For the Temple Part 38

The sight of Rome impressed him less than he had expected. Of its vastness he could form no opinion; but in strength, and beauty, it appeared to him inferior to Jerusalem. When he landed, he saw how many were the stately palaces and temples; but of the former none were more magnificent than that of Herod. Nor was there one of the temples to be compared, for a moment, with that which had so lately stood, the wonder and admiration of the world, upon Mount Moriah.

The centurion procured a commodious lodging for him and, finding that t.i.tus was still in Rome, accompanied him the next day to the palace. Upon saying that he was the bearer of a letter to t.i.tus, the centurion was shown into the inner apartments; John being left in the great antechamber, which was crowded with officers waiting to see t.i.tus, when he came out--to receive orders, pay their respects, or present pet.i.tions to him.

The centurion soon returned, and told John to follow him.

"t.i.tus was very pleased," he whispered, "when he read the letter I brought him; and begged me bring you, at once, to his presence."

t.i.tus was alone in a small chamber, whose simplicity contrasted strangely with the magnificence of those through which he had pa.s.sed. He rose from a table at which he had been writing.

"Ah, my good friend," he said, "I am truly glad to see you! I made sure that you were dead. You were not among those who came out, and gave themselves up, or among those who were captured when the city was taken; for I had careful inquiry made, thinking it possible that you might have lost my ring, and been unable to obtain access to me; then, at last, I made sure that you had fallen. I am truly glad to see that it is not so."

"I was marvellously preserved, then, as at Jotapata," John said; "and escaped, after the Temple had fallen, by a secret pa.s.sage leading out beyond the wall of circ.u.mvallation. As I made my way home, I fell into the hands of some slave dealers, who seized me and my companion--who is my adopted brother--and carried us away to Alexandria, where I was sold. As you had not yet returned to Rome, I thought it better not to produce your signet, which I had fortunately managed to conceal.

"When I heard that you had reached Rome, and had received your triumph, I produced the ring to my master Tibellus; and prayed him to send me and my companion here to you, in order that I might ask for liberty, and leave to return to my home. He treated me with the greatest kindness and, but that I had appealed to you, would of himself have set us free. It is for this, alone, that I have come here; to ask you to confirm the freedom he has given me, and to permit me to return to Galilee. Further, if you will give me your order that I and mine may live peacefully, without molestation from any, it would add to your favours."

"I will do these, certainly," t.i.tus said, "and far more, if you will let me. I shall never forget that you saved my life; and believe me, I did my best to save the Temple, which was what I promised you. I did not say that I would save it, merely that I would do my best; but your obstinate countrymen insisted in bringing destruction upon it."

"I know that you did all that was possible," John said, "and that the blame lies with them, and not with you, in any way. However, it was the will of G.o.d that it should be destroyed; and they were the instruments of his will, while they thought they were trying to preserve it."

"But now," t.i.tus said, "you must let me do more for you. Have you ambition? I will push you forward to high position, and dignity. Do you care for wealth? I have the treasures of Rome in my gift. Would you serve in the army? Many of the Alexandrian Jews had high rank in the army of Anthony. Two of Cleopatra's best generals were your countrymen. I know your bravery, and your military talents, and will gladly push you forward."

"I thank you, Caesar, for your offers," John said, "which far exceed my deserts; but I would rather pa.s.s my life as a tiller of the soil, in Galilee. The very name of a Jew, at present, is hateful in the ear of a Roman. All men who succeed by the favour of a great prince are hated. I should be still more so, as a Jew. I should be hated by my own countrymen, as well as yours, for they would regard me as a traitor. There would be no happiness in such a life. A thousand times better a home by the Lake of Galilee, with a wife and children."

"If such be your determination, I will say nought against it,"

t.i.tus said; "but remember, if at any time you tire of such a life, come to me and I will give you a post of high honour and dignity.

