CHAPTER XV.
The physician had installed Paula in her new home, and had introducedher to the family who were henceforth to be her protectors, and toenable her to lead a happier life.
He had but a few minutes to devote to her and her hosts; for scarcelyhad he taken her into the spacious rooms, gay with flowers, of which shenow took possession, when he was enquired for by two messengers, bothanxious to speak with him. Paula knew how critical her uncle's statewas, and now, contemplating the probability of losing him, she firstunderstood what he had been to her. Thus sorrow was her first companionin her new abode--a sorrow to which the comfort of her pretty, airyrooms added keenness.
One of the messengers was a young Arab from the other side of the river,who handed to Philippus a letter from the merchant Haschim. The old maninformed him that, in consequence of a bad fall his eldest son had had,he was forced to start at once for Djiddah on the Red Sea. He begged thephysician to take every care of his caravan-leader, to whom he was muchattached, to remove him when he thought fit from the governor's house,and to nurse him till he was well, in some quiet retreat. He would bearin mind the commission given him by the daughter of the illustriousThomas. He sent with this letter a purse well-filled with gold pieces.
The other messenger was to take the leech back again in the lightchariot with the fast horses to the suffering Mukaukas. He at onceobeyed the summons, and the steeds, which the driver did not spare, sooncarried him back to the governor's house.
A glance at his patient told him that this was the beginning of the end;still, faithful to his principle of never abandoning hope till theheart of the sufferer had ceased to beat, he raised the senseless man,heedless of Orion, who was on his knees by his father's pillow, signedto the deaconess in attendance, an experienced nurse, and laid cool,wet cloths on the head and neck of the sufferer, who was stricken withapoplexy. Then he bled him.
Presently the Mukaukas wearily opened his eyes, turned uneasily fromside to side, and recognizing his kneeling son and his wife, bathed intears, he murmured, almost inarticulately, for his paralyzed tongue nolonger did his will: "Two pillules, Philip!"
The physician unhesitatingly acceded to the request of the dying man,who again closed his eyes; but only to reopen them, and to say, with thesame difficulty, but with perfect consciousness: "The end is at hand!The blessing of the Church--Orion, the Bishop."
The young man hastened out of the room to fetch the prelate, who waswaiting in the viridarium with two deacons, an exorcist, and a sacristanbearing the sacred vessels.
The governor listened in devout composure to the service of the lastsacrament, looked on at the ceremonies performed by the exorcist as,with waving of hands and pious ejaculations he banned the evil spiritsand cast out from the dying man the devil that might have part in him;but he could no longer swallow the bread which, in the Jacobite rite,was administered soaked in the wine. Orion took the holy elements forhim, and the dying man, with a smile, murmured to his son:
"God be with thee, my son! The Lord, it seems, denies me His preciousBlood--and yet--let me try once more."
This time he succeeded in swallowing the wine and a few crumbs of bread;and the bishop Ptolimus, a gentle old man of a beautiful and dignifiedpresence, spoke comfort to him, and asked him whether he felt that hewas dying penitent and in perfect faith in the mercy of his Lord andSaviour, and whether he repented of his sins and forgave his enemies.
The sick man bowed his head with an effort and murmured:
"Even the Melchites who murdered my sons--and even the head of ourChurch, the Patriarch, who was only too glad to leave it to me toachieve things which he scrupled to do himself. That--that--But you,Ptolimus--a wise and worthy servant of the Lord--tell me to the bestof your convictions: May I die in the belief that it was not a sin toconclude a peace with the Arab conquerors of the Greeks?--May I, even atthis hour, think of the Melchites as heretics?"
The prelate drew his still upright figure to its full height, andhis mild features assumed a determined--nay a stern expression as heexclaimed:
"You know the decision pronounced by the Synod of Ephesus--the wordswhich should be graven on the heart of every true Jacobite as on marbleand brass 'May all who divide the nature of Christ--and this is what theMelchites do--be divided with the sword, be hewn in pieces and be burntalive!'--No Head of our Church has ever hurled such a curse at theMoslems who adore the One God!"
