SERGIUS LEARNS A NEW LESSON
Syama, always thoughtful, took care of the treasure brought from Plati,
and standing by the door watched his master through the night,
wondering what the outcome of his agitation would be.
It were useless attempting to describe how the gloomy soul of the Jew
exercised itself. His now ungovernable passions ran riot within him. He
who had seen so much of life, who had made history as the loomsmen of
Bokhara make carpets, who dealt with kings and kingdoms, and the
superlatives of every kind canonized in the human imagination--he to be
so demeaned! Yet it was not the disrespect to himself personally that
did the keenest stinging, nor even the enmity of Heaven denying him the
love permitted every other creature, bird, beast, crawling reptile,
monster of the sea--these were as the ruffling of the weather feathers
of a fighting eagle, compared with the torture he endured from
consciousness of impotency to punish the wrongdoers as he would like to
punish them.
That Lael was immured somewhere in the city, he doubted not; and he
would find her, for what door could stand shut against knocking by a
hand with money in it? But might it not be too late? The flower he
could recover, but the fragrance and purity of bloom--what of them? How
his breast enlarged and shrank under the electric touch of that idea!
The devil who did the deed might escape him, for hell was vast and
deep; yet the city remained, even the Byzantium ancient of days like
himself, and he would hold it a hostage for the safe return of his Gul
Bahar.
All the night long he walked without pause; it seemed unending to him;
at length the faintest rosy tint, a reflection from morning's palette
of splendor, lodged on the glass of his eastern window, and woke him
from his misery. At the door he found Syama.
"Syama," he said, kindly, "bring me the little case which has in it my
choicest drugs."
It was brought him, an oblong gold box encrusted with brilliants.
Opening it, he found a spatula of fine silver on a crystal lid, and
under the lid, in compartments, pellets differently colored, one of
which he selected, and dropped in his throat.
"There, put it back," he said, returning the box to Syama, who went out
with it. Looking then at the brightness brighter growing through the
window, "Welcome," he continued, speaking to the day as it were a
person: "Thou wert slow coming, yet welcome. I am ready for this new
labor imposed on me, and shall not rest, or sleep, or hunger, or thirst
until it is done. Thou shalt see I have not lived fourteen centuries
for nothing; that in a hunt for vengeance I have not lost my cunning. I
will give them till thou hast twice run thy course; then, if they bring
her not, they will find the God they worship once more the Lord God of
Israel."
Syama returned.
"Thou art a faithful man, Syama, and I love thee. Get me a cup of the
Cipango leaves--no bread, the cup alone."
While waiting, the Prince continued his silent walk; but when the tea
was brought, he said: "Good! It shall go after the meat of the
poppies"--adding to Syama--"While I drink, do thou seek Uel, and bring
him to me."
When the son of Jahdai entered, the Prince looked at him a moment, and
asked: "Hast thou word of her?"
"Not a word, not one word," and with the reply the merchant's face sunk
until the chin rested on his breast. The hopelessness observable in the
voice, joined to the signs of suffering apparent in the manner, was
irresistibly touching. Another instant, then the elder advanced to him,
and took his hand.
"We are brothers," he said, with exceeding gentleness. "She was our
child--ours--thine, yet mine. She loved us both. We loved her, thou not
more, I not less. She went not willingly from us; we know that much,
because we know she loved us, me not less, thee not more. A pitfall was
digged for her. Let us find it. She is calling for us from the
bottom--I hear her--now thy name, now mine--and there is no time to be
lost. Wilt thou do as I say?"
"You are strong, and I weak; be it entirely as you say," Uel answered,
without looking up, for there were tears in his eyes, and a great groan
growing in his throat.
"Well, see thou now. We will find the child, be the pit ever so deep;
but--it is well bethinking--we may not find her the undefiled she was,
or we may find her dead. I believe she had a spirit to prefer death to
dishonor--but dead or dishonored, wilt thou merge thy interest in her
into mine?"
"Yes."
"I alone am to decide then what best becomes us to do. Is it agreed?"
"Yes--such faith have I in you."
"Oh, but understand thee, son of Jahdai! I speak not merely as a
father, but as an Israelite."
