Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/150

128 "My little son, whom with travail I have born by the Gospel of Christ, mark thee well of what sovereign thou hast donned the armour and flinch not at all from fulfilling his commands."

[But Jovasaph embraced the old man, weeping bitterly, and said:

"Who shall complete for me thy teaching, and from whom shall I gain consolation for my heart? For like a good shepherd thou foundest me a sheep gone astray. For I was lost and was found by thee in faith; I was dead and was by thee made alive in Christ. Now then send forth my soul from the prison and from the shadows of death my life."]

But Baralam bade farewell to Jovasaph, and kissed him in holy wise, giving to him the peace of Christ; and then he went his way with tears of joy towards the desert, glorifying Christ.

But Zard saw all this, and in particular the fasting and abstinence and prayers of Jovasaph; and he was filled with sorrow, but could not inform the king thereof. And by reason of his violent sorrow he fell sick. And when the king asked the reason of his sickness, he said:

"Because, O my Lord, thy son has learned of the evil sect of the Christians from a trickster who entered in unto him. But we from dread of thy son could not restrain that sectary."

When the king heard that, a terror seized his heart, and he remembered how he had beforehand heard of Baralam and of his teaching. And straightway he summoned his most trusted Arashis before him, who was also learned in astrology. And he saw the colour gone from his monarch's face, and said:

"Grieve not, O prince. I do thy will and pleasure, and thy son shall deny the crafty teaching of yonder fellow. So command me to go in pursuit of Baralam; and if I take him, I will bring him before thee, and put him in such tortures as that he will declare unto thy son to be false the doctrine which he taught him."

And at once the edict went forth from the king to close and keep all the roads of the land, and to seek out Baralam. But Arashis with his soldiers arrived in the desert and found not Baralam; but took others of the monks, eighteen souls, and having brought them before the king, they laid stress on them to deny Christ, and to reveal where Baralam was. But they neither revealed that nor denied Christ. So they slew them with the sword, eighteen souls. And there was in the city a certain whitehaired magician, Nachovr by name; to whom came Arashis by night, and, having clad him in a hair sack, sent him forth into the wilderness, in order that the soldiers coming at dawn might find him and think that he was Baralam, and take and bring him to the king. For there had been a plot laid between Nachovr and the king and Arashis. of which they alone knew, and no one else.

And on the morrow, the vizier said to some of his soldiers: "We have heard concerning Baralam, that he daily roams about this desert. Thither go and seek him out carefully, in order that ye may perchance find him. Then the soldiers went and scattered themselves over the face of the wilderness in quest of Baralam. And when they saw Nachovr with his white hair, and his hair