CHAPTER I.
If Philippus found no sleep that night, neither did Orion. He no longerdoubted Paula, but his heart was full of longing to hear her say oncemore that she loved him and him alone, and the yearning kept him awake.He sprang from his bed at the first glimmer of dawn, glad that thenight was past, and started to cross the Nile in order to place halfof Paula's fortune in the hands of Salech, the brother of Haschim themerchant.
In Memphis all was still silent, and all he saw in the old town struckhim as strangely worn-out, torpid, and decayed; it seemed only fit to beleft to ruin, while on the other side of the river, in the new town ofFostat, on all hands busy, eager, new-born vitality met his eyes.
He involuntarily compared the old capital of the Pharaohs to atime-eaten mummy, and Amru's new city to a vigorous youth. Here everyone was astir and in brisk activity. The money-changer, who had risen,like all Moslems, to perform his morning prayer, "as soon as a whitethread could be distinguished from a black one," was already busy withhis rolls of gold and silver coin; and how quick, clear, and decisivethe Arab was in concluding his bargain with Orion and with Nilus, whohad accompanied him!
Whichever way the young man turned, bright and flashing eyes met hisgaze, energetic, resolute, and enterprising faces; no bowed heads, nodull, brooding looks, no gloomy resignation like those in his nativetown on the other shore. Here, in Fostat, his blood flowed more swiftly;there, existence was an oppressive burden. Everything attracted him tothe Arabs!
The changer's shop, like all those in the Sook or Bazaar of Fostat,consisted of a wooden stall in which he sat with his assistants. On theside open to the street he transacted business with his customers, who,when the affair promised to be lengthy, were invited by the Arab to seatthemselves with him on his little platform.
Orion and Nilus had accepted such an invitation, and it happened that,while they sat in treaty with Salech, visible to the passers-by, theVekeel Obada, who had so deeply stirred the wrath of the governor's sonon the previous evening, came by, close to him. To Orion's amazement hegreeted him with great amiability, and he, remembering Amru's warning,responded, though not without an effort, to his hated foe's civility.When Obada passed the stall a second and a third time, Orion felt thathe was watching him; however, it was quite possible that the Vekeelmight also have business with the money-changer and be waiting only forthe conclusion of his.
At any rate Orion ere long forgot the incident, for matters of morepressing importance claimed his attention at home.
As often happens, the death of one man had changed everything in hishouse so utterly as to make it unlike the same; though his removal hadmade it neither richer nor poorer, and though his secluded presence oflate had scarcely had an appreciable influence. The rooms formerlyso full of life now seemed dead. Petitioners and suppliants no longercrowded the anteroom, and all visits of condolence had, according tothe ancient custom, been received on the day after the funeral. The LadyNeforis had ceased fussing and bustling, the clatter of her keys andher scolding were no longer to be heard; she sat apart, either in hersleeping-room or the cool hall with the fountain which had been herhusband's favorite room, excepting when she was at church whither shewent twice every day. She returned from thence with the same weary,abstracted expression that she took there, and any one seeing her lyingon the divan which her husband had formerly occupied, idly absorbed ingloomy thought, would hardly have recognized her as the same woman whohad but lately been so active and managing. She did not exactly mourn orbewail her loss; indeed, she had no tears for her grief, as though shehad shed them all, once for all, during the night after his death andburial. But she could not attain to that state of sadness made sacredby memories with which consoling angels so often mingle some drops ofsweetness, after the first anguish is overpast. She felt--she knew--thatwith her husband a portion of her own being had been riven from her, butshe could not yet perceive that this last portion was nothing less thanthe very foundations of her whole moral and social being.
