Quo Vadis - Henryk Sienkiewicz (read after .TXT) 📗

not full grown; hence the pretorians will not notice her, and once at the house of Petronius she is safe.”

But the Lygian dropped his head on his breast, and said⁠—“She would not consent, for she loves thee; besides, she is sick, and unable to stand alone. If thou and the noble Petronius cannot save her from prison, who can?” said he, after a while.

“Christ alone.”

Then both were silent.

“Christ could save all Christians,” thought the Lygian, in his simple heart; “but since He does not save them, it is clear that the hour of torture and death has come.”

He accepted it for himself, but was grieved to the depth of his soul for that child who had grown up in his arms, and whom he loved beyond life.

Vinicius knelt again near Lygia. Through the grating in the wall moonbeams came in, and gave better light than the one candle burning yet over the entrance. Lygia opened her eyes now, and said, placing her feverish hand on the arm of Vinicius⁠—

“I see thee; I knew that thou wouldst come.”

He seized her hands, pressed them to his forehead and his heart, raised her somewhat, and held her to his breast.

“I have come, dearest. May Christ guard and free thee, beloved Lygia!” He could say no more, for the heart began to whine in his breast from pain and love, and he would not show pain in her presence.

“I am sick, Marcus,” said Lygia, “and I must die either on the arena or here in prison⁠—I have prayed to see thee before death; thou hast come⁠—Christ has heard me.”

Unable to utter a word yet, he pressed her to his bosom, and she continued⁠—

“I saw thee through the window in the Tullianum. I saw that thou hadst the wish to come to me. Now the Redeemer has given me a moment of consciousness, so that we may take farewell of each other. I am going to Him, Marcus, but I love thee, and shall love always.”

Vinicius conquered himself; he stifled his pain and began to speak in a voice which he tried to make calm⁠—

“No, dear Lygia, thou wilt not die. The Apostle commanded me to believe, and he promised to pray for thee; he knew Christ⁠—Christ loved him and will not refuse him. Hadst thou to die, Peter would not have commanded me to be confident; but he said, ‘Have confidence!’⁠—No, Lygia! Christ will have mercy. He does not wish thy death. He will not permit it. I swear to thee by the name of the Redeemer that Peter is praying for thee.”

Silence followed. The one candle hanging above the entrance went out, but moonlight entered through the whole opening. In the opposite corner of the cellar a child whined and was silent. From outside came the voices of pretorians, who, after watching their turn out, were playing under the wall at scriptoe duodecim.

“O Marcus,” said Lygia, “Christ Himself called to the Father, ‘Remove this bitter cup from Me’; still He drank it. Christ Himself died on the cross, and thousands are perishing for His sake. Why, then, should He spare me alone? Who am I, Marcus? I have heard Peter say that he too would die in torture. Who am I, compared with Peter? When the pretorians came to us, I dreaded death and torture, but I dread them no longer. See what a terrible prison this is, but I am going to heaven. Think of it: Caesar is here, but there the Redeemer, kind and merciful. And there is no death there. Thou lovest me; think, then, how happy I shall be. Oh, dear Marcus, think that thou wilt come to me there.”

Here she stopped to get breath in her sick breast, and then raised his hand to her lips⁠—

“Marcus?”

“What, dear one?”

“Do not weep for me, and remember this⁠—thou wilt come to me. I have lived a short time, but God gave thy soul to me; hence I shall tell Christ that though I died, and thou wert looking at my death, though thou wert left in grief, thou didst not blaspheme against His will, and that thou lovest Him always. Thou wilt love Him, and endure my death patiently? For then He will unite us. I love thee and I wish to be with thee.”

Breath failed her then, and in a barely audible voice she finished⁠—

“Promise me this, Marcus!”

Vinicius embraced her with trembling arms, and said⁠—

“By thy sacred head! I promise.”

Her pale face became radiant in the sad light of the moon, and once more she raised his hand to her lips, and whispered⁠—

“I am thy wife!”

Beyond the wall the pretorians playing scriptoe duodecim raised a louder dispute; but Vinicius and Lygia forgot the prison, the guards, the world, and, feeling within them the souls of angels, they began to pray.

LX

For three days, or rather three nights, nothing disturbed their peace. When the usual prison work was finished, which consisted in separating the dead from the living and the grievously sick from those in better health, when the wearied guards had lain down to sleep in the corridors, Vinicius entered Lygia’s dungeon and remained there till daylight. She put her head on his breast, and they talked in low voices of love and of death. In thought and speech, in desires and hopes even, both were removed unconsciously more and more from life, and they lost the sense of it. Both were like people who, having sailed from land in a ship, saw the shore no more, and were sinking gradually into infinity. Both changed by degrees into sad souls in love with each other and with Christ, and ready to fly away. Only at times did pain start up in the heart of Vinicius like a whirlwind, at times there flashed in him like lightning, hope, born of love and faith in the crucified God; but he tore himself away more and more each day from the earth, and yielded