BOOK THE THIRD
3. Chapter III
(continued)
'So,' said Olinthus, sadly, 'unconscious and mirthful in their delusions,
sail the votaries of luxury into the great ocean of storm and shipwreck! we
pass them, silent and unnoticed, to gain the land.'
Apaecides, lifting his eyes, caught through the aperture in the awning a
glimpse of the face of one of the inmates of that gay bark--it was the face
of Ione. The lovers were embarked on the excursion at which we have been
made present. The priest sighed, and once more sunk back upon his seat.
They reached the shore where, in the suburbs, an alley of small and mean
houses stretched towards the bank; they dismissed the boat, landed, and
Olinthus, preceding the priest, threaded the labyrinth of lanes, and arrived
at last at the closed door of a habitation somewhat larger than its
neighbors. He knocked thrice--the door was opened and closed again, as
Apaecides followed his guide across the threshold.
They passed a deserted atrium, and gained an inner chamber of moderate size,
which, when the door was closed, received its only light from a small window
cut over the door itself. But, halting at the threshold of this chamber,
and knocking at the door, Olinthus said, 'Peace be with you!' A voice from
within returned, 'Peace with whom?' 'The Faithful!' answered Olinthus, and
the door opened; twelve or fourteen persons were sitting in a semicircle,
silent, and seemingly absorbed in thought, and opposite to a crucifix rudely
carved in wood.
They lifted up their eyes when Olinthus entered, without speaking; the
Nazarene himself, before he accosted them, knelt suddenly down, and by his
moving lips, and his eyes fixed steadfastly on the crucifix, Apaecides saw
that he prayed inly. This rite performed, Olinthus turned to the
congregation--'Men and brethren,' said he, 'start not to behold amongst you
a priest of Isis; he hath sojourned with the blind, but the Spirit hath
fallen on him--he desires to see, to hear, and to understand.'
'Let him,' said one of the assembly; and Apaecides beheld in the speaker a
man still younger than himself, of a countenance equally worn and pallid, of
an eye which equally spoke of the restless and fiery operations of a working
mind.
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