And when you have done counting, lo! my master, a census of the sword hands that await you; lo! a kingdom ready fashioned for him who is to do ’judgment and justice in the whole earth’— in Rome not less than in Zion.
Have then the answer, What Israel can do, that can the King.”
The picture was fervently given.
Upon Ilderim it operated like the blowing of a trumpet.
“Oh that I had back my youth!” he cried, starting to his feet.
Ben-Hur sat still.
The speech, he saw, was an invitation to devote his life and fortune to the mysterious Being who was palpably as much the centre of a great hope with Simonides as with the devout Egyptian.
The idea, as we have seen, was not a new one, but had come to him repeatedly; once while listening to Malluch in the Grove of Daphne; afterwards more distinctly while Balthasar was giving his conception of what the kingdom was to be; still later, in the walk through the old Orchard, it had risen almost, if not quite, into a resolve.
At such times it had come and gone only an idea, attended with feelings more or less acute.
Not so now.
A master had it in charge, a master was working it up; already he had exalted it into a cause brilliant with possibilities and infinitely holy.
The effect was as if a door theretofore unseen had suddenly opened flooding Ben-Hur with light, and admitting him to a service which had been his one perfect dream— a service reaching far into the future, and rich with the rewards of duty done, and prizes to sweeten and soothe his ambition.
One touch more was needed.
“Let us concede all you say, O Simonides,” said Ben-Hur— “that the King will come, and his kingdom be as Solomon’s; say also I am ready to give myself and all I have to him and his cause; yet more, say that I should do as was God’s purpose in the ordering of my life and in your quick amassment of astonishing fortune; then what?
Shall we proceed like blind men building?
Shall we wait till the King comes?
Or until he sends for me?
You have age and experience on your side.
Answer.”
Simonides answered at once.
“We have no choice; none.
This letter”— he produced Messala’s despatch as he spoke— “this letter is the signal for action.
The alliance proposed between Messala and Gratus we are not strong enough to resist; we have not the influence at Rome nor the force here.
They will kill you if we wait.
How merciful they are, look at me and judge.” He shuddered at the terrible recollection. “O good my master,” he continued, recovering himself; “how strong are you— in purpose, I mean?”
Ben-Hur did not understand him.
“I remember how pleasant the world was to me in my youth,” Simonides proceeded.
“Yet,” said Ben-Hur, “you were capable of a great sacrifice.”
“Yes; for love.”
“Has not life other motives as strong?”
Simonides shook his head.
“There is ambition.”
“Ambition is forbidden a son of Israel.”
“What, then, of revenge?”
The spark dropped upon the inflammable passion; the man’s eyes gleamed; his hands shook; he answered, quickly,
“Revenge is a Jew’s of right; it is the law.”
“A camel, even a dog, will remember a wrong,” cried Ilderim.
Directly Simonides picked up the broken thread of his thought.
“There is a work, a work for the King, which should be done in advance of his coming.
We may not doubt that Israel is to be his right hand; but, alas! it is a hand of peace, without cunning in war.
Of the millions, there is not one trained band, not a captain.
The mercenaries of the Herods I do not count, for they are kept to crush us.
The condition is as the Roman would have it; his policy has fruited well for his tyranny; but the time of change is at hand, when the shepherd shall put on armor, and take to spear and sword, and the feeding flocks be turned to fighting lions.
Some one, my son, must have place next the King at his right hand.
Who shall it be if not he who does this work well?”
Ben-Hur’s face flushed at the prospect, though he said,
“I see; but speak plainly.
A deed to be done is one thing; how to do it is another.”
Simonides sipped the wine Esther brought him, and replied,
“The sheik, and thou, my master, shall be principals, each with a part.