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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/5502.txt b/5502.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..911b7bd --- /dev/null +++ b/5502.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2481 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook Serapis, by Georg Ebers, Volume 2. +#63 in our series by Georg Ebers + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: Serapis, Volume 2. + +Author: Georg Ebers + +Release Date: April, 2004 [EBook #5502] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on June 5, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SERAPIS, BY GEORG EBERS, V2 *** + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + + +SERAPIS + +By Georg Ebers + +Volume 2. + + +CHAPTER V. + +Karnis and his two companions were a long time away. Dada had almost +forgotten her wish to see the young soldier once more, and after playing +with little Papias for some time, as she might have played with a dog, +she began to feel dull and to think the quiet of the boat intolerable. +The sun was sinking when the absentees returned, but she at once reminded +Karnis that he had promised to take her for a walk and show her +Alexandria. Herse, however, forbid her going on such an expedition +till the following day. Dada, who was more irritable and fractious than +usual, burst into tears, flung the distaff that her foster-mother put +into her hand over the side of the ship, and declared between her sobs +that she was not a slave, that she would run away and find happiness +wherever it offered. In short she was so insubordinate that Herse lost +patience and scolded her severely. The girl sprang up, flung on a +handkerchief and in a moment would have crossed the plank to the shore; +Karnis, however, held her back. + +"Why, child," he said, "do you not see how tired I am?" The appeal had +its effect; Dada recovered her reason and tried to look up brightly, but +her eyes were still tearful and heavy and she could only creep away into +a corner and cry in silence. The old man's heart was very soft towards +the girl; he would have been glad only to speak a few kind words to her +and smoothe down her hair; however, he made an effort, and whispering a +few words to his wife said he was ready, if Dada wished it, to take her +as far as the Canopic way and the Bruchium. + +Dada laughed with delight, wiped away her tears, flung her arms round the +musician's neck and kissed his brown cheeks, exclaiming: + +"You are the best of them all! Make haste, and Agne shall come too; she +must see something of the city." + +But Agne preferred to remain on board, so Karnis and Dada set out +together. Orpheus followed them closely for, though the troops had +succeeded in quelling the uproar, the city was still in a state of +ferment. Closely veiled, and without any kind of adornment--on this +Herse had positively insisted--the girl, clinging to the old man's arm, +made her way through the streets, asking questions about everything she +saw; and her spirits rose, and she was so full of droll suggestions that +Karnis soon forgot his fatigue and gave himself up to the enjoyment of +showing her the old scenes that he knew and the new beauties and +improvements. + +In the Canopic way Dada was fairly beside herself with delight. Houses +like palaces stood arrayed on each side. Close to the buildings ran a +covered arcade, and down the centre of the roadway there was a broad +footpath shaded by sycamores. This fine avenue swarmed with pedestrians, +while on each side chariots, drawn by magnificent horses, hurried past, +and riders galloped up and down; at every step there was something new +and interesting to be seen. + +Rome, even, could not boast of a handsomer street, and Dada expressed her +delight with frank eagerness; but Karnis did not echo her praises; he was +indignant at finding that the Christians had removed a fine statue of the +venerable Nile-god surrounded by the playful forms of his infant +children, which had formerly graced the fountain in the middle of the +avenue, and had also overthrown or mutilated the statues of Hermes that +had stood by the roadside. Orpheus sympathized in his wrath which +reached its climax when, on looking for two statues, of Demeter and of +Pallas Athene, of which Karnis had spoken to his son as decorating the +gateway of one of the finest houses in the city, they beheld instead, +mounted on the plinths, two coarsely-wrought images of the Lamb with its +Cross. + +"Like two rats that have been caught under a stone!" cried the old man. +"And what is most shameful is that I would wager that they have destroyed +the statues which were the pride of the town and thrown them on a rubbish +heap. In my day this house belonged to a rich man named Philippus. But +stop--was not he the father of our hospitable protector . . ." + +"The steward spoke of Porphyrius as the son of Philippus," Orpheus said. + +"And Philippus was a corn merchant, too," added Karnis. "Demeter was +figurative of a blessing on the harvest, for it was from that the house +derived its wealth, and Pallas Athene was patroness of the learning that +was encouraged by its owners. When I was a student here every wealthy +man belonged to some school of philosophy. The money-bag did not count +for everything. Heathen or Jew, whether engaged in business or enjoying +the revenues of an inherited fortune, a man was expected to be able to +talk of something besides the price of merchandise and the coming and +sailing of vessels." + +During this conversation Dada had withdrawn her hand from the old man's +arm to raise her veil, for two men had gone up to the gate between the +images that had roused Karnis to wrath, and one of them, who at this +instant knocked at the door, was Mary's son. + +"Father, see, there he is!" cried Dada, as the door was opened, speaking +louder than was at all necessary to enable her companion to hear her; the +musician at once recognized Marcus, and turning to his son he said: + +"Now we may be quite sure! Porphyrius and this young Christian's father +were brothers. Philippus must have left his house to his eldest son who +is the one that is dead, and it now belongs no doubt to Mary, his widow. +I must admit, child, that you choose your adorers from respectable +families!" + +"I should think so," said the girl laughing. "And that is why he is so +proud. My fine gentleman has not even a glance to cast at us. Bang! +the door is shut. Come along, uncle!" + +The young man in question entered the hall of his father's house with his +companion and paused there to say in a tone of pressing entreaty: "Only +come and speak with my mother; you really must not leave like this." + +"How else?" said the other roughly. "You stick to your way, I will +go mine. You can find a better steward for the estate--I go to-morrow. +May the earth open and swallow me up if I stay one hour longer than is +absolutely necessary in this demented place. And after all Mary is your +mother and not mine." + +"But she was your father's wife," retorted Marcus. + +"Certainly, or you would not be my brother. But she--I have amply repaid +any kindness she ever did me by ten years of service. We do not +understand each other and we never shall." + +"Yes, yes, you will indeed. I have been in church and prayed--nay, +do not laugh--I prayed to the Lord that he would make it all work right +and He--well, you have been baptized and made one of His flock." + +"To my misfortune! You drive me frantic with your meek and mild ways," +cried the other passionately. "My own feet are strong enough for me to +stand on and my hand, though it is horny, can carry out what my brain +thinks right." + +"No, no, Demetrius, no. You see, you believe in the old gods. . ." + +"Certainly," said the other with increasing irritation. "You are merely +talking to the winds, and my time is precious. I must pack up my small +possessions, and for your sake I will say a few words of farewell when I +take the account-books to your mother. I have land enough belonging to +myself alone, at Arsinoe; I know my own business and am tired of letting +a woman meddle and mar it. Good-bye for the present, youngster. Tell +your mother I am coming; I shall be with her in just an hour." + +"Demetrius!" cried the lad trying once more to detain his brother; but +Demetrius freed himself with a powerful wrench and hurried across the +court-yard--gay with flowers and with a fountain in the middle--into +which the apartments of the family opened, his own among the number. + +Marcus looked after him sadly; they differed too widely in thought and +feeling ever to understand each other completely, and when they stood +side by side no one would have imagined that they were the sons of one +father, for even in appearance they were strongly dissimilar. Marcus was +slight and delicate, Demetrius, on the contrary, broad-shouldered and +large-boned. + +After this parting from his half-brother Marcus betook himself to the +women's rooms where Mary, after superintending the spinning and other +work of the slave-girls, in the rooms at the back, was wont to sit during +the evening. He found his mother in eager conversation with a Christian +priest of advanced age, an imposing personage of gentle and dignified +aspect. The widow, though past forty, might still pass for a handsome +woman: it was from her that her son had inherited his tall, thin figure +with narrow shoulders and a slight stoop, his finely-cut features, white +skin and soft, flowing, raven-black hair. Their resemblance was rendered +all the more striking by the fact that each wore a simple, narrow circlet +of gold-round the head; nay it would have seemed some unusual trick of +Nature's but that their eyes were quite unlike. Hers were black, and +their gaze was shrewd and sharp and sometimes sternly hard; while the +dreamy lustre of her son's, which were blue, lent his face an almost +feminine softness. + +She must have been discussing some grave questions with the old man, for, +as the young man entered the room, she colored slightly and her long, +taper fingers impatiently tapped the back of the couch on which she was +lounging. + +Marcus kissed first the priest's hand and then his mother's, and, after +enquiring with filial anxiety after her health, informed her that +Demetrius would presently be coming to take leave of her. + +"How condescending?" she said coldly. "You know reverend Father what it +is that I require of him and that he refuses. His peasants--always his +peasants! Now can you tell me why they, who must feel the influence and +power of their masters so much more directly than the lower class in +towns, they, whose weal or woe so obviously depends on the will of the +Most High, are so obstinately set against the Gospel of Salvation?" + +"They cling to what they are used to," replied the old man. "The seed +they sow bore fruit under the old gods; and as they cannot see nor handle +our Heavenly Father as they can their idols, and at the same time have +nothing better to hope for than a tenth or a twentieth of the grain. . ." + +"Yes, mine and thine--the miserable profit of this world!" sighed the +widow. "Oh! Demetrius can defend the idolatry of his favorites warmly +enough, never fear. If you can spare the time, good Father, stay and +help me to convince him." + +"I have already stayed too long," replied the priest, "for the Bishop has +commanded my presence. I should like to speak to you, my dear Marcus; +to-morrow morning, early, will you come to me? The Lord be with you, +beloved!" + +He rose, and as he gave Mary his hand she detained him a moment signing +to her son to leave them, and said in a low tone: + +"Marcus must not suspect that I know of the error into which he has been +led; speak roundly to his conscience, and as to the girl, I will take her +in hand. Will it not be possible for Theophilus to grant me an +interview?" + +"Hardly, at present," replied the priest. "As you know, Cynegius is here +and the fate of the Bishop and of our cause hangs on the next few days. +Give up your ambitious desires I beseech you, daughter, for even if +Theophilus were to admit you I firmly believe, nay--do not be angry-- +I can but hope that he would never give way on this point." + +"No?" said the widow looking down in some embarrassment; but when her +visitor was gone she lifted her head with a flash of wilful defiance. + +She then made Marcus, who had on the previous day given her a full +account of his voyage from Rome, tell her all that had passed between +himself and Demetrius; she asked him how he liked his horse, whether he +hoped to win the approaching races, and generally what he had been doing +and was going to do. But it did not escape her notice that Marcus was +more reticent than usual and that he tried to bring the conversation +round to his voyage and to the guests in the Xenodochium; however, she +always stopped him, for she knew what he was aiming at and would not +listen to anything on that subject. + +It was not till long after the slaves had lighted the three-branched +silver lamps that Demetrius appeared. His stepmother received him kindly +and began to talk on indifferent subjects; but he replied with ill- +disguised impatience, for he had not come to chatter and gossip. She +fully understood this; but it pleased her to check and provoke him and +she did it in a way which vividly reminded him of his early days, of the +desolation and unhappiness that had blighted his young life when this +woman had taken the place of his own tender gentle mother, and come +between him and his father. Day after day, in that bygone time, she had +received him just as she had this evening: with words that sounded +kindly, but with a cold, unloving heart. He knew that she had always +seen his boyish errors and petty faults in the worst light, attributing +them to bad propensities and innate wickedness, that she had injured him +in his father's eyes by painting a distorted image of his disposition and +doings--and all these sins he could not forgive her. At the time of his +father's assassination Demetrius was already grown to man's estate, and +as the eldest son it would have been his right and duty to take part with +his uncle Porphyrius in the management of the business; but he could not +endure the idea of living in the same place with his stepmother, so, +having a pronounced taste for a country life, he left the widow in +possession of the house in the Canopic street, persuaded his uncle to pay +over his father's share in the business in hard cash and then had quitted +Alexandria to take entire charge of the family estates in Cyrenaica. +In the course of a few years he had become an admirable farmer; the +landowners throughout the province were glad to take his advice or follow +his example, and the accounts which he now laid on the table by the side +of Mary's couch--three goodly rolls--proved by the irrefragable evidence +of figures that he had actually doubled their revenues