Melchior met his questioning gaze tranquilly.
“Trouble not thy mind concerning me, thou forlorn disciple of the God!” he answered—” Whence I come or whither I go is of no more purport than the tossing hither and thither of a grain of dust or sand. Henceforward let no man set value on himself, since the Divine hath condescended to be humiliated even unto death.” Peter scrutinised him yet more closely.
“Wert thou also His disciple?” he asked.
“As well inquire of me whether I feel the warmth and see the glory of the sun!” — responded Melchior—” Those of my race and calling have known of Him these thousand years and waited for His coming. Nevertheless, touching these mysteries they are not for thy nation, Peter, nor for thy time, — wherefore I pray thee, if thou desirest to have speech with us on any matter, let it be now, and concern not thy mind with the creed of one who is and ever will be a stranger to Judæa.”
He spoke gravely, gently, but with an air that repelled inquisitiveness.
Peter still kept his eyes fixed musingly upon him, — then he gave vent to another troubled sigh.
“Be it as thou wilt!” he said — Yet truly thou dost call to mind the tale I have been told of certain kings that came to worship the Lord at Bethlehem, the night that He was born. ’Twas a strange history! and often have I marvelled how they could have known the very day and hour,... moreover there were wise men from the East” — He broke off, — then added hurriedly — Wert thou perchance one of these?”
Melchior shook his head slightly, a faint, serious smile on his lips.
“Howbeit,” went on Peter with melancholy emotion, if thou dost ever write of this day, I pray thee write truly. For methinks the Jews will coin lies to cleanse this day from out the annals of their history.”
’Tis thou shouldst write, Peter” — said Melchior with a keen look, — And in thy chronicle confess thine own great sin.”
I am no scribe” — replied the disciple sorrowfully, I have never learned the skill of letters. But if I ever wrote, thinkest thou I would omit confession of my frailty? Nay! — I would blazon it in words of fire!” He paused with a wild look, then resumed more calmly — Sir, this will never be. I am an ignorant man, and have no learning save that which He of Nazareth taught, and which I was ever the last to comprehend. Therefore I say, report my story faithfully — and if thou wilt be just say this of the dead Judas, — that out of vainglorious pride and love he did betray his Master, — yea, out of love was born the sin, — love and not treachery!” —
Barabbas turned from his dreary contemplation of the deep well-water, and fixed his brooding black eyes upon the speaker, — Melchior still maintained his attitude of grave and serene attention.
“Judith was treacherous” — continued Peter— “but not so Judas. Beautiful as he was and young, his thoughts aspired to good, — his dreams were for the purification of the world, the happiness of all mankind. He loved the Master, — ay, with a great and passionate love exceeding all of ours, — and he believed in His Divinity and worshipped Him. He willingly resigned home, country, and kindred to follow Him, — and now, having sinned against Him, he hath given his life as penalty. Can mortal man do more? God knoweth!”
He stopped again, — his breath came in a short gasping sigh.
“When we entered Jerusalem a week agone” — he continued slowly, “Judas had been long absent from his father’s house, and long estranged from his one sister whom he loved. Ye know the manner of our coming to the city? — how the multitude rushed forth to meet and greet Jesus of Nazareth, and called Him ‘King,’ shouting ‘Hosannas’ and strewing His path with flowers and branches of the palm? One who watched the crowd pass by said unto me— ‘Why do ye not check this folly? Think ye the priests will tamely bear the entrance of this Galilean Prophet as a king? Nay, verily they will slay him as a traitor!’ And, when I told these words to Judas, he smiled right joyously, saying, ‘What need we care for priestly -malice? Truly our Master is a King! — the King of Heaven, the King of earth! — and all the powers of hell itself shall not prevail against Him!’ Seeing his faith and love were such, I said no more, though truly my heart misgave me.”
His eyes dwelt on the ground with an unseeing dreary pain.
“That night, that very night on which we entered Jerusalem, Judas went forth to see his sister. Oft had he spoken of her fairness, — of the wonder of her beauty, which, he would swear, was gorgeous as the radiance of roses in the sun. He meant to bring her to the Master’s feet, — to tell her of His teachings, His miracles, His wondrous tenderness and love for all that were in sickness or in sorrow. Light-hearted as a boy, he left us on this errand, — but when he returned to us again, he was no more the same. Sitting apart from us gloomy and absorbed in thought, oft times I saw him gazing at our Lord with a strange grief and yearning in his eyes as though he sought to pierce the depth of some great mystery. The days went on, till two evenings before we shared with our Master the supper of the Passover. Then Judas came to me, and taking me aside, unburdened all his secret mind.”
