Ο δὲ παῖς, πάντων θηριων, ὲστὶ δυσμεταχειριστότατον.—Plato,Leg.vii. 14.Of all wild beasts, a boy is the hardest to manage.1. Breakers ahead.2. Behold, the Serapeum!3. Another school quite as good.4. A Messianic partnership.
Ο δὲ παῖς, πάντων θηριων, ὲστὶ δυσμεταχειριστότατον.
—Plato,Leg.vii. 14.
Of all wild beasts, a boy is the hardest to manage.
Early the next morning Cimon and Aleph transferred themselves and their effects to a small khan in the Egyptian quarter of the city. This was done for the following reasons.
The events of the Sabbath seemed to make it prudent to withdraw from public notice as much as possible. Of course, the son of Flaccus was a source of danger: and then the seeming look of recognition on the face of Malus, which both of them had noticed, was not a pleasant feature of the situation. It was the silent lightning on the horizon. They felt it even more important, just then, to keep out of the sight of the Jew than it was to keep out of the sight of the Roman. Especially after an incident that occurred on their way back from the synagogue.
As they came down the steps of the Diapleuston, they noticed a Jew across the street, watching them. Before they had gone far, Aleph, happening to look behind, saw the man following, and spoke of it to Cimon. They walked slower—at length very slowly. The man slackened his pace to suit. They walked faster—at length very fast. The man quickened his pace correspondingly. It was annoying.
“Let us go to meet him,” said Cimon, “and see if he will retreat.”
Accordingly they turned and, for a moment, it seemed as if their shadow would turn too. But he thought better of it; and only stood still, in some confusion, till they came up.
“Can we do anything for you?” inquired the Greek. “If so we are at your service.”
“I certainly owe you an apology,” stammered the Jew. “The fact is, I was in the synagogue at the time of the disturbance, and was so struck with the very great likeness of this young man to one whom I saw many years ago that I determined to wait for his coming out and to follow him—in hope of finding where he was staying, or at least of getting a better view. And I have gotten it,” he added laughingly, “in a way I did not expect, but certainly deserved. However, I will not complain; as I now have an opportunity to thank you both for standing up so boldly and effectually for us to-day.”
“Well,” said Cimon, good-humoredly, “since we have now gratified your curiosity, perhaps you will not refuse to gratify ours by telling us who you are, and whom you suppose this young man to resemble.”
“That is but fair,” returned the Jew. “I keep a khan at the east end of this street, near the gate of Canopus, as did my father before me. When I was a youth, there came to our place from Judea a caravan of eastern people, evidently of great distinction, on their way homeward by the Red Sea route. It was in this company that I saw a man whose appearance made such an impression on me that if I were a painter I could put him on canvasto-day: and this young man is his double—perhaps somewhat brightened by youth.”
“I have to confess,” said Aleph with a smile, “that I am a Chaldean; and also that all Chaldeans have a certain likeness to one another. But you must not forget that the imagination is a powerful faculty, especially among us orientals, and has sometimes been known to see things that did not exist. But you can see for yourself, without any help from your imagination, that the peculiar way in which this conference has come about has attracted the notice of the street, and that the curious are beginning to thicken about us. So now let us separate: but, as soon as our affairs permit, we will seek you out and hear further about the pilgrims of whom you speak.”
So they parted. But the incident, especially after reflection and conference early the next morning, determined the friends to withdraw as fully as possible from the Jewish and Roman quarters of the city, and to hasten certain inquiries as to Malus.
There are two kinds of prophecy—the natural and the supernatural. The latter is a spark from the Divine foreknowledge, granted occasionally to certain privileged persons. That our friends had anything of this I am not prepared to say; but they were reasonably well furnished with such foresight as reason and experience can give; and what they foresaw was very considerable annoyance and even danger if they should remain at their present quarters. So they determined to remove. This was not valor, certainly. As certainly it was not cowardice. But it was that good thing which we call prudence, and which sensible people think to be almost or quite as good as heroism itself. It was a wise precaution—the tacking of theship when breakers are seen ahead, the putting on of armor when the arrows begin to fly, the striking tent and removing to higher ground when the morning sky is red and lowering, and there is a sound of abundance of rain.
Have I said that the strangers were in the habit of asking each morning for Divine guidance during the day? If not, I ought to have said it. And the habit was no empty form. When they had risen from their knees they seemed free from anxiety as to what might happen, though not free from forethought and a disposition to be very active in pursuit of their objects. Queer people, were they not? Some would say they were very absurd as well as queer. However this may be, it is certain that Aleph and his friend did not stir a step that morning even in the matter of planning, till they had sought leading from a wisdom above their own. And what they did that morning they may be counted on to do every morning while we follow their fortunes. Will it be of any service to them? Perhaps they have found in their Septuagint several passages like this, “Commit thy way unto the Lord and he shall direct thy paths.”
Perhaps Cimon found more difficulty than his young companion in keeping free from anxiety on account of what had occurred. He felt a responsibility for both.
