CHAPTER XXXVII
IN THE HOUSE OF ANANIAS
But Ananias was a favorite name among the Jews of Damascus. Wearinessand the desire for slumber after inquiries which brought him twentydiverse directions, sent Marsyas to a khan when the night was old, andLydia still unfound.
The next morning after refreshing and untroubled sleep, he began tosearch for Ananias, carefully withholding the explanation that theAnanias he sought was a Nazarene, out of an impulse to protect theprotector of his beloved.
He found Ananias, the wine-merchant, and Ananias, the tanner, banishedto the outskirts of the city, because of his unclean trade; andAnanias, the priest; and Ananias who was a native of Antioch and ofmixed blood, but unalterably a Jew; and Ananias, who was a soldier,drafted into garrison service by Aretas, who had taken the city fromAntipas; and Ananias, the steward of Sidon who had robbed his masterand was now too rich and powerful to be punished; and Ananias, who wasa reader in the Synagogue. And for two other days, he sought Ananiasespatiently and with pathetic hope.
At sunset on the fourth day, he saw a woman meet another woman in thestreet, and between the two there passed a communication with thefingers. To others, not associated with Nazarenes, the sign meantnothing, but Marsyas caught the motion and his heart leaped.
It was the sign of the cross!
He overtook the woman who had passed him.
"I pray thee, friend," he said in a low voice, "canst thou tell mewhere Ananias, the Nazarene, dwelleth?"
The woman raised, a pair of calm gray eyes to his face. She was aGreek and fair, and her forehead was as placid as a lake in a calm.
"Art thou his friend?" she asked, with a touch of the caution acquiredby the unhappy.
"I am a friend to many who have departed into the Nazarene way," hesaid. "I shall not betray him."
"Seest the house built upon the wall," she said simply, "that hath thewhite gate, at the end of the street?"
Marsyas assented.
"Knock," she said.
He blessed her with a look and hurried down the darkening passage.
With trembling hands, he rapped on the whitewashed gate, set deep inthe thick clay wall, and presently the door swung open.
A woman in the house-dress of a servant stood there; behind her was awalk lined with white stones; cooing pigeons were disappearing into acupola on the house within; an ipomoea, pallid with bloom, shaded thestep; irises were pushing through the rich mold just inside the gate.There was the rainy rustling of leaves from the olive trees at theproperty wall on each side. And there was a seat of tamarind withfallen leaves upon it.
"Does Ananias, the Nazarene, dwell here?" Marsyas asked with a tremorin his voice. Whither had his courage departed?
"Enter," the woman said.
Marsyas stepped over the threshold of the white gate, that was latchedbehind him against opening from the outside, and followed the womantoward the bower of ipomoea.
Within a hall, lighted by a single taper, she gave him a seat, anddisappeared through a door at the end of the room. A moment later, thetall spare figure of the pastor of Ptolemais and of Rhacotis emergedfrom the interior.
Marsyas sprang up, but no sound came to his lips. He clasped his handsand gazed with pitiful eyes upon the Nazarene.
Without pausing for the formality of a greeting, after the firstmovement of surprise, Ananias reopened the door that he had closedbehind him and signed to the young man to pass in.
Marsyas stood in a large chamber, with a spot of light in its centerunder a hanging lamp. There, with her head bright under the rays, satLydia.
Her face was toward him when he entered. She flung down the skein ofwool she was winding and sprang up. But the look on Marsyas' facearrested her cry. One glance of supreme examination and her large eyeskindled with sudden triumph. She came to him as if more than distancebetween them and danger had been overcome. Marsyas swept her into hisarms and folded her to his heart.
"No more, no more!" he was saying, "from this time for ever more mineown!"
Trembling and smiling, while tears perfect as pearls glittered on herlashes, she put her arms about his neck and drew his head down to her.
"O my Marsyas," she cried, "better to die in the light of thy trustthan to live in thy love without it! Blessed, thrice blessed the hourwhich gave me both!"
"O my Lydia, thou anointest me with thy forgiveness, and clothest me inthe holy garment of thy love! Blessed am I and consecrated!"
