Saul Of Tarsus Part 19

"And perchance," Agrippa broke in, "it might disturb Alexandria again to know that the proconsul had entertained Jews!"

"Still furious!" Flaccus cried jocosely. "Oh, where is that elastic temper which made thee famous in youth, Herod? But here are our curricles; at least thou wilt permit me to conduct thy party to the alabarch's."

It was the bluff courtesy of a man who a.s.sumes polish for necessity's sake, and suddenly envelopes himself with it, momentarily for a purpose. Agrippa, looking up from under his brows, glanced critically at the proconsul's face for some light on his unwonted amiability, but, failing to discover it, submitted with better grace to the Roman's offers.

The proconsul was near Agrippa's age, and on his face and figure was the stamp of unalloyed Roman blood. He was of average height, but so solidly built as to appear short. His head was round and covered with close, black curls; his brows were straight thick lines which met over his nose, and his beardless face was molded with strong muscles on the purple cheek and chin. He was powerful in neck and arm and leg, and prominent in chest and under-jaw. Yet the brute force that published itself in all his atmosphere was dominated by intellect and giant capabilities.

He was Flaccus Avillus, Proconsul of Egypt, finis.h.i.+ng now his fourth year as viceroy over the Nile valley. One of the few who stood in the wintry favor of Tiberius, the imperial misanthrope of Capri, his was the weightiest portfolio in all colonial affairs; his state little less than Caesar's.

Wherever he walked, industry, pleasure and humankind, low or lofty, stood still to do him honor. So, when he headed a procession of curricles and chariots up from the wharves of Alexandria, he did not go unseen. Many of the late disturbers watched with strained eyes and gaping mouths and saw him turn his horses into the street which was the first in the Regio Judaeorum, and not a few stared at one another and babbled, or pointed taut or shaking fingers at the prodigy. Flaccus, the most notorious persecutor of the Jews among the long list of Egyptian governors, was visiting the Regio Judaeorum escorting Jews!

The sight created no less wonder and astonishment under the eaves of the Jewish houses, and throughout their narrow pa.s.sages, but there was no demonstration. Each retired quietly to his family, or to his neighbor, and gravely asked what new trickery was this.

But Agrippa's party, following their conductor, proceeded through the less densely settled portion of the quarter into a district where the streets opened up into a stately avenue, lined by the palaces of the aristocratic Jews of Alexandria.

Before one, not in the least different from half a dozen surrounding it, their guide halted. The residence was square, with an unbroken front, except for a porch, the single attribute characteristic of Egypt, and the window arches and parapet relieved the somber masonry with checkered stone. The flight of steps leading up to the porch was of white marble.

One of the proconsul's apparitors knocked and stiffly announced his mission to the Jewish porter that answered. Immediately the master of the house came forth, followed by a number of servants to take charge of the prince's effects.

The master of the house, Alexander Lysimachus, alabarch of Alexandria, was a Jew by feature and by dress, but sufficiently Romanized in disposition to propitiate Rome. He wore a cloak, richly embroidered, over a long white under-robe; and the magisterial tarboosh, with a bandeau of gold braid, was set down over his fine white hair. His figure was lean and aged, a little bent, but every motion was as steady as that of a young man, and his air had that certain ease and grace which mark the courtier.

His first quick glance sought Flaccus, for the visit was without precedent and highly significant. But there was neither hauteur nor suspicion in his manner. The bluff countenance of the proconsul showed a little expectancy, but there was even less to be seen on the Jew's face that should betray his interpretation of the visit. The magistrates bowed, each after his own manner of salutation--the Jew with oriental grace, the Roman with an offhand upward jerk of his head and a gesture of his mailed hand.

"Behold your guests, Lysimachus," Flaccus said, "or what is left of them after an encounter with the rabble at the wharf. You should have been there to meet them."

"So I should, had I been forewarned," the alabarch explained, the peculiar music of the Jewish intonation showing in mellow contrast to the Roman's blunt voice. "What! Is this how the accursed vermin have used you!"

He put out his old waxen hands to the prince and searched his face.

"O thou son of Berenice!" he said softly. "Welcome to the wors.h.i.+ping hearts of Jews, once more."

"Thanks," replied Agrippa, embracing the old man. "My latest adventure with Gentiles has well-nigh persuaded me to remain there!"

"G.o.d grant it; G.o.d grant it! And thy princess?"

Cypros had uncovered her face and was reaching him her hands.

"Mariamne!" he exclaimed in a startled way. "Mariamne, as I live!"

Flaccus, who had fixed his eyes on Cypros the instant her veil was lifted, started.

