"Really!" exclaimed Jane"s husband in a tone of irony: "well, let us try this wonderful figure."
"When Jesus of Nazareth says, that those who will follow him shall have for the present a hundred times more than what they abandon, he means by that, I think, that the consciousness of preaching good news, the love of our neighbor, the compa.s.sion for the suffering and the feeble, will compensate fourfold for the renunciation we have imposed on ourselves."
These wise and gentle words of Jane were but ill received by the guests of Pontius Pilate; and the high priest exclaimed:
"I pity your wife, Seigneur Chusa, for being like so many others, blinded by the Nazarene. He simply requires good materials; for here is something a little stronger. He has the audacity to send the vagabonds, whom he calls his disciples, to establish themselves, to eat and drink as they like in houses, without paying anything, under pretence of preaching in them his abominable doctrines."
"How, seigneurs," said Gremion, "in your country such violences are possible, and remain unpunished? People come to your house and establish themselves by force, and eat and drink there under the pretence of holding forth?"
"Those who receive the disciples of the young man of Nazareth," replied Jane, "receive them voluntarily."
"Yes," said Jonas, "some of them; but the majority of those who harbor these vagabonds yield to fear, to threats; or, according to the orders of the Nazarene, those who refuse to lodge these idle vagabonds are doomed by him to eternal fire."
Fresh clamors arose at the narration of the further misdeeds of the Nazarene.
""Tis an intolerable tyranny!"
"There must be an end put to such indignities, however."
""Tis an organized pillage!"
"Consequently," said the banker Jonas, "the Seigneur Baruch was perfectly right in saying, it is straight to chaos that this Nazarene is leading us, to whom nothing is sacred; for I repeat, not content with endeavoring to destroy the law, authority, property, and religion, he would, to crown his infernal work, destroy all family ties!"
"Why, he is your Beelzebub in person!" exclaimed Gremion.
"What! my lords, this Nazarene would annihilate all family ties!"
"Yes, annihilate them by dividing them," said Caiphus: "annihilate them by sowing discord and hatred in the domestic hearth! by arming the son against the father! and servants against their masters!"
"Seigneurs," continued Gremion, with an air of doubt, "can a project so abominable enter the head of a man?"
"Of a man, no," replied the high priest; "but of a Beelzebub like this Nazarene; here"s the proof from the undoubted report of the emissaries, whom I spoke of; this cursed fellow p.r.o.nounced the other day, the horrible words following, speaking to the bands of beggars who never quit him: "Believe not that I have come to bring peace on earth, I have brought the sword: I am come to bring fire on the earth, and all my desire is that it may rise to a flame: it is disunion, I repeat, and not peace, that I bring you; I am come to sow division between the father and the son, the daughter and the mother, the daughter-in-law and the mother-in-law: a man"s own servants shall declare themselves his enemies; in every house of five persons, two of them shall be against the other three.""
"Why, "tis frightful!" exclaimed at once the banker Jonas, and the intendant Chusa.
""Tis preaching the dissolution of family by hatred."
""Tis preaching civil war!" exclaimed Gremion, the Roman: "social war, like that stirred up by Spartacus, the rebellious slave."
"What! he has the hardihood to say, "I am come to bring fire on the earth, and all I desire is that it may rise to a flame; a man"s own servants shall declare themselves his enemies: in every house of five persons, there shall be two against the others!" it is, as he had the infernal audacity to say, "bringing fire on the earth.""
Jane had listened with painful impatience to all the accusations made against the Nazarene; she therefore cried with a firm and animated voice:
"Ah! my seigneurs, I am tired of listening to your calumnies; you do not comprehend the sense of the words of the young man of Nazareth to his disciples. When he speaks of the divisions that will spring up in families, it signifies that in one house, some sharing his doctrine of love and tenderness to one"s neighbor, which he preaches from his heart and lips, and the others persisting in their hardness of heart, they shall be divided; he means that servants shall declare themselves the enemies of their masters, if the master has been wicked and unjust; he means, lastly, that in every family some shall be for and some against him.
