CHAPTER VI: THE NEW DIOGENES
About five o'clock the next morning, Raphael Aben-Ezra was lying in bed,alternately yawning over a manuscript of Philo Judaeus, pulling the earsof his huge British mastiff, watching the sparkle of the fountain in thecourt outside, wondering when that lazy boy would come to tell him thatthe bath was warmed, and meditating, half aloud....
'Alas! poor me! Here I am, back again--just at the point from which Istarted!.... How am I to get free from that heathen Siren? Plagues onher! I shall end by falling in love with her.... I don't know that Ihave not got a barb of the blind boy in me already. I felt absurdlyglad the other day when that fool told me he dare not accept her modestoffer. Ha! ha! A delicious joke it would have been to have seen Orestesbowing down to stocks and stones, and Hypatia installed in the ruins ofthe Serapeium, as High Priestess of the Abomination of Desolation!. Andnow.... Well I call all heaven and earth to witness, that I have foughtvaliantly. I have faced naughty little Eros like a man, rod in hand.What could a poor human being do more than try to marry her to some oneelse, in hopes of sickening himself of the whole matter? Well, everymoth has its candle, and every man his destiny. But the daring ofthe little fool! What huge imaginations she has! She might be anotherZenobia, now, with Orestes as Odenatus, and Raphael Aben-Ezra to playthe part of Longinus, and receive Longinus's salary of axe or poison.She don't care for me; she would sacrifice me, or a thousand of me, thecold-blooded fanatical archangel that she is, to water with our bloodthe foundation of some new temple of cast rags and broken dolls.... Oh,Raphael Aben-Ezra, what a fool you are!.... You know you are going offas usual to her lecture, this very morning!'
At this crisis of his confessions the page entered, and announced, notthe bath, but Miriam.
The old woman, who, in virtue of her profession, had the private entryof all fashionable chambers in Alexandria, came in hurriedly; andinstead of seating herself as usual, for a gossip, remained standing,and motioned the boy out of the room.
'Well my sweet mother? Sit: Ah? I see! You rascal, you have brought inno wine for the lady. Don't you know her little ways yet?'
'Eos has got it at the door, of course,' answered the boy, with a saucyair of offended virtue.
'Out with you, imp of Satan!' cried Miriam. 'This is no time forwinebibbing. Raphael Aben-Ezra, why are you lying here? Did you notreceive a note last night?'
'A note? So I did, but I was too sleepy to read it. There it lies. Boy,bring it here....What's this? A scrap out of Jeremiah? "Arise, andflee for thy life, for evil is determined against the whole houseof Israel!"--Does this come from the chief rabbi; I always took thevenerable father for a sober man.... Eh, Miriam?'
'Fool! instead of laughing at the sacred words of the prophets, get upand obey them. I sent you the note.'
'Why can't I obey them in bed? Here I am, reading hard at the Cabbala,or Philo--who is stupider still--and what more would you have?'
The old woman, unable to restrain her impatience, literally ran at him,gnashing her teeth, and, before he was aware, dragged him out of bedupon the floor, where he stood meekly wondering what would come next.
'Many thanks, mother, for having saved me the one daily torture oflife--getting out of bed by one's own exertion.'
'Raphael Aben-Ezra! are you so besotted with your philosophy and yourheathenry, and your laziness, and your contempt for God and man, thatyou will see your nation given up for a prey, and your wealth plunderedby heathen dogs? I tell you, Cyril has sworn that God shall do so tohim, and more also, if there be a Jew left in Alexandria by to-morrowabout this time.'
'So much the better for the Jews, then, if they are half as tiredof this noisy Pandemonium as I am. But how can I help it? Am I QueenEsther, to go to Ahasuerus there in the prefect's palace, and get him tohold out the golden sceptre to me?'
'Fool! if you had read that note last night, you might have gone andsaved us, and your name would have been handed down for ever fromgeneration to generation as a second Mordecai.'
'My dear mother, Ahasuerus would have been either fast asleep, or fartoo drunk to listen to me. Why did you not go yourself?'
'Do you suppose that I would not have gone if I could? Do you fancy mea sluggard like yourself? At the risk of my life I have got hither intime, if there be time to save you.'
