Aurelian; or, Rome in the Third Century
much more vast, than ours, ought we not, as a necessary consequence of
this, to acquiesce in events without complaint, when they have once
occurred? If Providence had made both Piso and Probus Christians, then
ought you not to complain, but acquiesce; and, more than that, revere
the Providence that has done it, and love those none the less whom it
has directed into the path in which it would have them go. True piety,
is the mother of charity.'
'Princess,' rejoined Isaac, 'you are right. The true love of God cannot
exist, without making us true lovers of man; and Piso I do love, and
think none the worse of him for his Christian name. But, touching
Probus, and others, I experience some difficulty. Yet may I perhaps,
escape thus--I may love them as men, yet hate them as Christians; just
as I would bind up the wounds of a thief or an assassin, whom I found by
the wayside, and yet the next hour bear witness against him, and without
compunction behold him swinging upon the gibbet! It is hard, lady, for
the Jew to love a Christian and a Roman.--But how have I been led away
from what I wished chiefly to say before departing! When I spake just
now of the darkness of Providence, I was thinking, Piso, of my journey
across the desert for thy Persian brother, Calpurnius. That, as I then
said to thee, was dark to me. I could not comprehend how it should come
to pass that I, a Jew, of no less zeal than Simon Ben Gorah himself,
should tempt such dangers in the service of thee, a Roman, and half a
Christian.'
'And is the enigma solved at length?' asked Julia.
'I could have interpreted it by saying that the merit of doing a
benevolent action was its solution.'
'That was little or nothing, princess. But I confess to thee, that the
two gold talents of Jerusalem were much. Still, neither they, nor what
profit I made in the streets of Ecbatana, and even out of that new
Solomon the hospitable Levi, clearly explained the riddle. I have been
in darkness till of late. And how, think you, the darkness has been
dispersed?'
'We cannot tell.'
'I believe not. Piso! princess! I am the happiest man in Rome.'
'Not happier, Isaac, than Civilis the perfumer.'
'Name him not, Piso. Of all the men--he is no man--of all the living
things in Rome I hold him meanest. Him, Piso, I hate. Why, I will not
tell thee, but thou mayest guess. Nay, not now. I would have thee first
know why I am the happiest man in Rome. Remember you the woman and the
child, whom, in the midst of that burning desert, we found sitting, more
dead than alive, at the roots of a cedar--the wife, as we afterwards
found, of Hassan the camel-driver--and how that child, the living
resemblance of my dead Joseph, wound itself round my heart, and how I
implored the mother to trust it to me as mine, and I would make it
richer than the richest of Ecbatana?'
'We remember it all well.'
'Well, rejoice with me! Hassan is dead!'
'Rejoice in her husband's death? Nay, that we cannot do. Milo will
rejoice with thee.'
'Rejoice with me, then, that Hassan, being dead by the providence of
God, Hagar and Ishmael are now mine!'--and the Jew threw down his pack
again in the excess of his joy, and strode wildly about the portico.
'This is something indeed,' said Julia. 'Now, we can rejoice sincerely
with you. But how happened all this? When, and how, have you obtained
the news?'
'Hassan,' replied Isaac, 'as Providence willed it, died in Palmyra. His
disconsolate widow, hearing of his death, in her poverty and affliction
bethought herself of me, and applied, for intelligence of me, to Levi;
from whom a letter came, saying that Hagar had made now on her part the
proposal that had once been made on mine--that Ishmael should be mine,
provided, he was not to be separated from his mother and a sister older
than he by four years. I, indeed, proposed not for the woman, but for
the child only--nor for the sister. But they will all be welcome. They
must, by this, be in Palmyra on their way to Rome. Yes, they will be all
welcome! for now once more shall the pleasant bonds of a home hold me,
and the sounds of children's voices--sweeter to my ear than will ever be
the harps of angels though Gabriel sweep the strings. Already, in the
street Janus, where our tribe most resort, have I purchased me a house;
not, Roman, such a one as I dwelt in in Palmyra, where thou and thy
foolish slave searched me out, but large and well-ordered, abounding
with all that woman's heart could most desire. And now what think you of
all this? whither tends it? to what leads all this long and costly
preparation? what think you is to come of it? I have my own judgment.
This I know, it cannot be all for this, that a little child of a few
years should come and dwell with an old man little removed from the very
borders of the grave! Had it been only for this, so large and long a
train of strange and wild events would not have been laid. This child,
Piso, is more than he seems! take that and treasure it up. It is to this
the finger of God has all along pointed. He is more than he seems! What
he will be I say not, but I can dimly--nay clearly guess. And his
mother! Piso, what will you think when I say that she is a Jewess! and
his father--what will you think when I tell you that he was born upon
the banks of the Gallilean lake?--that misfortunes and the love of a
wandering life drew him from Judea to the farther East, and to a
temporary, yet but apparent apostacy, I am persuaded, from his proper
faith? This to me is all wonderful. Never have I doubted, that by my
hand, by me as a mediator, some great good was to accrue to Jerusalem.
And now the clouds divide, and my eye sees what has been so long
concealed. It shall all come to pass, before thy young frame, princess,
shall be touched by years.'
