Read Online The Blood of the Martyrs by Naomi Mitchison - Free Book Online Page B

happened since and above all about the last months in the Palace and some of the things he had done or had done to him, and how he had not even minded, and he began to cry and said, ‘But now I am dirty again and full of sins, and I have not been able to keep the Law, and I have forgotten about everything and I did not know that Jesus was the Christ! I want to be purified again and born again, Claudia Acté!’
    She looked at him very pitifully and said, ‘I think that can be done, Manasses, for you were only half baptised. Now, will you look after this girl for me?’
    â€˜Yes,’ he said, ‘I will do anything for you. But what am I to say if Pallas asks?’
    â€˜Pallas will not be here much longer,’ said Acté, and her face hardened. ‘I know that. Lie to him and tell the others they are to lie, or Acté will be very angry. We shall get Pallas out very soon.’
    â€˜But the Empress—’ said Manasses astonished, knowing that Pallas and the Empress Agrippina had acted together in the past, and now knew too much about one another ever to quarrel.
    â€˜That account may be closed too,’ said Acté, ‘but keep your mouth shut. Get the name of this girl’s Madam, and go to her in the morning with this’—and she took a purse out of the fold of her dress and gave it to him— ‘and say that Acté needed the girl.’ Watching him, she added, ‘It is good to know that I can trust you. I will send you word about the breaking of bread.’
    He knelt in front of her as he had done as a child with Eleazer and said, ‘Give me a blessing.’
    She laid her hands on his head and gave it and he forgot that she was a Gentile woman and only felt the blessing and the trust again, and knew that the teaching of Jesus was not in vain.
    That was the beginning of many things, including his friendship with Lalage, the hurt girl. He and Josias cameto the breaking of bread and they learnt how in the love-feast all those eating together could be sure of the temporary experience of the Kingdom and got from it enough faith to go on in a world which seemed utterly against them. But even in Caesar’s household and even under the protection of Claudia Acté, it was necessary to be very secret. Because the Kingdom of Heaven could only come—and this was plain to everybody—after the overthrow of the world of success, of Emperors and Governors, of priesthoods and Senate, of the rich and strong: the world of Rome. And the only thing worth asking for and living for was the coming of the Kingdom.
    After a while they had one of the periodical siftings out of the Palace, and once more Manasses and Josias were sold, this time to a very respectable household, where Manasses was expected to do other things besides dance. Actually, his dancing did not improve at all after he was sixteen. He grew too tall and solid for the boy parts, and fortunately for him nobody had chosen to take effective physical measures to keep him young; it was not done quite so often to Jew boys because they made such a fuss and sometimes killed themselves. After a time he was allowed to cut his long curly hair; it curled still, but close over his head.
    His present master, Flavius Crispus, preferred the old-fashioned comic dancing with masks at his dinner-parties, or even recitations. Manasses used to read aloud to him sometimes, when his secretary was busy, and also helped with the ordinary waiting at table, saw to the wines, and so on. It was a rather stricter household, and for a time he disliked it, but Josias, who worked in the kitchen, liked it more. It was difficult for them to get away for the love-feasts, but by and by they found that they were not the only Christians in the new household, either. There was a little imp of a boy, Phaon, whom Manasses had to teach to dance—he was quite good when he took any trouble. He was a slave, but his mother, Eunice, was a