Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz (detective books to read .TXT) 📖

>the wall. But while he was doing this, the hood slipped from his head,

and the light fell directly on his face. Glaucus sprang from his seat

and, coming up quickly, stood before him.

 

“Dost thou not recognize me, Cephas?” asked he. In his voice there was

something so terrible that a shiver ran through all present.

 

Chilo raised the candle, and dropped it to the earth almost the same

instant; then he bent nearly double and began to groan,—“I am not he—I

am not he! Mercy!”

 

Glaucus turned toward the faithful, and said,—“This is the man who

betrayed—who ruined me and my family!”

 

That history was known to all the Christians and to Vinicius, who had

not guessed who that Glaucus was,—for this reason only, that he fainted

repeatedly from pain during the dressing of his wound, and had not heard

his name. But for Ursus that short moment, with the words of Glaucus,

was like a lightning-flash in darkness. Recognizing Chilo, he was at his

side with one spring, and, seizing his arm, bent it back, exclaiming,—

“This is the man who persuaded me to kill Glaucus!”

 

“Mercy!” groaned Chilo. “I will give you—O lord!” exclaimed he,

turning his head to Vinicius, “save me! I trusted in thee, take my

part. Thy letter—I will deliver it. O lord, lord!”

 

But Vinicius, who looked with more indifference than any one at what was

passing, first because all the affairs of the Greek were more or less

known to him, and second because his heart knew not what pity was,

said,—“Bury him in the garden; some one else will take the letter.”

 

It seemed to Chilo that those words were his final sentence. His bones

were shaking in the terrible hands of Ursus; his eyes were filled with

tears from pain.

 

“By your God, pity!” cried he; “I am a Christian! Pax vobiscum! I am a

Christian; and if ye do not believe me, baptize me again, baptize me

twice, ten times! Glaucus, that is a mistake! Let me speak, make me a

slave! Do not kill me! Have mercy!”

 

His voice, stifled with pain, was growing weaker and weaker, when the

Apostle Peter rose at the table; for a moment his white head shook,

drooping toward his breast, and his eyes were closed; but he opened them

then, and said amid silence,—

 

“The Saviour said this to us: ‘If thy brother has sinned against thee,

chastise him; but if he is repentant, forgive him. And if he has

offended seven times in the day against thee, and has turned to thee

seven times, saying, “Have mercy on me!” forgive him.’”

 

Then came a still deeper silence. Glaucus remained a long time with his

hands covering his face; at last he removed them and said,—“Cephas,

may God forgive thy offences, as I forgive them in the name of Christ.”

 

Ursus, letting go the arms of the Greek, added at once:

 

“May the Saviour be merciful to thee as I forgive thee.”

 

Chilo dropped to the ground, and, supported on it with his hands, turned

his head like a wild beast caught in a snare, looking around to see

whence death might come. He did not trust his eyes and ears yet, and

dared not hope for forgiveness. Consciousness returned to him slowly;

his blue lips were still trembling from terror.

 

“Depart in peace!” said the Apostle, meanwhile.

 

Chilo rose, but could not speak. He approached the bed of Vinicius, as

if seeking protection in it still; for he had not time yet to think that

that man, though he had used his services and was still his accomplice,

condemned him, while those against whom he had acted forgave. This

thought was to come to him later. At present simply astonishment and

incredulity were evident in his look. Though he had seen that they

forgave him, he wished to bear away his head at the earliest from among

these incomprehensible people, whose kindness terrified him almost as

much as their cruelty would have terrified. It seemed to him that

should he remain longer, something unexpected would happen again; hence,

standing above Vinicius, he said with a broken voice,—

 

“Give the letter, lord,—give the letter!”

 

And snatching the tablet which Vinicius handed him, he made one

obeisance to the Christians, another to the sick man, pushed along

sidewise by the very wall, and hurried out through the door. In the

garden, when darkness surrounded him, fear raised the hair on his head

again, for he felt sure that Ursus would rush out and kill him in the

night. He would have run with all his might, but his legs would not

move; next moment they were perfectly uncontrollable, for Ursus stood

near him really.

 

Chilo fell with his face to the earth, and began to groan: “Urban—in

Christ’s name”—

 

But Urban said: “Fear not. The Apostle commanded me to lead thee out

beyond the gate, lest thou might go astray in the darkness, and, if

strength failed thee, to conduct thee home.”

 

“What dost thou say?” asked Chilo, raising his face. “What? Thou wilt

not kill me?”

 

“No, I will not; and if I seized thee too roughly and harmed a bone in

thee, pardon me.”

 

“Help me to rise,” said the Greek. “Thou wilt not kill me? Thou wilt

not? Take me to the Street; I will go farther alone.”

 

Ursus raised him as he might a feather, and placed him on his feet; then

he conducted him through the dark corridor to the second court. From

there was a passage to the entrance and the street. In the corridor

Chilo repeated again in his soul, “It is all over with me!” Only when

he found himself on the street did he recover and say, “I can go on

alone.”

 

“Peace be with thee.”

 

“And with thee! and with thee! Let me draw breath.”

 

And after Ursus had gone, he breathed with a full breast. He felt his

waist and hips, as if to convince himself that he was living, and then

moved forward with hurried step.

 

“But why did they not kill me?” And in spite of all his talk with

Euricius about Christian teaching, in spite of his conversation at the

river with Urban, and in spite of all that he had heard in Ostrianum, he

could find no answer to that question.