Uel looked at the speaker's face, and was startled. The calm voice, low
and evenly toned, to which he had been listening, had not prepared him
for the livid pursing he saw under the eyes, and the pupils lurid and
unnaturally dilated--effects we know, good reader, of the meat of the
poppies assisted by the friendly Cipango leaves. Yet the merchant
replied, strong in the other's strength: "Am not I, too, an
Israelite?--Only do not take her from me."
"Fear not. Now, son of Jahdai, let us to work. Let us first find our
pretty child."
Again Uel was astonished. The countenance was bright and beaming with
confidence. A world of energy seemed to have taken possession of the
man. He looked inspired--looked as if a tap of his finger could fetch
the extremities of the continent rolling like a carpet to his feet.
"Go now, my brother Uel, and bring hither all the clerks in the market."
"All of them--all? Consider the expense."
"Nay, son of Jahdai, be thou a true Israelite. In trade, this for that,
consider the profits and stand on them closely, getting all thou canst.
But here is no trade--here is honor--our honor--thine, mine. Shall a
Christian beat us, and wear the virtue of our daughter as it were a
leman's favor? No, by Abraham--by the mother of Israel"--a returning
surge of passion blackened his face again, and quickened his
speech--"by Rachael and Sarah, and all the God-loving asleep in Hebron,
in this cause our money shall flow like water--even as the Euphrates in
swollen tide goes bellowing to the sea, it shall flow. I will fill the
mouths and eyes as well as the pockets of this Byzantium with it, until
there shall not be a dune on the beach, a cranny in the wall, a rathole
in its accursed seven hills unexamined. Yes, the say is mine--so thou
didst agree--deny it not! Bid the clerks come, and quickly--only see to
it that each brings his writing material, and a piece of paper large as
his two hands. This house for their assemblage. Haste. Time flies--and
from the pit, out of the shadows in the bottom of the pit, I hear the
voice of Lael calling now to thee, now to me."
Uel was not deficient in strength of purpose, nor for that matter in
judgment; he went and in haste; and the clerks flocked to the Prince,
and wrote at his dictation. Before half the breakfasts in the city were
eaten, vacant places at the church doors, the cheeks of all the gates,
and the fronts of houses blazed with handbills, each with a reader
before it proclaiming to listening groups:
"BYZANTINES!
"FATHERS AND MOTHERS OF BYZANTIUM!
"Last evening the daughter of Uel the merchant, a child of sixteen,
small in stature, with dark hair and eyes, and fair to see, was set
upon in the garden of the Bucoleon, and stolen out of her sedan chair.
Neither she, nor the Bulgarians carrying her have been heard of since.
"REWARDS.
"Out of love of the child, whose name was Lael, I will pay him who
returns her to me living or dead
"6,000 BEZANTS IN GOLD.
"And to him who brings me the abductor, or the name of any one engaged
in the crime, with proof to convict him,
"5,000 BEZANTS IN GOLD.
"Inquire of me at Uel's stall in the Market.
"PRINCE OF INDIA."
Thus the Jew began his campaign of discovery, meaning to follow it up
with punishment first, and then vengeance, the latter in conditional
mood.
Let us not stop to ask about motives. This much is certain, the city
arose with one mind. Such a running here and there had never been
known, except possibly the times enemies in force sat down before the
gates. The walls landwardly by the sea and harbor, and the towers of
the walls above and below; old houses whose solitariness and decay were
suspicious; new houses and their cellars; churches from crypt to pulpit
and gallery; barracks and magazines, even the baker's ovens attached to
them; the wharves and vessels tied up and the ships at anchor--all
underwent a search. Hunting parties invaded the woods. Scorpions were
unnested, and bats and owls made unhappy by daylight where daylight had
never been before. Convents and monasteries were not exempt. The sea
was dragged, and the great moat from the Golden Gate to the Cynegion
raked for traces of a new-made grave. Nor less were the cemeteries
overhauled, and tombs and sarcophagi opened, and Saints' Rests dug into
and profaned. In short, but one property in Byzantium was
respected--that of the Emperor. By noon the excitement had crossed to
Galata, and was at high tide in the Isles of the Princes. Such power
was there in the offer of bezants in gold--six thousand for the girl,
five thousand for one of her captors--singly, a fortune to stir the
cupidity of a Duke--together, enough to enlist a King in the work. And
everywhere the two questions--Has she been found? and who is the Prince
of India? Poor Uel had not space to think of his loss or yield to
sorrow; the questions kept him so busy.
