CHAPTER IV
Scarcely was Ben-Hur gone, when Simonides seemed to wake as fromsleep: his countenance flushed; the sullen light of his eyeschanged to brightness; and he said, cheerily,
"Esther, ring--quick!"
She went to the table, and rang a service-bell.
One of the panels in the wall swung back, exposing a doorway whichgave admittance to a man who passed round to the merchant's front,and saluted him with a half-salaam.
"Malluch, here--nearer--to the chair," the master said, imperiously."I have a mission which shall not fail though the sun should. Hearken! Ayoung man is now descending to the store-room--tall, comely, and in thegarb of Israel; follow him, his shadow not more faithful; and everynight send me report of where he is, what he does, and the companyhe keeps; and if, without discovery, you overhear his conversations,report them word for word, together with whatever will serve toexpose him, his habits, motives, life. Understand you? Go quickly!Stay, Malluch: if he leave the city, go after him--and, mark you,Malluch, be as a friend. If he bespeak you, tell him what you willto the occasion most suited, except that you are in my service,of that, not a word. Haste--make haste!"
The man saluted as before, and was gone.
Then Simonides rubbed his wan hands together, and laughed.
"What is the day, daughter?" he said, in the midst of the mood."What is the day? I wish to remember it for happiness come.See, and look for it laughing, and laughing tell me, Esther."
The merriment seemed unnatural to her; and, as if to entreat himfrom it, she answered, sorrowfully, "Woe's me, father, that Ishould ever forget this day!"
His hands fell down the instant, and his chin, dropping upon hisbreast, lost itself in the muffling folds of flesh composing hislower face.
"True, most true, my daughter!" he said, without looking up. "Thisis the twentieth day of the fourth month. To-day, five years ago,my Rachel, thy mother, fell down and died. They brought me homebroken as thou seest me, and we found her dead of grief. Oh, tome she was a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of En-Gedi! Ihave gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycombwith my honey. We laid her away in a lonely place--in a tomb cutin the mountain; no one near her. Yet in the darkness she left mea little light, which the years have increased to a brightness ofmorning." He raised his hand and rested it upon his daughter's head."Dear Lord, I thank thee that now in my Esther my lost Rachel livethagain!"
Directly he lifted his head, and said, as with a sudden thought,"Is it not clear day outside?"
"It was, when the young man came in."
"Then let Abimelech come and take me to the garden, where I cansee the river and the ships, and I will tell thee, dear Esther,why but now my mouth filled with laughter, and my tongue withsinging, and my spirit was like to a roe or to a young hart uponthe mountains of spices."
In answer to the bell a servant came, and at her bidding pushedthe chair, set on little wheels for the purpose, out of the room tothe roof of the lower house, called by him his garden. Out throughthe roses, and by beds of lesser flowers, all triumphs of carefulattendance, but now unnoticed, he was rolled to a position fromwhich he could view the palace-tops over against him on the island,the bridge in lessening perspective to the farther shore, and theriver below the bridge crowded with vessels, all swimming amidstthe dancing splendors of the early sun upon the rippling water.There the servant left him with Esther.
The much shouting of laborers, and their beating and pounding,did not disturb him any more than the tramping of people on thebridge floor almost overhead, being as familiar to his ear as theview before him to his eye, and therefore unnoticeable, except assuggestions of profits in promise.
Esther sat on the arm of the chair nursing his hand, and waitinghis speech, which came at length in the calm way, the mighty willhaving carried him back to himself.
"When the young man was speaking, Esther, I observed thee,and thought thou wert won by him."
Her eyes fell as she replied,
"Speak you of faith, father, I believed him."
"In thy eyes, then, he is the lost son of the Prince Hur?"
"If he is not--" She hesitated.
"And if he is not, Esther?"
"I have been thy handmaiden, father, since my mother answered thecall of the Lord God; by thy side I have heard and seen thee dealin wise ways with all manner of men seeking profit, holy and unholy;and now I say, if indeed the young man be not the prince he claimsto be, then before me falsehood never played so well the part ofrighteous truth."
"By the glory of Solomon, daughter, thou speakest earnestly.Dost thou believe thy father his father's servant?"
"I understood him to ask of that as something he had but heard."
For a time Simonides' gaze swam among his swimming ships, thoughthey had no place in his mind.
