CHAPTER XVII: A STRAY GLEAM
THE last blue headland of Sardinia was fading fast on the north-westhorizon, and a steady breeze bore before it innumerable ships, thewrecks of Heraclian's armament, plunging and tossing impatiently intheir desperate homeward race toward the coast of Africa. Far andwide, under a sky of cloudless blue, the white sails glittered onthe glittering sea, as gaily now, above their loads of shame anddisappointment terror and pain, as when, but one short month before,they bore with them only wild hopes and gallant daring. Who cancalculate the sum of misery in that hapless flight?.... And yet itwas but one, and that one of the least known and most trivial, of thetragedies of that age of woe; one petty death-spasm among the unnumberedthroes which were shaking to dissolution the Babylon of the West. Hertime had come. Even as Saint John beheld her in his vision, by agonyafter agony, she was rotting to her well-earned doom. Tyrannisingit luxuriously over all nations, she had sat upon the mysticbeast--building her power on the brute animal appetites of her dupes andslaves: but she had duped herself even more than them. She was findingout by bitter lessons that it was 'to the beast', and not to her, thather vassal kings of the earth had been giving their power and strength;and the ferocity and lust which she had pampered so cunningly in them,had become her curse and her destruction.... Drunk with the blood of thesaints; blinded by her own conceit and jealousy to the fact that she hadbeen crushing and extirpating out of her empire for centuries past allwhich was noble, purifying, regenerative, divine, she sat impotentand doting, the prey of every fresh adventurer, the slave of her ownslaves.... 'And the kings of the earth, who had sinned with her, hatedthe harlot, and made her desolate and naked, and devoured her flesh, andburned her with fire. For God had put into their hearts to fulfil Hiswill, and to agree, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until thewords of God should be fulfilled.'.... Everywhere sensuality, division,hatred, treachery, cruelty, uncertainty, terror; the vials of God'swrath poured out. Where was to be the end of it all? asked every manof his neighbour, generation after generation; and received for answeronly, 'It is better to die than to live.'
And yet in one ship out of that sad fleet, there was peace; peace amidshame and terror; amid the groans of the wounded, and the sighs ofthe starving; amid all but blank despair. The great triremes andquinqueremes rushed onward past the lagging transports, careless, in themad race for safety, that they were leaving the greater number of theircomrades defenceless in the rear of the flight; but from one littlefishing-craft alone no base entreaties, no bitter execrations greetedthe passing flash and roll of their mighty oars. One after another, dayby day, they came rushing up out of the northern offing, each like ahuge hundred-footed dragon, panting and quivering, as if with terror, atevery loud pulse of its oars, hurling the wild water right and leftwith the mighty share of its beak, while from the bows some gorgon orchimaera, elephant or boar, stared out with brazen eyes toward the coastof Africa, as if it, too, like the human beings which it carried, wasdead to every care but that of dastard flight. Past they rushed, oneafter another; and off the poop some shouting voice chilled all heartsfor a moment, with the fearful news that the Emperor's Neapolitan fleetwas in full chase.... And the soldiers on board that little vessellooked silently and steadfastly into the silent steadfast face of theold Prefect, and Victoria saw him shudder, and turn his eyes away--andstood up among the rough fighting men, like a goddess, and cried aloudthat 'the Lord would protect His own'; and they believed her, andwere still; till many days and many ships were passed, and the littlefishing-craft, outstripped even by the transports and merchantmen, as itstrained and crawled along before its single square-sail, was left aloneupon the sea.
And where was Raphael Aben-Ezra?
He was sitting, with Bran's head between his knees, at the door of atemporary awning in the vessel's stern, which shielded the wounded menfrom sun and spray; and as he sat he could hear from within the tent thegentle voices of Victoria and her brother, as they tended the sick likeministering angels, or read to them words of divine hope and comfort-inwhich his homeless heart felt that he had no share....
'As I live, I would change places now with any one of those poor mangledruffians to have that voice speaking such words to me....and to believethem.'.... And he went on perusing the manuscript which he held in hishand. ...............
