CHAPTER THE SEVENTH.
Such forces met not, nor so vast a camp, When Agrican, with all his northern powers, Besieged Albraeca, as romances tell. The city of Gallaphron, from thence to win The fairest of her sex, Angelica, His daughter, sought by many prowess'd knights, Both Paynim, and the Peers of Charlemagne. PARADISE REGAINED.
Early on the morning of the day following that which we havecommemorated, the Imperial Council was assembled, where the number ofgeneral officers with sounding titles, disguised under a thin veil thereal weakness of the Grecian empire. The commanders were numerous andthe distinctions of their rank minute, but the soldiers were very fewin comparison. The offices formerly filled by prefects, praetors, andquestors, were now held by persons who had gradually risen into theauthority of those officers, and who, though designated from theirdomestic duties about the Emperor, yet, from that very circumstance,possessed what, in that despotic court, was the most effectual sourceof power. A long train of officers entered the great hall of the Castleof Blacquernal, and proceeded so far together as their different gradesadmitted, while in each chamber through which they passed insuccession, a certain number of the train whose rank permitted them toadvance no farther, remained behind the others. Thus, when the interiorcabinet of audience was gained, which was not until their passagethrough ten anterooms, five persons only found themselves in thepresence of the Emperor in this innermost and most sacred recess ofroyalty, decorated by all the splendour of the period.
The Emperor Alexius sat upon a stately throne, rich with barbaric gemsand gold, and flanked on either hand, in imitation probably ofSolomon's magnificence, with the form of a couchant lion in the sameprecious metal. Not to dwell upon other marks of splendour, a treewhose trunk seemed also of gold, shot up behind the throne, which itover-canopied with its branches. Amid the boughs were birds of variouskinds curiously wrought and enamelled, and fruit composed of preciousstones seemed to glisten among the leaves. Five officers alone, thehighest in the state, had the privilege of entering this sacred recesswhen the Emperor held council. These were--the Grand Domestic, whomight be termed of rank with a modern prime minister--the Logothete, orchancellor--the Protospathaire, or commander of the guards, alreadymentioned--the Acolyte, or Follower, and leader of the Varangians--andthe Patriarch.
The doors of this secret apartment, and the adjacent antechamber, wereguarded by six deformed Nubian slaves, whose writhen and witheredcountenances formed a hideous contrast with their snow-white dressesand splendid equipment. They were mutes, a species of wretches borrowedfrom the despotism of the East, that they might be unable to proclaimthe deeds of tyranny of which they were the unscrupulous agents. Theywere generally held in a kind of horror, rather than compassion, formen considered that slaves of this sort had a malignant pleasure inavenging upon others the irreparable wrongs which had severedthemselves from humanity. It was a general custom, though, like manyother usages of the Greeks, it would be held childish in modern times,that by means of machinery easily conceived, the lions, at the entranceof a stranger, were made, as it were, to rouse themselves and roar,after which a wind seemed to rustle the foliage of the tree, the birdshopped from branch to branch, pecked the fruit, and appeared to fillthe chamber with their carolling. This display had alarmed many anignorant foreign ambassador, and even the Grecian counsellorsthemselves were expected to display the same sensations of fear,succeeded by surprise, when they heard the roar of the lions, followedby the concert of the birds, although perhaps it was for the fiftiethtime. On this occasion, as a proof of the urgency of the presentmeeting of the council, these ceremonies were entirely omitted.
The speech of the Emperor himself seemed to supply by its commencementthe bellowing of the lions, while it ended in a strain more resemblingthe warbling of the birds.