“It seems unfortunate,” said he, after their devotions, “not only that we should have been brought again into collision with the Romans, who can do so much to hinder at least one of our objects, but that it has come about in such a way as to attract to us the notice of the whole Jewish community. For, of course, yesterday’s events will be public talk to-day, and everybody will be inquiring and surmising about the strangers. And I am verymuch afraid that Malus has already caught a spark that in such a gale will set all his suspicions and craft on fire. But as these seemingly untoward things could not well have been avoided by us, I cannot but hope that the untowardness is only in seeming. I have lived long enough to know that a Divine leading can brighten seeming perils and disasters into blessings. But it seems a reasonable condition of Divine guidance that we try to act as prudently as we can, from the human stand-point. And prudence seems to require that we at once remove to the Egyptian quarter; that you matriculate in the University, and thus secure its immunities for yourself, as well as meet the wishes of your father that you hear for yourself the scholars of the west; and that I proceed without delay to make the inquiries we need to make in regard to Malus. These inquiries will have to be made as quietly and rapidly as possible; for if he should take the alarm his craft and influence are evidently such that he might seriously embarrass our movements—if not baffle them.”
And so it came to pass that the early morning found them established in a quiet khan almost under the shadow of the Serapeum.
This does not localize them very definitely; for the Serapeum cast a very great shadow. The temple, or rather collection of temples, was, by all odds, the most imposing structure in Alexandria. It was built on an elevation, partly artificial, the ascent to which on three sides was by broad flights of steps and successive platforms; while on the north side the ascent began at the harbor and advanced by a grade easy for vehicles to the great Propylon. This was purely Egyptian. To the right and left of it rose walls of red syenite, high and massive enoughto be the walls of a city, decorated with many towers, and inclosing the whole levelled summit of the hill with their somewhat irregular lines. Within these, at a little distance, and built of the same, though much finer and carefully wrought, stone, rose the complicate structures of the temple proper. It was a little city by itself. And, towering above all other structures, it seemed to protect Alexandria and defy the seas beyond.
Like most Egyptian structures it was most successful in giving to beholders the ideas of massiveness and vastness. Yet the airiness of the situation, combined with a mingling of the various Hellenic architectures with the Egyptian, seemed to relieve the ponderous pile of any air of heaviness. For Pharaohs and Ptolemies, Mother Isis and her vagrant daughters Doris and Ione and Cora, were all represented in the confused mass of templed structures designed to welcome all the classical creeds.
The most striking features of the temple, to one looking up to it from the street, were, perhaps, an enormous canopy that seemed to overhang the whole pile of buildings and a tower by its side that rose still higher. This tower was the famous observatory where Eratosthenes and Hipparchus had made their observations; and in the spacious halls at its base was deposited the greater part of the then existing Alexandrian library—consisting of some 200,000 works collected by the Ptolemies, together with 300,000 parchments brought from Pergamos by Mark Antony for Cleopatra.
The Serapeum was under Egyptian control, but was greatly revered by devout Greeks and Romans as well as by Egyptians. Each nation regarded the god to whom the temple was dedicated and whose statue of mingledmarble and silver and gold was there enshrined, as being the chief of all its gods—the Egyptians calling it Osiris, the Greeks Zeus, and the Romans Jupiter. For some reason, of late years, this statue had been kept in a dark room, and was seldom, if ever, shown to the people at large. They worshipped without the presence of any visible symbol of deity. The priests were numerous and of the highest rank. The chief of all was primate of all Egypt.
To its religious character the Serapeum added that of an institution of learning. Its priests had among their own people the reputation for wisdom which belonged to the ancient Egyptian priesthood among all nations—and not without reason. Their priestly duties being light, they spent much time in studying the sciences and philosophies as then known, and in training young priests to the same. In addition, the more eminent among them taught on certain topics in the Alexandrian School. They were recognized by the Ptolemies, and afterward by the emperors, as in all respects peers of the teachers located at the Museum.
Indeed, among people religiously inclined their standing was altogether superior to that of the secular professors. They were far more sober and practical in their teachings. They more boldly recognized religion and taught on lines parallel with it. They had stricter notions of what could properly be called science and philosophy. A few facts blown up into prettily colored bubbles, and then tossed into the air on exhibition, and then collapsing, and then succeeded by another output of pretty emptinesses, and this by another, and so on—such were the substance and history of the better part of the ever-changingteaching of the Museum. The worse part had no foundation in facts at all. In fact, facts were scorned. They were vulgar. The lofty name of wisdom should be given only to great general intuitions and the logical deductions from them. And as the teachers were by no means careful in either their premises or their processes, their conclusions were apt to be worthless when they were not pernicious. In short, the Museum was the child of Athens and the mother of Germany.
Accordingly, many of the noblest families in the neighboring countries turned their faces toward the Serapeum. They were disgusted at the laborious trifling. They were alarmed at the decay of faith. If their sons could not have something that deserved to be called knowledge, and knowledge without impiety and all the terrors, they did not want them to have it at all. But if they could have it thoroughly leavened with religious ideas—why, they would welcome it, be very glad of it, pour out for it their shekels or sestertii or staters freely. Such people found what they wanted in the priest-teachers of the Serapeum; and said to themselves that if religion is the supreme wisdom then are the ministers of religion the supreme professors.
