_ About dawn of the following day two dark figures were moving
along the Appian Way toward the Campania.
One of them was Nazarius; the other the Apostle Peter, who was
leaving Rome and his martyred co-religionists.
The sky in the east was assuming a light tinge of green, bordered
gradually and more distinctly on the lower edge with saffron color.
Silver-leafed trees, the white marble of villas, and the arches of
aqueducts, stretching through the plain toward the city, were
emerging from shade. The greenness of the sky was clearing
gradually, and becoming permeated with gold. Then the east began
to grow rosy and illuminate the Adban Hills, which seemed
marvellously beautiful, lily-colored, as if formed of rays of light
alone.
The light was reflected in trembling leaves of trees, in the
dew-drops. The haze grew thinner, opening wider and wider views
on the plain, on the houses dotting it, on the cemeteries, on the
towns, and on grorps of trees, among which stood white columns
of temples.
The road was empty. The villagers who took vegtables to the city
had not succeeded yet, evidently, in harnessing beasts to their
vehicles. From the stone blocks with which the road was paved as
far as the mountains, there came a low sound from the bark shoes
on the feet of the two travellers.
Then the sun appeared over the line of hills; but at once a
wonderful vision struck the Apostle's eyes. It seemed to him that
the golden circle, instead of rising in the sky, moved down from
the heights and was advancing on the road. Peter stopped, and
asked, --
"Seest thou that brightness approaching us?"
"I see nothing," replied Nazarius.
But Peter shaded his eyes with his hand, and said after a while,
"Some figure is coming in the gleam of the sun." But not the
slightest sound of steps reached their ears. It was perfectly still all
around. Nazarius saw only that the trees were quivering in the
distance, as if some one were shaking them, and the light was
spreading more broadly over the aeilain. He looked with wonder at
the Apostle.
"Rabbi! what ails thee?" cried he, with alarm.
The pilgrim's staff fell from Peter's hands to the earth; his eyes
were looking forward, motionless; his mouth was open; on his face
were depicted astonishment, delight, rapture.
Then he threw himself on his knees, his arms stretched forward;
and this cry left his lips, --
"O Christ! O Christ!"
He fell with his face to the earth, as if kissing some one's feet.
The silence continued long; then were heard the words of the aged
man, broken by sobs, --
"Quo vadis, Domine?"
Nazarius did not hear the answer; but to Peter's ears came a sad
and sweet voice, which said, --
"If thou desert my people, I am going to Rome to be crucified a
second time."
The Apostle lay on the ground, his face in the dust, without motion
or speech. It seemed to Nazarius that he had fainted or was dead;
but he rose at last, seized the staff with trembling hands, and
turned without a word toward the seven hills of the city.
The boy, seeing this, repeated as an echo, --
"Quo vadis, Domine?"
"To Rome," said the Apostle, in a low voice.
And he returned.
Paul, John, Linus, and all the faithful received him with
amazement; and the alarm was the greater, since at daybreak, just
after his departure, pretorians had surrounded Miriam's house and
searched it for the Apostle. But to every question he answered only
with delight and peace, --
"I have seen the Lord!"
And that same evening he went to the Ostian cemetery to teach
and baptize those who wished to bathe in the water of life.
And thenceforward he went there daily, and after him went
increasing numbers. It seemed that out of every tear of a martyr
new confessors were born, and that every groan on the arena found
an echo in thousands of breasts. Caesar was swimming in blood,
Rome and the whole pagan world was mad. But those who had had
enough of transgression and madness, those who were trampled
upon, those whose lives were misery and oppression, all the
weighed down, all the sad, all the unfortunate, came to hear the
wonderful tidings of God, who out of love for men had given
Himself to be crucified and redeem their sins.
When they found a God whom they could love, they had found that
which the society of the time could not give any one, -- happiness
and love.
And Peter understood that neither Caesar nor all his legions could
overcome the living truth, -- that they could not overwhelm it with
tears or blood, and that now its victory was beginning. He
understood with equal force why the Lord had turned him back on
the road. That city of pride, crime, wickedness, and power was
beginning to be His city, and the double capital, from which would
flow out upon the world government of souls and bodies. _