The Vale of Cedars; Or, The Martyr

by Grace Aguilar

  CHAPTER XXIII.

  "Oh! blissful days, When all men worship God as conscience wills! Far other times our fathers' grandsires knew. What tho' the skeptic's scorn hath dared to soil The record of their fame! What tho' the men Of worldly minds have dared to stigmatize The sister-cause Religion and the Law With Superstition's name! Yet, yet their deeds, Their constancy in torture and in death-- These on Tradition's tongue shall live; these shall On History's honest page be pictur'd bright To latest time."

  GRAHAME.

  Retrospection is not pleasant in a narrative; but, if Marie has indeedexcited any interest in our readers, they will forgive the necessity,and look back a few weeks ere they again arrive at the eventful daywith which our last chapter closed. All that Don Felix had reportedconcerning the widow of Morales was correct. The first stunningeffects of her dread avowal were recovered, sense was entirelyrestored, but the short-lived energy had gone. The trial to passivelyendure is far more terrible than that which is called upon to _act_and _do_. She soon discovered that, though nursed and treated withkindness, she was a prisoner in her own apartments. Wish to leave themshe had none, and scarcely the physical strength; but to sit idly downunder the pressure of a double dread--the prisoner's fate and her ownsentence--to have no call for energy, not a being for whom to rouseherself and live, not one for whose sake she might forget herselfand win future happiness by present exertion; the Past, one yearningmemory for the husband, who had so soothed and cherished her, when anyother would have cast her from his heart as a worthless thing; thePresent, fraught with thoughts she dared not think, and words shemight not breathe; the very prayer for Stanley's safety checked--forwhat could he be to her?--the Future shrouded in a pall so dense, shecould not read a line of its dark page, for the torch of Hope wasextinguished, and it is only by her light we can look forward;Isabella's affection apparently lost for ever; was it marvel energyand hope had so departed, or that a deadening despondency seemed tocrush her heart and sap the very springs of life?

  But in the midst of that dense gloom one ray there was, feeble indeedat first as if human suffering had deadened even that, but brighteningand strengthening with every passing day. It was the sincerity of herfaith--the dearer, more precious to its followers, from the scorn andcondemnation, in which it was held by man.

  The fact that the most Catholic kingdom, of Spain, was literallypeopled with secret Jews, brands this unhappy people, with a degreeof hypocrisy, in addition to the various other evil propensitieswith which they have been so plentifully charged. Nay, even amongstthemselves in modern times, this charge has gained ascendency; andthe romance-writer who would make use of this extraordinary truth,to vividly picture the condition of the Spanish Jews, is accused ofvilifying the nation, by reporting practices, opposed to the uprightdictates of the religion of the Lord. It is well to pronounce suchjudgment _now_, that the liberal position which we occupy in mostlands, would render it the height of dissimulation, and hypocrisy, toconceal our faith; but to judge correctly of the secret adherence toJudaism and public profession of Catholicism which characterizedour ancestors in Spain, we must transport ourselves not only tothe _country_ but to the _time_, and recall the awfully degraded,crushing, and stagnating position which _acknowledged Judaism_occupied over the whole known world. As early as 600--as soon, infact, as the disputes and prosecutions of Arian against Catholic, andCatholic against Arian, had been checked by the whole of Spain beingsubdued and governed by Catholic kings--intolerance began to workagainst the Jews, who had been settled in vast numbers in Spainsince the reign of the Emperor Adrian; some authorities assert stillearlier.[A] They were, therefore, nearly the original colonists of thecountry, and regarded it with almost as much attachment as they hadfelt towards Judea. When persecution began to work, "90,000 Jews werecompelled to receive the sacrament of baptism," the bodies of themore obstinate tortured, and their fortunes confiscated; and yet--aremarkable instance of inconsistency--_they were not permitted toleave Spain_; and this species of persecution continued from 600downwards. Once or twice edicts of expulsion were issued, but speedilyrecalled; the tyrants being unwilling to dismiss victims whom theydelighted to torture, or deprive themselves of industrious slaves overwhom they might exercise a lucrative oppression; and a statute wasenacted, "that the Jews who had been baptized should be _constrained_,for the honor of the church, to persevere in the _external practice_of a religion which they _inwardly_ disbelieved and detested."[B]

  [Footnote A: Basnage asserts that the Jews were introduced into Spainby the fleet of Soloman, and the arms of Nebuchadnezzar, and thatHadrian transported _forty thousand_ families of the tribe of Judah,and ten thousand of the tribe of Benjamin, etc.]

  [Footnote B: "Gibbon's Decline and Fall," vol. 6, chap. xxxvii,from which all the previous sentences in inverted commas have beenextracted.]