It must not be supposed now in this all but universal search, nobody
thought of the public cisterns. They were visited. Frequently through
the day parties followed each other to the Imperial reservoir; but the
keeper was always in his place, cool, wary, and prepared for them. He
kept open door and offered no hindrance to inspection of his house. To
interrogators he gave ready replies:
"I was at home last night from sunset to sunrise. At dark I closed up,
and no one could have come in afterwards without my seeing him.... I
know the chair of the merchant's daughter. It is the finest in the
city. The Bulgarians have carried it past my house, but they never
stopped.... Oh, yes, you are welcome to do with the cistern what you
please. There is the doorway to the court, and in the court is the
descent to the water." Sometimes he would treat the subject
facetiously: "If the girl were here, I should know it, and if I knew
it--ha, ha, ha!--are bezants in gold by the thousand more precious to
you than to me? Do you think I too would not like to be rich?--I who
live doggedly on three noumias, helped now and then by scanty
palm-salves from travellers?"
This treatment was successful. One party did insist on going beyond the
court. They descended the steps about half way, looked at the great
gray pillars in ghostly rows receding off into a blackness of silence
thick with damps and cellar smells, each a reminder of contagion; then
at the motionless opaque water, into which the pillars sank to an
unknown depth: and they shivered, and cried: "Ugh! how cold and ugly!"
and hastened to get out.
Undoubtedly appearances helped save the ancient cistern from
examination; yet there were other influences to the same end. Its
vastness was a deterrent. A thorough survey required organization and
expensive means, such as torches, boats, fishing tongs and drag-nets;
and why scour it at all, if not thoroughly and over every inch? Well,
well--such was the decision--the trouble is great, and the uncertainty
greater. Another class was restrained by a sentiment possibly the
oldest and most general amongst men; that which casts a spell of
sanctity around wells and springs, and stays the hand about to toss an
impurity into a running stream; which impels the North American Indian
to replace the gourd, and the Bedouin to spare the bucket for the next
comer, though an enemy. In other words, the cistern was in daily use.
One can imagine the scene at the Prince's through the day. To bring a
familiar term into service, his house was headquarters.
About eight o'clock the sedan was brought home empty, and without a
sign of defacement inside or out. It told no tale.
Noon, and still no clew.
In the afternoon there was an observable cessation of vigor in the
quest. Thousands broke off, and went about their ordinary business,
giving the reason.
"Which way now?" would be asked them.
"Home."
"What! Has she been found?"
"Not that we know."
"Ah, you have given up."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"We are satisfied the Bulgarians stole the girl. The Turks have her;
and now for a third part of either of the rewards he offers, the Prince
of India, whoever he is, can ransom her. He will have plenty of time.
There is no such thing as haste in a harem."
By lamplighting in the evening, the capital resumed its customary
quiet, and of the turmoil of the day, the rush and eager halloo, the
promiscuous delving into secret places, and upturning of things strange
and suspicious, there remained nothing but a vast regret--vast in the
collective sense--for the rewards lost.
Quiet crept into headquarters. To the Prince's insistence that the hunt
go on, he was advised to prosecute the inquest on the other side of the
Bosphorus. The argument presented him was plausible; either--thus it
ran--the Bulgarians carried the child away with them or she was taken
from them. They were stout men, yet there is no sign of a struggle. If
they were killed, we should find their bodies; if they are alive and
innocent, why are they not here? They would be entitled to the rewards
along with the best of us.
Seeing the drift, the Prince refrained from debate. He only looked more
grim and determined. When the house was cleared, he took the floor
again fiercely restless as before. Later on Uel came in, tired,
spirit-worn, and apparently in the last stage of despondency.
