CHAPTER XLVI

LIFE ETERNAL

Now it was just about the time of the Roman Saturnalia (that period of the year when slaves were given their liberties for a week that they might be free in as great license as their masters) when the trial of Simon of Cyrene also drew a-nigh. A storm seemed ever impending. The weather, spite of the nearness of the winter solstice, was sultry, and men grew irascible. Frequent brawls took place in the streets and open spaces of the city, and in many a court the servants of great men quarrelled and fought, and their masters, behind drawn curtains, did deeds of greater darkness.

And, on that very day of days, but ere Simon had yet departed in fear and in trembling (yet also rejoicing because of his great strength) to the basilica wherein his trial was to be, he called unto him Conatus in the atrium, and said: "Where I go, ye may not be also. From the foundations it hath been ordained. Moreover, the time of the Saturnalia approacheth. Hie thee, therefore, out of mine insula, and get thee whithersoever thou wilt. Life is hard for thee, for everyone. Such pleasure be unto thee, therefore, as is possible or ere the end which soon cometh unto all shall reach even thee, O light of heart but overweary." He motioned him not to speak, but to be gone.

Said Conatus, "But I will speak. Thou goest to thy trial, it may be death. And I, O Master, have been remiss unto thee, not by any means a good servant. For behold, there was always-there was always a thing of which I ought to have spoken- Ah, Master! I have no more tongue than face." He stood in the fashion of slaves, and could not in any wise continue.

His master therefore pitied him. He stroked his hair, as was the way with masters in those times, whensoever they were specially pleased with their servants.

"Thou art much o'erwatched," said Simon, "and dost imagine ridiculous things." At this, he, looking up suddenly, cried aloud: "What was that?"

"Naught heard I," answered the steward. Then again: "The water is exhausted from the uppermost jar of the water-clock, and, with a gurgling sound, it starteth running from the nearest undervessel." Then the old slave that was sitting by the clock moaned, as he were a mere machine unmindful of the meaning of his solemn

words: "Be true, O all, be true! O all! That time shall come when time shall be no more.'

Saith Simon to Conatus, "Heard ye not yet another voice, one which saith unto me: 'And when I am through with thee, I will break thee, and yet keep thee'?"

Conatus turned aside, and departed, weeping, to his room, while his Master, still in the atrium, said to himself: "Oh my soul, my soul! What is this that hath come over thee? Why, in these latter days, have I forgotten to hunt the mongrel, Trivialis, even as I once did promise me I would do, meaning to take sweet revenge? And lately I care not for revenges any more. Ever it runneth in my heart that any man upon which I might be revenged could have been my brother. An eye for an eye- No, no! Can I cause suffering and not suffer therewith? The deed cometh ever back to the doer, even as love cometh home eternally and bringeth again with it- Ah, poor Conatus, I may be, on a day, as stuttering, as unconvincing, as ineloquent, as thou art. Pray God, not upon this trial. Pray- But I must behold again mine other servants-they too are precious unto me-ere I do go."

He went out into the farthest courts where the revelry was of the Saturnalia, a feast held in honor of Saturnus, which is also Chronos, or Time, first of the kings of Rome. And lo, the men and the women were a-drunken together and calling upon the name of Saturnus. Most had cast their garments off, a many had fought, two or three of the men were dead and one woman.

And Simon departed for his trial, being helpless in both matters. Meanwhile, in the Forum, a multitude of commoner folk had gathered together, as it were with a mighty and common impulse. And Defectus, who was one of these, said unto Vulgus and Mobilis, his boon companions: "Glad to see you. Whither are ye bound?" Say they: "To the Basilica, where Simon of Cyrene standeth upon trial this day."

Defectus: "I go thither also, and I hope we shall joyfully hear the prefect send that villain to the cross. I am of them that have secretly imparted information."

"Unto the cross will Simon surely go," quoth Mobilis, "and that most deservedly."

"Else to the mines," put in Vulgus. I think-" Now there came out of a clear sky a burst of thunder which rolled far away to the eastward. Defectus saith, "Let us hurry: we may get no place at the trial."

But he became separate from his friends, owing to the press, and

so went on into the Basilica as best he could. And there he climbed upon the pedestal of Jove's great statue, and looked out over the writhing sea of faces.

And the prefect came, whose name was Justus, and sate upon the high tribunal. Then appeared, tall, dark and majestic, the Accuser, Sarcogenes. After him, Simon of Cyrene.

Simon went and sate in the place among the subsellia appointed for criminals to sit in. Then opened the prefect the court. The judgment was set, the books brought.

But hardly had the prefect declared, "Let now the delation be read in the case of the World against Simon the Jew," when there arose a sudden cry of many loud voices: "Cæsar! Cæsar! Lord of All the World!"

And behold, from a side door, entered Cæsar. The multitude cried again, as it were a single speech of adoration: "Hail! Cæsar! Jupiter! Greatest of all the gods! See! We bow before thee, grovel in thy dust! Hail! Cæsar Omnipotens! We are wholly thine, Divinity!"

And Cæsar removed the cause from the hands of Justus, and sent Justus away.

And Justus went forth even from out the building and the very purlieus thereof.