Her father and her husband's father had been the two leading men inMemphis, nay, in all Egypt. She had given her hand and a heart full oflove to the son of Menas, a proud and happy woman. It was as one withher, and not by himself alone, that he had risen to the highest dignityattainable by a native Egyptian, and she had done everything that layin her power to uphold him in a position which many envied him, and infilling it with dignity and effect. After many years of rare happinesstheir grief at the loss of their murdered sons only bound the attachedcouple more closely, and when her husband had fallen into bad health shehad gladly shared his seclusion, had devoted herself entirely to caringfor him, and divided all the doubts and anxieties which came upon himfrom his political action. The consciousness of being not merely muchbut everything to him, was her pride and her joy. Her dislike of Paulahad its rise, in the first instance, in the discovery that she, hiswife, was no longer indispensable to the sufferer when he had his fairyoung niece's company. And now?
At night, after long lying awake, when she woke from a snatch of uneasysleep, she involuntarily listened for the faint panting breath, but noheart now throbbed by her side; and when she quitted her lonely couch atdawn the coming day lay before her as a desert and treeless solitude. Bynight, as by day, she constantly tried to call up the image of the dead,but whenever her small imaginative power had succeeded in doing so--notunfrequently at first--she had seen him as in the last moments of hislife, a curse on his only son on his trembling lips. This horribleimpression deprived her of the last consolation of the mourner: abeautiful memory, while it destroyed her proud and glad satisfaction inher only child. The youth, who had till now been her soul's idol, wasstigmatized and branded in her eyes. She might not ignore the burdenlaid on Orion by that most just man; instead of taking him to her heartwith double tenderness and softening or healing the fearful punishmentinflicted by his father, she could only pity him. When Orion came to seeher she would stroke his waving hair and, as she desired not to woundhim and make him even more unhappy than he must be already, she neitherblamed nor admonished him, and never reminded him of his father's curse.And how beggared was that frugal heart, accustomed to spend all itsstore of love on so few objects--nay, chiefly on one alone who was nowno more!
The happy voices of the children had always given her pleasure, solong as they did not disturb her suffering husband; now, they too weresilent. She had withdrawn the sunshine of her narrow affection from heronly grandchild, who had hitherto held a place in it, for little Maryhad had a share in the horrors that had come upon her and Orion in herhusband's last moments. Indeed, the bereaved woman's excited fancy hadfirmly conceived the mad notion that the child was the evil genius ofthe house and the tool of Satan.
Neforis had, however, enjoyed some hours of greater ease during the lasttwo days. In the misery of wakefulness which was beginning to tortureher like an acute pain, she had suddenly recollected what relief fromsleeplessness her husband had been wont to find in the opium pillules,and a box of the medicine, only just opened, was at hand. And was notshe, too, suffering unutterable wretchedness? Why should she neglectthe remedy which had so greatly mitigated her husband's distress? It wassaid to have a bad effect after long and frequent use, and she had oftenchecked the Mukaukas in taking it too freely; but could her sufferingsbe greater? Would she not, indeed, be thankful to the drug if it shouldshorten her miserable existence?
So she took the familiar remedy, at first hesitatingly and then morefreely; and on the second day again, with real pleasure and happyexpectancy, for it had not merely procured her a good night but hadbrought her joy in the morning: The dead had appeared to her, and forthe first time not in the act of cursing, but as a young and happy man.
No one in the house knew what comfort the widow had had recourse to; thephysician and her son had been glad yesterday to find her more composed.
When Orion returned home, after concluding his business with themoney-changer at Fostat, he had to make his way through a crowd ofpeople, and found the cou
rt-yard full of men, and the guards andservants in the greatest excitement. No less a personage than thePatriarch had arrived on a visit, and was now in conference withNeforis. Sebek, the steward, informed Orion that he had asked for him,and that his mother wished that he should immediately join them and payhis respects to the very reverend Father.
"She wished it?" asked the young man, as he tossed his riding-hat to aslave, and he stood hesitating.
He was too much a son of his time, and the Church and her ministers hadexercised too marked influence on his education, for the great prelate'svisit to be regarded otherwise than as a high honor. At the same timehe could not forget the insult done to his father's vanes, nor the Arabgeneral's warning to be on his guard against Benjamin's enmity; andperhaps, he said to himself, it might be better to avoid a meeting withthe powerful priest than to expose himself to the danger of losing hisself-control and finding fresh food for his wrath.
