Ben Hur by Lew Wallace (best romance ebooks TXT) 📕

are supposed to have been buried in some of the many dungeons of Judea, which, once closed upon the doomed, are like sepulchers sealed and locked. They passed from the knowledge of men as utterly as if the sea had swallowed them unseen. We could not hear how they died⁠—nay, not even that they were dead.”

Esther’s eyes were dewy with tears.

“Thy heart is good, Esther, good as thy mother’s was; and I pray it have not the fate of most good hearts⁠—to be trampled upon by the unmerciful and blind. But hearken further. I went up to Jerusalem to give help to my benefactress, and was seized at the gate of the city and carried to the sunken cells of the Tower of Antonia; why, I knew not, until Gratus himself came and demanded of me the moneys of the House of Hur, which he knew, after our Jewish custom of exchange, were subject to my draft in the different marts of the world. He required me to sign to his order. I refused. He had the houses, lands, goods, ships, and movable property of those I served; he had not their moneys. I saw, if I kept favor in the sight of the Lord, I could rebuild their broken fortunes. I refused the tyrant’s demands. He put me to torture; my will held good, and he set me free, nothing gained. I came home and began again, in the name of Simonides of Antioch, instead of the Prince Hur of Jerusalem. Thou knowest, Esther, how I have prospered; that the increase of the millions of the prince in my hands was miraculous; thou knowest how, at the end of three years, while going up to Caesarea, I was taken and a second time tortured by Gratus to compel a confession that my goods and moneys were subject to his order of confiscation; thou knowest he failed as before. Broken in body, I came home and found my Rachel dead of fear and grief for me. The Lord our God reigned, and I lived. From the emperor himself I bought immunity and license to trade throughout the world. Today⁠—praised be He who maketh the clouds his chariot and walketh upon the winds!⁠—today, Esther, that which was in my hands for stewardship is multiplied into talents sufficient to enrich a Caesar.”

He lifted his head proudly; their eyes met; each read the other’s thought. “What shall I with the treasure, Esther?” he asked, without lowering his gaze.

“My father,” she answered, in a low voice, “did not the rightful owner call for it but now?”

Still his look did not fail.

“And thou, my child; shall I leave thee a beggar?”

“Nay, father, am not I, because I am thy child, his bond-servant? And of whom was it written, ‘Strength and honor are her clothing, and she shall rejoice in time to come?’ ”

A gleam of ineffable love lighted his face as he said, “The Lord hath been good to me in many ways; but thou, Esther, art the sovereign excellence of his favor.”

He drew her to his breast and kissed her many times.

“Hear now,” he said, with clearer voice⁠—“hear now why I laughed this morning. The young man faced me the apparition of his father in comely youth. My spirit arose to salute him. I felt my trial-days were over and my labors ended. Hardly could I keep from crying out. I longed to take him by the hand and show the balance I had earned, and say, ‘Lo, ’tis all thine! and I am thy servant, ready now to be called away.’ And so I would have done, Esther, so I would have done, but that moment three thoughts rushed to restrain me. I will be sure he is my master’s son⁠—such was the first thought; if he is my master’s son, I will learn somewhat of his nature. Of those born to riches, bethink you, Esther, how many there are in whose hands riches are but breeding curses”⁠—he paused, while his hands clutched, and his voice shrilled with passion⁠—“Esther, consider the pains I endured at the Roman’s hands; nay, not Gratus’s alone: the merciless wretches who did his bidding the first time and the last were Romans, and they all alike laughed to hear me scream. Consider my broken body, and the years I have gone shorn of my stature; consider thy mother yonder in her lonely tomb, crushed of soul as I of body; consider the sorrows of my master’s family if they are living, and the cruelty of their taking-off if they are dead; consider all, and, with Heaven’s love about thee, tell me, daughter, shall not a hair fall or a red drop run in expiation? Tell me not, as the preachers sometimes do⁠—tell me not that vengeance is the Lord’s. Does he not work his will harmfully as well as in love by agencies? Has he not his men of war more numerous than his prophets? Is not his the law, Eye for eye, hand for hand, foot for foot? Oh, in all these years I have dreamed of vengeance, and prayed and provided for it, and gathered patience from the growing of my store, thinking and promising, as the Lord liveth, it will one day buy me punishment of the wrongdoers? And when, speaking of his practise with arms, the young man said it was for a nameless purpose, I named the purpose even as he spoke⁠—vengeance! and that, Esther, that it was⁠—the third thought which held me still and hard while his pleading lasted, and made me laugh when he was gone.”

Esther caressed the faded hands, and said, as if her spirit with his were running forward to results, “He is gone. Will he come again?”

“Ay, Malluch the faithful goes with him, and will bring him back when I am ready.”

“And when will that be, father?”

“Not long, not long. He thinks all his witnesses dead. There is one living who will not fail to know him, if he