CHAPTER II.
Orion was alone in the spacious room, feeling as though the whole worldwere sinking into nothingness after the rack of storm and tempest.At first he was merely conscious of having gone through a fearfulexperience, which threatened to fling him far outside the sphere ofeverything he was wont to reverence and hold sacred. For love and honorof his guardian angel he had declared war to the patriarch, and thatman's power was as great as his stature. Still, the image of Paula rosehigh and supreme above that of the terrible old man, in Orion's fancy,and his father, as it seemed to him, was like an ally in the battle hewas destined to wage in his own strength.
The young man's vivid imagination and excellent memory recapitulatedevery word the prelate had uttered. The domineering old man, overflowingwith bigoted zeal, had played with him as a cat with a mouse. He hadtried to search his soul and sift him to the bottom before he attackedthe subject with which he ought to have begun, and concerning whichhe was fully informed when he offered him his hand that first time--ascheerfully, too, as though he had no serious grievance seething inhis soul. Orion resolved that he would cling fast to his faith withoutBenjamin's interposition, and not allow his hold on the two otherChristian graces, Hope and Love, to be weakened by his influence.
By some miracle his mother had not yet told the prelate of his father'scurse, in spite of the anguish of her aching heart; and what a weaponwould not that have been in Benjamin's hand. It was with the deepestpity that he thought of that poor, grief-stricken woman, and the ideaflashed through his mind that the patriarch might have gone back to hismother to accuse him and to urge her to further revelations.
Many minutes had passed since the patriarch had left him; Orion hadallowed his illustrious guest to depart unescorted, and this couldnot fail to excite surprise. Such a breach of good manners, of theuncodified laws of society, struck Orion, the son of a noble and ancienthouse, who had drunk in his regard for them as it were with his mother'smilk, as an indignity to himself; and to repair it he startedup, hastily smoothing down his tumbled hair, and hurried into theviridarium. His fears were confirmed, for the patriarch's following werestanding in the fountain-hall close to the exit; his mother, too, wasthere and Benjamin was in the act of departure.
The old man accepted his offered escort with dignified affability, as ifnothing but what was pleasant had passed between him and Orion. As theycrossed the viridarium he asked his young host what was the name of somerare flower, and counselled him to take care that shade-giving treeswere planted in abundance on his various estates. In the outer hall, oneither side of the door, was a statue: Truth and justice, two fine worksby Aristeas of Alexandria, who flourished in the time of the EmperorHadrian. Justice held the scales and sword, Truth was gazing into hermirror. As the patriarch approached them, he said to the priest whowalked by his side: "Still here!" Then, standing still, he said, partlyto Orion and partly to his companion:
"Your father, I see, neglected my suggestion that these heathen imageshad no place in any Christian house, and least of all in one attached,as this is, to a public function. We, no doubt, know the meaning of thesymbols they bear; but how easily might the ordinary man, waiting here,mistake the figure with the mirror for Vanity and that with the scalesVenality: 'Pay us what we ask,' she might be saying, 'or else your lifeis a forfeit,'--so the sword would imply."
He smiled and walked on, but added airily to Orion:
"When I come again--you know--I shall be pleased if my eye is no longeroffended by these mementos of an extinct idolatry."
"Truth and justice!" replied Orion in a constrained voice. "They havedwelt on this spot and ruled in this house for nearly five hundredyears."
"It would look better, and be more suitable," retorted the patriarch,"if you could say that of Him to whom alone the place of honor is duein a Christian house; in His presence every virtue flourishes of itself.The Christian should proscribe every image from his dwelling; at thedoor of his heart only should he raise an image on the one hand of Faithand on the other of Humility."
By this time they had reached the court-yard, where Susannah's chariotwas waiting. Orion helped the prelate into it, and when Benjamin offeredhim his hand to kiss, in the presence of several hundred slaves andservants, all on their knees, the young man lightly touched it withhis lips. He stood bowed low in reverence so long as the holy fatherremained visible, in the attitude of blessing the crowd from the openside of the chariot; then he hurried away to join his mother.
He expected to find her exhausted by the excitement of the patriarch'svisit; but, in fact, she was more composed than he had seen her yetsince his father's death. Her eyes indeed, commonly so sober in theirexpression, were bright with a kind of rapture which puzzled Orion. Hadshe been thinking of his father? Could the patriarch have succeeded ininspiring her pious fervor to such a pitch, that it had carried her, soto speak, out of herself?
She was dressed to go to church, and after expressing her delight at thehonor done to herself and her whole household by the prelate's visit,she invited Orion to accompany her. Though he had proposed devoting thenext few hours to a different purpose, the dutiful son at once accededto this wish; he helped her into her chariot, bid the driver go slowly,and seated himself by her side.