The sufferer drew a deep breath, but he presently added with a sigh:
"But Benjamin the Patriarch, and John of Niku have tormented my soulwith fears! Still, you too, Ptolimus, bear the crosier, and to you Iwill confess that your brethren in office, the shepherds of the Jacobitefold, have ruined my peace for hundreds of days and nights, and I havebeen near to cursing them. But before the night fell the Lord sent lightinto my soul, and I forgave them, and now, through you, I crave theirpardon and their blessing. The Church has but reluctantly opened thedoors to me in these last years; but what servant can be allowed tocomplain of the Master from whom he expects grace? So listen to me. Iclose my eyes as a faithful and devoted adherent of the Church, and intoken thereof I will endow her to the best of my power and adorn herwith rich and costly gifts; I will--but I can say no more.--Speak forme, Orion. You know--the gems--the hanging...."
His son explained to the bishop what a splendid gift, in pricelessjewels, the dying man intended to offer to the Church. He desired to beburied in the church of St. John at Alexandria by his father's side, andto be prayed for in front of the mortuary chapel of his ancestors in theNecropolis; he had set aside a sum of money, in his will, to pay forthe prayers to be offered for his soul. The priests were well pleased tohear this, and they absolved him unconditionally and completely; then,after blessing him fervently, they quitted the room.
Philippus heaved a sigh of relief when the ecclesiastics had departed,and constantly renewed the wet compress, while the dying governor layfor a long time in silence with his eyes shut. Presently he rubbed themas though he felt revived, raised his head a little with the physician'shelp, and looking up, said:
"Draw the ring off my finger, Orion, and wear it worthily.--Where islittle Mary, where is Paula? I should wish to bid them farewell too."
The young man and his mother exchanged uneasy glances, but Neforiscollected herself at once and replied:
"We have sent for Mary; but Paula--you know she never was happy withus--and since the events of yesterday...."
"Well?" asked the invalid.
"She hastily quitted the house; but we parted friends, I can assureyou of that; she is still in Memphis, and she spoke of you mostaffectionately and wished to see you, and charged me with many lovingmessages for you; so, if you really care to see her...."
The sick man tried to nod his head, but in vain. He did not, however,insist on her being sent for, but his face wore an expression of deepmelancholy and the words came faintly from his lips.
"Thomas' daughter! The noblest and loveliest of all."
"The noblest and loveliest," echoed Orion, in a voice that was tremulouswith strong, deep and sincere emotion; then he begged the leech and thedeaconess to leave him alone with his parents. As soon as they had leftthe room the young man spoke softly but urgently into his father's ear:
"You are quite right, Father," he said. "She is better and more noble,more beautiful and more highminded than any girl living. I love her,and will stake everything to win her heart. Oh, God! Oh, God! MercifulHeaven!--Are you glad, do you give your consent, Father? You dearest andbest of men; I see it in your face."
"Yes, yes, yes," murmured the governor; his yellow, bloodshot eyeslooked up to Heaven, and with a terrible effort he stammered out:"Blessing--my blessing, on you and Paula.--Tell her from me.... If shehad confided in her old uncle, as she used to do, the freedman wouldnever have robbed us.--She is a brave soul; how she fought for the poorfellow. I will hear more about it if my strength holds out.--Why is shenot here?"
"She wished so much to bid you farewell," r
eplied Neforis, "but you wereasleep."
"Was she in such a hurry to be gone?" asked her husband with a bittersmile. "Fear about the emerald may have had something to do with it?But how could I be angry with her? Hiram acted without her knowledge, Isuppose? Yes, I knew it!--Ah; that dear, sweet face! If I could butsee it once more. The joy--of my eyes, and my companion at draughts!A faithful heart too; how she clung to her father! she was ready tosacrifice everything for him.--And you, you, my old.... But no--noreproaches at such a time. You, Mother--you, my Neforis, thanks, athousand thanks for all your love and kindness. What a mystical andmagic bond is that of a Christian marriage like ours? Mark that, Orion.And you, Mother: I am anxious about this. You--do not hurt the girl'sfeelings again. Say--say you bless this union; it will make me happierat the last.--Paula and Orion; both of them-both.--I never daredbefore--but what better could we wish?"
The matron clasped her hands and sobbed out:
"Anything, everything you wish! But Father, Orion, our faith!--And then,merciful Saviour, that poor little Katharina!"
"Katharina!" repeated the sick man, and his feeble lips parted in acompassionate smile. "Our boy and the water--water--you know what Iwould say."
