CHAPTER XVI.
In the course of the afternoon the Vekeel rode across to the prison inMemphis. He expected to find the bishop there, but instead he was metwith the news that Plotinus was dead of the pestilence.
This was a malignant stroke of fate; for with the bishop perished thewitness who could have betrayed to him the scheme plotted for the rescueof the nuns.--But no! The patriarch, too, no doubt, knew all.
Still, of what use was that at this moment? He had no time to lose, andBenjamin could hardly be expected to return within three weeks.
Obada had met Paula's father in the battle-field by Damascus, and it hadoften roused his ire to know that this hero's name was held famous evenamong the Moslems. His envious soul grudged even to the greatest thatpure honor which friend and foe alike are ready to pay; he didnot believe in it, and regarded the man to whom it was given as atime-serving hypocrite.
And as he hated the father so he did the daughter, though he had neverseen her. Orion's fate was sealed in his mind; and before his death heshould suffer more acutely through the execution of Paula, whethershe denied or owned her guilt. He might perhaps succeed in making herconfess, so he desired that she should at once be brought into thejudge's council-room; but he failed completely in his attempt, thoughhe promised her, through the interpreter, the greatest leniency if sheadmitted her guilt and threatened her with an agonizing death if sherefused to do so. His prisoner, indeed, was not at all what he hadexpected, and the calm pride with which she denied every accusationgreatly impressed the upstart slave. At first he tried to supplement theinterpreter by shouting words of broken Greek, or intimidating her byglaring looks whose efficacy he had often proved on his subordinatesbut without the least success; and then he had her informed that hepossessed a document which placed her guilt beyond doubt. Even this didnot shake her; she only begged to see it. He replied that she wouldknow all about it soon enough, and he accompanied the interpreter'srepetition of the answer with threatening gestures.
He had met with shrewd and influential women among his own people;he had seen brave ones go forth to battle, and share the perils of areligious war, with even wilder and more blood-thirsty defiance of deaththan the soldiers themselves; but these had all been wives and mothers,and whenever he had seen them break out of the domestic circle, beyondwhich no maiden could ever venture, it was because they were underthe dominion of some passionate impulse and a burning partisanship forhusband or son, family or tribe. The women of his nation lived for themost part in modest retirement, and none but those who were carried awayby some violent emotion infringed the custom.
But this girl! There she stood, immovably calm, like a warrior at thehead of his tribe. There was something in her mien that quelled him, andat the same time roused to the utmost his desire to make her feel hispower and to crush her pride. She was as much taller than the women ofhis nation as he was taller than any other captain in the Moslem army;prompted by curiosity, he went close up to her to measure her height byhis own, and passed his hand through the air from his swarthy throat totouch the crown of her head; and the depth of loathing with which sheshrank from him did not escape his notice. The blood mounted to hishead; he desired the interpreter to inform her that she was to hope forno mercy, and inwardly devoted her to a cruel death.
Pale, but prepared to meet the worst, Paula returned to the squalid roomshe occupied with her faithful Betta.
Her arrival at the prison had been terrible. The guards had seemeddisposed to place her in a room filled with a number of male and femalecriminals, whence the rattle of their chains and a frantic uproar ofcoarse voices met her ear; however, the interpreter and the captain ofthe town-watch had taken charge of her, prompted by Martina's promiseof a handsome reward if they could go to her next morning with a reportthat Paula had been decently accommodated.
The warder's mother-in-law, too, had taken her under her protection.This woman was the inn-keeper's wife from the riverside inn of Nesptah,and she at once recognized Paula as the handsome damsel who hadrefreshed herself there after the evening on the river with Orion, andwhom she had supposed to be his betrothed. She happened to be visitingher daughter, the keeper's wife, and induced her to do what she could tobe agreeable to Paula. So she and Betta were lodged in a separate cell,and her gold coin proved acceptable to the man, who did his utmost tomitigate her lot. Indeed, Pulcheria had even been allowed to visit herand to bring her the last roses that the drought had left in the garden.
Susannah had carried out her purpose of sending her food and fruit;but they remained in the outer room, and the messenger was desired toexplain that no more were to be sent, for that she was supplied with allshe needed.
