Part 16 (2/2)

And at the foot of that Cross women and men stood weeping, and thoughtless soldiers hurled insults on their dying Lord. The lips that had only uttered words of perfect charity thirsted for a drop of water, and a sponge filled with gall was pressed mockingly to them.

But the arms were still extended wider and wider, so it seemed, as if in their almighty love they would embrace all that surging humanity; all those that suffered, those that hoped as well as those that doubted, those who mocked Him and those who adored.

Taurus Antinor's very manhood had cried out to him then to fight the mult.i.tude single-handed, to shake the power of Rome and defy the will of the people, and to rush up to that one Cross, towering above the others, to pick out with firm fingers every cruel nail, to wrap the sacred body in soft, soothing cloths, and to kiss every wound until it closed in health.

Even now, after all these years, the rough soldier's cheeks were burning with the shame of impotence.

To look on that sacrifice and be unable to stop it. To look on such a death and to continue to live on, still blind, still ununderstanding, even though the Teacher Who had come to explain had sighed ere he died: ”It is finished!” And yet Taurus Antinor, now looking back upon his own past self, knew that at the time, despite the horror, the pity and the sorrow, there was also in his heart a sense of happiness and even a vague feeling of triumph.

What he saw there--with eyes that comprehended not--_that_ he knew _was_ because _it must be_; because it had been preordained and done by One Whose will was mightier than death. Though with aching heart and seared eyes he had watched every minute of the supreme agony, yet something within him, even then, had told him that every minute of that agony was a sacrifice that would not be in vain. And whilst in weakness he groaned with the pathos of it all, yet did his heart thrill with strange exultation, and from that Cross--even when all was silent--there rang in his ear the last words of perfect fulfilment of a perfect sacrifice:

”It is finished!”

And even as the words rang once again in Taurus Antinor's ears, the awful darkness of that momentous hour fell upon the dream-hill far away.

Golgotha, with its three towering crosses vanished from before the visionary's gaze. Once more there rose before him the marble temples of pagan Rome that crowned the Capitol--the gorgeous idols covered in gold, these G.o.ds of mockery before whom the mightiest Empire in the world was satisfied to bow the knee.

And that same sweet, sad longing rose in the dreamer's heart.

”Could I but have heard Thee speak more often!... Could I but have touched Thy hands, methinks that I would have understood.... But now ...

now all is still dark before me ... and the way is so difficult.”

And even as the sigh died upon his lips there came from behind him the sound of prolonged and hoa.r.s.e laughter, followed by s.n.a.t.c.hes of a drinking song and loud calls for slaves and litters.

Caius Nepos' guests were leaving the hospitable house at last. Drunk with wine, smothered in flowers, replete with every epicurean delight they were going home now, having, mayhap, forgotten that they had plotted to murder Caesar and to raise themselves to power at all costs, even if that cost was to be a sea of blood or the ruins of Rome.

The song and laughter soon died away in the distance. Taurus Antinor had distinguished the voice of Hortensius Martius and that of Ancyrus, the elder. The sigh of sadness turned to one of bitterness, his arms dropped by his side, and a cry of harsh contempt escaped his parched? throat.

”Oh, Man of Galilee,” he murmured, ”didst die for such as these?”

CHAPTER XI

”Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”--ST. MATTHEW XI. 28.

A timid voice roused Taurus Antinor from his dream:

”My gracious lord, thy litter is here!”

He started as a man suddenly wakened from sleep, and once or twice his eyes closed and opened again ere they rested finally on the broad back bent in a curve before him.

”Methought my gracious lord was waiting,” continued the speaker in the same timid voice, ”and mayhap did not see the litter among the shadows.”

”I fear me I was dreaming, my good Folces,” said the praefect with a sigh, ”for truly I did know that thou wast here. Is the girl Nola with thee?”

”Aye, gracious lord. She waits on thy pleasure, and thy bearers----”

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