initial commit of ebook 15694HEADmain

9 files changed, 58637 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/15694-8.txt b/15694-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cf9d649
--- /dev/null
+++ b/15694-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,17179 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Friend of Caesar, by William Stearns Davis
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Friend of Caesar
+       A Tale of the Fall of the Roman Republic. Time, 50-47 B.C.
+
+Author: William Stearns Davis
+
+Release Date: April 24, 2005 [EBook #15694]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A FRIEND OF CAESAR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Stefan Cramme and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+A Friend of C�sar
+
+A Tale of the Fall of the Roman Republic
+
+Time, 50-47 B.C.
+
+By William Stearns Davis
+
+
+
+
+
+  "Others better may mould the life-breathing brass of the image,
+  And living features, I ween, draw from the marble, and better
+  Argue their cause in the court; may mete out the span of the heavens,
+  Mark out the bounds of the poles, and name all the stars in their turnings.
+  _Thine_ 'tis the peoples to rule with dominion--this, Roman, remember!--
+  These for thee are the arts, to hand down the laws of the treaty,
+  The weak in mercy to spare, to fling from their high seats the haughty."
+
+--VERGIL, _�n._ vi. 847-858.
+
+
+New York
+Grosset & Dunlap Publishers
+1900
+
+
+
+
+To My Father
+
+William Vail Wilson Davis
+
+Who Has Taught Me More
+Than All My Books
+
+
+
+
+Preface
+
+
+If this book serves to show that Classical Life presented many phases
+akin to our own, it will not have been written in vain.
+
+After the book was planned and in part written, it was discovered that
+Archdeacon Farrar had in his story of "Darkness and Dawn" a scene,
+"Onesimus and the Vestal," which corresponds very closely to the scene,
+"Agias and the Vestal," in this book; but the latter incident was too
+characteristically Roman not to risk repetition. If it is asked why such
+a book as this is desirable after those noble fictions, "Darkness and
+Dawn" and "Quo Vadis," the reply must be that these books necessarily
+take and interpret the Christian point of view. And they do well; but
+the Pagan point of view still needs its interpretation, at least as a
+help to an easy apprehension of the life and literature of the great age
+of the Fall of the Roman Republic. This is the aim of "A Friend of
+C�sar." The Age of C�sar prepared the way for the Age of Nero, when
+Christianity could find a world in a state of such culture, unity, and
+social stability that it could win an adequate and abiding triumph.
+
+Great care has been taken to keep to strict historical probability; but
+in one scene, the "Expulsion of the Tribunes," there is such a confusion
+of accounts in the authorities themselves that I have taken some slight
+liberties.
+
+W. S. D.
+
+Harvard University,
+January 16,1900.
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+
+Chapter                                      Page
+
+    I. Pr�neste                                1
+
+   II. The Upper Walks of Society             21
+
+  III. The Privilege of a Vestal              37
+
+   IV. Lucius Ahenobarbus Airs His Grievance  50
+
+    V. A Very Old Problem                     73
+
+   VI. Pompeius Magnus                       102
+
+  VII. Agias's Adventure                     117
+
+ VIII. "When Greek Meets Greek"              146
+
+   IX. How Gabinius Met with a Rebuff        159
+
+    X. Mamercus Guards the Door              172
+
+   XI. The Great Proconsul                   198
+
+  XII. Pratinas Meets Ill-Fortune            217
+
+ XIII. What Befell at Bai�                   241
+
+  XIV. The New Consuls                       262
+
+   XV. The Seventh of January                277
+
+  XVI. The Rubicon                           302
+
+ XVII. The Profitable Career of Gabinius     329
+
+XVIII. How Pompeius Stamped with His Feet    334
+
+  XIX. The Hospitality of Demetrius          364
+
+   XX. Cleopatra                             387
+
+  XXI. How Ulamhala's Words Came True        409
+
+ XXII. The End of the Magnus                 433
+
+XXIII. Bitterness and Joy                    448
+
+ XXIV. Battling for Life                     464
+
+  XXV. Calm after Storm                      496
+
+
+
+
+Chapter I
+
+Pr�neste
+
+
+I
+
+It was the Roman month of September, seven hundred and four years after
+Romulus--so tradition ran--founded the little village by the Tiber which
+was to become "Mother of Nations," "Centre of the World," "Imperial
+Rome." To state the time according to modern standards it was July,
+fifty years before the beginning of the Christian Era. The fierce
+Italian sun was pouring down over the tilled fields and stretches of
+woodland and grazing country that made up the landscape, and the
+atmosphere was almost aglow with the heat. The dust lay thick on the
+pavement of the highway, and rose in dense, stifling clouds, as a mule,
+laden with farm produce and driven by a burly countryman, trudged
+reluctantly along.
+
+Yet, though the scene suggested the heat of midsummer, it was far from
+being unrefreshing, especially to the eyes of one newly come. For this
+spot was near "cool Pr�neste," one of the favourite resorts of Latium to
+the wealthy, invalid, or indolent of Rome, who shunned the excessive
+heat of the capital. And they were wise in their choice; for Pr�neste,
+with its citadel, which rose twelve hundred feet over the adjoining
+country, commanded in its ample sweep both the views and the breezes of
+the whole wide-spreading Campagna. Here, clustering round the hill on
+which stood the far-famed "Temple of Fortune," lay the old Latin town of
+the Pr�nestians; a little farther westward was the settlement founded
+some thirty odd years before by Sulla as a colony. Farther out, and
+stretching off into the open country, lay the farmhouses and villas,
+gardens and orchards, where splendid nuts and roses, and also wine, grew
+in abundant measure.
+
+A little stream ran close to the highway, and here an irrigating
+machine[1] was raising water for the fields. Two men stood on the
+treadmill beside the large-bucketed wheel, and as they continued their
+endless walk the water dashed up into the trough and went splashing down
+the ditches into the thirsty gardens. The workers were tall,
+bronze-skinned Libyans, who were stripped to the waist, showing their
+splendid chests and rippling muscles. Beside the trough had just come
+two women, by their coarse and unpretentious dress evidently slaves,
+bearing large earthen water-pots which they were about to fill. One of
+the women was old, and bore on her face all the marks which a life of
+hard manual toil usually leaves behind it; the other young, with a
+clear, smooth complexion and a rather delicate Greek profile. The
+Libyans stopped their monotonous trudge, evidently glad to have some
+excuse for a respite from their exertions.
+
+  [1] Water columbarium.
+
+"Ah, ha! Chlo�," cried one of them, "how would you like it, with your
+pretty little feet, to be plodding at this mill all the day? Thank the
+Gods, the sun will set before a great while. The day has been hot as
+the lap of an image of Moloch!"[2]
+
+  [2] The Phoenician god, also worshipped in North Africa, in whose idol
+  was built a fire to consume human sacrifices.
+
+"Well, Hasdrubal," said Chlo�, the younger woman, with a pert toss of
+her head, "if my feet were as large as yours, and my skin as black and
+thick, I should not care to complain if I had to work a little now and
+then."
+
+"Oh! of course," retorted Hasdrubal, a little nettled. "Your ladyship
+is too refined, too handsome, to reflect that people with black skins
+as well as white may get heated and weary. Wait five and twenty years,
+till your cheeks are a bit withered, and see if Master Drusus doesn't
+give you enough to make you tired from morning till night."
+
+"You rude fellow," cried Chlo�, pouting with vexation, "I will not
+speak to you again. If Master Drusus were here, I would complain of
+you to him. I have heard that he is not the kind of a master to let a
+poor maid of his be insulted."
+
+"Oh, be still, you hussy!" said the elder woman, who felt that a life
+of labour had spoiled what might have been quite the equal of Chlo�'s
+good looks. "What do you know of Master Drusus? He has been in Athens
+ever since you were bought. I'll make Mamercus, the steward, believe
+you ought to be whipped."
+
+What tart answer Chlo� might have had on the end of her tongue will
+never be known; for at this moment Mago, the other Libyan, glanced up
+the road, and cried:--
+
+"Well, mistress, perhaps you will see our master very soon. He was due
+this afternoon or next day from Puteoli, and what is that great cloud
+of dust I see off there in the distance? Can't you make out carriages
+and horsemen in the midst of it, Hasdrubal?"
+
+Certainly there was a little cavalcade coming up the highway. Now it
+was a mere blotch moving in the sun and dust; then clearer; and then
+out of the cloud of light, flying sand came the clatter of hoofs on
+the pavement, the whir of wheels, and ahead of the rest of the party
+two dark Numidian outriders in bright red mantles appeared, pricking
+along their white African steeds. Chlo� clapped her little hands,
+steadied her water-pot, and sprang up on the staging of the treadmill
+beside Mago.
+
+"It is he!" she cried. "It must be Master Drusus coming back from
+Athens!" She was a bit excited, for an event like the arrival of a new
+master was a great occurrence in the monotonous life of a country
+slave.
+
+The cort�ge was still a good way off.
+
+"What is Master Drusus like?" asked Chlo� "Will he be kind, or will he
+be always whipping like Mamercus?"
+
+"He was not in charge of the estate," replied La�s, the older woman,
+"when he went away to study at Athens[3] a few years ago. But he was
+always kind as a lad. Cappadox, his old body-servant, worshipped him.
+I hope he will take the charge of the farm out of the steward's hands."
+
+  [3] A few years at the philosophy schools of that famous city were
+  almost as common to Roman students and men of culture as "studying
+  in Germany" to their American successors.
+
+"Here he comes!" cried Hasdrubal. "I can see him in the nearest
+carriage." And then all four broke out with their salutation, "_Salve!
+Salve, Domine!_"[4] "Good health to your lordship!"
+
+  [4] Master, "Lord" of slaves and freedmen.
+
+A little way behind the outriders rolled a comfortable, four-wheeled,
+covered carriage,[5] ornamented with handsome embossed plate-work of
+bronze. Two sleek, jet-black steeds were whirling it swiftly onward.
+Behind, a couple of equally speedy grey mules were drawing an open
+wagon loaded with baggage, and containing two smart-looking
+slave-boys. But all four persons at the treadmill had fixed their eyes
+on the other conveyance. Besides a sturdy driver, whose ponderous
+hands seemed too powerful to handle the fine leather reins, there were
+sitting within an elderly, decently dressed man, and at his side
+another much younger. The former personage was Pausanias, the freedman
+and travelling companion[6] of his friend and patron, Quintus Livius
+Drusus, the "Master Drusus" of whom the slaves had been speaking.
+Chlo�'s sharp eyes scanned her strange owner very keenly, and the
+impression he created was not in the least unfavourable. Drusus was
+apparently of about two and twenty. As he was sitting, he appeared a
+trifle short in stature, with a thick frame, solid shoulders, long
+arms, and large hands. His face was distinctively Roman. The features
+were a little irregular, though not to an unpleasant extent. The
+profile was aquiline. His eyes were brown and piercing, turning
+perpetually this way and that, to grasp every detail of the scene
+around. His dark, reddish hair was clipped close, and his chin was
+smooth shaven and decidedly firm--stern, even, the face might have
+been called, except for the relief afforded by a delicately curved
+mouth--not weak, but affable and ingenuous. Drusus wore a dark
+travelling cloak,[7] and from underneath it peeped his tunic, with its
+stripe of narrow purple--the badge of the Roman equestrian order.[8]
+On his finger was another emblem of nobility--a large, plain, gold
+ring, conspicuous among several other rings with costly settings.
+
+  [5] _Rheda_.
+
+  [6] Most wealthy Romans had such a _major domo_, whose position was
+  often one of honour and trust.
+
+  [7] _P�nula_.
+
+  [8] The second order of the Roman nobility.
+
+"_Salve! Salve, Domine!_" cried the slaves a second time, as the
+carriage drew near. The young master pushed back the blue woollen
+curtains in order to gain a better view, then motioned to the driver
+to stop.
+
+"Are you slaves of mine?" was his question. The tone was interested
+and kindly, and Mago saluted profoundly, and replied:--
+
+"We are the slaves of the most noble Quintus Livius Drusus, who owns
+this estate."
+
+"I am he," replied the young man, smiling. "The day is hot. It grows
+late. You have toiled enough. Go you all and rest. Here, Pausanias,
+give them each a philippus,[9] with which to remember my home-coming!"
+
+  [9] A Greek gold piece worth about $3.60 at the time of the story.
+  At this time Rome coined little gold.
+
+"_Eu! Eu! Io!_[10] _Domine!_" cried the slaves, giving vent to their
+delight. And Chlo� whispered to La�s: "You were right. The new master
+will be kind. There will not be so many whippings."
+
+  [10] Good! Good! Hurrah!
+
+But while Pausanias was fumbling in the money-bags, a new instance of
+the generosity of Drusus was presented. Down a by-path in the field
+filed a sorrowful company; a long row of slaves in fetters, bound
+together by a band and chain round the waist of each. They were a
+disreputable enough gang of unkempt, unshaven, half-clothed wretches:
+Gauls and Germans with fair hair and giant physiques; dark-haired
+Syrians; black-skinned Africans,--all panting and groaning, clanking
+their chains, and cursing softly at the two sullen overseers, who,
+with heavy-loaded whips, were literally driving them down into the
+road.
+
+Again Drusus spoke.
+
+"Whose slaves are these? Mine?"
+
+"They are your lordship's," said the foremost overseer, who had just
+recognized his newly come employer.
+
+"Why are they in chains?" asked Drusus.
+
+"Mamercus found them refractory," replied the guard, "and ordered them
+to be kept in the underground prison,[11] and to work in the chain
+gang."
+
+  [11] _Ergastulum_.
+
+The young man made a motion of disgust.
+
+"Bah!" he remarked, "the whole _familia_[12] will be in fetters if
+Mamercus has his way much longer. Knock off those chains. Tell the
+wretches they are to remain unshackled only so long as they behave.
+Give them three skins to-night from which to drink their master's
+health. Drive on, Cappadox!"
+
+  [12] Slave household.
+
+And before the fettered slaves could comprehend their release from
+confinement, and break out into a chorus of barbarous and uncouth
+thanksgivings and blessings, the carriage had vanished from sight down
+the turn of the road.
+
+
+II
+
+Who was Quintus Livius Drusus? Doubtless he would have felt highly
+insulted if his family history had not been fairly well known to every
+respectable person around Pr�neste and to a very large and select
+circle at Rome. When a man could take Livius[13] for his gentile name,
+and Drusus for his cognomen, he had a right to hold his head high, and
+regard himself as one of the noblest and best of the imperial city.
+But of course the Drusian house had a number of branches, and the
+history of Quintus's direct family was this. He was the grandson of
+that Marcus Livius Drusus[14] who, though an aristocrat of the
+aristocrats, had dared to believe that the oligarchs were too strong,
+the Roman Commons without character, and that the Italian freemen were
+suffering from wrongs inflicted by both of the parties at the capital.
+For his efforts to right the abuses, he had met with a reward very
+common to statesmen of his day, a dagger-thrust from the hand of an
+undiscovered assassin. He had left a son, Sextus, a man of culture and
+talent, who remembered his father's fate, and walked for a time warily
+in politics. Sextus had married twice. Once to a very noble lady of
+the Fabian gens, the mother of his son Quintus. Then some years after
+her death he took in marriage a reigning beauty, a certain Valeria,
+who soon developed such extravagance and frivolity, that, soon after
+she bore him a daughter, he was forced "to send her a messenger"; in
+other words, to divorce her. The daughter had been put under the
+guardianship of Sextus's sister-in-law Fabia, one of the Vestal
+virgins at Rome. Sextus himself had accepted an appointment to a
+tribuneship in a legion of C�sar in Gaul. When he departed for the
+wars he took with him as fellow officer a life-long friend, Caius
+Cornelius Lentulus; and ere leaving for the campaign the two had
+formed a compact quite in keeping with the stern Roman spirit that
+made the child the slave of the father: Young Quintus Drusus should
+marry Cornelia, Lentulus's only child, as soon as the two came to a
+proper age. And so the friends went away to win glory in Gaul; to
+perish side by side, when Sabinus's ill-fated legion was cut off by
+the Eburones.[15]
+
+  [13] Every Roman had a _pr�nomen_, or "Christian name"; also a gentile
+  name of the gens or clan to which he belonged; and commonly in addition
+  a cognomen, usually an epithet descriptive of some personal peculiarity
+  of an ancestor, which had fastened itself upon the immediate descendants
+  of that ancestor. The _Livii Drusi_ were among the noblest of the Roman
+  houses.
+
+  [14] Died in 91 B.C.
+
+  [15] In 54 B.C.
+
+The son and the daughter remained. Quintus Drusus had had kindly
+guardians; he had been sent for four years to the "University" at
+Athens; had studied rhetoric and philosophy; and now he was back with
+his career before him,--master of himself, of a goodly fortune, of a
+noble inheritance of high-born ancestry. And he was to marry Cornelia.
+No thought of thwarting his father's mandate crossed his mind; he was
+bound by the decree of the dead. He had not seen his betrothed for
+four years. He remembered her as a bright-eyed, merry little girl, who
+had an arch way of making all to mind her. But he remembered too, that
+her mother was a vapid lady of fashion, that her uncle and guardian
+was Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Crus, Consul-elect,[16] a man of little
+refinement or character. And four years were long enough to mar a
+young girl's life. What would she be like? What had time made of her?
+The curiosity--we will not call it passion--was overpowering. Pure
+"love" was seldom recognized as such by the age. When the carriage
+reached a spot where two roads forked, leading to adjacent estates,
+Drusus alighted.
+
+  [16] The two Roman consuls were magistrates of the highest rank, and
+  were chosen each year by the people.
+
+"Is her ladyship Cornelia at the villa of the Lentuli?" was his demand
+of a gardener who was trimming a hedge along the way.
+
+"Ah! Master Drusus," cried the fellow, dropping his sickle in delight.
+"Joy to see you! Yes, she is in the grove by the villa; by the great
+cypress you know so well. But how you have changed, sir--"
+
+But Drusus was off. The path was familiar. Through the trees he caught
+glimpses of the stately mazes of colonnades of the Lentulan villa,
+surrounded by its artificially arranged gardens, and its wide
+stretches of lawn and orchard. The grove had been his playground. Here
+was the oak under which Cornelia and he had gathered acorns. The
+remnants of the little brush house they had built still survived. His
+step quickened. He heard the rush of the little stream that wound
+through the grove. Then he saw ahead of him a fern thicket, and the
+brook flashing its water beyond. In his recollection a bridge had here
+crossed the streamlet. It had been removed. Just across, swayed the
+huge cypress. Drusus stepped forward. At last! He pushed carefully
+through the thicket, making only a little noise, and glanced across
+the brook.
+
+There were ferns all around the cypress. Ivies twined about its trunk.
+On the bank the green turf looked dry, but cool. Just under the tree
+the brook broke into a miniature cascade, and went rippling down in a
+score of pygmy, sparkling waterfalls. On a tiny promontory a marble
+nymph, a fine bit of Greek sculpture, was pouring, without respite,
+from a water-urn into the gurgling flood. But Drusus did not gaze at
+the nymph. Close beside the image, half lying, half sitting, in an
+abandon only to be produced by a belief that she was quite alone,
+rested a young woman. It was Cornelia.
+
+Drusus had made no disturbance, and the object on which he fastened
+his eyes had not been in the least stirred out of a rather deep
+reverie. He stood for a while half bashful, half contemplative.
+Cornelia had taken off her shoes and let her little white feet trail
+down into the water. She wore only her white tunic, and had pushed it
+back so that her arms were almost bare. At the moment she was resting
+lazily on one elbow, and gazing abstractedly up at the moving ocean of
+green overhead. She was only sixteen; but in the warm Italian clime
+that age had brought her to maturity. No one would have said that she
+was beautiful, from the point of view of mere softly sensuous Greek
+beauty. Rather, she was handsome, as became the daughter of Cornelii
+and Claudii. She was tall; her hair, which was bound in a plain knot
+on the back of her head, was dark--almost black; her eyes were large,
+grey, lustrous, and on occasion could be proud and angry. Yet with it
+all she was pretty--pretty, said Drusus to himself, as any girl he had
+seen in Athens. For there were coy dimples in her delicate little
+chin, her finely chiselled features were not angular, while her cheeks
+were aglow with a healthy colour that needed no rouge to heighten. In
+short, Cornelia, like Drusus, was a Roman; and Drusus saw that she was
+a Roman, and was glad.
+
+Presently something broke the reverie. Cornelia's eyes dropped from
+the treetops, and lighted up with attention. One glance across the
+brook into the fern thicket; then one irrepressible feminine scream;
+and then:--
+
+"Cornelia!" "Quintus!"
+
+Drusus sprang forward, but almost fell into the brooklet. The bridge
+was gone. Cornelia had started up, and tried to cover her arms and
+shake her tunic over her feet. Her cheeks were all smiles and blushes.
+But Drusus's situation was both pathetic and ludicrous. He had his
+fianc�e almost in his arms, and yet the stream stopped him. Instantly
+Cornelia was in laughter.
+
+"Oh! My second Leander," she cried, "will you be brave, and swim again
+from Abydos to Sestos to meet your Hero?"
+
+"Better!" replied Drusus, now nettled; "see!" And though the leap was
+a long one he cleared it, and landed close by the marble nymph.
+
+Drusus had not exactly mapped out for himself the method of
+approaching the young woman who had been his child playmate. Cornelia,
+however, solved all his perplexity. Changing suddenly from laughter
+into what were almost tears, she flung her arms around his neck, and
+kissed him again and again.
+
+"Oh, Quintus! Quintus!" she cried, nearly sobbing, "_I am_ so glad you
+have come!"
+
+"And I am glad," said the young man, perhaps with a tremor in his
+voice.
+
+"I never knew how I wanted you, until you are here," she continued; "I
+didn't look for you to-day. I supposed you would come from Puteoli
+to-morrow. Oh! Quintus, you must be very kind to me. Perhaps I am very
+stupid. But I am tired, tired."
+
+Drusus looked at her in a bit of astonishment.
+
+"Tired! I can't see that you look fatigued."
+
+"Not in body," went on Cornelia, still holding on to him. "But here,
+sit down on the grass. Let me hold your hands. You do not mind. I want
+to talk with you. No, don't interrupt. I must tell you. I have been
+here in Pr�neste only a week. I wanted to get away from Bai�.[17] I
+was afraid to stay there with my mother."
+
+  [17] The famous watering-place on the Bay of Naples.
+
+"Afraid to stay at that lovely seashore house with your mother!"
+exclaimed Drusus, by no means unwilling to sit as entreated, but
+rather bewildered in mind.
+
+"I was afraid of Lucius Ahenobarbus, the consular[18] Domitius's
+second son. _I don't like him! there!_" and Cornelia's grey eyes lit
+up with menacing fire.
+
+  [18] An ex-consul was known by this title.
+
+"Afraid of Lucius Ahenobarbus!" laughed Drusus. "Well, I don't think I
+call him a very dear friend. But why should he trouble you?"
+
+"It was ever since last spring, when I was in the new theatre[19]
+seeing the play, that he came around, thrust himself upon me, and
+tried to pay attentions. Then he has kept them up ever since; he
+followed us to Bai�; and the worst of it is, my mother and uncle
+rather favour him. So I had Stephanus, my friend the physician, say
+that sea air was not good for me, and I was sent here. My mother and
+uncle will come in a few days, but not that fellow Lucius, I hope. I
+was so tired trying to keep him off."
+
+  [19] Built by Pompeius the Great, in 55-54 B.C.
+
+"I will take care of the knave," said Drusus, smiling. "So this is the
+trouble? I wonder that your mother should have anything to do with
+such a fellow. I hear in letters that he goes with a disreputable
+gang. He is a boon companion with Marcus L�ca, the old Catilinian,[20]
+who is a smooth-headed villain, and to use a phrase of my father's
+good friend Cicero--'has his head and eyebrows always shaved, that he
+may not be said to have one hair of an honest man about him.' But he
+will have to reckon with me now. Now it is my turn to talk. Your long
+story has been very short. Nor is mine long. My old uncle Publius
+Vibulanus is dead. I never knew him well enough to be able to mourn
+him bitterly. Enough, he died at ninety; and just as I arrive at
+Puteoli comes a message that I am his sole heir. His freedmen knew I
+was coming, embalmed the body, and wait for me to go to Rome to-morrow
+to give the funeral oration and light the pyre. He has left a fortune
+fit to compare with that of Crassus[21]--real estate, investments, a
+lovely villa at Tusculum. And now I--no, _we_--are wealthy beyond
+avarice. Shall we not thank the Gods?"
+
+  [20] A member of the band who with Catiline conspired in 63 B.C. to
+  overthrow the Roman government.
+
+  [21] The Roman millionaire who had just been slain in Parthia.
+
+"I thank them for nothing," was her answer; then more shyly, "except
+for your own coming; for, Quintus, you--you--will marry me before very
+long?"
+
+"What hinders?" cried the other, in the best of spirits. "To-morrow I
+go to Rome; then back again! And then all Pr�neste will flock to our
+marriage train. No, pout no more over Lucius Ahenobarbus. He shan't
+pay disagreeable attentions. And now over to the old villa; for
+Mamercus is eating his heart out to see me!"
+
+And away they went arm in arm.
+
+Drusus's head was in the air. He had resolved to marry Cornelia, cost
+what it might to his desires. He knew now that he was affianced to the
+one maiden in the world quite after his own heart.
+
+
+III
+
+The paternal villa of Drusus lay on the lower part of the slope of the
+Pr�neste citadel, facing the east. It was a genuine country and
+farming estate--not a mere refuge from the city heat and hubbub. The
+Drusi had dwelt on it for generations, and Quintus had spent his
+boyhood upon it. The whole mass of farm land was in the very pink of
+cultivation. There were lines of stately old elms enclosing the
+estate; and within, in regular sequence, lay vineyards producing the
+rather poor Pr�neste wine, olive orchards, groves of walnut trees, and
+many other fruits. Returning to the point where he had left the
+carriage, Drusus led Cornelia up a broad avenue flanked by noble
+planes and cypresses. Before them soon stood, or rather stretched, the
+country house. It was a large grey stone building, added to, from time
+to time, by successive owners. Only in front did it show signs of
+modern taste and elegance. Here ran a colonnade of twelve red porphyry
+pillars, with Corinthian capitals. The part of the house reserved for
+the master lay behind this entrance way. Back of it rambled the
+structure used by the farm steward, and the slaves and cattle. The
+whole house was low--in fact practically one-storied; and the effect
+produced was perhaps substantial, but hardly imposing.
+
+Up the broad avenue went the two young people; too busy with their own
+gay chatter to notice at a distance how figures were running in and
+out amid the colonnade, and how the pillars were festooned with
+flowers. But as they drew nearer a throng was evident. The whole farm
+establishment--men, women, and children--had assembled, garlanded and
+gayly dressed, to greet the young master. Perhaps five hundred
+persons--nearly all slaves--had been employed on the huge estate, and
+they were all at hand. As Drusus came up the avenue, a general shout
+of welcome greeted him.
+
+"_Ave! Ave! Domine!_" and there were some shouts as Cornelia was seen
+of, "_Ave! Domina!_"
+
+"_Domina_[22] here very soon," said Drusus, smiling to the young lady;
+and disengaging himself from her, he advanced to greet personally a
+tall, ponderous figure, with white, flowing hair, a huge white beard,
+and a left arm that had been severed at the wrist, who came forward
+with a swinging military stride that seemed to belie his evident years.
+
+  [22] _Domina_, mistress.
+
+"All hail, dearest Mamercus!" exclaimed the young man, running up to
+the burly object. "Here is the little boy you used to scold, fondle,
+and tell stories to, back safe and sound to hear the old tales and to
+listen to some more admonitions."
+
+The veteran made a hurried motion with his remaining hand, as if to
+brush something away from his eyes, and his deep voice seemed a trifle
+husky when he replied, speaking slowly:--
+
+"_Mehercle!_[23] All the Gods be praised! The noble Sextus living
+again in the form of his son! Ah! This makes my old heart glad;" and
+he held out his hand to Drusus. But the young man dashed it away, and
+flinging his arms around Mamercus's neck, kissed him on both cheeks.
+Then when this warm greeting was over, Drusus had to salute Titus
+Mamercus, a solid, stocky, honest-faced country lad of eighteen, the
+son of the veteran; and after Titus--since the Mamerci and Drusi were
+remotely related and the _jus oscului_[24]--less legally, the "right
+of kissing"--existed between them, he felt called upon to press the
+cheek of �milia, Mamercus's pretty daughter, of about her brother's
+age. Cornelia seemed a little discomposed at this, and perhaps so gave
+her lover a trifling delight. But next he had to shake all the
+freedmen by the hand, also the older and better known slaves; and to
+say something in reply to their congratulations. The mass of the
+slaves he could not know personally; but to the assembled company he
+spoke a few words, with that quiet dignity which belongs to those who
+are the heirs of generations of lordly ancestors.
+
+  [23] By Hercules.
+
+  [24] The right of kissing kinsfolk within the sixth degree.
+
+"This day I assume control of my estate. All past offences are
+forgiven. I remit any punishments, however justly imposed. To those
+who are my faithful servants and clients I will prove a kind and
+reasonable master. Let none in the future be mischievous or idle; for
+them I cannot spare. But since the season is hot, in honour of my
+home-coming, for the next ten days I order that no work, beyond that
+barely needed, be done in the fields. Let the familia enjoy rest, and
+let them receive as much wine as they may take without being unduly
+drunken. Geta, Antiochus, and Kebes, who have been in this house many
+years, shall go with me before the pr�tor, to be set free."
+
+And then, while the slaves still shouted their _aves_ and _salves_,
+Mamercus led Drusus and Cornelia through the old villa, through the
+atrium where the fountain tinkled, and the smoky, waxen death-masks of
+Quintus's noble ancestors grinned from the presses on the wall;
+through the handsomely furnished rooms for the master of the house;
+out to the barns and storehouses, that stretched away in the rear of
+the great farm building. Much pride had the veteran when he showed the
+sleek cattle, the cackling poultry-yard, and the tall stacks of hay;
+only he growled bitterly over what he termed the ill-timed leniency of
+his young patron in releasing the slaves in the chain-gang.
+
+"Oh, such times!" he muttered in his beard; "here's this young upstart
+coming home, and teaches me that such dogs as I put in fetters are
+better set at large! There'll be a slave revolt next, and some night
+all our throats will be cut. But it's none of my doing."
+
+"Well," said Drusus, smiling, "I've been interested at Athens in
+learning from philosophy that one owes some kindness even to a slave.
+But it's always your way, Mamercus, to tell how much better the old
+times were than the new."
+
+"And I am right," growled the other. "Hasn't a man who fought with
+Marius, and helped to beat those northern giants, the Cimbri and
+Teutones, a right to his opinion? The times are evil--evil! No justice
+in the courts. No patriotism in the Senate. Rascality in every consul
+and pr�tor. And the 'Roman People' orators declaim about are only a
+mob! _Vah!_ We need an end to this game of fauns and satyrs!"
+
+"Come," said Drusus, "we are not at such a direful strait yet. There
+is one man at least whom I am convinced is not altogether a knave; and
+I have determined to throw in my lot with him. Do you guess,
+Mamercus?"
+
+"C�sar?"
+
+Drusus nodded. Mamercus broke out into a shout of approval.
+
+"_Euge!_ Unless my son Decimus, who is centurion with him, writes me
+false, _he_ is a man!"
+
+But Cornelia was distressed of face.
+
+"Quintus," she said very gravely, "do you know that I have often heard
+that C�sar is a wicked libertine, who wishes to make himself tyrant?
+What have you done?"
+
+"Nothing rashly," said Drusus, also quite grave; "but I have counted
+the matter on both sides--the side of Pompeius and the Senate, and the
+side of C�sar--and I have written to Balbus, C�sar's manager at Rome,
+that I shall use my tiny influence for the proconsul of the Gauls."
+
+Cornelia seemed greatly affected; she clasped and unclasped her hands,
+pressed them to her brows; then when she let them fall, she was again
+smiling.
+
+"Quintus," she said, putting her arm around him, "Quintus, I am only a
+silly little girl. I do not know anything about politics. You are
+wiser than I, and I can trust you. But please don't quarrel with my
+uncle Lentulus about your decision. He would be terribly angry."
+
+Quintus smiled in turn, and kissing her, said: "Can you trust me? I
+hope so. And be assured I will do all I may, not to quarrel with your
+uncle. And now away with all this silly serious talk! What a pity for
+Mamercus to have been so gloomy as to introduce it! What a pity I must
+go to Rome to-morrow, and leave this dear old place! But then, I have
+to see my aunt Fabia, and little Livia, the sister I haven't met since
+she was a baby. And while I am in Rome I will do something else--can
+you guess?" Cornelia shook her head. "Carpenters, painters, masons! I
+will send them out to make this old villa fresh and pretty for some
+one who, I hope, will come here to live in about a month. No, don't
+run away," for Cornelia was trying to hide her flushed face by flight;
+"I have something else to get--a present for your own dear self. What
+shall it be? I am rich; cost does not matter."
+
+Cornelia pursed her lips in thought.
+
+"Well," she remarked, "if you could bring me out a pretty boy, not too
+old or too young, one that was honest and quick-witted, he would be
+very convenient to carry messages to you, and to do any little
+business for me."
+
+Cornelia asked for a slave-boy just as she might have asked for a new
+pony, with that indifference to the question of humanity which
+indicated that the demarcation between a slave and an animal was very
+slight in her mind.
+
+"Oh! that is nothing," said Drusus; "you shall have the handsomest and
+cleverest in all Rome. And if Mamercus complains that I am extravagant
+in remodelling the house, let him remember that his wonderful C�sar,
+when a young man, head over ears in debt, built an expensive villa at
+Aricia, and then pulled it down to the foundations and rebuilt on an
+improved plan. Farewell, Sir Veteran, I will take Cornelia home, and
+then come back for that dinner which I know the cook has made ready
+with his best art."
+
+Arm in arm the young people went away down the avenue of shade trees,
+dim in the gathering twilight. Mamercus stood gazing after them.
+
+"What a pity! What a pity!" he repeated to himself, "that Sextus and
+Caius are not alive; how they would have rejoiced in their children!
+Why do the fates order things as they do? Only let them be kind enough
+to let me live until I hold another little Drusus on my knee, and tell
+him of the great battles! But the Gods forbid, Lentulus should find
+out speedily that his lordship has gone over to C�sar; or there will
+be trouble enough for both his lordship and my lady. The consul-elect
+is a stubborn, bitter man. He would be terribly offended to give his
+niece in marriage to a political enemy. But it may all turn out well.
+Who knows?" And he went into the house.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter II
+
+The Upper Walks of Society
+
+
+I
+
+It was very early in the morning. From the streets, far below, a dull
+rumbling was drifting in at the small, dim windows. On the couch,
+behind some faded curtains, a man turned and yawned, grunted and
+rubbed his eyes. The noise of the heavy timber, stone, and merchandise
+wagons hastening out of the city before daybreak,[25] jarred the room,
+and made sleep almost impossible. The person awakened swore quietly to
+himself in Greek.
+
+  [25] No teaming was allowed in Rome by day.
+
+"_Heracles!_ Was ever one in such a city! What malevolent spirit
+brought me here? Throat-cutting on the streets at night; highwaymen in
+every foul alley; unsafe to stir at evening without an armed band! No
+police worth mentioning; freshets every now and then; fires every day
+or else a building tumbles down. And then they must wake me up at an
+unearthly hour in the morning. Curses on me for ever coming near the
+place!" And the speaker rolled over on the bed, and shook himself,
+preparatory to getting up.
+
+"Bah! Can these Roman dogs never learn that power is to be used, not
+abused? Why don't they spend some of their revenues to level these
+seven hills that shut off the light, and straighten and widen their
+abominable, ill-paved streets, and keep houses from piling up as if to
+storm Olympus? Pshaw, I had better stop croaking, and be up and
+about."
+
+The speaker sat up in bed, and clapped his hands. Into the ill-lighted
+and unpretentiously furnished room came a tall, bony, ebon-skinned old
+Ethiopian, very scantily attired, who awaited the wishes of his
+master.
+
+"Come, Sesostris," said the latter, "get out my best
+_himation_[26]--the one with the azure tint. Give me a clean
+_chiton_,[27] and help me dress."
+
+  [26] Greek outer mantle.
+
+  [27] Greek under garment.
+
+And while the servant bustled briskly about his work, Pratinas, for
+such was his lord's name, continued his monologue, ignoring the
+presence of his attendant. "Not so bad with me after all. Six years
+ago to-day it was I came to Rome, with barely an obol of ready money,
+to make my fortune by my wits. Zeus! But I can't but say I've
+succeeded. A thousand sesterces here and five hundred there, and now
+and then a better stroke of fortune--politics, intrigues, gambling;
+all to the same end. And now?--oh, yes, my 'friends' would say I am
+very respectable, but quite poor--but they don't know how I have
+economized, and how my account stands with Sosthenes the banker at
+Alexandria. My old acquaintance with Lucius Domitius was of some use.
+A few more months of this life and I am away from this beastly Rome,
+to enjoy myself among civilized people."
+
+Pratinas went over to a large wooden chest with iron clasps, unlocked
+it, and gazed for a moment inside with evident satisfaction. "There
+are six good talents in there," he remarked to himself, "and then
+there is Artemisia."
+
+He had barely concluded this last, hardly intelligible assertion, when
+the curtain of the room was pushed aside, and in came a short, plump,
+rosy-faced little maiden of twelve, with a clearly chiselled Greek
+profile and lips as red as a cherry. Her white chiton was mussed and a
+trifle soiled; and her thick black hair was tied back in a low knot,
+so as to cover what were two very shapely little ears. All in all, she
+presented a very pretty picture, as the sunlight streamed over her,
+when she drew back the hangings at the window.
+
+"Good morning, Uncle Pratinas," she said sweetly.
+
+"Good morning, Artemisia, my dear," replied the other, giving her
+round neck a kiss, and a playful pinch. "You will practise on your
+lyre, and let Sesostris teach you to sing. You know we shall go back
+to Alexandria very soon; and it is pleasant there to have some
+accomplishments."
+
+"And must you go out so early, uncle?" said the girl. "Can't you stay
+with me any part of the day? Sometimes I get very lonely."
+
+"Ah! my dear," said Pratinas, smoothly, "if I could do what I wished,
+I would never leave you. But business cannot wait. I must go and see
+the noble Lucius Calatinus on some very important political matters,
+which you could not understand. Now run away like a good girl, and
+don't become doleful."
+
+Artemisia left the room, and Pratinas busied himself about the fine
+touches of his toilet. When he held the silver mirror up to his face,
+he remarked to himself that he was not an unhandsome man. "If I did
+not have to play the philosopher, and wear this thick, hot beard,[28]
+I would not be ashamed to show my head anywhere." Then while he
+perfumed himself with oil of saffron out of a little onyx bottle, he
+went on:--
+
+  [28] At an age when respectable men were almost invariably smooth
+  shaven, the philosophers wore flowing beards, as a sort of professional
+  badge.
+
+"What dogs and gluttons these Romans are! They have no real taste for
+art, for beauty. They cannot even conduct a murder, save in a bungling
+way. They have to call in us Hellenes to help them. Ha! ha! this is
+the vengeance for Hellas, for the sack and razing of Corinth and all
+the other atrocities! Rome can conquer with the sword; but we Greeks,
+though conquered, can, unarmed, conquer Rome. How these Italians can
+waste their money! Villas, statues, pretty slaves, costly vases, and
+tables of mottled cypress,[29] oysters worth their weight in gold, and
+I know not what else! And I, poor Pratinas, the Greek, who lives in an
+upper floor of a Subura house at only two thousand sesterces rental,
+find in these noble Roman lords only so much plunder. Ha! ha! Hellas,
+thou art avenged!"
+
+  [29] A "fad" of this time. Such tables often cost $20,000.
+
+And gathering his mantle about him, he went down the several flights
+of very rickety stairs, and found himself in the buzzing street.
+
+
+II
+
+The Romans hugged a fond belief that houses shut out from sunlight and
+air were extremely healthy. If such were the fact, there should have
+been no sickness in a great part of the capital. The street in which
+Pratinas found himself was so dark, that he was fain to wait till his
+eyes accommodated themselves to the change. The street was no wider
+than an alley, yet packed with booths and hucksters,--sellers of
+boiled peas and hot sausage, and fifty other wares. On the worthy
+Hellene pressed, while rough German slaves or swarthy Africans jostled
+against him; the din of scholars declaiming in an adjoining school
+deafened him; a hundred unhappy odors made him wince. Then, as he
+fought his way, the streets grew a trifle wider; as he approached the
+Forum the shops became more pretentious; at last he reached his
+destination in the aristocratic quarter of the Palatine, and paused
+before a new and ostentatious mansion, in whose vestibule was swarming
+a great bevy of clients, all come in the official calling costume--a
+ponderous toga--to pay their respects to the great man. But as the
+inner door was pushed aside by the vigilant keeper, all the rest of
+the crowd were kept out till Pratinas could pass within.
+
+The atrium of the house was a splendid sight, with its veined marble
+pillars, mosaic floor, bubbling fountain, choice frescoes, and
+expensive furniture upholstered in Tyrian purple. A little in the rear
+of this gorgeous room was seated in a high armchair the individual who
+boasted himself the lord of this establishment, Lucius Atilius
+Calatinus. He was a large, coarse man, with a rough, bull-dog face and
+straight red hair. He had been drinking heavily the night before, and
+his small bluish eyes had wide dark circles beneath them, and his
+breath showed strongly the garlic with which he had seasoned the bread
+and grapes of his early lunch. He was evidently very glad to see his
+Greek visitor, and drove the six large, heavily gemmed rings which he
+wore on one of his fat fingers, almost into the other's hand when he
+shook it.
+
+"Well met, Pratinas!" was his salutation. "Tell me, is that little
+affair of yours settled? Have you stopped the mouth of that beastly
+fellow, Postumus Pyrgensis, who said that I was a base upstart, with
+no claim to my gentile name, and a bad record as a tax farmer in
+Spain, and therefore should not be elected tribune[30]?"
+
+  [30] The ten tribunes had power to convene the people and Senate,
+  propose laws and "veto" the actions of other magistrates.
+
+"I have stopped him," said Pratinas, with a little cough. "But it was
+expensive. He stuck out for ten thousand sesterces."
+
+"Oh, cheaply off," said Calatinus, laughing. "I will give you my
+cheque on Flaccus the banker. But I want to know about the other
+matter. Can you make sure of the votes of the Suburana tribe? Have you
+seen Autronius?"
+
+"I have seen him," said Pratinas, dryly.
+
+"And he said?"
+
+"Twenty thousand sesterces for him to deposit with trustees[31] until
+the election is over. Then he as go-between[32] will make sure of a
+majority of the tribesmen, and distribute to them the money if all
+goes well at the _comitia_.[33] It was the best bargain I could make;
+for Autronius really controls the tribe, and some one might outbid us."
+
+  [31] _Sequestres_.
+
+  [32] _Interpres_.
+
+  [33] Assembly of the Roman tribes for election.
+
+"All right," broke out Calatinus with a laugh, "another cheque on
+Flaccus."
+
+"One thing else," said Pratinas; "I must have a little money to shut
+up any complaints that those ridiculous anti-bribery Licinian and
+Pompeian Laws are being broken. Then there is my fee."
+
+"Oh, yes," replied the other, not to be daunted in his good humour,
+"I'll give you fifty thousand in all. Now I must see this rabble."
+
+And the mob of clients swept up to the armchair, grasping after the
+great man's hand, and raining on him their _aves_, while some daring
+mortals tried to thrust in a kiss.
+
+Pratinas drew back and watched the crowd with a smile half cynical,
+half amused. Some of the visitors were regular hangers-on, who perhaps
+expected an invitation to dine; some were seekers of patronage; some
+had an eye to political preferment, a few were real acquaintances of
+Calatinus or came on some legitimate business. Pratinas observed three
+friends waiting to speak with Calatinus, and was soon in conversation.
+
+The first of the trio was known as Publius Gabinius, who was by far
+the oldest. Coarse-featured, with broken complexion, it needed but a
+glance to proclaim him as gifted with no other distinctions than those
+of a hard drinker, fast liver, and the owner of an attenuated
+conscience. Servius Flaccus, the second, was of a different type. He
+was languid; spirited only when he railed at a slave who brushed
+against his immaculate toga. The frills on his robes made him almost
+feminine; and he spoke, even in invective, in a soft, lisping voice.
+Around him floated the aroma of countless rare unguents, that made his
+coming known afar off. His only aim in life was evidently to get
+through it with as little exertion of brain or muscle as was possible.
+The third friend was unlike the others. Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus
+clearly amounted to more than either of his companions. A constant
+worship of three very popular gods of the day--Women, Wine, and
+Gaming--with the other excitements of a dissipated life, had ruined a
+fine fair complexion. As it was, he had the profile of a handsome,
+affable man; only the mouth was hard and sensual, and his skin was
+faded and broken. He wore a little brown beard carefully trimmed
+around his well-oiled chin after the manner of Roman men of fashion;
+and his dark hair was crimped in regular steps or gradations, parting
+in the middle and arranged on both sides like a girl's.[34]
+
+  [34] Suet., "Nero," 51.
+
+"Good morning, Pratinas!" said Lucius, warmly, taking the Greek's
+hand. "How glad we are to find you here. I wanted to ask you around to
+Marcus L�ca's to-night; we think he will give something of a feast,
+and you must see my latest sweetheart--Clyte! She is a little pearl. I
+have had her head cut in intaglio on this onyx; is she not pretty?"
+
+"Very pretty," said Pratinas, looking at the engraving on the ring.
+"But perhaps it is not right for me, a grave philosopher, to go to
+your banquet."
+
+"How (h)absurd! (H)of c(h)ourse you c(h)an!" lisped Flaccus, who
+affected Greek so far as to aspirate every word beginning with a
+vowel, and to change every _c_ into a _ch_.
+
+"Well," said Pratinas, laughing, for he was a dearly loved favourite
+of all these gilded youth, "I will see! And now Gabinius is inviting
+Calatinus also, and we are dispersing for the morning."
+
+"Alas," groaned Ahenobarbus, "I must go to the Forum to plead with
+that wretch Phormio, the broker, to arrange a new loan."
+
+"And I to the Forum, also," added Calatinus, coming up, "to continue
+this pest of a canvass for votes."
+
+The clients fell into line behind Calatinus like a file of soldiers,
+but before Pratinas could start away with the other friends, a
+slave-boy came running out from the inner house, to say that "the Lady
+Valeria would be glad of his company in her boudoir." The Greek bowed
+his farewells, then followed the boy back through the court of the
+peristylium.[35]
+
+  [35] An inner private court back of the atrium.
+
+
+III
+
+The dressing room occupied by Valeria--once wife of Sextus Drusus and
+now living with Calatinus as her third husband in about four
+years--was fitted up with every luxury which money, and a taste which
+carried refinement to an extreme point, could accomplish. The walls
+were bright with splendid mythological scenes by really good artists;
+the furniture itself was plated with silver; the rugs were
+magnificent. The mistress of this palatial abode was sitting in a low
+easy-chair, holding before her a fairly large silver mirror. She wore
+a loose gown of silken texture, edged to an ostentatious extent with
+purple. Around her hovered Arsino� and Semiramis, two handsome Greek
+slave-girls, who were far better looking than their owner, inasmuch as
+their complexions had never been ruined by paints and ointments. They
+were expert hairdressers, and Valeria had paid twenty-five thousand
+sesterces for each of them, on the strength of their proficiency in
+that art, and because they were said to speak with a pure Attic Greek
+accent. At the moment they were busy stripping off from the lady's
+face a thick layer of dried enamel that had been put on the night
+before.
+
+Had Valeria been willing, she might have feared no comparison with her
+maids; for from a merely sensuous standpoint, she would have been
+reckoned very beautiful. She had by nature large brown eyes, luxuriant
+brown hair, and what had been a clear brunette skin, and well-rounded
+and regular features. But her lips were curled in hard, haughty lines,
+her long eyelashes drooped as though she took little interest in life;
+and, worse than all, to satisfy the demands of fashion, she had
+bleached her hair to a German blonde, by a process ineffective and
+injurious. The lady was just fuming to herself over a gray hair
+Arsino� had discovered, and Arsino� went around in evident fear lest
+Valeria should vent her vexation on her innocent ministers.
+
+Over in one corner of the room, on a low divan, was sitting a
+strange-looking personage. A gaunt, elderly man clothed in a very
+dingy Greek himation, with shaggy grey hair, and an enormous beard
+that tumbled far down his breast. This personage was Pisander,
+Valeria's "house-philosopher," who was expected to be always at her
+elbow pouring into her ears a rain of learned lore. For this worthy
+lady (and two thousand years later would she not be attending lectures
+on Dante or Browning?) was devoted to philosophy, and loved to hear
+the Stoics[36] and Epicureans expound their varying systems of the
+cosmos. At this moment she was feasting her soul on Plato. Pisander
+was reading from the "Phaidros," "They might have seen beauty shining
+in brightness, when the happy band, following in the train of Zeus (as
+we philosophers did; or with the other gods, as others did), saw a
+vision, and were initiated into most blessed mysteries, which we
+celebrated in our state of innocence; and having no feeling of evils
+yet to come; beholding apparitions, innocent and simple and calm and
+happy as in a mystery; shining in pure light; pure ourselves, and not
+yet enchained in that living tomb which we carry about, now that we
+are imprisoned in the body ..."
+
+  [36] The opponents of the Epicureans; they nobly antagonized the mere
+  pursuit of pleasure held out as the one end of life by the Epicurean,
+  and glorified duty.
+
+"Pratinas, to see her ladyship!" bawled a servant-boy[37] at the
+doorway, very unceremoniously interrupting the good man and his
+learnedly sublime lore. And Pratinas, with the softest and sweetest of
+his Greek smiles, entered the room.
+
+  [37] _Cubicularius_.
+
+"Your ladyship does me the honour," he began, with an extremely
+deferential salutation.
+
+"Oh, my dear Pratinas," cried Valeria, in a language she called Greek,
+seizing his hand and almost embracing him, "how delighted I am to see
+you! We haven't met since--since yesterday morning. I did so want to
+have a good talk with you about Plato's theory of the separate
+existence of ideas. But first I must ask you, have you heard whether
+the report is true that Terentia, Caius Glabrio's wife, has run off
+with a gladiator?"
+
+"So Gabinius, I believe," replied Pratinas, "just told me. And I heard
+something else. A great secret. You must not tell."
+
+"Oh! I am dying to know," smirked Valeria.
+
+"Well," said the Greek, confidentially, "Publius Silanus has divorced
+his wife, Crispia. 'She went too much,' he says, 'with young
+Purpureo.'"
+
+"You do not say so!" exclaimed the lady. "I always knew that would
+happen! Now tell me, don't you think this perfume of iris is delicate?
+It's in that little glass scent bottle; break the neck.[38] I shall
+use it in a minute. I have just had some bottles sent up from Capua.
+Roman perfumes are so vulgar!"
+
+  [38] To let out the ointment. Capua was a famed emporium for perfumes
+  and like wares.
+
+"I fear," said Pratinas, doing as bidden, and testing the essence with
+evident satisfaction, "that I have interrupted your philosophical
+studies." And he glanced at Pisander, who was sitting lonesome and
+offended in his corner.
+
+"Oh! not in the least," ran on Valeria; "but though I know you are
+Epicurean, surely you enjoy Plato?"
+
+"Certainly," said Pratinas, with dramatic dignity, "I suck the sweets
+from the flowers left us by all the wise and good. Epicurean though I
+am, your ladyship must permit me to lend you a copy of an essay I have
+with me, by that great philosopher, the Stoic Chrysippos,[39] although
+I cannot agree with all his teachings; and this copy of Panaitios, the
+Eclectic's great _Treatise on Duty_, which cannot fail to edify your
+ladyship." And he held out the two rolls.
+
+  [39] Born 180 B.C.
+
+"A thousand thanks," said Valeria, languidly, "hand them to Pisander.
+I will have him read them. A little more white lead, Arsino�, I am too
+tanned; make me paler. Just run over the veins of my temples with a
+touch of blue paint. Now a tint of antimony on my eyelids."
+
+"Your ladyship seems in wonderfully good spirits this morning,"
+insinuated Pratinas.
+
+"Yes," said Valeria, with a sigh, "I endure the woes of life as should
+one who is consoled by philosophy."
+
+"Shall I continue the Plato?" edged in poor Pisander, who was raging
+inwardly to think that Pratinas should dare to assume the name of a
+"lover of learning."
+
+"When you are needed, I can tell you," snapped Valeria, sharply, at
+the feeble remonstrance. "Now, Semiramis, you may arrange my hair."
+
+The girl looked puzzled. To tell the truth, Valeria was speaking in a
+tongue that was a babel of Greek and Latin, although she fondly
+imagined it to be the former, and Semiramis could hardly understand
+her.
+
+"If your ladyship will speak in Latin," faltered the maid.
+
+"Speak in Latin! Speak in Latin!" flared up Valeria. "Am I deceived?
+Are you not Greeks? Are you some ignorant Italian wenches who can't
+speak anything but their native jargon? Bah! You've misplaced a curl.
+Take that!" And she struck the girl across the palms, with the flat of
+her silver mirror. Semiramis shivered and flushed, but said nothing.
+
+"Do I not have a perfect Greek pronunciation?" said the lady, turning
+to Pratinas. "It is impossible to carry on a polite conversation in
+Latin."
+
+"I can assure your ladyship," said the Hellene, with still another
+bland smile, "that your pronunciation is something exceedingly
+remarkable."
+
+Valeria was pacified, and lay back submitting to her hairdressers[40],
+while Pratinas, who knew what kind of "philosophy" appealed most to
+his fair patroness, read with a delicate yet altogether admirable
+voice, a number of scraps of erotic verse that he said friends had
+just sent on from Alexandria.
+
+  [40] _Ornatrices_.
+
+"Oh! the shame to call himself a philosopher," groaned the neglected
+Pisander to himself. "If I believed in the old gods, I would invoke
+the Furies upon him."
+
+But Valeria was now in the best of spirits. "By the two
+Goddesses,"[41] she swore, "what charming sentiments you Greeks can
+express. Now I think I look presentable, and can go around and see
+Papiria, and learn about that dreadful Silanus affair. Tell Agias to
+bring in the cinnamon ointment. I will try that for a change. It is in
+the murrhine[42] vase in the other room."
+
+  [41] Demeter and Persephone, a Greek woman's oath.
+
+  [42] A costly substance, probably porcelain agate.
+
+Iasus the serving-boy stepped into the next apartment, and gave the
+order to one of his fellow slaves. A minute later there was a crash.
+Arsino�, who was without, screamed, and Semiramis, who thrust her head
+out the door, drew it back with a look of dismay.
+
+"What has happened?" cried Valeria, startled and angry.
+
+Into the room came Arsino�, Iasus, and a second slave-boy, a
+well-favoured, intelligent looking young Greek of about seventeen. His
+ruddy cheeks had turned very pale, as had those of Iasus.
+
+"What has happened?" thundered Valeria, in a tone that showed that a
+sorry scene was impending.
+
+The slaves fell on their knees; cowered, in fact, on the rugs at the
+lady's feet.
+
+"_A! A! A!_ Lady! Mercy!" they all began in a breath. "The murrhina
+vase! It is broken!"
+
+"Who broke it?" cried their mistress, casting lightning glances from
+one to another.
+
+Now the truth had been, that while Agias was coming through a door
+covered with a curtain, carrying the vase, Iasus had carelessly
+blundered against him and caused the catastrophe. But there had been
+no other witnesses to the accident; and when Iasus saw that his
+mistress's anger would promptly descend on somebody, he had not the
+moral courage to take the consequences of his carelessness. What
+amounted to a frightful crime was committed in an instant.
+
+"Agias stumbled and dropped the vase," said Iasus, telling the truth,
+but not the whole truth.
+
+"Send for Alfidius the _lorarius_,"[43] raged Valeria, who, with the
+promptness that characterizes a certain class of women, jumped at a
+conclusion and remained henceforth obstinate. "This shall not happen
+again! Oh! my vase! my vase! I shall never get another one like it! It
+was one of the spoils of Mithridates, and"--here her eye fell on
+Agias, cringing and protesting his innocence in a fearful agony.
+
+  [43] Whipper; many Roman houses had such a functionary, and he does
+  not seem to have lacked employment.
+
+"Stand up, boy! Stop whining! Of course you broke the vase. Who else
+had it? I will make you a lesson to all the slaves in my house. They
+need one badly. I will get another serving-boy who will be more
+careful."
+
+Agias was deathly pale; the beads of sweat stood out on his forehead;
+he grasped convulsively at the hem of his mistress's robe, and
+murmured wildly of "mercy! mercy!" Pratinas stood back with his
+imperturbable smile on his face; and if he felt the least pity for his
+fellow-countryman, he did not show it.
+
+"Alfidius awaits the mistress," announced Semiramis, with trembling
+lips.
+
+Into the room came a brutish, hard-featured, shock-headed man, with a
+large scar, caused by branding, on his forehead. He carried a short
+rope and scourge,[44]--a whip with a short handle to which were
+attached three long lashes, set at intervals with heavy bits of
+bronze. He cast one glance over the little group in the room, and his
+dull piglike eyes seemed to light up with a fierce glee, as he
+comprehended the situation.
+
+  [44] _Flagellum_.
+
+"What does your ladyship wish?" he growled.
+
+"Take this wretched boy," cried Valeria, spurning Agias with her foot;
+"take him away. Make an example of him. Take him out beyond the Porta
+Esquilina and whip him to death. Let me never see him again."
+
+Pisander sprang up in his corner, quivering with righteous wrath.
+
+"What is this?" he cried. "The lad is not guilty of any real crime. It
+would be absurd to punish a horse for an action like his, and a slave
+is as good as a horse. What philosopher could endure to see such an
+outrage?"
+
+Valeria was too excited to hear him. Pratinas coolly took the
+perturbed philosopher round the waist, and by sheer force seated him
+in a chair.
+
+"My friend," he said calmly, "you can only lose your place by
+interfering; the boy is food for the crows already. Philosophy should
+teach you to regard little affairs like this unmoved."
+
+Before Pisander could remonstrate further Alfidius had caught up Agias
+as if he had been an infant, and carried him, while moaning and
+pleading, out of the room. Iasus was still trembling. He was not a
+knave--simply unheroic, and he knew that he had committed the basest
+of actions. Semiramis and Arsino� were both very pale, but spoke never
+a word. Arsino� looked pityingly after the poor boy, for she had grown
+very fond of his bright words and obliging manners. For some minutes
+there was, in fact, perfect silence in the boudoir.
+
+Alfidius carried his victim out into the slaves' quarters in the rear
+of the house; there he bound his hands and called in the aid of an
+assistant to help him execute his mistress's stern mandate.
+
+Agias had been born for far better things than to be a slave. His
+father had been a cultured Alexandrine Greek, a banker, and had given
+his young son the beginnings of a good education. But the rascality of
+a business partner had sent the father to the grave bankrupt, the son
+to the slave-market to satisfy the creditors. And now Alfidius and his
+myrmidon bound their captive to a furca, a wooden yoke passing down
+the back of the neck and down each arm. The rude thongs cut the flesh
+cruelly, and the wretches laughed to see how the delicate boy writhed
+and faltered under the pain and the load.
+
+"Ah, ha! my fine _Furcifer_,"[45] cried Alfidius, when this work was
+completed. "How do you find yourself?"
+
+  [45] Furca-bearer, a coarse epithet.
+
+"Do you mock at me, you '_three letter man_'?" retorted Agias in grim
+despair, referring cuttingly to FVR[46] branded on Alfidius's
+forehead.
+
+  [46] Thief. Branding was a common punishment for slaves.
+
+"So you sing, my pretty bird," laughed the executioner. "I think you
+will croak sorrowfully enough before long. Call me '_man of letters_'
+if you will; to-night the dogs tear that soft skin of yours, while my
+hide is sound. Now off for the Porta Esquilina! Trot along with you!"
+and he swung his lash over the wretched boy's shoulders.
+
+Agias was led out into the street. He was too pained and numbed to
+groan, resist, or even think and fear. The thongs might well have been
+said to press his mind as much as his skin.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter III
+
+The Privilege of a Vestal
+
+
+I
+
+Drusus started long before daybreak on his journey to Rome; with him
+went Cappadox, his ever faithful body-servant, and Pausanias, the
+amiable and cultivated freedman who had been at his elbow ever since
+he had visited Athens. For a while the young master dozed in his
+carriage; but, as they whirled over mile after mile of the Campagna,
+the sun arose; then, when sleep left him, the Roman was all alive to
+the patriotic reminiscences each scene suggested. Yonder to the far
+south lay Alba, the old home of the Latins, and a little southward too
+was the Lake of Regillus, where tradition had it the free Romans won
+their first victory, and founded the greatness of the Republic. Along
+the line of the Anio, a few miles north, had marched Hannibal on his
+mad dash against Rome to save the doomed Capua. And these pictures of
+brave days, and many another vision like them, welled up in Drusus's
+mind, and the remembrance of the marble temples of the Greek cities
+faded from his memory; for, as he told himself, Rome was built of
+nobler stuff than marble;--she was built of the deeds of men strong
+and brave, and masters of every hostile fate. And he rejoiced that he
+could be a Roman, and share in his country's deathless fame, perhaps
+could win for her new honour,--could be consul, triumphator, and lead
+his applauding legions up to the temple of Capitoline Jove--another
+national glory added to so many.
+
+So the vision of the great city of tall ugly tenement houses, basking
+on her "Seven Hills," which only on their summits showed the nobler
+temples or the dwellings of the great patricians, broke upon him. And
+it was with eyes a-sparkle with enthusiasm, and a light heart, that he
+reached the Porta Esquilina, left the carriage for a litter borne by
+four stout Syrians sent out from the house of his late uncle, and was
+carried soon into the hubbub of the city streets.
+
+Everywhere was the same crowd; shopping parties were pressing in and
+out the stores, outrunners and foot-boys were continually colliding.
+Drusus's escort could barely win a slow progress for their master.
+Once on the Sacred Way the advance was more rapid; although even this
+famous street was barely twenty-two feet wide from house wall to house
+wall. Here was the "Lombard" or "Wall Street" of antiquity. Here were
+the offices of the great banking houses and syndicates that held the
+world in fee. Here centred those busy equites, the capitalists, whose
+transactions ran out even beyond the lands covered by the eagles, so
+that while Gaul was yet unconquered, Cicero could boast, "not a
+sesterce in Gaul changes hands without being entered in a Roman
+ledger." And here were brokers whose clients were kings, and who by
+their "influence" almost made peace or war, like modern Rothschilds.
+
+Thither Drusus's litter carried him, for he knew that his first act on
+coming to Rome to take possession of his uncle's property should be to
+consult without delay his agent and financial and legal adviser, lest
+any loophole be left for a disappointed fortune-hunter to contest the
+will. The bearers put him down before the important firm of Flaccus
+and Sophus. Out from the open, windowless office ran the senior
+partner, Sextus Fulvius Flaccus, a stout, comfortable, rosy-faced old
+eques, who had half Rome as his financial clients, the other half in
+his debt. Many were his congratulations upon Drusus's manly growth,
+and many more upon the windfall of Vibulanus's fortune, which, as he
+declared, was too securely conveyed to the young man to be open to any
+legal attack.
+
+But when Drusus intimated that he expected soon to invite the good man
+to his marriage feast, Flaccus shook his head.
+
+"You will never get a sesterce of Cornelia's dowry," he declared. "Her
+uncle Lentulus Crus is head over ears in debt. Nothing can save him,
+unless--"
+
+"I don't understand you," said the other.
+
+"Well," continued Flaccus, "to be frank; unless there is nothing short
+of a revolution."
+
+"Will it come to that?" demanded Drusus.
+
+"Can't say," replied Flaccus, as if himself perplexed. "Everybody
+declares C�sar and Pompeius are dreadfully alienated. Pompeius is
+joining the Senate. Half the great men of Rome are in debt, as I have
+cause to know, and unless we have an overturn, with 'clean accounts'
+as a result, more than one noble lord is ruined. I am calling in all
+my loans, turning everything into cash. Credit is bad--bad. C�sar paid
+Curio's debts--sixty millions of sesterces.[47] That's why Curio is a
+C�sarian now. Oh! money is the cause of all these vile political
+changes! Trouble is coming! Sulla's old throat cuttings will be
+nothing to it! But don't marry Lentulus's niece!"
+
+  [47] I.e. $2,400,000; a sesterce was about 4 cents.
+
+"Well," said Drusus, when the business was done, and he turned to go,
+"I want Cornelia, not her dowry."
+
+"Strange fellow," muttered Flaccus, while Drusus started off in his
+litter. "I always consider the dowry the principal part of a
+marriage."
+
+
+II
+
+Drusus regained his litter, and ordered his bearers to take him to the
+house of the Vestals,--back of the Temple of Vesta,--where he wished
+to see his aunt Fabia and Livia, his little half-sister. The Temple
+itself--a small, round structure, with columns, a conical roof which
+was fringed about with dragons and surmounted by a statue--still
+showed signs of the fire, which, in 210 B.C., would have destroyed it
+but for thirteen slaves, who won their liberty by checking the blaze.
+Tradition had it that here the holy Numa had built the hut which
+contained the hearth-fire of Rome,--the divine spark which now shed
+its radiance over the nations. Back of the Temple was the House of the
+Vestals, a structure with a plain exterior, differing little from the
+ordinary private dwellings. Here Drusus had his litter set down for a
+second time, and notified the porter that he would be glad to see his
+aunt and sister. The young man was ushered into a spacious, handsomely
+furnished and decorated atrium, where were arranged lines of statues
+of the various _maxim�_[48] of the little religious order. A shy young
+girl with a white dress and fillet, who was reading in the apartment,
+slipped noiselessly out, as the young man entered; for the novices
+were kept under strict control, with few liberties, until their elder
+sisters could trust them in male society. Then there was a rustle of
+robes and ribbons, and in came a tall, stately lady, also in pure
+white, and a little girl of about five, who shrank coyly back when
+Drusus called her his "Liviola"[49] and tried to catch her in his
+arms. But the lady embraced him, and kissed him, and asked a thousand
+things about him, as tenderly as if she had been his mother.
+
+  [48] Senior Vestals.
+
+  [49] A diminutive of endearment.
+
+Fabia the Vestal was now about thirty-seven years of age. One and
+thirty years before had the Pontifex Maximus chosen her out--a little
+girl--to become the priestess of Vesta, the hearth-goddess, the
+home-goddess of Pagan Rome. Fabia had dwelt almost all her life in the
+house of the Vestals. Her very existence had become identified with
+the little sisterhood, which she and her five associates composed. It
+was a rather isolated yet singularly pure and peaceful life which she
+had led. Revolutions might rock the city and Empire; Marians and
+Sullians contend; Catilina plot ruin and destruction; Clodius and his
+ruffians terrorize the streets; but the fire of the great
+hearth-goddess was never scattered, nor were its gentle ministers
+molested. Fabia had thus grown to mature womanhood. Ten years she had
+spent in learning the Temple ritual, ten years in performing the
+actual duties of the sacred fire and its cultus, ten years in teaching
+the young novices. And now she was free, if she chose, to leave the
+Temple service, and even to marry. But Fabia had no intention of
+taking a step which would tear her from the circle in which she was
+dearly loved, and which, though permitted by law, would be publicly
+deplored as an evil omen.
+
+The Vestal's pure simple life had left its impress on her features.
+Peace and innocent delight in innocent things shone through her dark
+eyes and soft, well-rounded face. Her light brown hair was covered and
+confined by a fillet of white wool.[50] She wore a stola and outer
+garment of stainless white linen--the perfectly plain badge of her
+chaste and holy office; while on her small feet were dainty sandals,
+bound on by thongs of whitened leather. Everything about her dress and
+features betokened the priestess of a gentle religion.
+
+  [50] _Infula_.
+
+When questions and repeated salutations were over, and Livia had
+ceased to be too afraid of her quite strange brother, Fabia asked what
+she could do for her nephew. As one of the senior Vestals, her time
+was quite her own. "Would he like to have her go out with him to visit
+friends, or go shopping? Or could she do anything to aid him about
+ordering frescoers and carpenters for the old Pr�neste villa?"
+
+This last was precisely what Drusus had had in mind. And so forth aunt
+and nephew sallied. Some of the streets they visited were so narrow
+that they had to send back even their litters; but everywhere the
+crowds bowed such deference and respect to the Vestal's white robes
+that their progress was easy. Drusus soon had given his orders to
+cabinet-makers and selected the frescoer's designs. It remained to
+purchase Cornelia's slave-boy. He wanted not merely an attractive
+serving-lad, but one whose intelligence and probity could be relied
+upon; and in the dealers' stalls not one of the dark orientals,
+although all had around their necks tablets with long lists of
+encomiums, promised conscience or character. Drusus visited, several
+very choice boys that were exhibited in separate rooms, at fancy
+prices, but none of these pretty Greeks or Asiatics seemed promising.
+
+Deeply disgusted, he led Fabia away from the slave-market.
+
+"I will try to-morrow," he said, vexed at his defeat. "I need a new
+toga. Let us go to the shop on the Clivus Suburanus; there used to be
+a good woollen merchant, Lucius Marius, on the way to the Porta
+Esquilina."
+
+Accordingly the two went on in the direction indicated; but at the
+spot where the Clivus Suburanus was cut by the Vicus Longus, there was
+so dense a crowd and so loud a hubbub, that their attendants could not
+clear a way. For a time it was impossible to see what was the matter.
+Street gamins were howling, and idle slaves and hucksters were pouring
+forth volleys of taunts and derision at some luckless wight.
+
+"Away with them! the whip-scoundrel! _Verbero!_"[51] yelled a lusty
+produce-vender. "Lash him again! Tan his hide for him! Don't you enjoy
+it? Not accustomed to such rough handling, eh! my pretty sparrow?"
+
+  [51] A coarse epithet.
+
+Fabia without the least hesitation thrust herself into the
+dirty-robed, foul-mouthed crowd. At sight of the Vestal's white dress
+and fillets the pack gave way before her, as a swarm of gnats at the
+wave of a hand. Drusus strode at her heels.
+
+It was a sorry enough sight that met them--though not uncommon in the
+age and place. Some wretched slave-boy, a slight, delicate fellow, had
+been bound to the bars of a furca, and was being driven by two brutal
+executioners to the place of doom outside the gates. At the
+street-crossing he had sunk down, and all the blows of the driver's
+scourge could not compel him to arise. He lay in the dust, writhing
+and moaning, with the great welts showing on his bare back, where the
+brass knots of the lash had stripped away the cloth.
+
+"Release this boy! Cease to beat him!" cried Fabia, with a commanding
+mien, that made the crowd shrink further back; while the two
+executioners looked stupid and sheepish, but did nothing.
+
+"Release this boy!" commanded the Vestal. "Dare you hesitate? Do you
+wish to undo yourselves by defying me?"
+
+"Mercy, august lady," cried Alfidius,--for the chief executioner was
+he,--with a supplicatory gesture. "If our mistress knows that her
+commands are unexecuted, it is we, who are but slaves, that must
+suffer!"
+
+"Who is your mistress?" demanded Fabia.
+
+"Valeria, wife of Lucius Calatinus."
+
+"Livia's precious mother!" whispered Drusus. "I can imagine her doing
+a thing like this." Then aloud, "What has the boy done?"
+
+"He dropped a murrhine vase," was the answer.
+
+"And so he must be beaten to death!" exclaimed the young man, who,
+despite the general theory that most slaves were on a par with cattle,
+had much of the milk of human kindness in his nature. "_Phui!_ What
+brutality! You must insist on your rights, aunt. Make them let him
+go."
+
+Sulkily enough the executioners unbound the heavy furca. Agias
+staggered to his feet, too dazed really to know what deliverance had
+befallen him.
+
+"Why don't you thank the Vestal?" said Alfidius. "She has made us
+release you--you ungrateful dog!"
+
+"Released? Saved?" gasped Agias, and he reeled as though his head were
+in a whirl. Then, as if recollecting his faculties, he fell down at
+Fabia's feet, and kissed the hem of her robe.
+
+"The gods save us all now," muttered Alfidius. "Valeria will swear
+that we schemed to have the boy released. We shall never dare to face
+her again!"
+
+"Oh! do not send me back to that cruel woman!" moaned Agias. "Better
+die now, than go back to her and incur her anger again! Kill me, but
+do not send me back!"
+
+And he broke down again in inward agony.
+
+Drusus had been surveying the boy, and saw that though he was now in a
+pitiable enough state, he had been good-looking; and that though his
+back had been cruelly marred, his face had not been cut with the
+lashes. Perhaps the very fact that Agias had been the victim of
+Valeria, and the high contempt in which the young Drusian held his
+divorced stepmother, made him instinctively take the outraged boy's
+part.
+
+"See here," began Drusus, "were you to be whipped by orders of
+Calatinus?"
+
+"No," moaned Agias; "Valeria gave the orders. My master was out."
+
+"Ha!" remarked Drusus to his aunt, "won't the good man be pleased to
+know how his wife has killed a valuable slave in one of her tantrums?"
+Then aloud. "If I can buy you of Calatinus, and give you to the Lady
+Cornelia, niece of Lentulus, the consul-elect, will you serve her
+faithfully, will you make her wish the law of your life?"
+
+"I will die for her!" cried Agias, his despair mingled with a ray of
+hope.
+
+"Where is your master?"
+
+"At the Forum, I think, soliciting votes," replied the boy.
+
+"Well then, follow me," said Drusus, "our road leads back to the
+Forum. We may meet him. If I can arrange with him, your executioners
+have nothing to fear from Valeria. Come along."
+
+Agias followed, with his head again in a whirl.
+
+
+III
+
+The little company worked its way back to the Forum, not, as now, a
+half-excavated ruin, the gazing-stock for excursionists, a commonplace
+whereby to sum up departed greatness: the splendid buildings of the
+Empire had not yet arisen, but the structures of the age were not
+unimposing. Here, in plain view, was the Capitoline Hill, crowned by
+the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus and the Arx. Here was the site of
+the Senate House, the Curia (then burned), in which the men who had
+made Rome mistress of the world had taken counsel. Every stone, every
+basilica, had its history for Drusus--though, be it said, at the
+moment the noble past was little in his mind. And the historic
+enclosure was all swarming, beyond other places, with the dirty,
+bustling crowd, shoppers, hucksters, idlers. Drusus and his company
+searched for Calatinus along the upper side of the Forum, past the
+Rostra, the Comitium,[52] and the Temple of Saturn. Then they were
+almost caught in the dense throng that was pouring into the plaza from
+the busy commercial thoroughfares of the Vicus Jugarius, or the Vicus
+Tuscus. But just as the party had almost completed their circuit of
+the square, and Drusus was beginning to believe that his benevolent
+intentions were leading him on a bootless errand, a man in a
+conspicuously white toga rushed out upon him from the steps of the
+Temple of Castor, embraced him violently, and imprinted a firm,
+garlic-flavoured kiss on both cheeks; crying at the same time
+heartily:--
+
+  [52] _Comitium_, assembly-place round the Rostra.
+
+"Oh, my dear Publius Dorso, I am so glad to meet you! How are all your
+affairs up in Fiden�?"
+
+Drusus recoiled in some disgust, and began rubbing his outraged
+cheeks.
+
+"Dorso? Dorso? There is surely some mistake, my good man. I am known
+as Quintus Drusus of Pr�neste."
+
+Before he had gotten further, his assailant was pounding and shaking a
+frightened-looking slave-lad who had stood at his elbow.
+
+"The gods blast you, you worthless _nomenclator_![53] You have
+forgotten the worthy gentleman's name, and have made me play the fool!
+You may have lost me votes! All Rome will hear of this! I shall be a
+common laughing-stock! _Hei! vah!_ But I'll teach you to behave!" And
+he shook the wretched boy until the latter's teeth rattled.
+
+  [53] Great men, and candidates for office who wished to "know"
+  everybody, kept smart slaves at their elbow to whisper strangers'
+  names in their ears. Sometimes the slaves themselves were at fault.
+
+At this instant a young man of faultless toilet, whom we have already
+recognized as Lucius Ahenobarbus, pushed into the little knot as a
+peacemaker.
+
+"Most excellent Calatinus," said he, half suppressing his laughter at
+the candidate's fury, the nomenclator's anguish, and Drusus's vexed
+confusion, "allow me to introduce to you a son of Sextus Drusus, who
+was an old friend of my father's. This is Quintus Drusus, if in a few
+years I have not forgotten his face; and this, my dear Quintus, is my
+good friend Lucius Calatinus, who would be glad of your vote and
+influence to help on his candidacy as tribune."
+
+The atmosphere was cleared instantly. Calatinus forgot his anger, in
+order to apologize in the most obsequious manner for his headlong
+salutation. Drusus, pleased to find the man he had been seeking,
+forgave the vile scent of the garlic, and graciously accepted the
+explanation. Then the way was open to ask Calatinus whether he was
+willing to dispose of Agias. The crestfallen candidate was only too
+happy to do something to put himself right with the person he had
+offended. Loudly he cursed his wife's temper, that would have wasted a
+slave worth a "hundred thousand sesterces" to gratify a mere burst of
+passion.
+
+"Yes, he was willing to sell the boy to accommodate his excellency,
+Quintus Drusus," said Calatinus, "although he was a valuable slave.
+Still, in honesty he had to admit that Agias had some mischievous
+points. Calatinus had boxed his ears only the day before for licking
+the pastry. But, since his wife disliked the fellow, he would be
+constrained to sell him, if a purchaser would take him."
+
+The result of the conference was that Drusus, who had inherited that
+keen eye for business which went with most of his race, purchased
+Agias for thirty thousand sesterces, considerably less than the boy
+would have brought in the market.
+
+While Drusus was handing over a money order payable with Flaccus,
+Lucius Ahenobarbus again came forward, with all seeming friendliness.
+
+"My dear Quintus," said he, "Marcus L�ca has commissioned me to find a
+ninth guest to fill his _triclinium_[54] this evening. We should be
+delighted if you would join us. I don't know what the good Marcus will
+offer us to-night, but you can be sure of a slice of peacock[55] and a
+few other nice bits."
+
+  [54] Dining room with couch seats for nine, the regular size.
+
+  [55] The _ne plus ultra_ of Roman gastronomy at the time.
+
+"I am very grateful," replied Drusus, who felt all the while that
+Lucius Ahenobarbus was the last man in the world with whom he cared to
+spend an evening's carousing; "but," and here he concocted a white
+lie, "an old friend I met in Athens has already invited me to spend
+the night, and I cannot well refuse him. I thank you for your
+invitation."
+
+Lucius muttered some polite and conventional terms of regret, and fell
+back to join Servius Flaccus and Gabinius, who were near him.
+
+"I invited him and he refused," he said half scornfully, half
+bitterly. "That little minx, Cornelia, has been complaining of me to
+him, I am sure. The gods ruin him! If he wishes to become my enemy,
+he'll have good cause to fear my bite."
+
+"You say he's from Pr�neste," said Gabinius, "and yet can he speak
+decent Latin? Doesn't he say '_conia_' for '_ciconia_,' and
+'_tammodo_' for '_tantummodo_'_?_ I wonder you invite such a boor."
+
+"Oh! he can speak good enough Latin," said Lucius. "But I invited him
+because he is rich; and it might be worth our while to make him
+gamble."
+
+"Rich!" lisped Servius Flaccus. "Rich (h)as my (h)uncle the broker?
+That silly straightlac(h)ed fellow, who's (h)a C(h)ato, (h)or worse?
+For shame!"
+
+"Well," said Lucius, "old Crassus used to say that no one who couldn't
+pay out of his own purse for an army was rich. But though Drusus
+cannot do quite that, he has enough sesterces to make happy men of
+most of us, if his fortune were mine or yours."
+
+"(H)its (h)an (h)outrage for him to have (h)it," cried Servius
+Flaccus.
+
+"It's worse than an outrage," replied Ahenobarbus; "it's a sheer
+blunder of the Fates. Remind me to tell you about Drusus and his
+fortune, before I have drunk too much to-night."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Agias went away rejoicing with his new master. Drusus owned an
+apartment house on the Vicus Longus, and there had a furnished suite
+of rooms. He gave Agias into the charge of the porter[56] and ordered
+him to dress the boy's wounds. Cappadox waited on his master when he
+lunched.
+
+  [56] Porter--_Insularius._
+
+"Master Quintus," said he, with the familiar air of a privileged
+servant, "did you see that knavish-looking Gabinius following Madame
+Fabia all the way back to the Temple of Vesta?"
+
+"No," said Drusus; "what do you mean, you silly fellow?"
+
+"Oh, nothing," said Cappadox, humbly. "I only thought it a little
+queer."
+
+"Perhaps so," said his master, carelessly.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IV
+
+Lucius Ahenobarbus Airs His Grievance
+
+
+I
+
+The pomp and gluttony of Roman banquets have been too often described
+to need repetition here; neither would we be edified by learning all
+the orgies that Marcus L�ca (an old Catilinian conspirator) and his
+eight guests indulged in that night: only after the dinner had been
+cleared, and before the Gadesian[57] dancing girls were called in, the
+dice began to rattle, and speedily all were engrossed in drink and
+play.
+
+  [57] From Cadiz, Spain.
+
+Lucius Ahenobarbus soon lost so heavily that he was cursing every god
+that presided over the noble game.
+
+"I am ruined next Ides," he groaned. "Phormio the broker has only
+continued my loan at four per cent a month. All my villas and
+furniture are mortgaged, and will be sold at auction. _Mehercle_,
+destruction stares me in the face!"
+
+"Well, well, my dear fellow," said Pratinas, who, having won the
+stakes, was in a mood to be sympathetic, "we must really see what can
+be done to remedy matters."
+
+"I can see nothing!" was his answer.
+
+"Won't your father come to the rescue?" put in Gabinius, between deep
+pulls on a beaker.
+
+"My father!" snapped Ahenobarbus. "Never a sesterce will I get out of
+him! He's as good as turned me adrift, and Cato my uncle is always
+giving him bad reports of me, like the hypocritical Stoic that Cato
+is."
+
+"By the bye," began Gabinius again, putting down the wine-cup, "you
+hinted to-day that you had been cheated out of a fortune, after a
+manner. Something about that Drusus of Pr�neste, if I recollect.
+What's the story?"
+
+Lucius settled down on his elbow, readjusted the cushions on the
+banqueting couch, and then began, interrupted by many a hiccough
+because of his potations.
+
+"It is quite a story, but I won't bore you with details. It has quite
+as much to do with Cornelia, Lentulus Crus's pretty niece, as with
+Drusus himself. Here it is in short. Sextus Drusus and Caius Lentulus
+were such good friends that, as you know, they betrothed their son and
+daughter when the latter were mere children. To make the compact
+doubly strong, Sextus Drusus inserted in his will a clause like this:
+'Let my son Quintus enjoy the use of my estate and its income, until
+he become twenty-five and cease to be under the care of Flaccus his
+_tutor_.[58] If he die before that time, let his property go to
+Cornelia, the daughter of Caius Lentulus, except;' and here Sextus
+left a small legacy for his own young daughter, Livia. You see Drusus
+can make no will until he is five-and-twenty. But then comes another
+provision. 'If Cornelia shall marry any person save my son, my son
+shall at once be free to dispose of my estates.' So Cornelia is laid
+under a sort of obligation also to marry Quintus. The whole aim of the
+will is to make it very hard for the young people to fail to wed as
+their fathers wished."
+
+  [58] Commercial adviser required for young men under five-and-twenty.
+
+"True," said Gabinius; "but how such an arrangement can affect you and
+your affairs, I really cannot understand."
+
+"That is so," continued Ahenobarbus, "but here is the other side of
+the matter. Caius Lentulus was a firm friend of Sextus Drusus; he also
+was very close and dear to my father. Caius desired that Cornelia wed
+young Drusus, and so enjoined her in his will; but out of compliment
+to my father, put in a clause which was something like this: 'If
+Quintus Drusus die before he marry Cornelia, or refuse to marry
+Cornelia at the proper time, then let Cornelia and all her property be
+given to Lucius, the second son of my dearly loved friend, Lucius
+Domitius Ahenobarbus,' Now I think you will begin to see why Quintus
+Drusus's affairs interest me a little. If he refuse to marry Cornelia
+before he be five-and-twenty, she falls to me. But I understand that
+Lentulus, her uncle, is badly in debt, and her dowry won't be much.
+But if Drusus is not married to her, and die before he is twenty-five,
+_his property is hers and she is mine._ Do you understand why I have a
+little grudge against him?"
+
+"For what?" cried L�ca, with breathless interest.
+
+"For living!" sighed Ahenobarbus, hopelessly.
+
+The handsome face of Pratinas was a study. His nostrils dilated; his
+lips quivered; his eyes were bright and keen with what evidently
+passed in his mind for a great discovery.
+
+"Eureka!" cried the Greek, clapping his hands. "My dear Lucius, let me
+congratulate you! You are saved!"
+
+"What?" exclaimed the young man, starting up.
+
+"You are saved!" repeated Pratinas, all animation. "Drusus's sesterces
+shall be yours! Every one of them!"
+
+Lucius Ahenobarbus was a debauchee, a mere creature of pleasure,
+without principle or character; but even he had a revulsion of spirit
+at the hardly masked proposal of the enthusiastic Greek. He flushed in
+spite of the wine, then turned pale, then stammered, "Don't mention
+such a thing, Pratinas. I was never Drusus's enemy. I dare not dream
+of such a move. The Gods forefend!"
+
+"The Gods?" repeated Pratinas, with a cynical intonation. "Do you
+believe there are any?"
+
+"Do you?" retorted Lucius, feeling all the time that a deadly
+temptation had hold of him, which he could by no means resist.
+
+"Why?" said the Greek. "Your Latin Ennius states my view, in some of
+your rather rough and blundering native tetrameters. He says:--
+
+  "'There's a race of gods in heaven; so I've said and still will say.
+  But I deem that we poor mortals do not come beneath their sway.
+  Otherwise the good would triumph, whereas evil reigns to-day.'"
+
+"And you advise?" said Ahenobarbus, leaning forward with pent-up
+excitement.
+
+"I advise?" replied Pratinas; "I am only a poor ignorant Hellene, and
+who am I, to give advice to Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, a most noble
+member of the most noble of nations!"
+
+If Pratinas had said: "My dear Lucius, you are a thick-headed,
+old-fashioned, superstitious Roman, whom I, in my superior wisdom,
+utterly despise," he would have produced about the same effect upon
+young Ahenobarbus.
+
+But Lucius still fluttered vainly,--a very weak conscience whispering
+that Drusus had never done him any harm; that murder was a dangerous
+game, and that although his past life had been bad enough, he had
+never made any one--unless it were a luckless slave or two--the victim
+of bloodthirsty passion or rascality.
+
+"Don't propose it," he groaned. "I don't dare to think of such a
+thing! What disgrace and trouble, if it should all come out!"
+
+"Come, come, Ahenobarbus," thrust in Marcus L�ca, who had been
+educated in Catilina's school for polite villains and cut-throats.
+"Pratinas is only proposing what, if you were a man of spirit, would
+have been done long ago. You can't complain of Fortune, when she's put
+a handsome estate in your hands for the asking."
+
+"My admirable fellow," said Pratinas, benevolently, "I highly applaud
+your scruples. But, permit me to say it, I must ask you to defer to me
+as being a philosopher. Let us look at the matter in a rational way.
+We have gotten over any bogies which our ancestors had about Hades, or
+the punishments of the wicked. In fact, what we know--as good
+Epicureans--is that, as Democritus of Abdera[59] early taught, this
+world of ours is composed of a vast number of infinitely small and
+indivisible atoms, which have by some strange hap come to take the
+forms we see in the world of life and matter. Now the soul of man is
+also of atoms, only they are finer and more subtile. At death these
+atoms are dissolved, and so far as that man is concerned, all is over
+with him. The atoms may recombine, or join with others, but never form
+anew that same man. Hence we may fairly conclude that this life is
+everything and death ends all. Do you follow, and see to what I am
+leading?"
+
+  [59] Born about 470 B.C.
+
+"I think so," said the wretched Lucius, feeling himself like a bird
+caught in a snare, yet not exactly grasping the direct bearing of all
+this learned exposition.
+
+"My application is this," went on Pratinas, glibly. "Life is all--all
+either for pleasure or pain. Therefore every man has a right to
+extract all the sweetness he can out of it. But suppose a man
+deliberately makes himself gloomy, extracts no joy from life; lets
+himself be overborne by care and sorrow,--is not such a man better
+dead than living? Is not a dreamless sleep preferable to misery or
+even cold asceticism? And how much more does this all apply when we
+see a man who makes himself unhappy, preventing by his very act of
+existence the happiness of another more equably tempered mortal! Now I
+believe this is the present case. Drusus, I understand, is leading a
+spare, joyless, workaday sort of existence, which is, or by every
+human law should be, to him a burden. So long as he lives, he prevents
+you from enjoying the means of acquiring pleasure. Now I have Socrates
+of imperishable memory on my side, when I assert that death under any
+circumstances is either no loss or a very great gain. Considering then
+the facts of the case in its philosophic and rational bearings, I may
+say this: Not merely would it be no wrong to remove Drusus from a
+world in which he is evidently out of place, but I even conceive such
+an act to rise to the rank of a truly meritorious deed."
+
+Lucius Ahenobarbus was conquered. He could not resist the inexorable
+logic of this train of reasoning, all the premises of which he fully
+accepted. Perhaps, we should add, he was not very unwilling to have
+his wine-befuddled intellect satisfied, and his conscience stilled. He
+turned down a huge beaker of liquor, and coughed forth:--
+
+"Right as usual, Pratinas! By all the gods, but I believe you can save
+me!"
+
+"Yes; as soon as Drusus is dead," insinuated the Greek who was already
+computing his bill for brokerage in this little affair, "you can raise
+plenty of loans, on the strength of your coming marriage with
+Cornelia."
+
+"But how will you manage it?" put in the alert Gabinius. "There
+mustn't be any clumsy bungling."
+
+"Rest assured," said Pratinas, with a grave dignity, perhaps the
+result of his drinking, "that in my affairs I leave no room for
+bungling."
+
+"And your plan is--" asked Lucius.
+
+"Till to-morrow, friend," said the Greek; "meet me at the Temple of
+Saturn, just before dusk. Then I'll be ready."
+
+
+II
+
+Lucius Ahenobarbus's servants escorted their tipsy master home to his
+lodgings in a fashionable apartment house on the Esquiline. When he
+awoke, it was late the next day, and head and wits were both sadly the
+worse for the recent entertainment. Finally a bath and a luncheon
+cleared his brain, and he realized his position. He was on the brink
+of concocting a deliberate murder. Drusus had never wronged him; the
+crime would be unprovoked; avarice would be its only justification.
+Ahenobarbus had done many things which a far laxer code of ethics than
+that of to-day would frown upon; but, as said, he had never committed
+murder--at least had only had crucified those luckless slaves, who did
+not count. He roused with a start, as from a dream. What if Pratinas
+were wrong? What if there were really gods, and furies, and
+punishments for the wicked after death? And then came the other side
+of the shield: a great fortune his; all his debts paid off; unlimited
+chances for self-enjoyment; last, but not least, Cornelia his. She had
+slighted him, and turned her back upon all his advances; and now what
+perfect revenge! Lucius was more in love with Cornelia than he
+admitted even to himself. He would even give up Clyte, if he could
+possess her. And so the mental battle went on all day; and the prick
+of conscience, the fears of superstition, and the lingerings of
+religion ever grew fainter. Near nightfall he was at his post, at the
+Temple of Saturn. Pratinas was awaiting him. The Greek had only a few
+words of greeting, and the curt injunction:--"Draw your cloak up to
+shield your face, and follow me." Then they passed out from the Forum,
+forced their way through the crowded streets, and soon were through
+the _Porta Ratumena,_ outside the walls, and struck out across the
+Campus Martius, upon the Via Flaminia. It was rapidly darkening. The
+houses grew fewer and fewer. At a little distance the dim structures
+of the Portico and Theatre of Pompeius could be seen, looming up to an
+exaggerated size in the evening haze. A grey fog was drifting up from
+the Tiber, and out of a rift in a heavy cloud-bank a beam of the
+imprisoned moon was struggling. Along the road were peasants with
+their carts and asses hastening home. Over on the Pincian Mount the
+dark green masses of the splendid gardens of Pompeius and of Lucullus
+were just visible. The air was filled with the croak of frogs and the
+chirp of crickets, and from the river came the creak of the sculls and
+paddles of a cumbrous barge that was working its way down the Tiber.
+
+Ahenobarbus felt awed and uncomfortable. Pratinas, with his mantle
+wrapped tightly around his head, continued at a rapid pace. Lucius had
+left his attendants at home, and now began to recall gruesome tales of
+highwaymen and bandits frequenting this region after dark. His fears
+were not allayed by noticing that underneath his himation Pratinas
+occasionally let the hilt of a short sword peep forth. Still the Greek
+kept on, never turning to glance at a filthy, half-clad beggar, who
+whined after them for an alms, and who did not so much as throw a kiss
+after the young Roman when the latter tossed forth a denarius,[60] but
+snatched up the coin, muttered at its being no more, and vanished into
+the gathering gloom.
+
+  [60] Four sesterces, 16 cents.
+
+"Where are you leading me?" asked Ahenobarbus, a second time, after
+all his efforts to communicate with the usually fluent Greek met with
+only monosyllables.
+
+"To the _lanista_[61] Dumnorix," replied Pratinas, quickening an
+already rapid pace.
+
+  [61] Keeper of a school of gladiators.
+
+"And his barracks are--?"
+
+"By the river, near the Mulvian bridge."
+
+At length a pile of low square buildings was barely visible in the
+haze. It was close to the Tiber, and the rush of the water against the
+piling of the bridge was distinctly audible. As the two drew near to a
+closed gateway, a number of mongrel dogs began to snap and bark around
+them. From within the building came the roar of coarse hilarity and
+coarser jests. As Pratinas approached the solidly barred doorway, a
+grating was pushed aside and a rude voice demanded:--
+
+"Your business? What are you doing here?"
+
+"Is Dumnorix sober?" replied Pratinas, nothing daunted. "If so, tell
+him to come and speak with me. I have something for his advantage."
+
+Either Pratinas was well known at the gladiators' school, or something
+in his speech procured favour. There was a rattling of chains and
+bolts, and the door swung open. A man of unusual height and ponderous
+proportions appeared in the opening. That was all which could be seen
+in the semi-darkness.
+
+"You are Pratinas?" he asked, speaking Latin with a northern accent.
+The Hellene nodded, and replied softly: "Yes. No noise. Tell Dumnorix
+to come quietly."
+
+The two stepped in on to the flags of a courtyard, and the doorkeeper,
+after rebolting, vanished into the building. Ahenobarbus could only
+see that he was standing in a large stone-paved court, perhaps one
+hundred and forty feet wide and considerably longer. A colonnade of
+low whitewashed pillars ran all about: and behind them stretched rows
+of small rooms and a few larger apartments. There were _tyros_
+practising with wooden swords in one of the rooms, whence a light
+streamed, and a knot of older gladiators was urging them on, mocking,
+praising, and criticising their efforts. Now and then a burly
+gladiator would stroll across the court; but the young noble and his
+escort remained hidden in shadow.
+
+Presently a door opened at the other end of the courtyard, and some
+one with a lantern began to come toward the entrance. Long before the
+stranger was near, Ahenobarbus thought he was rising like a giant out
+of the darkness; and when at last Dumnorix--for it was he--was close
+at hand, both Roman and Greek seemed veritable dwarfs beside him.
+
+Dumnorix--so far as he could be seen in the lantern light--was a
+splendid specimen of a northern giant. He was at least six feet five
+inches in height, and broad proportionately. His fair straight hair
+tumbled in disorder over his shoulders, and his prodigiously long
+mustaches seemed, to the awed Ahenobarbus, almost to curl down to his
+neck. His breath came in hot pants like a winded horse, and when he
+spoke, it was in short Latin monosyllables, interlarded with
+outlandish Gallic oaths. He wore cloth trousers with bright stripes of
+red and orange; a short-sleeved cloak of dark stuff, falling down to
+the thigh; and over the cloak, covering back and shoulders, another
+sleeveless mantle, clasped under the chin with a huge golden buckle.
+At his right thigh hung, from a silver set girdle, by weighty bronze
+chains, a heavy sabre, of which the steel scabbard banged noisily as
+its owner advanced.
+
+"Holla! Pratinas," cried the Gaul, as he came close. "By the holy oak!
+but I'm glad to see you! Come to my room. Have a flagon of our good
+northern mead."
+
+"Hist," said the Greek, cautiously. "Not so boisterous. Better stay
+here in the dark. I can't tell who of your men may hear us."
+
+"As you say," said Dumnorix, setting down the light at a little
+distance and coming closer.
+
+"You remember that little affair of last year," said Pratinas,
+continuing;--"how you helped me get rid of a witness in a very
+troublesome law case?"
+
+"Ha! ha!" chuckled the giant, "I wish I had the sesterces I won then,
+in my coffer now."
+
+"Well," replied Pratinas, "I don't need to tell you what I and my
+noble friend here--Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus--have come for. A
+little more business along the same line. Are you our man?"
+
+"I should say so," answered Dumnorix, with a grin worthy of a baboon.
+"Only make it worth my while."
+
+"Now," said Pratinas, sinking his voice still lower, "this affair of
+ours will pay you well; but it is more delicate than the other. A
+blunder will spoil it all. You must do your best; and we will do the
+fair thing by you."
+
+"Go on," said the Gaul, folding his huge paws on his breast.
+
+"Have you ever been in Pr�neste?" questioned Pratinas.
+
+"I matched two _mirmillones_[62] of mine there against two
+_threces_[63] of another lanista, and my dogs won the prize; but I
+can't say that I am acquainted with the place," answered the other.
+
+  [62] Gladiators equipped as Gaulish warriors.
+
+  [63] Buckler men.
+
+"You should find out, then," said Pratinas, "for here lies your work."
+And then he proceeded, with occasional prompting from the
+better-informed Ahenobarbus, to point out the location of Drusus's
+estate, and the character and habits of the man whom Dumnorix was
+cheerfully proposing to put out of the way. Dumnorix assented and bade
+him go on, with hoarse grunts; and when the Greek had concluded,
+growled out in his barbarous Latin:--
+
+"But why all this pother? Why not let me send a knave or two and knock
+the fellow some dark night in the head? It will save us both time and
+trouble."
+
+"My excellent master of the gladiators," said Pratinas, as smoothly as
+ever, "you must not take it ill, if I tell you that to have a taking
+off such as you propose would be a very bad thing both for you and the
+most noble Ahenobarbus. This Drusus is not a helpless wight, without
+friends, waiting to become the fair prey of any dagger man.[64] He has
+friends, I have learned, who, if he were to be disposed of in such a
+rude and bungling manner, would not fail to probe deeply into the
+whole thing. Flaccus the great banker, notably, would spare no pains
+to bring the responsibility of the matter home, not merely to the poor
+wretch who struck the blow, but the persons who placed the weapon in
+his hands. All of which would be very awkward for Ahenobarbus. No,
+your rough-and-ready plan won't in the least work."
+
+  [64] _Sicarius_.
+
+"Well," replied Dumnorix, testily, "I'm a man of shallow wits and hard
+blows. If I had been of keener mind, the gods know, I would have been
+a free chief among the Nervii, instead of making sport for these
+straw-limbed Romans. If what I propose won't answer, what can be
+done?"
+
+"A great deal," said Pratinas, who knew perfectly how to cringe low,
+yet preserve his ascendency; "first of all, it is very necessary that
+the murderers of the amiable Drusus should receive a meet reward for
+their crime--that justice should be speedy and severe."
+
+"Man!" cried Dumnorix, griping the Greek's arm in his tremendous
+clutch. "What are you asking?"
+
+"By  Zeus!" burst out Pratinas, rubbing his crushed member. "What a
+grip is yours! Don't be alarmed. Surely you would be as willing to
+have one or two of your newest _tiros_ hung on a cross, as stabbed on
+the arena--especially when it will pay a great deal better?"
+
+"I don't follow you," said the Gaul, though a little reassured.
+
+"Simply this," said Pratinas, who evidently felt that he was coming to
+the revealing of an especially brilliant piece of _finesse_. "My
+general proposal is this. Let you and your company march through
+Pr�neste,--of course carefully timing your march so as to find the
+innocent and unfortunate Drusus at his farm. You will have a very
+disorderly band of gladiators, and they begin to attack Drusus's
+orchard, and maltreat his slaves. You try to stop them,--without
+avail. Finally, in a most unfortunate and outrageous outbreak they
+slay the master of the house. The tumult is quelled. The heirs proceed
+against you. You can only hand over the murderers for crucifixion, and
+offer to pay any money damages that may be imposed. A heavy fine is
+laid upon you, as being responsible for the killing of Drusus by your
+slaves. You pay the damages. Ahenobarbus marries Cornelia and enters
+upon the estate. The world says that all that can be done to atone for
+Drusus's murder has been done. All of the guilty are punished. The
+dead cannot be recalled. The matter is at an end. Ahenobarbus has what
+he wished for; you have all the money you paid in damages quietly
+refunded; also the cost of the poor rascals crucified, and a fair sum
+over and above for your trouble."
+
+"By the god Belew!"[65] cried the enthusiastic Dumnorix. "What a
+clever plan! How the world will be cheated! Ha! ha! How sharp you
+little Greeks must be. Only I must have fair return for my work, and
+an oath that the business shall never be coming to the point of giving
+my eyes to the crows. I can't risk my life in anything but a square
+fight."
+
+  [65] The Gallic sun-god.
+
+"Well," said Pratinas, after a few words with his companion, "how will
+this proposition suit you? All expenses, before and after the affair
+itself, of course refunded; one hundred thousand sesterces clear gain
+for doing the deed, twenty-five thousand sesterces for every poor
+fellow we have to nail up to satisfy the law, and you to be guaranteed
+against any evil consequence. Is this sufficient?"
+
+"I think so," growled Dumnorix, in his mustaches, "but I must have the
+oath."
+
+"The oath?" said Pratinas, "oh, certainly!" and the Greek raised his
+hands toward heaven, and muttered some words to the effect that "if he
+and his friend did not fulfil their oath, let Zeus, the regarder of
+oaths, destroy them," etc., etc.--an imprecation which certainly, so
+far as words went, was strong enough to bind the most graceless. Then
+he proceeded to arrange with Dumnorix how the latter should wait until
+it was known Drusus had gone back to Pr�neste, and was likely to stay
+there for some time; as to how many gladiators the lanista was to have
+ready. Dumnorix complained that the rather recent law against keeping
+gladiators at Rome prevented him from assembling in his school any
+considerable number. But out of his heterogeneous collection of Gauls,
+Germans, Spaniards, Greeks, and Asiatics he would find enough who
+could be used for the purpose without letting them know the full
+intent with which they were launched against Drusus. At all events, if
+their testimony was taken, it would have to be as slaves on the rack;
+and if they accused their master of instigating them to riot, it was
+what any person would expect of such degraded and lying wretches. So,
+after promising to come again with final word and some bags of
+earnest-money, Pratinas parted with the lanista, and he and Lucius
+Ahenobarbus found themselves again in the now entirely darkened Campus
+Martius. Lucius again feared brigands, but they fell in with no
+unpleasant nocturnal wayfarers, and reached the city without incident.
+Ahenobarbus seemed to himself to be treading on air--Cornelia, villas,
+Drusus's money--these were dancing in his head in a delightful
+confusion. He had abandoned himself completely to the sway of
+Pratinas; the Greek was omniscient, was invincible, was a greater than
+Odysseus. Ahenobarbus hardly dared to think for himself as to the plan
+which his friend had arranged for him. One observation, however, he
+made before they parted.
+
+"You swore that Dumnorix should get into no trouble. May it not prove
+expensive to keep him out of difficulty?"
+
+"My dear Lucius," replied Pratinas, "in cases of that kind there is a
+line from the Hippolytus of the immortal tragedian Euripides, which
+indicates the correct attitude for a philosopher and a man of
+discretion to assume. It runs thus,--
+
+  "'My tongue an oath took, but my mind's unsworn.'
+
+Not an inelegant sentiment, as you must see."
+
+
+III
+
+We left the excellent man of learning, Pisander, in no happy frame of
+mind, after Agias had been dragged away, presumably to speedy doom.
+And indeed for many days the shadow of Valeria's crime, for it was
+nothing else, plunged him in deep melancholy. Pisander was not a fool,
+only amongst his many good qualities he did not possess that of being
+able to make a success in life. He had been tutor to a young Asiatic
+prince, and had lost his position by a local revolution; then he had
+drifted to Alexandria, and finally Rome, where he had struggled first
+to teach philosophy, and found no pupils to listen to his lectures;
+then to conduct an elementary school, but his scholars' parents were
+backward in paying even the modest fees he charged. Finally, in sheer
+despair, to keep from starving, he accepted the position as Valeria's
+"house-philosopher."
