Saul Of Tarsus Part 65

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"Thou, Vasti! The Lord G.o.d be praised! What news?"

The woman felt her way to the voice, and, encountering the alabarch's outstretched hands, began at once, in a whisper:

"I have come, but not to abide," she said. "The Nazarenes took Lydia, and fled with her unto Judea!"

"Unto Judea! Away from me?" the alabarch said piteously.

"Nay, but Egypt hath risen against her. The Roman hath put forth all his soldiery to look for her. If she remained in Alexandria she would surely die!"

The alabarch moaned. The last of his fort.i.tude had gone with Lydia, and helpless, disgraced and old, he was beginning to surrender. The bayadere put her hands on him.

"Be of hope," she insisted, "for the white brother departed at sunset to seek for her, and to get protection from the Herod!"

"Judea!" the alabarch repeated miserably. "There she entereth into equal danger, for there it is death to be a Nazarene!"

"But the white brother is sworn to kill the leader of the persecution,"

she said grimly. "Speed him with thy prayers, for he is weighted with no little mission. I come unto thee with cheer. Listen, and be of hope! The city of the Jews, here, is all but destroyed, but I buried thy moneys, thy drafts, thy money-papers and thy jewels. Though they burn thy house, thou art still rich!"

"Buried them?" he repeated.

"In the earth of thy court-yard, ere the Herod departed, for the flame on the altar of Mahadeva burned crimson and murky! And I took certain of thy moneys and gave them to certain of the Nazarenes and bade them be prepared to care for her, who had cared for them! They went unto the Synagogue! They rescued her from the stone, after the sending of Vishnu upon the rabble! They went unto Judea with her--and I, Vasti, I did it, as Khosru, the Mahatma, bade!"

"Be thou blessed, Vasti; blessed be the day that I held up the hand that would have fallen on thee, in the markets of Sind!

But--but--Marsyas--what manner of vessel carryeth him? How long!

Alas, how wide the sea!"

"But the vengeance of the Divine hand is loosed! Sawest thou the destruction of the host, before thy people's Temple? The bay was black with them this morning and the vultures come even from Libya. Knowest thou the evil mouth that spread sayings against Lydia? I was in the city and beheld it! It was the charioteer, Eutychus! Him I kept in my sight, while I ran at the forefront of the riot with the white brother, and when we stood upon the rock, I saw him! This morning, I sought for him before the Synagogue, and I found him!"

She brought her teeth together with a click.

"I burned incense for the purification of the fire, straightway," she said sententiously.

"Canst thou endure?" she asked after a silence.

"All--so that Lydia be saved!"

"Thy spirit may be tried," she said. "The Roman hath commanded that ye be pent here until Lydia is found, believing that imprisonment and hunger and torture may persuade the Jews to give her up if she be hid among them. But I shall come to thee with comforts and such tidings as I may learn."

She touched his hands to her forehead and moved away, calling back:

"The time is not long; the Jewish king will not lag in his own requital! Be a.s.sured! I abide without these lines, since I can not help thee within! Farewell!"

At the door she stopped, but, reconsidering her impulse, went out without speaking.

"It would not be seemly to tell, now, that I saw Cla.s.sicus' green and gold garment exposed in a usurer's shop."

A sand-column pa.s.sed before the wind, by the sentry at the upper end of the street; but he did not attempt to halt it.

CHAPTER x.x.xV

THE APPROACH OF THE DAY OF VISITATION

Marsyas sought through the Nazarene settlements in Joppa, Anthedon and Caesarea, but the people could not tell him of fugitive Alexandrians, who had with them a maid with yellow-brown hair. He went then to Ptolemais, and there, after days of patient search, discovered that three strange women, two men and a maiden of gentle blood, who were children in Christ, has pa.s.sed through the city, from Alexandria to Jerusalem.

He did not pause to inquire after his former master, Peter the usurer, nor Eleazar, his steward. Instead he took the road, over which he and Agrippa had come long before, and hastened toward the City of David.

Within sight of the Tower of Hippicus, and the glittering Glory on the summit of Moriah, he came upon a group, in abas and talliths, sitting on the soil while they ate. He would have pa.s.sed around them, without speaking, had he not seen the elder among them lift his hands and beseech the blessing of Christ upon the bread and water set before them.

Marsyas stopped, and waited with as much grace as possible until the meal was finished and the Nazarene thanks returned, before he approached.

"I behold that ye offer supplication to the Nazarene Prophet," he said to the elder, "and though I come unto you a faithful follower of the G.o.d of Abraham, I pray you, remember the charity ye a.s.sume, and give me aid!"

"We are children of Christ," the elder responded, "and brethren to all; wherefore speak, and if we can help thee, we dare not deny thee."

"I perceive that a bond of common acquaintance unites all of your belief; perchance certain Alexandrian Nazarenes with a maiden, who fled hither from the wrath of the Proconsul of Egypt, have come unto you for hospitality in Jerusalem."

"Save for the few apostles of the Church in Christ, who have hidden themselves, there are no Nazarenes in Jerusalem," the elder answered.

"No Nazarenes in Jerusalem!" Marsyas exclaimed, remembering Eleazar's estimation of the host of schism in the Holy City. "Yet, two years ago, they possessed the city from Ophlas to Bezetha."

"They have been scattered into far cities by the oppressor, or have pa.s.sed through the dust of the stoning-place into the Kingdom of G.o.d!"

he answered in awed tones.

The young man made a gesture as if he drew his hands quickly away from blood-stains, and a look of intense horror pa.s.sed over his face.

"And Saul continueth to rage, unchecked?" he exclaimed, his old impatience with the pa.s.sivity of the Nazarenes making itself felt once more.

"In the Lord's time, in the Lord's time, my son," the elder said mildly.

"I can not wait upon the Lord!" Marsyas cried. "The Lord gave me heart, feeling, intelligence and invention, for me to use to mine own aid! I have labored for two years to this end, and Herod, the king, will help me!"

"Not so, my son!" the Nazarene said gravely. "Build no hope for us, upon Herod the king, for he hath joined himself with the Pharisees, and he will not hinder the oppressor!"

"What?" Marsyas cried, growing black.

"A truth, my son!"

"But I crowned him!" Marsyas cried, clenching his hands. "I held off the hand of death from him, and despoiled my soul for his sake! I sold myself for him! By the Lord, if he help me not, I shall have back the life that I preserved to him!"

The Nazarene crossed himself quickly, and shook his head.

"Peace! Peace! young brother. Even the Law, for which thou art zealous, forbids thee to kill! Behold the vanity of laying up confidence in man! If thou hadst so built for the Master's favor, thou hadst not been forsaken, to-day!"

"Neither the G.o.d of Abraham, nor thy Prophet has s.h.i.+elded thee from the oppressor," he declared pa.s.sionately. "Remember thy own words. But I will bring him down!"