Pearl-Maiden: Chapter 29

Chapter 29

HOW MARCUS CHANGED HIS FAITH

Caleb was not the only one who heard the evil tidings of the ship
_Luna_; it came to the ears of the bishop Cyril also, since little of
any moment passed within the city of Rome which the Christians did not
know.

Like Caleb, he satisfied himself of the truth of the matter by an
interview with the captain of the _Imperatrix_. Then with a sorrowful
heart he departed to the prison near the Temple of Mars. Here the warden
told him that Marcus wished to see no one, but answering "Friend, my
business will not wait," he pushed past the man and entered the room
beyond. Marcus was standing up in the centre of it, in his hand a
drawn sword of the short Roman pattern, which, on catching sight of his
visitor, he cast upon the table with an exclamation of impatience. It
fell beside a letter addressed to "The Lady Miriam in Tyre. To be given
into her own hand."

"Peace be with you," said the bishop, searching his face with his quiet
eyes.

"I thank you, friend," answered Marcus, smiling strangely, "I need
peace, and--seek it."

"Son," asked the bishop, "what were you about to do?"

"Friend," answered Marcus, "If you desire to know, I was about to fall
upon my sword. One more minute and I should have been dead. They brought
it me with the cloak and other things. It was thoughtful of them, and I
guessed their meaning."

Cyril lifted the sword from the table and cast it into a corner of the
room.

"God be thanked," he said, "Who led my feet here in time to save you
from this sin. Why, because it has pleased Him to take her life, should
you seek to take your own?"

"Her life?" said Marcus. "What dreadful words are these. Her life! Whose
life?"

"The life of Miriam. I came to tell you. She is drowned upon the seas
with all her company."

For a moment Marcus stood swaying to and fro like a drunken man. Then he
said:

"Is it so indeed? Well, the more reason that I should make haste to
follow her. Begone and leave me to do the deed alone," and he stepped
towards the sword.

Cyril set his foot upon the shining blade.

"What is this madness?" he asked. "If you did not know of Miriam's
death, why do you desire to kill yourself?"

"Because I have lost more than Miriam. Man, they have robbed me of my
honour. By the decree of Titus, I, Marcus, am branded as a coward. Yes,
Titus, at whose side I have fought a score of battles--Titus, from whom
I have warded many a blow--has banished me from Rome."

"Tell me of this thing," said Cyril.

So Marcus told him all. Cyril listened in silence, then said sternly:

"Is it for this that you would kill yourself? Is your honour lessened by
a decree based upon false evidence, and given for reasons of policy? Do
you cease to be honourable because others are dishonourable, and would
you--a soldier--fly from the battle? Now, indeed, Marcus, you show
yourself a coward."

"How can I live on who am so shamed?" he asked passionately. "My friends
knew that I could not live, and that is why they wrapped a sword in
yonder cloak and sent it me. Also Miriam, you say, is dead."

"Satan sent it to you, Marcus, desiring to fashion of your foolish
pride a ladder down which you might climb to hell. Cast aside this base
temptation which wears the mask of false honour; face your trouble like
a man, and conquer it by innocence--and faith."

"Miriam! What of Miriam?"

"Yes, what of Miriam? How would she welcome you yonder, who come
to greet her with your blood upon your hands? Oh! son, do you not
understand that this is the trial laid upon you? You have been brought
low that you might rise high. Once the world gave you all it had
to give. You were rich, you were a captain among captains; you were
high-born; men called you 'The Fortunate.' Then Christ appealed to you
in vain, you put Him by. What had you to do with the crucified carpenter
of Galilee? Now by the plotting of your foes you have fallen. No longer
do you rank high in your trade of blood. You are dismissed its service
and an exile. The lesson of life has come home to you, therefore you
seek to escape from life rather than bide in it to do your duty through
good and ill, heedless of what men may say, and finding peace in the
verdict of your own conscience. Let Him Whom you put by in your hours of
pomp come to you now. Carry your cross with your shame as He carried His
in His shame. In His light find light, in His peace find peace, and at
the end her who has been taken from you awhile. Has my spirit spoken in
vain with your spirit during all these many weeks, son Marcus? Already
you have told me that you believe, and now at the first breath of
trouble will you go back upon that which you know to be the Truth? Oh!
once more listen to me, that your eyes may be opened before it is too
late."