In his first sentences, he treated of the audacity and unheard-ofboldness of the millions of Franks, who, under the pretence of wrestingPalestine from the infidels, had ventured to invade the sacredterritories of the empire. He threatened them with such chastisement ashis innumerable forces and officers would, he affirmed, find it easy toinflict. To all this the audience, and especially the militaryofficers, gave symptoms of ready assent. Alexius, however, did not longpersist in the warlike intentions which he at first avowed. The Franks,he at length seemed to reflect, were, in profession, Christians. Theymight possibly be serious in their pretext of the crusade, in whichcase their motives claimed a degree of indulgence, and, althougherring, a certain portion of respect. Their numbers also were great,and their valour could not be despised by those who had seen them fightat Durazzo, [Footnote: For the battle of Durazzo, Oct. 1081, in whichAlexius was defeated with great slaughter by Robert Guiscard, andescaped only by the swiftness of his horse, see Gibbon, ch. 56.] andelsewhere. They might also, by the permission of Supreme Providence,be, in the long run, the instruments of advantage to the most sacredempire, though they approached it with so little ceremony. He had,therefore, mingling the virtues of prudence, humanity, and generosity,with that valour which must always burn in the heart of an Emperor,formed a plan, which he was about to submit to their consideration, forpresent execution; and, in the first place, he requested of the GrandDomestic, to let him know what forces he might count upon on thewestern side of the Bosphorus.
"Innumerable are the forces of the empire as the stars in heaven, orthe sand on the sea-shore," answered the Grand Domestic.
"That is a goodly answer," said the Emperor, "provided there werestrangers present at this conference; but since we hold consultation inprivate, it is necessary that I know precisely to what number that armyamounts which I have to rely upon. Reserve your eloquence till somefitter time, and let me know what you, at this present moment, mean bythe word _innumerable?_"
The Grand Domestic paused, and hesitated for a short space; but as hebecame aware that the moment was one in which the Emperor could not betrifled with, (for Alexius Comnenus was at times dangerous,) heanswered thus, but not without hesitation. "Imperial master and lord,none better knows that such an answer cannot be hastily made, if it isat the same time to be correct in its results. The number of theimperial host betwixt this city and the western frontier of the empire,deducting those absent on furlough, cannot be counted upon as amountingto more than twenty-five thousand men, or thirty thousand at most."
Alexius struck his forehead with his hand; and the counsellors, seeinghim give way to such violent expressions of grief and surprise, beganto enter into discussions, which they would otherwise have reserved fora fitter place and time.
"By the trust your Highness reposes in me," said the Logothete, "therehas been drawn from your Highness's coffers during the last year, goldenough to pay double the number of the armed warriors whom the GrandDomestic now mentions."
"Your Imperial Highness," retorted the impeached minister, with nosmall animation, "will at once remember the stationary garrisons, inaddition to the movable troops, for which this figure-caster makes noallowance."
"Peace, both of you!" said Alexius, composing himself hastily; "ouractual numbers are in truth less than we counted on, but let us not bywrangling augment the difficulties of the time. Let those troops bedispersed in valleys, in passes, behind ridges of hills, and indifficult ground, where a little art being used in the position, canmake few men supply the appearance of numbers, between this city andthe western frontier of the empire. While this disposal is made, wewill continue to adjust with these crusaders, as they call themselves,the terms on which we will consent to let them pass through ourdominions; nor are we without hope of negotiating with them, so as togain great advantage to our kingdom. We will insist that they passthrough our country only by armies of perhaps fifty thousand at once,whom we will successively transport into Asia, so that no greaternumber shall, by assembling beneath our walls, ever endanger the safetyof the metropolis of the world.
"On their way towards the banks of the Bosphorus, we will supply themwith provisions, if th
ey march peaceably, and in order; and if anystraggle from their standards, or insult the country by marauding, wesuppose our valiant peasants will not hesitate to repress theirexcesses, and that without our giving positive orders, since we wouldnot willingly be charged with any thing like a breach of engagement. Wesuppose, also, that the Scythians, Arabs, Syrians, and othermercenaries in our service, will not suffer our subjects to beoverpowered in their own just defence; as, besides that there is nojustice in stripping our own country of provisions, in order to feedstrangers, we will not be surprised nor unpardonably displeased tolearn, that of the ostensible quantity of flour, some sacks should befound filled with chalk, or lime, or some such substance. It is,indeed, truly wonderful, what the stomach of a Frank will digestcomfortably. Their guides, also, whom you shall choose with referenceto such duty, will take care to conduct the crusaders by difficult andcircuitous routes; which will be doing them a real service, by inuringthem to the hardships of the country and climate, which they wouldotherwise have to face without seasoning.