As they drove along he asked her what she had told the patriarch, andher replies might have reassured him but that she filled him with graveanxiety on fresh grounds. Her mind seemed to have suffered under thestress of grief. It was usually so clear, so judicious, so reasonable;and now all she said was incoherent and not more than half intelligible.Still, one thing he distinctly understood: that she had not confided tothe patriarch the fact of his father's curse. The prelate must certainlyhave censured the conduct of the deceased to her also and that hadsealed her lips. She complained to her son that Benjamin had neverunderstood her lost husband, and that she had felt compelled to repressher desire to disclose everything to him. Nowhere but in church, in thevery presence of the Redeemer, could she bring herself to allow him toread her heart as it were an open book. A voice had warned her that inthe house of God alone, could she find salvation for herself and herson; that voice she heard day and night, and much as it pained her togrieve him he must hear it now--: That voice never ceased to enjoin herto tear asunder his connection with the Melchite maiden. Last eveningit had seemed to her that it was her eldest son, who had died for theJacobite faith, that was speaking to her. The voice had sounded likehis, and it had warned her that the ancient house of Menas must perish,if a Melchite should taint the pure blood of their race. And Benjaminhad confirmed her fears; he had come back to her on purpose to beseechher to oppose Orion's sinful affection for Thomas' daughter with theutmost maternal authority, and, as the patriarch expressed the samedesire as the voice, it must be from God and she must obey it.
Her old grudge against Paula had revived, and her very tones betrayedthat it grew stronger with every word she spoke which had any referenceto the girl.
At this Orion begged her to be calm, reminding her of the promise shehad made him by his father's deathbed; and just as his mother was aboutto reply in a tone of pitiful recrimination, the chariot stopped at thedoor of the church. He did everything in his power to soothe her;his gentle and tender tones comforted her, and she nodded to him morehappily, following him into the sanctuary.
Beyond the narthex--the vestibule of the church, where three penitentswere flaying their backs with scourges by the side of a small marblefountain, and in full view of the crowd--they were forced to part,as the women were divided from the men by a screen of finely-carvedwoodwork.
As Neforis went to her place, she shook her bowed head: she wasmeditating on the choice offered her by Orion, of yielding to thepatriarch's commands or to her son's wishes. How gladly would she haveseen her son in bright spirits again. But Benjamin had threatened herwith the loss of all the joys of Heaven, if she should agree to Orion'salliance with the heretic--and the joys of Heaven to her meant ameeting, a recognition, for which she would willingly h
ave sacrificedher son and everything else that was dear to her heart.
Orion assisted at the service in the place reserved for the men of hisfamily, close to the hekel, or holy of holies, where the altar stoodand the priests performed their functions. A partition, covered withill-wrought images and a few gilt ornaments, divided it from the mainbody of the church, and the whole edifice produced an impression thatwas neither splendid nor particularly edifying. The basilica, which hadonce been richly decorated, had been plundered by the Melchites in afight between them and the Jacobites, and the impoverished city hadnot been in a position to restore the venerable church to anythingapproaching its original splendor. Orion looked round him; but could seenothing calculated to raise his devotion.
The congregation were required to stand all through the service; andas it often was a very long business, not the women only, behind thescreen, but many of the men supported themselves like cripples oncrutches. How unpleasing, too, were the tones of the Egyptian chant,accompanied by the frequent clang of a metal cymbal and mingled with thebabble of chattering men and women, checked only when the talk became aquarrel, by a priest who loudly and vehemently shouted for silence fromthe hekel.
Generally the chanted liturgy constituted the whole function, unless theLord's Supper was administered; but in these anxious times, for abovea week past, a priest or a monk preached a daily sermon. This began ashort while after the young man had taken his place, and it was withpainful feelings that he recognized, in the hollow-eyed and ragged monkwho mounted the pulpit, a priest whom he had seen more than once drunkto imbecility, in Nesptah's tavern, And the revolting creature, who thusflaunted his dirty, dishevelled person even in the pulpit, thundereddown on the trembling congregation declarations that the delay inthe rising of the Nile was the consequence of their sins, and God'spunishment for their evil deeds. Instead of comforting the terrifiedsouls, or encouraging their faith and bidding them hope for bettertimes, he set before them in burning words the punishment that awaitedtheir wicked despondency.
God Almighty was plaguing them and the land with great heat; but thiswas like the cool north wind at Advent-tide, as compared with thefierceness of the furnace of hell which Satan was making hot for them.The scorching sun on earth at any rate gave them daylight, but theflames of hell shed no light, that the terrors might never cease ofthose whom the devil's myrmidons drove over the narrow bridge leading tohis horrible realm, goading them with spears and pitchforks, with heavycudgelling or gnawing of their flesh. In the anguish of death, and thecrush by the way, mothers trod down their infants and fathers theirdaughters; and when the damned reached the spiked threshold of hellitself, a hideous and poisoned vapor rose up to meet them, chokingthem, and yet giving them renewed strength to feel fresh torments withincreased keenness of every sense. Then the devil's shrieks of anguish,which shake the vault of hell, came thundering on their ears; withhideous yells he snatched at them from the grate on which he lay,crushed and squeezed them in his iron jaws like a bunch of grapes, andswallowed them into his fiery maw; or else they were hung up by theirtongues by attendant friends in Satan's fiery furnace, or draggedalternately through ice and flames, and finally beaten to pieces onthe anvil of hell, or throttled and wrung with ropes and cloths.--Ascompared with the torments they would suffer there, every presentanxiety was as the kiss of a lover. Mothers would hear the brainseething in their infants' skulls....