Confident in her sense of innocence, she had looked forward calmlyto her fate building her hopes on the much lauded justice of the Arabjudges. But it was not they, it would seem, who were to decide it,but that black monster Orion's foe; crushed by the sense of impotenceagainst the arbitrary despotism of the ruthless villain, whose victimshe must be, she sat sunk in gloomy apathy, and hardly heard the oldnurse's words of encouragement.
She did not fear death; but to die without having seen her father oncemore, without saying and proving to Orion that she was his alone, whollyhis and for ever--that was too hard to bear.
While she was wringing her hands, in a state verging on despair, the manwho had ruined the happiness, the peace, and the fortunes of so manyof his fellow-creatures was cantering through the streets of Memphis,mounted on the finest horse in Orion's stable, and firmly determinedto make his defiant prisoner feel his power. When he reached the greatmarket-place in the quarter known as Ta-anch he was forced to bring hissteed to a quieter pace, for in front of the Curia--the senatehouse--animmense gathering of people had collected. The Vekeel forced his waythrough them with cruel indifference. He knew what they wanted andpaid no heed to them. The hapless crowd had for some time past met heredaily, demanding from the authorities some succor in their fearful need.Processions and pilgrimages had had no result yesterday, so to-day theybesieged the Curia. But could the senate make the Nile rise, or staythe pestilence, or prevent the dates dropping from the palm-trees? Couldthey help, when Heaven denied its aid?
These were the questions which the authorities had already put at leastten times to the shrieking multitude from the balcony of the town hall,and each time the crowd had yelled in reply: "Yes--yes. You must!--itis your duty; you take the taxes, and you are put there to take care ofus!"
Even yesterday the distracted creatures had been wholly unmanageableand had thrown stones at the building: to-day, after the fearfulconflagration and the death of their bishop, they had assembled in vastnumbers, more furious and more desperate than ever. The senators sattrembling on their antique seats of gilt ivory, the relics of departedsplendor imitated from those of the Roman senators, looking at eachother and shrugging their shoulders while they listened to a letterwhich had just reached them from the hadi. This document required them,in conformity with Obada's determination, to make known to the populace,by public proclamation and declaration, that any citizen whose house hadbeen destroyed by the fire of the past night would be granted ground andbuilding materials without payment, at Fostat across the Nile, where hemight found a new home provided he would settle there and embrace Islam.
This degrading offer must be announced: no discussion or recalcitrancycould help that.
And what could they, for their part, do for the complaining crowd?
The plague was snatching them away; the vegetables, which constitutedhalf their food at this season, were dried up; the river, theirpalatable and refreshing drink, was poisoned; the dates, their chiefluxury, ripened only to be rejected with loathing. Then there was thecomet in the sky, no hope of a harvest--even of a single ear, for monthsto come. The bishop dead, all confidence lost in the intercessions ofthe Church, God's mercy extinct as it would seem, withdrawn from theland under infidel rule!
And they on whose help the populace counted,--poor, weak men,councillors of n
o counsel, liable from hour to hour to be called tofollow those who had succumbed to the plague, and who had but justquitted their vacant seats in obedience to the fateful word.
Yesterday each one had felt convinced that their necessity and miseryhad reached its height, and yet in the course of the night it hadredoubled for many. Their self-dependence was exhausted; but there stillwas one sage in the city who might perhaps find some new way, suggestsome new means of saving the people from despair.
Stones were again flying down through the open roof, and the members ofthe council started up from their ivory seats and sought shelterbehind the marble piers and columns. A wild turmoil came up from themarket-place to the terror-stricken Fathers of the city, and the mob washammering with fists and clubs on the heavy doors of the Curia. Happilythey were plated with bronze and fastened with strong iron bolts, butthey might fly open at any moment and then the furious mob would storminto the hall.
But what was that?
For a moment the roar and yelling ceased, and then began again, but in amuch milder form. Instead of frenzied curses and imprecations shoutsnow rose of "Hail, hail!" mixed with appeals: "Help us, save us, giveus council. Long live the sage!" "Help us with your magic, Father!" "Youknow the secrets and the wisdom of the ancients!" "Save us, Save us!Show those money-bags, those cheats in the Curia the way to help us!"
At this the president of the town-council ventured forth from his refugebehind the statue of Trajan--the only image that the priesthood hadspared--and to climb a ladder which was used for lighting the hanginglamps, so as to peep out of the high window.