"Well, son of Jahdai, my poor brother," said the Prince, much moved,
and speaking tenderly. "It is night, and what bringest thou?"
"Alas! Nothing, except the people say the Bulgarians did it."
"The Bulgarians! Would it were so; for look thee, in their hands she
would be safe. Their worst of villany would be a ransom wrung from us.
Ah, no! They might have been drawn into the conspiracy; but take her,
they did not. How could they have passed the gates unseen? The night
was against them. And besides, they have not the soul to devise or dare
the deed. This is no common criminal, my brother. When he is found--and
he will be, or hell hath entered into partnership with him--thou wilt
see a Greek of title, bold from breeding and association, behind him an
influence to guarantee him against the law and the Emperor. Of the
classes in Byzantium to-day, who are the kings? Who but the monks? And
here is a morsel of wisdom, true, else my experience is a delusion: In
decaying and half-organized states, the boldest in defying public
opinion are they who have the most to do in making it."
"I do not understand you," Uel interposed.
"Thou art right, my brother. I know not why I am arguing; yet I ought
not to leave thee in the dark now; therefore I will go a step further.
Thou art a Jew--not a Hebrew, or an Israelite, mark thee--but in the
contemptuous Gentile sense, a Jew. She, our gentle Gul-Bahar, hath her
beating of heart from blood thou gavest her. I also am a Jew. Now, of
the classes in Byzantium, which is it by whom hate of Jews is the
article of religion most faithfully practised? Think if it be not the
same from whose shops proceed the right and wrong of the time--the same
I myself scarce three days gone saw insult and mortify the man they
chose Emperor, and not privately, in the depths of a monastery or
chapel, but publicly, his court present.... Ah, now thou seest my
meaning! In plainest speech, my brother, when he who invented this
crime is set down before us, look not for a soldier, or a sailor, or
one of thy occupation--look not for a beggar, or a laborer, or an
Islamite--look rather for a Greek, with a right from relationship near
or remote to summon the whole priestly craft to hold up his hands
against us, Jews that we are. But I am not discouraged. I shall find
her, and the titled outlaw who stole her. Or--but threats now are idle.
They shall have tomorrow to bring her home. I pray pardon for keeping
thee from rest and sleep. Go now. In the morning betimes see thou that
the clerks come back to me here. I will have need of them again,
for"--he mused a moment--"yes, if that I purpose must be, then, the
worst betiding us, they shall not say I was hard and merciless, and cut
their chances scant."
Uel was at the door going, when the Prince called him back.
"Wait--I do not need rest. Thou dost. Is Syama there?"
"Yes."
"Send him to me."
When the slave was come, "Go," the master said, "and bring me the
golden case."
And when it was brought, he took out a pellet, and gave it to Uel.
"There--take it, and thou shalt sleep sound as the dead, and have never
a dream--sound, yet healthfully. To-morrow we must work. To-morrow," he
repeated when Uel was gone--"to-morrow! Till then, eternity."
Let us now shift the scene to the Monastery of the St. James'.
It is eight o'clock in the morning--about the time the empty sedan was
being brought to the Prince's house. Sergius had been hearkening for
the Hegumen's bell, and at the moment we look in upon him, he is with
the venerable superior, helping him to breakfast, if a meal so frugal
deserves the name.
The young Russian, it is to be said, retired to his cell immediately
upon the conclusion of the Festival of Flowers the evening before.
Awaking early, he made personal preparation for the day, and with the
Brotherhood in the chapel, performed the matinal breviary services,
consisting of lauds, psalms, lections and prayers. Then he took seat by
his superior's door. By and by the bell called him in, and
thenceforward he was occupied in the kitchen or at the elder's elbow.
In brief, he knew nothing of the occurrence which had so overwhelmed
the merchant and the Prince of India.
The Hegumen sat on a broad armless chair, very pale and weak--so
poorly, indeed, that the brethren had excused him from chapel duties.
Having filled a flagon with water, Sergius was offering it to him, when
the door opened without knock, or other warning, and Demedes entered.
Moving silently to his father, he stooped, and kissed his hand with an
unction which brought a smile to the sunken face.