However, he had in fact no choice, for the patriarch just now came outof the fountain-hall into the viridarium. The old man's tall figure wasnot bent, his snowy hair flowed in abundance round his proud head, and awhite beard fell in soft waves far down his breast. His fine eyes restedon the young man with a keen glance, and though he had last seen Orionas a boy he recognized him at once as the master of the house. WhileOrion bowed low before him, the patriarch, in his deep, rich voice,addressed him with cheerful dignity.
"All hail, son of my never-to-be-forgotten friend! The child I remember,has, I see, grown to a fine man. I have devoted a short time to themother, and now I must say what is needful to the son."
"In my father's study," Orion said to the steward; and he led the waywith the ceremonious politeness of a chamberlain of the imperial court.
The patriarch, as he followed him, signed to his escort to remainbehind, and as soon as the door was closed upon them, he went up toOrion and exclaimed: "Again I greet you! This, then, is the descendantof the great Menas, the son of Mukaukas George, the adored ruler of myflock at Memphis, who held the first place among the gilded youth ofConstantinople in their gay whirl! A strange achievement for an Egyptianand a Christian! But first of all, child, first give me your hand!" Heheld out his right hand and Orion accepted it, but not without reserve,for he had suspected a scornful ring in the patriarch's address, and hecould not help asking himself whether this man honestly meant so wellby him, that he could address him thus paternally as "child" in allsincerity of heart? To refuse his hand was, however, impossible; still,he found courage to reply:
"I can but obey your desire, holy Father; but, at the same time, I donot know whether it becomes the son to grasp the hand of the foe who wasnot to be appeased even by Death, the reconciler--who grossly insultedthe father, the noblest of men, and, in him, the son too, at the graveitself."
The patriarch shook his head with a supercilious smile, and a hot thrillshot through Orion as Benjamin laid his hand on his shoulder and saidwith grave kindness:
"A Christian does not find it hard to forgive a sinner, an antagonist,an enemy; and it is a joy to me to pardon the son who feels himselfinjured through his lost father, blind and foolish as his indignationmay be. Your wrath can no more affect me, Child, than the Almighty inHeaven, and it would not even be blameworthy, but that--and of thiswe must speak presently--but that--well, I will be frank with you atonce--but that your manner clearly and unmistakably betrays what youlack to make you a true Christian, and such a man as he must be whofills so conspicuous a position in this land governed by infidels. Youknow what I mean?"
The prelate let his hand slip from the young man's shoulder, lookingenquiringly in his face; and when Orion, finding no reply ready, drewback a step or two, the old man went on with growing excitement:
"It is humility, pious and submissive faith, that I find you lack, myfriend. Who, indeed, am I? But as the Vicar, the representative of Himbefore whom we all are as worms in the dust, I must insist that everyman who calls himself a Christian, a Jacobite, shall submit to my willand orders, without hesitation or doubt, as obediently and unresistinglyas though salvation or woe had fallen on him from above. What wouldbecome of us, if individuals were to take upon themselves to defy me andwalk in their own way? In one miserable generation, and with the deathof the elders who had grown up as true Christians, the doctrine of theSaviour would be extinct on the shores of the Nile, the crescent wouldrise in the place of the Cross, and our cry would go up to Heaven for somany lost souls. Learn, haughty youth, to bow humbly and submissivelyto the will of the Most High and of His vicar on earth, and let me showyou, from your demeanor to myself especially, how far your own judgmentis to be relied on. You regard me as your father's enemy?"
"Yes," said Orion firmly.
"And I loved him as a brother!" replied the patriarch in a softer voice."How gladly would I have heaped his bier with palm branches of peace,such as the Church alone can grow, wet with my own tears!"
"And yet," cried Orion, "you denied to him, whom you call your friend,what the Church does not refuse to thieves and murderers, if only theydesire forgiveness and have received absolution from a priest;and that...."