He saw an old man in shining white linen robes, riding on a fine whiteass through the crowd which reverently made way for him. The lictors ofthe town marched before him with their fasces, on to which they had tiedpalm branches in token of a friendly embassy. Looking further he couldsee that behind the old man came a slave, besides the one who drove hisass, carrying a quantity of manuscript scrolls. This raised his hopes,for the scrolls looked very old and yellow, and no doubt contained astore of wisdom; nay, probably magic formulas and effectual charms.
With a loud exclamation of "Here he comes!" the senator descended theladder; in a few minutes the door was opened with a rattling of ironbolts, and it was with a sigh of relief that they saw the old man comein and none attempt to follow him.
When Horapollo entered the council-chamber he found the senators sittingon their ivory chairs with as much dignified calm as though the meetinghad been uninterrupted; but at a sign from the president they all roseto receive the old man, and he returned their greeting with reserve, ashomage due to him. He also accepted the raised seat, which the presidentquitted in his honor while he himself took one of the ordinary chairs athis side.
The negotiation began at once, and was not disturbed by the crowd,though still from the market-place there came a ceaseless roar, like thebreaking of distant waves and the buzzing of thousands of swarming bees.
The sage began modestly, saying that he, in his simplicity, could notbut despair of finding any help where so many wise men had failed; hewas experienced only in the lore and mysteries of the Fathers, and hehad come thither merely to tell the council what they had consideredadvisable in such cases, and to suggest that their example should befollowed.
He spoke low but fluently, and a murmur of approval followed; then, whenthe president went on to speak of the low state of the Nile as the rootof all the evil, the old man interrupted him, begging them to begin byconsidering the particular difficulties which they might attack by theirown efforts.
The pestilence was in possession of the city; he had just come throughthe quarter that had been destroyed by the fire, and had seen abovefifty sick deprived of all care and reduced to destitution. Heresomething could be done; here was a way of showing the angry populacethat their advisers and leaders were not sitting with their hands intheir laps.
A councillor then proposed that the convent of St. Cecilia, or the nowdeserted and dilapidated odeum should be given up to them; but Horapolloobjected explaining very clearly that such a crowd of sick in the midstof the city would be highly dangerous to the healthy citizens. Thisopinion was shared by his friend Philippus, who had indeed commendedthe plan he had to propose as the only right one. Whither had theirforefathers transported, not merely their beneficent institutions,but their vast temples and tomb-buildings which covered so much space?Always to the desert outside the town. Arrianus had even written theseverses on the gigantic sphinx near the Pyramids.
"The gods erewhile created these far-shining forms, wisely sparing thefields and fertile corn-bearing plain."
The moderns had forgotten thus to spare the arable land, and theyhad also neglected to make good use of the desert. The dead andplague-stricken must not be allowed to endanger the living; they musttherefore be lodged away from the town, in the Necropolis in the desert.
"But we cannot let them be under the broiling sun," cried the president.
"Still less," added another, "can we build a house for them in a day."
To this Horapollo replied:
"And who would be so foolish as to ask you to do either? But there arelinen and posts to be had in Memphis. Have some large tents pitched inthe Necropolis, and all who fall sick of the pestilence removed there atthe expense of the city and tended under their shade. Appoint three orfour of your number to carry this into execution and there will bea shelter for the roofless sick in a few hours. How many boatmen andshipwrights are standing idle on the quays! Call them together and in anhour they will be at work."
This suggestion was approved. A linen-merchant present exclaimed: "Ican supply what is needed," and another who dealt in the same wares, andexported this famous Egyptian manufacture to remote places, also put ina word, desiring that his house might have the order as he could sellcheaper. This squabble might have absorbed the attention of the meetingtill it rose, and perhaps have been renewed the next day, if Horapollo'sproposal that they should divide the commission equally had not beenhastily adopted.
The populace hailed the announcement that tents would be erected for thesick in the desert, with applause from a thousand voices. The deputieschosen to superintend the task set to work at once, and by night themost destitute were safe under the first large hospital tent.
The old man settled some other important questions in the same way,always appealing to the lore of the ancients.
At length he spoke of the chief subject, and he did so with greatcaution and tact.
