Part 20 (2/2)
The two lads left the hall together, apparently friends again. But for how long a time? No one had heard their whispered conversation.
Gibamund bent over his brother.
”Gelimer,” he cried sorrowfully, ”rouse yourself! Calm yourself! How can the words of a child--”
”Oh, it is true, all too true! It is the torture of my life. It is the worm boring into my brain. Even the children perceive it, utter it!
G.o.d, the terrible G.o.d of vengeance, will visit the sins of our fathers upon us all,--on our whole nation, especially on Genseric's race. We are cursed for the guilt of our ancestors. And on the Day of Judgment, even from the depths of the sea, accusers will rise against us. When the Son of Man returns in the clouds of Heaven, when the summons is heard: 'Earth, open thy heights! mighty ocean, give up thy dead!' those mutilated forms will bear witness against us.”
”No, no, thrice no!” cried Gibamund. ”Verus, do not stand there with folded arms, so cold, so silent. You see how your friend, your priestly charge, is suffering. You, the shepherd of his soul, help him! Take his delusion from him. Tell him G.o.d is a G.o.d of Mercy, and every man suffers for his own sins only.”
But the priest answered gloomily: ”I cannot tell the King that he is wrong. You, Prince, talk like a youth, like a layman, like a German, almost like a pagan. King Gelimer, a mature man, has acquired the ecclesiastical wisdom of the Fathers of the Church and the secular knowledge of the philosophers. And he is a devout Christian. G.o.d is a terrible avenger of sin. Gelimer is right, and you are wrong.”
”Then I will praise the folly of my youth.”
”And I my paganism!” said Hilda. ”They make me happy.”
”The King's (or your) Sacred Wisdom makes him miserable.”
”It might paralyze his strength!”
”Had he not inherited such unusual vigor from his much-despised ancestors.”
”And with it the curse of their sins,” said Gelimer to himself.
”We might consider,” said Verus, slowly, ”whether it would not be wise to cast into prison, with the other captives, this Publius Pudentius, the son of Pudentius the rebel, whom he could not take with him in his hasty flight.”
”The lad? Why?” asked Hilda, reproachfully.
”With shrewd caution, your former kings reared the sons of aristocratic Romans at their courts, in the palace,” Verus went on quietly, ”apparently to do honor to their fathers; really as hostages for their fidelity.”
”Shall Gelimer the Good visit the father's guilt on the innocent son, like your terrible G.o.d?” cried Gibamund.
”That I would never do,” said Gelimer.
”The traitor knew it,” replied Verus. ”He calculated on your mildness; that is why he dares to rebel while his son is in your hands.”
”Let all these boys go in peace to their families.”
”That will not do. They are old enough, and have seen enough of our preparations and our weak points to do us serious injury if they should talk of them to our foes. They must remain in the city, in the palace.
I will leave you now; my work summons me.”
”One thing more, my Verus. It grieves me that I could not extort from Zazo before his departure a consent which I have long striven to win from him.”
”What do you mean?” asked Hilda.
”I can guess,” said Gibamund.
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