THE CHOSEN: A Man Much Loved: Historical Fiction (The Chosen Trilogy Book 3)

by Shlomo Kalo

  “My brother-in-law was stunned, as indeed were all those present, and in particular he noticed the devastating effect on the spirits of the King’s most senior adviser – Nashdernach, growing old now, as we all are!

  “According to my brother-in-law, with his own eyes he saw the blood drain from that man’s cheeks when the King coined that original phrase, and the change was so sharp and abrupt and conspicuous, my brother-in-law swears by all he holds sacred that he couldn’t help but be aware of it, and I tend to believe him!”

  Denur-Shag drank from his cup again until it was empty, and pushing it away with the back of his hand, went on to say:

  “And without any recourse to arcane language, the King referred to those Jews who have ‘crawled in like maggots’ – a colourful metaphor but hardly original – and infiltrated the royal palace, and had known how to flatter his father who, in Belshazzar’s opinion, was gullible in spite of his valour and wisdom, and had risen to great heights and obtained all kinds of senior appointments and – no more and no less – had opened the way to the contamination of the pure blood of the proud sons of Babylon. And it is a fact, the King went on to say, that this blood is the blood of those who were defeated in battle, who fled for their lives and were subdued, whereas the pure blood of the Chaldeans, is the blood of victors in war, of aristocrats, the conquerors and the undefeated. And hearing these words my brother-in-law felt, according to his own account, that some new spirit had entered him, and he had suddenly grown taller and stronger, and he finally realised where he came from and where he belonged, and why he had taken on this employment. I didn’t interrupt him at this stage and I let him prattle on with the irrepressible enthusiasm of a country boy who knows that town-dwellers exist only for the purpose of explaining to him what he has known all along, things that have been plain to him since the day he was born.

  “And this inventive King of ours continued to expand on the theme of that particular kind of ‘blood’, the blood of the exiles from Judah who, by surreptitious means, had infiltrated the court of the Chaldean King, and taken over wide swathes of his mighty capital city. And here the eloquent orator needed an illustration, and one was conveniently to hand – the community between the walls, and the new community, established alongside the holiest site in the capital, the temples of the proud, victorious gods of the Babylonians; obviously, everything possible must be done to halt this insidious penetration, burn out the infection before it is too late. And he, the King, failed to understand how the community between the walls – from among whom that assassin had emerged, intent on killing the King, his father, before being burned alive by the gracious intervention of Bel and Marduk – how this community was not only still in existence but was even prospering, and for some reason his father had not given the order to burn the homes of the murderers and raze that settlement to the ground, slaughtering the males and taking the females into servitude and distributing the cattle among the poor, ‘pure-blooded’ peasantry of the kingdom. That last sentence in particular inflamed that arid patch in my kinsman’s brain that is called imagination, and he told me that if his hands had not been full of scrolls he would have clapped them, and if protocol did not allow this, he would certainly have rubbed them together in token of satisfaction and pleasurable anticipation. But this particular delight was denied him, and he had no option but to maintain his immobile and heavily laden stance.

  “The King’s last words were in fact a question, addressed to that Nashdernach, his most senior adviser who, you will remember, had turned as pale as a statue, and whose cheeks had yet to regain their colour, and he clicked his tongue and bowed low and said in a tone that in my brother-in-law’s opinion was supposed to sound forceful but came over as cracked and hollow: ‘Your father, may his soul rest in Bel’s kingdom of light and truth, did not smite this community, because he wanted to draw closer to Babylon all races and nations and peoples and not to make outcasts and enemies of them. Your father the King taught us that the mighty kingdom of Babylon is composed of many races, and speakers of many languages, and the essence of good government lies in identifying what is shared and consolidating it, and shunning whatever is divisive, instilling in the hearts of all citizens the sense of unity and the knowledge that they are all equal before the gods and before the law and before the King. Furthermore – your father was never in favour of collective punishment. He used to maintain that collective punishment is merely a sign of weakness on the part of the one who punishes, and the victims are aware of this and are therefore more likely to be defiant than compliant.’

  “These arguments, so my brother-in-law says, made no impression whatsoever on the King. He rejected them utterly, and although he didn’t say this openly, his face answered for him. Disregarding the advice of his senior minister, the King proceeded to issue a series of edicts:

  ‘The burden of taxation imposed on the Jews is to be increased and as a first step, the tax on property will be trebled, and the poll tax will be doubled with the birth of every additional child. Strict limits will be imposed on the property that Jews are allowed to own, and everything above this limit will be confiscated by the Crown. And finally – the Jewish ministers are to be dismissed from their posts forthwith, expelled from their offices, removed from the palace and exiled to the furthermost corners of the empire. And at this point Nashdernach asked if he might speak again, and permission was granted.

