Part 38 (1/2)
”What were her name and story?” asked Caleb.
”As for her name I know it not. We called her Pearl-Maiden because of a collar of pearls she wore and because also she was white and beautiful as a pearl. Oh! beautiful indeed, and so gentle and sweet, even in her sickness, that the roughest brute of a legionary with a broken head could not choose but to love her. Much more then, that old bear, Gallus, who watched her as though she were his own cub.”
”Indeed? And where is this beautiful lady now? I should like to sell her something.”
”Gone, gone, and left us all mourning.”
”Not dead?” said Caleb in a new voice of eager dismay, ”Oh! not dead?”
The fat cook looked at him calmly.
”You take a strange interest in our Pearl-Maiden, Cabbage-seller,” he said. ”And, now that I come to think of it, you are a strange-looking man for a peasant.”
With an effort Caleb recovered his self-command.
”Once I was better off than I am now, friend,” he answered. ”As you know, in this country the wheel of fortune has turned rather quick of late.”
”Yes, yes, and left many crushed flat behind it.”
”The reason why I am interested,” went on Caleb, taking no heed, ”is that I may have lost a fine market for my goods.”
”Well, and so you have, friend. Some days ago the Pearl-Maiden departed to Tyre in charge of the captain, Gallus, on her way to Rome. Perhaps you would wish to follow and sell her your onions there.”
”Perhaps I should,” answered Caleb. ”When you Romans have gone this seems likely to become a bad country for gardeners, since owls and jackals do not buy fruit, and you will leave no other living thing behind you.”
”True,” answered the cook. ”Caesar knows how to handle a broom and he has made a very clean sweep,” and he pointed complacently to the heaped-up ruins of the Temple before them. ”But how much for the whole basket full?”
”Take them, friend,” said Caleb, ”and sell them to your mess for the best price that you can get. You need not mention that you paid nothing.”
”Oh! no, I won't mention it. Good morning, Mr. Cabbage-grower, good morning.”
Then he stood still watching as Caleb vanished quickly among the great boles of the olive trees. ”What can stir a Jew so much,” he reflected to himself, ”as to make him give something for nothing, and especially to a Roman? Perhaps he is Pearl-Maiden's brother. No, that can't be from his eyes--her lover more likely. Well, it is no affair of mine, and although he never grew them, the vegetables are good and fresh.”
That evening when Caleb, still disguised as a peasant, was travelling through the growing twilight across the hills that bordered the road to Tyre, he heard a mighty wailing rise from Jerusalem and knew that it was the death-cry of his people. Now, everywhere above such portions of the beleaguered city as remained standing, shot up tall spires and wreaths of flame. t.i.tus had forced the walls, and thousands upon thousands of Jews were peris.h.i.+ng beneath the swords of his soldiers, or in the fires of their burning homes. Still, some ninety thousand were left alive, to be driven like cattle into the Court of Women. Here more than ten thousand died of starvation, while some were set aside to grace the Triumph, some to be slaughtered in the amphitheatres at Caesarea and Berytus, but the most were transported to Egypt, there, until they died, to labour in the desert mines. Thus was the last desolation accomplished and the prophecy fulfilled: ”And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with s.h.i.+ps . . . and there ye shall sell yourselves unto your enemies for bondmen and for bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.” Thus did ”Ephraim return to Egypt,” whence he came forth to sojourn in the Promised Land until the cup of his sin was full. Now once more that land was a desert without inhabitants; all its pleasant places were waste; all its fenced cities destroyed, and over their ruins and the bones of their children flew Caesar's eagles. The war was ended, there was peace in Judaea. _Solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant!_
When Caleb reached Tyre, by the last light of the setting sun he saw a white-sailed galley beating her way out to sea. Entering the city, he inquired who went in the galley and was told Gallus, a Roman captain, in charge of a number of sick and wounded men, many of the treasures of the Temple, and a beautiful girl, who was said to be the grand-daughter of Benoni of that town.
Then knowing that he was too late, Caleb groaned in bitterness of spirit. Presently, however, he took thought. Now, Caleb was wise in his generation, for at the beginning of this long war he had sold all his land and houses for gold and jewels, which, to a very great value, he had left hidden in Tyre in the house of a man he trusted, an old servant of his father's. To this store he had added from time to time out of the proceeds of plunder, of trading, and of the ransom of a rich Roman knight who was his captive, so that now his wealth was great. Going to the man's house, Caleb claimed and packed this treasure in bales of Syrian carpets to resemble merchandise.
Then the peasant who had travelled into Tyre upon business about a mule, was seen no more, but in place of him appeared Demetrius, the Egyptian merchant, who bought largely, though always at night, of the merchandise of Tyre, and sailed with it by the first s.h.i.+p to Alexandria. Here this merchant bought much more goods, such as would find a ready sale in the Roman market, enough to fill the half of a galley, indeed, which lay in the harbour near the Pharos lading for Syracuse and Rhegium.
At length the galley sailed, meaning to make Crete, but was caught by a winter storm and driven to Paphos in Cyprus, where, being afraid to attempt the seas again, let the merchant, Demetrius, do what he would to urge them forward, the captain and crew of the galley determined to winter. So they beached her in the harbour and went up to the great temple, rejoicing to pay their vows and offer gifts to Venus, who had delivered them from the fury of the seas, that they might swell the number of her votaries.
But although he accompanied them, since otherwise they might have suspected that he was a Jew, Demetrius, who sought another G.o.ddess, cursed Venus in his heart, knowing that had it not been for her delights the sailors would have risked the weather. Still, there was no help for it and no other s.h.i.+p by which he could sail, so here he abode for more than three months, spending his time in Curium, Amathos and Salamis, trading among the rich natives of Cyprus, out of whom he made a large profit, and adding wine, and copper from Tamasus to his other merchandise, as much as there was room for on the s.h.i.+p.
In the end after the great spring festival, for the captain said that it would not be fortunate to leave until this had been celebrated, they set sail and came by way of Rhodes to the Island of Crete, and thence touching at Cythera to Syracuse in Sicily, and so at last to Rhegium.
Here the merchant, Demetrius, trans.h.i.+pped his goods into a vessel that was sailing to the port of Centum Cellae, and having reached that place hired transport to convey them to Rome, nearly forty miles away.