from the estates +of which he had been the manager. He had earned his right to claim his +independence, to persist in his own determinations and to go his own way; +he was animated by the pride of an independent nature that recklessly +breaks away from a detested tie when it has means at command either to +rest without anxiety or to devote its energies to new enterprise. + +When Demetrius had allowed his stepmother time enough for subjects in +which he took no interest, he laid his hand on the account-books and +abruptly observed that it was now time to talk seriously. He had already +explained to Marcus that he could no longer undertake to meet her +requirements; and as, with him, to decide was to act, he wished at once +to come to a decision as to whether he should continue to manage the +family estates in the way he thought proper, or should retire and devote +himself to the care of his own land. If Mary accepted the latter +alternative he would at once cancel their deed of agreement, but even +then he was very willing to stay on for a time in Cyrenaica, and put the +new steward, when she had appointed one, in the way of performing his +onerous duties. After that he would have nothing more to do with the +family estates. This was his last word; and whichever way she decided, +they might part without any final breach, which he was anxious to avoid +if only for the sake of Marcus. + +Demetrius spoke gravely and calmly; still, the bitterness that filled his +soul imparted a flavor to his speech that did not escape the widow, and +she replied with some emphasis that she should be very sorry to think +that any motives personal to herself had led to his decision; she owed +much, very much, to his exertions and had great pleasure in expressing +her obligations. He was aware, of course, that the property he had been +managing had been purchased originally partly with her fortune and partly +out of her husband's pocket, and that half of it was therefore hers and +half of it the property of Marcus and himself; but that by her husband's +will the control and management were hers absolutely. She had endeavored +to carry out the intentions of her deceased husband by entrusting the +stewardship of the estate to Demetrius while he was still quite young; +under his care the income had increased, and she had no doubt that in the +future he might achieve even greater results; at the same time, the +misunderstandings that the whole business had given rise to were not to +be endured, and must positively be put an end to, even if their income +were to diminish by half. + +"I," she exclaimed, "am a Christian, with my whole heart and soul. +I have dedicated my body and life to the service of my Saviour. What +shall all the treasures of the world profit me if I lose my soul; and +that, which is my immortal part, must inevitably perish if I allow my +pockets to be filled by the toil of heathen peasants and slaves. I +therefore must insist--and on this point I will not yield a jot--that our +slaves in Cyrenaica, a flock of more than three thousand erring sheep, +shall either submit to be baptized or be removed to make way for +Christians." + +"That is to say . . ." began Demetrius hastily. + +"I have not yet done," she interrupted. "So far as the peasants are +concerned who rent and farm our land they all, without exception--as you +said yesterday--are stiff-necked idolaters. We must give them time to +think it over, but the annual agreement will not be renewed with any who +will not pledge themselves to give up the old sacrifices and to worship +the Redeemer. If they submit they will be safe--in this world and the +next; if they refuse they must go, and the land must be let to Christians +in their stead." + +"Just as I change this seat for another!" said Demetrius with a laugh, +and lifting up a heavy bronze chair he flung it down again on the hard +mosaic pavement so that the floor shook. + +Maria started violently. + +"My body may tremble," she said in great excitement, "but my soul is firm +when its everlasting bliss is at stake. I insist--and my representative, +whether he be you or another, must carry my orders into effect without an +hour's delay--I insist that every heathen shrine, every image of the +field and garden-gods, every altar and sacred stone which the heathens +use for their idolatrous practices shall be pulled down, overthrown, +mutilated and destroyed. That is what I require and insist on." + +"And that is what I will never consent to," cried Demetrius in a voice +like low thunder. "I cannot and will not. These things have been held +precious and sacred to men for thousands of years and I cannot, will not, +blow them off the face of the earth, as you blow a feather off your +cloak. You may go and do it yourself; you may be able to achieve it." + +"What do you mean?" asked Mary drawing herself up with a glance of +indignant protest. + +"Yes--if any one can do it you can!" repeated Demetrius imperturbably. +"I went to-day to seek the images of our forefathers--the venerable +images that were clear to our infancy, the portraits of our fathers' +fathers and mothers, the founders of the honor of our race. And where +are they? They have gone with the protectors of our home, the pride and +ornament of this house--of the street, of the city--the Hermes and Pallas +Athene that you--you flung into the lime-kiln. Old Phabis told me with +tears in his eyes. Alas poor house that is robbed of its past, of its +glory, and of its patron deities!" + +"I have placed it under a better safeguard," replied Maria in a tremulous +voice, and she looked it Marcus with an appeal for sympathy. "Now, for +the last time, I ask you: Will you accede to my demands or will you +not?" + +"I will not," said Demetrius resolutely. + +"Then I must find a new agent to manage the estates." + +"You will soon find one; but your land--which is our land too--will +become a desert. Poor land! If you destroy its shrines and sanctuaries +you will destroy its soul; for they are the soul of the land. The first +inhabitants gathered round the sanctuary, and on that sanctuary and the +gods that dwell there the peasant founds his hopes of increase on what he +sows and plants, and of prosperity for his wife and children and cattle +and all that he has. In destroying his shrines you ruin his hopes, and +with them all the joy of life. I know the peasant; he believes that his +labors must be vain if you deprive him of the gods that make it thrive. +He sows in hope, in the swelling of the grain he sees the hand of the +gods who claim his joyful thanksgiving after the harvest is gathered in. +You are depriving him of all that encourages and uplifts and rejoices his +soul when you ruin his shrines and altars!" + +"But I give him other and better ones," replied Mary. + +"Take care then that they are such as he can appreciate," said Demetrius +gravely. "Persuade him to love, to believe, to hope in the creed you +force upon him; but do not rob him of what he trusts in before he is +prepared to accept the substitute you offer him.--Now, let me go; we are +neither of us in the temper to make the best arrangements for the future. +One thing, at any rate, is certain: I have nothing more to do with the +estate." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +After leaving his stepmother Demetrius made good use of his time and +dictated a number of letters to his secretary, a slave he had brought +with him to Alexandria, for the use of the pen was to him unendurable +labor. The letters were on business, relating to his departure from +Cyrenaica and his purpose of managing his own estates for the future, and +when they lay before him, finished, rolled up and sealed, he felt that he +had come to a mile-stone on his road, a landmark in his life. He paced +the room in silence, trying to picture to himself the fate of the slaves +and peasants who, for so many years, had been his faithful servants and +fellow-laborers, whose confidence he had entirely won, and many of whom +he truly loved. But he could not conceive of their life, their toil or +their festivals, bereft of images, offerings, garlands, and hymns of +rejoicing. To him they were as children, forbidden to laugh and play, +and he could not help once more recurring to his boyhood and the day of +his going to school, when, instead of running and shouting in his +father's sunny garden, he had been made to sit still and silent in a dull +class-room. And now had the whole world reached such a boundary line in +existence beyond which there was to be no more freedom and careless joy-- +where a ceaseless struggle for higher things must begin and never end? + +If the Gospel were indeed true, and if all it promised could ever find +fulfilment, it might perhaps be prudent to admit the sinfulness of man +and to give up the joys and glories of this world to win the eternal +treasure that it described. Many a good and wise man whom he had known +--nay the Emperor, the great and learned Theodosius himself--was devoted +heart and soul to the Christian faith, and Demetrius knew from his own +experience that his mother's creed, in which he had been initiated as a +boy and from which his father, after holding him at the font had +perverted him at an early age, offered great consolations and enduring +help to those whose existence was one of care, poverty, and suffering. +But his laborers and servants? They were healthy and contented. What +power on earth could induce them--a race that clung devotedly to custom +--to desert the faith of their fathers, and the time-honored traditions +to which they owed all the comforts and pleasures of life, or to seek in +a strange creed the aid which they already believed that they possessed. + +He did not repent of his determination; but he nevertheless said to +himself that, when once he was gone, Mary would proceed only too soon on +the work of extermination and destruction; and every temple on the +estate, every statue, every whispering grotto, every shrine and stone +anointed by pious hands, doomed now to perish, rose before his fancy. + +Demetrius was accustomed to rise at cock-crow and go to bed at an early +hour, and he was on the point of retiring even before the usual time, +when Marcus came to his room and begged him to give him yet an hour. + +"You are angry with my mother," said the younger man with a look of +melancholy entreaty, "but you know there is nothing that she would not +sacrifice for the faith. And you can smile so bitterly! But only put +yourself in my place. Loving my mother as I do, it is acutely painful +to me to see another person--to see you whom I love, too, for you are +my friend and brother--to see you, I say, turn your back on her so +completely. My heart is heavy enough to-day I can tell you." + +"Poor boy!" said the countryman. "Yes, I am truly your friend, and am +anxious to remain so; you are not to blame in this business--and for that +matter, I am anything but cheerful. You have chosen to say: Down with +the shrines! Perish all those who do not think as we do! Still, look at +the thing as you will, in some cases certainly violence must ensue--nay, +if no blood is shed it will be a wonder! You sum up the matter in one +common term: The heathen peasants on the estate. My view of it is +totally different; I know these farmers and their wives and children, +each one by name and by sight. There is not one but is ready to bid me +good day and shake my hand or kiss my dress. Many a one has come to me +in tears and left me happy.--By the great Zeus! no one ever accused me of +being soft-hearted, but I could wish this day that I were harder; and my +blood turns to gall as I ask--What is all this for--to what possible +end?" + +"For the sake and honor of the faith, Demetrius; for the eternal +salvation of our people." + +"Indeed!" retorted Demetrius with a drawl, "I know better. If that and +that alone were intended you would build churches and chapels and send us +worthy priests--Eusebius and the like--and would try to win men's hearts +to your Lord by the love you are always talking so much about. That was +my advice to your mother, only this morning. I believe the end might be +attained by those means, among us as elsewhere; ultimately it will, no +doubt, be gained--but not to-day nor to-morrow. A peasant, when he had +become accustomed to the church and grasped a trust in the new God, would +of his own accord give up the old gods and their sanctuaries; I could +count you off a dozen such instances. That I could have looked on at +calmly, for I want only men's arms and legs and do not ask for their +souls; but to burn down the old house before you have collected wood and +stone to build a new one I call wicked.--It is cruelty and madness, and +when so shrewd a woman as your mother is bent on carrying through such a +measure, come what may, there is something more behind it." + +"You think she wants to get rid of you--you, Demetrius!" interrupted +Marcus eagerly. "But you are mistaken, you are altogether wrong. What +you have done for the estate . . ." + +"Oh! as for that!" cried the other, "what has my work to do with all +this? Ere the year is out everything that can remind us of the heathen +gods is to be swept away from the hamlets and fields of the pious Mary. +That is what is intended! Then they will hurry off to the Bishop with +the great news and to crown one marvel with another, the reversion will +be secured of a martyr's nimbus. And this is what all this zeal is for +--this and nothing else!" + +"You are speaking of my mother, remember!" cried Marcus, looking at his +brother with a touching appeal in his eyes. Demetrius shook his shaggy +head and spoke more temperately as he went on: + +"Yes, child, I had forgotten that--and I may be mistaken of course, for I +am no more than human. Here one thing follows so close on another, and +in this house I feel so battered and storm-tossed, that I hardly know +myself. But old Phabis tells me that steps are being seriously taken to +procure the title of Martyr for our father Apelles." + +"My mother is quite convinced that he died for the faith, and she loved +him devotedly . . ." + +"Then it is so!" cried Demetrius, grinding his teeth and thumping his +fist down on the table. "The lies sown by one single man have produced a +deadly weed that is smothering this miserable house! You--to be sure, +what can you know of our father? I knew him; I have been present when he +and his friends, the philosophers, have laughed to scorn things which not +only you Christians but even pious heathen regard as sacred. Lucretius +was his evangelist, and the Cosmogony of that utter atheist lay by his +pillow and was his companion wherever he went." + +"He admired the heathen poets, but he was a Christian all the same," +replied Marcus. + +"Neither more nor less than Porphyrius, our uncle, or myself," retorted +his brother. "Since the day when our grandfather Philippus was baptized, +wealth and happiness have deserted this house. He gave up the old gods +solely that he might not lose the right of supplying the city and the +Emperor with corn, and became a Christian and made his sons Christians. +But he had us educated by his heathen friends, and though we passed for +Christians we were not so in fact. When it was absolutely necessary he +showed himself in church with us; but our daily life, our pleasures, our +pastimes were heathen, and when life began for us in earnest we offered a +bleeding sacrifice to the gods. It was impossible to retract honestly, +since a renegade Christian returning to the worship of the old gods is +incapacitated by law from making a will. You know this; and when you ask +me why I am content to live alone, without either wife or child--and I +love children, even those of other people--a solitary man dragging out my +days and nights joylessly enough--I tell you: I am openly and honestly a +worshipper of our old gods, and I will not go to church because I scorn +a lie. What should I do with children who, in consequence of my +retractation, must forfeit all I might leave them? It was this question +of inheritance only that induced my father to have us baptized and to +make a pretense of Christianity. He set out for Petra with his Lucretius +in his satchel--I packed it with my own hands into his money-bag--to put +in a claim to supply grain to the 'Rock city.' He was slain on his way. +home; most likely by his servant Anubis, who certainly knew what money he +had with him, and who vanished and left no trace. Because--about the +same time--a band of Saracens had fallen on some Christian anchorites and +travellers, in the district between Petra and Aila, your mother chose to +assume a right to call our father a martyr! But she knew his opinions +full well, I tell you, and shed many a tear over them, too.