'Well: shall I dress? What can be done now?'
'Nothing! The streets are blockaded by Cyril's mob--There! do you hearthe shouts and screams? They are attacking the farther part of thequarter already.'
'What! are they murdering them?' asked Raphael, throwing on his pelisse.'Because, if it has really come to a practical joke of that kind, Ishall have the greatest pleasure in employing a counter-irritant. Here,boy! My sword and dagger! Quick!'
'No, the hypocrites! No blood is to be shed, they say, if we make noresistance, and let them pillage. Cyril and his monks are there, toprevent outrage, and so forth.... The Angel of the Lord scatter them!'
The conversation was interrupted by the rushing in of the wholehousehold, in an agony of terror; and Raphael, at last thoroughlyroused, went to a window which looked into the street. The thoroughfarewas full of scolding women and screaming children; while men, old andyoung, looked on at the plunder of their property with true Jewishdoggedness, too prudent to resist, but too manful to complain--whilefurniture came flying out of every window, and from door after doorpoured a stream of rascality, carrying off money, jewels, silks, andall the treasures which Jewish usury had accumulated during manya generation. But unmoved amid the roaring sea of plunderers andplundered, stood, scattered up and down, Cyril's spiritual police,enforcing, by a word, an obedience which the Roman soldiers could onlyhave compelled by hard blows of the spear-butt. There was to be nooutrage, and no outrage there was: and more than once some man inpriestly robes hurried through the crowd, leading by the hand, tenderlyenough, a lost child in search of its parents.
Raphael stood watching silently, while Miriam, who had followed himupstairs, paced the room in an ecstasy of rage, calling vainly to him tospeak or act.
'Let me alone, mother,' he said, at last. 'It will be full ten minutesmore before they pay me a visit, and in the meantime what can one dobetter than watch the progress of this, the little Exodus?'
'Not like that first one! Then we went forth with cymbals and songs tothe Red Sea triumph! Then we borrowed, every woman of her neighbour,jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment.'
'And now we pay them back again;.. it is but fair, after all. We oughtto have listened to Jeremiah a thousand years ago, and never gone backagain, like fools, into a country to which we were so deeply in debt.'
'Accursed land!' cried Miriam. 'In an evil hour our forefathersdisobeyed the prophet; and now we reap the harvest of our sins!--Oursons have forgotten the faith of their forefathers for the philosophy ofthe Gentiles, and fill their chambers' (with a contemptuous look round)'with heathen imagery; and our daughters are--Look there!'
As she spoke, a beautiful girl rushed shrieking out of an adjoininghouse, followed by some half-drunk ruffian, who was clutching at thegold chains and trinkets with which she was profusely bedecked, afterthe fashion of Jewish women. The rascal had just seized with one handher streaming black tresses, and with the other a heavy collar of gold,which was wound round her throat, when a priest, stepping up, laid aquiet hand upon his shoulder. The fellow, too maddened to obey, turned,and struck back the restraining arm...and in an instant was felled tothe earth by a young monk..
'Touchest thou the Lord's anointed, sacrilegious wretch?' cried the manof the desert, as the fellow dropped on the pavement, with his booty inhis hand.
The monk tore the gold necklace from his grasp, looked at it for amoment with childish wonder, as a savage might at some incomprehensibleproduct of civilised industry, and then, spitting on it in contempt,dashed it on the ground, and trampled it into the mud.
'Follow the golden wedge of Achan, and the silver of Iscariot, thou rootof all evil!' And he rushed on, yelling, 'Down with t
he circumcision!Down with the blasphemers!'--while the poor girl vanished among thecrowd.
Raphael watched him with a quaint thoughtful smile, while Miriamshrieked aloud at the destruction of the precious trumpery.
'The monk is right, mother. If those Christians go on upon that method,they must beat us. It has been our ruin from the first, our fancy forloading ourselves with the thick clay.'
'What will you do?' cried Miriam, clutching him by the arm.
'What will you do?'
