"And this, young butcher, is the Catholic and apostolic Church?"
"No! Eudaimon, it is the church of the devils of h.e.l.l!" And gathering himself up, he sat upon the steps and buried his head within his hands. He would have given life itself for the power of weeping: but his eyes and brain were hot and dry as the desert.
Eudaimon looked at him a while. The shock had sobered the poor fop for once.
"I did what I could to die with her!" said he.
"I did what I could to save her!" answered Philammon.
"I know it. Forgive the words which I just spoke. Did we not both love her?"
And the little wretch sat down by Philammon"s side, and as the blood dripped from his wounds upon the pavement, broke out into a bitter agony of human tears.
There are times when the very intensity of our misery is a boon, and kindly stuns us till we are unable to torture ourselves by thought. And so it was with Philammon then. He sat there, he knew not how long.
"She is with the G.o.ds," said Eudaimon at last.
"She is with the G.o.d of G.o.ds," answered Philammon: and they both were silent again.
Suddenly a commanding voice aroused them.
They looked up, and saw before them Raphael Aben-Ezra.
He was pale as death, but calm as death. One look into his face told them that he knew all.
"Young monk," he said, between his closed teeth, "you seem to have loved her?"
Philammon looked up, but could not speak.
"Then arise, and flee for your life into the farthest corner of the desert, ere the doom of Sodom and Gomorrha fall upon this accursed city. Have you father, mother, brother, sister,-ay, cat, dog, or bird for which you care, within its walls?"
Philammon started; for he recollected Pelagia.... That evening, so Cyril had promised, twenty trusty monks were to have gone with him to seize her.
"You have? Then take them with you, and escape, and remember Lot"s wife. Eudaimon, come with me. You must lead me to your house, to the lodging of Miriam the Jewess. Do not deny! I know that she is there. For the sake of her who is gone I will hold you harmless, ay, reward you richly, if you prove faithful. Rise!"
Eudaimon, who knew Raphael"s face well, rose and led the way trembling; and Philammon was left alone.
They never met again. But Philammon knew that he had been in the presence of a stronger man than himself, and of one who hated even more bitterly than he himself that deed at which the very sun, it seemed, ought to have veiled his face. And his words, "Arise, and flee for thy life," uttered as they were with the stern self-command and writhing lip of compressed agony, rang through his ears like the trump of doom. Yes, he would flee. He had gone forth to see the world, and he had seen it. a.r.s.enius was in the right after all. Home to the desert! But first he would go himself, alone, to Pelagia, and implore her once more to flee with him. Beast, fool, that he had been to try to win her by force-by the help of such as these! G.o.d"s kingdom was not a kingdom of fanatics yelling for a doctrine, but of willing, loving, obedient hearts. If he could not win her heart, her will, he would go alone, and die praying for her.
He sprang from the steps of the Caesareum, and turned up the street of the Museum. Alas! it was one roaring sea of heads! They were sacking Theon"s house-the house of so many memories! Perhaps the poor old man too had perished! Still-his sister! He must save her and flee. And he turned up a side street and tried to make his way onward.
Alas again! the whole of the dock-quarter was up and out. Every street poured its tide of furious fanatics into the main river; and ere he could reach Pelagia"s house the sun was set, and close behind him, echoed by ten thousand voices, was the cry of "Down with all heathens! Root out all Arian Goths! Down with idolatrous wantons! Down with Pelagia Aphrodite!"
He hurried down the alley, to the tower door, where Wulf had promised to meet him. It was half open, and in the dusk he could see a figure standing in the doorway. He sprang up the steps, and found, not Wulf, but Miriam.
"Let me pa.s.s!"
"Wherefore?"
He made no answer, and tried to push past her.
"Fool, fool, fool!" whispered the hag, holding the door against him with all her strength. "Where are your fellow-kidnappers? Where are your band of monks?"
Philammon started back. How had she discovered his plan?
"Ay-where are they? Besotted boy! Have you not seen enough of monkery this afternoon, that you must try still to make that poor girl even such a one as yourselves? Ay, you may root out your own human natures if you will, and make yourselves devils in trying to become angels: but woman she is, and woman she shall live or die!"
