The Scarlet Banner
Page 34
CHAPTER IX
PROCOPIUS TO CETHEGUS:
I am writing this--really and truly, though it is not yet three monthssince we left Constantinople--in Carthage, at the capitol, in the royalpalace of the Asdings, in the hall of Genseric the Terrible. I oftendoubt the fact myself--but it is so! On the day after the battle atDecimum the infantry, coming from the camp, joined us, and the wholearmy marched to Carthage, which we reached in the evening. We chose aplace to encamp outside of the city, though no one opposed ourentrance. Nay, the Carthaginians had opened all their gates and lightedtorches and lanterns everywhere in the streets and squares. All nightlong the bonfires shone from the city into our camp, while the fewVandals who had not fled sought shelter in the Catholic churches.
But Belisarius most strictly prohibited entering the city during thenight. He feared an ambush, a stratagem of war. He could not believethat Genseric's capital had actually fallen into his hands with solittle trouble.
On the following day, borne by a favoring breeze, our ships rounded thepromontory. As soon as the Carthaginians recognized our flag, theybroke the iron chains of their outer harbor, Mandracium, and beckonedto our sailors to enter. But the commanders, mindful of Belisarius'swarning, anchored in the harbor of Stagnum, five thousand paces fromthe city, waiting further orders. Yet that the worthy citizens ofCarthage might make the acquaintance of their liberators on the veryfirst day, a ship's captain, Kalonymos, with several sailors, enteredMandracium, against the orders of Belisarius and the Quaestor, andplundered all the merchants--Carthaginians as well as strangers--whohad their homes and storehouses on the harbor. He took all their money,many of their goods, and even the beautiful candlesticks and lanternswhich they had brought out in honor of our arrival.
We had hoped--Belisarius gave orders for a diligent search--to liberatethe captive King Hilderic and his nephew. But this, it appears, was notaccomplished. In the royal citadel, high up on the hill crowned by thecapitol, is the gloomy dungeon where the usurper held the Asdingsprisoners, as he barred all his foes here. The executioner supplied theplace of a jailer to his predecessors. He also held captive manymerchants of our empire, fearing (and my Hegelochus showed with whatgood reason; the General sent him to-day with rich gifts to Syracuse)that, if allowed to sail thither, they might bring us all sorts ofvaluable information. When the jailer, a Roman, heard of our victory atDecimum, and saw our galleys rounding the promontory, he released allthese captives. He wanted to set the King and Euages free also, buttheir dungeon was empty. No one knows what has become of them.
At noon Belisarius ordered the ships' crews to land, all the troops toclean their weapons and armor, to present the best appearance, and nowthe whole army marched in full battle-array--for we still feared anambush of the Vandals--through the "Grove of the Empress Theodora" (soI hear the grateful Carthaginians have rebaptized it); then through thesouthern Byzacenian gate, and finally through the lower city.Belisarius and the principal leaders, with some picked troops, went upto the capitol, and our General formally took his seat upon Genseric'sgold and purple throne. Belisarius ordered the noonday meal to beserved in the dining-hall where Gelimer entertained the Vandal nobles.It is called "Delphica," because its principal ornament is a beautifultripod. Here the General feasted the leaders of his army. A banquet hadbeen prepared in it the day before for Gelimer, but we now ate thedishes made to celebrate his victory; spiced by this thought, theirflavor was excellent. And Gelimer's servants brought in the platters,filled the drinking vessels with fragrant wine, waited upon us in everyway. This is another instance of the goddess Tyche's pleasure inplaying with the changing destinies of mortals. You, O Cethegus, I amwell aware, have a different opinion of the final causes of events; yousee the fixed action of a law in the deeds of human beings, as well asin storms and sunshine. This may be magnificent, heroic, but it isterrible. I have a narrow mind, and am precisely the opposite of ahero; I cannot endure it. I waver skeptically to and fro. Sometimes Isee only the whimsical ruling of a blind chance, which delights inalternately lifting up and casting down; sometimes I think aninscrutable God directs everything to mysterious ends. I have renouncedall philosophizing, and enjoy the motley current of events, not withoutscorn and derision for the follies of other people, but no less forthose of Procopius.
And yet I do not wish to break off entirely all relations with theChristian's God. We do not know whether, after all, the Son of Man maynot yet return in the clouds of heaven. In that case, I would farrather be with the sheep than with the goats.