"Well, thou art a good child, Esther, of genuine Jewish shrewdness,and of years and strength to hear a sorrowful tale. Wherefore giveme heed, and I will tell you of myself, and of thy mother, and ofmany things pertaining to the past not in thy knowledge or thydreams--things withheld from the persecuting Romans for a hope'ssake, and from thee that thy nature should grow towards the Lordstraight as the reed to the sun.... I was born in a tomb in thevalley of Hinnom, on the south side of Zion. My father and motherwere Hebrew bond-servants, tenders of the fig and olive treesgrowing, with many vines, in the King's Garden hard by Siloam;and in my boyhood I helped them. They were of the class boundto serve forever. They sold me to the Prince Hur, then, next toHerod the King, the richest man in Jerusalem. From the garden hetransferred me to his storehouse in Alexandria of Egypt, where Icame of age. I served him six years, and in the seventh, by thelaw of Moses, I went free."
Esther clapped her hands lightly.
"Oh, then, thou art not his father's servant!"
"Nay, daughter, hear. Now, in those days there were lawyers inthe cloisters of the Temple who disputed vehemently, saying thechildren of servants bound forever took the condition of theirparents; but the Prince Hur was a man righteous in all things,and an interpreter of the law after the straitest sect, though notof them. He said I was a Hebrew servant bought, in the true meaningof the great lawgiver, and, by sealed writings, which I yet have,he set me free."
"And my mother?" Esther asked.
"Thou shalt hear all, Esther; be patient. Before I am through thoushalt see it were easier for me to forget myself than thy mother....At the end of my service, I came up to Jerusalem to the Passover.My master entertained me. I was in love with him already, and I prayedto be continued in his service. He consented, and I served him yetanother seven years, but as a hired son of Israel. In his behalfI had charge of ventures on the sea by ships, and of ventures onland by caravans eastward to Susa and Persepolis, and the landsof silk beyond them. Perilous passages were they, my daughter;but the Lord blessed all I undertook. I brought home vast gainsfor the prince, and richer knowledge for myself, without whichI could not have mastered the charges since fallen to me....One day I was a guest in his house in Jerusalem. A servant enteredwith some sliced bread on a platter. She came to me first. It wasthen I saw thy mother, and loved her, and took her away in my secretheart. After a while a time came when I sought the prince to makeher my wife. He told me she was bond-servant forever; but if shewished, he would set her free that I might be gratified. She gaveme love for love, but was happy where she was, and refused herfreedom. I prayed and besought, going again and again after longintervals. She would be my wife, she all the time said, if I wouldbecome her fellow in servitude. Our father Jacob served yet otherseven years for his Rachel. Could I not as much for mine? But thymother said I must become as she, to serve forever. I came away,but went back. Look, Esther, look here."
He pulled out the lobe of his left ear.
"See you not the scar of the awl?"
"I see it," she said; "and, oh, I see how thou didst love mymother!"
"Love her, Esther! She was to me more than the Shulamite to thesinging king, fairer, more sp
otless; a fountain of gardens, a wellof living waters, and streams from Lebanon. The master, even as Irequired him, took me to the judges, and back to his door, and thrustthe awl through my ear into the door, and I was his servant forever.So I won my Rachel. And was ever love like mine?"
Esther stooped and kissed him, and they were silent, thinking ofthe dead.
"My master was drowned at sea, the first sorrow that ever fellupon me," the merchant continued. "There was mourning in hishouse, and in mine here in Antioch, my abiding-place at the time.Now, Esther, mark you! When the good prince was lost, I had risento be his chief steward, with everything of property belonging tohim in my management and control. Judge you how much he loved andtrusted me! I hastened to Jerusalem to render account to thewidow. She continued me in the stewardship. I applied myselfwith greater diligence. The business prospered, and grew yearby year. Ten years passed; then came the blow which you heardthe young man tell about--the accident, as he called it, to theProcurator Gratus. The Roman gave it out an attempt to assassinatehim. Under that pretext, by leave from Rome, he confiscated to hisown use the immense fortune of the widow and children. Nor stoppedhe there. That there might be no reversal of the judgment, he removedall the parties interested. From that dreadful day to this the family ofHur have been lost. The son, whom I had seen as a child, was sentencedto the galleys. The widow and daughter are supposed to have beenburied in some of the many dungeons of Judea, which, once closedupon the doomed, are like sepulchers sealed and locked. They passedfrom the knowledge of men as utterly as if the sea had swallowedthem unseen. We could not hear how they died--nay, not even thatthey were dead."
Esther's eyes were dewy with tears.