  How, then, can compelled obedience to this statute be termedhypocrisy? Persecution, privation, tyranny, may torture and destroythe body, but they cannot force the mind to the adoption of, andbelief in tenets, from which the very treatment they commanded musturge it to revolt. Of the 90,000 Jews forcibly baptized by order ofSisebut, and constrained to the external profession of Catholicism,not ten, in all probability, became actually Christians. And yet howwould it have availed them to relapse into the public profession ofthe faith they so obeyed and loved in secret? To leave the country wasutterly impossible. It is easy to talk now of such proceedings beingtheir right course of acting, when every land is open to the departureand entrance of every creed; but it was widely different then, and,even if they could have quitted Spain, there was not a spot of ground,in the whole European and Asiatic world, where persecution, extortion,and banishment would not equally have been their doom. Constantrelapses into external as well as internal Judaism, there were, butthey were but the signal for increased misery to the whole nation; andby degrees they ceased. It was from the forcible baptism of the 90,000Hebrews, by Sisebut, that we may trace the origin of the secretJews. From father to son, from mother to daughter, the solemn secretdescended, and gradually spread, still in its inviolable nature,through every rank and every profession, from the highest priest tothe lowest friar, the general to the common soldier, the noble to thepeasant, over the whole land. There were indeed some few in Spain,before the final edict of expulsion in 1492, who were Hebrews inexternal profession as well as internal observance; but theircondition was so degraded, so scorned, so exposed to constantsuffering, that it was not in human nature voluntarily to sink downto them, when, by the mere continuance of external Catholicism--whichfrom its universality, its long existence, and being in fact a rigidlyenforced statute of the state, _could_ not be regarded either ashypocrisy or sin--they could take their station amongst the veryhighest and noblest of the land, and rise to eminence and power in anyprofession, civil, military, or religious, which they might prefer.The subject is so full of philosophical inquiry, that in the limits ofa romance we cannot possibly do it justice; but to accuse the secretJews of Spain of hypocrisy, of departing from the pure odinances oftheir religion, because _compelled_ to simulate Catholicism, is takingindeed but a one-handed, short-sighted view of an extensive andintensely interesting topic. We may often hope for the _present_ byconsidering the changes of the _past_; but to attempt to pronouncejudgment on the sentiments of the _past_ by reasoning of the_present_, when the mind is always advancing, is one of the weakestand idlest fallacies that ever entered the human breast.

  Digression as this is, it is necessary clearly to comprehend thesituation in which Marie's avowal of her religion had placed her,and her reason for so carefully wording her information as to theexistence of the secret closet, that no suspicion might attach itselfto the religion of her husband. Her confession sent a shock, whichvibrated not only through Isabella's immediate court, but throughevery part of Spain. Suspicion once aroused, none knew where it mightend, or on whom fall. In her first impulse to save Arthur, shehad only thought of what such confession might bring to herselfindividuall
y, and that was, comparatively, easy to endure; but as theexcitement ceased, as the dread truth dawned upon her, that, if hemust die at the expiration of the given month, her avowal had beenutterly useless, the dread of its consequences, to the numerous secretmembers of her faith appalled her, and caused the firm, resolve underno circumstances to betray the religion of her husband. Him indeed itcould not harm; but that one so high in rank, in influence, in favorwith sovereigns and people, was only outwardly a Catholic, might havemost fatal consequences on all his brethren. That he should havewedded a Jewess might excite surprise, but nothing more; and in themidst of her varied sufferings she could rejoice that all suspicionas to his race and faith had been averted. She felt thankful also atbeing kept so close a prisoner, for she dreaded the wrath of thosewhom her avowal might have unwittingly injured. Such an instancehad never been known before, and she might justly tremble at thechastisement it might bring upon her even from her own people. As longas she was under Isabella's care she was safe from this; all mightfeel the vibration, but none dared evince that they did, by theadoption of any measures against her, further than would be taken bythe Catholics themselves.

  Knowing this, her sole prayer, her sole effort was to obtain mentalstrength sufficient under every temptation, either from severity orkindness, to adhere unshrinkingly to the faith of her fathers--tocling yet closer to the love of her Father in heaven, and endeavor,with all the lowly trust and fervid feelings of her nature, to fillthe yearning void within her woman's heart with his image, and sosubdue every human love. It seemed to her vivid fancy as if all themisfortunes she had encountered sprung from her first sin--thatof loving a Nazarene. Hers was not the age to make allowances forcircumstances in contradistinction to actual deeds. Then, asunhappily but too often now, all were sufferings from a misplacedaffection--sprung, not from her fault, but from the mistaken kindnesswhich it exposed her to without due warning of her danger. Educatedwith the strong belief, that to love or wed, beyond the pale of herown people was the greatest sin she could commit, short of actualapostacy, that impression, though not strong enough, so to conquerhuman nature, as to arm against love, returned with double force, assorrow after sorrow gathered round her, and there were none beside herto whisper and strengthen, with the blessed truth that God afflictsyet more in mercy than in wrath; and that his decrees, however fraughtwith human anguish, are but blessings in disguise--blessings, sownindeed with tears on earth, to reap their deathless fruit in heaven.