'Well!' he sighed to himself after a while 'at least it is the mostcomplimentary, not to say hopeful, view of our destinies with which Ihave met since I threw away my curse's belief that the seed of David wasfated to conquer the whole earth, and set up a second Roman Empireat Jerusalem, only worse than the present one, in that the devils ofsuperstition and bigotry would be added to those of tyranny and rapine.'
A hand was laid on his shoulder, and a voice asked' 'And what may thisso hopeful view be?'
'Ah! my dear General!' said Raphael, looking up. 'I have a poor billof fare whereon to exercise my culinary powers this morning. Had it notbeen for that shark who was so luckily deluded last night, I should havebeen reduced to the necessity of stewing my friend the fat decurion'sbig boots.'
'They would have been savoury enough, I will warrant, after they hadpassed under your magical hand.'
'It is a comfort, certainly, to find that after all one did learnsomething useful in Alexandria! So I will even go forward at once, andemploy my artistic skill.'
'Tell me first what it was about which I heard you just nowsoliloquising, as so hopeful a view of some matter or other?'
'Honestly--if you will neither betray me to your son and daughter,nor consider me as having in anywise committed myself--it was Paul ofTarsus's notion of the history and destinies of our stiff-necked nation.See what your daughter has persuaded me into reading!' And he held up amanuscript of the Epistle to the Hebrews.
'It is execrable Greek. But it is sound philosophy, I cannot deny. Heknows Plato better than all the ladies and gentlemen in Alexandria puttogether, if my opinion on the point be worth having.'
'I am a plain soldier, and no judge on that point, sir. He may or maynot know Plato; but I am right sure that he knows God.'
'Not too fast,' said Raphael with a smile. 'You do not know, perhaps,that I have spent the last ten years of my life among men who professedthe same knowledge?'
'Augustine, too, spent the best ten years of his life among such; andyet he is now combating the very errors which he once taught.'
'Having found, he fancies, something better!'
'Having found it, most truly. But you must talk to him yourself, andargue the matter over, with one who can argue. To me such questions arean unknown land.'
'Well.... Perhaps I may be tempted to do even that. At least athoroughly converted philosopher--for poor dear Synesius is half heathenstill, I often fancy, and hankers after the wisdom of the Egyptian--willbe a curious sight; and to talk with so famous and so learned a manwould always be a pleasure; but to argue with him, or any other humanbeing, none whatsoever.'
'Why, then?'
'My dear sir, I am sick of syllogisms, and probabilities, and pros andcontras. What do I care if, on weighing both sides, the nineteen poundsweight of questionable arguments against, are overbalanced by the twentypounds weight of equally questionable arguments for? Do you not see thatmy belief of the victorious proposition will be proportioned to the oneover-balancing pound only, while the whole other nineteen will go fornothing?'
'I really do not.'
'Happy are you, then. I do, from many a sad experience. No, my worthysir. I want a faith past arguments; one which, whether I can prove itor not to the satisfaction of the lawyers, I believe to my ownsatisfaction, and act on it as undoubtingly and unreasoningly as Ido upon my own newly-rediscovered personal identity. I don't want topossess a faith. I want a faith which will possess me. And if I everarrived at such a one, believe me, it would be by some such practicaldemonstration as this very tent has given me.'
'This tent?'
'Yes, sir, this tent; within which I have seen you and your childrenlead a life of
deeds as new to me the Jew, as they would be to Hypatiathe Gentile. I have watched you for many a day, and not in vain. When Isaw you, an experienced officer, encumber your flight with wounded men,I was only surprised. But since I have seen you and your daughter,and, strangest of all, your gay young Alcibiades of a son, starvingyourselves to feed those poor ruffians--performing for them, day andnight, the offices of menial slaves--comforting them, as no man evercomforted me--blaming no one but yourselves, caring for every one butyourselves, sacrificing nothing but yourselves; and all this withouthope of fame or reward, or dream of appeasing the wrath of any god orgoddess, but simply because you thought it right.... When I saw that,sir, and more which I have seen; and when, reading in this book here,I found most unexpectedly those very grand moral rules which you werepractising, seeming to spring unconsciously, as natural results, fromthe great thoughts, true or false, which had preceded them; then, sir, Ibegan to suspect that the creed which could produce such deeds as I havewatched within the last few days, might have on its side not merely aslight preponderance of probabilities, but what the Jews used once tocall, when we believed in it--or in anything--the mighty power of God.'
