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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.'

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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,' 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,' until at length the question did come to me— whose 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

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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.

Said he, "As all of you-know-the temple of Jupiter-my temple indeed-hath this day been stricken, and lo! there are other signs and wonders of great dangers to the world. Therefore, today (as now and then our divinity doth) we will ourselves hear all important cases. Thereafter may the best of litigants back to their own mere prefects and projects. Who is this to be charged? Is this some ancient stink to be stirred up, or what? Where is the delator? Read."

Stood forthright Ophidion, the lean and tall and dark, and, wetting his thin lips with the tip of his small, sharp tongue, and looking at Cæsar with bright, metallic eyes, he said most calmly: "Lord God of all that is, even Cæsar, ruler of space and of time and of men's souls, I do bow down and worship thee. For who is like unto thee for glory, O Divine and Incomparable, and who for power and who for everlastingness? And also who am I that I should have the privilege of pleading before thee, Cæsar?"

"Thou hast the privilege we give all our subjects," said his Majesty calmly.

Drew Sarcogenes himself up like an archangel, and declared before the world: "Thou makest me to be proud, for thou hast given unto me Cæsar's countenance and a right to speak."

He paused for a time, as if he were weighing certain matters and were also determining to be very just as concerning them. And having wet again with his little lean tongue his thin lips, he made a general charge against Simon of Cyrene, wherein he impressed his fellow worldsmen mightily with the lack of every value in the Jew. Having done this, he settled to a list of specific charges, to wit:

"1. This Simon of Cyrene bore the cross for Christ, the great enemy, O Cæsar, of thy dominion." Hereat did Cæsar frown mightily.

"2. He worshippeth clouds and thunder.1

"3. He adoreth an ass's head.1

"4. He worshippeth swine, therefore will not eat of a swine's flesh.1

"5. But he eateth the flesh of human beings.

"6. And useth the blood of a boy in his sacrificial rites.

"7. He cooketh and eateth annually a Greek, swearing hostility to Athens, center of learning.1

"8. He is a mere merchant only, caring for nothing but wealth. "9. He is a skeptic, believing in no god.

1 A common charge made by the Romans, in those days, against Jews.

"10. He believeth in one single God only, but that a god of vice. "11. He is a man of three letters.

"12. He hath braken, unpardoned, and only by violence, out of the Mines of the Wretched-thy noble mines, O Cæsar.

"13. He hath been a wanderer upon the earth.

"14. He is a horse-leech, or usurer.

"15. He is a fool.

"16. He is a formalist, and even his co-religionists do hate him for that fact.

"17. He is a thief.

"18. He hath abandoned his own true wife, Berith, and left her to die of shipwreck.

"19. He hath peculiar views on time and space, eternity and matter-which do not compliment thy majesty much or make full allowance to thy holy divinity.

"20. But last and chiefest of the charges as against this man is this he hath condemned our own gods utterly, most of all—thee. Thy pardon, O Cæsar, that I should so much as hint at the existence of this so great a crime. But thou knowest I do verily worship thee. Thy might and thy power and thy radiance are unto me as signs from heaven. Therefore take I this liberty [here he strode toward Simon, his face white and his eyes fixed fiercely on the man] of charging Simon of Cyrene with blasphemy against thy godhead."

He once more paused. The crowd watched Cæsar, Cæsar watched the crowd, each fearful lest it might offend the other. But, truly, there was little need for this, for the souls of the two-the crowd and of Cæsar-were in necessary harmony, each having made the other what it was.

Then, being at the close of his list of charges, Sarcogenes uttered a wonderful speech, whereby he wove a spell about the multitude, so that Cæsar, as he saw that this was so, was moved in turn: moved to laughter and to tears, to anger and also to bitter hate.

And Sarcogenes, he that was likewise Ophidion, wound up crying: "Even as Jesus (whose cross he bore) was tried for blasphemy at Jerusalem, so try I now this Simon of Cyrene for blasphemy in Rome and before all the world-blasphemy as against thee, O divine and everlasting Cæsar. Let the man of sacrilegium be adjudged."

And a great clap of thunder brake out again over the city, and flying clouds for a moment blackened the court of the Basilica. Then drops of rain splashed over faces and stones. Even a passionate, sudden gust of wind sprang up, tossed the leaves of the shrubs which grew in the marble niches of the walls, and flung the hair of Simon

of Cyrene about his shoulders. The statue of Mercury fell from its pedestal, and burst.

"Hast thou said thy say?" asked Cæsar.

"I have said it," declared Ophidion. But then, all at once, for that he was a very wily man, he quickly uprose again, and made a petition, saying: "I crave thy pardon, Lord of All the Universe, but here be certain pages which I did truly forget to read in this the delation which I have brought against the Jew. Suffer me now to read the delation over, that all the matters of charge against this man may be heard by the peoples and by thee."

But Cæsar knew well that his friend had omitted, and could, in fact, omit, nothing of charge as against Simon of Cyrene, but only desired to make the multitude believe that what he had said was but a portion of the whole indictment. Therefore said Cæsar unto him, "No, no! By mine own divinity! I will not treat this Simon of Cyrene with unfairness."

Then stood up Simon of Cyrene before Cæsar and before all the world.

And Simon heard in the Forum the sounds of gentle trade, but, in the street behind the Basilica, a great noise and shouts: "Bear ye your crosses! On! On to the Esquiline! On!" Then the crack of whips and piteous complaining. Till the day of the passing of time Simon of Cyrene never felt again so holden from a thing without.

And it pleased God to afflict His servant with nervous fears, for, in all the fiery trials which the Lord had called upon him hitherto to endure, he had never, as yet, suffered half the like of this. For he saw with preternatural clearness the consequences of this trial. According to the wise in which he should meet these complaints, the end for him would be either liberty and splendor, or ignominy, suffering, death. His tongue, therefore, clave to the roof of his mouth, and he looked out over the multitude.

But even as he looked and beheld, ranged round the walls, the mighty gods both of Egypt and of India, of Britain, of Gaul, and of Greece and of Rome, and even the war gods of Germania Barbara, and also the priests of every religion, and the peoples from every land, and men that he knew-Vulgus and Mobilis, Constans, Inconstans, Candidus, and Defectus, and likewise many another also, it seemed to him that, upon this trial, he was strangely freed from time and space, as if, indeed, he had stood up for his life before, all alone, even over against such an unplaced and dateless tribunal of world dominion, ten thousand times already—as if, too, he had felt this formless fear, the desolate aching at the heart, ten thousand times

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