The people, the liberated Romans, the Catholics, in their delight overtheir rescue, see signs and wonders everywhere. They regard our Huns asangels of the Lord. They will yet learn to know these angels,especially if they have pretty wives or daughters, or even only fullmoney-chests. The comical part of it is that (except Belisarius'sbody-guard), our soldiers, with all due respect to the Emperor, areprincipally a miserable lot of rascals from all the provinces of theempire, and all the Barbarian peoples in the neighborhood; they arealways as ready to steal, pillage, and murder as they are to fight. Yetwe ourselves, in consequence of the amazing good fortune which hasaccompanied us throughout this whole enterprise, are beginning toconsider ourselves the chosen favorites of the Lord, His sacredinstrument--thieves and cut-throats though we are! So the entire army,pagans as well as Christians, believe that that spring gushed out forus in the desert only by a miracle of God. So both the army and theCarthaginians believe in a lantern miracle in the following singularincident.
The Carthaginians' principal saint is Saint Cyprian, who has more thana dozen basilicas and chapels, in which all his festivals, "the greatCypriani," are magnificently celebrated. But the Vandals took nearlyall the churches from the Catholics, and dedicated them to the Arianworship. This was the case with the great basilica of Saint Cypriandown by the harbor, from which they drove the Catholic priests. Theloss of this cathedral caused them special sorrow, and they said thatSaint Cyprian had repeatedly appeared to devout souls in a dream,comforted them, and announced that he would some day avenge the wrongcommitted by the Vandals. This seems to me rather _un_saintly in thegreat saint; we poor sinners on earth are daily exhorted to forgive ourenemies, and the wrathful saint ought to let his vengeful feelingscool, and thus remain the holy Cyprian. The pious Catholics, thuspleasantly strengthened and justified in their thirst for revenge bytheir patron saint, had long waited, in mingled curiosity and anxiety,for the blow Saint Cyprian was to deal the heretics. On this day itbecame evident. The festival of the great Cyprian was just at hand; itfell on the day following the battle of Decimum. On the evening before,the Arian priests themselves had decorated the entire churchmagnificently, and especially arranged thousands of little lamps, inorder to have a brilliant illumination at night to celebrate thevictory; for they did not doubt the success of their own army. By thewritten order of the Archdeacon Verus,--he had accompanied the King tothe field,--all the church vessels and church treasures of everydescription were brought out of the hidden thesauri and placed upon theseven altars of the basilica. Never would these unsuspected riches havebeen found in the secret vaults of the church, had not Verus giventhese directions and sent the keys.
But we, not the Vandals, won the battle of Decimum. At this news theArian priests fled headlong from the city. The Catholics poured intothe basilica, discovered the secret treasures of the heretics, andlighted their lamps to celebrate the victory of the champions of thetrue faith. "This is the vengeance of Saint Cyprian!" "This is themiracle of the lamps!" Through the city they went, roaring these wordsand cuffing and pounding every doubter until he believed and shoutedwith them: "Yes, this is Saint Cyprian's vengeance and the miracle ofthe lamps!"
Now I have not the least objection to an occasional miracle. Onthe contrary, I am glad when something often happens that theall-explaining philosophers who have so long tormented me cannotunderstand. But then it must be a genuine, thorough-going miracle. If amiracle cannot present itself as something
entirely beyond the limitsof reason, it would better not attempt to be a miracle at all; it isn'tworth while. And this miracle appears to me far too natural. Belisariusreproved my incredulous derision. But I replied that Saint Cyprianseems to me the patron saint of the lamplighters; I don't belong tothat society.
* * * * *
Fara, the Herulian, captured the fairest booty at Decimum. True, hereceived from the noble a sharp lance-thrust in the arm through hisbrazen shield. But the shield had done its duty; the point did notpenetrate too deeply into the flesh. And when he entered the nearestvilla,--he was just breaking in,--the door opened, and a wonderfullybeautiful woman, with superb jewels and scarlet flowers in her blackhair, came to meet him. Except the flowers and gems, she was notburdened with too much clothing.
The vision held out a wreath of laurel and pomegranate blossoms.
"Whom did you expect?" asked the Herulian, in amazement.
"The victor," replied the beautiful woman.
A somewhat oracular reply! This Sphinx--she looks, I have already toldyou, exactly like one--would undoubtedly have given her wreath andherself just as willingly to the victorious Vandals. After all, whatdoes the Carthaginian care for either Vandals or Byzantines? She is theprize of the stronger, the conqueror--perhaps to his destruction. But Ithink the Sphinx has now found her [OE]dipus. If one of this strangepair of lovers must perish, it will hardly be my friend Fara. He tookme to her; he has some regard for me, because I can read and write. Hehad evidently praised me. In vain. She scanned me from head to foot,and from foot to head, it did not consume much time; I am not verytall,--then, with a contemptuous curl of her full red lips, she movedfar away from me. I will not assert that I am handsome, while Fara,next to Belisarius, is certainly the stateliest of all our six andthirty thousand men. But I was indignant that my mortal part at once sorepelled her that she did not even desire to know the immortal side. Iam angered against her, I wish her no evil; but it would neithergreatly surprise, nor deeply grieve me, if she should come to a badend.