All this Cimon recalled and spoke of when he found himself in the neighborhood of the temple. And he proposed that Aleph should matriculate there instead of at the Museum—as being the nearer and more conservative branch of the University, as well as more remote from the Roman headquarters.
“I do not think,” said he, “that you will need to confine yourself very closely to the routine of lectures. Many of the more advanced students do not. You are already familiar through me with the main subjects discussedin both the Athenian and Alexandrian Schools: and I do not imagine that you will hear much that is new; only you will hear the old said in a new way, with new illustrations and personal modifications, which is not without its advantage to a young man. And you will have what, perhaps, is a still greater advantage, that of mingling with and studying the leading young men of the West. As to the present preliminaries for admission to the School, you had better apply to Seti for information.”
“And why not ask his advice, also,” said Aleph, “as to how you had better proceed in the affair of Malus? It would be a safe thing to do. The priest is not in love with the trader.”
“Perhaps,” returned the Greek, “this is the best thing to be done. Still I feel reluctant to do it—at least till I have proved it necessary. It is a good rule not to call on others to help you till you have tried to help yourself. We must spare our friends as much as possible. And I do not see that any harm can be done by my going directly to the custom house and inquiring on what terms abstracts from the records can be made, or by my going to leading dealers and asking how the prices of certain goods have ruled in Alexandria for a term of years. Let me cautiously feel my way about to-day by myself: by the evening I shall be better able to see whether we need to call in help from outside.”
As soon as Cimon had gone, Aleph inquired of the landlord at what part of the temple he should present himself. Climbing successive flights of steps that began almost at the khan, he came to the broad carriage-way of which we have spoken. As yet very few people could beseen upon it—none who seemed moving to the temple. This led him to think that very likely he was yet too early for the temple habits, and had better linger a little before seeking admittance. So he sat down on one of the stone seats, placed at intervals by the wayside for the convenience of the weary and the idle, and proceeded to study at his leisure the stately façade of the temple. While thus engaged he heard voices just back of the wall against which he was leaning.
A voice laughed heartily.
“Have you been at your cups so early” said another voice testily. “I should have thought that these leeks and onions would set you to crying. That is what they do to me.”
“I couldn’t cry if I were up to my eyes in the onions of Nauticratis,” said the other. “Oh, it was such a capital thing! Why, the very gods themselves must be shaking with laughter—at least our Egyptian gods.”
“Who ever heard of an Egyptian god laughing? Our deities never did that in the best days of the country. They who were as grim as fate when Thebes was in its glory are not likely to smile now when Thebes is dead, and a Roman garrison is in Alexandria, and a Roman Governor in the palace of Seti.”
“That is just it—now you are coming to the point!” cried the other; “it is justbecausethere is a Roman garrison in Alexandria and a Roman Proprætor in the ancestral palace of Seti that our gods, calm and grave as they generally are, must have had a merry time of it yesterday.”
“There, take that, you provoking Sphinx!” (and Aleph heard something strike against the wall). “If youdo not expound your riddle right away it will be, not two onions that your empty head will get, but a whole basket of them.”
“Do you pretend to say that you have not heard what took place yesterday at the Diapleuston? Why, the whole city is ringing with it—at least the Jewish Quarter. The Roman Quarter will be silent enough, I warrant.”
“Have heard nothing. Was in Canopus yesterday—came back before people were stirring this morning. What is it? Out with it, man!”
“An you be a true son of Egypt, now open your ears and mouth! Yesterday the Governor took a hundred soldiers and tried to make the Jews at the Diapleuston worship an image of the emperor. A magnificent young man in shining armor suddenly appeared on the scene, disarmed Flaccus, and encouraged the Jews to give the whole party a good drubbing. Which they did. The Romans were pommelled within an inch of their lives, then tumbled headlong into the street, and then chased on a full run quite to Bruchium. Gods! what a treat to see Flaccus run! I would have given ten years of my life to see it. And now it is said that Alexander, the favorite banker of the emperor, and heavier with him than all the pyramids put together, has just written to the governor demanding an apology for his behavior; and threatening to report him to the emperor.”
“Give us your fist, old fellow! Here goes my cap—to the moon, for aught I care. Thisisgood news, capital news, news fit for the gods, news—almost too good to be true! But itoughtto be true, and so true it must be. Let the gods laugh till the skies crack. To see the Romans soundly thrashed and running away with theirtails between their legs must have been a treat for heaven and earth. I could give that young man a chaplet—who is he?”
“Just what everybody is asking.”
“And just what, in my opinion, nobody will ever find out; for he must have been at once rapturously spirited off by the celestials to their own country for the good service done us. Perhaps he was a celestial to begin with.”
“That reminds me that I did hear some Jews debating whether he might not be the Wonderful Deliverer whom they are expecting.”
Was there any danger that Aleph would be unduly exalted in his own estimation by such a very complimentary account of himself? Perhaps he was saved from this peril by the several large exaggerations of the story. What more natural than for him to say, “And I, too, am an exaggeration!”
