Parenzo is a beautiful city, Arseny told the captain.
It is beautiful because Paris founded it, said the captain. So they say.
They are mistaken, said pilgrim Wilhelm.
So then why do Paris and Parenzo sound similar? The captain’s puffy lips sprayed saliva as he pronounced the two proper nouns. Paris, I can report to you, founded the city when the Greeks stole Helen.
The Greeks did not steal Helen, said pilgrim Friedrich. That is just a heathen tall tale.
And maybe Troy is a tall tale, too? the captain asked maliciously.
Troy is a tall tale, too, confirmed pilgrim Friedrich.
The captain raised his hands in a helpless gesture and licked his wet lips. He most definitely had nothing to add.
I am not sure you are right, my dear Friedrich, said Ambrogio. I have a hunch that someone will find Troy one fine day. Perhaps it will even be someone from your part of the world.
Fair winds began blowing toward evening of that same day. They sailed for a full day with that wind but then had to enter the Dalmatian port of Zara because an opposing wind, known to Italians as the sirocco, began blowing. The travelers needed to prepare themselves to remain patient because this wind could blow for several days. One hundred and twenty infantrymen indifferent to coastal cities started playing dice together. All the rest of the travelers went ashore.
They were met on the dock by the Venetian pretor, who inquired if the ship had come from healthy air or not. They assured him the ship had arrived from Venice and not from the East. The pretor was also shown their traveling letters from the Venetian doge, and he permitted all who wished to go into the city and its fortress.
The city of Zara was famous because the relics of a pious elder rested in the Church of Saint Simeon. Arseny and Ambrogio went to bow to Simeon. As they sank to their knees before his incorruptible relics, Arseny said:
Now lettest thou thy servant departe in peace, acordinge to thy promesse, for myne eyes have sene my salvation. You know, O Simeon, I am not expecting any reward comparable to yours. And my salvation consists of salvation for Ustina and the baby. Take them in your arms as you took the Christ Child and bring them to Him. That is the gist of my entreaty and prayer.
Arseny touched Simeon’s relics with the upper part of his forehead so as not to dampen them with tears. But one tear found its way from his lashes anyway and fell on the relics. Fine, let it abide there, thought Arseny. It will remind the elder of me.
The next day, Arseny, Ambrogio and the two Brandenburg pilgrims took a walk around the fortress in the city of Zara. Before returning to the ship, they stopped to eat at a tavern, where people representing the Croatian population of the Venetian Republic were celebrating something or other. These residents of Zara pricked up their ears when they saw guests in traveling clothes. The Turkish threat was no longer just empty noise, so they did not rule out that the strangers could turn out to be enemy infiltrators. Suspicion changed to certainty as their consumption of beverages increased. The final thing that reinforced this certainty was the pilgrims’ German, which was quickly taken for Turkish. The revelers all stood at once, overturning, with a crash, the benches they had been sitting on.
Arseny and Ambrogio, who generally understood Slavic speech, grasped the sense of what was happening before the others. But it became clear, even to the Brandenburg pilgrims, who did not understand Slavic speech, that events were taking a dangerous turn. A tin mug flew at pilgrim Wilhelm, because he was speaking an incomprehensible language.
Arseny took several steps in the direction of the attackers and extended his hand. For a moment, it appeared that this gesture had calmed them. They froze and stared, rapt, at Arseny’s hand. Arseny said to them in Russian:
We are pilgrims who are going to the Holy Land.
His language seemed understandable, albeit strange, to the residents of Zara. The revelers’ own speech was already garbled, too, so they regarded it with a fitting tolerance. Calmer already, they said to Arseny:
Go on, then, cross yourself.
Arseny crossed himself.
The storm resumed in the same breath:
He cannot even cross himself properly! Could we have expected anything else from the Turkish infiltrators?
For a while, Ambrogio attempted to explain that Catholics and Orthodox cross themselves differently and demanded they be taken to the Venetian pretor, but nobody would listen to him any longer. The residents of Zara were discussing how they should handle the captured men. After a brief but heated argument, they came to the conclusion that the infiltrators should be hung. Further, the residents of Zara were not inclined to postpone the matter to a later date, since they were well aware that time is the arch-enemy of decisiveness.
They demanded rope from the tavern keeper. He initially would not give it to them since he feared the offenders would be hung right in his tavern. When he learned the rope was only needed, at this point, for tying (who would hang people in a tavern, anyway?) he gladly gave it to them and even poured a last round, on the house, for the infiltrators’ captors. After tying up the captured men, despite their resistance, they drank quickly since the task before them was onerous and required time. They were already in the doorway when they asked for more rope but—more importantly—for some soap, which they had completely forgotten after the last toast, which they drank to the ruin of all infiltrators.
Our death will be so stupid, Ambrogio said to Arseny in a quiet voice.
But what death is not stupid? asked Arseny. Is it not stupid that coarse iron enters the flesh, violating its perfection? He who is not capable of creating even a fingernail on a little finger is destroying a most complex mechanism, something inaccessible to human comprehension.
It was decided the sentence passed at the tavern would be carried out in the port. There were many suitable beams and hooks there, and the space was open, too, meaning it was accessible for viewing, as an edifying lesson to all prospective infiltrators.
Ambrogio again attempted to get through to the hearts and minds of the residents of Zara. He shouted to them that the pilgrims had traveling papers from the Venetian doge and had offered more than once to cross themselves in the Catholic way, but all was in vain. The hearts and minds of these people were impaired by alcohol.
Arseny was surprised at the mistrust of Zara’s residents. Perhaps (he thought) infiltrators truly had tormented them here. Arseny also did not rule out that these people simply felt like hanging someone.
They finally stuffed a gag in Ambrogio’s mouth. After conferring, they untied all the prisoners’ legs so they could walk, but left their hands tied. Now Ambrogio could neither shout nor cross himself.
He walked alongside Arseny and looked at the pair of Brandenburg pilgrims striding in front of them. Despite the high drama of what was happening, their appearance could not help but evoke smiles. They walked, swaying from side to side, and their tied hands behind their backs gave them a solemn, almost professorial, appearance. They also resembled the pair of penguins that Europe would become acquainted with in another ten or fifteen years. Friedrich and Wilhelm still understood nothing and hoped the misunderstanding would be cleared up very soon. Arseny did not want to dissuade them of this notion, nor did Ambrogio, either, though of course he could not speak anyway.
My love, Arseny said to Ustina in the port, it is very possible that my journey—but not my love for you—will come to an end right here. Stepping back from the sad side of all this, I can be glad that my journey is concluding in such a beautiful place: with a view of the sea, a distant island, and all the grandeur of God’s world. Most important, though, I am glad my last hours are elapsing alongside the devout elder Simeon, whose aspiration, unlike mine, was fulfilled. I am sorry, my love, that I managed to do so little, but I firmly believe that if the All-Merciful takes me now, He will accomplish everything we did not accomplish. Without that belief, there would be no point in existing, either for me or for you.