"I believed in thy wisdom, love!"
"I had no wisdom but love!"
"The Lord heard me, my Marsyas, for I was near mine extremity, and Icould not have endured much longer!"
"I had reached my extremity, Lydia, and then the Lord gave me His hand."
She turned him toward the light, and gazed up at his eyes with suchearnestness, such penetration on her almost infantile face, that hepressed her closer to him and laughed a low laugh. Her eyes flashed onhim a light of new interest.
"I never heard thee laugh till now!" she exclaimed.
"I never was happy till now!"
"Why now, and not before?" she asked.
There was silence; he could not tell her why he had changed, but hecould tell what had marked it.
He led her to the chair she had left, and when she had sat, dropped ather feet and crossed his arms upon her lap.
"Listen, and when I have done, know that the Lord loved us, and hathjoined us with His own hands."
Beginning at the time when he turned to find her gone from the reader'sstone before the Synagogue in Alexandria, he told with simpledirectness of his wanderings, of his disappointments, of his growingfear that he would not save her from Saul. He had her follow him tothe Temple, where he met Eleazar and received the dire news that Saulhad departed for Damascus; and thence along the old Roman road throughthe length of the Holy Land, up past his native hills and the waters ofthe Sea of Galilee, and the marshes of Lake Huleh, into the desert, andon to the beginning of the beneficence of the Pharbar and the Abana,until he brought up within sixty paces of Saul at the wayside pool.All these things she heard with the sympathetic interest which had wonhim to her from the talk in the dawn on the housetop in Alexandria.But when he came to the supernatural visit of the great light, and theprostration of Saul and his own arising a man of subdued and sweetenednature, her eyes shone with a repressed excitement that was not usualin her.
"Naught but a miracle could have stopped me then; naught but the sameinterference could turn me again into the old way!"
She lifted his face and spoke to him with deep seriousness.
"Didst thou hear what the Spirit said?" she asked.
"We heard nothing, except Saul's words, which I told thee."
"And did Saul make thee a promise that he would persecute no more, orbeg thy compassion or thy forgiveness for his work against thy Stephen?"
"He did not speak; he did not know me, for he was blind, and as one ina trance!"
"And thou hast withdrawn thy hand from him, and forsworn thine oathagainst him?"
"I have done that thing, Lydia."
She held fast to her composure, but her face was transfigured.
"Wherein art thou different, then, from the Nazarenes of Ptolemais whoshowed thee their doctrine of peace, and refused thee when thou wouldsthave hurled them against Saul?" she asked.
For a moment there was silence. Then he arose on his knees and raisinghis hands clasped them on his breast, while the splendor of a divineenlightenment shone in his eyes.
"I know who came unto us there," he whispered. "It was the Christ!"
She laid her fluttering palms over his clasped hands and held themthere, while each in his heart kept the silence, which, in such amoment, is prayer.
Then Marsyas withdrew a hand and took from the folds of his garment thelittle red cedar crucifix, and, kissing it, put it into her hands. Thered cord was still attached to it, and, with solemnity on her face, shelaid it about his neck and blessed him.
When the ecstasy of exaltation had passed away, for they were young andthe spirit of human love was strong between them, Lydia bade himlisten, while she told him one other surprising thing.
"At the command of a heavenly vision, Ananias went this day unto thehouse of Judas the Pharisee, and into the darkened chamber, where Saullay, blind and dumb. And by the gift of the Lord Jesus, Ananias laidhis hands on Saul's head, and the blind man straightway had his sight.So he arose and followed Ananias unto this house--"
"Here?" Marsyas cried.
"Unto this house, where, when he had broken fast and taken strength, hestood up and glorified Jesus of Nazareth, and received baptism unto theChurch of the Nazarenes whom he persecuted hitherto unto death!"
Marsyas was silent. More than wonder filled his heart. Presently hesaid, as if speaking to himself:
"Is this thine hour, O my martyred Stephen? Art thou content?Sleepest thou the better, knowing that I have followed thy testamentfor Saul, rather than mine own oath against him?"