"In the meantime, in your intercourse with their chiefs, whom they callcounts, each of whom thinks himself as great as an Emperor, you willtake care to give no offence to their natural presumption, and omit noopportunity of informing them of the wealth and bounty of ourgovernment. Sums of money may be even given to persons of note, andlargesses of less avail to those under them. You, our Logothete, willtake good order for this, and you, our Grand Domestic, will take carethat such soldiers as may cut off detached parties of the Franks shallbe presented, if possible, in savage dress, and under the show ofinfidels. In commending these injunctions to your care, I purpose that,the crusaders having found the value of our friendship, and also insome sort the danger of our enmity, those whom we shall safelytransport to Asia, shall be, however unwieldy, still a smaller and morecompact body, whom we may deal with in all Christian prudence. Thus, byusing fair words to one, threats to another, gold to the avaricious,power to the ambitious, and reasons to those that are capable oflistening to them, we doubt not but to prevail upon those Franks, metas they are from a thousand points, and enemies of each other, toacknowledge us as their common superior, rather than choose a leaderamong themselves, when they are made aware of the great fact, thatevery village in Palestine, from Dan to Beersheba, is the originalproperty of the sacred Roman empire, and that whatever Christian goesto war for their recovery, must go as our subject, and hold anyconquest which he may make, as our vassal. Vice and virtue, sense andfolly, ambition and disinterested devotion, will alike recommend to thesurvivors of these singular-minded men, to become the feudatories ofthe empire, not its foe, and the shield, not the enemy, of yourpaternal Emperor."
There was a general inclination of the head among the courtiers, withthe Eastern acclamation of,--"Long live the Emperor!"
When the murmur of this applausive exclamation had subsided, Alexiusproceeded:--"Once more, I say, that my faithful Grand Domestic, andthose who act under him, will take care to commit the execution of suchpart of these orders as may seem aggressive, to troops of foreignappearance and language, which, I grieve to say, are more numerous inour imperial army than our natural-born and orthodox subjects."
The Patriarch here interposed his opinion.--"There is a consolation,"he said,"in the thought, that the genuine Romans in the imperial armyare but few, since a trade so bloody as war, is most fitly prosecutedby those whose doctrines, as well as their doings, on earth, meriteternal condemnation in the next world."
"Reverend Patriarch," said the Emperor, "we would not willingly holdwith the wild infidels, that Paradise is to be gained by the sabre;nevertheless, we would hope that a Roman dying in battle for hisreligion and his Emperor, may find as good hope of acceptation, afterthe mortal pang is over, as a man who dies in peace, and with unbloodedhand."
"It is enough for me to say," resumed the Patriarch, "that the Church'sdoctrine is not so indulgent: she is herself peaceful, and her promisesof favour are for those who have been men of peace. Yet think not I barthe gates of Heaven against a soldier, as such, if believing all thedoctrines of our Church, and complying with all our observances; farless would I condemn your Imperial Majesty's wise precautions, both fordiminishing the power and thinning the ranks of those Latin heretics,who come hither to despoil us, and plunder perhaps both church andtemple, under the vain pretext that Heaven would permit them, stainedwith so many heresies, to reconquer that Holy Land, which true orthodoxChristians, your Majesty's sacred predecessors, have not been enabledto retain from the infidel. And well I trust that no settlement madeunder the Latins will be permitted by your Majesty to establish itself,in which the Cross shall not be elevated with limbs of the same length,instead of that irregular and most damnable error which prolongs, inwestern churches, the nether limb of that most holy emblem."
"Reverend Patriarch," answered the Emperor, "do not deem that we thinklightly of your weighty scruples; but the question is now, not in whatmanner we may convert these Latin heretics to the true faith, but howwe may avoid being overrun by their myriads, which resemble those ofthe locusts by which their approach was preceded and intimated."
"Your Majesty," said the Patriarch, "will act with your usual wisdom;for my part, I have only stated my doubts, that I may save my own soulalive."