Here Peter newly smitten by remorse and despair gave an eloquent gesture half of wrath, half of suffering.
“Heaven be my witness!” he cried—” that when I heard his plan I thought it would be well! I thought that all the world would see we had not worshipped the Divine Man in vain! Pride in His glory, love for His Name, and ignorance of destiny, — these were the sins of Judas Iscariot, — but there was no malice in him, that I swear! The wretched youth’s ambition for his Master was his ruin — but of us separate twain I was the faithless one! — Judas, even in his fault, was nevertheless faithful! Dost thou hear me, thou silent dreamer out of Egypt?” and he flashed a wild glance at the quiet Melchior; “Dost thou hear? Write it if thou wilt on granite tablets in thy mystic land of the moon, — for I will have it known! Judas was faithful, I say! — and he loved the Lord better than any one of us all!”
“I hear thy words, Peter” — said Melchior gently—” and I shall remember their purport.”
Calmed by the soft reply, the unhappy disciple recovered in part his self-possession, and went on with the coherent sequence of his narrative.
“Yea, in all things, Judas was faithful. When he came first to confide in me, he told me that the chief priests and elders of the city were full of wrath and fear at the sway our Master had obtained over the minds of the people, and that they sought some excuse to kill Him. ‘Then let us away,’ said I. ‘Let us return unto the mountains, and the shores of Galilee, where our beloved Lord can teach His followers, unmolested, and at liberty.’ ‘Nay!’ returned Judas in a voice of triumph— ‘Knowest thou not that if His words be true, our Lord can never die? Wherefore, why should we be driven from the city as though we were affrighted concerning His safety? Hear first what my sister Judith saith.’ And I did hear.”
Barabbas looked up, his eyes gleaming with anxiety and foreboding. Peter met his gaze mournfully.
“She — Judith — so I learned, — had welcomed her errant brother with such tenderness as moved his heart. She reproached him not at all, but listened with a patient interest to the story of his wanderings. Then she most gently said she doubted not the truth of the Divinity dwelling within the famous ‘ Nazarene,’ but surely, she argued, it were not unreasonable to ask that such Divinity be proved? Whereat Judas, troubled in spirit, replied— ‘Verily it hath been proved oftentimes by many marvellous miracles.’ ‘Not in Jerusalem, — not to the priests and rulers’ — answered Judith. ‘For they believe nothing of thy Prophet of Galilee, save that He is a false blasphemer, a malcontent and traitor. Nevertheless if He be of supreme omnipotence as thou dost say, Judas, ’tis thou canst make Him seize at once the mastery of the world, — and thus how grandly thou wilt prove thy love!’ Judas, entranced at the boldness of this thought, bade her tell him how such glory for his Lord might speedily be won. ‘Never was task more easy’ — she replied—’ Resign Him to the law, — betray Him to the priests! Then will H
e avow His godhead with all the majesty of Heaven! We shall acclaim Him as the true Messiah, — and not we alone, but every nation of the earth must worship Him! For bethink thee, dearest brother, if He be indeed Divine, He cannot be slain by any earthly foe.’ This,” continued Peter, is what Judas told me of his sister’s word. And, at the time, it seemed both wise and just. For why should our great Lord suffer poverty and pain when empires could be His? Why should He wander homeless through the world, when all the palaces of earth should open to His coming? So Judas thought, — and I thought with him, — for the Master being in all things glorious, we saw no wrong in striving to make His glory manifest.”
“Nature’s symbols are hard to read, Peter,” said Melchior suddenly— “And of a truth thou canst not comprehend their mystic lettering! What glory has ever yet been rendered ‘manifest’ except through suffering? How couldst thou think to fit the tawdry splendours of earthly kingdoms to the embodied Spirit of the Divine? What throned and jewelled potentate hath ever lifted from the world a portion of its weight of sin? What name applauded by the people, hath ever yet bestowed salvation on a living soul? Lo, the very prophets of thy race have prophesied to thee in vain, — and to thy scared wits the oldest oracles lack meaning! Did not thy Master tell thee of His fate, and couldst thou not believe even Him?”
