Chapter 26
section twenty six of fabiola by nicholas patrick cardinal wiseman this librivox recording is in the public domain recording by maria terese part second conflict chapter seven dark death a few days after fabiola's return from the country sebastian considered it his duty to wait upon her to communicate so much of the dialogue between corvinus and her black slave as they could without causing unnecessary suffering we have already observed that of the many noble youths that fabiola had met in her father's house none had excited her admiration and respect except sebastian so frank so generous so brave yet so unboasting so mild so kind in act and speech so unselfish and so careful of others blending so completely in one character nobleness and simplicity high wisdom and practical sense he seemed to her the most finished type of manly virtue one which would not easily suffer by time nor weary by familiarity when therefore it was announced to her that the officer sebastian wished to speak to her alone in one of the halls below her heart beat at the unusual tidings and conjured up a thousand strange fancies about the possible topics of his interview
this agitation was not diminished when after apologizing for his seeming intrusion he remarked with a smile that well knowing how sufficiently she was already annoyed by the many candidates for her hand he felt regretted the idea that he was going to add another yet undeclared to her list if this ambiguous preface surprised and perhaps elated her she was soon depressed again upon being told it was the vulgar and stupid corvinus for her father even little as he knew how to discriminate characters out of business had seen enough of him at his late banquet to characterize him to his daughter by those epithets sebastian fearing rather the physical than the moral activity of afra's jugs thought it right to inform her of the compact between the two dabblers in the black art the principal efficacy of which however seemed to consist in drawing money from the purse of a reluctant dupe he of course said nothing of what related to the christians in their dialogue he put her on her guard and she promised to prevent the nightly excursions of her necromancer slave what afra had engaged to do she did not for a moment believe it was ever her intention to attempt neither did she fear arts which she utterly despised indeed alfred's last siloquy seemed satisfactorily to prove that she was only deceiving her victim but she certainly felt indignant at having been bargained about by two such vile characters and having been represented as a grasping avaricious woman whose price was gold
i feel she said to sebastian how very kind it is of you to come thus to put me on my guard and i admire the delicacy with which you have unfolded so disagreeable a matter and the tenderness with which you have treated every one concerned i have only done in this instance replied the soldier what i should have done for any human being save him if possible from pain or danger you are friends i hope you mean said fabiola smiling otherwise i fear your whole life would go in works of unrequited benevolence and so let it go it could not be better spent surely you are not in earnest sebastian if you saw one who had ever hated you and sought your destruction threatened with a calamity which would make him harmless would you stretch out your hand to save or succor him certainly i would while god sends his sunshine and his rain equally upon his enemies as upon his friends shall weak man frame another rule of justice at these words fabiola wondered they were so like those of her mysterious parchment identical with the moral theories of her slave you have been in the east i believe sebastian she asked him rather abruptly was it there that you learnt these principles
for i have one near me who is yet by her own choice a servant a woman of rare moral perceptions who has propounded to me the same ideas and she is asiatic it is not in any distant country that i learnt them for here i sucked them in with my mother's milk though originally they doubtless came from the east they are certainly beautiful in the abstract remarked fabiola but death would overtake us before we could half carry them out were we to make them our principles of conduct and how better could death find us though not surprise us than in thus doing our duty even if not to its completion for my part resembled the lady i am of the old epicurean poet's mind this world is a banquet from which i shall be ready to depart when i have had my fill at conviva sator and not till then i wish to read life's book through and close it calmly only when i have finished its last page sebastian shook his head smiling and said the last page of this world's book comes but in the middle of the volume wherever death may happen to be written but on the next page begins the illuminated book of a new life without a last page
i understand you replied fabiola good-humouredly you are a brave soldier and you speak as such you must be always prepared for death from a thousand casualties we seldom see it approach suddenly it comes more mercifully and stealthily upon the weak you no doubt are musing on a more glorious fate on receiving in front full sheaves of arrows from the enemy and falling covered with honour you look to the soldier's funeral pile with trophies erected over it to you after death opens its bright page the book of glory no no gentle lady exclaimed sebastian emphatically i mean not so i care not for glory which can only be enjoyed by an anticipating fancy i speak of vulgar death as it may come to me in common with the poorest slave consuming me by slow burning fever wasting me by long lingering consumption wracking me by slowly eating ulcers nay if you please by the still crueller inflictions of men's wrath in any form let it come it comes from a hand that i love and do you really mean that death so contemplated would be welcomed by you as joyful as is the epicure when the doors of the banqueting-hall are thrown wide open and he sees beyond them the brilliant lamps the glittering table and its delicious viands
with his attendant ministers well girt and crowned with roses as blithe as in the bride when the bridegroom is announced coming with rich gifts to conduct her to her new home will my exulting heart be when death under whatever form throws back the gates iron on this side but golden on the other which lead to a new and perennial life and i care not how grim the messenger may be that proclaims the approach of him who is celestially beautiful and who is he asked fabiola eagerly can he not be seen save through the fleshless ribs of death no replied sebastian for it is he who must reward us not only for our lives but for our deaths also happy they whose inmost heart while he has ever read have been kept pure and innocent as well as their deeds have been virtuous for them is this bright vision of him whose true rewards only then began how very like cyrus doctrines she thought but before she could speak again to ask whence they came a slave entered stood on the threshold and respectfully said a courier madam is just derived from baeas pardon me sebastian she exclaimed let him enter immediately
the messenger came covered with dust and jaded having left his tired horse at the gate and offered her a sealed packet her hand trembled as she took it and while she was on loosening its fans she hesitatingly asked from my father about him at least was the ominous reply she opened the sheet glanced over it shrieked and fell sebastian caught her before she reached the ground laid her on a couch and delicately left her in the hands of her handmaids who had rushed in at the cry one glance i told her all her father was dead and the section twenty six