At this point of the monk's grewsome discourse, Orion turned away with ashudder. The curse with which the patriarch had threatened him recurredto his mind; he could have fancied that the hot, stuffy, incense-ladenair of the church was full of flapping daws and hideous bats. Deadlyhorror crept over him; but then, suddenly, the rebound came of youthfulvigor, longing for freedom and joy in living; a voice within cried out:"Away with coercion and chains! Winged spirit, use your pinions! Downwith the god of terrors! He is not that Heavenly Father whose loveembraces mankind. Forward, leap up and be free! Trusting in yourown strength, guided by your own will, go boldly forth into the opensunshine of life! Be free, be free!--Still, be not like a slave who isno sooner cut adrift and left to himself than he falls a slave again tohis own senses. No; but striving unceasingly and of your own free will,in the sweat of your brow, to reach the high goal, to work out to itsfulfilment and fruition everything that is best in your soul and mind.Yes--life is a ministry.... I, like the disciples of the Stoa, willstrive after all that is known as virtue, with no other end in view thanto practise it for its own sake, because it is fair and gives unmixedjoys. I will rely on myself to seek the truth--and do what I feel tobe right and good; this, henceforth, shall be the lofty aim of myexistence. To the two chief desires of my heart--: atonement to myfather and union with Paula, I here add a third: the attainment of theloftiest goal that I may reach, by valiant striving to get as near to itas my strength will allow. The road thither is by Work; the guiding starI must keep before me that I may not go astray is my Love!"
His cheeks were burning, and with a deep breath he looked about him asthough to find an adversary with whom he might measure his strength. Thehorrible sermon was ended and the words of the chanting crowd fell onhis ear. "Lord, reward me not according to mine iniquities!" The load ofhis own sin fell on his heart again, and his dying father's curse;his proud head drooped on his breast, and he said to himself that hisburthen was too heavy for him to venture on the bold flight for which hehad but now spread his wings. The ban was not yet lifted; he was not yetredeemed from its crushing weight. But the mere word "redeemed" broughtto his mind the image of Him who took on Himself the sins of the world;and the more deeply he contemplated the nature of the Saviour whom hehad loved from his childhood, the more surely he felt that it wouldbe doing no violence to the freedom of his own will, but rather be thefulfilment of a long-felt desire, if he were to tell Jesus simply allthat oppressed him; that his love for Him, his faith in Him, had asaving power even for his soul. He lifted up his eyes and heart toHim, and to Him, as to a trusted friend, confided all that troubled andhindered him and besought His aid.
In loving Him, he and Paula were one, he knew, though they had not thesame idea of His nature.
Orion, as he meditated, thought out the points on which her viewsdeviated from his own: she believed that the divine and the humannatures were distinct in the person of Christ. And as he reflected onthis creed, till now so horrible in his eyes, he felt that the uniqueindividuality of the Saviour, shedding forth love and truth, came hometo him more closely when he pictured Him perfect and spotless, yetfeeling as a man; walking among men with all their joy in life inHis heart, alive to every pang and sorrow which can torture mortals,rejoicing with them, and taking upon Himself unspeakable humiliation,suffering, and death, with a stricken, bleeding, and yet self-devotingheart, for pure love of the wretched race to which He could stoop fromHis glory. Yes, this Christ could be his Redeemer too. The Almighty Lordhad become his perfect and most loving friend, his glorious, but lenientand tender brother, to whom he could gladly give his whole heart, whounderstood everything, who was ready to forgive everything--even allthat was seething in his aching heart which longed for purification--andall because He once had suffered as a man suffers.
For the first time he, the Jacobite, dared to confess so much tohimself; and not solely for Paula's sake. A violent clanging on acracked metal plate roused him from his meditations by its harsh clamor;the sacrament of the Last Supper was about to be administered: theinvariable conclusion of the Jacobite service. The bishop came forthfrom behind the screen of the inner sanctuary, poured some wine into asilver cup and crumbled into it two little cakes stamped with the Copticcross. Of this mixture he first partook, and then gave it in a spoonto each member of the congregation who came up to receive it. Orionapproached after two elders of the Church. Finally the priest rinsedout the cup, and drained the very washings, that no drop of the savingliquid should be lost.
How high had Orion's heart throbbed when, as a youth, he had beenadmitted for the first time to this most sacr
ed of all Christianprivileges! He was instructed in its deep and glorious symbolism, andhad often felt the purifying, saving, and refreshing effect of thesacrament, strengthening him in all goodness, when he had partaken of itwith his parents and brothers. Hand-in-hand, they had gone home feelingas if newly robed in body and soul and more closely bound together thanbefore. And to-day, insensible as he was to the repulsiveness of theforms of worship of his confession he felt as though the bread andwine--the Flesh and Blood of the Saviour--had sealed the bond he hadsilently entered into with himself; as though the Lord had put forthan invisible hand to remove the guilt and the curse that crushed himso sorely. Deep devotion fell on his soul: his future life, he thought,should bring him nearer to God than ever before, and be spent in loving,and in the more earnest, full, and laborious exercise of the giftsHeaven had bestowed on him.