"Our construction," said the Emperor, "does your sentiments no wrong,most reverend Patriarch; and you," addressing himself to the othercounsellors, "will attend to these separate charges given out fordirecting the execution of the commands which have been generallyintimated to you. They are written out in the sacred ink, and oursacred subscription is duly marked with the fitting tinge of green andpurple. Let them, therefore, be strictly obeyed. Ourselves will assumethe command of such of the Immortal Bands as remain in the city, andjoin to them the cohorts of our faithful Varangians. At the head ofthese troops, we will await the arrival of these strangers under thewalls of the city, and, avoiding combat while our policy can postponeit, we will be ready, in case of the worst, to take whatsoever chanceit shall please the Almighty to send us."
Here the council broke up, and the different chiefs began to exertthemselves in the execution of their various instructions, civil andmilitary, secret or public, favourable or hostile to the crusaders. Thepeculiar genius of the Grecian people was seen upon this occasion.Their loud and boastful talking corresponded with the ideas which theEmperor wished to enforce upon the crusaders concerning the extent ofhis power and resources. Nor is it to be disguised, that the wilyselfishness of most of those in the service of Alexius, endeavoured tofind some indirect way of applying the imperial instruction, so asmight best suit their own private ends.
Meantime, the news had gone abroad in Constantinople of the arrival ofthe huge miscellaneous army of the west upon the limits of the Grecianempire, arid of their purpose to pass to Palestine. A thousand reportsmagnified, if that was possible, an event so wonderful. Some said, thattheir ultimate view was the conquest of Arabia, the destruction of theProphet's tomb, and the conversion of his green banner into ahorse-cloth for the King of France's brother. Others supposed that theruin and sack of Constantinople was the real object of the war. A thirdclass thought it was in order to compel the Patriarch to submit himselfto the Pope, adopt the Latin form of the cross, and put an end to theschism.
The Varangians enjoyed an addition to this wonderful news, seasoned asit everywhere was with something peculiarly suited to the prejudices ofthe hearers. It was gathered originally from what our friend Hereward,who was one of their inferior officers, called sergeants or constables,had suffered to transpire of what he had heard the preceding evening.Considering that the fact must be soon matter of notoriety, he had nohesitation to give his comrades to understand that a Norman army wascoming hither under Duke Robert, the son of the far-famed William theConqueror, and with hostile intentions, he concluded, against them inparticular. Like all other men in peculiar circumstances, theVarangians adopted an explanation applicable to their own condition.These Normans, who hated the Saxon nation
, and had done so much todishonour and oppress them, were now following them, they supposed, tothe foreign capital where they had found refuge, with the purpose ofmaking war on the bountiful prince who protected their sad remnant.Under this belief, many a deep oath was sworn in Norse and Anglo-Saxon,that their keen battle-axes should avenge the slaughter of Hastings,and many a pledge, both in wine and ale, was quaffed who should mostdeeply resent, and most effectually revenge, the wrongs which theAnglo-Saxons of England had received at the hand of their oppressors.
Hereward, the author of this intelligence, began soon to be sorry thathe had ever suffered it to escape him, so closely was he cross-examinedconcerning its precise import, by the enquiries of his comrades, fromwhom he thought himself obliged to keep concealed the adventures of thepreceding evening, and the place in which he had gained his information.
About noon, when he was effectually tired with returning the sameanswer to the same questions, and evading similar others which wererepeatedly put to him, the sound of trumpets announced the presence ofthe Acolyte, Achilles Tatius, who came immediately, it wasindustriously whispered, from the sacred Interior, with news of theimmediate approach of war.
The Varangians, and the Roman bands called Immortal, it was said, wereto form a camp under the city, in order to be prompt to defend it atthe shortest notice. This put the whole barracks into commotion, eachman making the necessary provision for the approaching campaign. Thenoise was chiefly that of joyful bustle and acclamation; and it was sogeneral, that Hereward, whose rank permitted him to commit to a page oresquire the task of preparing his equipments, took the opportunity toleave the barracks, in order to seek some distant place apart from hiscomrades, and enjoy his solitary reflections upon the singularconnexion into which he had been drawn, and his direct communicationwith the Imperial family.