Lydia left his communings unanswered, but when he put his hands overhis face and laid his head in her lap, her own tears fell with his.Feeling presently her touch on his hair, he raised his head to take thehand.
"Give it to me, my love," he said, "for it hath shaped my life anew,pointed me to the way that even the sacred dead would have me walk, andthe joy and the comfort of all time to come lieth in the hollow of it!Let me serve it, now!"
"And thou wilt not regret the peace of En-Gadi, in the world that cannot fail to be troublous, some time?" she asked, but with the smile ofone who does not fear the answer.
"I owe En-Gadi a debt," he said, "for the brethren were as father andmother to me when I had neither. Its teaching and its practices arepure, and its peace is good for them who fear the world. But with thehelp of Him who made thee strong and Stephen fearless, I shall not wantpent-in walls to be happy and upright."
"Let Ananias teach thee, my love; let Saul show thee his heart; andthen--"
"Send us back unto Alexandria, with the faith of Christ on our lips andthe peace of His love in our hearts. Tell me that I may go with thee,Lydia!"
"I have been waiting for thee since the day we met in the Judean hills."
CHAPTER XXXVIII
THE REQUITAL
On the third day after his arrival in Jerusalem, Herod the king was inhis privy cabinet arranging, with his own hands, the graven gems andarticles of virtu, prizes brought from his trip to Antioch. The doorwas dubiously opened, and Agrippa, without turning his head, knew whostood there, for only one in the palace had been commanded to enter theking's presence without announcement.
"Well, Silas?" Agrippa said, contemplating the elusive tints of a jadegoblet.
The old man pulled at the gorgeous uniform of master of horse, thathung from the peasant shoulders and answered:
"A friend of thy unfortunate days is without."
Agrippa's brows lifted and drew toward each other in a mannerhalf-amused, half-vexed.
"The friends of my unfortunate days are the friends of my fortunatedays; wherefore, they would liefer be known as friends of Agrippa theking, than of Agrippa the bankrupt. Give them their due and call themthe king's companions. And Silas?"
"Yes, lord."
"The king would as lief forget that he ever had a misfortune."
Silas looked perplexed and rubbed his forehead.
"But who is it that stands without?" Agrippa continued.
"The Essene."
"What! Marsyas? By the Nymphae--beshrew me! By the beard of Balaam,I shall be glad to see him! Fetch him hither!"
Silas nodded in lieu of a bow.
"Lord, there is one with him; shall she enter also?"
"Who?"
"The alabarch's daughter."
"Nay! The little Athene! Terpsichore's best! Not so; though, byBacch--Balaam! she would be a fit jewel for this place. It shall be anaudience hour. Go, summon the queen, and have the Essene and hispriestess come to us in our hall!"
The master of horse backed away, but, catching Agrippa's smiling eye,turned his back, remembering his privilege, and hurried out, as if heexpected an arrow between his shoulders.
The king shut down the lid of the shittim-wood chest upon the pricelesstrifles still unpacked, locked it, and said the while to himself:
"The Essene hath heard of the Pharisee Saul's apostasy and hath come todemand his punishment of me. Behold me grant it, with kingly gravity.It will attach the extremists to me all the more, for I hear theSicarii are wanting the heretic's blood! And he fetches the littleLysimachus with him! Aha! En-Gadi hath lost--that which it never had,in truth."
He looked at his hands and at his garments.
"Nay, it will be just as well if the lady sees me looking my best!"
He slammed the door of his cabinet behind him, locked it and hurriedaway in the direction of the royal wardrobe.
In an hour he ascended the dais in robes of purple velvet with thePharisee fringes in gold. Cypros, filled with pleasurableanticipations, was beside him in the garments that Mariamne had worn.The king cast an eye over the carpeting, the canopy and the gorgeousdressing of his throne and said to Cypros:
"Perpol! the place reeks with the smell of newness! But be notconscious of it! Perchance none will guess that the hands of theupholsterers are still warm on the fabric."
