The Holy Cross and Other Tales | Page 5

if thy soul be distressed, we shall pour upon it the healing balm of
our blessed faith."
"Little knowest thou whereof thou speakest," quoth the old man, sadly.
"There is no balm can avail me. I prithee let me go hence, ere, knowing
what manner of man I am, thou hatest me and doest evil unto me." But
as he said these words he fell back again even then into the seat where
he had sat, and, as through fatigue, his hoary head dropped upon his
bosom.
"Thou art ill!" cried the Father Miguel, hastening to his side. "Thou
shalt go no farther this day! Give me thy staff,"--and he plucked it from
him.
Then said the old man: "As I am now, so have I been these many
hundred years. Thou hast heard tell of me,--canst thou not guess my
name; canst thou not read my sorrow in my face and in my bosom? As
thou art good and holy through thy faith in that symbol in yonder shrine,
hearken to me, for I will tell thee of the wretch whom thou hast
succored. Then, if it be thy will, give me thy curse and send me on my
way."

Much marvelled the Father Miguel at these words, and he deemed the
old man to be mad; but he made no answer. And presently the old man,
bowing his head upon his hands, had to say in this wise:--
"Upon a time," he quoth, "I abided in the city of the Great King,--there
was I born and there I abided. I was of good stature, and I asked favor
of none. I was an artisan, and many came to my shop, and my cunning
was sought of many,--for I was exceeding crafty in my trade; and so,
therefore, speedily my pride begot an insolence that had respect to none
at all. And once I heard a tumult in the street, as of the cries of men and
boys commingled, and the clashing of arms and staves. Seeking to
know the cause thereof, I saw that one was being driven to
execution,--one that had said he was the Son of God and the King of
the Jews, for which blasphemy and crime against our people he was to
die upon the cross. Overcome by the weight of this cross, which he
bore upon his shoulders, the victim tottered in the street and swayed
this way and that, as though each moment he were like to fall, and he
groaned in sore agony. Meanwhile about him pressed a multitude that
with vast clamor railed at him and scoffed him and smote him, to
whom he paid no heed; but in his agony his eyes were alway uplifted to
heaven, and his lips moved in prayer for them that so shamefully
entreated him. And as he went his way to Calvary, it fortuned that he
fell and lay beneath the cross right at my very door, whereupon, turning
his eyes upon me as I stood over against him, he begged me that for a
little moment I should bear up the weight of the cross whilst that he
wiped the sweat from off his brow. But I was filled with hatred, and I
spurned him with my foot, and I said to him: 'Move on, thou wretched
criminal, move on. Pollute not my doorway with thy touch,--move on
to death, I command thee!' This was the answer I gave to him, but no
succor at all. Then he spake to me once again, and he said: 'Thou, too,
shalt move on, O Jew! Thou shalt move on forever, but not to death!'
And with these words he bore up the cross again and went upon his
way to Calvary.
"Then of a sudden," quoth the old man, "a horror filled my breast, and a
resistless terror possessed me. So was I accursed forevermore. A voice
kept saying always to me: 'Move on, O Jew! move on forever!' From

home, from kin, from country, from all I knew and loved I fled;
nowhere could I tarry,--the nameless horror burned in my bosom, and I
heard continually a voice crying unto me: 'Move on, O Jew! move on
forever!' So, with the years, the centuries, the ages, I have fled before
that cry and in that nameless horror; empires have risen and crumbled,
races have been born and are extinct, mountains have been cast up and
time hath levelled them,--still I do live and still I wander hither and
thither upon the face of the earth, and am an accursed thing. The gift of
tongues is mine,--all men I know, yet mankind knows me not. Death
meets me face to face, and passes me by; the sea devours all other prey,
but will not hide me