Part 9 (1/2)
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”One night we tarried together until a late hour and several of my companions indulged freely in wine. Before we left the scene of our carousal they had become quite boisterous. I was more sedate than usual, though entering into the spirit of the occasion. At that late hour the watchmen, or guards, of the city found it necessary to interfere and check our hilarity. A fight ensued in which I took part. Being recognized by one of the officers, I fled the city rather than face the disgrace of trial and punishment. Taking leave of my sisters, I was soon far from the land of my birth. My last act was to present to my favorite sister the harp which thou hast seen and heard to-night.
”My dear friend, judge of my surprise and joy when I recognized in the maid of Judah one of my own relatives. The beautiful and n.o.ble orphan who is your daughter's companion in this house is none other than my own niece.
”I feel that my long neglect of my surviving relatives makes me unworthy even to serve them, but I am determined now that this sweet damsel shall share in my wealth and enjoy all the advantages which my efforts can obtain for her, together with her worthy brothers. In this way I can make partial atonement for the mistakes of the past.”
This remarkable revelation was soon made known to the excited company.
With a cry of joy the fair maid of Judah fell into the arms of her uncle.
Tears fell from every eye. The ”Lily of the Valley” wept, and so did the brave soldier, her father, and so did young Mathias. The scene was one that pen cannot adequately describe, but happiness was supreme in the household.
CHAPTER XIII.
AT THE school, agreeable to the expectations of Barzello, the four Hebrews made astonis.h.i.+ng progress in their multiform studies. Those profound sciences which had cost their teachers years of ceaseless toil were, by these four young men, mastered with apparent ease. They soon became objects of wonder to their instructors, and were p.r.o.nounced favorites of the G.o.ds. Ashpenaz often would have an interview with them, and soon they became the objects, not only of his admiration, but also of his friends.h.i.+p. This became visible to their fellow-students, and jealousy, accompanied by malice, found a ready entrance to more than one heart. Alas, for poor fallen humanity!
Among the students from the city of Babylon there were two young men, brothers, whose father, by a sudden freak of fortune, had arrived at the possession of much wealth. For some years these young men's advantages had been quite favorable, and withal they had not been negligent in their studies. They were exceedingly vain of their acquirements, and their pride and arrogance kept pace with their vanity. The success of others, to them, was invariably a source of mortification.
They had already heard complimentary reports of the youths of Judah from no mean sources; and they became their foes, and were determined to see them humbled. As students, they met but seldom, and the real acquirements of the Israelitish youths were not known to these envious Chaldeans. With these two victims of vanity and envy was cast the unhappy lot of another youth, their cousin. He was of ”humbler birth,” as the term is used, but almost infinitely their superior in everything that beautifies and adorns humanity. He was frank, generous, n.o.ble, and endowed with no small share of natural wit. For his conceited cousins he was anything but a pleasant companion; and daily was their arrogance rebuked by his far-searching repartees. Thus have we introduced to the reader three young Chaldeans, Scribbo and s.h.a.goth, with their Cousin Apgomer.
”I cannot, for my part,” said Scribbo, ”see the propriety of elevating these contemptible captives to share equal privileges with the native sons of Chaldea. Surely the king, in this, has betrayed a lamentable lack of discernment.”
”Truly!” replied s.h.a.goth, with an air of consequence. ”And if he does not ere long see his folly, and retrace his steps, he will lose my confidence, and that of all the members of our house.”
”May the G.o.ds pity the king!” cried Apgomer, with a feigned solemn visage. ”Peradventure, that in the great pressure of business he forgot that the confidence of my ill.u.s.trious cousins was so essential to his well-being, as well as the safety and perpetuity of the empire.”
”My remarks were called forth by the sensible statement of my brother,”
said s.h.a.goth, peevishly; ”and it would have been perfectly excusable in thee to have remained silent, until I should have thought fit to make some remarks suitable to the capacity of thy mind.”