+
+His condition was infinitely unsatisfactory for a variety of reasons.
+The good lady wished him to be at her elbow, ready to read from the
+philosophers or have on hand a talk on ethics or metaphysics to
+deliver extempore. Besides, though not a slave or freedman, he fared
+in the household much worse sometimes than they. A slave stole the
+dainties, and drained a beaker of costly wine on the sly. Pisander,
+like Thales, who was so intent looking at the stars that he fell into
+a well, "was so eager to know what was going on in heaven that he
+could not see what was before his feet."[66] And consequently the poor
+pedant dined on the remnants left after his employer and her husband
+had cleared the board; and had rancid oil and sour wine given him,
+when they enjoyed the best. The slaves had snubbed him and made fun of
+him; the freedmen regarded him with absolute disdain; Valeria's
+regular visitors treated him as a nonentity. Besides, all his
+standards of ethical righteousness were outraged by the round of life
+which he was compelled daily to witness. The worthy man would long
+before have ceased from a vassalage so disgraceful, had he possessed
+any other means of support. Once he meditated suicide, but was scared
+out of it by the thought that his bones would moulder in those huge
+pits on the Esquiline--far from friend or native land--where artisans,
+slaves, and cattle, creatures alike without means of decent burial,
+were left under circumstances unspeakably revolting to moulder away to
+dust.
+
+  [66] See Plato's "The�tetus," 174.
+
+The day of Agias's misfortune, Pisander sat in his corner of the
+boudoir, after Valeria had left it, in a very unphilosophical rage,
+gnawing his beard and cursing inwardly his mistress, Pratinas, and the
+world in general.
+
+Arsino� with a pale, strained face was moving about, replacing the
+bottles of cosmetics and perfumery in cabinets and caskets. Pisander
+had been kind to Arsino�, and had taught her to read; and there was a
+fairly firm friendship between the slave and the luckless man, who
+felt himself degraded by an equal bondage.
+
+"Poor Agias," muttered Pisander.
+
+"Poor Agias," repeated Arsino�, mournfully; then in some scorn, "Come,
+Master Pisander, now is the time to console yourself with your
+philosophy. Call out everything,--your Zeno, or Parmenides, or
+Heraclitus, or others of the thousand nobodies I've heard you praise
+to Valeria,--and make thereby my heart a jot the less sore, or Agias's
+death the less bitter! Don't sit there and snap at your beard, if your
+philosophy is good for anything! People used to pray to the gods in
+trouble, but you philosophers turn the gods into mists or thin air.
+You are a man! You are free! Do something! Say something!"
+
+"But what can I do?" groaned Pisander, bursting into tears, and
+wishing for the instant Epicureans, Stoics, Eclectics, Peripatetics,
+and every other school of learning in the nethermost Hades.
+
+"_Phui!_ Fudge!" cried Arsino�. "What is life made for then, if a man
+who has spent all his days studying it is as good as helpless! Look at
+me! Have I not hands, feet, a head, and wits? Am I not as well
+informed and naturally capable as three fine ladies out of every four?
+Would I not look as handsome as they, if I had a chance to wear their
+dresses and jewels? Have I any blemish, any defect, that makes me
+cease to be a woman, and become a thing? Bah, master _Pisander!_ I am
+only a slave, but I will talk. Why does my blood boil at the fate of
+Agias, if it was not meant that it should heat up for some end? And
+yet I am as much a piece of property of that woman whom I hate, as
+this chair or casket. I have a right to no hope, no ambition, no
+desire, no reward. I can only aspire to live without brutal treatment.
+That would be a sort of Elysium. If I was brave enough, I would kill
+myself, and go to sleep and forget it all. But I am weak and cowardly,
+and so--here I am."
+
+Pisander only groaned and went away to his room to turn over his
+Aristotle, and wonder why nothing in the "Nicomachean Ethics" or any
+other learned treatise contained the least word that made him
+contented over the fate of Agias or his own unhappy situation. Arsino�
+and Semiramis, when he went from them, cried, and cried again, in pity
+and helpless grief at their whole situation. And so a considerable
+number of days passed. Calatinus could have given joy to the hearts of
+several in his household if he had simply remembered that Agias had
+not been scourged to death, but sold. But Calatinus feared, now that
+he was well out of the matter, to stir up an angry scene with his
+wife, by hinting that Agias had not been punished according to her
+orders. Alfidius, too, and the other slaves with him, imagined that
+his mistress would blame them if they admitted that Agias was alive.
+So the household gathered, by the silence of all concerned, that the
+bright Greek boy had long since passed beyond power of human torment.
+Pisander recovered part of his equanimity, and Arsino� and Semiramis
+began to see life a shade less darkened.
+
+Pratinas occasionally repeated his morning calls upon Valeria. He
+seemed much engrossed with business, but was always the same suave,
+elegant, accomplished personage that had endeared him to that lady's
+heart. One morning he came in, in unusually good spirits.
+"Congratulate me," he exclaimed, after saluting Valeria; "I have
+disposed of a very delicate piece of work, and my mind can take a
+little rest. At least I have roughly chiselled out the matter, as a
+sculptor would say, and can now wait a bit before finishing. Ah! what
+elegant study is this which is engrossing your ladyship this morning?"
+
+"Pisander is reading from the works of Gorgias of Leontini," said
+Valeria, languidly.
+
+"To be sure," went on Pratinas; "I have always had the greatest
+respect for the three nihilistic propositions of that philosopher. To
+read him one is half convinced of the affirmation that nothing exists;
+that if anything existed, the fact could not be known, and that if the
+fact were known, it could not be communicated; although of course, my
+dear madam, there are very grave objections to accepting such views in
+their fulness."
+
+"Of course," echoed Valeria. "Pisander, read Pratinas that little poem
+of Archilochus, whose sentiment I so much admired, when I happened on
+it yesterday."
+
+Pisander fumbled among his rolls, then read, perhaps throwing a bit of
+sarcasm into his tone:--
+
+  "Gyges'[67] wealth and honours great
+    Come not nigh to me!
+  Heavenly pow'r, or tyrant's state,
+    I'll not envy thee.
+  Swift let any sordid prize
+  Fade and vanish from my eyes!"
+
+  [67] A Lydian king whose wealth was placed on a par with that of the
+  better known Croesus.
+
+"Your ladyship," said Pratinas, appearing entranced by the lines, "is
+ever in search of the pearls of refined expression!"
+
+"I wish," said Valeria, whose mind ran from Gorgias to Archilochus,
+and then back to quite foreign matters, with lightning rapidity, "you
+would tell Kallias, the sculptor, that the head-dress on my statue in
+the atrium must be changed. I don't arrange my hair that way any
+longer. He must put on a new head-dress without delay."[68]
+
+  [68] Such alterations were actually made in Rome.
+
+"Certainly," assented the Greek.
+
+"And now," said the lady, half entreating, half insinuating, "_you
+must_ tell me what has made you so abstracted lately; that business
+you mentioned, which compelled you to restrict your calls."
+
+"My dear Valeria," said Pratinas, casting a glance over at Pisander in
+his corner, "I dislike mysteries; but perhaps there are some things
+which I had better not reveal to any one. Don't be offended, but--"
+
+"I am offended," exclaimed the lady, striking her lap with her hands,
+"and I accept no '_buts_.' I will be as silent about all your affairs
+as about the mysteries of the _Bona Dea_.[69]"
+
+  [69] To whose mysteries only women were admitted.
+
+"I believe I can be confident you will not betray me," said Pratinas,
+who in fact considered precautions that were necessary to take among
+so blundering and thick-witted people as the Latins, almost
+superfluous. He muttered to himself, "I wouldn't dare to do this in
+Alexandria,--prate of a murder,--" and then glanced again toward
+Pisander.
+
+"Pisander," said Valeria, sharply, noting Pratinas's disquietude, "go
+out of the room. I don't need you at present."
+
+Pisander, unlike many contemporaries, was affected by a sensitive
+conscience. But if there was one man whom he despised to the bottom of
+his soul, it was Pratinas. Pratinas had lorded it over him and
+patronized him, in a way which drove the mild-tempered man of learning
+to desperation. The spirit of evil entered into the heart of Pisander
+as he left the room. The average chatter of Pratinas and Valeria had
+been gall and wormwood to him, and he had been glad enough to evade
+it; but here was Pratinas with a secret which he clearly did not wish
+Pisander to know. And Pisander, prompted by most unphilosophical
+motives, resolved within himself to play the eavesdropper. The boudoir
+was approached by three doors, one from the peristylium, one from
+Valeria's private sleeping chamber, one from the servants' quarters.
+Pisander went out through the first, and going through other rooms to
+the third, took his station by that entrance. He met Arsino�, and took
+the friendly maid into his plot, by stationing her on guard to prevent
+the other servants from interfering with him. Then applying his ear to
+the large keyhole of the door, he could understand all that was
+passing in the boudoir. What Pratinas was saying it is hardly
+necessary to repeat. The Greek was relating with infinite zest, and to
+Valeria's intense delight and amusement, the story of the two wills
+which placed Drusus's estate and the hand of Cornelia within reach of
+Lucius Ahenobarbus; of the manner in which this last young man had
+been induced to take steps to make way with an unfortunate rival.
+Finally, in a low, half-audible tone, he told of the provisional
+arrangements with Dumnorix, and how very soon the plan was to be put
+in execution.
+
+"And you must be sure and tell me," cried Valeria, clapping her hands
+when Pratinas concluded, "what the details of the affair all are, and
+when and how you succeed. Poor Quintus Drusus! I am really sorry for
+him. But when one doesn't make use of what Fortune has given him,
+there is nothing else to do!"
+
+"Yes," said Pratinas, sententiously. "He who fails to realize what is
+for him the highest good, forfeits, thereby, the right to life
+itself."
+
+Pisander slipped away from the keyhole, with a white face, and panting
+for breath. Briefly, he repeated what he had gathered to Arsino�, then
+blurted out:--
+
+"I will go in and meet that well-oiled villain face to face. By Zeus!
+I will make him feel the depths of an honest man's scorn and
+indignation!"
+
+"You will be a fool," replied Arsino�, quietly, "if you do. Valeria
+would instantly dismiss you from her service."
+
+"I will go at once to Drusus," asserted Pisander.
+
+"Drusus may or may not be convinced that what you say is true,"
+answered the girl; "but he, I gather from what you repeat, has just
+gone back to Pr�neste. Before you could reach Pr�neste, you are a dead
+man."
+
+"How so?" demanded the excited philosopher, brandishing his fists. "I
+am as strong as Pratinas."
+
+"How little wisdom," commented Arsino�, "you do gather from your
+books! Can't you see Pratinas is a reckless scoundrel--with every
+gladiator in Dumnorix's school at his call if needs be--who would stop
+at nothing to silence promptly the mouth of a dangerous witness? This
+isn't worse than many another case. Don't share the ruin of a man who
+is an utter stranger! We have troubles enough of our own."
+
+And with this consolation Arsino� left him, again consumed with
+impotent rage.
+
+"Villain," fumed Pisander to himself, "if I could only place my
+fingers round your neck! But what can I do? What can I do? I am
+helpless, friendless, penniless! And I can only tear out my heart, and
+pretend to play the philosopher. I, a philosopher! If I were a true
+one, I would have had the courage to kill myself before this."
+
+And in this mental state he continued, till he learned that Pratinas
+had taken his farewell, and that Calatinus wished him--since all the
+slaves seemed busy, and the poor house philosopher was often sent on
+menial errands--to go to the _Forum Boarium_,[70] and bring back some
+ribs of beef for a dinner that evening. Pisander went as bidden,
+tugging a large basket, and trying to muster up courage to continue
+his walk to the Fabrician Bridge, and plunge into the Tiber. In
+classic days suicide was a commendable act under a great many
+circumstances, and Pisander was perfectly serious and sincere in his
+belief that he and the world had been companions too long for the good
+of either. But the jar and din of the streets certainly served to make
+connected philosophical meditation upon the futility and unimportance
+of human existence decidedly unfruitful. By the time he reached the
+cattle-market the noise of this strange place drove all suicidal
+intentions from him. Butchers were slaughtering kine; drovers were
+driving oxen off of barges that had come down the Tiber; sheep and
+goats were bleating--everywhere around the stalls, booths, shops, and
+pens was the bustle of an enormous traffic. Pisander picked his way
+through the crowd, searching for the butcher to whom he had been
+especially sent. He had gone as far as the ancient shrine of Mater
+Matuta, which found place in these seemingly unhallowed precincts,
+when, as he gazed into the throng before him, his hair stood as it
+were on end, his voice choked in his throat, and cold sweat broke out
+over him. The next moment his hand was seized by another, young and
+hearty, and he was gasping forth the name of Agias.
+
+  [70] Cattle-market.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter V
+
+A Very Old Problem
+
+
+I
+
+Drusus had at last finished the business which centred around the
+death of his uncle, old Publius Vibulanus. He had walked behind the
+bier, in company with the other relatives of the deceased--all very
+distant, saving himself. On the day, too, of the funeral, he had been
+obliged to make his first public oration--a eulogy delivered in the
+Forum from the Rostra--in which Drusus tried to pay a graceful but not
+fulsome tribute to the old eques, who had never distinguished himself
+in any way, except the making of money. The many clients of Vibulanus,
+who now looked upon the young man as their patron, had raised a
+prodigious din of applause during the oration, and Quintus was
+flattered to feel that he had not studied rhetoric in vain. Finally,
+as next of kin, he had to apply the torch to the funeral pyre, and
+preside over the funeral feast, held by custom nine days after the
+actual burning, and over the contests of gladiators which took place
+at this festivity. Meanwhile Sextus Flaccus had been attending to the
+legal business connected with the transfer of the dead man's estate to
+his heir. All this took time--time which Drusus longed to be spending
+with Cornelia in shady and breezy Pr�neste, miles from unhealthy,
+half-parched Rome.
+
+Drusus had sent Agias ahead to Cornelia, as soon as the poor boy had
+recovered in the least from his brutal scourging. The lad had parted
+from his deliverer with the most extravagant demonstrations of
+gratitude, which Quintus had said he could fully repay by implicit
+devotion to Cornelia. How that young lady had been pleased with her
+present, Drusus could not tell; although he had sent along a letter
+explaining the circumstances of the case. But Quintus had other things
+on his mind than Agias and his fortunes, on the morning when at last
+he turned his face away from the sultry capital, and found his
+carriage whirling him once more over the Campagna.
+
+Drusus had by personal experience learned the bitterness of the
+political struggle in which he had elected to take part. The C�sarians
+at Rome (Balbus, Antonius, and Curio) had welcomed him to their
+number, for young as he was, his wealth and the prestige of the Livian
+name were not to be despised. And Drusus saw how, as in his younger
+days he had not realized, the whole fabric of the state was in an evil
+way, and rapidly approaching its mending or ending. The Roman Republic
+had exported legions; she had imported slaves, who heaped up vast
+riches for their masters, while their competition reduced the free
+peasantry to starvation. And now a splendid aristocracy claimed to
+rule a subject world, while the "Roman people" that had conquered that
+world were a degenerate mob, whose suffrages in the elections were
+purchasable--almost openly--by the highest bidder. The way was not
+clear before Drusus; he only saw, with his blind, Pagan vision, that
+no real liberty existed under present conditions; that Pompeius and
+his allies, the Senate party, were trying to perpetuate the
+aristocracy in power, and that C�sar, the absent proconsul of the
+Gauls, stood, at least, for a sweeping reform. And so the young man
+made his decision and waited the march of events.
+
+But once at Pr�neste all these forebodings were thrust into the
+background. The builders and frescoers had done their work well in his
+villa. A new colonnade was being erected. Coloured mosaic floors were
+being laid. The walls of the rooms were all a-dance with bright Cupids
+and Bacchantes--cheerful apartments for their prospective mistress.
+But it was over to the country-house of the Lentuli that Drusus made
+small delay to hasten, there to be in bliss in company with Cornelia,
+
+"And how," he asked, after the young lady had talked of a dozen
+innocent nothings, "do you like Agias, the boy I sent you?"
+
+"I can never thank you enough--at least if he is always as clever and
+witty as he has been since I have had him," was the reply. "I was
+vexed at first to have a servant with such dreadful scars all over
+him; but he is more presentable now. And he has a very droll way of
+saying bright things. What fun he has made of Livia's dear mother, his
+former mistress! I shall have to give up reading any wise authors, if
+it will make me grow like Valeria. Then, too, Agias has won my favour,
+if in no other way, by getting a thick grass stem out of the throat of
+my dear little pet sparrow, that was almost choking to death. I am so
+grateful to you for him!"
+
+"I am very glad you are fond of him," said Drusus. "Has your uncle
+come back from Rome yet? I did not meet him while there. I was busy;
+and besides, to speak honestly, I have a little hesitation in seeing
+him, since the political situation is so tense."
+
+"He returns to-night, I believe," replied Cornelia. Then as if a bit
+apprehensive, "Tell me about the world, Drusus; I don't care to be one
+of those fine ladies of the sort of Clodia,[71] who are all in the
+whirl of politics, and do everything a man does except to speak in the
+Senate; but I like to know what is going on. There isn't going to be a
+riot, I hope, as there was two years ago, when no consuls were
+elected, and Pompeius had to become sole magistrate?"
+
+  [71] She was a sister of Clodius, a famous demagogue, and was a
+  brilliant though abandoned woman.
+
+"There have been no tumults so far," said Drusus, who did not care to
+unfold all his fears and expectations.
+
+"Yet things are in a very bad way, I hear," said Cornelia "Can't C�sar
+and my uncle's party agree?"
+
+"I'm afraid not," replied Drusus, shaking his head. "C�sar wishes to
+be consul a second time. Pompeius and he were friends when at Lucca
+six years ago this was agreed on. C�sar was then promised that he
+should have his Gallic proconsulship up to the hour when he should be
+consul, and besides Pompeius promised to have permission granted C�sar
+to be elected consul, without appearing as a candidate in Rome; so at
+no moment was C�sar to be without office,[72] and consequently he was
+not to be liable to prosecution from his enemies. All this was secured
+to C�sar by the laws,--laws which Pompeius aided to have enacted. But
+now Crassus the third triumvir is dead; Julia, C�sar's daughter and
+Pompeius's wife, whom both dearly loved, is dead. And Pompeius has
+been persuaded by your uncle and his friends to break with C�sar and
+repudiate his promise. C�sar and Pompeius have long been so powerful
+together that none could shake their authority; but if one falls away
+and combines with the common enemy, what but trouble is to be
+expected?"
+
+  [72] Without the _imperium_--so long as a Roman official held this
+  he was above prosecution.
+
+"The enemy! the enemy!" repeated Cornelia, looking down, and sighing.
+"Quintus, these feuds are a dreadful thing. Can't you," and here she
+threw a bit of pathetic entreaty into her voice, "join with my uncle's
+party, and be his friend? I hate to think of having my husband at
+variance with the man who stands in place of my father."
+
+Drusus took her face between his hands, and looked straight at her.
+They were standing within the colonnade of the villa of the Lentuli,
+and the sunlight streaming between the pillars fell directly upon
+Cornelia's troubled face, and made a sort of halo around her.
+
+"My dearest, delectissima," said Quintus, earnestly, "I could not
+honourably take your hand in marriage, if I had not done that which my
+conscience, if not my reason, tells me is the only right thing to do.
+It grieves me to hurt you; but we are not fickle Greeks, nor servile
+Easterns; but Romans born to rule, and because born to rule, born to
+count nothing dear that will tend to advance the strength and
+prosperity not of self, but of the state. You would not love me if I
+said I cared more for keeping a pang from your dear heart, than for
+the performance of that which our ancestors counted the one end of
+life--duty to the commonwealth."
+
+Cornelia threw her arms around him.
+
+"You are the noblest man on the whole earth!" she cried with bright
+enthusiasm. "Of course I would not love you if you did what you
+believed to be wrong! My uncle may scold, may storm. I shan't care for
+all his anger, for you _must be_ right."
+
+"Ah! delectissima," cried Drusus, feeling at the moment as if he were
+capable of refuting senates and confounding kings, "we will not look
+at too gloomy a side of the picture. Pompeius and C�sar will be
+reconciled. Your uncle's party will see that it is best to allow the
+proconsul an election as promised. We will have wise laws and moderate
+reforms. All will come out aright. And we--we two--will go along
+through life as softly and as merrily as now we stroll up and down in
+the cool shade of these columns; and I will turn philosopher and
+evolve a new system that will forever send Plato and Zeno, Epicurus
+and Timon, to the most remote and spider-spun cupboard of the most
+old-fashioned library, and you shall be a poetess, a Sappho, an
+Erinna, who shall tinkle in Latin metres sweeter than they ever sing
+in Aiolic. And so we will fleet the time as though we were Zeus and
+Hera on Olympus."
+
+"Zeus and Hera!" repeated Cornelia, laughing. "You silly Gr�cule.[73]
+You may talk about that misbehaved pair, who were anything but
+harmonious and loving, if Homer tells truly. I prefer our own Juppiter
+and our Juno of the Aventine. _They_ are a staid and home-keeping
+couple, worth imitating, if we are to imitate any celestials. But
+nothing Greek for me."
+
+  [73] Contemptuous diminutive for Greek.
+
+"Intolerant, intolerant," retorted Drusus, "we are all Greek, we
+Romans of to-day--what is left of old Latium but her half-discarded
+language, her laws worse than discarded, perverted, her good pilum[74]
+which has not quite lost its cunning, and her--"
+
+  [74] The heavy short javelin carried by the Roman legionary, only
+  about six feet long. In practised hands it was a terrible weapon,
+  and won many a Roman victory.
+
+"Men," interrupted Cornelia, "such as you!"
+
+"And women," continued Drusus, "such as you! Ah! There is something
+left of Rome after all. We are not altogether fallen, unworthy of our
+ancestors. Why shall we not be merry? A Greek would say that it was
+always darkest before Eos leaves the couch of Tithonus,[75] and who
+knows that our Helios is not soon to dawn and be a long, long time ere
+his setting? I feel like throwing formality to the winds, crying
+'Iacchos evo�,' and dancing like a bacchanal, and singing in tipsy
+delight,--
+
+  [75] The "rosy-fingered Dawn" of Homer; Tithonos was her consort.
+
+  "'Oh, when through the long night,
+    With fleet foot glancing white,
+  Shall I go dancing in my revelry,
+    My neck cast back, and bare
+    Unto the dewy air,
+  Like sportive faun in the green meadow's glee?'[76]
+
+  [76] Milman, translator.
+
+as old Euripides sings in his 'Bacch�.' Yes, the Hellenes were right
+when they put nymphs in the forest and in the deep. Only our blind
+practical Latin eyes will not see them. We will forget that we are
+Romans; we will build for ourselves some cosey little Ph�acia up in
+the Sabine hills beside some lake; and there my Sappho shall also be
+my Nausica� to shine fair as a goddess upon her distressed and
+shipwrecked Odysseus."
+
+"Yes," said Cornelia, smiling, "a delightful idyl; but Odysseus would
+not stay with Nausica�."
+
+"I was wrong," replied Drusus, as they walked arm in arm out from the
+portico, and down the broad avenue of stately shade trees. "You shall
+be the faithful Penelope, who receives back her lord in happiness
+after many trials. Your clever Agias can act as Telemachus for us."
+
+"But the suitors whom Odysseus must slay?" asked Cornelia, entering
+into the fun.
+
+"Oh, for them," said Drusus, lightly, "we need not search far. Who
+other than Ahenobarbus?"
+
+
+II
+
+Rather late in the afternoon, a few days subsequently, the most noble
+Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Crus, consul-designate, and one of the most
+prominent politicians of his time and nation, arrived at Pr�neste;
+having hurried away from Rome to escape for a little while the summer
+heats which made the capital anything but a pleasant place for
+residence. Drusus's travelling cort�ge would have seemed small enough
+compared with the hedge of outriders, footmen, and body-servants that
+surrounded the great man. But notwithstanding his prospective
+dignities, and his present importance, Lentulus Crus was hardly an
+imposing personality. He was a bald-pated, florid individual, with
+rough features, a low, flat forehead, and coarse lips. He was dressed
+very fashionably, and was perfumed and beringed to an extent that
+would have been derided anywhere save in the most select circles of
+Rome. He was stout, and when he alighted from his carriage, he moved
+away with a somewhat waddling gait, and lifted up a rasping,
+high-pitched voice in unsonorous complaint against a slave who let
+fall a parcel of baggage.
+
+Clearly the master of the house had returned, and all the familia and
+freedmen bustled about their various tasks with the unusual
+promptitude and diligence which is the outcome of a healthy fear of
+retribution for slackness. Lentulus went into the atrium, and there
+had an angry conference with the local land-steward, over some
+accounts which the latter presented. In fact, so ill was the humour of
+the noble lord, that Cornelia avoided going out from her room to meet
+him, and pretended to be so engrossed in her Ennius that she did not
+hear he had come.
+
+This pretence, however, could not last long. Lentulus called out in a
+surly tone to know where his niece was, and the latter was fain to
+present herself. It could not be said that the meeting between
+Cornelia and her uncle was extremely affectionate. The interchange of
+kisses was painfully formal, and then Lentulus demanded somewhat
+abruptly:--
+
+"How have you been spending your time? With that young ne'er-do-weel
+son of Sextus Drusus?"
+
+"Quintus was here this morning," said Cornelia, feeling a little
+reproachful at the manner in which her uncle had spoken of her lover.
+
+"Just back from Rome, I presume?" said Lentulus, icily, "and he must
+fly over to the cote of his little dove and see that she hasn't
+flitted away? He'd better have a care in his doings. He'll have
+something more serious on hand than lovemaking before long."
+
+"I don't understand you, uncle," said Cornelia, turning rather red;
+"Quintus has never done anything for which he has cause to fear."
+
+"Oh, he hasn't, eh?" retorted Lentulus. "_Mehercle!_ what donkeys you
+women are! You may go, I want to see your mother."
+
+"She is in her own room," said Cornelia, turning her back; "I wish you
+would not speak to me in that way again."
+
+Lentulus wandered through the mazes of courts, colonnades, and the
+magnificently decorated and finished rooms of the villa, until he came
+to the chamber of Claudia, his sister-in-law. Claudia was a woman of
+the same fashionable type as Valeria, good-looking, ostentatious,
+proud, selfish, devoid of any aim in life save the securing of the
+most vapid pleasure. At the moment, she was stretched out on a thickly
+cushioned couch. She had thrown on a loose dress of silken texture. A
+negress was waving over her head a huge fan of long white feathers. A
+second negress was busy mixing in an _Authepsa_,--a sort of silver
+urn, heated by charcoal,--a quantity of spices, herbs, and water,
+which the lady was to take as soon as it was sufficiently steeped.
+Claudia had been enjoying an unusually gay round of excitement while
+at Bai�, and she had but just come up to Pr�neste, to recover herself
+after the exertions of a score of fashionable suppers, excursions on
+the Lucrine Lake, and the attendant exhausting amusements. When her
+brother-in-law entered the room, she raised her carefully tinted
+eyebrows, and observed with great languor:--
+
+"So you have gotten away from Rome, at last, my Lucius?"
+
+"For a few days," replied Lentulus, in no very affable tone; "the heat
+and din of the city will drive me mad! And I have had no end of
+troublesome business. The senators are all fools or slaves of C�sar.
+That treacherous rascal, Curio, is blocking all our efforts. Even
+Pompeius is half-hearted in the cause. It wouldn't take much to make
+him go back to C�sar, and then where would we be?"
+
+"Where would we be?" said Claudia, half conscious of what she said,
+turning over wearily. "Don't talk politics, my dear brother. They are
+distressingly dull. My head aches at the very word." And she held out
+her hand and took the golden cup of hot drink which the negress
+offered her.
+
+"Aye," replied Lentulus, not in the least subdued, "where _will_ we
+be, if Pompeius and C�sar become friends? If there is no war, no
+proscription, no chance to make a sesterce in a hurry!"
+
+"My dear brother," said Claudia, still more languidly, and yawning at
+length, as she handed back the cup, "have I not said that the mere
+mention of politics makes my head ache?"
+
+"Then let it," said the other, brutally; "I must have some plain words
+with you." And he pointed toward the door. The two serving-maids took
+the hint, and retired.
+
+Claudia settled her head back on the pillows, and folded her hands as
+if to resign herself to a very dull t�te-�-t�te.
+
+"Have you any new debts?" demanded Lentulus.
+
+"What a tiresome question," murmured the lady. "No--no--yes; I owe
+Pomponius the fancier--I don't quite know how much--for my last
+Maltese lap dog."
+
+"Thank the gods that is all," went on her brother-in-law. "Now listen
+to me. I have been living beyond my means. Last year the canvass to
+get on the board of guardians of the Sibylline Books--in which that
+graceless son-in-law of Cicero's, Publius Dolabella, defeated me--cost
+a deal of money. This year I have the consulship. But it has taken
+every denarius I own, and more too. All my estates are involved, so
+that it will require years to redeem them, in the ordinary way."
+
+"How extremely unfortunate!" sighed Claudia, looking dreadfully bored.
+
+"If that was all I had to tell you," snapped back Lentulus, "I would
+not have disturbed your ladyship's repose. But you must be so
+indulgent as to listen."
+
+"Well?" said Claudia, yawning again and settling herself.
+
+"Your late husband left some little property," began the other.
+
+"Yes, to be sure; oh! my poor Caius!" and Claudia began to sob and
+wipe away the tears.
+
+"And this property I have involved," continued Lentulus, driving
+straight ahead and never heeding the widow's display of emotions. "It
+will be impossible for me to clear away the encumbrances for some
+little time."
+
+Claudia was excited now. She sprang up from her cushions and cried, or
+rather screamed:--
+
+"Brute! Robber of orphans and widows! Heartless wretch! Have you
+pledged the slender fortune Caius left me, and the dowry of my poor
+dear Cornelia?" And her voice sank into hoarseness, and she began to
+sob once more.
+
+Lentulus regarded her with vexation and contempt. "_Mehercle!_ what a
+fuss you are making! The deed is done, and there's no helping it. I
+came here, not to offer excuses, but to state the facts. You may call
+me what you please; I _had to do it_, or lose the consulship. Now look
+the matter in the face. You must contract no more debts; I can't
+discharge the old ones. Live as reasonably as you can."
+
+"And no more nice dinners? No more visits to Bai�?" groaned the lady,
+rocking to and fro.
+
+"Yes, yes," broke in her brother-in-law, sharply, "I can still raise
+enough to meet all ordinary expenses. If I let down in my household,
+my creditors would see I was pinched, and begin to pluck me. I can
+weather the storm. But look here: Cornelia must have an end with that
+young Drusus. I can never pay her dowry, and would not have him for a
+nephew-in-law if I could."
+
+"Cornelia break off with Drusus?" and Claudia stopped whimpering, and
+sat staring at Lentulus with astonished eyes. To tell the truth she
+had always liked the young Livian, and thought her daughter was
+destined for a most advantageous match.
+
+"Certainly, my dear Claudia," said the consul-elect, half relieved to
+change what had been a very awkward subject; "I can assure you that
+Quintus is far from being a proper and worthy man for a husband for
+your daughter. I have heard very evil reports of him while in the
+city. He has cast in his lot with that gang of knavish C�sarians
+centring around Marcus Antonius, C�lius, and that Caius Sallustius[77]
+whom our excellent censors have just ejected from the Senate, because
+of his evil living and C�sarian tendencies. Do I need to say more of
+him? A worthless, abandoned, shameless profligate!"
+
+  [77] Sallust, the well-known historian.
+
+Claudia had a little sense of humour; and when Lentulus was working
+himself up into a righteous rage over the alleged misdoings of Drusus,
+she interrupted:--
+
+"You do well to say so, my dear Lucius; for all men know that your
+life is as morally severe as your good friend Cato's."
+
+Lentulus was silent for a moment, and bit his lip; then recommenced:--
+
+"What I meant to say was this. Quintus Drusus and I are enemies; and I
+will not give him my niece in marriage. If we were friends, I would
+not be able to pay the dowry. You can complain if you please; but you
+can't alter my inclinations or my inability to carry out the marriage
+agreement."
+
+Though Claudia in many respects was an empty woman of the world, she
+had in a way a desire to promote her daughter's happiness, and, as has
+been said, she had been extremely fond of Drusus. So she replied
+diplomatically that Quintus was probably willing to wait a reasonable
+time for the dowry; and that even if he had held communication with
+the C�sarians, he was little more than a boy and could be shaken out
+of any unfortunate political opinions.
+
+"I will be reasonable," said Lentulus, after pacing up and down for a
+few minutes. "I was told of his folly by Caius Calvus.[78] Calvus is
+as a rule accurate in his information. He said he met Drusus in
+company with Balbus and Curio. But there may have been some mistake.
+And the lad, as you declare, may be willing to cut loose from a bad
+course. If he really cares for Cornelia, he will be moderate in his
+demands for the dowry. Your suggestion is worth taking, Claudia. Let
+us send for him, and let him know the only terms on which he can have
+my niece."
+
+  [78] A distinguished poet and orator--a friend of Catullus.
+
+Lentulus clapped his hands, and a serving-boy came in for orders.
+
+"Go to the villa of Quintus Drusus," commanded the master, "and tell
+him that I would see him at once on business of weight."
+
+Claudia arose, and let her maids throw over her a long white
+_stola_,[79] with deep flounces and an elaborate embroidery of
+sea-nymphs and marine monsters. Lentulus went out into the atrium and
+walked up and down, biting his nails, and trying to think out the
+arguments by which he would confute the political heresies of Drusus.
+Lentulus was too good a politician not to know that the young man
+would be a valuable catch for the party that secured him; and the
+consul-elect was determined, not so much to spare breaking the heart
+of his niece, but to rob the enemy of a valuable adherent. Cornelia
+had gone back to her book; but when she saw the boy go down the path,
+evidently on an errand to the villa of the Drusi, she rolled up the
+volume, and went into the atrium.
+
+  [79] A long tunic worn by Roman ladies.
+
+"You have sent after Quintus, uncle?" she asked.
+
+"I have," was the reply; "I expect him shortly."
+
+"What is the matter?" continued Cornelia, growing apprehensive.
+
+"I wish to make the arrangements for your wedding," replied Lentulus,
+continuing his pacing to and fro.
+
+"Oh, I am so glad!" cried Cornelia, cheerily. "I am so pleased you
+wish to make everything agreeable for Quintus and for me!"
+
+"I hope so," was the rather gloomy response.
+
+Presently Drusus was seen coming up the shaded path at a very brisk
+stride. He had been playing at fencing with old Mamercus, and his face
+was all aglow with a healthy colour; there was a bright light in his
+eye. When he saw Cornelia in the doorway he gave a laugh and broke
+into a run, which brought him up to her panting and merry.
+
+Then as he saw Lentulus he paused, half ashamed of his display of
+boyish ardour, and yet, with a smile and a gracious salutation, asked
+the older man if he was enjoying good health, and congratulated him on
+his election.
+
+The consul-designate was a little disarmed by this straightforward
+mode of procedure. He dropped unuttered the elaborate exordium he had
+been preparing on the tendency of young men to be led astray by
+speciously pleading schemers, and found himself replying mildly to
+questions about himself and various old friends of his, whom Drusus
+had known as a boy before he went to Athens. But finally the young man
+interrupted this pacific discourse with the query:--
+
+"And, most noble Lentulus, what is the business on which you sent for
+me? So far as I am able, the uncle of Cornelia has but to command."
+
+Lentulus glanced at Claudia, as if expecting her to open a delicate
+subject; but that excellent lady only fingered her _palla_,[80] and
+gave vent to a slight cough. Cornelia, whose fears had all passed
+away, stood beside Drusus, with one arm resting on his shoulder,
+glancing pertly from one man to the other. Lentulus began:--
+
+  [80] A shawl worn over the stola.
+
+"I am very sorry to tell you, Quintus, that I fear your wedding with
+Cornelia cannot be celebrated as soon as you hoped."
+
+"Must be postponed!" exclaimed the young man, in alarm; and Cornelia
+dropped her arm, and stared at her uncle in dismay.
+
+"I fear so," said Lentulus, dryly. "I have done my best to husband the
+fortune Caius left his daughter; but, as perhaps you know, I invested
+a very large part of it in the tax farming syndicate for farther
+Spain. The speculation seemed safe, but local wars have so reduced the
+profits that they amount to nothing, and it will be some time before
+the principal is set free. Of course, in ordinary times I would make
+up the sum from my own means, but I have had very heavy expenses
+lately; consequently, I fear you cannot marry Cornelia until I am in a
+position to pay over her dowry."
+
+Drusus burst out into a hearty, boyish laugh.
+
+"My dear uncle," cried he, "for do let me call you so, I would have
+you know that when I take Cornelia I have dowry sufficient. Thanks to
+old Vibulanus's will, I may call myself passing wealthy. As far as I
+am concerned, you may pay over the marriage portion to my heirs, if so
+you wish."
+
+Lentulus seemed considerably relieved. Claudia broke out with loud
+ejaculations to the effect that Drusus, she always knew, was a
+generous, affectionate fellow, and she loved him dearly. Cornelia,
+however, looked disturbed, and presently exclaimed:--
+
+"It isn't right, Quintus, that I should come into your house with not
+a sesterce in my own name, as if you had married some low farmer's
+daughter."
+
+"_Phy!_ pish!" replied Drusus. "You always scold the Greeks, my good
+mistress, and yet, like them, you hold that a marriage between people
+of unequal means is unhappy. A penny for your scruples! I have more
+money to-day than I know what to do with. Besides, if it will make you
+happier, your uncle can doubtless pay over the dowry before a great
+while."
+
+"It's certainly very kind of you, Quintus," said Lentulus (who had
+quite made up his mind that if the young man could wait for what was a
+very tidy fortune, through sheer affection for Cornelia, he would be
+pliable enough in the political matter), "not to press me in this
+affair. Rest assured, neither you nor my niece will be the losers in
+the end. But there's one other thing I would like to ask you about.
+From what Calvus told me in Rome, Curio and certain other still worse
+_Populares_[81] were trying to induce you to join their abominable
+faction. I trust you gave those men no encouragement?"
+
+  [81] The party in opposition, since the time of Tiberius Gracchus,
+  to the Senate party--Optimates; at this time the _Populares_ were
+  practically all C�sarians.
+
+Drusus was evidently confused. He was wishing strongly that Cornelia
+was away, and he could talk to her uncle with less constraint. He felt
+that he was treading on very dangerous ground.
+
+"It is true," said he, trying painfully to answer as if the words cost
+him no thought. "Antonius had met many of my father's old comrades in
+Gaul, and they had sent a number of kind messages to me. Then, too,
+Balbus invited me to a dinner-party and there I met Curio, and a very
+pleasant time we had. I cannot recall that they made any special
+efforts to enlist me as a partisan."
+
+In this last, Drusus spoke truly; for he had already thrown in his lot
+with the C�sarian cause. But Lentulus knew enough of the case to
+realize that he was receiving not the whole truth but only a half; and
+being a man of a sharp temper that was under very imperfect control,
+threw diplomacy to the winds, and replied vehemently: "Don't attempt
+to cover up your folly! I know how you have put yourself in the power
+of those conspirators. Are you planning to turn out another Catilina?"
+
+"My dear sir," expostulated Drusus, doing his best to retain his
+outward calm, "I cannot understand of what fault I have become guilty.
+Is it wrong in Rome to accept a kindly invitation from an old family
+friend to a dinner? Am I responsible for the persons the host summoned
+to meet me there?"
+
+Drusus had been simply sparring to ward off the real point at issue;
+like many persons he would not assert his convictions and motives till
+fairly brought to bay. But that moment came almost instantly.
+
+"Don't equivocate! _Mehercle!_" cried Lentulus, getting thoroughly
+angry. "Can't you speak, except to lie and quibble before my face?
+Have you joined the gang Curio is rallying for C�sar?"
+
+Drusus was losing his own patience now.
+
+"Yes! And we shall shortly see whether the Republic is to be longer
+ruined by incompetence and corruption!"
+
+"Uncle! Quintus!" implored Cornelia, forcing herself between them, and
+casting out of her wide-open eyes on each a look full of distress.
+"Don't contend! For my sake be friends!"
+
+"For your sake!" raged Lentulus, his florid face growing redder and
+redder. "I will take care to keep you out of the clutches of a man who
+deliberately chooses to associate with all that is base and villanous.
+Until your handsome lover throws over connections with C�sar and his
+fellow-conspirators, let him never ask for your hand!"
+
+"Sir," burst in Drusus, flushing with passion, "do you dare to set at
+naught the will of your brother and its express commands? Dare you
+withhold from me what is legally my own?"
+
+"Legally?" replied Lentulus, with sharp scorn. "Don't use that word to
+a consul-elect, who has the whole Senate and Pompeius behind him. Laws
+are very dangerous tools for a young man to meddle with in a case like
+this. You will be wise not to resort to the courts."
+
+"You defy the law!" thundered Drusus, all the blood of his fighting
+ancestors tingling in his veins. "Do you say that to a Livian; to the
+heir of eight consuls, two censors, a master of the horse, a dictator,
+and three triumphators? Shall not _he_ obtain justice?"
+
+"And perhaps," said Lentulus, sinking into an attitude of irritating
+coldness, "you will further press your claim on the ground that your
+mother was a Fabian, and the Fabii claim the sole right to sacrifice
+to Hercules on the Great Altar[82] in the Cattle-market by the
+Flaminian Circus, because they are descended from Hercules and
+Evander. I think the Cornelian gens can show quite as many death-masks
+in its atria, and your mock heroics will only stamp you as a very bad
+tragedian."
+
+  [82] _Ara Maxima_.
+
+"Uncle! Quintus!" implored Cornelia again, the tears beginning to
+start from her eyes. "Cease this dreadful quarrel. Go away until you
+can talk calmly."
+
+"Quintus Livius," shouted Lentulus, dropping the "Drusus," a part of
+the name which was omitted in formal address, "you can choose here and
+now. Forswear your C�sarian connections, or consider my niece's
+betrothal at an end!"
+
+Drusus stood looking in blank dismay from one to the other of the
+little company. Claudia had started to speak, but closed, her lips
+without uttering a word. Lentulus faced him, hot, flushed, and with a
+cynical smile of delight, at the infliction of mental torture, playing
+over his face. Cornelia had dropped down upon a chair, buried her
+pretty face in her hands, and was sobbing as if her heart would break.
+It was a moment Drusus would not soon forget. The whole scene in the
+atrium was stamped upon his memory; the drops of the fountain seemed
+frozen in mid-air; the rioting satyr on the fresco appeared to be
+struggling against the limitations of paint and plaster to complete
+his bound; he saw Cornelia lift her head and begin to address him, but
+what she said was drowned by the buzzing and swirl which unsteadied
+the young man's entire faculties. Drusus felt himself turning hot and
+cold, and in semi-faintness he caught at a pillar, and leaned upon it.
+He felt numbed mentally and physically. Then, by a mental reaction,
+his strong, well-balanced nature reasserted itself. His head cleared,
+his muscles relaxed their feverish tension, he straightened himself
+and met the cool leer of Lentulus with a glance stern and high; such a
+glance as many a Livian before him had darted on foe in Senate or
+field of battle.
+
+"Lucius Cornelius," said he, his voice perfectly under command, "do
+you propose to defy law and right and refuse me the hand of your
+niece, unless I do your will?"
+
+Lentulus thought that in this unimpassioned speech he detected the
+premonitions of a capitulation on the part of Drusus, and with a voice
+of ill-timed persuasion, replied, "Be reasonable, Drusus; you have
+everything to gain and nothing to lose by not thwarting my wishes."
+
+"Your wishes!" retorted Drusus, with a menacing step forward. "Your
+wishes! You are consul-designate. You have the Senate, you have your
+tool, Pompeius, you have the gangs of gladiators and street ruffians
+and all the machinery of your political clubs to invoke to defy the
+law! I grant it; but though you deny me Cornelia, though by your
+machinations you bring me any other loss or shame, the grandson of the
+murdered Marcus Drusus will do that which is right in his own eyes,
+and accept no mandate from you or any man, against his will!"
+
+"Cornelia," cried Claudia, infinitely distressed, "speak to Quintus,
+reason with him, implore him, pray him not to resist the requests of
+your uncle."
+
+"Yes, girl!" said Lentulus, savagely, turning livid with sheer rage,
+"use all your arts on that graceless would-be conspirator now, or see
+his face no more!"
+
+But Cornelia interposed in a most summary and unexpected manner. Her
+face was very white; her nails pressed into her smooth arms, her
+breath came thick and spasmodically, and her eyes flamed with the
+intense passion of a strong spirit thoroughly aroused.
+
+"Go, Quintus," she cried, with a strained, loud voice, "go, and never
+see my face again, until my uncle repents of his cruel madness! He is
+master here; only woe will come from defying him. Do not anger him
+further; depart."
+
+"Depart?" burst from Drusus.
+
+"Depart!" replied Cornelia, desperately; "if you stay I shall go mad.
+I shall beg you to yield,--which would be base of me; and if you heard
+my prayers, it would be more base in you."
+
+"Fool," shouted Lentulus, "don't you know you will be the first I'll
+mark for slaughter in the next proscription? You, mistress, go to your
+room, if you cannot keep a civil tongue! And you, sir, get you gone,
+unless you wish the slaves to cast you out."
+
+"Farewell, Cornelia!" gasped the young man; and he turned his back,
+and started out into the colonnade.
+
+"Oh, Quintus, return!" shrieked Claudia, wringing her hands. "All the
+gods blast you!" muttered Lentulus, quivering with fury; then he
+shouted at the top of his shrill, harsh voice: "My enemies are my
+enemies. You are warned. Take care!"
+
+"And do you take warning! A Livian never forgets! _Mars regat!_ Let
+War rule!" cried Drusus, turning at the vestibule, and brandishing a
+knotted fist. Lentulus stared after him, half furious, half
+intimidated. But Claudia glanced back into the room from the just
+emptied doorway, and gave a scream.
+
+"The servants! Help! Water! Cornelia has fainted!"
+
+
+III
+
+Drusus strode down the long avenue of shade trees. The gardener stared
+after him, as the young man went by, his face knitted with a scowl of
+combined pain and fury, with never a word in reply to the rustic's
+kindly salutation.
+
+"_Pap�!_"[83] muttered the man, "what has befallen Master Quintus? Has
+he fallen out with her ladyship?"
+
+  [83] "Strange! Marvellous!"
+
+Drusus kept on, looking neither to the right hand nor to the left,
+until he found himself past the boundary stone between his own estate
+and that of the Lentuli. Then he stopped and passed his hand over his
+forehead. It was damp with an unhealthy sweat. His hands and frame
+were quivering as if in an ague. He seated himself on a stone bench by
+the roadway, and tried to collect his faculties.
+
+"Bear up, Drusus; be a Livian, as you boast yourself," he declaimed
+frantically to himself. "Cornelia shall still be yours! All things are
+possible to one who is young and strong, with a clear conscience!"
+
+If this self-debate did not actually stimulate cheerfulness, it at
+least revived the embers of hope; and Drusus found himself trying to
+look the situation fairly in the face.
+
+"You have thrown away your right to marry the dearest, loveliest, and
+noblest girl in the world," he reflected bitterly. "You have made an
+implacable enemy of one of the most powerful men of the state. In
+short, your happiness is gone, and perhaps your life is in danger--and
+for what? A dream of reform which can never be realized? A mad
+conspiracy to overthrow the commonwealth? Is C�sar to be saviour or
+despot? For what have you sacrificed yourself?"
+
+Lentulus, he knew perfectly well, was really above law. No jury would
+ever convict the leader of the Senate party. Drusus could never
+contract lawful marriage with Cornelia, so long as her guardian
+withheld consent. And for one moment he regretted of his
+determination, of his defiance. Then came reaction. Drusus called up
+all his innate pride, all the strength of his nobler inspirations.
+
+"I have set my face toward that which is honourable and right," cried
+Drusus to his own soul; "I will not doubt. Whether there be gods, I
+cannot tell. But this I know, the wise and good have counted naught
+dear but virtues; and toward this end I will strive."
+
+And by a strong effort at self-command, he forced himself to arise
+from the bench and walk back to his own estate, and soon he was
+pouring the whole story into the sympathetic ears of Mamercus,
+Pausanias, and other worthy retainers.
+
+The scene that had taken place at the villa of the Lentuli, soon was
+reported through all the adjacent farms; for several slaves had been
+the mute witnesses of the angry colloquy, and had not been slow to
+publish the report. The familia of Drusus was in a tumult of
+indignation. All the brawny Germans and Africans whom the young master
+had released from the slave-prison, and had since treated with
+kindness, listened with no unfavourable ear to the proposal which
+Titus Mamercus--more valorous than discreet--was laying before them:
+to arm and attack Lentulus in his own villa, and so avenge their lord
+in a summary fashion.
+
+But the elder Mamercus dashed the martial ambitions of his son.
+
+"Fool," cried the veteran, emphatically, when the project came to his
+ears, "do you wish to undo yourself and Quintus too? No power short of
+Jove could protect you and him, if aught were to befall Lentulus, in
+the way you propose."
+
+"But what can we do, father?" replied Titus, sorry to see his scheme
+for vengeance blocked; "shall that despicable tyrant defy law and
+justice, and refuse to give Mistress Cornelia to Quintus?"
+
+"Silence your folly!" thundered the other, who was himself quite
+nonplussed over the situation, and felt Titus's bold chatter would
+goad him into something desperate.
+
+The truth was, neither Pausanias nor any other of Quintus's friends
+could see any means of coercing the consul-elect into receding from
+his position. He was practically above law, and could not with safety
+be attacked in any way. Pausanias could only counsel moderation and
+patience; perhaps some fortunate chance would alter matters. Drusus
+spent the evening in a pathetically forced attempt to read his
+Callimachus. He was weary physically, and intended to retire early.
+�milia, who felt sorry enough for the plight of her rather distant
+cousin, had tried to console him and divert him with guitar[84] music,
+and had called in an itinerant piper,[85] but these well-meant efforts
+at amusement had been dreary failures. Drusus had just bidden his
+body-servants undress him, when he was informed that Agias had come
+from the Lentulan villa, and wished to see him.
+
+  [84] _Cithara_.
+
+  [85] Itinerant pipers have existed in Italy from earliest times;
+  they still survive, albeit in alien lands and with less tuneful
+  instruments.
+
+Agias was full of protestations of delight at beholding his
+intercessor and ransomer. Drusus could hardly recognize in the
+supple-limbed, fair-complexioned, vivacious lad before him, the
+wretched creature whom Alfidius had driven through the streets.
+Agias's message was short, but quite long enough to make Drusus's pale
+cheeks flush with new life, his sunken eyes rekindle, and his languor
+vanish into energy. Cornelia would be waiting for him by the great
+cypress in the gardens of the Lentulan villa, as soon as the moon
+rose.
+
+Drusus prepared himself hurriedly, and refused all the entreaties of
+Titus to take him along as a body-guard. Time coursed on winged feet,
+as the young man hastened out into the night, and half ran down the
+familiar pathway. The day had been only moderately warm for the
+season, and the night was cool, though not cold. A soft east wind was
+blowing down from the distant Apennines, and all the trees were
+rustling gently. Up to the giant arm of a gnarled oak, fluttered an
+owl, which hooted noisily as the young man hurried beneath. The
+crickets were chirping. A little way off was a small stream plunging
+over a dam; from it came a liquid roar; and the little wall of white
+spray was just visible in the darkness. Out from the orchards drifted
+the fragrant scent of apple, pear, plum, and quince. Still more sweet
+was the breeze, as it swept over the wide-stretching rose-beds.
+Overhead Orion and Arcturus were glittering in that hazy splendour
+which belongs to the heavens on a summer's night.
+
+Drusus kept on, only half noting the beauty of the darkness. When he
+entered the groves of the Lentulan villa, almost all light failed him,
+and but for his intimate knowledge--from boyhood--of the whole
+locality, he could never have kept the path. Then the moonlight began
+to stream up in the east, and between the trees and thickets lay the
+long, yellow bars of brightness, while all else was still in gloom.
+Drusus pushed on with confidence, and soon the gurgle of the tiny
+cataract told him that he was near the old cypress. A few steps more,
+and a figure rose from out the fern thicket. It was Cornelia. Her hair
+was tumbling loosely over her shoulders; she wore a soft, light-blue
+dress that covered her arms and her feet. In the moonlight her face
+and hands appeared as bloodless as white marble.
+
+"I knew you would come, Quintus," she cried. "I couldn't say farewell
+to you, in the presence of my uncle!"
+
+"My beautiful!" cried Drusus; and he caught her in his arms.
+
+The moments that followed were as bitter-sweet as may be conceivable.
+Each knew that they had small hope of an honourable realization of
+their love one for another; that the moment of parting would soon
+come. But for the instant they were in Elysium, caught out of mortal
+care and mortal sorrow, and knowing nothing but the pure delight of
+the other's presence. Then, at last, their talk became less
+enraptured; the vision of Olympus faded little by little; the stern
+reality confronted them in all its seriousness.
+
+"Cornelia," said Quintus, at length, "you are still a very young
+woman. This day's heart-breakings may, perhaps, be long painful to
+you; but the pangs will grow faint in time. You and I may still
+cherish fondness in our hearts for each other, but how dare we
+reasonably hope for more? Evil times are at hand. If your uncle's
+party prevail in the struggle, my ruin is assured. But not yours.
+There are many worthy men who would be proud to take in marriage the
+niece of the next consul; and with one of these you can live happily.
+Do not try to forget me. I don't ask that. But do not let my
+misfortune cast a shadow over your dear life. Marry some honourable
+man. Only think kindly of me sometimes."
+
+They had been sitting beside the brooklet, on the soft green-sward.
+Cornelia had been resting both her hands in Drusus's, but now she drew
+them back, and sprang to her feet, as if swept away by a gust of
+anger.
+
+"How dare you!" she cried, "how dare you bid me throw away all that my
+heart has turned on, and my hopes depended on, and my imagination
+dreamed of, since our fathers were slain side by side; and more
+especially since you came back from Athens? Why might not I bid you
+renounce your adherence to C�sar's cause, and say, 'There is no need
+of blasting your career by such a sacrifice; remember C�sar and his
+party kindly, wish them well, but do not dwell too much thereon;
+submit cheerfully to what is inevitable'? Shall I argue thus? Have I
+argued thus? If you will, abandon me, and wed some other maiden, and
+many there are, fair, wealthy, noble, who will be glad to be given in
+marriage to a Livius Drusus. But till you thus repudiate your father's
+will, no power of gods or of men shall drive me to violate that of
+mine."
+
+"Cornelia," said Drusus, in a husky voice, "do you know what you are
+saying? What resistance to threats and unkind treatment your resolve
+will mean?"
+
+"I both know the future and accept it," answered the maiden firmly,
+looking fairly into his face.
+
+"Then by all the powers of earth, sky, and Hades!" cried the young
+man, lifting one arm toward heaven, and throwing the other about his
+sweetheart, "I will defy Lentulus, defy Pompeius, defy Senate, army,
+mob, or any other human might. Hitherto I have thought to play the
+patriot in espousing C�sar's cause. Now let love and fury fire my
+ardour. When the party of violence and tyranny falls, then too will
+fall the power of Lentulus to outrage your right and mine! Ours shall
+be a triumph of Venus as well as of Mars, and until that time, may you
+and I endure faithful unto our fathers, ourselves, and one another!"
+
+Hardly had he spoken ere loud voices were heard calling through the
+grove. Torches were glaring among the trees, and the harsh tones of
+Lentulus burst out:--
+
+"Take the wretched girl into the house when you find her; but as for
+her lover, let him not escape!"
+
+"My uncle!" groaned Cornelia, quivering with terror; "one of my maids
+has betrayed me! Flee! run! He has called out all his slaves; they
+will kill you!"
+
+"Kill me?" gasped Drusus, incredulously; "commit deliberate murder?"
+
+"Yes," moaned Cornelia; "he dares anything. He is all fury and
+violence. Escape! Do not throw yourself away in vain!"
+
+The lights flashed nearer; the slaves were shouting and blundering
+through the bushes.
+
+"Two philippi to the man who strikes Drusus down!" bawled Lentulus.
+
+It was no time for delay and affectionate leave-taking. The young man
+threw his arms around Cornelia, kissed her once, twice, and then
+bounded into the thicket. A moment later several of the servants came
+splashing over the little stream, and found Cornelia alone beside the
+great cypress, pale and trembling and sobbing. Drusus caught one last
+sight of her, surrounded by the torches of the pursuers. Then he
+struck off into the grove, and thanks to his perfect local knowledge
+easily avoided meeting Lentulus or his slaves. Lentulus he would
+gladly have confronted alone. What would have followed, the athletic
+young man could only surmise grimly; but he was unarmed, and for
+Cornelia's sake he must take no risks.
+
+Close to the confines of his own land he met the Mamerci, father and
+son, and several slaves and freedmen, all armed and anxious to know
+whether the din that had been raised over at the Lentulan villa
+betokened any danger to their young master.
+
+Drusus satisfied them that he had suffered no injury. The personal
+peril through which he had passed brought a reaction of excitement
+which raised his spirits, and he went to bed in a mood at least
+tolerably cheerful. If he could not enjoy his love, he had at least
+something else to live for--vengeance; and he told himself that he had
+a whole mature lifetime left in which to make Lentulus repent of his
+folly and tyrannical cruelty. He awoke late the next morn in a calm
+frame of mind, and was able to receive with outward equanimity the
+news that early in the morning Lentulus had taken his sister-in-law
+and niece, and a large part of his household, back to Rome. This was
+only to have been expected, and Drusus listened to the information
+without useless comment.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VI
+
+Pompeius Magnus
+
+
+If we had been painting an ideal heroine, gifted with all the virtues
+which Christian traditions of female perfection throw around such
+characters, Cornelia would have resigned herself quietly to the
+inevitable, and exhibited a seraphic serenity amid tribulation. But
+she was only a grieved, embittered, disappointed, sorely wronged,
+Pagan maiden, who had received few enough lessons in forbearance and
+meekness. And now that her natural sweetness of character had received
+so severe a shock, she vented too often the rage she felt against her
+uncle upon her helpless servants. Her maid Cassandra--who was the one
+that had told Lentulus of her mistress's nocturnal meeting with
+Drusus--soon felt the weight of Cornelia's wrath. The young lady, as
+soon as Lentulus was out of the way, caused the tell-tale to receive a
+cruel whipping, which kept the poor slave-girl groaning in her cell
+for ten days, and did not relieve Cornelia's own distress in the
+slightest degree. As a matter of fact, Cornelia was perpetually goaded
+into fresh outbursts of desperation by the tyrannical attitude of her
+uncle. Lentulus boasted in her presence that he would accomplish
+Drusus's undoing. "I'll imitate Sulla," he would announce, in mean
+pleasure at giving his niece pain; "I'll see how many heads I can have
+set up as he did at the Lacus Servilius. You can go _there_, if you
+wish to kiss your lover."
+
+But Cornelia's life at Rome was rendered unhappy by many other things
+besides these occasional brutal stabs from her uncle. Her mother, as
+has been hinted, was a woman of the world, and had an intense desire
+to draw her daughter into her own circle of society. Claudia cared for
+Cornelia in a manner, and believed it was a real kindness to tear the
+poor girl away from her solitary broodings and plunge her into the
+whirl of the world of Roman fashion. Claudia had become an intimate of
+Clodia, the widow of Quintus Metellus, a woman of remarkable gifts and
+a notoriously profligate character. "The Medea of the Palatine Hill,"
+Cicero had bitingly styled her. Nearly all the youth of parts and
+social distinction enjoyed the wild pleasures of Clodia's garden by
+the Tiber. Catullus the poet, C�lius the brilliant young politician,
+and many another had figured as lovers of this soulless and enchanting
+woman. And into Clodia's gilded circle Claudia tried desperately to
+drag her daughter. The Lentuli had a handsome palace on the Carin�,
+one of the most fashionable quarters of the capital; and here there
+were many gay gatherings and dinner parties. Cornelia was well born
+enough, by reputation wealthy enough, and in feature handsome enough,
+to have a goodly proportion of the young men of this coterie her
+devoted admirers and slaves. Claudia observed her daughter's social
+triumphs with glee, and did all she could to give Cornelia plenty of
+this kind of company. Cornelia would not have been a mortal woman if
+she had not taken a certain amount of pleasure in noticing and
+exercising her power. The first occasion when she appeared at a formal
+banquet in the splendid Apollo dinner hall of the Luculli, where the
+outlay on the feast was fixed by a regular scale at two hundred
+thousand sesterces, she gathered no little satisfaction by the
+consciousness that all the young men were admiring her, and all the
+women were fuming with jealousy. But this life was unspeakably
+wearisome, after the first novelty had worn away. Cornelia lived in an
+age when many of the common proprieties and decencies of our present
+society would have been counted prudish, but she could not close her
+eyes to the looseness and license that pervaded her mother's world.
+Woman had become almost entirely independent of man in social and
+economic matters, though the law still kept its fictions of tutelage.
+Honourable marriages were growing fewer and fewer. Divorces were
+multiplying. The morality of the time can be judged from the fact that
+the "immaculate" Marcus Cato separated from his wife that a friend
+might marry her; and when the friend died, married her himself again.
+Scandals and love intrigues were common in the highest circles; noble
+ladies, and not ballet-dancers[86] merely, thought it of little
+account to have their names besmirched. Everything in society was
+splendid, polished, decorous, cultivated without; but within, hollow
+and rotten.
+
+  [86] _Mim�_.
+
+Cornelia grew weary and sick of the excitement, the fashionable
+chatter, the mongering of low gossips. She loathed the sight of the
+effeminate young fops who tried to win her smiles by presenting
+themselves for a polite call each morning, polished and furbelowed,
+and rubbed sleek and smooth with Catanian pumice. Her mother disgusted
+her so utterly that she began to entertain the most unfilial feeling
+toward the worthy woman. Cornelia would not or could not understand
+that in such hot weather it was proper to wear lighter rings than in
+winter, and that each ring must be set carefully on a different finger
+joint to prevent touching. Cornelia watched her servants, and reached
+the astonishing conclusion that these humble creatures were really
+extracting more pleasure out of life than herself. Cassandra had
+recovered from her whipping, and was bustling about her tasks as if
+nothing had happened. Agias seemed to have a never failing fund of
+good spirits. He was always ready to tell the funniest stories or
+retail the latest news. Once or twice he brought his mistress
+unspeakable delight, by smuggling into the house letters from Drusus,
+which contained words of love and hope, if no really substantial
+promises for the future. But this was poor enough comfort. Drusus
+wrote that he could not for the time see that any good end would be
+served by coming to Rome, and he would remain for the present in
+Pr�neste. He and she must try to wait in patience, until politics took
+such a turn as would drive Lentulus into a more tractable attitude.
+Cornelia found the days monotonous and dreary. Her uncle's freedman
+kept her under constant espionage to prevent a chance meeting with
+Drusus, and but for Agias she would have been little better than a
+prisoner, ever in charge of his keepers.
+
+In a way, however, Cornelia found that there was enough stirring in
+the outside world to lend zest and often venom to the average
+emptiness of polite conversation. Politics were penetrating deeper and
+deeper into fashionable society. Cornelia heard how Paulus, the
+consul, had taken a large present from C�sar to preserve neutrality;
+and how Curio, the tribune, had checked Clodius Marcellus, the other
+consul, when he wished to take steps in the Senate against C�sar. All
+that Cornelia heard of that absent statesman was from hostile lips;
+consequently she had him painted to her as blood-thirsty, treacherous,
+of flagrant immorality, with his one object to gather a band of
+kindred spirits to his cause, and become despot. And to hear such
+reports and yet to keep confident that Drusus was not sacrificing both
+himself and her in a worse than unworthy cause--this tested her to the
+uttermost.
+
+To add to her troubles, Lucius Ahenobarbus was ever thrusting in his
+attentions at every party and at the theatre; and her uncle openly
+favoured his suit.
+
+"I wish you would be more friendly to him," remarked Lentulus on one
+occasion. "I should be glad to have a closer tie between his family
+and ours."
+
+"Uncle," said Cornelia, much distressed, "I do not think I understand
+what you mean."
+
+"Well," chuckled Lentulus, moving away, "think it over until you do
+understand."
+
+Cornelia had been reading in the library when this conversation took
+place. There was to be another party that evening at the house of
+Marcus Favonius, a prominent anti-C�sarian, and since it was growing
+late in the afternoon, it was time to dress. Cornelia went into her
+own room, and was summoning her maids, when a young lady of about her
+own age, who affected to be on terms of considerable intimacy, was
+announced--Herennia, a daughter of a certain rich old eques, Caius
+Pontius, who had kept out of politics and hoarded money, which his
+daughter was doing her best to spend.
+
+Herennia was already dressed for the party. Her brown hair had been
+piled up in an enormous mass on her head, eked out by false tresses
+and puffings, and the whole plentifully powdered with gold dust. She
+wore a prodigious number of gaudily set rings; her neck and ears and
+girdle were ablaze with gold and jewels. So far from aiming, as do
+modern ladies, to reduce the waist to the slenderest possible
+proportions, Herennia, who was actually quite thin, had carefully
+padded out her form to proper dimensions, and showed this fact by her
+constrained motions. She was rouged and painted, and around her
+floated an incense of a thousand and one rare perfumes. Her
+amethystine tunic and palla were of pure silk--then literally worth
+its weight in gold--and embroidered with an elaborate pattern in which
+pearls and other gems played a conspicuous part. For all this display
+of extravagance, Herennia was of only very mediocre beauty; and it was
+on this account that she was always glad to make uncomfortable flings
+at her "dear friend" Cornelia, whenever possible.
+
+Herennia seated herself on a divan, and proceeded to plunge into all
+the flying gossip of the day. Incidentally she managed to hint that
+Servius Maccus, her devoted admirer, had told her that the night
+before Lucius Ahenobarbus and some of his friends had attacked and
+insulted a lady on her way back from a late dinner.[87]
+
+  [87] A common diversion for "young men of spirit."
+
+"The outrageous scapegrace!" cried Cornelia, while her maids hurried
+along a toilet which, if not as elaborate as Herennia's, took some
+little time. "I imagined he might do such things! I always detested
+him!"
+
+"Then you are not so very fond of Lucius Ahenobarbus," said Herennia,
+raising her carefully painted eyebrows, as if in astonishment. "I am
+really a little surprised."
+
+"Surprised?" re�choed Cornelia. "What have I done or said that makes
+Lucius Ahenobarbus anything more than a very distant, a _very_ distant
+acquaintance?"
+
+"My dear girl," exclaimed Herennia, throwing up her hands, "either you
+are the best actress, or the most innocent little wight, in Rome!
+Don't you know all that they say about you?"
+
+"Who--say--what--about--me?" stammered Cornelia, rising in her chair
+so suddenly, as to disarrange all the work Cassandra had been doing on
+her hair.
+
+"Why, everybody," said Herennia, smiling with an exasperating
+deliberation. "And then it has all come out in the daily gazette."[88]
+
+  [88] _Acta Diurna_, prepared officially.
+
+"Where is it? Read! Let me see," pleaded Cornelia, agitated and
+trembling.
+
+"Why, how troubled you are," giggled Herennia. "Yes, I have my
+freedman copy down the whole bulletin every day, as soon as it is
+posted by the censor's officers; now let me see," and she produced
+from under her robe a number of wooden, wax-covered tablets, strung
+together: "the last pr�tor's edict; the will of old Publius Bl�sus;"
+and she ran over the headings with maddening slowness: "the speech in
+the Senate of Curio--what an impudent rascal; the money paid yesterday
+into the treasury,--how dull to copy all that down!--the meteor which
+fell over in Tibur, and was such a prodigy; oh, yes, here it is at
+last; you may as well hear what all Rome knows now, it's at the end,
+among the private affairs. 'Lucius Ahenobarbus, son of Lucius
+Domitius, the Consular, and Cornelia, daughter of the late tribune,
+Caius Lentulus, are in love. They will be married soon.'"
+
+These two brief sentences, which the mechanical difficulties under
+which journalistic enterprise laboured at that day made it impossible
+to expand into a modern "article," were quite sufficient to tell a
+whole story to Rome. Cornelia realized instantly that she had been
+made the victim of some vile trick, which she doubted not her would-be
+lover and her uncle had executed in collusion. She took the tablets
+from Herennia's hand, without a word, read the falsehoods once, twice,
+thrice. The meaning of the day attached to the terms used intimated
+the existence of a low intrigue, quite as much as any honourable
+"engagement." If Cornelia did not soon become the lawful wife of
+Lucius Ahenobarbus, the world would feel justified in piling scandal
+upon her name. The blow was numbing in its brutality. Instead of
+crying and execrating the liars, as Herennia fully expected her to do,
+Cornelia merely handed back the tablets, and said with cold dignity,
+"I think some very unfortunate mistake has been made. Lucius
+Ahenobarbus is no friend of mine. Will you be so kind as to leave me
+with my maids?"
+
+Herennia was overborne by the calm, commanding attitude of the rival
+she had meant to annoy. When Cornelia became not the radiant
+_debutante_, but the haughty patrician lady, there was that about her
+which made her wish a mandate. Herennia, in some confusion, withdrew.
+When she was gone, Cornelia ordered her maids out of the room,
+stripped off the golden tiara they had been plaiting into her hair,
+tore away the rings, bracelets, necklaces, and flung herself upon the
+pillows of the divan, quivering with sobs. She did not know of a
+single friend who could help her. All the knowledge that she had
+imbibed taught her that there was no God either to hear prayer, or
+succour the wronged. Her name would become a laughing-stock and a
+hissing, to be put on a par with Clodia's or that of any other
+frivolous woman, unless she not merely gave up the man she loved, but
+also threw herself into the arms of the man she utterly hated. The
+craving for any respite was intense. She was young; but for the
+moment, at least, life had lost every glamour. If death was an endless
+sleep, why not welcome it as a blessed release? The idea of suicide
+had a grasp on the ancient world which it is hard at first to
+estimate. A healthy reaction might have stirred Cornelia out of her
+despair, but at that instant the impulse needed to make her commit an
+irrevocable deed must have been very slight. But while she lay on the
+pillows, wretched and heart-sick, the voice of Agias was heard
+without, bidding the maids admit him to their mistress.
+
+"Stay outside. I can't see you now," moaned poor Cornelia, feeling
+that for once the sight of the good-humoured, vivacious slave-boy
+would be maddening. But Agias thrust back the curtains and boldly
+entered. What he said will be told in its due time and place; but the
+moment he had gone Cornelia was calling in Cassandra, and ordering the
+maids to dress her with all possible speed for the dinner-party.
+
+"I must be all smiles, all enchantments," she was saying to herself.
+"I must dissemble. I must win confidences. I must do everything, and
+anything. I have no right to indulge in grief any longer. Quintus's
+dear life is at stake!"
+
+
+II
+
+Lentulus did not go to the banquet of Favonius, to see the unwonted
+graciousness with which his niece received the advances of Lucius
+Ahenobarbus, Neither was Favonius himself present at his own
+entertainment. They, and several others of the high magnates of their
+party, had been called away by an urgent summons, and spent the
+evening in secluded conference with no less a personage than Pompeius,
+or as he dearly loved to be called, "the Magnus," in his splendid
+palace outside the walls on the Campus Martius. And here the conqueror
+of Mithridates--a stout, soldierly man of six-and-fifty, whose best
+quality was a certain sense of financial honesty, and whose worst an
+extreme susceptibility to the grossest adulation--told them that he
+had received letters from Labienus, C�sar's most trusted lieutenant in
+Gaul, declaring that the proconsul's troops would never fight for him,
+that C�sar would never be able to stir hand or foot against the
+decrees of the Senate, and that he, Labienus, would desert him at the
+first opportunity.
+
+Cheerful news this to the noble lords, who had for years scented in
+C�sar's existence and prosperity destruction to their own oligarchic
+rule of almost the known world. But when Cato, the most violent
+anti-C�sarian of them all, a sharp, wiry man with angular features,
+and keen black eyes, demanded:--
+
+"And now, Magnus, you will not hesitate to annihilate the enemies of
+the Republic?" a look of pained indecision flitted across Pompeius's
+face.
+
+"_Perpol_, gentlemen," he exclaimed, "I would that I were well out of
+this. Sometimes I think that you are leading me into breaking with
+C�sar for some ends of your own. He was my friend before you had a
+word of praise for me. He loved Julia; so did I." And the Magnus
+paused a moment, overcome by the thought of his dead wife. "Perhaps
+the Republic demands his sacrifice, perhaps--" and he cast a glance
+half of menace upon Lentulus Crus and Cato, "you are the guilty, not
+he. But I am in grievous doubt."
+
+"Perhaps, Magnus," said Favonius, with half a sneer, "you think your
+forces inadequate. The two legions at Luceria are just detached from
+C�sar. Perhaps you question their fidelity."
+
+"Man," retorted the general, fiercely, bringing his foot down upon the
+soft rug on the floor, "I have but to stamp upon the ground to call up
+legions out of Italy; it is not that which I fear!"
+
+The members of the conference looked uneasy; there was still a bare
+chance that Pompeius would go back to his old friendship with C�sar.
+
+"Gentlemen," went on the Magnus, "I have called you here to reach a
+final decision--peace or war. Let us consult a higher power than
+human." And he touched a little silver bell that was upon the table
+close at hand.
+
+Forthwith there was a rustle of curtains, and out of the gloom of the
+doorway--for the hour was now very late--advanced a tall, gaunt
+figure, dressed in a plain, sleeveless robe that fell to the feet. The
+skin was dry, hard, wrinkled by a hundred furrows; the bones of the
+face were thrust out prominently; on the head was a plain white
+turban, and a beard quite as white fell down upon the breast. Only
+from under the turban shone the eyes, which were bright and piercing
+as coals of fire.
+
+The stranger advanced without a word, till he stood before Pompeius,
+then knelt and made an elaborate Oriental prostration. The noble
+Romans, twelve or more of the magnates of the greatest power on the
+earth, held their breath in uneasy anticipation. Not one of them
+perhaps really believed in a personal god; but though atheists, they
+could not forswear their superstition. Piso, the censor, who
+notoriously feared neither divine nor human law in his reckless life,
+spat thrice to ward off the effects of the evil eye, if the stranger
+were a magician.
+
+"Ulamhala," said Pompeius, addressing the newcomer, "arise. Since I
+have been in the East,[89] I have consulted you and your science of
+the stars, in every intended step, and your warnings have never
+failed."
+
+  [89] "Chaldean" astrologers played an almost incredibly important
+  part among even the highest-class Romans of the period.
+
+"My lord doth overcommend the wisdom of his slave," replied Ulamhala
+(for such was his name) in Syriac Greek, with a second deep obeisance.
+
+"Now, therefore," went on Pompeius--and his voice was unsteady with
+evident excitement and anxiety,--"I have called you hither to declare
+the warnings of the stars upon the most important step of my life.
+What lies now at stake, you know full well. Three days ago I bade you
+consult the heavens, that this night you might be able to declare
+their message, not merely to me, but to these my friends, who will
+shape their actions by mine. Have you a response from the planets?"
+
+"I have, lord," and again Ulamhala salaamed.
+
+"Then declare, be it good or ill;" commanded Pompeius, and he gripped
+the arms of his chair to conceal his anxiety.
+
+The scene was in a way weird enough. The visitors exchanged uneasy
+glances, and Cato, who broke out in some silly remark to Favonius, in
+a bold attempt to interrupt the oppressive silence, suddenly found his
+words growing thick and broken, and he abruptly became silent. Each
+man present tried to tell himself that Pompeius was a victim of
+superstition, but every individual felt an inward monition that
+something portentous was about to be uttered.
+
+The conference had lasted long. The lamps were flickering low. Dark
+shadows were loitering in every corner of the room. The aroma of
+flowers from the adjacent gardens floated in at the open windows, and
+made the hot air drugged and heavy. Ulamhala slowly and noiseless as a
+cat stepped to the window, and, leaning out over the marble railing,
+looked up into the violet-black heavens. There was no moon, but a
+trembling flame on one of the candelabras threw a dull, ruddy glow
+over his white dress and snowy turban. His face was hid in the gloom,
+but the others knew, though they could hardly see, that he was
+pointing upward with his right hand.
+
+"Behold," began the astrologer, "three thousand seven hundred and
+fifty years since the days of the great Sargon of Agade have we of the
+race of the Chaldeans studied the stars. One generation of watchers
+succeeded another, scanning the heavens nightly from our
+_ziggurats_,[90] and we have learned the laws of the constellations;
+the laws of Sin the moon, the laws of Samas the sun, the laws of the
+planets, the laws of the fixed stars. Their motions and their
+influence on the affairs of men our fathers discovered, and have
+handed their wisdom down to us."
+
+  [90] Babylonian temple towers.
+
+"But the word of the stars to _us_?" broke in Pompeius, in extreme
+disquietude, and trying to shake off the spell that held him in
+mastery.
+
+"Know, lord, that thy slave has not been disobedient unto thy
+commandment. Look, yonder burneth a bright red planet, called by us
+Nergal, which ye Westerns call by the name of Mars. Who denieth that
+when Mars shines in the heavens, war will break forth among men? Know
+that I have carefully compared the settings, risings, and movements of
+the planets at this season with their settings, risings, and movements
+at the time when my lord was born; and also at the time of the birth
+of his great enemy. I have made use of the tables which my wise
+predecessors among the Chaldees have prepared; and which I myself, thy
+slave, copied from those at the Temple of Bel, in Babylon."
+
+"And they say?" breathlessly interrupted Lentulus.
+
+"This is the message from the planets," and Ulamhala's form grew
+higher, his voice firmer; he raised his long bony arms above his head,
+and stood in the dull light like a skeleton arisen in all its white
+grave clothes to convey a warning to the living. "To the Lord
+Pompeius, this is the warning, and to his enemy,
+
+  "'_He that is highest shall rise yet higher;
+  He that is second shall utterly fall!_'
+
+I have said."
+
+And before the noble Romans could command the free play of their
+senses, the vision at the window had vanished, either out of doors, or
+behind some doorway or curtain. The company sat gazing uneasily at
+each other for several minutes. The Magnus was breathing heavily, as
+though he had passed through a terrible mental ordeal. Cato, the Stoic
+and ascetic, had his eyes riveted on the carpet, and his face was as
+stony as an Egyptian Colossus.
+
+Then a coarse forced laugh from Piso broke the spell.
+
+"Capital, Pompeius! You _are_ a favourite of the gods!"
+
+"I?" ventured the Magnus, moving his lips slowly.
+
+"Of course," cried several voices at once, catching the cue from Piso.
+"You are the first in the world, C�sar the second! You are to rise to
+new glories, and C�sar is to utterly fall!"
+
+"The stars have said it, gentlemen," said Pompeius, solemnly; "C�sar
+shall meet his fate. Let there be war."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Lentulus Crus rode away from the conference, his litter side by side
+with that of Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, the consular, whom we will
+know as Domitius to distinguish from his son and namesake. Domitius, a
+handsome, highly polished, vigorous, but none the less unprincipled
+man, who was just reaching the turn of years, was in high spirits. No
+oligarch hated C�sar more violently than he, and the decision of
+Pompeius was a great personal triumph, the crowning of many years of
+political intrigue. What Pompeius had said, he had said; and C�sar,
+the great foe of the Senate party, was a doomed man.
+
+Lentulus had a question to ask his companion.
+
+"Would you care to consider a marriage alliance between the Lentuli
+and the Domitii?" was his proposition.
+
+"I should be rejoiced and honoured to have the opportunity," was the
+reply; and then in another tone Domitius added, "Lentulus, do you
+believe in astrologers?"
+
+"I do not really know," answered the other, uneasily.
+
+"Neither do I," continued Domitius. "But suppose the stars speak
+truly; and suppose," and here his voice fell, "it is C�sar who is
+highest in power, in ability, in good fortune;--what then for
+Pompeius? for us?"
+
+"Be silent, O prophet of evil!" retorted Lentulus, laughing, but not
+very naturally.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VII
+
+Agias's Adventure
+
+
+I
+
+Pisander's view of life became a score of shades more rosy when he
+seized the hand of the handsome slave-boy, then embraced him, and
+began praising the gods for preserving his favourite's life. Then the
+worthy philosopher recollected that his wisdom taught him there were
+no gods, and he plunged into a rambling explanation of his position,
+which would have lasted forever, unless Agias had cut him short with a
+merry gibe, and told him that he must positively come to a tavern and
+enjoy at least one beaker of good Massic in memory of old friendship.
+And Pisander, whose spareness of living arose more from a lack of
+means than from a philosophic aversion to food and good cheer, was
+soon seated on a bench in one of the cheap restaurants[91] that
+abounded in the city, balancing a very large goblet, and receiving a
+volley of questions which Agias was discharging about Valeria's
+eccentricities, Calatinus's canvass, Arsino�, Semiramis, and the rest
+of the household of which he had been a member.
+
+  [91] _Popin�_.
+
+"But you haven't told me, Agias," finally interrupted the poor
+philosopher, who had been struggling in turn to satisfy his curiosity,
+"how you are here, and not--ugh! I hate to think of it--feeding the
+dogs and the crows."
+
+Agias's face grew grave while he gave the story of his release by the
+Vestal, and subsequent transfer of ownership.
+
+"What was the name of the young man who purchased you, eh?"
+interpolated Pisander. "I didn't get it."
+
+"Quintus Livius Drusus," replied Agias.
+
+"Who?" cried the philosopher, starting up.
+
+"Quintus Drusus, of Pr�neste," repeated the other.
+
+"_Ai! Ai!_ In the name of Zeus!" cried Pisander, dropping the beaker,
+and spilling the wine all over his threadbare himation. "Oh, such a
+plot! Such a crime! Was ever anything so villanous ever heard of
+before!"
+
+"My dear Pisander," exclaimed Agias, all amazement, "what _is_ the
+matter? Your speech is as obscure as Cinna's[92] poem called 'Zmyrna,'
+which I've heard was ten years in being written, and must be very
+fine, because no one can understand it. No more can I fathom you."
+
+  [92] A poet at that time of some little reputation.
+
+"What a stroke of fortune!" raved the philosopher. "How we will be
+revenged on that rascal, Pratinas! O Destiny, thy decrees are just!"
+
+Again Agias expostulated, and at last brought out of Pisander a
+tolerably coherent account of the conversation which he had heard
+between Valeria and Pratinas. Then, indeed, the merry slave-boy was
+troubled. Accustomed to a rather limited ambition in life, he had
+attached himself with implicit devotion to Cornelia; first because his
+preserver, Drusus, had so enjoined him, and second because each day he
+grew more drawn to her personally. The peril which yawned before the
+unfortunate Drusus menaced at the same time the happiness of his
+mistress and his own welfare,--for if Lucius Ahenobarbus had his way,
+Agias himself would become the slave of that not very gentle
+patrician. Cornelia and Drusus had had troubles enough before; but in
+the present crisis, actual destruction stared Agias's saviour in the
+face. The situation was maddening, was sickening. Agias wrung his
+hands in anguish. Then came the healthy reaction. Drusus was still
+alive and well. He could be warned. The plot could be thwarted.
+Pratinas and Ahenobarbus were not yet beyond the reach of retribution.
+He--Agias--was no longer to be a mere foot-boy and lackey; he was to
+match his keen Greek wits in subtle intrigue against foemen worthy of
+his steel. He would save Drusus's life, would save Cornelia's
+happiness. If he succeeded, who knew but that his owner would reward
+him--would give him freedom. And with a natural rebound of spirits,
+Agias's eyes glittered with expectation and excitement, his cheeks
+flushed, his form expanded to a manly height.
+
+"_Euge!_ Well done, old friend!" he cried, with the merriment of
+intense excitement. "No matter if you say you were only able to hear a
+small part of what our dear fellow-Hellene, Pratinas, told Valeria. I
+have gathered enough to defeat the plotters. Leave all to me. If you
+learn anything new, send word to the house of Lentulus Crus, and ask
+to see me. And now I must forsake this pleasant wine untasted, and
+hurry away. My mistress will bless you, and perhaps there will be some
+reward."
+
+And leaving the bewildered Pisander to wipe the wine from his dress,
+Agias had darted out of the tavern, and was lost in the hurly-burly of
+the cattle-market.
+
+How Agias had forced his way into Cornelia's presence we have related.
+The young Greek had stated his unpleasant intelligence as
+diplomatically and guardedly as possible; but Cornelia had borne this
+shock--following so soon upon one sufficiently cruel--grievously
+enough. After all, she was only a girl--perhaps more mature for her
+years than the average maiden of her age of to-day, but almost
+friendless, hopeless, and beset with many trials. And this new one was
+almost more than she could bear. We have said that to her suicide had
+but just before appeared a refuge to be desired; but to have Quintus
+die, to have him taken out of that life that ought to be so fair for
+him, no matter how darksome it was for her; to have him never realize
+her ambition that he become a statesman, warrior, philosopher, in
+short her ideal hero--this was unbearable! This phase of the question
+was so overpowering that she forgot to feel rage against Ahenobarbus
+and his wily ally. Cornelia threw herself down upon the floor, and
+cried to Agias to slay her quickly. She did not care to live; she
+could endure no more.
+
+Agias here manifested exquisite tact. Instead of attempting any
+ordinary means of expostulation, he pleaded with her not to give way
+to despair; that Drusus was not yet at the mercy of his enemies; that
+she, if she would, could do an infinite deal to assist him.
+
+"I save Quintus?" questioned Cornelia, with white, quivering lips.
+
+"You can do much, my lady," replied Agias, kindly taking her by the
+hand, and with gentle pressure forcing her to sit on the divan. "You
+can do what neither I, nor Pisander, nor any one else can accomplish.
+You can make Lucius Ahenobarbus betray his own plot. You, and you
+only, can penetrate the final plans of the conspirators. Therefore be
+strong, and do not despair."
+
+"I? What can _I_ do?" cried Cornelia, staring at him with sad,
+tearless eyes.
+
+"Lady Cornelia," said Agias, delicately, "Drusus would never receive
+back his life if it were to be purchased by any sacrifice of honour on
+your part. But this is not needed. Lucius Ahenobarbus--forgive my
+plain speech--worships the ground whereon you tread. A smile from you
+raises him to Olympus; a compliment from you makes him feel himself a
+god; a soft word from you creates him the peer of Zeus. Lady, I know
+you hate that man; but for Master Drusus's sake make Ahenobarbus
+believe that you are not indifferent to his advances. Slander Drusus
+before him. Complain of the provisions of your father's will that,
+despite your uncle's intention, will make it difficult to avoid a
+hateful marriage. If in the past you have been cold to Ahenobarbus,
+grow gracious; but not too rapidly. Finally, at the proper time, do
+not hesitate to urge him to commit the act we know he is meditating.
+Then he will make you a full partner of his plot, and Pratinas and he
+can be permanently thwarted."
+
+"You say that Drusus can be saved by this?" asked Cornelia, steadying
+herself as she rose from the divan;
+
+"I will warn him at once," replied Agias. "Any premature attempt on
+his life will certainly fail. But it is not Ahenobarbus that I fear;
+it is Pratinas. Pratinas, if baffled once, will only be spurred on to
+use all his cunning in a second trial. We must enmesh the conspirators
+so completely that when their stab is parried, not merely will their
+power to repeat it be gone, but they themselves will be in danger of
+retribution. And for this, some one must be confederate to their final
+plan."
+
+"Agias," said Cornelia, quietly, "Quintus said that you would be a
+faithful servant to him and to myself. I believe he was right. You
+have asked a great thing of me, Agias. I would not do it unless I
+believed that you were unlike other slaves. I might imagine that
+Lucius Ahenobarbus had bribed you to tell me this story, in order that
+I should put myself in his power. But I trust you. I will do anything
+you say. For you Hellenes have wits as keen as sharp steel, and I know
+that you will do all you may to repay your debt to Quintus."
+
+Agias knelt down and kissed the robe of his mistress. "My lady," he
+said gently, "it is no grievous thing to be a slave of such as you.
+Believe me; I will not betray my trust. And now if you can let me
+leave you, I will hurry to Pr�neste, and for the present our minds may
+be at rest. For old Mamercus will, I am sure, be able to take good
+care of Master Drusus for yet awhile."
+
+"Go, and the gods--if there be gods--go with you!" replied Cornelia.
+Agias kissed her robe a second time, and was gone. His mistress stood
+in the middle of the empty room. On the wall facing her was a painting
+of "Aphrodite rising from the Foam," which Drusus had given her. The
+sensuous smiles on the face of the goddess sickened Cornelia, as she
+looked upon it. To her, at the moment, laughter was more hideous than
+any sobbing. Outside the door she heard the gay, witless chatter of
+the maids and the valets. They were happy--they--slaves, "speaking
+tools,"--and she with the blood of the Claudii and Cornelii in her
+veins, a patrician among patricians, the niece of a consul-elect, a
+woman who was the heiress of statesmen and overturners of
+kingdoms,--_she_ was miserable beyond endurance. Cornelia paced up and
+down the room, wishing she might order the giggling maids to be
+flogged and their laughter turned into howling. Then she summoned
+Cassandra.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Cornelia had never before tried to play the actress, but that night
+she flung herself into the game for life and death with all the
+earnestness of an energetic, intelligent, and spontaneous woman. She
+had been barely civil to Lucius Ahenobarbus before; to-night the young
+man began to persuade himself that the object of his affections was
+really a most adorable coquette, who used a certain brusqueness of
+speech to add to her witchery. He had heard that there had been some
+very disagreeable scenes at Pr�neste, when Lentulus had told his niece
+that Drusus, on account of his dangerous politics, was unfit to be her
+husband. But Ahenobarbus was sure that either these accounts were
+exaggerated, or more likely, Cornelia, like most women, was quick to
+fall in love and quick to leave an old sweetheart for a new one. Be
+that as it may, Lucius felt that night on good terms with himself and
+all the world. Phormio had consented to continue his loans--until his
+debtor could realize on "certain property." Pratinas had said that
+Dumnorix would shortly start with a band of gladiators for some local
+festival at Anagnia, a little beyond Pr�neste; and on the way back, if
+nothing went amiss, the prearranged programme could be carried out.
+Some pretext must be found for keeping Drusus on his estate at the
+time when Dumnorix would march past it, and that task could be
+confided to Phaon, Lucius's freedman, a sly fox entirely after his
+patron's own heart.
+
+Cornelia, to whom the dinner-party at Favonius's house began as a
+dreary enough tragedy, before long discovered that it was by no means
+more easy to suck undiluted sorrow than unmixed gladness out of life.
+It gratified her to imagine the rage and dismay of the young exquisite
+whose couch was beside her chair,[93] when he should learn how
+completely he had been duped. Then, too, Lucius Ahenobarbus had a
+voluble flow of polite small talk, and he knew how to display his
+accomplishments to full advantage. He had a fair share of wit and
+humour; and when he fancied that Cornelia was not impervious to his
+advances, he became more agreeable and more ardent. Once or twice
+Cornelia frightened herself by laughing without conscious forcing. Yet
+it was an immense relief to her when the banquet was over, and the
+guests--for Favonius had ordered that none should be given enough wine
+to be absolutely drunken--called for their sandals and litters and
+went their ways.
+
+  [93] Women sat at Roman banquets, unless the company was of a
+  questionable character.
+
+"And you, O Adorable, Calypso, Circe, Nausica�, Medea,--what shall I
+call you?--you will not be angry if I call to see you to-morrow?" said
+Ahenobarbus, smiling as he parted from Cornelia.
+
+"If you come," was her response, "I shall not perhaps order the slaves
+to pitch you out heels over head."
+
+"Ah! That is a guarded assent, indeed," laughed Lucius, "but farewell,
+_pulcherrima!_"[94]
+
+  [94] Most beautiful.
+
+Cornelia that night lay down and sobbed herself to sleep. Her mother
+had congratulated her on her brilliant social success at the
+dinner-party, and had praised her for treating Lucius Ahenobarbus as
+she had.
+
+"You know, my dear," the worthy woman had concluded, "that since it
+has seemed necessary to break off with Drusus, a marriage with Lucius
+would be at once recommended by your father's will, and in many ways
+highly desirable."
+
+
+II
+
+Only a very few days later Lucius Ahenobarbus received a message
+bidding him come to see his father at the family palace on the
+Palatine. Lucius had almost cut himself clear from his relations. He
+had his own bachelor apartments, and Domitius had been glad to have
+him out of the way. A sort of fiction existed that he was legally
+under _the patria potestas_,[95] and could only have debts and assets
+on his father's responsibility, but as a matter of fact his parent
+seldom paid him any attention; and only called on him to report at
+home when there was a public or family festival, or something very
+important. Consequently he knew that matters serious were on foot,
+when he read in his father's note a request to visit Domitius's palace
+as soon as convenient. Lucius was just starting, in his most spotless
+toga,--after a prolonged season with his hairdresser,--to pay a
+morning call on Cornelia, and so he was the more vexed and perturbed.
+
+  [95] Sons remained under the legal control of a father until the
+  latter's death, unless the tie was dissolved by elaborate ceremonies.
+
+"Curses on Cato,[96] my old uncle," he muttered, while he waited in
+the splendid atrium of the house of the Ahenobarbi. "He has been
+rating my father about my pranks with Gabinius and L�ca, and something
+unpleasant is in store for me."
+
+  [96] Cato Minor's sister Portia was the wife of Lucius Domitius.
+  Cato was also connected with the Drusi through Marcus Livius Drusus,
+  the murdered reformer, who was the maternal uncle of Cato and Portia.
+  Lucius Ahenobarbus and Quintus Drusus were thus third cousins.
+
+Domitius presently appeared, and his son soon noticed by the affable
+yet diplomatic manner of his father, and the gentle warmth of his
+greeting, that although there was something in the background, it was
+not necessarily very disagreeable.
+
+"My dear Lucius," began Domitius, after the first civilities were
+over, and the father and son had strolled into a handsomely appointed
+library and taken seats on a deeply upholstered couch, "I have, I
+think, been an indulgent parent. But I must tell you, I have heard
+some very bad stories of late about your manner of life."
+
+"Oh!" replied Lucius, smiling. "As your worthy friend Cicero remarked
+when defending young C�lius, 'those sorts of reproaches are regularly
+heaped on every one whose person or appearance in youth is at all
+gentlemanly.'"
+
+"I will thank you if you will not quote Cicero to me," replied the
+elder man, a little tartly. "He will soon be back from Cilicia, and
+will be prodding and wearying us in the Senate quite enough, with his
+rhetoric and sophistries. But I must be more precise. I have found out
+how much you owe Phormio. I thought your dead uncle had left you a
+moderately large estate for a young man. Where has it gone to? Don't
+try to conceal it! It's been eaten up and drunk up--spent away for
+unguents, washed away in your baths, the fish-dealer and the caterer
+have made way with it, yes, and butchers and cooks, and greengrocers
+and perfume sellers, and poulterers--not to mention people more
+scandalous--have made off with it."
+
+Lucius stretched himself out on the divan, caught at a thick, richly
+embroidered pillow, tossed it over his head on to the floor, yawned,
+raised himself again upright, and said drawlingly:--
+
+"Y-e-s, it's as you say. I find I spend every sesterce I have, and all
+I can borrow. But so long as Phormio is accommodating, I don't trouble
+myself very much about the debts."
+
+"Lucius," said Domitius, sternly, "you are a graceless spendthrift. Of
+course you must have the sport which all young blood needs. But your
+extravagance goes beyond all bounds. I call myself a rich man, but to
+leave you half my fortune, dividing with your older brother Cn�us, who
+is a far steadier and saner man than you, would be to assure myself
+that Greek parasites and low women would riot through that part of my
+estate in a twelvemonth. You must reform, Lucius; you must reform."
+
+This was getting extremely disagreeable in spite of his expectations,
+and the young man yawned a second time, then answered:--
+
+"Well, I presume Uncle Cato has told you all kinds of stories; but
+they aren't at all true. I really never had a great deal of money."
+
+"Lucius," went on his father, "you are grown to manhood. It is time
+that you steadied in life. I have let you live by yourself too long.
+You are even too indolent to engage in politics, or to go into the
+army. I have come to a determination. You must marry the woman I have
+selected for you."
+
+Ahenobarbus pricked up his ears. As a matter of fact, he had surmised
+what was coming, but he had no intention of admitting anything
+prematurely.
+
+"Really, father," he said, "I hope you won't use your legal right and
+force a wife on me. I have no desire to tie myself up to a decent
+married life."
+
+"I hardly think," said Domitius, smiling, "that you will resist my
+wishes long. I have seen Lentulus Crus the consul-elect, and he and I
+agree that since your mother's distant kinsman Quintus Drusus of
+Pr�neste is an unsuitable husband for Cornelia, Lentulus's niece, on
+account of his very dangerous political tendencies, no happier
+alliance could bind our families together than a marriage between
+Cornelia and yourself."
+
+Lucius yawned a third time and fell back on the couch.
+
+"It's true," he ventured, "I have cared a good deal for Cornelia; and
+I've thrown over that little Greek Clyte and all the others for her;
+but then, to make a girl your sweetheart and to make her your wife are
+two very different things. _Vina Opimia_ is best; but because one
+drinks a _cyathus_[97] of that, why should he forego a good nil of
+Thasian or C�cuban? If I could have but one choice, give me plenty of
+the good, and I'll give up my few drops of the best."
+
+  [97] About one-twelfth pint.
+
+"Come, come," said Domitius, a little impatiently, "you must
+positively reform. Besides, while appearances must be kept up, there
+is no need for leading the life of a Stoic. You won't find Cornelia a
+hard companion. You have your pleasures and she hers, and you will
+live harmoniously enough and not the least scandal."
+
+And with this remark Domitius closed the matter, and Lucius was
+actually delighted at the situation. What his father had said had been
+true enough; half, nay, nearly all, Rome lived in the manner Domitius
+had guardedly proposed for his son and intended daughter-in-law.
+Marriage was becoming more and more a mere formality, something that
+was kept up as the ancient state Pagan worship was kept up by the
+remnants of old-time superstition, and as a cloak to hide a multitude
+of sins. Fifty-nine years before, the consul Metellus Numidicus had
+declaimed, "Quirites, we would fain be free from all this annoyance
+(of marriage); but since nature has so brought it about that it is
+neither possible to live pleasantly with our wives nor by any means to
+live (as a race) without them, we ought to consider the welfare of the
+future rather than the mere passing pleasure of the present." And ever
+since that day Romans had been striving desperately to make the
+married state as endurable as possible; usually by reducing the
+importance of lawful wedlock to a minimum.
+
+Of course the announcement of the informal betrothal was soon spread
+over Rome. The contracting parties were in the very highest life, and
+everybody declared that the whole affair was a political deal between
+Lentulus Crus and Domitius. It was commonly reported, too, how
+Cornelia had broken with Drusus, and every one remarked that if the
+young man had cared to enforce her father's will in the courts, his
+claim to her hand and fortune would be valid unless--and here most
+people exchanged sly winks, for they knew the power of Domitius and
+Lentulus Crus over a jury.
+
+And how had Cornelia borne it--she at whom Herennia had stared in
+amazement, when that "dear friend" discovered the friendship the other
+was displaying to Lucius Ahenobarbus? Cornelia had received the
+announcement very quietly, one might almost say resignedly. She had
+one great hope and consolation to support her. They would not force
+her to marry Lucius Ahenobarbus until Drusus was dead or had reached
+the age of five-and-twenty. The marriage formula with Ahenobarbus once
+uttered, while Quintus lived, and by no possibility, save by an open
+spoliation that would have stirred even calloused Rome, could Lucius
+touch a sesterce of his intended victim's property. Cornelia's hope
+now, strangely enough, was in the man she regarded as the most
+consummate villain in the world, Pratinas. Ahenobarbus might have his
+debts paid by his father, and forego risk and crime if he did not
+absolutely need Drusus's fortune; but Pratinas, she knew, must have
+planned to secure rich pickings of his own, and if Ahenobarbus married
+permanently, all these were lost; and the Greeks never turned back or
+let another turn back, when there was a fortune before them. It was a
+fearful sort of confidence. Drusus had been warned promptly by Agias.
+Old Mamercus had straightway taken every precaution, and forced his
+foster son to put himself in a sort of custody, which was sufficiently
+galling, in addition to the ever present sense of personal danger. The
+villa at Pr�neste was guarded quietly by several armed slaves and
+peasants; not a morsel or drop passed Drusus's lips that had not been
+tested and tasted by a trusty dependent. The young man was not to go
+to Rome, despite his infinite yearning to see Cornelia, for every
+opportunity would be given in the dark city streets for an assassin.
+In fact, Drusus was virtually a prisoner in his own estates, for only
+there could he feel reasonably safe from attack.
+
+All these precautions Cornelia knew, for Agias was a master at
+smuggling letters in and out. She had told Drusus frankly all that had
+passed, and how that she was acting as she did only for his sake. She
+asked him to trust her, and he wrote back that no doubt of her
+fidelity to him had crossed his mind; he was not worthy of such love
+as she had for him; it did not matter very much if Ahenobarbus did
+kill him, except that it would give her new grief and pain, and the
+thought of that he could not bear. Cornelia had replied that if Drusus
+was murdered, she was woman enough and Roman enough to stab Lucius
+Ahenobarbus on their marriage night, and then plunge the dagger into
+her own breast. And there the fearful matter had rested; Cornelia
+smiled by day, and dazzled all she met by her vivacity, and her
+aggressive queenliness; and by night cried with tearless sobs, which
+came out of the depths of her heart. And all the time she waited for
+Agias to foil the plot, and assure Drusus of his life. Let Quintus
+once be safe, and then--how could she resist the irresistible pressure
+that would be brought to bear to force her into a hated marriage,
+which Ahenobarbus--balked though he might be of a fortune--would no
+longer care to defer? And when Cornelia thought of this, and when she
+was alone, she would open a little casket, of which no other had the
+key, and touch the ivory-carved hilt of a small damascened knife. The
+blade was very sharp; and there was a sticky gum all along the
+edge,--deadly poison; only a very slight scratch put one beyond aid of
+physician.
+
+The bitterest cup of all was the attitude she felt forced to assume
+toward Lucius Ahenobarbus. There were limits of familiarity and
+simulated affection beyond which she could not drive herself to go.
+Lucius was with her at all hours and in all places. The more she saw
+of him the more she abhorred his effeminate sensuality and lack of
+almost every quality that made life worth the living. But she
+must--she must learn the plot against Drusus, and precisely how and
+when the trap was to be sprung. And in a measure, at least so far as
+Lucius was concerned, she succeeded. By continually and openly
+reviling Quintus, by professing to doubt the legality of a marriage
+contracted against the terms of her father's will, by all but
+expressing the wish that her late lover were out of harm's way, she
+won her point. In a fit of half-drunken confidence Ahenobarbus assured
+her that she would not be troubled by Drusus for long; that he would
+soon be unable to annoy her. And then came a great disappointment.
+When Cornelia asked--and how much the request cost her, only she
+herself knew--to be let into the plot, Lucius owned that he had left
+the details in the hands of Pratinas, and did not himself know just
+how or when the blow was to fall. In Pratinas--whom Cornelia met very
+seldom--she met with a sphinx, ever smiling, ever gracious, but who,
+as if regretting the burst of confidence he had allowed Valeria, kept
+himself closed to the insinuations and half-questions of every one
+else. The truth was, the lanista Dumnorix was unwilling to do his part
+of the business until the festival at Anagnia brought him and his band
+through Pr�neste, and this festival had been postponed. Consequently,
+the projected murder had been postponed a few days also. Agias had
+tried to penetrate into the secrets of Pratinas, but found that
+judicious intriguer had, as a rule, carefully covered his tracks. He
+spent a good deal of time and money, which Cornelia gave him, trying
+to corrupt some of the gladiators of Dumnorix's band and get at the
+intentions of their master; but he was not able to find that any of
+these wretches, who took his gold greedily enough, really knew in the
+least what were the appointments and engagements of the Gallic giant.
+As a matter of fact, the boy began to feel decidedly discouraged.
+Pisander had nothing more to tell; and, moreover, the worthy
+philosopher often gave such contradictory accounts of what he had
+overheard in Valeria's boudoir, that Agias was at his wit's end when
+and where to begin.
+
+So passed the rest of the month since Cornelia had been brought from
+Pr�neste to Rome.
