Αλλοτ’ άλλοῖσι διαιθύσσουσιν ἀυραι.—Pindar,Olymp.vii. 173.Different winds rush in different directions.1. Oh, for Ariadne!2. Leaping to a conclusion.3. Domestics at new work.4. Pharos and some stars.
Αλλοτ’ άλλοῖσι διαιθύσσουσιν ἀυραι.
—Pindar,Olymp.vii. 173.
Different winds rush in different directions.
Rachel went and sat by the bedside, in long silence. At length she began unconsciously to think aloud—at first slowly and with long pauses; then more rapidly.
“They havenotkilled him. Then they have taken him out of the city to confine him somewhere.... The shortest and least embarrassed way out of the city would be by the gate of the Moon to Mareotis.... Here boat would be taken. Where would it go? There is no place where a prisoner could be confined on the islands of the lake or on the southern shore—none in the pleasure-villas on the banks of the canal connecting the lake with the Nile—none on the Nile itself till one comes to the fortress that once belonged to the family of Seti, but now is in possession of the Roman governor. I have it—therearedungeons there, and Sextus Flaccus has access to them, and they are well away from observation.Thatis the place where they have carried him.”
Her face flushed, and her eyes flashed with sudden decision. “Grandfather’s way may be sure, but it is slow; and by the time he finds his way up the Nile to the Setian stronghold it may be too late. I will leap to a conclusion.”
She at once summoned all the domestics of the household. Did any of them know of a traveling merchant, accustomed to carry his wares from house to house along the east bank of the Nile? Several knew of such a person. Was he a Jew? Was he of the Diapleuston? Was he quick-witted and prudent? Was he now in the city? Receiving an affirmative answer to all these questions, she at once dispatched a man who professed to know where the peddler could be found, to bring him without delay.
In less than an hour her messenger returned with the very peddler whose acquaintance we made in the first chapter of this narrative. She looked at him narrowly. He was not an attractive object—what with his poor clothes, his unkempt hair, and his excessive obsequiousness. But he did look shrewd and to a degree reliable. At all events she must try him. So she told him that she had heard a favorable account of his intelligence and discretion; that she wanted to employ such a man to go up the Nile as far as the Setian palace on a confidential mission. She wished to find out, without the knowledge of any armed force that might be there, whether a young man is held in confinement in the palace. And she thought that, if he would furnish himself with such a pack of goods as seemed most likely to attract the servants and others about the premises, he might incidentally contrive to get from them the desired information. She would furnish the goods, and, besides, reward him richly for the service.
“Is the young man tall and marvelously well proportioned?” inquired the Jew.
“He is.”
“Has he the face of Moses, and the bearing of a king?”
“So it is said.”
“Is it not he who on the last Sabbath defended our synagogue from sacrilege?”
“It is.”
“Then,” said the peddler, “I will do what the lady asks of me—not for her rewards, though Father Abraham knows that I am poor enough. I will do it for the young man’s sake, who can beat the heathen at their own weapons. I can beat them in trade; but it is a satisfaction to me to see them beaten after another fashion.”
“Have you ever been at the palace?” inquired Rachel.
“Often, in the way of trade. An old Egyptian and his wife, a Jewess, keep the place when the governor is not there, and are employed about the premises in some way at all times.”
“Here is a purse of gold. Make up your pack as attractive to these people as possible. Stay with them as long as you can. Be ingenious. Keep eyes and ears open. Spare no money nor promises that will help your object. I will see that your promises are fulfilled. Take the first boat going south; be put ashore at a little distance from the palace; then do the best an ingenious man can, to find out whether Aleph, the Chaldean, is confined there, and, if so, how he may be released. Return or send as soon as possible. But stop——”
She went to a desk, and wrote on a small sheet of papyrus as follows: “Your friends have found you. You shall have help soon.—R.”
She handed the paper to the Jew, saying, “Shouldyou find him, perhaps you may be able to get this to him.”
The man hastened away. What should she do now, and during the days that might pass before she could hope to hear from the peddler? To sit still and wait, she felt to be impossible. Was there anything more she could be doing to keep her heart from preying on itself? She asked the question of Miriam as well as of herself.
Miriam had quickened and strengthened bodily under the rousing of thought and care for one outside of herself, and was sitting up thoughtfully in her bed. Yes, she thought that something further might be done. She doubted whether the students would be as good at getting information from the town-people as would some others. The frequent broils and jealousies between the two classes would put inquirers at a disadvantage. And, then, the people who would be most likely to notice the abduction, because most likely to be abroad in the evening, would be the humbler classes, whose homes had little to attract them. The humble stall-keepers; the daily workmen hanging about the street-corners; the street-boys, brimful of curiosity, afraid of nothing, ready to run after anything unusual; the watermen, that wait for jobs at the gate of the Moon or on the lake-wharves, would be more likely to notice and more free to speak of, to people of their own class, the passing of the soldiers.