The genuflexions of the series of attendants at the archway and beyondmarked the coming of Marsyas and Lydia. A Jewish chamberlain withinthe hall bent to the pavement and announced to the king that hisvisitors approached. Agrippa relaxed even more comfortably in histhrone and let his scepter fall into his lap. But Cypros, moreconscious of her debt to those who visited her now than of her state,smiled and moved forward and looked down the long chamber for the firstglimpse of them.
But it was not the Marsyas and the Lydia she had expected to see. Evento one of her unready perceptions, the change upon the two wasstrangely marked.
They came side by side, both in the simple white garments of theceremonially clean, but Marsyas' head was uncovered and Lydia's lockswere wholly unbound, after the custom of Jewish brides. Within a fewpaces of the throne-dais they stopped. With all her former grace,Lydia sank to her knees, but Marsyas, after the oriental salaam, stoodbeside her.
Cypros, with her eyes shining, and after an eager glance at her lord,arose and stepped to the edge of the dais. Then Agrippa got up, withhis purple trailing effectively, and came down from his high seat, andapproached his guests.
"It is the one pain of mine exaltation," he said as he extended hisarms to Marsyas, "that mine old loves believe that they must approachme now with humility."
"Yet they no less expect that thou wilt raise them," Marsyas said,returning the king's embrace.
Agrippa lifted Lydia to her feet and kissed her.
"There, by my kingdom!" he exclaimed. "I rejoice at thy wedding forthe privilege it gives me! May joy be thy portion, and peace andabundance and years be multiplied unto you both! Evoe! as the heathensay! But for your sanctified atmosphere, I would have the trumpetersblow you a fan-fare!"
He handed Lydia to Cypros, who waited almost tearfully.
"Go, let the queen congratulate thee that thou hast wedded an uprightman in the beginning and saved thyself of the pain of making himone--as she had to do! Come up," he continued to Marsyas, "and sit atour feet. And tell us of yourselves."
With his arm over Marsyas' shoulder, he went back to his dais, andsitting, had Marsyas take the guest's chair at his side, while Cyprosbestowed Lydia on a velvet cushion at her feet.
"So much, so long my story, that I falter at its beginning, as onebeginning a day's journey at sunset," said Marsyas.
"Thou needest but to essay a beginning; let me lead thee," Agrippaobserved. "Let me satisfy the questions in thee, ere I be entertained.First, of Flaccus. I sent messengers to Caesar from Antioch detailingthe high offenses of the proconsul, hinting treason against thegovernment of the emperor and other c
harges which excite Caligula most,and ere I departed I had from Caesar's own hand the tidings that acenturion had been despatched to Alexandria to arrest Flaccus and bringhim to Rome for trial. And the further news, which will raise thee,sweet Lydia, to calm content. The Jews are to be restored theirrights, the prisoners freed, and better times assured to thy people."
Lydia clasped her hands, and her eyes filled with relief.
"And my father?" she asked in a low voice.
"Especially commended to Caesar's favor! The black days for theAlexandrian Jews are over, unless Caligula force upon them his petmadness that he is a god and amenable to worship."
"Mad, at last!" Marsyas exclaimed.
"Never otherwise," Agrippa answered. "I hear that he has proclaimedJunia to be Athor, and hath set up a white cow in a temple to bepropitiated in the wanton's name!"
Marsyas looked at the downcast lashes of Lydia and loved her for thesilence she kept.
"Will she--be--empress?" Cypros faltered, in womanly fear of someunknown evil.
Agrippa laughed and dropped his hand meaningly on Marsyas' arm.
"If she should be, here is Marsyas yet to protect me!" he said. ButMarsyas did not smile.
"What!" Agrippa cried; "still an Essene?"
"No," said Marsyas, "but the Lord forfend that the woman should everbecome Augusta!"
"Never fear! She is too poor. Caligula, like any other mortal god,would prefer a dowry with his consort! And that, byJanus--ah--er--Jacob! brings me up to somewhat relative to our oldfortune-seeking friend, Classicus."
"But," Marsyas protested with a show of his old-time spirit, "I shallnot agree that Classicus sought Lydia for her riches alone!"
