Hypatia — Ch 13: The Bottom of the Abyss, pt 2 (4539 words)
At a turn of the road he was aroused from this profitable meditation by a shriek, the shrillness of which told him that it was a woman’s. He looked up, and saw close to him, among the smouldering ruins of a farmhouse, two ruffians driving before them a young girl, with her hands tied behind her, while the poor creature was looking back piteously after something among the ruins, and struggling in vain, bound as she was, to escape from her captors and return.
‘Conduct unjustifiable in any fleas,--eh, Bran?
How do I know that, though?
Why should it not be a piece of excellent fortune for her, if she had but the equanimity to see it?
Why--what will happen to her?
She will betaken to Rome, and sold as a slave....
And in spite of a few discomforts in the transfer, and the prejudice which some persons have against standing an hour on the catasta to be handled from head to foot in the minimum of clothing, she will most probably end in being far better housed, fed, bedizened, and pampered to her heart’s desire, than ninety-nine out of a hundred of her sister fleas....
till she begins to grow old....
which she must do in any case....
And if she have not contrived to wheedle her master out of her liberty, and to make tip a pretty little purse of savings, by that time--why, it is her own fault.
Eh, Bran?
’ But Bran by no means agreed with his view of the case; for after watching the two ruffians, with her head stuck on one side, for a minute or two, she suddenly and silently, after the manner of mastiffs, sprang upon them, and dragged one to the ground.
‘Oh!
that is the “fit and beautiful,” in this case, as they say in Alexandria, is it?
Well--I obey.
You are at least a more practical teacher than ever Hypatia was.
Heaven grant that there may be no more of them in the ruins!
’ And rushing on the second plunderer, he laid him dead with a blow of his dagger, and then turned to the first, whom Bran was holding down by the throat.
‘Mercy, mercy!
’ shrieked the wretch.
‘Life!
only life!
’ ‘There was a fellow half a mile back begging me to kill him: with which of you two am I to agree?
--for you can’t both be right.
’ ‘Life!
Only life!
’ ‘A carnal appetite, which man must learn to conquer,’ said Raphael, as he raised the poniard.....
In a moment it was over, and Bran and he rose--Where was the girl?
She had rushed back to the ruins, whither Raphael followed her; while Bran ran to the puppies, which he had laid upon a stone, and commenced her maternal cares.
‘What do you want, my poor girl?
’ asked he in Latin.
‘I will not hurt you.
’ ‘My father!
My father!
’ He untied her bruised and swollen wrists; and without stopping to thank him, she ran to a heap of fallen stones and beams, and began digging wildly with all her little strength, breathlessly calling ‘Father!
’ ‘Such is the gratitude of flea to flea!
What is there, now, in the mere fact of being accustomed to call another person father, and not master, or slave, which should produce such passion as that?....
Brute habit!....
What services can the said man render, or have rendered, which make him worth--Here is Bran!....
What do you think of that, my female philosopher?
’ Bran sat down and watched too.
The poor girl’s tender hands were bleeding from the stones, while her golden tresses rolled down over her eyes, and entangled in her impatient fingers; but still she worked frantically.
Bran seemed suddenly to comprehend the case, rushed to the rescue, and began digging too, with all her might.
Raphael rose with a shrug, and joined in the work.
...............
‘Hang these brute instincts!
They make one very hot.
What was that?
’ A feeble moan rose from under the stones.
A human limb was uncovered.
The girl threw herself on the place, shrieking her father’s name.
Raphael put her gently back and exerting his whole strength, drew out of the ruins a stalwart elderly man, in the dress of an officer of high rank.
He still breathed.
The girl lifted up his head and covered him with wild kisses.
Raphael looked round for water; found a spring and a broken sherd, and bathed the wounded man’s temples till he opened his eyes and showed signs of returning life.
The girl still sat by him, fondling her recovered treasure, and bathing the grizzled face in holy tears.
‘It is no business of mine,’ said Raphael.
‘Come, Bran!
’ The girl sprang up, threw herself at his feet, kissed his hands, called him her saviour, her deliverer, sent by God.
‘Not in the least, my child.
You must thank my teacher the dog, not me.
’ And she took him at his word, and threw her soft arms round Bran’s Deck;
and Bran understood it, and wagged her tail, and licked the gentle face lovingly.
‘Intolerably absurd, all this!
’ said Raphael.
‘I must be going, Bran.
’ ‘You will not leave us?
You surely will not leave an old man to die here?
’ ‘Why not?
What better thing could happen to him?
’ ‘Nothing,’ murmured the officer, who had not spoken before.
‘Ah, God!
he is my father!
’ ‘Well?
’ ‘He is my father!
’ ‘Well?
’ ‘You must save him!
You shall, I say!
’ And she seized Raphael’s arm in the imperiousness of her passion.