Then said in his heart Defectus, "I thank thee, Mercury, even for this, that Cæsar hath taken up the case of Simon of Cyrene into his own hands. For now will Simon the Jew (whom I so envy) receive the punishment which I myself would long ago have inflicted upon him, had I been able. The cross! The mines!"

And Conatus, on his part, when he had left his Master's domus, went forth in the streets and lanes of Rome, high sorrowful. He passed a certain wineshop, and said: "Not in there."

And he passed another wineshop, but again he said: "Not in there."

And again, "Not in there, either."

For the man was aware of his weakness, and would not deliver himself unto temptation.

He came down past the cells of many harlots which were in the walls of the Circus Maximus. But again he said, "Not in there, neither."

And coming round through the Forum Boarium, and into the Street of The Travellers, he saw again a certain wineshop whence came the sounds of hilarity. He said, "This noise is what I need. And what does it matter that I go in, if truly I, being careful, do not drink?"

So he went in, and a man came up to him and said: "Let me show thee how, lately, I was robbed."

Said Conatus, "Show me."

The man said, "As I stood in the street, a fellow came, saying, 'Let me show thee how, lately, I was robbed.' I said, 'Show me.' He said, 'Look, then, up at yonder housetop steadily for a time, and thou shalt be greatly surprised.' Wishing to be surprised, I looked, and he ran his hands about my clothing-thus, and thus, and thus, saying, all the while, 'Gaze steadily upon the housetop: thou shalt be surprised.' And when he had finished, he ran away-like this."

And the fellow also ran. Conatus himself was much surprised, for he found that all his money had been taken.

So he sate in the wineshop, but could not drink, for that he had no money.

And there came into the wineshop and sate down beside him one sadder even than himself, so that Conatus was afraid to say aught unto him, because of his excessive sorrow.

The man said, "Tell me thy name, I beseech thee."

Conatus answered and said unto him: "My name is Conatus, an Attempt, for that is all which I am or ever may be."

The other said, "Mine is Trochus, meaning 'Wheel.' I am a Greek. Seekest thou also for the secret of eternal life?"

Conatus answered, "What I seek, I seek."

Said Trochus, when he saw that the man did think he was being mocked: "Long have I sought the secret, and I find it not." He told Conatus of the way in which he had come to know there was such a thing as a secret of life eternal. "About this mystery I heard," said he, "from one Kot, an Egyptian, who had it in turn from Dulab, an Arab, and he from Hemurta, a Syrian, he also from a Phoenician, named Galgal, and he from Chark, the Persian so-called, and he, when travelling in the further Orient, had had it from Chakka, who had it from Cakra, who, in his turn, had received it out of the mouth of a Tibetan, Hkhvor. And the Tibetan had had it from the lips of a Chinaman, Chi Lun. And the man of Serica, or China, who dwelt not far from the aggeres serium, or limiting wall, and there by the borders of the infinite ocean (which washes the farthest East) had had it in his turn, from a certain Rota, a Roman out of Cyrenaica, who had had it from a Vectis, or Lever, who had had it, he knew not whence, having merely overheard it in a street in Cyrene."

And Rota had sought through many lands to find the secret, and gone so far as even to Serica, by the side of the infinite ocean which is

in the farthest East, and there had died, and never had learned the secret.

Then Chi Lun, who had had the question from the lips of Rota,1 "What is the secret of eternal life," said this man unto himself, "The question hath come from the West, and so it must have its answer in that region."

And, like a man possessed, he set off westward, but perished on his journey. Yet not before he had given the question unto Hkhvor,1 and he (before he died) unto Cakra,' and he unto Chakka,' and he unto Chark,' and he unto Galgal,' and he unto Hemurta,' and he unto Dulab,' and he unto Kot,1 until at length the question did come to mewhose name is Trochus, which also doth mean 'a wheel.'

"And all the other men than I, Trochus, be dead that sought the answer to this question. For lo! they travelled long and wearily and were sore beset, and heavy of heart and without hope because they had never received any answer to that question which had troubled them so greatly.

"And now I have heard that Simon of Cyrene, here in Rome, a Jewish merchant and philosopher, can answer that great question. Therefore seek I him."

Said unto this man yet another that sate in the shop, "Simon of Cyrene is on trial this day, and for his life."

Conatus wept.

Questioned Trochus, "Is it even so?"

Said Conatus, "It is so. For I am the steward of his household, and I know the truth. But what can anyone do for my Master?"

Came unto Trochus the keeper of the shop, and said: "Set thy pileus straight on thy head, and come along with me. For I am a secret officer of the court, and would take thee to Philautia, Cæsar's wife, who hath also been greatly troubled by this question.'

CHAPTER XLVII

THE INFINITE ASSIZE

SAID Cæsar to the Nations, in a voice which sounded like that of a devil from the mouth of a hippopotamus: "I thank you, my children, for your divine worship."

Then settled he his fatnesses on the high seat of justice, trying the while to look like an immortal and imperturbable god, but pulling at the pale fat bulged round his heavy throat, and puffing still with the high exertion of having entered the room.

1 A wheel. The words are taken from various Oriental languages.