+
+
+III
+
+Cornelia began to grow sick at heart. The conviction was stealing over
+her that she was the victim of a cruel destiny, and it was useless to
+fight against fate. She had made sacrifices for Drusus's sake that had
+cost her infinitely. All Rome said that Cornelia returned the love of
+Lucius Ahenobarbus. And with it all, she knew that she had not
+succeeded in discovering the real plot of Pratinas, and could not
+thwart it. She knew that nearly every one placed her, if actually not
+as vicious as the rest, at least in the same coterie with Clodia, and
+the wife of Lentulus Spinther the younger Metella, and only a grade
+better than such a woman as Arbuscula, the reigning actress of the
+day. There was no defence to offer to the world. Did she not go with
+her mother to the gay gathering, in the gardens by the Tiber? Was she
+not waited on by half the fashionable young aristocrats of Rome? Was
+she not affianced to a man who was notoriously a leader of what might
+to-day be called the "fast set" of the capital? And from Drusus, poor
+fellow, she gained not the least consolation. That he loved her as she
+loved him, she had never cause to doubt. But in his self-renunciation
+he gave her advice that sprang out of his own sorrow and pessimism. It
+was no use, ran his letters, for a woman like her to try and battle
+against the evident decrees of Fortune. He was a man, and must fight
+his battle or die his death bravely; but she was not called on for
+this. There was no reason why she should not really enjoy herself, in
+the way most of the world thought she was enjoying herself. She had
+better wed Lucius Ahenobarbus, and stoop to the inevitable. Her
+husband could go his way and she go hers, and none would complain.
+Perhaps the Epicureans were right,--this life was all, and it was best
+to suck from it all the sweets one might, and not be disturbed by
+pricks of conscience. Drusus and Cornelia were not lovers of a modern
+romance, to entertain fantastic ideas of love and duty, to throw
+themselves away for a fancy, or tie themselves with vows which
+militated against almost every worldly advantage. They were both
+Romans, and by that we mean eminently practical persons, faithful to
+one another, pure and noble in their affections, but habituated to
+look a situation in the face and accept the plain consequences. In
+this spirit Drusus had advised as he did, and Cornelia became
+discouraged accordingly. Her reason told her to submit to the
+inevitable. Her heart cried out against it. And so she continued to
+finger the hilt of the little dagger, and look at its keen
+poison-smeared edge.
+
+But one day at the end of this dreary period Agias appeared before his
+mistress with a smiling face.
+
+"Don't raise high hopes, my lady, but trust me. I have struck a path
+that I'm sure Pratinas will wish I'd never travelled." And that was
+all he would say, but laid his finger on his lips as though it was a
+great secret. When he was gone, for Cornelia the sun shone brighter,
+and the tinkling of the water in the fountain in the peristylium
+sounded sweeter than before. After all, there had come a gleam of
+hope.
+
+Cornelia needed the encouragement. That same day when Herennia called
+to see her, that excellent young lady--for not the least reason in the
+world--had been full of stories of poisoning and murders, how some
+years ago a certain Balbutius of Larinum was taken off, it was said,
+at a wedding feast of a friend for whom the poison had been intended;
+and then again she had to tell how, at another time, poison had been
+put in a bit of bread of which the victim partook. The stories were
+old ones and perhaps nothing more than second-hand scandal, but they
+were enough to make poor Cornelia miserable; so she was doubly
+rejoiced when Agias that evening pressed his lips again and smiled and
+said briefly: "All is going well. We shall have the root of the matter
+in a few days."
+
+Agias had actually come upon what he was right in considering a great
+piece of good fortune. He had easily found the tenement in the Subura
+where Pratinas lodged, but to learn anything there that would be
+useful was a far more difficult affair. He had hung around the place,
+however, as much as he dared, making his headquarters at a tavern
+conveniently near, and tried to learn Pratinas's habits, and whether
+he ever took any visitors home with him. All this came to little
+purpose till one morning he observed an old Ethiop, who was tugging a
+heavy provision basket, stagger up the street, through the nondescript
+crowd. The old slave was being assailed by a mob of street gamins and
+low pedlers who saw in the contents of the hamper so much fair
+plunder. These vagabonds had just thrown the Ethiop down into the mud,
+and were about to divide their booty, when Agias, acting on a generous
+impulse, rushed out from the tavern to the rescue. Nimble, for his age
+powerful, and armed with a stout staff which he had caught up in the
+wine-shop to aid him, the young Greek won an easy victory over
+cowardly antagonists, put all the plunderers to flight, and lifted the
+old slave out of the mire. The Ethiop was profuse in his thanks.
+
+"And whose slave are you?" demanded Agias, well pleased to be out of
+the adventure.
+
+"I'm Sesostris, servant of Pratinas the Greek."
+
+Agias pricked up his ears. "And you live--"
+
+"In the top story of this tenement;" and Sesostris tried to pick up
+the hamper.
+
+"Oh!" laughed his rescuer, "you must let me save you that trouble. I
+will carry up the basket. Your master is a brute to pile on such
+loads."
+
+Sesostris again fawned his gratitude, and Agias, with quickened wits
+and eyes alert, toiled up the dark stairway, and found himself at the
+top of the building. He had "entered the enemy's country." The Ethiop
+might not have been open to bribes, but he might be unlocked through
+friendship, and Agias never needed all his senses more than now. They
+had reached the topmost flight of stairs, and Sesostris had stopped as
+if embarrassed whether to invite his deliverer in to enjoy some
+hospitality, or say him farewell. Then of a sudden from behind the
+closed door came a clear, sweet, girlish voice, singing, in Greek:--
+
+  "O Aitn�, mother mine: A grotto fair
+    Scooped in the rocks have I, and there I keep
+  All that in dreams man pictures! Treasured there
+    Are multitudes of she-goats and of sheep,
+    Swathed in whose wool from top to toe I sleep."
+
+It was an idyl of Theocritus, very well known by Agias, and without
+the least hesitation he took up the strain, and continued:--
+
+  "The fire boils my pot; with oak or beech
+    Is piled,--dry beech logs when the snow lies deep.
+  And storm and sunshine, I disdain them each
+    As toothless sires a nut, when broth is in their reach."[98]
+
+  [98] Calverly's translation.
+
+Agias paused. There was a silence, then a giggle behind the door, and
+it half opened, and out peered the plump and rosy face of the young
+girl we have heard Pratinas salute as his niece, Artemisia. The moment
+she caught sight of the rather manly form of Agias, the door started
+to close with a slam, but the latter thrust out his foot, blocked the
+door, and forced an entrance.
+
+"_Eleleu!_" cried Agias, pushing into a small but neatly furnished
+room. "What have we here? Do the muses sing in Subura? Has Sappho
+brought hither her college of poetesses from Lesbos?"
+
+"_Ai!_" exclaimed Artemisia, drawing back, "who are you? You're
+dreadfully rude. I never saw you before."
+
+"Nor I you;" replied Agias, in capital good humour, "but that is no
+reason why I should take my eyes away from your pretty little face.
+No, you needn't point your middle finger at me so, to ward off the
+evil eye. I'm neither Chaldean astrologer, nor Etruscan soothsayer.
+Come, tell me who you are, and whom you belong to?"
+
+Artemisia did not have the least idea what to say. Agias, partly
+through youthful love of adventure, partly because he felt that he was
+playing now for very high stakes and must risk a good deal, had thrown
+himself on the divan, and was holding Artemisia captive under his
+keen, genial eyes. She grew redder in face than before, began to
+speak, then broke off with more confused blushes.
+
+"She means to say," finally ventured Sesostris, "that she is
+Artemisia, the niece of Pratinas."
+
+"The niece of Pratinas!" exclaimed Agias, settling himself upon the
+cushions in a manner that indicated his intention to make a prolonged
+stay; "and does Pratinas keep his pretty niece shut up in a gloomy
+tenement, when she has the voice of one of the Graces, and more than
+their share of beauty! Shame on him; I thought he had better sense
+than that!"
+
+"Sir," ventured Artemisia, trying desperately to stand on her dignity,
+"I do not know you. My uncle will be greatly vexed to find you here.
+Will you go away at once?"
+
+"That I will not," replied Agias, firmly; and he drew from the hamper
+a baker's bun, and began to munch it, as though laying in provision
+for a lengthy stay.
+
+Artemisia and Sesostris exchanged glances of dismay.
+
+"What _shall_ I do?" said the girl to the Ethiop in a very audible
+whisper.
+
+"Sing," interrupted Agias. "Let me hear the rest of the Theocritus."
+
+"I don't like to sing those songs," objected Artemisia. "Pratinas
+makes me, I don't know why."
+
+"Well," said Agias, smiling, "I wouldn't for the-world make you sing
+against your will. Suppose you tell me about yourself. Tell me when
+your uncle is away, and when I may come and see you again."
+
+"He's away nearly all the time," said Artemisia, very incautiously.
+"But _who are_ you? Why do you want to come and see me?"
+
+"Why do I want to look at a flower? Why do I want to hear the
+nightingale sing? Why do I like a cup of good wine?" laughed Agias.
+"Then, fair mistress, you may look for my answer when _you_ have
+answered all of these questions of mine."
+
+"I don't see what you mean," said poor Artemisia, looking dreadfully
+puzzled.
+
+"I mean," exclaimed the other, "what Sappho meant of the bride,--
+
+  'She like an apple turned red; which reddens far up on the tree-top:--
+  Upon the topmost of boughs,--the gatherers they have quite missed it.
+  Yes, they saw it indeed; but too high to dare try to pluck it.'
+
+Only I, if you don't greatly mind, will be the bold tree-climber and
+pluck the apple."
+
+"But I do mind," cried Artemisia, all blushes, and springing a little
+back. Old Sesostris looked alarmed.
+
+"You--you mean the girl no ill?" he faltered.
+
+Agias looked from the innocent little thing over to the Ethiop,
+snapped his finger, and replied:--
+
+"Ill? I am not a human wolf, making pretty objects like this my prey!"
+Then, choosing his moment carefully, by a quick turn he confronted
+Sesostris sternly, and almost thundered: "_You_ speak of my doing ill
+to this maiden? You speak--the slave of Pratinas, who is the leader in
+every vice and wild prank in Rome! Has the slave as well as the master
+learned to play the hypocrite? Do you want to be tortured into
+confessing your part in all your master's crimes when the hour of
+reckoning comes and he is brought to justice. _A! A!_" he went on,
+seeing that Sesostris was rolling the whites of his eyes, and was
+trembling in every limb, "you know for a certainty how and when
+Pratinas is to have Quintus Drusus killed! Don't deny it. You will
+soon be in the meshes. Don't hope to escape. If murder comes to Drusus
+he may perish, but he has friends who will fearfully avenge his
+death."
+
+"Mercy! Mercy!" howled the Ethiop, falling on his knees and clutching
+at the young Greek's robe, "I know very little of the plot. I only
+know--"
+
+"Don't equivocate," thundered Agias. "If I had known the kind of man
+you were, I would hardly have saved you from those street ruffians.
+You don't deserve to live. Well, the crows will soon have you! You
+Egyptians believe in a judgment of the dead; what defence can you make
+before the court of Osiris[99] for being privy to a foul murder?
+You'll come back to earth as a fly, or a toad, or a dung-beetle, to
+pay the penalty for your sins."
+
+  [99] The Egyptian judge of the dead.
+
+"Mercy," whined Sesostris, who was in a paroxysm of fright. "Indeed I
+am innocent! I am only a poor slave! I can't help knowing what
+Pratinas is doing; but how can I prevent him? Don't look at me so! I
+am innocent--innocent!"
+
+"I can scarce believe you," said Agias, affecting great reluctance to
+show any leniency. "Doubtless you are steeped in blood. Still, you may
+save yourself this once. Remember, you are known, and the plans of
+Pratinas against Drusus are partly known. We know about Dumnorix, and
+Lucius Ahenobarbus, and--"
+
+"Oh!" cried Sesostris, as though a hot iron had touched him, "I will
+find out everything, and tell you. Indeed I will. Only do not send me
+to the rack or crucify me if my master's plans go astray!"
+
+"Well," said Agias, still simulating hesitancy, "I will report to my
+superiors. Perhaps you are not a willing accomplice of your master. In
+that case, if he is apprehended, your life will doubtless be spared.
+But we must thwart his plot before it can be carried out. This you
+must aid us to do. When will Dumnorix start for Pr�neste?"
+
+Again Sesostris quailed. "I don't know," he faltered, "there has been
+a postponement. There was a plan that if Drusus came to the city he
+was to be lured outside the Esquiline gate, as if going to some villa,
+and murdered in the sand-pits, as have been many people."
+
+"But this plan has been given up? Speak the truth!" sharply demanded
+Agias.
+
+"Yes; for Drusus will not stir from Pr�neste. So there the scheme must
+be executed, as originally arranged."
+
+"And Dumnorix will go soon?"
+
+"I think in a few days. I will find out."
+
+"As you love your own life do so! I will call on each day at this
+hour. If Pratinas is at home, leave some bright garment outside near
+the door, that I may not stumble on him. Deceive or betray me, and my
+masters will take a terrible revenge on you; for you haven't the least
+idea what is the power of the men Pratinas has for enemies."
+
+Agias turned to depart. Then to Artemisia:--
+
+"And you, my pretty,--when I come again, I will try to stay longer,
+and make you feel as glad to see Agias, as Agias will be to see
+Artemisia."
+
+Agias was descending the stairs, when Sesostris called him back with a
+whisper.
+
+"You are a dreadful youth; but since I am so utterly in your power,
+hear something that may prove that I am not a knave at heart. You have
+a fancy to the girl?"
+
+"Certainly I have eyes for her face, and ears for her sweet little
+voice," said Agias, smiling.
+
+"Then listen," went on the Ethiop; "I care for the dear more than
+anything else in the world. She said she was Pratinas's niece. It
+isn't true. She is a slave-girl he picked up when very little at
+Delos,[100] as he told me, though I doubt it. He took a fancy to her,
+and really thought of adopting her. Then his soul became so set on
+money, that he saw she would fetch a great price when grown; and sell
+her he will. He still pretends to call her his niece; but that won't
+be for long. He is teaching her to sing, to add to her value. _A!_ But
+my old heart is almost breaking for her sake. _Mu, mu!_" and Sesostris
+puffed his groans through his nostrils. "Think of it! He has an idea
+to sell her to that rich Roman, Lucius Calatinus--and then I don't
+dare hint what will be her fate."
+
+  [100] At this period the great slave emporium of the world.
+
+"Calatinus!" hissed Agias, concentrating volumes of scorn into a word.
+
+"You know him! You hate him!" cried Sesostris. "Then by Ammon-Ra, by
+Isis, by every god in whom you believe, save my darling from worse
+than death! Do that, and I will die for you!"
+
+Sesostris's emotion was too genuine to be a mere trap for ensnaring
+his visitor; and Agias in turn was stirred.
+
+"Old man," he exclaimed, seizing the other's hand, "you and I have
+suffered much from evil masters. Thank the gods, I am now serving one
+I love--albeit unfortunate enough! But we have a common right to
+punish the wrongdoers, and earn a little bit of happiness for
+ourselves. Come, now! If Artemisia is a slave, she is in no wise above
+me. Let me save Drusus from Pratinas, and I pledge my word that I will
+save Artemisia from him and his nefarious schemes,--yes, and you, too.
+If Artemisia likes me, why then there will be perhaps more to add to
+the story. Come--I am your friend, and you, mine."
+
+Sesostris wrung the other's hand. The honest servant was moved too
+much to speak. His heart and soul had been bound up in Artemisia.
+
+"May your _Ka_[101] stand before Osiris justified!" he choked. "I have
+been privy to many a dark action, until I used to try to forget the
+day when I must answer to the Judge of the Dead for every deed done
+and word spoken. But I could not stifle my fear for the only dear
+thing in the world."
+
+  [101] The spiritual double which belonged to every man according to
+  the Egyptian ideas.
+
+Agias went away in a happy frame of mind. He had every confidence that
+Sesostris would worm out of Pratinas the exact details of the plot,
+and put the conspirators at the mercy of Drusus and Mamercus.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And Agias had felt there was good reason to rejoice in his discovery
+in more ways than one. Especially was he conscious that there were no
+lips as red and as merry, no cheeks as rosy, no eyes as dancing, no
+chatter as sweet, as those of Artemisia. And what is more, he rejoiced
+to believe that that young lady was not half so shy of him as at
+first, and was as anxious to see him as he to see her. Thanks to due
+warnings and precautions, Agias never stumbled on Pratinas, when the
+latter was at his lodgings. The time he dared to stay was all too
+short for Artemisia. She was always telling how lonesome she was with
+only old Sesostris for company, before she knew Agias. Once when the
+latter was late in his daily visit, he was delighted to find scribbled
+on the wall, "Artemisia to her Agias: you are real mean." Agias hated
+to make her erase it lest it fall under Pratinas's eagle eye.
+
+But still Sesostris had nothing to tell about the plot against Drusus.
+Some days passed. Agias began to grow uneasy. Sesostris had
+represented that he was conversant with everything his master had on
+foot; but Pratinas might have been more discreet than to unfold all
+his affairs, even before his servant; and then, too, there was always
+the possibility that Sesostris was playing fast and loose, and about
+to betray Agias to his master. So the latter grew disquieted, and
+found it a little hard to preserve the character of cheerful mystery
+which he simulated to Cornelia. The long-sought information came at a
+time when he was really off his guard. Agias had been visiting
+Artemisia. Sesostris as well as Pratinas had been out; the two young
+people were amusing themselves trying to teach a pet magpie to speak,
+when the Ethiop rushed into the room, all in a tremble with anxious
+excitement.
+
+"_A! A!_" he was ejaculating. "Up, speed, don't delay! There's murder
+afoot!"
+
+Agias let the bird slip from his hands, and never noticed that it
+fluttered on its clipped wings around the room, to Artemisia's
+infinite dismay.
+
+"What? Is the plot hatched?"
+
+"Yes, yes," puffed Sesostris, great beads of perspiration on his
+honest face. "I was attending Pratinas when he met Lucius Ahenobarbus
+in the Forum. They veiled their talk, but I readily caught its drift.
+Dumnorix went yesterday with the pick of his band to Anagnia for some
+games. To-morrow he will return through Pr�neste, and the deed will be
+done. Phaon, Ahenobarbus's freedman, has started already for Pr�neste
+to spy out the ground and be ready to direct Dumnorix where, when, and
+how to find Drusus. Phaon has been spying at Pr�neste, and is the
+dangerous man!"
+
+"He has gone?" demanded Agias.
+
+"Gone, early this morning!"
+
+"Then,--the gods reward you for your news,--I am gone too!"
+
+And without another word to Artemisia or the old slave, Agias had
+rushed out into the street. He had a double game to play--to prevent
+Phaon from ever reaching Pr�neste, and then get such help to Drusus as
+would enable him to beat off Dumnorix and his gang. For Agias felt
+certain that the hard-hitting Gaul would execute his part of the
+bargain, whether he met Phaon or not, and afterward look into the
+consequences of what--unmitigated by the freedman's _finesse_--would
+take the form of an open clumsy murder. But Phaon had started that
+morning; and it was now well into the afternoon. Time was dangerously
+scanty. Cornelia he felt he should inform; but she could do nothing
+really to help him. He turned his steps toward the Forum and the
+Atrium Vest�. He had some difficulty in inducing the porter to summon
+Fabia, to meet in personal interview a mere slave, but a gratuity won
+the point; and a minute later he was relating the whole story and the
+present situation of Drusus to Fabia, with a sincere directness that
+carried conviction with it. She had known that Drusus had enemies; but
+now her whole strong nature was stirred at the sense of her nephew's
+imminent peril.
+
+"If you were a freeman, Agias," were her words, "and could give
+witness as such, Pratinas and Ahenobarbus--high as the latter
+is--should know that my influence at the law outweighs theirs. But
+they shall be thwarted. I will go to Marcellus the consul, and demand
+that troops be started to Pr�neste to-night. But you must go after
+Phaon."
+
+"You will send word to Cornelia?" requested Agias.
+
+"Yes," said Fabia, "but not now; it is useless. Here is an order on
+Gallus, who keeps a livery-stable[102] by the Porta Esquilina. He will
+give you my new white Numidian, that I keep with him. Ride as you have
+never ridden before. And here is money. Twenty gold philippi in this
+bag. Bribe, do anything. Only save Drusus! Now go!"
+
+  [102] Such establishments were common near the gates, and the Vestals
+  often had their horses at such places.
+
+"Farewell, lady," cried Agias, "may I redeem the debt of gratitude I
+owe you!"
+
+Fabia stood looking after him, as he hastened out from the quiet
+atrium into the busy street. Little Livia had cuddled up beside her
+aunt.
+
+"Oh, Livia," said Fabia, "I feel as though it were of no use to live
+good and pure in this world! Who knows what trouble may come to me
+from this day's doings? And why should they plot against your
+brother's dear life? But I mustn't talk so." And she called for her
+attendants to escort her abroad.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VIII
+
+"When Greek Meets Greek"
+
+
+I
+
+Cornelia had surmised correctly that Pratinas, not Lucius Ahenobarbus,
+would be the one to bring the plot against Drusus to an issue. Lucius
+had tried in vain to escape from the snares the wily intriguer had
+cast about him. His father had told him that if he would settle down
+and lead a moderately respectable life, Phormio should be paid off.
+And with this burden off his mind, for reformation was very easily
+promised, Lucius had time to consider whether it was worth his while
+to mix in a deed that none of Pratinas's casuistry could quite
+convince him was not a foul, unprovoked murder, of an innocent man.
+The truth was, Ahenobarbus was desperately in love with Cornelia, and
+had neither time nor desire to mingle in any business not connected
+with the pursuit of his "tender passion." None of his former
+sweethearts--and he had had almost as many as he was years old--were
+comparable in his eyes to her. She belonged to a different world from
+that of the Spanish dancers, the saucy maidens of Greece, or even the
+many noble-born Roman women that seemed caught in the eddy of Clodia's
+fashionable whirlpool. Lucius frankly told himself that he would want
+to be divorced from Cornelia in five years--it would be tedious to
+keep company longer with a goddess. But for the present her vivacity,
+her wit, her bright intelligence, no less than her beauty, charmed
+him. And he was rejoiced to believe that she was quite as much
+ensnared by his own attractions. He did not want any unhappy accident
+to mar the smooth course which was to lead up to the marriage in no
+distant future. He did not need Drusus's money any longer to save him
+from bankruptcy. The legacy would be highly desirable, but life would
+be very pleasant without it. Lucius was almost induced by his inward
+qualms to tell Pratinas to throw over the whole matter, and inform
+Dumnorix that his services were not needed.
+
+It was at this juncture that Cornelia committed an error, the full
+consequences of which were, to her, happily veiled. In her anxiety to
+discover the plot, she had made Lucius believe that she was really
+pining for the news of the murder of Drusus. Cornelia had actually
+learned nothing by a sacrifice that tore her very heart out; but her
+words and actions did almost irreparable harm to the cause she was
+trying to aid.
+
+"And you have never given me a kiss," Lucius had said one morning,
+when he was taking leave of Cornelia in the atrium of the Lentuli.
+"Will you ever play the siren, and lure me to you? and then devour, as
+it were, your victim, not with your lips, but with your eyes?"
+
+"_Eho!_ Not so bold!" replied Cornelia, drawing back. "How can I give
+you what you wish, unless I am safe from that awful Polyphemus up in
+Pr�neste?"
+
+When Ahenobarbus went away, his thoughts were to the following effect:
+"I had always thought Cornelia different from most women; but now I
+can see that, like them all, she hates and hates. To say to her,
+'Drusus is dead,' will be a more grateful present than the largest
+diamond Lucullus brought from the East, from the treasure of King
+Tigranes."
+
+And it was in such a frame of mind that he met Pratinas by appointment
+at a low tavern on the Vicus Tuscus. The Greek was, as ever, smiling
+and plausible.
+
+"Congratulations!" was his greeting. "Dumnorix has already started. He
+has my orders; and now I must borrow your excellent freedman, Phaon,
+to go to Pr�neste and spy out, for the last time, the land, and
+general our army. Let him start early to-morrow morning. The time is
+ample, and unless some malevolent demon hinder us, there will be no
+failure. I have had a watch kept over the Drusus estate. An old sentry
+of a steward, Mamercus,--so I learn,--has been afraid, evidently, of
+some foul play on the part of the consul-designate, and has stationed
+a few armed freedmen on guard. Drusus himself keeps very carefully on
+his own premises. This is all the better for us. Dumnorix will dispose
+of the freedmen in a hurry, and our man will be in waiting there just
+for the gladiators. Phaon will visit him--cook up some errand, and
+inveigle him, if possible, well out in the colonnade in front of the
+house, before Dumnorix and his band pass by. Then there will be that
+very deplorable scuffle, and its sad, sad results. Alas, poor Drusus!
+Another noble Livian gathered to his fathers!"
+
+"I don't feel very merry about it," ventured Lucius. "I don't need
+Drusus's money as much as I did. If it wasn't for Cornelia, I would
+drop it all, even now. Sometimes I feel there are avenging
+Furies--_Dir�_, we Latins call them--haunting me."
+
+Pratinas laughed incredulously. "Surely, my dear fellow," he began,
+"you don't need to have the old superstitions explained away again, do
+you?"
+
+"No, no," was his answer; Lucius capitulating another time.
+
+So it came to pass that Pratinas had an interview with Phaon, Lucius's
+freedman, a sleek, well-oiled Sicilian Greek, who wore his hair very
+long to cover the holes bored in his ears--the mark of old-time
+servitude. He was the darling of waiting-maids; the collector of all
+current scandal; the master spirit in arranging dinners, able to tell
+a Tuscan from a Lucanian boar by mere taste. He used also to help his
+patron compose _billets-doux,_ and had, by his twistings and
+scrapings, repeatedly staved off Phormio, Lucius's importunate
+creditor. As for Phaon's heart, it was so soft and tender that the
+pricks of conscience, if he ever had any, went straight through,
+without leaving a trace behind. And when Pratinas now informed him as
+to his final duties at Pr�neste, Phaon rubbed his beringed hands and
+smoothed his carefully scraped chin with ill-concealed satisfaction.
+
+"And a word more in closing," said Pratinas, as he parted with Phaon
+in the tavern--while Lucius, who had been drinking very heavily,
+nodded stupidly over his goblet of amber Falernian, in a vain attempt
+to gulp down eight _cyathi_ at once, one measure to each letter in the
+name of Cornelia--"a word more. Dumnorix is a thick-skulled knave, who
+is, after all, good for little but blows. I have made an arrangement
+which will ensure having a careful man at his elbow in time of need.
+You, of course, will have to do your best to save the unfortunate
+Quintus from inevitable fate. But I have asked Publius Gabinius to
+leave for Pr�neste very early on the morning when Dumnorix passes
+through that place. Gabinius has a small villa a little beyond the
+town, and there will be nothing suspicious in a journey to visit one's
+country house. He will meet Dumnorix, and be at his side when the
+pinch comes. You see? He is an adventurous fellow, and will help us
+just for the sake of the mischief. Besides, I believe he has a grudge
+against the Drusian family as a whole, for he lately tried to pass
+some familiarities with Fabia the Vestal, Drusus's aunt, and she
+proved disgustingly prudish."
+
+"And how much will you and I," said Phaon, with a sly smirk, "gain
+out of this little business, if all goes well? Of course one should
+help one's patron, but--"
+
+"It is folly to divide the spoils of Troy before Troy is taken,"
+laughed Pratinas. "Don't be alarmed, my good fellow. Your excellent
+patron will reward us, no doubt, amply." And he muttered to himself:
+"If I don't bleed that Lucius Ahenobarbus, that Roman donkey, out of
+two-thirds of his new fortune; if I don't levy blackmail on him
+without mercy when he's committed himself, and becomes a partner in
+crime, I'm no fox of a Hellene. I wonder that he is the son of a man
+like Domitius, who was so shrewd in that old affair with me at
+Antioch."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So it came to pass that the next morning, long before Pratinas and
+Ahenobarbus met in the Forum and reviewed the steps taken in the words
+that gave Sesostris the key to the situation, Phaon was driving toward
+Pr�neste. Of course a mere freedman, on a journey preferably kept
+quiet, travelled in not the least state. He rode alone, but had
+borrowed from his patron two of those small but speedy Gallic horses
+called mammi, that whirled his gig over the Campagna at a rapid trot.
+Still there was no great call for haste. He wished to get to Pr�neste
+about dark, and there make a few inquiries as to the whereabouts and
+recent doings of Drusus. Pratinas had had considerable espionage kept
+up over his intended victim, and the last results of this detective
+work were to be reported to Phaon by the slaves of Ahenobarbus
+performing it. Perhaps there would be no real harm in driving straight
+through to Pr�neste in the open daylight, but it was better not to
+show himself until the right time. So it was that, halfway on the
+road, Phaon turned in to the tavern of the decaying little town of
+Gabii, gave his team to the hostler, and rested himself by fuming over
+the squalor and poor cooking of the inn.
+
+
+II
+
+Agias secured the fast Numidian from the stables of Gallus, and was
+soon away. His frequent journeys between Rome and Pr�neste, in service
+of Cornelia and Drusus, made him a fairly expert rider, and his noble
+mount went pounding past the mile-stones at a steady, untiring gallop.
+The young Hellene was all tingling with excitement and expectation; he
+would save Drusus; he would send the roses back into his beloved
+mistress's cheeks; and they would reward him, give him freedom; and
+then the future would be bright indeed.
+
+But it grew late, fast as the horse bore him. He felt it his duty to
+press on with all speed to Pr�neste. He had still a very vague notion
+of the final form of the conspiracy, especially of the r�le assigned
+to Phaon. Of one thing he was certain: to intercept Phaon was to
+deprive Dumnorix of an essential ally; but how to intercept the wily
+freedman was nothing easy.
+
+As the Numidian swept into Gabii, Agias drew rein, telling himself
+that the horse would make better speed for a little rest and baiting.
+The tavern court into which he rode was exceedingly filthy; the whole
+building was in a state of decay; the odours were indescribable. In
+the great public-room a carter was trolling a coarse ditty, while
+through the doorway ran a screaming serving-maid to escape some low
+familiarity.
+
+A shock-headed boy with a lantern took Agias's bridle, and the Greek
+alighted; almost under his eyes the dim light fell on a handsome,
+two-horse gig, standing beside the entrance to the court. Agias gave
+the vehicle close attention.
+
+"It belongs to a gentleman from Rome, now inside," explained the boy,
+"one horse went lame, and the veterinary[103] is coming." Agias's eye
+caught a very peculiar bend in the hollow in the neck-yoke. He had
+seen that carriage before, on the fashionable boulevards--along the
+Tiber, in the Campus Martius--the carriage of Lucius Ahenobarbus.
+Phaon was waiting in the tavern!
+
+  [103] _Equarius_.
+
+"Care for my horse at once," remarked Agias, a little abruptly. "Time
+presses." And he turned on his heel, and leaving the boy gaping after
+him, went into the squalid public-room of the tavern.
+
+The landlord of the establishment, a small, red-faced, bustling man,
+was fussing over some lean thrushes roasting on a spit before the open
+fire that was roaring on the hearth. The landlady, lazy, muscular,
+corpulent, and high-voiced, was expostulating with a pedler who was
+trying to slip out without settling. Four other persons, slaves and
+peasants, were sitting on two low benches beside a small, circular
+table, and were busy pouring down the liquor which a young serving-boy
+brought them in tumbler-shaped cups, or eating greedily at loaves of
+coarse bread which they snatched from the table. It was so late that
+little light came into the room from the door and windows. The great
+fire tossed its red, flickering glow out into the apartment and cast a
+rosy halo over the hard brown marble pavement of the floor. Upon the
+dingy walls and rafters hung from pegs flitches of bacon, sausages,
+and nets of vegetables. Agias stopped in the doorway and waited till
+his eyes were fairly accustomed to the fire-light. Over in a remote
+corner he saw a lamp gleaming, and there, sprawling on a bench, beside
+a table of his own, well piled with food and drink, he distinguished
+in solitary majesty Phaon--too exquisite to mingle with the other
+guests of the tavern.
+
+The landlord quickly noticed his new customer, and sprang up from the
+fire. Agias had on a coarse grey woollen cloak over his light tunic,
+and he drew his hood up so as partly to cover his face as he stepped
+into the room.
+
+"_Salve!_" was the landlord's salutation. "What hospitality can the
+Elephant[104] afford you?"
+
+  [104] Inns were known by such signs.
+
+The good host did not think Agias anything more by his dress than a
+common slave, and saw no need of excessive politeness.
+
+Agias noticed that he was expected to join the other drinkers around
+the centre table.
+
+"_Eho_, mine host!" cried he, letting the fire give one glint on a
+gold piece. "Can't you give me a seat at the other end of the room? I
+don't know these good people, and they won't thank me for thrusting
+myself on them."
+
+"Certainly, certainly," exclaimed the landlord, all condescension.
+"There is a gentleman from Rome drinking by himself at that table over
+there. Perhaps he will not object."
+
+Now was the crisis. Agias had seen Phaon many times with Lucius
+Ahenobarbus; but he was reasonably certain that the freedman had never
+degraded himself by taking any notice of the numerous slaves of
+Lentulus's household. Without waiting for the host to continue, he
+hastened over to the farther table, and exclaimed with all the
+effrontery at his command:--
+
+"_Hem!_ Phaon; don't you remember an old friend?"
+
+The freedman for once was completely off his guard. He started up,
+stared at Agias, and began to mutter excuses for a very short memory.
+
+"Well, well," cried Agias. "You _have_ a poor recollection of faces!
+Don't you remember how Pratinas took you to the Big Eagle restaurant,
+down on the Vicus Jugarius, on the last Calends, and how you met me
+there, and what good Lesbian and Chian wine there was? None of your
+weak, sickening Italian stuff! Surely you remember Cleombrotus, from
+whom you won four hundred sesterces."
+
+Phaon, who remembered the tavern, a visit, and winning four hundred
+sesterces at one time or another, tried to make himself believe that
+he won them from a young man, like the one before him, and that his
+name was Cleombrotus.
+
+"Um! Yes, of course," he faltered. "I'm very glad to see you. What
+brings you here?"
+
+"Business, business," complained Agias; "my master's a grain merchant
+with dealings at Puteoli, and he has sent me thither, to make some
+payments." Phaon pricked up his ears. "The Via Appia is more direct,
+but there is less chance of robbers by the Via Pr�nestina."
+
+"I hope your master can trust you not to lighten his pouch on the
+way," remarked Phaon.
+
+"Well," chuckled Agias, "he'll have to take his risk. If it's lost on
+the road, why, highwaymen stripped me. It is one of the fortunes of
+trade." Phaon was fully convinced that here was a fine chance to do
+some picking on his own account.
+
+"Doubtless," he began, "you are not in such haste that you cannot
+enjoy one of those thrushes that sheep of a landlord is roasting for
+me. _Phui!_ What a nasty place to have one's horse give out in. You
+will give me at least a little company to pass the time?"
+
+Agias affected reluctance; then as the host brought up the birds,
+savory and hot, on an earthen platter, he gracefully accepted the
+invitation. The thrushes and the rest of the bill of fare, bacon,
+sweet nut-flavoured oil, bread, and the cheap wine of the Campagna
+were not unwelcome, though Phaon cursed the coarse food roundly. Then,
+when hunger had begun to yield, Phaon suggested that Cleombrotus "try
+to secure revenge for his losses on the Calends"; and Agias, nothing
+loth, replied that he did not wish to risk a great sum; but if a
+denarius were worth playing for, there was no objection to venturing a
+few casts, and "he would ask the host to bring them the gaming
+implements."
+
+So the landlord brought dice and dice boxes, and Phaon--who had come
+to the conclusion that he had to deal with a light-headed bumpkin, who
+represented merely so much fair plunder--began to play with a careless
+heart. The landlord brought more and more flagons of wine, wine that
+was mixed with little water and was consequently very heady. But the
+game--with some veering of fortune--went the freedman's way. He won a
+denarius; then another; then a third; lost a fourth time; won back
+everything and five denarii more; and finally his opponent, heated
+with play, consented to stake two gold pieces.
+
+"What did you say a minute ago to the landlord?" muttered Phaon,
+feeling that the undiluted liquor was getting the best of him. "This
+wine is very strong. It makes my head ache."
+
+"_Phy!_" retorted Agias. "Who complains of good liquor? I only told
+the host to set another lamp near us. Shall we play again?"
+
+"By Zeus!" exclaimed the delighted freedman. "Here I have cast four
+'sixes' once more." And again he drained the beaker.
+
+"_Vah!_" sniffed Agias. "Luck will turn at last. Let us play for real
+stakes. More wine, mine host! I will put down ten philippi. This will
+be worth winning or losing."
+
+"As you say," gleefully chuckled Phaon, tossing the gold on the table.
+"Yes, more wine, I say too. One always enjoys play when his temples
+are all athrob."
+
+Agias quietly reached over, took up his opponent's dice box, and
+rattled it, and appeared inspecting and fingering the _tali_.[105]
+"You have won your throws fairly," he said, handing it back. "Now let
+us invoke the decision of Fortune once more. A libation to the Genius
+of Good Luck!" And instead of spilling out a few drops only, he canted
+the flagon too far and spattered the wine on to the floor.
+
+  [105] Four-sided dice.
+
+"Heracles!" growled Phaon, "what a poor hazard! I have thrown four
+'ones'!"
+
+"And I have all 'fours' and 'sixes,'" cried Agias, in delight,
+sweeping the money toward him.
+
+"The gods blast my luck," muttered the freedman, "I shall be ruined at
+this rate." And he poured down more liquor. "I have hardly five
+philippi left."
+
+"Come," shouted Agias, jumping up; "I make a fair offer. Your five
+philippi against all my winnings."
+
+Phaon had a dim consciousness that he was getting very drunk, that he
+ought to start at once for Pr�neste, and that it was absolutely
+needful for him to have some money for bribes and gratuities if he was
+not to jeopardize seriously the success of his undertaking. But Agias
+stood before him exultant and provoking. The freedman could not be
+induced to confess to himself that he had been badly fleeced by a
+fellow he expected to plunder. In drunken desperation he pulled out
+his last gold and threw it on the table.
+
+"Play for that, and all the Furies curse me if I lose," he stormed.
+
+Agias cast two "threes," two "fours."
+
+"I must better that," thundered the freedman, slapping the tali out on
+to the table.
+
+"'Ones' again," roared Agias; "all four! you have lost!"
+
+Phaon sprang up in a storm of anger, and struck over the dice. "Three
+of them are 'sixes,'" he raged. "I have won! You got loaded dice from
+the landlord, just now, when he brought the wine!"
+
+"Not at all, you cheating scoundrel," retorted Agias, who had already
+scooped in the money, "I have you fairly enough."
+
+"Fair?" shouted Phaon, dashing down the dice again, "they are loaded!
+Lack-shame! Villain! Whipping-post! Tomb-robber! Gallows-bird! You
+changed them when you pretended to inspect them! Give me my money,
+thief, or--" and he took a menacing but unsteady step toward Agias.
+
+The young Greek was ready for the emergency. He knew that Phaon was
+almost overcome with his wine, and had no dread of the issue. A stroke
+of his fist sent the freedman reeling back against the wall, all the
+wind pounded from his chest. "You born blackguard," coughed Phaon, "I
+won it." Agias was renewing the attack, when the landlord interfered.
+Seizing both of the gamesters by their cloaks, he pushed them out a
+side door into the court-yard. "Out with you!" cried the host.
+"Quarrel without, if you must! This is no place for brawls."
+
+Phaon staggered a step or two out into the dark, then reeled and fell
+heavily upon the dirty pavement. Agias prodded him with his foot, but
+he was quite insensible. For the present he was harmless enough.
+
+"My good host," said Agias, to the disquieted landlord, "I did not ask
+you to give us an unmixed wine and those dice for no purpose. This
+excellent gentleman here seems sadly in need of a bed, where he must
+stay for some time. But since I have won every sesterce he owns I must
+needs pay for his board. Take good care of him, and here are six
+philippi which are yours on condition that you keep him quiet until
+to-morrow at this time, and suffer no one coming from Rome to see him,
+or send him a message. To-morrow evening a messenger from Pr�neste
+will come here, and if your guest is still safe in your custody, you
+shall have six more gold pieces. At that time, doubtless, you can let
+him go; but don't violate my orders, or--"
+
+"Your excellency pays like a senator," said the landlord, bowing, as
+he fingered the gold. "Trust me that your wishes shall be obeyed."
+
+"They had better be," hinted Agias. "I am not what I seem by my dress.
+If you disobey, fear the wrath of a man before whom the world
+trembles!"
+
+"He must be an agent of C�sar, or Pompeius," muttered the landlord to
+himself. And Agias, having seen two serving-boys tugging Phaon's prone
+weight away to a secluded hay-mow, called for his refreshed Numidian,
+clattered out of the filthy court, and rode away into the night, with
+the stars burning above him.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IX
+
+How Gabinius Met with a Rebuff
+
+
+I
+
+Publius Gabinius, the boon comrade of Lucius Ahenobarbus, differed
+little from many another man of his age in mode of life, or variety of
+aspirations. He had run through all the fashionable excitements of the
+day; was tired of horse-racing, peacock dinners, Oriental sweethearts;
+tired even of dice. And of late he had begun to grow morose, and his
+friends commenced to think him rather dull company.
+
+But for some days he had found a new object of interest. With Lucius
+Ahenobarbus he had been at the Circus Flaminius, waiting for the races
+to begin, when he startled his friend by a clutch on the arm.
+
+"Look!" was Gabinius's exclamation. "Is she not beautiful?"
+
+He pointed to where Fabia, the Vestal, was taking her seat upon a
+cushion placed for her by a maid, and all the people around were
+standing, very respectfully, until she was seated The priestess was
+clothed in perfect white,--dress, ribbons, fillet--a notable contrast
+to the brave show of purple, and scarlet, and blue mantles all about
+her.
+
+"Beautiful? Yes," repeated Lucius, rather carelessly. "But such birds
+are not for our net."
+
+"Are not?" repeated Gabinius, a little sharply. "What makes you so
+sure of that?"
+
+"I hardly think that you will find my dear friend Quintus Drusus's
+aunt, for so I understand she is," said Ahenobarbus, "very likely to
+reciprocate your devotion."
+
+"And why not?" reiterated Gabinius, in a vexed tone.
+
+"My dear fellow," answered Lucius, "I won't argue with you. There are
+plenty of women in Rome quite as handsome as Fabia, and much younger,
+who will smile on you. Don't meddle in a business that is too
+dangerous to be profitable."
+
+But Gabinius had been wrought up to a pitch of amorous excitement,
+from which Ahenobarbus was the last one to move him. For days he had
+haunted the footsteps of the Vestal; had contrived to thrust himself
+as near to her in the theatre and circus as possible; had bribed one
+of the Temple servants to steal for him a small panel painting of
+Fabia; had, in fact, poured over his last romance all the ardour and
+passion of an intense, violent, uncontrolled nature. Gabinius was not
+the kind of a man either to analyze his motives, or express himself in
+the sobbing lyrics of a Catullus. He was thrilled with a fierce
+passion, and knew it, and it only. Therefore he merely replied to
+Lucius Ahenobarbus:--
+
+"I can't help myself. What does Terence say about a like case? 'This
+indeed can, to some degree, be endured; night, passion, liquor, young
+blood, urged him on; it's only human nature.'"[106]
+
+  [106] Terence, "Adelphoe," 467 and 471.
+
+And all the afternoon, while the chariots ran, and wager on wager
+marked the excitement of the cloud of spectators, Gabinius had only
+eyes for one object, Fabia, who, perfectly unconscious of his state of
+fascination, sat with flushed cheeks and bright, eager eyes, watching
+the fortunes of the races, or turned now and then to speak a few words
+to little Livia, who was at her side. When the games were over,
+Gabinius struggled through the crowd after the Vestal, and kept near
+to her until she had reached her litter and the eight red-liveried
+Cappadocian porters bore her away. Gabinius continued to gaze after
+her until Fabia drew the leather curtains of her conveyance and was
+hid from sight.
+
+"_Perpol!"_ reflected Gabinius. "How utterly enslaved I am!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The following morning Fabia received a letter in a strange hand,
+asking her to come to a villa outside the Porta Capena, and receive a
+will from one Titus Denter, who lay dying. The receiving and
+safe-keeping of wills was a regular duty of Vestals, and Fabia at once
+summoned her litter, and started out of the city, along the Via Appia,
+until, far out in the suburbs where the houses were wide apart, she
+was set down before the country-house indicated. A stupid-appearing
+slave-boy received her at the gateway. The villa was old, small, and
+in very indifferent repair. The slave could not seem to explain
+whether it had been occupied of late, but hastened to declare that his
+master lay nigh to death. There was no porter in the outer
+vestibule.[107] The heavy inner door turned slowly on its pivot, by
+some inside force, and disclosed a small, darkened atrium, only
+lighted by a clear sunbeam from the opening above, that passed through
+and illumined a playing fountain. A single attendant stood in the
+doorway. He was a tall, gaunt man in servile dress, with a rather
+sickly smile on his sharp yellow face. Fabia alighted from her litter.
+There was a certain secluded uncanniness about the house, which made
+her dislike for an instant to enter. The slave in the door silently
+beckoned for her to come in. The Vestal informed her bearers that she
+was likely to be absent some little time, and they must wait quietly
+without, and not annoy a dying man with unseemly laughter or loud
+conversation. Then, without hesitancy, Fabia gathered her priestess's
+cloak about her, and boldly entered the strange atrium. As she did so,
+the attendant noiselessly closed the door, and what was further, shot
+home a bolt.
+
+  [107] _Ostium_.
+
+"There is no need for that," remarked the Vestal, who never before in
+her life had experienced such an unaccountable sense of disquietude.
+
+"It is my habit always to push the bolt," said the slave, bowing, and
+leading the way toward the peristylium.
+
+"You are Titus Denter's slave?" asked Fabia. The other nodded. "And
+your master is a very sick man?"
+
+"Your most noble ladyship shall judge for herself."
+
+"Take me to him at once, if he can see me."
+
+"He is waiting."
+
+The two went through the narrow passageway which led from the outer
+court of the atrium into the inner court of the peristylium. Fabia was
+surprised to see that here all the marble work had been carefully
+washed clean, the little enclosed garden was in beautiful order, and
+in various corners and behind some of the pillars were bronze and
+sculptured statues of really choice art. The slave stopped and pointed
+to a couch upholstered in crimson, beside the fish tank, where tame
+lampreys were rising for a bit of food.
+
+"Take me to your master!" repeated Fabia, puzzled by the gesture. "I
+am not weary. You say he waits me?"
+
+"He will be here," replied the servant, with another bow.
+
+"Here?" exclaimed the Vestal, now really alarmed. "Here? He, a man
+sick unto death?"
+
+"Certainly; here!" broke in a strange voice; and forth from behind a
+pillar stepped Publius Gabinius, all pomaded and rouged, dressed only
+in a gauzy, many-folded scarlet _synthesis_.[108]
+
+  [108] The "dinner coat" of the Romans.
+
+Fabia gave a scream and sprang back in instinctive alarm. In the
+twinkling of an eye it flashed over her that for some purpose or other
+she had been trapped. Gabinius she knew barely by sight; but his
+reputation had come to her ears, and fame spoke nothing good of him.
+Yet even at the moment when she felt herself in the most imminent
+personal peril, the inbred dignity and composed hauteur of the Vestal
+did not desert her. At the selfsame instant that she said to herself,
+"Can I escape through the atrium before they can stop me?" recovering
+from her first surprise, and with never a quiver of eyelash or a
+paling of cheek, she was saying aloud, in a tone cold as ice, "And
+indeed, most excellent Gabinius, you must pardon me for being
+startled; for all that I know of you tells me that you are likely to
+find a sombre Vestal sorry enough company."
+
+Gabinius had been counting coolly on a very noisy scene, one of a kind
+he was fairly familiar with--an abundance of screaming, expostulation,
+tearing of hair, and other manifestations of feminine agony--to be
+followed, of course, by ultimate submission to the will of
+all-dominant man. He was not accustomed to have a woman look him
+fairly in the eye and speak in tones, not of bootless fury, but of
+superior scorn. And his answer was painfully lacking in the ascendant
+volubility which would have befitted the occasion.
+
+"Forgive me; pardon; it was of course necessary to resort to some
+subterfuge in order--in order to prevent your attendants from becoming
+suspicious."
+
+Fabia cast a glance behind her, and saw that before the two doors
+leading to the atrium her conductor and another tall slave had placed
+themselves; but she replied in a tone a little more lofty, if
+possible, than before:--
+
+"I cannot well, sir, understand you. Are you a friend of Titus Denter,
+who is sick? I do not see that any subterfuge is necessary when I am
+to receive the deposit of a will from a dying man. It is a recognized
+duty of my office."
+
+Gabinius was still more at a loss.
+
+"You should certainly understand, lady," he began, cursing himself for
+having to resort to circumlocutions, "that this is my own villa, and I
+have not the pleasure of knowing Titus Denter. I sent the letter
+because--"
+
+"Because, my worthy sir," interrupted Fabia, not however raising her
+voice in the least, "you are weary of Greek flute-players for
+sweethearts or such Roman young ladies as admire either the ointments
+or the pimples of your face, and consequently seek a little diversion
+by laying snares for a sacred Vestal."
+
+Gabinius at last found free use for his tongue.
+
+"Oh, lady; Lady Fabia," he cried, stretching out his arms and taking a
+step nearer, "don't misjudge me so cruelly! I will forsake anything,
+everything, for you! I have nothing to dream of day or night but your
+face. You have served your thirty years in the Temple, and can quit
+its service. Why entertain any superstitious scruple against doing
+what the law allows? Come with me to Egypt; to Spain; to Parthia;
+anywhere! Only do not reject me and my entreaties! I will do anything
+for your sake!"
+
+Critical as was her situation, Fabia could not refrain from a sense of
+humour, when she saw and heard this creature--the last intimate she
+would select in the world--pressing his suit with such genuine
+passion. When she answered, an exasperating smile was on her lips.
+
+"By Castor!" she replied, "the noble Gabinius is not a bad tragedian.
+If he has nothing further to inform me than that I am favoured by his
+good graces, I can only decline his proposals with humble firmness,
+and depart."
+
+"By the immortal gods!" cried Gabinius, feeling that he and not his
+would-be victim were like to go into a frenzy, "you shan't go! I have
+you here. And here you shall remain until I have your word that you
+will quit the Temple service and fly with me to Egypt. If you won't
+have me as your slave, I'll have you as your master!" And again he
+advanced.
+
+"What restrains me here?" queried Fabia, sternly, the blood sinking
+from her cheeks, but by step or by glance quailing not in the least.
+"Who dare restrain or offer harm to a Vestal of the Roman Republic?"
+
+"I!" shouted Gabinius in mad defiance, with a menacing gesture.
+
+Fabia took a step toward him, and instinctively he fell back.
+
+"You?" she repeated, her black eyes, ablaze with the fire of a holy
+indignation, searching Gabinius's impure heart through and through.
+"You, little man? Are you fond of death, and yet lack courage to drink
+the poison yourself?"
+
+"I dare anything!" cried Gabinius, getting more and more uncontrolled.
+"This is my house. These are my slaves. The high walls will cut off
+any screams you may utter in this court. I have you in my power. You
+have placed yourself in my hands by coming here. Refuse to do as I
+say, and a charge will be laid against you before the _pontifices_,[109]
+that you have broken the vow which binds every Vestal. All the
+appearances will be against you, and you know what will follow then!"
+
+  [109] College of chief priests.
+
+Fabia grew a shade paler, if it were possible, than before.
+
+"I know," she replied, still very gently, "that an unfaithful Vestal
+is buried alive in the Campus Sceleratus; but I know, too, that her
+seducer is beaten to death with rods. Accuse me, or attack me, and
+whatever be _my_ fate, I can say that which will send your black soul
+down to Tartarus with guilt enough for Minos to punish. Your
+delicately anointed skin would be sadly bruised by the stripes falling
+upon it. And now, if these creatures will stand one side, I will leave
+you."
+
+And Fabia drew her mantle about her, and walked straight past the
+awestruck slaves into the atrium, where she unbolted the door and
+passed out. Gabinius stood gazing after her, half-fascinated,
+half-dazed. Only when the door closed did he burst out to one of the
+slaves:--
+
+"Timid dog, why did you let her escape?"
+
+"Dominus," whimpered the menial, "why did _you_ let her escape?"
+
+"Insolence!" cried Gabinius, seizing a staff, and beating first one,
+then the other, of his servants indiscriminately; and so he continued
+to vent his vexation, until Fabia's litter was well inside the Porta
+Capena.
+
+
+II
+
+Fabia had thus escaped from the clutches of Gabinius, and the latter
+was sullen and foiled. But none the less the Vestal was in a tremor of
+fear for the consequences of her meeting with the libertine. She knew
+that Gabinius was determined, dexterous, and indefatigable; that he
+was baffled, but not necessarily driven to throw over his illicit
+quest. And Fabia realized keenly that going as she had unattended into
+a strange house, and remaining there some time with no friendly eye to
+bear witness to her actions, would count terribly against her, if
+Gabinius was driven to bay. She dared not, as she would gladly have
+done, appear before the pontifices and demand of them that they mete
+out due punishment on Gabinius for grossly insulting the sanctity of a
+Vestal. Her hope was that Gabinius would realize that he could not
+incriminate her without ruining himself, and that he had been so
+thoroughly terrified on reflection as to what might be the
+consequences to himself, if he tried to follow the intrigue, that he
+would prudently drop it. These considerations hardly served to lighten
+the gloom which had fallen across Fabia's life. It was not so much the
+personal peril that saddened her. All her life she had heard the ugly
+din of the world's wickedness pass harmlessly over her head, like a
+storm dashing at the doors of some secluded dwelling that shielded its
+inhabitants from the tempest. But now she had come personally face to
+face with the demon of impurity; she had felt the fetid touch almost
+upon herself; and it hurt, it sickened her. Therefore it was that the
+other Vestals marvelled, asking what change had come over their
+companion, to quench the mild sunshine of her life; and Fabia held
+little Livia very long and very closely in her arms, as if it were a
+solace to feel near her an innocent little thing "unspotted of the
+world."
+
+All this had happened a very few days before the breathless Agias came
+to inform Fabia of the plot against her nephew. Perhaps, as with
+Cornelia, the fact that one near and dear was in peril aided to make
+the consciousness of her own unhappiness less keen. None could
+question Fabia's resolute energy. She sent Agias on his way, then
+hurried off in her litter in quest of Caius Marcellus, the consul.
+�milius Paulus, the other consul, was a nonentity, not worth appealing
+to, since he had virtually abdicated office upon selling his
+neutrality to C�sar. But Marcellus gave her little comfort. She broke
+in upon the noble lord, while he was participating in a drunken
+garden-party in the Gardens of Lucullus. The consul--hardly sober
+enough to talk coherently--had declared that it was impossible to
+start any troops that day to Pr�neste. "To-morrow, when he had time,
+he would consider the matter." And Fabia realized that the engine of
+government would be very slow to set in motion in favour of a marked
+C�sarian.
+
+But she had another recourse, and hastened her litter down one of the
+quieter streets of the Subura, where was the modest house occupied by
+Julius C�sar before he became Pontifex Maximus. This building was now
+used by the C�sarian leaders as a sort of party headquarters. Fabia
+boldly ordered the porter to summon before her Curio--whom she was
+sure was in the house. Much marvelling at the visit of a Vestal, the
+slave obeyed, and in a few moments that tribune was in her presence.
+
+Caius Scribonius Curio was probably a very typical man of his age. He
+was personally of voluptuous habits, fearfully extravagant, endowed
+with very few scruples and a very weak sense of right and wrong. But
+he was clear-headed, energetic, a good orator, a clever reasoner, an
+astute handler of men, courageous, versatile, full of recourse, and on
+the whole above the commission of any really glaring moral infraction.
+He was now in his early prime, and he came before Fabia as a man tall,
+athletic, deep-chested, deep-voiced, with a regular profile, a clear,
+dark complexion, curly hair carefully dressed, freshly shaven, and in
+perfect toilet. It was a pleasure, in short, to come in contact with
+such a vigorous, aggressive personality, be the dark corners of his
+life what they might.
+
+Curio yielded to no man in his love of Lucrine oysters and good
+C�cuban wine. But he had been spending little time on the dining couch
+that evening. In fact he had at that moment in his hand a set of
+tablets on which he had been writing.
+
+"_Salve! Domina!_" was his greeting, "what unusual honour is this
+which brings the most noble Vestal to the trysting spot of us poor
+Populares."
+
+And, with the courtesy of a gentleman of the world, he offered Fabia
+an armchair.
+
+"Caius Curio," said the Vestal, wasting very few words, "do you know
+my nephew, Quintus Drusus of Pr�neste?"
+
+"It is an honour to acknowledge friendship with such an excellent
+young man," said Curio, bowing.
+
+"I am glad to hear so. I understand that he has already suffered no
+slight calamity for adhering to your party."
+
+"_Vah!_" and the tribune shrugged his shoulders. "Doubtless he has had
+a disagreeable time with the consul-elect, but from all that I can
+hear, the girl he lost was hardly one to make his life a happy one.
+It's notorious the way she has displayed her passion for young Lucius
+Ahenobarbus, and we all know what kind of a man _he_ is. But I may
+presume to remark that your ladyship would hardly come here simply to
+remind me of this."
+
+"No," replied Fabia, directly, "I have come here to appeal to you to
+do something for me which Marcellus the consul was too drunk to try to
+accomplish if he would."
+
+Fabia had struck the right note. Only a few days before Appius
+Claudius, the censor, had tried to strike Curio's name from the rolls
+of the Senate. Piso, the other censor, had resisted. There had been an
+angry debate in the Senate, and Marcellus had inveighed against the
+C�sarian tribune, and had joined in a furious war of words. The Senate
+had voted to allow Curio to keep his seat; and the anti-C�sarians had
+paraded in mourning as if the vote were a great calamity.
+
+Curio's eyes lit up with an angry fire.
+
+"Lump of filth! Who was he, to disoblige you!"
+
+"You will understand," said Fabia, still quietly; and then briefly she
+told of the conspiracy against the life of Drusus, so far as she had
+gathered it.
+
+"Where did you learn all this," queried Curio, "if I may venture to
+ask?"
+
+"From Agias, the slave of Cornelia, niece of Lentulus."
+
+"But what is Drusus to her?" demanded the marvelling tribune.
+
+"He is everything to her. She has been trying to win her way into
+Ahenobarbus's confidence, and learn all of the plot."
+
+A sudden light seemed to break over the face of the politician. He
+actually smiled with relieved pleasure, and cried, "_Pap�!_ Wonderful!
+I may be the farthest of all the world from Diogenes the Cynic; but a
+man cannot go through life, unless he has his eyes shut, and not know
+that there are different kinds of women. I was sorry enough to have to
+feel that a girl like Cornelia was becoming one of Clodia's coterie.
+After all, the world isn't so bad as we make it out to be, if it is
+Curio the profligate who says it."
+
+"But Drusus, my nephew?" exclaimed Fabia. "He is in frightful danger.
+You know Dumnorix will have a great band of gladiators, and there is
+no force in Pr�neste that can be counted on to restrain him."
+
+"My dear lady," said Curio, laughing, "I am praising the happy Genius
+that brought you here. We C�sarians are taught by our leaders never to
+desert a friend in need; and Drusus has been a very good friend to us,
+especially by using all his influence, very successfully, for our
+cause among the Pr�nestians and the people of those parts. When did
+you say that Dumnorix would pass through the town?"
+
+"Early to-morrow, possibly," replied the Vestal.
+
+"_Phui!_ Dismiss all care. I'll find out at once how many gladiators
+he took with him to Anagnia. Some of his gang will be killed in the
+games there, and more will be wounded and weak or disabled. I am
+tribune, and I imagine I ought not to be out of the city over
+night,[110] but before daybreak to-morrow I will take Antonius and
+Sallustius and Quintus Cassius; and perhaps I can get Balbus and our
+other associates to go. We will arm a few slaves and freedmen; and it
+will be strange indeed if we cannot scatter to the four winds
+Dumnorix's gladiators, before they have accomplished any mischief."
+
+  [110] This was the law, that the tribunes might always be ready to
+  render help (_auxilium_) to the distressed.
+
+"The gods reward you!" said Fabia, simply. "I will go back to the
+Temple, and pray that my nephew be kept from harm; and you also, and
+your friends who will defend him."
+
+Curio stood in the atrium a long time after the Vestal had left.
+
+"The gods reward you!" he repeated. "So _she_ believes in the gods,
+that there are gods, and that they care for us struggling men. Ah!
+Caius, Caius Curio; if the mob had murdered you that day you protected
+C�sar after he spoke in the Senate in favour of the Catilinarians,
+where would you be to-day? Whence have you come? Whither do you go?
+What assurance have you that you can depend on anything, but your own
+hand and keen wits? What is to become of you, if you are knocked on
+the head in that adventure to-morrow? And yet that woman believes
+there are gods! What educated man is there that does? Perhaps we
+would, if we led the simple lives our fathers did, and that woman
+lives. Enough of this! I must be over letters to C�sar at Ravenna till
+midnight: and then at morn off to gallop till our horses are
+foundered."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter X
+
+Mamercus Guards the Door
+
+
+I
+
+Agias left Phaon in the clutches of the landlord and his subordinates
+and was reasonably certain that since the freedman had not a farthing
+left with which to bribe his keepers, he was out of harm's way for the
+time being. The moon was risen, and guided by its light the young
+slave flew on toward Pr�neste without incident. Whatever part of the
+conspirator's plans depended on Phaon was sure to collapse. For the
+rest, Agias could only warn Drusus, and have the latter arm his
+clients and slaves, and call in his friends from the town. With such
+precautions Dumnorix could hardly venture to risk himself and his men,
+whatever might be the plot.
+
+Thus satisfied in mind, Agias arrived at the estate of the Drusi,
+close to Pr�neste, and demanded admittance, about two hours before
+midnight. He had some difficulty in stirring up the porter, and when
+that worthy at last condescended to unbar the front door, the young
+Greek was surprised and dismayed to hear that the master of the house
+had gone to visit a farm at Lanuvium, a town some fifteen miles to the
+south. Agias was thunderstruck; he had not counted on Drusus being
+absent temporarily. But perhaps his very absence would cause the plot
+to fail.
+
+"And what time will he return?" asked Agias.
+
+"What time?" replied the porter, with a sudden gleam of intelligence
+darting up in his lack-lustre eyes. "We expect he will return early
+to-morrow morning. But the road from Lanuvium is across country and
+you have to skirt the Alban Mount. He may be rather late in arriving,
+drives he ever so hard."
+
+"Hercules!" cried the agitated messenger. "My horse is blown, and I
+don't know the road in the dark. Send, I pray you--by all the gods--to
+Lanuvium this instant."
+
+"Aye," drawled the porter, "And wherefore at such an hour?"
+
+"It's for life and death!" expostulated Agias.
+
+The porter, who was a thick-set, powerful man, with a bristly black
+beard, and a low forehead crowned by a heavy shock of dark hair, at
+this instant thrust out a capacious paw, and seized Agias roughly by
+the wrist.
+
+"Ha, ha, ha, young cut-throat! I wondered how long this would last on
+your part! Well, now I must take you to Falto, to get the beginning of
+your deserts."
+
+"Are you mad, fellow?" bawled Agias, while the porter, grasping him by
+the one hand, and the dim lamp by the other, dragged him into the
+house. "Do you know who I am? or what my business is? Do you want to
+have your master murdered?"
+
+"_Perpol!_ Not in the least. That's why I do as I do. Tell your story
+to Falto. _Eho!_ What's that you've got under your cloak?" And he
+pounced upon a small dagger poor Agias had carried as a precaution
+against eventualities. "I imagine you are accustomed to use a little
+knife like this." And the fellow gave a gleeful chuckle.
+
+It was in vain that Agias expostulated and tried to explain. The
+porter kept him fast as a prisoner, and in a few moments by his shouts
+had aroused the whole sleeping household, and stewards, freedmen, and
+slaves came rushing into the atrium. Candelabra blazed forth. Torches
+tossed. Maids screamed. Many tongues were raised in discordant shout
+and question. At last order was in some measure restored. Agias found
+himself before a tribunal composed of Falto, the subordinate
+_villicus_,[111] as chief judge, and two or three freedmen to act in
+capacity of assessors. All of this bench were hard, grey-headed,
+weazened agriculturists, who looked with no very lenient eye upon the
+delicate and handsome young prisoner before them. Agias had to answer
+a series of savagely propounded questions which led he knew not
+whither, and which he was almost too bewildered to answer
+intelligently. The true state of the case only came over him by
+degrees. These were the facts. Drusus had known that there was a
+conspiracy against his life, and had taken precautions against
+poisoning or being waylaid by a small band of cut-throats such as he
+imagined Ahenobarbus might have sent to despatch him. He had not
+expected an attack on the scale of Dumnorix's whole band; and he had
+seen no reason why, accompanied by the trusty Mamerci and Cappadox, he
+should not visit his Lanuvian farm. The whole care of guarding against
+conspirators had been left to Marcus Mamercus, and that worthy
+ex-warrior had believed he had taken all needed precautions. He had
+warned the porter and the other slaves and freedmen to be on the
+lookout for suspicious characters, and had let just enough of the
+plot--as it was known to him--leak out, to put all the household on
+the _qui vive_ to apprehend any would-be assassin of their beloved
+young master. But with that fatuity which often ruins the plans of
+"mice and men," he had failed to inform even his subordinate Falto of
+the likelihood of Agias arriving from Rome. It had obviously been
+desirable that it should not be bruited among the servants that
+Cornelia and Drusus were still communicating, and when Agias was haled
+into the atrium, his only identification was by some over-zealous
+slave, who declared that the prisoner belonged to the familia of
+Lentulus Crus, the bitter foe of their master.
+
+  [111] Farm steward.
+
+With senses unduly alert the porter, as soon as he was aroused from
+his slumbers, had noticed that evening that Agias had come on some
+unusual business, and that he was obviously confused when he learned
+that Drusus was not at home. With his suspicions thus quickened, every
+word the luckless Greek uttered went to incriminate him in the mind of
+the porter. Agias was certainly an accomplice in the plot against
+Drusus, sent to the house at an unseasonable hour, on some dark
+errand. The porter had freely protested this belief to Falto and his
+court, and to support his indictment produced the captured dagger, the
+sure sign of a would-be murderer. Besides, a large sum of gold was
+found on Agias's person; his fast Numidian horse was still steaming
+before the door--and what honest slave could travel thus, with such a
+quantity of money?
+
+Agias tried to tell his story, but to no effect; Falto and his
+fellow-judges dryly remarked to one another that the prisoner was
+trying to clear himself, by plausibly admitting the existence of the
+conspiracy, but of course suppressing the real details. Agias
+reasoned. He was met with obstinate incredulity. He entreated, prayed,
+implored. The prejudiced rustics mocked at him, and hinted that they
+cared too much for their patron to believe any tale that such a
+manifest impostor might tell them. Pausanias, the Mamerci, and
+Cappadox, the only persons, besides Drusus, who could readily identify
+him, were away at Lanuvium.
+
+The verdict of guilty was so unanimous that it needed little or no
+discussion; and Falto pronounced sentence.
+
+"Mago," to the huge African, "take this wretched boy to the
+slave-prison; fetter him heavily. On your life do not let him escape.
+Give him bread and water at sunrise. When Master Drusus returns he
+will doubtless bid us crucify the villain, and in the morning Natta
+the carpenter shall prepare two beams for the purpose."
+
+Agias comforted himself by reflecting that things would hardly go to
+that terrible extremity; but it was not reassuring to hear Ligus, the
+crabbed old cellarer, urge that he be made to confess then and there
+under the cat. Falto overruled the proposition. "It was late, and
+Mamercus was the man to extort confession." So Agias found himself
+thrust into a filthy cell, lighted only by a small chink, near the top
+of the low stone wall, into which strayed a bit of moonlight. The
+night he passed wretchedly enough, on a truss of fetid straw; while
+the tight irons that confined him chafed his wrists and ankles.
+Needless to add, he cursed roundly all things human and heavenly,
+before he fell into a brief, troubled sleep. In the morning Mago, who
+acted as jailer, brought him a pot of water and a saucer of uncooked
+wheat porridge;[112] and informed him, with a grin, that Natta was
+making the beams ready. Agias contented himself by asking Mago to tell
+Drusus about him, as soon as the master returned. "You are very young
+to wish to die," said the Libyan, grimly. Agias did not argue. Mago
+left him. By climbing up a rude stool, Agias could peer through the
+loophole, which by great luck commanded a fairly ample view of the
+highway. Drusus he naturally expected would come from the south,
+toward Pr�neste. And thence every moment he trembled lest Dumnorix's
+gang should appear in sight. But every distant dust-cloud for a long
+time resolved itself sooner or later into a shepherd with a flock of
+unruly sheep, or a wagon tugged by a pair of mules and containing a
+single huge wine-skin. Drusus came not; Dumnorix came not. Agias grew
+weary of watching, and climbed painfully down from the stool to eat
+his raw porridge. Hardly had he done so than a loud clatter of hoofs
+sounded without. With a bound that twisted his confined ankles and
+wrists sadly, Agias was back at his post. A single rider on a handsome
+bay horse was coming up from the direction of Rome. As he drew near to
+the villa, he pulled at his reins, and brought his steed down to a
+walk. The horseman passed close to the loophole, and there was no
+mistaking his identity. Agias had often seen that pale, pimpled face,
+and those long effeminate curls in company with Lucius Ahenobarbus.
+The rider was Publius Gabinius, and the young Greek did not need to be
+told that his coming boded no good to Drusus. Gabinius looked
+carefully at the villa, into the groves surrounding it, and then up
+and down the highway. Then he touched the spur to his mount, and was
+gone.
+
+  [112] _Puls_, the primitive Italian food.
+
+Agias wrung his manacled hands. Drusus would be murdered, Cornelia's
+happiness undone, and he himself would become the slave of Lucius
+Ahenobarbus, who, when he had heard Phaon's story, would show little
+enough of mercy. He cursed the suspicious porter, cursed Falto, cursed
+every slave and freedman on the estate, cursed Mamercus for not
+leaving some word about the possibility of his coming from Rome.
+Agias's imprecations spent themselves in air; and he was none the
+happier. Would Drusus never come? The time was drifting on. The sun
+had been up three or more hours. At any instant the gladiators might
+arrive.
+
+Then again there was a clatter of hoofs, at the very moment when Agias
+had again remounted to the loophole. There were voices raised in
+questions and greetings; slave-boys were scampering to and fro to take
+the horses; Drusus with Pausanias and the Mamerci had returned from
+Lanuvium. Agias pressed his head out the loophole and screamed to
+attract attention. His voice could not penetrate the domestic hubbub.
+Drusus was standing shaking hands with a couple of clients and
+evidently in a very good humour over some blunt rustic compliment.
+Mago was nowhere to be seen. Agias glanced up the road toward
+Pr�neste. The highway was straight and fairly level, but as it went
+over a hill-slope some little way off, what was that he saw upon
+it?--the sun flashing on bright arms, which glinted out from the
+dust-cloud raised by a considerable number of men marching!
+
+"Drusus! Master Drusus!" Agias threw all his soul into the cry. As if
+to blast his last hope, Drusus hastily bowed away the salves and aves
+of the two clients, turned, and went into the villa. Agias groaned in
+agony. A very few moments would bring Dumnorix to the villa, and the
+young slave did not doubt that Gabinius was with the lanista to direct
+the attack. Agias tore at his chains, and cursed again, calling on all
+the Furies of Tartarus to confound the porter and Falto. Suddenly
+before the loophole passed a slave damsel of winning face and
+blithesome manner, humming to herself a rude little ditty, while she
+balanced a large earthen water-pot on her head. It was Chlo�, whom the
+reader has met in the opening scene of this book, though Agias did not
+know her name.
+
+"By all the gods, girl!" he cried frantically, "do you want to have
+your master slaughtered before your very eyes?"
+
+Chlo� stopped, a little startled at this voice, almost from under her
+feet.
+
+"Oh, you, Master Assassin!" she sneered. "Do you want to repeat those
+pretty stories of yours, such as I heard you tell last night?"
+
+"Woman," cried Agias, with all the earnestness which agony and fear
+could throw into face and voice, "go this instant! Tell Master Drusus
+that Dumnorix and his gang are not a furlong[113] away. They mean to
+murder him. Say that I, Agias, say so, and he, at least, will believe
+me. You yourself can see the sun gleaming on their steel as they march
+down the hill."
+
+  [113] About 606-3/4 English feet.
+
+Perhaps it was the sight which Agias indicated, perhaps it was his
+earnest words, perhaps it was his handsome face--Chlo� was very
+susceptible to good looks--but for some cause she put down the pot and
+was off, as fast as her light heels could carry her, toward the house.
+
+
+II
+
+Drusus had ridden hard to get back early from Lanuvium and write some
+letters to Cornelia, for he had expected that Agias would come on that
+very afternoon, on one of his regular, though private, visits; and he
+wished to be able to tell Cornelia that, so long a time had elapsed
+since he had been warned against Ahenobarbus and Pratinas, and as no
+attempt at all had been made on his life, her fears for him were
+probably groundless and the plot had been for some cause abandoned.
+Drusus himself was weary, and was glad to shake off the little knot of
+clients and retire to his chamber, preparatory for a bath and a change
+of clothes. He had seen Falto, but the latter deemed it best not to
+trouble his patron at the time by mentioning the prisoner. Mago, too,
+concluded that it was best to defer executing his promise. Drusus was
+just letting Cappadox take off his cloak, when the shrill voice of
+Chlo� was heard outside the door, expostulating with the boy on guard.
+
+"I must see the dominus at once. It's very important."
+
+"Don't you see, you idiot, that you can't while he's dressing?"
+
+"I _must!_" screamed Chlo�. And, violating every law of subordination
+and decorum, she threw open the door.
+
+Cappadox flew to eject her, but Chlo�'s quick tongue did its work.
+
+"A lad who calls himself Agias is chained in the ergastulum. He says
+some gladiators are going to attack the house, and will be here in a
+moment! Oh, I am so frightened!" and the poor girl threw her mantle
+over her head, and began to whimper and sob.
+
+"Agias!" shouted Drusus, at the top of his voice. "In the ergastulum?
+_Per deos immortales!_ What's this? Mamercus! Falto!"
+
+And the young master rushed out of the room, Cappadox, who like
+lightning had caught up a sword, following him.
+
+Falto came running from the stables; Mamercus from the garden. Drusus
+faced his two subordinates, and in an eye's twinkling had taken in the
+situation. Mamercus, who felt within himself that he, by his
+oversight, had been the chief blunderer, to vent his vexation smote
+Falto so sound a cuff that the under villicus sprawled his full
+length.
+
+"Go to the ergastulum and fetch Agias this instant," cried Drusus, in
+thundering accents, to the trembling Mago, who had appeared on the
+scene.
+
+Mago disappeared like magic, but in an instant a din was rising from
+the front of the house,--cries, blows, clash of steel. Into the
+peristylium, where the angry young master was standing, rushed the old
+slave woman, La�s.
+
+"_Hei! hei!_" she screamed, "they are breaking in! Monsters! a hundred
+of them! They will kill us all!"
+
+Drusus grew calm in an instant.
+
+"Barricade the doors to the atrium!" he commanded, "while I can put on
+my armour. You, Mamercus, are too old for this kind of work; run and
+call in the field-hands, the clients, and the neighbours. Cappadox,
+Falto, and I can hold the doors till aid comes."
+
+"I run?" cried the veteran, in hot incredulity, while with his single
+hand he tore from its stout leather wall-fastenings a shield that had
+been beaten with Punic swords at the Metaurus.[114] "I run?" he
+repeated, while a mighty crash told that the front door had given way,
+and the attackers were pouring into the atrium. And the veteran had
+thrust a venerable helmet over his grizzled locks, and was wielding
+his shield with his handless left arm, while a good Spanish
+short-sword gleamed in his right hand.
+
+  [114] The great battle won in 207 B.C. over Hasdrubal.
+
+The others had not been idle. Cappadox had barred both doors leading
+into the front part of the house. Drusus had armed, and Falto,--a more
+loyal soul than whom lived not,--burning to retrieve his blunder, had
+sprung to his patron's side, also in shield and helm.
+
+"They will soon force these doors," said Drusus, quietly, growing more
+composed as closer and closer came the actual danger. "Falto and I
+will guard the right. Cappadox and you, Mamercus, if you will stay,
+must guard the left. Some aid must come before a great while."
+
+But again the veteran whipped out an angry oath, and thundered, "You
+stay, you soft-fingered Quintus! You stay and face those German
+giants! Why, you are the very man they are after! Leave fighting to an
+old soldier! Take him away, Cappadox, if you love him!"
+
+"I will never leave!" blazed forth Drusus. "My place is here. A Livian
+always faces his foes. Here, if needs be, I will die." But before he
+could protest further, Cappadox had caught him in his powerful arms,
+and despite his struggles was running with him through the rear of the
+house.
+
+Pandemonium reigned in the atrium. The gladiators were shivering fine
+sculptures, ripping up upholstery, swearing in their uncouth Celtic or
+German dialects, searching everywhere for their victim in the rooms
+that led off the atrium. A voice in Latin was raising loud
+remonstrance.
+
+"_�depol!_ Dumnorix, call off your men! Phaon hasn't led our bird into
+the net. We shall be ruined if this keeps on! Drusus isn't here!"
+
+"By the Holy Oak, Gabinius," replied another voice, in barbarous
+Latin, "what I've begun I'll end! I'll find Drusus yet; and we won't
+leave a soul living to testify against us! You men, break down that
+door and let us into the rest of the house!"
+
+Mamercus heard a rush down one of the passages leading to the
+peristylium. The house was almost entirely deserted, except by the
+shrieking maids. The clients and freedmen and male slaves were almost
+all in the fields. The veteran, Falto, and Pausanias, who had come in,
+and who was brave enough, but nothing of a warrior, were the only
+defenders of the peristylium.
+
+"You two," shouted Mamercus, "guard the other door! Move that heavy
+chest against it. Pile the couch and cabinet on top. This door I will
+hold."
+
+There was the blow of a heavy mace on the portal, and the wood sprang
+out, and the pivots started.
+
+"Leave this alone," roared Mamercus, when his two helpers paused, as
+if to join him. "Guard your own doorway!"
+
+"Down with it!" bellowed the voice of the leaders without. "Don't let
+the game escape! Strike again!"
+
+Crash! And the door, beaten from its fastenings by a mighty stroke,
+tumbled inward on to the mosaic pavement of the peristylium. The light
+was streaming bright and free into that court, but the passageway from
+the atrium was shrouded in darkness. Mamercus, sword drawn, stood
+across the entrance.
+
+"By the god Tarann!"[115] shouted Dumnorix, who from the rear of his
+followers was directing the attack. "Here is a stout old game-cock!
+Out of the way, greybeard! We'll spare you for your spirit. Take him,
+some of you, alive!"
+
+  [115] The Gallic thunder-god.
+
+Two gigantic, blond Germans thrust their prodigious bodies through the
+doorway. Mamercus was no small man, but slight he seemed before these
+mighty Northerners.
+
+The Germans had intended to seize him in their naked hands, but
+something made them swing their ponderous long swords and then, two
+flashes from the short blade in the hand of the veteran, and both the
+giants were weltering across the threshold, their breasts pierced and
+torn by the Roman's murderous thrusts.
+
+"_Habet!_" cried Mamercus. "A fair hit! Come on, you scum of the
+earth; come on, you German and Gallic dogs; do you think I haven't
+faced the like of you before? Do you think your great bulks and fierce
+mustaches will make a soldier of Marius quiver? Do you want to taste
+Roman steel again?"
+
+And then there was a strange sight. A phantasm seemed to have come
+before every member of that mad, murderous band; for they saw, as it
+were, in the single champion before them, a long, swaying line of men
+of slight stature like him; of men who dashed through their phalanxes
+and spear hedges; who beat down their chieftains; whom no arrow fire,
+no sword-play, no stress of numbers, might stop; but who charged home
+with pilum and short-sword, and defeated the most valorous enemy.
+
+"Ha! Dogs!" taunted Mamercus, "you have seen Romans fight before, else
+you were not all here, to make sport for our holiday!"
+
+"He is Tyr,[116] the 'one-armed,' who put his left hand in the jaws of
+Fenris-wolf!" cried a German, shrinking back in dread. "A god is
+fighting us!"
+
+  [116] A Germanic war-god.
+
+"Fools!" shouted Gabinius from a distance. "At him, and cut him down!"
+
+"Cut him down!" roared Dumnorix, who had wits enough to realize that
+every instant's delay gave Drusus time to escape, or collect help.
+
+There was another rush down the passage; but at the narrow doorway the
+press stopped. Mamercus fought as ten. His shield and sword were
+everywhere. The Roman was as one inspired; his eyes shone bright and
+clear; his lips were parted in a grim, fierce smile; he belched forth
+rude soldier oaths that had been current in the army of fifty years
+before. Thrusting and parrying, he yielded no step, he sustained no
+wound. And once, twice, thrice his terrible short-sword found its
+sheath in the breast of a victim. In impotent rage the gladiators
+recoiled a second time.
+
+"Storm the other door!" commanded Dumnorix.
+
+The two defenders there had undertaken to pile up furniture against
+it; but a few blows beat down the entire barrier. Falto and Pausanias
+stood to their posts stoutly enough; but there was no master-swordsman
+to guard this entrance. The first gladiator indeed went down with a
+pierced neck, but the next instant Falto was beside him, atoning for
+his stupid folly, the whole side of his head cleft away by a stroke
+from a Gallic long-sword.
+
+"One rush and we have the old man surrounded," exhorted Dumnorix, when
+only Pausanias barred the way.
+
+There was a growl and a bound, and straight at the foremost attacker
+flew Argos, Mamercus's great British mastiff, who had silently slipped
+on to the scene. The assailant fell with the dog's fangs in his
+throat. Again the gladiators recoiled, and before they could return to
+the charge, back into the peristylium rushed Drusus, escaped from
+Cappadox, with that worthy and Mago and Agias, just released, at his
+heels.
+
+"Here's your man!" cried Gabinius, who still kept discreetly in the
+rear.
+
+"Freedom and ten _sestertia_[117] to the one who strikes Drusus down,"
+called Dumnorix, feeling that at last the game was in his hands.
+
+  [117] About $400.
+
+But Mamercus had made of his young patron an apt pupil. All the
+fighting blood of the great Livian house, of the consulars and
+triumphators, was mantling in Drusus's veins, and he threw himself
+into the struggle with the deliberate courage of an experienced
+warrior. His short-sword, too, found its victims; and across Falto's
+body soon were piled more. And now Drusus was not alone. For in from
+the barns and fields came running first the servants from the stables,
+armed with mattocks and muck-forks, and then the farm-hands with their
+scythes and reaping hooks.
+
+"We shall never force these doors," exclaimed Gabinius, in despair, as
+he saw the defenders augmenting.
+
+Dumnorix turned to his men.
+
+"Go, some of you. Enter from behind! Take this rabble from the rear.
+In fair fight we can soon master it."
+
+A part of the gladiators started to leave the atrium, Gabinius with
+them. An instant later he had rushed back in blank dismay.
+
+"Horsemen! They are dismounting before the house. There are more than
+a score of them. We shall be cut to pieces."
+
+"We have more than fifty," retorted Dumnorix, viciously. "I will
+sacrifice them all, rather than have the attack fail!--" But before he
+could speak further, to the din of the fighting at the doors of the
+peristylium was added a second clamour without. And into the atrium,
+sword in hand, burst Caius Curio, and another young, handsome,
+aquiline-featured man, dressed in a low-girt tunic, with a loose,
+coarse mantle above it,--a man known to history as Marcus Antonius, or
+"Marc Antony "; and at their backs were twenty men in full armour.
+
+The courage of the lanista had failed him. Already Drusus's
+reinforcements in the peristylium had become so numerous and so well
+armed that the young chieftain was pushing back the gladiators and
+rapidly assuming the offensive. Gabinius was the first to take flight.
+He plunged into one of the rooms off the atrium, and through a side
+door gained the open. The demoralized and beaten gladiators followed
+him, like a flock of sheep. Only Dumnorix and two or three of his best
+men stood at the exit long enough to cover, in some measure, the
+retreat.
+
+Once outside, the late assailants gained a temporary respite, owing to
+the fact that the defenders had been disorganized by their very
+victory.
+
+"We have lost," groaned Gabinius, as the lanista drew his men together
+in a compact body, before commencing his retreat.
+
+"We are alive," growled Dumnorix.
+
+"We cannot go back to Rome," moaned the other. "We are all identified.
+No bribe or favour can save us now."
+
+"A robber's life is still left," retorted Dumnorix, "and we must make
+of it what we can. Some of my men know these parts, where they have
+been slaves, before coming to my hands. We must strike off for the
+mountains, if we live to get there."
+
+All that day the country was in a turmoil. The Pr�nestean senate had
+met in hasty session, and the _decurions_[118] ordered the entire
+community under arms to hunt down the disturbers of the peace. Not
+until nightfall did Dumnorix and a mere remnant of his band find
+themselves able, under the shadow of the darkness, to shake off the
+pursuit. Gabinius was still with him. Curio and Antonius had chased
+them down with their horsemen; many of the gladiators had been slain,
+many more taken. For the survivors only the life of outlaws remained.
+The fastnesses of the Apennines were their sole safety; and
+thither--scarce daring to stop to pillage for victuals--they hurried
+their weary steps.
+
+  [118] Local municipal magistrates.
+
+
+III
+
+Lucius Ahenobarbus spent that day in frightful anxiety. One moment he
+was fingering Drusus's money bags; the next haunted by the murdered
+man's ghost. When he called on Cornelia, her slaves said she had a
+headache and would receive no one. Pratinas held aloof. No news all
+day--the suspense became unendurable. He lived through the following
+night harassed by waking visions of every conceivable calamity; but
+toward morning fell asleep, and as was his wont, awoke late. The first
+friend he met on the street was Calvus, the young poet and orator.
+
+"Have you heard the news from Pr�neste?" began Calvus.
+
+"News? What news?"
+
+"Why, how Dumnorix's gang of gladiators attacked the villa of your
+distant relative, Quintus Drusus, and were beaten off, while they
+tried to murder him. A most daring attempt! But you will hear all
+about it. I have a case at the courts and cannot linger."
+
+And Calvus was gone, leaving Ahenobarbus as though he had been
+cudgelled into numbness. With a great effort he collected himself.
+After all, Dumnorix's gladiators were nothing to him. And when later
+he found that neither Dumnorix, nor Gabinius, nor Phaon had been taken
+or slain at Pr�neste, he breathed the easier. No one else except
+Pratinas, he was certain, knew _why_ the lanista had made his attack;
+and there was no danger of being charged with complicity in the
+conspiracy. And so he was able to bear the stroke of ill-fortune with
+some equanimity, and at last rejoice that his dreams would no longer
+be haunted by the shade of Drusus. He was in no mood to meet Pratinas,
+and the smooth Greek evidently did not care to meet him. He went
+around to visit Cornelia again--she was still quite indisposed. So he
+spent that morning with Servius Flaccus playing draughts, a game at
+which his opponent was so excessively stupid that Ahenobarbus won at
+pleasure, and consequently found himself after lunch[119] in a
+moderately equable humour. Then it was he was agreeably surprised to
+receive the following note from Cornelia.
+
+  [119] _Prandium_.
+
+"Cornelia to her dearest Lucius, greeting.
+
+I have been very miserable these past two days, but this afternoon
+will be better. Come and visit me and my uncle, for there are several
+things I would be glad to say before you both. Farewell."
+
+"I think," remarked Lucius to himself, "that the girl wants to have
+the wedding-day hastened. I know of nothing else to make her desire
+both Lentulus and myself at once. I want to see her alone. Well, I
+cannot complain. I'll have Drusus's bride, even if I can't have his
+money or his life."
+
+And so deliberating, he put on his finest saffron-tinted synthesis,
+his most elegant set of rings, his newest pair of black shoes,[120]
+and spent half an hour with his hairdresser; and thus habited he
+repaired to the house of the Lentuli.
+
+  [120] Black shoes were worn as a sort of badge by _equites_.
+
+"The Lady Cornelia is in the Corinthian hall," announced the slave who
+carried in the news of his coming, "and there she awaits you."
+
+Lucius, nothing loth, followed the servant. A moment and he was in the
+large room. It was empty. The great marble pillars rose cold and
+magnificent in four stately rows, on all sides of the high-vaulted
+apartment. On the walls Cupids and blithesome nymphs were careering in
+fresco. The floor was soft with carpets. A dull scent of burning
+incense from a little brazier, smoking before a bronze Minerva, in one
+corner of the room, hung heavy on the air. The sun was shining warm
+and bright without, but the windows of the hall were small and high
+and the shutters also were drawn. Everything was cool, still, and
+dark. Only through a single aperture shot a clear ray of sunlight, and
+stretched in a radiant bar across the gaudy carpets.
+
+Lucius stumbled, half groping, into a chair, and seated himself.
+Cornelia had never received him thus before. What was she preparing?
+Another moment and Lentulus Crus entered the darkened hall.
+
+"_Perpol!_ Ahenobarbus," he cried, as he came across his prospective
+nephew-in-law, "what can Cornelia be wanting of us both? And in this
+place? I can't imagine. Ah! Those were strange doings yesterday up in
+Pr�neste. I would hardly have put on mourning if Drusus had been
+ferried over the Styx; but it was a bold way to attack him. I don't
+know that he has an enemy in the world except myself, and I can bide
+my time and pay off old scores at leisure. Who could have been back of
+Dumnorix when he blundered so evidently?"
+
+Ahenobarbus felt that it was hardly possible Lentulus would condemn
+his plot very severely; but he replied diplomatically:--
+
+"One has always plenty of enemies."
+
+"_Mehercle!_ of course," laughed the consul-elect, "what would life be
+without the pleasure of revenge! But why does my niece keep us
+waiting? Jupiter, what can she want of us?"
+
+"Uncle, Lucius, I am here." And before them, standing illumined in the
+panel of sunlight, stood Cornelia. Ahenobarbus had never seen her so
+beautiful before. She wore a flowing violet-tinted stola, that tumbled
+in soft, silky flounces down to her ankles, and from beneath it peered
+the tint of her shapely feet bound to thin sandals by bright red
+ribbons. Her bare rounded arms were clasped above and below the elbow
+and at the wrists by circlets shaped as coiled serpents, whose eyes
+were gleaming rubies. At her white throat was fastened a necklace of
+interlinked jewel-set gold pendants that shimmered on her half-bare
+shoulders and breast. In each ear was the lustre of a great pearl. Her
+thick black hair fell unconfined down her back; across her brow was a
+frontlet blazing with great diamonds, with one huge sapphire in their
+midst. As she stood in the sunlight she was as a goddess, an Aphrodite
+descended from Olympus, to drive men to sweet madness by the ravishing
+puissance of her charms.
+
+"Cornelia!" cried Lucius, with all the fierce impure admiration of his
+nature welling up in his black heart, "you are an immortal! Let me
+throw my arms about you! Let me kiss you! Kiss your neck but once!"
+And he took a step forward.
+
+"Be quiet, Lucius," said Cornelia, speaking slowly and with as little
+passion as a sculptured marble endued with the powers of speech. "We
+have other things to talk of now. That is why I have called you here;
+you and my uncle."
+
+"Cornelia!" exclaimed the young man, shrinking back as though a sight
+of some awful mystery had stricken him with trembling reverence, "why
+do you look at me so? Why do your eyes fasten on me that way? What are
+you going to do?"
+
+It was as if he had never spoken. Cornelia continued steadily, looking
+straight before her.
+
+"Uncle, is it your wish that I become the wife of Lucius Ahenobarbus?"
+
+"You know it is," replied Lentulus, a little uneasily. He could not
+see where this bit of affection on the part of his niece would end. He
+had never heard her speak in such a tone before.
+
+"I think, uncle," went on Cornelia, "that before we say anything
+further it will be well to read this letter. It was sent to me, but
+both you and Lucius will find it of some interest." And she held out
+two or three wax tablets.
+
+Lentulus took them, eager to have done with the by-play. But when he
+saw on the binding-cords the seal--which, though broken, still showed
+its impression--he gave a start and exclamation.
+
+"_Perpol!_ The seal of Sextus Flaccus, the great capitalist."
+
+"Certainly, why should it not be from him?"
+
+Lentulus stepped nearer to the light, and read: Lucius standing by and
+hanging on every word, Cornelia remaining at her previous station
+rigid as the bronze faun on the pedestal at her elbow. Lentulus
+read:--
+
+"Sextus Fulvius Flaccus, to the most noble lady Cornelia:--
+
+If you are well it is well with me.
+
+Perhaps you have heard how the plots of the conspirators against my
+dear friend and financial client Quintus Drusus have been frustrated,
+thanks, next to the god, to the wit and dexterity of Agias, who has
+been of late your slave. Drusus as soon as he had fairly beaten off
+the gladiators sent at once for me, to aid him and certain other of
+his friends in taking the confession of one Phaon, the freedman of
+Lucius Ahenobarbus, whom Agias had contrived to entrap in Gabii, and
+hold prisoner until the danger was over. Phaon's confession puts us in
+complete possession of all the schemes of the plotters; and it will be
+well for you to inform that worthy young gentleman, Lucius
+Ahenobarbus, that I only forbear to prosecute him, and Pratinas, who
+really made him his supple tool, because I am a peaceable man who
+would not bring scandal upon an old and noble family. If, however,
+anything should befall Drusus which should indicate that fresh plots
+against his life were on foot, let Ahenobarbus be assured that I can
+no more regard him so leniently. I may add that since it was through a
+marriage with you that Ahenobarbus expected to profit by the murder, I
+have already advised Drusus that, according to the decisions of
+several of the most eminent _jurisconsulti_,[121] a property provision
+such as his father inserted in his will would not be binding,
+especially in view of the present facts of the case. Drusus has
+accordingly prepared a new will which, if questioned, I shall defend
+in the courts with all my power. Farewell."
+
+  [121] Expounders of the Roman law.
+
+Lentulus turned and glared with sullen amazement at his niece. That
+Ahenobarbus should conspire against Drusus seemed the most natural
+thing in the world. That the news that the conspiracy had failed
+should come from such a quarter, and through the hands of his own
+niece, at once terrified and angered him. Lucius was standing gaping,
+in half horror, half fascination, at Cornelia. Had she not urged him
+on? Had she not almost expressed her wish for Drusus's blood? The name
+of Flaccus fell on his heart like a stone; for the great banker never
+went back when he had taken a stand, and was rich enough to corrupt
+the most lax and merciful jury. Ahenobarbus felt a trap snap upon him,
+and yet he had no hope of revenge.
+
+"Cornelia," cried Lentulus, regaining at last the powers of speech,
+"why was this letter sent to you? What to you is that wretched youth,
+Quintus Drusus, who escaped a fate he richly deserved? Why do you not
+condole with your lover on his misfortune? What do you mean by your
+stony stare, your--"
+
+"I mean," retorted Cornelia, every word coming as a deep pant from her
+heaving chest, while her fingers clasped and unclasped nervously, and
+the blood surged to her pallid cheeks, "I mean that I need no longer
+profess to love what I hate; to cherish what I despise; to fondle what
+I loathe; to cast soft looks on that which I would pierce with
+daggers!" And she in turn took a step, quick and menacing, toward her
+wretched lover, who cowered and shrank back into the shadow of a
+pillar.
+
+"But you yourself said you hoped I would soon rid you of Drusus,"
+howled Lucius.
+
+"Fool!" hissed the woman, through her clenched teeth. "Didn't you know
+that all that I said, all that I did, all that I thought, was for this
+end--how might I save Quintus by learning the plans of the wretch who
+thirsted for his blood? Do you feel paid, now, for all your labours to
+secure the wealth of a man whose name should not be uttered beside
+that of yours?"
+
+"And you do not love me!" screamed Ahenobarbus, springing at her, as
+if to force his arms around her neck.
+
+"Dog!" and Cornelia smote him so fairly in the face that he shrank
+back, and pressed his hand to a swelling cheek. "I said I hated and
+despised you. What I despise, though, is beneath my hate. I would
+tread on you as on a viper or a desert asp, as a noxious creature that
+is not fit to live. I have played my game; and though it was not I who
+won, but Agias who won for me, I am well content. Drusus lives! Lives
+to see you miserably dead! Lives to grow to glory and honour, to
+happiness and a noble old age, when the worms have long since finished
+their work on you!"
+
+"Girl," thundered Lentulus, fiercely, "you are raving! Ahenobarbus is
+your affianced husband. Rome knows it. I will compel you to marry him.
+Otherwise you may well blush to think of the stories that vulgar
+report will fasten around your name."
+
+But Cornelia faced him in turn, and threw her white arms aloft as
+though calling down some mightier power than human to her aid; and her
+words came fast:--
+
+"What Rome says is not what my heart says! My heart tells me that I am
+pure where others are vile; that I keep truth where others are false;
+that I love honourably where others love dishonourably. I knew the
+cost of what I would do for Drusus's sake; and, though the vilest
+slave gibber and point at me, I would hold my head as proudly as did
+ever a Cornelian or Claudian maiden; for I have done that which my own
+heart tells me was right; and more than that or less than that, can no
+true woman do!"
+
+Ahenobarbus felt the room spinning round him. He saw himself ruined in
+everything that he had held dear. He would be the laughing-stock of
+Rome; he, the hero of a score of amorous escapades, the darling of as
+many patrician maidens, jilted by the one woman to whom he had become
+the abject slave. Courage came from despair.
+
+"Be silent!" he gasped, his face black with fury. "If every word you
+say were true, yet with all the more reason would I drag you in my
+marriage procession, and force you to avow yourself my wife. Never
+have I been balked of woman; and you, too, with all your tragic
+bathos, shall learn that, if you won't have me for a slave, I'll bow
+your neck to my yoke."
+
+"I think the very noble Lucius Ahenobarbus," replied Cornelia, in that
+high pitch of excitement which produces a calm more terrible than any
+open fury, "will in person be the protagonist in a tragedy very sorry
+for himself. For I can assure him that if he tries to make good his
+threat, I shall show myself one of the Danaides, and he will need his
+funeral feast full soon after the wedding banquet."
+
+"Woman!" and Lentulus, thoroughly exasperated, broke in furiously.
+"Say another word, and I with my own hands will flog you like a common
+slave."
+
+Cornelia laughed hysterically.
+
+"Touch me!" she shouted; and in her grasp shone a small bright dagger.
+
+Lentulus fell back. There was something about his niece that warned
+him to be careful.
+
+"Wretched girl!" he commanded, "put down that dagger."
+
+"I will not," and Cornelia stood resolutely, confronting her two
+persecutors; her head thrown back, and the light making her throat and
+face shine white as driven snow.
+
+There was very little chivalry among the ancients. Lentulus
+deliberately clapped his hands, and two serving-men appeared.
+
+"Take that dagger from the Lady Cornelia!" commanded the master. The
+men exchanged sly glances, and advanced to accomplish the disarming.
+
+But before they could catch Cornelia's slender wrists in their coarse,
+rough hands, and tear the little weapon from her, there were cuts and
+gashes on their own arms; for the struggle if brief was vicious.
+Cornelia stood disarmed.
+
+"You see what these mock heroics will lead to," commented Lentulus,
+with sarcastic smile, as he observed his order had been obeyed.
+
+"_You_ will see!" was her quick retort.
+
+"_Hei! hei!_" screamed one of the slaves an instant later, sinking to
+the floor. "Poison! It's running through my veins! I shall die!"
+
+"You will die," repeated Cornelia, in ineffable scorn, spurning the
+wretch with her foot. "Lie there and die! Cease breathing; sleep! And
+that creature, Ahenobarbus, yonder, shall sleep his sleep too, ere he
+work his will on me! Ha! ha! Look at my handiwork; the other slave is
+down!"
+
+"Girl! Murderess!" raged Lentulus. "What is this? You have slain these
+men."
+
+"I have slain your slaves," said Cornelia, resolutely folding her
+arms; "the poison on the dagger was very swift. You did excellently
+well, Lucius, not to come near me." And she picked up the dagger,
+which the slave, writhing in agony, had dropped.
+
+"Do you wish to attack me again? _Phy!_ I have more resources than
+this. This venom works too quickly. See, Syrax is already out of his
+misery; and his fellow will soon be beyond reach of woe. When I strike
+_you_, Lucius Ahenobarbus, you shall die slowly, that I may enjoy your
+pain. What need have I of this weapon?" And she flung the dagger
+across the carpet so that it struck on the farther wall. "Pick it up,
+and come and kill me if you wish! Drusus lives, and in him I live, for
+him I live, and by him I live. And you--and you are but as evil dreams
+in the first watch of a night which shall be forgotten either in sweet
+unending slumbers, or the brightness of the morning. And now I have
+spoken. Do with me as it lies in your power to do; but remember what
+power is mine. _Vale!_"
+
+And Cornelia vanished from the darkened hall. The two men heard the
+click of the door, and turned and gazed blankly into one another's
+faces.
+
+"The gods defend me, but I shall be yoked to one of the Dir�!"
+stammered Ahenobarbus.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XI
+
+The Great Proconsul
+
+
+I
+
+The plot was foiled. Drusus was unquestionably safe. So long as
+Flaccus had the affidavits of Phaon's confession and the depositions
+of the captured gladiators stored away in his strong-box, neither
+Lucius Ahenobarbus nor the ever versatile Pratinas would be likely to
+risk a new conspiracy--especially as their intended victim had
+carefully drawn up a will leaving the bulk of his property to Titus
+Mamercus and �milia. Drusus had no near relatives, except Fabia and
+Livia; unless the Ahenobarbi were to be counted such; and it pleased
+him to think that if aught befell him the worthy children of his aged
+defender would acquire opulence.
+
+But after the excitement was over, after Phaon had been brought up
+from the inn at Gabii to Pr�neste, and there had the truth wormed out
+of him by the merciless cross-examination of Curio and Flaccus; after
+the freedman had been suffered to depart with a warning and threat to
+his prompters, after the captured gladiators had been crucified along
+the roadway leading toward Rome, and the wreck left in the atrium of
+the villa caused by the attack had been cleared away,--after all this,
+then the reaction came. Drusus, indeed, found that though the sun
+shone bright, its brightness was not for him. He had friends in
+plenty; but not such friends as he needed--as his heart craved. Truth
+to tell, he was one of those more delicate natures to whom the average
+pity and the ordinary demonstrations of sympathy come with an
+offending jar, and open, not heal, long-festering wounds. Curio was
+kind, but could only hold out the vaguest hopes that, for the present
+at least, anything would compel the consul-elect to consent to his
+niece's marriage with a mortal enemy. Flaccus took the same position.
+The hard-headed man of money thought that Drusus was a visionary, to
+be so distraught over the loss of a wife--as if the possession of a
+fortune of thirty odd millions did not make up for every possible
+calamity. Antonius was still less happy in his efforts at consolation.
+This dashing young politician, who had been equally at home basking in
+the eyes of the young Egyptian princess, Cleopatra, eight years
+before, when he was in the East with Aulus Gabinius, or when fighting
+the Gauls as he had until recently under his uncle, the great
+proconsul,--had now been elected Tribune of the Plebs for the coming
+year; and was looking forward to a prosperous and glorious career in
+statecraft. He had had many a love intrigue, and made such matters a
+sort of recreation to the real business of life. Why Drusus--who
+certainly had very fair worldly prospects before him--should not
+console himself for one unsuccessful passage of arms with Cupid, by
+straightway engaging in another, he could not see. He plainly
+intimated to his friend that there were a great many women, almost if
+not quite as good looking as Cornelia, who would survey him with
+friendly eyes if he made but a few advances. And Drusus, wounded and
+stung, was thrown back on himself; and within himself he found very
+little comfort.
+
+Although he believed himself safe at last from the wiles of
+Ahenobarbus and his Greek coadjutors, there was still a great dread
+which would steal over Drusus lest at any moment a stroke might fall.
+Those were days when children murdered parents, wives husbands, for
+whim or passion, and very little came to punish their guilt. The
+scramble for money was universal. Drusus looked forth into the world,
+and saw little in it that was good. He had tried to cherish an ideal,
+and found fidelity to it more than difficult. His philosophy did not
+assure him that a real deity existed. Death ended all. Was it not
+better to be done with the sham of life; to drink the Lethe water, and
+sink into eternal, dreamless slumber? He longed unspeakably to see
+Cornelia face to face; to kiss her; to press her in his arms; and the
+desire grew and grew.
+
+She was no longer in the capital. Her uncle had sent her away--guarded
+by trusty freedmen--to the villa of the Lentuli at Bai�. The
+fashionable circles of the great city had made of her name a three
+days' scandal, of which the echo all too often came to Drusus's
+outraged ears. His only comfort was that Ahenobarbus had become the
+butt and laughing-stock of every one who knew of his repulse by his
+last inamorata. Then at last Drusus left Pr�neste for Rome.
+Ahenobarbus and Pratinas were as well checked as it was possible they
+could be, and there was no real ground to dread assassination while in
+the city, if moderate precautions were taken. Then too the time was
+coming when the young man felt that he could accomplish something
+definite for the party for which he had already sacrificed so much.
