Sextus bent another long wondering gaze at the noble face that was bending over him, and then resigned himself with closed eyes to the gentle hands that laid him carefully down to a smoother and softer resting place. In a few moments he was asleep.
“Well,” said Seti, with a grave smile, “you are a very strange young man. Is this the way you treat enemies in your country? If so it is very unlike any other country that I happen to know. Still, I confess that the way, unprecedented as it is, has a good look to it, and may be worth introducing into Egypt.”
“Say not unprecedented, my dear grandfather,” said Rachel, “for you know Deity treats men better than they deserve; and the Christ, it seems, does the same. How forbearing he is toward his enemies, when he could so easily overwhelm them!”
Aleph was looking dreamily at the banks now fast gliding by (for the pinnace was in full motion again and the dawn was kindling all things into color and beauty), but at the word Christ he turned inquiringly toward Rachel. She understood him.
“Yes,” she said, “we have something new to tell you about the Christ—something new and wonderful that comes from a witness that I can trust—my own mother”—and she proceeded to relate to him the history of the resurrection of Lazarus and the consequent exasperation and plottings of his enemies.
“Having had little else to do, I have been thinking much of Him during the last few days,” returned Aleph, “especially of what the prophets, Isaiah and Daniel, say of his suffering character. ‘He was wounded for our transgression, he was bruised for our iniquities, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquities of us all: he was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation, for he was cut off out of the land of the living.’ And Daniel says, ‘And after three score and two weeks shall the Messiah be cut off, but not for himself.’ So I am expecting the worst and the best—the greatest sacrifice and the greatest salvation the world has ever seen. Jesus is surely a king; but at present his kingdom is not of this world. He will pass to his throne through the gates of death. Then of his kingdom there will be no end.”
He said this as a seer might say it, and with a new light in his face.
Sextus slumbered on, hour after hour, as the vessel glided down the silent river and the sun glided up the silent sky. Their morning meal was spread for them and still he slept. But when they raised their heads, after the priest had thanked Him who giveth to all their food, they saw that his eyes were wide open and fastened on them. Aleph at once went to him, helped him to a sitting posture, propped him with cushions and rugs, and then brought him fruits and other food. He was now able to eat, though but very slowly. Aleph did not leave him till his slow repast was quite finished, and he was again settled into a restful position. During all this he said not a word.
It was not long after the meal and the general religious service that immediately followed that they saw in the distance and coming toward them a large galley evidently crowded with people. As it approached they recognized the young men of the University; and the young men at the same time recognized the commanding form of Aleph, who had risen for a better view of the craft in which Seti seemed so interested. What a shout from young throats suddenly broke into the sky! What a climbing into all high places and lookouts! What a frantic flourish of hands and caps—yea, of spears and swords and bucklers; for it was now plain that something besides a cordial reception of a returning friend was in the thought of the young men when they left Alexandria. They were prepared to fight as well as to celebrate.