"Can it be otherwise? He recommends the renunciation of riches; he proclaims the slave the equal of his master; he consoles, he pardons those who have sinned more in consequence of their misery and their ignorance than from a wicked nature. All men therefore cannot at once share his generous doctrines. What new truth did not at first cause division amongst them?
"Thus the young man of Nazareth says, in his figurative language, that he is come to bring fire on earth, and that his desire is that it may kindle! Oh, yes, I believe so; for the fire of which he speaks is the ardent love of humanity with which his heart is fired."
Jane, in thus expressing herself, in a calm and vibrating voice, looked still more handsome; Aurelia, her new friend, contemplated her with as much surprise as admiration. The guests of the Seigneur Pontius Pilate, on the contrary, raised murmurs of astonishment and indignation, and Chusa, Jane"s husband, said to her harshly:
"You are mad, and I am ashamed of your words. It is incredible that a woman who respects herself can dare, without dying of confusion, defend such abominable doctrines, preached in the market-place, or in ign.o.ble taverns, in the midst of vagabonds, thieves and prost.i.tutes, the usual body-guard of the Nazarene."
"The young man, replying to those who reproached him with this wicked congregation, did he not say," continued Jane in a voice still firm and sonorous: "It is not those who are well but those who are sick, who have need of the physician?" meaning by this parable that it is the people whose life is wicked who have especial need of being enlightened, supported, guided, loved; yes, I repeat, loved and consoled, to return to good; for mercy and gentleness do more than violence and punishment; and this tender and pious task, Jesus imposes on himself every day!"
"And for my part, I repeat to you," exclaimed Chusa in a rage: "that the Nazarene only thus flatters the detestable pa.s.sions of the vile populace amidst which he pa.s.ses his life, in order to make rebels of them, at a fitting opportunity, to declare himself their chief, and to deliver up all in Jerusalem and Judea to fire, sword, and pillage! since he has the audacity to say that he does not bring peace on earth, but the sword, but fire...."
These words of Herod"s steward were greatly approved of by the guests of Pontius Pilate, who seemed more and more astonished at the silence of the Roman Procurator; for the latter, frequently emptying his large cup, smiled more and more good-humoredly at each enormity with which the young Nazarene was reproached. Aurelia had attentively listened to the wife of Herod"s intendant so courageously defending the young preacher, so that she said to her quietly: "Dear Jane, you cannot tell how desirous I am of seeing this young Nazarene of whom they speak so much evil, and of whom you speak so much good; he must be an extraordinary man!"
"Oh, yes; extraordinary for his beauty," replied Jane softly: "if you knew how gentle his voice is when speaking to the feeble, to the suffering, and to children, oh, especially to little children! He loves them to adoration; when he sees them his features a.s.sume a celestial expression."
"Jane," resumed Aurelia, smiling; "he is very handsome, then?"
"Oh, yes, yes; handsome, handsome as an archangel!"
"How anxious I am to see him, to hear him!" continued Aurelia, in a manner more and more interested. "But alas! how is it to be done, if he has always such an a.s.semblage round him? A woman cannot risk herself in the taverns in which he preaches, as they say?"
Jane remained thoughtful for a moment, she then resumed: "Who knows, dear Aurelia, perhaps we may find means to see and hear the young man of Nazareth."
"Oh! speak," exclaimed Aurelia, eagerly: "speak at once, dear Jane; what means?"
"Silence, we are observed," replied Jane, "by and bye we will talk over it."
In fact the Seigneur Chusa, very indignant at the obstinacy of his wife in defending the young Nazarene, occasionally threw upon her angry looks while conversing with Caiphus.