+
+The events clustering around Dumnorix's unsuccessful attack had made
+Drusus a sort of hero in the eyes of the Pr�nesteans. They had years
+before elected his father as their patron, their legal representative
+at Rome, and now they pitched upon the son, proud to have this highly
+honourable function continued in the same family. This election gave
+Drusus some little prestige at the capital, and some standing in the
+courts and politics. When he went to Rome it was not as a mere
+individual who had to carve out his own career, but as a man of honour
+in his own country, a representative of a considerable local interest,
+and the possessor of both a noble pedigree and an ample fortune.
+
+Curio found him plenty to do; wire-pulling, speech-making, private
+bargaining,--all these were rife, for everybody knew that with the
+first of January, when Lentulus became consul, the fortunes of C�sar
+were to be made or marred irretrievably. There were rumours, always
+rumours, now of C�sar, now of Pompeius. The proconsul was going to
+march on Rome at once, and put all his enemies to the sword. Pompeius
+was to be proclaimed dictator and exterminate all who adhered to the
+anti-senatorial party. And into this _m�l�e_ of factions Drusus threw
+himself, and found relief and inspiration in the conflict. His innate
+common-sense, a very considerable talent for oratory which had
+received a moderate training, his energy, his enthusiasm, his
+incorruptibility, his straightforwardness, all made him valuable to
+the C�sarians, and he soon found himself deep in the counsels of his
+party, although he was too young to be advanced as a candidate for any
+public office.
+
+Agias continued with him. He had never formally deeded the boy to
+Cornelia, and now it was not safe for the lad to be sent to dwell at
+Bai�, possibly to fall into the revengeful clutches of Phaon, or
+Pratinas, or Ahenobarbus. Drusus had rewarded Agias by giving him his
+freedom; but the boy had nowhere to go, and did not desire to leave
+Quintus's service; so he continued as a general assistant and
+understrapper, to carry important letters and verbal messages, and to
+aid his patron in every case where quick wits or nimble feet were
+useful. He went once to Bai�, and came back with a letter from
+Cornelia, in which she said that she was kept actually as a prisoner
+in her uncle's villa, and that Lentulus still threatened to force
+Ahenobarbus upon her; but that she had prepared herself for that final
+emergency.
+
+The letter came at a moment when Drusus was feeling the exhilaration
+of a soldier in battle, and the missive was depressing and maddening.
+What did it profit if the crowd roared its plaudits, when he piled
+execration on the oligarchs from the Rostra, if all his eloquence
+could not save Cornelia one pang? Close on top of this letter came
+another disquieting piece of information, although it was only what he
+had expected. He learned that Lentulus Crus had marked him out
+personally for confiscation of property and death as a dangerous
+agitator, as soon as the Senate could decree martial law. To have even
+a conditional sentence of death hanging over one is hard to bear with
+equanimity. But it was too late for Drusus to turn back. He had chosen
+his path; he had determined on the sacrifice; he would follow it to
+the end. And from one source great comfort came to him. His aunt,
+Fabia, had always seen in him her hero. With no children of her own,
+with very little knowledge of the world, she had centred all her hopes
+and ambitions on her sister's son; and he was not disappointing her.
+She dreamed of him as consul, triumphator, and dictator. She told him
+her hopes. She applauded his sacrifice. She told him of the worthies
+of old, of Camillus, of the Scipios, of Marcellus, the "Sword of
+Rome," of Lucius �milius Paulus, and a host of others, good men and
+true, whose names were graven on the fabric of the great Republic, and
+bade him emulate them, and be her perfect Fabian and Livian. And from
+his aunt Drusus gained infinite courage. If she was not Cornelia, yet
+it was a boon ineffable to be able to hear a pure, loving woman tell
+him face to face that her heart suffered when he suffered, and that
+all his hopes and fears were hers.
+
+Finally an interlude came to Quintus's political activity. Curio was
+becoming uneasy, lest his distant superior should fail to realize the
+full venom of the Senate party and the determination of his enemies to
+work his ruin.
+
+"I must go to Ravenna," said the politician to his young associate.
+"My tribuneship is nearly run out. Antonius and Cassius will take my
+place in the office. And you, who have done so much for C�sar, must go
+also, for he loves to meet and to know all who are his friends."
+
+"To C�sar I will go," answered Drusus; and of himself he asked, "What
+manner of man will this prove, whom I am serving? A selfish grasper of
+power? Or will he be what I seek--a man with an ideal?"
+
+
+II
+
+Night was falling on the dark masses of the huge Pr�torium, the
+government-house and army barracks of the provincial capital of
+Ravenna. Outside, sentinels were changing guard; Roman civil officials
+and provincials were strolling in the cool of the porticos. Laughter,
+the shout of loungers at play, broke the evening silence. But far in
+the interior, where there was a secluded suite of rooms, nothing but
+the tinkle of a water-duct emptying into a cistern broke the
+stillness, save as some soft-footed attendant stole in and out across
+the rich, thick carpet.
+
+The room was small; the ceiling low; the frescos not elaborate, but of
+admirable simplicity and delicacy. The furniture comprised merely a
+few divans, chairs, and tripods, but all of the choicest wood or
+brass, and the most excellent upholstery. One or two carved wooden
+cupboards for books completed the furnishings.
+
+There were only two persons in the room. One of them,--a handsome
+young Hellene, evidently a freedman, was sitting on a low chair with
+an open roll before him. His companion half sat and half lay on a
+divan near by. This second person was a man of height unusual to
+Italians of his day; his cheeks were pale and a little sunken; his
+dark eyes were warm, penetrating; his mouth and chin mobile and even
+affable, but not a line suggested weakness. The forehead was high,
+massive, and was exaggerated by a semi-baldness which was only
+partially concealed by combing the dark, grey-streaked hair forward.
+He was reclining; if he had arisen he would have displayed a frame at
+once to be called soldierly, though spare and hardly powerful. To
+complete the figure it should be added that on one finger he wore a
+large ring set with a very beautiful seal of an armed Venus; and over
+his loose but carefully arranged tunic was thrown a short, red mantle,
+caught together on the left shoulder--the paludamentum, a garment only
+worn by Roman military officers of the very highest rank.
+
+The general--for so his dress proclaimed him--was playing with a
+stylus and a waxen tablet, while the young Greek read. Now and then he
+would bid the latter pause while he made a few notes. The book was
+Euripides's "Troades."
+
+"Read those lines again," interrupted the general. The voice was
+marvellously flexile, powerful, and melodious.
+
+And the freedman repeated:--
+
+  "Sow far and wide, plague, famine, and distress;
+  Make women widows, children fatherless;
+  Break down the altars of the gods, and tread
+  On quiet graves, the temples of the dead;
+  Play to life's end this wicked witless game
+  And you will win what knaves and fools call Fame!"[122]
+
+  [122] Translated in the collection "Sales Attici."
+
+The freedman waited for his superior to ask him to continue, but the
+request did not come. The general seemed lost in a reverie; his
+expressive dark eyes were wandering off in a kind of quiet melancholy,
+gazing at the glass water-clock at the end of the room, but evidently
+not in the least seeing it.
+
+"I have heard enough Euripides to-day," at length he remarked. "I must
+attend to more important matters. You may leave me."
+
+The Greek rolled up the volume, placed it in the cupboard, and left
+the room with noiseless step. The general had arisen, and was standing
+beside the open window that looked out into a quiet little court. It
+was dark. The lamps of the room threw the court-yard into a sombre
+relief. Overhead, in the dimming, violet arch of the sky, one or two
+faint stars were beginning to twinkle.
+
+  "Play to life's end this wicked witless game
+  And you will win what knaves and fools call Fame!"
+
+repeated the general, leaning out from the stone work of the
+window-casing in order to catch the cool air of the court. "Yes, fame,
+the fame of a Xerxes; perhaps the fame of a Hannibal--no, I wrong the
+Carthaginian, for he at least struck for his country. And what is it
+all worth, after all? Does Agamemnon feel that his glory makes the
+realm of Hades more tolerable? Does not Homer set forth Achilles as a
+warrior with renown imperishable? And yet, 'Mock me not,' he makes the
+shade of Achilles say; 'Better to be the hireling of a stranger and
+serve a man of mean estate, whose living is but small, than be the
+monarch over all those dead and gone.'"
+
+The general leaned yet farther out, and looked upward. "These were the
+stars that twinkled over the Troy of Priam; these were the stars that
+shone on Carthage when she sent forth her armies and her fleets, and
+nigh drove the Greeks from Sicily; and these are the stars which will
+shine when Rome is as Troy and Carthage. And I--I am an atom, a
+creature of chance, thrown out of the infinite to flash like a
+shooting star for a moment across a blackened firmament and then in
+the infinite to expire. _Cui bono?_ Why should I care how I live my
+life, since in a twinkling it will all be as if it had never been? And
+if Cato and Domitius and Lentulus Crus have their way with me, what
+matter? What matter if a stab in the dark, or open violence, or the
+sham forms of justice end this poor comedy? I and all others play. All
+comedy is tragedy, and at its merriest is but dolorous stuff. While
+the curtain stays down[123] we are sorry actors with the whole world
+for our audience, and the hoots mingle full often with the applause.
+And when the curtain rises, that which is good, the painstaking
+effort, the labour, is quickly forgotten; the blunders, the false
+quantities in our lives, are treasured up to be flung against our
+names. We play, but we do not know our parts; we are Oedipus, who has
+committed unwitting sin, and yet must reap his reward; we are
+Prometheus who is to be chained to the rock forever, for offending the
+gods; we are Orestes whom the Eumenides pursue, chasing him down for
+his guilt. And all the time we vainly imagine that we are some
+victorious hero, some Perseus, especially favoured by the gods to fare
+scatheless over land and sea, and bear away the Medusa's head, and
+live renowned and happy forever." The reverie was becoming deeper and
+deeper; the Roman was beginning no longer to whisper merely to
+himself, he was half declaiming; then of a sudden, by a quick
+revolution of mind, he broke short the thread of his monologue.
+"_Phui!_ Caius, you are ranting as if you were still a youth at
+Rhodes, and Apollonius Molo were just teaching you rhetoric! Why has
+no letter come from Curio to-day? I am anxious for him. There may have
+been a riot. I hadn't expected that those excellent 'Optimates' would
+begin to murder tribunes quite so soon. The carrier is late!" and the
+general moved away from the window, and took from a cupboard a package
+of tablets, which he ran over hastily. "Here are the despatches of
+yesterday. None to-day. I fear the worst." The brow of the solitary
+speaker grew darker. "Poor Curio, poor Antonius; if they've dared to
+murder them, let them tremble. I could forgive a mortal enemy to
+myself, but not one who had slaughtered a friend."
+
+  [123] The ancient curtain (_aul�um_) had its roller at the bottom.
+
+There were steps in the court below, and voices were raised. In an
+instant the general's eyes were kindled, his frame on a poise. He
+sprang to the window, and shouted down the dark court.
+
+"Curio! Do I hear you speaking?"
+
+"_Salve!_ C�sar. It is I!"
+
+"Venus be praised!" and the proconsul, with almost undignified haste,
+was running out upon the stairs to meet his friend. "Has the city
+broken out? Has Antonius been murdered? Is the truce at an end? Are
+you alone?"
+
+And Curio, who did not quite possess his leader's ability to "do all
+things at the same time," answered in a breath: "The city so far keeps
+tolerable order. Antonius is safe. The consuls and Senate still keep
+the peace; but so poorly that I thought it my duty to come to you and
+say things that cannot go in a letter."
+
+"And who is this young man with you?"
+
+"My friend," said Curio, turning to his companion, "is Quintus Livius
+Drusus, of whom I have had occasion to write no little."
+
+The proconsul sprang forward and seized Drusus by both hands, and
+looked him fairly in the eye.
+
+"_Pap�!_ I see Sextus Drusus once more, the best tribune in his
+legion, and my dear friend. Your face should be cause for your
+welcome, if nothing else. Ah! how much we shall have to say! But you
+are travel-stained and weary. Words will keep while you bathe, and our
+dinner is prepared; for I myself have not dined, waiting, as I
+thought, for your despatches."
+
+"Your excellency shows me too much courtesy," said Drusus, bowing in
+what was, to tell truth, some little embarrassment; "it is not fit
+that a young man like myself should dine at the same table with an
+imperator before whom nations have trembled."
+
+And then it was that Drusus caught his first glimpse of that noble and
+sententious egotism which was a characteristic of the great proconsul.
+
+"To be a friend of C�sar is to be the peer of kings."
+
+Drusus bowed again, and then, with Curio, followed the attendants who
+were leading them to comfortably, though not sumptuously, furnished
+apartments.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Quintus Drusus in years to come sat at the boards of many great men,
+enjoyed their conversation, entered into their hopes and fears, but he
+never forgot the first dinner with the proconsul of the Gauls. C�sar
+kept a double table. His hospitality was always ready for the people
+of note of the district where he happened to be staying, and for his
+own regular army officers. But he dined personally with such high-rank
+Romans and very noble Provincials as chanced to be with him from day
+to day. To this last select company Drusus found himself that evening
+admitted; and in fact he and Curio were the proconsul's only personal
+guests. The dinner itself was more remarkable for the refinement of
+the whole service, the exquisite chasteness of the decorations of the
+dining room, the excellent cooking of the dishes, and the choiceness
+of the wines than for any lavish display either of a great bill of
+fare, or of an ostentatious amount of splendour. The company of
+officers and gentlemen of the Ravenna district dined together in a
+spacious hall, where Drusus imagined they had a rather more bounteous
+repast than did the immediate guests of their entertainer. At one end
+of this large hall was a broad alcove, raised a single step, and here
+was laid the dinner for the proconsul. C�sar passed through the large
+company of his humbler guests, followed by Curio and Drusus,--now
+speaking a familiar word to a favourite centurion; now congratulating
+a country visitor on his election to his local Senate; now introducing
+the new-comers to this or that friend. And so presently Drusus found
+himself resting on his elbow on the same couch with C�sar, while Curio
+occupied the other end. For a time the latter held by far the larger
+part of the conversation in his hands. There were a myriad tales to
+tell of politics at the capital, a myriad warnings to give. C�sar
+listened to them all; and only rarely interrupted, and then with words
+so terse and penetrating that Drusus marvelled. The proconsul seemed
+to know the innermost life history and life motives of everything and
+everybody. He described a character with an epithet; he fathomed a
+political problem with an expletive. Only now and then did his words
+or motions betray any deep personal concern or anxiety, and once only
+did Drusus see him flush with passion.
+
+"That affair of the magistrate of Coma, to whom you gave the
+franchise," said Curio, "was extremely unfortunate. You of course
+heard long ago how Marcellus, the consul, had him beaten with rods and
+sent home, to show[124]--as he said--to you, C�sar, the print of his
+stripes."
+
+  [124] C�sar had given the magistrates of towns of the north of Italy
+  the Roman franchise: no Roman citizens could be lawfully flogged.
+  By his action Marcellus denied C�sar's right to confer the franchise.
+
+The face of the proconsul reddened, then grew black with hardly reined
+fury.
+
+"Yes, most unfortunate for Marcellus." It was all that C�sar said, but
+Drusus would not have exchanged his life then, for that of Marcellus,
+for a thousand talents of gold.
+
+"And our dear friend, Cato," went on Curio, who was perhaps not
+unwilling to stir the vials of his superior's wrath, "has just sworn
+with an oath in public, that as soon as your army is disbanded he will
+press an impeachment against you; and I've heard it reported that you
+will be compelled to plead, like Milo when he was tried for the
+Clodius affair, before judges overawed by armed men."
+
+"I anticipate no such proceeding," said C�sar, dryly, in an accent of
+infinite contempt. Then turning to Drusus, he entirely changed his
+intonation.
+
+"So long," he said, with a shrug of his rather slight shoulders, "we
+have talked of comitias and senates! Praise to the gods, all life is
+not passed in the Forum or Curia! And now, my dear Quintus, let us put
+aside those tedious matters whereof we all three have talked and
+thought quite enough, and tell me of yourself; for, believe me, our
+friendship would be one-sided indeed, if all your trouble and exertion
+went for me, and you received no solicitude in return."
+
+And Drusus, who had at first found his words coming awkwardly enough,
+presently grew fluent as he conversed with the proconsul. He told of
+his student days at Athens, of his studies of rhetoric and philosophy,
+of his journey back to Pr�neste, and the incidents of the sea voyage,
+and land travel; of his welcome at Pr�neste by the old retainers and
+the familia of the Drusi, and then of his recent political work at
+Rome.
+
+"These have been the chief events of my life, C�sar," he concluded,
+"and since you have condescended to hear, I have ventured to tell; but
+why need I ask if such a commonplace tale of a young man who has yet
+his life to live, should interest you?"
+
+C�sar smiled, and laying down the beaker from which he was sipping
+very slowly, replied:--
+
+"_Mehercle!_ And do you wish to have all your exploits crowded into a
+few short years of youth, that mature age will have nothing to
+surpass? Listen,--I believe that when the historians, by whom our dear
+Cicero is so anxious to be remembered favourably, write their books,
+they will say something of my name,--good or bad, the Genius
+knows,--but fame at least will not be denied me. Twelve years ago when
+I was in Spain I was reading in some book of the exploits of Alexander
+the Great. Suddenly it seemed as though I could not control myself. I
+began to weep; and this was the explanation I gave to my friends, 'I
+have just cause to weep, when I consider that Alexander at my age had
+conquered so many nations, and I have all this time done nothing that
+is memorable.'"
+
+"But even when your excellency went into Spain," remarked Drusus, "you
+had done that which should have given renown. Consider, you had won
+the pr�torship, the office of Pontifex Maximus--"
+
+"_St_," interrupted the proconsul, "a list of titles is not a pledge
+from Fortune that she will grant fame. Besides, I was about to
+add--what folly it was for me to weep! Do I imagine now, that
+Alexander was happy and contented in the midst of his conquests?
+Rather, unless he were, indeed, of more than mortal stuff, for every
+morsel of fame, he paid a talent of care and anxiety. Rush not too
+quickly after fame; only with age comes the strength to pay the price
+thereof."
+
+Drusus was half wondering at, half admiring, the unconscious
+comparison the proconsul was drawing between himself and Alexander.
+But C�sar went on:--
+
+"But you, O Drusus, have not dealt honestly with me, in that you have
+failed to tell that which lies nearest your heart, and which you
+consider the pivot of all your present life."
+
+Drusus flushed. "Doubtless, your excellency will pardon a young man
+for speaking with diffidence on a subject, to recollect which is to
+cause pain."
+
+C�sar put off the half-careless air of the good-natured wit, which he
+had been affecting.
+
+"Quintus Livius Drusus," and as he spoke, his auditor turned as if
+magnetized by his eye and voice, and hung on every word, "be not
+ashamed to own to me, of all men, that you claim a good woman's love,
+and for that love are ready to make sacrifice."
+
+And as if to meet a flitting thought in the other's mind, C�sar
+continued:--
+
+"No, blush not before me, although the fashionable world of Rome will
+have its stories. I care not enough for such gossip to take pains to
+say it lies. But this would I have declared, when at your age, and let
+all the world hear, that I, Caius C�sar, loved honourably, purely, and
+worthily; and for the sake of that love would and did defy death
+itself."
+
+The proconsul's pale face flushed with something very akin to passion;
+his bright eyes were more lustrous than ever.
+
+"I was eighteen years old when I married Cornelia, the daughter of
+Cinna, the great leader of the 'Populares.' Sulla, then dictator,
+ordered me to put her away. Cornelia had not been the wife of my
+father's choice. He had wished to force upon me Cossutia, an heiress,
+but with little save riches to commend her. I gained neither riches,
+political influence, nor family good-will by the marriage. Sulla was
+in the fulness of his strength. I had seen nearly all my friends
+proscribed, exiled, or murdered. Sulla bade me put away my wife, and
+take such a one as he should appoint. He was graciously pleased to
+spare my life, in order that I might become his tool. Why did I
+refuse?"
+
+C�sar was sitting upon the couch and speaking nervously, in a manner
+that betokened great and unusual excitement.
+
+"I knew the dictator meant to favour me if I would only humour him in
+this matter. A word from him and all ambition of mine had probably
+been at an end, I take no praise to myself for this. I refused him. I
+defied his threats. He seized my property, deprived me of my
+priesthood,[125] finally let loose his pack of assassins upon me. I
+almost became their victim. But my uncle, Aurelius Cotta, and some
+good friends of mine among the Vestal Virgins pleaded my cause. I
+escaped. Sulla said he was over-persuaded in sparing me; 'In me were
+many Mariuses.' But did I regret the loss, the danger, the check for
+the time being to my career? Quintus Drusus, I counted them as of
+little importance, not to be weighed beside the pure love that
+mastered me. And as the faithful husband of my Cornelia I remained,
+until cruel death closed her dear eyes forever. One can love once, and
+honourably, with his whole being, but not truly and honourably love a
+second time, at least not in a manner like unto the first. Therefore,
+my Quintus, blush not to confess that which I know is yours,--a thing
+which too many of us Romans do not know in these declining
+days,--something that would almost convince me there were indeed
+celestial gods, who care for us and guide our darkened destinies. For
+when we reason of the gods, our reason tells us they are not. But when
+pure passion possesses our hearts, then we see tangible visions, then
+our dreams become no dreams but realities; we mount up on wings, we
+fly, we soar to Olympus, to Atlantis, to the Elysian fields; we no
+longer wish to know, we feel; we no longer wish to prove, we see; and
+what our reason bids us to reject, a surer monitor bids us to receive:
+the dangers and perils of this life of shades upon the earth are of no
+account, for we are transformed into immortals in whose veins courses
+the divine ichor, and whose food is ambrosial. Therefore while we love
+we do indeed dwell in the Islands of the Blessed: and when the vision
+fades away, its sweet memory remains to cheer us in our life below,
+and teach us that where the cold intellect may not go, there is indeed
+some way, on through the mists of the future, which leads we know not
+whither; but which leads to things purer and fairer than those which
+in our most ambitious moments we crave."
+
+  [125] Marius had made young C�sar, Flamen Dialis: priest of Jupiter.
+
+The voice of the conqueror of Gaul and German sank with a half tremor;
+his eye was moist, his lips continued moving after his words had
+ceased to flow. Drusus felt himself searched through and through by
+glance and speech. Was the proconsul a diviner to find all that was
+deepest in his soul and give it an utterance which Drusus had never
+expressed even to himself? The young man was thrilled, fascinated. And
+C�sar, in quite another tone, recovered himself and spoke.
+
+"Wherefore, O Drusus! be ashamed to tell how the Lady Cornelia loves
+you and you love her? What if the grim old consul-elect, like the
+jealous elder in the comedy, will stand in your way! _Phui!_ What are
+the complaints, threats, and prohibitions of such as he? At present,
+the wind blows from his quarter, but it will not be ever so. Either
+Lentulus will be in no place to hinder you before long, or we all
+shall be beyond caring for his triumph or failure."
+
+"Your excellency bids me hope!" cried Drusus.
+
+"I bid you love," replied C�sar, smiling. "I bid you go to Bai�, for
+there I have heard your dear lady waits her long-absent Odysseus, and
+tell her that all will be well in time; for C�sar will make it so."
+
+"For C�sar will make it so," repeated the young man, half-unconscious
+that he was speaking aloud.
+
+"For C�sar will make it so," reiterated the proconsul, as though Zeus
+on Olympus were nodding his head in awful and irrevocable promise.
+
+And the proconsul took both of his guest's hands in his own, and said,
+with seriousness:--
+
+"Quintus Drusus, why did you abandon your bride to support my cause?"
+
+"Because," replied the other, with perfect frankness, "I should not be
+worthy to look Cornelia in the face, if I did not sacrifice all to aid
+the one Roman who can save the state."
+
+"Young man," replied the proconsul, "many follow me for selfish gain,
+many follow me to pay off a grudge, but few follow me because they
+believe that because C�sar is ambitious, he is ambitious as a god
+should be ambitious--to bestow the greatest benefits possible upon the
+men entrusted to his charge. I know not what thread for me the Fates
+have spun; but this I know, that C�sar will never prove false to those
+who trust him to bring righteousness to Rome, and peace to the world."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That night, as Drusus was retiring, Curio spoke to him:--
+
+And what manner of man do you think is the proconsul?"
+
+"I think," replied Drusus, "that I have discovered the one man in the
+world whom I craved to find."
+
+"And who is that?"
+
+"The man with an ideal."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XII
+
+Pratinas Meets Ill-Fortune
+
+
+I
+
+Probably of the various personages mentioned in the course of our
+story none was more thoroughly enjoying life about this time than
+Agias. Drusus had left him in the city when he started for Ravenna,
+with general instructions to keep an eye on Lucius Ahenobarbus and
+Pratinas, and also to gather all he could of the political drift among
+the lower classes. Agias was free now. He let his hair grow long in
+token of his newly gained liberty; paraded a many-folded toga; and
+used part of the donatives which Drusus and Fabia had lavished upon
+him, in buying one or two slave-boys of his own, whom, so far from
+treating gently on account of his own lately servile position, he
+cuffed and abused with grim satisfaction at being able to do what had
+so often been done to him.
+
+Agias had been given lodgings by Drusus in a tenement house, owned by
+the latter, in the Subura.
+
+The rooms were over a bakery, and at the sides were a doctor's and
+surgeon's office and a barber's shop--a rendezvous which gave the
+young Greek an admirable chance to pick up the current gossip. Every
+street-pedler, every forum-idler, had his political convictions and
+pet theories. The partisans who arrogated to themselves the modest
+epithet of "The Company of All Good Men," clamoured noisily that
+"Liberty and Ancient Freedom" were in danger, if C�sar set foot in
+Rome save as an impeached traitor. And the Populares--the supporters
+of the proconsul--raged equally fiercely against the greed of the
+Senate party that wished to perpetuate itself forever in office. Agias
+could only see that neither faction really understood the causes for
+and against which they fought; and observed in silence, trusting that
+his patron knew more of the issues than he.
+
+But the newly manumitted freedman was thoroughly enjoying himself. The
+windy speeches in the Senate, the crowded and excited meetings in the
+Forum, the action and reaction of the tides of popular prejudice and
+fancy, the eloquence of Antonius, and the threatenings and ravings of
+Marcellus the consul--all these were interesting but not disturbing.
+Agias was catching glimpses of a little Olympus of his own--an Olympus
+in which he was at once Zeus, Poseidon, and Apollo; Sesostris--so he
+declared--the lame cup-bearer Heph�stus; and in place of Hera, Athena,
+and Aphrodite, were the smiles and laughter of Artemisia. Agias was
+head over ears in love with this pretty little cage-bird shut up in
+Pratinas's gloomy suite of rooms. Her "uncle" took her out now and
+then to the theatre or to the circus; but she had had little enough
+companionship save such as Sesostris could give; and to her, Agias was
+a wonderful hero, the master of every art, the victor over a hundred
+monsters. He had told her of his adventure with Phaon--not calling
+names, lest disagreeable consequences ensue--and Artemisia dreamed of
+him as the cleverest creature on the earth, able to outwit Hermes in
+subtlety. Agias had found out when Pratinas was likely to be away from
+home--and that worthy Hellene, be it said, never declined an
+invitation to dine with a friend--and Agias timed his visits
+accordingly. He taught Artemisia to play the cithera and to sing, and
+she made such rapid progress under his tutoring that the unconscious
+Pratinas commended her efforts to acquire the accomplishments he
+wished. And Agias was never so happy as when those bright eyes were
+hanging on his lips or that merry tongue was chattering a thousand
+pointless remarks or jests.
+
+Yes, Agias found himself in a condition when he could well ask to have
+no change. The possibility that Pratinas would come home, and put an
+end to the romance once and for all, was just great enough to give the
+affair the zest of a dangerous adventure. Despite Sesostris's warnings
+that Artemisia might at any time be sold away by her pseudo-uncle,
+Agias could not discover that that danger was imminent enough to need
+frustration. He was content to live himself and to let Artemisia live,
+basking in the stolen sunshine of the hour, and to let the thought of
+the approaching shadows fade out of his mind.
+
+Another person who saw the sunshine rather brighter than before was
+Pisander. That excellent philosopher had received his share of the
+gratitude Drusus had bestowed on his deliverers. But he was still in
+the service of Valeria, for Drusus saw that he had admirable
+opportunities for catching the stray bits of political gossip that
+inevitably intermixed themselves with the conversation of Valeria and
+her circle. Pisander had continued to read Plato to his mistress, and
+to groan silently at her frivolity; albeit, he did not groan so
+hopelessly as before, because he had good money in his pouch and knew
+where to procure more when he needed it.
+
+So Agias enjoyed himself. He was a youth; a Pagan youth; and in his
+short life he had seen many a scene of wickedness and shame. Yet there
+was nothing unholy in the affection which he found was daily growing
+stronger and stronger for Artemisia. She was a pure, innocent flower,
+that by the very whiteness of her simple sweet presence drove away
+anything that "defiled or made a lie." Agias did not worship her; she
+was too winning; too cunning and pretty to attract the least
+reverence; but in her company the young Greek was insensibly raised
+pinnacles above the murky moral atmosphere in which most men and
+youths of his station walked.
+
+It was all like an Idyl of Theocritus; with the tenement of Pratinas
+for a shepherd's hut; and Sesostris for a black-backed sheep to whom
+the herdsmen and the nymph of his love could play on "oaten reed." At
+first, Agias had never dreamed of telling a word of his affection to
+Artemisia. In truth, it was very hard to tell, for she, with an
+absolute innocence, took all his advances for far more than they were
+worth; told him that next to her "uncle and dear Sesostris" he was
+quite the best friend she had; that she loved him, and was glad to
+hear him say that he loved her.
+
+All this was delightful in the ears of her admirer, but very
+disconcerting. Agias thought of the hollow civilities of Valeria's
+life, as he had seen it; of the outward decorum of language, of the
+delicately veiled compliments, of the interchange of words that summed
+up, in a few polished commonplaces, a whole network of low intrigue
+and passion. Was this the same world! Could Valeria and Artemisia both
+be women! The one--a beauty, whose guilty heart was not ignorant of a
+single form of fashionable sin; the other--as it were, a blossom, that
+was pure sweetness, in whose opening petals the clear diamond of the
+morning dew still remained! Agias did not compare Artemisia with
+Cornelia; for Cornelia, in his eyes, was a goddess, and in beauty and
+passions was above the hope or regard of mortal men.
+
+But what was one to do in an emergency like the following? Agias had
+been singing the "Love Song" from the "Cyclops," and trying to throw
+into the lines all the depth of tender affection which voice and look
+rendered possible.
+
+  "One with eyes the fairest
+    Cometh from his dwelling,
+  Some one loves thee, rarest,
+    Bright beyond my telling.
+  In thy grace thou shinest
+  Like some nymph divinest,
+  In her caverns dewy;--
+  All delights pursue thee,
+  Soon pied flowers, sweet-breathing,
+  Shall thy head be wreathing."[126]
+
+  [126] Translated by Shelley.
+
+And at the conclusion of the song Artemisia threw her arms around
+Agias's neck and kissed him; and then with astounding impartiality
+sprang into Sesostris's lap, and patted the old Ethiop's black cheeks,
+and bestowed on him all manner of endearing epithets. What was poor
+Agias to do in such a case? He blankly concluded that it had proved
+easier to blast the plot of Pratinas and Ahenobarbus, than to win the
+love--as he meant "love"--of this provokingly affectionate girl. It
+was growing late. Pratinas might at any time return. And Agias
+constrained himself to depart.
+
+"By Zeus!" was the exclamation he addressed to himself as he fought
+his way through the crowds toward his own quarters; "where will this
+all end? How much longer are you going to lie in the toils of that
+most innocent of Circes? Will she never open her eyes? If I could only
+make her cry, 'I hate you!' there would be some hope; for when one
+hates, as I want her to, love is but a step away. Confound that
+Sesostris! For me to have to sit there, and see that baboon kissed and
+fondled!"
+
+And so reflecting, he reached his rooms. One of the luckless
+slave-boys who now addressed him as "Dominus," was waiting to tell him
+that a very gaunt, strange-looking man, with an enormous beard, had
+called to see him while he was out, and would return--so the visitor
+said--in the evening, for his business was important. "Pisander,"
+remarked Agias; and he stayed in that evening to meet the philosopher,
+although he had arranged to share a dinner with one or two other
+freedmen, who were his friends.
+
+The man of learning appeared at a very late hour. In fact, the
+water-clock showed that it wanted little of midnight before he came.
+His explanation was that Valeria had called him in to read verses to a
+company of friends who were supping with her, and he could not get
+away sooner. Besides, the dark streets were full of bandits, and he
+had therefore taken a circuitous route to avoid attack. Agias had to
+let him ramble through all the details, although he knew very well
+that Pisander would never have taken so much trouble to come if he had
+not had information of the first importance to impart.
+
+"And now, my dear Pisander," ventured the young Greek, at length, "I
+will ask Dromo to set something to drink before us; and I hope you
+will tell me why you have come."
+
+Pisander glanced timidly over his shoulder, pulled at his beard with
+suppressed excitement, then bent down, and in a very low voice burst
+out:--
+
+"Pratinas and"--he hesitated--"Valeria!"
+
+"_Ai"_ cried Agias, "I have suspected it for a very long time. You are
+sure the fox has snapped up his goose?"
+
+"By Hercules, very sure! They are planning to go to Egypt. Pratinas
+has just had a wonderful stroke of luck. He received six hundred
+thousand sesterces[127] with which to corrupt a jury for some poor
+wretch who expected to enlist Pratinas's cunning to get him out of the
+toils of the law. Pratinas calmly put the money in his strong-box, and
+let the unhappy wight be cast. He is not at all poor--he has amassed a
+large fortune while he has been in Rome. Shade of Plato! how this
+knave has prospered! And now he is arranging with Valeria to strip
+poor Calatinus of nearly all his valuables, before they fly the
+country."
+
+  [127] $24,000.
+
+"Ah, luckless Calatinus!" laughed Agias. "That will be the end of his
+marrying the handsomest woman in Rome. And so this is what you came
+here to tell me? It really was a good secret to keep."
+
+"_St!_" interrupted Pisander, "Pratinas has something else to attend
+to. Calatinus will get consolation for losing his dear spouse. I
+suppose Pratinas wishes to indemnify him, but he himself will make a
+good bit at the same time."
+
+In a twinkling a thought had flashed through Agias's mind, that made a
+cold sweat break out all over him, and a hot surge of blood mount to
+his head.
+
+"Man, man!" he cried, grasping Pisander's wrists with all his
+strength, "speak! Don't look at me this way! Don't say that you mean
+Artemisia?"
+
+"_Ai!_ You know the girl, then?" said the other, with the most
+excruciating inquisitiveness.
+
+"Know her?" raged Agias, "I love the sunbeam on which her eyes rest.
+Speak! Tell me all, everything, all about it I Quick! I must know!"
+
+Pisander drew himself together, and with a deliberation that was
+nearly maddening to his auditor, began:--
+
+"Well, you see, I had occasion this morning to be in Calatinus's
+library. Yes, I remember, I was just putting the new copy of Theognis
+back into the cupboard, when I noticed that the Mimnermus was not
+neatly rolled, and so I happened to stay in the room, and--"
+
+"By Zeus, speak faster and to the point!" cried Agias.
+
+"Oh, there wasn't very much to it all! Why, how excited you are!
+Pratinas came into the atrium, and Calatinus was already there. I
+heard the latter say, 'So I am to give you forty thousand sesterces
+for the little girl you had with you at the circus yesterday?' And
+Pratinas replied, 'Yes, if she pleases you. I told you her name was
+Artemisia, and that I always taught her to believe that she was my
+niece.'"
+
+"_Hei! Hei!_" groaned Agias, rushing up and down the room, half
+frantic. "Don't tell any more, I've heard enough! Fool, fool I have
+been, to sit in the sunshine, and never think of preparing to carry
+out my promise to Sesostris. No, you must tell me--you must tell me if
+you have learned any more. Did Calatinus fix on any time at which he
+was to take possession of the poor girl?"
+
+"No," replied the still amazed Pisander. "I did not hear the whole
+conversation. There was something about 'a very few days,' and then
+Pratinas began to condole with Calatinus over being beaten for the
+tribunate after having spent so much money for the canvass. But why
+are you so stirred up? As Plato very admirably observes in his
+'Philebus'--"
+
+"The Furies seize upon your 'Philebus'!" thundered Agias. "Keep quiet,
+if you've nothing good to tell! Oh, Agias, Agias! where are your wits,
+where is your cunning? What in the world can I do?"
+
+And so he poured out his distress and anger. But, after all, there was
+nothing to be done that night. Pisander, who at last began to realize
+the dilemma of his friend, ventured on a sort of sympathy which was
+worse than no sympathy at all, for philosophical platitudes are ever
+the worst of consolations. Agias invited the good man to spend the
+night with him, and not risk a second time the robbers of the streets.
+The young Greek himself finally went to bed, with no definite purpose
+in his mind except to rescue Artemisia, at any and every hazard, from
+falling into the clutches of Calatinus, who was perhaps the one man in
+the world Agias detested the most heartily.
+
+
+II
+
+Early in the morning Agias was awake. He had slept very little. The
+face of Artemisia was ever before him, and he saw it bathed in tears,
+and clouded with anguish and terror. But, early as he arose, it was
+none too early. Dromo, one of his slaves, came to announce to his
+dread lord that an aged Ethiop was waiting to see him, and Agias did
+not need to be told that this was Sesostris.
+
+That faithful servant of an unworthy master was indeed in a pitiable
+condition. His ordinarily neat and clean dress was crumpled and
+disarranged, as though he had not changed it during the night, but had
+rather been tossing and wakeful. His eyes were swollen, and tears were
+trickling down his cheeks. His voice had sunk to a husky choking, and
+when he stood before Agias he was unable to get out a word, but, after
+a few vain attempts which ended in prolonged sniffles, thrust into his
+young friend's hand a tablet.
+
+It was in Greek, in the childish, awkward hand of Artemisia, and ran
+as follows:--
+
+"Artemisia to her dear, dear Agias. I never wrote a letter before, and
+you must excuse the blunders in this. I don't know how to begin to
+tell you the dreadful thing that may happen to me. I will try and stop
+crying, and write it out just as it all happened. The day before
+yesterday Pratinas took me to the circus, where I enjoyed the racing
+very much. While we were sitting there, a very fine gentleman--at
+least he had purple stripes on his tunic and ever so many rings--came
+and sat down beside us. Pratinas told me that this gentleman was
+Lucius Calatinus, who was a great lord, but a friend of his. I tried
+to say something polite to Calatinus, but I didn't like him. He seemed
+coarse, and looked as though he might be cruel at times. He talked to
+me something the way you have talked--said I was pretty and my voice
+sounded very sweet. But I didn't enjoy these things from him, I can
+hardly tell why--though I'm delighted to hear you say them. Well,
+after quite a while he went away, and I didn't think anything more
+about him for a time, and yesterday you know how happy I was when you
+visited me. Only a little while after you left, Pratinas came back. I
+could see that he had something on his mind, although he said nothing.
+He seemed uneasy, and kept casting sidelong glances at me, which made
+me feel uncomfortable. I went up to him, and put my arms around his
+neck. 'Dear uncle,' I said, 'what is troubling you to-night?'
+'Nothing,' he answered, and he half tried to take my arms away. Then
+he said, 'I was thinking how soon I was to go back to Alexandria.' 'To
+Alexandria!' I cried, and I was just going to clap my hands when I
+thought that, although Alexandria was a far nicer place than Rome, you
+could not go with us, and so I felt very sorry. Then Pratinas spoke
+again in a hard, cold voice he has never used to me before.
+'Artemisia, I must tell you now the truth about yourself. I have let
+you call me uncle, and have tried to be kind to you. But you cannot
+come back to Alexandria with me. The day after to-morrow Calatinus,
+the gentleman you met at the circus yesterday, will come and take you
+away. He is a very rich man, and if you please him will give you
+everything you desire.' I couldn't understand at all what he meant,
+and cried out, 'But, uncle, I don't like Calatinus, and you--you don't
+really mean to leave me behind?' 'You little donkey,' said Pratinas,
+laughing, oh! so heartlessly, 'I'm not your uncle. You've been my
+slave, and I've sold you to Calatinus; so don't quarrel with him, but
+learn to like him quickly.' I don't remember what he said or I said
+next. I was so frightened and grieved that I don't know what I did. I
+know Pratinas finally whipped me, something he never did before. I
+went to bed feeling so sore, that I could not get really to sleep, but
+dreadful visions of Calatinus kept frightening me. I don't know which
+grieves me most, to know I am a slave, to know that Pratinas is not my
+uncle and does not love me, or to be about to be sold to Calatinus.
+Dear Sesostris has done all he can to console me, but that's very
+little; and so, very early this morning, I've written to you, Agias,
+just as soon as Pratinas left the house, for I am sure that you, who
+are so clever and wise, can see some way to get me out of my dreadful
+trouble."
+
+It would be hardly necessary to say that, after reading this appeal,
+Agias hurried away to do all that lay in his power to console
+Artemisia, and deliver her from her danger. When he reached Pratinas's
+tenement, Artemisia ran to meet him, and kissed him again and again,
+and cuddled down in his strong, young arms, quite content to believe
+that she had found a protector on whom she could cast all her burdens.
+And Agias? He laughed and bade her wipe away her tears, and swore a
+great oath that, so long as he breathed, Calatinus should not lay a
+finger upon her.
+
+Artemisia had practically told all her story in her letter. It was
+clear that Calatinus had caught sight of her several times,--though
+she had remained in blissful ignorance,--and Pratinas had deliberately
+planned to waylay him as a customer who would pay a good price for the
+girl, whom it would be manifestly inconvenient for him to take with
+Valeria on his premeditated flight to Egypt. But this enlightenment
+did not make Agias's task any the easier. He knew perfectly well that
+he could never raise a tithe of the forty thousand sesterces that
+Pratinas was to receive from Calatinus, and so redeem Artemisia. He
+had no right to expect the gift of such a sum from Drusus. If Pratinas
+really owned the poor girl as a slave, he could do anything he listed
+with her, and no law could be invoked to say him nay. There was only
+one recourse left to Agias, and that was fairly desperate--to carry
+off Artemisia and keep her in hiding until Pratinas should give up the
+quest and depart for Egypt. That there was peril in such a step he was
+well aware. Not merely could Artemisia, if recaptured, receive any
+form whatsoever of brutal punishment, but he, as the abettor of her
+flight, would be liable to a heavy penalty. Slave property was
+necessarily very precarious property, and to aid a slave to escape was
+an extremely heinous crime. "So many slaves, so many enemies," ran the
+harsh maxim; and it was almost treason to society for a freedman to
+aid a servant to run away.
+
+But Agias had no time to count the cost, no time to evolve a plan of
+escape that admitted no form of disaster. Artemisia besought him not
+to leave her for a moment, and accordingly he remained by her,
+laughing, poking fun, and making reckless gibes at her fears.
+Sesostris went about his simple household duties with a long face, and
+now and then a tear trickled down his cheek. Whatever came of the
+matter, Artemisia would have to be separated from him. He might never
+see her again, and the old Ethiopian loved her more than he did life
+itself.
+
+"You will not wrong the girl when she is with you?" he whispered
+dolefully to Agias.
+
+"I swear by Zeus she shall be treated as if she were my own dear
+sister," was his reply.
+
+"It is well. I can trust you; but _mu! mu!_ it is hard, it is hard! I
+love her like my own eyes! Isis preserve her dear life!"
+
+And so at last Artemisia, having cried out all her first burst of
+grief, was beginning to smile once more.
+
+"And now, oh! makaira,"[128] said Agias, "I must go away for just a
+little while. I have ever so many things to attend to; and you must be
+a good, brave girl, and wait until I come back."
+
+  [128] Blessed dear.
+
+"_St!"_ broke in Sesostris, "there's a step on the stairs. Pratinas is
+coming!"
+
+"Hide me!" cried Agias, as the approaching feet grew nearer. There was
+no time to take refuge in one of the farther rooms.
+
+"Here;" and Sesostris threw open the same iron clamped chest in which
+some time ago we saw Pratinas inspecting his treasure. "The money was
+taken out yesterday."
+
+Agias bounded into the box, and Sesostris pushed down the cover. The
+luckless occupant had only a chance to push out a corner of his tunic
+through the slit to admit a little air, when Pratinas entered the
+room. Agias longed to spring forth and throttle him, but such an act
+would have been folly.
+
+The young Greek's prison was sufficiently cramped and stuffy; but for
+a moment Agias tried to persuade himself that he had only to wait with
+patience until Pratinas should be gone, and no one would be the worse.
+An exclamation from the room without dispelled this comforting
+illusion.
+
+"By Zeus!" cried Pratinas, "what is this? Whence came this new toga?"
+
+Agias writhed in his confinement. In the plentitude of the glory of
+his newly acquired freedom, he had come abroad in an elegant new toga;
+but he had laid it on a chair when he entered the room.
+
+There was an awkward pause outside; then Pratinas burst out, "You
+worthless Ethiopian, you, where did this toga come from? It hasn't
+wings or feet! How came it here? Who's been here? Speak, speak, you
+fool, or I will teach you a lesson!"
+
+Agias gathered himself for a spring; for he expected to hear Sesostris
+whimper out a confession, and see Pratinas's wickedly handsome face
+peering into the chest. "He shan't cut my throat without a struggle!"
+was his vow.
+
+But, to his surprise, Sesostris answered with a tone of unlooked-for
+firmness, "Master, I cannot tell you where the toga came from."
+
+The tone of Pratinas, in reply, indicated his passion. "Sheep! Dog!
+Have I had you all these years that you should need a thrashing for
+impertinence! What rascal has been here to ogle at this wretched
+girl?" He might have thundered his commands to Artemisia, who was
+sobbing in evident distress; but his anger was concentrated on
+Sesostris. "Will you not speak?"
+
+"Master," came the same firm reply, "I will not tell you, though you
+take my life for refusing."
+
+What followed was, as Agias heard it, a volley of curses, blows,
+groans, and scuffling; then a heavy fall; an extremely fierce
+execration from Pratinas, and a loud shrill scream from Artemisia, "O
+Sesostris; dear Sesostris! He doesn't speak! He doesn't move! You've
+killed him!"
+
+"And I will kill you too if you won't tell the truth!" thundered
+Pratinas, in an ungovernable passion. Agias heard a blow as of a
+clinched fist, and a low moan. It was enough. One spring, and the
+ponderous cover flew back. The toga, the innocent cause of the
+catastrophe, lay on the chair close at hand. Agias grasped the whole
+picture in a twinkling: Sesostris lying beside a heavy wooden bench,
+with blood flowing from a great wound in his head which had struck in
+falling on a sharp corner; Artemisia crying in unspeakable dread on a
+divan; Pratinas, his face black as night, with uplifted hand prepared
+to strike a second time. Agias saw; and while he saw acted. Down over
+Pratinas's head dashed the broad linen folds of the toga, and two
+muscular arms drew it tight around the neck. Then began the struggle.
+Pratinas was of powerful physique, and resisted like a madman. The
+carpet was torn to shreds, the chairs shivered. But Agias, too,
+battled for grim life. He kept the hood over his opponent's eyes and
+never gave Pratinas a glimpse of the identity of his assailant. And at
+last a life of debauches and late dinners and unhealthy excitement
+began to tell against even so powerful a constitution as that of
+Pratinas. Tighter and tighter grew the pressure around his neck. And
+now Artemisia sprang up, and flew like a tiny tigress to her lover's
+assistance, and caught at her tormentor's hands, tearing them with her
+white little teeth, and pulling the enveloping mantle closer and
+closer. The contest could only have one end. Ere long, Pratinas was
+lying on the floor, bound hand and foot with strings of torn clothing,
+and his head still muffled in the toga. Agias, victorious, but with
+not a whole rag on his back, rose from his contest.
+
+"Sesostris! help him!" cried Artemisia, trying in vain to get some
+response from the motionless form by the bench. Agias looked at the
+Ethiop. The hard wood had struck the top of his skull, and death must
+have been instantaneous.
+
+"He does not feel any pain," explained the young Greek, who realized
+that this was no moment to indulge in emotions of any sort. "Now,
+Artemisia, you must hurry and put on a clean dress yourself; and give
+me at least a new tunic, for I cannot show this on the streets. Put
+into a basket all the bread you have, and some oil, and some olives,
+and some slices of salt fish."
+
+Artemisia disappeared in the next room. Agias returned to his
+prisoner. Pratinas was coughing and twisting, and trying to ejaculate
+oaths.
+
+"My good sir," said Agias, "I am not a bloodthirsty man, otherwise I
+would cut your throat, and so let you forget a predicament which
+doubtless embarrasses you not a little. But, since that is not to be,
+do not blame me if I arrange so that it will be unlikely that two such
+cold friends as you and myself will ever meet again. First of all,
+that purse which is at your side, and which, by its weight, shows that
+it contains a fair night's winnings, must go with me to speed me on my
+way. I have never stolen very much before. But I believe you, sir, are
+an Epicurean, who teach that pleasure is the highest good, and that
+all things are the result of chance. Now," and here he detached the
+purse, and counted over a very considerable sum, "you will observe
+that Fortune has thrown this money in my way, and it is my pleasure to
+take it. Therefore I am fulfilling the highest good. And you, as a
+philosopher, should be quite reconciled."
+
+Artemisia came back into the room, having completed the few simple
+preparations.
+
+"Now, my excellent sir," continued Agias, suiting his actions to his
+words, "I will stand you on your feet--so. I will push you, still
+bound, into this closet--so. I will pile furniture against the door,
+so that, when you have worked clear of your bonds, as I imagine you
+will in a few hours, even then you will not get out too quickly. And
+now, as your dear Roman friends say, _Vale!_ We are off!"
+
+Artemisia flung herself on the form of Sesostris, and covered the
+black, ugly face with kisses.
+
+"He's growing cold," she lamented. "What is the matter? I can't leave
+him this way!"
+
+But Agias did not dare to admit the least delaying.
+
+"Dear Artemisia," he said, "we can't do anything for Sesostris. I will
+explain to you by and by about him. He is not feeling cold now at all.
+You must come at once with me. I will take you where Pratinas will
+never touch you."
+
+
+III
+
+If Agias had been a trifle more reckless he would have cut short
+Pratinas's thread of life then and there, and greatly diminished the
+chance of unpleasant consequences. But he had not sunk so low as that.
+Besides, he had already worked out in his versatile head a plan that
+seemed practicable, albeit utterly audacious. Cornelia was at Bai�.
+Cornelia owed him a great debt of gratitude for saving Drusus.
+Cornelia might harbour Artemisia as a new maid, if he could contrive
+to get his charge over the hundred long miles that lay between Rome
+and Bai�.
+
+In the street he made Artemisia draw her mantle over her pretty face,
+and pressed through the crowds as fast as he could drag her onward.
+Quickly as he might he left the noisy Subura behind, and led on toward
+the Palatine. At length he turned in toward a large house, and by a
+narrow alley reached a garden gate, and gained admission to the rear.
+By his confident movements he showed himself familiar with the spot.
+The dwelling, as a matter of fact, was that of Calatinus.
+
+As Agias pushed open the gate, and led Artemisia into a little garden
+enclosed with a high stone wall, he surprised a dapper-appearing young
+slave-lad of about his age, who was lying idly on the tiny grass plot,
+and indulging in a solitary game of backgammon.[129]
+
+  [129] _Duodecim scripta_.
+
+"_Hem!_ Iasus," was Agias's salutation, "can you do an old friend a
+favour?"
+
+Iasus sprang to his feet, with eyes, nose, and mouth wide open. He
+turned red, turned white, turned red once more.
+
+"_Phy!_" cried the other; "you aren't so silly as to take me for a
+shade from Hades? I've as much strength and muscle as you."
+
+"Agias!" blurted out Iasus, "are you alive? Really alive? They didn't
+beat you to death! I am so glad! You know--"
+
+"_St!_" interrupted Agias. "You did, indeed, serve me an awkward trick
+some time since; but who can blame you for wanting to save your own
+skin. Pisander and Arsino� and Semiramis have kept the secret that I'm
+alive very well, for in some ways it shouldn't come to Valeria's ears.
+My story later. Where's her most noble ladyship?"
+
+"The domina," replied Iasus, with a sniff, "has just gone out on a
+visit to a friend who has a country-house near Fiden�, up the Tiber."
+
+"Praise the gods! Far enough to be abroad for the day, and perhaps
+over night! This suits my purpose wonderfully. Is Pisander at home,
+and Arsino�?"
+
+"I will fetch them," replied Iasus; and in a minute the philosopher
+and the waiting-maid were in the garden.
+
+A very few words explained to these two sympathetic souls the whole
+situation.
+
+Artemisia shrank back at sight of Pisander.
+
+"I am afraid of that man. He wears a great beard like Pratinas, and I
+don't love Pratinas any longer."
+
+"Oh, don't say that, my little swallow," said the worthy man of books,
+looking very sheepish. "I should be sorry to think that your bright
+eyes were vexed to see me."
+
+"_Phui!_ Pisander," laughed Arsino�, "what have Zeno and Diogenes to
+do with 'bright eyes'?"
+
+But for once Pisander's heart was wiser than his head, and he only
+tossed Artemisia an enormous Persian peach, at which, when she sampled
+the gift, she made peace at once, and forever after held Pisander in
+her toils as a devoted servant.
+
+But Agias was soon gone; and Artemisia spent the rest of the morning
+and the whole of the afternoon in that very satisfactory Elysium of
+Syrian pears and honey-apples which Semiramis and Arsino� supplied in
+full measure, with Pisander to sit by, and stare, boylike, at her
+clear, fair profile, and cast jealous glances at Iasus when that young
+man ventured to utilize his opportunity for a like advantage. Many of
+the servants had gone with Valeria, and the others readily agreed to
+preserve secrecy in a matter in which their former fellow-slave and
+favourite had so much at stake. So the day passed, and no one came to
+disturb her; and just as the shadows were falling Agias knocked at the
+garden gate.
+
+"_St!_" were his words, "I have hired a gig which will carry us both.
+Pratinas is loose and has been raising heaven and earth to get at us.
+There is a crier going the rounds of the Forum offering a thousand
+sesterces for the return of Artemisia. Pratinas has gone before the
+_triumviri capitales_[130] and obtained from them an order on the
+_apparitores_[131] to track down the runaway and her abettor."
+
+  [130] One of their functions made these officers practically chiefs
+  of police.
+
+  [131] A part of these public officers performed police duty.
+
+"_Eho!_" cried Pisander, "then you'd better leave your treasure here
+awhile, for us to take care of."
+
+"Not at all," replied Agias; "I could have taken her out of the city
+at once, but in the daytime we should have been certainly noticed and
+subsequently tracked. No one will imagine Artemisia is here--at least
+for a while. But this is a large familia; all may be my friends, but
+all may not have prudent tongues in their heads. The reward is large,
+and perhaps some will be tempted;" he glanced at Iasus, who, to do him
+justice, had never thought of a second deed of baseness. "I cannot
+risk that. No, Artemisia goes out of the city to-night, and she must
+get ready without the least delay."
+
+Artemisia, who was charmed with her present surroundings and
+adulation, demurred at leaving her entertainers; but Agias was
+imperative, and the others realized well enough that there was not
+much time to be lost. Agias, however, waited until it had become
+tolerably dark before starting. Meantime, he proceeded to make certain
+changes of his own and Artemisia's costume that indicated the rather
+serious character of the risk he was preparing to run. For himself he
+put on a very full and flowing crimson evening dress, as if he were
+proceeding to a dinner-party; he piled a dozen odd rings upon his
+fingers, and laughingly asked Semiramis to arrange his hair for him in
+the most fashionable style, and anoint it heavily with Valeria's most
+pungent perfumes. At the same time, Arsino� was quite transforming
+Artemisia. Valeria's cosmetic vials were for once put into play for a
+purpose, and when Artemisia reappeared from the dressing-room after
+her treatment, Agias saw before him no longer a fair-skinned little
+Greek, but a small, slender, but certainly very handsome Egyptian
+serving-lad, with bronzed skin, conspicuous carmine lips, and features
+that Arsino�'s paint and pencils had coarsened and exaggerated.
+Fortunately, the classic costume both for men and women was so
+essentially alike, that Artemisia did not have to undergo that
+mortification from a change of clothes which might have befallen one
+at the present day in a like predicament. Her not very long black hair
+was loose, and shaken over her shoulders. Agias had brought for her a
+short, variegated _lacerna_[132] which answered well enough as the
+habit of a boy-valet who was on good terms with his master.
+
+  [132] A sort of mantle held on the shoulders by a clasp.
+
+"_Eho!_" cried Agias, when he had witnessed the transformation, "we
+must hasten or Valeria will be anxious to keep you as her serving-boy!
+Ah, I forgot she is going with her dear Pratinas to Egypt. Now,
+Arsino�, and you, Semiramis, I shall not forget the good turn you have
+done me; don't let Valeria miss her unguents and ask questions that
+might prove disagreeable. Farewell, Iasus and Pisander; we shall soon
+meet again, the gods willing."
+
+The friends took leave of Artemisia; the slave-women kissed her;
+Pisander, presuming on his age, kissed her, albeit very sheepishly, as
+though he feared the ghosts of all the Stoics would see him. Iasus
+cast an angry jealous glance at the philosopher; he contented himself
+with a mere shake of the hand.
+
+Agias swung Artemisia into the gig and touched the lash to the swift
+mules.
+
+"Good-by, dear friends!" she cried, her merry Greek smile shining out
+through her bronze disguise.
+
+The gig rolled down the street, Agias glancing to right and left to
+see that no inquisitive eye followed them.
+
+"Oh! Agias," cried the girl, "am I at last going away with you? Going
+away all alone, with only you to take care of me? I feel--I feel
+queerly!"
+
+Agias only touched the mules again, and laughed and squeezed
+Artemisia's hand, then more gravely said:--
+
+"Now, makaira, you must do everything as I say, or we shall never get
+away from Pratinas. Remember, if I tell you to do anything you must do
+it instantly; and, above everything else, no matter what happens,
+speak not a word; don't scream or cry or utter a sound. If anybody
+questions us I shall say that I am a gentleman driving out to the
+suburbs to enjoy a late party at a friend's villa, and you are my
+valet, who is a mute, whom it is useless to question because he cannot
+answer. Do you understand?"
+
+Artemisia nodded her little head, and bit her pretty lips very hard to
+keep from speaking. The fear of Pratinas made her all obedience.
+
+It was after sundown, and driving was permitted in the city, though
+nearly all the teams that blocked Agias's way, as he drove down the
+crowded streets to turn on to the Via Appia, were heavy wagons loaded
+with timber and builders' stone.
+
+So far, all was safe enough; but Agias knew perfectly well that
+Pratinas was an awkward man to have for an enemy. The critical moment,
+however, was close at hand, and Agias called up all his wits to meet
+it. Under the damp arch of the ancient Porta Capena were pacing
+several men, whose lanterns and clinking sword-scabbards proclaimed
+them to be members of the city constabulary. There was no possibility
+of evading their scrutiny. No doubt any other gate was equally well
+watched. Agias drove straight ahead, as though he had seen nothing.
+
+"Hold!" and one of the constables was at the heads of the mules, and
+another was waving a lantern up into the face of the occupants of the
+gig.
+
+"Rascals," roared Agias, menacing with his whip, "are you highwaymen
+grown so impudent!"
+
+"We have an order from the triumviri," began one officer.
+
+"_Eho!_" replied Agias, settling back, as though relieved not to have
+to fight for his purse, "I can't see what for; I owe nothing. I have
+no suit pending."
+
+"We are to search all carriages and pedestrians," recommenced the
+constable, "to find if we may a certain Artemisia, a runaway
+slave-girl of the most noble Greek gentleman, Pratinas."
+
+"My good sirs," interrupted Agias, "I am already like to be very late
+at my dear friend Cimber's dinner party"--he mentioned the name of
+the owner of a very large villa not far down the road; "I have with me
+only Midas, my mute valet. If you detain me any longer I shall
+complain--"
+
+And here a denarius slipped into the hands of the officer with the
+lantern.
+
+"I think it's all right, Macer," was his report to his comrade. The
+latter left the heads of the mules.
+
+"_Mehercle!_ how handsome some of those Egyptians grow!" commented the
+first constable.
+
+But the rest of his remarks were lost on Agias. He was whizzing down
+the "Queen of Roads," with a good team before him, Artemisia at his
+side, and a happy consciousness that two excellent officials had
+missed a chance to earn one thousand sesterces.
+
+Hardly were they beyond earshot, when Artemisia burst out into an
+uncontrollable fit of giggling, which lasted a long time, only to be
+renewed and renewed, as often as a desperate effort seemed to have
+suppressed it. Then she drew the robes of the carriage round her, laid
+her head on Agias's shoulder, and with a confidence in her protector
+that would have inspired him to go through fire and water for her
+sake, shook out her dark locks and fell fast asleep, despite the fact
+that the mules were running their fastest. Agias grasped the reins
+with one hand, and with the other pressed tight the sleeping girl. He
+would not have exchanged his present position for all the wealth of
+Sardanapalus.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Five days later Agias was back in Rome. He had succeeded in reaching
+Bai�, and introducing Artemisia into the familia of the villa of the
+Lentuli, as a new waiting-maid from Rome sent by Claudia to her
+daughter. For the present at least there was practically no chance of
+Pratinas recovering his lost property. And indeed, when Agias reached
+Rome once more, all fears in that direction were completely set at
+rest. The fashionable circle in which Claudia and Herennia were
+enmeshed was in a flutter and a chatter over no ordinary scandal.
+Valeria, wife of Calatinus, and Pratinas, the "charming" Epicurean
+philosopher, had both fled Rome two days before, and rumour had it
+that they had embarked together at Ostia on a ship leaving direct for
+Egypt. Of course Calatinus was receiving all the sympathy, and was a
+much abused man; and so the tongues ran on.
+
+To Agias this great event brought a considerable gain in peace of
+mind, and some little loss. Valeria had taken with her her two maids,
+Agias's good friends, and also Iasus. Pisander ignominiously had been
+left behind. Calatinus had no use for the man of learning, and Agias
+was fain to take him before Drusus, who had returned from Ravenna, and
+induce his patron to give Pisander sufficient capital to start afresh
+a public school of philosophy, although the chances of acquiring
+opulence in that profession were sufficiently meagre.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XIII
+
+What Befell at Bai�
+
+
+I
+
+Cornelia was at Bai�, the famous watering-place, upon the classic
+Neapolitan bay,--which was the Brighton or Newport of the Roman. Here
+was the haunt of the sybarites, whose gay barks skimmed the shallow
+waters of the Lucrine lake; and not far off slumbered in its volcanic
+hollow that other lake, Avernus, renowned in legend and poetry,
+through whose caverns, fable had it, lay the entrance to the world of
+the dead. The whole country about was one city of stately villas, of
+cool groves, of bright gardens; a huge pleasure world, where freedom
+too often became license; where the dregs of the nectar cup too often
+meant physical ruin and moral death.
+
+Cornelia had lost all desire to die now. She no longer thought of
+suicide. Lentulus's freedmen held her in close surveillance, but she
+was very happy. Drusus lived, was safe, would do great things, would
+win a name and a fame in the world of politics and arms. For herself
+she had but one ambition--to hear men say, "This woman is the wife of
+the great Quintus Drusus." That would have been Elysium indeed.
+Cornelia, in fact, was building around her a world of sweet fantasy,
+that grew so real, so tangible, that the stern realities of life,
+realities that had hitherto worn out her very soul, became less
+galling. The reaction following the collapse of the plot against
+Drusus had thrown her into an unnatural cheerfulness. For the time the
+one thought when she arose in the morning, the one thought when she
+fell asleep at night, was, "One day," or "One night more is gone, of
+the time that severs me from Quintus." It was a strained, an unhealthy
+cheerfulness; but while it lasted it made all the world fair for
+Cornelia. Indeed, she had no right--from one way of thinking--not to
+enjoy herself, unless it be that she had no congenial companions. The
+villa of the Lentuli was one of the newest and finest at Bai�. It
+rested on a sort of breakwater built out into the sea, so that the
+waves actually beat against the embankment at the foot of Cornelia's
+chamber. The building rose in several stories, each smaller than the
+one below it, an ornamental cupola highest of all. On the successive
+terraces were formally plotted, but luxuriant, gardens. Cornelia, from
+her room in the second story, could command a broad vista of the bay.
+Puteoli was only two miles distant. Vesuvius was ten times as far; but
+the eye swept clear down the verdant coast toward Surrentum to the
+southward. At her feet was the sea,--the Italian, Neapolitan
+sea,--dancing, sparkling, dimpling from the first flush of morning to
+the last glint of the fading western clouds at eve. The azure above
+glowed with living brightness, and by night the stars and planets
+burned and twinkled down from a crystalline void, through which the
+unfettered soul might soar and soar, swimming onward through the sweet
+darkness of the infinite.
+
+And there were pleasures enough for Cornelia if she would join
+therein. Lentulus had ordered his freedmen not to deny her amusements;
+anything, in fact, that would divert her from her morbid infatuation
+for Drusus. The consul-designate had indeed reached the conclusion
+that his niece was suffering some serious mental derangement, or she
+would not thus continue to pursue a profitless passion, obviously
+impossible of fulfilment. So Cornelia had every chance to make herself
+a centre to those gay pleasure-seekers who were still at Bai�; for the
+summer season was a little past, and all but confirmed or fashionable
+invalids and professional vacationers were drifting back to Rome. For
+a time all went merrily enough. Just sufficient of the Lucius
+Ahenobarbus affair had come to the Bai�ans to make Cornelia the object
+of a great amount of curiosity. When she invited a select number of
+the pleasure-seekers to her dinner parties, she had the adulation and
+plaudits of every guest, and plenty of return favours. Lucius
+Ahenobarbus soon had a score of hot rivals; and Cornelia's pretty face
+was chipped on more than one admirer's seal ring. But presently it
+began to be said that the niece of the consul-designate was an
+extremely stoical and peculiar woman; she did not enjoy freedom which
+the very air of Bai� seemed to render inevitable. She never lacked wit
+and vivacity, but there was around her an air of restraint and cold
+modesty that was admirable in every way--only it would never do in
+Bai�. And so Cornelia, without ceasing to be admired, became less
+courted; and presently, quite tiring of the butterfly life, was thrown
+back more and more on herself and on her books. This did not disturb
+her. A levee or a banquet had never given her perfect pleasure; and it
+was no delight to know that half the women of Bai� hated her with a
+perfect jealousy. Cornelia read and studied, now Greek, now Latin; and
+sometimes caught herself half wishing to be a man and able to expound
+a cosmogony, or to decide the fate of empires by words flung down from
+the rostrum. Then finally Agias came bringing Artemisia, who, as has
+been related, was introduced--by means of some little contriving--into
+the familia as a new serving-maid. Such Artemisia was in name; but
+Cornelia, whose gratitude to Agias had known no bounds, took the
+little thing into her heart, and determined to devote herself to
+instructing an innocence that must not continue too long, despite its
+charming naivet�.
+
+Thus the days had passed for Cornelia. But only a little while after
+Agias left for Rome,--with a very large packet of letters for
+Drusus,--the pleasant, self-created world of fantasy, that had given
+Cornelia some portion of happiness, vanished. Like a clap of thunder
+from a cloudless sky Lucius Ahenobarbus suddenly arrived in Bai�. He
+was tired of Rome, which was still very hot and uncomfortable. He
+loathed politics, they were stupid. He had lost a boon companion when
+Publius Gabinius was driven into outlawry. Marcus L�ca was too deeply
+in debt to give any more dinners. Pratinas was fled to Egypt. And so
+he had come to Bai�, to harass Cornelia by his presence; to gibe at
+her; and assure her that her uncle was more determined than ever that
+she should marry him--say and do what she might.
+
+Ahenobarbus quartered himself in the Lentulan villa as the prospective
+nephew-in-law of its owner. He brought with him his customary train of
+underlings, and had travelled in appropriate state, in a litter with
+eight picked bearers, lolling on a cushion stuffed with rose-leaves,
+and covered with Maltese gauze, one garland on his head, another round
+his neck, and holding to his nose a smelling-bag of small-meshed linen
+filled with roses.
+
+With all his effeminacy, he was beyond the least doubt desperately
+determined to possess himself of Cornelia. His passion was purely
+animal and unrefined, but none could doubt it. Cornelia feared to have
+him near her, and knew peace neither day nor night. He assumed all a
+master's rights over the slaves and freedmen, sending them hither and
+yon to do his bidding. He had recovered from the fear Cornelia had
+struck into him, in her first defiance, and met her threats and
+hauteur with open scorn.
+
+"You are a most adorable actress!" was his constant sneer. And his
+every action told that he did not intend to let Cornelia play with him
+a second time. With all his profligacy and moral worthlessness, he had
+a tenacity of purpose and an energy in this matter that showed that
+either Cornelia must in the end bow to his will, or their contest
+would end in something very like a tragedy.
+
+And if a tragedy, so be it, was the desperate resolve of Cornelia;
+whose eyes were too stern for tears when she saw that Lucius was still
+the former creature of appetite; full of intrigue, sweethearts,
+seashore revels, carouses, singing, and music parties and water
+excursions with creatures of his choice from morning until midnight.
+She could not altogether shun him, though she successfully resisted
+his half blandishments, half coercion, to make her join in his wild
+frivolities. One revenge she found she could take on him--a revenge
+that she enjoyed because it proclaimed her own intellectual
+superiority, and made Ahenobarbus writhe with impotent vexation--she
+had him at her mercy when they played at checkers;[133] and at last
+Lucius lost so much money and temper at this game of wit, not chance,
+that he would sulkily decline a challenge. But this was poor
+consolation to Cornelia. The time was drifting on. Before many days
+Lentulus Crus and Caius Clodius Marcellus would be consuls, and the
+anti-C�sarians would be ready to work their great opponent's undoing,
+or be themselves forever undone. Where was Drusus? What was he doing?
+What part would he play in the struggle, perhaps of arms, about to
+begin? O for one sight of him, for one word! And the hunger in
+Cornelia's breast grew and grew.
+
+  [133] _Latrunculi_.
+
+Many are our wishes. Some flit through our hearts like birds darting
+under the foliage of trees, then out again, lost in the sunshine;
+others linger awhile and we nestle them in our bosoms until we forget
+that they are there, and the noble desire, the craving for something
+dear, for something that bears for us as it were a divine image, is
+gone--we are the poorer that we no longer wish to wish it. But some
+things there are--some things too high or too deep for speech, too
+secret for really conscious thought, too holy to call from the
+innermost shrines of the heart; and there they linger and hover,
+demanding to be satisfied, and until they are satisfied there is void
+and dreariness within, be the sunshine never so bright without. And so
+Cornelia was a-hungered. She could fight against herself to save
+Drusus's life no longer; she could build around herself her dream
+castles no more; she must see him face to face, must hold his hand in
+hers, must feel his breath on her cheek.
+
+Is it but a tale that is told, that soul can communicate to distant
+soul? That through two sundered hearts without visible communication
+can spring up, unforewarned, a single desire, a single purpose? Is
+there no magnetism subtle beyond all thought, that bounds from spirit
+to spirit, defying every bond, every space? We may not say; but if
+Cornelia longed, she longed not utterly in vain. One morning, as she
+was dressing, Cassandra, who was moving around the room aiding her
+mistress, let fall a very tiny slip of papyrus into Cornelia's lap,
+and with it a whisper, "Don't look; but keep it carefully." The
+injunction was needed, for several other serving-women were in the
+room, and Cornelia more than suspected that they were ready to spy on
+her to prevent unauthorized correspondence with Drusus. When she was
+dressed, and could walk alone on the terrace overlooking the sea, she
+unrolled the papyrus and read:--
+
+"Delectissima, I have come from Rome to Puteoli. I cannot live longer
+without seeing you. Great things are stirring, and it may well be that
+ere long, if your uncle and his friends have their way, I may be a
+proscribed fugitive from Italy, or a dead man. But I must talk with
+your dear self first. Agias was known by the familia, and had no
+difficulty in seeing you quietly; but I have no such facility. I
+cannot remain long. Plan how we may meet and not be interrupted. I
+have taken Cassandra into my pay, and believe that she can be trusted.
+_Vale_."
+
+There was no name of the sender; but Cornelia did not need to
+question. Cassandra, who evidently knew that her mistress would
+require her services, came carelessly strolling out on to the terrace.
+
+"Cassandra," said Cornelia, "the last time I saw Quintus, you betrayed
+us to my uncle; will you be more faithful now?"
+
+The woman hung down her head.
+
+"_A!_ domina, your uncle threatened me terribly. I did not
+intentionally betray you! Did I not receive my beating? And then
+Master Drusus is such a handsome and generous young gentleman."
+
+"I can rely on you alone," replied Cornelia. "You must arrange
+everything. If you are untrue, be sure that it is not I who will in
+the end punish, but Master Drusus, whose memory is long. You have more
+schemes than I, now that Agias is not here to devise for me. You must
+make up any stories that are necessary to save us from interruption,
+and see that no one discovers anything or grows suspicious. My hands
+are tied. I cannot see to plan. I will go to the library, and leave
+everything to you."
+
+And with this stoical resolve to bear with equanimity whatever the
+Fates flung in her way for good or ill, Cornelia tried to bury herself
+in her Lucretius. Vain resolution! What care for the atomic theory
+when in a day, an hour, a moment, she might be straining to her heart
+another heart that was reaching out toward hers, as hers did toward
+it. It was useless to read; useless to try to admire the varying
+shades of blue on the sea, tones of green, and tones of deep cerulean,
+deepening and deepening, as her eye drifted off toward the horizon,
+like the blendings of a chromatic series. And so Cornelia passed the
+morning in a mood of joyful discontent. Lucius Ahenobarbus, who came
+to have his usual passage of arms with her, found her so extremely
+affable, yet half-preoccupied, that he was puzzled, yet on the whole
+delighted. "She must be yielding," he mentally commented; and when
+they played at draughts, Cornelia actually allowed herself to be
+beaten. Ahenobarbus started off for Puteoli in an excellent humour.
+His litter had barely swung down the road from the villa before
+Cassandra was knocking at her mistress's chamber door.
+
+"_Io!_ domina," was her joyful exclamation, "I think I have got every
+eavesdropper out of the way. Ahenobarbus is off for Puteoli. I have
+cooked up a story to keep the freedmen and other busybodies off. You
+have a desperate headache, and cannot leave the room, nor see any one.
+But remember the terrace over the water, where the colonnade shuts it
+in on all sides but toward the sea. This afternoon, if a boat with two
+strange-looking fishermen passes under the embankment, don't be
+surprised."
+
+And having imparted this precious bit of information, the woman was
+off. Drusus's gold pieces had made her the most successful of
+schemers.
+
+
+II
+
+Cornelia feigned her headache, and succeeded in making herself so
+thoroughly petulant and exacting to all her maids, that when she
+ordered them out of the room, and told them on no account to disturb
+her in any respect for the rest of the day, they "rejoiced with
+trembling," and had no anxiety to thrust their attentions upon so
+unreasonable a mistress. And a little while later a visit of a
+strolling juggler--whose call had perhaps been prompted by
+Cassandra--made their respite from duty doubly welcome.
+
+Cornelia was left to herself, and spent the next hour in a division of
+labour before her silver wall-mirror, dressing--something which was
+sufficiently troublesome for her, accustomed to the services of a bevy
+of maids--and at the window, gazing toward Puteoli for the
+fishing-boat that seemed never in sight. At last the toilet was
+completed to her satisfaction. Cornelia surveyed herself in her best
+silken purple flounced stola, thrust the last pin into her hair, and
+confined it all in a net of golden thread. Roman maidens were not as a
+rule taught to be modest about their charms, and Cornelia, with
+perfect frankness, said aloud to herself, "You are so beautiful that
+Drusus can't help loving you;" and with this candid confession, she
+was again on the terrace, straining her eyes toward Puteoli. Boats
+came, boats went, but there was none that approached the villa; and
+Cornelia began to harbour dark thoughts against Cassandra.
+
+"If the wretched woman had played false to her mistress again--" but
+the threat was never formulated. There was a chink and click of a pair
+of oars moving on their thole-pins. For an instant a skiff was visible
+at the foot of the embankment; two occupants were in it. The boat
+disappeared under the friendly cover of the protecting sea-wall of the
+lower terrace. There was a little landing-place here, with a few steps
+leading upward, where now and then a yacht was moored. The embankment
+shut off this tiny wharf from view on either side. Cornelia dared not
+leave the upper terrace. Her heart beat faster and faster. Below she
+heard the slap, slap, of the waves on the sea-wall, and a rattle of
+rings and ropes as some skiff was being made fast. An instant more and
+Drusus was coming, with quick, athletic bounds, up the stairway to the
+second terrace. It was he! she saw him! In her eyes he was everything
+in physique and virile beauty that a maiden of the Republic could
+desire! The bitterness and waiting of months were worth the
+blessedness of the instant. Cornelia never knew what Drusus said to
+her, or what she said to him. She only knew that he was holding her in
+his strong arms and gazing into her eyes; while the hearts of both
+talked to one another so fast that they had neither time nor need for
+words. They were happy, happy! Long it was before their utterance
+passed beyond the merest words of endearment; longer still before they
+were composed enough for Cornelia to listen to Drusus while he gave
+his own account of Mamercus's heroic resistance to Dumnorix's gang at
+Pr�neste; and told of his own visit to Ravenna, of his intense
+admiration for the proconsul of the two Gauls; and of how he had come
+to Puteoli and opened communications with Cassandra, through Cappadox,
+the trusty body-servant who in the guise of a fisherman was waiting in
+the boat below.
+
+"And as Homer puts it, so with us," cried Cornelia, at length: "'And
+so the pair had joy in happy love, and joyed in talking too, and each
+relating; she, the royal lady, what she had endured at home, watching
+the wasteful throng of suitors; and he, high-born Odysseus, what
+miseries he brought on other men, and bore himself in anguish;--all he
+told, and she was glad to hear.'"
+
+So laughed Cornelia when all their stories were finished, likening
+their reunion to that of the son of La�rtes and the long-faithful
+Penelope.
+
+"How long were Penelope and Odysseus asunder?" quoth Drusus.
+
+"Twenty years."
+
+"_Vah!_ We have not been sundered twenty months or one-third as many.
+How shall we make the time fly more rapidly?"
+
+"I know not," said Cornelia, for the first time looking down and
+sighing, "a lifetime seems very long; but lifetimes will pass. I shall
+be an old woman in a few years; and my hair will be all grey, and you
+won't love me."
+
+"_Eho_," cried Drusus, "do you think I love you for your hair?"
+
+"I don't know," replied Cornelia, shaking her head, "I am afraid so.
+What is there in me more than any other woman that you should love;
+except--" and here she raised her face half-seriously, half in
+play--"I am very beautiful? Ah! if I were a man, I would have
+something else to be loved for; I would have eloquence, or strength,
+or power of command, or wisdom in philosophy. But no, I can be loved
+for only two things; an ignoble or a poor man would take me if I were
+hideous as Atropos, for I am noble, and, if my uncle were an honest
+guardian, rich. But you need not regard these at all, so--" and she
+brushed her face across Drusus's cheek, touching it with her hair.
+
+"O Cornelia," cried the young man, out of the fulness of his heart,
+"we must not waste this precious time asking why we love each other.
+Love each other we do as long as we view the sun. O carissima! we
+cannot trust ourselves to look too deeply into the whys and wherefores
+of things. We men and women are so ignorant! We know nothing. What is
+all our philosophy--words! What is all our state religion--empty form!
+What is all our life--a dream, mostly evil, that comes out of the
+eternal unconscious sleep and into that unconscious sleep will return!
+And yet not all a dream; for when I feel your hands in mine I know
+that I am not dreaming--for dreamers feel nothing so delicious as
+this! Not long ago I recalled what old Artabanus said to King Xerxes
+when the millions of Persia passed in review before their lord at
+Abydos, 'Short as our time is, death, through the wretchedness of our
+life, is the most sweet refuge of our race; and God, who gives us
+tastes that we enjoy of pleasant times, is seen, in His very gift, to
+be envious.' And I thought, 'How wise was the Persian!' And then I
+thought, 'No, though to live were to drag one's days in torture and in
+woe, if only love come once into life, an eternity of misery is
+endurable; yes, to be chained forever, as Prometheus, on drearest
+mountain crag, if only the fire which is stolen be that which kindles
+soul by soul.'"
+
+"Ah!" cried Cornelia, "if only these were to be real souls! But what
+can we say? See my Lucretius here; read: 'I have shown the soul to be
+formed fine and to be of minute bodies and made up of much smaller
+first-beginnings than the liquid air, or mist, or smoke. As you see
+water, when the vessels are shattered, flow away on every side, and as
+mist and smoke vanish away into the air, believe that the soul, too,
+is shed abroad, and perishes much more quickly and dissolves sooner
+into its first bodies, when once it has been taken out of the limbs of
+a man and has withdrawn.' O Quintus, is the thing within me that loves
+you lighter, more fragile, than smoke? Shall I blow away, and vanish
+into nothingness? It is that which affrights me!"
+
+And Drusus tried as best he might to comfort her, telling her there
+was no danger that she or he would be dissipated speedily, and that
+she must not fret her dear head with things that set the sagest
+greybeards a-wrangling. Then he told her about the political world,
+and how in a month at most either every cloud would have cleared away,
+and Lentulus be in no position to resist the legal claims which Drusus
+had on the hand of his niece; or, if war came, if fortune but favoured
+C�sar, Cornelia's waiting for deliverance would not be for long.
+Drusus did not dwell on the alternative presented if civic strife came
+to arms; he only knew that, come what might, Cornelia could never be
+driven to become the bride of Lucius Ahenobarbus; and he had no need
+to exact a new pledge of her faithful devotion.
+
+So at last, like everything terrestrial that is sweet and lovely, the
+slowly advancing afternoon warned Drusus that for this day, at least,
+they must separate.
+
+"I will come again to-morrow, or the next day, if Cassandra can so
+arrange," said he, tearing himself away. "But part to-night we must,
+nor will it make amends to imitate Carbo, who, when he was being led
+to execution, was suddenly seized with a pain in the stomach, and
+begged not to be beheaded until he should feel a little better."
+
+He kissed her, strained her to his breast, and stepped toward the
+landing-place. Cappadox had taken the boat out from the moorings to
+minimize a chance of discovery by some one in the house. Drusus was
+just turning for a last embrace, when many voices and the plash of
+oars sounded below. Cornelia staggered with dread.
+
+"It's Ahenobarbus," she gasped, in a deathly whisper; "he sometimes
+comes back from Puteoli by boat. He will murder you when he finds you
+here!"
+
+"Can't I escape through the house?"
+
+The words, however, were no sooner out of Drusus's mouth, than Lucius
+Ahenobarbus, dressed in the most fashionably cut scarlet lacerna,
+perfumed and coiffured to a nicety, appeared on the terrace. Some evil
+genius had led him straight up without the least delay.
+
+It was the first time that the two enemies had met face to face since
+Drusus had declined the invitation to Marcus L�ca's supper. Be it said
+to Lucius's credit that he sensed the situation with only the minimum
+of confusion, and instantly realized all of Cornelia's worst fears.
+Drusus had drawn back from the steps to the lower terrace, and stood
+with stern brow and knotted fist, trapped by a blunder that could
+hardly have been guarded against, no submissive victim to what fate
+had in store. Cornelia, for once quite distraught with terror, cowered
+on a bench, unable to scream through sheer fright.
+
+"_Salve!_ amice," was the satirical salutation of Ahenobarbus. "How
+excellently well met. _Heus!_ Phaon, bring your boatmen, quick! Not an
+instant to lose!"
+
+"Pity! mercy!" gasped Cornelia, "I will do anything for you, but spare
+him;" and she made as if to fall on her knees before Ahenobarbus.
+
+"Girl!" Drusus had never spoken in that way to her before; his tones
+were cold as ice. "Go into the house! Your place is not here. If
+Lucius Ahenobarbus intends to murder me--"
+
+The boatmen and two or three other slaves that were always at
+Ahenobarbus's heels were crowding up on to the terrace ready to do
+their master's bidding.
+
+"Throw me that fellow over the balcony," ordered Lucius, his sense of
+triumph and opportunity mastering every fear that Flaccus would
+execute his threat of prosecution. "See that he does not float!"
+
+Cornelia found her voice. She screamed, screamed shrilly, and ran into
+the house. Already the familia was alarmed. Two or three freedmen of
+Lentulus were rushing toward the terrace. They were murdering Quintus!
+He was resisting, resisting with all the powers of a wild animal
+driven to its last lair. Outside, on the terrace, where but an instant
+before she and her lover were cooing in delicious ecstasy, there were
+oaths, blows, and the sharp pants and howls of mortal struggle. And
+she could do nothing--nothing! And it was through his love for her
+that Drusus was to go down to his untimely grave! The seconds of
+struggle and anguish moved on leaden feet. Every breath was agony,
+every sound maddening. And she could do nothing--nothing. Still they
+were fighting. Phaon--she knew his voice--was crying out as if in
+grievous pain. And now the voice of Lucius Ahenobarbus sounded again:
+"One thousand denarii if you fling him into the sea!" and she could do
+nothing--nothing! She tore down the purple tapestries around her bed,
+and dashed from its tripod a costly bowl of opal Alexandrian
+glass--all in the mere rage of impotence. And still they were
+fighting. What was that ornament hanging on the wall, half hid behind
+the torn tapestry? A scabbard--a sword, some relic of ancient wars!
+And all the combatants were unarmed! The antique weapon was held by
+stout thongs to the wall; she plucked it from its fastenings with the
+strength of a Titaness. The rusty blade resisted an instant; she
+dragged it forth. Then out on to the terrace. Really only a moment had
+elapsed since she left it. One of the slaves was lying dead, or
+stunned, prone on the turf. Phaon was writhing and howling beside him,
+nursing a broken jaw. The other assailants had sunk back in temporary
+repulse and were preparing for a second rush. Drusus was still
+standing. He half leaned upon the stone pedestal of an heroic-sized
+Athena, who seemed to be spreading her protecting �gis above him. His
+garments were rent to the veriest shreds. His features were hidden
+behind streaming blood, his arms and neck were bruised and bleeding;
+but clearly his adversaries could not yet congratulate themselves that
+the lion's strength was too sapped to be no longer dreaded.
+
+"Come, you," was his hot challenge to Lucius Ahenobarbus, who stood,
+half delighted, half afraid, shivering and laughing spasmodically, as
+he surveyed the struggle from a safe distance. "Come, you, and have
+your share in the villany!"
+
+And again, for it was all the affair of the veriest moment, the slaves
+rushed once more on their indocile victim. "Freedom to the man who
+pulls him down!" was the incentive of Ahenobarbus.
+
+But again Drusus, who, to tell the truth, had to contend with only the
+flabby, soft-handed, unskilful underlings of Lucius, struck out so
+furiously that another of his attackers fell backward with a groan and
+a gasp. All this Cornelia saw while, sword in hand, she flew toward
+the knot of writhing men. She pushed aside the slaves by sheer force.
+She asked no civilities, received none.
+
+"Pull her away!" shouted Lucius, and started himself to accomplish his
+purpose. A rude hand smote her in the face; she staggered, fell; but
+as she fell a hand snatched the sword out of her grasp. She released
+her hold gladly, for did she not know that hand? When she rose to her
+feet there were shrieks of fear and pain on every side. The slaves
+were cringing in dread before him. Drusus was standing under the
+Athena, with the keen steel in his hand--its blade dyed crimson; and
+at his feet lay Ahenobarbus's favourite valet--the wretch literally
+disembowelled by one deadly stroke.
+
+"Fly, fly!" she implored; "they will bring arms! They will never let
+you escape."
+
+"I'll pay you for letting him kill Croesus," howled Lucius, facing
+himself resolutely toward his enemy. "How can he fly when the house is
+full of servants, and his boat is away from the landing? You give
+yourself trouble for no purpose, my lady! Lentulus's people will be
+here with swords in a moment!"
+
+But as he spoke a blow of some unseen giant dashed him prostrate, and
+upon the terrace from below came Cappadox, foaming with anxious rage,
+his brow blacker than night, his brawny arms swinging a heavy paddle
+with which he clubbed the cowering slaves right and left.
+
+"Have they killed him! Have the gods spared him!" These two demands
+came bounding in a breath from the honest servant's lips. And when he
+saw Drusus, bleeding, but still standing, he rushed forward to fling
+his arms about his master's neck.
+
+"Fly! fly!" urged Cornelia, and out of the building, armed now with
+swords and staves, came flocking the freedmen of the house and as many
+slaves as they could muster.
+
+"_Salve!_ carissima," and Drusus, who never at the instant gave
+thought to the blood all over him, pressed her in one last kiss. He
+gained the terrace steps by a single bound ahead of his armed
+attackers. Cappadox smote down the foremost freedman with a buffet of
+the oar. Ahenobarbus staggered to his feet as Drusus sprang over him,
+and the latter tore a packet of tablets from his hand, never stopping
+in his own flight.
+
+Then down on to the little landing-place pursuers and pursued tumbled.
+The large six-oared boat of Ahenobarbus was moored close beside
+Cappadox's skiff.
+
+Drusus was into the skiff and casting loose before Lucius could
+descend from the upper terrace. The young Domitian was in a terrible
+distress.
+
+"The letters! The letters! Freedom to you all if you save them! Cast
+off! Chase! Sink the skiff!"
+
+But before any of the unskilful assailants could execute the order,
+Cappadox had driven the butt of his paddle clean through the bottom
+planking of the larger boat, and she was filling rapidly. The paddle
+shivered, but it was madness to embark on the stoven craft.
+
+The skiff shot away from the landing as though an intelligent soul,
+rising equal to the needs of the crisis. The blue dancing water lapped
+between her gunwale and the shore. Drusus stood erect in the boat,
+brushed back the blood that was still streaming over his eyes, and
+looked landward. The slaves and freedmen were still on the landing,
+gazing blankly after their escaped prey. Ahenobarbus was pouring out
+upon their inefficiency a torrent of wrathful malediction, that
+promised employment for the "whipper" for some time to come. But
+Drusus gave heed to none of these things. Standing on the upper
+terrace, her hair now dishevelled and blowing in tresses upon the
+wind, was Cornelia, and on her all her lover's gaze was fixed.
+
+"Safe?" and the melodious shout drifted out over the widening stretch
+of water.
+
+"Safe! to live and to love!" And Drusus thought, with his keen lover's
+eye, he could see the dimming face brighten, and the hands go up in a
+gesture of thanksgiving.
+
+It was all that was said. Another boat might be procured at any time
+by Lucius Ahenobarbus; and with only one paddle Cappadox could make
+but slow headway. Stiff and bruised, the young man flung himself on
+the bottom of the skiff, and panted and nursed himself after his
+mortal struggle. Now that the combat was over he felt weak and sore
+enough, and was quite content to let Cappadox adjust such improvised
+bandages as were available, and scull him toward Puteoli. Fortunately
+none of the bruises was caused by any harder weapons than fists, and,
+though his body was black and blue, he had sustained no serious hurt.
+And so he rested his head on a wrap, and closed his eyes, and called
+up before his mind the vision of Cornelia. How beautiful she had been
+when he met her! How much more beautiful when she thrust her way
+through the fighting slaves and put the sword in his hand, at that
+moment of mortal combat, which he expected to be his last! Did he only
+love her because her face was sweet, her voice was sweet, and the
+touch of her hair was sweet? Happy was he, her lover;--he could say
+"no," and have never a fear that his sincerity would be tested. And
+Lucius Ahenobarbus? He hated him with a perfect hatred. A Roman who
+was no Roman! A womanish man whom every true woman must despise! A
+serpent who had not even the bright scales of a serpent! What would he
+do to Cornelia? Drusus's face grew hard. Had he, Drusus, yet done any
+injury worth mentioning to his enemy? Why had he not used the moment
+when Lucius lay prostrate, and run the sword through his body?
+Ill-timed, thoughtless mercy! But the letters, the packet he had
+wrenched from Ahenobarbus's hand? Why was it so precious? Drusus had
+flung it into the boat. He took up the packet. Doubtless some
+_billet-doux_. Why should he degrade his mind by giving an instant's
+thought to any of his enemy's foul intrigues? He could only open his
+eyes with difficulty, but a curiosity that did not add to his
+self-esteem overmastered him. The seal! Could he believe his
+senses--the imprint of three trophies of victory? It was the seal of
+Pompeius! The instinct of the partisan and politician conquered every
+infirmity. He broke the wax, untied the thread, and opened. The
+letters were in cipher, and at first sight illegible. But this did not
+present any insuperable difficulty. Most classic ciphers were
+sufficiently simple to be solved without very much trouble. Drusus
+knew that in all C�sar's correspondence a cipher had been used which
+consisted merely of substituting for each letter the fourth letter
+beyond it, as D for A; and a little examination showed that the
+present cryptogram was made on the same rude method. After a few
+guesses he struck the proper substitutions, and was able to read.
+
+"Pompeius Magnus, Imperator, to the most excellent Lucius Domitius
+Ahenobarbus, Rome, tenth day before the Calends of January. If it is
+well with you, it is well; I am well.[134] I write to warn you that we
+are told that Quintus Drusus, your personal enemy and the friend of
+our own foes, is in Campania. We need not add more, for we trust to
+you to see to it that he stirs up no faction in favour of his master
+in those parts. Be assured that you will not be long troubled by this
+enemy. He is marked out as one of the earliest of those to pay with
+their lives for their conspiracy against the Republic. If possible see
+that Drusus is seized for some alleged offence, and lodged in prison
+until the new consuls come into office. After that time he can work
+little or no mischief. Use the uttermost endeavours in this matter;
+check him and his schemes at all hazards. I trust your energy and
+prudence, which your father and Lentulus Crus assure me will not fail.
+_Vale!_"
+
+  [134] _Si vales bene est ego valeo_, written commonly simply
+  S. V. B. E. E. V.
+
+Drusus lay back in the bottom of the boat, and looked up into the blue
+dome. It was the same azure as ever, but a strange feeling of
+disenchantment seemed to have come over him. For the first time he
+realized the deadly stakes for which he and his party were playing
+their game. What fate had been treasured up for him in the impending
+chaos of civil war? If he perished in battle or by the executioner's
+axe, what awaited Cornelia? But he had chosen his road; he would
+follow it to the end. The battle spirit mounted in him.
+
+The sky was darkening when the boat drew up to one of the busy quays
+of Puteoli. Stars had begun to twinkle. Cappadox aided his bruised and
+stiffened master to disembark.
+
+"To-night rest," cried Drusus, forgetting all his wounds. "To-morrow
+away to Rome. And at Rome--the war of the Gods and the Giants!"
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XIV
+
+The New Consuls
+
+
+I
+
+It had come--the great crisis that by crooked ways or straight was to
+set right all the follies and crimes of many a generation. On the
+Calends of January Lentulus Crus and Caius Clodius Marcellus were
+inaugurated consuls. In solemn procession with Senate, priesthoods,
+and people, they had gone up to the Capitol and sacrificed chosen
+white steers to Jupiter, "Best and Greatest,"[135] and invoked his
+blessing upon the Roman State. And so began the last consulship of the
+Free Republic.
+
+  [135] _Optimus maximus_.
+
+Rome was in a ferment. All knew the intention of the consuls to move
+the recall of C�sar from his government. All knew that Curio had
+brought a letter from Ravenna, the contents whereof he carefully
+guarded. That same afternoon the consuls convened the Senate in the
+Temple of Capitoline Jove, and every man knew to what purpose. All
+Rome swept in the direction of the Capitol. Drusus accompanied his
+friend, the tribune Antonius, as the latter's viator, for there was
+need of a trusty guard.
+
+The excitement in the streets ran even higher than when Catilina's
+great plot was exposed. The streets were jammed with crowds,--not of
+the idle and base born, but of equites and noble ladies, and young
+patricians not old enough to step into their fathers' places. They
+were howling and cheering for Pompeius and Lentulus, and cursing the
+absent proconsul. As Drusus passed along at the side of Antonius, he
+could not fail to hear the execrations and vile epithets flung from
+every side at him and his friend. He had always supposed the masses
+were on C�sar's side, but now every man's hand seemed turned against
+the conqueror of the Gauls. Was there to be but a repetition of the
+same old tragedy of the Gracchi and of Marcus Drusus? A brave man
+standing out for the people, and the people deserting him in his hour
+of need?
+
+They reached the Temple. The Senate was already nearly ready for
+business; every toothless consular who had been in public service for
+perquisites only, and who for years had been wasting his life enjoying
+the pickings of an unfortunate province--all such were in their seats
+on the front row of benches. Behind them were the _pr�torii_ and the
+_�dilicii,_[136] a full session of that great body which had matched
+its tireless wisdom and tenacity against Pyrrhus, Hannibal, and
+Antiochus the Great, and been victorious. Drusus ran his eye over the
+seats. There they sat, even in the midst of the general excitement, a
+body of calm, dignified elders, severe and immaculate in their long
+white togas and purple-edged tunics. The multitudes without were
+howling and jeering; within the temple, reigned silence--the silence
+that gathered about the most august and powerful assembly the world
+has ever seen.
+
+  [136] Ex-pr�tors and ex-�diles.
+
+The Temple was built of cool, grey stone; the assembly hall was quite
+apart from the shrine. The Senate had convened in a spacious
+semicircular vaulted chamber, cut off from the vulgar world by a row
+of close, low Doric columns. From the shade of these pillars one could
+command a sweeping view of the Forum, packed with a turbulent
+multitude. Drusus stood on the Temple steps and looked out and in.
+Without, confusion; within, order; without, a leaderless mob; within,
+an assembly almost every member of which had been invested with some
+high command. For a moment the young man revived courage; after all,
+the Roman Senate was left as a bulwark against passion and popular
+wrath; and for the time being, as he looked on those motionless,
+venerable faces, his confidence in this court of final appeal was
+restored. Then he began to scan the features of the consulars, and his
+heart sank. There was Lucius Calpurnius Piso, with the visage of a
+philosopher, but within mere moral turpitude. There was Favonius;
+there were the two sanguinary Marcelli, consuls respectively for the
+two preceding years; there was Domitius; there was Cato, his hard face
+illumined doubtless by the near realization of unholy hopes; there was
+Faustus Sulla, another bitter oligarch. Drusus saw them all, and knew
+that the C�sarian cause had been doomed without a hearing. Caius
+Marcellus, the new consul, sat in his separate seat, in all the
+splendid dignity of his embroidered toga. Around him stood his twelve
+lictors. But Lentulus, at whose behest the Senate had been convened,
+and who was to act as its president, had not come. Drusus followed
+Antonius over to the farther side of the house, where on a long, low
+bench[137] the other tribunes of the plebs were seated. Quintus
+Cassius was already there. The other tribunes darted angry glances at
+their newly arrived colleague. Drusus remained standing behind
+Antonius, ready to act as a body-guard, as much as to serve in mere
+official capacity. Even as they entered he had noticed a buzz and
+rustle pass along the tiers of seats, and whisper pass on whisper,
+"There come the C�sarians!" "What treason is in that letter!" "We must
+have an end of their impudence!" And Drusus ran his eye over the whole
+company, and sought for one friendly look; but he met with only stony
+glances or dark frowns. There was justice neither in the people nor in
+the Senate. Their hearts were drunk with a sense of revenge and
+self-willed passion; and Justice literally weighed out her bounty with
+blinded eyes.
+
+  [137] _Subsellium_.
+
+There was another hum and rustle. And into the hall swept Lentulus
+Crus, in robes of office, with Scipio, the father-in-law of Pompeius,
+at his side. Before him strode his twelve lictors bearing their fasces
+erect. Not a word was spoken while Lentulus Crus seated himself in the
+ivory curule chair of office. No sign marked the extreme gravity of
+the occasion.
+
+"Let the sacred chickens be brought," said Lentulus.
+
+Never a lip twitched or curled in all that august multitude while
+several public attendants brought in a wooden cage containing three or
+four rather skinny specimens of poultry. Not even Drusus saw anything
+really ridiculous when Lentulus arose, took grain from an attendant,
+and scattered a quantity of it before the coop. Close at his elbow
+stood the augur, to interpret the omen,--a weazened, bald-headed old
+senator, who wore a purple-striped tunic,[138] and carried in his hand
+a long stick,[139] curved at its head into a spiral. Drusus knew
+perfectly well that the fowls had been kept without food all that day;
+but it would have seemed treason to all the traditions of his native
+land to cry out against this pompous farce. The hungry chickens pecked
+up the grain. The augur muttered formula after formula, and Lentulus
+took pains to repeat the meaningless jargon after him. Presently the
+augur ceased his chatter and nodded to the consul. Lentulus turned
+toward the Senate.
+
+  [138] _Trabea_.
+
+  [139] _Lituus_.
+
+"There is no evil sight or sound!"[140] was his announcement, meaning
+that business could be transacted.
+
+  [140] _Silentium esse videtur_.
+
+Whereupon up from his seat sprang Marcus Antonius, flourishing in his
+hand a packet. Loudly Lentulus bade him hold his peace; loudly the
+tribunes who sided with the Senate party forbade him to read. But a
+rustle and stir of eager curiosity ran along all the benches, and
+first one voice, then many, cried out that the letter must be made
+public. With very ill grace the consul declared that Antonius should
+be allowed to read the communication from C�sar.
+
+Antonius read, and all were astonished at the moderation of the
+much-maligned proconsul. C�sar made it clear that he would stand on
+his rights as to the second consulship; but to withdraw possibilities
+of seeming to issue a threat, he would disband his entire army if
+Pompeius would only do the same, or, if preferred, he would retain
+simply Cisalpine Gaul and Illyria with two legions, until the consular
+elections were over. In either event it would be out of his power to
+menace the constitution, and the public tranquillity would remain
+quite undisturbed.
+
+But before the murmur of approbation at this unexpected docility wore
+away, Lentulus burst forth into a fiery invective. All knew why the
+Senate had been convened, nor would he allow a few smooth promises to
+bring the state into danger. The law provided that a proconsul should
+leave his province at a certain time; and if C�sar thought that a
+special law exempted him from this requirement, it were well he were
+disabused of the notion. The Senate had been convened because the
+presiding consul felt that the continuance of C�sar in his
+governorship was a menace to the safety of the Republic. Let the
+Conscript Fathers express themselves boldly, and he, Lentulus, would
+not desert them; let them waver and try to court the favour of C�sar
+as in former times, and the consul would have to look to his own
+safety--and he could make his own terms with C�sar.
+
+Lentulus had started out with studied moderation. His harangue ended
+with a stinging menace. A low mutter, difficult to interpret, ran
+through the Senate. Again Antonius leaped to his feet.
+
+"Conscript Fathers, will you not consider the mild offers of C�sar? Do
+not reject them without debate."
+
+"I ask the opinion of the Senate on my own proposition," broke in
+Lentulus. "Metellus Scipio, declare what is your judgment."
+
+"I protest at this unseemly haste," cried Antonius; "let us consider
+the letter first!"
+
+"And I protest against this boisterous and unlawful interruption,"
+retorted the consul, fiercely. "Rise, Metellus Scipio!"
+
+Antonius flushed with rage, but sank into his seat. Drusus leaned over
+his friend's shoulder and whispered "Veto." Antonius shook his head.
+
+"They must speak. We should be foolish to shoot away our best arrow
+before the battle had really begun."
+
+Scipio arose. He was not the "chief senator,"[141] usually entitled to
+speak first; but everybody knew that his words were the mere
+expressions of his son-in-law, the mighty Pompeius. His oratory and
+physical presence were wretched, but all the Senate hung upon his
+words.
+
+  [141] _Princeps senatus_.
+
+"Pompeius did not intend to abandon the Republic, if the Senate would
+support him; but let them act with energy, for otherwise in the future
+they might need his aid never so much, and yet implore it in vain."
+
+"You want to destroy the Republic!" cried Quintus Cassius, half
+leaping from his seat.
+
+"We want to destroy _you_!" retorted Domitius, savagely.
+
+But all men were not so blinded by fury, hate, and greed of power and
+revenge. To the dismay of his party Caius Marcellus, the second
+consul, counselled a certain kind of moderation. There was no love
+lost by the noble "Optimates" upon Pompeius, and Marcellus hinted this
+plainly when he said that all Italy must be put under arms, and with
+such an army at the disposal of the Senate, it could act as it saw
+fit,--to get rid of a troublesome protector, he implied, no less than
+an open enemy. And close after him followed Marcus Calidius and Marcus
+Rufus, two senators, who had at least the sagacity to perceive that it
+would not free the Commonwealth to crush C�sar, by flinging themselves
+into the arms of Pompeius. "Let Pompeius go off to his Spanish
+province, to which he was accredited proconsul; it was but natural
+C�sar should think himself ill treated, seeing that two legions had
+been taken from him for Eastern service, and Pompeius was keeping
+these very troops close to Rome."
