal, where the fog hung over thewater like white smoke, hiding the figure of the tutelary goddess of thetown on the parapet of the bridge from those who crossed by the roadway.The leaves of the mimosa-trees by the quay--nay, the very stones of thehouses and the statues, wet with the morning dew--looked revived andnewly washed; and a light breeze brought up from the Serapeum brokentones of the chant, sung there every morning by a choir of priests, tohail the triumph of light over darkness.

  The crisp morning air was as invigorating to Melissa as her cold bathhad been, after a night which had brought her so little rest. She feltas though she, and all Nature with her, had just crossed the thresholdof a new day, bidding her to fresh life and labor. Now and then a flamefrom Lucifer's torch swallowed up a stretch of morning mist, while theHours escorted Phoebus Apollo, whose radiant diadem of beams was justrising above the haze; Melissa could have declared she saw them dancingforth before him and strewing the path of the sun with flowers. Allthis was beautiful--as beautiful as the priest's chant, the aromaticsweetness of the air, and the works of art in cast bronze or hewn marblewhich were to be seen on the bridge, on the temple to Isis and Anubis tothe right of the street, under the colonnades of the handsomest houses,on the public fountains--in short, wherever the eye might turn. Herlover, borne before her in a litter, was on the way to the physician inwhose hands lay the power to cure him. She felt as though Hope led theway.

  Since love had blossomed in her breast her quiet life had become aneventful one. Most of what she had gone through had indeed filled herwith alarms. Serious questions to which she had never given a thoughthad been brought before her; and yet, in this brief period of anxietyshe had gained the precious sense of youthfulness and of capacityfor action when she had to depend on herself. The last few hours hadrevealed to her the possession of powers which only yesterday she hadnever suspected. She, who had willingly yielded to every caprice of herfather's, and who, for love of her brothers, had always unresistinglydone their bidding, now knew that she had a will of her own and strengthenough to assert it; and this, again, added to her contentment thismorning.

  Alexander had told her, and old Dido, and Diodoros, that she was fair tolook upon--but these all saw her with the eyes of affection; so she hadalways believed that she was a well-looking girl enough, but by no meanshighly gifted in any respect--a girl whose future would be to bloomand fade unknown in her father's service. But now she knew that she wasindeed beautiful; not only because she had heard it repeatedly inthe crowd of yesterday, or even because Agatha had declared it whilebraiding her hair--an inward voice affirmed it, and for her lover's sakeshe was happy to believe it.

  As a rule, she would have been ready to drop with fatigue after so manysleepless hours and such severe exertions; but to-day she felt as freshas the birds in the trees by the roadside, which greeted the sun withcheerful twitterings.

  "Yes, the world is indeed fair!" thought she; but at that very momentAndreas's grave voice was heard ordering the bearers to turn down a darkside alley which led into the street of Hermes, a few hundred paces fromthe Rhakotis Canal.

  How anxious the good man looked! Her world was not the world of theChristian freedman; that she plainly understood when the litter in whichDiodoros lay was carried into one of the houses in the side street.

  It was a large, plain building, with only a few windows, and thosehigh up-in fact, as Melissa was presently informed, it was a Christianchurch. Before she could express her surprise, Andreas begged her tohave a few minutes' patience; the daemons of sickness were here to beexorcised and driven out of the sufferer. He pointed to a seat in thevestibule to the church, a wide but shallow room. Then, at a sign fromAndreas, the slaves carried the litter into a long, low hall with a flatroof.

  From where she sat, Melissa could now see that a Christian in priest'srobes, whom they called the exorcist, spoke various invocations overthe sick man, the others listening so attentively that even she began tohope for some good effect from these incomprehensible formulas; andat the same time she remembered that her old slave-woman Dido, whoworshiped many gods, wore round her neck, besides a variety of heathenamulets, a little cross which had been given her by a Christian woman.To her question why she, a heathen, wore this about her, the old womanreplied, "You can never tell what may help you some day." So perhapsthese exorcisms might not be without some effect on her lover,particularly as the God of the Christians must be powerful and good.