”My worthy cousin will, I trust, in the plenitude of his overflowing generosity, pardon the officiousness of his unworthy servant of limited capacities, and believe him when he a.s.sures thee that those remarks were offered as an humble apology for the great sovereign of the Chaldean empire; and I still hope that, in the richness of thy clemency, thou wilt forgive him.”
”I trust,” replied Scribbo, ”we are able to appreciate thy remarks, and undoubtedly they will receive the respect they deserve. If thou couldst have thy quarters removed to the society of these pretending foreigners, methinks it would better suit thy groveling taste.”
”Such a sudden bereavement might be more than my tender-hearted cousins could well endure. May the G.o.ds forbid that I should be the means of overwhelming you with unnecessary sorrow! And, besides, I fear I am not such a favorite of the G.o.ds as to receive such a marked favor.”
”A prodigious favor to be the companions of illiterate captives!” cried Scribbo, with a disdainful curl of his lip. ”The Chaldean who calls that a favor, is anything but an ornament to his country.”
”We may have different tastes in regard to ornament,” replied the good-natured cousin, looking with an arch smile on his cousin's heavy and useless jewelry. ”As for me, I am a plain young man. I value the useful far above the ornamental. I consider healthy ablutions and clean linens far more desirable than the decoration of our persons with ornamental trash. And why may it not be so in the government? So much in regard to ornaments. 'Ignorant and illiterate captives.' Ah, cousin! Believest thou this? Dost thou not rather hope that this is so? Hope on! The day of trial hastens apace! Hope vigorously and diligently; for such hope is of short duration. Ye expect, by your superior learning, to humble the youths of Judah in the presence of the king and his n.o.bles. Ye are sanguine in your expectations. Already ye see their heads bowing with shame and embarra.s.sment, while your own brows are decorated with well-earned laurels. Do ye not already enjoy the bliss of the prophetic vision, until the bursting in of the reality? Ah, ye do! Now think it not over-officious in your cousin of low capacity to a.s.sure you that your hopes are but the baseless fabrics of vain minds. The day of examination will reveal to your astonished sensibilities that ye have dreamed the dream of fools. Those n.o.ble young men, who are the objects of your hatred, will soar above you triumphantly, and their enemies will be covered over with shame. Let me give you fair warning! Ye are ignorant of the strength of those youths, over whom your vain imaginations appear to triumph with such ease.”
”Our forbearance, brother, I fear, only encourages the insolence of this, our ungrateful relative,” said s.h.a.goth, in anger. ”How soon these upstarts forget their poverty when they are permitted to mingle in good society.”
”And how soon they forget the kind hands that lifted them up from their low estate!” answered Scribbo, casting a reproachful glance in the direction of Apgomer.
”Now, cousins,” said Apgomer, smilingly, ”since these charges are thrown out against me, without going through the usual form of asking permission, I shall at once take the liberty of repelling them.
”In the first place, I am charged with being an 'upstart,' and of too soon forgetting my poverty. This I deny. I have, by no means, forgotten my own poverty, or the low condition of my ancestors. Let us look at this for a moment. Painful as it may be, I believe ye do occasionally admit that I am your cousin. Well, then, be it remembered that I am your cousin. Our fathers were brothers, and our grandfather was one and the same person. It is well known to you that our respected grand-sire was an individual who had to plod his way along through the very steeps of poverty, and procure a little bread for his family by humble employments.
In poverty he lived, and in deep poverty he would have died, had it not been for the grateful regard of one of his sons; of the other, I have nothing to say at present. Now to some, who have suddenly risen from poverty to a degree of affluence, it proves a source of deep mortification to remember that they sprang from a low origin. But is this the case with your cousin Apgomer? Have I forgotten the source whence I sprang? Does it create a blush on this cheek to remember that my grandfather was poor, and that my father had to win his bread through the sweat of his brow? Whoever has forgotten the poverty of his father and grandfather, be it known that Apgomer is not that youth.
”So much in regard to the first charge. Now for the second. I am accused of forgetting those 'kind friends, who lifted me up from my low estate.'