“Suppose we ask the servants,” said she, “whether they know any of their own class living on the route from the khan to the Gate—any workmen, or watermen, or waifs likely to have been in that neighborhood waiting for what might turn up. If they themselves do not know of any such, they will be likely to know some who do; andso inquiries may be set in motion through all the humbler classes. Give the servants a holiday—several holidays, if necessary. We can dispense with them. I feel a return of my old vigor—the God of Israel be praised!” and, to the surprise of Rachel, the woman drew herself from the bed into a chair that stood by the side of it.
Rachel was too much absorbed in her object and plans to spend any time in speculating on that mysterious connection of the soul with the body that enables the former in its roused state to infuse its own healthy vigor into the latter. But she was glad that the pressure of circumstances had so opportunely transformed the helpless into a helper, and only begged her not to exert herself too much, as she carefully drew the wraps about her.
Rachel welcomed the suggestions of Miriam; and soon the many servants of that large household were abroad seeking for information, or seeking those who could seek it better than themselves.
Toward the close of the day Seti appeared to report that Sextus Flaccus had been found to have been in the city all the previous night, and that, apparently, no soldiers had been absent from their quarters. But Draco had disappeared from early in the evening, and had been traced to Mareotis—this seemed to Rachel a particle of light. No reports as yet from the students watching the gates and harbors, or from those seeking traces within the city. Rachel told Seti of the supplementary measures she had taken for getting information within the city, but she said nothing of the peddler and his expedition. I hardly know why. Perhaps it was because she thought the womanly logic of the movement would not commend itself to a philosopher.
The next morning Miriam was still better—indeed almost seemed to forget in her new object of absorbing interest that she was an invalid at all. As yet the servants had made no report; having come in late the night before and gone out again before light in the morning. Inactive waiting is an uneasy business at the best; so Rachel determined to have as little of it as possible. She sent off a servant with a basket of provisions to the house of the peddler with instructions to learn at what hour he left the city and in what sort of craft; for there was almost as much difference then as now in the speed of vessels. She found that the active man, within an hour from the time he left her, had managed to provide himself with a more attractive pack than he had ever before carried, and to get on board a well-appointed merchant vessel just starting southward with a fair wind and not a few oars. This was some comfort. She prayed that the wind might follow fast, and that the rowers might be able and willing at their toil.
In the course of the day another small comfort (small and transient like the scarcely perceptible shade of greenness that sometimes comes even in the heart of winter, for a few hours, to some sunny nook and then retreats as fast as it came) came with some scraps of information brought in by the servants. They reported that the company of soldiers had been noticed at different points in the Egyptian quarter; and, on comparing these points, the women saw that they meant a movement toward the gate of the Moon. This was a much-needed encouragement to Seti, who came in the evening to say that the students had as yet been able to draw no information from the people whatever. They seemed to regard allthe inquiries with suspicion, as if they meant some College prank against which their best refuge was silence. What so many students wanted to know they would do well to conceal. So the young men spoke to deaf ears and silent tongues. Still they would not discontinue their inquiries. They hoped that all their ravens would not come home to roost.
The next day added considerably to the stock of information. Several street-boys who were hanging about the gate and wharves on the night in question had been ferreted out in their various dens by the servants, and agreed that a company of soldiers with a prisoner passed through the gate while they were there, and took boat to a larger craft lying out some little distance in the lake. On their part the students had discovered that the pleasure-galley of the Flacci had been absent from its station ever since the same evening, and had been seen by a waterman steering toward the canal and the Nile. Rachel was now so satisfied that her first movement was a wise one that she told Seti of it. He was glad that so time-saving a measure had been adopted; and returned to inform the students that such traces had been discovered that they need no longer continue their inquiries in the city, but should hold themselves in readiness to co-operate in another movement that might be necessary. He now felt quite sure that the soldiers employed in the abduction weredischargedsoldiers—men who from age and other reasons were no longer in active service—of whom there were not a few in the city quite ready to lend themselves to the purposes and the pay of such a man as Sextus Flaccus.
Immersed in her cares for Aleph, Rachel had neglectedtill to-day to inquire about Cimon and his affairs. For this she blamed herself roundly. But she was glad to learn that her father’s solicitor had found Cimon’s papers very complete as against Malus, had formally instituted a suit, had been able as Cimon’s official advocate to procure admittance to him and arrange for his comfort till his trial should come off, that the chief clerk of Malus, who had been discharged by him as soon as he learned how liberal of business information he had been to Cimon, had come to him with valuable evidence. Three suits were to come off in the following order—(1) The suit of Malus against Shaphan and Nathan, (2) the suit of Malus against Cimon, (3) the suit of Cimon against Malus. Marcus Piso was more than satisfied with this order; for he felt that the first two trials would throw much damaging light on the character and operations of Malus and prepare the way for the success of Cimon’s suit against him.