"Speak on, I hear you," said Marcus with a sigh.

So Cyril pleaded with him in the passion of one inspired, and as Marcus
hearkened his heart was softened and his purpose turned.

"I knew it all before, I believed it all before," he said at length,
"but I would not accept your baptism and become a member of your
Church."

"Why not, son?"

"Because had I done so she would have thought and you might have
thought, and perhaps I myself should have thought that I did it, as once
I offered to do, to win her whom I desired above all things on earth.
Now she is dead and it is otherwise. Shrive me, father, and do your
office."

So there in the prison cell the bishop Cyril took water and baptised the
Roman Marcus into the body of the Christian Church.

"What shall I do now?" Marcus asked as he rose from his knees. "Once
C�sar was my master, now you speak with the voice of C�sar. Command me."

"I do not speak, Christ speaks. Listen. I am called by the Church to go
to Alexandria in Egypt, whither I sail within three days. Will you who
are exiled from Rome come with me? There I can find you work to do."

"I have said that you are C�sar," answered Marcus. "Now it is sunset and
I am free; accompany me to my house, I pray you, for there much business
waits me in which I need counsel, who am overborne."

So presently the gates were opened as Titus had commanded, and they went
forth, attended only by a guard of two men, walking unnoted through the
streets to the palace in the Via Agrippa.

"There is the door," said the sergeant of the guard, pointing to the
side entrance of the house. "Enter with your friend and, noble Marcus,
fare you well."

So they went to the archway, and finding the door ajar, passed through
and shut it behind them.

"For a house where there is much to steal this is ill guarded, son. In
Rome an open gate ought to have a watchman," said Cyril as he groped his
way through the darkness of the arch.

"My steward Stephanus should be at hand, for the jailer advised him of
my coming--who never thought to come," began Marcus, then of a sudden
stumbled heavily and was silent.

"What is it?" asked Cyril.

"By the feel one who is drunken--or dead. Some beggar, perhaps, who
sleeps off his liquor here."

By now Cyril was through the archway and in the little courtyard beyond.

"A light burns in that window," he said. "Come, you know the path, guide
me to it. We can return to this sleeper."

"Who seems hard to wake," added Marcus, as he led the way across the
courtyard to the door of the offices. This also proved to be open and
by it they entered the room where the steward kept his books and slept.
Upon the table a lamp was burning, that which they had seen through the
casement. Its light showed them a strange sight. An iron-bound box that
was chained to the wall had been broken open and its contents rifled,
for papers were strewn here and there, and on them lay an empty leathern
money-bag. The furniture also was overturned as though in some struggle,
while among it, one in the corner of the room and one beneath the marble
table, which was too heavy to be moved, lay two figures, those of a man
and a woman.

"Murderers have been here," said Cyril with a groan.

Marcus snatched the lamp from the table and held it to the face of the
man in the corner.

"It is Stephanus," he said, "Stephanus bound and gagged, but living,
and the other is the slave woman. Hold the lamp while I loose them,"
and drawing his short sword, he cut away the bonds, first of the one and
then of the other. "Speak, man, speak!" he said, as Stephanus struggled
to his feet. "What has chanced here?"

For some moments the old steward stared at him with round, frightened
eyes. Then he gasped:

"Oh! my lord, I thought you dead. They said that they had come to kill
you by command of the Jew Caleb, he who gave the evidence."

"They! Who?" asked Marcus.

"I know not, four men whose faces were masked. They said also that
though you must die, they were commanded to do me and this woman no
harm, only to bind and silence us. This they did, then, having taken
what money they could find, went out to waylay you. Afterwards I heard
a scuffle in the arch and well-nigh died of sorrow, for I who could
neither warn nor help you, was sure that you were perishing beneath
their knives."

"For this deliverance, thank God," said Cyril, lifting up his hands.

"Presently, presently," answered Marcus. "First follow me," and taking
the lamp in his hand, he ran back to the archway.

Beneath it a man lay upon his face--he across whom Marcus had stumbled,
and about him blood flowed from many wounds. In silence they turned him
over so that the light fell upon his features. Then Marcus staggered
back amazed, for, behold! they were Caleb's, notwithstanding the blood
and wounds that marred them, still dark and handsome in his death sleep.

"Why," he said to Stephanus, "this is that very man whose bloody work,
as they told us, the murderers came to do. It would seem that he has
fallen into his own snare."