Then his eyes began to sparkle more brightly and he said in a low voice,but still eagerly, as though death were yet far from him:
"My name is George, the son of the Mukaukas; I am the great Mukaukas andour family--all fine men of a proud race; all: My father, my uncle, ourlost sons, and Orion here--all palms and oaks! And shall a dwarf, a mereblade of rice be grafted on to the grand old stalwart stock? What wouldcome of that?--Oh, ho! a miserable little brood! But Paula! The cedar ofLebanon--Paula; she would give new life to the grand old race."
"But our faith, our faith," moaned Neforis. "And you, Orion, do you evenknow what her feeling is towards you?"
"Yes and no. Let that rest for the present," said the youth, who wasdeeply moved. "Oh Father! if I only knew that your blessing..."
"The Faith, the Faith," interrupted the Mukaukas in a broken voice.
"I will be true to my own!" cried Orion, raising his father's hand tohis lips. "But think, picture to yourself, how Paula and I would reignin this house, and how another generation would grow up in it worthy ofthe great Mukaukas and his ancestors!"
"I see it, I see it," murmured the sick man sinking back on his pillows,unconscious.
Philippus was immediately called in, and, with him, little Mary cameweeping into the room. The physician's efforts to revive the suffererwere presently successful; again the sick man opened his eyes, and spokemore distinctly and loudly than before:
"There is a perfume of musk. It is the fragrance that heralds the Angelof Death."
After this he lay still and silent for a long time. His eyes wereclosed, but his brows were knit and showed that he was thinking with apainful effort. At length, with a sigh, he said, almost inaudibly:"So it was and so it is: The Greek oppressed my people with arbitrarycruelty as if we were dogs; the Moslem, too, is a stranger, but he isjust. That which happened it was out of my power to prevent; and it iswell, it is very well that it turned out so.--Very well," he repeatedseveral times, and then he shivered and said with a groan:
"My feet are so cold! But never mind, never mind, I like to be cool."
The leech and the deaconess at once set to work to heat blocks of woodto warm his feet; the sick man looked up gratefully and went on: "Atchurch, in the House of God, I have often found it deliciously cool andto-day it is the Church that eases my death-bed by her pardon. Do you,my Son, be faithful to her. No member of our house should ever be anapostate. As to the new faith--it is overspreading land after land withincredible power; ambition and covetousness are driving thousands intoits fold. But we--we are faithful to Christ Jesus, we are no traitors.If I, I the Mukaukas, had consented to go over to the Khaliff I mighthave been a prince in purple, and have governed my own country in hisname. How many have deserted to the Moslems! And the temptation willcome to you, too, and their faith offers much that is attractive to thecrowd. They imagine a Paradise full of unspeakably alluring joys--butwe, my son--we shall meet again in our own, shall we not?"
"Yes, yes, Father!" cried the young man. "I will remain a Christian,staunch and true..."
"That is right," interrupted the sick man. He was determined to forgetthat his son wished to marry a Melchite and went on quickly: "Paula....But no more of that. Remain faithful to your own creed--otherwise....However, child, seek your own road; you are--but you will walk in theright way, and it is because I know that, know it surely, that I can dieso calmly.
"I have provided abundantly for your temporal welfare. I have been agood husband, a faithful father, have I not, O Saviour?--Have I not,Neforis? And that which is my best and surest comfort is that for manylong years I have administered justice in this land, and never, neveronce--and Thou my Refuge and Comforter art my witness!--never onceconsciously or willingly have I been an unrighteous judge. Before me thepoor were equal with the rich, the powerful with the helpless widow.Who would have dared...." Here he broke off; his eyes, wandering feeblyround the room, fell on Mary who had sunk on her knees, opposite toOrion on the other side of the bed. The dying man, who had thus summedup the outcome of a long and busy life, ceased his reflections, andwhen the child saw that he was vainly trying to turn his powerlesshead towards her, she threw her arms round him with passionate grief;unscared by his fixed gaze or the altered hue of his beloved face, shekissed his lips and cheeks, exclaiming:
"Grandfather, dear grandfather, do not leave us; stay with us, pray,pray stay with us!"
Something faintly resembling a smile parted his parched lips, and allthe tenderness with which his soul was overflowing for this sweet youngbud of humanity would have found expression in his voice but that hecould only mutter huskily:
"Mary, my darling! For your sake I should be glad to live a long whileyet, a very long while; but the other world--I am standing already onits threshold. Good-bye--I must indeed say good-bye."