Pontius Pilate had once more emptied his large goblet, and with his cheeks inflamed, his eyes fixed and sparkling, and a complete stranger to all that was pa.s.sing around him, he seemed to be enjoying an extreme inward beat.i.tude. The Seigneur Baruch, after consulting in a low tone with Caiphus and the banker, said to the Roman: "Seigneur Pontius Pilate!" But the Seigneur Pontius Pilate, smiling more and more to himself, made no reply; the doctor of law was obliged to touch him on the arm. The Procurator, now appearing to awake suddenly, said: "Excuse me, my seigneurs, I was thinking, I was thinking of ..., but what is it all?"
"It is, Seigneur Pontius Pilate," replied Doctor Baruch, "that if, after all that my friends and myself have narrated to you of the abominable projects of this Nazarene, you do not proceed against him with the greatest rigour, you, the representative of the august Emperor Tiberius, the natural protector of Herod, our prince, it will happen that...."
"Well! what will happen, my seigneurs?"
"It will happen that before next Easter, Jerusalem, the whole of Judea, will be given up to pillage by the act of this Nazarene, whom the populace already calls the King of the Jews."
Pontius Pilate replied, maintaining that tranquil and careless manner that characterized him: "Come, my seigneurs, don"t take bushes for forests, or molehills for mountains! Is it for me to remind you of your history? Is this boy of Nazareth the first who has bethought him of playing the part of a Messiah? Have you not had Judas the Galilean, who pretended that the Israelites were to acknowledge no master but G.o.d, and who endeavored to stir up the population against the power of us Romans?
What happened? This Judas was put to death; and it shall be the same with this young Nazarene if he thinks of exciting rebellion."
"No doubt, seigneur," replied Caiphus, the high priest.
"The Nazarene is not the first impostor who has proclaimed himself the Messiah which our holy scriptures have announced for so many ages. For fifty years past, not to speak of recent facts, Jonathan, and after him, Simon, the magician, surnamed the Great Virtue of G.o.d; then Barkokebah, the Son of the Star, and many other pretended Messiahs or Saviors, and regenerators of the country of Israel! But none of these cheats had the influence of this Nazarene, and especially his infernal audacity; they did not, like him, furiously attack the rich, the doctors of law, the priests, family, and religion; in fact, all that should be respected, under pain of seeing Israel fall into chaos.
"Those other impostors did not address themselves specially and constantly, like the Nazarene, to the dregs of the populace, of which he disposes in a fearful manner; for indeed, only lately the Seigneur Baruch, weary of the public outrages with which the Nazarene pursued the Pharisees, that is, the most respectable persons of Jerusalem, who profess the pharisaical opinions, so honest, so moderate in all things, the Seigneur Baruch, I say, wished to imprison the Nazarene; but the att.i.tude of the populace became so menacing that my n.o.ble friend Baruch dared not give the order to arrest this wicked man.
"Thus, then, Seigneur Pontius Pilate, you have at your disposal a considerable armed force: if you do not come to our aid, who have at our disposition only a feeble militia, a portion of which is no less infected than the populace with the detestable doctrines of the Nazarene, we will not answer for the public peace; and a popular rising against your own troops is possible."
"Oh! as to that, my seigneur," replied Pontius Pilate, smiling, "you will find me the first prepared, helmet on head, cuira.s.s on back, and sword in hand, if the Nazarene dare revolt the populace against my troops; as for the rest, by Jupiter, unravel your skein yourselves if "tis in a mess, my seigneurs: these interior affairs concern you alone, you senators of the city. Arrest the young man, imprison him, crucify him if he deserves it, "tis your right, make use of it; as for me, I represent here the emperor, my master; as long as his power is not attacked, I shall not budge."
"And besides, Seigneur Procurator," said Jane, "has not the young man of Nazareth said: "Render unto G.o.d that which is G.o.d"s, and unto Caesar that which is Caesar"s?""
""Tis true, n.o.ble Jane," replied Pontius Pilate; "and there is a wide difference between that and a wish to stir up the people against the Roman."