At any rate, he wasted no time in arguing the matter; for he now noticed that the postern at the side of the great gate was being opened to a comer. So he rose, advanced leisurely to the postern, and plied the knocker which hung from a small window above. The door opened. He told the porter that he wished to see the priest Seti.
“I suppose you mean thehigh-priest Seti!” said the man with dignity.
“Very possibly,” said Aleph. “Is there here more than one priest of that name?”
“I know of no other.”
“Then I wish to see thehigh-priest Seti. Please have him informed that Aleph the Chaldean wishes to see him.”
The porter glanced outside, as if to see whether there was any fine equipage, with servants, before the great gateway: then said:
“You probably will not be able to see him this morning. I doubt if he would see the prefect of the city.”
“But I amnotthe prefect—as you have just seen. I am a visitor more likely to be acceptable to the high-priest: for I come by his express invitation. So I will enter and stay in the hall till an answer comes to my message”—and he advanced on the man with so decisive and commanding an air that he gave way and admitted him.
“Now if you will send my message at once, you will do no more than your duty,” said Aleph coolly.
So a servant was sent off; who after a few moments returned and, with an air of great respect, said, “The high-priest will see you. I will conduct you to him.” But he was spared the trouble, for just then Seti himself appeared, received his visitor in a way that astonished the servants, and conducted him to his own private rooms.
“You see,” said the young man with that modesty and deference of manner that are so graceful and winning in the young toward age and station, “that I have very soon availed myself of your permission to call upon you. It is the wish of my father that I should, while in Alexandria, hear for myself the scholars of the west; though the Greek preceptor, who has conducted my education and whom you have seen, has already made me acquainted in a general way with the western literature and learning as it was taught in his youth, both here and at Athens. And, as I am told that the Serapeum stands for a branchof the Alexandrian School, I wish to join it here; and have come to you to learn in what way I may do so, and become entitled to such privileges and immunities as membership confers.”
“I am glad that you propose doing this,” returned the high-priest; “especially because I have heard from Alexander of the events of yesterday. No doubt there is danger abroad; but if any class among us is specially exempt from espial and interference by the civil and military authorities it is that of the students. So we will have you booked without delay. Where are you now lodged?”
On hearing of the transfer to his own neighborhood, Seti added:
“That is just what I was about to propose. The Romans have less to do with this part of the city than with any other. Neither my son nor myself anticipate any trouble from the authorities on account of what occurred yesterday. They probably will disavow all connection with it, on account of my son’s influence at Rome. At the same time they, no doubt, are in full sympathy with the rascals and will let them off without punishment, if not with secret commendation. This everybody is sure of—I mean everybody who knows that the leader in the affair was the son of Flaccus. Your chief danger will be from that reprobate. After the lessons he has had he is not likely to attack you in front; but you will need to be on your guard against all mean and dishonorable ways of attack. He is the greatest scoundrel in Alexandria—after his father and Malus, who have all his vices and hypocrisy in addition. But come, let us lose no time in matriculating.”
Seti then led the way to a large hall with a platform and seats.
“This,” said he, “is our chief lecture-room; and here some of the professors who live and lecture at the Museum come at stated times to repeat their lectures. This door opens into the tower from the top of which our astronomers observe the stars; and sometimes other things nearer home, as, for example, the flight and pursuit yesterday along the street of Canopus. The doors on the other three sides open into the library with its 500,000 different works on papyrus and parchment. Let us pass into it.”
Aleph now found himself in a room, or rather a suite of rooms, lighted wholly from above, whose sides were shining with the copper cylinders which contained the literary treasures of many lands and centuries. What would our modern bibliopoles not give for the same privilege? At central tables and in recesses were scholars poring over open rolls—also professional scribes copying manuscripts with careful exactness and a beauty of result wonderful to see. Seti led his companion freely within the bronze railing that fenced the collection from the general public; taking down and exhibiting some notably rare or beautiful rolls—among others the entire works of Berosus and Manetho and Sanconiathon, of which, unfortunately, we now have only a few fragments.
At length they stopped before a small open office, within which sat a uniformed official. He rose respectfully. Seti asked for the University register.
“Write your name, as you wish it to be known, here,” he said, pointing to a page, “and then pay to this man as initiation fee one goldstater. Then when I have writtenmy name as sponsor over against yours on the opposite page, you will be a member of the University and entitled to wear its badge conspicuously on your tunic—also, whenever you please, the University toga. But this latter is usually reserved for special occasions, and can be procured at your leisure.”
Aleph followed directions and received a large gold badge, which he was told was only onestateradditional. Seti himself fastened it conspicuously on the tunic of the new student. He also received from the registrar a syllabus of the lectures for many weeks at both the Serapeum and Museum. Glancing it over he noticed that Seti was one of the lecturers and Philo another—the one on history and ethical philosophy, the other on Plato and comparative religions.
