Part 26 (1/2)

'Do you include yourself under that t.i.tle?'

'Most certainly, my best sir. Don't fancy that I make any exceptions. If I can in any way prove my folly to you, I will do it.'

'Then help me and my daughter to Ostia.'

'A very fair instance. Well-my dog happens to be going that way; and after all, you seem to have a sufficient share of human imbecility to be a very fit companion for me. I hope, though, you do not set up for a wise man!'

'G.o.d knows-no! Am I not of Heraclian's army?'

'True; and the young lady here made herself so great a fool about you, that she actually infected the very dog.'

'So we three fools will forth together.'

'And the greatest one, as usual, must help the rest. But I have nine puppies in my family already. How am I to carry you and them?'

'I will take them,' said the girl; and Bran, after looking on at the transfer with a somewhat dubious face, seemed to satisfy herself that all was right, and put her head contentedly under the girl's hand.

'Eh? You trust her, Bran?' said Raphael, in an undertone. 'I must really emanc.i.p.ate myself from your instructions if you require a similar simplicity in me. Stay! there wanders a mule without a rider; we may as well press into the service.'

He caught the mule, lifted the wounded man into the saddle, and the cavalcade set forth, turning out of the highroad into a by-lane, which the officer, who seemed to know the country thoroughly, a.s.sured would lead them to Ostia by an unfrequented route.

'If we arrive there before sundown, we are saved,' said he.

'And in the meantime,' answered Raphael, 'between the dog and this dagger, which, as I take care to inform all comers, is delicately poisoned, we may keep ourselves clear of marauders. And yet, what a meddling fool I am!' he went on to himself. 'What possible interest can I have in this uncirc.u.mcised rebel! The least evil is, that if we are taken, which we most probably shall be, I shall be crucified for helping to escape. But even if we get safe off-here is a fresh tie between me and those very brother fleas, to be rid of whom I have chosen beggary and starvation. Who knows where it may end? Pooh! The man is like other men. He is certain, before the day is over, to prove ungrateful, or attempt the mountebank-heroic, or give me some other excuse for bidding good-evening. And in the meantime there is something quaint in the fact of finding so sober a respectability, with a young daughter too, abroad on this fool's errand, which really makes me curious to discover with what variety of flea I am to cla.s.s him.'

But while Aben-Ezra was talking to himself about the father, he could not help, somehow, thinking about the daughter. Again and again he found himself looking at her. She was, undeniably, most beautiful. Her features were not as regularly perfect as Hypatia's, nor her stature so commanding; but her face shone with a clear and joyful determination, and with a tender and modest thoughtfulness, such as he had never beheld before united in one countenance; and as she stepped along, firmly and lightly, by her father's side, looping up her scattered tresses as she went, laughing at the struggles of her noisy burden, and looking up with rapture at her father's gradually brightening face, Raphael could not help stealing glance after glance, and was surprised to find them returned with a bright, honest, smiling grat.i.tude, which met full-eyed, as free from prudery as it was from coquetry.... 'A lady she is,' said he to himself; 'but evidently no city one. There is nature-or something else, there, pure and unadulterated, without any of man's additions or beautifications.' And as he looked, he began to feel it a pleasure such as his weary heart had not known for many a year, simply to watch her....

'Positively there is a foolish enjoyment after all in making other fleas smile.... a.s.s that I am! As if I had not drunk all that ditch-water cup to the dregs years ago!'

They went on for some time in silence, till the officer, turning to him-

'And may I ask you, my quaint preserver, whom I would have thanked before but for this foolish faintness, which is now going off, what and who you are?'

'A flea, sir-a flea-nothing more.'

'But a patrician flea, surely, to judge by your language and manners?'

'Not that exactly. True, I have been rich, as the saying is; I may be rich again, they tell me, when I am fool enough to choose.'

'Oh if we were but rich!' sighed the girl.

'You would be very unhappy, my dear young lady. Believe a flea who has tried the experiment thoroughly.'

'Ah! but we could ransom my brother! and now we can find no money till we get back to Africa.'

'And none then,' said the officer, in a low voice. 'You forget, my poor child, that I mortgaged the whole estate to raise my legion. We must not shrink from looking at things as they are.'

'Ah! and he is prisoner! he will be sold for a slave-perhaps-ah! perhaps crucified, for he is not a Roman! Oh, he will be crucified!' and she burst into an agony of weeping....Suddenly she dashed away her tears and looked up clear and bright once more.

'No! forgive me, father! G.o.d will protect His own!'