Passing through the narrow streets, then deserted, on account of theheat of the sun, he reached at length one of those broad terraces,which, descending as it were by steps, upon the margin of theBosphorus, formed one of the most splendid walks in the universe, andstill, it is believed, preserved as a public promenade for the pleasureof the Turks, as formerly for that of the Christians. These graduatedterraces were planted with many trees, among which the cypress, asusual, was most generally cultivated. Here bands of the inhabitantswere to be seen: some passing to and fro, with business and anxiety intheir faces; some standing still in groups, as if discussing thestrange and weighty tidings of the day, and some, with the indolentcarelessness of an eastern climate, eating their noontide refreshmentin the shade, and spending their time as if their sole object was tomake much of the day as it passed, and let the cares of to-morrowanswer for themselves.
While the Varangian, afraid of meeting some acquaintance in thisconcourse, which would have been inconsistent with the desire ofseclusion which had brought him thither, descended or passed from oneterrace to another, all marked him with looks of curiosity and enquiry,considering him to be one, who, from his arms and connexion with thecourt, must necessarily know more than others concerning the singularinvasion by numerous enemies, and from various quarters, which was thenews of the day.
None, however, had the hardihood to address the soldier of the guard,though all looked at him with uncommon interest. He walked from thelighter to the darker alleys, from the more closed to the more openterraces, without interruption from any one, yet not without a feelingthat he must not consider himself as alone.
The desire that he felt to be solitary rendered him at last somewhatwatchful, so that he became sensible that he was dogged by a blackslave, a personage not so unfrequent in the streets of Constantinopleas to excite any particular notice. His attention, however, being atlength fixed on this individual, he began to be desirous to escape hisobservation; and the change of place which he had at first adopted toavoid society in general, he had now recourse to, in order to ridhimself of this distant, though apparently watchful attendant. Still,however, though he by change of place had lost sight of the negro for afew minutes, it was not long ere he again discovered him at a distancetoo far for a companion, but near enough to serve all the purposes of aspy. Displeased at this, the Varangian turned short in his walk, andchoosing a spot where none was in sight but the object of hisresentment, walked suddenly up to him, and demanded wherefore, and bywhose orders, he presumed to dog his footsteps. The negro answered in ajargon as bad as that in which he was addressed though of a differentkind, "that he had orders to remark whither he went."
"Orders from whom?" said the Varangian.
"From my master and yours," answered the negro, boldly.
"Thou infidel villain!" exclaimed the angry soldier, "when was it thatwe became fellow-servants, and who is it that thou darest to call mymaster?"
"One who is master of the world," said the slave, "since he commandshis own passions."
"I shall scarce command mine," said the Varangian, "if thou repliest tomy earnest questions with thine affected quirks of philosophy. Oncemore, what dost thou want with me? and why hast thou the boldness towatch me?"
"I have told thee already," said the slave, "that I do my master'scommands."
"But I must know who thy master is," said Hereward.
"He must tell thee that himself," replied the negro; "he trusts not apoor slave like me with the purpose of the errands on which he sendsme."
"He has left thee a tongue, however," said the Varangian, "which someof thy countrymen would. I think, be glad to possess. Do not provoke meto abridge it by refusing me the information which I have a right todemand."
The black meditated, as it seemed from the grin on his face, furtherevasions, when Hereward cut them short by raising the staff of hisbattle-axe. "Put me not" he said, "to dishonour myself by striking theewith this weapon, calculated for a use so much more noble."
"I may not do so, valiant sir," said the negro, laying aside animpudent, half-gibing tone which he had hitherto made use of, andbetraying personal fear in his manner. "If you beat the poor slave todeath, you cannot learn what his master hath forbid him to tell. Ashort walk will save your honour the stain, and yourself the trouble,of beating what cannot resist, and me the pain of enduring what I canneither retaliate nor avoid."
