Part 28 (1/2)

”Wilt thou renounce it?” asked the voice of Lazarus.

”_Kyrie eleison, Christie eleison!_” came the answer, brave and clear.

”Lay on, Levi, and let thy arm be strong!”

And again the sound of blows, regular, merciless, came up from the bowels of the earth.

”Dost thou repent? Dost thou renounce? Dost thou deny?”

”I repent of my sins--I renounce your ways--I believe in the Lord--”

The sacred name was not heard. A smothered groan as of one losing consciousness in extreme torture was all that came up from below.

”Lay on, Levi, lay on!”

”Nay,” answered the strong rabbi, ”the boy will die. Let us leave him here for this night. Perchance cold and hunger will be more potent than stripes, when he shall come to himself.”

”As though sayest,” answered the father in angry reluctance.

Again all was silent. Soon the rays of light ceased to s.h.i.+ne through the crevices of the outer shutters, and sleep descended upon the quarter of the Jews. Still the scene in the vision changed not. After a long stillness a clear young voice was heard speaking.

”Lord, if it be Thy will that I die, grant that I may bear all in Thy name, grant that I, unworthy, may endure in this body the punishments due to me in spirit for my sins. And if it be Thy will that I live, let my life be used also for Thy glory.”

The voice ceased and the cloud of pa.s.sing time descended upon the vision and was lifted again and again. And each time the same voice was heard and the sound of torturing blows, but the voice of the boy was weaker every night, though it was not less brave.

”I believe,” it said, always. ”Do what you will, you have power over the body, but I have the Faith over which you have no power.”

So the days and the nights pa.s.sed, and though the prayer came up in feeble tones, it was born of a mighty spirit and it rang in the ears of the tormentors as the voice of an angel which they had no power to silence, appealing from them to the tribunal of the Throne of G.o.d Most High.

Day by day, also, the rabbis and the elders began to congregate together at evening before the house of Lazarus and to talk with him and with each other, debating how they might break the endurance of his son and bring him again into the synagogue as one of themselves. Chief among them in their councils was Levi, the Short-handed, devising new tortures for the frail body to bear and boasting how he would conquer the stubborn boy by the might of his hands to hurt. Some of the rabbis shook their heads.

”He is possessed of a devil,” they said. ”He will die and repent not.”

But others nodded approvingly and wagged their filthy heads and said that when the fool had been chastised the evil spirit would depart from him.

Once more the cloud of pa.s.sing time descended and was lifted. Then the walls of the house were opened and in a low arched chamber the rabbis sat about a black table. It was night and a single smoking lamp was lighted, a mere wick projecting out of a three-cornered vessel of copper which was full of oil and was hung from the vault with blackened wires.

Seven rabbis sat at the board, and at the head sat Lazarus. Their crooked hands and claw-like nails moved uneasily and there was a lurid fire in their vulture's eyes. They bent forward, speaking to each other in low tones, and from beneath their greasy caps their anointed side curls dangled and swung as they moved their heads. But Levi the Short-handed was not among them. Their m.u.f.fled talk was interrupted from time to time by the sound of sharp, loud blows, as of a hammer striking upon nails, and as though a carpenter were at work not far from the room in which they sat.

”He has not repented,” said Lazarus, from his place. ”Neither many stripes, nor cold, nor hunger, nor thirst, have moved him to righteousness. It is written that he shall be cut off from his people.”

”He shall be cut off,” answered the rabbis with one voice.

”It is right and just that he should die,” continued the father. ”Shall we give him over to the Christians that he may dwell among them and become one of them, and be shown before the world to our shame?”

”We will not let him go,” said the dark man, and an evil smile flickered from one face to another as a firefly flutters from tree to tree in the night--as though the spirit of evil had touched each one in turn.

”We will not let him go,” said each again.

Lazarus also smiled as though in a.s.sent, and bowed his head a little before he spoke.