+
+For one moment it seemed to Drusus that wisdom and justice had not
+deserted the Senate of his native state. The consuls were divided; two
+influential men were counselling moderation. Surely the Senate would
+not push to extremities. But he had not reckoned on the spell which
+the malevolent spirit of Lentulus had cast over the assembly. In
+bitter words the presiding consul refused to put Calidius's proposal
+to a vote, and then, turning directly upon his colleague before the
+face of the whole multitude, he poured out reproof and vituperation.
+Marcellus turned red and then black in the face with rage. Drusus's
+heart was beating rapidly with hope. So long as the consuls were at
+enmity, little would be done! Suddenly Scipio started as if to leave
+the assembly. "He's going to call in Pompeius's cohorts!" belched
+Lentulus. Marcellus turned pale. Drusus saw Calidius's friends
+whispering with him, evidently warning and remonstrating. Senators
+cast uneasy glances toward the doorways, as if expecting to see a
+century of legionaries march in to enforce the decrees of Pompeius's
+spokesmen. Marcellus staggered to his feet. He was cowed, and
+evidently felt himself in personal danger.
+
+"Conscript Fathers," he stammered, "I--I withdraw my motion to delay
+action for considering the recall of C�sar."
+
+"You have done well!" shouted Lentulus, triumphing savagely. Scipio
+ostentatiously settled back on his seat, while Cato called with
+warning, yet exultation:--
+
+"Take care what you do. C�sar is the only sober man among all those
+engaged in the plot to overturn the government. Remember with whom you
+must deal, and act!"
+
+Then Scipio arose once more. Every one knew that his fiat was law.
+"Conscript Fathers," he began, "Marcus Cato speaks well. Consider the
+power of C�sar. He has trained up bands of gladiators whom his
+friends, both senators and knights, are drilling for him. He is
+doubling his soldiers' pay, giving them extra corn, slaves,
+attendants, and land grants. A great part of the Senate,--yes, Cicero
+even, they say,--owes him money, at low and favourable rates of
+interest; he has actually made presents to freedmen and influential
+slaves. All young prodigals in debt are in his pay. He has made
+presents to win the favour of cities and princes, or been lending them
+troops without vote of the Senate. In Italy, Gaul, and Spain,--yes, in
+Greece, too, and Asia, he is winning the good-will of communities by
+erecting splendid public buildings. So great is his present power!
+What he will do in a second consulship I dare not say. I dare not
+assign bounds to his ambition. Conscript Fathers, shall we vote
+ourselves freemen or slaves? What more can I add to the words of the
+consul? I vote to ratify the proposition of Lucius Lentulus, that
+C�sar either disband his army on a fixed day, or be declared a public
+enemy!"
+
+"And what is your opinion, Lucius Domitius?" demanded Lentulus, while
+never a voice was raised to oppose Scipio.
+
+"Let the Senate remember," replied Domitius, "that C�sar will justify
+the meaning of his name--the 'hard-hitter,' and let us strike the
+first and telling blow."
+
+A ripple of applause swept down the Senate. The anti-C�sarians had
+completely recovered from their first discomfiture, and were carrying
+all sentiment before them. Already there were cries of "A vote! a
+vote! Divide the Senate! A vote!"
+
+"Conscript Fathers," said Lentulus, "in days of great emergency like
+this, when your minds seem so happily united in favour of doing that
+which is for the manifest safety of the Republic, I will not ask for
+the opinions of each senator in turn. Let the Senate divide; let all
+who favour the recall of the proconsul of the Gauls pass to the right,
+those against to the left. And so may it be well and prosperous for
+the Commonwealth."
+
+But Antonius was again on his feet; and at his side stood Quintus
+Cassius.
+
+"Lucius Lentulus," he thundered, "I forbid the division. _Veto!_"
+
+"_Veto!_" shouted Cassius.
+
+Domitius, too, had risen. "Conscript Fathers, let the consuls
+remonstrate with the tribunes to withdraw their prohibition. And, if
+they do not succeed, let them lay before the Senate that order which
+is the safeguard of the Republic."
+
+Everybody knew what Domitius meant. If Antonius would not give way,
+martial law was to be declared. Hot and furious raged the debate. More
+and more passionate the expressions of party hatred. More and more
+menacing the gestures directed upon the two C�sarian tribunes. But
+even the impetuous fierceness of Lentulus, Cato, Scipio, and Domitius
+combined could not drive the browbeaten Senate to cast loose from its
+last mooring that night. Domitius's measure went over. It was
+late--the stars were shining outside. Lamps had been brought in, and
+threw their ruddy glare over the long tiers of seats and their august
+occupants. Finally the angry debate ended, because it was a physical
+impossibility to continue longer. Senators went away with dark frowns
+or care-knit foreheads. Out in the Forum bands of young "Optimates"
+were shouting for Pompeius, and cursing C�sar and his followers.
+Drusus, following Antonius, felt that he was the adherent of a lost
+cause, the member of a routed army that was defending its last
+stronghold, which overwhelming numbers must take, be the defence never
+so valiant. And when very late he lay down on his bed that night, the
+howls of the fashionable mob were still ringing in his ears.
+
+
+II
+
+That night the most old-fashioned and sober Roman went to bed at an
+advanced hour. Men were gathered in little knots along the streets, in
+the forums, in the porticos and basilicas, arguing, gesticulating,
+wrangling. Military tribunes and centurions in armour of Pompeius's
+legions were parading on the _comitium_.[142] Veterans of that leader
+were jostling about in the crowd, clanking their newly furbished
+armour and shouting for their old general. If a man spoke for C�sar, a
+crowd of bystanders was ready to hoot him down. Staid householders
+locked up their dwellings and stationed trusty slaves at the doors to
+see that the crowds did not take to riot and pillage. The sailors from
+the wharves had been drinking heavily in all the taverns, and now
+roved up and down the crowded streets, seeking opportunity for brawls.
+Thieves and cutpurses were plying their most successful work; but no
+officials had time to direct the efforts of the harassed and slender
+police corps. To Pompeius's palace, without the gates, every man whose
+voice or vote seemed worth the winning had been summoned. All the
+senators had streamed out thither; and there the Magnus had brought
+them under the spell of his martial authority and made them as wax in
+his hand. And all "that majesty that doth hedge about a king," or
+about a victorious general, exerted its full influence. The senators
+came into the palace of Pompeius as into the palace of their despot.
+He stood before them in his largest hall, wearing the embroidered robe
+of a triumphator, with the laurel crown of his victories upon his
+head. At his right hand, as first vizir of his state, stood Lentulus
+Crus; at his left Lucius Domitius. The senators came to him and bowed
+low, and said their "_Aves_" and "_Salves_" as though cringing before
+a Mithridates or Tigranes of the East; and Pompeius, by the cordiality
+or coolness of his response, indicated which of his vassals had or had
+not fallen under his disfavour.
+
+  [142] Assembly-place in the _Forum Romanum_.
+
+Yes, despotism had come at last for Rome. The oligarchy had by its
+corrupt incapacity made a tyranny inevitable. They could make choice
+of masters, but a master they must have. Many were the proud Fabii,
+Claudii, and Valerii present that night--men whose lines of curule
+ancestors were as long as the duration of the Republic--who ground
+their teeth with shame and inward rage the very moment they cried,
+"_Salve, Magne!_" Yet the recipient of all this adulation was in no
+enviable frame of mind. He looked harassed and weary, despite the
+splendour of his dress and crown. And many were the whispered
+conversations that passed between him and his ministers, or rather
+custodians, Lentulus and Domitius.
+
+"Ah! poor Julia," sighed Pompeius, whose mind ever reverted to his
+dead wife, "what misery would have been yours if you had seen this
+day. Poor Julia; how I loved her; and C�sar, her father, loved her
+too; and now--"
+
+"Be yourself, Magnus," expostulated the consul at his side; "remember
+that for the good of the Republic every personal affection is to be
+put away. Recall Brutus, who put his own sons to death because they
+committed treason. Remember what Scipio �milianus said when he learned
+that Tiberius Gracchus, his dear brother-in-law, had been put to death
+for sedition. He quoted Homer's line:--
+
+  "'So perish all who do the like again!'"
+
+"And must I trample down every tie, every affection?" complained
+wretched Pompeius, who never ceased hoping against hope that something
+would avert the catastrophe.
+
+"There is no tie, no affection, Magnus," said Domitius, sternly, "that
+binds you to C�sar. Cast his friendship from your breast as you would
+a viper. Think only of being justly hailed with Romulus, Camillus, and
+Marius as the fourth founder of Rome. Strike, and win immortal glory."
+
+And so to the last hour these confederates wrought upon their supple
+instrument, and bent him to their will; and their tool in turn had all
+else at his mercy. Pompeius addressed the senators, and, well trained
+by his guardians, spoke with brutal frankness to those who had dared
+to advise moderation.
+
+"You, Rufus," he said, pointing a menacing finger, before which that
+senator cowered in dread, "have been advising the Republic to tolerate
+the chief of its enemies. You bid me to disarm or withdraw from Italy,
+as though the lives and property of any good men would be safe the
+moment C�sar was left unopposed to pour his cohorts of barbarous Gauls
+and Germans into the country. You, Calidius, have given the same
+untimely advice. Beware lest you repent the hour when you counselled
+that I should disarm or quit the neighbourhood of Rome." The two-edged
+suggestion contained in this last warning was too marked for the
+reproved men not to turn pale with dread, and slink away trembling
+behind their associates.
+
+"But," continued Pompeius, "I have praise as well as blame; Marcus
+Cato has not deserted the Republic. He has advised, and advised well,
+that the proconsul of the Gauls be stripped of his legions." It was
+Cato's turn now to bite his lips with mortification, for in times past
+he had foretold that through Pompeius great miseries would come to the
+state, and in his pr�torship had declared that Pompeius ought to go to
+his province, and not stay at home to stir up tumults and anarchy from
+which he could emerge as monarch. And such praise from the Magnus's
+lips, under the present circumstances, was gall and wormwood to his
+haughty soul.
+
+"And," continued Pompeius, "I shall not forget to applaud the
+energetic counsels of Domitius and Lentulus Crus. Let those who wish
+to preserve life and property," he added, with a menacing
+significance, "see to it that they do as these gentlemen advise."
+
+And thereupon there was a great shout of applause from all the more
+rabid senators, in which the rest thought it safer to join, with
+simulated heartiness. But Pompeius did not stop here. He brought
+before the senators tribunes from the two legions taken from C�sar,
+and these tribunes loudly declaimed--having learned their lesson
+well--that their troops were ill-affected toward their former
+commander, and would follow Pompeius to the last. And the Magnus
+produced veteran officers of his old campaigns, whom hope of reward
+and promotion had induced to come and declare for their former
+commander. Late, very late, the informal session of the Senate broke
+up. The "Fathers of the Republic" went each man to his own dwelling;
+but there was no longer any doubt as to what was to come of the doings
+of the day.
+
+Flaccus, the banker, had of course no access to the conference; but he
+had waited outside the gate of the palace, to learn the issue from an
+acquaintance in the Senate. His patience was at last rewarded.
+
+"Tell me, friend," was his question, "what will be the outcome of
+this; shall I risk any loans to-morrow?"
+
+The friendly senator seemed doubtful.
+
+"C�sar is a ruined man. Who imagines his legions will fight? We know
+Labienus is with Pompeius."
+
+"You are wrong," said Flaccus.
+
+"Wrong? I?" replied the senator. "I know whereof I speak."
+
+"_Phy!"_ cried the banker, "not C�sar, but you are ruined. The legions
+will fight."
+
+"Don't prophesy," sneered the acquaintance, "seeing that you brokers
+always keep out of politics."
+
+"You politicians are blind," retorted Flaccus.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The debate raged on. But by law the Senate could not convene on the
+third and fourth of the month, and the question of setting aside the
+tribunician veto went over until the fifth. It was the last lull
+before the outbreak of the great tempest. The little group of
+C�sarians put forth their final efforts. Drusus went in person to call
+on Cicero, the great orator, and plead with him to come out from his
+residence in the suburbs and argue for peace. The destroyer of
+Catilina had declared that he would not forfeit his rights to a
+triumph for his Cilician victories by appearing prematurely in the
+Senate. Besides, he could never antagonize Pompeius. Curio smiled
+grimly when his colleague reported his fruitless embassy.
+
+"I think, my friends," said the politician, "we shall soon prove the
+old saying, 'Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.'"
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XV
+
+The Seventh of January
+
+
+I
+
+The rapid march of events that week had taken Drusus out of himself,
+and made him forgetful of personal consequences; but it sobered him
+when he heard Curio and C�lius, his associates, telling Balbus where
+their wills would be found deposited if anything calamitous were to
+befall them. After all, life was very sweet to the young Livian. He
+could not at heart desire to drift off into nothingness--to stop
+breathing, thinking, feeling. And for the last time he reviewed his
+position; told himself that it was not an unworthy cause for which he
+was contending; that it was not treason, but patriotism, to wish to
+overthrow the great oligarchy of noble families, who by their
+federated influence had pulled the wires to every electoral assembly,
+so that hardly a man not of their own coterie had been elected to high
+office for many a long year; while the officials themselves had grown
+full and wanton on the revenues wrung from the score of unfortunate
+provinces.
+
+The feeling against the C�sarians was very bitter in the city. C�sar
+had always been the friend and darling of the populace; but, now that
+his star seemed setting, hardly a voice was raised, save to cry up the
+patriotism and determination of the consuls and Pompeius Magnus.
+Soldiers of the latter's legions were everywhere. The Senate was to
+convene the afternoon of the seventh, in the Curia of Pompeius, in the
+Campus Martius. Lentulus Crus was dragging forth every obscure
+senator, every retired politician, whose feet almost touched the
+grave, to swell his majority. All knew that the tribunes' vetoes were
+to be set aside, and arbitrary power decreed to the consuls. Drusus
+began to realize that the personal peril was pressing.
+
+"Won't his head look pretty for the crows to pick at?" commented
+Marcus L�ca to a friend, as the two swept past Drusus on the street.
+The Livian heard the loudly muttered words and trembled. It was easy
+to laud the Decii who calmly sacrificed their lives for the Republic,
+and many another martyr to patriotism; it was quite another thing to
+feel the mortal fear of death coursing in one's veins, to reflect that
+soon perhaps the dogs might be tearing this body which guarded that
+strange thing one calls self; to reflect that all which soon will be
+left of one is a bleaching skull, fixed high in some public place, at
+which the heartless mob would point and gibber, saying, "That is the
+head of Quintus Livius Drusus, the rebel!"
+
+Drusus wandered on--on to the only place in Rome where he could gain
+the moral courage to carry him undaunted through that which was before
+him--to the Atrium of Vesta. He entered the house of the Vestals and
+sent for his aunt. Fabia came quickly enough, for her heart had been
+with her nephew all these days that tried men's souls. The noble woman
+put her arms around the youth--for he was still hardly more--and
+pressed him to her breast.
+
+"Aunt Fabia," said Drusus, growing very weak and pale, now that he
+felt her warm, loving caress, "do you know that in two or three days
+you will have as nephew a proscribed insurgent, perhaps with a price
+on his head, who perhaps is speedily to die by the executioner, like
+the most ignoble felon?"
+
+"Yes," said Fabia, also very pale, yet smiling with a sweet, grave
+smile--the smile of a goddess who grieves at the miseries of mortal
+men, yet with divine omniscience glances beyond, and sees the
+happiness evolved from pain. "Yes, I have heard of all that is passing
+in the Senate. And I know, too, that my Quintus will prove himself a
+Fabian and a Livian, to whom the right cause and the good of the
+Republic are all--and the fear of shame and death is nothing." And
+then she sat down with him upon a couch, and took his head in her lap,
+and stroked him as if she were his mother. "Ah! my Quintus," she said,
+"you are still very young, and it is easy for one like you to enlist
+with all your ardour in a cause that seems righteous; yes, and in the
+heat of the moment to make any sacrifice for it; but it is not so easy
+for you or any other man calmly to face shame and annihilation, when
+the actual shadow of danger can be seen creeping up hour by hour. I
+know that neither you nor many another man wise and good believes that
+there are any gods. And I--I am only a silly old woman, with little or
+no wisdom and wit--"
+
+"Not silly and not old, carissima!" interrupted Drusus, smiling at her
+self-depreciation.
+
+"We won't argue," said Fabia, in a bit lighter vein. "But--as I would
+say--I believe in gods, and that they order all things well."
+
+"Why, then," protested the young man, "do we suffer wrong or grief? If
+gods there are, they are indifferent; or, far worse, malevolent, who
+love to work us woe."
+
+Again Fabia shook her head.
+
+"If we were gods," said she, "we would all be wise, and could see the
+good to come out of every seeming evil. There! I am, as I said, silly
+and old, and little enough comfort can words of mine bring a bright
+young man whose head is crammed with all the learned lore of the
+schools of Athens. But know this, Quintus, so long as I live, you
+shall live in my heart--living or dead though you be. And believe me,
+the pleasure of life is but a very little thing; it is sweet, but how
+quickly it passes! And the curses or praises of men--these, too, only
+a few mouldy rolls of books keep for decay! What profits it to
+Miltiades this hour, that a few marks on a papyrus sheet ascribe to
+him renown; or how much is the joy of Sextus Tarquinius darkened
+because a group of other marks cast reproach upon his name? If so be
+death is a sleep, how much better to feel at the end, 'I die, but I
+die self-approved, and justified by self!' And if death is not all a
+sleep; if, as Socrates tells us, there are hopes that we but pass from
+a base life to another with less of dross, then how do pleasures and
+glories, griefs and dishonours, of this present life touch upon a man
+whose happiness or woe will be found all within?"
+
+And so the good woman talked, giving to Drusus her own pure faith and
+hope and courage; and when the intellectual philosopher within him
+revolted at some of her simple premises and guileless sophistries,
+against his will he was persuaded by them, and was fain to own to
+himself that the heart of a good woman is past finding out; that its
+impulses are more genuine, its intuitions truer, its promptings surer,
+than all the fine-spun intellectuality of the most subtle
+metaphysician. When at last Drusus rose to leave his aunt, his face
+was glowing with a healthy colour, his step was elastic, his voice
+resonant with a noble courage. Fabia embraced him again and again.
+"Remember, whatever befalls," were her parting words, "I shall still
+love you." And when Drusus went out of the house he saw the dignified
+figure of the Vestal gazing after him. A few minutes later he passed
+no less a personage than the consular Lucius Domitius on his way to
+some political conference. He did not know what that dignitary
+muttered as he swept past in spotless toga, but the gloomy ferocity of
+his brow needed no interpreter. Drusus, however, never for a moment
+gave himself disquietude. He was fortified for the best and the worst,
+not by any dumb resignation, not by any cant of philosophy, but by an
+inward monitor which told him that some power in some way would lead
+him forth out of all dangers in a manner whereof man could neither ask
+nor think.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the sixth of January the debate, as already said, drew toward its
+end. All measures of conciliation had been voted down; the crisis was
+close at hand. On the seventh, after his interview with Fabia, Drusus
+went back to his own lodgings, made a few revisions in his will, and
+in the presence of two or three friends declared Cappadox
+manumitted,[143] lest he, by some chance, fall into the clutches of a
+brutal master. The young man next wrote a long letter to Cornelia for
+Agias to forward to Bai�, and put in it such hope as he could glean
+from the dark words of the philosophers; that even if destruction now
+overtook him, death perhaps did not end all; that perhaps they would
+meet beyond the grave. Then he took leave of his weeping freedmen and
+slaves, and strolled out into the city, and wandered about the Forum
+and the Sacred Way, to enjoy, perchance, a last view of the sites that
+were to the Roman so dear. Then finally he turned toward the Campus
+Martius, and was strolling down under the long marble-paved colonnade
+of the Portico of Pompeius. Lost in a deep reverie, he was forgetful
+of all present events, until he was roused by a quick twitch at the
+elbow; he looked around and found Agias before him.
+
+  [143] _Manumissio inter amicos_ was less formal than the regular
+  ceremony before the pr�tor.
+
+"_A!_ domine," cried the young Greek, "I have friends in the house of
+Lentulus. I have just been told by them that the consul has sworn that
+he will begin to play Sulla this very day. Neither you, nor Antonius,
+Cassius, Curio, nor the other supporters of C�sar will be alive
+to-night. Do not go into the Curia. Get away, quickly! Warn your
+friends, and leave Rome, or to-night you will all be strangled in the
+Tullianum!"
+
+The Tullianum! Drusus knew no other term to conjure up a like abode of
+horrors--the ancient prison of the city, a mere chamber sunk in the
+ground, and beneath that a dungeon, accessible only by an opening in
+the floor above--where the luckless Jugurtha had perished of cold and
+starvation, and where Lentulus Sura, Cethegus, and the other
+lieutenants of Catilina had been garroted, in defiance of all their
+legal rights, by the arbitrary decree of a rancorous Senate! So at
+last the danger had come! Drusus felt himself quiver at every fibre.
+He endured a sensation the like of which he had never felt before--one
+of utter moral faintness. But he steadied himself quickly. Shame at
+his own recurring cowardice overmastered him. "I am an unworthy
+Livian, indeed," he muttered, not perhaps realizing that it is far
+more heroic consciously to confront and receive the full terrors of a
+peril, and put them by, than to have them harmlessly roll off on some
+self-acting mental armour.
+
+"Escape! There is yet time!" urged Agias, pulling his toga. Drusus
+shook his head.
+
+"Not until the Senate has set aside the veto of the tribunes," he
+replied quietly.
+
+"But the danger will then be imminent!"
+
+"A good soldier does not leave his post, my excellent Agias," said the
+Roman, "until duty orders him away. Our duty is in the Senate until we
+can by our presence and voice do no more. When that task is over, we
+go to C�sar as fast as horse may bear us; but not until then."
+
+"Then I have warned you all in vain!" cried Agias.
+
+"Not at all. You may still be of the greatest service. Arrange so that
+we can leave Rome the instant we quit the Curia."
+
+"But if the lictors seize you before you get out of the building?"
+
+"We can only take our chance. I think we shall be permitted to go out.
+I had intended to ride out of the city this evening if nothing
+hindered and the final vote had been passed. But now I see that cannot
+be done. You have wit and cunning, Agias. Scheme, provide. We must
+escape from Rome at the earliest moment consistent with our duty and
+honour."
+
+"I have it," said Agias, his face lighting up. "Come at once after
+leaving the Curia, to the rear of the Temple of Mars.[144] I know one
+or two of the temple servants, and they will give me the use of their
+rooms. There I will have ready some slave dresses for a disguise, and
+just across the �milian bridge I will have some fast horses
+waiting--that is, if you can give me an order on your stables."
+
+  [144] The �des Martis of the Campus Martius.
+
+Drusus took off his signet ring.
+
+"Show that to Pausanias. He will honour every request you make, be it
+for a million sesterces."
+
+Agias bowed and was off. For the last time Drusus was tempted to call
+him back and say that the flight would begin at once. But the nimble
+Greek was already out of sight, and heroism became a necessity. Drusus
+resolutely turned his steps toward the senate-house. Not having been
+able to forecast the immediate moves of the enemy, he had not arranged
+for hurried flight; it was to be regretted, although he had known that
+on that day the end of the crisis would come. He soon met Antonius,
+and imparted to him what he had just learned from Agias, and the
+precautions taken.
+
+Antonius shook his head, and remarked:--
+
+"You ought not to go with me. Little enough can we who are tribunes
+do; you have neither voice nor vote, and Lentulus is your personal
+foe. So back, before it is too late. Let us shift for ourselves."
+
+Drusus replied never a word, but simply took the tribune's arm and
+walked the faster toward the Curia.
+
+"I am a very young soldier," he said presently; "do not be angry if I
+wish to show that I am not afraid of the whizzing arrows."
+
+"Then, my friend, whatever befalls, so long as life is in my body,
+remember you have a brother in Marcus Antonius."
+
+The two friends pressed one another's hands, and entered the Curia
+Pompeii. There in one of the foremost seats sat the Magnus,[145] the
+centre of a great flock of adulators, who were basking in the sunshine
+of his favour. Yet Drusus, as he glanced over at the Imperator,
+thought that the great man looked harassed and worried--forced to be
+partner in a scheme when he would cheerfully be absent. Fluttering in
+their broad togas about the senate-house were Domitius, Cato, the
+Marcelli, and Scipio, busy whipping into line the few remaining
+waverers. As Cato passed the tribune's bench, and saw the handful of
+C�sarians gathered there, he cast a glance of indescribable malignity
+upon them, a glance that made Drusus shudder, and think again of the
+horrors of the Tullianum.
+
+  [145] Pompeius was not allowed by law to attend sessions of the Senate
+  (so long as he was proconsul of Spain) when held inside the old city
+  limits; but the Curia which he himself built was outside the walls in
+  the Campus Martius. This meeting seems to have been convened there
+  especially that he might attend it.
+
+"I know now how Cato looked," said he to Antonius, "when he denounced
+the Catilinarians and urged that they should be put to death without
+trial."
+
+Antonius shrugged his shoulders, and replied:--
+
+"Cato cannot forgive C�sar. When C�sar was consul, Cato interrupted
+his speech, and C�sar had him haled off to prison. Marcus Cato never
+forgives or forgets."
+
+Curio, C�lius, and Quintus Cassius had entered the senate-house--the
+only C�sarians present besides Antonius and his viator. The first two
+went and took their seats in the body of the building, and Drusus
+noticed how their colleagues shrank away from them, refusing to sit
+near the supporters of the Gallic proconsul.
+
+"_Eho!_" remarked Antonius, his spirits rising as the crisis drew on.
+"This is much like Catilina's days, to be sure! No one would sit with
+him when he went into the Senate. However, I imagine that these
+excellent gentlemen will hardly find C�sar as easy to handle as
+Catilina."
+
+Again Lentulus was in his curule chair, and again the solemn farce of
+taking the auspices, preparatory to commencing the session, was gone
+through.
+
+Then for the last time in that memorable series of debates Lentulus
+arose and addressed the Senate, storming, browbeating, threatening,
+and finally ending with these words, that brought everything to a
+head:--
+
+"Seeing then, Conscript Fathers, that Quintus Cassius and Marcus
+Antonius are using their tribunician office to aid Caius C�sar to
+perpetuate his tyranny, the consuls ask you to clothe the magistrates
+with dictatorial power in order that the liberties of the Republic may
+not be subverted!"
+
+The liberties of the Republic! Liberty to plunder provinces! To bribe!
+To rob the treasury! To defraud! To violate the law of man and God! To
+rule the whole world so that a corrupt oligarchy might be aggrandized!
+Far, far had the nation of the older Claudii, Fabii, and Cornelii
+fallen from that proud eminence when, a hundred years before,
+Polybius, contrasting the Romans with the degenerate Greeks, had
+exclaimed, "A statesman of Hellas, with ten checking clerks and ten
+seals, ... cannot keep faith with a single talent; Romans, in their
+magistracies and embassies, handle great sums of money, and yet from
+pure respect of oath keep their faith intact."
+
+But the words of selfish virulence and cant had been uttered, and up
+from the body of the house swelled a shout of approval, growing louder
+and louder every instant.
+
+Then up rose Domitius, on his face the leer of a brutal triumph.
+
+"Conscript Fathers," he said, "I call for a vote on the question of
+martial law. Have the Senate divide on the motion. 'Let the consuls,
+pr�tors, tribunes of the plebs, and men of consular rank see to it
+that the Republic suffers no harm.'"
+
+Another shout of applause rolled along the seats, fiercer and fiercer,
+and through it all a shower of curses and abusive epithets upon the
+C�sarians. All around Drusus seemed to be tossing and bellowing the
+breakers of some vast ocean, an ocean of human forms and faces, that
+was about to dash upon him and overwhelm him, in mad fury
+irresistible. The din was louder and louder. The bronze casings on the
+walls rattled, the pediments and pavements seemed to vibrate; outside,
+the vast mob swarming around the Curia re�choed the shout. "Down with
+C�sar!" "Down with the tribunes!" "_Io!_ Pompeius!"
+
+It was all as some wild distorted dream passing before Drusus's eyes.
+He could not bring himself to conceive the scene as otherwise. In a
+sort of stupor he saw the senators swarming to the right of the
+building, hastening to cast their votes in favour of Domitius's
+motion. Only two men--under a storm of abuse and hootings, passed to
+the left and went on record against the measure. These were Curio and
+C�lius; and they stood for some moments alone on the deserted side of
+the house, defiantly glaring at the raging Senate. Antonius and
+Cassius contemptuously remained in their seats--for no magistrate
+could vote in the Senate.
+
+It was done; it could not be undone. Not C�sar, but the Senate, had
+decreed the end of the glorious Republic. Already, with hasty
+ostentation, some senators were stepping outside the Curia, and
+returning clad no longer in the toga of peace, but in a military
+cloak[146] which a slave had been keeping close at hand in readiness.
+Already Cato was on his feet glaring at the C�sarian tribunes, and
+demanding that first of all they be subjected to punishment for
+persisting in their veto. The Senate was getting more boisterous each
+minute. A tumult was like to break out, in which some deed of violence
+would be committed, which would give the key-note to the whole
+sanguinary struggle impending. Yet in the face of the raging tempest
+Marcus Antonius arose and confronted the assembly. It raged, hooted,
+howled, cursed. He still remained standing. Cato tried to continue his
+invective. The tempest that he had done so much to raise drowned his
+own voice, and he relapsed into his seat. But still Antonius stood his
+ground, quietly, with no attempt to shout down the raging Senate, as
+steadfastly as though a thousand threats were not buzzing around his
+ears. Drusus's heart went with his friend that instant. He had never
+been in a battle, yet he realized that it was vastly more heroic to
+stand undaunted before this audience, than to walk into the bloodiest
+m�l�e without a tremor.
+
+  [146] _Sagum_.
+
+Then of a sudden, like the interval between the recession of one wave
+and the advance of a second billow, came a moment of silence; and into
+that silence Antonius broke, with a voice so strong, so piercing, so
+resonant, that the most envenomed oligarch checked his clamour to give
+ear.
+
+"Hearken, ye senators of the Republic, ye false _patres_, ye fathers
+of the people who are no fathers! So far have we waited; we wait no
+more! So much have we seen; we'll see no further! So much have we
+endured,--reproaches, repulses, deceits, insult, outrage, yes, for I
+see it in the consul's eye, next do we suffer violence itself; but
+that we will not tamely suffer. Ay! drive us from our seats, as Marcus
+Cato bids you! Ay! strike our names from the Senate list, as Domitius
+will propose! Ay! hound your lictors, sir consul, after us, to lay
+their rods across our backs! Ay! enforce your decree proclaiming
+martial law! So have you acted before to give legal fiction to your
+tyranny! But tell me this, senators, pr�torii, consulars, and consuls,
+where will this mad violence of yours find end? Tiberius Gracchus you
+have murdered. Caius Gracchus you have murdered. Marcus Drusus you
+have murdered. Ten thousand good men has your creature Sulla murdered.
+Without trial, without defence, were the friends of Catilina murdered.
+And now will ye add one more deed of blood to those going before? Will
+ye strike down an inviolate tribune, in Rome,--in the shadow of the
+very Curia? Ah! days of the Decemvirs, when an evil Ten ruled over the
+state--would that those days might return! Not ten tyrants but a
+thousand oppress us now! Then despotism wore no cloak of patriotism or
+legal right, but walked unmasked in all its blackness!
+
+"Hearken, ye senators, and in the evil days to come, remember all I
+say. Out of the seed which ye sow this hour come wars, civil wars;
+Roman against Roman, kinsman against kinsman, brother against brother!
+There comes impiety, violence, cruelty, bloodshed, anarchy! There
+comes the destruction of the old; there comes the birth, amid pain and
+anguish, of the new! Ye who grasp at money, at power, at high office;
+who trample on truth and right to serve your selfish ends; false,
+degenerate Romans,--one thing can wipe away your crimes--"
+
+"What?" shouted Cato, across the senate-house; while Pompeius, who was
+shifting uncomfortably in his seat, had turned very red.
+
+"Blood!" cried back Antonius, carried away by the frenzy of his own
+invective; then, shooting a lightning glance over the awe-struck
+Senate, he spoke as though gifted with some terrible prophetic
+omniscience. "Pompeius Magnus, the day of your prosperity is
+past--prepare ingloriously to die! Lentulus Crus, you, too, shall pay
+the forfeit of your crimes! Metellus Scipio, Marcus Cato, Lucius
+Domitius, within five years shall you all be dead--dead and with
+infamy upon your names! Your blood, your blood shall wipe away your
+folly and your lust for power. Ye stay, we go. Ye stay to pass once
+more unvetoed the decree declaring C�sar and his friends enemies of
+the Republic; we go--go to endure our outlaw state. But we go to
+appeal from the unjust scales of your false Justice to the juster
+sword of an impartial Mars, and may the Furies that haunt the lives of
+tyrants and shedders of innocent blood attend you--attend your persons
+so long as ye are doomed to live, and your memory so long as men shall
+have power to heap on your names reproach!"
+
+Drusus hardly knew that Antonius had so much as stopped, when he found
+his friend leading him out of the Curia.
+
+Behind, all was still as they walked away toward the Temple of Mars.
+Then, as they proceeded a little distance, a great roar as of a
+distant storm-wind drifted out from the senate-house--so long had
+Antonius held his audience spellbound.
+
+"_Finitum est!_" said Curio, his eyes cast on the ground. "We have
+seen, my friends, the last day of the Republic."
+
+
+II
+
+Behind the Temple of Mars the faithful Agias was ready with the
+slaves' dresses which were to serve as a simple disguise. Antonius and
+his companions tossed off their cumbrous togas and put on the dark,
+coarse cloaks and slippers which were worn by slaves and people of the
+lower classes. These changes were quickly made, but valuable time was
+wasted while Antonius--who, as a bit of a dandy, wore his hair rather
+long[147]--underwent a few touches with the shears. It was now
+necessary to get across the Tiber without being recognized, and once
+fairly out of Rome the chances of a successful pursuit were not many.
+On leaving the friendly shelter of the Temple buildings, nothing
+untoward was to be seen. The crowds rushing to and fro, from the Curia
+and back, were too busy and excited to pay attention to a little group
+of slaves, who carefully kept from intruding themselves into notice.
+Occasionally the roar and echo of applause and shouting came from the
+now distant Curia, indicating that the Senate was still at its unholy
+work of voting wars and destructions. A short walk would bring them
+across the Pons �milius, and there, in the shelter of one of the
+groves of the new public gardens which C�sar had just been laying out
+on Janiculum, were waiting several of the fastest mounts which the
+activity of Agias and the lavish expenditures of Pausanias had been
+able to procure.
+
+  [147] Slaves were always close clipped.
+
+The friends breathed more easily.
+
+"I hardly think," said Quintus Cassius, "we shall be molested. The
+consuls cannot carry their mad hate so far."
+
+They were close to the bridge. The way was lined with tall warehouses
+and grain storehouses,[148] the precursors of the modern "elevators."
+They could see the tawny Tiber water flashing between the stone arches
+of the bridge. The swarms of peasants and countrymen driving herds of
+lowing kine and bleating sheep toward the adjacent Forum Boarium
+seemed unsuspicious and inoffensive. A moment more and all Drusus's
+tremors and anxieties would have passed as harmless fantasy.
+
+  [148] _Horre�_.
+
+Their feet were on the bridge. They could notice the wind sweeping
+through the tall cypresses in the gardens where waited the steeds that
+were to take them to safety. The friends quickened their pace. A cloud
+had drifted across the sun; there was a moment's gloom. When the light
+danced back, Drusus caught Curio's arm with a start.
+
+"Look!" The new sunbeams had glanced on the polished helmet of a
+soldier standing guard at the farther end of the bridge.
+
+There was only an instant for hesitation.
+
+"Lentulus has foreseen that we must try to escape by this way," said
+Curio, seriously, but without panic. "We must go back at once, and try
+to cross by the wooden bridge below or by some other means."
+
+But a great herd of dirty silver-grey Etruscan cattle came over the
+causeway, and to get ahead of them would have been impracticable
+without attracting the most unusual attention. It was now evident
+enough that there was a considerable guard at the head of the bridge,
+and to make a rush and overpower it was impossible. The heavy-uddered
+cows and snorting, bellowing bulls dragged by with a slow plodding
+that almost drove Drusus frantic. They were over at last, and the
+friends hastened after them, far more anxious to leave the bridge than
+they had been an instant before to set foot upon it. On they pressed,
+until as if by magic there stood across their path the twelve lictors
+of one of the consuls, with upraised fasces. Behind the lictors was a
+half-century of soldiers in full armour led by their _optio_.[149]
+
+  [149] Adjutant, subordinate to a centurion.
+
+"Sirs," announced the head lictor, "I am commanded by the consul,
+Lucius Lentulus Crus, to put you all under arrest for treason against
+the Republic. Spare yourselves the indignity of personal violence, by
+offering no resistance."
+
+To resist would indeed have been suicide. The friends had worn their
+short swords under their cloaks, but counting Agias they were only
+six, and the lictors were twelve, to say nothing of the soldiers, of
+whom there were thirty or more.
+
+The ground seemed swaying before Drusus's eyes; in his ears was a
+buzzing; his thoughts came to him, thick, confused, yet through them
+all ran the vision of Cornelia, and the conviction that he was never
+to see her again. He looked back. The soldiers at the head of the
+bridge had taken alarm and were marching down to complete the arrest.
+He looked before. The lictors, the troops, the stupid cattle and their
+stolid drivers, and the great black-sided warehouses, casting their
+gloomy shadow over the rippling river. Down stream; not a skiff seemed
+stirring. The water was plashing, dancing, glancing in the sunshine.
+Below the wooden bridge the spars of a huge merchantman were just
+covering with canvas, as she stood away from her quay. Up stream (the
+views were all compressed into the veriest moment)--with the current
+came working, or rather drifting, a heavy barge loaded with timber.
+Only two men, handling rude paddles, stood upon her deck. The barge
+was about to pass under the very arch upon which stood the handful of
+entrapped C�sarians. A word, a motion, and the last hope of escape
+would have been comprehended by the enemy, and all would have been
+lost. But in moments of extreme peril it is easy to make a glance full
+of pregnancy. Antonius saw the face of his friend--saw and understood;
+and the other seemingly doomed men understood likewise. In an instant
+the barge would pass under the bridge!
+
+"Fellow," replied Antonius (the whole inspection of the situation,
+formation of the plot, and visual dialogue had really been so rapid as
+to make no long break after the lictor ceased speaking), "do you dare
+thus to do what even the most profane and impious have never dared
+before? Will you lay hands on two inviolate tribunes of the plebs, and
+those under their personal protection; and by your very act become a
+_sacer_--an outlaw devoted to the gods, whom it is a pious thing for
+any man to slay?"
+
+"I have my orders, sir," replied the head lictor, menacingly. "And I
+would have you know that neither you nor Quintus Cassius are reckoned
+tribunes longer by the Senate; so by no such plea can you escape
+arrest."
+
+"Tribunes no longer!" cried Antonius; "has tyranny progressed so far
+that no magistrate can hold office after he ceases to humour the
+consuls?"
+
+"We waste time, sir," said the lictor, sternly. "Forward, men; seize
+and bind them!"
+
+But Antonius's brief parley had done its work. As the bow of the barge
+shot under the bridge, Curio, with a single bound over the parapet,
+sprang on to its deck; after him leaped Quintus Cassius, and after him
+C�lius. Before Drusus could follow, however, the stern of the barge
+had vanished under the archway. The lictors and soldiers had sprung
+forward, but a second had been lost by rushing to the eastern side of
+the bridge, where the barge had just disappeared from sight. Agias,
+Antonius, and Drusus were already standing on the western parapet. The
+lictors and soldiers were on them in an instant. The blow of one of
+the fasces smote down Antonius, but he fell directly into the vessel
+beneath--stunned but safe. A soldier caught Agias by the leg to drag
+him down. Drusus smote the man under the ear so that he fell without a
+groan; but Agias himself had been thrown from the parapet on to the
+bridge; the soldiers were thronging around. Drusus saw the naked steel
+of their swords flashing before his eyes; he knew that the barge was
+slipping away in the current. It was a time of seconds, but of seconds
+expanded for him into eternities. With one arm he dashed back a
+lictor, with the other cast Agias--he never knew whence came that
+strength which enabled him to do the feat--over the stonework, and
+into the arms of Curio in the receding boat. Then he himself leaped. A
+rude hand caught his cloak. It was torn from his back. A sword whisked
+past his head--he never learned how closely. He was in the air, saw
+that the barge was getting away, and next he was chilled by a sudden
+dash of water and C�lius was dragging him aboard; he had landed under
+the very stern of the barge. Struggling in the water, weighed down by
+their armour, were several soldiers who had leaped after him and had
+missed their distance completely.
+
+The young man clambered on to the rude vessel. Its crew (two simple,
+harmless peasants) were cowering among the lumber. Curio had seized
+one of the paddles and was guiding the craft out into the middle of
+the current; for the soldiers were already running along the wharves
+and preparing to fling their darts. The other men, who had just been
+plucked out of the jaws of destruction, were all engaged in collecting
+their more or less scattered wits and trying to discover the next turn
+of calamity in store. Antonius--who, despite his fall, had come down
+upon a coil of rope and so escaped broken bones and serious
+bruises--was the first to sense the great peril of even their present
+situation.
+
+"In a few moments," he remarked, casting a glance down the river, "we
+shall be under the Pons Sublicius, and we shall either be easily
+stopped and taken, or crushed with darts as we pass by. You see they
+are already signalling from the upper bridge to their guard at the
+lower. We shall drift down into their hands, and gain nothing by our
+first escape."
+
+"Anchor," suggested Cassius, who was an impulsive and rather
+inconsiderate man. And he prepared to pitch overboard the heavy
+mooring-stone.
+
+"_Phui!_ You sheep," cried Curio, contemptuously, mincing no words at
+that dread moment. "How long will it be before there will be ten
+boatloads of soldiers alongside? Can we beat off all Pompeius's
+legions?"
+
+Antonius caught up another paddle and passed it through a rower's
+thong.
+
+"Friends," he said, with that ready command which his military life
+had given him, "these soldiers are in armour and can run none too
+swiftly. Once show them the back, and they must throw away their arms
+or give over the chase. It is madness to drift down upon the lower
+bridge. We must turn across the river, risk the darts, and try to land
+on the farther bank. Take oars!"
+
+There was but one remaining paddle. Drusus seized it and pushed
+against the water with so much force that the tough wood bent and
+creaked, but did not snap. The unwieldy barge sluggishly answered this
+powerful pressure, and under the stroke of the three oars began to
+head diagonally across the current and move slowly toward the farther
+shore. The soldiers did not at once perceive the intent of this move.
+By their actions they showed that they had expected the barge to try
+to slip through the Pons Sublicius, and so escape down the river. They
+had run some little way along the south bank of the Tiber, to
+re�nforce their comrades at the lower bridge, when they saw the new
+course taken by their expected prey. Much valuable time had thus been
+gained by the pursued, time which they needed sadly enough, for,
+despite their frantic rowing, their unwieldy craft would barely crawl
+across the current.
+
+Long before the barge was within landing distance of the northern
+bank, the soldiers who had been on guard at the head of the Pons
+�milius had regained their former station, and were running along the
+shore to cut off any attempt there to escape. Soon a whizzing javelin
+dug into the plank at Drusus's feet, and a second rushed over C�lius's
+head, and plashed into the water beyond the barge. Other soldiers on
+the now receding southern bank were piling into a light skiff to
+second their comrades' efforts by a direct attack on the fugitives.
+
+A third dart grazed Antonius's hair and buried its head in the pile of
+lumber. The tribune handed his oar to C�lius, and, deliberately
+wresting the weapon from the timber, flung it back with so deadly an
+aim that one pursuing legionary went down, pierced through the
+breastplate. The others recoiled for an instant, and no more javelins
+were thrown, which was some slight gain for the pursued.
+
+It seemed, however, that the contest could have only a single ending.
+The soldiers were running parallel and apace with the barge, which was
+now as close to the northern bank as was safe in view of the missiles.
+The Pons Sublicius was getting minute by minute nearer, and upon it
+could be seen a considerable body of troops ready with darts and
+grapnels to cut off the last hope of escape.
+
+But Antonius never withdrew his eye from the line of dark
+weatherbeaten warehouses that stretched down to the river's edge on
+the north bank just above the Pons Sublicius.
+
+"Row," he exhorted his companions, "row! as life is dear! Row as never
+before!"
+
+And under the combined impulse of the three desperate men, even the
+heavy barge leaped forward and a little eddy of foaming waves began to
+trail behind her stern. Drusus had no time to ask of himself or
+Antonius the special object of this last burst of speed. He only knew
+that he was flinging every pound of strength into the heavy handle of
+his oar, and that his life depended on making the broad blade push
+back the water as rapidly as possible. Antonius, however, had had good
+cause for his command. A searching scrutiny had revealed to him that a
+single very long warehouse ran clear down to the river's edge, and so
+made it impossible to continue running along the bank. A pursuer must
+double around the whole length of the building before continuing the
+chase of the barge. And for a small quay just beyond this warehouse
+Antonius headed his clumsy vessel. The soldiers continued their chase
+up to the very walls of the warehouse, where they, of a sudden, found
+themselves stopped by an impenetrable barrier. They lost an instant of
+valuable time in trying to wade along the bank, where the channel
+shelved off rapidly, and, finding the attempt useless, dashed a volley
+of their missiles after the barge. But the range was very long. Few
+reached the vessel; none did damage. The soldiers disappeared behind
+the warehouse, still running at a headlong pace. Before they
+reappeared on the other side, Antonius had brought his craft to the
+quay. There was no time for mooring, and the instant the barge lost
+way the hard-pressed C�sarians were on shore. Another instant, and the
+clumsy vessel had been caught by the current, and swung out into the
+stream.
+
+She had done her work. The pursued men broke into a dash for the
+nearest highway. The soldiers were close after them. But they had
+flung away their javelins, and what with their heavy armour and the
+fatigue of running were quite as exhausted as the C�sarians, three of
+whom had been thoroughly winded by their desperate rowing. On the Pons
+Sublicius, where a great crowd had gathered to watch the exciting
+chase, there was shouting and tumult. No doubt voices few enough would
+have been raised for the C�sarians if they had been captured; but now
+that they bade fair to escape, the air was thick with gibes at the
+soldiers, and cries of encouragement to the pursued. On the two
+parties ran. Soon they were plunged in the tortuous, dirty lanes of
+the "Trans-Tiber" district, rushing at frantic speed past the shops of
+dirty Jews and the taverns of noisy fishermen and sailors. Already
+news of the chase had gone before them, and, as Drusus followed his
+friends under the half-arching shadows of the tall tenement houses,
+drunken pedlers and ribald women howled out their wishes of success,
+precisely as though they were in a race-course. Now the dirty streets
+were left behind and the fatigued runners panted up the slopes of the
+Janiculum, toward the gardens of C�sar. They passed the little grove
+sacred to the Furies, and, even as for life he ran, Drusus recalled
+with shame how over this very road to this very grove, had fled Caius
+Gracchus, the great tribune of the people, whom Drusus's own great
+grandfather, Marcus Livius Drusus, had hounded to his death; that day
+when all men encouraged him as he ran, but none would raise a hand to
+aid.
+
+But now up from the bridge came the thunder of horses'
+hoofs,--cavalry, tearing at a furious gallop. Pompeius had evidently
+ordered out a _turma_[150] of mounted men to chase down the runaways.
+More and more frantic the race--Drusus's tongue hung from his mouth
+like a dog's. He flew past a running fountain, and was just desperate
+enough to wonder if it was safe to stop one instant and touch--he
+would not ask to drink--one drop of the cool water. Fortunately the
+C�sarians were all active young men, of about equal physical powers,
+and they kept well together and encouraged one another, not by
+word--they had no breath for that--but by interchange of courage and
+sympathy from eye to eye. The heavy legionaries had given up the
+chase; it was the cavalry, now flying almost at their very heels, that
+urged them to their final burst of speed.
+
+  [150] Squadron of 30 horse.
+
+At last! Here were the gardens of C�sar, and close by the roadway
+under a spreading oak, their grooms holding them in readiness for
+instant service, were six of the best specimens of horseflesh money
+could command.
+
+None of the little party had breath left to speak a word. To fling
+themselves into the saddles, to snatch the reins from the attendants'
+hands, to plunge the heels of their sandals, in lieu of spurs, into
+the flanks of their already restless steeds,--these things were done
+in an instant, but none too soon. For, almost as the six riders turned
+out upon the road to give head to their horses, the cavalry were upon
+them. The foremost rider sent his lance over Curio's shoulder, grazing
+the skin and starting blood; a second struck with his short sword at
+C�lius's steed, but the horse shied, and before the blow could be
+repeated the frightened beast had taken a great bound ahead and out of
+danger. This exciting phase of the pursuit, however, was of only
+momentary duration. The horses of the C�sarians were so incomparably
+superior to the common army hacks of the soldiers, that, as soon as
+the noble blooded animals began to stretch their long limbs on the
+hard Roman road, the troopers dropped back to a harmless distance in
+the rear. The cavalrymen's horses, furthermore, had been thoroughly
+winded by the fierce gallop over the bridge, and now it was out of the
+question for them to pursue. Before the flight had continued a mile,
+the C�sarians had the satisfaction of seeing their enemies draw rein,
+then turn back to the city. The friends, however, did not check their
+pace until, safe beyond chance of overtaking, they reined in at an
+hospitable tavern in the old Etruscan town of Veii.
+
+Here Drusus took leave of Agias.
+
+"You are quite too unimportant an enemy," said he to the young Greek,
+"to be worth arrest by the consuls, if indeed they know what part you
+have had in our escape. I know not what perils are before me, and I
+have no right to ask you to share them. You have long ago paid off any
+debt of gratitude that you owed me and mine when Fabia saved your
+life. I am your patron no longer; go, and live honourably, and you
+will find deposited with Flaccus a sum that will provide for all your
+needs. If ever I return to Rome, my party victorious, myself in
+favour, then let us renew our friendship; but till then you and I meet
+no more."
+
+Agias knelt and kissed Drusus's robe in a semi-Oriental obeisance.
+
+"And is there nothing," he asked half wistfully at the parting, "that
+I can yet do for you?"
+
+"Nothing," said Drusus, "except to see that no harm come to my Aunt
+Fabia, and if it be possible deliver Cornelia from the clutches of her
+bloody uncle."
+
+"Ah!" said Agias, smiling, "that is indeed _something_! But be not
+troubled, domine,"--he spoke as if Drusus was still his master,--"I
+will find a way."
+
+That evening, under the canopy of night, the five C�sarians sped,
+swift as their horses could bear them, on their way to Ravenna.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XVI
+
+The Rubicon
+
+
+I
+
+It was growing late, but the proconsul apparently was manifesting no
+impatience. All the afternoon he had been transacting the routine
+business of a provincial governor--listening to appeals to his
+judgment seat, signing requisitions for tax imposts, making out
+commissions, and giving undivided attention to a multitude of seeming
+trifles. Only Decimus Mamercus, the young centurion,--elder son of the
+veteran of Pr�neste,--who stood guard at the doorway of the public
+office of the pr�torium, thought he could observe a hidden nervousness
+and a still more concealed petulance in his superior's manner that
+betokened anxiety and a desire to be done with the routine of the day.
+Finally the last litigant departed, the governor descended from the
+curule chair, the guard saluted as he passed out to his own private
+rooms, and soon, as the autumn darkness began to steal over the
+cantonment, nothing but the call of the sentries broke the calm of the
+advancing night.
+
+C�sar was submitting to the attentions of his slaves, who were
+exchanging his robes of state for the comfortable evening _synthesis_.
+But the proconsul was in no mood for the publicity of the evening
+banquet. When his chief freedman announced that the invited guests had
+assembled, the master bade him go to the company and inform them that
+their host was indisposed, and wished them to make merry without him.
+The evening advanced. Twice C�sar touched to his lips a cup of spiced
+wine, but partook of nothing else. Sending his servants from his
+chamber, he alternately read, and wrote nervously on his tablets, then
+erased all that he had inscribed, and paced up and down the room.
+Presently the anxious head-freedman thrust his head into the
+apartment.
+
+"My lord, it is past midnight. The guests have long departed. There
+will be serious injury done your health, if you take no food and
+rest."
+
+"My good Antiochus," replied the proconsul, "you are a faithful
+friend."
+
+The freedman--an elderly, half-Hellenized Asiatic--knelt and kissed
+the Roman's robe.
+
+"My lord knows that I would die for him."
+
+"I believe you, Antiochus. The gods know I never needed a friend more
+than now! Do not leave the room."
+
+The general's eyes were glittering, his cheeks flushed with an
+unhealthy colour. The freedman was startled.
+
+"Domine, domine!" he began, "you are not well--let me send for
+Calchas, the physician; a mild sleeping powder--"
+
+For the first time in his long service of C�sar, Antiochus met with a
+burst of wrath from his master.
+
+"Vagabond! Do you think a sleeping potion will give peace to _me_?
+Speak again of Calchas, and I'll have you crucified!"
+
+"Domine, domine!" cried the trembling freedman; but C�sar swept on:--
+
+"Don't go from the room! I am desperate to-night. I may lay violent
+hands on myself. Why should I not ask you for a poisoned dagger?"
+
+Antiochus cowered at his master's feet.
+
+"Yes, why not? What have I to gain by living? I have won some little
+fame. I have conquered all Gaul. I have invaded Britain. I have made
+the Germans tremble. Life is an evil dream, a nightmare, a frightful
+delusion. Death is real. Sleep--sleep--forever sleep! No care, no
+ambition, no vexation, no anger, no sorrow. Cornelia, the wife of my
+love, is asleep. Julia is asleep. All that I loved sleep. Why not I
+also?"
+
+"Domine, speak not so!" and Antiochus clasped the proconsul's knees.
+
+C�sar bent down and lifted him up by the hand. When he spoke again,
+the tone was entirely changed.
+
+"Old friend, you have known me; have loved me. You were my
+_pedagogue_[151] when I went to school at Rome. You taught me to ride
+and fence and wrestle. You aided me to escape the myrmidons of Sulla.
+You were with me in Greece. You shared my joy in my political
+successes, my triumphs in the field. And now what am I to do? You know
+the last advices from Rome; you know the determination of the consuls
+to work my ruin. To-day no news has come at all, and for us no news is
+the worst of news."
+
+  [151] Slave who looked after the welfare and conduct of a schoolboy.
+
+"Domine," said Antiochus, wiping his eyes, "I cannot dream that the
+Senate and Pompeius will deny you your right to the second
+consulship."
+
+"But if they do? You know what Curio reports. What then?"
+
+Antiochus shook his head.
+
+"It would mean war, bloody war, the upturning of the whole world!"
+
+"War, or--" and C�sar paused.
+
+"What, my lord?" said the freedman.
+
+"I cease either to be a care to myself or my enemies."
+
+"I do not understand you, domine," ventured Antiochus, turning pale.
+
+"I mean, good friend," said the proconsul, calmly, "that when I
+consider how little life often seems worth, and how much disaster the
+continuance of my act of living means to my fellow-men, I feel often
+that I have no right to live."
+
+Antiochus staggered with dread. C�sar was no longer talking wildly;
+and the freedman knew that when in a calm mood the proconsul was
+always perfectly serious.
+
+"Domine, you have not rashly determined this?" he hinted.
+
+"I have determined nothing. I never rashly determine anything. Hark!
+Some one is at the door."
+
+There was a loud military knock, and the clang of armour.
+
+"Enter," commanded C�sar.
+
+Decimus Mamercus hastened into the room. So great was his excitement
+that his Roman discipline had forsaken him. He neglected to salute.
+
+"News! news! Imperator! from Rome! News which will set all Italy
+afire!"
+
+Whereupon the man who had but just before been talking of suicide,
+with the greatest possible deliberation seated himself on a
+comfortable chair, arranged his dress, and remarked with perfect
+coldness:--
+
+"No tidings can justify a soldier in neglecting to salute his
+general."
+
+Decimus turned red with mortification, and saluted.
+
+"Now," said C�sar, icily, "what have you to report?"
+
+"Imperator," replied Decimus, trying to speak with unimpassioned
+preciseness, "a messenger has just arrived from Rome. He reports that
+the Senate and consuls have declared the Republic in peril, that the
+veto of your tribunes has been over-ridden, and they themselves forced
+to flee for their lives."
+
+C�sar had carelessly dropped a writing tablet that he was holding, and
+now he stooped slowly and picked it up again.
+
+"The messenger is here?" he inquired, after a pause.
+
+"He is," replied the centurion.
+
+"Has he been duly refreshed after a hard ride?" was the next question.
+
+"He has just come."
+
+"Then let him have the best food and drink my butler and cellarer can
+set before him."
+
+"But his news is of extreme importance," gasped Decimus, only half
+believing his ears.
+
+"I have spoken," said the general, sternly. "What is his name?"
+
+"He is called Quintus Drusus, Imperator."
+
+"Ah!" was his deliberate response, "send him to me when he will eat
+and drink no more."
+
+Decimus saluted again, and withdrew, while his superior opened the
+roll in his hands, and with all apparent fixity and interest studied
+at the precepts and definitions of the grammar of Dionysius Thrax, the
+noted philologist.
+
+At the end of some minutes Quintus Drusus stood before him.
+
+The young Pr�nestian was covered with dust, was unkempt, ragged; his
+step was heavy, his arms hung wearily at his side, his head almost
+drooped on his breast with exhaustion. But when he came into the
+Imperator's presence, he straightened himself and tried to make a
+gesture of salutation. C�sar had risen from his chair.
+
+"Fools!" he cried, to the little group of slaves and soldiers, who
+were crowding into the room, "do you bring me this worn-out man, who
+needs rest? Who dared this? Has he been refreshed as I commanded?"
+
+"He would take nothing but some wine--" began Decimus.
+
+"I would have waited until morning, if necessary, before seeing him.
+Here!" and while C�sar spoke he half led, half thrust, the messenger
+into his own chair, and, anticipating the nimblest slave, unclasped
+the travel-soiled p�nula from Drusus's shoulders. The young man tried
+to rise and shake off these ministrations, but the proconsul gently
+restrained him. A single look sufficed to send all the curious retinue
+from the room. Only Antiochus remained, sitting on a stool in a
+distant corner.
+
+"And now, my friend," said C�sar, smiling, and drawing a chair close
+up to that of Drusus, "tell me when it was that you left Rome."
+
+"Two days ago," gasped the wearied messenger.
+
+"_Mehercle!_" cried the general, "a hundred and sixty miles in two
+days! This is incredible! And you come alone?"
+
+"I had Andr�mon, the fastest horse in Rome. Antonius, C�lius, Cassius,
+Curio, and myself kept together as far as Clusium. There was no longer
+any danger of pursuit, no need for more than one to hasten." Drusus's
+sentences were coming in hot pants. "I rode ahead. Rode my horse dead.
+Took another at Arretium. And so I kept changing. And now--I am here."
+And with this last utterance he stopped, gasping.
+
+C�sar, instead of demanding the tidings from Rome, turned to
+Antiochus, and bade him bring a basin and perfumed water to wash
+Drusus's feet. Meantime the young man had recovered his breath.
+
+"You have heard of the violence of the new consuls and how Antonius
+and Cassius withstood them. On the seventh the end came. The vetoes
+were set aside. Our protests were disregarded. The Senate has clothed
+the consuls and other magistrates with dictatorial power; they are
+about to make Lucius Domitius proconsul of Gaul."
+
+"And I?" asked C�sar, for the first time displaying any personal
+interest.
+
+"You, Imperator, must disband your army and return to Rome speedily,
+or be declared an outlaw, as Sertorius or Catilina was."
+
+"Ah!" and for a minute the proconsul sat motionless, while Drusus
+again kept silence.
+
+"But you--my friends--the tribunes?" demanded the general, "you spoke
+of danger; why was it that you fled?"
+
+"We fled in slaves' dresses, O C�sar, because otherwise we should long
+ago have been strangled like bandits in the Tullianum. Lentulus Crus
+drove us with threats from the Senate. On the bridge, but for the
+favour of the gods, his lictors would have taken us. We were chased by
+Pompeius's foot soldiers as far as Janiculum. We ran away from his
+cavalry. If they hate us, your humble friends, so bitterly, how much
+the more must they hate you!"
+
+"And the tribunes, and Curio, and C�lius are on their way hither?"
+asked C�sar.
+
+"They will be here very soon."
+
+"That is well," replied the proconsul; then, with a totally unexpected
+turn, "Quintus Drusus, what do you advise me to do?"
+
+"I--I advise, Imperator?" stammered the young man.
+
+"And who should advise, if not he who has ridden so hard and fast in
+my service? Tell me, is there any hope of peace, of reconciliation
+with Pompeius?"
+
+"None."
+
+"Any chance that the senators will recover their senses, and propose a
+reasonable compromise?"
+
+"None."
+
+"Will not Cicero use his eloquence in the cause of peace and common
+justice?"
+
+"I have seen him. He dare not open his mouth."
+
+"Ah!" and again C�sar was silent, this time with a smile, perhaps of
+scorn, playing around his mouth.
+
+"Are the people, the equites, given body and soul over to the war
+party?"
+
+Drusus nodded sadly. "So long as the consuls are in the ascendant,
+they need fear no revolution at home. The people are not at heart your
+enemies, Imperator; but they will wait to be led by the winning side."
+
+"And you advise?"--pressed C�sar, returning to the charge.
+
+"War!" replied Drusus, with all the rash emphasis of youth.
+
+"Young man," said C�sar, gravely, half sadly, "what you have said is
+easy to utter. Do you know what war will mean?"
+
+Drusus was silent.
+
+"Let us grant that our cause is most just. Even then, if we fight, we
+destroy the Republic. If I conquer, it must be over the wreck of the
+Commonwealth. If Pompeius--on the same terms. I dare not harbour any
+illusions. The state cannot endure the farce of another Sullian
+restoration and reformation. A permanent government by one strong man
+will be the only one practicable to save the world from anarchy. Have
+you realized that?"
+
+"I only know, Imperator," said Drusus, gloomily, "that no future state
+can be worse than ours to-day, when the magistrates of the Republic
+are the most grievous despots."
+
+C�sar shook his head.
+
+"You magnify your own wrongs and mine. If mere revenge prompts us, we
+are worse than Xerxes, or Sulla. The gods alone can tell us what is
+right."
+
+"The gods!" cried Drusus, half sunken though he was in a weary
+lethargy, "do you believe there are any gods?"
+
+C�sar threw back his head. "Not always; but at moments I do not
+_believe_ in them, I _know_! And now I _know_ that gods are guiding
+us!"
+
+"Whither?" exclaimed the young man, starting from his weary
+drowsiness.
+
+"I know not whither; neither do I care. Enough to be conscious that
+they guide us!"
+
+And then, as though there was no pressing problem involving the peace
+of the civilized world weighing upon him, the proconsul stood by in
+kind attention while Antiochus and an attendant bathed the wearied
+messenger's feet before taking him away to rest.
+
+After Drusus had been carried to his room, C�sar collected the
+manuscripts and tablets scattered about the apartment, methodically
+placed them in the proper cases and presses, suffered himself to be
+undressed, and slept late into the following morning, as sweetly and
+soundly as a little child.
+
+
+II
+
+On the next day C�sar called before him the thirteenth legion,--the
+only force he had at Ravenna,--and from a pulpit in front of the
+pr�torium he told them the story of what had happened at Rome; of how
+the Senate had outraged the tribunes of the plebs, whom even the
+violent Sulla had respected; of how the mighty oligarchy had outraged
+every soldier in insulting their commander. Then Curio, just arrived,
+declaimed with indignant fervour of the violence and fury of the
+consuls and Pompeius; and when he concluded, the veterans could
+restrain their ardour and devotion no more, five thousand martial
+throats roared forth an oath of fealty, and as many swords were waved
+on high in mad defiance to the Senate and the Magnus. Then cohort
+after cohort cried out that on this campaign they would accept no pay;
+and the military tribunes and centurions pledged themselves, this
+officer for the support of two recruits, and that for three.
+
+It was a great personal triumph for C�sar. He stood receiving the
+pledges and plaudits, and repaying each protestation of loyalty with a
+few gracious words, or smiles, that were worth fifty talents to each
+acclaiming maniple. Drusus, who was standing back of the proconsul,
+beside Curio, realized that never before had he seen such outgoing of
+magnetism and personal energy from man to man, one mind holding in
+vassalage five thousand. Yet it was all very quickly over. Almost
+while the plaudits of the centuries were rending the air, C�sar turned
+to the senior tribune of the legion.
+
+"Are your men ready for the march, officer?"
+
+The soldier instantly fell into rigid military pose. "Ready this
+instant, Imperator. We have expected the order."
+
+"March to Ariminum, and take possession of the town. March rapidly."
+
+The tribune saluted, and stepped back among his cohort. And as if some
+conjurer had flourished a wand of magic, in the twinkling of an eye
+the first century had formed in marching order; every legionary had
+flung over his shoulder his shield and pack, and at the harsh blare of
+the military trumpet the whole legion fell into line; the aquilifer
+with the bronze eagle, that had tossed on high in a score of
+hard-fought fights, swung off at the head of the van; and away went
+the legion, a thing not of thinking flesh and blood, but of brass and
+iron--a machine that marched as readily and carelessly against the
+consuls of the Roman Republic as against the wretched Gallic
+insurgents. The body of troops--cohort after cohort--was vanishing
+down the road in a cloud of dust, the pack train following after,
+almost before Drusus could realize that the order to advance had been
+given.
+
+C�sar was still standing on the little pulpit before the pr�torium.
+Except for Curio and Drusus, almost all the vast company that had but
+just now been pressing about him with adulation and homage were
+disappearing from sight. For an instant the Imperator seemed alone,
+stripped of all the panoply of his high estate. He stood watching the
+legion until its dust-cloud settled behind some low-lying hills. Then
+he stepped down from the pulpit. Beyond a few menials and Drusus and
+that young man's late comrade in danger, no one else was visible. The
+transaction had been so sudden as to have something of the
+phantasmagoric about it.
+
+C�sar took his two friends, one by each hand, and led them back to his
+private study in the pr�torium.
+
+"The army is yours, Imperator," said Curio, breaking a rather
+oppressive silence. "The newest recruit is yours to the death."
+
+"Yes, to the death," replied the general, abstractedly; and his keen
+eyes wandered down upon the mosaic, seemingly penetrating the stone
+and seeking something hidden beneath. "The thirteenth legion," he
+continued, "will do as a test of the loyalty of the others. They will
+not fail me. The eighth and the twelfth will soon be over the Alps.
+Fabius is at Narbo with three. They will check Pompeius's Spaniards. I
+must send to Trebonius for his four among the Belg�; he is sending
+Fabius one." And then, as if wearied by this recapitulation, C�sar's
+eyes wandered off again to the pavement.
+
+Drusus had an uneasy sensation. What was this strange mingling of
+energy and listlessness? Why this soliloquy and internal debate, when
+the moment called for the most intense activity? The general being
+still silent, his friends did not venture to disturb him. But
+Antiochus passed in and out of the study, gathering up writing
+materials, tablets, and books; and presently Drusus heard the freedman
+bidding an underling have ready and packed the marble slabs used for
+the tessellated floor of the Imperator's tent--a bit of luxury that
+C�sar never denied himself while in the field. Presently the proconsul
+raised his eyes. He was smiling; there was not the least cloud on his
+brow.
+
+"There will be some public games here this afternoon," he remarked, as
+though the sole end in view was to make their stay pleasant to his
+guests: "I have promised the good people of the town to act as
+_editor_,[152] and must not fail to honour them. Perhaps the sport
+will amuse you, although the provincials cannot of course get such
+good lanista-trained men as you see at Rome. I have a new fencing
+school in which perhaps we may find a few _threces_[153] and
+_retiarii_,[154] who will give some tolerable sword and net play."
+
+  [152] President of the games.
+
+  [153] Buckler and cutlass men.
+
+  [154] Net and trident men.
+
+"_Hei!_" groaned Curio, with a lugubrious whisper, "to think of it, I
+have never a sesterce left that I can call my own, to stake on the
+struggle!"
+
+"At least," laughed Drusus, "I am a companion of your grief; already
+Lentulus and Ahenobarbus have been sharing my forfeited estate."
+
+But the proconsul looked serious and sad.
+
+"_Vah_, my friends! Would that I could say that your loyalty to my
+cause would cost you nothing! It is easy to promise to win back for
+you everything you have abandoned, but as the poets say, 'All that
+lies in the lap of the gods.' But you shall not be any longer the mere
+recipients of my bounty. Stern work is before us. I need not ask you
+if you will play your part. You, Curio, shall have a proper place on
+my staff of legates as soon as I have enough troops concentrated; but
+you, my dear Drusus, what post would best reward you for your loyalty?
+Will you be a military tribune, and succeed your father?"
+
+"Your kindness outruns your judgment, Imperator," replied Drusus.
+"Save repelling Dumnorix and Ahenobarbus, I never struck a blow in
+anger. Small service would I be to you, and little glory would I win
+as an officer, when the meanest legionary knows much that I may
+learn."
+
+"Then, amice," said C�sar, smiling, perhaps with the satisfaction of a
+man who knows when it is safe to make a gracious offer which he is
+aware will not be accepted, though none the less flattering, "if you
+will thus misappraise yourself, you shall act as centurion for the
+present, on my corps of _pr�toriani_,[155] where you will be among
+friends and comrades of your father, and be near my person if I have
+any special need of you."
+
+  [155] General's body-guard of picked veterans.
+
+Drusus proffered the best thanks he could; it was a great honour--one
+almost as great as a tribuneship, though hardly as responsible; and he
+felt repaid for all the weariness of his desperate ride to Ravenna.
+
+And then, with another of those strange alternations of behaviour,
+C�sar led him and Curio off to inspect the fencing-school; then showed
+them his favourite horse, pointed out its peculiar toelike hoofs, and
+related merrily how when it was a young colt, a soothsayer had
+predicted that its owner would be master of the world, and how
+he--C�sar,--had broken its fiery spirit, and made it perfectly docile,
+although no other man could ride the beast.
+
+The afternoon wore on. C�sar took his friends to the games, and
+watched with all apparent interest the rather sanguinary contests
+between the gladiators. Drusus noticed the effusive loyalty of the
+Ravenna citizens, who shouted a tumultuous welcome to the illustrious
+_editor_, but C�sar acted precisely as though the presidency of the
+sports were his most important office. Only his young admirer observed
+that as often as a gladiator brought his opponent down and appealed to
+the _editor_ for a decision on the life or death of the vanquished,
+C�sar invariably waved his handkerchief, a sign of mercy, rather than
+brutally turned down his thumb, the sentence of death. After the
+games, the proconsul interchanged personal greetings with the more
+prominent townspeople. Drusus began to wonder whether the whole day
+and evening were to pass in this manner; and indeed so it seemed, for
+that night the Imperator dispensed his usual open-handed hospitality.
+His great banqueting hall contained indeed no army officers, but there
+were an abundance of the provincial gentry. C�sar dined apart with his
+two friends. The courses went in and out. The proconsul continued an
+unceasing flow of light conversation: witty comments on Roman society
+and fashion, scraps of literary lore, now and then a bit of personal
+reminiscence of Gaul. Drusus forgot all else in the agreeable pleasure
+of the moment. Presently C�sar arose and mingled with his less exalted
+guests; when he returned to the upper table the attendants were
+bringing on the beakers, and the Cisalpine provincials were pledging
+one another in draughts of many _cyathi_, "prosperity to the
+proconsul, and confusion to his enemies." C�sar took a shallow glass
+of embossed blue and white bas-relief work,--a triumph of Alexandrian
+art,--poured into it a few drops of undiluted C�cuban liquor, dashed
+down the potion, then dropped the priceless beaker on to the floor.
+
+"An offering to Fortuna!" he cried, springing from his couch. "My
+friends, let us go!" And quietly leaving the table on the dais, the
+three found themselves outside the banqueting hall, while the
+provincials, unconscious that their host had departed, continued their
+noisy revelry.
+
+Drusus at once saw that everything was ready for departure. Antiochus
+was at hand with travelling cloaks, and assured the young man that due
+care had been taken to send in advance for him a complete wardrobe and
+outfit. The proconsul evidently intended to waste no time in starting.
+Drusus realized by the tone of his voice that C�sar the host had
+vanished, and C�sar the imperator was present. His words were terse
+and to the point.
+
+"Curio, you will find a fast horse awaiting you. Take it. Bide at full
+speed after the legion. Take command of the rear cohorts and of the
+others as you come up with them. Lead rapidly to Ariminum."
+
+And Curio, who was a man of few words, when few were needed, saluted
+and disappeared in the darkness. Drusus followed the general out after
+him. But no saddle-horses were prepared for C�sar. Antiochus and one
+or two slaves were ready with lanterns, and led the general and Drusus
+out of the gloomy cantonment, along a short stretch of road, to a mill
+building, where in the dim light of the last flickers of day could be
+seen a carriage with mules.
+
+"I have hired this as you wished," said the freedman, briefly.
+
+"It is well," responded his patron.
+
+Antiochus clambered upon the front seat; a stout German serving-man
+was at the reins. C�sar motioned to Drusus to sit beside him behind.
+There were a few necessaries in the carriage, but no other attendants,
+no luggage cart. The German shook the reins over the backs of the two
+mules, and admonished them in his barbarous native dialect. The dim
+shadow of the mill faded from sight; the lights of the pr�torium grew
+dimmer and dimmer: soon nothing was to be seen outside the narrow
+circle of pale light shed on the ground ahead by the lantern.
+
+The autumn season was well advanced. The day however had been warm.
+The night was sultry. There were no stars above, no moon, no wind. A
+sickening miasmic odour rose from the low flat country sloping off
+toward the Adriatic--the smell of overripe fruit, of decaying
+vegetation, of the harvest grown old. There had been a drought, and
+now the dust rose thick and heavy, making the mules and travellers
+cough, and the latter cover their faces. Out of the darkness came not
+the least sound: save the creaking of the dead boughs on trees, whose
+dim tracery could just be distinguished against the sombre background
+of the sky.
+
+No one spoke, unless the incoherent shouts of the German to the mules
+be termed speech. Antiochus and C�sar were sunk in stupor or reverie.
+Drusus settled back on the cushions, closed his eyes, and bade himself
+believe that it was all a dream. Six months ago he had been a student
+at Athens, wandering with his friends along the trickling Cephissus,
+or climbing, in holiday sport, the marble cone of Hymettus. And
+now--he was a proscribed rebel! Enemies thirsted for his blood! He was
+riding beside a man who made no disclaimer of his intention to subvert
+the constitution! If C�sar failed, he, Drusus, would share in "that
+bad eminence" awarded by fame to the execrated Catilinarians. Was
+it--was it not all a dream? Connected thought became impossible. Now
+he was in the dear old orchard at Pr�neste playing _micare_[156] with
+Cornelia and �milia; now back in Athens, now in Rome. Poetry, prose,
+scraps of oratory, philosophy, and rules of rhetoric,--Latin and Greek
+inextricably intermixed,--ideas without the least possible connection,
+raced through his head. How long he thus drifted on in his reverie he
+might not say. Perhaps he fell asleep, for the fatigue of his
+extraordinary riding still wore on him. A cry from Antiochus, a curse
+from the German, startled him out of his stupor. He stared about. It
+was pitch dark. "The gods blast it!" Antiochus was bawling. "The
+lantern has jolted out!"
+
+  [156] A finger-guessing game.
+
+To relight it under existing circumstances, in an age when friction
+matches were unknown, was practically impossible.
+
+"Fellow," said the proconsul's steady voice, "do you know the road to
+Ariminum?"
+
+The driver answered in his broken Latin that he was the slave of the
+stable keeper who had let the carriage, and had been often over the
+road, but to go safely in the dark was more than he could vouch for.
+The only thing the German saw to be done was to wait in the road until
+the morning, or until the moon broke out through the clouds.
+
+"Drusus," remarked the proconsul, "you are the youngest. Can your eyes
+make out anything to tell us where we are?"
+
+The young man yawned, shook off his drowsiness, and stared out into
+the gloomy void.
+
+"I can just make out that to our left are tall trees, and I imagine a
+thicket."
+
+"Very good. If you can see as much as that here, it is safe to
+proceed. Let us change places. I will take the reins. Do you, Drusus,
+come and direct me."
+
+"Oh! domine!" entreated Antiochus, "don't imperil yourself to-night!
+I'm sure some calamity impends before dawn. I consulted a soothsayer
+before setting out, and the dove which he examined had no heart--a
+certain sign of evil."
+
+"Rascal!" retorted his patron, "the omens will be more favourable when
+I please. A beast wants a heart--no very great prodigy! men lose
+theirs very often, and think it slight disgrace. Change your seat,
+sirrah!"
+
+C�sar took the reins, smote the mules, and went off at so furious a
+pace that the worthy Antiochus was soon busy invoking first one, then
+another, member of the pantheon, to avert disaster. Drusus speedily
+found that the general's vision was far more keen than his own.
+Indeed, although the road, he knew, was rough and crooked, they met
+with no mishaps. Presently a light could be seen twinkling in the
+distance.
+
+"We must get a guide," remarked the Imperator decisively, and he
+struck the mules again.
+
+They at last approached what the owl-like discernment of C�sar
+pronounced to be a small farmhouse with a few out-buildings. But it
+was no easy matter to arouse the drowsy countrymen, and a still more
+difficult task to convince the good man of the house that his
+nocturnal visitors were not brigands. At last it was explained that
+two gentlemen from Ravenna were bound for Ariminum, on urgent
+business, and he must furnish a guide for which he would be amply
+paid. As a result, the German driver at last resumed the reins, and
+sped away with a fresh lantern, and at his side a stupid peasant boy,
+who was almost too shy to make himself useful.
+
+But more misfortune was in store. Barely a mile had they traversed,
+before an ominous crack proclaimed the splitting of an axletree. The
+cheap hired vehicle could go no farther.
+
+"'Tis a sure sign the gods are against our proceeding this night,"
+expostulated Antiochus; "let us walk back to the farmhouse, my lord."
+
+C�sar did not deign to give him an answer. He deliberately descended,
+clasped his p�nula over his shoulders, and bade the German make the
+best of his way back to Ravenna. The peasant boy, he declared, could
+lead them on foot until dawn.
+
+The freedman groaned, but he was helpless. The guide, bearing the
+lantern, convoyed them out of the highroad, to strike what he assured
+them was a less circuitous route; and soon had his travellers, now
+plunged in quagmires that in daylight would have seemed impassable,
+now clambering over stocks and stones, now leaping broad ditches. At
+last, after thoroughly exhausting the patience of his companions, the
+wretched fellow confessed that he had missed the by-path, and indeed
+did not know the way back.
+
+Antiochus was now too frightened to declare his warnings confirmed.
+Drusus liked the prospect of a halt on these swampy, miasmic fields
+little enough, But again the proconsul was all resources. With almost
+omniscience he led his companions through blind mazes of fallow land
+and stubble fields: came upon a brook at the only point where there
+appeared to be any stepping-stones; and at length, just as the murky
+clouds seemed about to lift, and the first beams of the moon struggled
+out into the black chaos, the wanderers saw a multitude of fires
+twinkling before them, and knew that they had come upon the rear
+cohort of the thirteenth legion, on its way to Ariminum.
+
+The challenge of the sentry was met by a quick return of the
+watchword, but the effusively loyal soldier was bidden to hold his
+peace and not disturb his comrades.
+
+"What time is it?" inquired his general. The fellow replied it lacked
+one hour of morn. C�sar skirted the sleeping camp, and soon came out
+again on the highroad. There was a faint paleness in the east; a
+single lark sang from out the mist of grey ether overhead; an ox of
+the baggage train rattled his tethering chain and bellowed. A soft,
+damp river fog touched on Drusus's face. Suddenly an early horseman,
+coming at a moderate gallop, was heard down the road. In the
+stillness, the pounding of his steed crept slowly nearer and nearer;
+then, as he was almost on them, came the hollow clatter of the hoofs
+upon the planks of a bridge. _C�sar stopped._ Drusus felt himself
+clutched by the arm so tightly that the grasp almost meant pain.
+
+"Do you hear? Do you see?" muttered the Imperator's voice in his ear.
+"The bridge, the river--we have reached it!"
+
+"Your excellency--" began Drusus, sorely at a loss.
+
+"No compliments, this is the Rubicon; the boundaries of Cisalpine Gaul
+and Italy. On this side I am still the Proconsul--not as yet rightly
+deposed. On the other--C�sar, the Outlaw, the Insurgent, the Enemy of
+his Country, whose hand is against every man, every man's hand against
+him. What say you? Speak! speak quickly! Shall I cross? Shall I turn
+back?"
+
+"Imperator," said the young man, struggling to collect his wits and
+realize the gravity of his own words, "if you did not intend to cross,
+why send the legion over to commence the invasion? Why harangue them,
+if you had no test to place upon their loyalty?"
+
+"Because," was his answer, "I would not through my own indecision
+throw away my chance to strike. But the troops can be recalled. It is
+not too late. No blood has been shed. I am merely in a position to
+strike if so I decide. No,--nothing is settled."
+
+Drusus had never felt greater embarrassment. Before he could make
+reply, C�sar had bidden Antiochus and the peasant boy remain in the
+roadway, and had led the young man down the embankment that ran
+sloping toward the river. The light was growing stronger every moment,
+though the mist still hung heavy and dank. Below their feet the
+slender stream--it was the end of the season--ran with a monotonous
+gurgle, now and then casting up a little fleck of foam, as it rolled
+by a small boulder in its bed.
+
+"Imperator," said Drusus, while C�sar pressed his hand tighter and
+tighter, "why advise with an inexperienced young man like myself? Why
+did you send Curio away? I have no wisdom to offer; nor dare proffer
+it, if such I had."
+
+"Quintus Drusus," replied C�sar, sinking rather wearily down upon the
+dry, dying grass, "if I had needed the counsel of a soldier, I should
+have waited until Marcus Antonius arrived; if I had needed that of a
+politician, I was a fool to send away Curio; if I desire the counsel
+of one who is, as yet, neither a man of the camp, nor a man of the
+Forum, but who can see things with clear eyes, can tell what may be
+neither glorious nor expedient, but what will be the will,"--and here
+the Imperator hesitated,--"the will of the gods, tell me to whom I
+shall go."
+
+Drusus was silent; the other continued;--
+
+"Listen, Quintus Drusus. I do not believe in blind fate. We were not
+given wills only to have them broken. The function of a limb is not to
+be maimed, nor severed from the body. A limb is to serve a man; just
+so a man and his actions are to serve the ends of a power higher and
+nobler than he. If he refuse to serve that power, he is like the
+mortifying limb,--a thing of evil to be cut off. And this is true of
+all of us; we all have some end to serve, we are not created for no
+purpose." C�sar paused. When he began again it was in a different tone
+of voice. "I have brought you with me, because I know you are
+intelligent, are humane, love your country, and can make sacrifices
+for her; because you are my friend and to a certain extent share my
+destiny; because you are too young to have become overprejudiced, and
+calloused to pet foibles and transgressions. Therefore I took you with
+me, having put off the final decision to the last possible instant.
+And now I desire your counsel."
+
+"How can I counsel peace!" replied Drusus, warming to a sense of the
+situation. "Is not Italy in the hand of tyrants? Is not Pompeius the
+tool of coarse schemers? Do they not pray for proscriptions and
+confiscations and abolition of debt? Will there be any peace, any
+happiness in life, so long as we call ourselves freemen, yet endure
+the chains of a despotism worse than that of the Parthians?"
+
+"Ah! amice!" said C�sar, twisting the long limp grass, "every enemy is
+a tyrant, if he has the upper hand. Consider, what will the war be?
+Blood, the blood of the noblest Romans! The overturning of
+time-honoured institutions! A shock that will make the world to
+tremble, kings be laid low, cities annihilated! East, west, north,
+south--all involved--so great has our Roman world become!"
+
+"And are there not wrongs, abuses, Imperator, which cry for vengeance
+and for righting?" replied Drusus, vehemently. "Since the fall of
+Carthage, have not the fears of Scipio �milianus almost come true:
+Troy has fallen, Carthage has fallen; has not Rome almost fallen,
+fallen not by the might of her enemies, but by the decay of her
+morals, the degeneracy of her statesmen? What is the name of liberty,
+without the semblance! Is it liberty for a few mighty families to
+enrich themselves, while the Republic groans? Is it liberty for the
+law courts to have their price, for the provinces to be the farms of a
+handful of nobles?"
+
+C�sar shook his head.
+
+"You do not know what you say. This is no moment for declamation.
+Every man has his own life to live, his own death to die. Our
+intellects cannot assure us of any consciousness the instant that
+breath has left our bodies. It is then as if we had never hoped, had
+never feared; it is rest, peace. Quintus Drusus, I have dared many
+things in my life. I defied Sulla; it was boyish impetuosity. I took
+the unpopular and perilous side when Catilina's confederates were sent
+to their deaths; it was the ardour of a young politician. I defied the
+rage of the Senate, while I was pr�tor; still more hot madness. I
+faced death a thousand times in Gaul, against the Nervii, in the
+campaign with Vercingetorix; all this was the mere courage of the
+common soldier. But it is not of death I am afraid; be it death on the
+field of battle, or death at the hands of the executioner, should I
+fall into the power of my enemies, I fear myself.
+
+"You ask me to explain?" went on the general, without pausing for a
+question. "Hearken! I am a man, you are a man, our enemies are men. I
+have slain a hundred thousand men in Gaul. Cruel? No, for had they
+lived the great designs which the deity wills to accomplish in that
+country could not be executed! But then my mind was at rest. I said,
+'Let these men die,' and no Nemesis has required their blood at my
+hands. What profit these considerations? The Republic is nothing but a
+name, without substance or reality. It is doomed to fall. Sulla was a
+fool to abdicate the dictatorship. Why did he not establish a
+despotism, and save us all this turmoil of politics? But Lentulus
+Crus, Pompeius, Cato, Scipio--they are men with as much ambition, as
+much love of life, as myself. The Republic will fall into their hands.
+Why will it be worse off than in mine? Why shed rivers of blood? After
+death one knows no regrets. If I were dead, what would it matter to me
+if obloquy was imputed to my name, if my enemies triumphed, if the
+world went to chaos over my grave. It would not mean so much as a
+single evil dream in my perpetual slumber."
+
+C�sar was no longer resting on the bank. He was pacing to and fro,
+with rapid, nervous steps, crushing the dry twigs under his shoes,
+pressing his hands together behind his back, knitting and unknitting
+his fingers.
+
+Drusus knew enough to be aware that he was present as a spectator of
+that most terrible of all conflicts--a strong man's wrestle with his
+own misgivings. To say something, to say anything, that would ease the
+shock of the contest--that was the young man's compelling desire; but
+he felt as helpless as though he, single handed, confronted ten
+legions.
+
+"But your friends, Imperator," he faltered, "think of them! They have
+made sacrifices for you. They trust in you. Do not abandon them to
+their enemies!"
+
+C�sar stopped in his impetuous pacings.
+
+"Look here," he exclaimed, almost fiercely, "you wish to be happy. You
+are still very young; life is sweet. You have just forsaken wealth,
+friends, love, because you have a fantastic attachment for my cause.
+You will live to repent of your boyish decision. You will wish to win
+back all you have lost. Well, I will give you the chance; do what I
+tell you, and you shall ride into Rome the hero of Senate and people!
+The consuls will be to you all smiles. Pompeius will canvass for you
+if you desire to become a candidate for curule office before you reach
+the legal age limit. Cicero will extol your name in an immortal
+oration, in which he will laud your deed above the slaying of the
+dangerous demagogue M�lius by Servilius Ahala. Will you do as I shall
+bid you?"
+
+Drusus's eyes had been riveted on those of the general. He saw that at
+C�sar's side was girded a long slender dagger in an embossed silver
+sheath. He saw the Imperator draw out the blade halfway, then point
+off into the river where the water ran sluggishly through a single
+deep mist-shaded pool.
+
+"Do you understand?" went on C�sar, as calmly as though he had been
+expounding a problem of metaphysics. "You can take this ring of mine,
+and by its aid go through the whole legion, and obtain the best horses
+for flight, before anything is discovered. Your conscience need not
+trouble you. You will only have done as I earnestly requested."
+
+The cold sweat started to Drusus's forehead, his head swam; he knew
+that it was more than the mist of the river-fog that drifted before
+his eyes. Then, filled with a sudden impulse, he sprang on the general
+and wrenched the dagger from its sheath.
+
+"Here!" cried C�sar, tearing back the mantle from his breast.
+
+"There!" cried Drusus, and the bright blade glinted once in the air,
+and splashed down into the dark ripple. He caught the Imperator about
+the arms, and flung his head on the other's neck.
+
+"Oh! Imperator," he cried, "do not desert us. Do not desert the
+Commonwealth! Do not hand us back to new ruin, new tyrants, new wars!
+Strike, strike, and so be merciful! Surely the gods have not led you
+thus far, and no farther! But yesterday you said they were leading us.
+To-day they still must guide! To you it has been given to pull down
+and to build up. Fail not! If there be gods, trust in them! If there
+be none slay me first, then do whatever you will!"
+
+C�sar shook himself. His voice was harsh with command.
+
+"Unhand me! I must accomplish my own fate!" and then, in a totally
+different tone, "Quintus Drusus, I have been a coward for the first
+time in my life. Are you ashamed of your general?"
+
+"I never admired you more, Imperator."
+
+"Thank you. And will you go aside a little, please? I will need a few
+moments for meditation."
+
+Drusus hesitated. His eyes wandered off to the river. In one spot it
+was quite deep.
+
+"_Phui!_" said the proconsul, carelessly, "I am too brave for such a
+venture now. Leave me on my embankment, like Diogenes and his tub."
+
+Drusus clambered part way up the slope, and seated himself under a
+stunted oak tree. The light was growing stronger. The east was
+overshot with ripples of crimson and orange, here blending into lines
+each more gorgeous than a moment before. The wind was chasing in from
+the bosom of Adria, and driving the fleeting mists up the little
+valley. The hills were springing out of the gloom, the thrushes were
+swinging in the boughs overhead, and pouring out their morning song.
+Out from the camp the bugles were calling the soldiers for the march;
+the baggage trains were rumbling over the bridge. But still below on
+the marge lingered the solitary figure; now walking, now motionless,
+now silent, now speaking in indistinct monologue. Drusus overheard
+only an occasional word, "Pompeius, poor tool of knaves! I pity him! I
+must show mercy to Cato if I can! Sulla is not to be imitated! The
+Republic is fallen; what I put in its place must not fall." Then,
+after a long pause, "So this was to be my end in life--to destroy the
+Commonwealth; what is destined, is destined!" And a moment later
+Drusus saw the general coming up the embankment.
+
+"We shall find horses, I think, a little way over the bridge," said
+C�sar; "the sun is nearly risen. It is nine miles to Ariminum; there
+we can find refreshment."
+
+The Imperator's brow was clear, his step elastic, the fatigues of the
+night seemed to have only added to his vigorous good humour. Antiochus
+met them. The good man evidently was relieved of a load of anxiety.
+The three approached the bridge; as they did so, a little knot of
+officers of the rear cohort, Asinius Pollio and others, rode up and
+saluted. The golden rim of the sun was just glittering above the
+eastern lowlands. C�sar put foot upon the bridge. Drusus saw the blood
+recede from his face, his muscles contract, his frame quiver. The
+general turned to his officers.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said quietly, "we may still retreat; but if we once
+pass this little bridge, nothing is left for us but to fight it out in
+arms."
+
+The group was silent, each waiting for the other to speak. At this
+instant a mountebank piper sitting by the roadway struck up his ditty,
+and a few idle soldiers and wayfaring shepherds ran up to him to catch
+the music. The man flung down his pipe, snatched a trumpet from a
+bugler, and, springing up, blew a shrill blast. It was the "advance."
+C�sar turned again to his officers.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, "let us go where the omens of the gods and the
+iniquity of our enemies call us! _The die is now cast!"_
+
+And he strode over the bridge, looking neither to the right hand nor
+to the left. As his feet touched the dust of the road beyond, the full
+sun touched the horizon, the landscape was bathed with living,
+quivering gold, and the brightness shed itself over the steadfast
+countenance, not of C�sar the Proconsul, but of C�sar the Insurgent.
+
+The Rubicon was crossed!
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XVII
+
+The Profitable Career of Gabinius
+
+
+Very wretched had been the remnants of Dumnorix's band of gladiators,
+when nightfall had covered them from pursuit by the enraged
+Pr�nestians. And for some days the defeated assassins led a desperate
+struggle for existence on the uplands above the Latin plain. Then,
+when the hue and cry aroused by their mad exploit had died away,
+Dumnorix was able to reorganize his men into a regular horde of
+banditti. In the sheltered valleys of the upper Apennines they found
+moderately safe and comfortable fastnesses, and soon around them
+gathered a number of unattached highwaymen, who sought protection and
+profit in allying themselves with the band led by the redoubtable
+lanista. But if Dumnorix was the right arm of this noble company,
+Publius Gabinius was its head. The Roman had sorely missed the loss of
+the thousand and one luxuries that made his former life worth living.
+But, as has been said, he had become sated with almost every current
+amusement and vice; and when the freshness of the physical hardships
+of his new career was over, he discovered that he had just begun to
+taste joys of which he would not soon grow weary.
+
+And so for a while the bandits ranged over the mountains, infested the
+roads, stopped travellers to ease them of their purses, or even dashed
+down on outlying country houses, which they plundered, and left
+burning as beacons of their handiwork. Even this occupation after a
+time, however, grew monotonous to Gabinius. To be sure, a goodly pile
+of money was accumulating in the hut where he and Dumnorix, his
+fellow-leader, made their headquarters; and the bandits carried away
+with them to their stronghold a number of slave and peasant girls, who
+aided to make the camp the scene of enough riot and orgy to satisfy
+the most graceless; but Gabinius had higher ambitions than these. He
+could not spend the gold on dinner parties, or bronze statuettes; and
+the maidens picked up in the country made a poor contrast to his city
+sweethearts. Gabinius was planning a great piece of _finesse_. He had
+not forgotten Fabia; least of all had he forgotten how he had had her
+as it were in his very arms, and let her vanish from him as though she
+had been a "shade" of thin air. If he must be a bandit, he would be an
+original one. A Vestal taken captive by robbers! A Vestal imprisoned
+in the hold of banditti, forced to become the consort, lawful or
+unlawful, of the brigands' chief! The very thought grew and grew in
+Gabinius's imagination, until he could think of little else. Dumnorix
+and his comrades trusted him almost implicitly; he had been successful
+as their schemer and leader in several dark enterprises, that proved
+his craft if not his valour. He would not fail in this.
+
+An overmastering influence was drawing him to Rome. He took one or two
+fellow-spirits in his company, and ventured over hill and valley to
+the suburbs of the city on a reconnoissance, while by night he
+ventured inside the walls.
+
+The capital he found in the ferment that preceded the expulsion of the
+tribunes, on the fateful seventh of January. Along with many another
+evil-doer, he and his followers filched more than one wallet during
+the commotions and tumults. He dared not show himself very openly. His
+crime had been too notorious to be passed over, even if committed
+against a doomed C�sarian like Drusus; besides, he was utterly without
+any political influence that would stand him in good stead. But around
+the Atrium Vest� he lurked in the dark, spying out the land and
+waiting for a glimpse of Fabia. Once only his eye caught a white-robed
+stately figure appearing in the doorway toward evening, a figure which
+instinct told him was the object of his passion. He had to restrain
+himself, or he would have thrown off all concealment then and there,
+and snatched her away in his arms. He saved himself that folly, but
+his quest seemed hopeless. However weak the patrol in other parts of
+the city, there was always an ample watch around the Atrium Vest�.
+
+Gabinius saw that his stay around Rome was only likely to bring him
+into the clutches of the law, and reluctantly he started back, by a
+night journey in a stolen wagon, for the safer hill country beyond the
+Anio. But he was not utterly cast down. He had overheard the street
+talk of two equites, whom in more happy days he had known as rising
+politicians.
+
+"I hope the consuls are right," the first had said, "that C�sar's army
+will desert him."
+
+"_Perpol_," responded the other, "your wish is mine! If the proconsul
+really _does_ advance, nothing will stand between him and the city!"
+
+Gabinius kept his own counsel. "In times of war and confusion, the
+extremity of the many is the opportunity of the few," was the maxim he
+repeated to himself.
+
+When he was well out of the city and moving up the Via Salaria, the
+trot and rattle of an approaching carriage drifted up upon him.
+
+"Shall we stop and strip them?" asked Dromo, one of the accompanying
+brigands, in a matter-of-fact tone.
+
+"Ay," responded Gabinius, reining in his own plodding draught-horse,
+and pulling out a short sword. "Let us take what the Fates send!"
+
+A moment later and Servius Flaccus was being tumbled out of his
+comfortable travelling carriage, while one brigand stood guard over
+him with drawn sabre, a second held at bay his trembling driver and
+whimpering valet, and a third rifled his own person and his
+conveyance. There was a bright moon, and the luckless traveller's gaze
+fastened itself on the third bandit.
+
+"By all the gods, Gabinius!" cried Servius, forgetting to lisp his
+Greekisms, "don't you know me? Let me go, for old friendship's sake!"
+
+Gabinius turned from his task, and held to his nose a glass
+scent-bottle he had found in the vehicle.
+
+"Ah! amice," he responded deliberately, "I really did not anticipate
+the pleasure of meeting you thus! You are returning very late to Rome
+from your Fiden� villa. But this is very excellent oil of rose!"
+
+"Enough of this, man!" expostulated the other. "The jest has gone
+quite far enough. Make this horrible fellow lower that sword."
+
+"Not until I have finished making up my package of little articles,"
+replied Gabinius, "and," suiting the action to the word, "relieved
+your fingers of the weight of those very heavy rings."
+
+"Gabinius," roared Servius, in impotent fury, "what are you doing? Are
+you a common bandit?"
+
+"A bandit, my excellent friend," was his answer, "but not a common
+one; no ordinary footpad could strip the noble Servius Flaccus without
+a harder struggle."
+
+Servius burst into lamentations.
+
+"My box of unguents! My precious rings! My money-bag! You are not
+leaving me one valuable! Have you sunk as low as this?"
+
+"Really," returned the robber, "I have no time to convince you that
+the brigand's life is the only one worth living. You do not care to
+join our illustrious brotherhood? No? Well, I must put these trinkets
+and fat little wallet in my own wagon. I leave you your cloak out of
+old friendship's sake. Really you must not blame me. Remember
+Euripides's line:--
+
+  "'Money can warp the judgment of a God.'
+
+Thus I err in good company. And with this, _vale!_"
+
+Flaccus was left with his menials to clamber back into his plundered
+carriage. Gabinius drove his horse at topmost speed, and before
+morning was saluted by the remainder of the banditti, near their
+mountain stronghold. Dumnorix met him with news.
+
+"It is rumoured in the country towns that C�sar is driving all before
+him in the north, and will be down on Rome in less days than I have
+fingers."
+
+Gabinius clapped his hands.
+
+"And we will be down on Rome, and away from it, before a legionary
+shows himself at the gates!"
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XVIII
+
+How Pompeius Stamped with His Feet
+
+
+I
+
+A messenger to the consuls! He had ridden fast and furious, his horse
+was flecked with foam and straining on his last burst of speed. On
+over the Mulvian Bridge he thundered; on across the Campus Martius; on
+to the Porta Ratumena--with all the hucksters and street rabble
+howling and chasing at his heels.
+
+"News! News for the consuls!"
+
+"What news?" howled old L�ca, who was never backward in a street
+press.
+
+"Terrible!" shouted the messenger, drawing rein, "C�sar is sweeping
+all before him! All Thermus's troops have deserted him at Iguvium.
+Attius Varus has evacuated Auximum, and his troops too have dispersed,
+or joined C�sar. All the towns are declaring for the enemy. _Vah!_ He
+will be here in a few days at most! I am the last of the relay with
+the news. I have hardly breathed from Eretum!"
+
+And the courier plunged the spur into his hard-driven mount, and
+forced his way into the city, through the mob. "C�sar advancing on
+Rome!" The Jewish pedlers took up the tale, and carried it to the
+remotest tenement houses of Janiculum. The lazy street-idlers shouted
+it shrilly. L�ca, catching sight of Lucius Ahenobarbus, just back from
+Bai�, and a little knot of kindred spirits about him, was in an
+instant pouring it all in their ears. The news spread, flew, grew. The
+bankers on the Via Sacra closed their credit books, raised their
+shutters, and sent trusted clerks off to suburban villas, with due
+orders how to bury and hide weighty money-bags. The news came to that
+very noble lady Claudia, sister-in-law of the consul, just at the
+moment when she was discussing the latest style of hairdressing with
+the most excellent Herennia; and the cheeks of those patrician ladies
+grew pale, and they forgot whether or not it was proper to wear ivory
+pins or a jewel-set head-band, at the dinner-party of Lucius Piso that
+evening. The news came to Lentulus Crus while he was wrangling with
+Domitius as to who should be C�sar's successor as Pontifex
+Maximus--and those distinguished statesmen found other things to think
+of.
+
+The news flew and grew. The noble senators overheard their slaves
+whispering,--how it was rumoured on the street or in the Forum that
+C�sar was in full advance on the city, that his cavalry were close to
+the gates. C�sar at the gates! Why had they not remembered how rapidly
+he could advance? Why had they trusted the assurance of the traitor
+Labienus that the legions would desert their Imperator? Resist? By
+what means? The walls were walls only in name; the city had long
+outgrown them, spreading through a thousand breaches. There was not a
+trained soldier this side of Capua, whither Pompeius had departed only
+the day before to take command of the Apulian legions. C�sar was
+coming! C�sar--whose tribunes the oligarchs had chased from the
+Senate! C�sar--whom they had proclaimed a rebel and public enemy! He
+was coming like a second Marius, who thirty-eight years before had
+swept down on Rome, and taken a terrible vengeance on enemies less
+bitter to him than they to the great Julian. "_Moriendum est_,"[157]
+had been the only reply to every plea for mercy. And would C�sar now
+be more lenient to those who had aimed to blast his honour and shed
+his blood?
+
+  [157] He has got to die.
+
+Evening drew on, but the calamity was only delayed. There was not a
+soldier to confront the invader. Few men that night could sleep. Rich
+and poor alike, all trembled. To their imaginations their foe was an
+ogre, implacable, unsparing. "Remember how it was in Sulla's day,"
+croaked L�ca to Ahenobarbus. "Remember how he proscribed forty
+senators and sixteen hundred equites with one stroke. A fine example
+for C�sar! And Drusus, who is with the rebels, is little likely to say
+a good word in your behalf, eh?"
+
+"The gods blast your tongue!" cried the young man, wringing his hands
+in terror; for that Drusus would ruin him, if he gained the chance,
+Lucius had not the least doubt in the world.
+
+So passed the night, in fear and panic. When morning came everything
+save flight seemed suicide. There was a great government treasure in
+the Temple of Saturn. The Senate had voted that the money be delivered
+to Pompeius. But the consuls were too demoralized to take away a
+denarius. They left the great hoard under mere lock and key--a present
+to their bitterest enemy. Then began the great exodus. Hardly a man
+had done more than gather a few valuables together: property,
+children, wives--all these were left to the avenger. Down the Via
+Appia, toward Campania, where was their only safety, poured the
+panic-stricken company. Every carriage, every horse, was in service.
+The hard-driven chariots of the consuls were the tokens merely of the
+swiftest flight. Lentulus Crus fled; Caius Marcellus, his colleague,
+was close behind; Domitius fled, with his sons; Cato fled, ironically
+exclaiming that they would have to leave everything to Pompeius now,
+"for those who can raise up great evils can best allay them." Favonius
+fled, whose first words, when he met the Magnus, were to command him
+to "stamp on the ground for the legions so sorely needed." Piso,
+Scipio, and many another fled--their guilty hearts adding wings to
+their goings. Cicero fled--gazing in cynical disgust at the panic and
+incompetence, yet with a sword of Damocles, as he believed, hanging
+over his head also. "I fear that C�sar will be a very Phalaris, and
+that we may expect the very worst," he wrote to his intimate friend
+Atticus, who, safe from harm and turmoil, was dwelling under the calm
+Athenian sky. A great fraction of the Senate departed; only those
+stayed who felt that their loyalty to the advancing Imperator was
+beyond dispute, or who deemed themselves too insignificant to fall
+beneath his displeasure. In the hour of crisis the old ties of
+religion and superstition reasserted themselves. Senators and
+magistrates, who had deemed it a polite avocation to mock at the gods
+and deny the existence of any absolute ethical standards, now, before
+they climbed into their carriages for flight, went, with due ritual,
+into the temples of the gods of their fathers, and swore hecatombs of
+milk-white Umbrian steers to Capitoline Jove, if the awful deity would
+restore them to the native land they then were quitting. And as they
+went down from the temples and hastened toward the gates, friends and
+clients who could not join their flight crowded after them, sighing,
+lamenting, and moaning. Out over the Campagna they streamed, this
+company of senators, pr�tors, consuls--men who had voted thrones to
+kings, and decreed the deposition of monarchs; whose personal wealth
+was princely, whose lineage the noblest in the world, whose ancestors
+had beaten down Etruscan, Gaul, Samnite, and Carthaginian, that their
+posterity might enjoy the glory of unequalled empire. And these
+descendants fled, fled not before any foe, but before their own guilty
+consciences; abandoning the city of their fathers when not a sword had
+flashed against her gates! The war had been of their making; to send
+C�sar into outlawry the aristocracy had laboured ten long years. And
+now the noble lords were exiles, wanderers among the nations. To Capua
+they went, to find small comfort there, and thence to join Pompeius in
+further flight beyond the seas to Greece. But we anticipate. Enough
+that neither Lentulus Crus, nor Domitius, nor Cato, nor the great
+Magnus himself, ever saw Rome again.
