In politics individuals represent power rather than possess it, as, in the commercial
world, money is the representative of value, without having value itself, only as it
answers this purpose. The power of the despot is that of the vices, the passions,
the injustice of those over whom he rules. It is not the proof of any uncommon
attributes in himself. On the contrary, if it proves any thing, it proves the flexibility
of his moral powers, and consequently his real inferiority. He is the creature
of the vices and circumstances which he represents, and when he ceases to be so, he
is overthrown. The existence of a tyrant proves the necessity for one, since it
would be utterly impossible for any individual to enslave a people who are worthy
of freedom. Sylla never slaughtered in Rome until every senator had become a tyrant.
He could no more have succeeded in the time of Tarquin than could Tarquin
himself. The representative of the popular mind, at that time, derived his powers
from the popular virtues.

Roderick was the creature of his time. He represented the people over whom he
ruled. He embodied their craft, their lust, their faithlessness, their cruelty. He was
properly their sovereign, and he was rightly their scourge. He had his uses; and
we may not regret that in overthrowing a once mighty empire, the Moors overthrew
the dominion of the rankest vice and the most reckless profligacy. It is scarcely
possible that they could raise a worse in its stead. Yet Roderick, like Nero, commenced
his reign virtuously. He commenced as the avenger of his father's wrongs,
and the redresser of those under which his people suffered. But he soon found that,
like Nero, he could not rule the people whom he did not represent. He was compelled
to adopt their vices to maintain his rule; since, to be moral where all were
vicious, were to assert a solitude of distinction which must isolate him from all sympathy,
and leave him defenceless to all foes. With a rapid retrogade, which was
good worldly policy, he soon, like the Roman monster whom we have quoted in
comparison, overtook his subjects, and rapidly passed them in his vices. From excess
to excess he pursued his way, until the very shamelessness of his indulgences
produced that revulsion of feeling in the popular sentiment which would seem to be
the legitimate purpose of the tyrant. Men whose own vices had made them monsters,
now paused in their progress, startled into reflection as they beheld the career
of a monster whose vicious and foul practices far surpassed their own most corrupt

[figure description] Page 069.[end figure description]

imaginings; and the general insecurity under a sway so reckless, at length produced
that individual apprehensiveness which works for virtue, as it prompts the continual
fear of punishment. The minds of the Goths were alienated from their monarch,
not because of his vices, but because their own were outdone. The resources which
he possessed were beyond their rivalry; and as even voluptuousness has its vanity,
they were mortified into hatred of those excesses which they otherwise had been
glad enough to share. They were now as ripe for insurrection as they had been
ready for his rule; and he who had never paused or hesitated in the sacrifice of his
victim, was now destined to become one. But he dreamed not of this. The blindness
which precedes destruction had fallen upon him; and in the vain plenitude of
his power, and in the hardness of his heart, he hurried on, utterly forgetting that he
but indicated the power which he fondly imagined to exist within himself. With a
blindness of judgment, he determined that the trial of Egiza, whom he did not recognise,
should take place in public; and like more modern monarchs, who are but too
prone to convert the offices of justice into pompous ceremonials, he resolved that an
ostentatious display of power should accompany the sentence of the criminal, and
discourage other similar offenders. Had he been a wise tyrant, he would have studiously
avoided such a proceeding. He would have strangled the offender in a prison
which had neither eye nor ear. He would have quelled inquiry as dangerous,
and suppressed those shows, to the popular eye, of power harshly exercised in the
sovereign, which are more apt to occasion sympathy than apprehension in the mind
of the spectator.

“Thou hast heard, my lord Oppas,” said the priest Romano, entering the private
apartments of the archbishop, the morning after the arrest of Egiza; “thou hast heard
that a goodly stroke hath been aimed at the bosom of the defier of God.”

“Ay, my brother; but I have not heard that the defier of God hath been stricken,”
replied Oppas.

“Of a truth, he lives, and the avenger hath been foiled,” said the priest, with a
desponding visage; “but it is something, my father, that the blow should have been
stricken, since it showeth that God lacketh not in agents who seek to do his will.
If there be one to try, there will be two; and the blow that faileth once, or twice,
doth not often fail thrice. There are hands yet which are armed, and hearts which
are willing, my father; and let the word be spoken from on high, and the sign be
shown, and even the poor and humble Romano will be ready for the work of punishment.”

The venerable zealot lifted a dagger from his bosom as he spoke these words, and
lord Oppas beheld in the expression of his eye that Romano needed but the promptings
of a dream by night to enter the palace of king Roderick and do the work of
assassination, if he might, as a good service rendered to the Most High.

