Quo Vadis - Henryk Sienkiewicz (best ereader under 100 .txt) 📗
- Author: Henryk Sienkiewicz
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feared, He said, ‘Peace be with you!’
“And I saw Him, as did all, and He was like light, and like the
happiness of our hearts, for we believed that He had risen from the
dead, and that the seas will dry and the mountains turn to dust, but His
glory will not pass.
“After eight days Thomas Didymus put his finger in the Lord’s wounds and
touched His side; Thomas fell at His feet then, and cried, ‘My Lord and
my God!’ ‘Because thou hast seen me thou hast believed; blessed are
they who have not seen and have believed!’ said the Lord. And we heard
those words, and our eyes looked at Him, for He was among us.”
Vinicius listened, and something wonderful took place in him. He forgot
for a moment where he was; he began to lose the feeling of reality, of
measure, of judgment. He stood in the presence of two impossibilities.
He could not believe what the old man said; and he felt that it would be
necessary either to be blind or renounce one’s own reason, to admit that
that man who said “I saw” was lying. There was something in his
movements, in his tears, in his whole figure, and in the details of the
events which he narrated, which made every suspicion impossible. To
Vinicius it seemed at moments that he was dreaming. But round about he
saw the silent throng; the odor of lanterns came to his nostrils; at a
distance the torches were blazing; and before him on the stone stood an
aged man near the grave, with a head trembling somewhat, who, while
bearing witness, repeated, “I saw!”
And he narrated to them everything up to the Ascension into heaven. At
moments he rested, for he spoke very circumstantially; but it could be
felt that each minute detail had fixed itself in his memory, as a thing
is fixed in a stone into which it has been engraved. Those who listened
to him were seized by ecstasy. They threw back their hoods to hear him
better, and not lose a word of those which for them were priceless. It
seemed to them that some superhuman power had borne them to Galilee;
that they were walking with the disciples through those groves and on
those waters; that the cemetery was turned into the lake of Tiberius;
that on the bank, in the mist of morning, stood Christ, as he stood when
John, looking from the boat, said, “It is the Lord,” and Peter cast
himself in to swim, so as to fall the more quickly at the beloved feet.
In the faces of those present were evident enthusiasm beyond bounds,
oblivion of life, happiness, and love immeasurable. It was clear that
during Peter’s long narrative some of them had visions. When he began to
tell how, at the moment of Ascension, the clouds closed in under the
feet of the Saviour, covered Him, and hid Him from the eyes of the
Apostles, all heads were raised toward the sky unconsciously, and a
moment followed as it were of expectation, as if those people hoped to
see Him or as if they hoped that He would descend again from the fields
of heaven, and see how the old Apostle was feeding the sheep confided to
him, and bless both the flock and him.
Rome did not exist for those people, nor did the man Cæsar; there were
no temples of pagan gods; there was only Christ, who filled the land,
the sea, the heavens, and the world.
At the houses scattered here and there along the Via Nomentana, the
cocks began to crow, announcing midnight. At that moment Chilo pulled
the corner of Vinicius’s mantle and whispered,—“Lord, I see Urban over
there, not far from the old man, and with him is a maiden.”
Vinicius shook himself, as if out of a dream, and, turning in the
direction indicated by the Greek, he saw Lygia.
EVERY drop of blood quivered in the young patrician at sight of her. He
forgot the crowd, the old man, his own astonishment at the
incomprehensible things which he had heard,—he saw only her. At last,
after all his efforts, after long days of alarm, trouble, and suffering,
he had found her! For the first time he realized that joy might rush at
the heart, like a wild beast, and squeeze it till breath was lost. He,
who had supposed hitherto that on “Fortuna” had been imposed a kind of
duty to accomplish all his wishes, hardly believed his own eyes now and
his own happiness. Were it not for that disbelief, his passionate
nature might have urged him to some unconsidered step; but he wished to
convince himself first that that was not the continuation of those
miracles with which his head was filled, and that he was not dreaming.
But there was no doubt,—he saw Lygia, and an interval of barely a few
steps divided them. She stood in perfect light, so that he could rejoice
in the sight of her as much as he liked. The hood had fallen from her
head and dishevelled her hair; her mouth was open slightly, her eyes
raised toward the Apostle, her face fixed in listening and delighted.
She was dressed in a dark woollen mantle, like a daughter of the people,
but never had Vinicius seen her more beautiful; and notwithstanding all
the disorder which had risen in him, he was struck by the nobility of
that wonderful patrician head in distinction to the dress, almost that
of a slave. Love flew over him like a flame, immense, mixed with a
marvellous feeling of yearning, homage, honor, and desire. He felt the
delight which the sight of her caused him; he drank of her as of life-giving water after long thirst. Standing near the gigantic Lygian, she
seemed to him smaller than before, almost a child; he noticed, too, that
she had grown more slender. Her complexion had become almost
transparent; she made on him the impression of a flower, and a spirit.