+
+
+II
+
+Agias stood in a shop by the Sacred Way watching the stream of
+fugitives pouring down toward the Porta Capena. At his side was a
+person whom a glance proclaimed to be a fellow-Greek. The stranger was
+perhaps fifty, his frame presented a faultless picture of symmetry and
+manly vigour, great of stature, the limbs large but not ungainly. His
+features were regular, but possessed just enough prominence to make
+them free from the least tinge of weakness. The Greek's long, thick,
+dark but grey-streaked beard streamed down upon his breast; his hair,
+of similar hue, was long, and tossed back over his shoulders in loose
+curls. His dress was rich, yet rude, his chiton and cloak short, but
+of choice Milesian wool and dyed scarlet and purple; around his neck
+dangled a very heavy gold chain set with conspicuously blazing jewels.
+The ankles, however, were bare, and the sandals of the slightest and
+meanest description. The stranger must once have been of a light, not
+to say fair, complexion; but cheeks, throat, arms, and feet were all
+deeply bronzed, evidently by prolonged exposure to wind and weather.
+Agias and his companion watched the throng of panic-struck exiles. The
+younger Greek was pointing out, with the complacency of familiar
+knowledge, the names and dignities of the illustrious fugitives.
+
+"Yonder goes Cato," he was saying; "mark his bitter scowl! There goes
+Marcus Marcellus, the consular. There drives the chariot of Lucius
+Domitius, C�sar's great enemy." And Agias stopped, for his friend had
+seized his arm with a sudden grasp, crushing as iron. "Why, by all
+the gods, Demetrius, why are you staring at him that way?"
+
+"By Zeus!" muttered the other, "if I had only my sword! It would be
+easy to stab him, and then escape in this crowd!"
+
+"Stab him!" cried Agias. "Demetrius, good cousin, control yourself.
+You are not on the deck of your trireme, with all your men about you.
+Why should you be thus sanguinary, when you see Lucius Domitius? Why
+hate him more than any other Roman?"
+
+The consular, unaware of the threat against him, but with a compelling
+fear of C�sar's Gallic cavalry lending strength to the arm with which
+he plied the whip--for the law against driving inside the city no man
+respected that day--whirled out of sight.
+
+Demetrius still strained at his cousin's arm.
+
+"Listen, Agias," he said, still hoarsely. "Only yesterday I ran upon
+you by chance in the crowd. We have many things to tell one another,
+chiefly I to tell you. Why do I hate Lucius Domitius? Why should you
+hate him? Who made you a slave and me an outlaw? Your father died
+bankrupt; you know it was said that Philias, his partner, ruined him.
+That was truth, but not the whole truth. Philias was under deep
+obligations to a certain Roman then in the East, who knew of several
+crimes Philias had committed, crimes that would bring him to the cross
+if discovered. Do you understand?"
+
+"Hardly," said Agias, still bewildered. "I was very young then."
+
+"I will go on. It was shortly before Pompeius returned to Rome from
+the East. Your father had charge of the banking firm in Alexandria,
+Philias of the branch at Antioch. I was a clerk in the Antioch
+banking-house. I knew that Philias was misusing his partner's name and
+credit. The Roman whom I have mentioned knew it too, and had a supple
+Greek confidant who shared his spoils and gave the touches to his
+schemes. He had good cause to know: he was levying blackmail on
+Philias. At last a crisis came; the defalcation could be concealed no
+longer. Philias was duly punished; he was less guilty than he seemed.
+But the Roman--who had forced from him the money--he was high on the
+staff of the proconsul--let his confederate and tool suffer for his
+own fault. He kept his peace. I would not have kept mine; I would not
+have let the real ruiner of my uncle escape. But the Roman had me
+seized, with the aid of his Greek ally; he charged me with treasonable
+correspondence with the Parthians. He, through his influence with the
+proconsul, had me bound to the oar as a galley slave for life. I would
+have been executed but for another Roman, of the governor's suite, who
+was my friend. He pleaded for my life; he believed me innocent. He
+saved my life--on what terms! But that is not all he did. He bribed my
+guards; I escaped and turned outlaw. I joined the last remnants of the
+Cilician pirates, the few free mariners who have survived Pompeius's
+raid. And here I am in Rome with one of my ships, disguised as a
+trader, riding at the river wharf."
+
+"And the name of the Roman who ruined you and my father?" said Agias.
+
+"Was Lucius Domitius. The friend who saved me was Sextus Drusus, son
+of Marcus Drusus, the reformer. And if I do not recompense them both
+as they deserve, I am not Demetrius the pirate, captain of seven
+ships!"
+
+"You will never recompense Sextus Drusus," remarked Agias, quietly.
+"He has been dead, slain in Gaul, these five years."
+
+"Such is the will of the gods," said Demetrius, looking down.
+
+"But he has left a son."
+
+"Ah! What sort of a man?"
+
+"The noblest of all noble Romans. He is the Quintus Drusus who saved
+my life, as last night I told you."
+
+"Mithras be praised! The name is so common among these Latins that I
+did not imagine any connection when you mentioned it. What can I do to
+serve him?"
+
+"Immediately, nothing. He is with C�sar, and, as you see, the enemies
+of the Imperator are not likely, at present, to work his friends much
+mischief. Yet it is singular that his chief enemy and yours are so
+near akin. Lucius Ahenobarbus, son of Domitius, is thirsting for
+Drusus's blood."
+
+"If I had my sword!" muttered Demetrius, clapping his hand to his
+thigh. "It is not too late to run after the fugitives!"
+
+"Come, come," remonstrated Agias, feeling that his newly found cousin
+was indeed a fearful and wonderful man after twelve years of lawless
+and godless freebooter's life. "At my lodgings we will talk it all
+over; and there will be time enough to scheme the undoing of Domitius
+and all his family."
+
+And with these words he led the sanguinary sea-king away.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Agias indeed found in Demetrius a perfect mine of bloody romance and
+adventure. It had been the banking clerk's misfortune, not his fault,
+that every man's hand had been against him and his against every man.
+Demetrius had been declared an outlaw to Roman authority; and Roman
+authority at that time stretched over very nearly every quarter of the
+civilized world. Demetrius had been to India, to intercept the Red Sea
+traders. He had been beyond the Pillars of Hercules and set foot on
+those then half-mythical islands of the Canaries. He had plundered a
+hundred merchantmen; he had fought a score of Roman government
+galleys; he had been principal or accessory to the taking of ten
+thousand lives. All this had been forced upon him, because there was
+no tolerable spot on the planet where he might settle down and be free
+from the grasp of punishment for a crime he had never committed.
+
+Demetrius had boldly come up to Rome on a light undecked yacht.[158]
+The harbor masters had been given to understand that the captain of
+the craft was an Asiatic princeling, who was visiting the capital of
+the world out of a quite legitimate curiosity. If they had had any
+doubts, they accepted extremely large fees and said nothing. The real
+object of the venture was to dispose of a large collection of rare
+gems and other valuables that Demetrius had collected in the course of
+his wanderings. Despite the perturbed state of the city, the worthy
+pirate had had little difficulty in arranging with certain wealthy
+jewellers, who asked no questions, when they bought, at a very large
+discount, bargains of a most satisfactory character. And so it came to
+pass, by the merest luck, that the two cousins were thrown together in
+a crowd, and partly Agias, through his dim childish recollections of
+his unfortunate relative, and partly Demetrius, through memories of
+his uncle's boy and the close resemblance of the lad to his father,
+had been prompted first to conversation, then to mutual inquiries,
+then to recognition.
+
+  [158] A _celox_ of one bank of oars, a small ship much used by
+  the pirates.
+
+Demetrius had no intention of leaving Rome for a few days. Under
+existing circumstances the chances of his arrest were not worth
+considering. His cousin was eager to show him all the sights; and the
+freebooter was glad of a little relaxation from his roving life, glad
+to forget for an instant that his country was his squadron, his rights
+at law were his cutlass. Moreover, he had taken a vast liking to
+Agias; deeply dipped in blood himself, he dared not desire his cousin
+to join him in his career of violence--yet he could not part with the
+bright, genial lad so hastily. Agias needed no entreaties, therefore,
+to induce his cousin to enjoy his hospitality.
+
+
+III
+
+Fabia the Vestal was in direful perplexity. Her heart had gone with
+Drusus in his flight to Ravenna; she had wished herself beside him, to
+be a man, able to fight a man's battles and win a man's glory. For the
+first time in her life the quiet routine of the Temple service brought
+her no contentment; for the first time she felt herself bound to a
+career that could not satisfy. She was restless and moody. The younger
+Vestals, whose attendance on the sacred fire and care of the Temple
+she oversaw, wondered at her exacting petulance. Little Livia brought
+her aunt to her senses, by asking why she, Fabia, did not love her any
+more. The lady summoned all her strength of character, and resumed her
+outward placidity. She knew that Drusus was safe with C�sar, and
+exposed only to the ordinary chances of war. She became more at ease
+as each successive messenger came into the city, bearing the tidings
+of the Gallic proconsul's advance. Too innocent herself of the
+political turmoils of the day to decide upon the merits of the
+parties, her hopes and wishes had gone with those of her nephew; so
+pure and unquestioning was her belief that he would espouse only the
+right. And when the great panic came; when trembling consulars and
+pallid magistrates rushed to the Temple of Vesta to proffer their last
+hurried vows, before speeding away to Capua, their refuge; Fabia stood
+all day beside the altar, stately, gracious, yet awe-inspiring, the
+fitting personification of the benignant Hearth Goddess, who was above
+the petty passions of mortals and granted to each an impartial favour.
+
+Yet Fabia was sorely distressed, and that too on the very day of the
+great exodus of the Senate. She had heard for some time past rumours
+of the depredations of a certain band of robbers upon the Sabine and
+�quian country. It was said that a gang of bandits, headed by a
+gigantic Gaul, had plundered some farms near Carsioli and infested the
+mountain regions round about. Fabia had connected this gang and its
+chieftain with Dumnorix and the remnant of his gladiators, who escaped
+after their disastrous affray at Pr�neste. As for Publius Gabinius,
+who had on one occasion given her such distress, nothing had been
+heard or seen of him since the Pr�neste affair. It was generally
+believed, however, that he was still with Dumnorix. And a few days
+before the panic in the city, Fabia had received a letter. A strange
+slave had left it at the Atrium Vest�, and had gone away without
+explanations. It ran thus:--
+
+"To the very noble Vestal, the Lady Fabia, greeting:--
+
+Though I am now so unfortunate as to be barred from the doors of all
+law-abiding men, do not imagine this will forever continue. In the
+confusion and readjustments of war, and the calamities of many, the
+affairs of some, one time enemies of Fortune, come to a happy issue.
+Do not say that Mars may not lead Amor and Hymen in his train. All
+things come to them who wait. I wait. Remember the life you spend in
+the Temple is no longer obligatory. Be no cage bird who will not fly
+out into the sunlight when the door is opened freely. Be surprised and
+angry at nothing. _Vale_."
+
+There was no date, no signature. The hand was distorted, evidently for
+disguise. Fabia was in a dilemma. She did not need to be told that in
+all probability--though she had no proof--the writer was Gabinius. She
+was extremely reluctant to tell any one of her escape from his
+clutches in the villa by the Appian Way. However, some confidant
+seemed necessary. She knew that Fonteia, the senior Vestal, the
+Maxima, would never treat her other than as a sister, and to her she
+read the letter and imparted her story and fears. Fonteia did not
+regard the matter in a very serious light. She was herself an old
+woman, grown grey in the service of Vesta. She said that Fabia had
+been most fortunate to remain in the Temple service so long as she had
+and not be harassed by more than one impious and overbold suitor. The
+only thing to do was to be careful and avoid anything that would give
+false appearances. As for Fabia's fears that Gabinius would attempt to
+carry her away perforce, as he had perhaps treated earlier
+sweethearts, Fonteia scoffed at the suggestion. The Atrium Vest� was
+in the heart of the city; there was a constant patrol on duty. For a
+man to enter the Building at night meant the death penalty. Whosoever
+did violence to a Vestal fell under a religious curse; he was a _homo
+sacer_, a "sacred man," a victim devoted to the gods, whom it was a
+pious deed to slay. And thus comforted, with the assurance that the
+whole power of the Republic would rise for her personal defence, Fabia
+was fain to put the disquieting letter from her heart.
+
+Then followed the night of panic, and the succeeding day. There were
+no longer any magistrates in Rome. The great palaces of the patricians
+stood deserted, exposed to the unfaithful guardianship of freedmen and
+slaves. The bankers' booths were closed, the shops did not raise their
+shutters. On the streets swarmed the irresponsible and the vicious.
+Men of property who had not fled barred their doors and stood guard
+with their servants to beat back would-be plunderers. There were no
+watchmen at the gates, no courts sitting in the basilicas. After the
+great flight of the early morning, Rome was a city without warders,
+police, or government.
+
+Fabia did not realize this fact until late in the afternoon, when she
+started forth, on foot and unattended, to visit a friend on the
+C�lian. The half-deserted streets and barricaded houses filled her
+with uneasy tremors. The low, brutish creatures that she met gave her
+little heed; but the sight of them, alone and not offset by any more
+respectable fellow-strollers, made her turn back to the Atrium Vest�.
+As she hastened on her way homeward an uneasy sensation haunted her
+that she was being followed. She halted, faced about. The street was
+narrow, the light was beginning to fade. The figure of a man was
+vanishing in the booth of some bold vintner, who had ventured to risk
+plunder for the sake of sales. She proceeded. A moment later a half
+glance over the shoulder and a straining of the eyes told her that the
+stranger was continuing his pursuit. He kept very close to the side of
+the buildings. His face and form were quite lost in shadow. Fabia
+quickened her pace; the stranger increased his also, yet made no
+effort to cut down the distance between them. The Vestal began to feel
+the blood mantling to her cheeks and leaving them again. She was so
+near to the Forum and the Atrium Vest� now that she could not be
+overtaken. But why did the stranger follow?
+
+There was a gap in the houses ahead. Through a narrow alley the dying
+light was streaming. Fabia passed it, timed herself, glanced back. For
+an instant, and only an instant (for the stranger walked rapidly), the
+light glared full upon his face. But Fabia needed to see no more. It
+was the face of Publius Gabinius. By a mighty effort she prevented
+herself from breaking into a run. She passed into the doorway of the
+Atrium Vest�, and sank upon a divan, shivering with fright.
+Recollecting herself, she went to Fonteia and told her the discovery.
+The Maxima, however, by that singular fatuity which sometimes takes
+possession of the wisest of people,--especially when the possible
+danger is one which never in all their long experience has come to a
+head,--received her warnings with blank incredulity.
+
+"You should not go out of the house and Temple," she said, "until
+there is some proper policing of the city. No doubt Gabinius has come
+back for the sake of riot and plunder, and having met with you by
+chance could not resist the temptation to try to have an interview;
+but you are in no possible danger here."
+
+"But, Fonteia," urged the younger Vestal, "I know him to be a bold,
+desperate man, who fears not the gods, and who from the law can expect
+no mercy. And we in this house are but weak women folk. Our only
+defence is our purity and the reverence of the people. But only the
+evil wander the streets to-night; and our virtuous lives make us only
+the more attractive prey to such men as Gabinius."
+
+"Fabia," said the other Vestal, severely, "I am older than you. I have
+beheld sights you have never seen. I saw the riots when Saturninus and
+Glaucia came to their ends; when Marius was chased from Rome and
+Sulpicius put to death; when Marius returned with Cinna; and all the
+massacres and strife attending the taking of the city by Sulla. But
+never has the name of Vesta been insufficient to protect us from the
+violence of the basest or the most godless. Nor will it now. I will
+trust in the goddess, and the fear of her, which protects her maidens
+against all men. We will sleep to-night as usual. I will not send
+anywhere to have guards stationed around the house and Temple."
+
+Fabia bowed her head. The word of the aged Maxima was law in the
+little community. Fabia told herself that Fonteia was right--not even
+Gabinius would dare to set unhallowed foot inside the Atrium Vest�.
+But the vision of the coarse, sensual face of her unloved lover was
+ever before her. In ordinary times she would have been tempted to go
+to one of the consuls and demand that Fonteia be overruled; but in
+ordinary times there would not have been the least need of adding to
+the already sufficient city watch. It lacked four hours of midnight
+before she brought herself to take her tablets and write the following
+brief note:--
+
+"Fabia the Vestal to Agias her good friend, greeting. I am in some
+anxiety to-night. Gabinius, Lucius Ahenobarbus's friend, is in the
+city. He means, I fear, to work me some mischief, though the cause
+whereby I have good reason to dread him is too long here to write. The
+Atrium Vest� has nothing to protect it to-night--as you well may
+understand--from impious, violent men. Can you not guard me overnight?
+I do not know how. Gabinius may have all Dumnorix's band with him. But
+you alone are equal to an host. I trust you, as Drusus and Cornelia
+have trusted you. _Vale_."
+
+Fabia called one of the young slave-girls who waited on the Vestals.
+The relation between servant and mistress, in the Temple company, was
+almost ideal in its gentle loyalty. The slaves were happy in their
+bondage.
+
+"Erigone," she said, putting the tablets in the girl's hand, "I am
+about to ask of you a very brave thing. Do you dare to take this
+letter through the city?" and she told her how to find Agias's
+lodgings. "Come back in the morning if you dread a double journey. But
+do not tell Fonteia; she would be angry if she knew I sent you, though
+there is nothing but what is right in the letter."
+
+"I will carry the tablets to Scythia for you, domina," replied the
+girl, kissing the hem of her mistress's robe. "I know all the streets.
+If I live, the letter shall be delivered."
+
+"Go by the alleys," enjoined Fabia; "they are safer, for you will not
+be seen. Speak to no one. Let none stop you."
+
+Erigone was gone in the night, and Fabia went to her chamber. She was
+reproaching herself for having sent the letter. Rome by darkness was
+an evil place for a young maid to traverse, and never worse than that
+night. Fabia repeated to herself that she had committed an act of
+selfish folly, possibly sacrificing an implicitly loyal servant to the
+mere gratification of a perfectly ungrounded panic. She was undressed
+by her other women, and lay down with Livia fast asleep in her arms;
+and she kissed the little one again and again before slumber stole
+over her.
+
+
+IV
+
+Demetrius had been astonishing his cousin that evening by the quantity
+of strong wine he could imbibe without becoming in the least tipsy.
+Agias marvelled at the worthy pirate's capacity and hardness of head,
+and, fortunately for his own wits, did not attempt to emulate the
+other's potations. Consequently, as the evening advanced, Demetrius
+simply became more and more good-natured and talkative, and Agias more
+entranced with his cousin's narration of the Indian voyage.
+
+The younger Greek was about to order his yawning servants to fill up
+another _krater_,[159] when the conversation and drinking were
+interrupted by the arrival of Erigone. She, poor girl, had set out
+bravely enough; but once outside of the Atrium Vest� every shadow had
+been a refuge of cutthroats, every noise the oncoming of goblins.
+Fortunately for her, she did not know the contents of the tablets she
+carried pressed to her breast, or she would have been all the more
+timorous. Once a few half-sober topers screamed ribald words after
+her, as she stole past a low tavern. She had lost her way, in the
+darkness and fright, among the alleys; she had dodged into a doorway
+more than once to hide from approaching night rovers. But at last she
+had reached her destination, and, pale and weary, placed the letter in
+Agias's hands. The young Greek read and grew grave. Even better than
+Fabia he understood how reckless a profligate Publius Gabinius might
+be, and how opportune was the night for carrying out any deed of
+darkness.
+
+  [159] Wine-mixing bowl.
+
+"Brave girl!" he said, commending Erigone for persevering on her
+errand. "But how long ago did you leave your mistress?"
+
+"It was the second hour of the night[160] when I started," she
+replied.
+
+  [160] The Romans divided the night into 12 hours (from sunrise to
+  sunset); thus the length of the hour varied with the seasons: but
+  at the time here mentioned the "second hour" was about 8 P.M. The
+  water-clocks could show only regular, not solar, time.
+
+Agias glanced at the water-clock.
+
+"By Zeus!" he cried, "it is now the fourth hour! You have been two
+hours on the way! Immortal gods! What's to be done? Look here,
+Demetrius!"
+
+And he thrust the letter before his cousin, and explained its meaning
+as rapidly as he could.
+
+Demetrius puffed hard through his nostrils.
+
+"_Mu! mu!_ This is bad business. If there were time I could have
+twenty as stout men as ever swung sword up from the yacht and on guard
+to die for any relative or friend of Sextus Drusus. But there's not a
+moment to lose. Have you any arms?"
+
+Agias dragged two short swords out of a chest. Demetrius was already
+throwing on his cloak.
+
+"Those are poor, light weapons," commented the pirate. "I want my
+heavy cutlass. But take what the gods send;" and he girded one about
+him. "At least, they will cut a throat. Do you know how to wield
+them?"
+
+"After a fashion," replied Agias, modestly, making haste to clasp his
+p�nula.
+
+Leaving Erigone to be cared for by the slaves and sent home the next
+morning, the two Greeks hastened from the house. Agias could hardly
+keep pace with his cousin's tremendous stride. Demetrius was like a
+war-horse, which snuffs the battle from afar and tugs at the rein to
+join in the fray. They plunged through the dark streets. Once a man
+sprang out from a doorway before them with a cudgel. He may have been
+a footpad; but Demetrius, without pausing in his haste, smote the
+fellow between the eyes with a terrible fist, and the wretched
+creature dropped without a groan. Demetrius seemed guided to the Forum
+and Via Sacra as if by an inborn instinct. Agias almost ran at his
+heels.
+
+"How many may this Dumnorix have with him?" shouted the pirate over
+his shoulder.
+
+"Perhaps ten, perhaps twenty!" gasped Agias.
+
+"A very pretty number! Some little credit to throttle them," was his
+answer; and Demetrius plunged on.
+
+The night was cloudy, there was no moonlight. The cold, chill wind
+swept down the Tiber valley, and howled mournfully among the tall,
+silent basilicas and temples of the Forum. The feet of the two Greeks
+echoed and re�choed as they crossed the pavement of the enclosure.
+None addressed them, none met them. It was as if they walked in a city
+of the dead. In the darkness, like weird phantoms, rose the tall
+columns and pediments of the deserted buildings. From nowhere twinkled
+the ray of lamp. Dim against the sky-line the outlines of the
+Capitoline and its shrines were now and then visible, when the night
+seemed for an instant to grow less dark.
+
+They were close to the Atrium Vest�. All was quiet. No light within,
+no sound but that of the wind and their own breathing without.
+
+"We are not too late," whispered Agias.
+
+The two groped their way in among the pillars of the portico of the
+_Regia,_[161] and crouched down under cover of the masonry, half
+sheltered from the chilly blasts. They could from their post command a
+tolerably good view of one side of the Atrium Vest�. Still the
+darkness was very great, and they dared not divide their force by one
+of them standing watch on the other side. The moments passed. It was
+extremely cold. Agias shivered and wound himself in his mantle. The
+wine was making him drowsy, and he felt himself sinking into
+semiconsciousness, when a touch on his arm aroused him.
+
+  [161] The official residence of the Pontifex Maximus.
+
+"_St!"_ whispered Demetrius. "I saw a light moving."
+
+Agias stared into the darkness.
+
+"There," continued the pirate, "see, it is a lantern carefully
+covered! Only a little glint on the ground now and then. Some one is
+creeping along the wall to enter the house of the Vestals!"
+
+"I see nothing," confessed Agias, rubbing his eyes.
+
+"You are no sailor; look harder. I can count four men in the gloom.
+They are stealing up to the gate of the building. Is your sword ready?
+Now--"
+
+But at this instant Demetrius was cut short by a scream--scream of
+mortal terror--from within the Atrium Vest�. There were shouts, howls,
+commands, moans, entreaties, shrieks. Light after light blazed up in
+the building; women rushed panic-struck to the doorway to burst forth
+into the night; and at the open portal Agias saw a gigantic figure
+with upraised long sword, a Titan, malevolent, destroying,
+terrible,--at the sight whereof the women shrank back, screaming yet
+the more.
+
+"Dumnorix!" shouted Agias; but before he spoke Demetrius had leaped
+forward.
+
+Right past the sword-wielding monster sprang the pirate, and Agias,
+all reckless, was at his heels. The twain were in the atrium of the
+house. A torch was spluttering and blazing on the pavement, shedding
+all around a bright, flickering, red glare. Young Vestals and
+maid-servants were cowering on their knees, or prone on cushions,
+writhing and screaming with fear unspeakable. A swart Spanish brigand,
+with his sabre gripped in his teeth, was tearing a gold-thread and
+silk covering from a pillow; a second plunderer was wrenching from its
+chain a silver lamp. Demetrius rushed past these also, before any
+could inquire whether he was not a comrade in infamy. But there were
+other shouts from the peristylium, other cries and meanings. As the
+pirate sprang to the head of the passage leading to the inner house, a
+swarm of desperadoes poured through it, Gauls, Germans, Africans,
+Italian renegadoes,--perhaps ten in all,--and in their midst--half
+borne, half dragged--something white!
+
+"_Io triumphe!_" called a voice from the throng, "my bird will leave
+her cage!"
+
+"The lady! Gabinius!" cried Agias, and, without waiting for his
+cousin, the young Greek flung himself forward. One stroke of his short
+sword sent a leering negro prone upon the pavement; one snatch of his
+hand seized the white mantle, and held it--held it though half a dozen
+blades were flashing in his face in an eye's twinkling. But the
+prowess of twenty men was in the arm of Demetrius; his sword was at
+once attacker and shield; with a single sweeping blow he smote down
+the guard and cleft the skull of a towering Teuton; with a lightning
+dart he caught up the ponderous long sword of the falling brigand,
+passed his own shorter weapon to his left hand, and so fought,--doubly
+armed,--parrying with his left and striking with his right. And how he
+struck! The whole agile, supple nature of the Greek entered into every
+fence. He struck and foiled with his entire body. Now a bound to one
+side; now a dart at an opponent's head; fighting with feet, head,
+frame, and not with hands only. And Agias--he fought too, and knew not
+how he fought! When a blow was aimed at him, Demetrius always parried
+it before he could raise his sword; if he struck, Demetrius had felled
+the man first; but he never let go of the white dress, nor quitted the
+side of the lady. And presently, he did not know after how long--for
+hours make minutes, and minutes hours, in such a m�l�e--there was a
+moment's silence, and he saw Publius Gabinius sinking down upon the
+pavement, the blood streaming over his cloak; and the brigands, such
+as were left of them, scurrying out of the atrium cowed and
+panic-struck at the fall of their leader. Then, as he threw his arms
+about Fabia, and tried to raise her to her feet, he saw the giant
+Dumnorix, with his flail-like sword, rushing back to the rescue.
+
+Four brigands lay dead in the atrium and none of the others dared look
+the redoubtable Greek swordsman in the eyes; but Dumnorix came on--the
+incarnation of brute fury. Then again Demetrius fought,--fought as the
+angler fights the fish that he doubts not to land, yet only after due
+play; and the Gaul, like some awkward Polyphemus, rushed upon him,
+flinging at him barbarous curses in his own tongue, and snorting and
+raging like a bull. Thrice the Greek sprang back before the monster;
+thrice the giant swung his mighty sword to cleave his foeman down, and
+cut the empty air; but at the fourth onset the Hellene smote the
+ex-lanista once across the neck, and the great eyes rolled, and the
+panting stopped, and the mighty Gaul lay silent in a spreading pool of
+blood.
+
+Already there were shouts and cries in the Forum. Torches were dancing
+hither and thither. The slave-maids of the Vestals ran down the Via
+Sacra shrieking and calling for aid. Out from the dark tenements
+rushed the people. The thieves ran from their lairs; the late drinkers
+sprang from their wine. And when the wretched remnants of Dumnorix's
+band of ex-gladiators and brigands strove to flee from the holy house
+they had polluted, a hundred hands were put forth against each one,
+and they were torn to pieces by the frenzied mob. Into the Atrium
+Vest� swarmed the people, howling, shouting, praising the goddess,
+fighting one another--every man imagining his neighbour a cutthroat
+and abductor.
+
+Agias stood bearing up Fabia in his arms; she was pale as the driven
+snow. Her lips moved, but no sound passed from them. Fonteia, the old
+Maxima, with her white hair tumbling over her shoulders, was still
+huddled in one corner, groaning and moaning in a paroxysm of
+unreasoning terror, without dignity or self-control. A frightened maid
+had touched the torch to the tall candelabra, and the room blazed with
+a score of lights; while in at the doorway pressed the multitude--the
+mob of low tapsters, brutal butchers, coarse pedlers, and drunkards
+just staggering from their cups. The scene was one of pandemonium.
+Dumnorix lay prone on a costly rug, whose graceful patterns were being
+dyed to a hideous crimson; over one divan lay a brigand--struggling in
+the last agony of a mortal wound. Three comrades lay stretched stiff
+and motionless on the floor. Gory swords and daggers were strewn all
+over the atrium; the presses of costly wood had been torn open, their
+contents scattered across the room. There was blood on the frescoes,
+blood on the marble feet of the magnificent Diomedes, which stood
+rigid in cold majesty on its pedestal, dominating the wreck below.
+
+Agias with Fabia stood at the end of the atrium near the exit to the
+peristylium. Demetrius, seemingly hardly breathed by his exertions,
+leaned on his captured long sword at his cousin's side. The multitude,
+for an instant, as they saw the ruin and slaughter, drew back with a
+hush. Men turned away their faces as from a sight of evil omen. Who
+were they to set foot in the mansion of the servants of the awful
+Vesta? But others from behind, who saw and heard nothing, pressed
+their fellows forward. The mob swept on. As with one consent all eyes
+were riveted on Fabia. What had happened? Who was guilty? Why had
+these men of violence done this wrong to the home of the hearth
+goddess? And then out of a farther corner, while yet the people
+hesitated from reverence, staggered a figure, its face streaming with
+blood, its hands pressing its side.
+
+"_Quirites_," cried a voice, the voice of one speaking with but one
+remaining breath, "ye have rewarded me as the law demands; see that
+_she_" and a bloody forefinger pointed at Fabia, "who led me to this
+deed, is not unpunished. _She_ is the more guilty!"
+
+And with a groan the figure fell like a statue of wood to the
+pavement; fell heavily, and lay stirring not, neither giving any
+sound. In his last moment Publius Gabinius had sought a terrible
+revenge.
+
+And then madness seized on the people.
+
+"She is his sweetheart! She is his paramour!" cried a score of filthy
+voices. "She has brought down this insult to the goddess! There is no
+pontifex here to try her! Tear her in pieces! Strike! Slay!"
+
+But Demetrius had turned to his cousin.
+
+"Agias," he said, making himself heard despite the clamour, "do you
+believe the charge of that man?"
+
+"No villain ever would avenge himself more basely."
+
+"Then at all costs we must save the lady."
+
+It was time. A fat butcher, flourishing a heavy cleaver, had leaped
+forward; Fabia saw him with glassy, frightened eyes, but neither
+shrieked nor drew back. But Demetrius smote the man with his long
+sword through the body, and the brute dropped the cleaver as he fell.
+
+"Now," and Demetrius seized the Vestal around the waist, as lightly as
+a girl would raise a kitten, and flung her across his shoulders. One
+stride and he was in the passage leading to the peristylium; and
+before the mob could follow Agias had dashed the door in their faces,
+and shot the bolt.
+
+"It will hold them back a moment," muttered Demetrius, "but we must
+hasten."
+
+They ran across the peristylium, the pirate chief with his burden no
+less swift than Agias. The door to the rear street was flung open, and
+they were out in a narrow alleyway. Just as they did so, a howl of
+many voices proclaimed that the peristylium door had yielded.
+
+"Guide me by the straightest way," commanded the sea rover.
+
+"Where?" was Agias's question.
+
+"To the wharves. The yacht is the only safe place for the lady. There
+I will teach her how I can honour a friend of Sextus Drusus."
+
+Agias felt that it was no time for expostulation. A Vestal Virgin take
+refuge on a pirate ship! But it was a matter of life and death now,
+and there was no time for forming another plan. Once let the mob
+overtake them, and the lives of all three were not worth a sesterce.
+Agias found it necessary to keep himself collected while he ran, or he
+would lose the way in the maze of streets. The yacht was moored far
+below the Pons Sublicius, and the whole way was full of peril. It was
+no use to turn off into alleys and by-paths; to do so at night meant
+to be involved in a labyrinth as deadly for them as that of the Cretan
+Minos. The mob was on their heels, howling, raging. The people were
+beginning to wake in their houses along the streets. Men bawled "Stop
+thief!" from the windows, imagining there had been a robbery. Once two
+or three figures actually swung out into the way before them, but at a
+stray glint of lantern light falling on Demetrius's naked long sword,
+they vanished in the gloom. But still the mob pressed on, ever gaining
+accessions, ever howling the more fiercely. Agias realized that the
+weight of his burden was beginning to tell on even the iron frame of
+his cousin. The pursuers and pursued were drawing closer together. The
+mob was ever reenforced by relays; the handicap on Demetrius was too
+great. They had passed down the Vicus Tuscus, flown past the dark
+shadow of the lower end of the Circus Maximus. At the Porta Trigemina
+the unguarded portal had stood open; there was none to stop them. They
+passed by the Pons Sublicius, and skirted the Aventine. Stones and
+billets of wood began to whistle past their ears,--the missiles of the
+on-rushing multitude. At last the wharves! Out in the darkness stood
+the huge bulk of a Spanish lumberman; but there was no refuge there.
+The grain wharves and the oil wharves were passed; the sniff of the
+mackerel fisher, the faint odour from the great Alexandrian
+merchantman loaded with the spices of India, were come and gone. A
+stone struck Agias in the shoulder, he felt numb in one arm, to drag
+his feet was a burden; the flight with the C�sarians to the Janiculum
+had not been like to this,--death at the naked sword had been at least
+in store then, and now to be plucked in pieces by a mob! Another stone
+brushed forward his hair and dashed, not against Demetrius ahead, but
+against his burden. There was--Agias could hear--a low moan; but at
+the same instant the fleeing pirate uttered a whistle so loud, so
+piercing, that the foremost pursuers came to a momentary stand, in
+half-defined fright, In an instant there came an answering whistle
+from the wharf just ahead. In a twinkling half a dozen torches had
+flashed out all over a small vessel, now barely visible in the night,
+at one of the mooring rings. There was a strange jargon of voices
+calling in some Oriental tongue; and Demetrius, as he ran, answered
+them in a like language. Then over Agias's head and into the thick
+press of the mob behind, something--arrows no doubt--flew whistling;
+and there were groans and cries of pain. And Agias found uncouth,
+bearded men helping or rather casting him over the side of the vessel.
+The yacht was alive with men: some were bounding ashore to loose the
+hawsers, others were lifting ponderous oars, still more were shooting
+fast and cruelly in the direction of the mob, while its luckless
+leaders struggled to turn in flight, and the multitude behind,
+ignorant of the slaughter, was forcing them on to death. Above the
+clamour, the howls of the mob, the shouts of the sailors, the grating
+of oars, and the creaking of cables, rang the voice of Demetrius; and
+at his word a dozen ready hands put each command into action. The
+narrow, easy-moving yacht caught the current; a long tier of white
+oars glinted in the torchlight, smote the water, and the yacht bounded
+away, while a parting flight of arrows left misery and death upon the
+quay.
+
+Agias, sorely bewildered, clambered on to the little poop. His cousin
+stood grasping one of the steering paddles; the ruddy lantern light
+gleamed on the pirate's frame and face, and made him the perfect
+personification of a sea-king; he was some grandly stern Poseidon, the
+"Storm-gatherer" and the "Earth-shaker." When he spoke to Agias, it
+was in the tone of a despot to a subject.
+
+"The lady is below. Go to her. You are to care for her until I rejoin
+my fleet. Tell her my sister shall not be more honoured than she, nor
+otherwise treated. When I am aboard my flag-ship, she shall have
+proper maids and attendance. Go!"
+
+Agias obeyed, saying nothing. He found Fabia lying on a rude pallet,
+with a small bale of purple silk thrust under her head for a pillow.
+She stared at him with wild, frightened eyes, then round the little
+cabin, which, while bereft of all but the most necessary comforts, was
+decorated with bejeweled armour, golden lamps, costly Indian
+tapestries and ivory--the trophies of half a score of voyages.
+
+"Agias," she faintly whispered, "tell me what has happened since I
+awoke from my sleep and found Gabinius's ruffians about me. By
+whatsoever god you reverence most, speak truly!"
+
+Agias fell on his knees, kissed the hem of her robe, kissed her hands.
+Then he told her all,--as well as his own sorely confused wits would
+admit. Fabia heard him through to the end, then laid her face between
+her hands.
+
+"Would that--would that they had murdered me as they wished! It would
+be all over now," she agonized. "I have no wish again to see the
+light. Whether they believe me innocent or guilty of the charge is
+little; I can never be happy again."
+
+"And why not, dear lady?" cried Agias.
+
+"Don't ask me! I do not know. I do not know anything! Leave me! It is
+not fit that you should see me crying like a child. Leave me! Leave
+me!"
+
+And thus conjured, Agias went up to the poop once more.
+
+The yacht was flying down the current under her powerful oarage.
+Demetrius was still standing with his hands fixed on the steering
+paddle; his gaze was drifting along in the plashing water. The shadowy
+outlines of the great city had vanished; the yacht was well on her way
+down the river to Ostia. Save for the need to avoid a belated
+merchantman anchored in midstream for the night, there was little
+requiring the master's skill. Agias told his cousin how Fabia had sent
+him away.
+
+"_A!_ Poor lady!" replied the pirate, "perhaps she was the Vestal I
+saw a few days since, and envied her, to see the consuls' lictors
+lowering their rods to her, and all the people making way before her;
+she, protected by the whole might of this terrible Roman people, and
+honoured by them all; and I, a poor outlaw, massing gold whereof I
+have no need, slaying men when I would be their friend, with only an
+open sea and a few planks for native land. And now, see how the Fates
+bring her down so low, that at my hands she receives hospitality, nay,
+life!"
+
+"You did not seem so very loath to shed blood to-night," commented
+Agias, dryly.
+
+"No, by Zeus!" was his frank answer. "It is easy to send men over the
+Styx after having been Charon's substitute for so many years. But the
+trade was not pleasant to learn, and, bless the gods, you may not have
+to be apprenticed to it."
+
+"Then you will not take me with you in your rover's life?" asked
+Agias, half-disappointedly.
+
+"Apollo forbid! I will take you and the lady to some place where she
+can be safe until she may return vindicated, and where you can earn an
+honest livelihood, marry a wife of station, in accordance with the
+means which I shall give you, dwell peaceably, and be happy."
+
+"But I cannot accept your present," protested the younger Greek.
+
+"_Phui!_ What use have I of money? To paraphrase �schylus: 'For more
+of money than I would is mine.' I can't eat it, or beat swords out of
+gold, or repair my ships therewith."
+
+"Then why amass it at all?"
+
+"Why drink when you know it is better to keep sober? I can no more
+stop plundering than a toper leave a wine-jar. Besides, perhaps some
+day I may see a road to amnesty open,--and, then, what will not money
+do for a man or woman?"
+
+"Quintus Drusus, my patron, the Lady Cornelia, and the Lady Fabia all
+are rich. But I would not take up their sorrows for all their wealth."
+
+"True," and Demetrius stared down into the inky water. "It will not
+give back those who are gone forever. Achilles could ask Heph�stus for
+his armour, but he could not put breath into the body of Patroclus.
+_Plutus_ and _Cratus_[162] are, after all, but weaklings. _A!_ This is
+an unequal world!"
+
+  [162] Riches and strength.
+
+When Agias fell asleep that night, or rather that morning, on a hard
+seaman's pallet, two names were stirring in his heart, names
+inextricably connected: Cornelia, whom he had promised Quintus Drusus
+to save from Ahenobarbus's clutches, and Artemisia. In the morning the
+yacht, having run her sixteen miles to Ostia, stood out to sea, naught
+hindering.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was two months later when Quintus Drusus reentered Rome, no more a
+fugitive, but a trusted staff officer of the lawfully appointed
+dictator Julius C�sar. He had taken part in a desperate struggle
+around Corfinium, where his general had cut off and captured the army
+with which Domitius had aimed to check his advance. Drusus had been
+severely wounded, and had not recovered in time to participate in the
+futile siege of Brundusium, when C�sar vainly strove to prevent
+Pompeius's flight across the sea to Greece. Soon as he was
+convalescent, the young officer had hurried away to Rome; and there he
+was met by a story concerning his aunt, whereof no rational
+explanation seemed possible. And when, upon this mystery, was added a
+tale he received from Bai�, he marvelled, yet dreaded, the more.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XIX
+
+The Hospitality of Demetrius
+
+
+I
+
+While grave senators were contending, tribunes haranguing, imperators
+girding on the sword, legions marching, cohorts clashing,--while all
+this history was being made in the outside world, Cornelia, very
+desolate, very lonely, was enduring her imprisonment at Bai�.
+
+If she had had manacles on her wrists and fetters on her feet, she
+would not have been the more a prisoner. Lentulus Crus had determined,
+with the same grim tenacity of purpose which led him to plunge a world
+into war, that his niece should comply with his will and marry Lucius
+Ahenobarbus. He sent down to Bai�, Phaon,--the evil-eyed freedman of
+Ahenobarbus,--and gave to that worthy full power to do anything he
+wished to break the will of his prospective patroness. Cassandra had
+been taken away from Cornelia--she could not learn so much as whether
+the woman had been scourged to death for arranging the interview with
+Drusus, or no. Two ill-favoured slatternly Gallic maids, the scourings
+of the Puteoli slave-market, had been forced upon Cornelia as her
+attendants--creatures who stood in abject fear of the whip of Phaon,
+and who obeyed his mandates to the letter. Cornelia was never out of
+sight of some person whom she knew was devoted to Lentulus, or rather
+to Phaon and his patron. She received no letters save those from her
+mother, uncle, or Ahenobarbus; she saw no visitors; she was not
+allowed to go outside of the walls of the villa, nor indeed upon any
+of its terraces where she would be exposed to sight from without,
+whether by land or sea. At every step, at every motion, she was
+confronted with the barriers built around her, and by the
+consciousness that, so long as she persisted in her present attitude,
+her durance was likely to continue unrelaxed.
+
+Cornelia was thirsty for the news from the world without. Her keepers
+were dumb to the most harmless inquiry. Her mother wrote more of the
+latest fashions than of the progress of events in the Senate and in
+the field; besides, Claudia--as Cornelia knew very well--never took
+her political notions from any one except her brother-in-law, and
+Cornelia noted her mother's rambling observations accordingly.
+Lentulus studiously refrained from adverting to politics in letters to
+his niece. Ahenobarbus wrote of wars and rumours of wars, but in a
+tone of such partisan venom and overreaching sarcasm touching all
+things C�sarian, that Cornelia did not need her prejudices to tell her
+that Lucius was simply abusing her credulity.
+
+Then at last all the letters stopped. Phaon had no explanation to
+give. He would not suffer his evil, smiling lips to tell the story of
+the flight of the oligarchs from Rome, and confess that Lentulus and
+Claudia were no farther off than Capua. The consul had ordered that
+his niece should not know of their proximity and its cause,--lest she
+pluck up hope, and all his coercion be wasted. So there was silence,
+and that was all. Even her mother did not write to her. Cornelia grew
+very, very lonely and desolate--more than words may tell. She had one
+consolation--Drusus was not dead, or she would have been informed of
+it! Proof that her lover was dead would have been a most delightful
+weapon in Lentulus's hands, too delightful to fail to use instantly.
+And so Cornelia hoped on.
+
+She tried again to build a world of fantasy, of unreal delight, around
+her; to close her eyes, and wander abroad with her imagination. She
+roamed in reverie over land and sea, from Atlantis to Serica; and
+dwelt in the dull country of the Hyperboreans and saw the gold-sanded
+plains of the Ethiops. She took her Homer and fared with Odysseus into
+Polyphemus's cave, and out to the land of Circe; and heard the Sirens
+sing, and abode on Calypso's fairy isle; and saw the maiden Nausica�
+and her maids at the ball-play on the marge of the stream. But it was
+sorry work; for ever and again the dream-woven mist would break, and
+the present--stern, unchanging, joyless--she would see, and that only.
+
+Cornelia was thrown more and more back on her books. In fact, had she
+been deprived of that diversion, she must have succumbed in sheer
+wretchedness; but Phaon, for all his crafty guile, did not realize
+that a roll of �schylus did almost as much to undo his jailer's work
+as a traitor among his underlings.
+
+The library was a capacious, well-lighted room, prettily frescoed, and
+provided with comfortably upholstered couches. In the niches were a
+few choice busts: a Sophocles, a Xenophon, an Ennius, and one or two
+others. Around the room in wooden presses were the rolled volumes on
+Egyptian papyrus, each labelled with author and title in bright red
+marked on the tablet attached to the cylinder of the roll. Here were
+the poets and historians of Hellas; the works of Plato, Aristotle,
+Callimachus, Apollonius Rhodius and the later Greek philosophers.
+Here, too, were books which the Greek-hating young lady loved best of
+all--the rough metres of Livius Andronicus and Cn�us N�vius, whose
+uncouth lines of the old Saturnian verse breathed of the hale, hearty,
+uncultured, uncorrupted life of the period of the First Punic War.
+Beside them were the other great Latinists: Ennius, Plautus, Terence,
+and furthermore, Pacuvius and Cato Major, Lucilius, the memoirs of
+Sulla, the orations of Antonius "the orator" and Gracchus, and the
+histories of Claudius Quadrigarius and Valerius Antias.
+
+The library became virtually Cornelia's prison. She read tragedy,
+comedy, history, philosophy,--anything to drive from her breast her
+arch enemy, thought. But if, for example, she turned to Apollonius
+Rhodius and read--
+
+  "Amidst them all, the son of �son chief
+  Shone forth divinely in his comeliness,
+  And graces of his form. On him the maid
+  Looked still askance, and gazed him o'er;"[163]
+
+  [163] Elton, translator.
+
+straightway she herself became Medea, Jason took on the form of
+Drusus, and she would read no more; "while," as the next line of the
+learned poet had it, "grief consumed her heart."
+
+Only one other recreation was left her. Artemisia had not been taken
+away by Phaon, who decided that the girl was quite impotent to thwart
+his ends. Cornelia devoted much of her time to teaching the bright
+little Greek. The latter picked up the scraps of knowledge with a
+surprising readiness, and would set Cornelia a-laughing by her
+_na�vet�_, when she soberly intermixed her speech with bits of grave
+poetical and philosophical lore, uttered more for sake of sound than
+sense.
+
+As a matter of fact, however, Cornelia was fast approaching a point
+where her position would have been intolerable. She did not even have
+the stimulus that comes from an active aggressive persecution. Drusus
+was in the world of action, not forgetful of his sweetheart, yet not
+pent up to solitary broodings on his ill-fated passion. Cornelia was
+thrust back upon herself, and found herself a very discontented,
+wretched, love-lorn, and withal--despite her polite learning--ignorant
+young woman, who took pleasure neither in sunlight nor starlight; who
+saw a mocking defiance in every dimple of the sapphire bay; who saw in
+each new day merely a new period for impotent discontent. Something
+had to determine her situation, or perhaps she would not indeed have
+bowed her head to her uncle's will; but she certainly would have been
+driven to resolutions of the most desperate nature.
+
+Cornelia had practically lost reckoning of time and seasons. She had
+ceased hoping for a letter from her mother; even a taunting missive
+from Ahenobarbus would have been a diversion. She was so closely
+guarded that she found herself praying that Drusus would not try to
+steal a second interview, for the attempt might end in his murder.
+Only one stray crumb of comfort at last did she obtain, and it was
+Artemisia who brought it to her. The girl had been allowed by Phaon to
+walk outside the grounds of the villa for a little way, and her pretty
+face had won the good graces of one or two slave-boys in an adjoining
+seaside house. Artemisia came back full of news which they had
+imparted: the consuls had fled from Rome; Pompeius was retreating
+before C�sar; the latest rumour had it that Domitius was shut up in
+Corfinium and likely to come off hardly.
+
+The words were precious as rubies to Cornelia. She went all that day
+and the next with her head in the air. Perhaps with a lover's subtle
+omniscience she imagined that it was Drusus who had some part in
+bringing Domitius to bay. She pictured the hour when he--with a legion
+no doubt at his back--would come to Bai�, not a stealthy, forbidden
+lover, but a conqueror, splendid in the triumph of his arms; would
+enter the villa with a strong hand, and lead her forth in the eyes of
+all the world--his wife! and then back to Pr�neste, to Rome--happy as
+the Immortals on Olympus; and what came after, Cornelia neither
+thought nor cared.
+
+On those days the sea was lovely, the sunlight fair, and all the
+circling sea-gulls as they hovered over the waves cried shrilly one to
+the other; "How good is all the world!" And then, just as Cornelia was
+beginning to count the hours,--to wonder whether it would be one day
+or ten before Drusus would be sufficiently at liberty to ride over
+hill and dale to Bai�,--Phaon thrust himself upon her.
+
+"Your ladyship," was his curt statement, "will have all things
+prepared in readiness to take ship for Greece, to-morrow morning."
+
+"For Greece!" was the agonized exclamation.
+
+"Certainly; it is useless to conceal matters from your ladyship now.
+C�sar has swept all Italy. Corfinium may fall at any time. His
+excellency the consul Lentulus is now at Brundusium. He orders me to
+put you on board a vessel that has just finished her lading for the
+Pir�us."
+
+This then was the end of all those glittering day-dreams! C�sar's
+victories only would transfer Cornelia to a more secure bondage. She
+had enough pride left not to moan aloud and plead with an animal like
+Phaon not to crush her utterly. In fact she was benumbed, and did not
+fully sense the changed situation. She went through a mechanical
+process of collecting her wardrobe, of putting her jewellery in cases
+and boxes, of laying aside for carriage a few necessaries for
+Artemisia. Phaon, who had expected a terrible scene when he made his
+announcement, observed to himself that, "The domina is more sensible
+than I supposed. I think her uncle will have his way now soon enough,
+if Master Lucius does not get his throat cut at Corfinium." And having
+thus concluded to himself,--satisfactorily, if erroneously,--he, too,
+made arrangements for the voyage impending.
+
+
+II
+
+Cornelia's sleeping room was large and airy. It had windows
+overlooking the sea--windows closed by the then extravagant luxury of
+panes of glass. When these were swung back the full sweep of the
+southwest wind poured its mild freshness into the room. The apartment
+was decorated and furnished with every taste and luxury. In one corner
+was the occupant's couch,--the frame inlaid with ivory and
+tortoise-shell, the mattress soft with the very choicest feathers of
+white German geese. Heaped on the cushion were gorgeous coverlets, of
+purple wool or even silk, and embroidered with elaborate figures, or
+covered with rare feather tapestry. Around the room were silver
+mirrors, chairs, divans, cabinets, dressers, and elegant tripods.
+
+On one of the divans slept Artemisia, and just outside of the door one
+of the Gallic maids, whom Cornelia detested so heartily.
+
+When Artemisia's curly head touched her pillow, its owner was fast
+asleep in an instant. When her patroness sank back on the cushions
+worth a king's ransom, Somnus, Hypnus, or whatever name the drowsy god
+may be called by, was far from present. Cornelia tossed on the
+pillows, tossed and cried softly to herself. The battle was too hard!
+She had tried: tried to be true to Drusus and her own higher
+aspirations. But there was some limit to her strength, and Cornelia
+felt that limit very near at hand. Earlier in the conflict with her
+uncle she had exulted in the idea that suicide was always in her
+power; now she trembled at the thought of death, at the thought of
+everything contained in the unlovely future. She did not want to die,
+to flicker out in nothingness, never to smile and never to laugh
+again. Why should she not be happy--rightly happy? Was she not a
+Cornelian, a Claudian, born to a position that a princess might enjoy?
+Was not wealth hers, and a fair degree of wit and a handsome face? Why
+then should she, the patrician maiden, eat her heart out, while close
+at hand Artemisia, poor little foundling Greek, was sleeping as
+sweetly as though people never grieved nor sorrows tore the soul?
+
+Cornelia was almost angry with Artemisia for being thus oblivious to
+and shielded from calamity. So hot in fact did her indignation become
+against the innocent girl, that Cornelia herself began to smile at her
+own passion. And there was one thought very comforting to her pride.
+
+"Artemisia is only an uneducated slave, or little better than a slave;
+if she were in my station she would be just as unhappy. I am wretched
+just in proportion to the greatness of my rank;" then she added to
+herself, "_Hei!_ but how wretched then the gods must be!" And then
+again she smiled at admitting for an instant that there were any gods
+at all; had not her philosophy taught her much better?
+
+So at last Cornelia turned over the pillows for the last time, and
+finally slept, in heavy, dreamless slumber.
+
+       *        *        *        *        *
+
+Cornelia did not know at what watch of the night she awoke; awoke, not
+suddenly, but slowly, as consciousness stole over her that _something_
+was happening. It was a dark, cloudy night, yet a strange red light
+was glinting faintly through the windows and making very dim panels on
+the rugs of the floor. There was a bare gleam of fire from the
+charcoal in the portable metal stove that stood in a remote corner of
+the room to dispel the chill of night. Artemisia was stirring in her
+sleep, and saying something--probably in a one-sided dream-dialogue.
+Cornelia opened her eyes, shut them again; peeped forth a second time,
+and sat up in bed. There was a confused din without, many voices
+speaking at once, all quite unintelligible, though now and then she
+caught a few syllables of Greek. The din grew louder and louder. At
+the same time, as if directly connected with the babel, the strange
+light flamed up more brightly--as if from many advancing torches.
+Cornelia shook the sleep from her eyes, and flung back the coverlets.
+What was it? She had not yet reached the stage of feeling any terror.
+
+Suddenly, drowning all lesser noise, came the blows of a heavy timber
+beating on the main door of the villa.
+
+Crash! and with the stroke, a torrent of wild shouts, oaths, and
+imprecations burst forth from many score throats.
+
+Crash! The slaves sleeping near the front door began to howl and
+shout. The great Molossian hound that stood watch was barking and
+snapping. The Gallic maid sprang from her pallet by Cornelia's door,
+and gave a shrill, piercing scream. Artemisia was sitting up on her
+bed, rubbing her eyes, blinking at the strange light, and about to
+begin to cry. Cornelia ran over the floor to her.
+
+"_A! A!_ what is going to happen!" whimpered the girl.
+
+"I do not know, _philotata_"[164] said Cornelia in Greek, putting her
+hand on Artemisia's cheek; "but don't cry, and I'll soon find out."
+
+  [164] Dearest one.
+
+Crash! and at this the door could be heard to fall inward. Then, with
+yells of triumph and passion, there was a great sweep of feet over the
+threshold, and the clang of weapons and armour. Cornelia found herself
+beginning to tremble. As she stepped across the room, she passed
+before her largest mirror, whereon the outside light was shining
+directly. She saw herself for an instant; her hair streaming down her
+back, her only dress her loose white tunic, her arms bare, and nothing
+on her throat except a string of yellow amber beads. "And my feet are
+bare," she added to herself, diverted from her panic by her womanly
+embarrassment. She advanced toward the door, but had not long to wait.
+Down below the invaders had burst loose in wild pillage, then up into
+the sleeping room came flying a man--Phaon, his teeth chattering, his
+face ghastly with fright.
+
+"Domina! domina!" and he knelt and seized Cornelia's robe. "Save, _A!_
+save! We are undone! Pirates! They will kill us all! _Mu! mu!_ don't
+let them murder me!"
+
+A moment longer and Cornelia, in her rising contempt, would have
+spurned him with her foot. There were more feet on the stairway.
+Glaring torches were tossing over gold inlaid armour. A man of unusual
+height and physique strode at the head of the oncomers, clutching and
+dragging by the wrist a quivering slave-boy.
+
+"Your mistress, boy! where is she? Point quickly, if you would not
+die!" cried the invader, whom we shall at once recognize as Demetrius.
+
+Cornelia advanced to the doorway, and stood in her maidenly dignity,
+confronting the pirates, who fell back a step, as though before an
+apparition.
+
+"I am the Lady Cornelia, mistress of the villa," she said slowly,
+speaking in tones of high command. "On what errand do you come thus
+unseasonably, and with violence?"
+
+Whereat, out from the little group of armed men sprang one clad in
+costly, jewel-set armour, like the rest, but shorter than the others,
+and with fair hair flowing down from his helmet on to his shoulders.
+
+"Domina, do you not know me? Do not be afraid."
+
+"Agias!" cried Cornelia, in turn giving back a step.
+
+"Assuredly," quoth the young Hellene, nothing dismayed; "and with your
+leave, this great man is Demetrius, my cousin, whose trade, perchance,
+is a little irregular, but who has come hither not so much to plunder
+as to save you from the clutches of his arch-enemy's son, Lucius
+Ahenobarbus."
+
+Cornelia staggered, and caught the curtain in the doorway to keep from
+falling.
+
+"Has Master Drusus sent him to me?" she asked, very pale around the
+lips.
+
+"Master Drusus is at Corfinium. No one knows what will be the issue of
+the war, for Pompeius is making off. It is I who counselled my cousin
+to come to Bai�."
+
+"Then what will you do with me? How may I dare to trust you? Deliver
+myself into the hands of pirates! Ah! Agias, I did not think that
+_you_ would turn to such a trade!"
+
+The youth flushed visibly, even under the ruddy torchlight.
+
+"Oh, lady," he cried, "have I not always been true to you? I am no
+pirate, and you will not blame my cousin, when you have heard his
+story. But do not fear us. Come down to the ship--Fabia is there,
+waiting for you."
+
+"Fabia!" and again Cornelia was startled. Then, fixing her deep gaze
+full on Agias, "I believe you speak the truth. If not you--whom?
+Take--take me!"
+
+And she fell forward in a swoon, and Demetrius caught her in his
+powerful arms.
+
+"This is the affianced wife of Quintus Drusus?" he cried to Agias.
+
+"None other."
+
+"She is worthy of Sextus's son. A right brave lady!" cried the pirate.
+"But this is no place for her, poor thing. Here, Eurybiades," and he
+addressed a lieutenant,--an athletic, handsome Hellene like
+himself,--"carry the lady down to the landing, put her on the trireme,
+and give her to Madam Fabia. Mind you lift her gently."
+
+"Never fear," replied the other, picking up his burden carefully. "Who
+would not delight to bear Aphrodite to the arms of Artemis!"
+
+And so for a while sight, sound, and feeling were at an end for
+Cornelia, but for Agias the adventures of the evening were but just
+begun. The pirates had broken loose in the villa, and Demetrius made
+not the slightest effort to restrain them. On into the deserted
+bedroom, ahead of the others, for reasons of his own, rushed Agias. As
+he came in, some one cried out his name, and a second vision in white
+confronted him.
+
+"_Ai! ai!_ Agias, I knew you would come!" and then and there, with the
+sword-blades glinting, and the armed men all around, Artemisia tossed
+her plump arms around his neck.
+
+"The nymph, attendant on Aphrodite!" cried Demetrius, laughing. And
+then, when Artemisia saw the strange throng and the torches, and heard
+the din over the villa, she hung down her head in mingled fear and
+mortification. But Agias whispered something in her ear, that made her
+lift her face, laughing, and then he in turn caught her up in his arms
+to hasten down to the landing--for the scene was becoming one of
+little profit for a maid. Groans and entreaties checked him. Two
+powerful Phoenician seamen were dragging forward Phaon, half clothed,
+trembling at every joint. "Mercy! Mercy! Oh! Master Agias, oh! Your
+excellency, _clarissime_,[165] _despotes!_[166]" whined the wretched
+man, now in Latin, now in Greek, "ask them to spare me; don't let them
+murder me in cold blood!"
+
+  [165] Very distinguished sir.
+
+  [166] Master.
+
+"_Ai!_" cried Demetrius. "What fool have we here? Do you know him,
+Agias?"
+
+"He is the freedman of Lucius Ahenobarbus. I can vouch for his
+character, after its way."
+
+"_O-op!_"[167] thundered the chief, "drag him down to the boats! I'll
+speak with him later!"
+
+  [167] _O-op_--avast there.
+
+And Agias carried his precious burden down to the landing-place, while
+the seamen followed with their captive.
+
+Once Artemisia safe on her way to the trireme, which was a little off
+shore, Agias ran back to the villa; the pirates were ransacking it
+thoroughly. Everything that could be of the slightest value was
+ruthlessly seized upon, everything else recklessly destroyed. The
+pirates had not confined their attack to the Lentulan residence alone.
+Rushing down upon the no less elaborate neighbouring villas, they
+forced in the gates, overcame what slight opposition the trembling
+slaves might make, and gave full sway to their passion for plunder and
+rapine. The noble ladies and fine gentlemen who had dared the
+political situation and lingered late in the season to enjoy the
+pleasures of Bai�, now found themselves roughly dragged away into
+captivity to enrich the freebooters by their ransoms. From pillage the
+pirates turned to arson, Demetrius in fact making no effort to control
+his men. First a fragile wooden summer-house caught the blaze of a
+torch and flared up; then a villa itself, and another and another. The
+flames shot higher and higher, great glowing, wavering pyramids of
+heat, roaring and crackling, flinging a red circle of glowing light in
+toward the mainland by Cum�, and shimmering out over the bay toward
+Prochyta. Overhead was the inky dome of the heavens, and below fire;
+fire, and men with passions unreined.
+
+Demetrius stood on the terrace of the burning villa of the Lentuli,
+barely himself out of range of the raging heat. As Agias came near to
+him, the gilded Medusa head emblazoned on his breastplate glared out;
+the loose scarlet mantle he wore under his armour was red as if dipped
+in hot blood; he seemed the personification of Ares, the destroyer,
+the waster of cities. The pirate was gazing fixedly on the blazing
+wreck and ruin. His firm lips were set with an expression grave and
+hard. He took no part in the annihilating frenzy of his men.
+
+"This is terrible destruction!" cried Agias in his ear, for the roar
+of the flames was deafening, he himself beginning to turn sick at the
+sight of the ruin.
+
+"It is frightful," replied Demetrius, gloomily; "why did the gods ever
+drive me to this? My men are but children to exult as they do; as boys
+love to tear the thatch from the roof of a useless hovel, in sheer
+wantonness. I cannot restrain them."
+
+At this instant a seaman rushed up in breathless haste.
+
+"_Eleleu!_ Captain, the soldiers are on us. There must have been a
+cohort in Cum�."
+
+Whereat the voice of Demetrius rang above the shouts of the plunderers
+and the crash and roar of the conflagration, like a trumpet:--
+
+"Arms, men! Gather the spoil and back to the ships! Back for your
+lives!"
+
+Already the cohort of Pompeian troops, that had not yet evacuated
+Cum�, was coming up on the double-quick, easily guided by the burning
+buildings which made the vicinity bright as day. The pirates ran like
+cats out of the blazing villas, bounded over terraces and walls, and
+gathered near the landing-place by the Lentulan villa. The soldiers
+were already on them. For a moment it seemed as though the cohort was
+about to drive the whole swarm of the marauders over the sea-wall, and
+make them pay dear for their night's diversion. But the masterly
+energy of Demetrius turned the scale. With barely a score of men
+behind him, he charged the nearest century so impetuously that it
+broke like water before him; and when sheer numbers had swept his
+little group back, the other pirates had rallied on the very brink of
+tie sea-wall, and returned to the charge.
+
+Never was battle waged more desperately. The pirates knew that to be
+driven back meant to fall over a high embankment into water so shallow
+as to give little safety in a dive; capture implied crucifixion. Their
+only hope was to hold their own while their boats took them off to the
+ships in small detachments. The conflagration made the narrow
+battle-field as bright as day. The soldiers were brave, and for new
+recruits moderately disciplined. The pirates could hardly bear up
+under the crushing discharge of darts, and the steady onset of the
+maniples. Up and down the contest raged, swaying to and fro like the
+waves of the sea. Again and again the pirates were driven so near to
+the brink of the seawall that one or two would fall, dashed to instant
+death on the submerged rocks below. Demetrius was everywhere at once,
+as it were, precisely when he was most needed, always exposing
+himself, always aggressive. Even while he himself fought for dear
+life, Agias admired as never before the intelligently ordered
+puissance of his cousin.
+
+The boats to and from the landing were pulled with frantic energy. The
+ships had run in as close as possible, but they could not use their
+_balist�_,[168] for fear of striking down friend as well as foe. As
+relays of pirates were carried away, the position of the remainder
+became the more desperate with their lessening numbers. The boats came
+back for the last relay. Demetrius drew the remnant of his men
+together, and charged so furiously that the whole cohort gave way,
+leaving the ground strewn with its own slain. The pirates rushed madly
+aboard the boats, they sunk them to the gunwales; other fugitives
+clung to the oars. At perilous risk of upsetting they thrust off, just
+as the rallied soldiers ran down to the landing-place. Demetrius and
+Agias were the only ones standing on the embankment. They had been the
+last to retire, and therefore the boats had filled without them.
+
+  [168] Missile-throwing engines.
+
+A great cry went up from the pirates.
+
+"Save the captain!" and some boats began to back water, loaded as
+they were; but Demetrius motioned them back with his hand.
+
+"Can you swim, boy!" he shouted to Agias, while both tore off their
+body-armour. Their shields had already dropped. Agias shook his head
+doubtfully.
+
+"My arm is hurt," he muttered.
+
+"No matter!" and Demetrius seized his cousin under one armpit, and
+stepped down from the little landing-platform into the water just
+below. A single powerful stroke sent the two out of reach of the swing
+of the sword of the nearest soldier. The front files of the cohort had
+pressed down on to the landing in a dense mass, loath to let go its
+prey.
+
+"Let fly, men!" cried Demetrius, as he swam, and javelins spat into
+the water about him.
+
+It was a cruel thing to do. The three pirate vessels, two large
+triremes and the yacht, discharged all their enginery. Heavy stones
+crashed down upon the soldiers, crushing several men together. Huge
+arrows tore through shield and armour, impaling more than one body. It
+was impossible to miss working havoc in so close a throng. The troops,
+impotent to make effective reply, turned in panic and fled toward the
+upper terraces to get beyond the decimating artillery. The pirates
+raised a great shout of triumph that shook the smoke-veiled skies. A
+fresh boat, pulling out from one of the vessels, rescued the captain
+and Agias; and soon the two cousins were safe on board the trireme
+Demetrius used as his flagship.
+
+The pirates swarmed on the decks and rigging and cheered the escape of
+their commander. On shore the burning buildings were still sending up
+their pillars of flame. The water and sky far out to sea were red, and
+beyond, blackness. Again the pirates shouted, then at the order of
+their commander the cables creaked, the anchors rose, hundreds of long
+oars flashed in the lurid glare, and the three vessels slipped over
+the dark waves.
+
+Demetrius remained on the poop of his ship; Agias was below in the
+cabin, bending over Artemisia, who was already smiling in her sleep.
+
+
+III
+
+When Cornelia awoke, it was with Fabia bending over her at the
+bedside. The portholes of the cabin were open; the warm, fresh
+southern wind was pouring in its balmy sweetness. Cornelia pressed her
+hands to her eyes, then looked forth. The cabin ceiling was low, but
+studded with rare ornamental bronze work; the furniture glittered with
+gilding and the smooth sheen of polished ivory; the tapestry of the
+curtains and on the walls was of the choicest scarlet wool, and Coan
+silk, semi-transparent and striped with gold. Gold plating shone on
+the section of the mast enclosed within the cabin. An odour of the
+rarest Arabian frankincense was wafted from the pastils burning on a
+curiously wrought tripod of Corinthian brass. The upholsteries and
+rugs were more splendid than any that Cornelia had seen gracing the
+palace of Roman patrician.
+
+Thus it came to pass that Fabia repeated over and over again to
+Cornelia the tale of recent happenings, until the latter's sorely
+perturbed brain might comprehend. And then, when Cornelia understood
+it all: how that she was not to go to Greece with Phaon; how that she
+was under the protection of a man who owed his life to Sextus Drusus,
+and hated the Ahenobarbi with a perfect hatred; how that Demetrius had
+sworn to carry her to Alexandria, where, safe out of the way of war
+and commotion, she might await the hour when Drusus should be free to
+come for her--when, we repeat, she understood all this, and how it
+came to pass that the Vestal herself was on the vessel,--then Cornelia
+strained Fabia to her breast, and laid her head on the elder woman's
+shoulder, and cried and cried for very relief of soul. Then she arose
+and let the maids Demetrius had sent to serve her--dark-skinned
+Hindoos, whose words were few, but whose fingers quick and dexterous
+--dress her from the very complete wardrobe that the sea prince had
+placed at her disposal.
+
+Never before had the sunlight shone so fair; never before had the
+sniff of the sea-breeze been so sweet. The galleys were still in the
+bay, close by Prochyta, scarce a mile and a half from the nearest
+mainland. The pirates were landing to procure water from the desolate,
+unsettled isle. The bay was dancing and sparkling with ten million
+golden ripples; the sun had risen high enough above the green hills of
+the coast-land to spread a broad pathway of shimmering fire across the
+waters. Not a cloud flecked the light-bathed azure. Up from the
+forward part of the ships sounded the notes of tinkling cithera and
+the low-breathing double flutes[169] in softest Lydian mood. In and
+out of the cabin passed bronzed-faced Ethiopian mutes with silver cups
+of the precious Mareotic white wine of Egypt for the lady, and plates
+of African pomegranates, Armenian apricots, and strange sweetmeats
+flavoured with a marvellous powder, an Oriental product worth its
+weight in gold as a medicine, which later generations were to
+designate under the name of sugar.
+
+  [169] _Tibi�_.
+
+And so Cornelia was refreshed and dressed; and when the maids held the
+mirror before her and she saw that the gold trinkets were shining in
+her hair, and the jewels which Demetrius had sent her were sparkling
+brightly at her throat, and realized that she was very fair to
+see,--then she laughed, the first real, unforced laugh for many a
+weary day, whereupon she laughed again and again, and grew the more
+pleased with her own face when she beheld a smile upon it. Then Fabia
+kissed her, and told her that no woman was ever more beautiful; and
+the dark Indian maids drew back, saying nothing, but admiring with
+their eyes. So Cornelia went up upon the deck, where Demetrius came to
+meet her. If she had been a Semiramis rewarding a deserving general,
+she could not have been more queenly. For she thanked him and his
+lieutenants with a warm gratitude which made every rough seaman feel
+himself more than repaid, and yet throughout it all bore herself as
+though the mere privilege on their part of rescuing her ought to be
+sufficient reward and honour. Then Demetrius knelt down before all his
+men, and kissed the hem of her robe, and swore that he would devote
+himself and all that was his to her service, until she and Quintus
+Drusus should meet, with no foe to come between; so swore all the
+pirates after their captain, and thus it was Cornelia entered into her
+life on the ship of the freebooters.
+
+Other work, however, was before Demetrius that day, than casting
+glances of dutiful admiration at the stately lady that had deigned to
+accept his hospitality. Out from the various other cabins, less
+luxurious assuredly than the one in which Cornelia had awakened, the
+pirates led their several captives to stand before the chief.
+Demetrius, indeed, had accomplished what he euphemistically described
+as "a fair night's work." Half a dozen once very fashionable and now
+very disordered and dejected noble ladies and about as many more sadly
+bedraggled fine gentlemen were haled before his tribunal for judgment.
+The pirate prince stood on the raised roof of a cabin, a step higher
+than the rest of the poop. He was again in his splendid armour, his
+naked sword was in his hand, at his side was stationed Eurybiades and
+half a score more stalwart seamen, all swinging their bare cutlasses.
+Demetrius nevertheless conducted his interrogations with perhaps
+superfluous demonstrations of courtesy, and a general distribution of
+polite "domini" "domin�," "clarissimi," and "illustres." He spoke in
+perfectly good Latin, with only the slightest foreign accent; and
+Cornelia, who--unregenerate pagan that she was--was taking thorough
+delight in the dilemma of persons whom she knew had made her the butt
+of their scandalous gibes, could only admire the skilful manner in
+which he brought home to the several captives the necessity of finding
+a very large sum of money at their bankers' in a very short time, or
+enduring an indefinite captivity. After more or less of surly threats
+and resistance on the part of the men, and screaming on the part of
+the women, the prisoners one and all capitulated, and put their names
+to the papyri they were commanded to sign; and away went a boat
+dancing over the waves to Puteoli to cash the money orders, after
+which the captives would be set ashore at Bai�.
+
+Last of the wretches brought before Demetrius came Phaon. The freedman
+had been roughly handled; across his brow a great welt had risen where
+a pirate had struck him with a rope's end. His arms were pinioned
+behind his back. He was perfectly pale, and his eyes wandered from one
+person to another as if vainly seeking some intercessor.
+
+"_Euge! Kyrios_[170]" cried the pirate chief, "you indeed seem to
+enjoy our hospitality but ill."
+
+  [170] Your Highness.
+
+Phaon fell on his knees.
+
+"I am a poor man," he began to whimper. "I have no means of paying a
+ransom. My patron is not here to protect or rescue me. I have nothing
+to plunder. _Mu! mu!_ set me free, most noble pirate! Oh! most
+excellent prince, what have I done, that you should bear a grudge
+against me?"
+
+"Get up, fellow," snapped Demetrius; "I'm not one of those
+crocodile-headed Egyptian gods that they grovel before in the Nile
+country. My cousin Agias here says he knows you. Now answer--are you a
+Greek?"
+
+"I am an Athenian born."
+
+"Don't you think I can smell your Doric accent by that broad alpha?
+You are a Sicilian, I'll be bound!"
+
+Phaon made a motion of sorrowful assent.
+
+"_Phui!_" continued Demetrius, "tell me, Agias, is this the creature
+that tried to murder Quintus Drusus?"
+
+Agias nodded.
+
+"A fit minister for such a man as I imagine the son of Lucius Domitius
+to be. Eurybiades, take off that fellow's bands; he is not worth one
+stroke of the sword."
+
+"The captain will not spare the knave!" remonstrated the sanguinary
+lieutenant.
+
+"What I have said, I have said," retorted the other; then, when
+Phaon's arms hung free, "See, on the strength of our fellowship in our
+both being Greeks, I have set you at large!"
+
+Phaon again sank to his knees to proffer thanks.
+
+"Hold!" cried Demetrius, with a menacing gesture. "Don't waste your
+gratitude. Greek you pretend to be, more the shame! Such as you it is
+that have brought Hellas under the heel of the oppressor; such as you
+have made the word of a Hellene almost valueless in the Roman courts,
+so that juries have to be warned to consider us all liars; such as you
+have dragged down into the pit many an honest man; ay, myself too!"
+
+Phaon left off his thanks and began again to supplicate.
+
+"Stop whining, hound!" roared Demetrius; "haven't I said you are free?
+Free, but on one condition!"
+
+"Anything, anything, my lord," professed the freedman, "money,
+service--"
+
+"On this condition," and a broad, wicked smile over-spread the face of
+the pirate, "that you quit this ship instantly!"
+
+"Gladly, gladly, merciful sir!" commenced Phaon again; "where is the
+boat?"
+
+"Wretch!" shouted the other, "what did I say about a boat?
+Depart--depart into the sea! Swim ashore, if the load on your legs be
+not too heavy. Seize him and see that he sinks,"--this last to
+Eurybiades and the seamen.
+
+Phaon's terror choked his utterance; he turned livid with mortal
+fright. He pleaded for life; life on the terms most degrading, most
+painful, most joyless--life, life and that only. He cried out to
+Cornelia to save him, he confessed his villanies, and vowed repentance
+a score of times all in one breath. But Cornelia lived in an age when
+the wisest and best--whatever the philosophers might theorize--thought
+it no shame to reward evil for evil, not less than good for good. When
+Demetrius asked her, "Shall I spare this man, lady?" she replied: "As
+he has made my life bitter for many days, why should I spare him a
+brief moment's pain? Death ends all woe!"
+
+There was a dull splash over the side, a circle spreading out in the
+water, wider and wider, until it could be seen no more among the
+waves.
+
+"There were heavy stones to his feet, Captain," reported Eurybiades,
+"and the cords will hold."
+
+"It is well," answered Demetrius, very grave....
+
+Later in the day the boat returned from Puteoli, and with it sundry
+small round-bellied bags, which the pirate prince duly stowed away in
+his strong chest. The ransomed captives were put on board a small
+unarmed yacht that had come out to receive them. Demetrius himself
+handed the ladies over the side, and salaamed to them as the craft
+shot off from the flagship. Then the pirates again weighed anchor, the
+great purple[171] square sail of each of the ships was cast to the
+piping breeze, the triple tiers of silver-plated oars[171] began to
+rise and fall in unison to the soft notes of the piper. The land grew
+fainter and more faint, and the three ships sprang away, speeding over
+the broad breast of the sea.
+
+  [171] These were real affectations of the Cilician pirates.
+
+That night Cornelia and Fabia held each other in their arms for a long
+time. They were leaving Rome, leaving Italy, their closest friend at
+hand was only the quondam slave-boy Agias, yet Cornelia, at least, was
+happy--almost as happy as the girl Artemisia; and when she lay down to
+sleep, it was to enjoy the first sound slumber, unhaunted by dread of
+trouble, for nigh unto half a year.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XX
+
+Cleopatra
+
+
+I
+
+A "clear singing zephyr" out of the west sped the ships on their way.
+Down they fared along the coast, past the isle of Capre�, then,
+leaving the Campanian main behind, cut the blue billows of the
+Tyrrhenian Sea; all that day and night, and more sail and oar swept
+them on. They flew past the beaches of Magna Gr�cia, then, betwixt
+Scylla and Charybdis, and Sicilia and its smoke-beclouded cone of �tna
+faded out of view, and the long, dark swells of the Ionian Sea caught
+them. No feeble merchantman, hugging coasts and headlands, was
+Demetrius. He pushed his three barques boldly forward toward the
+watery sky-line; the rising and setting sun by day and the slowly
+circling stars by night were all-sufficient pilots; and so the ships
+flew onward, and, late though the season was, no tempest racked them,
+no swollen billow tossed them.
+
+Cornelia sat for hours on the poop, beneath a crimson awning, watching
+the foam scudding out from under the swift-moving keel, and feeling
+the soft, balmy Notos, the kind wind of the south, now and then puff
+against her face, when the west wind veered away, and so brought up a
+whiff of the spices and tropic bloom of the great southern continent,
+over the parching deserts and the treacherous quicksands of the Syrtes
+and the broad "unharvested sea."
+
+Cornelia had seen the cone of �tna sinking away in the west, and then
+she looked westward no more. For eastward and ever eastward fared the
+ships, and on beyond them on pinions of mind flew Cornelia. To Africa,
+to the Orient! And she dreamed of the half-fabulous kingdoms of
+Assyria and Babylonia; of the splendours of Memphis and Nineveh and
+Susa and Ecbatana; of Eastern kings and Eastern gold, and Eastern pomp
+and circumstance of war; of Ninus, and Cyrus the Great, and Alexander;
+of Cheops and Sesostris and Amasis; of the hanging gardens; of the
+treasures of Sardanapalus; of the labyrinth of Lake Moeris; of a
+thousand and one things rare and wonderful. Half was she persuaded
+that in the East the heart might not ache nor the soul grow cold with
+pain. And all life was fair to Cornelia. She was sure of meeting
+Drusus soon or late now, if so be the gods--she could not help using
+the expression despite her atheism--spared him in war. She could wait;
+she could be very patient. She was still very young. And when she
+counted her remaining years to threescore, they seemed an eternity.
+The pall which had rested on her life since her uncle and her lover
+parted after their stormy interview was lifted; she could smile, could
+laugh, could breathe in the fresh air, and cry, "How good it all is!"
+
+Demetrius held his men under control with an iron hand. If ever the
+pirate ship was filled with sights and sounds unseemly for a lady's
+eyes and ears, there were none of them now. Cornelia was a princess,
+abjectly waited on by her subjects. Demetrius's attention outran all
+her least desires. He wearied her with presents of jewellery and
+costly dresses, though, as he quietly remarked to Agias, the gifts
+meant no more of sacrifice to him than an obol to a rich spendthrift.
+He filled her ears with music all day long; he entertained her with
+inimitable narrations of his own adventurous voyages and battles. And
+only dimly could Cornelia realize that the gems she wore in her hair,
+her silken dress, nay, almost everything she touched, had come from
+earlier owners with scant process of law.
+
+Demetrius was no common rover. He had been a young man of rare culture
+before misfortune struck him. He knew his Homer and his Plato as well
+as how to swing a sword. "Yet," as he remarked with half jest, half
+sigh, "all his philosophy did not make him one whit more an honest
+man."
+
+And in his crew of Greeks, Orientals, and Spaniards were many more
+whom calamity, not innate wickedness, so Cornelia discovered, had
+driven to a life of violence and rapine.
+
+Demetrius, too, gave no little heed to Artemisia. That pretty creature
+had been basking in the sunshine of Agias's presence ever since coming
+on shipboard. It was tacitly understood that Cornelia would care for
+the welfare and education of Pratinas's runaway, until she reached a
+maturity at which Agias could assert his claims. The young Hellene
+himself had been not a little anxious lest his cousin cast obstacles
+in the way of an alliance with a masterless slavegirl; for of late
+Demetrius had been boasting to his kinsman that their family, before
+business misfortunes, had been wealthy and honourable among the
+merchant princes of Alexandria. But the worthy pirate had not an
+objection to make; on the contrary, he would sit for hours staring at
+Artemisia, and when Agias demanded if he was about to turn rival,
+shook his head and replied, rather brusquely:--
+
+"I was only thinking that Daphne might be about her age, and look
+perhaps like her."
+
+"Then you do not think your little daughter is dead?" asked Agias,
+sympathetic, yet personally relieved.
+
+"I know nothing, nothing," replied his cousin, a look of ineffable
+pain passing over his fine features; "she was a mere infant when I was
+arrested. When I broke loose, I had to flee for my life. When I could
+set searchers after her, she had vanished. Poor motherless thing; I
+imagine she is the slave of some gay lady at Antioch or Ephesus or
+Rome now."
+
+"And you do not know who stole her?" asked Agias.
+
+"Don't tear open old wounds," was the retort. "I know nothing. I
+think--but it matters little what I think. There was that sly-eyed,
+smooth-tongued Greek, like that Phaon who met his deserts, who was no
+stranger to Domitius's blackmailings. I _feel_ that he did it. Never
+mind his name. If ever I get the snake into my power--" and
+Demetrius's fingers tightened around the thick, hard cable he was
+clutching, and crushed the solid hemp into soft, loose strands; then
+he broke out again, "Never mention this another time, Agias, or I
+shall go mad, and plunge down, down into the waves, to go to sleep and
+forget it all!"
+
+Agias was faithful to the injunction; but he observed that Demetrius
+showed Artemisia the same attention as Cornelia, albeit mingled with a
+little gracious and unoffending familiarity.
+
+
+II
+
+After a voyage in which one pleasant day succeeded another, Cornelia
+awoke one morning to hear the creak of blocks and tackle as the
+sailors were lowering sail. The full banks of oars were plashing in
+the waves, and on deck many feet were rushing to and fro, while
+officers shouted their orders. Coming out of her cabin, the young lady
+saw that the end of her seafaring was close at hand. Even to one fresh
+from the azure atmosphere of the Campanian Bay, the sky was
+marvellously clear. The water was of a soft green tint, that shaded
+off here and there into dark cerulean. The wind was blowing in cool
+puffs out of the north. A long, slow swell made the stately triremes
+rock gracefully. Before them, in clear view, rose the tall tower of
+the Pharos,--the lighthouse of Alexandria,--and beyond it, on the
+low-lying mainland, rose in splendid relief against the cloudless sky
+the glittering piles and fanes of the city of the Ptolemies. It was a
+magnificent picture,--a "picture" because the colours everywhere were
+as bright as though laid on freshly by a painter's brush. The
+stonework of the buildings, painted to gaudy hues, brought out all the
+details of column, cornice, and pediment. Here Demetrius pointed out
+the Royal Palace, here the Theatre; here, farther inland, the Museum,
+where was the great University; in the distance the whole looked like
+a painting in miniature. Only there was more movement in this picture:
+a splendid yacht, with the gold and ivory glittering on its prow and
+poop, was shooting out from the royal dockyards in front of the
+palace; a ponderous corn-ship was spreading her dirty sails to try to
+beat out against the adverse breeze, and venture on a voyage to Rome,
+at a season when the Italian traffic was usually suspended. The
+harbour and quays were one forest of masts. Boats and small craft were
+gliding everywhere. Behind the pirate's triremes several large
+merchantmen were bearing into the harbour under a full press of sail.
+
+"And this, your ladyship," said Demetrius, smiling, "is Egypt. Does
+the first sight please you?"
+
+"Does it not!" exclaimed Cornelia, drinking in the matchless
+spectacle. "But you, kind sir, do you not run personal peril by
+putting into this haven for my sake?"
+
+Demetrius laughed.
+
+"It speaks ill for the law-abiding qualities of my countrymen, lady,"
+said he, "that I have nothing now to fear. I have too many great
+friends both in the court and in the city to fear arrest or annoyance.
+Here I may not stay long, for if it were to be noised in Rome that a
+pirate were harboured habitually at Alexandria, a demand for my arrest
+would come to the king quickly enough, and he must needs comply. But
+for a few days, especially while all Rome is in chaos, I am safe; and,
+come what may, I would be first warned if any one intended to lay
+hands on me."
+
+Indeed, Demetrius's boast as to his own importance in Alexandria was
+soon verified. The customs officials were all obsequiousness when they
+went through the form of levying on the cargo of the ship. The master
+of the port was soon in Demetrius's own cabin over a crater of
+excellent wine, and no sooner had the vessels touched the quay than
+their crews were fraternizing with the hosts of stevedores and
+flower-girls who swarmed to meet the new arrivals.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A few days later Cornelia and Fabia found themselves received as
+members of the household of no less a person than Cleomenes, a distant
+kinsman of Demetrius and Agias, and himself one of the great merchant
+princes of the Egyptian capital. The Roman ladies found a certain
+amount of shyness to overcome on their own part and on that of their
+hosts. Cleomenes himself was a widower, and his ample house was
+presided over by two dark-skinned, dark-eyed daughters, Berenice and
+Monime--girls who blended with the handsome Greek features of their
+father the soft, sensuous charm of his dead Egyptian wife. Bashful
+indeed had been these maidens in contact with the strangers who came
+bearing with them the haughty pride of all-conquering Rome. But after
+a day or two, when Cornelia had cast off the hauteur begotten of
+diffidence, and Fabia had opened the depths of her pure womanly
+character, the barriers were thrown down rapidly enough; and Cornelia
+and Fabia gained, not merely an access to a new world of life and
+ideas, but two friends that they could regard almost as sisters.
+
+It was a new thing for these Roman ladies to meet a foreigner on terms
+approaching equality. A non-Roman had been for them a servant, an
+intelligent underling, nothing more; even Agias and Demetrius they had
+regarded as friends, very close and agreeable, but whom it was a
+distinct condescension not to treat with ostentatious superiority. But
+to sustain this feeling long with Berenice and Monime was impossible.
+The young Egyptians were every whit as cultured, as intelligent, as
+themselves, every whit as accustomed to deference from others, and
+implicitly assumed the right to demand it. The result was that
+Cornelia found herself thinking less and less about being a Roman, and
+more and more regarded her gracious hosts as persons in every way
+equal to herself.
+
+And less and less of a Roman, Cornelia, the Hellene-hater, became.
+Greek was the only tongue now that sounded in her ear, unless she
+talked privately with Fabia or was beguiled into trying to learn a
+little Egyptian--a language Berenice and Monime spoke fluently. The
+clothes she wore were no longer stola and palla, but chiton and
+himation. The whole atmosphere about her was foreign, down to the
+cries on the streets. And Italy was very far away, and the last
+memories thereof none the most pleasant.
+
+It chanced that one morning Cleomenes, Monime, and Cornelia were
+driving down the great central street, under the shadow of seemingly
+endless colonnades.
+
+"_A!_ dearest one," cried Monime, "why must you think of leaving our
+lovely Alexandria, of going back to cold, cheerless Rome? What good
+thing does Rome send out but stern men and sharp iron?"
+
+Cornelia shook her head and made answer--
+
+"You Alexandrians are not one nation, but all the world; therefore you
+think all who are less cosmopolitan poor. See, I count in the crowds
+not only the dark Egyptians and fair Greeks, but a Persian in his
+splendid long kaftan, and a very venerable Jew, and a wiry little
+Arab, and Syrians, and negroes, and, I think, a Hindoo."
+
+"And yourself, my lady, a Roman," concluded Cleomenes. "Truly all the
+earth has met in our city."
+
+They whirled down the splendid highway that ran straight as an arrow
+the whole length of the city, lined on either side by a forest of the
+infinite number of columns of the great stretches of porticos.
+Handsomely dressed cavalrymen of the palace guard were dashing to and
+fro over the clean, hard pavement; elegant carriages containing the
+noble and wealthy were whirling in every direction. At each glance,
+the eye lit on some pleasing bit of sculpture, some delicate curve of
+architecture. Statues were everywhere, everywhere colour, everywhere
+crowds of gayly dressed citizens and foreigners. Cornelia contrasted
+the symmetrical streets, all broad, swept, and at right angles--the
+triumph of the wise architectural planning of Dinocrates--with the
+dirty, unsightly, and crooked lanes of the City of the Seven Hills,
+and told herself, as she had told herself often in recent days, that
+Romans had much yet to learn.
+
+They drove on past the Amphitheatre toward the Egyptian quarter of the
+Rhacotis; and here, at the intersection of the Great Street with the
+other broad way leading from the "Gate of the Moon" on the harbour to
+the "Gate of the Sun" on Lake Mareotis, a moving hedge of outriders,
+cavalrymen, and foot-guards met them.
+
+"The queen coming from the Serapeum," said Cleomenes, drawing rein.
+
+Cornelia saw half-naked Numidian footmen thrusting back the crowd that
+bustled in the Omphalos--the great square where the two highroads met.
+Behind them pushed a squadron of light cavalry in silvered armour and
+splendid purple and scarlet uniforms. Then, in the midst of all, moved
+a chariot drawn by four horses white as snow, the harness resplendent
+with gold and jewels; at either side ran fan-bearers, waving great
+masses of bright ostrich plumes; a gaudy parasol swept over the
+carriage itself. There were three occupants, whereof two stood: an
+Egyptian, gaunt and of great height, clad in plain white linen, who
+was driving, and a handsome, gaudily dressed Greek youth, who was
+holding the parasol. Cornelia could just catch the profile of a young
+woman seated between them. The face was not quite regular, but
+marvellously intelligent and sensitive; the skin not pale, yet far
+from dark, and perfectly healthy and clear; the eyes restive and
+piercing. The queen was dressed plainly in Greek fashion; her himation
+was white, her only ornament a great diamond that was blazing like a
+star on her breast. Upon the coils of her heavy, dark hair sat a
+golden circlet faced in front with the likeness of the head of the
+venomous ur�us snake--the emblem of Egyptian royalty. This was all
+Cornelia could observe in the brief time the queen was in view. Some
+of the people--Egyptians mostly--cried out to her in their own
+tongue:--
+
+"Hail to the ever glorious Daughter of Ra!"
+
+But the queen paid them little heed. Once her restless eyes lit on the
+carriage of Cleomenes, and she made a slight inclination of the head
+in return to that gentleman's salute, for Cleomenes had standing at
+court as one of the "friends of the king."[172]
+
+  [172] A high order of Egyptian nobility.
+
+The cort�ge rolled away toward the palace.
+
+"This Cleopatra is a rather remarkable woman," observed Cornelia, for
+the sake of saying something.
+
+"Indeed, that is true," replied Cleomenes, as he turned to drive
+homeward. "She is worthy to have lived in the days of the first
+Ptolemies, of Ptolem�us Soter and Philadelphus and Euergetes. She is
+still very young, only twenty, and yet five years ago she was so
+fascinating that when Antonius, of whom I have heard you speak, came
+here with Gabinius's expeditions he quite lost his heart to her. She
+has a marvellous talent for statecraft and intrigue and diplomacy. You
+know that, nominally at least, she has to share her crown with young
+Ptolem�us, her younger brother. He is a worthless rascal, but his
+tutor, the eunuch Pothinus, really wields him. Pothinus, as the custom
+is, was brought up with him as his playmate, and now Pothinus wants to
+drive out the queen, and rule Egypt through his power over the king.
+His ambition is notorious, but the queen has not been able to lay
+hands on him for treason."
+
+Cleopatra and her fortunes and perils played a slight part in
+Cornelia's mind, however, that day. To know Alexandria in its sunlight
+and shadows was indeed to know a miniature world. First of all to
+notice, besides the heterogeneous nature of the crowds on the streets,
+was the fact that every person, high as well as low, was engaged in
+some trade. Very far was the typical Alexandrian from the quiet
+"leisure" which the average Greek or Latin believed requisite for a
+refined life--a life in which slaves did all the necessary work, and
+amassed an income for the master to expend in polite recreations. In
+Rome, for a free citizen to have been a handicraftsman would have been
+a disgrace; he could be farmer, banker, soldier,--nothing more. In
+Alexandria the glass-workers, paper-makers, and linen weavers were
+those who were proudest and most jealous of their title of "Men of
+Macedonia."[173] Money, Cornelia soon discovered, was even a greater
+god here than in Rome. Cleomenes himself was not ashamed to spend a
+large part of the day inspecting his factories, and did not hesitate
+to declare that during a period when he and his family had been in
+great distress, following the failure of the banking house of Agias's
+father, he had toiled with his own hands to win bread for his
+daughters.
+
+  [173] The official title of Alexandrian Greek citizens.
+
+The conception that any honest labour, except a certain genteel
+agriculture, might not make a man the less of a gentleman, or a woman
+the less of a lady, was as new to Cornelia as the idea that some
+non-Romans could claim equality with herself. Neither proposition did
+she accept consciously. The prejudice wore quietly away. But other
+things about the city she gathered quickly enough from the caustic
+explanations of Cleomenes.
+
+"Here in Alexandria," he asserted on one occasion, "we are always ripe
+for a riot. Never a chariot race without stone-throwing and
+throat-cutting after it. An unpopular official is torn in pieces by a
+mob. If you chance to kill a cat, the Egyptians are after you for your
+life. The Greeks hate the Jews, and are always ready to plunder their
+quarter; the Egyptians are on bad terms with both. We talk about being
+free citizens of the capital of the Ptolemies, and pretend to go to
+the Gymnasium for discussion, and claim a right to consult with the
+king; but our precious Senate, and all our tribes and wards, are only
+fictions. We are as much slaves as the poor creatures down in the
+royal quarries; only we demand the right to riot and give nicknames.
+We called the last Ptolem�us, Auletes "the Piper," because in that way
+we have punished him in all history for the way he oppressed us.
+_Euge!_ Have we not a wonderful city!"
+
+It was on the very next day that Cleopatra was recalled to Cornelia's
+mind in a quite marked fashion. It was rather early, and she was upon
+the roof-garden, on the third story of the house, where there was a
+commanding view of the city. Berenice was busy reading from a papyrus
+the Egyptian legend of the "Adventures of Sinuhit," translating into
+Greek as she read.
+
+Cleomenes broke in upon the reading. His face wore a mysterious smile.
+
+"I have a rather strange piece of news for you, my lady," he said. "A
+chamberlain of the court has just been here, and brings a royal
+command."
+
+"I am not accustomed to being commanded," interrupted Cornelia, all
+her Roman haughtiness rising.
+
+"I do not think you will be found disobedient. The queen, it seems,
+noticed you in my carriage yesterday, and at once divined, with that
+wonderfully quick wit of hers, that you must be a Roman lady of rank.
+She immediately made inquiries, and now sends her chamberlain to ask
+you and the Lady Fabia, as well as myself, to dine with her at the
+palace to-night. You may be sure nothing will be lacking to do you
+honour."
+
+Cornelia meekly acquiesced in this royal mandate. Fabia, however,
+could not stir from the house. The shock to her finely strung nature
+when she was taken from Rome had, indeed, produced a physical
+reaction. She was not seriously ill, but could endure no excitement.
+So it was with only Cleomenes for an escort that Cornelia mounted into
+one of the splendid royal chariots sent from the palace about dusk,
+and drove away surrounded by a cloud of guardsmen sent to do honour to
+the guests of the queen.
+
+Cornelia herself felt highly strung and slightly nervous. She wished,
+for the first time since she reached Alexandria, that she could go
+dressed in the native costume of a Roman lady, She was going to enjoy
+the hospitality of a princess who was the successor of thirty odd
+dynasties of Pharaohs; who was worshipped herself as a goddess by
+millions of Egyptians; who was hailed as "Daughter of the Sun," and
+with fifty other fulsome titles; a princess, furthermore, who was
+supposed to dispose of the lives of her subjects as seemed right in
+her own eyes, without law of man or god to hinder. Cornelia was not
+afraid, nay rather, anticipatory; only she had never before been so
+thoroughly conscious that she was Roman down to her finger-tips--Roman,
+and hence could look upon the faces of princes unabashed.
+
+The people saw the royal chariot, and some shouted salutations to the
+guests whom the queen delighted to honour. The company swept up under
+the magnificent archway leading to the palace; above them rose tall
+Ionic columns of red granite of Syene, building rising above building,
+labyrinths of pillars, myriads of statues. Torches were blazing from
+every direction. The palace grounds were as bright as day. The light
+breeze was sweeping through rare Indian ferns and tropical palms. The
+air was heavy with the breath of innumerable roses. Huge fountains
+were tossing up showers of spray, which fell tinkling onto broad
+basins wherein the cups of the blue and white lotus were floating. It
+was indeed as if one had been led on to enchanted ground.
+
+Cornelia and her friend dismounted from their chariot, and were led
+through an endless colonnade, past a second, lower gateway, and then
+into a hall, not very high or large, but admirable in its proportions,
+with a whole gallery of choice mythological paintings on its walls.
+Small heed did Cornelia give to them. For at the end of the hall rose
+a low dais, whereon sat, in a gilded chair, the same person who had
+been pointed out to Cornelia the day before as the mistress of Upper
+and Lower Egypt.
+
+The light was too dim to discover in the distance anything new in the
+face of the queen. She wore a loose, long gown of some light blue
+silken stuff; and her belt, shoes, neck, breast, and ears were all
+glittering with gems. At the foot of the dais was a group of half a
+dozen showily dressed chamberlains and courtiers, who made a slight
+motion of greeting when the two guests darkened the doorway. One of
+these functionaries advanced to Cornelia.
+
+"Your ladyship," he began, in a smooth, colourless voice, "I have the
+honour to be the Royal Introducing Chamberlain. In approaching the
+queen, do as I shall direct. First, before advancing to the dais bow
+slightly; then at the foot of the dais it is proper--"
+
+"Sir," interrupted Cornelia, drawing herself up to her full height, "I
+am not accustomed to your prostrations and genuflections, and of them
+my countrymen make sorry work; pray excuse me." And without waiting
+for reply or expostulation she advanced straight toward the dais. The
+hall was small, the steps from the door to the queen's chair few; but
+never did Cornelia fare on more tedious journey. She knew that a
+half-horrified titter was passing through the group of courtiers She
+knew that Cleopatra herself had stirred in her seat, as if to rise.
+But one word sounded in Cornelia's ears, and that word was "Rome."
+Were not Roman citizens nobles among nobles, and Roman senators peers
+of kings! And she, daughter of the Cornelii and Claudii, whose
+ancestors had broken the might of Antiochus the Great and
+Mithridates--should she not look in the face the heiress of the
+Lagid�? Had not one hundred years before Popilius, the Roman
+commissioner, come unarmed into the presence of Antiochus Epiphanes,
+while he was advancing to the gates of defenceless Alexandria, drawn a
+circle in the dust about the king, and bidden him answer, before he
+stepped over, whether he would court destruction or obey the mandate
+of the Republic and leave Egypt in peace? And had not the great king
+obeyed--humbly? Why, then, should not a Roman patrician maiden look
+down on a mere monarch, who was a pawn in the hands of her kinsfolk
+and countrymen?
+
+To repeat these things is long. The mind moves faster than the
+sunlight. Cornelia came to the dais, and there gave the slightest
+inclination of her head--the greeting of a mistress to slaves--to the
+group of courtiers. She advanced straight toward the royal chair and
+stretched forth her hand.
+
+"I am your debtor, O queen, for a kindness that I may not soon, I
+fear, repay--unless you come to Rome."
+
+She spoke as a superior addressing an inferior who had rendered some
+slight service. The queen rose from her seat and took the proffered
+hand without the least hesitation.
+
+"And I will ask for none other reward than that you do honour to my
+entertainment."
+
+The voice was wonderfully soft, modulated, and ringing; like an
+instrument of many strings. Every syllable blended into the next in
+perfect harmony; to hear a few words was like listening unto music.
+
+Cornelia knew later, when she was older and had thought more, that the
+queen had instantly caught the defiant mood of her guest, and
+thereupon left nothing unspared to conciliate it. At that moment,
+however, she attempted no such analysis of motive. She was conscious
+of only one thing: the luminous personality of Cleopatra. The queen
+was all that Cornelia had noticed her to be when they met at the Great
+Square; but she was more than a beautiful woman. In fact, in mere
+bodily perfection Monime or Berenice might well have stood beside her.
+The glance of the queen went through and through her guests like
+arrows of softly burning light. It was impossible to withdraw one's
+eyes from her; impossible to shake off the spell of an enjoyable
+magnetism. If she moved her long, shapely fingers, it was speech; if
+she raised her hand, eloquence. As shade after shade of varying
+emotion seemed to pass across Cleopatra's face, it was as if one saw
+the workings of a masterful spirit as in a mirror; and now could cry,
+"This is one of the Graces," and now "This is one of the Fates," as
+half-girlish candour and sweetness was followed by a lightning flash
+from the eyes, disclosing the deep, far-recessed subtleties of the
+soul within. Cornelia had entered the hall haughty, defiant; a word
+and a look--she was the most obedient vassal.
+
+Cornelia had seen many a splendid banquet and dinner party in Rome.
+Even Oriental kings had not a great deal to teach the "masters of the
+toga" in ostentatious luxury. Perhaps the queen had realized this. The
+present occasion called, indeed for very little formality, for,
+besides Cornelia, Cleomenes was the only guest; and when that
+gentleman inquired politely if his Majesty, the King Ptolem�us, was to
+honour them with his presence, Cleopatra replied, with an eloquent
+raising of the eyebrows:--
+
+"The king will be to-night, as he always is, with his
+tutor--Pothinus."
+
+There was indescribable scorn in the last word.
+
+The doors of the reception hall had been flung back on noiseless
+pivots by unseen hands. The banqueting room disclosed within was not
+so much a room as a garden. Flowers, flowers were everywhere, roses,
+violets, narcissuses, and a score of others breathing forth a heavy
+fragrance. Overhead, the goldstudded ceiling was converted into a vast
+arbour of blending flowery tints. The room was large, very large for
+only three banqueters; on the walls, from out between the potted
+tropical plants, shone marvellous marble reliefs, one hundred in all;
+and in betwixt them were matchless paintings. Framing, after a
+fashion, the pictures, were equally perfect embroideries, portraying
+in silk and fine linen the stories of Thebes, the kingly house of
+Argos, and many another myth of fame. The pillars of the room
+represented palm trees and Bacchic thyrsi; skins of wild beasts were
+fastened high up to the walls; and everywhere was the sheen of silver
+and gold, the splendour of scarlet and purple tapestries.
+
+"The decorations of this room," said the queen, as her two guests
+entered, "are nearly all preserved from the great banqueting pavilion
+of Ptolem�us Philadelphus, which he erected for the grand festival
+that ushered in his reign."
+
+Cornelia drew back as her foot crossed the threshold. Her sandals trod
+on the fair white cup of a blooming lily. The queen laughed as merrily
+as a little girl at her confusion.
+
+"In Rome, I doubt not," she said, smiling, "there are not flowers
+enough at this time of year to have them for a carpet. But this is
+Alexandria. Flowers are never out of bloom."
+
+So Cornelia advanced, but perhaps it grieved her more to tread on the
+innocent flowers, than any small thing had since she left Bai�.