He shrugged his shoulders: but felt, he knew not why, marvellously inclined to obey her.
‘I may as well do this as anything else, having nothing else to do.
Whither now, sir?
’ ‘Whither you will.
Our troops are disgraced, our eagles taken.
We are your prisoners by right of war.
We follow you.
’ ‘Oh, my fortune!
A new responsibility!
Why cannot I stir, without live animals, from fleas upward, attaching themselves to me?
Is it not enough to have nine blind puppies at my back, and an old brute at my heels, who will persist in saving my life, that I must be burdened over and above with a respectable elderly rebel and his daughter?
Why am I not allowed by fate to care for nobody but myself?
Sir, I give you both your freedom.
The world is wide enough for us all.
I really ask no ransom.
’ ‘You seem philosophically disposed, my friend.
’ ‘I?
Heaven forbid!
I have gone right through that slough, and come out sheer on the other side.
For sweeping the last lingering taint of it out of me, I have to thank, not sulphur and exorcisms, but your soldiers and their morning’s work.
Philosophy is superfluous in a world where all are fools.
’ ‘Do you include yourself under that title?
’ ‘Most certainly, my best sir.
Don’t fancy that I make any exceptions.
If I can in any way prove my folly to you, I will do it.
’ ‘Then help me and my daughter to Ostia.
’ ‘A very fair instance.
Well--my dog happens to be going that way; and after all, you seem to have a sufficient share of human imbecility to be a very fit companion for me.
I hope, though, you do not set up for a wise man!
’ ‘God knows--no!
Am I not of Heraclian’s army?
’ ‘True; and the young lady here made herself so great a fool about you, that she actually infected the very dog.
’ ‘So we three fools will forth together.
’ ‘And the greatest one, as usual, must help the rest.
But I have nine puppies in my family already.
How am I to carry you and them?
’ ‘I will take them,’ said the girl; and Bran, after looking on at the transfer with a somewhat dubious face, seemed to satisfy herself that all was right, and put her head contentedly under the girl’s hand.
‘Eh?
You trust her, Bran?
’ said Raphael, in an undertone.
‘I must really emancipate myself from your instructions if you require a similar simplicity in me.
Stay!
there wanders a mule without a rider; we may as well press into the service.
’ He caught the mule, lifted the wounded man into the saddle, and the cavalcade set forth, turning out of the highroad into a by-lane, which the officer, who seemed to know the country thoroughly, assured would lead them to Ostia by an unfrequented route.
‘If we arrive there before sundown, we are saved,’ said he.
‘And in the meantime,’ answered Raphael, ‘between the dog and this dagger, which, as I take care to inform all comers, is delicately poisoned, we may keep ourselves clear of marauders.
And yet, what a meddling fool I am!
’ he went on to himself.
‘What possible interest can I have in this uncircumcised rebel!
The least evil is, that if we are taken, which we most probably shall be, I shall be crucified for helping to escape.
But even if we get safe off--here is a fresh tie between me and those very brother fleas, to be rid of whom I have chosen beggary and starvation.
Who knows where it may end?
Pooh!
The man is like other men.
He is certain, before the day is over, to prove ungrateful, or attempt the mountebank-heroic, or give me some other excuse for bidding good-evening.
And in the meantime there is something quaint in the fact of finding so sober a respectability, with a young daughter too, abroad on this fool’s errand, which really makes me curious to discover with what variety of flea I am to class him.
’ But while Aben-Ezra was talking to himself about the father, he could not help, somehow, thinking about the daughter.
Again and again he found himself looking at her.
She was, undeniably, most beautiful.
Her features were not as regularly perfect as Hypatia’s, nor her stature so commanding; but her face shone with a clear and joyful determination, and with a tender and modest thoughtfulness, such as he had never beheld before united in one countenance; and as she stepped along, firmly and lightly, by her father’s side, looping up her scattered tresses as she went, laughing at the struggles of her noisy burden, and looking up with rapture at her father’s gradually brightening face, Raphael could not help stealing glance after glance, and was surprised to find them returned with a bright, honest, smiling gratitude, which met full-eyed, as free from prudery as it was from coquetry....
‘A lady she is,’ said he to himself; ‘but evidently no city one.
There is nature--or something else, there, pure and unadulterated, without any of man’s additions or beautifications.
’ And as he looked, he began to feel it a pleasure such as his weary heart had not known for many a year, simply to watch her....
‘Positively there is a foolish enjoyment after all in making other fleas smile....
Ass that I am!
As if I had not drunk all that ditch-water cup to the dregs years ago!
’ They went on for some time in silence, till the officer, turning to him-- ‘And may I ask you, my quaint preserver, whom I would have thanked before but for this foolish faintness, which is now going off, what and who you are?
’ ‘A flea, sir--a flea--nothing more.
’ ‘But a patrician flea, surely, to judge by your language and manners?