All the events of the last few weeks, he said, pointed to the conclusionthat Heaven was wroth with the hapless land of their fathers. As a signof their anger the Immortals had sent the comet, that terrible starwhose ominous splendor was increasing daily. To make the Nile risewas not in the power of men; but the ancients--and here his audiencelistened with bated breath--the ancients had been more intimatelyfamiliar with the mysterious powers that rule the life of Nature thanmen in the later times, whether priests or laymen. In those days everyservant of the Most High had been a naturalist and a student, andwhen Egypt had been visited by such a calamity as that of this year, asacrifice had been offered--a precious victim against which all mankind,nay and all his own feelings revolted; still, this sacrifice had neverfailed of its effect, no, never. Here was the evidence--and he pointedto the manuscripts in his lap.
The councillors had begun to be restless in their seats, and first thepresident and then the others, one after another, exclaimed and asked:
"But the victim?"
"What did they sacrifice?"
"What about the victim?"
"Allow me to say no more about it till another time," said the old man."What good could it do to tell you that now? The first thing is to findthe thing that is acceptable to the gods."
"What is it?"
"Speak--do not keep us on the rack!" was shouted on all sides; but heremained inexorable, promising only to call the council togetherwhen the right time should come and desiring that the president wouldproclaim from
the balcony that Horapollo knew of a sacrifice which wouldcause the Nile at last to rise. As soon as the right victim could befound, the people should be invited to give their consent. In the timeof their forefathers it had never failed of its effect, so men, women,and children might go home in all confidence, and await the future withnew and well-founded hopes.
And this announcement, with which the president mingled his praises ofthe venerable Horapollo, had a powerful effect. The crowd hallooed withglee, as though they had found new life. "Hail, hail!" was shoutedagain and again, and it was addressed, not merely to the old man who hadpromised them deliverance, but also to the Fathers of the city, who feltas if a fearful load had fallen from their souls.
The old man's scheme was, to be sure, not pious nor rightly Christian;but had the power of the Church been in any way effectual? And thishaving failed they must of their own accord have had recourse tomeans held reprobate by the priesthood. Magic and the black artswere genuinely Egyptian; and when faith had no power, these assertedthemselves and superstition claimed its own. Though Medea had been takenby surprise and imprisoned, this had not been done to satisfy the law,but with a view to secretly utilizing her occult science for the benefitof the community. In such dire need no means were too base; and thoughthe old man himself was horrified at those he proposed he was sure ofpublic approbation if only they had the desired result. If only theycould avert the calamity the sin could be expiated, and the Almighty wasso merciful!
The bishop had a seat and voice in the council, but Fate itself hadsaved them from the dilemma of having to meet his remonstrances.
When Horapollo went out into the market-place he was received withacclamations, and as much gratitude as though he had already achievedthe deliverance of the people and country.
What had he done?--Whether the work he had set going were to fail orto succeed he could not remain in Memphis, for in either case he wouldnever have peace again. But that did not daunt him; it would certainlybe very good for the two women to be removed from the perilousneighborhood of the Arab capital, and he was firmly determined to takethem away with him. For his dear Philip, too, nothing could be betterthan a transplantation into other soil.
At the house of Rufinus he now learnt the fate that had fallen on Paula.
She was out the way, at any rate for the present; still, if she shouldbe released to-morrow or the day after, or even a month hence, she wouldbe as great a hindrance as ever. His plots against her must therefore becarried out. His own isolation provoked him, and what a satisfactionit would be if only he should succeed in stirring up the EgyptianChristians to the heathen deed to which he was endeavoring to promptthem.
If Paula should be condemned to death by the Arabs, the execution of thescheme would be greatly promoted; and now the first point was to ensurethe favor of the black Vekeel, for everything depended on his consent.
Joanna and Pulcheria thought him more good-humored and amiable than theyhad ever known him; his proposal that he and Philippus should join theirhousehold was hailed with delight even by little Mary, and the womenconducted him all over the house, supporting his steps with affectionatecare. All he saw there pleased him beyond measure. Such neatness andcomfort could only exist where there was a woman's eye to direct andwatch over everything. The rooms on the ground floor, which had been themaster's, should be his, and the corresponding wing on the otherside could be made ready for Philippus. The dining-room, the largeante-chamber, and the viridarium would be common ground, and the upperstory was large enough for the women and any guests. He would move in assoon as he had settled some business he had in hand.
It must be something of a pleasant nature, for as the old man spoke ofit his sunken lips mumbled with satisfaction, while his sparkling eyesseemed to say to Pulcheria: "And I have something good in store for you,too, dear child."