+
+And then the banquet, if such it may be termed when there are but
+three to enjoy it, began. Cleopatra knew well that she could not
+overwhelm her Roman guest with show of plate and gems, nor did she
+try. But Cornelia forgot about such things long before they rose. For
+the queen displayed to her a myriad dainty perfections and refinements
+that never had endeared themselves to the grosser Italian gourmands.
+Cleomenes had whispered to his companion, before they reached the
+palace, "Plato tells of four sorts of flattery; but I can promise you
+a thousand sorts from Cleopatra if she but cares to win your
+friendship." And surely the queen did thus desire. For Cornelia was
+surfeited with strange dishes, and rare sherbets, flowers, and music;
+surfeited with everything save the words that fell from the lips of
+Cleopatra.
+
+The more the queen spoke, the more complete became the vassalage of
+her guest. Cornelia discovered that this woman, who was but little
+older than she, could speak fluently seven languages, and carried
+about with her an exceedingly accurate knowledge, not merely of the
+administration of Egypt, but of the politics of Rome, and the details
+of the great contest racking the Republic. When Cleopatra asked
+questions concerning Roman affairs, Cornelia was fain to confess
+ignorance and be put to shame. And as the evening advanced, Cornelia
+found herself talking with more and more confidence to this woman that
+she had never addressed until an hour before. Cleopatra of course
+knew, as all Alexandria knew, that Cornelia and Fabia were Roman
+ladies of the highest rank, who had been forced to take refuge abroad
+until the political crisis was over. But now Cornelia told the queen
+the true reasons that had led her to be willing to submit to
+Demetrius's friendly kidnapping; and when, in a burst of
+frankness,--which in a saner moment Cornelia would have deemed
+unwise,--she told of her betrothal to Drusus and willingness to wait
+long for him, if they might only come together in the end, the queen
+seemed unable to speak with her usual bright vivacity. Presently she
+said:--
+
+"So you love this young man as none other? You are willing to be all
+your life his handmaid, his slave?"
+
+"I love him, assuredly," said Cornelia, with a little heat. "And so
+far as being all my life his slave, I've given that never so much as a
+thought. Where love is, there slavery cannot be."
+
+"And where love is not, there slavery must be, doubtless you wish to
+add?" broke in the queen.
+
+"I should be very miserable if I had nothing to love, which I might
+love purely, and feel myself the nobler and happier thereby."
+
+"Then pity us poor mortals who cannot climb up to your Olympus! Eh, my
+very noble Cleomenes," went on the queen, addressing the Greek, "do I
+not deserve compassion, that I have not been able to find some
+Tigranes of Armenia, or Parthian prince, who will be all in all to me,
+and make me forget everything in worshipping him?"
+
+These were the first words that evening that had grated on Cornelia. A
+little ruffled, she replied:--
+
+"I fear, O queen, that if you are awaiting a Tigranes or an Artavasdes
+to sue for your hand, you will indeed never find a lord to worship.
+Quintus Drusus is indeed wealthy at Rome, his family noble, he may
+rise to great things; but I would not lay down my life for him because
+of his wealth, his lineage, or his fair prospects. It is not these
+things which make a common woman love a man."
+
+"But I am not a common woman," responded Cleopatra, with emphasis. "I
+am ambitious, not to be led, but to lead. I must rule or I must die. I
+cannot love a master, only fear him. Why, because I was born a woman,
+must I give up all my royal aspirations to rise to a great place among
+princes, to build up a great empire in the East, to make Alexandria a
+capital with the power of Rome, the culture of Athens, the splendour
+of Babylon, all in one? It is because I have these hopes stirring in
+me that I may love no man, can love no man! Nothing shall stand in my
+way; nothing shall oppose me. Whoever thwarts my ambitions, the worse
+for him; let him die--all things must die, but not I, until I have won
+my power and glory!"
+
+For once, at least, the queen's emotions had run away with her; she
+spoke hotly, passionately, as though tearing her words from the
+recesses of her throbbing heart. Her wonderful voice was keyed in
+half-bitter defiance. For the moment Cornelia was mistress, and not
+the queen.
+
+"O queen," broke in the young Roman, "would you know how I feel toward
+you?"
+
+Cleopatra looked at her with dilated eyes.
+
+"I feel for you a very great sorrow. I know not whether you will or
+will not do as you wish--set your empire over the far East, a rival,
+friendly, I hope, to our Rome; but this I know, that with your glory,
+and with your renown among men for all time, you will go down to your
+grave with an empty heart. And I know not what may compensate for
+that."
+
+Cleomenes was clearly a little disturbed at this turn to the
+conversation; but Cleopatra bowed her head on her hands. It was only
+for an instant. When she looked up once more there were tears in her
+eyes, which she made no effort to conceal. The look of high defiance
+had faded from her face.
+
+"Think kindly of me, Lady Cornelia," she said; "I am but a wilful girl
+with many things to learn. Perhaps you yourself know that purple robes
+do not make a light heart."
+
+"That I know well and sadly."
+
+"Therefore," went on the queen, "if I forget myself, and half envy a
+cup of happiness that seems dashed from my lips, do not be over
+blameful."
+
+"Never," responded the young Roman.
+
+"Time advances," said the queen; "let us forget that any barriers shut
+us out from perfect bliss. Let us call in the Egyptian musicians; and
+cry out upon me if my looks grow sad!"
+
+Whereat a whole section in the side of the room turned on a pivot, and
+there entered three native harpers and eight pretty Egyptian girls, in
+gauzy dresses, who danced in intricate figures, and juggled with
+balls; now with two, now with three, catching them with their hands
+crossed. Boys ran in and out and sprinkled _kyphi_[174] on the heads
+of the three feasters, and flung huge wreaths of flowers round their
+necks, and thrust lotus flowers in their hair. And all the time the
+girls sang sweetly.
+
+  [174] A mixture of myrrh, frankincense, and other aromatic materials.
+
+The queen kept her guests very late.
+
+"We of Alexandria," said she, "make little difference between night
+and day. Our city is a new Sybaris."
+
+And all through the evening Cleopatra kept close to Cornelia, often
+with her hand upon her, as though extremely loath to let her go. At
+last the moon crept up into the heavens, and as the queen and her
+guests roved out of the heated banqueting hall into the cool gardens,
+the pale yellow light gently bathed the sweep of the city, which lay
+in full view of the palace terrace.
+
+"All sleep," said Cleopatra, "all but ourselves. Let there be one more
+song, and then farewell!--but soon to meet again."
+
+The chorus of maidens, which followed them, sang, in Greek, the hymn
+of Onomacritus:[175]--
+
+  [175] Elton, translator.
+
+  "Heavenly Selene! goddess queen! that shed'st abroad the light!
+  Bull-horned moon! air-habiting! thou wanderer through the night!
+  Moon bearer of mighty torch! thou star-encircled maid!
+  Woman thou, yet male the same, still fresh and undecayed!
+  Thou that in thy steeds delightest, as they travel through the sky,
+  Clothed in brightness! mighty mother of the rapid years that fly;
+  Fruit dispenser! amber-visaged! melancholy, yet serene!
+  All beholding! sleep-enamour'd! still with trooping planets seen!
+  Quiet loving; who in pleasance and in plenty tak'st delight;
+  Joy diffusing! Fruit maturing! Sparkling ornament of night!
+  Swiftly pacing! ample-vested! star-bright! all divining maid!
+  Come benignant! come spontaneous! with starry sheen arrayed!
+  Sweetly shining! save us virgin, give thy holy suppliants aid!"
+
+"Yes," said Cleopatra, passing her hand over her brow, "give us aid,
+either thou, O moon, or some other power, for we are full weak
+ourselves."
+
+When the queen parted with her guests she put her arms around
+Cornelia's waist and kissed her on the forehead.
+
+"I sent for you," said Cleopatra, "half intending to amuse myself with
+the boorishness and clumsy insolence which I conceived a noble Roman
+lady to possess. I have been punished. Promise to come to see me
+often, very often, or I shall call my body-guards and keep you
+prisoner. For I have very few friends."
+
+While the chariot was bearing the two guests away, Cleomenes asked
+Cornelia what she thought of the queen.
+
+"She is the most wonderful woman I have ever met," was her answer,
+enthusiastic and characteristically feminine. "I admire her. I am
+almost her slave."
+
+The frequency of Cornelia's visits to the palace on following days
+seemed to prove that the admiration was not unreciprocated. Indeed,
+Monime and Berenice grew jealous of the queen for stealing their new
+friend from them.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XXI
+
+How Ulamhala's Words Came True
+
+
+I
+
+The sentries were going their rounds; the camp-fires were burning low.
+Over on the western hills bounding the Thessalian plain-land lingered
+the last bars of light. It was oppressively warm, and man and beast
+were utterly fatigued. Quintus Drusus stripped off his armour, and
+flung himself on the turf inside his tattered leather tent. Vast had
+been the changes eighteen months of campaigning had made in him. He
+had fought in Italy, in Spain, in the long blockade of the Pompeians
+at Dyrrachium. He had learned the art of war in no gentle school. He
+had ceased even so much as to grumble inwardly at the hardships
+endured by the hard-pressed C�sarian army. The campaign was not going
+well. Pompeius had broken through the blockade; and now the two armies
+had been executing tedious manoeuvres, fencing for a vantage-ground
+before joining pitched battle.
+
+Drusus was exceedingly weary. The events of the past two
+years,--loves, hates, pleasures, perils, battles,--all coursed through
+his mind; the fairest and most hideous of things were blended into
+buzzing confusion; and out of that confusion came a dull consciousness
+that he, Quintus Drusus, was thoroughly weary of everything and
+anything--was heavy of heart, was consumed with hatred, was chafing
+against a hundred barriers of time, space, and circumstance, and was
+utterly impotent to contend against them.
+
+The Imperator--how he loved and adored him! Through all the
+campaigning nothing could seem to break the strength of that nervous,
+agile, finely strung physique. Sleeping in carriages or litters; ever
+moving; dictating continually books and letters to a secretary if for
+an hour there was a halt; dictating even while on horseback, in fact,
+and composing two letters at the same time; riding the most
+ungovernable horses fearlessly and without a fall; galloping at full
+speed with his hands clasped behind his back,--these were the mere
+external traits that made him wonderful among men. Worthy of all
+praise was the discipline by which the Imperator had held his troops
+to him by bonds firmer than iron; neither noticing all petty
+transgressions, nor punishing according to a rigid rule; swift and
+sure to apprehend mutineers and deserters; certain to relax the tight
+bands of discipline after a hard-fought battle with the genial remark
+that "his soldiers fought none the worse for being well oiled "; ever
+treating the troops as comrades, and addressing them as
+"fellow-soldiers," as if they were but sharers with him in the honour
+of struggling for a single great end. Drusus had known him to ride one
+hundred miles a day in a light chariot without baggage, march
+continually at the head of his legions on foot, sharing their fatigues
+in the most malignant weather, swim a swollen river on a float of
+inflated skins, always travelling faster than the news of his coming
+might fly before him. Tireless, unsleeping, all providing, all
+accomplishing, omniscient,--this was what made Drusus look upon his
+general as a being raised up by the Fates, to go up and down the
+world, destroying here and building there. The immediate future might
+be sombre enough, with all the military advantages falling, one after
+another, into Pompeius's lap; but doubt the ultimate triumph of C�sar?
+The young Livian would have as readily questioned his own existence.
+
+Some one thrust back the flaps of the tent, and called inside into the
+darkness:--
+
+"Are you here, Drusus?"
+
+"I am," was the wearied answer. "Is that Antonius?"
+
+"Yes. Come out. We may as well dispose of our cold _puls_ before the
+moon rises, and while we can imagine it peacocks, Lucrine oysters, or
+what not."
+
+"If sight were the only sense!" grumbled Drusus, as he pulled himself
+together by a considerable effort, and staggered to his feet.
+
+Outside the tent Antonius was waiting with a helmet half full of the
+delectable viand, which the two friends proceeded to share together as
+equally as they might in the increasing darkness.
+
+"You are over sober to-night," said Antonius, when this scarcely
+elaborate meal was nearly finished.
+
+"_Perpol!_" replied Drusus, "have I been as a rule drunken of late? My
+throat hardly knows the feeling of good Falernian, it is so long since
+I have tasted any."
+
+"I doubt if there is so much as a draught of _posca_[176] in the
+army," said Antonius, yawning. "I imagine that among our friends, the
+Pompeians, there is plenty, and more to spare. _Mehercle_, I feel that
+we must storm their camp just to get something worth drinking. But I
+would stake my best villa that you have not been so gloomy for mere
+lack of victuals, unless you have just joined the Pythagoreans, and
+have taken a vow not to eat fish or beans."
+
+  [176] A drink of vinegar and water very common among the soldiers.
+
+"I do not know that I am especially gloomy to-night," replied Drusus,
+a bit testily. "I know little whereon to make merry."
+
+"The arrows of Amor," hinted Antonius, "sink deep in the soul, and the
+god is unfair; he shoots venomed darts; the poison ever makes the pain
+greater."
+
+"I would you could endure your own troubles," retorted the other, "and
+let me care for mine!"
+
+"_Perpol,_ friend," replied Antonius, "don't be vexed! I see it is a
+case of your wanting little said on a sore point. Well, keep silent, I
+won't tease you. Doesn't Theognis declare:--
+
+  "'Caress me not with words, while far away
+  Thy heart is absent and thy feelings stray'?[177]
+
+  [177] Elton, translator.
+
+And doubtless you would reverse the saying and put 'my heart' for 'thy
+heart.' Forgive me."
+
+But Drusus, now that the ice was broken, was glad to talk.
+
+"Now, amice, I won't harbour any ill feeling. I know that you don't
+look at women the way I do. If you had ever fallen in love with one
+like Cornelia, it would have been different. As it is, you can only
+stare at me, and say to yourself, 'How strange a sensible fellow like
+Drusus should care for a girl from whom he has been parted for nearly
+two years!' That's why I doubt if your sympathy can be of any great
+solace to me."
+
+"Well," said Antonius, washing down his _puls_ with a draught of water
+from a second helmet at hand, "I can't say that I would be full of
+grief two years from the day my beloved Fulvia was taken from me. But
+there are women of many a sort. Some are vipers to sting your breast,
+some are playthings, some are--what shall I call them--goddesses? no,
+one may not kiss Juno; flowers? they fade too early; silver and gold?
+that is rubbish. I have no name for them. But believe me, Quintus, I
+have met this Cornelia of yours once or twice, and I believe that she
+is one of those women for whom my words grow weak."
+
+"Then you can sympathize, can feel, for me," said Drusus, as he lay
+back with his head on the dark green sward.
+
+"Yes, as a poor man who has always possessed nothing can feel for a
+rich merchant whose whole fortune is about to founder at sea. Do not
+spurn my feeble sort of pity. But do you know nothing of her, not a
+word, a sign? Is she alive or dead? Much less, does she still care for
+you?"
+
+"Nothing!" answered Drusus, and the sense of vexation and helplessness
+choked his utterance. "She vanished out of sight at Bai�, as a flash
+of lightning passes away in the sky. I cannot imagine the cause of her
+disappearance. The pirates, indeed, might have wished to take her for
+ransom; but no, they bore her off with never a demand for money from
+any friend or relative. I have tried to trace them--the Pompeian ships
+on every sea make it impossible. I have questioned many prisoners and
+spies; she is not at the Pompeian camp with her uncle. Neither can I
+discover that her kinsmen among the enemy themselves know where she
+is. And to this is added that other mystery: whither has my Aunt Fabia
+vanished? How much of the account of those who followed her to the
+river dock is to be believed--that pirates saved her from Gabinius,
+and then abducted her? Upon all, my clever freedman Agias is
+gone--gone without ever a word, though I counted him faithful as my
+own soul!"
+
+"And what then do you expect?" asked Antonius, not without friendly
+interest.
+
+"What can a man, who dares to look the situation in the face, expect,
+except something too horrible to utter?" and Drusus groaned in his
+agony.
+
+"You mean--" began his friend.
+
+"That the pirates have kept Cornelia and perhaps Fabia in their vile
+clutches until this hour; unless, indeed, the Fates have been merciful
+and they are dead! Do you wonder at my pain?"
+
+"_Phui!_ we will not imagine any such disagreeable thing!" said
+Antonius, in a sickly effort to make banter at the other's fears.
+
+"Don't speak again unless you want me your enemy," threatened Drusus,
+springing up in fury. Antonius knew his own interests enough to keep
+quiet; besides, his friend's pain cut him to the heart, and he knew
+himself that Drusus's dread was justified under the circumstances.
+
+"Do you think there will be a battle to-morrow?" demanded Drusus,
+after some interval of gloomy silence.
+
+"I would to the gods it might be so," was his answer; "are you
+thirsting for blood?"
+
+Drusus half drew his short sword, which even in camp never left the
+side of officer or private during that campaign.
+
+"Thirst for blood?" he growled. "Yes, for the lives of Lucius
+Lentulus, and Domitius and his accursed younger son. I am hot as an
+old gladiator for a chance to spill their blood! If Cornelia suffers
+woe unutterable, it will be they--they who brought the evil upon her!
+It may not be a philosophic mood, but all the animal has risen within
+me, and rises more and more the longer I think upon them and on
+_her_."
+
+"Come," said Antonius, lifting his friend by the arm, "and let us lie
+down in the tent. There will be toil enough to-morrow; and we must
+take what rest we may."
+
+
+II
+
+On that same night, in a very sumptuous tent, fresh from an ample
+dinner and a season over choice wines, the high and the mighty of
+C�sar's enemies were taking counsel together. No longer were they
+despairing, panic-stricken fugitives, driven from their native land
+which they had abandoned a prey to the invader. The strength of the
+East had gathered about them. Jews, Armenians, and Arabians were among
+their auxiliary forces; Asia Minor, Greece, the Archipelago, had
+poured out for them levies and subsidies. In the encampment were the
+vassal kings, Deiotarus of Galatia and Ariarathes of Cappadocia,
+allies who would share the triumph of the victorious Pompeius.
+
+For none could doubt that the Magnus had proved his right to be called
+the favoured child of Fortune. Had not C�sar been utterly defeated at
+Dyrrachium? Was he not now almost a fugitive in the interior of
+Greece,--liable at any moment to have his forces cut to pieces, and he
+himself to be slain, in battle like a second Catilina, or to die by
+the executioner's axe like another Carbo? Had not several delighted
+Pompeians just hastened away to Lesbos, to convey to Cornelia, the
+wife of the Magnus, the joyful tidings that C�sar's power was broken
+and the war was over?
+
+Throughout the Pompeian camps there was feasting and revelry, soldiers
+trolled low songs deriding their opponents, and drank themselves
+stupid, celebrating in advance the return of the victorious army to
+Italy. Their officers were looking forward even more eagerly to their
+reinstatement in their old haunts and pleasures at Rome. Lucius
+Ahenobarbus, who was outside the tent of the Magnus, while his father
+was taking part in the conference, was busy recounting to a crony the
+arrangements he was making.
+
+"I have sent a freedman back to Rome to see that my rooms are
+furnished and put in order. But I have told him that I need a suite
+near the Forum, if possible, so as to be convenient for the canvass
+when I sue for qu�stor at the next election, for it is time I began on
+my 'round of offices.'" (A "round of offices" being, according to this
+worthy young gentleman, an inalienable right to every male scion of
+his family.)
+
+Within the debate was waxing hot. Not that any one had the least
+doubts that the C�sarians were at their last gasp; rather it was so
+extremely difficult to decide how the spoils of victory were to be
+equitably shared, and what was almost equally important, how the
+hostile and the neutral were to be punished. The noble lords were busy
+settling amongst themselves who should be consuls for several years to
+come, and how the confiscated villas of the proscribed C�sarians
+should be divided. As to the military situation, they were all
+complaisance.
+
+"There is no need for a real battle," Pompeius was saying. "Our
+superior cavalry will rout their whole army before the infantry join
+the attack."
+
+And Labienus, the only officer who had deserted C�sar, protested that
+the opposing legions had long since been thinned of their Gallic
+veterans, that only raw recruits composed them now.
+
+Loudly the councillors wrangled over the successor to C�sar's
+pontificate; Scipio, Domitius, and another great noble, Lentulus
+Spinther, all had their claims. Domitius was clamouring against delay
+in disposing of C�sar, and in returning to Italy, to begin a general
+distribution of spoils, and sanguinary requital of enemies and
+neutrals. The contest over the pontificate grew more and more
+acrimonious each minute.
+
+"Gentlemen," broke in Pompeius, "I would that you could agree amongst
+yourselves. It is a grievous thing that we must thus quarrel with
+bitterness, when victory is within our grasp."
+
+But the war of words went on hotter and hotter. Lentulus Crus noticed
+that Pompeius looked pale and worried.
+
+"You look careworn, Magnus," he whispered; "it will be a relief for
+the burdens of war to be off your shoulders!"
+
+"I know not how this all will come out," said the general. "All the
+chances are in our favour. We have numbers, the best position,
+cavalry, the prestige of victory. Labienus cannot be mistaken in his
+estimate of C�sar's men; yet I am afraid, I am almost timorous."
+
+"It is but the natural fear lest some slight event dim your
+excellency's great glory. Our position is too secure for reverse,"
+remarked Lentulus, soothingly.
+
+"Great glory--" repeated Pompeius, "yes, that makes me afraid.
+Remember Ulamhala's words,--they haunt me:--
+
+  "'He that is highest shall rise yet higher,
+  He that is second shall utterly fall.'
+
+Lentulus, I _know_ C�sar is greater than I!"
+
+Before he could continue, Labienus had risen to his feet in the
+council.
+
+"An oath! an oath, gentlemen!" cried the renegade legate. "Swear all
+after me! 'By Jupiter Capitolinus, Optimus, Maximus, I swear not to
+return from the battle until victorious over C�sar!'"
+
+All the council rose.
+
+"We swear!" cried a score of tongues, as though their oath was the
+lightest thing imaginable.
+
+"Bravely done!" shouted Labienus, while the two Lentuli and Domitius
+and Scipio and many another scion of the great noble houses joined in
+the oath. "_Hem!_ Most excellent Magnus, you do not have confidence
+enough in your own cause to join us. Do you doubt our loyalty or
+soldierly qualities!"
+
+"_Perpol!_" replied Pompeius, with a rather ill-concealed effort to
+speak gayly, "do you think, good Labienus, that I am as distrustful of
+you as C�sar ought to be of his men?"
+
+And the Magnus also took the oath.
+
+Outside the tent the sentries were exchanging their challenges. It was
+the end of the second watch of the night.[178]
+
+  [178] Midnight.
+
+"It is late, gentlemen," said Pompeius. "I believe that I have given
+my orders. Remember our watch word for to-morrow."
+
+"Hercules Invictus!" shouted one and all.
+
+"Unconquerable' we shall be, I trust," continued the
+commander-in-chief. "Good-night, gentlemen; we meet to-morrow."
+
+The council broke up, and filed out of the tent. Lentulus Spinther
+paused to cast a look of savage anger at Scipio, who lingered behind.
+The contest over the pontificate still rankled in his breast. That
+four and twenty hours hence both of these aristocratic gentlemen might
+have more pressing things to think of seemingly entered the head of
+neither. Lentulus Crus, Domitius, and Scipio waited after the others
+were gone.
+
+"I have been wondering all day," said the genial Domitius, when the
+tent had emptied, "how C�sar will comport himself if he is taken
+prisoner and not slain in battle. I give him credit for not being
+likely to flee away."
+
+"I trust he will die a soldier's death," replied Pompeius, gloomily.
+"It would be a grievous thing to have him fall into my hands. He has
+been my friend, my father-in-law. I could not treat him harshly."
+
+"Doubtless," said the ever suave Lentulus Crus, "it would be most
+disagreeable for you, Magnus, to have to reward such an enemy of the
+Republic as he deserves. But your excellency will, of course, bow to
+the decrees of the Senate, and--I fear it will be very hard to
+persuade the conscript fathers that C�sar has earned any mercy."
+
+"_Vah!_ gentlemen," retorted Pompeius, pressing his hands together,
+and walking up and down: "I have been your tool a long while! I never
+at heart desired this war! A hundred times I would draw back, but you
+in some way prevented. I have been made to say things that I would
+fain have left unsaid. I am perhaps less educated and more
+superstitious than you. I believe that there are gods, and they punish
+the shedders of innocent blood. And much good Roman blood has been
+shed since you had your way, and drove C�sar into open enmity!"
+
+"Of course," interposed Domitius, his face a little flushed with
+suppressed anger, "it is a painful thing to take the lives of
+fellow-countrymen; but consider the price that patriots must pay for
+liberty."
+
+"Price paid for liberty," snorted Pompeius, in rising disgust,
+"_phui!_ Let us at least be honest, gentlemen! It is very easy to cry
+out on tyrants when our ambition has been disappointed. But I am
+wasting words. Only this let me say. When, to-morrow, we have slain or
+captured our enemy, it will be _I_ that determine the future policy of
+the state, and not _you_! I will prove myself indeed the Magnus! I
+will be a tool no longer."
+
+The three consulars stared at each other, at loss for words.
+
+"Time wastes, gentlemen," said Pompeius. "To your several commands!
+You have your orders."
+
+The Magnus spoke in a tone that admonished the three oligarchs to bow
+in silence and go out without a word.
+
+"His excellency is a bit tempted to play the high tragedian to-night,"
+sneered Domitius, recovering from his first consternation. "He will
+think differently to-morrow. But of all things, my good Lentulus (if
+it comes your way), see that C�sar is quietly killed--no matter what
+fashion; it will save us endless trouble."
+
+"_Mehercle!_" quoth the other, "do I need that advice? And again
+remind me to-morrow of this. We must arrange the dividing of the
+estate of that young reprobate, Quintus Drusus, who gave us some
+anxiety two years ago. But I imagine that must be deferred until after
+the battle."
+
+And so they separated, and the two armies--scarce five miles
+apart--slept; and the stars watched over them.
+
+
+III
+
+The sun was climbing out of the dark bank of clouds that pressed down
+upon the eastern horizon. The green plain of Pharsalus lay spread out
+far and wide under the strengthening light; the distant hills were
+peering dimly out from the mist; the acropolis of Pharsalus
+itself,--perhaps the Homeric Phthia, dwelling of Achilles,--with its
+two peaked crags, five hundred feet in height, frowned down upon the
+C�sarian camp. The Enipeus and one or two minor streams were threading
+their way in silver ribbons down toward the distant Peneus. The
+fertile plain was green and verdant with the bursting summer. The
+scent of clover hung in the air, and with it the fragrance of thyme.
+Wild flowers were scattered under the feet. The early honeybee was
+hovering over the dew-laden petals. Wakeful thrushes were carolling
+out of the thickets. A thin grey fog was drifting off of the valley,
+soon to vanish in the blue of a perfect day. Clear and sweet the notes
+of the trumpets called the soldiers from their camp. The weary men
+shook the sleep from their eyes. There was a hurried pounding of grain
+in the stone mortars, breakfasts even more hurried. Then again the
+trumpets called out their signal. Busy hands tore up the tent pegs,
+other hands were folding the coverings, gathering up the poles and
+impedimenta, and loading them on the baggage animals.
+
+The soldiers were grumbling as soldiers will. Drusus, who emerged from
+his own tent just as it was about to be pulled down about his ears,
+heard one private growl to another: "Look at the sun rising! What a
+hot day we shall have! _�depol!_ will there never be an end to this
+marching and countermarching, skirmishing and intrenching,--water to
+drink, _puls_ to eat,--I didn't take the oath[179] for that. No
+plunder here, and the sack of Gomphi, the last town stormed, amounted
+to nothing."
+
+  [179] The military oath of obedience.
+
+Drusus would have rebuked the man for breeding discontent in the army,
+but at that moment he and every other around him for once relaxed that
+stringent discipline that held them in bands of iron. A third trumpet
+call cut the air, quick, shrill, penetrating.
+
+"To arms!" Every centurion was shouting it to his men. The baggage
+animals were left unladen. A cohort that was about to leave the camp
+in marching order halted, and began to throw away its impedimenta,
+when C�sar himself rode up to them.
+
+"Fellow-soldiers," said the Imperator, smiling as though he had to
+reveal a great piece of good fortune, "we can postpone the march. Let
+us put our hearts into the battle for which we have longed, and meet
+the foe with resolute souls, for now or never is our opportunity!"
+
+"_Io! Io!_" cried a thousand hoarse throats.
+
+Out of confusion came the most perfect order. Drusus ran to the horse
+that he had yielded for a pack animal on the march, saddled, mounted,
+flew away to C�sar's side, his heart pounding in his breast.
+
+"Pompeius is leading out his men!" soldier was shouting to soldier.
+Legion after legion filed forth from the camp. C�sar, sitting with
+easy grace on his own favourite charger which he himself had bred,
+gave in calm, deliberate voice the last orders to his legates. Drusus
+drew rein at the general's side, ready to go anywhere or do anything
+that was needed, his position being one of general aide-de-camp.
+
+C�sar was facing east; Pompeius, west. Five miles of mainly level
+country had extended between the camps, but Pompeius had pitched on a
+hill site, with a river and hills to flank him. There he might safely
+have defied attack. But he had come down from the eminence. He had led
+his army out into the plain, and the camp was a full mile behind. The
+long ranks of the Pompeians were splendid with all the bravery of war.
+On the right wing by the river lay his Cilician and Spanish cohorts,
+led by Lentulus Crus,--the flower of the Pompeian infantry. Scipio
+held the centre with two Syrian legions. On the left, Domitius was in
+command and Pompeius accompanied him. Seven cohorts were behind in the
+fortified camp. A great mass of auxiliaries and volunteers, as well as
+two thousand reenlisted veterans, gave strength to the lines of fully
+recruited cohorts. Out on the left wing, reaching up on to the
+foothills, lay the pride of the oligarchs, seven thousand splendid
+cavalry, the pick and flower of the exiled youth and nobility of Rome,
+reenforced by the best squadrons of the East. Here Labienus led. The
+Pompeian ranks were in three lines, drawn up ten deep. Forty-five
+thousand heavy infantry were they; and the horse and light troops were
+half as many--Spaniards, Africans, Italian exiles, Greeks,
+Asiatics--the glory of every warlike, classic race.
+
+Slowly, slowly, the C�sarian legionaries advanced over the plain.
+Drusus knew that one of the most crucial hours of his life was before
+him, yet he was very calm. He saw some wild roses growing on a bush by
+the way, and thought how pretty they would look in a wreath on
+Cornelia's hair. He exchanged jokes with his fellow-officers; scolded
+a soldier who had come away without his sword in his sheath; asked
+Antonius, when he came across him, if he did not envy Achilles for his
+country-seat. It was as if he were going on the same tedious march of
+days and days gone by. Yet, with it all he felt himself far more
+intensely excited than ever before. He knew that his calm was so
+unnatural that he wished to cry aloud, to run, weep, to do anything to
+break it. This was to be the end of the great drama that had begun the
+day Lentulus and Marcellus first sat down as consuls!
+
+Slowly, slowly, that long snake, the marching army, dragged out of the
+camp. The sun was high in the sky; the last cloud had vanished; the
+blue above was as clear and translucent as it is conceivable anything
+may be and yet retain its colour--not become clear light. The head of
+the column was six hundred paces from the silent Pompeian lines which
+awaited them. Then cohort after cohort filed off to the right and
+left, and the line of battle was ready. On the right was the tenth
+legion, on the left the weak ninth, reenforced by the eighth. There
+were eighty cohorts in all, to oppose one hundred and ten. But the
+ranks of C�sar's cohorts were thin. The numbers were scarce half as
+many as in those of the foe. And to confront Labienus and his cavalry
+C�sar had but one thousand horse. His army stood in three lines,
+facing the enemy's infantry; but, though it weakened his own legions
+dangerously, there was but one thing to do, unless Labienus was to
+force around the flank, and sweep all before him. Six cohorts C�sar
+stationed at the rear of his right wing, a defence against the hostile
+cavalry. The third line of the legions the Imperator commanded to hold
+back until he ordered them otherwise, for on them lay the turning of
+the battle.
+
+Antonius commanded the left, Publius Sulla the right, Calvinus the
+centre. C�sar himself took post on his own right wing opposite
+Pompeius. Then, when the lines were formed, he rode down before his
+men, and addressed them; not in gaudy eloquence, as if to stir a
+flagging courage, but a manly request that they quit themselves as
+became his soldiers. Ever had he sought reconciliation, he said, ever
+peace; unwillingly had he exposed his own soldiers, and unwillingly
+attacked his enemies. And to the six chosen cohorts in the fourth line
+he gave a special word, for he bade them remember that doubtless on
+their firmness would depend the fate of the battle.
+
+"Yes," he said in closing, while every scarred and tattered veteran
+laughed at the jest, "only thrust your pila in the faces of those
+brave cavaliers. They will turn and flee if their handsome faces are
+likely to be bruised." And a grim chuckle went down the line,
+relieving the tension that was making the oldest warriors nervous.
+
+C�sar galloped back to his position on his own right wing. The legions
+were growing restive, and there was no longer cause for delay. The
+officers were shouting the battle-cry down the lines. The Imperator
+nodded to his trumpeter, and a single sharp, long peal cut the air.
+The note was drowned in the rush of twenty thousand feet, the howl of
+myriads of voices.
+
+"_Venus victrix!_" The battle-cry was tossed from mouth to mouth,
+louder and louder, as the mighty mass of men in iron swept on.
+
+"Venus victrix!" And the shout itself was dimmed in the crash of
+mortal battle, when the foremost C�sarians sent their pila dashing in
+upon the enemy, and closed with the short sword, while their comrades
+piled in upon them. Crash after crash, as cohort struck cohort; and so
+the battle joined.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Why was the battle of Pharsalus more to the world than fifty other
+stricken fields where armies of strength equal to those engaged there
+joined in conflict? Why can these other battles be passed over as
+dates and names to the historian, while he assigns to this a position
+beside Marathon and Arbela and Tours and the Defeat of the Armada and
+Waterloo and Gettysburg? What was at stake--that C�sar or Pompeius and
+his satellites should rule the world? Infinitely more--the struggle
+was for the very existence of civilization, to determine whether or
+not the fabric of ordered society was to be flung back into chaos. The
+Roman Republic had conquered the civilized world; it had thrown down
+kings; it had destroyed the political existence of nations. What but
+feebleness, corruption, decay, anarchy, disintegration, disruption,
+recurring barbarism, had the oligarchs, for whom Pompeius was fighting
+his battle, to put in the place of what the Republic had destroyed?
+Could a Senate where almost every man had his price, where almost
+every member looked on the provinces as a mere feeding ground for
+personal enrichment--could such a body govern the world? Were not
+German and Gaul ready to pluck this unsound organism called the
+Republic limb from limb, and where was the reviving, regenerating
+force that was to hold them back with an iron hand until a force
+greater than that of the sword was ready to carry its evangel unto all
+nations, Jew, Greek, Roman, barbarian,--bond and free? These were the
+questions asked and answered on that ninth day of August, forty-nine
+years, before the birth of a mightier than Pompeius Magnus or Julius
+C�sar. And because men fought and agonized and died on those plains by
+Pharsalus, the edict could go from Rome that all the world should be
+taxed, and a naturalized Roman citizen could scorn the howls of the
+provincial mobs, could mock at Sanhedrins seeking his blood, and cry:
+_"Civis Romanus sum. C�sarem appello!"_
+
+How long did the battle last? Drusus did not know. No one knew. He
+flew at the heels of his general's charger, for where C�sar went there
+the fight was thickest. He saw the Pompeian heavy infantry standing
+stolidly in their ranks to receive the charge--a fatal blunder, that
+lost them all the enthusiasm aggression engenders. The C�sarian
+veterans would halt before closing in battle, draw breath, and dash
+over the remaining interval with redoubled vigour. The Pompeians
+received them manfully, sending back javelin for javelin; then the
+short swords flashed from their scabbards, and man pressed against
+man--staring into one another's face--seeking one another's blood;
+striking, striking with one thought, hope, instinct--to stride across
+his enemy's dead body.
+
+The Pompeian reserves ran up to aid their comrades in the line. The
+odds against the C�sarian cohorts were tremendous. The pressure of
+shield against shield never abated. Woe to the man who lost footing
+and fell; his life was trampled out in a twinkling! The battle-cries
+grew fewer and fewer; shouting requires breath; breath, energy; and
+every scruple of energy was needed in pushing on those shields. There
+were few pila left now. The short swords dashed upon the armour, but
+in the press even to swing a blade was difficult. More and more
+intense grew the strain; C�sarians gave ground here and then regained
+it. Pompeians did the like yonder. The long reach of the line swayed
+to and fro, rippling like a dark ribbon in the wind. Now and then a
+combatant would receive a mortal wound, and go down out of sight in
+the throng, which closed over him almost ere he could utter one sharp
+cry.
+
+C�sar was everywhere. His voice rang like a clarion down the lines; he
+knew, as it were, each soldier by name--and when a stout blow was to
+be struck, or a stand was needed to bear up against the weight of
+hostile numbers, C�sar's praise or admonition to stand firm was as a
+fresh cohort flung into the scale. Drusus rode with him, both mounted,
+hence unable to mingle in the press, but exposed to the showers of
+arrows and sling-stones which the Pompeian auxiliaries rained upon
+them. C�sar's red paludamentum marked him out a conspicuous figure for
+the aim of the missiles, but he bore a charmed life.
+
+Drusus himself did what he could to steady the men. The contest in the
+line of battle could not continue long, flesh and blood might not
+endure the strain.
+
+"Imperator," cried Drusus, riding up to his chief, "you see that this
+can last no longer. Our men are overmatched. Shall I order up the
+third line? The centurion Crastinus, who swore that he would win your
+gratitude living or dead, is slain after performing deeds worthy of
+his boast. Many others have gone down. What shall I do?"
+
+C�sar drew rein, and cast his eyes down the swaying lines.
+
+"I dare not order up the third line so early," he began; then, with a
+glance to the extreme right, "Ah, _Mehercle!_ we are at the crisis
+now! Our cavalry have given way before the enemy's horse. They are
+outflanking us!"
+
+"The six cohorts!" cried Drusus.
+
+"The six cohorts--ride! Make them stop those horse, or all is lost! On
+your life, go!"
+
+And away went Drusus. The supreme moment of his life had come. The
+whole act of being, he felt, he knew, had been only that he might live
+at that instant. What the next hour had in store--life, death--he
+cared not at all. The C�sarian horse, outnumbered seven to one, had
+fought valiantly, but been borne back by sheer weight of numbers. With
+not a man in sight to oppose them, the whole mass of the splendid
+Pompeian cavalry was sweeping around to crush the unprotected flank of
+the tenth legion. The sight of the on-rushing squadrons was beyond
+words magnificent. The tossing mass of their panoplies was a sea of
+scarlet, purple, brass, and flashing steel; the roar of the hoof-beats
+of seven thousand blooded coursers swept on like the approaching of
+the wind leading the clouds in whose breast are thunder and lightning
+unfettered. Behind them rose the dun vapour of the dust, drifting up
+toward heaven,--the whirling vortex of the storm. It was indeed the
+crisis.
+
+The six cohorts were standing, resting on their shields, in the rear
+of the extreme right flank of the third line. They were in an oblique
+formation. The most distant cohort extended far back, and far beyond
+the C�sarian line of battle. The hearts of the soldiers were in the
+deathly press ahead, but they were veterans; discipline held them
+quiet, albeit restive in soul.
+
+On swept the roar of the advancing Pompeians. What must be done must
+be done quickly. Drusus drove the spurs into his horse, and approached
+the cohorts on a headlong gallop.
+
+"Forward! I will lead you against the enemy!"
+
+No need of second command. The maniples rushed onward as though the
+men were runners in a race, not soldiers clothed in armour. Drusus
+flew down the ranks and swung the farthest cohorts into alignment with
+the others. There was not a moment to lose.
+
+"Now, men, if ye be indeed soldiers of C�sar, at them!"
+
+Drusus was astounded at the resonance of his own voice; a thousand
+others caught up the shout.
+
+"_Venus victrix!_" And straight into the teeth of the galloping hosts
+charged the thin line of infantry.
+
+The line was weak, its members strong. They were rural Italians,
+uncorrupted by city life, hardy, god-fearing peasants and sons of
+peasants, worthy descendants of the men who died in the legions at
+Cann�, or triumphed at the Metaurus. Steady as on a review the six
+cohorts bore down into action. And when they struck the great mass of
+horsemen they thrust their pila into the riders' eyes and prodded the
+steeds. The foremost cavalrymen drew rein; the horses reared. The
+squadrons were colliding and plunging. In an eye's twinkling their
+momentum had been checked.
+
+"Charge! Charge!" Drusus sent the word tossing down along the cohorts,
+and the legionaries pressed forward. It was done. The whole splendid
+array of horsemen broke in rout; they went streaming back in
+disordered squadrons over the plain, each trooper striving to outride
+his fellow in the flight. Pompeius had launched his most deadly bolt,
+and it had failed.
+
+Now was Drusus's chance. No further order had been given him; to
+pursue cavalry with infantry were folly; he needed no new commands.
+The six cohorts followed his lead like machinery. The crash of battle
+dimmed his voice; the sight of his example led the legionaries on.
+They fell on the Pompeian archers and slingers and dispersed them like
+smoke. They wheeled about as on a pivot and struck the enemy's left
+wing; struck the Pompeian fighting line from the rear, and crushed it
+betwixt the upper and nether millstone of themselves and the tenth
+legion. Drusus drove into the very foremost of the fight; it was no
+longer a press, it was flight, pursuit, slaughter, and he forced his
+horse over one enemy after another--transformed, transfigured as he
+was into a demon of destruction, while the delirium of battle gained
+upon him.
+
+Drusus saw the figure of a horseman clothed, like C�sar, in a red
+general's cloak spurring away to the enemy's camp. He called to his
+men that Pompeius had taken panic and fled away; that the battle was
+won. He saw the third line of the C�sarians drive through the Pompeian
+centre and right as a plough cuts through the sandy field, and then
+spread terror, panic, rout--the battle became a massacre.
+
+So the C�sarians hunted their foes over the plain to the camp. And,
+though the sun on high rained down a pitiless heat, none faltered when
+the Imperator bade them use their favour with Fortune, and lose not a
+moment in storming the encampment. They assailed the ramparts. The
+Pompeian reserve cohorts stood against them like men; the Thracian and
+other auxiliary light troops sent down clouds of missiles--of what
+avail? There are times when mortal might can pass seas of fire and
+mountains of steel; and this was one of those moments. The Pompeians
+were swept from the ramparts by a pitiless shower of javelins. The
+panic still was upon them; standards of cohorts, eagles of legions,
+they threw them all away. They fled--fled casting behind shields,
+helmets, swords, anything that hindered their running. The hills, the
+mountain tops, were their only safety. Their centurions and tribunes
+were foremost among the fugitives. And from these mountain crests they
+were to come down the next morning and surrender themselves prisoners
+to the conquerors--petitioners for their lives.
+
+Not all were thus fated. For in the flight from the camp Domitius fell
+down from fatigue, and Marcus Antonius, whose hand knew no weariness,
+neither his heart remorse or mercy, slew him as a man would slay a
+snake. And so perished one of the evil spirits that hounded Pompeius
+to his death, the Roman oligarchy to its downfall.
+
+Drusus sought far and wide for Lentulus and Lucius Ahenobarbus. The
+consular had fought on the most distant wing, and in the flight he and
+his mortal enemy did not meet. Neither did Drusus come upon the
+younger son of the slain Domitius. Fortune kept the two asunder. But
+slaying enough for one day the young Livian had wrought. He rode with
+C�sar through the splendid camp just captured. The flowers had been
+twined over the arbours under which the victory was to be celebrated;
+the plate was on the tables; choice viands and wines were ready; the
+floors of the tents were covered with fresh sods; over the pavilion of
+Lentulus Crus was a great shade of ivy. The victors rode out from the
+arbours toward the newly taken ramparts. There lay the dead, heaps
+upon heaps, the patrician dress proclaiming the proud lineage of the
+fallen; Claudii, Fabii, �milii, Furii, Cornelii, Sempronii, and a
+dozen more great _gentes_ were represented--scions of the most
+magnificent oligarchy the world has ever seen. And this was their end!
+C�sar passed his hand over his forehead and pressed his fingers upon
+his eyes.
+
+"They would have it so," he said, in quiet sadness, to the little knot
+of officers around him. "After all that I had done for my country, I,
+Caius C�sar, would have been condemned by them like a criminal, if I
+had not appealed to my army."
+
+And so ended that day and that battle. On the field and in the camp
+lay dead two hundred C�sarians and fifteen thousand Pompeians.
+Twenty-four thousand prisoners had been taken, one hundred and eighty
+standards, nine eagles. As for the Magnus, he had stripped off his
+general's cloak and was riding with might and main for the seacoast,
+accompanied by thirty horsemen.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XXII
+
+The End of the Magnus
+
+
+I
+
+The months had come and gone for Cornelia as well as for Quintus
+Drusus, albeit in a very different manner. The war was raging upon
+land and sea. The Pompeian fleet controlled all the water avenues; the
+Italian peninsula was held by the C�sarians. Cornelia wrote several
+times to old Mamercus at Pr�neste, enclosing a letter which she begged
+him to forward to her lover wherever he might be. But no answer came.
+Once she learned definitely that the ship had been captured. For the
+other times she could imagine the same catastrophe. Still she had her
+comfort. Rumours of battles, of sieges, and arduous campaigning
+drifted over the Mediterranean. Now it was that a few days more would
+see C�sar an outlaw without a man around him, and then Cornelia would
+believe none of it. Now it was that Pompeius was in sore straits, and
+then she was all credulity. Yet beside these tidings there were other
+stray bits of news very dear to her heart. C�sar, so it was said,
+possessed a young aide-de-camp of great valour and ability, one
+Quintus Drusus, and the Imperator was already entrusting him with
+posts of danger and of responsibility. He had behaved gallantly at
+Ilerda; he had won more laurels at the siege of Massilia. At
+Dyrrachium he had gained yet more credit. And on account of these
+tidings, it may easily be imagined that Cornelia was prepared to be
+very patient and to be willing to take the trying vicissitudes of her
+own life more lightly.
+
+As a matter of fact, her own position at Alexandria had begun to grow
+complicated. First of all, Agias had made one day a discovery in the
+city which it was exceeding well for Artemisia was not postponed for a
+later occasion. Pratinas was in Alexandria. The young Greek had not
+been recognized when, as chance meetings will occur, he came across
+his one-time antagonist face to face on the street. He had no fears
+for himself. But Artemisia was no longer safe in the city. Cleomenes
+arranged that the girl should be sent to a villa, owned by the
+relatives of his late wife, some distance up the Nile. Artemisia would
+thus be parted from Agias, but she would be quite safe; and to secure
+that, any sacrifice of stolen looks and pretty coquetry was cheerfully
+accepted.
+
+Soon after this unpleasant little discovery, a far more serious event
+occurred. Pothinus the eunuch, Achillas, the Egyptian commander of the
+army, and Theodotus, a "rhetoric teacher," whose real business was to
+spin, not words, but court intrigues, had plotted together to place
+the young King Ptolem�us in sole power. The conspiracy ran its course.
+There was a rising of the "Macedonian"[180] guard at the palace, a
+gathering of citizens in the squares of the capital, culminating in
+bloody riots and proclamations declaring the king vested with the only
+supreme power. Hot on the heels of this announcement it was bruited
+around the city that Cleopatra had escaped safely to Palestine, where,
+in due time, she would doubtless be collecting an army at the courts
+of Hyrcanus, the Jewish prince, and other Syrian potentates, to return
+and retake the crown.
+
+  [180] Macedonian it is needless to say was a mere name. The
+  Gr�co-Egyptian soldiery and citizen body of Alexandria probably
+  had hardly a drop of Macedonian blood in their veins.
+
+Alexandria was accustomed to such dynastic disruptions. The rioting
+over, the people were ready to go back to the paper and linen
+factories, and willing to call Ptolem�us the "Son of Ra," or "King,"
+until his sister should defeat him in battle. Cornelia grieved that
+Cleopatra should thus be forced into exile. She had grown more and
+more intimate with the queen. The first glamour of Cleopatra's
+presence had worn away. Cornelia saw her as a woman very beautiful,
+very wilful, gifted with every talent, yet utterly lacking that moral
+stability which would have been the crown of a perfect human organism.
+The two women had grown more and more in friendship and intimacy; and
+when Cornelia studied in detail the dark, and often hideous, coils and
+twistings of the history of the Hellenistic royal families, the more
+vividly she realized that Cleopatra was the heiress of generations of
+legalized license,[181] of cultured sensuality, of veneered cruelty,
+and sheer blood-thirstiness. Therefore Cornelia had pitied, not
+blamed, the queen, and, now that misfortune had fallen upon her, was
+distressed for the plight of Cleopatra.
+
+  [181] As, for instance, the repeated wedlock of brothers and sisters
+  among the Ptolemies.
+
+That Cornelia had been an intimate of the queen was perfectly well
+known in Alexandria. In fact, Cleomenes himself was of sufficiently
+high rank to make any guest he might long entertain more or less of a
+public personage. Cornelia was a familiar sight to the crowds, as she
+drove daily on the streets and attended the theatre. Cleomenes began
+to entertain suspicions that the new government was not quite pleased
+to leave such a friend of Cleopatra's at liberty; and Agias took pains
+to discover that Pratinas was deep in the counsels of the virtual
+regent--Pothinus. But Cornelia scoffed at any suggestions that it
+might be safer to leave the city and join Artemisia in the retreat up
+the Nile. She had taken no part whatsoever in Egyptian politics, and
+she was incapable of assisting to restore Cleopatra. As for the
+possible influence of Pratinas in court, it seemed to her incredible
+that a man of his caliber could work her any injury, save by the
+dagger and poison cup. That an ignoble intriguer of his type could
+influence the policy of state she refused to believe.
+
+Thus it came to pass that Cornelia had only herself to thank, when the
+blow, such as it was, fell. The eunuch prime minister knew how to
+cover his actions with a velvet glove. One evening a splendidly
+uniformed division of Macedonian guard, led by one of the royal
+_somatophylakes_,[182] came with an empty chariot to the house of
+Cleomenes. The request they bore was signed with the royal seal, and
+was politeness itself. It overflowed with semi-Oriental compliment and
+laudation; but the purport was clear. On account of the great danger
+in the city to foreigners from riots--ran the gist of the letter--and
+the extremely disturbed condition of the times, the king was
+constrained to request Cornelia and Fabia to take up their residence
+in the palace, where they could receive proper protection and be
+provided for in a princely manner, as became their rank.
+
+  [182] Commanders of the body-guard.
+
+Cornelia had enough wisdom to see that only by taking the letter for
+the intentions written on its face could she submit to the implied
+command without loss of dignity. She had much difficulty in persuading
+Fabia to yield; for the Vestal was for standing on her Roman
+prerogatives and giving way to nothing except sheer force. But
+Cleomenes added his word, that only harm would come from resistance;
+and the two Roman ladies accompanied the escort back to the palace. It
+was not pleasant to pass into the power of a creature like Pothinus,
+even though the smooth-faced eunuch received his unwilling guests with
+Oriental salaams and profuse requests to be allowed to humour their
+least desires. But the restraint, if such it can be called, could
+hardly take a less objectionable form. Monime and Berenice, as ladies
+whose father was known as a merchant prince of colourless politics,
+were allowed free access to their friends at the palace. Young
+Ptolem�us, who was a dark-eyed and, at bottom, dark-hearted youth,
+completely under the thumb of Pothinus, exerted himself, after a
+fashion, to be agreeable to his visitors; but he was too unfavourable
+a contrast to his gifted sister to win much grace in Cornelia's eyes.
+Agias, who was living with Cleomenes, nominally for the purpose of
+learning the latter's business, preparatory to becoming a partner on
+capital to come from his predatory cousin, as a matter of fact spent a
+great part of his time at the palace also, dancing attendance upon his
+Roman friends. Pratinas, indeed, was on hand, not really to distress
+them, but to vex by the mere knowledge of his presence. Cornelia met
+the Greek with a stony haughtiness that chilled all his professions of
+desire to serve her and to renew the acquaintance formed at Rome.
+Agias had discovered that Pratinas had advised Pothinus to keep his
+hands on the ladies, especially on Cornelia, because whichever side of
+the Roman factions won, there were those who would reward suitably any
+who could deliver her over to them. From this Cornelia had to infer
+that the defeat of the C�sarians meant her own enthralment to her
+uncle and Lucius Ahenobarbus. Such a contingency she would not admit
+as possible. She was simply rendered far more anxious. Pratinas had
+given up seeking Drusus's life, it was clear; his interest in the
+matter had ended the very instant the chance to levy blackmail on
+Ahenobarbus had disappeared. Pratinas, in fact, Agias learned for her,
+was never weary ridiculing the Roman oligarchs, and professing his
+disgust with them; so Cornelia no longer had immediate cause to fear
+him, though she hated him none the less.
+
+After all, Pratinas thrust himself little upon her. He had his own
+life to live, and it ran far apart from hers. Perhaps it was as well
+for Cornelia that she was forced to spend the winter and ensuing
+months in the ample purlieus of the palace. If living were but the
+gratification of sensuous indolence, if existence were but luxurious
+dozing and half-waking, then the palace of the Ptolemies were indeed
+an Elysium, with its soft-footed, silent, swift, intelligent Oriental
+servants; rooms where the eye grew weary of rare sculpture or fresco;
+books drawn from the greatest library in the world--the Museum close
+at hand; a broad view of the blue Mediterranean, ever changing and
+ever the same, and of the swarming harbour and the bustling city; and
+gardens upon gardens shut off from the outside by lofty walls--some
+great enclosures containing besides forests of rare trees a vast
+menagerie of wild beasts, whose roarings from their cages made one
+think the groves a tropical jungle; some gardens, dainty, secluded
+spots laid out in Egyptian fashion, under the shade of a few fine old
+sycamores, with a vineyard and a stone trellis-work in the midst, with
+arbours and little parks of exotic plants, a palm or two, and a tank
+where the half-tame water-fowl would plash among the lotus and papyrus
+plants. In such a nook as this Cornelia would sit and read all the day
+long, and put lotus flowers in her hair, look down into the water,
+and, Narcissus-like, fall in love with her own face, and tell herself
+that Drusus would be delighted that she had not grown ugly since he
+parted with her.
+
+So passed the winter and the spring and early summer months; and,
+however hot and parched might be the city under the burning sun, there
+was coolness and refreshment in the gardens of the palace.
+
+With it all, however, Cornelia began to wax restive. It is no light
+thing to command one's self to remain quiet in Sybaritic ease. More
+and more she began to wish that this butterfly existence, this passive
+basking in the sun of indolent luxury, would come to an end. She
+commenced again to wish that she were a man, with the tongue of an
+orator, the sword of a soldier, able to sway senates and to lead
+legions. Pothinus finally discovered that he was having some
+difficulty in keeping his cage-bird contented. The eunuch had
+entertained great expectations of being able to win credit and favour
+with the conquerors among the Romans by delivering over Cornelia safe
+and sound either to Lentulus Crus or Quintus Drusus. Now he began to
+fear that Pratinas had advised him ill; that Cornelia and Fabia were
+incapable of intriguing in Cleopatra's favour, and by his "protection
+at the palace" he was only earning the enmity of his noble guests. But
+it was too late to retrace his steps, and he accordingly plied
+Cornelia with so many additional attentions, presents, and obsequious
+flatteries, that she grew heartily disgusted and repined even more
+over her present situation.
+
+Bad news came, which added to her discomfort. C�sar had been driven
+from his lines at Dyrrachium. He had lost a great many men. If the
+Pompeian sources of information were to be believed, he was now really
+a negligible military factor, and the war was practically over. The
+tidings fell on Cornelia's soul like lead. She knew perfectly well
+that the defeat of the C�sarians would mean the death of Quintus
+Drusus. Her uncle and the Domitii, father and son, would be all
+powerful, and they never forgave an enmity. As for herself--but she
+did not think much thereon; if Drusus was slain or executed, she
+really had very little to live for, and there were many ways of
+getting out of the world. For the first time since the memorable night
+of the raid on Bai�, she went about with an aching heart. Fabia, too,
+suffered, but, older and wiser, comforted Cornelia not so much by what
+she might say, by way of extending hopes, as by the warm, silent
+contact of her pure, noble nature. Monime and Berenice were grieved
+that their friends were so sad, and used a thousand gentle arts to
+comfort them. Cornelia bore up more bravely because of the
+sympathy--she did not have to endure her burden alone, as at Rome and
+Bai�; but, nevertheless, for her the days crept slowly.
+
+And then out of the gloom came the dazzling brightness. A Rhodian
+merchantman came speeding into the haven with news. "Is C�sar taken?"
+cried the inquisitive crowd on the quay, as the vessel swung up to her
+mooring. "Is Pompeius not already here?" came back from the deck. And
+in a twinkling it was all over the city: in the Serapeium, in the
+Museum, under the colonnades, in the factories, in the palace.
+"Pompeius's army has been destroyed. The Magnus barely escaped with
+his life. Lucius Domitius is slain. C�sar is master of the world!"
+
+Never did the notes of the great water-organ of the palace sound so
+sweet in any ears as these words in those of the Roman ladies. They
+bore with complacency a piece of petty tyranny on the part of
+Pothinus, which at another time they would have found galling indeed.
+Report had it that Cleopatra had gathered an army in Syria, and the
+eunuch, with his royal puppet, was going forth to the frontier town of
+Pelusium, to head the forces that should resist the invasion. Cornelia
+and Fabia were informed that they would accompany the royal party on
+its progress to the frontier. Pothinus clearly was beginning to fear
+the results of his "honourable entertainment," and did not care to
+have his guests out of his sight. It was vexatious to be thus at his
+mercy; but Cornelia was too joyous in soul, at that time, to bear the
+indignity heavily. They had to part with Monime and Berenice, but
+Agias went with them; and Cornelia sent off another letter to Italy,
+in renewed hope that the seas would be clear and it would find its way
+safely to Drusus.
+
+Very luxurious was the progress of the royal party to Pelusium. The
+king, his escort, and his unwilling guests travelled slowly by water,
+in magnificent river barges that were fitted with every requisite or
+ornament that mind of man might ask or think. They crossed the Lake
+Mareotis, glided along one of the minor outlets of the delta until
+they reached the Bolbitinic branch of the Nile, then, by canals and
+natural water-courses, worked their way across to Bubastis, and thence
+straight down the Pelusiac Nile to Pelusium. And thus it was Cornelia
+caught glimpses of that strange, un-Hellenized country that stretched
+away to the southward, tens and hundreds of miles, to Memphis and its
+pyramids, and Thebes and its temples--ancient, weird, wonderful; a
+civilization whereof everything was older than human thought might
+trace; a civilization that was almost like the stars, the same
+yesterday, to-day, and forever. Almost would Cornelia have been glad
+if the prows of the barges had been turned up the river, and she been
+enabled to behold with her own eyes the mighty piles of Cheops,
+Chephren, Mycerinus, Sesostris, Rhampsinitus, and a score of other
+Pharaohs whose deeds are recorded in stone imperishable. But the
+barges glided again northward, and Cornelia only occasionally caught
+some glimpse of a massive temple, under whose huge propylons the
+priests had chanted their litanies to Pakht or Ptah for two thousand
+years, or passed some boat gliding with its mourners to the
+necropolis, there to leave the mummy that was to await the judgment of
+Osiris. And down the long valley swept the hot winds from the realm of
+the Pygmies, and from those strange lakes and mountains whence issued
+the boundless river, which was the life-giver and mother of all the
+fertile country of Egypt.
+
+Thus with a glimpse, all too short, of the "Black Land,"[183] as its
+native denizens called it, the royal party reached the half-Hellenized
+town of Pelusium, where the army was in waiting and a most splendid
+camp was ready for Ptolem�us and his train. Cleopatra had not yet
+advanced. The journey was over, and the novelty of the luxurious
+quarters provided in the frontier fortress soon died away. Cornelia
+could only possess her soul in patience, and wonder how long it would
+be before a letter could reach Italy, and the answer return. Where was
+Drusus? Had aught befallen him in the great battle? Did he think of
+her? And so, hour by hour, she repeated her questions--and waited.
+
+  [183] "Black" because of the black fertile mud deposited by the
+  inundation.
+
+
+II
+
+Cleopatra's forces had not reached proportions sufficient for her to
+risk an engagement, when a little squadron appeared before Pelusium
+bearing no less a person than Pompeius himself, who sent ashore to
+demand, on the strength of former services to the late King Ptolem�us
+Auletes, a safe asylum, and assistance to make fresh head against the
+C�sarians. There was a hurried convening of the council of Pothinus--a
+select company of eunuchs, amateur generals, intriguing rhetoricians.
+The conference was long; access to its debates closely guarded. The
+issue could not be evaded; on the decision depended the
+reestablishment of the Pompeians in a new and firm stronghold, or
+their abandonment to further wanderings over the ocean. All Pelusium
+realized what was at stake, and the excitement ran high.
+
+Cornelia beyond others was agitated by the report of the arrival of
+the Magnus. Rumour had it that Lucius Lentulus was close behind him.
+If the council of Pothinus voted to receive the fugitives, her own
+position would be unhappy indeed. For a time at least she would fall
+into the power of her uncle and of Lucius Ahenobarbus. She was fully
+determined, if it was decided to harbour the Pompeians, to try to
+escape from the luxurious semi-captivity in which she was restrained.
+She could escape across the frontier to the camp of Cleopatra, where
+she knew a friendly welcome was in waiting. Agias, ever resourceful,
+ever anxious to anticipate the slightest wish on the part of the Roman
+ladies, actually began to bethink himself of the ways and means for a
+flight. When finally it was announced in the camp and city that
+Pompeius was to be received as a guest of the king, Cornelia was on
+the point of demanding of Agias immediate action toward escape.
+
+"In a few days," were her words, "my uncle will be here; and I am
+undone, if not you also. There is not an hour to lose."
+
+But Agias reasoned otherwise. If Pothinus and Achillas had really
+consented to receive the Magnus, flight was indeed necessary. Agias,
+however, had grounds, he thought, for hesitancy. He knew that
+Achillas, the head of the army, bitterly opposed the idea of letting
+Pompeius land; he knew, what was almost as much to the point, that
+Pratinas did not care to renew certain acquaintanceships contracted at
+Rome. Therefore the young Hellene calmed Cornelia's fears, and waited
+as best he might.
+
+The council had convened early in the day; the herald went through the
+squares of Pelusium announcing that Ptolem�us, "Son of Ra," would
+receive as his guest the Roman suppliant. The shore fronting the
+anchorage was covered with the files of the royal army in full array.
+Several Egyptian men-of-war had been drawn down into the water and
+their crews were hastening on board. Out in the haven rode the little
+fleet of the Pompeians. Agias had heard the proclamation, and hurried
+down to the mole to bear the earliest definite information to his
+mistress. Presently, out of the throng of officers and court magnates
+on the quay, stepped Achillas in a splendid panoply of gilded armour,
+with a purple chiton flowing down from beneath. Beside him, with the
+firm swinging step of the Roman legionary, strode two other officers
+in magnificent armour, whom Agias at once recognized as Lucius
+Septimius, a Roman tribune now in Egyptian service, and a certain
+Salvius, who had once been a centurion of the Republic. The three
+advanced on to the quay and stood for a moment at a loss. Agias, who
+was quite near, could hear their conversation.
+
+"The yacht is not ready for us."
+
+"We cannot delay a moment."
+
+There was a large open boat moored to the quay, a fisher man's craft.
+In a moment a few subalterns had taken possession of it and there was
+a call for rowers. Agias, who, like all his race, never declined a
+chance "to see or hear some new thing," took his seat on one of the
+benches, and soon the craft shot away from the mole with the three
+officers in its stern.
+
+It was a short pull to the Pompeian ships; Agias, as he glanced over
+his shoulder thought he could see a motion on board the vessels as if
+to sheer away from the boat; but in a moment the little craft was
+alongside, under the lee of the flagship.
+
+"Where is Pompeius Magnus?" cried Achillas, rising from his seat; "we
+are sent to carry him to the king."
+
+A martial, commanding figure was seen peering over the side,--a figure
+that every inhabitant of Rome knew right well.
+
+"I am he; but why do you come thus meanly with only a fisher's boat?
+Is this honourable, is this worthy of a great king's guest?"
+
+"Assuredly, kyrios," began Achillas, "we are forced to come in this
+small craft, because the water is too shallow for larger ships to
+approach the shore."
+
+Agias knew that this was a lie; he was very certain that he was about
+to be witness to a deed of the darkest treachery. A vague feeling of
+shrinking and horror froze his limbs, and made his tongue swell in his
+mouth. Yet he was perfectly powerless to warn; a sign or a word would
+have meant his instant death.
+
+"_Salve_, Imperator!" shouted Septimius in Latin, rising in turn.
+"Don't you remember the campaign I had with you against the pirates?"
+
+The fugitive general's care-worn face lighted up at the recognition of
+an old officer.
+
+"_Eu!_" he answered, "I shall not want for good friends, I see! How
+glad I shall be to grasp your hands! But is not this a very small
+boat? I see men going on board the galleys by the shore."
+
+"You shall be satisfied in a moment, kyrios," repeated Achillas, with
+suave assurance, "that the quicksands by the mole are very dangerous
+to large vessels. Will you do us the honour to come aboard?"
+
+Agias felt as though he must howl, scream, spring into the sea--do
+anything to break the horrible suspense that oppressed him.
+
+A woman was taking leave of Pompeius on the deck, a tall, stately,
+patrician lady, with a sweet, trouble-worn face; Agias knew that she
+was Cornelia Scipionis. She was adjuring her husband not to go ashore,
+and he was replying that it was impossible to refuse; that if the
+Egyptians meant evil, they could easily master all the fugitives with
+their armament. Several of the Magnus's servants came down into the
+boat--couple of trusted centurions, a valued freedman called Philip, a
+slave named Scythes. Finally Pompeius tore himself from his wife's
+arms.
+
+"Do not grieve, all will be well!" were his words, while the boat's
+crew put out their hands to receive him; and he added, "We must make
+the best choice of evils. I am no longer my own master. Remember
+Sophocles's iambics,
+
+  "He that once enters at a tyrant's door
+  Becomes a slave, though he were free before.'"
+
+The general seated himself on the stern seat between the Egyptian
+officers. Agias bent to his oar in sheer relief at finding some way in
+which to vent his feelings; and tugged at the heavy paddle until its
+tough blade bent almost to cracking. The silence on the part of the
+officers was ominous. Not a word, not a hint of recognition, came from
+Achillas or his Italian associates, from the instant that Pompeius set
+foot in the boat. The stillness became awkward. The Magnus, flushed
+and embarrassed, turned to Septimius. "I was not mistaken in
+understanding that you were my fellow-soldier in years past?" His
+answer was a surly nod. Pompeius, however, reined his rising feelings,
+and took up and began to re-read some tablets on which he had written
+an address in Greek, to be delivered before the king. Agias rowed on
+with the energy of helpless desperation. They were very close to the
+quay. A company of the royal body-guard in gala armour stood as if
+awaiting the distinguished visitor. For a moment the young Hellene
+believed that Achillas was sincere in his errand.
+
+The boat drew up to the landing; one or two of the rowers sprang to
+the dock and made her fast. Agias was unshipping his oar. His thought
+was that he must now contrive the escape of Cornelia. Pompeius half
+rose from his seat; the boat was pitching in the choppy harbour swell;
+the general steadied himself by grasping the hands of Philip the
+freedman. Suddenly, like the swoop of a hawk on its prey, Agias saw
+the right hand of Septimius tear his short sword from its sheath. A
+scream broke from the Hellene's lips; before the Magnus could turn his
+head, the blow was struck. Pompeius received the blade full in the
+back, and staggered, while Salvius and Achillas likewise drew and
+thrust at him. Agias gazed on, paralyzed with horror. The general
+seized his red paludamentum, threw it over his face, groaned once, and
+fell. Even as he did so Septimius struck him across the neck,
+decapitating the corpse. The brutal boatmen tore the blood-soaked
+clothes off of the body, and flung it overboard, to drift ashore with
+the current. And so it ended with Pompeius Magnus, Imperator, the
+Fortunate, the favourite general of Sulla, the chieftain of "godlike
+and incredible virtue," the conquerer of the kingdoms of the East,
+thrice consul, thrice triumphator, joint ruler with C�sar of the
+civilized world!
+
+Agias hastened back to Cornelia to tell her that the danger was past,
+that there was no need of a flight to Cleopatra; but he was sick at
+heart when he thought of the treachery in which he had shared, albeit
+so unwillingly.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XXIII
+
+Bitterness and Joy
+
+
+I
+
+Cornelia knew not whether to be merry or to weep when the report of
+the fate of Pompeius reached her. That she would be delivered up to
+her uncle was no longer to be dreaded; but into the hands of what
+manner of men had she herself fallen? Her own life and that of Fabia,
+she realized, would be snuffed out in a twinkling, by Pothinus and his
+confederates, the instant they saw in such a deed the least advantage.
+The splendid life of the court at the garrison city went on; there was
+an unending round of f�tes, contests in the gymnasium and stadium;
+chariot races; contests of poets and actors for prizes in dramatic
+art. To the outward eye nothing could be more decorous and magnificent
+than the pleasures of the Egyptian king. And so some days passed while
+Cornelia crushed her fears, and waited for the news that she was sure
+would come--that C�sar was pressing on the tracks of his rival.
+
+Late one afternoon, as the king and his suite were just returned from
+a visit by boat up the river to inspect a temple under restoration at
+Sethro�, Agias sought the private apartment of his patroness. His face
+was extremely grave, and Cornelia at once realized that he brought
+serious news.
+
+"Domina," he said, speaking in Latin to evade the curiosity of the
+maids present, "when you are at leisure, I have a curious story to
+tell you."
+
+Cornelia presently found pretexts to get rid of all her women. Agias
+reconnoitred, made certain that there was no eavesdropper, and began
+afresh.
+
+"What I have to say is so different from that which we feared a few
+days since, that I scarce know how you will receive it. I have just
+learned that your uncle Lucius Lentulus and Lucius Ahenobarbus made a
+landing on the coast the day after Pompeius was murdered; they have
+been quietly arrested and the matter hushed up. I believe that
+Pothinus intends to execute them without your knowledge. Only by a
+friendship with some of the officers of the guard did I get at this."
+
+Cornelia's lips twitched; her hands pressed on her cheeks till the
+pale skin flushed red. In her heart a hundred conflicting emotions
+held sway. She said nothing for a long time, and then it was only to
+ask where the prisoners were confined.
+
+"They are in the dungeon of the fortress," said Agias. "That is all
+that I can discover."
+
+"I must see them at once," declared the lady.
+
+"I do not know how Pothinus will take this," replied the young
+freedman; "the discovery of his secret will be rightly attributed to
+me, and your ladyship would not care to imperil my life unless
+something very great is to be gained thereby."
+
+"I shall miss you very much," said Cornelia, soberly. "But though
+Lucius Lentulus has done me grievous ill, he is my uncle. You must
+leave Pelusium this very night, and keep out of danger until
+Pothinus's vexation can abate. In the morning I shall demand to see
+the prisoners and to learn the eunuch's intentions touching them."
+
+Agias accordingly fared away, much to Cornelia's regret; but not quite
+so much to his own, because his enforced journeying would take him to
+the Nile villa, where was the pretty Artemisia. Early on the following
+day Cornelia boldly went to Pothinus, and, without any explanations,
+demanded to see her uncle. The regent, who had tried to keep the
+matter profoundly secret, first was irate, then equivocated, and tried
+to deny that he had any Roman prisoners; then, driven to bay by
+Cornelia's persistency and quiet inflexibility before his denials and
+protests, gave her permission to be taken to the prison and see the
+captives.
+
+To pass from the palace of Pelusium to the fortress-prison was to
+pass, by a few steps, from the Oriental life, in all its sensuous
+splendour, to Orientalism in its most degraded savagery. The prison
+was a half-underground kennel of stone and brick, on which the
+parching sun beat pitilessly, and made the galleries and cells like so
+many furnaces in heat. The fetid odour of human beings confined in the
+most limited space in which life can be maintained; the rattle of
+fetters; the grating of ponderous doors on slow-turning pivots; the
+coarse oaths and brutish aspect of both jailers and prisoners; the
+indescribable squalor, filth, misery,--these may not be enlarged upon.
+The attendants led Cornelia to the cell, hardly better than the rest,
+wherein Lentulus and Ahenobarbus were confined.
+
+But another had been before Cornelia to visit the unfortunates. As the
+lady drew toward the open door she saw the graceful, easy form of
+Pratinas on the threshold, one hand carelessly thrust in the folds of
+his himation, the other gesturing animatedly, while he leaned against
+the stone casing.
+
+Lucius Lentulus, his purple-lined tunic dirty and torn, his hair
+disordered, his face knitted into a bitter frown, crouched on a stool
+in the little low-ceiled room, confronting the Hellene. Cowering on a
+mass of filthy straw, his head bowed, his body quaking in a paroxysm
+of fear, was another whose name Cornelia knew full well.
+
+Pratinas was evidently just concluding a series of remarks.
+
+"And so, my friends, amici, as we say at Rome," he was jauntily
+vapouring, "I regret indeed that the atomic theory,--which my good
+Ahenobarbus, I am sure, holds in common with myself,--can leave us no
+hope of meeting in a future world, where I can expect to win any more
+of his good sesterces with loaded dice. But let him console himself!
+He will shortly cease from any pangs of consciousness that our good
+friend Quintus Drusus will, in all probability, enjoy the fortune that
+he has inherited from his father, and marry the lady for whose hand
+the very noble Ahenobarbus for some time disputed. Therefore let me
+wish you both a safe voyage to the kingdom of Hades; and if you need
+money for the ferryman, accept now, as always, the use of my poor
+credit."
+
+"May all the infernal gods requite you!" broke forth Lentulus, half
+rising, and uplifting his fettered hands to call down a solemn curse.
+
+"It has been often observed by philosophers," said Pratinas, with a
+smile, "that even among the most sceptical, in times of great
+extremity, there exists a certain belief in the existence of gods.
+Your excellency sees how the observation is confirmed."
+
+"The gods blast you!" howled Lentulus, in impotent fury. Before
+further words could pass, Cornelia put Pratinas aside, and entered the
+cell.
+
+"Your presence, sir," she said haughtily, to the Hellene, "is needed
+no longer." And she pointed down the gallery.
+
+Pratinas flushed, hesitated as if for once at a loss, and nimbly
+vanished. Lentulus sat in speechless astonishment "Uncle," continued
+Cornelia, "what may I do for you? I did not know till last evening
+that you were here."
+
+But ere the other could reply the figure in the corner had sprung up,
+and flung itself at the lady's feet.
+
+"Save me! save me! By all that you hold dear, save my life! I have
+loved you. I thought once that you loved me. Plead for me! Pray for
+me! Anything that I may but live!"
+
+"_Vah_, wretch!" cried the consular; and he spurned Ahenobarbus with
+his foot. "It is indeed well that you have not married into family of
+mine! If you can do naught else, you can at least die with dignity as
+becomes a Roman patrician--and not beg intercession from this woman
+who has cut herself off from all her kin by disobedience."
+
+"Uncle," cried Cornelia in distress, "must we be foes to the end? Must
+our last words be of bitterness?"
+
+"Girl," thundered the unbending Lentulus, "when a Roman maiden
+disobeys, there is no expiation. You are no niece of mine. I care not
+how you came here. I accept nothing at your hands. I will not hear
+your story. If I must die, it is to die cursing your name. Go! I have
+no more words for you!"
+
+But Ahenobarbus caught the skirt of Cornelia's robe, and pleaded and
+moaned. "Let them imprison him in the lowest dungeons, load him with
+the heaviest fetters; place upon him the most toilsome labour--only
+let him still see the light and breathe the air!"
+
+"Uncle," said Cornelia, "I will plead for you despite your
+wrath---though little may my effort avail. You are my father's
+brother, and neither act of yours nor of mine can make you otherwise.
+But as for you, Lucius Ahenobarbus,"--and her words came hot and
+thick, as she hissed out her contempt,--"though I beg for your life,
+know this, that if I despised you less I would not so do. I despise
+you too much to hate; and if I ask to have you live, it is because I
+know the pains of a base and ignoble life are a myriad fold more than
+those of a swift and honourable death. Were I your judge--I would doom
+you; doom you _to live_ and know the sting of your ignominy!"
+
+She left them; and hatred and pity, triumph and anguish, mingled
+within her. She went to the young King Ptolem�us and besought him to
+spare the prisoners; the lad professed his inability to take a step
+without the initiative of Pothinus. She went to Pothinus; the eunuch
+listened to her courteously, then as courteously told her that grave
+reasons of state made it impossible to comply with the request--much,
+as he blandly added, it would delight him personally to gratify her.
+Cornelia could do no more. Pratinas she would not appeal to, though he
+had great influence with Pothinus. She went back to her rooms to spend
+the day with Fabia, very heavy of heart. The world, as a whole, she
+beheld as a thing very evil; treachery, guile, wrath, hatred, were
+everywhere. The sight of Ahenobarbus had filled her with loathsome
+memories of past days. The sunlight fell in bright warm panels over
+the rich rugs on the floor of her room. The sea-breeze sweeping in
+from the north blew fresh and sweet; out against the azure light, into
+which she could gaze, a swarm of swallows was in silhouette--black
+dots crawling along across the dome of light. Out in one of the public
+squares of the city great crowds of people were gathering. Cornelia
+knew the reason of the concourse--the heads of two noble Romans, just
+decapitated, were being exposed to the gibes and howls of the coarse
+Greek and Egyptian mob. And Cornelia wished that she were herself a
+swallow, and might fly up into the face of the sun, until the earth
+beneath her had vanished.
+
+But while she leaned from the parapet by the window of the room,
+footsteps sounded on the mosaic pavement without; the drapery in the
+doorway was flung aside; Agias entered, and after him--another.
+
+
+II
+
+Drusus ran to Cornelia and caught her in his arms; and she--neither
+fainted nor turned pale, but gave a little laugh, and cried softly:--
+
+"I always knew you were coming!"
+
+What more followed Agias did not know; his little affair with
+Artemisia had taught him that his Hellenic inquisitiveness sometimes
+would do more harm than good.
+
+Very different from the good-humoured, careless, half-boyish student
+youth who had driven down the Pr�neste road two years before, was the
+soldierly figure that Cornelia pressed to her heart. The campaigning
+life had left its mark upon Drusus. Half of a little finger the stroke
+of a Spanish sword had cleft away at Ilerda; across his forehead was
+the broad scar left by the fight at Pharsalus, from a blow that he had
+never felt in the heat of the battle. During the forced marchings and
+voyages no razor had touched his cheeks, and he was thickly bearded.
+But what cared Cornelia? Had not her ideal, her idol, gone forth into
+the great world and stood its storm and stress, and fought in its
+battles, and won due glory? Was he not alive, and safe, and in health
+of mind and body after ten thousand had fallen around him? Were not
+the clouds sped away, the lightnings ceased? And she? She was happy.
+
+So Drusus told her of all that had befallen him since the day he
+escaped out of Lucius Ahenobarbus's hands at Bai�. And Cornelia told
+of her imprisonment at the villa, and how Demetrius had saved her, and
+how it came to pass that she was here at the Egyptian court. In turn
+Drusus related how C�sar had pursued Pompeius into Asia, and then,
+hearing that the Magnus had fled to Egypt, placed two legions on
+shipboard and sailed straight for Alexandria.
+
+"And when he landed," continued the young officer, "the magistrates of
+the city came to C�sar, and gave him first Pompeius's seal-ring of a
+lion holding a sword in his paw, and then another black-faced and
+black-hearted Egyptian, without noticing the distress the Imperator
+was in, came up and uncovered something he had wrapped in a mantle. I
+was beside the general when the bundle was unwrapped. I am sickened
+when I speak of it. It was the head of Pompeius Magnus. The fools
+thought to give C�sar a great delight."
+
+"And what did the Imperator do or say?" asked Cornelia.
+
+"He shrank back from the horror as though the Egyptian had been a
+murderer, as indeed all of his race are. C�sar said nothing. Yet all
+saw how great was his grief and anger. Soon or late he will requite
+the men who slew thus foully the husband of his daughter Julia."
+
+"You must take me away from them," said Cornelia, shuddering; "I am
+afraid every hour."
+
+"And I, till you are safe among our troops at Alexandria," replied
+Drusus. "I doubt if they would have let me see you, but for Agias. He
+met us on the road from Alexandria and told me about you. I had
+received a special despatch from C�sar to bear with all haste to the
+king. So across the Delta I started, hardly waiting for the troops to
+disembark, for there was need for speed. Agias I took back with me,
+and my first demand when I came here was to see the king and deliver
+my letter, which was easily done an hour ago; and my next to see you.
+Whereat that nasty sheep Pothinus declared that you had been sent some
+days before up the river on a trip to the Memphis palace to see the
+pyramids. But Agias was close at hand, and I gave the eunuch the lie
+without difficulty. The rascal blandly said, 'that he had not seen you
+of late; had only spoken by hearsay about you, and he might have been
+misinformed;' and so--What do I look like?"
+
+"You look like Quintus Livius Drusus, the Roman soldier," said
+Cornelia, "and I would not have you otherwise than what you are."
+
+"_Eho!_" replied Drusus, passing his hand over her hair. "Do you want
+me to tell you something?"
+
+"What is it?" said Cornelia, pressing closer.
+
+"I can never write a cosmology. I shall never be able to evolve a new
+system of ethics. I cannot improve on Plato's ideal state. I know I am
+a very ignorant man, with only a few ideas worth uttering, with a hand
+that is very heavy, with a mind that works to little purpose save when
+it deals with politics and war. In short"--and Drusus's voice grew
+really pathetic--"all my learning carries me no farther than did the
+wisdom of Socrates, 'I know that I know nothing;' and I have no time
+to spend in advancing beyond that stage."
+
+"But Socrates," said Cornelia, laughing, "was the wisest man in
+Greece, and for that very reason."
+
+"Well," said Drusus, ignoring the compliment, as a certain type of men
+will when the mood is on them, "what do you wish me to make of
+myself?"
+
+"I wish you to make nothing different," was her reply, "for you are
+precisely what I have always wanted you to be. When you have read as
+much as I have," this with an air of utter weariness, "you will
+realize the futility of philosophic study."
+
+"_Eho!_" remarked Drusus again. "So you would have me feel that I am
+turning my back on nothing very great, after all?"
+
+"And so I mean."
+
+"Seriously?"
+
+"I am serious, Quintus." And indeed Cornelia was. "I can read
+Aristotle and Plato, and Zeno and Cleanthes, and Pyrrho, and a score
+of others. I can spin out of my own brain a hundred theories of the
+universe as good as theirs, but my heart will not be the happier, if
+things outside make me sad. I am sick of the learning that is no
+learning, that answers our questions by other questions that are more
+riddling."
+
+"Ah, scoffer at the wise," laughed Drusus, "what do you wish, then?"
+He spoke in Greek.
+
+"Speak in Latin, in Latin, Quintus," was her retort. "I am weary of
+this fine, sweet language that tinkles so delicately, every word of
+which hides a hundred meanings, every sentence attuned like the notes
+for a harp. Let us have our own language, blunt and to the point; the
+language, not of men who wonder what they ought to do, but who _do_.
+We are Romans, not Greeks. We have to rule the world, not growl as to
+how Jupiter made it. When you came back from Athens I said, 'I love
+Quintus Drusus, but I would love him more if he were less a Hellene.'
+And, now I see you wholly Roman, I love you wholly. And for myself, I
+wish neither to be a Sappho, nor an Aspasia, nor a Semiramis, but
+Cornelia the Roman matron, who obeys her husband, Quintus Drusus, who
+cares for his house, and whom, in turn, her household fears and
+obeys."
+
+"_O tempora! O mores!_" cried the young soldier, in delight. "When had
+ever a woman such ambition in these degenerate days? _Eu!_ Then I will
+burn my books, if you can get no profit out of them."
+
+"I do not think books are bad," said Cornelia, still soberly, "but I
+know that they can never make me happy."
+
+"What can?" demanded her tormenter.
+
+"_You!_"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So the hours of the afternoon ran on, and the lovers gave them little
+heed. But they were not too selfish to refuse to Fabia's sharing in
+their joy; and Drusus knew that he was dear no less, though
+differently, in the eyes of his aunt than of his betrothed. And there
+were duties to perform that not even the long-deferred delights of the
+afternoon could postpone. Chief of these were the arrangements for the
+immediate departure of the Roman ladies for Alexandria. Agias, who was
+called into the council, was invaluable in information and suggestion.
+He said that Pothinus had acted at Pratinas's advice, when he took
+Fabia and Cornelia to the palace. The eunuch had expected to use them
+half as hostages, half as captives to be put to ransom. If C�sar had
+delayed a few days, Pothinus would not have lied when he made excuse
+that the ladies had been sent up the river. But now Agias believed
+that the regent was afraid, having overreached himself, and it was
+best to make a prompt demand for conveyance to Alexandria. This,
+indeed, proved advantageous policy. The eunuch made difficulties and
+suggested obstacles, but Drusus made his native Italian haughtiness
+stand him in good stead. It would largely depend, he said
+insinuatingly, on the way in which his demand was complied with, what
+sort of a report he made to C�sar touching the execution of Lucius
+Lentulus and Ahenobarbus. During his interview with Pothinus, the
+Roman came face to face with Pratinas. No words were exchanged, but
+Drusus noticed that the elegant Hellene flushed, and then turned pale,
+when he fastened upon him a gaze steady and half menacing. Pothinus
+ended by yielding everything--the use of the royal chariots and
+horses, the use of the Nile boats needed for swift transit across the
+Delta, and orders on the local garrisons and governors to provide
+entertainment and assistance.
+
+As a result Cornelia speedily found herself again journeying, not this
+time in a slow barge following the main branches of the Nile, but by
+more rapid, if less luxurious, conveyance, now by land, now by water,
+hurrying westward. They passed through Sethro� and Tanis, Mendes and
+Sebennytus, Xa�s and Sa�s, where were the tomb of Osiris and the great
+Egyptian university in this the capital of the mighty Pharaohs who had
+wrested the nation from the clutches of Assyria. Then they fared up
+the Nile to the old Milesian trading factory of Naucratis,--now
+dropping into decline beside the thriving Alexandria,--and then by
+boat they pressed on to the capital itself. Never more delightful
+journey for Cornelia or for Drusus; they saw the strange land through
+one another's eyes; they expressed their own thoughts through one
+another's lips; they were happy together, as if children at play; and
+Fabia was their never exacting, ever beneficent, guardian goddess.
+
+Drusus and Cornelia were neither of them the same young persons who
+had met in the gardens of the villa of the Lentuli two short years
+before. They saw life with a soberer gaze; they had both the wisdom
+that experience teaches. Yet for the time not a cloud was drifting
+across their sky. Their passions and hates had been too fierce, too
+pagan, to feel the death of even Cornelia's uncle very keenly. Lucius
+Ahenobarbus was dead--they had no more thought for him than for a dead
+viper. Lucius Domitius was dead. Gabinius and Dumnorix were dead.
+Pompeius, the tool of guiltier men than himself, was dead. Pratinas
+alone of all those who had crossed their path remained; but the wily
+Greek was a mere creature of self-interest--what had he to gain by
+pressing his animosity, if he had any, against them? C�sar was
+triumphant. His enemies were barely lifting their heads in Africa.
+Doubtless there was stern work awaiting the Imperator there, but what
+of it? Was he not invincible? Was he not about to commence a new order
+of things in the world, to tear down the old and decaying, to raise up
+a steadfast fabric? Therefore the little party took its pleasure, and
+enjoyed every ancient temple of the Amenhoteps, Thothmeses, and
+Ramesides that they hurriedly visited; won the favour of the wrinkled
+old priests by their plentiful votives of bright philippi; heard a
+hundred time-honoured tales that they knew not whether to believe or
+laugh at; speculated among themselves as to the sources of the Nile,
+the cause of the vocal Memnon, and fifty more darkened wonders, and
+resolved to solve every mystery during a second and more prolonged
+visit.
+
+So they came to Alexandria, but on the way called at the Nile villa
+where was Artemisia, and, to the great satisfaction of that young lady
+and of Agias, carried her along with them to the house of Cleomenes,
+where that affable host and Berenice and Monime received them with
+open arms.
+
+Their pleasure at this reunion, however, began to abate when they
+realized the disturbed state of the city.
+
+"I can't say I like the situation," admitted Cleomenes, as soon as he
+had been introduced to Drusus, and the first greetings were over; "you
+know when C�sar landed he took his consular insignia with him, and the
+mob made this mean that he was intending to overthrow the government
+and make Egypt a Roman province. If you had not left for Pelusium so
+hastily, you would have been present at a very serious riot, that was
+with great difficulty put down. The soldiers of the royal garrison are
+in an ugly mood, and so are the people. I suspect the king, or rather
+Pothinus, is doing nothing to quiet them. There have been slight riots
+for several days past, and a good many Roman soldiers who have
+straggled away from the palace into the lower quarters of the city
+have been murdered."
+
+"I am glad," replied Drusus, "that I can leave Cornelia and my aunt
+under your protection, for my duty may keep me continuously with the
+Imperator."
+
+The young officer at once hastened to the palace and reported for
+service. C�sar questioned him as to the situation at Pelusium, and
+Drusus described the unpromising attitude of Pothinus, and also
+mentioned how he had found Cornelia and his aunt.
+
+The general, engrossed as he was with his business of state and
+threatening war, put all his duties aside and at once went to the
+house of Cleomenes. It was the first time Cornelia had ever met the
+man whose career had exerted such an influence upon her own life. She
+had at first known of him only through the filthy, slanderous verses
+of such oligarchs as Catullus and Calvus; then through her lover she
+had come to look upon C�sar as an incarnation as it were of
+omniscience, omnipotence, and benevolence--the man for whom everything
+was worth sacrificing, from whom every noble thing was to be expected.
+
+She met the conquerer of Ariovistus, Vercingetorix, and Pompeius like
+the frank-hearted, patrician maiden that she was, without shyness,
+without servility.
+
+"My father died in your army," she said on meeting; "my affianced
+husband has taught me to admire you, as he himself does. Let us be
+friends!"
+
+And C�sar bowed as became the polished gentleman, who had been the
+centre of the most brilliant salons of Rome, and took the hand she
+offered, and replied:--
+
+"Ah! Lady Cornelia, we have been friends long, though never we met
+before! But I am doubly the friend of whosoever is the friend of
+Quintus Livius Drusus."
+
+Whereupon Cornelia was more completely the vassal of the Imperator
+than ever, and words flew fast between them. In short, just as in the
+case with Cleopatra, she opened her heart before she knew that she had
+said anything, and told of all her life, with its shadows and
+brightness; and C�sar listened and sympathized as might a father; and
+Drusus perfectly realized, if Cornelia could not--how many-sided was
+the man who could thus turn from weighing the fate of empires to
+entering unfeignedly into a sharing of the hopes and fears of a very
+young, and still quite unsophisticated, woman.
+
+When the Imperator departed Drusus accompanied him to the palace.
+Neither of the two, general nor subaltern, spoke for a long while; at
+last C�sar remarked:--
+
+"Do you know what is uppermost in my mind, after meeting women like
+Fabia or Cornelia?"
+
+Drusus shook his head.
+
+"I believe that there are gods, who bring such creatures into the
+world. They are not chance accretions of atoms." And then C�sar added,
+half dreamily: "You ought to be a very happy man. I was once--it was
+many years ago. Her name was Cornelia also."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Serious and more serious, grew the situation at Alexandria. King
+Ptolem�us and Pothinus came to the city from Pelusium. C�sar had
+announced that he intended to examine the title of the young monarch
+to the undivided crown, and make him show cause why he had expelled
+Cleopatra. This the will of Ptolem�us Auletes had enjoined the Roman
+government to do; for in it he had commissioned his allies to see that
+his oldest children shared the inheritance equally.
+
+But Pothinus came to Alexandria, and trouble came with him. He threw
+every possible obstacle in C�sar's way when the latter tried to
+collect a heavy loan due the Romans by the late king. The etesian
+winds made it impossible to bring up re�nforcements, and C�sar's force
+was very small. Pothinus grew more insolent each day. For the first
+time, Drusus observed that his general was nervous, and suspicious
+lest he be assassinated. Finally the Imperator determined to force a
+crisis. To leave Egypt without humbling Pothinus meant a great
+lowering of prestige. He sent off a private message to Palestine that
+Cleopatra should come to Alexandria.
+
+Cleopatra came, not in royal procession, for she knew too well the
+finesse of the regent's underlings; but entered the harbour in
+disguise in a small boat; and Apollodorus, her Sicilian confidant,
+carried her into C�sar's presence wrapped in a bale of bedding which
+he had slung across his back.
+
+The queen's suit was won. Cleopatra and the Imperator met, and the two
+strong personalities recognized each other's affinity instantly. Her
+coming was as a thunder-clap to Pothinus and his puppet Ptolem�us.
+They could only cringe and acquiesce when C�sar ordered them to be
+reconciled with the queen, and seal her restoration by a splendid
+court banquet.
+
+The palace servants made ready for the feast. The rich and noble of
+Alexandria were invited. The stores of gold and silver vessels
+treasured in the vaults of the Lagid� were brought forth. The arches
+and columns of the palace were festooned with flowers. The best pipers
+and harpers of the great city were summoned to delight with their
+music. Precious wine of Tanis was ready to flow like water.
+
+Drusus saw the preparations with a glad heart. Cornelia would be
+present in all her radiancy; and who there would be more radiant than
+she?
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XXIV
+
+Battling for Life
+
+
+And then it was,--with the chariots bearing the guests almost driving
+in at the gates of the palace,--that Cerrinius, C�sar's barber, came
+before his master with an alarming tale. The worthy man declared that
+he had lighted on nothing less than a plot to murder the Romans, one
+and all, by admitting Achillas's soldiery to the palace enclosure,
+while all the banqueters were helpless with drugged wine. Pratinas,
+who had been supposed to be at Pelusium, Cerrinius had caught in
+retired conference with Pothinus, planning the arrangement of the
+feast. Achillas's mercenary army was advancing by stealthy marches to
+enter the city in the course of the evening. The mob had been aroused
+by agitators, until it was in a mood to rise en masse against the
+Romans, and join in destroying them. Such, in short, was the barber's
+story.
+
+There was no time to delay. C�sar was a stranger in a strange and
+probably hostile land, and to fail to take warning were suicide. He
+sent for Pothinus, and demanded the whereabouts of Achillas's army.
+The regent stammered that it was at Pelusium. C�sar followed up the
+charge by inquiring about Pratinas. Pothinus swore that he was at
+Pelusium also. But C�sar cut his network of lies short, by commanding
+that a malefactor should be forced to swallow a beaker of the wine
+prepared for the banquet. In a few moments the man was in a helpless
+stupor.
+
+The case was proved and C�sar became all action. A squad of
+legionaries haled Pothinus away to an execution not long delayed.
+Other legionaries disarmed and replaced the detachment of the royal
+guard that controlled the palace gates and walls. And barely had these
+steps been taken, when a courier thundered into the palace, hardly
+escaped through the raging mob that was gaining control of the city.
+Achillas, he reported, had wantonly murdered Dioscorides and Serapion,
+whom C�sar had sent as envoys to Pelusium, and was marching on the
+city with his whole army of Italian renegades, Syrian banditti,
+convicts, and runaway slaves, twenty thousand strong.
+
+There was nothing to do but to prepare to weather the storm in the
+palace enclosure, which, with its high walls, was practically a
+fortress in itself. There were only four thousand Romans, and yet
+there was a long circuit of defences to man. But Drusus never saw his
+general putting forth greater energy. That night, instead of feasting,
+the soldiers laboured, piling up the ramparts by the light of torches.
+The city was surging and thundering without the palace gates. C�sar
+had placed the king under guard, but Arsino�--his younger sister--had
+slipped out of the palace to join herself to the advancing host of
+Achillas, and speedily that general would be at hand. C�sar as usual
+was everywhere, with new schemes for the defences, new enthusiasm for
+his officers, new inspiration for his men. No one slept nor cared to
+sleep inside the palace walls. They toiled for dear life, for with
+morning, at most, Achillas would be upon them; and by morning, if
+Pothinus's plans had not failed, they would have been drugged and
+helpless to a man, none able to draw sword from scabbard. It was a new
+experience to one and all, for these Romans to stand on the defensive.
+For once C�sar had made a false step--he ought to have taken on his
+voyage more men. He stood with his handful, with the sea on one side
+of him and a great city and a nation in arms against him on the other.
+The struggle was not to be for empire, but for life. But the Romans
+were too busy that night to realize anything save the need of untiring
+exertion. If they had counted the odds against them, four thousand
+against a nation, they might well have despaired, though their
+chieftain were C�sar.
+
+Two years earlier Drusus, as he hurried to and fro transmitting orders
+for his general, might have been fain to draw aside and muse on the
+strangeness of the night scene. The sky was clear, as almost always in
+a land where a thunder-storm is often as rare as an eclipse; the stars
+twinkled out of heavens of soft blackness; the crescent of a new moon
+hung like a silvered bow out over the harbour, and made a thin pathway
+of lustre across the moving, shimmering waters. Dimly the sky-line was
+visible; by the Pharos and its mole loomed the vague tracery of masts.
+On the west and the south lay the white and dark masses of the city,
+now and then brought into clearer relief as the moonbeams swept across
+some stately pile, and touched on its Corinthian columns and nobly
+wrought pediments. But Drusus was a soldier; and the best of poets
+doubtless work poorly when their lives are hanging in the balance.
+Over the flower-strewn walks, under the festooned colonnades, ran the
+busy legionaries, bestirring themselves as never before; while
+Diomedes, and Hector, and Patroclus, and fifty other heroic worthies
+waged perpetual battle on their marble heights above the soldiers'
+heads. On occasion Drusus was called to one of the upper terraces and
+pinnacles of the palace buildings, and then he could catch a glimpse
+of the whole sweep of the mighty city. Over to the southeast, where
+was the Jewish quarter, the sky was beginning to redden. The mob had
+begun to vent its passions on the innocent Israelites, and the
+incendiary was at his work. A deep, low, growling hum, as of ten
+thousand angry voices, drifted upon the night air. The beast called
+the Alexandrian rabble was loose, and it was a terrible animal.
+
+It was midnight. Drusus had toiled since noon. He had hardly tasted
+food or drink since morning, but there were three feet more of brick,
+stone, and rubbish to be added still to this and that rampart before
+it would be secure, and a whole wing of the overgrown palace must be
+pulled down to furnish the material. He had climbed out upon the roof
+to aid in tearing up the tiles and to encourage the men by his
+example, when some one plucked him from behind on the cloak--it was
+C�sar.
+
+"You are not needed here," said the general, in a voice that seemed a
+bit strained to keep calm. "Read this--take all the men you want."
+
+And the Imperator himself held up the torch, while Drusus took the
+tablet thrust into his hands and read the hastily scribbled lines:--
+
+"Cleomenes to Drusus. The ladies are in danger. I will resist the mob
+as long as I can. Send help."
+
+Drusus threw down the tablet; forgot to so much as salute his
+commander. He had laid off his armour during the work on the ramparts;
+he ran for it, put it on with feverish haste. A moment more and he was
+running among the soldiers, calling this and that legionary by name.
+The troops all knew him, and would have followed him to the death.
+When he asked for thirty volunteers for dangerous service, none
+demanded of him the occasion; he simply selected his men as fast as he
+might. He secured four chariots and placed in them the fastest horses
+in the royal stables and trusted men for drivers. He mounted the rest
+of his thirty on other steeds, and the preparations were over. The
+gate was thrown open; Decimus Mamercus, who was his subaltern, led out
+the little company. Drusus rode out last, in one of the chariots. The
+troops on the walls cheered them as they departed.
+
+In the immediate neighbourhood of the palace there prevailed an
+ominous silence. Earlier in the night a few cohorts had charged out
+and scattered the street rabble; and the mob had kept at a distance.
+There was no light save that of the moon and the distant glow of the
+burning buildings. Drusus felt his breath coming thick and fast, the
+drops of sweat were hanging on his forehead, something within was
+driving his heart into his throat. "If--" he never went further;
+unless he brought Cornelia and Fabia back to the palace unscathed, he
+knew the Alexandrian rabble would howl over his unconscious body.
+
+"Ride!" he commanded, as if the rush of the chariots and horses would
+drown the fears that nearly drove him frantic. "Ride!"
+
+The drivers lashed the teams, the horsemen pricked with the spur.
+Drusus caught the reins from his chariot companion, and swung the lash
+himself over the four steeds. Faster and faster they flew down the
+splendidly paved and built highways. Temples and majestic public
+buildings rose in sombre grandeur above their heads; above them winged
+"Victories" seemed springing up into dark void, their sculptured
+symmetries just visible in the moonlight. On and on, swift and more
+swift--persons began shouting from the buildings which they passed,
+now a few voices, now many, now a hundred. A volley of stones was
+dashed down from the safe recesses of the pillars at the head of the
+long flight of steps leading up to a temple. Presently an arrow
+whirred over Drusus's head and smote on the masonry across the street.
+There were lights ahead--scores of torches waving--a small building
+was on fire; the glare grew redder and brighter every instant; and a
+din, a din lifted by ten thousand men when their brute instincts are
+enkindled, grew and grew. Drusus dashed the cold sweat from his brow,
+his hand was trembling. He had a quiver and bow in the chariot,--a
+powerful Parthian bow, and the arrows were abundant. Mamercus had
+taught him to be a good archer, as a boy. Could he turn his old skill
+to account? Not unless his hand became more steady.
+
+Women screamed out at him and his band from the house roofs; a tile
+struck one of the chariot horses and made it plunge wildly; Drusus
+flung his strength into the reins, and curbed in the raging beast; he
+tossed the lines back to his driver and tore the bow from its casings.
+His car had rushed on ahead of Decimus Mamercus and the rest; two
+furlongs more would bring him to the house of Cleomenes on one of the
+squares of the city. The chariot swung around a street corner for the
+final stretch, the way was broad, the buildings on either side (the
+residences of the Alexandrian gentry) high; but the whole street from
+wall to wall was a seething mass of human forms. The fire was
+spreading; the brightening flames shone down on the tossing, howling
+multitude--excited Egyptians from the quarter of Rhacotis, frenzied
+Asiatics in their turbans, mad sailors from the Eunostian port and the
+Pharos island. At the head of the street the flames were pressing in
+upon a stately mansion around which the raging mob was packed thickly.
+On the roof of the threatened house figures could be seen in the lurid
+light, running to and fro, flinging down bricks and stones, and trying
+to beat back the fire. It was the house of Cleomenes. Insensibly the
+veteran who had been driving reined in the horses, who themselves drew
+back, loath to plunge into the living barriers ahead. But Drusus was
+past fear or prudence; with his own hands he sent the lash stinging
+over all the four, and the team, that had won more than a single
+trophy in the games, shot forward. The chariot struck the multitude
+and went, not through it, but over it. The on-rush was too rapid, too
+unexpected, for resistance. To right and left, as the water gives way
+before the bows of an on-rushing ship, the crowd surged back, the
+instinct of panic reigning in every breast. Thick and fast, as quickly
+as he might set shaft to string, flew Drusus's arrows--not a shaft
+that failed a mark, as it cut into the living masses. The chariot
+reeled again and again, as this wheel or that passed over something
+animate and struggling. The horses caught the fire of conflict; they
+raced, they ran--and the others sped after them. The mob left off
+howling: it screamed with a single voice of mortal dread. And before
+Drusus or any one else realized, the deed was done, the long lane was
+cleared, and the drivers were drawing rein before the house of
+Cleomenes.
+
+The heavily barred carriage-way was thrown open, the valiant merchant
+and his faithful employees and slaves greeted their rescuers as the
+little cavalcade drove in. There was not a moment to lose. Cleomenes
+and his household might indeed have long made good the house against
+the mere attacks of the mob; but the rioters had set the torch to some
+adjacent buildings, and all efforts to beat back the flames were
+proving futile. There was no time to condole with the merchant over
+the loss of his house. The mob had surged again into the streets and
+was pressing back, this time more or less prepared to resist the
+Romans. The colonnades and the house roofs were swarming, the din was
+indescribable, and the crackling and roar of the advancing flames grew
+ever louder.
+
+The only alternative was a return to the palace. Cleomenes's employees
+and slaves were to scatter into the crowd, where they would easily
+escape notice; he himself, with his daughters, Artemisia, and the
+Roman ladies, must go in the chariots to the palace. Cornelia came
+down from her chamber, her face more flushed with excitement than
+alarm. Troubles enough she had had, but never before personal danger;
+and she could not easily grasp the peril.
+
+"Are you afraid, carissima," said Drusus, lifting her into his
+chariot, "to ride back with me to the palace, through that wolf pack?"
+
+"With you?" she said, admiring the ease with which he sprang about in
+full armour; "I would laugh at Medusa or the Hydra of Lerna with you
+beside me."