  “The senior councillor bowed once more to the King, but according to my brother-in-law, in a noticeably perfunctory fashion, for form’s sake rather than a display of genuine respect, and he said:

  ‘Your father, the most glorious King in all the world, may his memory be forever blessed, whose name is inscribed in the chronicles of all peoples and races and will never be erased from them – he it was who gave these prestigious posts to those Jewish ministers who had proved their loyalty to him and to the Chaldean people, who were endowed with rare qualities and imbued with the spirit of their God. If their appointments were to be annulled this would be an insult to the institution of the monarchy and a slight on the great and glorious name of King Nebuchadnezzar, your father. The word of a king is not to be taken lightly, in his lifetime and after his death – if his heir truly respects him as is fitting – with the respect that is due between one king and another, or if Your Majesty prefers, between an illustrious son and a magnanimous father…’

  “And at this point, my brother-in-law says, with the benefit of his acute percipience and shrewd understanding, it was clear that not all of the ministers were in agreement with their chief. He, the brother-in-law, had noticed the satisfied expressions that had greeted the King’s decree demanding the expulsion of the Jewish ministers, and the indignation shown on the same faces in response to the senior councillor’s speech in defence of his Jewish friends, and it was then that my kinsman came to the firm conclusion that right was on the side of those demanding eviction of the Jews. Anyway, why should your country be ruled by any foreigners, let alone by Jews, a people trounced and subdued by your heroic national army! The narrator paused here, no doubt expecting fulsome approval of his intuition and intelligence, but in this he was disappointed, and he had no option but to go on and tell of the dispute that flared up between the councillors and the courtiers, to which the King put an end, saying it was his command that the Jewish ministers vacate their offices and also their official houses, with the exception of Belteshazzar, whom the Chaldean people respected for some reason; Belteshazzar was to be expelled too, but at a later date. And he declared that issues of ‘blood-purity’ would be discussed no longer, in this session of the council at least. They were to address the next items on the agenda, and he expected them all to be as efficient and conscientious as they had been in his father’s time, if not more so.

  “He then demanded that on the open land to the north of the palace, another should be built, of the same dimensions and the same grandeur, certainly no less, and this palace should comprise a number of extensive halls de
dicated to the purposes of recreation and entertainment. It was the duty of his loyal ministers to fill his palace with concubines and all kinds of entertainers – musicians and singers and clowns, to celebrate the dawn of a new era in the annals of Babylon, the era of liberty.

  “He insisted that all the halls of entertainment, without exception, should have walls panelled in gold and ceilings of ivory – and to pay for this he ordered the increase of all existing taxes by a quarter, and imposed new taxes on basic commodities like bread and water. Every living man must contribute to the wealth of the royal coffers in return for the privilege of living and breathing, since there is no experience more pleasurable and rewarding to man than living and breathing – and eating and drinking, courtesy of the King and his ministers! And here, my brother-in-law tells me, the faces of all the ministers fell, and he is sure that his fell too, and the hands clutching the bundles of scrolls shook – both from the pain and the numbness of his fingers, maintaining their stubborn grip, and from the unwelcome news that his relatives and his family and he himself were soon to be levied exorbitant taxes on food and drink, as well as for the privilege of living and breathing. Then the King dissolved the first meeting of the Great Council of the Crown, and his senior adviser asked for a private audience with him and stayed behind. He himself, my kinsman I mean, had to trail along behind his master and return all the scrolls to the shelves in the road surveyor’s office, unopened and unread. It seemed that the building and upkeep of public highways were not issues of great interest to the King, certainly not worth discussing.

  “On a personal level, this rustic relative of mine, with his new found city ways, was not displeased over the ‘pure blood’ issue; in his humble opinion, as he explained to me with true and unfeigned rustic humility, it could reasonably be expected that new opportunities would be available, new prospects of climbing the ladder of promotion as appointments became vacant, and all good and upright Chaldeans, with pure Chaldean blood flowing in their veins would enjoy true prosperity at last, justifiably proud of their undefiled racial purity.

  “At this point I thought it my duty to draw his attention to certain facts, simple and eminently rural facts, having to do with my less than total conviction of the purity of my own blood. As for him, I was prepared to swear any number of sacred oaths, before all the gods and goddesses of the world, that there is nothing even remotely pure-bred about him, and I have no doubt at all that were the matter to be investigated, it would be easily proved that there is an appreciable quantity of hybrid blood flowing in his veins, as there is in his sister’s veins, she being none other than my sainted wife, every detail of whose family-tree is familiar to me. And it would take only one friend, no less ambitious for promotion than he, to catch the eye of some minister or other and whisper in his ear, for the contaminated state of his blood to be established beyond doubt, shattering his hopes and stalling his career, perhaps for ever.

  “And here I can tell you that the face of this brother-in-law of mine, self-styled man about town and dedicated hedonist, fell in the most pitiable fashion, and if I am to be utterly truthful I must admit that the spectacle of a peasant with ideas above his station brought crashing down to earth, aroused in me the purest form of pleasure, malicious enjoyment of another’s misfortune.”

  Denur-Shag filled his cup again and took a few deep gulps before replacing the cup on the table and pushing it away from him. He seemed suddenly calm, with some of his freshness restored.