"And that your father did!" interrupted the old man. "Peace be to him!He is now, no doubt, gazing on the glory of the Lord. And neverthelessI could forbid the priesthood here showing him honor at the grave.--Why?For what urgent reason was such a prohibition spoken by a friend againsta friend?"
"Because you wished to brand him, in the eyes of the world, as the manwho lent his support to the unbelievers and helped them to victory,"said Orion gloomily.
"How well the boy can read the thoughts of men!" exclaimed the prelate,looking at the young man with approbation in which, however, there wassome irony and annoyance. "Very good. We will assume that my objectwas to show the Christians of Memphis what fate awaits the man,who surrenders his country to the enemy and walks hand-in-hand withunbelievers? And may I not possibly have been right?"
"Do you suppose my father invited the Arabs?" interrupted the young man.
"No, Child," replied the patriarch, "the enemy came of his own freewill."
"And you," Orion went on, "after the Greeks had driven you into exile,prophesied from the desert that they would come and overthrow theMelchites, the Greek enemies of our faith, drive them out of thecountry."
"It was revealed to me by the Lord!" replied the old man, bowing hishead reverently. "And yet other things were shown to me while I dwelta devout ascetic, mortifying my flesh under the scorching sun of thedesert. Beware my son, beware! Heed my warning, lest it should befulfilled and the house of Menas vanish like clouds swept before thewind.--Your father, I know, regarded my prophecy as advice given by meto receive the infidels as the instrument of the Almighty and to supportthem in driving the Melchite oppressors out of the land."
"Your prophecy," replied Orion, "had, no doubt, a marked effect on myfather; and when the cause of the emperor and the Greeks was lost,your opinion that the Melchites were unbelievers as much as the sonsof Islam, was of infinite comfort to him. For he, if any one--as youknow--had good reason to hate the sectarians who killed his two sons intheir prime. What followed, he did to rescue his and your unfortunatebrethren and dependants from destruction. Here, here in this desk,lies his answer to the emperor's accusations, as given to the Greekdeputation who had speech of him in this very room. He wrote it down assoon as they had left him. Will you hear it?"
"I can guess its purport."
"No, no!" cried the excited youth; he hastily opened his father's desk,laid his hand at once on the wax tablet, and exclaimed: "This was hisreply!" And he proceeded to read:
"These Arabs, few as they are, are stronger and more powerful than wewith all our numbers. One man of them is equal to a hundred of us, forthey rush on death and love it better than life. Each of them pressesto the front in battle, and they have no longing to return home andto their families. For every Christian they kill they look for a greatreward in Heaven, and they say that the gates of Paradise open at oncefor those who fall in
the fight. They have not a wish in this worldbeyond the satisfaction of their barest need of food and clothing. We,on the contrary, love life and dread death;--how can we stand againstthem? I tell you that I will not break the peace I have concluded withthe Arabs. ..."
"And what is the upshot of all this reply?" interrupted the patriarchshrugging his shoulders.
"That my father found himself compelled to conclude a peace, andthat--but read on.--That as a wise man he was forced to ally himselfwith the foe."
"The foe to whom he yielded more readily and paid much greater honorthan became him as a Christian!--Does not this discourse convey the ideathat the joys of Paradise solely and exclusively await our damned andblood-thirsty oppressors?--And the Moslem Paradise! What is it but agulf of iniquity, in which they are to wallow in sensual delight? Thefalse prophet invented it to tempt his followers to force his lyingcreed, by might of arms and in mad contempt of death, on nation afternation. Our Lord, the Word made flesh, came down on earth to win heartsand souls by the persuasive power of the living truth, one and eternal,which emanates from Him as light proceeds from the sun; this Mohammed,on the contrary, is a sword made flesh! For me, then, there is no choicebut to submit to superior strength; but I can still hate and loathetheir accursed and soul-destroying superstition.--And so I do, and so Ishall, to the last throb of this old heart, which only longs for rest,the sooner the better....
