Messer Marco Polo Part 4

The body, when you came to think of it, mattered little. All the beauty in the world could not endure more than its appointed span.

Helen was dust now, and Deirdre nothing. What had become of the beauty of Semiramis, Alexander's darling; and Cleopatra, who loved the great proconsul; and Bathsheba, for whom David of the Psalms fell from grace?

And Balkis, queen of Sheba, with her apes, ivory, and peac.o.c.ks? Dust and ashes, dust and ashes! And Scheherazade was but a strange, sad sound. Beauty increased and waned like the moon. A little shadow around the eyes, a little crinkle in the neck, the backs of the hands stiffening like parchment. Dust and ashes, dust and ashes!

But the little blue shadow would glow like an Easter morning.

Or it would be a poor, lonely, unlit shadow in the cold gloom of the clanging worlds.

Poor Golden Bells! Poor little weeping Golden Bells! If he could only tell her about the Bitter Tree!

And then what happens but his uncle Matthew claps him on the back,

"How would you like to go to China, Marco Markeen," says he, "and preach religion to the benighted people!"

"How did you know, Uncle Matthew?"

"How did I know what?"

"That I wanted to go to China and preach religion to the--the people!"

"Well, if that doesn't beat Banagher," says Matthew Polo, "and Banagher beats the devil! Tell me, did you ever hear an old tune called 'Bundle and Go!'?"

And so the three of them leave upon their journey, but at Layas, where the King of Armenia had his castle, they heard of the election of a new pope, so they came back to Acre to get his instructions and blessing.

CHAPTER VII

The pope said a grand ma.s.s for them, and at the gospel he enters the pulpit, a burly figure of a man with sad eyes.

"The blessing of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost be with you and about you, Amen.

"It is not to you, Nicolo Polo, that I wish to speak, nor to you, Matthew Polo, for neither of you are my amba.s.sadors to the Great Khan.

Merchant and sportsmen, I honor you, and you have my blessing, but you have no hopes of mine. The dirty diversions of the world are between your eyes and glory," said he. "It's only myself, an old and sorrowful man, and this child, a young and hopeful one, can understand; old men having sight of visions, and young men dreaming dreams...

"Now in the matter of converting the Great Khan and his numerous millions, first let wisdom speak. I have little hopes. He wants to be argued into it, you see. Religion is not a matter of argument. It is a wisdom that surpa.s.ses wisdom. It drifts in men's souls as the foggy dew comes unbidden to the trees. It is born before our soul, as the horned moon is born before our eyes.

"And now, my child, you might say, 'What is the use of sending me to China if he knows I cannot bring these millions into the fold? My dear son, there is the wisdom surpa.s.sing wisdom. A great and n.o.ble thought must not die. Things of the spirit we cannot reckon as a husband-man reckons his crops. There is a folk on the marches of Europe, and they are ever going into battle, and they always fall. Their results are nothing. But their name and their glory will endure forever...

"My dear son, G.o.d has put wisdom in my head and beauty into yours.

Wisdom is needed for the governance of this world, but beauty is needed for its existence. In arid deserts there is no life. Birds do not sing in the dark of night. Show me a waste country, and I'll show you a brutal people. No faith can live that is not beautiful...

"The beauty G.o.d has put in your heart, child, you must always keep...

How much I think of it I'll tell you. I'm an old man now, an old and broken man, and in a few years I'll stand before my Master.

"'What have you seen on my earth,' He'll ask me, 'you who followed St.

Peter!'

"'Lord! Lord!' I'll tell Him, 'I've seen mighty things. I've seen the bridegroom leave his bride and the king his kingdom, the huckster leave his booth, and the reaper drop his hook, that they might rescue Your Holy Sepulchre from pagan hands.'

"'And anything else?' He'll ask.

"'And I've seen a young man go out into the desert and over his head was a star...'

