Ben-Hur; a tale of the Christ

the horse, and shortly after was at the wicket of his father's house, and in a yet briefer space in the great chamber. He called for Malluch first; that worthy being out, he sent a salu

e courtesy desired to know if he would be pleased to see him, he really addressed the daughter a notice of his arrival. While the servant was answering for the elder, the curtain of the doorway was drawn aside, and the younger Egyptian came in, and walked--

t left the

ven a thought to the fair Egyptian. If she came to his mind at all, it was merely as a

ce the instant Ben-Hur beheld her. He advanced to her eager

ustrous almond eyes; for him the love-stories caught from the professionals abounding in the streets of Alexandria were repeated with emphasis and lavishment of poetry; for him endless exclamations of sympathy, and smiles, and little privileges with hand and hair and cheek and lips, and songs of the Nile, and displays of jewelry, and subtleties of lace in veils and scarfs, and other subtleties no

from the night of the boat-ride on the

on. There are few persons who have not a double nature, the real and the acquired; the latter a kind of addendum resulting from education, which in time often perfects it in

apparently as passionless as a statue, only the small head was a little tilted, the nostrils a lit

he first

ce sharply distinct. "I wish to thank you for hospitality

htly without takin

they refer to their tablets and cast up their accounts; then they libate the gods and put a crown upon the happy winner. We have h

red, lightly, "A man may not bal

tive--"tell me, O prince of Jerusalem, where is he, that son of the carpenter of Naza

tiently, and replied,

head sank forw

oken Rome

r, Ben-Hur raised hi

e? And his palace--he raised the dead; and to such a one, what is it to raise a golden house? He has

er manner pointed with unfriendliness; seeing which, he on his side became more wary, and said, with

thout noticing

nd he wore a turban of silk and a cloak of cloth of gold, and the hilt and scabbard of his sword made me dizzy with their splendor of precious

she imagines herself; she is teaching me that

imself King of the Jews from the steps of the Temple. I beheld the procession descend the mountain bringing him. I heard their singing. They were beautiful with palms in motion. I looked everywhere among them for a figure with a promise of royalty--a horsem

, then laughed heartily, as if the ludicrousness of

ha, ha, ha!--I saw a man with a woman's face and hair, riding an ass's colt,

himself, Ben

d stand before the Gate Beautiful. There were people with me on the porch and in the courts, and on the cloisters and on the steps of the three sides of the Temple there were other people--I will say a million of people, all waiting breathlessly to hear his proclamation. The pillars were not more still t

gan to fall and while it was falling, he unconsciously followed with

ind God. So with the picture given by the Egyptian of the scene when the Nazarene turned from the Gate Beautiful; its central theme was an act utterly beyond performance by a man under control of merely human inspirations. A parable to a parable-loving people, it taught what the Christ had so often asserted--that his mission was not politi

it yours. Only let us make an end of words. That you have a purpose I am sure. To it, I pray, and I will answer you; then

what to do--possibly she might have been measuring his

he responded,

sing out of the doo

wor

ere he was, a

all I know

e said, returning, "what

d at him

, son of Hur, then any o

countrymen?" he a

re all Roman now

ill tell me what mor

ost upon me. It might

ve

the throat, and her voice was exceeding low and soft; only a tappin

-slave, who killed a man in the Pal

was st

has three trained legions from Galilee to seize the Roman governor to-night; the same Jew

r him, she al

these things repeated in ears w

y be imagined upon the face of a man who, thinking to pl

in all the empire. The fishes of the Tiber would have fattening other than that they dig out of its ooze, would they not? And while they were feeding--ha! son of Hur!--what splendor there would b

lties are numb and failing memory does its offices with the greatest fidelity. The scene at the spring on the way to the Jordan

ome is a good hunter of men, there she would follow long and far before she caught me, for in its heart there are wildernesses of spears as well as wildernesses of sand, and it is not unlovely to the unconquered Parthian. In the toils as I am--dupe that I have

ave been sincere--that as it may--the express

nt there is in the practice to such as go searching for secrets? Enough that from this person I gathered a handful of little circumstances, and from that other yet another handful, and that afterwhile I put them together, and was happy as a woman can be who has at

by the play--"it is not enough. To-morrow you

father in a grove out in the Desert. The night was still, very still, and the walls of the tent, soo

the conceit,

its of shell for the

ho

of Hur

o other who

not

It were not well to keep the Lord Sejanus waiting for you

his arm where it had been hanging, and adjusting it upon his head, turned to

," sh

ticeable for its sparkling of jewels; and he knew by her manner that the

think of you, so brave and generous, under the hand of the remorseless minister. You have left a portion of your youth in the atria of the great capital; consider, as I

oured forth volubly and with earnestn

and indistinct; for a doubt remained with him grumbling against the yielding tenden

greatest happiness for a man is the conquest of hims

imation; indeed, she had never

There was a quarrel, and you and he became enemies. He did you wr

ssa

are as nothing to you; not so much as a bud lost upon a tree already in full leaf; but to him-- Ah, he must go about with a broken body; wherever you meet him he

thought, but drop into place without leave or notice. It seemed to him, when at last she paused to have his answer, that he could see Messala himself peering at him over her shoulder; a

t go and write it in my book of great occurrences--a judgment by a Roman again

nature, and ju

ok the han

ould he do for me, there being a reversal of the conditions, tha

n the touch of his han

e began,

cause he is a Roman. If you have more to tell me, daughter of Balthasar, speak quickly, quickly; for by the Lord God of Israel, when this heat of blood, hotter waxing, attains its

nto the full light, with all the evil of

thou hear? The kissings of my little finger which thou hast taken from him, though with my consent, shall be paid for; and that I have followed thee with affection of sympathy, and endured thee so long, enter into the account not less because I

o the door, he put

re restored to me, and that I will go hence to their love, and find in it more than compensation for the impure passions which you leave me to take to him; tell him--this for your comfort, O cunning incarnate, as much as his--tell him that when the Lord Sejanus comes to despoil me he will find nothing; for the inheritance I had from the duumvir, including the villa by Misenum, has been sold, and the money from the sale is out of reach, afloat in the marts of the world as bills of exchange; and that this house and the goods and merchandise and the ships and caravans with which Simonides plies his commerce with such princely profits are covered by imperial safeguards--a wise head having found the price of the favor, and the Lord Sejanus pr

with ceremonious politeness, held b

" he said, as