"God's benison on you, my boy. I was thinking of the airs of Prinkipo
or Halki, and that they might help me somewhat; but now you are here, I
will put them off. Bring the bench to my right hand, and partake with
me, if but to break a crust."
"The crust has the appearance of leaven in it, and you know the party
to which I belong. I am not an _azymite_."
There was scarcely an attempt to conceal the sneer with which the young
man glanced at the brown loaf gracing the platter on the Hegumen's
knees. Seeing then a look of pain on the paternal countenance, he
continued: "No, I have had breakfast, and came to see how you are, and
to apprise you that the city is being stirred from the foam on top to
the dregs at the bottom, all because of an occurrence last evening, so
incredible, so strange, so audacious, and so wicked it weakens
confidence in society, and almost forces one to look up and wonder if
God does not sometimes sleep."
The Hegumen and his attendant were aroused. Both gazed at Demedes
looking the same question.
"I hesitate to tell you, my dear father, of the affair, it is so
shocking. The chill of the first hearing has not left me. I am excited
body and mind, and you know how faithfully I have tried to school
myself against excitement--it is unbecoming--only the weak suffer it.
Rather than trust myself to the narrative--though as yet there are no
details--I plucked a notice from a wall while coming, and as it was the
first I had of the news, and contains all I know, I brought it along;
and if you care to hear, perhaps our friend Sergius will kindly give
you the contents. His voice is better than mine, and he is perfectly
calm."
"Yes, Sergius will read. Give him the paper."
Thereupon Demedes passed to Sergius one of the handbills with which the
Prince of India had sown the city. After the first line, the monk began
stammering and stumbling; at the close of the first sentence, he
stopped. Then he threw a glance at the Greek, and from the gaze with
which he was met, he drew understanding and self-control. "I ask thy
grace, Father," he said, raising the paper, and looking at the
signature. "I am acquainted with Uel the merchant, and with the child
said to be stolen. I also know the man whose title is here attached. He
calls himself Prince of India, but by what right I cannot say. The
circumstance is a great surprise to me; so, with thy pardon, I will try
the reading again."
Sergius finished the paper, and returned it to Demedes.
The Hegumen folded his hands, and said: "Oh, the flow of mercy cannot
endure forever!"
Then the young men looked at each other.
To be surprised when off guard, is to give our enemy his best
opportunity. This was the advantage the Greek then had. He was
satisfied with the working of his scheme; yet one dread had disturbed
him through the night. What would the Russian do? And when he read the
Prince's proclamation, and saw the rewards offered, in amounts undreamt
of, he shivered; not, as he told the Hegumen, from horror at the crime;
still less from fear that the multitude might blunder on discovery; and
least of all from apprehension of betrayal from his assistants, for,
with exception of the cistern-keeper, they were all in flight, and a
night's journey gone. Be the mass of enemies ever so great, there is
always one to inspire us with liveliest concern. Here it was Sergius.
He had come so recently into the world--descent from a monastery in the
far north was to the metropolitan much like being born again--there was
no telling what he might do. Thus moved and uncertain, the conspirator
resolved to seek his adversary, if such he were, and boldly try him. In
what spirit would he receive the news? That was the thought behind the
gaze Demedes now bent on the unsophisticated pupil of the saintly
Father Hilarion.
Sergius returned the look without an effort to hide the pain he really
felt. His utmost endeavor was to control his feelings. With no idea of
simulation, he wanted time to think. Altogether it would have been
impossible for him to have chosen a course more perplexing to Demedes,
who found himself driven to his next play.
"You know now," he said to his father, "why I decline to break a crust
with you. I must go and help uncover this wicked deed. The rewards are
great"--he smiled blandly--"and I should like to win one of them at
least--the first one, for I have seen the girl called Lael. She
interested me, and I was in danger from her. On one occasion"--he
paused to throw a glance to Sergius--"I even made advances to become
acquainted with her, but she repulsed me. As the Prince of India says,
she was fair to see. I am sure I have your permission to engage in the
hunt."
"Go, and God speed you," the Hegumen responded.
"Thank you; yet another request."
He turned to the Russian.