'I am safe. I have a boat waiting for me on the canal at the gardengate, and in Alexandria I stay; no Christian hound shall make old Miriammove afoot against her will. My jewels are all buried--my girls aresold; save what you can, and come with me!'
'My sweet mother, why so peculiarly solicitous about my welfare, abovethat of all the sons of Judah?'
'Because--because--No, I'll tell you that another time. But I loved yourmother, and she loved me. Come!'
Raphael relapsed into silence for a few minutes, and watched the tumultbelow.
'How those Christian priests keep their men in order! There is no useresisting destiny. They are the strong men of the time, after all,and the little Exodus must needs have its course. Miriam, daughter ofJonathan--'
'I am no man's daughter! I have neither father nor mother, husbandnor--Call me mother again!'
'Whatsoever I am to call you, there are jewels enough in that closet tobuy half Alexandria. Take them. I am going.'
'With me!'
'Out into the wide world, my dear lady. I am bored with riches. Thatyoung savage of a monk understood them better than we Jews do. I shalljust make a virtue of necessity, and turn beggar.'
'Beggar?'
'Why not? Don't argue. These scoundrels will make me one, whether I likeor not; so forth I go. There will be few leavetakings. This brute of adog is the only friend I have on earth; and I love her, because she hasthe true old, dogged, spiteful, cunning, obstinate Maccabee spirit inher--of which if we had a spark left in us just now, there would be nolittle Exodus; eh, Bran, my beauty?'
'You can escape with me to the prefect's, and save the mass of yourwealth.'
'Exactly what I don't want to do. I hate that prefect as I hate a deadcamel, or the vulture who eats him. And to tell the truth, I am growinga great deal too fond of that heathen woman there--'
'What?' shrieked the old woman--'Hypatia?'
'If you choose. At all events, the easiest way to cut the knot is toexpatriate. I shall beg my passage on board the first ship to Cyrene,and go and study life in Italy with Heraclian's expedition. Quick--takethe jewels, and breed fresh troubles for yourself with them. I am going.My liberators are battering the outer door already.'
Miriam greedily tore out of the closet diamonds and pearls, rubies andemeralds, and concealed them among her ample robes--'Go! go! Escape fromher! I will hide your jewels!'
'Ay, hide them, as mother earth does all things, in that all-embracingbosom. You will have doubled them before we meet again, no doubt.Farewell, mother!'
'But not for ever, Raphael! not for ever! Promise me, in the name of thefour archangels, that if you are in trouble or danger, you will write tome, at the house of Eudaimon.'
'The little porter philosopher, who hangs about Hypatia's lecture-room?'
'The same, the same. He will give me your letter, and I swear to you,I will cross the mountains of Kaf, to deliver you!--I will pay you allback. By Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob I swear! May my tongue cleave to theroof of my mouth, if I do not account to you for the last penny!'
'Don't commit yourself to rash promises, my dear lady. If I am boredwith poverty, I can but borrow a few gold pieces of a rabbi, and turnpedler. I really do not trust you to pay me back, so I shall not bedisappointed if you do not. Why should I?'
'Because--because--O God! No--never mind! You shall have all back.Spirit of Elias! where is the black agate? Why is it not amongthese?--The broken half of the black agate talisman!'
Raphael turned pale. 'How did you know that I have a black agate?'
'How did I? How did I not?' cried she, clutching him by the arm. 'Whereis it? All depends on that! Fool!' she went on, throwing him off fromher at arm's length, as a sudden suspicion stung her--'you have notgiven it to the heathen woman?'
'By the soul of my fathers, then, you mysterious old witch, who seem toknow everything, that is exactly what I have done.'
Miriam clapped her hands together wildly. 'Lost! lost! lost! Not I willhave it, if I tear it out of her heart! I will be avenged of her--thestrange woman who flatters with her words, to whom the simple go in, andknow not that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depthsof hell! God do so to me, and more also, if she and her sorceries be onearth a twelvemonth hence!'
'Silence, Jezebel! Heathen or none, she is as pure as the sunlight! Ionly gave it her because she fancied the talisman upon it.'
'To enchant you with it, to your ruin!'