  “And I have something to tell you,” he resumed, “or rather – a secret to share with you, not that it’s a secret any more. I’m resigning, in fact I have resigned. Yes, I’ve done with all this!” he declared with a kind of satisfaction that was both portentous and despairing: “This very morning, I resigned – and my resignation was accepted there and then! It’s not just that I doubt the purity of my Chaldean blood. Forty-one years of service have come to a glorious end, an inevitable, pre-ordained end if you like. One way or the other, I feel at ease! I’m going back to the countryside, to live with my dear wife. I’m almost longing for the nerve-grating voice she’s been blessed with, like the shriek of an angry crane. You know what people say: ‘There’s nothing that’s all bad.’ The trumpet-voice of my wife is the song of the nightingale compared with the incoherent mumbling that’s all you hear from the new breed of sycophants hanging around the young King. And when I say ‘new breed’ I’m referring to those veteran government officials who will soon be getting a new lease of life, scrabbling to ingratiate themselves with the young king and hang on to their sinecures. Such is the marvellous nature of humankind – the "crown of creation"! Always prone to innovation and change and whatever is most likely to promise advancement, or progress if you prefer – either way, it’s the greasy pole. And this brilliant notion of ‘blood-purity’ puts every man and woman in the right place. It’s blood that decides and not, perish the thought, abstract things like intellect, talent, generosity or integrity. Even among your own people, the old idea of blood-purity holds sway, and that is what pushes you from crisis to crisis and from disaster to disaster. You should have learned from experience. To put it another way – experience isn’t going to teach you or tackle that stubborn streak of yours, and your future is shrouded in mist.

  “As for living in the country… people are always saying, scholars and simpletons alike, that to live to the full – you need to be in the bosom of nature! Everyone aspires to it, and the subject is written about, and more will yet be written, and there is great enthusiasm, among writers and readers alike, and only someone who tires of literature goes to the country and lives there. I suppose I’m an exception to that rule. And days in the countryside are clear and the nights are starry, so very rustic in every sense, and to me they are as alike as two drops of water. If however you see anything appealing in the way of life that I have chosen for myself, being of sound mind and after careful consideration – I should be delighted to be your host – all of you, the whole family, in the verdant village of my charming wife, with the sweet voice… which from this day forward, will be my village too! You know that in the countryside, unlike the city or the large metropolis, there is always space to be found, space to live or space by any other definition, since supply exceeds demand by such a wide margin. And the air is healthy, scented with the aroma of garlic and onions, and there’s no shortage of fields and plains and arable land. And agriculture – work to purify the soul and the meditations of the heart and even – the blood. Come! I shall be waiting for you!”

  He parted from Denur-Shag with a tight hug and a firm handshake.

  The Death Of Nashdernach

  The next day, arriving at his office, he found Nashdernach sitting at his desk and waiting for him.

  He sat down facing him and as he did so, noticed how much the man had aged: his oily little eyes had almost disappeared in the depths of sorrow and indignation and their strange glow – was the glow of mortal sickness. His face looked wasted and grey, wrinkled and shrivelled, and it seemed his whole body was racked by numbing fatigue. His puffy hands, laid flat on the table-top, quivered spasmodically. His cloak and his robe were crumpled and ill-kempt and worn in careless fashion – not at all the way things used to be.

  He felt sorry for the man, and decided he needed prompting. He said:

  “I’m having to leave my office and my house…”

  “No, not the house!” – Nashdernach seemed to come to life and raised his hand in a blocking gesture. In an anxious voice, its equilibrium lost, he continued: “It’s only the office, and that will only be for a limited period of time. Until the King’s mood changes… Yes, yes, this is a mood!” he stressed, evidently trying to convince himself – “And like any mood it will melt away and disappear as if it never was. King Belshazzar is prone to sudden changes of mood!”

  He noticed that Nashdernach was referring to the King without using the customary honorific titles.

  “We shall have to learn to cope with them!” Nashdernach
continued in the same cracked and uneven tone. “Not you, I mean, but us…his remaining ministers. I tell you, if it weren’t for the vows I made to his illustrious father, the wisest of kings, I wouldn’t stay in Belshazzar’s palace one moment longer! And no one would stand in my way or try to stop me. I’d give back to the King everything I’ve received from him and return to the mountain province where I grew up, where my family still owns a smallholding. But…” He broke off, stammering unexpectedly, and seemed on the point of keeling over.

  “Nashdernach!” he cried, thoroughly alarmed. “It’s as you say,” he added in a vigorous tone – “we’re going to cope!”

  “That’s right! Quite right!” Nashdernach answered him, clutching at the table for support. “And yet, in spite of the promise I made to my King, Nebuchadnezzar – may God watch over his ways in the world that is all good – I have tendered my resignation. Yes, I have tendered it! After long deliberation that could fairly be described as agonising, I told this boy – if you’ll pardon the expression, King Belshazzar I should say – that although I had promised his illustrious father I would stand at his side through good or ill and support him in word and deed, and for that reason I had not left my post when he came up with that pernicious idea of ‘blood-purity’ – in the final analysis, faced with his incorrigible stubbornness, I intended to withdraw from all official responsibilities while I still had some of my dignity intact. And I said that if his father was looking down from high, I was sure he would forgive me, and not be too disappointed by the inadequate performance of his former minister, to say nothing of his current heir! And then he relented and granted my request.”