--Now she has +expended vast sums on church-building, she has opened the Xenodochium and +pours her money by lavish handfuls clown the insatiable throats of monks +and priests. To what end? To have her husband recognized as a martyr. +Hitherto her toil and money have been wasted. In my estimation the +Bishop is a perfectly detestable tyrant, and if I know him at all he will +take all she will give and never grant her wish. Now she is preparing +her great move, and hopes to startle him into compliance by a new marvel. +She thinks that, like a juggler who turns a white egg black, she can turn +a heathen district into a Christian one by a twist of her finger. Well-- +so far as I am concerned I will have nothing to do with the trick." + +During this harangue Marcus had alternately gazed at the floor and fixed +his large eyes in anguish on his brother's face. For some minutes he +found nothing to reply, and he was evidently going through a bitter +mental struggle. Demetrius spoke no more, but arranged the sheets of +papyrus that strewed the table. At length Marcus, after a deep sigh, +broke out in a tone of fervent conviction and with a blissful smile that +lighted up his whole face: + +"Poor mother! And others misunderstand her just as you do; I myself was +in danger of doubting her. But I think that now I understand her +perfectly. She loved my father so completely that she hopes now to win +for his immortal soul the grace which he, in the flesh, neglected to +strive after. He was baptized, so she longs to win, by her prayers and +oblations, the mercy of the Lord who is so ready to forgive. She herself +firmly believes in the martyrdom of her beloved dead, and if only the +Church will rank him among those who have died for Her, he will he saved, +and she will find him standing in the pure radiance of the realms above, +with open arms, overflowing with fervent love and gratitude, to welcome +the faithful helpmate who will have purged his soul. Yes, now I quite +understand; and from this day forth I will aid and second her; the +hardest task shall not be too hard, the best shall not be too good, if +only we may open the gates of Heaven to my poor father's imperilled +soul." + +As he spoke his eye glistened with ecstatic light; his brother, too, was +touched, and to hide his emotion, he exclaimed, more recklessly and +sharply than was his wont: + +"That will come all right, never fear, lad!" But he hastily wiped his +eyes with his hand, slapped Marcus on the shoulder, and added gaily: "It +is better to choke than to swallow down the thing you think right, and it +never hurt a man yet to make a clean breast of his feelings, even if we +do not quite agree we understand each other the better for it. I have my +way of thinking, you have yours; thus we each know what the other means; +but after the tragedy comes the satyr play, and we may as well finish +this agitating evening with an hour's friendly chat." + +So saying Demetrius stretched himself on a divan and invited Marcus to do +the same, and in a few minutes their conversation had turned, as usual, +to the subject of horses. Marcus was full of praises of the stallions +his brother had bred for him, and which he had ridden that very day round +the Myssa--[The Myssa was the Meta, or turning-post]--in the Hippodrome, +and his brother added with no small complacency: + +"They were all bred from the same sire and from the choicest mares. I +broke them in myself, and I only wish.... But why did you not come to +the stables this morning?" + +"I could not," replied Marcus coloring slightly. Then we will go +to-morrow to Nicopolis and I will show you how to get Megaera past the +Taraxippios."--[The terror of the horses.] + +"To-morrow?" said Marcus somewhat embarrassed. "In the morning I must +go to see Eusebius and then. . . ." + +"Well, then?" + +"Then I must--I mean I should like. . . ." + +"What?" + +"Well, to be sure I might, all the same.--But no, it is not to be done--I +have. . . ." + +"What, what?" cried Demetrius with increasing impatience: "My time is +limited and if you start the horses without knowing my way of managing +them they will certainly not do their best. As soon as the market +begins to fill we will set out. We shall need a few hours for the +Hippodrome, then we will dine with Damon, and before dark. . . ." + +"No, no," replied Marcus, "to-morrow, certainly, I positively cannot...." + +"People who have nothing to do always lack time," replied the other. +"Is to-morrow one of your festivals?" + +"No, not that=-and Good Heavens! If only I could. . . ." + +"Could, could!" cried Demetrius angrily and standing close in front of +his brother with his arms folded. "Say out honestly: 'I will not go,' or +else, 'my affairs are my own secret and I mean to keep it.'--But give me +no more of your silly equivocations." + +His vehemence increased the younger man's embarrassment, and as he stood +trying to find an explanation which might come somewhat near the truth +and yet not betray him, Demetrius, who had stood watching him closely, +suddenly exclaimed: + +"By Aphrodite, the daughter of the foam! it is a love affair--an +assignation.--Woman, woman, always woman!" + +"An assignation!" cried Marcus shaking his head. "No indeed, no one +expects me; and yet--I had rather you should misunderstand me than think +that I had lied. Yes--I am going to seek a woman; and if I do not find +her to-morrow, if in the course of tomorrow I do not succeed in my +heart's desire, she is lost--not only to me, though I cannot give up the +heavenly love for the sake of the earthly and fleshly--but to my Lord and +Saviour. It is the life--the everlasting life or death of one of God's +loveliest creatures that hangs on to-morrow's work." + +Demetrius was greatly astonished, and it was with an angry gesture of +impatience that he replied: + +"Again you have overstepped the boundary within which we can possibly +understand each other. In my opinion you are hardly old enough to +undertake the salvation of the imperilled souls of pretty women. Take +care what you are about, youngster! It is safe enough to go into the +water with those who can swim, but those who sink are apt to draw you +down with them. You are a good-looking young fellow, you have money and +fine horses, and there are women enough who are only too ready to spread +their nets abroad. . ." + +"What are you thinking of?" cried Marcus passionately. "It is I who am +the fisher--a fisher of souls, and so every true believer ought to be. +She--she is innocence and simplicity itself, in spite of her roguish +sauciness. But she has fallen into the hands of a reprobate heathen, and +here, where vice prowls about the city like a roaring lion, she will be +lost--lost, if I do not rescue her. Twice have I seen her in my dreams; +once close to the cavern of a raging dragon, and again on the edge of a +precipitous cliff, and each time an angel called out to me and bid me +save her from the jaws of the monster, and from falling into the abyss. +Since then I seem to see her constantly; at meals, when I am in company, +when I am driving,--and I always hear the warning voice of the angel. +And now I feel it a sacred duty to save her--a creature on whom the +Almighty has lavished every gift he ever bestowed on the daughters of +Eve--to lead her into the path of Salvation." + +Demetrius had listened to his brother's enthusiastic speech with growing +anxiety, but he merely shrugged his shoulders and said: + +"I almost envy you your acquaintance with this favorite of the gods; but +you might, it seems to me, postpone the work of salvation. You were away +from Alexandria for half a year, and if she could hold out so long as +that . . ." + +"Do not speak so; you ought not to speak so!" cried Marcus, pressing his +hand on his heart as though in physical pain. "But I have no time to +lose, for I must at once find out where the old singer has taken her. I +am not so inexperienced as you seem to think. He has brought her here to +trade in her beauty, and enrich himself. Why, you, too, saw her on board +ship; I, as you know, had arranged for them to be taken in at my mother's +Xenodochium." + +"Whom?" asked Demetrius folding his hands. + +"The singers whom I brought with me from Ostia. And now they have +disappeared from thence, and Dada . . ." + +"Dada!" cried Demetrius, bursting into a loud laugh without heeding +Marcus who stepped up to him, crimson with rage. "Dada! that little +fair puss! You see her day and night and an angel calls upon you to save +that child's merry soul? You ought to be ashamed of yourself, boy! Why, +what shall I wager now? I will stake this roll of gold that I could make +her come with me to-morrow--with me, a hard-featured countryman, freckled +all over like a plover's egg, where my clothes do not protect my skin, +and with hair on end like the top of a broom--yes, that she will follow +me to Arsinoe or wherever I choose to bid her. Let the hussy go, you +simple innocent. Such a Soul as hers is of small account even in a less +exclusive Heaven than yours is." + +"Take back those words!" cried Marcus, beside himself and clenching his +fist. "But that is just like you! Your impure eyes and heart defile +purity itself, and see spots even in the sun. Nothing is too bad for +a 'singing girl,' I know. But that is just the marrow of the matter; it +is from that very curse that I mean to save her. If you can accuse her +of anything, speak; if not, and if you do not want to appear a base +slanderer in my eyes, take back the words you have just spoken!" + +"Oh! I take them back of course," said Demetrius indifferently. "I know +nothing of your beauty beyond what she has herself said to me and you and +Cynegius and his Secretaries--with her pretty, saucy eyes. But the +language of the eye, they say, is not always to be depended on; so take +it as unsaid. And, if I understood you rightly, you do not even know +where the singers are hiding? If you have no objection, I will help you +to seek them out." + +"That is as you please," answered Marcus hotly. "All your mockery will +not prevent my doing my duty." + +"Very right, very right," said his brother. "Perhaps this damsel is +unlike all the other singing-girls with whom I used so often to spend a +jolly evening in my younger days. Once, at Barca, I saw a white raven-- +but perhaps after all it was only a dove. Your opinion, in this case, is +at any rate better founded than mine, for I never thought twice about the +girl and you did.--But it is late; till to-morrow, Marcus." + +The brothers parted for the night, but when Demetrius found himself alone +he walked up and down the room, shaking his head doubtfully. Presently, +when his body-slave came in to pack for him, he called out crossly: + +"Let that alone--I shall stay in Alexandria a few days longer." + +Marcus could not go to bed; his brother's scorn had shaken his soul to +the foundations. An inward voice told him that his more experienced +senior might be right, but at the same time he hated and contemned +himself for listening to its warnings at all. The curse that rested on +Dada was that of her position; she herself was pure--as pure as a lily, +as pure as the heart of a child, as pure as the blue of her eyes and the +ring of her voice. He would obey the angel's behest! He could and he +must save her! + +In the greatest excitement he went out of the house, through the great +gate, into the Canopic way, and walked on. As he was about to turn down +a side street to go to the lake he found the road stopped by soldiers, +for this street led past the prefect's house where Cynegius, the +Emperor's emissary, was staying; he had come, it was said, to close the +Temples, and the excited populace had gathered outside the building, +during the afternoon, to signify their indignant disapprobation. At +sundown an armed force had been called out and had dispersed the crowd; +but it was by another road that the young Christian at length made his +way to the shore. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +While Marcus was restlessly wandering on the shore of Mareotis, dreaming +of Dada's image and arranging speeches of persuasive eloquence by which +to touch her heart and appeal to her soul, silence had fallen on the +floating home of the singers. A light white mist, like a filmy veil--a +tissue of clouds and moonbeams--hung over the lake. Work was long since +over in the ship-yard, and the huge skeletons of the unfinished ships +threw weird and ghostly shadows on the silvered strand-forms like black +visions of crayfish, centipedes, or enormous spiders. + +From the town there came not a sound; it lay in the silence of +intoxicated sleep. The Roman troops had cleared the streets, the lights +were dead in every house, and in all the alleys and squares; only the +moon shone over the roofs of Alexandria, while the blazing beacon of the +light-house on the north-eastern point of the island of Pharos shone like +a sun through the darkness. + +In a large cabin in the stern of the vessel lay the two girls, on soft +woollen couches and covered with rugs. Agne was gazing wide-eyed into +the darkness; Dada had long been asleep, but she breathed painfully and +her rosy lips were puckered now and then as if she were in some distress. +She was dreaming of the infuriated mob who had snatched the garland from +her hair--she saw Marcus suddenly interfere to protect her and rescue her +from her persecutors--then she thought she had fallen off the gangway +that led from the land to the barge, and was in the water while old Damia +stood on the shore and laughed at her without trying to help her. Night +generally brought the child sound sleep or pleasant dreams, but now one +hideous face after another haunted her. + +And yet the evening had brought her a great pleasure. Not long after +their return from their walk the steward had come down to the boat and +brought her a very beautiful dress, with greetings from his old mistress; +he had at the same time brought an Egyptian slave-woman, well skilled in +all the arts of the toilet, who was to wait upon her so long as she +remained in Alexandria. Dada had never owned such a lovely dress! The +under-robe was of soft sea-green bombyx silk, with a broad border, +delicately embroidered, of a garland of roses and buds. The peplos was +of the same color and decorated to match; costly clasps of mosaic, +representing full-blown roses and set in oval gold settings, fastened it +on the shoulders. In a separate case were a gold girdle, a bracelet, +also of gold, in the shape of a snake, a gold crescent with a rose, like +those on the shoulder-clasps, in its centre, and a metal mirror of +spotless lustre. + +The slave, a middle-aged woman with a dark cunning face, had helped her +to put on this new garment; she had also insisted on dressing her hair, +and all the time had never ceased praising the charms that nature had +bestowed on her young mistress, with the zeal of a lover. + +Agne had looked on smiling, good-naturedly handing the slave the pins and +ribbands she had needed, and sincerely rejoicing in her companion's +beauty and delight. + +At last Dada had made her appearance in the deckroom and was greeted by +many an Ah! and Oh! of admiration from the men of the party, including +Medius, the singer whom Karnis had met in the street. Even Herse, who +had received her quite disagreeably on her return from the city, could +not suppress a smile of kindly approval, though she shook her finger at +her saying: + +"The old lady has set her heart on turning your head completely I see. +All that is very pretty, but all the good it will do will be to rouse +spiteful tongues. Remember, Dada, that you are my sister's child; I +promise you I shall not forget it, and I shall keep my eye upon you." + +Orpheus made haste to light every lamp and taper, of which there were +plenty, for the barge was handsomely furnished, and when Dada was plainly +visible in the brilliant illumination Karnis exclaimed: + +"You look like a senator's daughter! Long live the Fair!" + +She ran up to him and kissed him; but when Orpheus walked all round her, +examining the fineness of the tissue and the artistic finish of the +clasps, and even turned the snake above her round elbow, she sharply bid +him let her be. + +Medius, a man of the age of Karnis who had formerly been his intimate +companion, never took his eyes off the girl, and whispered to the old +musician that Dada would easily carry off the palm for beauty in +Alexandria, and that with such a jewel in his keeping he might recover +wealth and position and by quite honest means. At his suggestion she +then assumed a variety of attitudes; she stood as Hebe, offering nectar +to the gods--as Nausicae, listening to the tale of Odysseus--and as +Sappho, singing to her lyre. The girl was delighted at all this, and +when Medius, who kept close to her, tried to persuade her to perform in a +similar manner in the magical representations at the house of Posidonius, +before a select company of spectators, she clapped her hands exclaiming: + +"You took me all round the city, father, and as your reward I should like +to earn back your pretty vineyards, I should stand like this, you know, +and like this--to be stared at. I only hope I might not be seized with a +sudden impulse to make a face at the audience. But if they did not come +too close I really might . . ." + +"You could do no better than to play the parts that Posidonius might give +you," interrupted Medius. "His audiences like to see good daemons, the +kindly protecting spirits, and so forth. You would have to appear among +clouds behind a transparent veil, and the people would hail you with +acclamations or even raise their hands in adoration." + +All this seemed to Dada perfectly delightful, and she was on the point of +giving her hand to Medius in token of agreement, when her eye caught the +anxious gaze of the young Christian girl who stood before her with a deep +flush on her face. Agne seemed to be blushing for her. The color rushed +to her own cheeks, and shortly saying: "No--after all, I think not," she +turned her back on the old man and threw herself on the cushions close to +where the wine-jug was standing. Medius now began to besiege Karnis and +Herse with arguments, but they refused all his offers as they intended +quitting Alexandria in a few days, so he had no alternative but to +submit. Still, he did not altogether throw up the game, and to win +Dada's consent, at any rate, he made her laugh with a variety of comical +pranks and showed her some ingenious conjuring tricks, and ere long their +floating home echoed with merriment, with the clinking of wine-cups and +with songs, in which even Agne was obliged to take part. Medius did not +leave till near midnight and Herse then sent them all to bed. + +As soon as the slave had undressed her young mistress and left the girls +alone, Dada threw herself into the arms of Agne who was on the point of +getting into bed, and kissed her vehemently, exclaiming: "You are much-- +so much better than I! How is that you always know what is right?" + +Then she lay down; but before she fell asleep she once more spoke to +Agne: "Marcus will find us out, I am certain," she said, "and I should +really like to know what he has to say to me." + +In a few minutes sleep had sealed her eyes, but the Christian girl lay +awake; her thoughts would not rest, and Sleep, who the night before had +taken her to his heart, to-night would not come near her pillow; so much +to agitate and disturb her soul had taken place during the day. + +She had often before now been a silent spectator of the wild rejoicings +of the musician's family, and she had always thought of these light- +hearted creatures as spendthrifts who waste all their substance in a few +days to linger afterwards through years of privation and repentance. +Troubled, as she could not fail to be, as to the eternal salvation of +these lost souls, though happy in her own faith, she had constantly +turned for peace to her Saviour and always found it; but to-night it was +not so, for a new and unexpected temptation had sprung up for her in the +house of Porphyrius. + +She had heard Gorgo sing again, and joined her own voice with hers. +Dirges, yearning hymns, passionate outpourings in praise of the mighty +and beautiful divinity had filled her ear and stirred her soul with an +ecstatic thrill, although she knew that they, were the composition of +heathen poets and had first been sung to the harmony of lutes by +reprobate idolaters. And yet, and yet they had touched her heart, and +moved her soul to rapture, and filled her eyes with tears. + +She could not but confess to herself that she could have given no purer, +sweeter, or loftier expression to her own woes, thankfulness, +aspirations, and hopes of ever lasting life and glory, than this gifted +creature had given to the utterance of her idolatry. Surprise, unrest, +nay, some little jealousy had been mingled with her delight at Gorgo's +singing. How was it that this heathen could feel and utter emotions +which she had always conceived of as the special privilege of the +Christian, and, for her own part, had never felt so fervently as in the +hours when she had drawn closest to her Lord? Were not her own +sentiments the true and right ones; had her intercourse with these +heathens tainted her? + +This doubt disturbed her greatly; it must be based on something more than +mere self-torture, for she had not once thought of asking to whom the +two-part hymn, with its tender appeal, was addressed, when Karnis had +first gone through it with her alone; nor even subsequently, when she had +sung it with Gorgo--timidly at first, more boldly the second time, and +finally without a mistake, but carried completely away by the beauty and +passion of the emotions it expressed. + +She knew now, for Karnis himself had told her. It was the Lament of Isis +for her--lost husband and brother--oh that horrible heathen confusion!-- +The departed Osiris. The wailing widow, who called on him to return with +"the silent speech of tears," was that queen of the idolater's devils +whose shameful worship her father had often spoke of with horror. Still, +this dirge was so true and noble, so penetrated with fervent, agonized +grief, that it had gone to her heart. The sorrowing Mother of God, Mary +herself, might thus have besought the resurrection of her Son; just thus +must the "God-like maid"--as she was called in the Arian confession of +her father--have uttered her grief, her prayers, and her longings. + +But it was all a heathen delusion, all the trickery and jugglery of the +Devil, though she had failed to see through it, and had given herself up +to it, heart and soul. Nay, worse! for after she had learnt that Gorgo +was to represent Isis and she herself Nephthys, the sister of the divine +pair, she had opposed the suggestion but feebly, even though she knew +that they were to sing the hymn together in the Temple of Isis; and when +Gorgo had clasped her in her arms with sisterly kindness, begging her not +to spoil her plans but to oblige her in this, she had not repulsed the +tempter with firm decision, but merely asked for time to think it over. + +How indeed could she have found the heart to refuse the noble girl, whose +beauty and voice had so struck and fascinated her, when she flung her +arms round her neck, looked into her eyes and earnestly besought her: + +"Do it for my sake, to please me. I do not ask you to do anything +wicked. Pure song is acceptable to every god. Think of your lament, if +you like, as being for your own god who suffered on the cross. But I +like singing with you so much; say yes. Do not refuse, for my sake!" + +She had thrown her arms so gladly, so much too gladly round the heathen +lady--for she had a loving heart and no one else had ever made it a +return in kind--and clinging closely to her she had said: + +"As you will; I will do whatever you like." + +Then Orpheus, too, had urged her to oblige Gorgo, and himself, and all of +them; and it had seemed almost impossible to refuse the first request +that the modest youth--to whom she would willingly have granted anything +and everything--had ever made. Still, she had held back; and in her +anxious bewilderment, not daring to think or act, she had tried every +form of excuse and postponement. She would probably have been awkward +enough about this, but Gorgo was content to press her no further, and +when, after leaving the house, she had summoned up courage to refuse to +enter the Temple of Isis, Karnis had only said: "Be thankful that this +gifted lady, the favorite of the Muses, should think you worthy to sing +with her. We will see about the rest by-and-bye." + +Now, in the watches of the sleepless night, she saw clearly the abyss +above which she was standing. She, like Judas, was on the point of +betraying her Saviour; not indeed for money, but in obedience to the +transient sound of an earthly voice, for the pleasure of exercising her +art, to indulge a hastily-formed liking; nay, perhaps because it +satisfied her childish vanity to find herself put on an equality with a +lady of rank and wealth, and matched with a singer who had roused Karnis +and Orpheus to such ardent admiration. + +She was an enigma to herself; while passages out of the Bible crowded on +her memory to reproach her conscience. + +There lay Dada's embroidered dress. Worn for the first time this day, in +a month it would be unpresentably shabby and then, ere long, flung aside +as past wearing. Like this--just like this--was every earthly pleasure, +every joy of this brief existence. Alas, she certainly was not happy +here in Karnis' sense of the word; but in the other world there were joys +eternal, and she had only to deny herself the petty enjoyments of this +life to secure unfailing and everlasting happiness in the next. There +she would find an endless flow of all her soul could desire, there +perhaps she might be allowed to cool the lips of Gorgo, as Lazarus cooled +those of the rich man. + +She was quite clear now what her answer would be to-morrow, and, firmly +resolved not to allow herself to think of singing in the Temple of Isis, +she at last fell asleep just as the light began to dawn in the east. She +did not wake till late, and it was with downcast eyes and set lips that +she went with Karnis and Orpheus to the house of Porphyrius. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +When the steward went to summons the musicians to his master's house he +had again had no bidding for Dada, and she was very indignant at being +left behind. "That old cornsack's daughter," she said, "was full of her +airs, and would have nothing to say to them excepting to make use of them +for her own purposes!" If she had not been afraid of being thought +intrusive she would have acted on old Damia's invitation to visit her +frequently, and have made her appearance, in defiance of Gorgo, dropping +like a shooting-star into the midst of their practising. It never +occurred to her to fancy that the young lady had any personal dislike to +her, for, though she might be ignored and forgotten, who had ever had any +but a kind word for her. At the same time she assumed the right of +feeling that "she could not bear" the haughty Gorgo, and as the party set +out she exclaimed to Agne, "Well, you need not kill her for me, but at +any rate, I send her no greeting; it is a shame that I should be left to +mope alone with Herse. Do not be surprised if you find me turned to a +stark, brown mummy--for we are in Egypt, you know, the land of mummies. +I bequeath my old dress to you, my dear, for I know you would never put +on the new one. If you bewail me as you ought I will visit you in a +dream, and put a sugarplum in your mouth--a cake of ambrosia such as the +gods eat. You are not even leaving me Papias to tease!" + +For in fact Agne's little brother, dressed in a clean garment, was to be +taken to Gorgo who had expressed a wish to see him. + +When they had all left the ship Dada soon betrayed how superficial her +indignation had been; for, presently spying through the window of the +cabin the young cavalry officer's grey-bearded father, she sprang up the +narrow steps--barefoot as she was accustomed to be when at home--and +threw herself on a cushion to lean over the gunwale of the upper deck, +which was shaded by a canvas awning, to watch the ship-yard and the +shore-path. Before she had begun to weary of this occupation the +waiting-slave, who had been up to the house to put various matters in +order, came back to the vessel, and squatting down at her feet was ready +to give her all the information she chose to require. Dada's first +questions naturally related to Gorgo. The young mistress, said the +slave, had already dismissed many suitors, the sons of the greatest +families of Alexandria, and if her suspicions--those of Sachepris, the +slave--were well founded, all for the sake of the old shipbuilder's son, +whom she had known from childhood and who was now an officer in the +Imperial guard. However, as she opined, this attachment could hardly +lead to marriage, since Constantine was a zealous Christian and his +family were immeasurably beneath that of Porphyrius in rank; and though +he had distinguished himself greatly and risen to the grade of Prefect, +Damia, who on all occasions had the casting-vote, had quite other views +for her granddaughter. + +All this excited Dada's sympathies to the highest pitch, but she listened +with even greater attention when her gossip began to speak of Marcus, his +mother, and his brother. In this the Egyptian slave was the tool of old +Damia. She had counted on being questioned about the young Christian, +and as soon as Dada mentioned his name she shuffled on her knees close up +to the girl, laid her hand gently on her arm and looking up into her eyes +with a meaning flash, she whispered in broken Greek--and hastily, for +Herse was bustling about the deck: "Such a pretty mistress, such a young +mistress as you, and kept here like a slave! If the young mistress only +chose she could easily--quite easily--have as good a lover as our Gorgo, +and better; so pretty and so young! And I know some one who would dress +the pretty mistress in red gold and pale pearls and bright jewels, if +sweet Dada only said the word." + +"And why should sweet Dada not say the word?" echoed the girl gaily. +"Who is it that has so many nice things and all for me? You--I shall +never remember your name if I live to be as old as Damia. . . ." + +"Sachepris, Sachepris is my name," said the woman, but call me anything +else you like. The lover I mean is the son of the rich Christian, Mary. +A handsome man, my lord Marcus; and he has horses, such fine horses, and +more gold pieces than the pebbles on the shore there. Sachepris knows +that he has sent out slaves to look for the pretty mistress. Send him a +token--write to my lord Marcus." + +"Write?" laughed Dada. "Girls learn other things in my country; but if +I could--shall I tell you something? I would not write him a line. +Those who want me may seek me!" + +"He is seeking, he is trying to find the pretty mistress," declared the +woman; "he is full of you, quite full of you, and if I dared...." + +"Well?" + +"I would go and say to my lord Marcus, quite in a secret. . . ." + +"Well, what? Speak out, woman." + +"First I would tell him where the pretty mistress is hidden; and then say +that he might hope once--this evening perhaps--he is not far off, he is +quite near this. . . over there; do you see that little white house? +It is a tavern and the host is a freedman attached to the lady Damia, and +for money he would shut his shop up for a day, for a night, for many +days.--Well, and then I would say--shall I tell you all? My lord Marcus +is there, waiting for his pretty mistress, and has brought her dresses +that would make the rose-garment look a rag. You would have gold too, as +much gold as heart can wish. I can take you there, and he will meet you +with open arms." + +"What, this evening?" cried Dada, and the blue veins swelled on her +white forehead. "You hateful, brown serpent! Did Gorgo teach you such +things as this? It is horrible, disgraceful, sickening!" + +So base a proposal was the last thing she would ever have expected from +Marcus--of all men in the world, Marcus, whom she had imagined so good +and pure! She could not believe it; and as her glance met the cunning +glitter of the Egyptian's eyes her own sparkled keenly, and she exclaimed +with a vehemence and decision which her attendant had never suspected in +her: + +"It is deceit and falsehood from beginning to end! Go, woman, I will +hear no more of it. Why should Marcus have come to you since yesterday +if he does not know where I am? You are silent--you will not say?.... +Oh! I understand it all. He--I know he would never have ventured it. +But it is your 'noble lady Damia'--that old woman, who has told you what +to say. You are her echo, and as for Marcus ... Confess, confess at +once, you witch . . ." + +"Sachepris is only a poor slave," said the woman raising her hands in +entreaty. "Sachepris can only obey, and if the pretty mistress were to +tell my lady Damia . . ." + +"It was she then who sent for me to go to the little tavern?" + +The woman nodded. "And Marcus?" + +"If the pretty mistress had consented . . ." + +"Well?" + +"Then--but Great Isis! if you tell of me!" + +"I will not tell; go on." + +"I should have gone to my lord Marcus and invited him, from you . . ." + +"It is shameful!" interrupted Dada, and a shudder ran through her slight +frame. "How cruel, how horrible it is! You--you will stay here till the +others come home and then you will go home to the old woman. I thank the +gods, I have two hands and need no maid to wait upon me! But look there +--what is the meaning of that? That pretty litter has stopped and there +is an old man signing to you." + +"It is the widow Mary's house steward," whined the woman, while Dada +turned pale, wondering what a messenger from Marcus' mother could want +here. + +Herse, who had kept a watchful eye on the landing-plank, on Dada's +account, had also seen the approach of the widow's messenger and +suspected a love-message from Marcus; but she was utterly astounded when +the old man politely but imperiously desired her--Herse to get into the +litter which would convey her to his mistress's house. Was this a trap? +Did he merely want to tempt her from the vessel so as to clear the way +for his young master? No--for he handed her a tablet on which there was +a written message, and she, an Alexandrian, had been well educated and +could read: + +"Mary, the widow of Apelles, to the wife of Karnis, the singer." And +then followed the same urgent request as she had already received by word +of mouth. To reassure herself entirely she called the slave-woman aside, +and asked her whether Phabis was indeed a trust worthy servant of the +widow's. Evidently there was no treason to be apprehended and she must +obey the invitation, though it disturbed her greatly; but she was a +cautious woman, with not only her heart but her brains and tongue in the +right place, and she at once made up her mind what must be done under the +circumstances. While she gave a few decorative touches to her person she +handed the tablet to the waiting-woman, whom she had taken into her own +room, and desired her to carry it at once to her husband, and tell him +whither she had gone, and to beg him to return without delay to take +care of Dada. But what if her husband and son could not come away? The +girl would be left quite alone, and then. . . The picture rose before +her anxious mind of Marcus appearing on the scene and tempting Dada on +shore--of her niece stealing away by herself even, if the young Christian +failed to discover her present residence--loitering alone along the +Canopic way or the Bruclumn, where, at noon, all that was most +disreputable in Alexandria was to be seen at this time of year--she saw, +shuddered, considered--and suddenly thought of an expedient which seemed +to promise an issue from the difficulty. It was nothing new and a +favorite trick among the Egyptians; she had seen is turned to account by +a lame tailor at whose house her father had lodged, when he had to go out +to his customers and leave his young negress wife alone at home. Dada +was lying barefoot on the deck: Herse would hide her shoes. + +She hastily acted on this idea, locking up not only Dada's sandals, but +also Agne's and her own, in the trunk they had saved; a glance at the +slave's feet assured her that hers could be of no use. + +"Not if fire were to break out," thought she, "would my Dada be seen in +the streets with those preposterous things on her pretty little feet." + +When this was done Herse breathed more freely, and as she took leave of +her niece, feeling perhaps that she owed her some little reparation, she +said in an unusually kind tone: + +"Good bye, child. Try to amuse yourself while I am gone. There is +plenty to look at here, and the others will soon be back again. If the +city is fairly quiet this evening we will all go out together, to +Canopus, to eat oysters. Good bye till we meet again, my pet!" She +kissed the child, who looked up at her in astonishment, for her adopted +mother was not usually lavish of such endearments. + +Before long Dada was alone, cooling herself with her new fan and eating +sweetmeats; but she could not cease thinking of the shameful treachery +planned by old Damia, and while she rejoiced to reflect that she had not +fallen into the net, and had seen through the plot, her wrath against the +wicked old woman and Gorgo--whom she could not help including--burnt +within her. Meanwhile she looked about her, expecting to see Marcus, or +perhaps the young officer. Finding it impossible to think any evil of +the young Christian, and having already trusted him so far, her fancy +dwelt on him with particular pleasure; but she was curious, too, about +the prefect, the early love of the proud merchant's daughter. + +Time went on; the sun was high in the heavens, she was tired of staring, +wondering and thinking, and, yawning wearily, she began to consider +whether she would make herself comfortable for a nap, or go down stairs +and fill up the time by dressing herself up in her new garments. +However, before she could do either, the slave returned from her errand +to the house, and a few moments after she espied the young officer +crossing the ship-yard towards the lake; she sat up, set the crescent +straight that she wore in her hair, and waved her fan in a graceful +greeting. + +The cavalry prefect, who knew that, of old, the barge was often used by +Porphyrius' guests, though he did not happen to have heard who were its +present occupants--bowed, with military politeness and precision, to the +pretty girl lounging on the deck. Dada returned the greeting; but this +seemed likely to be the end of their acquaintance, for the soldier walked +on without turning round. He looked handsomer even than he had seemed +the day before; his hair was freshly oiled and curled, his scale-armor +gleamed as brightly, and his crimson tunic was as new and rich as if he +were going at once to guard the Imperial throne. The merchant's daughter +had good taste, but her friend looked no less haughty than herself. Dada +longed to make his acquaintance and find out whether he really had no +eyes for any one but Gorgo. To discover that it was not so, little as +she cared about him personally, would have given her infinite +satisfaction, and she decided that she must put him to the test. But +there was no time to lose, so, as it would hardly do to call after him, +she obeyed a sudden impulse, flung overboard the handsome fan which had +been in her possession but one day, and gave a little cry in which alarm +and regret were most skilfully and naturally expressed. + +This had the wished-for effect. The officer turned round, his eyes met +hers, and Dada leaned far over the boat's side pointing to the water and +exclaiming: + +"It is in the water--it has fallen into the lake!--my fan!" + +The officer again bowed slightly; then he walked from the path down to +the water's edge, while Dada went on more quietly: + +"There, close there! Oh, if only you would! ... + +"I am so fond of the fan, it is so pretty. Do you see, it is quite +obliging? it is floating towards you!" Constantine had soon secured the +fan, and shook it to dry it as he went across the plank to the vessel. +Dada joyfully received it, stroked the feathers smooth, and warmly +thanked its preserver, while he assured her that he only wished he could +have rendered her some greater service. He was then about to retire with +a bow no less distant than before, but he found himself unexpectedly +detained by the Egyptian slave who, placing herself in his way, kissed +the hem of his tunic and exclaimed: + +"What joy for my lord your father and the lady your mother, and for poor +Sachepris! My lord Constantine at home again!" + +"Yes, at home at last," said the soldier in a deep pleasant voice. "Your +old mistress is still hale and hearty? That is well. I am on my way to +the others." + +"They know that you have come," replied the slave. "Glad, they are all +glad. They asked if my lord Constantine forgot old friends." + +"Never, not one!" + +"How long now since my lord Constantine went away--two, three years, and +just the same. Only a cut over the eyes--may the hand wither that gave +the blow!" + +Dada had already observed a broad scar which marked the soldier's brow as +high up as she could see it for the helmet, and she broke in: + +"How can you men like to slash and kill each other? Just think, if that +cut had been only a finger's breadth lower--you would have lost your +eyes, and oh! it is better to be dead than blind. When all the world is +bright not to be able to see it; what must that be! The whole earth in +darkness so that you see nothing--no one; neither the sky, nor the lake, +nor the boat, nor even me." + +"That would indeed be a pity," said the prefect with a laugh and a shrug. + +"A pity!" exclaimed Dada. "As if it were nothing at all! I should find +something else to say than that. It gives me a shudder only to think of +being blind. How dreadfully dull life can be with one's eyes open! so +what must it be when they are of no use and one cannot even look about +one. Do you know that you have done me not one service only, but two at +once?" + +"I?" said the officer. + +"Yes, you. But the second is not yet complete. Sit down awhile, I beg-- +there is a seat. You know it is a fatal omen if a visitor does not sit +down before he leaves.--That is well.--And now, may I ask you: do you +take off your helmet when you go into battle? No.