And as he spoke, he looked into the Prefect's face with the look of aman wrestling in some deadly struggle; so intense and terrible was theearnestness of his eye, that even the old soldier shrank before it.
'And therefore,' he went on, 'therefore, sir, beware of your ownactions, and of your children's. If, by any folly or baseness, such as Ihave seen in every human being whom I ever met as yet upon this accursedstage of fools, you shall crush my new-budding hope that there issomething somewhere which will make me what I know that I ought to be,and can be--If you shall crush that, I say, by any misdoing of yours,you had better have been the murderer of my firstborn; with such ahate--a hate which Jews alone can feel--will I hate you and yours.'
'God help us and strengthen us!'said the old warrior in a tone of noblehumility.
'And now,' said Raphael, glad to change the subject, after this unwontedoutburst, 'we must once more seriously consider whether it is wise tohold on our present course. If you return to Carthage, or to Hippo--'
'I shall be beheaded.'
'Most assuredly. And how much soever you may consider such an event again to yourself, yet for the sake of your son and your daughter--'
'My dear sir,' interrupted the Prefect, 'you mean kindly. But do not, donot tempt me. By the Count's side I have fought for thirty years, and byhis side I will die, as I deserve.'
'Victorius! Victoria!' cried Raphael; 'help me! Your father,' he wenton, as they came out from the tent, 'is still decided on losing his ownhead, and throwing away ours, by going to Carthage.'
'For my sake--for our sakes--father!' cried Victoria, clinging to him.
'And for my sake, also, most excellent sir,' said Raphael, smilingquietly. 'I have no wish to be so uncourteous as to urge any help whichI may have seemed to afford you. But I hope that you will recollect thatI have a life to lose, and that it is hardly fair of you to imperil itas you intend to do. If you could help or save Heraclian, I should bedumb at once. But now, for a mere point of honour to destroy fifty goodsoldiers, who know not their right hands from their left--Shall I asktheir opinion?'
'Will you raise a mutiny against me, sir?' asked the old man sternly.
'Why not mutiny against Philip drunk, in behalf of Philip sober? Butreally, I will obey you.... only you must obey us.... What is Hesiod'sdefinition of the man who will neither counsel himself nor be counselledby his friends?.... Have you no trusty acquaintances in Cyrenaica, forinstance?'
The Prefect was silent.
'Oh, hear us, my father! Why not go to Euodius? He is your oldcomrade--a well-wisher, too, to this.... this expedition.... Andrecollect, Augustine must be there now. He was about to sail forBerenice, in order to consult Synesius and the Pentapolitan bishops,when we left Carthage.'
And at the name of Augustine the old man paused.
'Augustine will be there; true. And this our friend must meet him.And thus at least I should have his advice. If he thinks it my duty toreturn to Carthage, I can but do so, after all. But the soldiers!'
'Excellent sir,' said Raphael, 'Synesius and the Pentapolitanlandlords--who can hardly call their lives their own, thanks to theMoors--will be glad enough to feed and pay them, or any other bravefellows with arms in their hands, at this moment. And my friendVictorius, here, will enjoy, I do not doubt, a little wild campaigningagainst marauding blackamoors.'
The old man bowed silently. The battle was won.
The young tribune, who had been watching his father's face with the mostintense anxiety caught at the gesture, and hurrying forward, announcedthe change of plan to the soldiery. It was greeted with a shout of joy,and in another five minutes the sails were about, the rudder shifted,and the ship on her way towards the western point of Sicily, before asteady north-west breeze.
'Ah!' cried Victoria, delighted. 'And now you will see Augustine! Youmust promise me to talk to him!'
'This, at least, I will promise, that whatsoever the great sophist shallbe pleased to say, shall meet with a patient hearing from a brothersophist. Do not be angry at the term. Recollect that I am somewhattired, like my ancestor Solomon, of wisdom and wise men, having foundit only too like madness and folly. And you cannot surely expect me tobelieve in man, while I do not yet believe in God?'