"Let me pa.s.s!" cried Philammon furiously.
"Raise your voice-and I raise mine: and then your life is not worth a moment"s purchase. Fool, do you think I speak as a Jewess? I speak as a woman-as a nun! I was a nun once, madman-the iron entered into my soul!-G.o.d do so to me, and more also, if it ever enter into another soul while I can prevent it! You shall not have her! I will strangle her with my own hand first!" And turning from him, she darted up the winding stair.
He followed: but the intense pa.s.sion of the old hag hurled her onward with the strength and speed of a young Maenad. Once Philammon was near pa.s.sing her. But he recollected that he did not know his way, and contented himself with keeping close behind, and making the fugitive his guide.
Stair after stair, he fled upward, till she turned suddenly into a chamber door. Philammon paused. A few feet above him the open sky showed at the stair-head. They were close then to the roof! One moment more, and the hag darted out of the room again, and turned to flee upward still. Philammon caught her by the arm, hurled her back into the empty chamber, shut the door upon her; and with a few bounds gained the roof, and met Pelagia face to face.
"Come!" gasped he breathlessly. "Now is the moment! Come, while they are all below!" and he seized her hand.
But Pelagia only recoiled.
"No, no," whispered she in answer, "I cannot, cannot-he has forgiven me all, all! and I am his for ever! And now, just as he is in danger, when he may be wounded-ah, heaven! would you have me do anything so base as to desert him?"
"Pelagia, Pelagia, darling sister!" cried Philammon, in an agonised voice, "think of the doom of sin! Think of the pains of h.e.l.l!"
"I have thought of them this day: and I do not believe you! No-I do not! G.o.d is not so cruel as you say! And if He were:-to lose my love, that is h.e.l.l! Let me burn hereafter, if I do but keep him now!"
Philammon stood stupefied and shuddering. All his own early doubts flashed across him like a thunderbolt, when in the temple-cave he had seen those painted ladies at their revels, and shuddered, and asked himself, were they burning for ever and ever?
"Come!" gasped he once again; and throwing himself on his knees before her, covered her hands with kisses, wildly entreating: but in vain.
"What is this?" thundered a voice; not Miriam"s, but the Amal"s. He was unarmed but he rushed straight upon Philammon.
"Do not harm him!" shrieked Pelagia; "he is my brother-my brother of whom I told you!"
"What does he here?" cried the Amal, who instantly divined the truth.
Pelagia was silent.
"I wish to deliver my sister, a Christian, from the sinful embraces of an Arian heretic; and deliver her I will, or die!"
"An Arian?" laughed the Amal. "Say a heathen at once, and tell the truth, young fool! Will you go with him, Pelagia, and turn nun in the sand-heaps?"
Pelagia sprang towards her lover: Philammon caught her by the arm for one last despairing appeal: and in a moment, neither knew how, the Goth and the Greek were locked in deadly struggle, while Pelagia stood in silent horror, knowing that a call for help would bring instant death to her brother.
It was over in a few seconds. The Goth lifted Philammon like a baby in his arms, and bearing him to the parapet, attempted to hurl him into the ca.n.a.l below. But the active Greek had wound himself like a snake around him, and held him by the throat with the strength of despair. Twice they rolled and tottered on the parapet; and twice recoiled. A third fearful lunge-the earthen wall gave way; and down to the dark depths, locked in each other"s arms, fell Goth and Greek.
Pelagia rushed to the brink, and gazed downward into the gloom, dumb and dry-eyed with horror. Twice they turned over together in mid-air.... The foot of the tower, as was usual in Egypt, sloped outwards towards the water. They must strike upon that-and then! ....It seemed an eternity ere they touched the masonry.... The Amal was undermost.... She saw his fair floating locks dash against the cruel stone. His grasp suddenly loosened, his limbs collapsed; two distinct plunges broke the dark sullen water; and then all was still but the awakened ripple, lapping angrily against the wall.
Pelagia gazed down one moment more, and then, with a shriek which rang along roof and river, she turned, and fled down the stairs and out into the night.