"Are you certain, son?" asked Cyril. "Does not this gashed and gory
cheek deceive you?"

"Draw that hand of his from beneath the cloak," answered Marcus. "If I
am right the first finger will lack a joint."

Cyril obeyed and held up the stiffening hand. It was as Marcus had said.

"Caught in his own snare!" repeated Marcus. "Well, though I knew he
hated me, and more than once we have striven to slay each other in
battle and private fight, never would I have believed that Caleb the Jew
would sink to murder. He is well repaid, the treacherous dog!"

"Judge not, that ye be not judged," answered Cyril. "What do you know of
how or why this man came by his death? He may have been hurrying here to
warn you."

"Against his own paid assassins! No, father, I know Caleb better, only
he was viler than I thought."

Then they carried the body into the house and took counsel what they
should do. While they reasoned together, for every path seemed full of
danger, there came a knock upon the archway door. They hesitated, not
knowing whether it would be safe to open, till the knock was repeated
more loudly.

"I will go, lord," said Stephanus, "for why need I fear, who am of no
account to any one?"

So he went, presently to return.

"What was it?" asked Marcus.

"Only a young man, who said that he had been strictly charged by his
master, Demetrius the Alexandrian merchant, to deliver a letter at this
hour. Here is the letter."

"Demetrius, the Alexandrian merchant," said Marcus as he took it. "Why,
under that name Caleb who lies there dead passed in Rome."

"Read the letter," said Cyril.

So Marcus cut the silk, broke the seal, and read:

"To the noble Marcus,

"In the past I have worked you evil and often striven to take your life.
Now it has come to my ears that Domitian, who hates you even worse than
I do, if for less reason, has laid a plot to murder you on the threshold
of your own house. Therefore, by way of amends for that evidence which
I gave against you that stained the truth, since no braver man ever
breathed than you are, Marcus, it has come into my mind to visit the
Palace Fortunate wrapped in such a cloak as you Roman captains wear.
There, before you read this letter, perhaps we shall meet again. Still,
mourn me not, Marcus, nor speak of me as generous, or noble, since
Miriam is dead, and I who have followed her through life desire to
follow her through death, hoping that there I may find a kinder fortune
at her hands, or if not, forgetfulness. You who will live long, must
drink deep of memory--a bitterer cup. Marcus, farewell. Since die I
must, I would that it had been in open fight beneath your sword, but
Fate, who has given me fortune, but no true favour, appoints me to the
daggers of assassins that seek another heart. So be it. You tarry here,
but I travel to Miriam. Why should I grumble at the road?

"Caleb.

"Written at Rome upon the night of my death."

"A brave man and a bitter," said Marcus when he had finished reading.
"Know, my father, that I am more jealous of him now than ever I was in
his life's days. Had it not been for you and your preaching," he added
angrily, "when he came to seek Miriam, he would have found me at her
side. But now, how can I tell?"

"Peace to your heathen talk!" answered the bishop. "Is the land of
spirits then such as your poets picture, and do the dead turn to each
other with eyes of earthly passion? Yet," he added more gently, "I
should not blame you who, like this poor Jew, from childhood have been
steeped in superstitions. Have no fear of his rivalry in the heavenly
fields, friend Marcus, where neither do they marry or are given in
marriage, nor think that self-murder can help a man. What the end of
all this tale may be does not yet appear; still I am certain that yonder
Caleb will take no gain in hurrying down to death, unless indeed he did
it from a nobler motive than he says, as I for one believe."

"I trust that it may be so," answered Marcus, "although in truth that
another man should die for me gives me no comfort. Rather would I that
he had left me to my doom."

"As God has willed so it has befallen, for 'man's goings are of the
Lord; how then can a man understand his own way?'" replied Cyril with a
sigh. "Now let us to other matters, for time is short and it comes upon
me that you will do well to be clear of Rome before Domitian finds that
Caleb fell in place of Marcus."