"Mariamne! The murdered Mariamne!" he repeated.

"Ah, sir!" the alabarch protested, smiling. "Thou wast not born then.

But I knew her: as a young man I knew her! But enter, enter! Pray favor us with thy presence at supper, n.o.ble Flaccus. It shall be an evening of festivity."

He led them through a hall so dimly lighted as to appear dark after the daylight without, and into one of the n.o.ble chambers characteristic of the opulent Orient. The whole interior was lined with yellow marble, and the polish of the pavement was mirror-like. The lattice of the windows, the lamps, the coffers of the alabarch's records, the layers for the palms and plantain, the clawed feet of the great divan were all of hammered bra.s.s. The drapery at arch and cas.e.m.e.nt, the cus.h.i.+ons and covering of the divan were white and yellow silk, and, besides a sprawling tiger skin on the floor, the alabarch's chair of authority, and a table of white wood, there was no other furniture.

The alabarch gave Flaccus his magistrate's chair, and, seating his two n.o.ble guests and their children, clapped his hands in summons.

A brown woman, with eyes like chrysolite and the lithe movements of a panther, was instantly at his elbow.

The alabarch spoke to her in a strange tongue, and the servant disappeared.

"I send for my daughter," he explained to his guests. "The waiting-woman does not understand our tongue. My daughter--the only one I have, and unmarried!"

"I remember her," Agrippa said with a smile.

At that moment in the archway leading into the interior of the house a girl appeared. She lifted her eyes to her father's face, and between them pa.s.sed the mute evidence of dependence and vital attachment.

She wore the cla.s.sic Greek chiton of white wool without relief of color or ornament, a garb which, by its simplicity, intensified the first impression that it was a child that stood in the archway. She was a little below average height, with almost infantile shortening of curves in her pretty, stanch outlines. But the suppleness of waist and the exquisite modeling of throat and wrist were signs that proved her to be of mature years.

Her hair was of that intermediate tint of yellow-brown which in adult years would be dark. It fell in girlish freedom, rough with curls, a little below her shoulders. There was a boyishness in the n.o.ble breadth of her forehead, full of front, serene almost to seriousness, and marked by delicate black brows too level to be ideally feminine.

Her eyes were not prominent but finely set under the shading brow, large of iris, like a child's, and fair brown in color. In their scrutiny was not only the wisdom of years but the penetration of a sage. Though her tips were not full they were perfectly cut, and redder than the heart of any pomegranate that grew in the alabarch's garden.

But it was not these certain signs of strength which engaged Agrippa.

Beyond the single glance to note how much the girl had developed in four years he gave his attention to certain physical characteristics which called upon his long experience with women to catalogue.

As she stood in the archway, the prince had let his glance slip down to her feet, shod in white sandals, and her ankles laced about with white ribbon. One small foot upbore her weight, the other unconsciously, but most daintily, poised on a toe. She swayed once with indescribable lightness, but afterward stood balanced with such preparedness of young sinew that at a motion she could have moved in any direction. Foremost in summing these things, Agrippa observed that she was wholly unconscious of how she stood.

"Terpsich.o.r.e!" he said to himself, "or else the G.o.ddess hath withdrawn the gift of dancing from the earth!"

"Enter, Lydia, and know the proconsul, the n.o.ble Flaccus," the alabarch said. The girl raised her eyes to the proconsul's face and salaamed with enchanting grace. Flaccus checked a fatherly smile. He would wait before he patronized a girl-child of uncertain age.

"And this," the alabarch went on, "thou wilt remember as our prince, Herod Agrippa."

"Alas! sweet Lydia," Agrippa said, fixing soft eyes upon her. "Must I be introduced? Am I in four years forgotten?"

"No, good my lord," she answered in a voice that was mellow with the music of womanhood--a voice that almost startled with its abated strength and richness, since the illusion of her youth was hard to shake off, "thou art identified by thy sweet lady!"

Agrippa stroked his smooth chin and Flaccus shot an amused glance at him. Meanwhile the girl had opened her arms to Cypros. The children, one by one, greeted her. The alabarch went on.

"My sons are no longer with us," he said. "They are abroad in the world, preparing themselves to be greater men than their father. But go, be refreshed; it shall be an evening of rejoicing. Lydia, be my right hand and give my guests comfort."

He bowed the Herod and his family out of the chamber and they followed the girl to various apartments for rest and change of raiment.

The alabarch turned to the proconsul.

"If thou wilt follow me, sir--"

"No; I thank thee; I shall return to my house and prepare for thy hospitality. But tell me this: what does Agrippa here?"

"He comes to borrow money, I believe."

"Of you?"

"Doubtless."