CHAPTER EIGHT.
THAT GREAT MAN.
For a few moments there was utter silence, Cracis looking as if stunned,and a slight colour beginning to appear in the visitor's pallid cheeksas he stood gazing at Marcus' father, waiting for him to speak, whileCracis after catching his son's wrist and snatching him back, andwithout taking his eyes from their visitor, found words at last tospeak.
"Are you mad, boy?" he exclaimed, hoarsely. "Do you know who this is?"
"No, father," cried the boy, passionately, "only that he is a man whohas dared to speak ill of you."
"Ah!" said Cracis, slowly, and with his face softening, as he pressedthe boy's arm; and then, in a voice full of dignity and pride: "May Iask why Caius Julius has condescended to visit my humble home?"
"I have come as a friend, Cracis," was the reply.
"To continue your old enmity, and in mine absence revile me to my son?"
"Revile? Nonsense!" cried his visitor. "It was by accident. I came,and found you away, and reviled you?--no! I was but speaking to tryyour brave and spirited boy. I never for a moment thought that he wouldfire up as he did with all his father's spirit and readiness to resent awrong."
"Indeed?" said Cracis, coldly.
"Indeed," replied the visitor. "Only a few minutes ago I was tellingyour boy how that once we were the greatest of friends. Did I not?" hesaid quickly, turning to Marcus.
"Yes, father, that is right," cried Marcus. "He praised you very highlyat first, and said he was your friend."
"My friend!" said Cracis, bitterly. "My greatest enemy, he meant."
"I was, Cracis, in the past. In my ignorance and pride it was onlyafter we had parted that I learned all that I had lost in my separationfrom my bravest colleague, my truest and wisest counsellor."
"And now," said Cracis, coldly, "you have found out the truth and havetracked me to my home to accuse me with some base invention to my son."
"Believe me, no!" cried Julius, warmly, and he held out his hand."Cracis, after much thought and battling with my pride, the pride thathas come with the position to which I have climbed, I have mastered selfso as to come humbly to my oldest and best friend."
"Why?" said Cracis.
"Because you are the only man I know whose counsel I can respect, and inwhom I could fully trust."
"My greatest enemy comes to me to utter words like these, in thepresence of my son?"
"Yes, and I am proud that he should hear them, so that he may fullyunderstand that, when I spoke to him lightly as I did, it was but totest him, to try his spirit, to see whether he was fully worthy to bearhis great father's name."
Cracis was silent for a few moments, gazing searchingly into hisvisitor's eyes, which met his frankly and without blenching.
"Is this the truth?" said Cracis, sternly.
"The simple truth. Cracis, we were great friends once, and later thegreatest enemies; but in all those troubles of the past did we everdoubt each other's words?"
"Never," said Cracis, proudly. "But there is a reason for all this--something more than a late repentance for the injuries you have done mein the years that have gone. I ask you again--why have you come?"
"For our country's sake. I have climbed high since we parted, but onlyto stand more and more alone, till now, perhaps at the most criticalperiod of my life, I have been forced to look around me for help, for aman in whom I can place implicit trust, who will give me his counsel inthe State, and stand beside me in the perils that lie ahead. Cracis,there is only one man in whom I could trust like that, one only whowould bare his sword and fight bravely by my side, and you are he."
Cracis was silent as he shook his head slowly and turned his eyes awayfrom his visitor, to let them rest upon his son's upturned face, as theboy gazed at him in wonder and astonishment at what he heard.
"You do not believe me," cried Julius. "You think that something isunderlying all this," and he spoke with deep earnestness, his voicebroken and changed.
"Yes," said Cracis; "I cannot do otherwise. I do believe you--everyword."
"Then why do you speak so coldly and calmly, when I come to youpenitent, to humble myself to you and ask your help?"
"I speak coldly like this," said Cracis, "because I am fighting hard tobeat down the feelings of pride and triumph that the time has come whenhe who drove me from my high position in Rome has sought me out to makeso brave and manly an appeal, for, knowing you as I do to the very core,I can feel the battle that you must have had with self before youstooped--you, great general as you are--to come and tell me that youneed my help."
"Stooped!" cried the other. "No, Cracis, that is an ill-chosen word.It is that I have mastered self and cast away all pride and weakness sothat I might come to you and say: `For the sake of the old times, helpme in this bitter pass, so fraught with peril as it is'; and say, `Iforgive the bygones, and be to me as my brother once again.'"
Cracis was silent, and stood drawing his son closer to him so that hecould rest his arm upon the boy's shoulder, while his visitor stoodbefore him with his white robe gathered up so as to leave free hisextended arm.
For a few minutes neither spoke, and from the garden there came loud andclear the joyous trilling of the birds.
"You do not take my hand," said Caius Julius, passionately.
"No, not yet," said Cracis; "but do not mistake me. There is nobitterness or pride left in my breast. That died out years ago. I amonly thinking."
"Ha!" cried his visitor, with a sigh of relief, "and forgetting thecourtesy due to a long-estranged friend."
"Caius Julius, sit down. You are welcome to my simple, humble home.Marcus, my boy, you can believe that all our visitor said was to try hisold friend's son to see of what metal he was made. He is a man who, foryears past, has found the necessity of testing those he would have totrust, of placing them in the balance to try their worthiness andweight. Boy, we are honoured to-day by the presence of Rome's greatestson, your father's oldest friend, then his greatest enemy, and now, inthe fulness of time, his brother once again."
As he spoke he took a step forward with extended hands, which the futureconqueror of the world clasped at once in his own, and once more therewas silence in the room.
A minute later Cracis drew back and motioned to his son, who, earnestand alert, stepped forward, to find himself clasped to their visitor'sbreast, before he was released, to draw back wondering whether he likedor hated this man of whose prowess he had heard so much, and stoodgazing at him wonderingly, as Julius, the Caesar yet to be, sank back,quivering with emotion, in the nearest seat.
A few minutes later Marcus stood trying to catch his father's eye, forhe too had sunk into a chair and sat back gazing away through the openwindow at the sunlit hills.
At last he turned his eye upon his son and read the question in hisspeaking face.
"Yes, boy," he said, "you may leave us now. My old friend has much tosay, and I too have much to think. Go and see that proper preparationsare made for our guest. You will honour us--No," he continued, with apleasant smile, as he turned to his guest, "we are very simple here, butyou will be welcome and stay here to-night."
"Gladly," cried Julius, eagerly. "Believe me, I shall be proud, for Ihave gained my ends."
"Not yet," said Cracis, gravely. "It means so much, and I must have thenight to think. There, Marcus, boy, you know what should be done.Leave us for a while."
The boy hurried away, to seek the servants, and then to make for Serge,but checked himself before he was half way to his old companion's room.
"Not yet," he said. "How do I know that I ought to speak?" And he drewback with a feeling of relief on seeing that the old soldier was rightaway crossing one of the fields. "It would not have been right withoutspeaking to my father first," thought Marcus. "I wonder what they aresaying now?"
Marcus: the Young Centurion Page 8