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The Scapegoat-Part13_Hall Caine(1853-1931)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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newly risen--yet a poor man--the young Mahdi Mohammed of Mequinez."

Then there was a long silence.



Israel did not rest in Mequinez until sunset of that day.

Soon after sunrise he went out at the gate at which he had



so lately entered, and no man showed him honour. The black guard

of the Shereef of Wazzan had gone off before him, chuckling and



grinning in their disgust, and behind him his own little company

of soldiers, guides, muleteers, and tentmen, who, like himself,



had neither slept nor eaten, were dragging along in dudgeon.

The Kaid had turned them out of the town.



Later in the day, while Israel and his people lay sheltering

within their tents on the plain of Sais by the river Nagar,



near the tent-village called a Douar, and the palm-tree by the bridge,

there passed them in the fiercesunshine two men in the peaked shasheeah



of the soldier, riding at a furiousgallop from the direction of Fez,

and shouting to all they came upon to fly from the path they had



to pass over. They were messengers of the Sultan, carrying letters

to the Kaid of Mequinez, commanding him to present himself at the palace



without delay, that he might give good account of his stewardship,

or else deliver up his substance and be cast into prison



for the defalcations with which rumour had charged him.

Such was the errand of the soldiers, according to the country-people,



who toiled along after them on their way home from the markets at Fez;

and great was the glee of Israel's men on hearing it, for they remembered



with bitterness how basely the Kaid had treated them at last

in his false loyalty and hypocrisy. But Israel himself was



too nearly touched by a sense of Fate's coquetry to rejoice

at this new freak of its whim, though the victim of it had so lately



turned him from his door. Miserable was the man who laid up his treasure

in money-bags and built his happiness on the favour of princes!



When the one was taken from him and the other failed him,

where then was the hope of that man's salvation, whether in this world



or the next? The dungeon, the chain, the lash, the wooden jellab--what

else was left to him? Only the wail of the poor whom he has made poorer,



the curse of the orphan whom he has made fatherless, and the execration

of the down-trodden whom he has oppressed. These followed him



into his prison, and mingled their cries with the clank of his irons,

for they were voices which had never yet deserted the man that made them,



but clamoured loud at the last when his end had come,

above the death-rattle in his throat. One dim hour waited



for all men always, whether in the prison or in the palace--one

lonely hour wherein none could bear him company--and what was wealth



and treasure to man's soul beyond it? Was it power on earth?

Was it glory? Was it riches? Oh! glory of the earth--what could it be



but a will-o'-the-wisp pursued in the darkness of the night!

Oh! riches of gold and silver--what had they ever been but marsh-fire



gathered in the dusk! The empire of the world was evil,

and evil was the service of the prince of it!



Then Israel thought of Naomi, his sweet treasure--so far away.

Though all else fell from him like dry sand from graspless fingers,



yet if by God's good mercy the lot of the sin-offering could be lifted

away from his child, he would be content and happy! Naomi! His love!



His darling! His sweet flower afflicted for his transgression.

Oh! let him lose anything, everything, all that the world and



all that the devil had given him; but let the curse be lifted

from his helpless child! For what was gold without gladness,



and what was plenty without peace?

Israel lit upon the Mahdi at last in the country of the verbena



and the musk that lies outside the walls of Fez. The prophet was

a young man of unusualstature, but no great strength of body,



with a head that drooped like a flower and with the wild eyes

of an enthusiast. His people were a vast concourse that covered



the plain a furlong square, and included multitudes of women and children.

Israel had come upon them at an evil moment. The people were



murmuring against their leader. Six months ago they had abandoned

their houses and followed him They had passed from Mequinez to Rabat,



from Rabat to Mazagan, from Mazagan to Mogador, from Mogador

to Marrakesh, and finally from Marrakesh through the treacherous



Beni Magild to Fez. At every step their numbers had increased

but their substance had diminished, for only the destitute had



joined them. Nevertheless, while they had their flocks and herds

they had borne their privations patiently--the weary journeys,



the exposure, the long rains of the spring and the scorching

heat of summer. But the soldiers of the Kaids whose provinces






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