--Then how could a +swordcut hurt your forehead?" + +"In a hand to hand scuffle," said the young man, "everything gets out of +place. One man knocked my helmet off and another gave me this cut in my +face." + +"Where did it happen?" + +"On the Savus, where we defeated Maximus." + +"And had you this same helmet on?" + +"Certainly." + +"Oh! pray let me look at it! I can still see the dent in the metal; how +heavy such a thing must be to wear!" + +Constantine took off his helmet with resigned politeness and put it into +her hands. She weighed it, thought it fearfully heavy, and then lifted +it up to put it on her own fair curls; but this did not seem to please +her new acquaintance, and saying rather shortly: "Allow me--" he took it +from her, set it on his head and rose. + +But Dada pointed eagerly to the seat. + +"No, no," she said, "I have not yet had enough of your second kindness. +I was on the point of death from sheer tedium; then you came, just in +time; and if you want to carry out your work of mercy you must tell me +something about the battle where you were wounded, and who took care of +you afterwards, and whether the women of Pannonia are really as handsome +as they are said to be. . ." + +"I am sorry to say that I have not time," interrupted the officer. +"Sachepris here is far better qualified to amuse you than I; some years +since, at any rate, she lead a wonderful store of tales. I wish you a +pleasant day!" + +And with this farewell greeting, Constantine left the vessel, nor did he +once look back at it or its pretty inhabitant as he made his way towards +the house of Porphyrius. + +Dada as she gazed after him colored with vexation; again she had done a +thing that Herse and--which she regretted still more--that Agne would +certainly disapprove of. The stranger whom she had tried to draw into a +flirtation was a really chivalrous man. Gorgo might be proud of such a +lover; and if now, he were to go to her and tell her, probably with some +annoyance, how provokingly he had been delayed by that pert little +singing-girl, it would be all her own fault. She felt as though there +were something in her which forced her to seem much worse than she really +was, and wished to be. Agne, Marcus, the young soldier--nay, even Gorgo, +were loftier and nobler than she or her people, and she was conscious for +the first time that the dangers from which Marcus had longed to protect +her were not the offspring of his fancy. She could not have found a name +for them, but she understood that she was whirled and tossed through life +from one thing to another, like a leaf before the wind, bereft of every +stay or holdfast, defenceless even against the foolish vagaries of her +own nature. Everyone, thought the girl to herself, distrusted and +suspected her, and, solely because she was one of a family of singers, +dared to insult and dishonor her. A strange spite against Fate, against +her uncle and aunt, against herself even, surged up in her, and with it +a vague longing for another and a better life. + +Thus meditating she looked down into the water, not noticing what was +going on around her, till the slave-woman, addressing her by name, +pointed to a carriage drawn up at the side of the road that divided the +grove of the Temple of Isis from the ship-yard, and which the Egyptian +believed that she recognized as belonging to Marcus. Dada started up and +ran off to the cabin to fetch her shoes, but everything in the shape of a +sandal had vanished, and Herse had been wise when she had looked at those +of the Egyptian, for Dada did the same and would not have hesitated to +borrow them if they had been a little less dirty and clumsy. + +Herse, no doubt, had played her this trick, and it was easy to guess why! +It was only to divert her suspicions that the false woman had been so +affectionate at parting. It was cheating, treachery-cruel and shameful! +She, who had always submitted like a lamb--but this was too much--this +she could not bear--this!... The slave-woman now followed her to desire +her to come up on deck; a new visitor had appeared on the scene, an old +acquaintance and fellow-voyager: Demetrius, Marcus' elder brother. + +At any other time she would have made him gladly welcome, as a companion +and comfort in her solitude; but he had chosen an evil hour for his visit +and his proposals, as the girl's red cheeks and tearful eyes at once told +him. + +He had come to fetch her, cost him what it might, and to carry her away +to his country-home, near Arsinoe on the coast. It was not that he had +any mad desire to make her his own, but that he thought it his most +urgent duty to preserve his inexperienced brother from the danger into +which his foolish passion for the little singing-girl was certain to +plunge him. A purse full of gold, and a necklace of turquoise and +diamonds, which he had purchased from a jeweller in the Jews' quarter for +a sum for which he had often sold a ship-load of corn or a whole cellar +full of wine or oil, were to supplement his proposals; and he went +straight to the point, asking the girl simply and plainly to leave her +friends and accompany him to Arsinoe. When she asked him, in much +astonishment, "What to do there?" he told her he wanted a cheerful +companion; he had taken a fancy to her saucy little nose, and though he +could not flatter himself that he had ever found favor in her eyes he had +brought something with him which she would certainly like, and which +might help him to win her kindness. He was not niggardly, and if this-- +and this--and he displayed the sparkling necklace and laid the purse on +her pillow--could please her she might regard them as an earnest of more, +as much more as she chose, for his pockets were deep. + +Dada did not interrupt him, for the growing indignation with which she +heard him took away her breath. This fresh humiliation was beyond the +bounds of endurance; and when at last she recovered her powers of speech +and action, she flung the purse off the divan, and as it fell clattering +on the floor, she kicked it away as far as possible, as though it were +plague-tainted. Then, standing upright in front of her suitor, she +exclaimed: + +"Shame upon you all! You thought that because I am a poor girl, a +singing-girl, and because you have filthy gold... Your brother Marcus +would never have done such a thing, I am very sure!... And you, a horrid +peasant!. . . If you ever dare set foot on this vessel again, Karnis and +Orpheus shall drive you away as if you were a thief or an assassin! +Eternal Gods! what is it that I have done, that everyone thinks I must be +wicked? Eternal Gods . . ." + +And she burst into loud spasmodic sobs and vanished down the steps that +led below. + +Demetrius called after her in soothing words and tones, but she would not +listen. Then he sent down the slave to beg Dada to grant him a hearing, +but the only answer he received was an order to quit the barge at once. + +He obeyed, and as he picked up the purse he thought to himself: + +"I may buy ship and vineyard back again; but I would send four more +after those if I could undo this luckless deed. If I were a better and +a worthier man, I might not so easily give others credit for being evil +and unworthy." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +The town of Alexandria was stirred to its very foundations. From dawn +till night every centre of public traffic and intercourse was the scene +of hostile meetings between Christians and heathen, with frequent frays +and bloodshed, only stopped by the intervention of the soldiery. Still, +as we see that the trivial round of daily tasks is necessarily fulfilled, +even when the hand of Fate lies heaviest on a household, and that +children cannot forego their play even when their father is stretched on +his death-bed, so the minor interests of individual lives pursued their +course, even in the midst of the general agitation and peril. + +The current of trade and of public business was, of course, checked at +many points, but they never came to a stand-still. The physician visited +the sick, the convalescent made his first attempt, leaning on a friendly +arm, to walk from his bedroom to the "viridarium," and alms were given +and received. Hatred was abroad and rampant, but love held its own, +strengthening old ties and forming new ones. Terror and grief weighed +on thousands of hearts, while some tried to make a profit out of the +prevailing anxiety, and others--many others--went forth, as light-hearted +as ever, in pursuit of pleasure and amusement. + +Horses were ridden and driven in the Hippodrome, and feasts were held in +the pleasure-houses of Canopus, with music and noisy mirth; in the public +gardens round the Paneum cock-fighting and quail-fighting were as popular +as ever, and eager was the betting in new gold or humble copper. Thus +may we see a child, safe on the roof of its father's house, floating its +toy boat on the flood that has drowned them all out; thus might a boy fly +his gaudy kite in the face of a gathering storm; thus does the miser, on +whom death has already laid its bony hand, count his hoarded coin; thus +thoughtless youth dances over the heaving soil at the very foot of +a volcano. What do these care for the common weal? Each has his +separate life and personal interests. What he himself needs or desires +--the greatest or the least--is to him more important and more absorbing +than the requirements of the vast organism in which he is no more than a +drop of blood or the hair of an eyelash. + +Olympius was still in concealment in the house of Porphyrius--Olympius, +whose mind and will had formerly had such imperious hold on the fate of +the city, and to whose nod above half of the inhabitants were still +obedient. Porphyrius and his family shared his views and regarded +themselves as his confederates; but, even among them, the minor details +of life claimed their place, and Gorgo, who entered into the struggle for +the triumph of the old gods, gave but a half-hearted attention to the +great cause to which she was enthusiastically devoted, because a +companion of her childhood, to whose attentions she had every claim, +delayed his visit longer than was kind. + +She had performed her 'Isis' lament the day before with all her heart and +soul, and had urgently claimed Agne's assistance; but to-day, though she +had been singing again and well, she had stopped to listen whenever she +heard a door open in the adjoining room or voices in the garden, and had +sung altogether with so much less feeling and energy than before that +Karnis longed to reprove her sharply enough. This, however, would have +been too indiscreet, so he could only express his annoyance by saying to +his son, in a loud whisper: + +"The most remarkable gifts, you see, and the highest abilities are of no +avail so long as Art and Life are not one and the same--so long as Art is +not the Alpha and Omega of existence, but merely an amusement or a +decoration." + +Agne had been true to herself, and had modestly but steadfastly declared +that she could not possibly enter the temple of Isis, and her refusal had +been accepted quite calmly, and without any argument or controversy. She +had not been able to refuse Gorgo's request that she would repeat to-day +the rehearsal she had gone through yesterday, since, to all appearance, +her cooperation at the festival had been altogether given up. How could +the girl guess that the venerable philosopher, who had listened with +breathless admiration to their joint performance, had taken upon himself +to dissipate her doubts and persuade her into compliance? + +Olympius laid the greatest stress on Agne's assistance, for every one who +clung to the worship of the old gods was to assemble in the sanctuary of +Isis; and the more brilliant and splendid the ceremony could be made the +more would that enthusiasm be fired which, only too soon, would be put to +crucial proof. On quitting the temple the crowd of worshippers, all in +holiday garb, were to pass in front of the Prefect's residence, and if +only they could effect this great march through the city in the right +frame of mind, it might confidently be expected that every one who was +not avowedly Jew or Christian, would join the procession. It would thus +become a demonstration of overwhelming magnitude and Cynegius, the +Emperor's representative, could not fail to see what the feeling was +of the majority of the towns folk, and what it was to drive matters +to extremes and lay hands on the chief temples of such a city. + +To Olympius the orator, grown grey in the exercise of logic and +eloquence, it seemed but a small matter to confute the foolish doubts of +a wilful girl. He would sweep her arguments to the winds as the storm +drives the clouds before it; and any one who had seen the two together-- +the fine old man with the face and front of Zeus, with his thoughtful +brow and broad chest, who could pour forth a flood of eloquence +fascinatingly persuasive or convincingly powerful, and the modest, timid +girl--could not have doubted on which side the victory must be. + +To-day, for the first time, Olympius had found leisure for a prolonged +interview with his old friend Karnis, and while the girls were in the +garden, amusing little Papias by showing him the swans and tame gazelles, +the philosopher had made enquiries as to the Christian girl's history and +then had heard a full account of the old musician's past life. Karnis +felt it as a great favor that his old friend, famous now for his +learning--the leader of his fellow-thinkers in the second city of the +world, the high-priest of Serapis, to whose superior intellect he himself +had bowed even in their student days--should remember his insignificant +person and allow him to give him the history of the vicissitudes which +had reduced him--the learned son of a wealthy house--to the position of a +wandering singer. + +Olympius had been his friend at the time when Karnis, on leaving college, +instead of devoting himself to business and accounts, as his father +wished, had thrown himself into the study of music, and at once +distinguished himself as a singer, lute-player and leader of heathen +choirs. Karnis was in Alexandria when the news reached him of his +father's death. Before quitting the city he married Herse, who was +beneath him alike in birth and in fortune, and who accompanied him on his +return to Tauromenium in Sicily, where he found himself the possessor of +an inheritance of which the extent and importance greatly astonished him. + +At Alexandria he had been far better acquainted with the theatre than +with the Museum or the school of the Serapeum; nay, as an amateur, he had +often sung in the chorus there and acted as deputy for the regular +leader. The theatre in his native town of Tauromenium had also been a +famous one of old, but, at the time of his return, it had sunk to a very +low ebb. Most of the inhabitants of the beautiful city nestling at the +foot off Etna, had been converted to Christianity; among them the wealthy +citizens at whose cost the plays had been performed and the chorus +maintained. Small entertainments were still frequently given, but the +singers and actors had fallen off, and in that fine and spacious theatre +nothing was ever done at all worthy of its past glories. This Karnis +deeply regretted, and with his wonted energy and vigor he soon managed to +win the interest