Felicitas Part 13

"Why dost thou think me dead?" asked Johannes, regarding his disturbed countenance with a soul-piercing look.

"Not I--not I--but the Tribune wished"----

"I imagined so! What seekest thou here?"

"Safety! safety!" stammered the usurer; he again thought only of the danger that was following his steps. "My slaves! All the slaves have revolted. The Judge's house is in flames."

Then a bright light as of fire shone through the open windows of the church, and arms clashed in the distance.

"Hearest thou? They are seeking me! They come! Save me! Cover me with thy body. Here, all this gold"--he threw the heavy bag on the altar, it burst and single gold pieces ran clinking over the steps on to the marble pavement. "Alas! it escapes from me faithlessly! All this gold--or the half--no--all, the whole will I give thee--no, not to _thee_. I know thou wilt devote it to St. Peter, to thy church, to the poor--only save me!"

And he threw himself at the priest's feet, carefully concealing the little purse of jewels in his bosom.

Johannes raised him.

"I _will_ save thee!--for Christ's sake, not for the sake of the gold."

"Thou wilt stay with me," cried Zeno with rising hope.

"That I cannot do. My place at this hour is on the battle-field, to attend on the wounded. My brethren I have already sent out. I was only deriving strength from a last prayer."

"No, no, I will not let thee go!" cried Zeno, clinging to him.

But, with unlooked-for strength, Johannes freed himself.

"I must, I tell thee. The Lord calls me. Perhaps I may even check the slaughter. But thou--thy cruelty has so enraged the unhappy creatures, that some of them would not be restrained by the altar--by my intercession"----

"Yes, yes!" agreed Zeno.

He thought of Keix, the mad bull.

"Thou shalt be hidden where no one but G.o.d the Lord can find thee. See here!"

With these words he stooped down and raised a slab of the marble flooring near the altar; a short ladder was visible, which led into a dark, tolerably s.p.a.cious vault.

"Go down there. No one but myself knows of this old cave. Wait till I fetch thee out; I will come as soon as the danger is over."

"But if--and if"----

"Thou meanest if I lose my life? See, thus can the roof-stone be lifted from below. Hasten!"

"It horrifies me--to be buried alive! Are the bones of the dead--skeletons----Pardon; are there relics in the vault?"

"Fear thou henceforth the living G.o.d, not dead men. Here, take the oil-lamp; and now away! Hearest thou? The tumult presses nearer."

Then Zeno sprang down, lamp in hand. Johannes seized the money-bag, and threw it in after him; the miser noticed with agony that the priest had first taken out a handful of solidi. He replaced the stone, and then strewed the gold pieces from the princ.i.p.al door, of the church (which he bolted on the inside) up to the altar, and from there as far as, and over, the threshold of the door which led from the church into his own house. He then hastened through this door, and out of his house into the open air.

After a few minutes, Zeno heard, with a despairing heart, furious axe-blows thundering on the great door of the church.

It burst open and a great crowd of men--to judge from the voices and footsteps--crushed in. Zeno held his breath in an agony of fear; he pressed his ear to the slab, in order to hear better. He perceived first the voice of a woman.

"Do not kill him in the church!--in the sanctuary of the saints! He scourged me almost to death, and killed my child. But do not kill him in the church. Honour the house of the eternal G.o.d!"

"Rather in the house of G.o.d than in the house of the good Johannes!"

said another voice.

"It is sanctuary only on the altar, not in the whole church!" cried a third. But then Zeno heard the terrible Keix scream out:

"At the feet of the Father in heaven would I strangle him! He has at the last murdered my old father, who had entreated me to spare the monster. When I would not yield, he stole from my side. I found him again when we had broken open the villain's door, and his dagger was in my father's neck. I could murder him seven times."

"Once is enough," said Kottys, "if we murder him as slowly as we have killed my master. Mucius the Judge we have burnt alive in the flames of his own house."

"Halt! Look here, brother Kottys; this is the track of the fugitive.

The wounded hyena sweats blood; the fleeing miser sweats gold. See here! at the portal it begins: then he is inside--has drawn the bolt behind him--here, past the altar has he run; and there--through that door into the priest's house! There he must be hidden. After him!"

"After him! Down with him!" roared the whole mob, and ran with rambling steps across the slab over Zeno's head, away into the adjoining house.

The miser, senseless with fright, had crept back into the farthest corner; long cowered he there; cold sweat ran from his brow.

But all remained quiet, the last sound died away; the pursuers had, after searching the priest's house, poured out into the street.

He said to himself: "The Tribune will soon observe the conflagration, and the uproar in the town. He has already repeatedly subdued such riots. With his lancers he will in a few hours re-establish order."

Thus presence of mind and a certain courage slowly returned to him.

By the light of the oil-lamp, he now looked around him in the cellar-like vault.

He stumbled against a chest. A strange curiosity, mixed with dread, impelled him irresistibly to open it; perhaps here the sly old fellow hid the treasures of his church! He lifted up the lid; the chest contained nothing but papyrus rolls and parchments; spread over them was a white, priestly garment with a hood, exactly like that which Johannes had worn.

An idea struck the fugitive. He hastily drew the wide robe over his own garments.

"I shall not stay long in this place, and I am now safely disguised--better than in armour."

After a time, as all remained still, he became uncomfortable in the damp air of the vault; he carefully half-raised the slab, mounted the ladder and looked into the empty church.

His eye fell on the glittering gold pieces, which shone in the light of the altar-lamp.

A few had been picked up by his pursuers, but they thirsted more for blood than gold. Already the miser repented having promised the priest so much.

"He, moreover, rejected the gold; so I am no longer bound to give it.

And these scattered pieces--they shall not fall to the scoundrels."

He now lifted the slab quite up, and listened again anxiously. All was silent.

Then he deliberately placed money-bag and purse of jewels in the chest, closed the lid, climbed quickly out and picked up the solidi--at first those that lay nearest, then those by the altar; he then saw to the right of the altar a whole heap lying together, as they had fallen out of the burst bag.

He went now from the left of the altar towards the right, stooped down--oh, horror! he heard steps approaching from the priest's house!

Only one man, certainly, but that was not Johannes--there was the clang of metal!

He quickly attempted to regain his hiding-place, but before he could pa.s.s the altar, a black shadow fell across his path. Zeno could not, unnoticed, spring into the vault.