“Now,” said Seti, as they were returning through the lecture room, “I have hurried you through these formalities for two reasons—one of which is that I wish you to have as soon as possible the benefit of being a recognized member of our University. The other reason is that I wish to get you to do me a favor. Just before you came I had a message from Rachel, my granddaughter, that the Greek leech, who is employed for her nurse, has gone back to his old treatment and that the woman is again rapidly sinking. It seems that the husband not merely supports the leech in his course, but absolutely requires it of him. I suspect that the brute wants to get rid of her. Now, I have an important engagement this morning, which will prevent my going personally to look after the case at the time she mentions—I see by this clepsydra that the time is near—and as the matter is urgent I could wish to have you go in my stead and deal with both thehusband and the leech as you may find occasion in order to save the woman’s life. Can you do me this favor? I think there is no lecture to-day.”
“Certainly,” said Aleph, “I will do what I can, for your treatment is that of my own country; though, I confess, I do not at present see how I am to enforce your wishes in case the leech and the husband should both prove obstinate.”
“That is a difficulty,” returned the Egyptian; “but I must leave you to solve it as you best can. This will be no disadvantage to your education. The young man who has learned how to deal with difficult men in difficult circumstances has graduated at a higher university than teaches in the Serapeum and Museum. So take a lesson in the university of human nature; and, perhaps, when I join you, which will be as soon as my business will allow, you can reproduce the lesson for me.”
Aleph could not well help noticing the change that had come over the manners of the porter as Seti and himself approached the postern in close conversation. The man had exchanged impudence for obsequiousness. He was all deference and humbleness. His bow was so low, as he set the postern wide open, that one might reasonably have feared that the hinge in his back had entirely given way in favor of a prostration. Has it not been noticed in all ages that impudence and servility are near of kin to each other and are never far apart?
In due time Aleph presented himself at the house of the sick woman. The same forbidding looking man who had acted as porter before now answered to his knock, but only opened the door a hand breadth.
After waiting a moment for an invitation to enter,which he did not get, the young man said, “Will you not permit me to enter?”
“What is your business?” demanded the fellow in a surly tone, making the opening of the door still less.
“A friendly one,” said Aleph. “I will explain it more fully when I have entered and delivered to you—that is, if you are the husband of the sick woman—some money which I have for you.”
The word money seemed to throw a shade of uncertainty into the man’s face. At length he said: “I am her husband. Why cannot you deliver the money to me here?”
“Of course I can,” said Aleph. “The only difficulty lies in my disposition. The gold is in my pouch, my arm is long enough to reach it, and your hand is near enough to take it: but you see, man, it does not suit my humor to give gold to a man who is rude enough to shut his door in my face. I hardly think you yourself would be liberal under like circumstances—would you?”
“My wife is very sick—it may be dying. Your coming in will disturb her.”
“Dying people are not apt to be disturbed by a step and voice as light as mine will be. Besides, if the woman is dying you will need the gold all the more. Death and burial in Alexandria must be expensive. I suppose there are some people here who cannot afford to die.”
“Well,” said the man, slowly and after a pause, “you can come in; but I cannot let you remain but a few moments.”
Aleph promptly stepped in as the door opened; and, while the man was closing and fastening it, made his way to the room he had before visited. As before, the air wasclose and almost stifling. As before, the woman lay on the bed, in about the same death-like state. And, as before, Rachel sat behind her, supporting her head and caressing it with her hand—her own face a picture of lovely distress. A man at a table was, apparently, preparing some medicines. He was not a bad looking man, save as a certain pretentious and stubborn look is a bad one on a face somewhat stony and unsympathetic. One would say that his sympathy with his patients would not be likely to interfere with his health or his meals. His whole bearing seemed to say, “I am a leech, and I understand my business;” and yet his dress was too poor to suggest the idea of a prosperous business. All this the observant eye of the young man took in at a glance.
Rachel looked up. A look of glad recognition sprang into every feature, but especially into her welcoming eyes. They smiled on him through tears. He bowed profoundly in acknowledgment of the silent greeting; and, advancing to her, said in a low voice, “From your grandfather.” Facing about on the husband, who had closely followed him, he put a piece of gold in his hand, saying as he did so, “For the sick woman.”
Then turning to the leech, he said in a courteous tone:
“I think I am speaking to the physician in charge of this patient. If so, will he allow me a few words, with him in private? Perhaps we can step out into this little court for a few moments”—and he at once quietly moved to the door leading to the back court, opened it, and passed out without looking behind him—passed to the farther side of the inclosure, as if sure of being followed. Hewasfollowed, though with some backwardness.
“I wish,” said Aleph, as he turned and confronted theleech, “to confer with you about this poor woman. I come from some of her friends. Perhaps you know who these friends are?”
“Is not her husband a friend?”
“He certainly ought to be. As to whether he is, I have my doubts. At all events he is not one of the friends of whom I speak and from whom I come. Do you know who that young lady yonder is?”
“The daughter of Alexander, the great Jewish Banker.”
“Do you know who Seti is?”
“He is the Egyptian high-priest and primate.”
“Well, these are the friends in whose behalf I have come and for whom I speak. They wish to save this woman, and believe it can be done by the treatment which was so successful for the short time it was tried. Will you tell me why it was discontinued?”
“Because it was contrary to all the medical rules; but mainly because the man who employs me insisted on a return to the old treatment.”
“You mean the husband of the sick woman?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure that your employer is able and disposed to pay you for your services?”