"But you? And your father? Verily, verily, the man who, even for aninstant, ceases to hate unbelief or false doctrine has sinned for hiswhole life on this side of the grave and beyond it; sinned againstthe only true and saving faith and its divine Founder. Blasphemous andflattering praise of the piety and moderation of our foes, the veryantichrist incarnate, who kill both body and soul.--With these yourfather fouled his heart and tongue..."
"Fouled?" cried Orion and the blood tingled in his cheeks. "He kept hisheart and tongue alike pure and honorable; never did a false word passhis lips. Justice, justice to all, even to his enemies, was the rulingprinciple, the guiding clue of his blameless life; and the noblest ofthe heathen Greeks admired the man who could so far triumph over himselfas to recognize what was fine and good in a foe."
"And they were right," replied the patriarch, "for they were not yetacquainted with truth. In a worldly sense, even now, each of us may aimat such magnanimity; but the man who forgives those who tamper withthe sacred truth, which is the bread, meat, and wine of the Christian'ssoul, sins against that truth; and, if he is a leader of men, he drawson those who look up to him, and who are only too ready to follow hisexample, into everlasting fire. Where your father ought to have been arecalcitrant though conquered enemy, he became an ally; nay, so far asthe leader of the infidels was concerned, a friend--how many tears itcost me! And our hapless people were forced to see this attitudeof their chief, and imitated it.--Forgive their seducer, MercifulGod!--forming their conduct on his. Thousands fell away from our savingfaith and went over to those, who in their eyes could not be reprobate,could not be damned, since they saw them dwelling and workinghand-in-hand with their wise and righteous leader; and it was simply andsolely to warn his misguided people that I did not hesitate to wound myown heart, to raise the voice of reproof at the grave of a dear friend,and to refuse the honor and blessing of which his just and virtuous liferendered him more worthy than thousands of others. I have spoken, andnow your foolish anger must be appeased; now you will grasp the handheld out to you by the shepherd of the souls entrusted to him with aneasy and willing heart."
And again he offered his hand to Orion, who, however, again took itdoubtfully, and instead of looking the prelate in the face, cast downhis eyes in gloomy bewilderment. The patriarch appeared not to observethe young man's repulsion and clasped his hand warmly. Then he changedthe subject, speaking of the grieving widow, of the decadence ofMemphis, of Orion's plans for the future, and finally of the gemsdedicated to the Church by the deceased Mukaukas. The dialogue had takena calm, conversational tone; the patriarch was sitting in the dead man'sarm-chair, and there was nothing forced or unnatural in his asking,in the course of discussing the jewels, what had become of the greatemerald.
Orion replied, in the same tone, that this stone was not, strictlyspeaking, any part of his father's gift; but Benjamin expressed anopposite opinion.
All the tortures Orion had endured since that luckless deed in thetablinum revived in his soul during this discussion; however, it wassome small relief to him to perceive, that neither his mother nor DameSusannah seemed to have told the patriarch the guilt he had incurredby reason of that gem. Susannah, of course, had said nothing of theincident in order to avoid speaking of her daughter's false evidence;still, this miserable business might easily have come to the ears of thestern old man, and to the guilty youth no sacrifice seemed too great tosmother any enquiry for the ill-fated jewel. He unhesitatingly explainedthat the emerald had disappeared, but that he was quite ready to makegood its value. Benjamin might fix his own estimate, and name any sum hewished for some benevolent purpose, and he, Orion, was ready to pay itto him on the spot.
The prelate, however, calmly persisted in his demand, enjoined Orion tohave a diligent search made for the gem, and declared that he regardedit as the property of the Church. He added that, when his patience wasat an end, he should positively insist on its surrender and bring everymeans at his disposal into play to procure it.
Orion had no choice but to say that he would prosecute his search forthe lost stone; but his acquiescence was sullen, as that of a man whoaccedes to an unreasonable demand.