"You may think you have failed, child, but remember that in the coming times your name and fame will awaken beauty, and many's the traveler on the hard road will find his courage again, and he thinking of Marco Polo. And many's the young man will dream dreams, and many's the old man will see visions, and they reading the book by the golden candle-light; and many's the young girl will give you love, and you dead for centuries. But for this you must keep your dream.

"Now you'll think it's the queer pope I am to be telling you things like this instead of demanding converts. But the wisdom that surpa.s.ses wisdom comes to you with the Annointing of the Oil. 'I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago,' writes Saint Paul, '(whether in the body I cannot tell, or whether out of the body I cannot tell. G.o.d knoweth.)

"'How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which is not lawful for a man to utter.'

"Now you see there is a wisdom surpa.s.sing wisdom, and it is out of this fount of wisdom I am drawing when I speak to you these words.

"Child, I will not keep you any longer. Only to say this, and this is the chiefest thing: never let your dream be taken from you. Keep it unspotted from the world. In darkness and in tribulation it will go with you as a friend; but in wealth and power hold fast to it, for then is danger. Let not the mists of the world, the gay diversions, the little trifles, draw you from glory.

"Remember!

"Si oblitus fuero tui Jerusalem,--If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,--

"Oblivioni detur dextera mea,--let my right hand forget her cunning--

"Adhaereat lingua mea faucibus meis, si non meminero tui,--if I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth--

"Si non proposuero Jerusalem, in principis laet.i.tiae meae,--If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.

"I shall now send a prayer to Heaven," he said, "to keep you safe in the strange foreign ways, to protect you against wind and tempest, against pestilence and sudden death, against the powers of darkness, and Him who goes up and down the world for the ruin of souls."

And he turned to the high altar again, and now you'd hear his voice loud and powerful, and now low and secret, and the bell struck, and the acolyte intoned the responses, and all of a sudden he turned and spread forth his hands.

"Ite! Let you go now. Missa est."

CHAPTER VIII

And so they set forth with their great train of red, snarling camels and little patient donkeys and slender, nervous horses toward the rising sun. Behind them the green hills of Palestine died out as a rainbow dies out, and now there was sand before them and now bleak mountains, and by day the wind was swift and hot and by night it was black and cold. And moons were born and died...

And they pa.s.sed through the land of the King of Armenia, and they pa.s.sed Ararat, the mountain where Noah brought his ark to anchor, and where it still is, and where it can be seen still, but cannot be reached, so cold and high and terrible is that mountain.

And they pa.s.sed ruined Babel, that was built of Nimrod, the first king of the world, and now is desolation. They pa.s.sed it on a waning moon.

And out of the ruins the dragons came and hissed at them, and strange, obscene birds flapped their wings in the air and cawed and pecked at them, and over the desert the satyr called unto her mate...

And they pa.s.sed through the Kingdom of Georgia, whose kings are born with the mark of an eagle on their right shoulder. They pa.s.sed through Persia, where the magicians wors.h.i.+p fire. And they pa.s.sed through the city of Saba, where sleep the three magi who came to wors.h.i.+p at Bethlehem, and their names were Kaspar, Balthlasar, and Melchior.

And they pa.s.sed through Camadi, where great ruins are and robbers roam through the magical darkness. And they pa.s.sed northward of the Perilous Valley, where the Devil's Head is in black stone, and that is one of the nine entrances to h.e.l.l; and pa.s.sed the Valley of the c.o.c.kadrills, where there are serpents five fathoms in length; and pa.s.sed the Valley of Cruel Women, who have precious stones in place of eyes...

And they went through the Dismal Desert, where no stream sang...

And in the desert they pa.s.sed the Trees of the Sun and Moon, which speak with the voices of men. And it was from the Speaking Tree that Alexander heard of his death. And it was near there that he and Darius fought. And they pa.s.sed the Arbre Sec, the Dry Tree, which has a green bark on one side and white on the other, and there are no trees within a hundred miles of that tree, and it is sprung from the staff of Adam.