"Now is Sergius here tall, and, if his gown belie him not, stout, and
there may be need of muscle as well as spirit; for who can tell where
our feet will take us in a game like this, or what or whom we may
confront? I ask you to permit him to go with me."
"Nay," said the Hegumen, "I will urge him to go."
Sergius answered simply:
"Not now. I am under penance, and to-day bound to the third breviary
prayers. When they are finished, I will gladly go."
"I am disappointed," Demedes rejoined. "But I must make haste."
He kissed the Hegumen's hand and retired; after which, the meal
speedily concluded, Sergius gathered the few articles of service on the
platter, and raised it, but stopped to say: "After prayers, with your
consent, reverend Father, I will take part in this affair."
"Thou hast my consent."
"It may take several days."
"Give thyself all the time required. The errand is of mercy."
And the holy man extended his hand, and Sergius saluted it reverently,
and went out.
If the young monastic kept not fast hold of the holy forms prescribed
immemorially for the third hour's service, there is little doubt he was
forgiven in the higher court before which he was supposed present, for
never had he been more nearly shaken out of his better self than by the
Prince's proclamation. He had managed to appear composed while under
Demedes' observation. In the language of the time, some protecting
Saint prompted him to beware of the Greek, and keeping the admonition,
he had come well out of the interview; but hardly did the Hegumen's
door close behind him before Lael's untoward fate struck him with
effect. He hurried to his cell, thinking to recover himself; but it was
as if he were pursued by a voice calling him, and directly the voice
seemed hers, sharp and piercing from terror. A little later he took to
answering the appeal--I hear, but where art thou? His agitation grew
until the bell summoned him to the chapel, and the sound was gladdening
on account of the companionship it promised. Surely the voice would be
lost in the full-toned responses of the brethren. Not so. He heard it
even more clearly. Then, to place himself certainly beyond it, he
begged an ancient worshipper at his side to loan him his triptych. For
once, however, the sorrowful figure of the Christ on the central tablet
was of no avail, hold it close as he might; strange to say, the face of
the graven image assumed her likeness; so he was worse off than before,
for now her suffering look was added to her sorrowful cry.
At last the service was over. Rushing back to his cell he exchanged his
black gown for the coarse gray garment with which he had sallied from
Bielo-Osero. Folding the veil, and putting it carefully away in his
hat, he went forth, a hunter as the multitude were hunters; only, as we
shall presently see, his zeal was more lasting than theirs, and he was
owner of an invaluable secret.
On the street he heard everywhere of the rewards, and everywhere the
question, Has she been found? The population, women and children
included, appeared to have been turned out of their houses. The corners
were possessed by them, and it will be easy for readers who have once
listened to Greeks in hot debate to fancy how on this occasion they
were heard afar. Yet Sergius went his way unobservant of the remarks
drawn by the elephantine ears of his outlandish hood, his tall form,
and impeded step.
Had one stopped him to ask, Where are you going? it is doubtful if he
could have told. He had no plan; he was being pulled along by a pain of
heart rather than a purpose--moving somnolently through a light which
was also a revelation, for now he knew he loved the lost girl--knew it,
not by something past, such as recollections of her sweetness and
beauty, but by a sense of present bereavement, an agonizing impulsion,
a fierce desire to find the robber, a murderous longing the like of
which had never assailed him. The going was nearest an answer he could
make to the voice calling him, equivalent to, I am coming.
He sped through the Hippodrome outwalking everybody; then through the
enclosure of Sancta Sophia; then down the garden terraces--Oh, that the
copse could have told him the chapter it had witnessed!--then up the
broad stairway to the promenade, and along it toward Port St. Julian,
never pausing until he was at the bench in the angle of the wall from
which he had overheard Demedes' story of the Plague of Crime.
Now the bench was not in his mind when he started from the monastery;
neither had he thought of it on the way, or of the dark history it had
helped him to; in a freak, he took the seat he had formerly occupied,
placed his arm along the coping of the parapet, and closed his eyes.
And strange to say, the conversation of that day repeated itself almost
word for word. Stranger still, it had now a significancy not then
observed; and as he listened, he interpreted, and the fever of spirit
left him.