There are glorious opportunities for talent and uprightness in our distant dependencies--east and west--where there will be no prejudices against the name of a Jew.

"However, for the present let that be. Tomorrow I will have prepared for you an imperial order--to all Roman officers, civil and military, of Galilee and Judea--to treat you as the friend of t.i.tus; also the appointment as procurator of the district lying north of the river Hieromax, up to the boundary of Chorazin, for a distance of ten miles back from the lake. You will not refuse that office, for it will enable you to protect your country people from oppression, and to bring prosperity upon the whole district.

"Lastly, you will receive with the doc.u.ments a sum of money. I know that you will not use it on yourself, but it will be long before the land recovers from its wounds. There will be terrible misery and distress; and I should like to think that in the district, at least, of my friend, there are peace and contentment. Less than this Caesar cannot give to the man who spared his life."

John thanked t.i.tus, most heartily, for his favours; which would, he saw, ensure his family and neighbours from the oppression and tyranny to which a conquered people are exposed, at the hands of a rough soldiery. t.i.tus ordered an apartment to be prepared for him, in the palace; and begged him to take up his abode there, until a vessel should be sailing for Casarea. Slaves were told off to attend upon him, and to escort him in the city; and everything was done to show the esteem and friendship in which t.i.tus held him.

t.i.tus had several interviews with him; and learned now, for the first time, that he was the John of Gamala who had so long and stoutly opposed the Romans.

"If I had known that," t.i.tus said, with a smile, "when you were in my hands, I do not think I should have let you go free; though your captivity would have been an honourable one. When you said that you would not promise to desist from opposing our arms, I thought that one man, more or less, in the ranks of the enemy would make little difference; but had I known that it was the redoubtable John of Gamala who was in my hands, I should hardly have thought myself justified in letting you go free."

John, at the request of t.i.tus, gave him a sketch of the incidents of his life, and of the campaign.

"So you have already a lady love," t.i.tus said, when he had finished. "What shall I send her?

"Better nothing, at present," he said, after a moment's thought and a smile, "beyond yourself. That will be the best and most acceptable gift I could send her. Time, and your good report, may soften the feelings with which doubtless she, like all the rest of your countrywomen, must regard me; though the G.o.ds know I would gladly have spared Galilee, and Judea, from the ruin which has fallen upon them."

In addition to the two doc.u.ments which he had promised him, t.i.tus thoughtfully gave him another, intended for the perusal of his own countrymen only. It was in the form of a letter, saying to John that he had appointed him procurator of the strip of territory bordering the Lake of Galilee on the east, not from any submission on his part, still less at his request; but solely as a proof of his admiration for the stubborn and determined manner in which he had fought throughout the war, the absence of any cruelty practised upon Romans who fell into his hands, of his esteem for his character, and as a remembrance of the occasion when they two had fought, hand to hand, alone in the valley going down from Hebron.

The gold was sent directly on board a ship. It was in a box, which required four strong men to lift. A centurion, with twenty men, was put on board the ship; with orders to land with John at Casarea, and to escort him to his own home, or as near as he might choose to take them. t.i.tus took a cordial leave of him, and expressed a hope that John would, some day, change his mind and accept his offer of a post; and that, at any rate, he hoped that he would, from time to time, come to Rome to see him.

The voyage to Caesarea was performed without accident.

"I shall look back at our visit to Rome as a dream," Jonas said, one evening, as they sat together on the deck of the ship. "To think that I, the goatherd of Jotapata, should have been living in the palace of Caesar, at Rome; with you, the friend of t.i.tus, himself! It seems marvellous; but I am weary of the crowded streets, of the noise, and bustle, and wealth and colour. I long to get rid of this dress, in which I feel as if I were acting a part in a play.

"Do not you, John?"

"I do, indeed," John replied. "I should never accustom myself to such a life as that. I am longing for a sight of the lake, and my dear home; and of those I love, who must be mourning for me, as dead."

