And his heart made answer by a quickening of its movement.
Then, almost the same instant, another face, younger and quite as beautiful— more childlike and tender, if not so passionate— appeared as if held up to him out of the lake.
“Esther!” he said, smiling. “As I wished, a star has been sent to me.”
He turned, and passed slowly back to the tent.
His life had been crowded with griefs and with vengeful preparations— too much crowded for love.
Was this the beginning of a happy change?
And if the influence went with him into the tent, whose was it?
Esther had given him a cup.
So had the Egyptian.
And both had come to him at the same time under the palms.
Which?
Part 5
“Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet and blossom in the dust.” Shirley.
“And, through the heat of conflict, keeps the law,
In calmness made, and sees what he foresaw.” Wordsworth.
Chapter 1
The morning after the bacchanalia in the saloon of the palace, the divan was covered with young patricians.
Maxentius might come, and the city throng to receive him; the legion might descend from Mount Sulpius in glory of arms and armor; from Nymphaeum to Omphalus there might be ceremonial splendors to shame the most notable ever before seen or heard of in the gorgeous East; yet would the many continue to sleep ignominiously on the divan where they had fallen or been carelessly tumbled by the indifferent slaves; that they would be able to take part in the reception that day was about as possible as for the lay-figures in the studio of a modern artist to rise and go bonneted and plumed through the one, two, three of a waltz.
Not all, however, who participated in the orgy were in the shameful condition.
When dawn began to peer through the skylights of the saloon, Messala arose, and took the chaplet from his head, in sign that the revel was at end; then he gathered his robe about him, gave a last look at the scene, and, without a word, departed for his quarters.
Cicero could not have retired with more gravity from a night-long senatorial debate.
Three hours afterwards two couriers entered his room, and from his own hand received each a despatch, sealed and in duplicate, and consisting chiefly of a letter to Valerius Gratus, the procurator, still resident in Caesarea.
The importance attached to the speedy and certain delivery of the paper may be inferred.
One courier was to proceed overland, the other by sea; both were to make the utmost haste.
It is of great concern now that the reader should be fully informed of the contents of the letter thus forwarded, and it is accordingly given:
“Antioch, XII. Kal. Jul.
“Messala to Gratus.
“O my Midas!
“I pray thou take no offense at the address, seeing it is one of love and gratitude, and an admission that thou art most fortunate among men; seeing, also, that thy ears are as they were derived from thy mother, only proportionate to thy matured condition.
“O my Midas!
“I have to relate to thee an astonishing event, which, though as yet somewhat in the field of conjecture, will, I doubt not, justify thy instant consideration.
“Allow me first to revive thy recollection.
Remember, a good many years ago, a family of a prince of Jerusalem, incredibly ancient and vastly rich— by name Ben-Hur.
If thy memory have a limp or ailment of any kind, there is, if I mistake not, a wound on thy head which may help thee to a revival of the circumstance.
“Next, to arouse thy interest.
In punishment of the attempt upon thy life— for dear repose of conscience, may all the gods forbid it should ever prove to have been an accident!— the family were seized and summarily disposed of, and their property confiscated.
And inasmuch, O my Midas! as the action had the approval of our C?sar, who was as just as he was wise— be there flowers upon his altars forever!— there should be no shame in referring to the sums which were realized to us respectively from that source, for which it is not possible I can ever cease to be grateful to thee, certainly not while I continue, as at present, in the uninterrupted enjoyment of the part which fell to me.
“In vindication of thy wisdom— a quality for which, as I am now advised, the son of Gordius, to whom I have boldly likened thee, was never distinguished among men or gods— I recall further that thou didst make disposition of the family of Hur, both of us at the time supposing the plan hit upon to be the most effective possible for the purposes in view, which were silence and delivery over to inevitable but natural death.
Thou wilt remember what thou didst with the mother and sister of the malefactor; yet, if now I yield to a desire to learn whether they be living or dead, I know, from knowing the amiability of thy nature, O my Gratus, that thou wilt pardon me as one scarcely less amiable than thyself.
“As more immediately essential to the present business, however, I take the liberty of inviting to thy remembrance that the actual criminal was sent to the galleys a slave for life— so the precept ran; and it may serve to make the event which I am about to relate the more astonishing by saying here that I saw and read the receipt for his body delivered in course to the tribune commanding a galley.
“Thou mayst begin now to give me more especial heed, O my most excellent Phrygian!
“Referring to the limit of life at the oar, the outlaw thus justly disposed of should be dead, or, better speaking, some one of the three thousand Oceanides should have taken him to husband at least five years ago.
And if thou wilt excuse a momentary weakness, O most virtuous and tender of men! inasmuch as I loved him in childhood, and also because he was very handsome— I used in much admiration to call him my Ganymede— he ought in right to have fallen into the arms of the most beautiful daughter of the family.
Of opinion, however, that he was certainly dead, I have lived quite five years in calm and innocent enjoyment of the fortune for which I am in a degree indebted to him.
I make the admission of indebtedness without intending it to diminish my obligation to thee.
“Now I am at the very point of interest.
“Last night, while acting as master of the feast for a party just from Rome— their extreme youth and inexperience appealed to my compassion— I heard a singular story.
Maxentius, the consul, as you know, comes to-day to conduct a campaign against the Parthians.
Of the ambitious who are to accompany him there is one, a son of the late duumvir Quintus Arrius.