But all the more did he desire to possess that woman, so different from
all women whom he had seen or possessed in Rome or the Orient. He felt
that for her he would have given them all, and with them Rome and the
world in addition.
He would have lost himself in gazing, and forgotten himself altogether,
had it not been for Chilo, who pulled the corner of his mantle, out of
fear that he might do something to expose them to danger. Meanwhile the
Christians began to pray and sing. After a while Maranatha thundered
forth, and then the Great Apostle baptized with water from the fountain
those whom the presbyters presented as ready for baptism. It seemed to
Vinicius that that night would never end. He wished now to follow Lygia
as soon as possible, and seize her on the road or at her house.
At last some began to leave the cemetery, and Chilo whispered,—“Let us
go out before the gate, lord, we have not removed our hoods, and people
look at us.”
Such was the case, for during the discourse of the Apostle all had cast
aside their hoods so as to hear better, and they had not followed the
general example. Chilo’s advice seemed wise, therefore. Standing
before the gate, they could look at all who passed; Ursus it was easy to
recognize by his form and size.
“Let us follow them,” said Chilo; “we shall see to what house they go.
Tomorrow, or rather to-day, thou wilt surround the entrances with
slaves and take her.”
“No!” said Vinicius.
“What dost thou wish to do, lord?”
“We will follow her to the house and take her now, if thou wilt
undertake that task, Croton?”
“I will,” replied Croton, “and I will give myself to thee as a slave if
I do not break the back of that bison who is guarding her.”
But Chilo fell to dissuading and entreating them by all the gods not to
do so. Croton was taken only for defence against attack in case they
were recognized, not to carry off the girl. To take her when there were
only two of them was to expose themselves to death, and, what was worse,
they might let her out of their hands, and then she would hide in
another place or leave Rome. And what could they do? Why not act with
certainty? Why expose themselves to destruction and the whole
undertaking to failure?
Though Vinicius restrained himself with the greatest effort from seizing
Lygia in his arms at once, right there in the cemetery, he felt that the
Greek was right, and would have lent ear, perhaps, to his counsels, had
it not been for Croton, to whom reward was the question.
“Lord, command that old goat to be silent,” said he, “or let me drop my
fist on his head. Once in Buxentum, whither Lucius Saturnius took me to
a play, seven drunken gladiators fell on me at an inn, and none of them
escaped with sound ribs. I do not say to take the girl now from the
crowd, for they might throw stones before our feet, but once she is at
home I will seize her, carry her away, and take her whithersoever thou
shalt indicate.”
Vinicius was pleased to hear those words, and answered,—“Thus let it
be, by Hercules! Tomorrow we may not find her at home; if we surprise
them they will remove the girl surely.”
“This Lygian seems tremendously strong!” groaned Chilo.
“No one will ask thee to hold his hands,” answered Croton.
But they had to wait long yet, and the cocks had begun to crow before
dawn when they saw Ursus coming through the gate, and with him Lygia.
They were accompanied by a number of other persons. It seemed to Chilo
that he recognized among them the Great Apostle; next to him walked
another old man, considerably lower in stature, two women who were not
young, and a boy, who lighted the way with a lantern. After that
handful followed a crowd, about two hundred in number; Vinicius, Chilo,
and Croton walked with these people.
“Yes, lord,” said Chilo, “thy maiden is under powerful protection. That
is the Great Apostle with her, for see how passing people kneel to him.”
People did in fact kneel before him, but Vinicius did not look at them.
He did not lose Lygia from his eyes for a moment; he thought only of
bearing her away and, accustomed as he had been in wars to stratagems of
all sorts, he arranged in his head the whole plan of seizure with
soldierly precision. He felt that the step on which he had decided was
bold, but he knew well that bold attacks give success generally.
The way was long; hence at moments he thought too of the gulf which that
wonderful religion had dug between him and Lygia. Now he understood
everything that had happened in the past, and why it had happened. He
was sufficiently penetrating for that. Lygia he had not known hitherto.
He had seen in her a maiden wonderful beyond others, a maiden toward
whom his feelings were inflamed: he knew now that her religion made her
different from other women, and his hope that feeling, desire, wealth,
luxury, would attract her he knew now to be a vain illusion. Finally he
understood this, which he and Petronius had not understood, that the new
religion ingrafted into the soul something unknown to that world in
which he lived, and that Lygia, even if she loved him, would not
sacrifice any of her Christian truths for his sake, and that, if
pleasure existed
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