On the other hand, I— ”
The tribune faltered.
“Perpol!” he continued, resolutely. “I am too old to submit to dishonor.
In Rome, let them tell how Quintus Arrius, as became a Roman tribune, went down with his ship in the midst of the foe.
This is what I would have thee do.
If the galley prove a pirate, push me from the plank and drown me.
Dost thou hear?
Swear thou wilt do it.”
“I will not swear,” said Ben-Hur, firmly; “neither will I do the deed.
The Law, which is to me most binding, O tribune, would make me answerable for thy life.
Take back the ring”— he took the seal from his finger— “take it back, and all thy promises of favor in the event of delivery from this peril.
The judgment which sent me to the oar for life made me a slave, yet I am not a slave; no more am I thy freedman.
I am a son of Israel, and this moment, at least, my own master.
Take back the ring.”
Arrius remained passive.
“Thou wilt not?” Judah continued. “Not in anger, then, nor in any despite, but to free myself from a hateful obligation, I will give thy gift to the sea.
See, O tribune!”
He tossed the ring away.
Arrius heard the splash where it struck and sank, though he did not look.
“Thou hast done a foolish thing,” he said; “foolish for one placed as thou art.
I am not dependent upon thee for death.
Life is a thread I can break without thy help; and, if I do, what will become of thee?
Men determined on death prefer it at the hands of others, for the reason that the soul which Plato giveth us is rebellious at the thought of self-destruction; that is all.
If the ship be a pirate, I will escape from the world.
My mind is fixed.
I am a Roman.
Success and honor are all in all.
Yet I would have served thee; thou wouldst not.
The ring was the only witness of my will available in this situation.
We are both lost.
I will die regretting the victory and glory wrested from me; thou wilt live to die a little later, mourning the pious duties undone because of this folly.
I pity thee.”
Ben-Hur saw the consequences of his act more distinctly than before, yet he did not falter.
“In the three years of my servitude, O tribune, thou wert the first to look upon me kindly.
No, no!
There was another.”
The voice dropped, the eyes became humid, and he saw plainly as if it were then before him the face of the boy who helped him to a drink by the old well at Nazareth.
“At least,” he proceeded, “thou wert the first to ask me who I was; and if, when I reached out and caught thee, blind and sinking the last time, I, too, had thought of the many ways in which thou couldst be useful to me in my wretchedness, still the act was not all selfish; this I pray you to believe. Moreover, seeing as God giveth me to know, the ends I dream of are to be wrought by fair means alone.
As a thing of conscience, I would rather die with thee than be thy slayer.
My mind is firmly set as thine; though thou wert to offer me all Rome, O tribune, and it belonged to thee to make the gift good, I would not kill thee.
Thy Cato and Brutus were as little children compared to the Hebrew whose law a Jew must obey.”
“But my request.
Hast— ”
“Thy command would be of more weight, and that would not move me.
I have said.”
Both became silent, waiting.
Ben-Hur looked often at the coming ship.
Arrius rested with closed eyes, indifferent.
“Art thou sure she is an enemy?” Ben-Hur asked.
“I think so,” was the reply.