About an hour before noon, he arose from the bench like one refreshed
by sleep, cool, thoughtful, capable. In the interval he had put off
boyishness, and taken on manhood replete with a faculty for worldly
thinking that would have alarmed Father Hilarion. In other words, he
was seeing things as they were; that bad and good, for instance, were
coexistent, one as much a part of the plan of creation as the other;
that religion could only regulate and reform; that the end of days
would find good men striving with bad men--in brief, that Demedes was
performing the role to which his nature and aptitude assigned him, just
as the venerable Hegumen, his father, was feebly essaying a
counterpart. Nor was that all. The new ideas to which he had been
converted facilitated reflection along the lines of wickedness. In the
Plague of Crime, told the second time, he believed he had found what
had befallen Lael. Demedes, he remembered, gave the historic episode to
convince his protesting friend how easy it would be to steal and
dispose of her. The argument pointed to the Imperial cistern as the
hiding-place.
Sergius' first prompting was to enlist the aid of the Prince of India,
and go straight to the deliverance; but he had arisen from the bench a
person very different from a blind lover. Not that his love had
cooled--ah, no! But there were things to be done before exposing his
secret. Thus, his curiosity had never been strong enough to induce him
to look into the cistern. Was it not worth while to assure himself of
the possibility of its conversion to the use suspected? He turned, and
walked back rapidly--down the stairway, up the terraces, and through
the Hippodrome. Suddenly he was struck with the impolicy of presenting
himself to the cistern-keeper in his present costume--it would be such
a help to identification by Demedes. So he continued on to the
monastery, and resumed the black gown and tall hat.
The Hegumen's door, which he had to pass in going out again, served him
with another admonition. If Demedes were exposed through his endeavor,
what of the father? If, in the conflict certain of precipitation, the
latter sided with his son--and what could be more natural?--would not
the Brotherhood follow him? How then could he, Sergius, a foreigner,
young, and without influence, combat a fraternity powerful in the city
and most powerful up at Blacherne?
At this, it must be confessed, the young man's step lost its
elasticity; his head sunk visibly, and the love just found was driven
to divide its dominion with a well-grounded practical apprehension. Yet
he walked on, out of the gate, and thence in the direction of the
cistern.
Arrived there, he surveyed the wooden structure doubtfully. The door
was open, and just inside of it the keeper sat stick in hand drumming
upon the brick pavement, a man of medium height and rather pleasant
demeanor.
"I am a stranger here," Sergius said to him. "The cistern is public, I
believe; may I see it?"
"It is public, and you may look at it all you want. The door there at
the end of the passage will let you into the court. If you have trouble
in finding the stairway down, call me."
Sergius dropped some small coin into the keeper's hand.
The court was paved with yellow Roman brick, and moderately spacious.
An oblong curbing in the centre without rails marked the place of
descent to the water. Overhead there was nothing to interfere with the
fall of light from the blue sky, except that in one corner a shed had
been constructed barely sufficient to protect a sedan chair deposited
there, its poles on end leant against the wall. Sergius noticed the
chair and the poles, then looked down over the curbing into a doorway,
and saw four stone steps leading to a platform three or four feet
square. Observing a further descent, he went down to the landing, where
he paused long enough to be satisfied that the whole stairway was built
into the eastern wall of the cistern. The light was already dim.
Proceeding carefully, for the stones were slippery, he counted fourteen
steps to another landing, the width of the first but quite ten feet
long, and slightly submerged with water. Here, as he could go no
further, he stopped to look about him.
It is true there was not much to be seen, yet he was at once impressed
with a sense of vastness and durability. A dark and waveless sheet lay
stretched before him, merging speedily into general blackness. About
four yards away and as many apart, two gigantic pillars arose out of
the motionless flood stark and ghostly gray. Behind them, suggestive of
rows with an aisle between, other pillars were seen, mere upright
streaks of uncertain hue fainter growing in the shadowy perspective.