'Brute of a slave-dealer! you fancy every one as base as the poorwretches whom you buy and sell to shame, that you may make them as muchthe children of hell, if that be possible, as yourself!'
Miriam looked at him, her large black eyes widening and kindling. For aninstant she felt for her poniard--and then burst into an agony of tears,hid her face in her withered hands, and rushed from the room, as a crashand shout below announced the bursting of the door.
'There she goes with my jewels. And here come my guests, with the youngmonk at their head.--One rising when the other sets. A worthy pair ofDioscuri! Come, Bran!...Boys! Slaves! Where are you? Steal every onewhat he can lay his hands on, and run for your lives through the backgate.'
The slaves had obeyed him already. He walked smiling downstairs throughutter solitude, and in the front passage met face to face the mob ofmonks, costermongers and dock-workers, fishwives and beggars, who werethronging up the narrow entry, and bursting into the doors right andleft; and at their head, alas! the young monk who had just trampled thenecklace into the mud...no other, in fact, than Philammon.
'Welcome, my worthy guests! Enter, I beseech you, and fulfil, in yourown peculiar way, the precepts which bid you not be over anxious for thegood things of this life..For eating and drinking, my kitchen and cellarare at your service. For clothing, if any illustrious personage willdo me the honour to change his holy rags with me, here are an Indianshawl-pelisse and a pair of silk trousers at his service. Perhaps youwill accommodate me, my handsome young captain, choragus of this newschool of the prophets?'
Philammon, who was the person addressed, tried to push by himcontemptuously.
'Allow me, sir. I lead the way. This dagger is poisoned,-a scratch andyou are dead. This dog is of the true British breed; if she seizes you,red-hot iron will not loose her, till she hears the bone crack. If anyone will change clothes with me, all I have is at your service. If not,the first that stirs is a dead man.'
There was no mistaking the quiet, high-bred determination of thespeaker. Had he raged and blustered, Philammon could have met him onhis own ground: but there was an easy self-possessed disdain about him,which utterly abashed the young monk, and abashed, too, the whole crowdof rascals at his heels.
'I'll change clothes with you, you Jewish dog!' roared a dirty fellowout of the mob.
'I am your eternal debtor. Let us step into this side room. Walkupstairs, my friends. Take care there, sir!--That porcelain, whole, isworth three thousand gold pieces: broken, it is not worth three pence.I leave it to your good sense to treat it accordingly. Now then, myfriend!' And in the midst of the raging vortex of plunderers, whowere snatching up everything which they could carry away, and breakingeverything which they could not, lie quietly divested himself of hisfinery, and put on the ragged cotton tunic, and battered straw hat,which the fellow handed over to him.
Philammon, who had had from the first no mind to plunder, stood watchingRaphael with dumb wonder; and a shudder of regret, he knew not why,passed through him, as he Saw the mob tearing down pictures, and dashingstatues to
the ground. Heathen they were, doubtless; but still, theNymphs and Venuses looked too lovely to be so brutally destroyed...There was something almost humanly pitiful in their poor broken arms andlegs, as they lay about upon the pavement.... He laughed at himself forthe notion; but he could not laugh it away.
Raphael seemed to think that he ought not to laugh it away; for hepointed to the fragments, and with a quaint look at the young monk--
'Our nurses used to tell us, '"If you can't make it, You ought not tobreak it."'
'I had no nurse,' said Philammon.
'Ah!--that accounts--for this and other things. Well,' he went on, withthe most provoking good-nature, 'you are in a fair road, my handsomeyouth; I wish you joy of your fellow-workmen, and of your apprenticeshipin the noble art of monkery. Riot and pillage, shrieking women andhouseless children in your twentieth summer, are the sure path to aSaint-ship, such as Paul of Tarsus, who, with all his eccentricities,was a gentleman, certainly never contemplated. I have heard of PhoebusApollo under many disguises, but this is the first time I ever saw himin the wolf's hide.'
'Or in the lion's,' said Philammon, trying in his shame to make a finespeech.
'Like the Ass in the Fable. Farewell! Stand out of the way, friends!'Ware teeth and poison!'
And he disappeared among the crowd, who made way respectfully enough forhis dagger and his brindled companion.