At first the patriarch took this coolly; but presently, when he rose totake leave, his demeanor changed; he said, with stern solemnity:
"I know you now, Son of Mukaukas George, and I end as I began: Thehumility of the Christian is far from you, you are ignorant of thepower and dignity of our Faith, you do not even know the vast love thatanimates it, and the fervent longing to lead the straying sinner back tothe path of salvation.--Your admirable mother has told me, with tears inher eyes, of the abyss over which you are standing. It is your desireto bind yourself for life to a heretic, a Melchite--and there is anotherthing which fills her pious mother's heart with fears, which tortures itas she thinks of you and your eternal welfare. She promised to confidethis to my ear in church, and I shall find leisure to consider of it onmy return home; but at any rate, and be it what it may, it cannot moregreatly imperil your soul than marriage with a Melchite.
"On what have you set your heart? On the mere joys of earth! You sue forthe hand of an unbeliever, the daughter of an unbelieving heretic;you go over to Fostat--nay, hear me out--and place your brain and yourstrong arm at the service of the infidels--it is but yesterday; but I,I, the shepherd of my flock, will not suffer that he who is the highestin rank, the richest in possessions, the most powerful by the meredignity of his name, shall pervert thousands of the Jacobite brethren. Ihave the will and the power too, to close the sluice gates against sucha disaster. Obey me, or you shall rue it with tears of blood."
The prelate paused, expecting to see Orion fall on his knees beforehim; but the young man did nothing of the kind. He stood looking at him,open-eyed and agitated, but undecided, and Benjamin went on with addedvehemence:
"I came to you to lift up my voice in protest, and I desire, I require,I command you: sever all ties with the enemies of your nation and ofyour faith, cast out your love for the Melchite Siren, who will seduceyour immortal part to inevitable perdition...."
Till this Orion had listened with bowed head and in silence to thediatribe which the patriarch had hurled at him like a curse; but at thispoint his whole being rose in revolt, all self-control forsook him, andhe interrupted the speaker in loud tones:
"Never, never, never will I do such a thing! Insult me as you will. WhatI am, I will still be: a faithful son of the Church to which my fathersbelonged, and for which my brothers died. In all humility I acknowledgeJesus Christ as my Lord. I believe in him, believe in the God-made-manwho died to save us, and who
brought love into the world, and I willremain unpersuaded and faithful to my own love. Never will I forsake herwho has been to me like a messenger from God, like a good angel to teachme how to lay hold on what is earnest and noble in life-her whom myfather, too, held dear. Power, indeed, is yours. Demand of me anythingreasonable, and within my attainment, and I will try to force myself toobedience; but I never can and never will be faithless to her, to provemy faith to you; and as to the Arabs...."
"Enough!" exclaimed the prelate. "I am on my way to Upper Egypt. Makeyour choice by my return. I give you till then to come to a right mind,to think the matter over; and it is quite deliberately that I bid you toforget the Melchite. That you, of all men, should marry a heretic wouldbe an abomination not to be borne. With regard to your alliance with theArabs, and whether it becomes you--being what you are--to take servicewith them, we will discuss it at a future day. If, by the time I return,you have thought better of the matter as regards your marriage--and youare free to choose any Jacobite maiden--then I will speak to you in adifferent tone. I will then offer you my friendship and support; insteadof the Church's curse I will pronounce her blessing on you--the pardonand grace of the Almighty, a smooth path to eternity and peace, and theprospect of giving new joy to the aching heart of your sorrowing mother.My last word is that you must and shall give up the woman from whom youcan look for nothing but perdition."
"I cannot, and shall not, and I never will!" replied Orion firmly.
"Then I can, and shall, and will make you feel how heavily the cursefalls which, in the last resort, I shall not hesitate to pronounce uponyou!"
"It is in your power," said Orion. "But if you proceed to extremitieswith me, you will drive me to seek the blessing for which my soulthirsts more ardently than you, my lord, can imagine, and the salvationI crave, with her whom you hold reprobate, and on the further side ofthe Nile."
"I dare you!" cried the patriarch, quitting the room with a resolutestep and flaming cheeks.