"Thy heart is good, Esther, good as thy mother's was; and I prayit have not the fate of most good hearts--to be trampled uponby the unmerciful and blind. But hearken further. I went upto Jerusalem to give help to my benefactress, and was seizedat the gate of the city and carried to the sunken cells of theTower of Antonia; why, I knew not, until Gratus himself came anddemanded of me the moneys of the House of Hur, which he knew,after our Jewish custom of exchange, were subject to my draftin the different marts of the world. He required me to sign tohis order. I refused. He had the houses, lands, goods, ships,and movable property of those I served; he had not their moneys.I saw, if I kept favor in the sight of the Lord, I could rebuildtheir broken fortunes. I refused the tyrant's demands. He put meto torture; my will held good, and he set me free, nothing gained.I came home and began again, in the name of Simonides of Antioch,instead of the Prince Hur of Jerusalem. Thou knowest, Esther,how I have prospered; that the increase of the millions of theprince in my hands was miraculous; thou knowest how, at the end ofthree years, while going up to Caesarea, I was taken and a secondtime tortured by Gratus to compel a confession that my goods andmoneys were subject to his order of confiscation; thou knowest hefailed as before. Broken in body, I came home and found my Racheldead of fear and grief for me. The Lord our God reigned, and Ilived. From the emperor himself I bought immunity and license totrade throughout the world. To-day--praised be He who maketh theclouds his chariot and walketh upon the winds!--to-day, Esther,that which was in my hands for stewardship is multiplied intotalents sufficient to enrich a Caesar."
He lifted his head proudly; their eyes met; each read the other'sthought. "What shall I with the treasure, Esther?" he asked,without lowering his gaze.
"My father," she answered, in a low voice, "did not the rightfulowner call for it but now?"
Still his look did not fail.
"And thou, my child; shall I leave thee a beggar?"
"Nay, father, am not I, because I am thy child, his bond-servant?And of whom was it written, 'Strength and honor are her clothing,and she shall rejoice in time to come?'"
A gleam of ineffable love lighted his face as he said, "The Lordhath been good to me in many ways; but thou, Esther, art thesovereign excellence of his favor."
He drew her to his breast and kissed her many times.
"Hear now," he said, with clearer voice--"hear now why I laughedthis morning. The young man faced me the apparition of his fatherin comely youth. My spirit arose to salute him. I felt my trial-dayswere over and my labors ended. Hardly could I keep from crying out.I longed to take him by the hand and show the balance I had earned,and say, 'Lo, 'tis all thine! and I am thy servant, ready now tobe called away.' And so I would have done, Esther, so I would havedone, but that moment three thoughts rushed to restrain me. I willbe sure he is my master's son--such was the first thought; if heis my master's son, I will learn somewhat of his nature. Of thoseborn to riches, bethink you, Esther, how many there are in whosehands riches are but breeding curses"--he paused, while his handsclutched, and his voice shrilled with passion--"Esther, considerthe pains I endured at the Roman's hands; nay, not Gratus's alone:the merciless wretches who did his bidding the first time and thelast were Romans, and they all alike laughed to hear me scream.Consider my broken body, and the years I have gone shorn of mystature; consider thy mother yonder in her lonely tomb, crushed ofsoul as I of body; consider the sorrows of my master's family ifthey are living, and the cruelty of their taking-off if they aredead; consider all, and, with Heaven's love about thee, tell me,daughter, shall not a hair fall or a red drop run in expiation?Tell me not, as the preachers sometimes do--tell me not thatvengeance is the Lord's. Does he not work his will harmfullyas well as in love by agencies? Has he not his men of war morenumerous than his prophets? Is not his the law, Eye for eye,hand for hand, foot for foot? Oh, in all these years I have dreamedof vengeance, and prayed and provided for it, and gathered patiencefrom the growing of my store, thinking and promising, as the Lordliveth, it will one day buy me punishment of the wrong-doers?And when, speaking of his practise with arms, the young mansaid it was for a nameless purpose, I named the purpose evenas he spoke--vengeance! and that, Esther, that it was--the thirdthought which held me still and hard while his pleading lasted,and made me laugh when he was gone."
Esther caressed the faded hands, and said, as if her spirit withhis were running forward to results, "He is gone. Will he comeagain?"
"Ay, Malluch the faithful goes with him, and will bring him backwhen I am ready."
"And when will that be, father?"
"Not long, not long. He thinks all his witnesses dead. There isone living who will not fail to know him, if he be indeed mymaster's son."
"His mother?"
"Nay, daughter, I will set the witness before him; till then letus rest the business with the Lord. I am tired. Call Abimelech."
Esther called the servant, and they returned into the house.