Below there was nothing to arrest a glance. Raising his eyes to the
roof above him, out of the semi-obscurity, he presently defined a brick
vault springing boldly from the Corinthian capitals of the nearest
pillars, and he knew straightway the roof was supported by a system of
vaults susceptible of indefinite extension. But how was he, standing on
a platform at the eastern edge of the reservoir, mighty in so many
senses, to determine its shape, width, length? Stooping he looked down
the vista straining his vision, but there was no opposite wall--only
darkness and impenetrability. He filled his lungs trying the air, and
it was damp but sweet. He stamped with force--there was a rumble in the
vault overhead--that was all. He called: "Lael, Lael"--there was no
answer, though he listened, his soul in his ears. Therewith he gave
over trying to sound the great handmade cavern, and lingered awhile
muttering:
"It is possible, it is possible! At the end of this row of pillars"--he
made a last vain effort to discover the end--"there may be a house
afloat, and she"--he clinched his hands, and shook with a return of
murderous passion--"God help her! Nay, God help me! If she is here, as
I believe, I will find her."
In the court he again noticed the sedan in the corner.
"I am obliged to you," he said to the keeper by the door. "How old is
the cistern?"
"Constantine begun it, and Justinian finished it, they say."
"Is it in use now?"
"They let buckets down through traps in the roof."
"Do you know how large it is?" [Footnote: Yere Batan Serai, or the
Underground Palace, the ancient Royal Cistern, or cistern of
Constantine, is in rank, as well as in interest and beauty, the chief
Byzantine cistern. It is on the right-hand side of the tramway street,
west of St. Sophia. The entrance is in the yard of a large Ottoman
house in last street on the right of tramway street before the tramway
turns abruptly west (to right) after passing St. Sophia.
This cistern was built by Constantine the Great, and deepened and
enlarged by Justinian the Great in 527, the first year of his reign. It
has been in constant use ever since. The water is supplied from unknown
and subterranean sources, sometimes rising nearly to the capitals of
the columns. It is still in admirable preservation: all its columns are
in position, and almost the entire roof is intact. The columns are
arranged in twelve rows of twenty-eight, there being in all three
hundred and thirty-six, which are twelve feet distant from each other
or from the wall. Some of the capitals are Corinthian; others plain,
hardly more than truncated pyramids. The roof consists of a succession
of brick vaults.
On left side in yard of the large Ottoman house already mentioned is a
trap-door. One is let down over a rickety ladder about four feet to the
top of four high stone steps, which descend on the left to a platform
about three and one-half feet square which projects without railing
over the water. Thence fourteen steps, also without railing, conduct to
another platform below, about three and one-half feet wide and ten feet
long. Sometimes this lower platform and the nearer steps are covered
with water, though seldom in summer and early fall. These steps are
uneven--in places are broken and almost wanting; and they as well as
both platforms are exceedingly slippery. The place is absolutely dark
save for the feeble rays which glimmer from the lantern of the guide.
One should remember there is no railing or barrier of any sort, and not
advance an inch without seeing where he puts his foot. Then there is no
danger. Moreover, the platform below is less slippery than the steps or
the platform above. Visitors will do well to each bring his own candle
or small lantern, not for illumination but for safety. When the
visitors have arrived on the lower platform, which is near the middle
of the eastern side against the wall, the guide, who has not descended
the steps, lights a basket of shavings or other quick combustible on
the platform above. The effect is instantaneous and magical. Suddenly
from an obscurity so profound that only the outline of the nearest
columns can be faintly discerned by the flicker of a candle, the entire
maze of columns flashes into being resplendent and white. The roof and
the water send the light back to each other. Not a sound is heard save
distant splashes here and there as a bucket descends to supply the
necessities of some house above. Nowhere can be beheld a scene more
weird and enchanting. It will remain printed on the memory when many
another experience of Stamboul is dim or forgotten.
PROFESSOR GROSVENOR. CONSTANTINOPLE.]
The keeper laughed, and pommelled the pavement vigorously: "I was never
through it--haven't the courage--nor do I know anybody who has been.
They say it has a thousand pillars, and that it is supplied by a river.
They tell too how people have gone into it with boats, and never come
out, and that it is alive with ghosts; but of these stories I say
nothing, because I know nothing."
Sergius thereupon departed.