of those of his fellow-citizens who remained faithful to +the old gods and had still some feeling for the music and poetry of the +ancient Greeks, in his plans for their revival. + +His purpose was to make the theatre the centre of a reaction against the +influence of the Christians, by vieing with the Church in its efforts to +win back the renegade heathen and confirming the faithful in their +adhesion. The Greeks of Tauromenium should be reminded from the stage- +boards of the might of the old gods and the glories of their past. To +this end it was needful to restore the ruined theatre, and Karnis, after +advancing the greater part of the money required, was entrusted with the +management. He devoted himself zealously to the task, and soon was so +successful that the plays at Tauromenium, and the musical performances in +its Odeum, attracted the citizens in crowds, and were talked of far and +wide. Such success was of course only purchased at a heavy cost, and in +spite of Herse's warnings, Karnis would never hesitate when the object in +view was the preservation or advancement of his great work. + +Thus passed twenty years; then there came a day when his fine fortune +was exhausted, and a time when the Christian congregation strained every +nerve to deal a death-blow to the abomination of desolation in their +midst. Again and again, and with increasing frequency, there were +sanguinary riots between the Christians who forced their way into the +theatre and the heathen audience, till at last a decree of the Emperor +Theodosius prohibited the performance of heathen plays or music. + +Now, the theatre at Tauromenium, for which Karnis had either given or +advanced his whole inheritance, had ceased to exist, and the usurers who, +when his own fortune was spent, had lent him moneys on the security of +the theatre itself--while it still flourished--or on his personal +security, seized his house and lands and would have cast him into the +debtor's prison if he had not escaped that last disgrace by flight. Some +good friends had rescued his family and helped them to follow him, and +when they rejoined him he had begun his wanderings as a singer. Many a +time had life proved miserable enough; still, be had always remained true +to his art and to the gods of Olympus. + +Olympius had listened to his narrative with many tokens of sympathy and +agreement, and when Karnis, with tears in his eyes, brought his story to +a close, the philosopher laid his hand on his friend's shoulder and +drawing him towards him, exclaimed: + +"Well done, my brave old comrade! We will both be faithful to the same +good cause! You have made sacrifices for it as I have; and we need not +despair yet. If we triumph here our friends in a thousand towns will +begin to look up. The reading of the stars last night, and the auguries +drawn from this morning's victims, portend great changes. What is down +to the ground to-day may float high in the air to-morrow. All the signs +indicate: 'A fall to the Greatest;' and what can be greater than Rome, +the old tyrant queen of the nations? The immediate future, it is true, +can hardly bring the final crash, but it is fraught with important +consequences to us. I dreamed of the fall of the Caesars, and of a great +Greek Empire risen from the ruins, powerful and brilliant under the +special protection of the gods of Olympus; and each one of us must labor +to bring about the realization of this dream. You have set a noble +example of devotion and self-sacrifice, and I thank you in the name of +all those who feel with us--nay, in the name of the gods themselves whom +I serve! The first thing to be done now is to avert the blow which the +Bishop intends shall strike us by the hand of Cynegius--it has already +fallen on the magnificent sanctuary of the Apamaean Zeus. If the +ambassador retires without having gained his purpose the balance will be +greatly--enormously, in our favor, and it will cease to be a folly to +believe in the success of our cause." + +"Ah! teach us to hope once more," cried the musician. "That in itself is +half the victory; still, I cannot see how this delay. . ." + +"It would give us time, and that is what we want,' replied Olympius. +"Everything is in preparation, but nothing is ready. Alexandria, Athens, +Antioch, and Neapolis are to be the centres of the outbreak. The great +Libanius is not a man of action, and even he approves of our scheme. No +less a man than Florentin has undertaken to recruit for our cause among +the heathen officers in the army. Messala, and the great Gothic captains +Fraiut and Generid are ready to fight for the old gods. Our army will +not lack leaders. . ." + +"Our army!" exclaimed Karnis in surprise. "Is the matter so far +advanced?" + +"I mean the army of the future," cried Olympius enthusiastically. "It +does not count a man as yet, but is already distributed into several +legions. The vigor of mind and body--our learned youth on one hand and +strong-armed peasantry on the other--form the nucleus of our force. +Maximus could collect, in the utmost haste, the army which deprived +Gratian of his throne and life, and was within a Hair-breadth of +overthrowing Theodosius; and what was he but an ambitious rebel, and what +tempted his followers but their hopes of a share in the booty? But we-- +we enlist them in the name of the loftiest ideas and warmest desires of +the human heart, and, as the prize of victory, we show them the ancient +faith with freedom of thought--the ancient loveliness of life. The +beings whom the Christians can win over--a patch-work medley of loathsome +Barbarians--let them wear out their lives as they choose! We are Greeks +--the thinking brain, the subtle and sentient soul of the world. The +polity, the empire, that we shall found on the overthrow of Theodosius +and of Rome shall be Hellenic, purely Hellenic. The old national spirit, +which made the Greeks omnipotent against the millions of Darius and +Xerxes, shall live again, and we will keep the Barbarians at a distance +as a Patrician forbids his inferiors to count themselves as belonging to +his illustrious house. The Greek gods, Greek heroism, Greek art and +Greek learning, under our rule shall rise from the dust--all the more +promptly for the stringent oppression under which their indomitable +spirit has so long languished." + +"You speak to my heart!" cried Karnis. "My old blood flows more swiftly +already, and if I only had a thousand talents left to give. . ." + +"You would stake them on the future Greek Empire," said Olympius +eagerly. "And we have adherents without number who feel as you do, +my trusty friend. We shall succeed--as the great Julian would have +succeeded but for the assassins who laid him low at so early an age; +for Rome. . ." + +"Rome is still powerful." + +"Rome is a colossus built up of a thousand blocks; but among them a +hundred and more be but loosely in their places, and are ready to drop +away from the body of the foul monster--sooner rather than later. Our +shout alone will shake them down, and they will fall on our side, we may +choose the best for our own use. Ere long--a few months only--the hosts +will gather in the champaign country at the foot of Vesuvius, by land and +by sea; Rome will open its gates wide to us who bring her back her old +gods; the Senate will proclaim the emperor deposed and the Republic +restored. Theodosius will come out against us. But the Idea for which +we go forth to fight will hover before us, will stir the hearts of those +soldiers and officers who would gladly--ah! how gladly-sacrifice to the +Olympian gods and who only kiss the wounds of the crucified Jew under +compulsion. They will desert from the labarum, which Constantine carried +to victory, to our standards; and those standards are all there, ready +for use; they have been made in this city and are lying hidden in the +house of Apollodorus. Heaven-sent daemons showed them in a vision to my +disciple Ammonius, when he was full of the divinity and lost in ecstasy, +and I have had them made from his instructions." + +"And what do they represent?" + +"The bust of Serapis with the 'modius' on his head. It is framed in a +circle with the signs of the zodiac and the images of the great Olympian +deities. We have given our god the head of Zeus, and the corn-measure on +his head is emblematic of the blessing that the husbandman hopes for. +The zodiac promises us a good star, and the figures representing it are +not the common emblems, but each deeply significant. The Twins, for +instance, are the mariner's divinities, Castor and Pollux; Hercules +stands by the Lion whom he has subdued; and the Fishes are dolphins, +which love music. In the Scales, one holds the cross high in the air +while the other is weighed down by Apollo's laurel-wreath and the bolts +of Zeus; in short, our standard displays everything that is most dear to +the soul of a Greek or that fills him with devotion. Above all, Nike +hovers with the crown of victory. If only fitting leaders are to be +found at the centres of the movement, these standards will at once be +sent out, and with them arms for the country-folk. A place of meeting +has already been selected in each province, the pass-word will be given, +and a day fixed for a general rising." + +"And they will flock round you!" interrupted Karnis, "and--I, my son, +will not be absent. Oh glorious, happy, and triumphant day! Gladly will +I die if only I may first live to see the smoking offerings sending up +their fragrance to the gods before the open doors of every temple in +Greece; see the young men and maidens dancing in rapt enthusiasm to the +sound of lutes and pipes, and joining their voices in the chorus! Then +light will shine once more on the world, then life will once more mean +joy, and death a departure from a scene of bliss." + +"Aye, and thus shall it be!" cried Olympius, fired by this eager +exposition of his own excitement, and he wrung the musician's hand. +"We will restore life to the Greeks and teach them to scorn death as of +yore. Let the Christians, the Barbarians, make life miserable and seek +joy in death, if they list! But the girls have ceased singing. There is +still much to be done to-day, and first of all I must confute the +objections of your recalcitrant pupil." + +"You will not find it an easy task," said Karnis. "Reason is a feeble +weapon in contending with a woman." + +"Not always," replied the philosopher. "But you must know how to use it. +Leave me to deal with the child. There are really no singing-women left +here; we have tried three, but they were all vulgar and ill taught. This +girl, when she sings with Gorgo, has a voice that will go to the heart of +the audience. What we want is to fire the crowd with enthusiasm, and she +will help us to do it." + +"Well, well. But you, Olympius, you who are the very soul of the +revulsion we hope for, you must not be present at the festival. Indeed, +sheltered as you are under Porphyrius' roof, there is a price on your +head, and this house swarms with slaves, who all know you; if one of +them, tempted by filthy lucre . . ." + +"They will not betray me," smiled the philosopher. "They know that their +aged mistress, Damia, and I myself command the daemons of the upper and +lower spheres, and that at a sign from her or from me they would +instantly perish; and even if there were an Ephialtes among them, +a spring through that loop-hole would save me. Be easy, my friend. +Oracles and stars alike foretell me death from another cause than the +treason of a slave." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +Olympius followed Agne into the garden where he found her sitting by the +marble margin of a small pool, giving her little brother pieces of bread +to feed the swans with. He greeted her kindly and, taking up the child, +showed him a ball which rose and fell on the jet of water from the +fountain. Papias was not at all frightened by the big man with his white +beard, for a bright and kindly gleam shone in his eyes, and his voice was +soft and attractive as he asked him whether he had such another ball and +could toss it as cleverly as the fountain did. + +Papias said: "No," and Olympius, turning to Agne, went on: + +"You should get him a ball. There is no better plaything, for play ought +to consist in pleasant exertion which is in itself its object and gain. +Play is the toil of a little child; and a ball, which he can throw and +run after or catch, trains his eye, gives exercise to his limbs and +includes a double moral which men of every age and position should act +upon: To look down on the earth and keep his gaze on the heavens." + +Agne nodded agreement and thanks, while Olympius set the child down and +bid him run away to the paddock where some tame gazelles were kept. +Then, going straight to the point, he said: + +"I hear you have declined to sing in the temple of Isis; you have been +taught to regard the goddess to whom many good men turn in faith and +confidence, as a monster of iniquity, but, tell me, do you know what she +embodies?" + +"No," replied Agne looking down; but she hastily rose from her seat and +added with some spirit: "And I do not want to know, for I am a Christian +and your gods are not mine." + +"Well, well; your beliefs, of course, differ from ours in many points: +still, I fancy that you and I have much in common. We belong to those +who have learnt to 'look upwards'--there goes the ball, up again!--and +who find comfort in doing so. Do you know that many men believe that the +universe was formed by concurrence of mechanical processes and is still +slowly developing, that there is no divinity whose love and power guard, +guide and lend grace to the lives of men?" + +"Oh! yes, I have been obliged to hear many such blasphemous things in +Rome!" + +"And they ran off you like water off the silvery sheen of that swan's +plumage as he dips and raises his neck. Those who deny a God are, in +your estimation, foolish or perhaps abominable?" + +"I pity them, with all my heart." + +"And with very good reason. You are an orphan and what its parents are +to a child the divinity is to every member of the human race. In this +Gorgo, and I, and many others whom you call heathen, feel exactly as you +do; but you--have you ever asked yourself why and how it is that you, to +whom life has been so bitter, have such a perfect conviction that there +is a benevolent divinity who rules the world and your own fate to kindly +ends? Why, in short, do you believe in a God?" + +"I?" said Ague, looking puzzled, but straight into his face. "How could +anything exist without God? You ask such strange questions. All I can +see was created by our Father in Heaven." + +"But there are men born blind who nevertheless believe in Him." + +"They feel Him just as I see Him." + +"Nay you should say: 'As I believe that I see and feel Him.' But I, for +my part, think that the intellect has a right to test what the soul only +divines, and that it must be a real happiness to see this divination +proved by well-founded arguments, and thus transformed to certainty. +Did you ever hear of Plato, the philosopher?" + +"Yes, Karnis often speaks of him when he and Orpheus are discussing +things which I do not understand." + +"Well, Plato, by his intellect, worked out the proof of the problem which +our feelings alone are so capable of apprehending rightly. Listen to me: +If you stand on a spit of land at the entrance to a harbor and see a ship +in the distance sailing towards you--a ship which carefully avoids the +rocks, and makes straight for the shelter of the port--are you not +justified in concluding that there is, on board that ship, a man who +guides and steers it? Certainly. You not only may, but must infer that +it is directed by a pilot. And if you look up at the sky and contemplate +the well-ordered courses of the stars--when you see how everything on +earth, great and small, obeys eternal laws and unerringly tends to +certain preordained ends and issues, you may and must infer the existence +of a ruling hand. Whose then but that of the Great Pilot of the +universe--the Almighty Godhead.