'We wish you all happiness and joy, Isaac,' replied Julia; 'and soon as
this young family shall have reached your dwelling, we shall trust to
see them all, specially this young object of thy great expectations.'
Isaac again fastened on his pack, and taking leave of us turned to
depart, but ere he did so, he paused--fixed his dark eyes upon
us--hesitated--and then said,
'Lady, if trouble flow in upon you here in Rome, and thou wilt not fly,
as I have counseled, to Palmyra; but thou shouldst by and by change thy
mind and desire safety, or Piso should wish thee safe--perhaps, that by
thy life thou mightest work more mightily for thy faith than thou
couldst do by thy death--for oftentimes it is not by dying that we best
serve God, or a great cause, but by living--then, bethink thee of my
dwelling in the street Janus, where, if thou shouldst once come, I would
challenge all the blood-hounds in Rome, and what is more and worse,
Fronto and Varus leagued, to find thee. Peace be with you.'
And so saying, he quickly parted from us.
All Rome, Fausta, holds not a man of a larger heart than Isaac the Jew.
For us, Christians as we are, there is I believe no evil to himself he
would not hazard, if, in no other way, he could shield us from the
dangers that impend. In his conscience he feels bound to hate us, and,
often, from the language he uses, it might be inferred that he does so.
But in any serious expression of his feelings, his human affections ever
obtain the victory over the obligations of hatred, which his love of
country, as he thinks, imposes upon him, and it would be difficult for
him to manifest a warmer regard toward any of his own tribe, than he
does toward Julia and myself. He is firmly persuaded, that providence is
using him as an instrument, by which to effect the redemption and
deliverance of his country; not that he himself is to prove the messiah
of his nation--as they term their great expected prince--but that
through him, in some manner, by some service rendered or office filled,
that great personage will manifest himself to Israel. No disappointment
damps his zeal, or convinces him of the futility of expectations resting
upon no other foundation than his own inferences, conjectures, or
fanciful interpretation of the dark sayings of the prophets. When in the
East, it was through Palmyra, that his country was to receive her king;
through her victories, that redemption was to be wrought out for Israel.
Being compelled to let go that dear and cherished hope, he now fixes it
upon this little "Joseph," and it will not be strange if this child of
poverty and want should in the end inherit all his vast possessions, by
which, he will please himself with thinking, he can force his way to the
throne of Judea. Portia derives great pleasure from his conversation,
and frequently detains him long for that purpose; and of her Isaac is
never weary uttering the most extravagant praise. I sometimes wonder
that I never knew him before the Mediterranean voyage, seeing he was so
well known to Portia; but then again do not wonder, when I remember by
what swarms of mendicants, strangers, and impostors of every sort,
Portia was ever surrounded, from whom I turned instinctively away;
especially did I ever avoid all intercourse with Christians and Jews. I
held them, of all, lowest and basest.
* * * * *
We are just returned from Tibur, where we have enjoyed many pleasant
hours with Zenobia. Livia was there also. The day was in its warmth
absolutely Syrian, and while losing ourselves in the mazes of the
Queen's extensive gardens, we almost fancied ourselves in Palmyra.
Nicomachus being of the company, as he ever is, and Vabalathus, we
needed but you, Calpurnius, and Gracchus, to complete the illusion.
The Queen devotes herself to letters. She is rarely drawn from her
favorite studies, but by the arrival of friends from Rome. Happy for her
is it that, carried back to other ages by the truths of history, or
transported to other worlds by the fictions of poetry, the present and
the recent can be in a manner forgotten; or, at least, that, in these
intervals of repose, the soul can gather strength for the thoughts and
recollections which will intrude, and which still sometimes overmaster
her. Her correspondence with you is another chief solace. She will not
doubt that by and by a greater pleasure awaits her, and that instead of
your letters she shall receive and enjoy yourself. Farewell.
LETTER VII.
FROM PISO TO FAUSTA.
The body of the Christians, as you may well suppose, Fausta, is in a
state of much agitation. Though they cannot discern plainly the form of
the danger that impends, yet they discern it; and the very obscurity in
which it is involved adds to their fears. It is several days since I
last wrote, yet not a word has come from the palace. Aurelian is seen as
usual in all public places; at the capitol, taking charge of the
erection and completion of various public edifices; or, if at the
palace, he rides as hard as ever, and as much, upon his Hippodrome; or,
if at the Pretorian camp, he is exact and severe as ever in maintaining
the discipline of the Legions. He has issued no public order of any kind
that bears upon us. Yet not only the Christians, but the whole city,
stand as if in expectation of measures of no little severity, going at
least to the abridgement of many of our liberties, and to the
deprivation of many of our privileges. This is grounded chiefly,
doubtless, upon the reported imprisonment of Aurelia; for, though some
have little hesitation in declaring their belief, that she has been made
way with, others believe it not at all; and none can assign a reason for
receiving one story rather than another. How Isaac came to be possessed
of his information I do not know, but it bore all the marks of truth. He
would inform me neither how he came by it, nor would he allow it to be
communicated. But it would never be surprising to discover, that of my