’ ‘Not that exactly.
True, I have been rich, as the saying is; I may be rich again, they tell me, when I am fool enough to choose.
’ ‘Oh if we were but rich!
’ sighed the girl.
‘You would be very unhappy, my dear young lady.
Believe a flea who has tried the experiment thoroughly.
’ ‘Ah!
but we could ransom my brother!
and now we can find no money till we get back to Africa.
’ ‘And none then,’ said the officer, in a low voice.
‘You forget, my poor child, that I mortgaged the whole estate to raise my legion.
We must not shrink from looking at things as they are.
’ ‘Ah!
and he is prisoner!
he will be sold for a slave--perhaps--ah!
perhaps crucified, for he is not a Roman!
Oh, he will be crucified!
’ and she burst into an agony of weeping....
Suddenly she dashed away her tears and looked up clear and bright once more.
‘No!
forgive me, father!
God will protect His own!
’ ‘My dear young lady,’ said Raphael, ‘if you really dislike such a prospect for your brother, and are in want of a few dirty coins wherewith to prevent it, perhaps I may be able to find you them in Ostia.
’ She looked at incredulously, as her eye glanced over his rags, and then, blushing, begged his pardon for her unspoken thoughts.
‘Well, as you choose to suppose.
But my dog has been so civil to you already, that perhaps she may have no objection to make you a present of that necklace of hers.
I will go to the Rabbis, and we will make all right; so don’t cry.
I hate crying; and the puppies are quite chorus enough for the present tragedy.
’ ‘The Rabbis?
Are you a Jew?
’ asked the officer.
‘Yes, sir, a Jew.
And you, I presume, a Christian: perhaps you may have scruples about receiving--your sect has generally none about taking--from one of our stubborn and unbelieving race.
Don’t be frightened, though, for your conscience; I assure you I am no more a Jew at heart than I am a Christian.
’ ‘God help you then!
’ ‘Some one, or something, has helped me a great deal too much, for three-and-thirty years of pampering.
But, pardon me, that was a strange speech for a Christian.
’ ‘You must be a good Jew, sir, before you can be a good Christian.
’ ‘Possibly.
I intend to be neither--nor a good Pagan either.
My dear sir, let us drop the subject.
It is beyond me.
If I can be as good a brute animal as my dog there--it being first demonstrated that it is good to be good--I shall be very well content.
’ The officer looked down on with a stately, loving sorrow.
Raphael caught his eye, and felt that he was in the presence of no common man.
‘I must take care what I say here, I suspect, or I shall be entangled shortly in a regular Socratic dialogue....
And now, sir, may I return your question, and ask who and what are you?
I really have no intention of giving you up to any Caesar, Antiochus, Tiglath-Pileser, or other flea-devouring flea....
They will fatten well enough without your blood.
So I only ask as a student of the great nothing-in-general, which men call the universe.
’ ‘I was prefect of a legion this morning.
What I am now, you know as well as I. ’ ‘Just what I do not.
I am in deep wonder at seeing your hilarity, when, by all flea-analogies, you ought to be either be howling your fate like Achilles on the shores of Styx, or pretending to grin and bear it, as I was taught to do when I played at Stoicism.
You are not of that sect certainly, for you confessed yourself a fool just now.
’ ‘And it would be long, would it not, before you made one of them do as much?
Well, be it so.
A fool I am; yet, if God helps us as far as Ostia, why should I not be cheerful?
’ ‘Why should you?
’ ‘What better thing can happen to a fool, than that God should teach that he is one, when he fancied himself the wisest of the wise?
Listen to me, sir.
Four mouths ago I was blessed with health, honour, lands, friends--all for which the heart of man could wish.
And if, for an insane ambition, I have chosen to risk all those, against the solemn warnings of the truest friend, and the wisest saint who treads this earth of God’s--should I not rejoice to have it proved to me, even by such a lesson as this, that the friend who never deceived me before was right in this case too; and that the God who has checked and turned me for forty years of wild toil and warfare, whenever I dared to do what was right in the sight of my own eyes, has not forgotten me yet, or given up the thankless task of my education?
’ ‘And who, pray, is this peerless friend?
’ ‘Augustine of Hippo.
’ ‘Humph!
It had been better for the world in general, if the great dialectician had exerted his powers of persuasion on Heraclian himself.
’ ‘He did so, but in vain.
’ ‘I don’t doubt it.
I know the sleek Count well enough to judge what effect a sermon would have upon that smooth vulpine determination of his....
“An instrument in the hands of God, my dear brother....
We must obey His call, even to the death,” etc. etc. ’ And Raphael laughed bitterly.
‘You know the Count?
’ ‘As well, sir, as I care to know any man.
’ ‘I am sorry for your eyesight, then, sir,’ said the Prefect severely, ‘if it has been able to discern no more than that in so august a character.
