Part 38 (1/2)
”These are yours, my friend, for a single brief interview with my niece.”
”Hark you!” said Euphorbus, taking the jewels into his hand. ”I am willing to gratify and befriend you; but there are four Roman soldiers at the door of her cell, who permit no one but myself to go in or out.”
”Are they not under your command?”
”No. They belong to Simon Magus, and obey only his word.”
”Lead me to them.”
The old man made a touching appeal to these rough men for permission to see his niece. Some large gold coins that he offered them had more influence than his eloquence. The a.s.surance of the keeper that he would s.h.i.+eld them as far as possible, decided the matter; and Beltrezzor was admitted into Mary's dungeon.
The meeting between uncle and niece was affecting in the extreme. Mary had greatly changed since her imprisonment. A deadly pallor pervaded her beautiful countenance, and she had the air of one whose delicate nerves had almost given way under prolonged terrors. The old man clasped her in his arms, and the bitter tears fell from his face upon her golden hair.
”Oh uncle!” said she, ”is it not horrible to contemplate? A young girl stripped and thrown to a lion before thousands of people! Are they not devils in human form who can witness such things?”
She trembled; her eyeb.a.l.l.s started with horror; the cold drops stood on her forehead; she clung frantically to her uncle.
”Oh! I have thought of it,” she said, ”until I shall go mad! And then to hear the lion roaring at night! It is fearful. He is kept very, very near me. Is not that cruel, cruel? I hear every sound he makes. I hear him growling and crunching when they feed him. I hear him yawning and whining as he impatiently paces his cage. Then at night he roars as if he thought he was in the pathless forest. Oh it freezes me! I cannot eat. I cannot sleep. I shall die!”
The head of the young woman fell upon the old man's breast.
”Have you never thought, my child,” he said, tremulously, ”of saving your life by renouncing your religion?”
”No, uncle! never! never!”
”That's a brave girl!” said he, tenderly kissing her forehead; ”and you shall be saved without it.”
”I am not afraid of death, uncle, but of the lion. But I doubt not-oh! I doubt not that Jesus will support me even in that last extremity. I cannot, however, control my fears.”
The old man cheered her with many tender words and promises of help and a.s.surances of speedy rescue. Promising to visit her twice every day, he departed to mature some plan for her deliverance.
That evening he was plunged in a deep and painful reverie. Neither Martha nor Mary Magdalen could engage him in conversation. He sat with head between his hands. He retired early.
During the night Martha heard groans issuing from his chamber. She lit her lamp and entered softly. Beltrezzor, pale and haggard, lay upon his back with his face upturned to heaven. He had been weeping in his sleep. His lips were moving as if in prayer.
Faithful, loving old man!
[Ill.u.s.tration: Ornament]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Ornament]
XXVII.
_HELENA __AGAIN._
[Ill.u.s.tration: Initial]