“He evidently is poor; but he says that he has rich friends who can be depended on for all expenses. This seems to be true; for the house has been lavishly supplied for the last few days with every possible comfort by some friends.”
“Whom do you suppose these friends to be?”
“The family of Alexander the Alabarch.”
“Certainly these are friends worth having,” said Alephwith emphasis; “and no doubt they can be depended on to meet all expenses—if they will promise as much. And this they are ready to do, and more, provided you will meet their wishes in certain respects.”
“What do they wish?” said the leech after quite a pause.
“That you will take them for employer instead of this vagabond; accept such compensation for your professional services as they are accustomed to pay; and then, in the interest of science, suspend for a little your way of treating this case in favor of the one you have just abandoned. We will assume all responsibilities. If the experiment does not work well, you can return to the old treatment. You had better have the patronage of the Alabarch and the Egyptian primate than that of this scoundrel—for such he is, unless his looks greatly belie him.”
“I have no very high opinion of him, I confess,” said the leech. “I have seen more tender husbands than he; and the woman’s talk about him in her delirium is far from complimentary. But if we change the treatment he will be troublesome. He was very violent when he discovered the first change.”
“Did he tell you by whose authority it was made?”
“He only said that a strange man had been meddling with what did not concern him.”
“Then he did not tell you that this meddler was Seti?”
“Certainly not.”
“Nor did the nurse?”
“No—but she is mortally afraid of the man, and that may have kept her silent.”
“Nor did the young lady?”
“No: but she had some difficulty in getting admissionto the house, as I think you had; and it is possible that the man would not admit her till she had promised not to interfere, and had sent away her servants. Indeed, I thought I overheard as much.”
“No doubt the fellow will be troublesome. The only thing to be done is to keep such a force here as will be able to control him. As long as we are here we can do this; but when we leave we must leave behind others who will make our places good. I think I can arrange for this.... Now that we have come to an understanding, let us go in; but do you take the lead, as is fitting, in making the changes.”
When they re-entered the room they found the man standing where they had left him—with anything but amiability in his face.
“We have agreed,” said the leech to him, “in order to satisfy important friends, to try for a while a change in the treatment. Sometimes the failing powers will rally wonderfully under a complete change of conditions. At any rate we will try it.”
He at once set wide open door and casement. Then going to the water-jug, he poured out a large cup full of water and brought it to Aleph, who had kneeled at the bedside and was listening again at the parched and twitching lips of the unconscious woman. He let a few drops fall upon them. He gently tried to part the locked teeth, and dropped more. At last he put the cup to her mouth.
“STOP!” shouted the husband, as he rushed up—his face white with passion and a demon looking out of his eyes—and with his clenched hand struck the cup aside, spilling a large part of the water on the woman’s face—“Stop!I say: this woman is under my protection.”
In a moment, Aleph was erect and confronting him:
“Andsucha protection!” he scornfully said. “Such a protection as the thunder cloud gives to the tree it strikes—such a protection as you have been giving her, ever since you enticed her away from her friends under the pretense that you were a man and not a brute. To my eyes the very shadow that you cast, and a very black shadow it is, is that of a wild beast of the meaner kind. I have not listened at these white lips in vain. I know something of your story, and expect to know more shortly—know enough now to say that this woman wishes no such protector. Death would be a better one. After having made her life miserable you shall not go on to put her to death—as you seem to wish. Now, do you understand that we shall proceed to treat this woman as the leech has said, and if you interfere, or make any disturbance whatever unsuitable to a sick-room, we will find such ways of quieting you as may be necessary—for quiet we will have, even if we have to turn you over to the police as a dangerous character.”
Aleph said this, not loudly, but in so determined and commanding a manner, and with such rebuking and threatening eyes fastened on the hateful face before him, that for a moment that face took on a shade of fear and shame among its other shades—of which it had not a few. But it was only for a moment. He reinforced himself, as such fellows are apt to do, by a mighty oath and seemed about to spring on the young man; but noting again his watchful eye, the cane in his hand, and his whole attitude so full of lithe and conscious power, he thought better of it, and fell back on the fighting resources of his tongue.
“This is my wife, and this is my house, at least forthe time being; and I will do with them as I please. Because you are an aristocrat, and belong to the university, and wear better clothes than I, you think you can treat me like a dog. But a dog can bite, especially one of my breed; and if I had as many heads as Cerberus they should all have a bite at you. So help me all the infernals!”
He flung out of the room. They heard him fiercely unfastening the street door and then fiercely slamming it behind him as he rushed into the street.
Aleph at once followed him and secured the door. Returning, he resumed his work at the bed as if nothing had happened—no more color in his cheek, no more excitement in his eye, no less steadiness in his hand as he again held a cup of water to the woman’s lips. Her eyes were now open and fastened on him. Perhaps the water with which her face had been flooded had freshened her back to consciousness. Perhaps, too, the stormy scene that had just passed did something toward summoning back her retreating vitality. While she drank, cup after cup, as if it were the nectar of the immortals, she never took her eyes, eyes that seemed full of wonder, from the calm, compassionate, restful young face that bent over her. She afterward said that it seemed to her the face of some benevolent and protecting divinity.