Peter grew very pale, and his head drooped on his breast. —
“Yea, He did tell me” — he answered sorrowfully — And I rebuked Him! I! I said—’ This shall not be.’ And with all the wrath of a wronged King He turned upon me saying ‘ Get thee behind Me, Satan! — for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.’ And I fell back from Him affrighted, and was sore at heart all day!”
Melchior left his position by the palm-tree, and advancing, laid one hand on the disciple’s arm.
“And thou couldst not realise, weak soul, these ‘ things that be of God’?” he queried gravely — Thou couldst not detach thy thoughts from earth? earth’s paltry power and foolish flaunting ostentation? Alas for thee and those that take thee for a guide! for verily this fatal clinging of thy soul to things temporal shall warp thy way for ever and taint thy mission!”
‘ Peter rose from his seat gazing at the speaker in wonder and dread. The moonlight fell on both their faces; —
Melchior’s was calm, stern and resolved, — Peter’s expressed the deepest agitation.
“In God’s name, who art thou?” he asked apprehensively— “By whose authority dost thou prophesy concerning me?”
Melchior answered not.
“None shall take me for guide!” went on Peter more excitedly— “For do I not confess myself a faulty man and spiritless? Moreover I am subject to temptations” — and he shuddered—” temptations many and grievous. Lo, the Master knew this of me, — for last night — only last night He said unto me—’ Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have thee that he may sift thee even as wheat. But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not’” ——
“And neither shall it fail!” interrupted Melchior solemnly—” By faith alone the fabric raised upon thy name shall live! Nevertheless thy cowardice and fears shall live on also, and thy lie shall be the seed from whence shall grow harvests of error! The law of compensation weighs on thee even as on every man, and thy one negation, Petrus, shall be the cause of many!” Peter looked at the dark inscrutable countenance that confronted him, and lifted his hands as though to ward off some menacing destiny. He trembled violently.
“Strange prophet, thou dost fill my soul with terrors!” he faltered—” What have I to do with those that shall come after me? Surely when these days are remembered, so will my sin be known and evermore accursed, and who would raise a fabric, as thou sayest, on the memory of a lie? Nay, nay! — prophesy if thou wilt, good or evil, an’ thou must needs prophesy — but not here — not in this place where the Master sat so lately. It is as though He heard us — there is something of His presence in the air!”
He cast a timorous glance up and down, and then began to walk forward feebly yet hurriedly. They all three paced along the moonlit road, Barabbas casting many a dubious side-look at the worn and troubled face of the disciple.
“Strange that this man could have denied his Master!” he thought with passionate scorn—” And I, — base sinner as I am, having but seen that Master once, would willingly have died for Him had it been possible! If all His followers are of such coward stuff as this, surely the history of this day, if left to them, will be but a perverted chronicle!”
Meanwhile, after a heavy pause, Peter resumed his interrupted narrative.
“When Judas told me of his sister’s words, methought I saw new light break in upon our lives. The world would be a paradise, — all men would be united in love and brotherhood if once the God on earth were openly revealed. Yet out of fear I hesitated to pronounce a judgment; and seeing this, Judas persuaded me to go with him to Judith and hear her speak upon the matter. So, he said, I should be better skilled to reason without haste or prejudice.”
Here he threw up his hands with a wild gesture.
“Would I had never seen her!” he cried—” In what a fair disguise the fiend did come to tempt my soul! I took her for an angel of good counsel! — her beauty, her mild voice, her sweet persuasions, her seeming-wise suggestions, oh, they made havoc of my better thoughts! She stood before us in her father’s garden, clothed softly in pure white, a very spirit of gentleness and quietude, speaking full soberly and with most excellent justice as I deemed. ‘ Truly I doubt not that this Lord of thine is very God,’ she said— ‘Nevertheless as the rulers of the city believe Him naught but human perjurer and traitor, ye who love Him should compel Him to declare His glory. For if He be not, as He saith, Divine, ye do wrong to follow a deceiver. Surely this thing; is plain? If He be God, we all will worship Him; if He be man only, why then ye are but blindly led astray and made as fools by trickery.’ Thus did she speak, and I believed her, — her words seemed full of truth and justice, — she was right, I said, — our Master was Divine, and He should prove it! Smiling, she bowed her head and left us, — and Judas, turning on me cried—’ Now, Simon Peter, what thinkest thou?’ And I, answering said,’ Do as it seemeth well unto thee, Judas? Our Lord is Lord of the whole heaven and earth, and none can injure Him or take away His glory!”“
Pausing again he looked upward with a sad wild anguish, the pale moonbeams falling coldly on his tear-worn rugged countenance.
