LET US FOLLOW HIM
Let Us Follow Him
BY
HENRYK SIENKIEWICZ
AUTHOR OF
"Quo Vadis," "With Fire and Sword," Etc.
Translated from the Polish
By JEREMIAH CURTIN
BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1897
Copyright, 1897,
By Jeremiah Curtin.
All rights reserved.
Plimpton Press
H. M. PLIMPTON & CO., PRINTERS & BINDERS,
NORWOOD, MASS., U.S.A.
PUBLISHERS' NOTE.
Although the story "Let Us Follow Him" is included in the new volume bySienkiewicz entitled "Hania," just issued in uniform style with Mr.Curtin's translations of the author's other works, its publication in aseparate volume has been deemed advisable for the reason that this storygave to its author the idea of writing "Quo Vadis," which has been theliterary sensation of the past twelve months.
The period of "Let Us Follow Him" is that of the death of Christ. Antea,the wife of a Roman patrician, ill with terrible visions, is advised bya physician[Pg vi] to seek the air of Jerusalem. There she and her husbandmeet Pilate, who tells them of the doctrine of the Nazarene, Jesus, andhis condemnation to death. They are present at the Crucifixion, andAntea gives honor to the condemned Nazarene, saying, "Thou art Truth."
LET US FOLLOW HIM.
CHAPTER I.
Caius Septimius Cinna was a Roman Patrician. He had spent his youth inthe legions and in severe camp-life. Later he returned to Rome to enjoyglory, luxury, and a great though somewhat shattered fortune. He usedand abused at that time everything which the gigantic city could offer.
His nights were spent at feasts in lordly suburban villas; his days insword practice with fencers, in discussions with rhetors at the baths,where[Pg 2] disputes were held, and where the scandal of the city and theworld was related, in circuses, at races, at the struggles ofgladiators, or among Greek musicians, Thracian soothsayers, andwonderful dancing-girls from the islands of the Archipelago. Heinherited from the renowned Lucullus, a relative on the mother's side, alove for exquisite dishes. At his table were served Grecian wines,Neapolitan oysters, Numidian mice, and locust fat preserved in honeyfrom Pontus.
Whatever Rome possessed Cinna must have, beginning with fish of the RedSea, and ending with white ptarmigans from the banks of the Borysthenes(Dnieper). He made use of things not only as a soldier run riot, but asa patrician who passes the measure. He[Pg 3] had instilled into himself, orhad perhaps even roused in himself, a love for the beautiful,—a lovefor statues rescued from the ruins of Corinth, for pitchers from Attica,for Etruscan vases from foggy Sericum, for Roman mosaics, for fabricsbrought from the Euphrates, for Arabian perfumes, and for all thepeculiar trifles which filled the void of patrici