“But then those Roman courts! Who could guarantee their equity! Would not the Flaccan influence be supreme in them and in favor of the supreme criminal in whose misdeeds it had long participated! The Most High only knows! If possible, we must make the right of the case so plain that neither court nor government can go against it without the whole people crying shame on them. And this I am more and more inclined to think can be done.” ... So encouraged Marcus Piso. At the same time, with a shadow on his face, he admitted that the devil was strong.
The next day was the Sabbath. The family of Alexander were very strict in their observance of the day, but not so unreasonably strict as to refuse works of necessityand mercy. Miriam (now wonderfully improved) and Rachel would not have hesitated to plan and do, to any extent, in so urgent a case as that of Aleph if they could have seen opportunity. But, until they should hear from the peddler, what more could be done? Certainly nothing but praying. So they gave themselves wholly to this mighty form of working. The God of Israel, so pitiful and so powerful, and who had said, “Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee,” was invoked that day with an energy and whole-heartedness that seemed bound to cross all the spaces and make its way to the very foothold of the Throne. Till the public services at the Diapleuston, the women were scarcely off their knees for a moment.
At the synagogue, to her surprise, Rachel found Seti seated where Cimon and Aleph had been placed on the last Sabbath. She went and sat down by him for a few moments, placing her hand in his; and then went to her own place. The selections from the Law and the Prophets by her uncle Philo, as well as his remarks that followed, seemed to her to have a most positive though veiled reference to the case, which she felt was by this time weighting all their minds with its certainties and uncertainties. She felt it good to be there. There was something soothing and supporting in the sympathetic atmosphere. And so she lingered after the conclusion of the services.
While thus lingering, she noticed a woman of the humbler class trying to make her way somewhat impatiently toward her through the slow-moving crowd. As soon as she came near enough the woman thrust into her hand a paper rudely folded and at once passed on with the rest of the retiring congregation. Rachel opened thepaper at once, and with some difficulty deciphered the following:
“He is here. They are trying to starve him. I can prevent that for a little; but the custodes will take no decisive step till they have had my promises in your behalf confirmed by your own lips.”
When she had finished reading the scrawl she found Seti standing by her side and drawing her arm within his. It was timely. Unsupported she might have fallen. It was a flash of light that she had longed for, but it had in it something of the threat and terribleness of a flash of lightning. It revealed, but it revealed an urgent danger. Her agitation remained voiceless till they had reached home and Seti had read the letter. It lifted a cloud from his brow. Now they knew that Aleph was still alive, knew where to find him, could make some reasonable plan for his rescue. He congratulated her. Early to-morrow they would go up the river in the galley of Alexander, well-equipped with resolute men. Perhaps he would ask some of the students to follow at a distance in another galley. They might not be needed; but it was well to overlap emergencies with our provisions. At all events, the young men would be gratified—and they deserved to be. He had never thought so well of young men since he was a young man himself. Especially of Cornelius. Such unselfish enthusiasm and untiring effort in behalf of a confessed superior, such hearty use of his influence and leadership to further all plans in aid of Aleph—why, they spoke almost as loudly for Rome as Tiberius and the Flacci did against it!
The clouds on the horizon had begun to redden. Was it from the rising or the setting sun? Neither Setinor Rachel could tell; for they did not know the east and west of Providence. It was indeed something to have found that Aleph was still living (a fact which they had compelled themselves to assume, but which phantoms with mocking faces and whispering voices were all the while challenging at both ears); also that he was at the Setian palace. Now they could localize and focalize their exertions in his behalf. This was at first a very sensible relief. But, in finding these facts, they had also found that their friend was in the hands of a body of desperadoes who were seeking his life. Might they not succeed before the swiftest help could reach him? Perhaps they had succeeded already. That single poor peddler was a mighty thin partition between life and death. So the clouds which had thinned away somewhat soon thickened up again into the old blackness. Through the live-long night the waves of hope and fear alternately beat on the vexed strands whose names were Seti and Rachel.
The wear and tear of such times are very great on some people. A single night has been known to bow a form as stately as Seti’s—to blanch tresses as young and beautiful as Rachel’s. But let us hope the best for both sufferers. One of them is strong in youth, the other is strong in age. Neither will be easily overborne. Neither is a stretch of low-lying sands, easily loosened and carried out to sea in rough weather. Both are highlands, fronted and ribbed with rocks for the sea to dash and roar upon—rocky convictions of the supernatural, rocky faith in a divine government, rockymens conscia recti. In this I find some comfort. At the same time I know that even rock-bound coasts sometimes suffer heavily in a wild time. Have I not walked on such a coast the dayafter the storm has been hurling its battalions upon it and found it ragged and torn and strewn with ruins—the battle-field of yesterday? And I am far from saying but that this may be just the condition in which the sore winds and waves of their trial may leave Seti and Rachel. We must be prepared for the worst while we hope the best. Should the worst come, no heart will be sorer than mine.