“Thou art blessed of Heaven, brother Romano, as thou art so ready to hear and
to obey,” said Oppas, with a respectful deference of manner. “Thou prayest to
know thy labors, and thou seekest to perform them. This is the true servant—and
thou wilt not long wait the call to service. It would seem to await thee even now,
Romano.”

“How?—what mean you, father Oppas? Am I remiss?—am I unmindful? Have
I suffered the words of Heaven to fall upon unheeding ears? Say, tell me, my father,
that I may hasten to bind up the broken places, and amend the errors of forgetfulness.”

“I say not that, my brother,” replied the cunning archbishop; “I would not pretend
to counsel one whom God hath chosen for his own teachings; but I should rather
look to thee for counsel, Romano, and for a direction in the passages which are

[figure description] Page 070.[end figure description]

difficult. Yet is this thought of mine strong within me, that thy labors are at hand.
Knowest thou the name of him who hath sought to slay king Roderick?”

“No, father; I know not.”

“It is the youth who came with thee into Toledo; he to whom thou gavest the
garments.”

“God is great! He worketh by mystery and in darkness. Who shall fathom
his ways?—who shall declare his purposes? Doth it not seem, father Oppas, that
there was a will and a power in this matter that came from above? Wherefore
should this youth have come so timely to my aid when Roderick had stricken me
down among the hills? Wherefore should he have followed me into Toledo, witless
of all things?—for of himself did he say that he he had no call within the city.
Why should I give him a garment for his protection?—and how should it be that in
the secret gardens of the king, despite of all his guards, he should have made his
way, unless the spirit of God had so devised it, and sent him forward to work out
his vengeance?”

“It is the thought of wisdom, and the faithful servant, Romano; yet the youth
hath failed. The tyrant hath escaped the fatal blow, and the minister of vengeance,
whether through his own weakness, or that Heaven would spare its foe for a longer
space that its accumulated judgments may be more heavy, is now the captive of king
Roderick, reserved in his dungeons for a cruel sentence.”

“But will God suffer his servant to perish, father Oppas? I believe it not. He
will, I think, work out the youth's deliverance; and the safety of Roderick now is
but a blind on his eyes, which shall hood him yet for the executioner. The youth
must escape.”

“Thou speakest thy own labors, Romano. Is it not clear to thee, even as I said
erewhile, that thy tasks were at hand? Thou shalt free this youth; it is thy duty—
thy own lips have pronounced it such; and I doubt not that the God who hath decreed
thy work will give thee strength and wisdom to perform it. And further to
confirm this thought, know that the youth hath been carried to the strong dungeon
of Suintila, whose keeper is”—

“Guisenard, the lieutenant!”

“The same—the same!” said Oppas, eagerly.

“Art sure of this, father Oppas?” demanded Romano.

“As that I live, my brother. I have the words of those who beheld him carried
thither last night in secret.”

“Thou hast spoken rightly, then, my father; the hand of God is in this—for, of a
truth, my power is great upon the mind of Guisenard, who comes to my confessional,
and who will heed the words of reason from my lips.”

“Do I not know this, my brother? Is not thy office plain? What though Jehovah
worketh in secret, the fruits of his labors come forth in light. I knew in my
secret soul that He would reveal to thee what it is fitting thou shouldst know; that
He would point thee to thy tasks, and place thy enemy in thy hands. Thou canst
move Guisenard at thy bidding, and he will deliver up the unholy trust of the tyrant,
when thou shalt show to his sense that it is God's messenger whom he would keep
in bondage, waiting for a cruel death. Yet, my brother, though we obey the will of
God, we are not to be heedless of the wants of man. When Guisenard shall free
the prisoner, it will need that he should fly himself, since the wilful tyrant, upon
whose head Jehovah would accumulate sins that his doom should be the heavier,
would punish the soldier whose fidelity to Holy Church would be falsehood to him.
Guisenard must fly when he has released the youth; and thou shalt provide him the
means of flight, and give him direction for a journey to the Asturias, where the

[figure description] Page 071.[end figure description]

young prince Pelayo even now gathers an army. Take this purse—it is filled, and
will speed him on his way. Perchance, too, it will prove an argument to his mind,
persuading him to compliance with thy demand. The ignorant mortal will heed
such argument when better ones perchance would fail. It is our pride and pleasure,
Romano, that we seek the will of God, and perform our labors for his love, regardless
of all other reward,”

Romano took the purse, which was well filled with gold, with the air and manner
of one who scorned what he was yet compelled to conceal with care. He readily
recognized the force of the archbishop's suggestion, though he despised the agent
he was required to use.

While they conferred, a royal messenger summoned the archbishop to the palace,
where, in the hall of audience, it was decreed that the examination of Egiza should
take place. A few words more to Romano, and lord Oppas left him to find his way
from a back and private entrance, while he went forth with his train, through the
great gate of his own residence.