"Ah!" said Simonides. "Thou shalt be a master of legions for the King, with millions to choose from."
"Millions!" cried Ben-Hur.
Simonides sat a moment thinking.
"The question of power should not trouble you," he next said.
Ben-Hur looked at him inquiringly.
"You were seeing the lowly King in the act of coming to his own,"
Simonides answered--"seeing him on the right hand, as it were, and on the left the bra.s.sy legions of Caesar, and you were asking, What can he do?"
"It was my very thought."
"O my master!" Simonides continued. "You do not know how strong our Israel is. You think of him as a sorrowful old man weeping by the rivers of Babylon. But go up to Jerusalem next Pa.s.sover, and stand on the Xystus or in the Street of Barter, and see him as he is. The promise of the Lord to father Jacob coming out of Padan-Aram was a law under which our people have not ceased multiplying--not even in captivity; they grew under foot of the Egyptian; the clench of the Roman has been but wholesome nurture to them; now they are indeed "a nation and a company of nations."
Nor that only, my master; in fact, to measure the strength of Israel--which is, in fact, measuring what the King can do--you shall not bide solely by the rule of natural increase, but add thereto the other--I mean the spread of the faith, which will carry you to the far and near of the whole known earth. Further, the habit is, I know, to think and speak of Jerusalem as Israel, which may be likened to our finding an embroidered shred, and holding it up as a magisterial robe of Caesar"s. Jerusalem is but a stone of the Temple, or the heart in the body. Turn from beholding the legions, strong though they be, and count the hosts of the faithful waiting the old alarm, "To your tents, O Israel!"--count the many in Persia, children of those who chose not to return with the returning; count the brethren who swarm the marts of Egypt and Farther Africa; count the Hebrew colonists eking profit in the West--in Lodinum and the trade-courts of Spain; count the pure of blood and the proselytes in Greece and in the isles of the sea, and over in Pontus, and here in Antioch, and, for that matter, those of that city lying accursed in the shadow of the unclean walls of Rome herself; count the worshippers of the Lord dwelling in tents along the deserts next us, as well as in the deserts beyond the Nile: and in the regions across the Caspian, and up in the old lands of Gog and Magog even, separate those who annually send gifts to the Holy Temple in acknowledgment of G.o.d--separate them, that they may be counted also. 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 G.o.d"s purpose in the ordering of my life and in your quick ama.s.sment 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 pa.s.sion; 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 princ.i.p.als, each with a part. I will remain here, carrying on as now, and watchful that the spring go not dry. Thou shalt betake thee to Jerusalem, and thence to the wilderness, and begin numbering the fighting-men of Israel, and telling them into tens and hundreds, and choosing captains and training them, and in secret places h.o.a.rding arms, for which I shall keep thee supplied. Commencing over in Perea, thou shalt go then to Galilee, whence it is but a step to Jerusalem. In Perea, the desert will be at thy back, and Ilderim in reach of thy hand. He will keep the roads, so that nothing shall pa.s.s without thy knowledge. He will help thee in many ways. Until the ripening time no one shall know what is here contracted. Mine is but a servant"s part. I have spoken to Ilderim. What sayest thou?"
Ben-Hur looked at the sheik.
"It is as he says, son of Hur," the Arab responded. "I have given my word, and he is content with it; but thou shalt have my oath, binding me, and the ready hands of my tribe, and whatever serviceable thing I have."
The three--Simonides, Ilderim, Esther--gazed at Ben-Hur fixedly.
"Every man," he answered, at first sadly, "has a cup of pleasure poured for him, and soon or late it comes to his hand, and he tastes and drinks--every man but me. I see, Simonides, and thou, O generous sheik!--I see whither the proposal tends. If I accept, and enter upon the course, farewell peace, and the hopes which cl.u.s.ter around it. The doors I might enter and the gates of quiet life will shut behind me, never to open again, for Rome keeps them all; and her outlawry will follow me, and her hunters; and in the tombs near cities and the dismal caverns of remotest hills, I must eat my crust and take my rest."
The speech was broken by a sob. All turned to Esther, who hid her face upon her father"s shoulder.
"I did not think of you, Esther," said Simonides, gently, for he was himself deeply moved.
"It is well enough, Simonides," said Ben-Hur. "A man bears a hard doom better, knowing there is pity for him. Let me go on."
They gave him ear again.
"I was about to say," he continued, "I have no choice, but take the part you a.s.sign me; and as remaining here is to meet an ign.o.ble death, I will to the work at once."
"Shall we have writings?" asked Simonides, moved by his habit of business.
"I rest upon your word," said Ben-Hur.
"And I," Ilderim answered.
Thus simply was effected the treaty which was to alter Ben-Hur"s life. And almost immediately the latter added,
"It is done, then."