"The unhappiest remark, the crudest accusation thou didst ever force meto defend!" Agrippa exclaimed, glowering at Marsyas. "Now, how shall Iconvince thy sweet bride that I had not meant that any man could loveher less than her dowry!"
But Lydia smiled, first at Marsyas and then at the king, and said: "Letus hear of Classicus."
The king clapped his hands, and an attendant bowed to the floor in thearchway.
"Bring hither the letter from Alexandria, which my scribe answereth,"Agrippa said. In a moment a package was put into the king's hands.
He unfolded it carefully. "It is fragile," he said, "reedpaper--papyrus, of his own curing, and written with a quill. Evil daysfor Classicus; but observe, he hath not forgotten the latest fashion infolding it. Listen:
"To the Most High and Gracious Prince, Herod Agrippa, King of Judea,from his servant and subject, Justin Classicus, the Alexandrian,greeting:
"That thou hast come unto thine own, that thou hast triumphed and theday of fulfillment hath dawned, that the Jews of the hallowed soil ofCanaan have again a king from among them, I give thee congratulationsand God-speed, and offer thanks to the God of our fathers.
"Would to that same God who hath magnified thee, that the sway of thyscepter extended unto us, here, in Alexandria.
"Our misfortunes are beyond words. Particularly am I most unfortunate.Because of my friendliness to the alabarch, and subsequent turning uponFlaccus in thine own extremity, I am reduced to the utmost poverty,having neither food nor raiment beyond that which a faithful freedmansupplies me out of his own little store.
"Since mine own people are imprisoned within a fourth of theirterritory, nor one permitted to come forth upon pain of dreadful death,I can not hope for help from them, much less from the Gentiles, whotake particular delight in my humiliation.
"In thee I have hope. I pray thee number me among thy helpless onesand give me of thy bounty something to do to clothe and feed me, andsufficiently gentle that I may not be proscribed among my kind--"
Agrippa broke off and laughed aloud.
"Why read more? Is it not enough?"
"Enough," Marsyas said slowly. "But by thy leave, lord, we would knowwhat thou wilt say to him."
"A just demand; for thou and not I didst suffer at his hands. I shalltell him that I laid the matter before thee and that thou---"
"Nay, then, lord," Marsyas broke in earnestly, "if thou carest in allearnestness for my suggestion, pray let me make it!"
"But I believe that I anticipated it and commanded the answer so to bewritten."
There was a little regretful silence, and Agrippa leaned toward Marsyas.
"What abideth there, Marsyas?" he asked, touching the young man'sforehead.
After a pause, Marsyas raised his head.
"The full length of mine own story leadeth up to the answer," he said.
"Nay, then, speak!"
Asking permission of Cypros with her eyes, Lydia arose from her placeon her cushion, and came to Marsyas' side. He put his arm about herand held her hand, and so she stood while he told his story.
Agrippa and Cypros listened with ordinary interest until he began totell of his ride across the desert in pursuit of Saul. Then Agrippa'sexcitement-loving instincts stirred, and he sat up and contemplatedMarsyas with arrested attention.
At the sighting of the Pharisee far down the road beyond Caucabe, theking's eyes sparkled; when Marsyas rode upon the party at the pool,Agrippa's hand on the arm of his throne had clenched. At Marsyas'dismounting and approach, the king muttered under his breath.
"But at that instant," the narrator went on, showing the effects of hisown story, "a light, such as never before descended upon the earth andwill not come again until the Prince of Light cometh, stood among us;at which we all fell to the ground as though stricken by a thunderbolt!"
Agrippa's brows knitted.
"While we lay, thus unable to move or cry out, Saul spoke and said untothe Presence: 'Who art Thou, Lord!' but we heard no answer. And againSaul spoke, as if he had been answered, saying: 'Lord, what is it thatThou wouldst have me to do?' And yet there was silence. But when wetook courage and arose, Saul lay on the ground, helpless, blind andbereft of speech!"
Agrippa's face showed impatience and astonishment. This, from the lipsof so sane a Jew as Marsyas!