"Lead on then," said the Varangian. "Be assured thou shalt not fool meby thy fair words, and I will know the person who is impudent enough toassume the right of watching my motions."
The black walked on with a species of leer peculiar to his physiognomy,which might be construed as expressive either of malice or of merehumour. The Varangian followed him with some suspicion, for it happenedthat he had had little intercourse with the unhappy race of Africa, andhad not totally overcome the feeling of surprise with which he had atfirst regarded them, when he arrived a stranger from the north. Sooften did this man look back upon him during their walk, and with sopenetrating and observing a cast of countenance, that Hereward feltirresistibly renewed in his mind the English prejudices, which assignedto the demons the sable colour and distorted cast of visage of hisconductor. The scene into which he was guided, strengthened anassociation which was not of itself unlikely to occur to the ignorantand martial islander.
The negro led the way from the splendid terraced walks which we havedescribed, to a path descending to the sea-shore, when a placeappeared, which, far from being trimmed, like other parts of the coast,into walks of embankments, seemed, on the contrary, abandoned toneglect, and was covered with the mouldering ruins of antiquity, wherethese had not been overgrown by the luxuriant vegetation of theclimate. These fragments of building, occupying a sort of recess of thebay, were hidden by steep banks on each side, and although in fact theyformed part of the city, yet they were not seen from any part of it,and, embosomed in the manner we have described, did not in turn commandany view of the churches, palaces, towers, and fortifications, amongstwhich they lay. The sight of this solitary, and apparently desertedspot, encumbered with ruins, and overgrown with cypress and othertrees, situated as it was in the midst of a populous cit
y, hadsomething in it impressive and awful to the imagination. The ruins wereof an ancient date, and in the style of a foreign people. The giganticremains of a portico, the mutilated fragments of statues of great size,but executed in a taste and attitude so narrow and barbaric as to seemperfectly the reverse of the Grecian, and the half-defacedhieroglyphics which could be traced on some part of the decayedsculpture, corroborated the popular account of their origin, which weshall briefly detail.
According to tradition, this had been a temple dedicated to theEgyptian goddess Cybele, built while the Roman Empire was yet heathen,and while Constantinople was still called by the name of Byzantium. Itis well known that the superstition of the Egyptians--vulgarly gross inits literal meaning as well as in its mystical interpretation, andpeculiarly the foundation of many wild doctrines,--was disowned by theprinciples of general toleration, and the system of polytheism receivedby Rome, and was excluded by repeated laws from the respect paid by theempire to almost every other religion, however extravagant or absurd.Nevertheless, these Egyptian rites had charms for the curious and thesuperstitious, and had, after long opposition, obtained a footing inthe empire.
Still, although tolerated, the Egyptian priests were rather consideredas sorcerers than as pontiffs, and their whole ritual had a nearerrelation, to magic in popular estimation, than to any regular system ofdevotion.
Stained with these accusations, even among the heathen themselves, theworship of Egypt was held in more mortal abhorrence by the Christians,than the other and more rational kinds of heathen devotion; that is, ifany at all had a right to be termed so. The brutal worship of Apis andCybele was regarded, not only as a pretext for obscene and profligatepleasures, but as having a direct tendency to open and encourage adangerous commerce with evil spirits, who were supposed to take uponthemselves, at these unhallowed altars, the names and characters ofthese foul deities. Not only, therefore, the temple of Cybele, with itsgigantic portico, its huge and inelegant statues, and its fantastichieroglyphics, was thrown down and defaced when the empire wasconverted to the Christian faith, but the very ground on which it stoodwas considered as polluted and unhallowed; and no Emperor having yetoccupied the site with a Christian church, the place still remainedneglected and deserted as we have described it.
The Varangian Hereward was perfectly acquainted with the evilreputation of the place; and when the negro seemed disposed to advanceinto the interior of the ruins, he hesitated, and addressed his guidethus:--"Hark thee, my black friend, these huge fantastic images, somehaving dogs' heads, some cows' heads, and some no heads at all, are notheld reverently in popular estimation. Your own colour, also, mycomrade, is greatly too like that of Satan himself, to render you anunsuspicious companion amid ruins, in which the false spirit, it issaid, daily walks his rounds. Midnight and Noon are the times, it isrumoured, of his appearance. I will go no farther with you, unless youassign me a fit reason for so doing."