Victoria sighed. 'I will not believe you. Why always pretend to be worsethan you are?'
'That kind souls like you may be spared the pain of finding me worsethan I seem.... There, let us say no more; except that I heartily wishthat you would hate me!'
'Shall I try?'
'That must be my work, I fear, not yours. However, I shall give you goodcause enough before long' doubt it not.'
Victoria sighed again, and retired into the tent to nurse the sick.
'And now, sir,' said the Prefect, turning to Raphael and his son; 'donot mistake me. I may have been weak, as worn-out and hopeless men arewont to be; but do not think of me as one who has yielded to adversityin fear for his own safety. As God hears me, I desire nothing betterthan to die; and I only turn out of my course on the understanding thatif Augustine so advise, my children hold me free to return to Carthageand meet my fate. All I pray for is, that my life may be spared until Ican place my dear child in the safe shelter of a nunnery.'
'A nunnery?'
'Yes, indeed; I have intended ever since her birth to dedicate her tothe service of God. And in such times as these, what better lot for adefenceless girl?'
'Pardon me!' said Raphael; 'but I am too dull to comprehend whatbenefit or pleasure your Deity will derive from the celibacy of yourdaughter.... Except, indeed, on one supposition, which, as I have somefaint remnants of reverence and decency reawakening in me just now, Imust leave to be uttered only by the pure lips of sexless priests.'
'You forget, sir, that you are speaking to a Christian.'
'I assure you, no! I had certainly been forgetting it till the last twominutes, in your very pleasant and rational society. There is no dangerhenceforth of my making so silly a mistake.'
'Sir!' said the Prefect, reddening at the undisguised contempt ofRaphael's manner...., 'When you know a little more of St. Paul'sEpistles, you will cease to insult the opinions and feelings of thosewho obey them, by sacrificing their most precious treasures to God.'
'Oh, it is Paul of Tarsus, then, who gives you the advice! I thank youfor informing me of the fact; for it will save me the trouble of anyfuture study of his works. Allow me, therefore, to return by your handsthis manuscript of his with many thanks from me to that daughter ofyours, by whose perpetual imprisonment you intend to give pleasure toyour Deity. Henceforth the less communication which passes between meand any member of your family, the better.' And he turned away.
'But, my dear sir!' said the honest soldier, really chagrined, 'you mustnot!--we owe you too much, and love you too well, to part thus for thecaprice of a moment. If any word of mine has
offended you--forget it,and forgive me, I beseech you!' and he caught both Raphael's hands inhis own.
'My very dear sir,' answered the Jew quietly; 'let me ask the sameforgiveness of you; and believe me, for the sake of past pleasantpassages, I shall not forget my promise about the mortgage.... But-herewe must part. To tell you the truth, I half an hour ago was fearfullynear becoming neither more nor less than a Christian. I had actuallydeluded myself into the fancy that the Deity of the Galileans might be,after all, the God of our old Hebrew forefathers--of Adam and Eve, ofAbraham and David, and of the rest who believed that children andthe fruit of the womb were an heritage and gift which cometh of theLord--and that Paul was right--actually right--in his theory that thechurch was the development and fulfilment of our old national polity....I must thank you for opening my eyes to a mistake which, had I not beenbesotted for the moment, every monk and nun would have contradicted bythe mere fact of their existence, and reserve my nascent faith for someDeity who takes no delight in seeing his creature: stultify the primarylaws of their being. Farewell!'
And while the Prefect stood petrified with astonishment, he retired tothe further extremity of the deck, muttering to himself--
'Did I not know all along that this gleam was too sudden and too brightto last? Did I not know that he, too, would prove himself like all therest--an ass?.... Fool! to have looked for common sense on such an earthas this!.... Back to chaos again, Raphael Aben-Ezra, and spin ropes ofsand to the end of the farce!'
And mixing with the soldiers, he exchanged no word with the Prefect andhis children, till they reached the port of Berenice; and then puttingthe necklace into Victoria's hands, vanished among the crowds upon thequay, no one knew whither.