"We took him up," Marsyas continued, after a moment's reflection, "andled him unto Damascus, and to Judas, the Pharisee, who dwelleth inStraight Street. And there Saul lay for three days. Throughout thattime, I sought for Lydia, and at the end of the third day, I found her."
He touched his lips to Lydia's hand.
"Under the same roof with her I found Saul of Tarsus, broken andsupplicating, changed, heart and soul, as was I. But he was not inignorance of the fount of our transfiguration as I was. From Lydia'slips, I learned that he had been visited by the Lord; but from Saul, Ilearned its meaning. If there is change upon my face, lord, I havetold thee whence came it!"
Agrippa's eyes were no longer on Marsyas; he had turned his head andwas looking at Cypros, as if curious to see if so impossible a talewould find credence in the mind of the simple queen. She lookeddisturbed and awe-struck, and Agrippa's nostrils fluttered with asoundless laugh.
"_Quantum mutatus ab illo!_" he said, turning to Marsyas. "That I canswear under a dread oath. And perchance, were I an Essene and morethan an adopted Pharisee, I could have been visited and borne witnessto miracles, also. But thou'lt remember, Marsyas, that this Saulconsented unto the death of thy Stephen?"
"I remember, lord; neither hath he forgotten!" answered Marsyas.
"And that through him, great numbers of innocent people fled Judea,among them one Marsyas, that this same Saul might not have their lives;that he pursued thee even unto thy refuge, put thy sweet bride injeopardy, stained the whole world with persecution, and made an end bybringing up in heresy, after he had begun a journey to Damascus withthe avowed purpose of extending his persecutions--even unto the deathof thy Lydia! Thou hast not forgotten these things?"
"They are not to be forgotten!"
"And on a certain night, while yet Stephen was unburied, thou camestupon this Saul of Tarsus in Bezetha, and swore to accomplish vengeanceupon him; and that same night in the cubiculum in the Praetorium thoudidst make me swear
to help thee to that revenge, if he should stumblein the Law!"
Marsyas took his arm from about Lydia and arose.
"I am here, O King," he said, "to crave the fulfilment of that oath."
Agrippa smiled, in spite of the serene gravity on Marsyas' face.
"Ask thy boon, Marsyas," he answered.
Marsyas knelt at the king's footstool, and put up his hands assupplicants do before a throne.
"Thou hast remembered thine oath unto me, my King; thou hast publishedthyself as ready to fulfil thy promise, and hast yielded unto me thechoice of the manner of my requital! Thus assured and believing I makemy prayer. Lift not thy hand against Saul of Tarsus!"
Agrippa's brows dropped suddenly; his face was no less displeased thanstartled. He had meant to have a jest at Marsyas' expense, to try theyoung man's claim to a change in heart, to bring to the surface humannature through its envelope of religion; but he had not looked for thisthing! To behold so strange a perversion of the ancient spirit in aman like Marsyas, and to submit to its demands against his owninclinations weighed heavily on Agrippa's patience. Saul's lapse intoapostasy gave him an opportunity to attach to him the loyalty of thatfierce party in Judea, which were better propitiated than fought--theSicarii, anarchists, who would demand the putting away of the heretic.Marsyas had asked him to sacrifice a potent piece of state-craft.
He glanced at Cypros, and saw resentfully that she was urging him withher eyes to submit. Marsyas' face began to show an expression thatcompelled him, while it irritated the more. The young man wore theface of one who does not expect defeat, denies it so confidently thatit hesitates to exist. Agrippa shifted in his throne, frowned more,wavered, and finally said shortly:
"As Caesar forgot me to mine own safety, I will forget Saul!"
Marsyas' hands dropped softly on the king's, a token of brotherhood.
"Death intervened," he whispered, "to save thee from Caesar!"
Agrippa started and drew his hands away with a prescient terror in themovement.
"I will not pursue the man," he said; "I will not search for him!"
"Thou hast kept thy word, lord," Marsyas said, "and I go hence carryingtrust in one more fellow man in my heart. May my God supply all thyneed according to His riches in glory, by Jesus Christ!"