Her skin grew moist. Great beads of sweat came out on her forehead. By degrees her eyelids drew together and she slept—slept as sleeps the infant, or as sleeps some still landscape after the drenching shower has passed.
“What food did she ask for yesterday?” said the leech to the nurse, who had just come in from another room. “Make ready the same for her against she awakes.”
“And the lady Rachel,” said Aleph, “will excuse me for suggesting that she ought now to relieve herself from her burden. The woman will do quite as well if laid quietly down.”
So Rachel softly disengaged herself, and gently placed the thin, worn, but now placid cheek on the pillow. She then went to the casement and stood there a moment reflectively. Then, turning to Aleph, she said:
“I think I will step out into the open air, and perhaps you will be kind enough to follow me.”
Of course he followed her. Such a vision of loveliness and grace as glided past him into the court is not apt to summon even a philosopher in vain. I am not sure but that he would have followed her to Britain had she asked him, instead of to that rude bench in the farther part of the court where she seated herself and invited him to do the same.
She said that he must not wonder that she wanted to thank him for standing between her and insult yesterday at the synagogue—also must not wonder that she had a woman’s curiosity to know by what means he had managed to gain admittance to the house, and then to carry his point so fully with the leech. Would he explain? So he gave a modest account of his dealings with both the husband and the leech; and then smilingly demanded reciprocation. The lady must not wonder that he too had some curiosity to know something of her experience with the same rough customers. He found that, as the leech had surmised, she could not get admittance to the house till she had sent back her servants and had promised not to interfere personally with the treatment. She was very reluctant to do both things; but she felt that she couldnot desert her nurse at such a time. Besides, she was expecting Seti, and encouraged herself with the hope of his speedy arrival. However, she was almost afraid to come within doors—the man was so rude and surly. And she did not fail to tell what a weight was lifted from her mind as soon as Aleph made his appearance.
But what did he propose? Would not Miriam’s husband come back and break up all that had been done? And such a desperado! What threats! She trembled to think what he might do. Must not Aleph be on his guard? How sorry she was that his unselfish efforts for others should bring him into such perils! Her lips quivered, and she looked at him with moist, anxious eyes.
Aleph acknowledged that he thought the fellow capable of the worst. Hewouldbe on his guard. At the same time he did not think that they need fear his return. If he should come back he must find men in the house able to control him. So the leech and himself would remain till the coming of Seti; who perhaps would accompany her home and return with two strong and resolute men to take their places. So by alternation they must secure the patient till she could be taken elsewhere—which he thought would be very soon. What did the lady think of the plan?
She thought favorably of it; and had no doubt but that her father would do the same. But what trouble and danger Aleph was taking on himself in all this!
“Do I look as if troubled by it?” said the young man cheerfully. “You see, I am here partly for educational purposes; and I consider the opportunities which may daily come to me for dealing wisely and helpfully withmen as so many valuable teachers; and, as to personal danger, I am quite willing to pay that price for my tuition. But pardon me, lady, when I say that you who leave your palace for such a place as this, and submit to bad air, and rude treatment, and risk of health for the sake of a very humble person who can never repay you, ought not to be surprised at my conduct. I am comparatively selfish in my conduct. In purity of motive, I fear that you have greatly the advantage of me. Still I hope that you will not on that account refuse my interested help in your disinterested work. By and by, when my education is finished, I hope my motives will be as unselfish as your own.” He smiled as he added, “But I should be sorry to have you think that I am, even now, quite without pity for suffering, and indignation at injustice and wrong.”
After a moment’s pause, during which his face resumed the serene gravity of expression which was habitual to it, he went on:
“But, lady, besides wanting to complete my education, I have another want in regard to which you may perhaps help me, and so amply compensate me on commercial principles for all I have done or may do for your friend. I am very much interested to get accurate information from Judea about Jesus. Any news that may reach you about that remarkable person will be to me like waters to a desert. Your father’s position is such that information will naturally come to him and to you.”
“I am not sure of that,” returned Rachel. “We get, it is true, a plenty of rumors and opinions about Jesus; but they come to us, I fear, shaped and colored by the strong prejudices and seeming interests of the chief peopleof our nation, who are mostly hostile to him. These are about the only ones with whom my father is in communication. But now and then we meet with a man, like Simeon, who heartily wishes to know the truth, whatever that may be.”
“Such was the impression he made on me,” said Aleph.
“Speaking of him,” said the maiden, “reminds me of a piece of news which he brought us this morning, and which my anxiety about Miriam had almost driven from my mind. He said that he had just heard from a friend whom he had engaged to make certain inquiries for him that in the birth-registers of Bethlehem is recorded the birth, some thirty years ago, of one Jesus, the son of Joseph and Mary, both of whom are said to be descended from David. He also said that the same friend reported some additional particulars in regard to the reformer John, who made so great a stir a short time before Jesus became generally known, and whom many for a time took to be the Christ.”
“Pray tell me of him,” said the young man, with a kindling face, “for I have heard absolutely nothing. And yet the Sacred Books say that the Messiah must have a forerunner like Elijah in character, if not in name. I have had a difficulty here.”