“What counsel could I give!” he exclaimed, as though he were defending himself to some unseen listener in the starry skies — What did I know? I had no key to heaven’s mysteries! A poor unlearned fisherman, casting my nets by Galilee was I, when He, the Marvellous One, came suddenly upon me, and with a lightning-glance of power said ‘Follow Me!’ Andrew, my brother, was with me, and he will testify of this, — that we were ignorant and stricken by poverty, and all we knew and felt was that this Jesus of Nazareth must be obeyed, — that we were bound by some mysterious influence to follow where He led, — that home and kindred were as naught to us, compared with one smile, one searching look from Him! In beauty, in majesty, in high command a very King He seemed; why, why should not the world have known it! It seemed but natural, — it seemed but just, — and last night, when Judas rose from supper and went out, I knew whither he had gone! I knew — I knew!” He shuddered and groaned, — then with a savage gesture cried—” A curse on woman? Through her came sin and death! — through her is hell created! — through her is now betrayed the Holy One of God! Accursed may she be for ever! — and cursed be all men who love her perishable beauty, and trust her treacherous soul!”
His white face became contorted with fury; — Melchior surveyed him with calm compassion.
“Thy curses are in vain, Petrus,” — he said—” They do but sound on deaf and empty air. He who curses woman or despises her, must henceforth be himself despised and accursed. For now by woman’s purity is the whole world redeemed, — by woman�
�s tenderness and patience the cords of everlasting love are tied between this earth and highest heaven! Truly the language of symbols is hid from thee, if thou canst curse woman, remembering that of woman thy Master was born into the world! Were there a million treacherous women meriting thy curse, it matters little, — for from henceforward Womanhood is rendered sacred in the sight of the Eternal, through Her whom now we call the Mother of the ‘Nazarene’!”
He paused, — then added, “Moreover thou canst not fasten the betrayal of thy Lord on Judith Iscariot. Partly she was to blame, — yet she was but a tool in the hands of the true arch-traitor. If ye would track treachery home to its very source, search for it where it hath its chief abiding-place, — in the dens of priestcraft and tyranny, — among the seeming holy, the seeming sanctified, — they with whom lies are part of sacred office!” Barabbas started.
’Twas Caiaphas!” he cried excitedly — Tell me — such news will be some comfort to my soul— ’twas Caiaphas who first did scheme this murder of the Christ?” Melchior looked at him steadily.
“Even so” — he said— ’Twas Caiaphas. What wouldst thou. ’Tis ever and ‘twill ever be a self-professing Priest of the Divine who crucifies Divinity!”
CHAPTER XXIII.
AS he spoke a faint wind stirred the shrubs and trees on either side of the road like an assenting sigh from some wandering spirit. The disciple Peter stared upon him in troubled and vague amazement.
“How could it be Caiaphas?” he asked— “True it is that Judas went to Caiaphas, but not till he had himself resolved upon the deed he meant to do.”
“Thou knowest not each private detail of this history, Petrus” — answered Melchior, “ And as thou knowest not all, neither will they who come after thee ever know. Hast thou not heard of love existing between man and woman, — or if not love, a passion passing by that name, which hath made many strange annals in history? Even such passion has there been ‘twixt haughty Caiaphas and wanton Judith, — nay, thou misguided Barabbas, wince not nor groan— ’tis true! To her the sensual priest confided all his plan; he trained her in the part she had to play, — by his command and in his very words she did persuade and tempt her credulous brother, — yea, even with a seeming excellent purpose in the work, to bring back Judas to his home and the religion of his fathers. Moreover for her ready help and willingness she did receive much gold from Caiaphas, and jewels and soft raiment, things that such women love far more than virtue. ‘Trap me the Nazarene, fair Judith,’ he said, ‘with such discretion and wise subtilty that it shall seem not my work, but thy brother’s act of conscience and repentance to his faith and people, and I will give thee whatsoever most thy heart desires.’ And well did she obey him, as why should she not? — seeing he long hath been her lover.”
Delphi Collected Works of Marie Corelli (Illustrated) (Delphi Series Eight Book 22) Page 302
