CHAPTER X.
He had arrived wounded on the pirate ship with his master's friend,the returned bondman began. When he had regained consciousness, he metLedscha on board the Hydra, as the wife of the pirate Hanno. She hadnursed Myrtilus with tireless solicitude, and also often cared for his,Bias's, wounds. After the recovery of the prisoners, she became theirprotectress, and placed Bias in the service of the Greek artist.
They, the Gaul Lutarius, and one of the sculptor's slaves, were the onlyones who had been brought on board the Hydra alive from the attack inTennis, but the latter soon succumbed to his wounds.
Hermon owed it solely to the bridge-builder that he had escaped fromthe vengeance of his Biamite foe, for the tall Gaul, whose thick beardresembled Hermon's in length and blackness, was mistaken by Hanno forthe person whom Ledscha had directed him to deliver alive into herpower.
The pirate had surrendered the wrong captive to the woman he loved and,as Bias declared, to his serious disadvantage; for, though Hanno andthe Biamite girl were husband and wife, no one could help perceiving thecold dislike with which Ledscha rebuffed the giant who read her everywish in her eyes. Finally, the captain of the pirate ship, a silent manby nature, often did not open his lips for days except to give ordersto the crew. Frequently he even refused to be relieved from duty, andremained all night at the helm.
Only when, at his own risk, or with the vessels of his father andbrother, he attacked merchant ships or defended himself against a wargalley, did he wake to vigorous life and rush with gallant recklessnessinto battle.
A single man on the Hydra was little inferior to him in strength anddaring--the Gaul Lutarius. He had been enrolled among the pirates, andwhen Hanno was wounded in an engagement with a Syrian war galley,was elected his representative. During this time Ledscha faithfullyperformed her duty as her young husband's nurse, but afterward treatedhim as coldly as before.
Yet she devoted herself eagerly to the ship and the crew, andthe fierce, lawless fellows cheerfully submitted to the sensiblearrangements of their captain's beautiful, energetic wife. At thisperiod Bias had often met Ledscha engaged in secret conversation withthe Gaul, yet if any tender emotion really attracted her toward any oneother than her husband, Myrtilus would have been suspected rather thanthe black-bearded bridge-builder; for she not only showed the sculptorthe kindest consideration, but often entered into conversation withhim, and even persuaded him, when the sea was calm, or the Hydra lay atanchor in one of the hidden bays known to the pirates, to practise hisart, and at last to make a bust of her. She had succeeded in gettinghim clay, wax, and tools for the purpose. After asking which goddesshad ill-treated the weaver Arachne, she commanded him to make a head ofAthene, adorned with the helmet, modelled from her own. During this timeshe frequently inquired whether her features really were not beautifulenough to be copied for the countenance of a goddess, and when heeagerly assured her of the fact, made him swear that he was notdeceiving her with flattery.
Neither Bias nor Myrtilus had ever been allowed to remain on shore; but,on the whole, the slave protested, Myrtilus's health, thanks to the puresea air on the Hydra, had improved, in spite of the longing whichoften assailed him, and the great excitements to which he was sometimesexposed.
There had been anxious hours when Hanno's father and brothers visitedthe Hydra to induce her captain to make money out of the captivesculptor, and either sell him at a high price or extort a large ransomfrom him; but Bias had overheard how resolutely Ledscha opposed theseproposals, and represented to old Satabus of what priceless importanceMyrtilus might become to them if either should be captured andimprisoned.
The greatest excitements, of course, had been connected with the battlesof the pirates. Myrtilus, who, in spite of his feeble health, by nomeans lacked courage, found it especially hard to bear that during theconflicts he was locked up with Bias, but even Ledscha could neitherprevent nor restrict these measures.
Bias could not tell what seas the Hydra had sailed, nor at what--usuallydesolate-shores she had touched. He only knew that she had gone toSinope in Pontus, passed through the Propontis, and then sought bootynear the coasts of Asia Minor. Ledscha had refused to answer everyquestion that referred to these things.
Latterly, the young wife had become very grave, and apparentlycompletely severed her relations with her husband; but she alsostudiously avoided the Gaul and, if they talked to each other at all, itwas in hurried whispers.
So events went on until something occurred which was to affect the livesof the prisoners deeply. It must have been just beyond the outlet fromthe Hellespont into the AEgean Sea; for, in order to pass through thenarrow straits leading thither from Pontus, the Hydra had been mostskilfully given the appearance of a peaceful merchant vessel.
The slave's soul must have been greatly agitated by this experience, forwhile, hitherto, whenever he was interrupted by Hermon he had retainedhis composure, and could not refrain from occasionally connecting apractical application with his report, now, mastered by the power ofthe remembrance, he uttered what he wished to tell his master in anoppressed tone, while bright drops of perspiration bedewed the speaker'sbrow.
A large merchant ship had approached them, and three men came on boardthe Hydra--old Satabus, his son Labaja, and a gray-haired, beardedseafarer of tall stature and dignified bearing, Schalit, Ledscha'sfather.
The meeting between the Biamite ship-owner and his child, after so longa separation, was a singular one; for the young wife held out her handto her father timidly, with downcast eyes, and he refused to take it.Directly after, however, as if constrained by an irresistible impulse,he drew his unruly daughter toward him and kissed her brow and cheeks.