  She herself strove to uplift her soul in prayer to the manes of her lostmother; but the scene going on around her in the vestibule distractedher mind with horror. Men, young and old, were slashing themselves withvehement scourgings on their backs. One white-haired old man, indeed,handed his whip of hippopotamus-hide to a stalwart lad whose shoulderswere streaming with blood, and begged him as a brother, as ferventlyas though it were the greatest favor, to let him feel the lash. But theyounger man refused, and she saw the weak old fellow trying to apply itto his own back.

  All this was quite beyond her comprehension, and struck her as,disgusting; and how haggard and hideous were the limbs of these peoplewho thus sinned against their own bodies--the noble temples of theDivine Spirit!

  When, a few minutes later, the litter was borne out of the churchagain, the sun had triumphed over the mists and was rising with blindingsplendor in the cloudless sky. Everything was bathed in light; but thedreadful sight of the penitents had cast a gloom over the clear gladnessshe had been so full of but just now. It was with a sense of oppressionthat she took leave of the deaconess, who left her with cheerfulcontentment in the street of Hermes, and followed the litter to the opensquare in front of the Serapeum.

  Here every th
ought of gloom vanished from her mind as at the touch of amagician, for before her stood the vast Temple of Serapis, founded,as it were, for eternity, on a substructure of rock and closely fittedmasonry, the noblest building on earth of any dedicated to the gods.The great cupola rose to the blue sky as though it fain would greet thesister vault above with its own splendor, and the copper-plating whichcovered it shone as dazzling as a second sun. From the wide front of thetemple, every being to whom the prayers and worship of mortals could beoffered looked down on her, hewn in marble or cast in bronze; for onthe roof, on brackets or on pedestals; in niches or as supporting theparapets and balconies, were statues of all the guests at the Olympianbanquet, with images or busts of every hero or king, philosopher, poet,or artist whose deeds or works had earned him immortality.

  From infancy Melissa had looked up at this temple with admirationand pride, for here every art had done its utmost to make it withoutparallel on earth. It was the work of her beloved native city, and hermother had often taken her into the Serapeum, where she herself hadfound comfort in many a sorrow and disappointment, and had taught thechild to love it. That it had afterward been spoiled for her she forgotin her present mood.

  Never had she seen the great temple surrounded by so much gay and busylife. The front of the building, toward the square, had in the earlyhours of the morning been decked with garlands and heavy wreaths offlowers, by a swarm of slaves standing on ladders and planks and bencheslet down from the roof by ropes. The inclined ways, by which vehiclesdrove up to the great door, were still deserted, and on the broad stepsin the middle no one was to be seen as yet but a few priests in galarobes, and court officials; but the immense open space in front of thesanctuary was one great camp, where, among the hastily pitched canvastents, horses were being dressed and weapons polished. Several maniplesof the praetorians and of the Macedonian phalanx were already drawnup in compact ranks, to relieve guard at the gate of the imperialresidence, and stand at Caesar's orders.

  But more attractive to the girl than all this display were a number ofaltars which had been erected at the extreme edge of the great square,and on each of which a fire was burning. Heavy clouds of smoke went upfrom them in the still, pure atmosphere, like aerial columns, while theflames, paling in the beams of the morning sun, flew up through the reekas though striving to rise above it, with wan and changeful gleams ofred and yellow, now curling down, and now writhing upward like snakes.Of all these fires there was not one from which the smoke did not mountstraight to heaven, though each burned to a different god; and Melissaregarded it as a happy sign that none spread or failed to rise. Theembers were stirred from time to time by the priests and augurs of everygod of the East and West, who also superintended the sacrifices, whilewarriors of every province of the empire stood round in prayer.

  Melissa passed by all these unwonted and soul-stirring sights without aregret; her hope for the cure soon to be wrought on her lover cast allelse into the shade. Still, while she looked around at the thousands whowere encamped here, and gazed up at the temple where so many men werebusied, like ants, it struck her that in fact all this belonged toone and was done for one alone. Those legions followed him as the dustfollows the wind, the whole world trembled at his nod, and in his handlay the life and happiness of the millions he governed. And it was atthis omnipotent being, this god in human form, that her brother hadmocked; and the pursuers were at his heels. This recollection troubledher joy, and when she looked in the freedman's grave and anxious faceher heart began to beat heavily again.