Nearly three more months had gone when, at length, one night as the sun
vanished, a galley crept wearily into the harbour of Alexandria and cast
anchor just as the light of Pharos began to shine across the sea. Her
passage through the winter gales had been hard, and for weeks at a time
she had been obliged to shelter in harbours by the way. Now, short of
food and water, she had come safely to her haven, for which mercy the
bishop Cyril with the Roman Marcus and such other Christians as were
aboard of her gave thanks to Heaven upon their knees in their little
cabin near the forecastle, for it was too late to attempt to land that
night. Then they went on deck and, as all their food was gone and they
had no drink except some stinking water, leaned upon the bulwarks and
looked hungrily towards the shore, where gleamed the thousand lights of
the mighty city. Near to them, not a bowshot away indeed, lay another
ship. Presently, as they stared at her black outline, the sound of
singing floated from her decks across the still, starlit waters of the
harbour. They listened to it idly enough at first, till at length some
words of that song reached their ears, causing them to look at each
other.

"That is no sailor's ditty," said Marcus.

"No," answered Cyril, "it is a Christian hymn, and one that I know well.
Listen. Each verse ends, 'Peace, be still!'"

"Then," said Marcus, "yonder must be a Christian ship, else they would
not dare to sing that hymn. The night is calm, let us beg the boat and
visit it. I am thirsty, and those good folk may have fresh water."

"If you wish," answered Cyril. "There too we may get tidings as well as
water."

A while later the little boat rowed to the side of the strange ship and
asked leave to board of the watchman.

"What sign do you give?" asked the officer.

"The sign of the Cross," answered Cyril. "We have heard your hymn who
are of the brotherhood of Rome."

Then a rope ladder was thrown down to them and the officer bade them
make fast and be welcome.

They climbed upon the deck and went to seek the captain, who was in
the afterpart of the ship, where an awning was stretched. In the space
enclosed by this awning, which was lit with lanterns, stood a woman in
a white robe, who sang the refrain of the hymn in a very sweet voice,
others of the company, from time to time, joining in its choruses.

"From the dead am I arisen" sang the voice, and there was something in
the thrilling notes that went straight to the heart of Marcus, some tone
and quality which were familiar.

Side by side with Cyril he climbed onwards across the rowing benches,
and the noise of their stumbling footsteps reaching the singer's ears,
caused her to pause in her song. Then stepping forward a little, as
though to look, she came under the lantern so that its light fell full
upon her face, and, seeing nothing, once more took up her chant:

"Oh ye faithless, from the dead am I arisen."

"Look, look!" gasped Marcus, clutching Cyril by the arm. "Look! It is
Miriam, or her spirit."

Another instant and he, too, had come into the circle of the lamplight,
so that his eyes met the eyes of the singer. Now she saw him and, with a
little cry, sank senseless to the deck.

So the long story ended. Afterwards they learned that the tale which had
been brought to Rome of the loss of the ship _Luna_ was false. She had
met the great gale, indeed, but had sheltered from it in a harbour,
where the skill of her captain, Hector, brought her safely. Then she
made her way to Sicily, where she refitted, and so on to one of the
Grecian ports, in which she lay for eight weeks waiting for better
weather, till a favouring wind brought her somewhat slowly to
Alexandria, a port she won only two days before the galley of Marcus.
It would seem, therefore, that the vessel that had foundered in sight
of the _Imperatrix_ was either another ship also called the _Luna_, no
uncommon name, or that the mariners of the _Imperatrix_ had not heard
her title rightly. It may have been even that the dying sailor who told
it to them wandered in his mind, and forgetting how his last ship was
called, gave her some name with which he was familiar. At the least,
through the good workings of Providence, that _Luna_ which bore Miriam
and her company escaped the perils of the deep and in due time reached
the haven of Alexandria.

Before they parted that happy night all their tale was told. Miriam
learned how Caleb had kept the promise that he made to her, although
when he thought her dead his fierce and jealous heart would suffer him
to tell nothing of it to Marcus. She learned also how it came about that
Marcus had been saved from death at his own hand by Cyril and entered
the company of the Christian brotherhood. Very glad were both of them to
think in the after years that he had done this believing her to be lost
to him in death. Now none could say that he had changed his faith to win
a woman, nor could their own consciences whisper to them that this was
possible, though even at the time he knew it not.

So they understood how through their many trials, dangers, and
temptations all things had worked together for good to them.

On the morrow, there in the ship _Luna_, Marcus and Miriam, whom the
Romans called Pearl-Maiden, were wedded by the bishop Cyril, the Captain
Gallus giving the bride in marriage, while the white-haired, fierce-eyed
Nehushta stood at their side and blessed them in the name of that dead
mother whose command had not been broken.

THE END.

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