--Do you like my illustration?" + +"Very much. But it only proves what I knew before." + +"Nevertheless, you must, I think, be pleased to find it so beautifully +expressed." + +"Certainly." + +"And must admire the wise man who thought out the comparison. Yes?-- +Well, that man again was one of those whom you call heathen, who believed +as we believe, and who at the same time worked out the evidence of the +foundations of his faith for you as well as himself. And we, the later +disciples of Plato--[Known as the school of the Neo-Platonists]--have +gone even further than our master, and in many respects are much nearer +to you Christians than you perhaps suspect. You see at once, of course, +that we are no more inclined than you to conceive of the existence of the +world and the destiny of man as independent of a God? However, I dare +say you still think that your divinity and ours are as far asunder as the +east from the west. But can you tell me where any difference lies?" + +"I do not know," said Ague uneasily. "I am only an ignorant girl; and +who can learn the names even of all your gods?" + +"Very true," said Olympius. "There is great Serapis, whose temple you +saw yesterday; there is Apollo, to whom Karnis prefers to offer +sacrifice; there is Isis the bountiful, and her sister Nephthys, whose +lament you and my young friend sing together so thrillingly; and besides +these there are more immortals than I could name while Gorgo--who is +leading your little brother to the lake out there--walked ten times from +the shore to us and back; and yet--and yet my child, your God is ours and +ours is yours." + +"No, no, He is not, indeed!" cried Agne with increasing alarm. + +"But listen," Olympius went on, with the same kind urgency but with +extreme dignity, "and answer my questions simply and honestly. We are +agreed, are we not?--that we perceive the divinity in the works of his +creation, and even in his workings in our own souls. Then which are the +phenomena of nature in which you discern Him as especially near to you? +You are silent. I see, you have outlived your school-days and do not +choose to answer to an uninvited catechism. And yet the things I wish +you to name are lovely in themselves and dear to your heart; and if only +you did not keep your soft lips so firmly closed, but would give me the +answer I ask for, you would remember much that is grand and beautiful. +You would speak of the pale light of dawn, the tender flush that tinges +the clouds as the glowing day-star rises from the waves, of the splendor +of the sun-as glorious as truth and as warm as divine love. You would +say: In the myriad blossoms that open to the morning, in the dew that +bathes them and covers them with diamonds, in the ripening ears in the +field, in the swelling fruit on the trees--in all these I see the mercy +and wisdom of the divinity. I feel his infinite greatness as I gaze on +the wide expanse of deep blue sea; it comes home to me at night when I +lift my eyes to the skies and see the sparkling hosts of stars roll over +my head. Who created that countless multitude, who guides them so that +they glide past in glorious harmony, and rise and set, accurately timed +to minutes and seconds, silent but full of meaning, immeasurably distant +and yet closely linked with the fate of individual men?--All this bears +witness to the existence of a God, and as you contemplate it and admire +it with thankful emotion, you feel yourself drawn near to the Omnipotent. +Aye, and even if you were deaf and blind, and lay bound and fettered in +the gloom of a closely-shut cavern, you still could feel if love and pity +and hope touched your heart. Rejoice then, child! for the immortals have +endowed you with good gifts, and granted you sound senses by which to +enjoy the beauty of creation. You exercise an art which binds you to the +divinity like a bridge; when you give utterance to your whole soul in +song that divinity itself speaks through you, and when you hear noble +music its voice appeals to your ear. All round you and within you, you +can recognize its power just as we feel it--everywhere and at all times. + +"And this incomprehensible, infinite, unfettered, bountiful and +infallibly wise Power, which penetrates and permeates the life of the +universe as it does the hearts of men, though called by different names +in different lands, is the same to every race, wherever it may dwell, +whatever its language or its beliefs. You Christians call him the +Heavenly Father, we give him the name of the Primal One. To you, too, +your God speaks in the surging seas, the waving corn, the pure light of +day; you, too, regard music which enchants your heart, and love which +draws man to man, as his gifts; and we go only a step further, giving a +special name to each phenomenon of nature, and each lofty emotion of the +soul in which we recognize the direct influence of the Most High; calling +the sea Poseidon, the corn-field Demeter, the charm of music Apollo, and +the rapture of love Eros. When you see us offering sacrifice at the foot +of a marble image you must not suppose that the lifeless, perishable +stone is the object of our adoration. The god does not descend to inform +the statue; but the statue is made after the Idea figured forth by the +divinity it is intended to represent; and through that Idea the image is +as intimately connected with the Godhead, as, by the bond of Soul, +everything else that is manifest to our senses is connected with the +phenomena of the supersensuous World. But this is beyond you; it will be +enough for you if I assure you that the statue of Demeter, with the sheaf +in her arms, is only intended to remind us to be grateful to the Divinity +for our daily bread--a hymn of praise to Apollo expresses our thanks to +the Primal One for the wings of music and song, on which our soul is +borne upwards till it feels the very presence of the Most High. These +are names, mere names that divide us; but if you were called anything +else than Agne--Ismene, for instance, or Eudoxia--would you be at all +different from what you are?--There you see--no, stay where you are--you +must listen while I tell you that Isis, the much--maligned Isis, is +nothing and represents nothing but the kindly influences of the Divinity, +on nature and on human life. What she embodies to us is the abstraction +which you call the loving-kindness of the Father, revealed in his +manifold gifts, wherever we turn our eyes. The image of Isis reminds us +of the lavish bounties of the Creator, just as you are reminded by the +cross, the fish, and the lamb, of your Redeemer. Isis is the earth from +whose maternal bosom the creative God brings forth food and comfort for +man and beast; she is the tender yearning which He implants in the hearts +of the lover and the beloved one; she is the bond of affection which +unites husband and wife, brother and sister, which is rapture to the +mother with a child at her breast and makes her ready and able for any +sacrifice for the darling she has brought into the world. She shines, a +star in the midnight sky, giving comfort to the sorrowing heart; she, who +has languished in grief, pours balm into the wounded souls of the +desolate and bereaved, and gives health and refreshment to the suffering. +When nature pines in winter cold or in summer drought and lacks power to +revive, when the sun is darkened, when lies and evil instincts alienate +the soul from its pure first cause, then Isis uplifts her complaint, +calling on her husband, Osiris, to return, to take her once more in his +arms and fill her with new powers, to show the benevolence of God once +more to the earth and to us men. You have learnt that lament; and when +you sing it at her festival, picture yourself as standing with the Mother +of Sorrows--the mother of your crucified divinity, by his open grave, and +cry to your God that he may let him rise from the dead." + +Olympius spoke the last words with excited enthusiasm as though he were +certain of the young girl's consent; but the effect was not what he +counted on; for Agne, who had listened to him, so far, with increasing +agitation, setting herself against his arguments like a bird under the +fascinating glare of the snake's eye, at this last address seemed +suddenly to shake off the spell of his seductive eloquence as the leaves +drop from the crown of a tree shaken by the blast; the ideas of her +Saviour and of the hymn she was to sing were utterly irreconcilable in +her mind; she remembered the struggle she had fought out during the +night, and the determination with which she had come to the house this +morning. All the insidious language she had just heard was forgotten, +swept away like dust from a rocky path, and her voice was firmly +repellent as she said: + +"Your Isis has nothing in common with the Mother of our God, and how can +you dare to compare your Osiris with the Lord who redeemed the world from +death?" + +Olympius, startled at the decision of her tone, rose from his seat, but +he went on, as though he had expected this refusal: + +"I will tell you--I will show you. Osiris--we will take him as being an +Egyptian god, instead of Serapis in whose mysterious attributes you would +find much to commend itself even to a Christian soul--Osiris, like your +Master, voluntarily passed through death--to redeem the world from death +--in this resembling your Christ. He, the Risen One, gives new light, +and life, and blossom, and verdure to all that is darkened, dead and +withered. All that seems to have fallen a prey to death is, by him, +restored to a more beautiful existence; he, who has risen again, can +bring even the departed soul to a resurrection; and when during this life +its high aims have kept it unspotted by the dust of the sensual life, and +he, as the judge, sees that it has preserved itself worthy of its pure +First Cause, he allows it to return to the eternal and supreme Spirit +whence it originally proceeded. + +"And do not you, too, strive after purification, to the end that your +soul may find an everlasting home in the radiant realms? Again and again +do we meet with the same ideas, only they bear different forms and +names. Try to feel the true bearing of my words, and then you will +gladly join in the pathetic appeal to the sublime god to return. How +like he is to your Lord! Is he not, like your Christ, a Saviour, and +risen from the dead? The Temple or the Church--both are the sanctuaries +of the Deity. By the ivy-wreathed altar of the weeping goddess, at the +foot of the tall cypresses which cast their mysterious shadows on the +snowy whiteness of the marble steps on which lies the bier of the god, +you will feel the sacred awe which falls upon every pure soul when it is +conscious of the presence of the Deity--call Him what you will. + +"Isis, whom you now know, and who is neither more nor less than a +personification of divine mercy, will make you a return by restoring you +to the freedom for which you pine. She will allow you to find a home in +some Christian house through our intervention, in acknowledgment of the +pious service you are rendering, not to her but to the faith in divine +goodness. There you may live with your little brother, as free as +heart can desire. To-morrow you will go with Gorgo to the temple of the +goddess . . ." + +But Agne broke in on his speech: "No, I will not go with her!" + +Her cheeks were scarlet and her breath came short and fast with +excitement as she went on: + +"I will not, I must not, I cannot! Do what you will with me: sell me and +my brother, put us to turn a mill--but I will not sing in the temple!" + +Olympius knit his brows; his beard quivered and his lips parted in wrath, +but he controlled himself and going close to the girl he laid his hand on +her shoulder and said in a deep grave tone of fatherly admonition: + +"Reflect, child, pause; think over what I have been saying to you; +remember, too, what you owe the little one you love, and to-morrow +morning tell us that you have duly weighed your answer. Give me your +hand, my daughter; believe me, Olympius is one of your sincerest well- +wishers." + +He turned his back on her and was going in doors. In front of the house +Porphyrius and Karnis were standing in eager colloquy. The news that +Marcus' mother Mary had sent for Herse had reached the singer, and his +vivid fancy painted his wife as surrounded by a thousand perils, +threatened by the widow, and carried before the judges. The merchant +advised him to wait and see what came of it, as did Damia and Gorgo who +were attracted to the spot by the vehemence of the discussion; but Karnis +would not be detained, and he and Orpheus hurried off to the rescue. +Thus Agne was left alone in the garden with her little brother, and +perceiving that no one paid any further attention to their proceedings, +she fell on her knees, clasped the child closely to her and whispered: + +"Pray with me, Papias; pray, pray that the Lord will protect us, and that +we may not be turned out of the way that leads us to our parents! Pray, +as I do!" + +For a minute she remained prostrate with the child by her side. Then, +rising quickly, she took him by the hand and led him in almost breathless +haste through the garden-gate out into the road, bending her steps +towards the lake and then down the first turning that led to the city. + + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +People who have nothing to do always lack time +Perish all those who do not think as we do +Reason is a feeble weapon in contending with a woman +Words that sounded kindly, but with a cold, unloving heart + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SERAPIS, BY GEORG EBERS, V2 *** + +******** This file should be named 5502.txt or 5502.zip ******** + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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