’ ‘My dear sir, I do not doubt his excellence--nay, his inspiration.
How well he divined the perfectly fit moment for stabbing his old comrade Stilicho!
But really, as two men of the world, we must be aware by this time that every man has his price.
’....
‘Oh, hush!
hush!
’ whispered the girl.
‘You cannot guess how you pain him.
He worships the Count.
It was not ambition, as he pretends, but merely loyalty to him, which brought here against his will.
’ ‘My dear madam, forgive me.
For your sake I am silent.
’....
‘For her sake!
A pretty speech for me!
What next?
’ said he to himself.
‘Ah, Bran, Bran, this is all your fault!
’ ‘For my sake!
Oh, why not for your own sake?
How sad to hear one--one like you, only sneering and speaking evil!
’ ‘Why then?
If fools are fools, and one can safely call them so, why not do it?
’ ‘Ah,--if God was merciful enough to send down His own Son to die for them, should we not be merciful enough not to judge their failings harshly!
’ ‘My dear young lady, spare a worn-out philosopher any new anthropologic theories.
We really must push on a little faster, if we intend to reach Ostia to-night.
’ But, for some reason or other, Raphael sneered no more for a full half-hour.
Long, however, ere they reached Ostia, the night had fallen; and their situation began to be more than questionably safe.
Now and then a wolf, slinking across the road towards his ghastly feast, glided like a lank ghost out of the darkness, and into it again, answering Bran’s growl by a gleam of his white teeth.
Then the voices of some marauding party rang coarse and loud through the still night, and made them hesitate and stop a while.
And at last, worst of all, the measured tramp of an imperial column began to roll like distant thunder along the plain below.
They were advancing upon Ostia!
What if they arrived there before the routed army could rally, and defend themselves long enough to re-embark!....
What if--a thousand ugly possibilities began to crowd up.
‘Suppose we found the gates of Ostia shut, and the Imperialists bivouacked outside?
’ said Raphael half to himself.
‘God would protect His own,’ answered the girl; and Raphael had no heart to rob her of her hope, though he looked upon their chances of escape as growing smaller and smaller every moment.
The poor girl was weary; the mule weary also; and as they crawled along, at a pace which made it certain that the fast passing column would be at Ostia an hour before them, to join the vanguard of the pursuers, and aid them in investing the town, she had to lean again and again on Raphael’s arm.
Her shoes, unfitted for so rough a journey, bad been long since torn off, and her tender feet were marking every step with blood.
Raphael knew it by her faltering gait; and remarked, too, that neither sigh nor murmur passed her lips.
But as for helping her, he could not; and began to curse the fancy which had led to eschew even sandals as unworthy the self-dependence of a Cynic.
And so they crawled along, while Raphael and the Prefect, each guessing the terrible thoughts of the other, were thankful for the darkness which hid their despairing countenances from the young girl; she, on the other hand, chatting cheerfully, almost laughingly, to her silent father.
At last the poor girl stepped on some stone more sharp than usual--and, with a sudden writhe and shriek, sank to the ground.
Raphael lifted her up, and she tried to proceed, but sank down again....
What was to be done?
‘I expected this,’ said the Prefect, in a slow stately voice.
‘Hear me, sir!
Jew, Christian, or philosopher, God seems to have bestowed on you a heart which I can trust.
To your care I commit this girl--your property, like me, by right of war.
Mount her upon this mule.
Hasten with her--where you will--for God will be there also.
And may He so deal with you as you deal with her henceforth.
An old and disgraced soldier can do no more than die.
’ And he made an effort to dismount; but fainting from his wounds, sank upon the neck of the mule.
Raphael and his daughter caught in their arms.
‘Father!
Father!
Impossible!
Cruel!
Oh--do you think that I would have followed you hither from Africa, against your own entreaties, to desert you now?
’ ‘My daughter, I command!
’ The girl remained firm and sound.
‘How long have you learned to disobey me?
Lift the old disgraced man down, sir, and leave to die in the right place--on the battlefield where his general sent him.
’ The girl sank down on the road in an agony of weeping.
‘I must help myself, I see,’ said her father, dropping to the ground.
‘Authority vanishes before old age and humiliation.
Victoria!
has your father no sins to answer for already, that you will send before his God with your blood too upon his head?
’ Still the girl sat weeping on the ground; while Raphael, utterly at his wits end, tried hard to persuade himself that it was no concern of his.
‘I am at the service of either or of both, for life or death; only be so good as to settle it quickly....
Hell!
here it is settled for us, with a vengeance!
’ And as he spoke, the tramp and jingle of horsemen rang along the lane, approaching rapidly.
In an instant Victoria had sprung to her feet--weakness and pain had vanished.
‘There is one chance--one chance for him!
Lift over the bank, sir!
Lift over, while I run forward and meet them.