Roast meat and the best wine had been served in the large ship's cabin;but though Myrtilus and Bias had been locked up as if a bloody battlewas expected, the loud, angry uproar of men's deep voices reached them,and Ledscha's shrill tones shrieking in passionate wrath blended in thestrife. Furniture must have been upset and dishes broken, yet the giantswho were disputing here did not come to blows.
At last the savage turmoil subsided.
When Bias and his master were again released, Ledscha was standing,in the dusk of evening, at the foot of the mainmast, pressing her browagainst the wood as if she needed some support to save herself fromfalling.
She checked Myrtilus's words with an imperious "Let me alone!" The nextday she had paced restlessly up and down the deck like a caged beast ofprey, and would permit no one to speak to her.
At noon Hanno was about to get into a boat to go to her father's ship,and she insisted upon accompanying him. But this time the corsair seemedcompletely transformed, and with the pitiless sternness, which he sowell knew how to use in issuing commands, ordered her to remain on theHydra.
She, however, by no means obeyed her husband's mandate withoutresistance, and, at the recollection of the conflict which now occurredbetween the pair, in which she raged like a tigress, the narrator'scheeks crimsoned.
The quarrel was ended by the powerful seaman's taking in his arms hislithe, slender wife, who resisted him with all her strength and hadalready touched the side of the boat with her foot, and putting her downon the deck of his ship.
Then Hanno leaped back into the skiff, while Ledscha, groaning withrage, retired to the cabin.
An hour after she again appeared on deck, called Myrtilus and Bias and,showing them her eyes, reddened by tears, told them, as if in apologyfor her weakness, that she had not been permitted to bid her fatherfarewell. Then, pallid as a corpse, she had turned the conversation uponHermon, and informed Myrtilus that an Alexandrian pilot had told herfather that he was blind, and her brother-in-law Labaja had heard thesame thing. While saying this, her lips curled scornfully, but when shesaw how deeply their friend's misfortune moved her two prisoners, shewaved her hand, declaring that he did not need their sympathy; the pilothad reported that he was living in magnificence and pleasure, and thepeople in the capital honoured and praised him as if he were a god.
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br /> Thereupon she had laughed shrilly and reviled so bitterly thecontemptible blind Fortune that remains most loyal to those who deserveto perish in the deepest misery, that Bias avoided repeating her wordsto his master.
The news of Myrtilus's legacy had not reached her ears, and Bias, too,had just heard of it for the first time.
Ledscha's object had been to relieve her troubled soul by attacksupon the man whom she hated, but she suddenly turned to the master andservant to ask if they desired to obtain their liberty.
Oh, how quickly a hopeful "Yes" reached the ears of the gloomy woman!how ready both were to swear, by a solemn oath, to fulfil the conditionsthe Biamite desired to impose!
As soon as opportunity offered, both were to leave the Hydra with oneother person who, like Bias and herself, understood how to mange a boat.
The favourable moment soon came. One moonless night, when the steeringof the Hydra was intrusted to the Gaul, Ledscha waked the two prisonersand, with the Gaul Lutarius, Myrtilus, and the slave, entered the boat,which conveyed them to the shore without accident or interruption.
Bias knew the name of the place where it had anchored, it is true, butthe oath which Ledscha had made him swear there was so terrible that hewould not have broken it at any cost.
This oath required the slave, who, three days after their landing,was sent to Alexandria by the first ship that sailed for that port, tomaintain the most absolute secrecy concerning Myrtilus's hiding placeuntil he was authorized to speak. Bias was to go to Alexandria withoutdelay, and there obtain from Archias, who managed Myrtilus's property,the sums which Ledscha intended to use in the following manner: Twoattic talents Bias was to bring back. These were for the Gaul, probablyin payment for his assistance. Two more were to be taken by the slave tothe Temple of Nemesis. Lastly, Bias was to deliver five talents to oldTabus, who kept the treasure of the pirate family on the Owl's Nest, andtell her that Ledscha, in this money, sent back the bridal dowry whichHanno had paid her father for his daughter. With this she releasedherself from the husband who inspired her with feelings very unlikelove.
Hermon asked to have this commission repeated, and received thedirections Myrtilus had given to the slave. The blind man's hope thatthey must also include greetings and news from his friend's hand wasdestroyed by Bias, whom Myrtilus, in the leisure hours on the Hydra,had taught to read. This was not so difficult a task for the slave, wholonged for knowledge, and had already tried it before. But with writing,on the other hand, he could make no headway. He was too old, and hishand had become too clumsy to acquire this difficult art.
In reply to Hermon's anxious question whether his friend needed anythingin his present abode, the slave reported that he was at liberty to moveabout at will, and was not even obliged to share Ledscha's lodgings. Helacked nothing, for the Biamite, besides some gold, had left with himalso gems and pearls of such great value that they would suffice tosupport him several years. As for himself, she had supplied him morethan abundantly with money for travelling expenses.
Myrtilus was awaiting his return in a city prospering under a rich andwise regent, and sent whole cargoes of affectionate remembrances. Thesculptor, too, was firmly resolved to keep the oath imposed upon him.
As soon as he, Bias, had performed the commission intrusted to him, heand Myrtilus would be released from their vow, and Hermon would learnhis friend's residence.