"In making so childish a proposal" said the negro, "you take from me,in effect, all desire to guide you to my master. I thought I spoke to aman of invincible courage, and of that good sense upon which courage isbest founded. But your valour only emboldens you to beat a black slave,who has neither strength nor title to resist you; and your courage isnot enough to enable you to look without trembling on the dark side ofa wall, even when the sun is in the heavens."
"Thou art insolent," said Hereward, raising his axe.
"And thou art foolish," said the negro, "to attempt to prove thymanhood and thy wisdom by the very mode which gives reason for callingthem both in question. I have already said there can be little valourin beating a wretch like me; and no man, surely, who wishes to discoverhis way, would begin by chasing away his guide."
"I follow thee" said Hereward, stung with the insinuation of cowardice;"but if thou leadest me into a snare, thy free talk shall not save thybones, if a thousand of thy complexion, from earth or hell, werestanding ready to back thee."
"Thou objectest sorely to my complexion," said the negro; "how knowestthou that it is, in fact, a thing to be counted and acted upon asmatter of reality? Thine own eyes daily apprize thee, that the colourof the sky nightly changes from bright to black, yet thou knowest thatthis is by no means owing to any habitual colour of the heavensthemselves. The same change that takes place in the hue of the heavens,has existence in the tinge of the deep sea--How canst thou tell, butwhat the difference of my colour from thine own may be owing to somedeceptions change of a similar nature--not real in itself, but onlycreating an apparent reality?"
"Thou mayst have painted thyself, no doubt," answered the Varangian,upon reflection, "and thy blackness, therefore, may be only apparent;but I think thy old friend himself could hardly have presented thesegrinning lips, with the white teeth and flattened nose, so much to thelife, unless that peculiarity of Nubian physiognomy, as they call it,had accurately and really an existence; and to save thee some trouble,my dark friend, I will tell thee, that though thou speakest to anuneducated Varangian, I am not entirely unskilled in the Grecian art ofmaking subtle words pass upon the hearers instead of reason."
"Ay?" said the negro, doubtfully, and somewhat surprised; "and may theslave Diogenes--for so my master has christened me--enquire into themeans by which you reached knowledge so unusual?"
"It is soon told," replied Hereward. "My countryman, Witikind, being aconstable of our bands, retired from active service, and spent the endof a long life in this city of Constantinople. Being past all toils ofbattle, either those of reality, as you word it, or the pomp andfatigue of the exercising ground, the poor old man, in despair ofsomething to pass his time, attended the lectures of the philosophers."
"And what did he learn there?" said the negro; "for a barbarian, growngrey under the helmet, was not, as I think, a very hopeful student inour schools."
"As much though, I should think, as a menial slave, which I understandto be thy condition," replied the soldier. "But I have understood fromhim, that the masters of this idle science make it their business tosubstitute, in their argumentations, mere words instead of ideas; andas they never agree upon the precise meaning of the former, theirdisputes can never arrive at a fair or settled conclusion, since theydo not agree in the language in which they express them. Theirtheories, as they call them, are built on the sand, and the wind andtide shall prevail against them."
"Say so to my master," answered the black, in a serious tone.
"I will," said the Varangian; "and he shall know me as an ignorantsoldier, having but few ideas, and those only concerning my religionand my military duty. But out of these opinions I will neither bebeaten by a battery of sophisms, nor cheated by the arts or the terrorsof the friends of heathenism, either in this world or the next."
"You may speak your mind to him then yourself," said Diogenes. Hestepped aside as if to make way for the Varangian, to whom he motionedto go forward.
Hereward advanced accordingly, by a half-worn and almost imperceptiblepath leading through the long rough grass, and, turning round ahalf-demolished shrine, which exhibited the remains of Apis, the bovinedeity, he came immediately in front of the philosopher, Agelastes, who,sitting among the ruins, reposed his limbs on the grass.