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LET US FOLLOW HIM
Let Us Follow Him
BY HENRYK SIENKIEWICZ
AUTHOR OF "Quo Vadis," "With Fire and Sword," Etc.
_Translated from the Polish_ BY JEREMIAH CURTIN
BOSTON LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 1897
_Copyright, 1897_, BY JEREMIAH CURTIN.
_All rights reserved._
Plimpton Press H. M. PLIMPTON & CO., PRINTERS & BINDERS, NORWOOD, MASS., U.S.A.
PUBLISHERS' NOTE.
Although the story "Let Us Follow Him" is included in the new volume bySienkiewicz entitled "Hania," just issued in uniform style with Mr.Curtin's translations of the author's other works, its publication in aseparate volume has been deemed advisable for the reason that this storygave to its author the idea of writing "Quo Vadis," which has been theliterary sensation of the past twelve months.
The period of "Let Us Follow Him" is that of the death of Christ. Antea,the wife of a Roman patrician, ill with terrible visions, is advised bya physician to seek the air of Jerusalem. There she and her husbandmeet Pilate, who tells them of the doctrine of the Nazarene, Jesus, andhis condemnation to death. They are present at the Crucifixion, andAntea gives honor to the condemned Nazarene, saying, "Thou art Truth."
LET US FOLLOW HIM.
CHAPTER I.
Caius Septimius Cinna was a Roman Patrician. He had spent his youth inthe legions and in severe camp-life. Later he returned to Rome to enjoyglory, luxury, and a great though somewhat shattered fortune. He usedand abused at that time everything which the gigantic city could offer.
His nights were spent at feasts in lordly suburban villas; his days insword practice with fencers, in discussions with rhetors at the baths,where disputes were held, and where the scandal of the city and theworld was related, in circuses, at races, at the struggles ofgladiators, or among Greek musicians, Thracian soothsayers, andwonderful dancing-girls from the islands of the Archipelago. Heinherited from the renowned Lucullus, a relative on the mother's side, alove for exquisite dishes. At his table were served Grecian wines,Neapolitan oysters, Numidian mice, and locust fat preserved in honeyfrom Pontus.
Whatever Rome possessed Cinna must have, beginning with fish of the RedSea, and ending with white ptarmigans from the banks of the Borysthenes(Dnieper). He made use of things not only as a soldier run riot, but asa patrician who passes the measure. He had instilled into himself, orhad perhaps even roused in himself, a love for the beautiful,--a lovefor statues rescued from the ruins of Corinth, for pitchers from Attica,for Etruscan vases from foggy Sericum, for Roman mosaics, for fabricsbrought from the Euphrates, for Arabian perfumes, and for all thepeculiar trifles which filled the void of patrician life.
He knew how to talk of these trifles, as a specialist and connoisseur,with toothless old men, who decked out their baldness in wreaths ofroses when going to a feast, and who after the feast chewed heliotropeblossoms to make the breath of their lungs odoriferous. He felt also thebeauty of Cicero's periods, and of verses of Horace or Ovid.
Educated by an Athenian rhetor, he conversed in Greek fluently; he knewwhole pages of the "Iliad" by heart, and during a feast could sing odesof Anacreon till he had grown hoarse or drunk. Through his master andother rhetors he had rubbed against philosophy, and become sufficientlyacquainted with it to know the plans of various edifices of thoughtreared in Hellas and the colonies; he understood too that all theseedifices were in ruins. He knew many Stoics personally; for these hecherished dislike, since he looked on them rather as a political party,and, besides, as hypochondriacs, hostile to joyous living. Sceptics hada seat frequently at his table; and during intervals between coursesthey overturned entire systems, and announced at their cups, filledwith wine, that pleasure was vanity, truth something unattainable, andthat the object of a sage could be only dead rest.
All this struck Cinna's ears without piercing to the depth. Herecognized no principle, and would have none. In Cato he saw the unionof great character and great folly. He looked on life as a sea, on whichwinds blew whithersoever they listed; and wisdom in his eyes was the artof setting sails in such fashion that they would urge one's boatforward. He esteemed his own broad shoulders and sound stomach; heesteemed his own beautiful Roman head, with his aquiline nose andpowerful jaws. He was certain that with these he could pass through lifesomehow.
Though not belonging to the school of Sceptics, he was a practicalSceptic and hence a lover of pleasure, though he knew that pleasure wasnot happiness. The genuine teaching of Epicurus he did not know; hencehe considered himself an Epicurean. In general he looked on philosophyas mental fencing, as useful as that which was taught by thesword-master. When discourses on it wearied him, he went to the circusto see blood.
He did not believe in the gods any more than in virtue, truth, andhappiness. He believed only in soothsaying, and had his ownsuperstitions; moreover, the mysterious beliefs of the Orient roused hiscuriosity. To slaves he was a good master, unless when occasional tediumbrought him to cruelty. He thought life a great amphora, which was themore valuable the better the wine contained in it; hence he tried tofill his own with the best. He did not love any one, but he loved manythings, among others his own eagle-like face with splendid skull, andhis shapely patrician foot.
In the first years of his frolicking life he loved also to astound Rome,and succeeded a number of times. Later he grew as indifferent to that asto other things.