Agrippa's eyes which had all this time rested in fascination onMarsyas' face, flashed now with understanding. Marsyas was a Nazarene!The admission reassured him; set aside the astonishment at the youngman's unusual behavior; and lessened the fear he had felt in thesuggestion that drew a parallel between Caesar's end and his own, tocome. But Lydia was now kneeling before him, with glistening eyes, tokiss his hand, and Cypros was speaking.
"But thou gatherest peril yet about thee, Marsyas," she insisted. "Isthe hazardous life, then, so inviting that thou hadst liefer be wrongthan be safe?"
"No, lady; peace is no sweeter to my brethren, the Essenes, than it isto me. So I have put out my hand and possessed it. Think of us,henceforth, as the children of peace, not peril."
Agrippa shook his head.
"It hath consumed two years to establish it," he said conclusively,"and not until the last moment is it revealed that thou art a dreamer,Marsyas. Thou hast been an Essene, which is too strait an ambition tobe practicable; thou didst cherish a love for a man, so deep that itsbereavement engendered a hate that no man should feel, unless a womanwere won from him or a fortune destroyed; thou wast urged by it intoextreme acts--into selling thyself, into following me to the end of theworld, into putting thyself between me and death--that I might helpthee satisfy that hate! And now, the hour fallen, a new fancy hathengulfed thee, heart, head and soul--which bids thee forget thy rancor,defend thine enemy, and live in perpetual peril of destruction! Thouart a dreamer--though thy front be Jovian and thy steps like Mars!"
Marsyas laid his hand on Lydia's head, as she still knelt beside him.
"In substance, I so accused her once, and Stephen. Perhaps, if thoufollowest me insomuch, my King, thou wilt walk even as I havewalked--into the light at last!"
Agrippa made a motion of dissent.
"I doubt, now, that thou couldst safely govern that pretty little cityI had meant to make thee prefect over, here in Judea," he declared.
"Thou hast said! For me there is a new earth, and a new Law, and I gohence to Alexandria to begin a new life, which will make me a lover ofall mankind."
"Nay, sweet Lydia!" Herod exclaimed, once more restored to himself."Thou shouldst demand that he be less indiscriminate with his loves!But put off thy travel a space, and let us celebrate thy marriage withfestivity!"
"Thou art most kind to us, King Agrippa," Lydia answered. "But myfather is alone and uncomforted in Alexandria; even thou canst not tellme of a surety that evil hath not befallen him ere thy punishment ofFlaccus could intervene. My heart is consumed with impatience andsuspense. We can not tarry, though thy hospitality be mostgrateful--to us--who have found the world of late an untender place!"
So, since they would not be stayed, Agrippa summoned two stalwartpalace servants to go with them, and calling his treasurer, ordered himto give into the hands of the servants six talents, five of which heowed to Lysimachus for Cypros, and one as a marriage largess. And whenMarsyas and Lydia had kissed the hands of the royal pair, they went outand found, at the palace wall, a camel which should bear them in awhite howdah to Ptolemais.
Marsyas lifted Lydia and set her under the canopy, but, before he wentup himself, he saw borne past him, in a chair, a rabbi. He was a greatman, grave, calm and preoccupied. Three students of the Collegeattended him reverently. Marsyas caught his eye, and between the twopassed a flash that was both understanding and congratulatory. Butthey saluted each other gravely, and Eleazer passed on to his own place.
Before they departed Herod sent out a chamberlain, who bowed low andhanded a wax tablet to Marsyas, on which was written:
"Since Classicus would be in Alexandria to harass thee, and thy witsare meshed in love and religion, I have bidden my scribe write him tocome hither, where I can kill him conveniently, if he need it. If thouhave any enemies here in Jerusalem thou hast forgotten to bless, thoucanst perhaps repair the misfortune by naming thy sons after them.
"My love goes with thee--mine and the queen's,
"HEROD."
So, with their faces alight with content and love and hopefulness,Marsyas and Lydia took up the long journey unto Alexandria.
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