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"The necessity is urgent, as thou will be advised by the reports enclosed for thy perusal and the information of the said Quintus. Arrius gave little heed to the reading. As the ship drew more plainly out of the perspective, she became more and more an attraction to him. The look with which he watched her was that of an enthusiast.
When I was ready to embark, I met with two Armenians, one of whom had been on an embassy to Rome, from Uzun Hassan, and was persuaded by them to prefer disembarking at Tina, about an hundred miles from Trebisond, instead of Phasis, alleging that from Tina it was only four hours journey to a castle named Arrius, which depended upon the king of Persia, and promising to conduct us to that place in safety.
Traffic had almost ceased. Where were the pirates now? To this question, of most interest to Arrius, he received answer. After sacking Hephaestia, on the island of Lemnos, the enemy had coursed across to the Thessalian group, and, by last account, disappeared in the gulfs between Euboea and Hellas. Such were the tidings.
Thereupon he let his grey beard grow long, and followed Arrius step by step in a long mourning gown, still buzzing in his ears this Greek verse: A wise man if that he be wise indeed, May by a wise man have the better speed.
"In what direction?" "From the north." "Canst thou tell her nationality by outward signs?" "No. My service hath been at the oars." "Hath she a flag?" "I cannot see one." Arrius remained quiet some time, apparently in deep reflection. "Does the ship hold this way yet?" he at length asked. "Still this way." "Look for the flag now." "She hath none." "Nor any other sign?"
Had Quintus Arrius been present, what could he have said more than where he found him, and that he believed the pretender to be the son of Hur? But, as will presently appear in full, the brave Roman sailor was dead. Judah had felt the loneliness before; to the core of life the sense struck him now. He stood, hands clasped, face averted, in stupefaction.
His anxiety increased. If relief came not speedily, Arrius would die. Sometimes he seemed already dead, he lay so still. He took the helmet off, and then, with greater difficulty, the cuirass; the heart he found fluttering. He took hope at the sign, and held on. There was nothing to do but wait, and, after the manner of his people, pray.
The paper fell from his hands, and he covered his face. "They are dead dead. I alone am left." The sheik had been a silent, but not unsympathetic, witness of the young man's suffering; now he arose and said, "Son of Arrius, it is for me to beg thy pardon. Read the paper by thyself. When thou art strong enough to give the rest of it to me, send word, and I will return."
"I won five thousand yesterday; from the Roman one six. Give me four, good Arrius four more and I will stand firm for you, though old Thor, my namesake, strike me with his hammer. Make it four, and I will kill the lying patrician, if you say so. I have only to cover his mouth with my hand thus." He illustrated the process by clapping his hand over his own mouth.
As Grotius's religion was a problem to many, Menage wrote an Epigram on this occasion, the sense of which is, that as many different sects claimed his religion, as there were towns which contended for the birth of Homer: Smyrna, Rhodes, Colophon, Salamis, Argos, Athenæ, Siderei certant vatis de patriâ Homeri: Grotiadæ certant de religione Socinus, Arrius, Arminius, Calvinus, Roma, Lutherus.
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