"No, no--I will pray; oh! I will pray so fervently that you may get wellagain!" cried the child. But he replied:
"Nay, nay. The Saviour is already taking me by the hand. Farewell, andagain farewell. Did you bring Paula? I do not see her. Did you bringPaula with you, sweetheart? She--did she leave us in anger? If she onlyknew; ah! your Paula has treated us ill." The child's heart was stillfull of the horrible crime which had so revolted her truthful nature,and which had deprived her of rest all through an evening, a longnight and a morning; she laid her little head close to that of the oldman--her dearest and best friend. For years he had filled her father'splace, and now he was dying, leaving her forever! But she could not lethim depart with a false idea of the woman whom she worshipped with allthe fervor of her child's heart; in a subdued voice, but with eagerfeeling, she said, close to his ear:
"But Grandfather, there is one thing you must know before the Saviourtakes you away to be happy in Heaven. Paula told the truth, and never,never told a lie, not even for Hiram's sake. An empty gold frame hung toher necklace and no gem at all. Whatever Orion may say, I saw it myselfand cannot be mistaken, as truly as I hope to see you and my poor fatherin heaven! And Katharina, too, thought better of it, and confessed to mejust now that she had committed a great sin and had borne false witnessbefore the judges to please her dear Orion. I do not know what Hiramhad done to offend him; but on the strength of Katharina's evidence thejudges condemned him to death. But Paula--you must understand that Paulahad nothing, positively nothing whatever to do with the stealing of theemerald."
Orion, kneeling there, was condemned to hear every word the littlegirl so vehemently whispered, and each one pierced his heart like adagger-thrust. Again and again he felt inclined to clutch at her acrossthe bed and fling her on the ground before his father's eyes; but griefand astonishment seemed to have paralyzed his whole being; he had noteven the power to interrupt her with a single word.
She had spoken, and all was told.
He
clung to the couch like a shattered wretch; and when his fatherturned his eyes on him and gasped out: "Then the Court--our Courtof justice pronounced an unrighteous sentence?" he bowed his head incontrition.
The dying man murmured even less articulately and incoherently thanbefore: "The gem--the hanging--you, you perhaps--was it you? thatemerald--I cannot..."
Orion helped his father in his vain efforts to utter the dreadful words.Sooner would he have died with the old man than have deceived him insuch a moment; he replied humbly and in a low voice:
"Yes, Father--I took it. But as surely as I love you and my mother this,the first reckless act of my life, which has brought such horrors in itstrain... Shall be the last," he would have said; but the words "Itook it," had scarcely passed his lips when his father was shaken bya violent trembling, the expression of his eyes changed fearfully, andbefore the son had spoken his vow to the end the unhappy father was, bya tremendous effort, sitting upright. Loud sobs of penitence broke fromthe young man's heaving breast, as the Mukaukas wrathfully exclaimed, inthick accents, as quickly as the heavy, paralyzed tongue would allow:
"You, you! A disgrace to our ancient and blameless Court! You?--Awaywith you! A thief, an unjust judge, a false witness,--and the onlydescendant of Menas! If only these hands were able--you--you--Go,villain!" And with this wild outcry, George, the gentle and justMukaukas, sank back on his pillows; his bloodshot eyes were staring,fixed on vacancy; his gasping lips repeated again and again, but lessand less audibly the one word "Villain;" his swollen fingers clutchedat the light coverlet that lay over him; a strange, shrill wheezingcame through his open mouth, and the heavy corpse of the great dignitaryfell, like a falling palm-tree, into Orion's arms.
Orion started up, his eyes inflamed, his hair all dishevelled, and shookthe dead man as though to compel him back to life again, to hear hisoath and accept his vow, to see his tears of repentance, to pardon himand take back the name of infamy which had been his parting word to hisloved and spoilt child.
In the midst of this wild outbreak the physician came back, glanced atthe dead man's distorted features, laid a hand on his heart, and saidwith solemn regret as he led little Mary away from the couch:
"A good and just man is gone from the land of the living."
Orion cried aloud and pushed away Mary, who had stolen close to him;for, young as she was, she felt that it was she who had brought theworst woe on her uncle, and that it was her part to show him someaffection.
She ran then to her grandmother; but she, too, put her aside and fell onher knees by the side of her wretched son to weep with him; to consolehim who was inconsolable, and in whom, a few minutes since, she hadhoped to find her own best consolation; but her fond words of motherlycomfort found no echo in his broken spirit.