  But though firmly believing all her suffering was deserved, aware thatwhen she first loved Arthur, the rebel-thought--"Why am I of a race soapart and hated?" had very frequently entered her heart, tempting herat times with fearful violence to give up all for love of man; yetMarie knew that the God of her fathers was a God of love, calling evenupon the greatest sinner to return to him repentant and amending, andthat even as a little child such should be forgiven. He had indeedproclaimed himself a jealous God, and would have no idol-worship, wereit by wood or stone, or, far more dangerous, of human love; and sheprayed unceasingly for strength to return to Him with an undividedheart, even if to do so demanded not only separation from Stanley--buta trial in her desolate position almost as severe--the loss ofIsabella's confidence and love.

  Few words passed between Marie and her guardians; their manner waskind and gentle, but intercourse between rigid Catholics and aproclaimed Jewess, could not be other wise than restrained. From thetime that reason returned, the Queen had not visited her, doing actualviolence to her own inclinations from tire mistaken--but in that ageand to her character natural--dread that the affection and interestshe felt towards Marie personally, would lessen the sentiments ofloathing and abhorrence with which it was her duty to regard herfaith. Isabella had within herself all the qualifications of a martyr.Once impressed that it was a religious duty, she would do violence toher most cherished wishes, sacrifice her dearest desires, her bestaffections, resign her most eagerly pursued plans--not withoutsuffering indeed, but, according to the mistaken tenets of herreligion, the greater personal suffering, the more meritorious was thedeed believed to be. This spirit would, had she lived in an age whenthe Catholic faith was the persecuted, not the persecutor, have ledher a willing martyr to the stake; as it was, this same spirit led tothe establishment of the Inquisition, and expulsion of the Jews--deedsso awful in their consequences, that the actual motive of thewoman-heart which prompted them, is utterly forgotten, and herselfcondemned. We must indeed deplore the mistaken tenets that couldobtain such influence--deplore that man could so pervert the serviceof a God of love, as to believe and inculcate that such things couldbe acceptable to Him; but we should pause, and ask, if we ourselveshad been influenced by such teaching, could we break from it? ere wecondemn.

  Isabella's own devoted spirit could so enter into the real reason ofMarie's self abnegation for Arthur's sake, that it impelled her tolove her more; while at the very same time the knowledge of herbeing a Jewess, whom she had always been taught and believed must beaccursed in the sight of God, and lost eternally unless brought tobelieve in Jesus, urged her entirely to conquer that affection, lestits indulgence should interfere with her resolution, if kindnessfailed, by severity to accomplish her own version. She was too weak inhealth, and Isabella intuitively felt too terribly anxious as to youngStanley's fate, to attempt any thing till after the expiration of themonth; and she passed that interval in endeavoring to calm down herown feelings towards her.

  So fifteen days elapsed. On the evening of the fifteenth, Marie,feeling unusually exhausted, had sunk down, without disrobing, on hercouch, and at length fell into a slumber so deep and calm, that herguardians, fearing to disturb it, and aware that her dress was soloose and light, it could not annoy her, retired softly to their ownchamber without arousing her. How many hours this lethargic sleeplasted, Marie knew not, but was at length broken by a dream of terror,and so unusually vivid, that its impression lasted even through theterrible reality which it heralded. She beheld Arthur Stanley on thescaffold about to receive the sentence of the law--the block, the axe,the executioner with his arm raised, and apparently already delugedin blood--the gaping crowds--all the fearful appurtenances of anexecution were distinctly traced, and she thought she sprung towardsStanley, who clasped her in his arms, and the executioner, instead ofendeavoring to part them, smiled grimly as rejoicing in having twovictims instead of one; and as he smiled, the countenance seemed tochange from being entirely unknown to the sneering features of thehated Don Luis Garcia. She seemed to cling yet closer to Stanley,and knelt with, him to receive the blow; when, at that moment, thescaffold shook violently, as by the shock of an earthquake, a darkchashm yawned beneath their feet, in the centre of which stood thespectral figure of her husband, his countenance ghastly and stern, andhis arm upraised as beckoning her to join him. And then he spoke; buthis voice sounded unlike his own:--

  "Marie Henriquez Morales! awake, arise, and follow!"

  And with such extraordinary clearness did the words fall, that shestarted up in terror, believing they must have been spoken by herside--and they were! they might have mingled with, perhaps evencreated her dream. She still lay on her couch; but it seemed to havesunk down through the very floor of the apartment[A] she had occupied,and at its foot stood a figure, who, with upraised arm held before hera wooden cross. His cowl was closely drawn, and a black robe, of thecoarsest serge, was secured round his waist by a hempen cord. Whetherhe had indeed spoken the words she had heard in her dream Marie couldnot tell, for they were not repeated. She saw him approach her, andshe felt his strong grasp lift her from the couch, which sprung up, bythe touch of some secret spring, to the place whence it had descended;and she heard no more.

  [Footnote A: I may be accused in this scene, of too closely imitatinga somewhat similar occurrence in Anne of Geirstein. Such seemingplagiarism was scarcely possible to be avoided, when the superstitiousproceedings of the _vehmic_ tribunal of Germany and the _secret_Inquisition of Spain are represented by history as so very similar.]
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