“Perhaps, then, what I have to tell may help you as it has helped me. Simeon learns that this man, who for a time filled the eye of the whole people and was then put to death by that Ahab whom we call Herod, was exceedingly like Elijah in austerity of life and fearless denunciation of sin, and that he distinctly forbade the people to count him more than the forerunner of the Christ, andeven introduced Jesus to the people as being the Christ they were expecting. And this agrees with the reports that reached Alexandria at the time.”
“Many thanks for this information; it adds another link to the chain of evidence I am seeking.”
“So it has been with me,” said the maiden, while a shade of deeper thoughtfulness, if not of sadness, came over the bewildering beauty of her face as she added, “and I begin to fear that our chain when followed to the end will conduct us to some new and very unpopular interpretations of the prophets.”
“I have for some time been prepared for that,” said the young man, calmly and even cheerfully. “The great thing is to get at the truth: and I whom you have suffered to read your face as we have talked together need no further assurance that we think alike in this matter. We are both young; and youth can accommodate itself more easily than age to new views if they must come. May Aleph, the Chaldean stranger, venture so largely as to hope that in his search for the Messiah he may still have the aid of one whom he knows to be the first lady in the land in position, and whom her grandfather, who ought to know, and whom I am far from being disposed to contradict, pronounces the Gem of Alexandria?”
“You do well to smile,” said the maiden, blushing. “My grandfather is very poor authority on such matters. I happen to know that Alexandrian gems are of very poor quality and mostly fictitious. But, seriously, whatever a Jewish maiden can properly do to help in your matter she will gladly do, both for her own sake, and for his sake who has been in this city, perhaps three days, and has as many times befriended me and mine.”
Here a loud knock was heard at the street-door. They at once returned to the sick-room—and Aleph went on to answer the knock, hoping to find Seti. And Seti it proved to be. Before conducting him to the others, Aleph briefly and in a low voice explained the situation and received the full approval of the Egyptian. On entering the sick-room they found the patient awake with intelligence in her eye, and her arm about the neck of Rachel, who had kneeled at the bedside. The nurse was standing at a little distance with a bowl of food.
“I am afraid of Antis,” they heard murmured as they came near.
“You mean your husband?” inquired Rachel.
“Yes,” feebly articulated the woman; “he is a fearful man—a murderer. Do not leave me with him”—and her arms clung still more closely about the fair neck as if for protection.
“He shall not trouble you more,” said Seti emphatically, as he showed himself. “But now take some food,”—and he beckoned the nurse forward.
Supported by Rachel from behind, Miriam supped from a spoon at intervals with apparent relish, till at length her eyelids again crept slowly together and she was gently laid back to her unfinished slumbers.
“She will do well, but must not relapse again,” said Seti: and turning to the leech, “Keep on as you have begun—we will take the responsibility. I confirm all that this young man has promised. He will, I understand, remain with you till I can accompany the lady home, and come back with some men to relieve him and you. Of course, after what the sick woman has said of her husband, we are justified in excluding him from thehouse. Do not allow him to enter under any pretense. If he insists, threaten him with the police.”
As Aleph put up the bars of the street-door behind Rachel and her escort, he felt as if he were barring out a sunbeam. There is nothing like a human face of the diviner type to light up a poor and dark house. Aleph did not realize how poor and dark that sick house was in itself till Rachel had left it and he had again placed himself at the bedside. Here he sat for quite a time lost in thought till, suddenly, he became aware that Miriam was awake and with wide eyes of placid wonder was gazing at him. At a sign from him the nurse came forward with more food and drink, supported her while he gently put to her lips at intervals a little of both, and then gently laid her down, her drooping eyes still seeking his face, to renewed slumber. This occurred again before Seti appeared with three strong and resolute looking men—who being old servants of Alexander and well known to Miriam in former days, were thought most likely to give her a sense of security by their presence.
Seti and Aleph returned to Rachotis together.
They had scarcely turned away from the house before Antis came out from a recess across the street and stole after them—at a distance, but so as to keep them in sight. And they were not without particular notice from others. Two such commanding figures as to stature and bearing were not a common sight in Alexandria; and so the men whom they met would sometimes turn and gaze after them. One of these did more than stop and gaze. He followed—followed on one side of the street as Antis was following on the other.
I wonder what he meant! Was he a friend or anenemy? Or was it merely idleness and curiosity that prompted the following?
These latter make a motor of considerable power; sometimes even of fully as much power as any of our celebrated modern motors, or those mysterious ones used in the construction of the pyramids. And it certainly was in daily use in Egypt among all classes at the time of our narrative, and long before. Before the Ptolemies, before the Pharaohs, before the Dispersion, before Tubal Cain—in fact there is some reason to think that this motor was invented by the first man (some say by the first woman; but this is a base slander), and was from him handed down to all ages and countries. How else can we account for its omnipresence!
So it is by no means incredible that the following of Aleph just spoken of was not due to hostility. I hope it was not. I hope it did not mean mischief. Still I confess to some fears. Somehow I begin to feel an interest in that young man; and if any harm should come to him it would trouble me not a little.