At Caesarea, a vehicle was procured for the carriage of the chest, and the party then journeyed until they were within sight of Tarichea. John then dismissed his escort, with thanks for their attention during the journey, and begged them to go on to the city by themselves. When they were out of sight, he and Jonas took off their Roman garments, and put on others they had purchased at Caesarea, similar to those they were accustomed to wear at home.

Then they proceeded, with the cart and its driver, into Tarichea; and hired a boat to take them up the lake. The boatmen were astonished at the weight of John's chest, and thought that it must contain lead, for making into missiles for slingers.

It was evening when the boat approached the well-known spot, and John and his companion sprang out on the beach.

"What shall we do with the chest?" one of the boatmen asked.

"We will carry it to that clump of bushes, and pitch it in among them, until we want it. None will run off with it, and they certainly would not find it easy to break it open."

This reply confirmed the men in their idea that it could contain nothing of value and, after helping John and Jonas to carry the chest to the point indicated, they returned to their boat and rowed away down the lake.

"Now, Jonas, we must be careful," John said, "how we approach the house. It would give them a terrible shock, if I came upon them suddenly. I think you had better go up alone, and see Isaac, and bring him to me; then we can talk over the best way of breaking it to the others."

It was nearly an hour before Jonas brought Isaac down to the spot where John was standing, a hundred yards away from the house; for he had to wait some time before he could find an opportunity of speaking to him. Jonas had but just broken the news, that John was at hand, when they reached the spot where he was standing.

"Is it indeed you, my dear young master?" the old man said, falling on John's neck. "This is unlooked-for joy, indeed. The Lord be praised for his mercies! What will your parents say, they who have wept for you for months, as dead?"

"They are well, I hope, Isaac?"

"They are shaken, greatly shaken," old Isaac said. "The tempest has pa.s.sed over them; the destruction of Jerusalem, the woes of our people, and your loss have smitten them to the ground but, now that you have returned, it will give them new life."

"And Mary, she is well, I hope, too?" John asked.

"The maiden is not ill, though I cannot say that she is well,"

Isaac said. "Long after your father and mother, and all of us, had given up hope, she refused to believe that you were dead; even when the others put on mourning, she would not do so--but of late I know that, though she has never said so, hope has died in her, too. Her cheeks have grown pale, and her eyes heavy; but she still keeps up, for the sake of your parents; and we often look, and wonder how she can bear herself so bravely."

"And how are we to break it to the old people?" John asked.

Isaac shook his head. The matter was beyond him.

"I should think," Jonas suggested, "that Isaac should go back, and break it to them, first, that I have returned; that I have been a slave among the Romans, and have escaped from them. He might say that he has questioned me, and that I said that you certainly did not fall at the siege of Jerusalem; and that I believe that you, like me, were sold as a slave by the Romans.

"Then you can take me in, and let them question me. I will stick to that story, for a time, raising some hopes in their b.r.e.a.s.t.s; till at last I can signify to Mary that you are alive, and leave it to her to break it to the others."

"That will be the best way, by far," John said. "Yes, that will do excellently well.

"Now, Isaac, do you go on, and do your part. Tell them gently that Jonas has returned, that he has been a slave, and escaped from the Romans; and that, as far as he knows, I am yet alive. Then, when they are prepared, bring him in, and let him answer their questions."

The evening meal had been ended before Isaac had left the room to feed, with some warm milk, a kid whose dam had died. It was while he was engaged upon this duty that Jonas had come upon him. When he entered the room Simon was sitting, with the open Bible before him, at the head of the table; waiting his return to commence the evening prayers.

"What has detained you, Isaac?" he asked. "Surely it is not after all these years you would forget our evening prayers?"

"I was detained," the old man said, unsteadily and, at the sound of his voice, and the sight of his face, as it came within the circle of the light from the lamp, Mary rose suddenly to her feet, and stood looking at him.

"What is it?" she asked, in a low voice.