+
+Cleomenes had been again upon the housetop to watch the progress of
+the fire. He came down, and Drusus instantly saw that there was dismay
+written on his face. The merchant, who was himself armed with sword
+and target, drew the officer aside and whispered:--
+
+"Pray, Roman, to all your native gods! I can see a _lochos_[184] of
+regular troops filing into the square before the house. Achillas is
+entering the city with his men. We shall have to fight our way through
+his thousands."
+
+  [184] A company of about one hundred men.
+
+Drusus uttered a deep and silent curse on himself for the mad bravado
+that led him to leave the palace with but thirty men; why had he not
+waited to assemble more? He could ride over the mob; to master
+Achillas's disciplined forces was otherwise.
+
+A freedman came running down from the roof, crying out that it was
+already on fire. It was a time for action, not thought, yet even at
+the moment Drusus's schoolboy Polybius was running through his
+mind--the description of the great riot when Agathocles, the wicked
+regent of Ptolem�us Philopator, and his sister Agathocleia, and his
+mother Oenanthe, had been seized by the multitude and torn in pieces,
+bit by bit, while yet they lived. Cornelia seemed to have caught some
+new cause for fear; she was trembling and shivering when Drusus took
+her in his arms and swung her into the chariot. He lifted in Fabia
+likewise, but the Vestal only bowed her head in calm silence. She had
+overheard Cleomenes's tidings, but, by stress of all the force of her
+strong nature, remained composed. Decimus Mamercus took Artemisia,
+frightened and crying, into his own chariot. Monime, Berenice, and
+their father were to go in the other cars. The fire was gaining on the
+roof, smoke was pouring down into the court-yard, and now and then a
+gleam came from a firebrand. The horses were growing restive and
+frightened.
+
+"Throw open the gate!" commanded Drusus; his anxieties and despair
+were driving him almost to frenzy, but the gods, if gods there were,
+knew that it was not for himself that he was fearful. His voice
+sounded hollow in his throat; he would have given a talent of gold for
+a draught of water. One of his men flung back the gateway, and in at
+the entrance came the glare of great bonfires lighted in the streets,
+of hundreds of tossing torches. The yelling of the multitude was
+louder than ever. There it was, packed thick on all sides: in its
+midst Drusus could see bright lines of tossing steel--the armour of
+Achillas's soldiery! As the portal opened, a mighty howl of triumph
+burst from the people; the fire had driven forth to the mob its prey.
+Cornelia heard the howl--the voice of a wild and raging beast--and
+trembled more.
+
+"Cornelia," said Drusus, lowering his head so as to make himself
+heard, "do not look above the framework of the chariot. Cling to it
+tightly, for we may have to pass over obstacles. Above all, do not
+spring out, however much we may be swayed and shaken."
+
+"I will not, Quintus," and that was all she could be heard to say in
+the din.
+
+And so the little cavalcade drove forth. Cornelia cowered in the
+chariot and saw nothing and heard everything, which was the same as
+nothing. Was she frightened? She did not know. The peril was awful. Of
+course she realized that; but how could calamity come to pass, when it
+was Drusus whose powerful form towered above her, when it was Drusus
+whose voice rang like a trumpet out into the press swaying around?
+
+It was very dark crouching in the body of the chariot. She could just
+see the face of Fabia opposite, very white, but, she knew, very calm.
+She reached out and caught the Vestal's hand, and discovered that her
+own was trembling, while the other's was perfectly steady. But the
+contest, the fighting all about! Now the horses were dashing forward,
+making the chariot spring as though it were a thing of life; now
+reined in sharply, and the heavily loaded car swayed this way and
+that, almost to overturning. The uproar above her head passed the
+telling by words; but there was one shout, now in Greek, now in
+Egyptian, that drowned all others: "Death to the Romans! tear them in
+pieces!" Missiles smote against the chariot; an arrow went cutting
+into the wood, driving its keen point home, and Cornelia experienced a
+thrill of pain in her shoulder. She felt for the smart, found the mere
+tip of the point only had penetrated the wood; but her fingers were
+wet when she took them away. Drusus was shooting; his bow-string
+snapped and snapped. Once a soldier in armour sprang behind the
+chariot when it came to a stop, and his javelin was poised to
+discharge; but an arrow tore through his throat, and he went down to
+the pavement with a crash. The car rocked more and more; once the
+wheels slipped without revolving, as though sliding over some smooth
+liquid--not water. Cornelia felt powers of discriminating sensation
+becoming fainter and fainter; a great force seemed pressing out from
+within her; the clamour and shocks were maddening. She felt driven to
+raise her head, to look out into the raging chaos, though the first
+glance were death. Peering back out of the body of the chariot now and
+then, she saw a little. The Romans were charging this way and that,
+forcing their passage down the street, barred no longer by a mere mob,
+but by Achillas's infantrymen, who were hastening into action. The
+chariot horses were wounded, some seriously; she was sure of that.
+They could not be driven through the spearmen, and the little handful
+of cavalry was trying to break through the enemy and make space for a
+rush. It was thirty against thousands; yet even in the mortal peril,
+which Cornelia realized now if she had never before, she had a strange
+sort of pride. Her countrymen were showing these Orientals how one
+Roman could slay his tens, could put in terror his hundreds. Drusus
+was giving orders with the same mechanical exactitude of the drill,
+albeit his voice was high-pitched and strained--not entirely, perhaps,
+because of the need of calling above the din.
+
+"Form in line by fours!"
+
+Cornelia raised her head above the chariot frame. The Romans had
+worked their way down into a square formed by the intersection of
+streets. Behind them and on every building were swarming the people;
+right across the eastern avenue, where their escape lay, stood the
+bristling files of one of Achillas's companies. Stones and roof-tiles
+were being tossed in a perfect hail from the houses, and now and then
+an arrow or a dart. The four chariots--one had only three horses
+left--were standing in the little plaza, and the troopers were forming
+before them. The arrows of the chariot warriors made the mob behind
+keep a respectful distance. It was the triumph of discipline over
+man's animal sense of fear. Even the mob felt this, when it saw the
+little squadron fall into line with as much precision as on the parade
+ground. A tile smote one soldier upon the head, and he tumbled from
+his horse like a stone. His comrades never paused in their evolution.
+Then, for the first time, Cornelia screamed with horror and fright.
+Drusus, who was setting a new arrow to his bow, looked down upon her;
+he had never seemed so handsome before, with the fierce light of the
+battle in his eyes, with his whole form swelling with the exertions of
+conflict.
+
+"Down, Cornelia!" commanded the officer; and Cornelia did so
+implicitly--to disobey him at that moment was inconceivable.
+
+"At them, men!"
+
+And then came a new bound from the horses, and then a mighty crash and
+clash of bodies, blades, and shields, the snort of dying beasts, the
+splintering of spear-shafts, the groans and cries of men in battle for
+their lives. The car rose on one wheel higher and higher; Cornelia was
+thrown against Fabia, and the two women clung to each other, too
+terrified and crushed to scream; then on a sudden it righted, and as
+it did so the soldier who had acted as charioteer reeled, his face
+bathed in blood, the death-rattle in his throat. Back he fell, pierced
+in face and breast, and tumbled from the car; and, as if answering to
+this lightening of their burden, the hoofs of the hard-pressed horses
+bit on the pavement, and the team bounded onward.
+
+"_Io triumphe!_" It was Drusus who called; and in answer to his shout
+came the deep C�sarian battle-cry from hundreds of throats, "_Venus
+Victrix!_"
+
+The chariot was advancing, but less rapidly. Cornelia rose and looked
+forth again, not this time to be rebuked. Down the moon-lighted street
+were moving several infantry cohorts from the palace; the avenue was
+clear, the mob and hostile soldiery had melted away like a mist; a
+mounted officer came flying down the street ahead of the legionaries.
+
+"The ladies are safe, Imperator!" Drusus was reporting with military
+exactitude. "I have lost twelve men."
+
+C�sar galloped along beside the chariot. He had his horse under
+absolute control, and he extended his hand, first to Fabia, then to
+Cornelia.
+
+"Fortune has been kind to us," said he, smiling.
+
+"Vesta has protected us," said Fabia, bowing her head.
+
+C�sar cast a single inquiring, keen glance at the Vestal.
+
+"Your excellency doubts the omnipotence of the goddess," continued
+she, looking him steadily in the face.
+
+"That a power has protected you," was his answer, "I am the last to
+deny."
+
+But the Imperator and Drusus were exchanging glances; that a woman of
+the intelligence of Fabia could believe in the regular, personal
+intervention of the Deity in human affairs was to them, not an
+absurdity, but a mystery unfathomable.
+
+And so, safe-guarded by the troops, they rode back to the palace,
+where the preparations for defence were ready, and all were awaiting
+the onset of Achillas. The weary men on the walls cheered as the
+carriages with their precious burdens rolled in at the gate; and
+cheered again for Drusus and his eighteen who had taught the
+Alexandrian rabble how Roman steel could bite. But Drusus himself was
+sad when he thought of the twelve good men that he had left
+behind--who need not have been sacrificed but for his headlong
+rashness.
+
+And how had the mob come to attack the house of Cleomenes? It was a
+long story, but in a few words probably this. Pratinas had come and
+demanded of Cleomenes that he surrender the ladies (doubtless because
+they would be useful hostages) to go with him to Achillas. Cleomenes
+had refused, the more especially as Cornelia adjured him not to
+deliver them over to the clutches of such a creature; and Pratinas
+went away full of anger and threatenings. How he came to be in
+Alexandria, and had returned so soon from Achillas's forces, if he had
+indeed gone to Achillas, was neither clear nor important. But that he
+had excited the mob to assail Cleomenes's mansion needed no great
+proof. Cleomenes himself had seen his artful fellow-countryman
+surveying the riot from a housetop, though doubtless he had kept at a
+prudent distance during the fighting.
+
+So ended that exciting day, or rather that night. It was Cleopatra who
+with her own hands laid the bandages on Cornelia's wounded shoulder,
+but the hurt was not serious; only, as Drusus laughingly assured her,
+it was an honourable scar, as became the descendant of so many
+fighting Claudii and Cornelii.
+
+"Ah! delectissime," replied she, "it isn't the hurt that gives me
+pain; it is that I was frightened--frightened when you were acting
+like one of the Heroes!"
+
+"_Mehercle!_" laughed Drusus, before he left her to snatch a few hours
+of well-earned rest and see to the dressing of his own bruises, "I
+would not blame a veteran for being panic-struck in that m�l�e, if he
+didn't have a chance to swing a weapon and so keep his heart from
+standing still."
+
+
+II
+
+On the next day Achillas moved up his thousands and attacked the
+palace fortifications. There was a desperate struggle in the streets
+outside the royal residence; the assailants were five to the
+defenders' one, and the mob was arming to aid in the assault; but the
+Egyptians soon realized that it was no light thing to carry barricades
+held by men who had fought in Gaul, Britain, Germany, Spain, Italy,
+and Greece, and never tasted overthrow. Fiercest of all was the fight
+at the harbour, where the navy of the king lay, and which, if seized,
+would have put C�sar at his enemies' mercy. But here, also, Roman
+valour prevailed over Oriental temerity. All the ships that C�sar
+could not use were burned. With the rest he sailed over to the Pharos
+island, and landed men to make good the tower on that point of
+vantage. So ended the first round of battle; and the initial danger of
+being overwhelmed by sheer force was over.
+
+But day after day of conflict followed. Princess Arsino� and Achillas
+quarrelled in the camp of the besiegers, and this occasioned some
+respite to the Romans. Still there was no end to the fighting. C�sar
+sent off to Asia Minor, Syria, and Crete for re�nforcements; but
+these, all knew, could not come at once. A sharp struggle cleared the
+houses nearest to the palace, and the general caused them to be razed
+and the positions thoroughly fortified. He seized the low-lying ground
+which ran as an insignificant valley down between the halves of the
+city and tried to cut his enemies' position in twain. So the struggle
+dragged on. Achillas had been murdered by Arsino�, and she had placed
+in command her governor, the eunuch Ganymed, who was more dangerous by
+his sly craft than fifty common generals. One day a frightened
+centurion reported to C�sar that all the cisterns used by the troops
+were becoming flooded with sea-water. It was a contrivance of Ganymed.
+The soldiers were in a panic, and it was all that their leader could
+do to pacify them. And then one of those strokes of fortune which will
+always come to a favoured few was vouchsafed; as the terrified Romans
+delved in the earth where rain had seldom fallen, lo! on the very
+first night of their toil fresh water bubbled up, and all the danger
+was at an end.
+
+But it is needless to tell how the contest was waged; how the
+thirty-seventh legion arrived as help, how the wind kept them off port
+exposed to the enemy, and how C�sar sailed out and succoured them, and
+worsted the Alexandrian ships. Then, again, Ganymed stirred the
+disheartened citizens to build another fleet, and, by tremendous
+exertions, a new flotilla arose to threaten to cut C�sar off; and
+there was a second battle for dear life--this time on sea close by the
+city; while Roman and Alexandrian stood staring on the housetops, with
+their hearts beating quickly, for defeat meant ruin to the Romans.
+And, again, the gods of the waters fought for C�sar, and the beaten
+Alexandrian fleet drifted back to the shelter of its mole in the
+harbour of Eunostus.
+
+Next came a great struggle for the possession of the Pharos. The
+fighting was severe, the footing on the island hard to win, up steep
+crags and rocks swept by volleys of missiles; but Italian courage
+seemed inexhaustible. The legionaries, without ladders or fascines,
+stormed towers and battlements. The town on the island was taken and
+the fort by it; then came the contest along the mole, driving the
+Alexandrians to the fort at the lower end. On the next day the second
+fort, too, was taken. There was a bridge at the lower end of the mole,
+and the Alexandrians had tried to sail under to attack the C�sarians
+in the western harbour. The legionaries toiled to fill up the passage.
+All seemed going well, but of a sudden befell calamity.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Panic will seize the most hardened veterans, and so it was that day. A
+flank attack from the Alexandrian ships, and of other foes by land, a
+sudden giving way on the part of some sailors who were defending the
+working party, and then terror spread among the three veteran cohorts
+at the lower fort. C�sar had been among his men directing the work,
+with him had gone Drusus, as aide-de-camp, and Agias, who had long
+been chafing under the restraints of the beleaguered palace and
+imagined the position safe and unassailable. The panic came more
+quickly than words may tell: a few hostile shouts from behind, cries
+of fear and alarm, a volley of darts, and the men who had hunted the
+Magnus to his death fled like raw recruits at their first arrow.
+
+The C�sarian ships beside the mole began to thrust back, lest the
+enemy seize them. The terrified legionaries rushed from their ranks,
+cast away shield and cuirass, sword and dart. Every man cared but to
+save himself, the spirit of mere fear uppermost. C�sar and Drusus
+rushed into the press, and commanded and exhorted; they might have
+better striven to turn the flight of a herd of frightened cattle;
+their words fell on deaf ears; the panic-struck soldiers swept them
+aside in a mad dash to get on board the receding shipping. The danger
+was terrible. On either side the enemy were rushing down the mole, and
+over the defences just forsaken by the Romans. C�sar had been caught
+in the swirl of his men and carried along despite his resistance. He
+fell, and Drusus, who struggled to be near him, ran to his side.
+
+"We must escape, Imperator!" cried he, in his commander's ear. He saw
+that there was blood on the general's face, and for an instant that
+thought overpowered all others.
+
+"Save yourselves," gasped C�sar, striving to struggle to his feet."
+You cannot aid me."
+
+A burly Egyptian soldier was running toward them, far ahead of the
+other enemies, flourishing a battle-axe. Did he realize the prize that
+lay almost in his power? Drusus had not been fighting, but his sword
+was now out. One blow of the terrible weapon of the legionary sent the
+oncomer sprawling in his own gore. A trifling respite had been gained.
+C�sar steadied himself and looked about him. They were alone with
+Agias facing the foe; the legionaries were struggling one over another
+at the edge of the causeway, battling for dear life to force their way
+into the only galley that had not thrust off.
+
+"Come," said C�sar, turning; and the three joined in the flight. To
+linger were madness.
+
+It was only a trifling distance across the mole, but a frightful
+tragedy was enacted before their eyes as they ran. The galley by the
+mole was none too large; as the frightened men piled into her, the
+shifting and increasing weight threw her on an uneven keel; and then
+came the horror. A cry of mortal agony burst from hundreds of throats
+as the ship capsized. Drusus, as he ran, saw, but for a twinkling, her
+deck black with writhing men, then her curving sides and keel, ere all
+vanished behind the embankment of the mole. The three fugitives ran to
+the edge of the causeway: below them, the water full of men battling
+for life; behind, the foe, now fully aware of their advantage and
+pressing on with exultant shouts. Never had the Imperator been in
+greater peril. Drusus glanced at his chief and saw that he was very
+pale, evidently hurt in the scuffle. There was not a ship within hail,
+not a ship within two arrow-flights; and all seemed pulling back as if
+to escape from the danger.
+
+"Leap, swim!" cried C�sar, casting off his breastplate.[185]
+
+  [185] _Lorica_.
+
+"There is no ship within reach, Imperator," replied the young man,
+gravely.
+
+"You are young and strong," was his answer, "and will come away safe."
+C�sar was preparing to spring over the edge.
+
+"And you?" cried Drusus, catching him by the wrist. He knew that C�sar
+could never swim the distance to the nearest ship.
+
+"In the hands of the Fates."
+
+But Agias, whose eyes had been straining out into the western harbour,
+cried, "Help! A galley is coming!"
+
+"Imperator," said Drusus, "you must wait for this galley."
+
+The foe were almost on them.
+
+"Are you mad?" was the exclamation of the general.
+
+"I can hold them off until it is safe to swim," and Drusus had covered
+himself behind a coping in the masonry.
+
+C�sar measured the distance with his eye.
+
+"We play at dice with Fortuna, whatever we do," was his comment.
+"Come, then." And the three steadied themselves on the narrow footing
+behind the parapet, one thrust being enough to send them headlong.
+Fortunately weapons were ready--thrown away by the luckless fugitives.
+When the Alexandrians rushed up, three pila crashed in upon them, and,
+caught unawares by the little volley, they held back an instant. The
+three desperate men were counting their hearts' beats, while the
+distance from the friendly galley lessened. Then the rush came, but it
+was met, and, narrow as was the ledge, the attempt to carry it failed.
+The victors were stripping the dead, and, thus engaged, few joined in
+the attack. C�sar had laid down his paludamentum, and the attackers
+thought they had to deal simply with three ordinary Romans, who meant
+to sell their lives dearly. Another rush; the Imperator was forced
+hard, so that another push would have sent him plunging into the sea;
+but his companions sent the attackers reeling back, and there was more
+breathing time. The Alexandrians had received a taste of these Roman
+blades, and they did not enjoy it. Stripping the dead and picking up
+lost arms was more profitable than bearding the three lions. The
+galley was drawing nearer. Drusus began to think of something else
+besides thrusting at men before him.
+
+"They will give us time to escape, Imperator."
+
+"I think so;" but as C�sar spoke all three started in dismay. There
+was a new face among the little band immediately opposed to
+them--Pratinas.
+
+The Greek had never looked so handsome as in armour. His beautifully
+polished mail sat on him with perfect grace; he was a model for an
+artist's Ares, the beautiful genius of battle. _He_, at least, knew
+whose were those three stern, set faces defiantly peering over the low
+parapet that ran waist-high along the edge of the mole.
+
+"At them!" cried the Hellene. "A thousand drachmas to the man who
+brings the middle Roman down!"
+
+The "middle Roman" was C�sar. The enemy came on again, this time some
+springing over the parapet to run along the narrow outer platform and
+attack from either side. But the galley was still nearer.
+
+"Throw off your armour and leap!" It was Drusus who commanded now, and
+C�sar who obeyed. The Imperator tore off his greaves and helmet,
+caught his general's cloak in his teeth, that it might not fall as a
+trophy to the foe, and sprang down into the waves; it was all done in
+a twinkling. But, quick as the leap had been, it was but just in time.
+A rush of irresistible numbers carried Drusus off of his feet, and he
+fell also--but fell in all his armour. It was an instant too crowded
+for sensations. He just realized that his helmet tumbled from his head
+as he fell backward. The weight of his greaves righted him while he
+was in the air. He struck the water with his feet. There was a
+chilling shock; and then, as he went down, the shield on his left arm
+caught the water in its hollow and bore him upward. Nature reasserted
+itself; by a mighty tug at the straps he wrenched away his
+breastplate, and could make shift to float. The short harbour waves
+lifted him, and he saw C�sar striking out boldly toward the now
+rapidly approaching galley. Even as the general swam, Drusus observed
+that he held up a package of papyri in his left hand to keep it out of
+the wet; in uttermost perils C�sar could not forget his books. But
+while the young man gazed seaward, shook the water from his eyes, and
+struck out to reach the friendly galley, groans and shouts arose from
+the waters near beside him. A voice--Agias's voice--was calling out
+for help. The sound of his freedman's cries drove the Roman to action.
+Twice the waves lifted him, and he saw nothing; but at the third time
+he lit on two forms clinging to a bit of wreckage, and yet struggling
+together. A few powerful strokes sent him beside them, and, to his
+unutterable astonishment, he beheld in the person who was battling
+with Agias for possession of the float none other than Pratinas. There
+are times when nothing has opportunity to appear wonderful. This
+moment was one of these. Actions, not words, were wanted. The elder
+Greek had made shift to draw a dagger, and was making a vicious effort
+to stab the other, who had gripped him round the neck with a tenacity
+that would end only with life. One stroke of Drusus's fist as he
+surged alongside the wreckage sent the dagger flying; and in a
+twinkling he had borne Pratinas down and had him pinioned fast on the
+planking of the rude raft. There was a great shout rising from the
+enemy on the mole. A few darts spat in the water beside the fugitives;
+but at the sight of the approaching galley the Alexandrians gave way,
+for on her decks were swarming archers and slingers, and her powerful
+ballist� were already working havoc. The pulsations of her banks of
+oars grew slower as she swept up to the fugitives, the great column of
+white spray curling around her prow sank, and while she drifted past
+them a boat shot forth. In a minute Drusus was standing on her deck,
+and the sailors were passing up Pratinas, still feebly resisting, and
+Agias, who was weak and helpless with his wounds. On the poop C�sar
+was conversing with a seaman of magnificent presence, who was in the
+act of assuring the Imperator that his vessel and crew were at the
+general's service.
+
+
+III
+
+The boats of the rescuer were pulling about, taking up such few Romans
+as had been able to keep afloat; but Drusus was too exhausted to give
+them further heed. He realized that the vessel he was aboard was no
+member of the Roman squadron, that its crew were neither C�sarians nor
+Alexandrians. Deft hands aided him off with his water-soaked clothing,
+and placed bandages on his bruises and cuts. A beaker of spiced wine,
+the like of which he had never drunk before, sent a thrill of
+reinvigorated life through his veins. When he came back upon the deck
+he found C�sar--pale, yet, as ever, active and untiring--still
+conversing with the captain of the vessel. The Imperator had a bandage
+drawn across his forehead, but otherwise he seemed none the worse for
+his recent danger. The galley, under a swinging oar, was pulling back
+across the "Great Harbour" to the palace quay. The battle was over;
+four hundred good Roman lives had been lost, but the disaster had not
+entailed any serious compromise of C�sar's position. There was no need
+of continuing at the Pharos, and it was well to assure the anxious
+garrison at the palace-fortress that their general was safe and sound.
+
+Drusus, as the one thing natural under the circumstances, went to the
+captain of his rescuers to express his obligation and gratitude.
+
+"This is Quintus Livius Drusus," said C�sar, good-naturedly, already
+at his ease, to the strange commander, "who serves on my staff. In
+saving him I owe you a debt, O Demetrius, in addition to my own
+rescue."
+
+The stranger caught Drusus by both hands.
+
+"Are you indeed the son of Sextus Drusus of Pr�neste?" he questioned
+with eagerness.
+
+"Assuredly, my good sir," replied the young Roman, a bit confused at
+the other's impetuosity.
+
+"And did your father never tell you of a certain Demetrius, a Greek,
+who was his friend?"
+
+"He did; this Demetrius was cast into prison and condemned by
+Pompeius; my father secured his escape;" and Drusus hesitated. His
+mind had worked rapidly, and he could jump at a conclusion.
+
+"Say it out, your excellency," pressed the seaman.
+
+"He became a pirate, though my father did not blame him overmuch."
+
+"_Eu!_" interrupted C�sar, as if to prevent a moment of awkwardness.
+"Before King Minos's days nothing was more honourable. I have known
+some excellent men who were pirates."
+
+But Demetrius had, in true Eastern fashion, fallen on his knees and
+kissed the feet of Drusus.
+
+"The son of my preserver! I have saved him! Praises to Mithras!"
+
+After this, there was no longer any constraint on the part of rescuers
+or rescued. And that evening, when all were safe behind the palace
+walls, C�sar called the pirate chief into the hall where he had been
+banqueting with Cleopatra, Fabia, and Cornelia, and his favourite
+officers, and asked for an account of his life. A strange enough story
+it was Demetrius had to tell, though Cornelia had heard it before; of
+two voyages to wealthy Taprobane,[186] one as far as the Golden
+Chersonesos,[187] almost to the Silk Land, Serica, of voyages out
+beyond the Pillars of Hercules into the Sea of Darkness,--everywhere
+that keel of ship had ploughed within the memory of man.
+
+  [186] Ceylon.
+
+  [187] Malay Peninsula.
+
+"And the men that drove you to freebooting?" asked C�sar, when the
+company had ceased applauding this recital, which the sailor set forth
+with a spontaneous elegance that made it charming.
+
+"I have said that they were Lucius Domitius, whom the gods have
+rewarded, and a certain Greek."
+
+"The Greek's name was--"
+
+"Kyrios," said Demetrius, his fine features contracting with pain and
+disgust, "I do not willingly mention his name. He has done me so great
+a wrong, that I only breathe his name with a curse. Must you know who
+it was that took my child, my Daphne,--though proof I have not against
+him, but only the warnings of an angry heart?"
+
+"But he was--" pressed C�sar.
+
+"Menon." And as he spoke he hissed the words between his teeth. "He is
+one knave among ten thousand. Why burden your excellency with
+remembering him?"
+
+So the conversation went on, and C�sar told how he had been taken
+prisoner, when a young man, by pirates near Rhodes, and how he had
+been kept captive by them on a little isle while his ransom was
+coming.
+
+"Ah!" interrupted Demetrius, "I have heard the whole tale from one of
+my men who was there. You, kyrios, behaved like a prince. You bade
+your captors take fifty talents instead of twenty, as they asked, and
+wrote verses and declaimed to your guards all the time you were
+awaiting the money, and joined in all their sports; howbeit, you kept
+telling them that you would crucify them all for the matter."
+
+"_Hem!_" laughed C�sar. "Didn't I make good the threat?"
+
+"You did with all save this man, who got away," was his unflinching
+answer. "Although in mercy you strangled all your captors before you
+had them put on the crosses."
+
+"_Hei!_" quoth the Imperator. "I should have spared them to give me
+criticism of those verses now."
+
+"Kyrios," rejoined Demetrius, "the man who survived assures me that
+the verses at least were wretched, though your excellency was a very
+good wrestler."
+
+"_Euge!_ Bravo!" cried C�sar, and all the company joined in. "I must
+take a few of your men back to Rome, for we need critics for our rough
+Latin versifiers."
+
+Drusus, as soon as the laugh passed away, arose, and addressed his
+chief:--
+
+"Imperator," he said, "Agias this morning dragged from off the mole
+with him into the water one of the most dangerous men in the councils
+of our enemies. I mean, as you know, Pratinas the Greek. He is now in
+the palace prison, but every one is aware that, so long as he so much
+as lives, we are hardly safe. What shall be done?"
+
+C�sar frowned.
+
+"This is hardly a basilica for a trial," he replied, "but '_inter arma
+silent leges_.' Tell the centurions on guard to bring him here. I
+imagine we must grant him the form of an examination."
+
+Drusus went out to give the necessary orders.
+
+"You did not see Agias's prisoner?" asked Cornelia of Demetrius, who
+was now an old friend.
+
+"I did not," answered the pirate prince, pouring down the contents of
+a prodigious beaker at a single draught. "A very desperate man, I
+imagine. But it is hard for me to blame any one so long as he fights
+openly. Still," he added, with a laugh, "I mustn't express such
+sentiments, now that his excellency has given me this." And he tossed
+over to Cornelia a little roll, tiny but precious, for it was a
+general pardon, in the name of the Republic, for all past offences, by
+land or sea, against the peace. "_Babai!_" continued Demetrius,
+lolling back his great length on the couch, "who would have imagined
+that I, just returning from a mere voyage to Delos to get rid of some
+slaves, should save the lives of my cousin, my benefactor's son, and
+C�sar himself, and become once more an honest man. Gods! gods! avert
+the misfortunes that come from too much good fortune!"
+
+"Was Agias badly wounded?" asked Cornelia, with some concern.
+
+"Oh," replied his cousin, "he will do well. If his precious captive
+had thrust his dagger a bit deeper, we might have a sorry time
+explaining it all to that pretty little girl--Artemisia he calls
+her--whom he dotes upon. By the bye," continued Demetrius, as entirely
+at his ease in the company as though he had been one of the world's
+high-born and mighty, "can your ladyship tell me where Artemisia is
+just now? She was a very attractive child."
+
+"Assuredly," said Cornelia. "She is here in the palace, very anxious,
+I doubt not, about Agias. Come, I will send for her. You shall tell
+her all about his escape."
+
+Demetrius appeared pleased, and Cornelia whispered to a serving-lad,
+who immediately went out.
+
+The tramp of heavy feet sounded on the mosaics outside the banqueting
+room; the tapestry over the doorway was thrust aside, and in the dim
+lamplight--for it had long been dark--two rigid soldiers in armour
+could be seen, standing at attention. Drusus stepped past them, and
+saluted.
+
+"The prisoner is here, Imperator," he said.
+
+"Bring him in," replied C�sar, laying down his wine-cup.
+
+The curtain swayed again, and the rest of a decuria of troops entered.
+In their centre was a figure whose manacles were clinking ominously.
+In the uncertain light it was only possible to see that the prisoner
+was bent and shivering with fright. The general shrugged his shoulders
+in disgust.
+
+"This is the sort of creature, Drusus," quoth he, derisively, "that is
+so dangerous that we must despatch him at once? _Phui!_ Let him stand
+forth. I suppose he can still speak?"
+
+Pratinas made a pitiable picture. The scuffle and wetting had done
+little benefit to his clothes; his armour the pirates had long since
+appropriated; his hair, rather long through affectation, hung in
+disorder around his neck. He had shaved off his "philosopher's" beard,
+and his smooth cheeks showed ugly scratches. He was as pale as white
+linen, and quaking like a blade of grass in the wind, the very
+antithesis of the splendid Ares of the fight on the mole.
+
+"Your name is Pratinas?" began C�sar, with the snappish energy of a
+man who discharges a disagreeable formality.
+
+"Yes, despotes," began the other, meekly; but as he did so he raised
+his head, and the rays of one of the great candelabra fell full on his
+face. In a twinkling a shout, or rather a scream, had broken from
+Demetrius. The pirate had leaped from his couch, and, with straining
+frame and dilated eyes, sprang between the prisoner and his judge.
+
+"Menon!" The word smote on the captive like the missile of a catapult.
+He reeled back, almost to falling; his eyes closed involuntarily. His
+face had been pale before, now it was swollen, as with the sight of a
+horror.
+
+"Demetrius!" and at this counter exclamation, the cornered man burst
+into a howl of animal fear. And well he might, for Demetrius had
+sprung upon him as a tiger upon an antelope. One of the guards
+indiscreetly interposed, and a stroke of the pirate's fist sent the
+soldier sprawling. Demetrius caught his victim around the body, and
+crushed the wretched man in beneath his grasp. The pseudo-Pratinas did
+not cry out twice. He had no breath. Demetrius tore him off of his
+feet and shook him in mid-air.
+
+"Daphne! Daphne!" thundered the awful pirate; "speak--or by the
+infernal gods--"
+
+"Put him down!" shouted C�sar and Drusus. They were almost appealing
+to an unchained lion roaring over his prey, Drusus caught one of
+Demetrius's arms, and with all his strength tore it from its grasp.
+
+"The man cannot say a word! you are choking him," he cried in the
+pirate's ear.
+
+Demetrius relaxed his mighty grip. Pratinas, for so we still call him,
+leaned back against one of the soldiers, panting and gasping. Drusus
+took his assailant by the arm, and led him back to a seat. C�sar sat
+waiting until the prisoner could speak.
+
+"Pratinas," said the Imperator, sternly, "as you hope for an easy
+death or a hard one, tell this man the truth about his daughter."
+
+Pratinas drew himself together by a mighty effort. For an instant he
+was the former easy, elegant, versatile Hellene. When he answered it
+was with the ring of triumph and defiance.
+
+"Imperator, it would be easy to tell a lie, for there is no means of
+proof at hand. This man," with a derisive glance at his enemy, "says
+that I know something about his daughter. Doubtless, though, since he
+has pursued for recent years so noble an avocation, it were more
+grateful if he thanked me for caring for the deserted girl. Well, I
+kept her until she was sufficiently old, and then--for I was at the
+time quite poor--disposed of her to a dealer at Antioch, who was
+planning to take a slave caravan to Seleucia. My good friend probably
+will find his daughter in some Parthian harem, unless--"
+
+Cornelia had arisen and was whispering to Drusus; the latter turned
+and held the raging pirate in his seat. Pratinas had made of every
+word a venomed arrow, and each and all struck home. The workings of
+Demetrius's face were frightful, the beads of agony stood on his
+brows,--doubtless he had always feared nothing less,--the certainty
+was awful. Cornelia looked upon him half-anxious, yet serene and
+smiling. Drusus, too, seemed composed and expectant. The Imperator
+gazed straight before him, his eyes searching the prisoner through and
+through, and under the glance the Greek again showed signs of fear and
+nervousness.
+
+The curtain at the opposite end of the hall rustled, Cornelia rose and
+walked to the doorway, and returned, leading Artemisia by the hand.
+The girl was dressed in a pure white chiton; her thick hair was bound
+back with a white fillet, but in the midst of its mass shone a single
+golden crescent studded with little gems. She came with shy steps and
+downcast eyes--abashed before so many strangers; and, as she came, all
+gazed at her in admiration, not as upon the bright beauty of a rose,
+but the perfect sweetness of a modest lily. Cornelia led her on, until
+they stood before the prisoner.
+
+"Artemisia," said Cornelia, in a low voice, "have you ever seen this
+man before?"
+
+Artemisia raised her eyes, and, as they lit on Pratinas, there was in
+them a gleam of wonder, then of fear, and she shrank back in dread, so
+that Cornelia threw her arm about her to comfort her.
+
+"_A! A!_" and the girl began to cry. "Has he found me? Will he take
+me? Pity! mercy! Pratinas!"
+
+But no one had paid her any more attention. It was C�sar who had
+sprung from his seat.
+
+"Wretch!" and his terrible eyes burned into Pratinas's guilty breast,
+so that he writhed, and held down his head, and began to mutter words
+inaudible. "Can you tell the truth to save yourself the most horrible
+tortures human wit can devise?"
+
+But Pratinas had nothing to say.
+
+Again Demetrius leaped upon him. The pirate was a frantic animal. His
+fingers moved as though they were claws to pluck the truth from the
+offender's heart. He hissed his question between teeth that ground
+together in frenzy.
+
+"How did you get her? Where from? When?"
+
+Pratinas choked for utterance.
+
+"Artemisia! Daphne! Yours! I lost her! Ran away at Rome!"
+
+The words shook out of him like water from a well-filled flask.
+Demetrius relaxed his hold. A whole flood of conflicting emotions was
+displayed upon his manly face. He turned to Artemisia.
+
+"_Makaira!_ dearest! don't you know me?" he cried, holding
+outstretched his mighty arms.
+
+"I am afraid!" sobbed poor Artemisia in dismay.
+
+"Come!" It was Cornelia who spoke; and, with the daughter crying
+softly on one arm, and the father dragged along in a confused state of
+ecstasy on the other, she led them both out of the room.
+
+Pratinas was on his knees before C�sar. The Hellene was again
+eloquent--eloquent as never before. In the hour of extremity his
+sophistry and his rhetoric did not leave him. His antitheses,
+epigrams, well-rounded maxims, figures of speech, never were at a
+better command. For a time, charmed by the flow of his own language,
+he gathered strength and confidence, and launched out into bolder
+flights of subtly wrought rhetoric. He excused, explained away each
+fault, vivified and magnified a hundred non-existent virtues, reared a
+splendid word-fabric in praise of clemency. To what end? Before him
+sat C�sar, and Drusus, and a dozen Romans more, who, with cold,
+unmoved Italian faces, listened to his artificial eloquence, and gave
+no sign of pity. And as he went on, the sense of his hopeless position
+overcame the wretched man, and his skill began to leave him. He became
+thick and confused of speech; his periods tripped; his thought moved
+backward. Then his supple tongue failed him utterly, and, in cries and
+incoherent groans, he pleaded for the right to exist.
+
+"Man," said the Imperator, when the storm of prayers and moans was
+over, "you conspired against Quintus Drusus, my friend. You
+failed--that is forgiven. You conspired, I have cause to believe,
+against Pompeius, my enemy, but a Roman--that is unproved, and
+therefore forgiven. You conspired with Pothinus against me--that was
+an offence touching me alone, and so that, too, may be forgiven. But
+to the prayers of a father you had wronged, you answered so that you
+might gloat over his pain. Therefore you shall die and not live. Take
+him away, guards, and strike off his head, for his body is too vile to
+nail to any cross."
+
+The face of the Greek was livid. He raised his manacled hands, and
+strained at the irons in sheer despair. The soldiers caught him
+roughly to hale him away.
+
+"Mercy! kyrios! kyrios!" he shrieked. "Spare me the torments of Hades!
+The Furies will pursue me forever! Pity! Mercy!"
+
+Cornelia had re�ntered the room, and saw this last scene.
+
+"When my uncle and Ahenobarbus were nigh their deaths," she said
+stingingly, "this man observed that often, in times of mortal peril,
+skeptics call on the gods."
+
+"The rule is proved," said C�sar, casting a cynical smile after the
+soldiers with their victim. "All men need gods, either to worship when
+they live, or to dread when they die."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XXV
+
+Calm after Storm
+
+
+I
+
+Like all human things, the war ended. The Alexandrians might rage and
+dash their numbers against the palace walls. Ganymed and young
+Ptolem�us, who had gone out to him, pressed the siege, but all in
+vain. And help came to the hard-pressed Romans at last. Mithridates, a
+faithful vassal king, advanced his army over Syria, and came down into
+the Delta, sweeping all before him. Then C�sar effected a junction
+with the forces of his ally, and there was one pitched battle on the
+banks of the Nile, where Ptolem�us was defeated, and drowned in his
+flight. Less than a month later Alexandria capitulated, and saw the
+hated consular insignia again within her gates. There was work to do
+in Egypt, and C�sar--just named dictator at Rome and consul for five
+years--devoted himself to the task of reform and reorganization.
+Cleopatra was to be set back upon her throne, and her younger brother,
+another Ptolem�us, was to be her colleague. So out of war came peace,
+and the great Imperator gave laws to yet another kingdom.
+
+But before C�sar sailed away to chastise Pharnaces of Pontus, and
+close up his work in the East, ere returning to break down the stand
+of the desperate Pompeians in Africa, there was joy and high festival
+in the palace of Alexandria; and all the noble and great of the
+capital were at the feast,--the wedding feast of Cornelia and the
+favourite staff officer of the Imperator. The soft warm air of the
+Egyptian springtime blew over the festoons of flowers and over the
+carpets of blossoms; never before was the music more sweet and joyous.
+And overhead hung the great light-laden dome of the glowing azure,
+where the storks were drifting northward with the northward march of
+the sun.
+
+And they sang the bridal hymns, both Greek and Latin, and cried
+"Hymen" and "Talasio"; and when evening came,
+
+  "The torches tossed their tresses of flame,"
+
+as said the marriage song of Catullus; and underneath the yellow veil
+of the bride gleamed forth the great diamond necklace, the gift of
+Cleopatra, which once had been the joy of some Persian princess before
+the Greeks took the hoard at Persepolis.
+
+Agias was there; and Cleomenes and his daughters; and Demetrius, with
+Artemisia, the most beautiful of girls,--as Cornelia was the fairest
+of women,--clinging fondly to her father's side. So there was joy that
+day and night at the Alexandrian palace. And on the next morning the
+fleet trireme was ready which Demetrius had provided to bear Drusus
+and Cornelia and Fabia back to Italy. Many were the partings at the
+royal quay, and Agias wept when he said farewell to his late patron
+and patroness; but he had some comfort, for his cousin (who had
+arranged with Cleomenes that, since his freebooting days were happily
+over, the two should join in a partnership for the India trade) had
+made him a promise to be fulfilled in due course of time--for
+Artemisia was still very young.
+
+"You are no Ichomachus, Xenophon's perfect wife-educator," the
+ex-pirate had said to his importunate cousin; "wait a few years."
+
+And Agias was fain to be content, with this hope before him.
+
+There were other partings than his; but at last the adieus were over,
+and all save C�sar went back upon the quay. The Imperator alone
+tarried on the poop of the vessel for an instant. His features were
+half wistful as he held Drusus by the hand, but his eyes were kindly
+as ever to the young man.
+
+"Ah, amice!" he said, "we who play at philosophy may not know all the
+time that there are gods, but at all times we know that there is the
+most godlike of divine attributes--love undefiled. Therefore let us
+hope, for we see little, and the cosmos is past finding out."
+
+He sprang back on to the quay. The musicians on the bow struck up with
+pipe and lyre; the friends on the pier flung aboard the last garlands
+of rose and lily and scented thyme; the rowers bent to their task; the
+one hundred and seventy blades--pumiced white--smote the yellow waves
+of the harbour, and the ship sped away. Cornelia, Fabia, and Drusus
+stood on the poop gazing toward the receding quay. Long after they had
+ceased to recognize forms and faces they stared backward, until the
+pier itself was a speck, and the great buildings of the city grew dim.
+Then they passed the Pharos, and the land dwindled more and more into
+a narrow, dark ribbon betwixt blue water and bluer sky. The long
+swells of the open sea caught the trireme, and she rode gallantly over
+them--while the music still played, and her hardy crew, pirates no
+longer, but pardoned men,--seamen, employees of the honest merchant
+Demetrius,--sent the good ship bounding faster and faster, as they
+pressed their strength against the springing oars. Higher and higher
+rose the column of foam around the cutwater; louder and louder sang
+the foam under the stern, as they swept it past. The distant land
+faded to a thread, to a line, was gone; and to north and south and
+east and west were but the water and the cloudless ether. Fabia,
+Cornelia, and Drusus said little for a long time. Their eyes wandered,
+sometimes, over the track of the foam, and in their minds they saw
+again the water-birds plashing among lotus plants, and heard the
+ancient Egyptian litanies softly chanted behind the propylons of a
+temple built by some king two thousand years departed. But oftener
+their eyes ran ahead over the prow, and they walked again across the
+Forum of the city of their fathers, and drove across the Latin
+plain-land, and spoke their own dear, sonorous, yet half-polished
+native tongue.
+
+At last came evening; the sun sank lower and lower; now his broad red
+disk hung over the crest of the western waves; now it touched them;
+now it was gone, and only the lines of dying fire streamed behind
+him--the last runners in his chariot train. Up from the cabin below
+came the voice of the ship's steward, "Would their excellencies take
+any refreshment?" But they did not go at once. They watched the fire
+grow dimmer and dimmer, the pure light change to red gold, the red
+gold to crimson, and the crimson sink away.
+
+"Ah, carissima!" cried Drusus, "would that when the orbs of our lives
+go down to their setting, they might go down like the sunlight, more
+beautiful in each act of the very dying, as they approach the final
+goal!"
+
+"Yes, surely," replied Cornelia, touching her hands upon his head;
+"but who knows but that Catullus the poet is wrong when he says the
+sun of life will never rise save once; who knows but that, if our sun
+set in beauty, it will rise again in grandeur even more?"
+
+"My children," said Fabia, gently, "the future lies in the knowledge
+of the gods; but out of the present we must shape our own future."
+
+"No, delectissima," replied her nephew, "to do that we are all too
+weak; except it be true, as Aratus the poet has said, 'that we men are
+also the offspring of gods,' in which case Heaven itself must stoop to
+give us aid."
+
+But Cornelia's eyes had wandered down into the foam, still gleaming as
+snow in the failing light.
+
+"Ah!" she said, "the ages are long; if there be gods, their days are
+our lifetimes, and we but see a little and know not what to think. But
+to live a noble life will always be the fairest thing, whether death
+be an unending sleep or the threshold to Pindar's Elysium."
+
+And what more of grave wisdom might have dropped from her lips none
+may relate, for her husband had shaken off the spell, and laughed
+aloud in the joy of his strong life and buoyant hopes. Then they all
+three laughed, and thought no more of sober things. They went down
+into the cabin just as the last bars of light flickered out in the
+west, and only the starlight broke the darkness that spread out over
+the face of the sea.
+
+
+II
+
+Drusus, as he himself had predicted, never wrote a great treatise on
+philosophy, and never drew up a cosmology that set at rest all the
+problems of the universe; nor did Cornelia become a Latin Sappho or
+Corinna, and her wise lore never went further than to make her friends
+afraid to affect a shammed learning in her presence. But they both did
+the tasks that fell to them better because they had "tasted the well
+of Parnassus" and "walked in the grove with the sages." And Drusus,
+through an active life, played an honourable part as a soldier and a
+statesman: with his beloved Imperator in the battles of Thapsus and
+Munda, when the last of the oligarchs were beaten down; then, after
+the great crime of murder, with his friend Marcus Antonius; and then,
+when Cleopatra's evil star lured both her and Antonius to their ruin,
+he turned to the only man whose wisdom and firmness promised safety to
+the state--and he joined himself to the rising fortunes of Octavius,
+the great Augustus, and fought with him to the end, until there was no
+longer a foreign or civil enemy, and the "Pax Romana" gave quiet to a
+subject world.
+
+So Drusus had share with M�cenas and Agrippa and the other imperial
+statesmen in shaping the fabric of the mighty Roman Empire. Not in his
+day did he or Cornelia know that it was wrong to buy slaves like
+cattle, or to harbour an implacable hate. They were but pagans. To
+them the truth was but seen in a glass darkly; enough if they lived up
+to such truth as was vouchsafed. But in their children's day the
+brightness arose in the East, and spread westward, and ever westward,
+until the Capitoline Jupiter was nigh forgotten, the glories of the
+Roman eagles became a tradition, the splendour of the imperial city a
+dream. For there came to the world a better Deity, a diviner glory, a
+more heavenly city. The greater grew out of the less. Out of the
+world-fabric prepared by Julius C�sar grew the fabric of the Christian
+Church, and out of the Christian Church shall rise a yet nobler
+spiritual edifice when the stars have all grown cold.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Friend of Caesar, by William Stearns Davis
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A FRIEND OF CAESAR ***
+
+***** This file should be named 15694-8.txt or 15694-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/6/9/15694/
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Stefan Cramme and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+*** END: FULL LICENSE ***
+
diff --git a/15694-8.zip b/15694-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8bc88da
--- /dev/null
+++ b/15694-8.zip
diff --git a/15694-h.zip b/15694-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..047aa90
--- /dev/null
+++ b/15694-h.zip
diff --git a/15694-h/15694-h.htm b/15694-h/15694-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2883c45
--- /dev/null
+++ b/15694-h/15694-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,24263 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+<head>
+	<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
+	<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Friend of C&aelig;sar, by William Stearns Davis</title>
+<style type="text/css" title="text/css">
+/* <![CDATA[ */
+	body { margin-left: 7%; margin-right: 7%;  max-width: 40em;}
+	p {line-height: 1.33em;}
+	h2 { margin-top: 2em; }
+	h3 { margin-top: 1.5em; }
+	hr { width: 40%; }
+	ol.TOC {
+		list-style-type: upper-roman;
+		position: relative;
+		margin-right: 5%;
+		}
+	span.tocright {
+		position: absolute; right: 0;
+		}
+/* ]]> */
+</style>
+</head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Friend of Caesar, by William Stearns Davis
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Friend of Caesar
+       A Tale of the Fall of the Roman Republic. Time, 50-47 B.C.
+
+Author: William Stearns Davis
+
+Release Date: April 24, 2005 [EBook #15694]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: Unicode UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A FRIEND OF CAESAR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Stefan Cramme and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<div style="text-align:center;">
+<h1>A Friend of Cæsar</h1>
+
+<h1 style="font-style:italic;">A Tale of the Fall of the Roman Republic</h1>
+
+<p>Time, 50–47 B.C.</p>
+
+<p style="font-weight:bold;font-size:150%;">By William Stearns Davis</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<blockquote style="margin-top: 2em;">
+<p>
+"Others better may mould the life-breathing brass of the image,<br />
+And living features, I ween, draw from the marble, and better<br />
+Argue their cause in the court; may mete out the span of the heavens,<br />
+Mark out the bounds of the poles, and name all the stars in their turnings.<br />
+<i>Thine</i> 'tis the peoples to rule with dominion—this, Roman, remember!—<br />
+These for thee are the arts, to hand down the laws of the treaty,<br />
+The weak in mercy to spare, to fling from their high seats the haughty."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+—VERGIL, <i>Æn.</i> vi. 847-858.
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<h6 style="margin-top: 2em;">New York<br />
+Grosset &amp; Dunlap Publishers<br />
+1900
+</h6>
+
+
+<div style="text-align:center; margin-top: 2em;">
+<p>
+To My Father
+</p>
+
+<p>
+William Vail Wilson Davis
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Who Has Taught Me More<br />
+Than All My Books
+</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<h2>Preface</h2>
+
+
+<p>
+If this book serves to show that Classical Life presented
+many phases akin to our own, it will not have been written in
+vain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After the book was planned and in part written, it was
+discovered that Archdeacon Farrar had in his story of "Darkness
+and Dawn" a scene, "Onesimus and the Vestal," which
+corresponds very closely to the scene, "Agias and the Vestal,"
+in this book; but the latter incident was too characteristically
+Roman not to risk repetition. If it is asked why such a book
+as this is desirable after those noble fictions, "Darkness and
+Dawn" and "Quo Vadis," the reply must be that these books
+necessarily take and interpret the Christian point of view.
+And they do well; but the Pagan point of view still needs its
+interpretation, at least as a help to an easy apprehension of
+the life and literature of the great age of the Fall of the
+Roman Republic. This is the aim of "A Friend of Cæsar."
+The Age of Cæsar prepared the way for the Age of Nero,
+when Christianity could find a world in a state of such culture,
+unity, and social stability that it could win an adequate and
+abiding triumph.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Great care has been taken to keep to strict historical probability;
+but in one scene, the "Expulsion of the Tribunes,"
+there is such a confusion of accounts in the authorities themselves
+that I have taken some slight liberties.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+W. S. D.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Harvard University,<br />
+January 16,1900.
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Contents</h2>
+
+<ol class="TOC">
+	<li><a href="#ch1">Præneste                                <span class="tocright">1</span></a></li>
+
+	<li><a href="#ch2">The Upper Walks of Society            <span class="tocright">21</span></a></li>
+
+	<li><a href="#ch3">The Privilege of a Vestal              <span class="tocright">37</span></a></li>
+
+	<li><a href="#ch4">Lucius Ahenobarbus Airs His Grievance  <span class="tocright">50</span></a></li>
+
+	<li><a href="#ch5">A Very Old Problem                     <span class="tocright">73</span></a></li>
+
+	<li> <a href="#ch6">Pompeius Magnus                       <span class="tocright">102</span></a></li>
+
+	<li> <a href="#ch7">Agias's Adventure                     <span class="tocright">117</span></a></li>
+
+	<li> <a href="#ch8">"When Greek Meets Greek"              <span class="tocright">146</span></a></li>
+
+	<li> <a href="#ch9">How Gabinius Met with a Rebuff        <span class="tocright">159</span></a></li>
+
+	<li><a href="#ch10">Mamercus Guards the Door              <span class="tocright">172</span></a></li>
+
+	<li> <a href="#ch11">The Great Proconsul                   <span class="tocright">198</span></a></li>
+
+	<li> <a href="#ch12">Pratinas Meets Ill-Fortune            <span class="tocright">217</span></a></li>
+
+	<li> <a href="#ch13">What Befell at Baiæ                   <span class="tocright">241</span></a></li>
+
+	<li> <a href="#ch14">The New Consuls                       <span class="tocright">262</span></a></li>
+
+	<li> <a href="#ch15">The Seventh of January                <span class="tocright">277</span></a></li>
+
+	<li> <a href="#ch16">The Rubicon                           <span class="tocright">302</span></a></li>
+
+	<li> <a href="#ch17">The Profitable Career of Gabinius     <span class="tocright">329</span></a></li>
+
+	<li> <a href="#ch18">How Pompeius Stamped with His Feet    <span class="tocright">334</span></a></li>
+
+	<li><a href="#ch19">The Hospitality of Demetrius          <span class="tocright">364</span></a></li>
+
+	<li><a href="#ch20">Cleopatra                             <span class="tocright">387</span></a></li>
+
+	<li><a href="#ch21">How Ulamhala's Words Came True        <span class="tocright">409</span></a></li>
+
+	<li><a href="#ch22">The End of the Magnus                 <span class="tocright">433</span></a></li>
+
+	<li> <a href="#ch23">Bitterness and Joy                    <span class="tocright">448</span></a></li>
+
+	<li> <a href="#ch24">Battling for Life                     <span class="tocright">464</span></a></li>
+
+	<li> <a href="#ch25">Calm after Storm                      <span class="tocright">496</span></a></li>
+
+</ol>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 id="ch1">Chapter I</h2>
+
+<h2>Præneste</h2>
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+It was the Roman month of September, seven hundred and
+four years after Romulus—so tradition ran—founded the
+little village by the Tiber which was to become "Mother of
+Nations," "Centre of the World," "Imperial Rome." To state
+the time according to modern standards it was July, fifty years
+before the beginning of the Christian Era. The fierce Italian
+sun was pouring down over the tilled fields and stretches of
+woodland and grazing country that made up the landscape,
+and the atmosphere was almost aglow with the heat. The
+dust lay thick on the pavement of the highway, and rose in
+dense, stifling clouds, as a mule, laden with farm produce and
+driven by a burly countryman, trudged reluctantly along.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Yet, though the scene suggested the heat of midsummer, it
+was far from being unrefreshing, especially to the eyes of one
+newly come. For this spot was near "cool Præneste," one of
+the favourite resorts of Latium to the wealthy, invalid, or
+indolent of Rome, who shunned the excessive heat of the capital.
+And they were wise in their choice; for Præneste, with
+its citadel, which rose twelve hundred feet over the adjoining
+country, commanded in its ample sweep both the views and the
+breezes of the whole wide-spreading Campagna. Here, clustering
+round the hill on which stood the far-famed "Temple of
+Fortune," lay the old Latin town of the Prænestians; a little
+farther westward was the settlement founded some thirty odd
+years before by Sulla as a colony. Farther out, and stretching
+off into the open country, lay the farmhouses and villas,
+gardens and orchards, where splendid nuts and roses, and also
+wine, grew in abundant measure.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A little stream ran close to the highway, and here an irrigating
+machine<a name="r1" href="#fn1">[1]</a> was raising water for the fields. Two men stood
+on the treadmill beside the large-bucketed wheel, and as they
+continued their endless walk the water dashed up into the
+trough and went splashing down the ditches into the thirsty
+gardens. The workers were tall, bronze-skinned Libyans, who
+were stripped to the waist, showing their splendid chests and
+rippling muscles. Beside the trough had just come two women,
+by their coarse and unpretentious dress evidently slaves, bearing
+large earthen water-pots which they were about to fill.
+One of the women was old, and bore on her face all the marks
+which a life of hard manual toil usually leaves behind it; the
+other young, with a clear, smooth complexion and a rather
+delicate Greek profile. The Libyans stopped their monotonous
+trudge, evidently glad to have some excuse for a respite from
+their exertions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ah, ha! Chloë," cried one of them, "how would you like
+it, with your pretty little feet, to be plodding at this mill
+all the day? Thank the Gods, the sun will set before a
+great while. The day has been hot as the lap of an image of
+Moloch!"<a name="r2" href="#fn2">[2]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, Hasdrubal," said Chloë, the younger woman, with a
+pert toss of her head, "if my feet were as large as yours, and
+my skin as black and thick, I should not care to complain if I
+had to work a little now and then."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh! of course," retorted Hasdrubal, a little nettled. "Your
+ladyship is too refined, too handsome, to reflect that people
+with black skins as well as white may get heated and weary.
+Wait five and twenty years, till your cheeks are a bit withered,
+and see if Master Drusus doesn't give you enough to make you
+tired from morning till night."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You rude fellow," cried Chloë, pouting with vexation, "I
+will not speak to you again. If Master Drusus were here, I
+would complain of you to him. I have heard that he is not
+the kind of a master to let a poor maid of his be insulted."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, be still, you hussy!" said the elder woman, who felt
+that a life of labour had spoiled what might have been quite
+the equal of Chloë's good looks. "What do you know of
+Master Drusus? He has been in Athens ever since you were
+bought. I'll make Mamercus, the steward, believe you ought
+to be whipped."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What tart answer Chloë might have had on the end of her
+tongue will never be known; for at this moment Mago, the
+other Libyan, glanced up the road, and cried:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, mistress, perhaps you will see our master very soon.
+He was due this afternoon or next day from Puteoli, and what
+is that great cloud of dust I see off there in the distance?
+Can't you make out carriages and horsemen in the midst of it,
+Hasdrubal?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Certainly there was a little cavalcade coming up the highway.
+Now it was a mere blotch moving in the sun and
+dust; then clearer; and then out of the cloud of light, flying
+sand came the clatter of hoofs on the pavement, the whir of
+wheels, and ahead of the rest of the party two dark Numidian
+outriders in bright red mantles appeared, pricking along their
+white African steeds. Chloë clapped her little hands, steadied
+her water-pot, and sprang up on the staging of the treadmill
+beside Mago.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It is he!" she cried. "It must be Master Drusus coming
+back from Athens!" She was a bit excited, for an event like
+the arrival of a new master was a great occurrence in the
+monotonous life of a country slave.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The cortège was still a good way off.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What is Master Drusus like?" asked Chloë "Will he
+be kind, or will he be always whipping like Mamercus?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"He was not in charge of the estate," replied Laïs, the older
+woman, "when he went away to study at Athens<a name="r3" href="#fn3">[3]</a> a few years
+ago. But he was always kind as a lad. Cappadox, his old
+body-servant, worshipped him. I hope he will take the charge
+of the farm out of the steward's hands."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Here he comes!" cried Hasdrubal. "I can see him in the
+nearest carriage." And then all four broke out with their
+salutation, "<i>Salve! Salve, Domine!</i>"<a name="r4" href="#fn4">[4]</a> "Good health to your
+lordship!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A little way behind the outriders rolled a comfortable,
+four-wheeled, covered carriage,<a name="r5" href="#fn5">[5]</a> ornamented with handsome
+embossed plate-work of bronze. Two sleek, jet-black steeds
+were whirling it swiftly onward. Behind, a couple of equally
+speedy grey mules were drawing an open wagon loaded with
+baggage, and containing two smart-looking slave-boys. But
+all four persons at the treadmill had fixed their eyes on the
+other conveyance. Besides a sturdy driver, whose ponderous
+hands seemed too powerful to handle the fine leather reins,
+there were sitting within an elderly, decently dressed man,
+and at his side another much younger. The former personage
+was Pausanias, the freedman and travelling companion<a name="r6" href="#fn6">[6]</a> of his
+friend and patron, Quintus Livius Drusus, the "Master Drusus"
+of whom the slaves had been speaking. Chloë's sharp
+eyes scanned her strange owner very keenly, and the impression
+he created was not in the least unfavourable. Drusus was
+apparently of about two and twenty. As he was sitting, he
+appeared a trifle short in stature, with a thick frame, solid
+shoulders, long arms, and large hands. His face was distinctively
+Roman. The features were a little irregular, though
+not to an unpleasant extent. The profile was aquiline. His
+eyes were brown and piercing, turning perpetually this way
+and that, to grasp every detail of the scene around. His dark,
+reddish hair was clipped close, and his chin was smooth shaven
+and decidedly firm—stern, even, the face might have been
+called, except for the relief afforded by a delicately curved
+mouth—not weak, but affable and ingenuous. Drusus wore a
+dark travelling cloak,<a name="r7" href="#fn7">[7]</a> and from underneath it peeped his
+tunic, with its stripe of narrow purple—the badge of the
+Roman equestrian order.<a name="r8" href="#fn8">[8]</a> On his finger was another emblem
+of nobility—a large, plain, gold ring, conspicuous among
+several other rings with costly settings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Salve! Salve, Domine!</i>" cried the slaves a second time, as
+the carriage drew near. The young master pushed back the
+blue woollen curtains in order to gain a better view, then
+motioned to the driver to stop.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Are you slaves of mine?" was his question. The tone
+was interested and kindly, and Mago saluted profoundly, and
+replied:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We are the slaves of the most noble Quintus Livius Drusus,
+who owns this estate."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I am he," replied the young man, smiling. "The day is
+hot. It grows late. You have toiled enough. Go you all
+and rest. Here, Pausanias, give them each a philippus,<a name="r9" href="#fn9">[9]</a> with
+which to remember my home-coming!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Eu! Eu! Io!</i><a name="r10" href="#fn10">[10]</a> <i>Domine!</i>" cried the slaves, giving vent
+to their delight. And Chloë whispered to Laïs: "You were
+right. The new master will be kind. There will not be so
+many whippings."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But while Pausanias was fumbling in the money-bags, a new
+instance of the generosity of Drusus was presented. Down a
+by-path in the field filed a sorrowful company; a long row of
+slaves in fetters, bound together by a band and chain round
+the waist of each. They were a disreputable enough gang of
+unkempt, unshaven, half-clothed wretches: Gauls and Germans
+with fair hair and giant physiques; dark-haired Syrians;
+black-skinned Africans,—all panting and groaning,
+clanking their chains, and cursing softly at the two sullen
+overseers, who, with heavy-loaded whips, were literally driving
+them down into the road.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again Drusus spoke.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Whose slaves are these? Mine?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"They are your lordship's," said the foremost overseer, who
+had just recognized his newly come employer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why are they in chains?" asked Drusus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Mamercus found them refractory," replied the guard, "and
+ordered them to be kept in the underground prison,<a name="r11" href="#fn11">[11]</a> and to
+work in the chain gang."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The young man made a motion of disgust.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Bah!" he remarked, "the whole <i>familia</i><a name="r12" href="#fn12">[12]</a> will be in fetters
+if Mamercus has his way much longer. Knock off those chains.
+Tell the wretches they are to remain unshackled only so long
+as they behave. Give them three skins to-night from which to
+drink their master's health. Drive on, Cappadox!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And before the fettered slaves could comprehend their
+release from confinement, and break out into a chorus of barbarous
+and uncouth thanksgivings and blessings, the carriage
+had vanished from sight down the turn of the road.
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+Who was Quintus Livius Drusus? Doubtless he would
+have felt highly insulted if his family history had not been
+fairly well known to every respectable person around Præneste
+and to a very large and select circle at Rome. When a man
+could take Livius<a name="r13" href="#fn13">[13]</a> for his gentile name, and Drusus for his
+cognomen, he had a right to hold his head high, and regard
+himself as one of the noblest and best of the imperial city.
+But of course the Drusian house had a number of branches,
+and the history of Quintus's direct family was this. He was
+the grandson of that Marcus Livius Drusus<a name="r14" href="#fn14">[14]</a> who, though an
+aristocrat of the aristocrats, had dared to believe that the
+oligarchs were too strong, the Roman Commons without character,
+and that the Italian freemen were suffering from wrongs
+inflicted by both of the parties at the capital. For his efforts
+to right the abuses, he had met with a reward very common
+to statesmen of his day, a dagger-thrust from the hand of an
+undiscovered assassin. He had left a son, Sextus, a man of
+culture and talent, who remembered his father's fate, and
+walked for a time warily in politics. Sextus had married
+twice. Once to a very noble lady of the Fabian gens, the
+mother of his son Quintus. Then some years after her death
+he took in marriage a reigning beauty, a certain Valeria, who
+soon developed such extravagance and frivolity, that, soon
+after she bore him a daughter, he was forced "to send her a
+messenger"; in other words, to divorce her. The daughter
+had been put under the guardianship of Sextus's sister-in-law
+Fabia, one of the Vestal virgins at Rome. Sextus himself had
+accepted an appointment to a tribuneship in a legion of Cæsar
+in Gaul. When he departed for the wars he took with him
+as fellow officer a life-long friend, Caius Cornelius Lentulus;
+and ere leaving for the campaign the two had formed a compact
+quite in keeping with the stern Roman spirit that made
+the child the slave of the father: Young Quintus Drusus
+should marry Cornelia, Lentulus's only child, as soon as the
+two came to a proper age. And so the friends went away to
+win glory in Gaul; to perish side by side, when Sabinus's ill-fated
+legion was cut off by the Eburones.<a name="r15" href="#fn15">[15]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The son and the daughter remained. Quintus Drusus had
+had kindly guardians; he had been sent for four years to the
+"University" at Athens; had studied rhetoric and philosophy;
+and now he was back with his career before him,—master of
+himself, of a goodly fortune, of a noble inheritance of high-born
+ancestry. And he was to marry Cornelia. No thought
+of thwarting his father's mandate crossed his mind; he was
+bound by the decree of the dead. He had not seen his betrothed
+for four years. He remembered her as a bright-eyed,
+merry little girl, who had an arch way of making all to mind
+her. But he remembered too, that her mother was a vapid
+lady of fashion, that her uncle and guardian was Lucius Cornelius
+Lentulus Crus, Consul-elect,<a name="r16" href="#fn16">[16]</a> a man of little refinement
+or character. And four years were long enough to mar a
+young girl's life. What would she be like? What had time
+made of her? The curiosity—we will not call it passion—was
+overpowering. Pure "love" was seldom recognized as
+such by the age. When the carriage reached a spot where two
+roads forked, leading to adjacent estates, Drusus alighted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Is her ladyship Cornelia at the villa of the Lentuli?" was
+his demand of a gardener who was trimming a hedge along
+the way.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ah! Master Drusus," cried the fellow, dropping his sickle
+in delight. "Joy to see you! Yes, she is in the grove by the
+villa; by the great cypress you know so well. But how you
+have changed, sir—"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Drusus was off. The path was familiar. Through the
+trees he caught glimpses of the stately mazes of colonnades of
+the Lentulan villa, surrounded by its artificially arranged gardens,
+and its wide stretches of lawn and orchard. The grove
+had been his playground. Here was the oak under which
+Cornelia and he had gathered acorns. The remnants of the
+little brush house they had built still survived. His step
+quickened. He heard the rush of the little stream that wound
+through the grove. Then he saw ahead of him a fern thicket,
+and the brook flashing its water beyond. In his recollection
+a bridge had here crossed the streamlet. It had been
+removed. Just across, swayed the huge cypress. Drusus
+stepped forward. At last! He pushed carefully through the
+thicket, making only a little noise, and glanced across the
+brook.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There were ferns all around the cypress. Ivies twined
+about its trunk. On the bank the green turf looked dry, but
+cool. Just under the tree the brook broke into a miniature
+cascade, and went rippling down in a score of pygmy, sparkling
+waterfalls. On a tiny promontory a marble nymph, a
+fine bit of Greek sculpture, was pouring, without respite, from
+a water-urn into the gurgling flood. But Drusus did not gaze
+at the nymph. Close beside the image, half lying, half sitting,
+in an abandon only to be produced by a belief that she was
+quite alone, rested a young woman. It was Cornelia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus had made no disturbance, and the object on which
+he fastened his eyes had not been in the least stirred out of
+a rather deep reverie. He stood for a while half bashful,
+half contemplative. Cornelia had taken off her shoes and
+let her little white feet trail down into the water. She wore
+only her white tunic, and had pushed it back so that her
+arms were almost bare. At the moment she was resting
+lazily on one elbow, and gazing abstractedly up at the
+moving ocean of green overhead. She was only sixteen; but
+in the warm Italian clime that age had brought her to
+maturity. No one would have said that she was beautiful,
+from the point of view of mere softly sensuous Greek beauty.
+Rather, she was handsome, as became the daughter of Cornelii
+and Claudii. She was tall; her hair, which was bound
+in a plain knot on the back of her head, was dark—almost
+black; her eyes were large, grey, lustrous, and on occasion
+could be proud and angry. Yet with it all she was pretty—pretty,
+said Drusus to himself, as any girl he had seen in
+Athens. For there were coy dimples in her delicate little
+chin, her finely chiselled features were not angular, while her
+cheeks were aglow with a healthy colour that needed no rouge
+to heighten. In short, Cornelia, like Drusus, was a Roman;
+and Drusus saw that she was a Roman, and was glad.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently something broke the reverie. Cornelia's eyes
+dropped from the treetops, and lighted up with attention.
+One glance across the brook into the fern thicket; then one
+irrepressible feminine scream; and then:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Cornelia!" "Quintus!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus sprang forward, but almost fell into the brooklet.
+The bridge was gone. Cornelia had started up, and tried to
+cover her arms and shake her tunic over her feet. Her
+cheeks were all smiles and blushes. But Drusus's situation
+was both pathetic and ludicrous. He had his fiancée almost
+in his arms, and yet the stream stopped him. Instantly
+Cornelia was in laughter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh! My second Leander," she cried, "will you be brave,
+and swim again from Abydos to Sestos to meet your Hero?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Better!" replied Drusus, now nettled; "see!" And
+though the leap was a long one he cleared it, and landed
+close by the marble nymph.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus had not exactly mapped out for himself the method
+of approaching the young woman who had been his child playmate.
+Cornelia, however, solved all his perplexity. Changing
+suddenly from laughter into what were almost tears, she flung
+her arms around his neck, and kissed him again and again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, Quintus! Quintus!" she cried, nearly sobbing, "<i>I am</i>
+so glad you have come!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And I am glad," said the young man, perhaps with a
+tremor in his voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I never knew how I wanted you, until you are here," she
+continued; "I didn't look for you to-day. I supposed you
+would come from Puteoli to-morrow. Oh! Quintus, you must
+be very kind to me. Perhaps I am very stupid. But I am
+tired, tired."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus looked at her in a bit of astonishment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Tired! I can't see that you look fatigued."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Not in body," went on Cornelia, still holding on to him.
+"But here, sit down on the grass. Let me hold your hands.
+You do not mind. I want to talk with you. No, don't
+interrupt. I must tell you. I have been here in Præneste
+only a week. I wanted to get away from Baiæ.<a name="r17" href="#fn17">[17]</a> I was
+afraid to stay there with my mother."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Afraid to stay at that lovely seashore house with your
+mother!" exclaimed Drusus, by no means unwilling to sit as
+entreated, but rather bewildered in mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I was afraid of Lucius Ahenobarbus, the consular<a name="r18" href="#fn18">[18]</a> Domitius's
+second son. <i>I don't like him! there!</i>" and Cornelia's
+grey eyes lit up with menacing fire.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Afraid of Lucius Ahenobarbus!" laughed Drusus. "Well,
+I don't think I call him a very dear friend. But why should
+he trouble you?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It was ever since last spring, when I was in the new theatre<a name="r19" href="#fn19">[19]</a>
+seeing the play, that he came around, thrust himself upon me,
+and tried to pay attentions. Then he has kept them up ever
+since; he followed us to Baiæ; and the worst of it is, my
+mother and uncle rather favour him. So I had Stephanus, my
+friend the physician, say that sea air was not good for me, and
+I was sent here. My mother and uncle will come in a few
+days, but not that fellow Lucius, I hope. I was so tired trying
+to keep him off."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I will take care of the knave," said Drusus, smiling. "So
+this is the trouble? I wonder that your mother should have
+anything to do with such a fellow. I hear in letters that he
+goes with a disreputable gang. He is a boon companion with
+Marcus Læca, the old Catilinian,<a name="r20" href="#fn20">[20]</a> who is a smooth-headed
+villain, and to use a phrase of my father's good friend Cicero—'has
+his head and eyebrows always shaved, that he may not
+be said to have one hair of an honest man about him.' But he
+will have to reckon with me now. Now it is my turn to talk.
+Your long story has been very short. Nor is mine long. My
+old uncle Publius Vibulanus is dead. I never knew him well
+enough to be able to mourn him bitterly. Enough, he died at
+ninety; and just as I arrive at Puteoli comes a message that
+I am his sole heir. His freedmen knew I was coming,
+embalmed the body, and wait for me to go to Rome to-morrow
+to give the funeral oration and light the pyre. He has
+left a fortune fit to compare with that of Crassus<a name="r21" href="#fn21">[21]</a>—real
+estate, investments, a lovely villa at Tusculum. And now I—no,
+<i>we</i>—are wealthy beyond avarice. Shall we not thank
+the Gods?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I thank them for nothing," was her answer; then more
+shyly, "except for your own coming; for, Quintus, you—you—will
+marry me before very long?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What hinders?" cried the other, in the best of spirits.
+"To-morrow I go to Rome; then back again! And then all
+Præneste will flock to our marriage train. No, pout no more
+over Lucius Ahenobarbus. He shan't pay disagreeable attentions.
+And now over to the old villa; for Mamercus is eating
+his heart out to see me!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And away they went arm in arm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus's head was in the air. He had resolved to marry
+Cornelia, cost what it might to his desires. He knew now that
+he was affianced to the one maiden in the world quite after his
+own heart.
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>III</h3>
+
+<p>
+The paternal villa of Drusus lay on the lower part of the
+slope of the Præneste citadel, facing the east. It was a
+genuine country and farming estate—not a mere refuge from
+the city heat and hubbub. The Drusi had dwelt on it for generations,
+and Quintus had spent his boyhood upon it. The
+whole mass of farm land was in the very pink of cultivation.
+There were lines of stately old elms enclosing the estate; and
+within, in regular sequence, lay vineyards producing the rather
+poor Præneste wine, olive orchards, groves of walnut trees,
+and many other fruits. Returning to the point where he had
+left the carriage, Drusus led Cornelia up a broad avenue flanked
+by noble planes and cypresses. Before them soon stood, or
+rather stretched, the country house. It was a large grey stone
+building, added to, from time to time, by successive owners.
+Only in front did it show signs of modern taste and elegance.
+Here ran a colonnade of twelve red porphyry pillars, with Corinthian
+capitals. The part of the house reserved for the
+master lay behind this entrance way. Back of it rambled the
+structure used by the farm steward, and the slaves and cattle.
+The whole house was low—in fact practically one-storied;
+and the effect produced was perhaps substantial, but hardly
+imposing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Up the broad avenue went the two young people; too busy
+with their own gay chatter to notice at a distance how figures
+were running in and out amid the colonnade, and how the
+pillars were festooned with flowers. But as they drew nearer
+a throng was evident. The whole farm establishment—men,
+women, and children—had assembled, garlanded and gayly
+dressed, to greet the young master. Perhaps five hundred
+persons—nearly all slaves—had been employed on the huge
+estate, and they were all at hand. As Drusus came up the
+avenue, a general shout of welcome greeted him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Ave! Ave! Domine!</i>" and there were some shouts as
+Cornelia was seen of, "<i>Ave! Domina!</i>"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Domina</i><a name="r22" href="#fn22">[22]</a> here very soon," said Drusus, smiling to the
+young lady; and disengaging himself from her, he advanced
+to greet personally a tall, ponderous figure, with white, flowing
+hair, a huge white beard, and a left arm that had been severed
+at the wrist, who came forward with a swinging military
+stride that seemed to belie his evident years.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"All hail, dearest Mamercus!" exclaimed the young man,
+running up to the burly object. "Here is the little boy
+you used to scold, fondle, and tell stories to, back safe and
+sound to hear the old tales and to listen to some more
+admonitions."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The veteran made a hurried motion with his remaining
+hand, as if to brush something away from his eyes, and his
+deep voice seemed a trifle husky when he replied, speaking
+slowly:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Mehercle!</i><a name="r23" href="#fn23">[23]</a> All the Gods be praised! The noble Sextus
+living again in the form of his son! Ah! This makes my
+old heart glad;" and he held out his hand to Drusus. But
+the young man dashed it away, and flinging his arms around
+Mamercus's neck, kissed him on both cheeks. Then when
+this warm greeting was over, Drusus had to salute Titus
+Mamercus, a solid, stocky, honest-faced country lad of eighteen,
+the son of the veteran; and after Titus—since the
+Mamerci and Drusi were remotely related and the <i>jus
+oscului</i><a name="r24" href="#fn24">[24]</a>—less legally, the "right of kissing"—existed between
+them, he felt called upon to press the cheek of
+Æmilia, Mamercus's pretty daughter, of about her brother's
+age. Cornelia seemed a little discomposed at this, and perhaps
+so gave her lover a trifling delight. But next he had
+to shake all the freedmen by the hand, also the older and
+better known slaves; and to say something in reply to their
+congratulations. The mass of the slaves he could not know
+personally; but to the assembled company he spoke a few
+words, with that quiet dignity which belongs to those who
+are the heirs of generations of lordly ancestors.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"This day I assume control of my estate. All past offences
+are forgiven. I remit any punishments, however justly imposed.
+To those who are my faithful servants and clients
+I will prove a kind and reasonable master. Let none in the
+future be mischievous or idle; for them I cannot spare. But
+since the season is hot, in honour of my home-coming, for the
+next ten days I order that no work, beyond that barely
+needed, be done in the fields. Let the familia enjoy rest,
+and let them receive as much wine as they may take without
+being unduly drunken. Geta, Antiochus, and Kebes, who
+have been in this house many years, shall go with me before
+the prætor, to be set free."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And then, while the slaves still shouted their <i>aves</i> and
+<i>salves</i>, Mamercus led Drusus and Cornelia through the old
+villa, through the atrium where the fountain tinkled, and
+the smoky, waxen death-masks of Quintus's noble ancestors
+grinned from the presses on the wall; through the handsomely
+furnished rooms for the master of the house; out to
+the barns and storehouses, that stretched away in the rear
+of the great farm building. Much pride had the veteran
+when he showed the sleek cattle, the cackling poultry-yard,
+and the tall stacks of hay; only he growled bitterly over
+what he termed the ill-timed leniency of his young patron
+in releasing the slaves in the chain-gang.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, such times!" he muttered in his beard; "here's this
+young upstart coming home, and teaches me that such dogs
+as I put in fetters are better set at large! There'll be a
+slave revolt next, and some night all our throats will be
+cut. But it's none of my doing."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well," said Drusus, smiling, "I've been interested at
+Athens in learning from philosophy that one owes some kindness
+even to a slave. But it's always your way, Mamercus,
+to tell how much better the old times were than the new."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And I am right," growled the other. "Hasn't a man who
+fought with Marius, and helped to beat those northern giants,
+the Cimbri and Teutones, a right to his opinion? The times
+are evil—evil! No justice in the courts. No patriotism in
+the Senate. Rascality in every consul and prætor. And the
+'Roman People' orators declaim about are only a mob! <i>Vah!</i>
+We need an end to this game of fauns and satyrs!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Come," said Drusus, "we are not at such a direful strait
+yet. There is one man at least whom I am convinced is not
+altogether a knave; and I have determined to throw in my
+lot with him. Do you guess, Mamercus?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Cæsar?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus nodded. Mamercus broke out into a shout of
+approval.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Euge!</i> Unless my son Decimus, who is centurion with
+him, writes me false, <i>he</i> is a man!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Cornelia was distressed of face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Quintus," she said very gravely, "do you know that I
+have often heard that Cæsar is a wicked libertine, who
+wishes to make himself tyrant? What have you done?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Nothing rashly," said Drusus, also quite grave; "but I
+have counted the matter on both sides—the side of Pompeius
+and the Senate, and the side of Cæsar—and I have written to
+Balbus, Cæsar's manager at Rome, that I shall use my tiny
+influence for the proconsul of the Gauls."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia seemed greatly affected; she clasped and unclasped
+her hands, pressed them to her brows; then when she let
+them fall, she was again smiling.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Quintus," she said, putting her arm around him, "Quintus,
+I am only a silly little girl. I do not know anything about
+politics. You are wiser than I, and I can trust you. But
+please don't quarrel with my uncle Lentulus about your
+decision. He would be terribly angry."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Quintus smiled in turn, and kissing her, said: "Can you
+trust me? I hope so. And be assured I will do all I may,
+not to quarrel with your uncle. And now away with all this
+silly serious talk! What a pity for Mamercus to have been so
+gloomy as to introduce it! What a pity I must go to Rome
+to-morrow, and leave this dear old place! But then, I have
+to see my aunt Fabia, and little Livia, the sister I haven't met
+since she was a baby. And while I am in Rome I will do
+something else—can you guess?" Cornelia shook her head.
+"Carpenters, painters, masons! I will send them out to
+make this old villa fresh and pretty for some one who, I hope,
+will come here to live in about a month. No, don't run
+away," for Cornelia was trying to hide her flushed face by
+flight; "I have something else to get—a present for your
+own dear self. What shall it be? I am rich; cost does not
+matter."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia pursed her lips in thought.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well," she remarked, "if you could bring me out a pretty
+boy, not too old or too young, one that was honest and quick-witted,
+he would be very convenient to carry messages to
+you, and to do any little business for me."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia asked for a slave-boy just as she might have asked
+for a new pony, with that indifference to the question of
+humanity which indicated that the demarcation between a
+slave and an animal was very slight in her mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh! that is nothing," said Drusus; "you shall have the
+handsomest and cleverest in all Rome. And if Mamercus
+complains that I am extravagant in remodelling the house, let
+him remember that his wonderful Cæsar, when a young man,
+head over ears in debt, built an expensive villa at Aricia, and
+then pulled it down to the foundations and rebuilt on an
+improved plan. Farewell, Sir Veteran, I will take Cornelia
+home, and then come back for that dinner which I know the
+cook has made ready with his best art."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Arm in arm the young people went away down the avenue
+of shade trees, dim in the gathering twilight. Mamercus
+stood gazing after them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What a pity! What a pity!" he repeated to himself,
+"that Sextus and Caius are not alive; how they would have
+rejoiced in their children! Why do the fates order things as
+they do? Only let them be kind enough to let me live until
+I hold another little Drusus on my knee, and tell him of the
+great battles! But the Gods forbid, Lentulus should find
+out speedily that his lordship has gone over to Cæsar; or
+there will be trouble enough for both his lordship and my
+lady. The consul-elect is a stubborn, bitter man. He would
+be terribly offended to give his niece in marriage to a political
+enemy. But it may all turn out well. Who knows?" And
+he went into the house.
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h2 id="ch2">CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h2>THE UPPER WALKS OF SOCIETY</h2>
+
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+It was very early in the morning. From the streets, far below,
+a dull rumbling was drifting in at the small, dim windows.
+On the couch, behind some faded curtains, a man turned and
+yawned, grunted and rubbed his eyes. The noise of the heavy
+timber, stone, and merchandise wagons hastening out of the city
+before daybreak,<a name="r25" href="#fn25">[25]</a> jarred the room, and made sleep almost
+impossible. The person awakened swore quietly to himself
+in Greek.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Heracles!</i> Was ever one in such a city! What malevolent
+spirit brought me here? Throat-cutting on the streets at
+night; highwaymen in every foul alley; unsafe to stir at evening
+without an armed band! No police worth mentioning;
+freshets every now and then; fires every day or else a building
+tumbles down. And then they must wake me up at an unearthly
+hour in the morning. Curses on me for ever coming
+near the place!" And the speaker rolled over on the bed, and
+shook himself, preparatory to getting up.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Bah! Can these Roman dogs never learn that power is to be
+used, not abused? Why don't they spend some of their revenues
+to level these seven hills that shut off the light, and
+straighten and widen their abominable, ill-paved streets, and
+keep houses from piling up as if to storm Olympus? Pshaw, I
+had better stop croaking, and be up and about."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The speaker sat up in bed, and clapped his hands. Into the
+ill-lighted and unpretentiously furnished room came a tall,
+bony, ebon-skinned old Ethiopian, very scantily attired, who
+awaited the wishes of his master.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Come, Sesostris," said the latter, "get out my best
+<i>himation</i><a name="r26" href="#fn26">[26]</a>—the one with the azure tint. Give me a clean
+<i>chiton</i>,<a name="r27" href="#fn27">[27]</a> and help me dress."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And while the servant bustled briskly about his work, Pratinas,
+for such was his lord's name, continued his monologue,
+ignoring the presence of his attendant. "Not so bad with me
+after all. Six years ago to-day it was I came to Rome, with
+barely an obol of ready money, to make my fortune by my wits.
+Zeus! But I can't but say I've succeeded. A thousand sesterces
+here and five hundred there, and now and then a better
+stroke of fortune—politics, intrigues, gambling; all to the same
+end. And now?—oh, yes, my 'friends' would say I am very
+respectable, but quite poor—but they don't know how I have
+economized, and how my account stands with Sosthenes the
+banker at Alexandria. My old acquaintance with Lucius Domitius
+was of some use. A few more months of this life and I am
+away from this beastly Rome, to enjoy myself among civilized
+people."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Pratinas went over to a large wooden chest with iron clasps,
+unlocked it, and gazed for a moment inside with evident satisfaction.
+"There are six good talents in there," he remarked to
+himself, "and then there is Artemisia."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He had barely concluded this last, hardly intelligible assertion,
+when the curtain of the room was pushed aside, and in
+came a short, plump, rosy-faced little maiden of twelve, with a
+clearly chiselled Greek profile and lips as red as a cherry. Her
+white chiton was mussed and a trifle soiled; and her thick black
+hair was tied back in a low knot, so as to cover what were two
+very shapely little ears. All in all, she presented a very pretty
+picture, as the sunlight streamed over her, when she drew
+back the hangings at the window.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Good morning, Uncle Pratinas," she said sweetly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Good morning, Artemisia, my dear," replied the other, giving
+her round neck a kiss, and a playful pinch. "You will
+practise on your lyre, and let Sesostris teach you to sing.
+You know we shall go back to Alexandria very soon; and it
+is pleasant there to have some accomplishments."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And must you go out so early, uncle?" said the girl.
+"Can't you stay with me any part of the day? Sometimes I
+get very lonely."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ah! my dear," said Pratinas, smoothly, "if I could do
+what I wished, I would never leave you. But business cannot
+wait. I must go and see the noble Lucius Calatinus on
+some very important political matters, which you could not
+understand. Now run away like a good girl, and don't become
+doleful."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Artemisia left the room, and Pratinas busied himself about
+the fine touches of his toilet. When he held the silver mirror
+up to his face, he remarked to himself that he was not an
+unhandsome man. "If I did not have to play the philosopher,
+and wear this thick, hot beard,<a name="r28" href="#fn28">[28]</a> I would not be ashamed to
+show my head anywhere." Then while he perfumed himself
+with oil of saffron out of a little onyx bottle, he went on:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What dogs and gluttons these Romans are! They have
+no real taste for art, for beauty. They cannot even conduct a
+murder, save in a bungling way. They have to call in us
+Hellenes to help them. Ha! ha! this is the vengeance for
+Hellas, for the sack and razing of Corinth and all the other
+atrocities! Rome can conquer with the sword; but we Greeks,
+though conquered, can, unarmed, conquer Rome. How these
+Italians can waste their money! Villas, statues, pretty slaves,
+costly vases, and tables of mottled cypress,<a name="r29" href="#fn29">[29]</a> oysters worth
+their weight in gold, and I know not what else! And I, poor
+Pratinas, the Greek, who lives in an upper floor of a Subura
+house at only two thousand sesterces rental, find in these
+noble Roman lords only so much plunder. Ha! ha! Hellas,
+thou art avenged!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And gathering his mantle about him, he went down the
+several flights of very rickety stairs, and found himself in the
+buzzing street.
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+The Romans hugged a fond belief that houses shut out from
+sunlight and air were extremely healthy. If such were the
+fact, there should have been no sickness in a great part of the
+capital. The street in which Pratinas found himself was so
+dark, that he was fain to wait till his eyes accommodated
+themselves to the change. The street was no wider than an
+alley, yet packed with booths and hucksters,—sellers of
+boiled peas and hot sausage, and fifty other wares. On the
+worthy Hellene pressed, while rough German slaves or swarthy
+Africans jostled against him; the din of scholars declaiming
+in an adjoining school deafened him; a hundred unhappy
+odors made him wince. Then, as he fought his way, the
+streets grew a trifle wider; as he approached the Forum the
+shops became more pretentious; at last he reached his destination
+in the aristocratic quarter of the Palatine, and paused
+before a new and ostentatious mansion, in whose vestibule was
+swarming a great bevy of clients, all come in the official calling
+costume—a ponderous toga—to pay their respects to the
+great man. But as the inner door was pushed aside by the
+vigilant keeper, all the rest of the crowd were kept out till
+Pratinas could pass within.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The atrium of the house was a splendid sight, with its
+veined marble pillars, mosaic floor, bubbling fountain, choice
+frescoes, and expensive furniture upholstered in Tyrian purple.
+A little in the rear of this gorgeous room was seated in a high
+armchair the individual who boasted himself the lord of this
+establishment, Lucius Atilius Calatinus. He was a large,
+coarse man, with a rough, bull-dog face and straight red hair.
+He had been drinking heavily the night before, and his small
+bluish eyes had wide dark circles beneath them, and his
+breath showed strongly the garlic with which he had seasoned
+the bread and grapes of his early lunch. He was evidently
+very glad to see his Greek visitor, and drove the six large,
+heavily gemmed rings which he wore on one of his fat fingers,
+almost into the other's hand when he shook it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well met, Pratinas!" was his salutation. "Tell me, is that
+little affair of yours settled? Have you stopped the mouth
+of that beastly fellow, Postumus Pyrgensis, who said that I was
+a base upstart, with no claim to my gentile name, and a bad
+record as a tax farmer in Spain, and therefore should not be
+elected tribune<a name="r30" href="#fn30">[30]</a>?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I have stopped him," said Pratinas, with a little cough.
+"But it was expensive. He stuck out for ten thousand sesterces."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, cheaply off," said Calatinus, laughing. "I will give you
+my cheque on Flaccus the banker. But I want to know about
+the other matter. Can you make sure of the votes of the Suburana
+tribe? Have you seen Autronius?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I have seen him," said Pratinas, dryly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And he said?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Twenty thousand sesterces for him to deposit with trustees<a name="r31" href="#fn31">[31]</a>
+until the election is over. Then he as go-between<a name="r32" href="#fn32">[32]</a> will make
+sure of a majority of the tribesmen, and distribute to them the
+money if all goes well at the <i>comitia</i>.<a name="r33" href="#fn33">[33]</a> It was the best bargain
+I could make; for Autronius really controls the tribe, and some
+one might outbid us."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"All right," broke out Calatinus with a laugh, "another
+cheque on Flaccus."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"One thing else," said Pratinas; "I must have a little money
+to shut up any complaints that those ridiculous anti-bribery
+Licinian and Pompeian Laws are being broken. Then there is
+my fee."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, yes," replied the other, not to be daunted in his good
+humour, "I'll give you fifty thousand in all. Now I must see
+this rabble."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And the mob of clients swept up to the armchair, grasping
+after the great man's hand, and raining on him their <i>aves</i>,
+while some daring mortals tried to thrust in a kiss.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Pratinas drew back and watched the crowd with a smile half
+cynical, half amused. Some of the visitors were regular hangers-on,
+who perhaps expected an invitation to dine; some were
+seekers of patronage; some had an eye to political preferment,
+a few were real acquaintances of Calatinus or came on some
+legitimate business. Pratinas observed three friends waiting
+to speak with Calatinus, and was soon in conversation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The first of the trio was known as Publius Gabinius, who was
+by far the oldest. Coarse-featured, with broken complexion,
+it needed but a glance to proclaim him as gifted with no other
+distinctions than those of a hard drinker, fast liver, and the
+owner of an attenuated conscience. Servius Flaccus, the second,
+was of a different type. He was languid; spirited only when
+he railed at a slave who brushed against his immaculate toga.
+The frills on his robes made him almost feminine; and he
+spoke, even in invective, in a soft, lisping voice. Around him
+floated the aroma of countless rare unguents, that made his
+coming known afar off. His only aim in life was evidently to
+get through it with as little exertion of brain or muscle as was
+possible. The third friend was unlike the others. Lucius Domitius
+Ahenobarbus clearly amounted to more than either of his
+companions. A constant worship of three very popular gods of
+the day—Women, Wine, and Gaming—with the other excitements
+of a dissipated life, had ruined a fine fair complexion.
+As it was, he had the profile of a handsome, affable man; only
+the mouth was hard and sensual, and his skin was faded and
+broken. He wore a little brown beard carefully trimmed around
+his well-oiled chin after the manner of Roman men of fashion;
+and his dark hair was crimped in regular steps or gradations,
+parting in the middle and arranged on both sides like a
+girl's.<a name="r34" href="#fn34">[34]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Good morning, Pratinas!" said Lucius, warmly, taking the
+Greek's hand. "How glad we are to find you here. I wanted
+to ask you around to Marcus Læca's to-night; we think he
+will give something of a feast, and you must see my latest
+sweetheart—Clyte! She is a little pearl. I have had her
+head cut in intaglio on this onyx; is she not pretty?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Very pretty," said Pratinas, looking at the engraving on
+the ring. "But perhaps it is not right for me, a grave philosopher,
+to go to your banquet."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"How (h)absurd! (H)of c(h)ourse you c(h)an!" lisped
+Flaccus, who affected Greek so far as to aspirate every word
+beginning with a vowel, and to change every <i>c</i> into a <i>ch</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well," said Pratinas, laughing, for he was a dearly loved
+favourite of all these gilded youth, "I will see! And now
+Gabinius is inviting Calatinus also, and we are dispersing for
+the morning."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Alas," groaned Ahenobarbus, "I must go to the Forum
+to plead with that wretch Phormio, the broker, to arrange a
+new loan."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And I to the Forum, also," added Calatinus, coming up,
+"to continue this pest of a canvass for votes."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The clients fell into line behind Calatinus like a file of
+soldiers, but before Pratinas could start away with the other
+friends, a slave-boy came running out from the inner house,
+to say that "the Lady Valeria would be glad of his company
+in her boudoir." The Greek bowed his farewells, then followed
+the boy back through the court of the peristylium.<a name="r35" href="#fn35">[35]</a>
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>III</h3>
+
+<p>
+The dressing room occupied by Valeria—once wife of
+Sextus Drusus and now living with Calatinus as her third
+husband in about four years—was fitted up with every luxury
+which money, and a taste which carried refinement to
+an extreme point, could accomplish. The walls were bright
+with splendid mythological scenes by really good artists; the
+furniture itself was plated with silver; the rugs were magnificent.
+The mistress of this palatial abode was sitting in a
+low easy-chair, holding before her a fairly large silver mirror.
+She wore a loose gown of silken texture, edged to an ostentatious
+extent with purple. Around her hovered Arsinoë and
+Semiramis, two handsome Greek slave-girls, who were far
+better looking than their owner, inasmuch as their complexions
+had never been ruined by paints and ointments.
+They were expert hairdressers, and Valeria had paid twenty-five
+thousand sesterces for each of them, on the strength of
+their proficiency in that art, and because they were said to
+speak with a pure Attic Greek accent. At the moment they
+were busy stripping off from the lady's face a thick layer of
+dried enamel that had been put on the night before.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Had Valeria been willing, she might have feared no comparison
+with her maids; for from a merely sensuous standpoint,
+she would have been reckoned very beautiful. She had by
+nature large brown eyes, luxuriant brown hair, and what had
+been a clear brunette skin, and well-rounded and regular
+features. But her lips were curled in hard, haughty lines, her
+long eyelashes drooped as though she took little interest in
+life; and, worse than all, to satisfy the demands of fashion,
+she had bleached her hair to a German blonde, by a process
+ineffective and injurious. The lady was just fuming to herself
+over a gray hair Arsinoë had discovered, and Arsinoë
+went around in evident fear lest Valeria should vent her
+vexation on her innocent ministers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Over in one corner of the room, on a low divan, was sitting
+a strange-looking personage. A gaunt, elderly man clothed in
+a very dingy Greek himation, with shaggy grey hair, and an
+enormous beard that tumbled far down his breast. This
+personage was Pisander, Valeria's "house-philosopher," who
+was expected to be always at her elbow pouring into her ears
+a rain of learned lore. For this worthy lady (and two thousand
+years later would she not be attending lectures on Dante
+or Browning?) was devoted to philosophy, and loved to hear
+the Stoics<a name="r36" href="#fn36">[36]</a> and Epicureans expound their varying systems of
+the cosmos. At this moment she was feasting her soul on
+Plato. Pisander was reading from the "Phaidros," "They
+might have seen beauty shining in brightness, when the happy
+band, following in the train of Zeus (as we philosophers did;
+or with the other gods, as others did), saw a vision, and were
+initiated into most blessed mysteries, which we celebrated in
+our state of innocence; and having no feeling of evils yet to
+come; beholding apparitions, innocent and simple and calm
+and happy as in a mystery; shining in pure light; pure ourselves,
+and not yet enchained in that living tomb which we
+carry about, now that we are imprisoned in the body ..."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Pratinas, to see her ladyship!" bawled a servant-boy<a name="r37" href="#fn37">[37]</a>
+at the doorway, very unceremoniously interrupting the good
+man and his learnedly sublime lore. And Pratinas, with
+the softest and sweetest of his Greek smiles, entered the
+room.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Your ladyship does me the honour," he began, with an
+extremely deferential salutation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, my dear Pratinas," cried Valeria, in a language she
+called Greek, seizing his hand and almost embracing him,
+"how delighted I am to see you! We haven't met since—since
+yesterday morning. I did so want to have a good talk
+with you about Plato's theory of the separate existence of
+ideas. But first I must ask you, have you heard whether the
+report is true that Terentia, Caius Glabrio's wife, has run off
+with a gladiator?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"So Gabinius, I believe," replied Pratinas, "just told me.
+And I heard something else. A great secret. You must not
+tell."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh! I am dying to know," smirked Valeria.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well," said the Greek, confidentially, "Publius Silanus has
+divorced his wife, Crispia. 'She went too much,' he says,
+'with young Purpureo.'"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You do not say so!" exclaimed the lady. "I always
+knew that would happen! Now tell me, don't you think this
+perfume of iris is delicate? It's in that little glass scent
+bottle; break the neck.<a name="r38" href="#fn38">[38]</a> I shall use it in a minute. I have
+just had some bottles sent up from Capua. Roman perfumes
+are so vulgar!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I fear," said Pratinas, doing as bidden, and testing the
+essence with evident satisfaction, "that I have interrupted
+your philosophical studies." And he glanced at Pisander,
+who was sitting lonesome and offended in his corner.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh! not in the least," ran on Valeria; "but though I
+know you are Epicurean, surely you enjoy Plato?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Certainly," said Pratinas, with dramatic dignity, "I suck
+the sweets from the flowers left us by all the wise and good.
+Epicurean though I am, your ladyship must permit me to
+lend you a copy of an essay I have with me, by that great
+philosopher, the Stoic Chrysippos,<a name="r39" href="#fn39">[39]</a> although I cannot agree
+with all his teachings; and this copy of Panaitios, the
+Eclectic's great <i>Treatise on Duty</i>, which cannot fail to edify
+your ladyship." And he held out the two rolls.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"A thousand thanks," said Valeria, languidly, "hand them
+to Pisander. I will have him read them. A little more
+white lead, Arsinoë, I am too tanned; make me paler. Just
+run over the veins of my temples with a touch of blue paint.
+Now a tint of antimony on my eyelids."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Your ladyship seems in wonderfully good spirits this
+morning," insinuated Pratinas.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes," said Valeria, with a sigh, "I endure the woes of
+life as should one who is consoled by philosophy."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Shall I continue the Plato?" edged in poor Pisander,
+who was raging inwardly to think that Pratinas should dare
+to assume the name of a "lover of learning."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"When you are needed, I can tell you," snapped Valeria,
+sharply, at the feeble remonstrance. "Now, Semiramis, you
+may arrange my hair."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The girl looked puzzled. To tell the truth, Valeria was speaking
+in a tongue that was a babel of Greek and Latin, although
+she fondly imagined it to be the former, and Semiramis could
+hardly understand her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"If your ladyship will speak in Latin," faltered the maid.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Speak in Latin! Speak in Latin!" flared up Valeria. "Am
+I deceived? Are you not Greeks? Are you some ignorant Italian
+wenches who can't speak anything but their native jargon?
+Bah! You've misplaced a curl. Take that!" And she struck
+the girl across the palms, with the flat of her silver mirror.
+Semiramis shivered and flushed, but said nothing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Do I not have a perfect Greek pronunciation?" said the
+lady, turning to Pratinas. "It is impossible to carry on a polite
+conversation in Latin."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I can assure your ladyship," said the Hellene, with still
+another bland smile, "that your pronunciation is something
+exceedingly remarkable."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Valeria was pacified, and lay back submitting to her
+hairdressers<a name="r40" href="#fn40">[40]</a>, while Pratinas, who knew what kind of
+"philosophy" appealed most to his fair patroness, read with
+a delicate yet altogether admirable voice, a number of scraps
+of erotic verse that he said friends had just sent on from
+Alexandria.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh! the shame to call himself a philosopher," groaned the
+neglected Pisander to himself. "If I believed in the old gods, I
+would invoke the Furies upon him."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Valeria was now in the best of spirits. "By the two
+Goddesses,"<a name="r41" href="#fn41">[41]</a> she swore, "what charming sentiments you
+Greeks can express. Now I think I look presentable, and can
+go around and see Papiria, and learn about that dreadful
+Silanus affair. Tell Agias to bring in the cinnamon ointment.
+I will try that for a change. It is in the murrhine<a name="r42" href="#fn42">[42]</a> vase in the
+other room."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Iasus the serving-boy stepped into the next apartment, and
+gave the order to one of his fellow slaves. A minute later
+there was a crash. Arsinoë, who was without, screamed, and
+Semiramis, who thrust her head out the door, drew it back with
+a look of dismay.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What has happened?" cried Valeria, startled and angry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Into the room came Arsinoë, Iasus, and a second slave-boy, a
+well-favoured, intelligent looking young Greek of about seventeen.
+His ruddy cheeks had turned very pale, as had those of
+Iasus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What has happened?" thundered Valeria, in a tone that
+showed that a sorry scene was impending.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The slaves fell on their knees; cowered, in fact, on the rugs
+at the lady's feet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>A! A! A!</i> Lady! Mercy!" they all began in a breath.
+"The murrhina vase! It is broken!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Who broke it?" cried their mistress, casting lightning
+glances from one to another.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now the truth had been, that while Agias was coming through
+a door covered with a curtain, carrying the vase, Iasus had carelessly
+blundered against him and caused the catastrophe. But
+there had been no other witnesses to the accident; and when
+Iasus saw that his mistress's anger would promptly descend on
+somebody, he had not the moral courage to take the consequences
+of his carelessness. What amounted to a frightful
+crime was committed in an instant.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Agias stumbled and dropped the vase," said Iasus, telling
+the truth, but not the whole truth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Send for Alfidius the <i>lorarius</i>,"<a name="r43" href="#fn43">[43]</a> raged Valeria, who, with the
+promptness that characterizes a certain class of women, jumped
+at a conclusion and remained henceforth obstinate. "This
+shall not happen again! Oh! my vase! my vase! I shall never
+get another one like it! It was one of the spoils of Mithridates,
+and"—here her eye fell on Agias, cringing and protesting his
+innocence in a fearful agony.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Stand up, boy! Stop whining! Of course you broke the
+vase. Who else had it? I will make you a lesson to all the
+slaves in my house. They need one badly. I will get another
+serving-boy who will be more careful."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias was deathly pale; the beads of sweat stood out on his
+forehead; he grasped convulsively at the hem of his mistress's
+robe, and murmured wildly of "mercy! mercy!" Pratinas
+stood back with his imperturbable smile on his face; and if he
+felt the least pity for his fellow-countryman, he did not show it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Alfidius awaits the mistress," announced Semiramis, with
+trembling lips.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Into the room came a brutish, hard-featured, shock-headed
+man, with a large scar, caused by branding, on his forehead.
+He carried a short rope and scourge,<a name="r44" href="#fn44">[44]</a>—a whip with a short
+handle to which were attached three long lashes, set at intervals
+with heavy bits of bronze. He cast one glance over the
+little group in the room, and his dull piglike eyes seemed to
+light up with a fierce glee, as he comprehended the situation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What does your ladyship wish?" he growled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Take this wretched boy," cried Valeria, spurning Agias
+with her foot; "take him away. Make an example of him.
+Take him out beyond the Porta Esquilina and whip him to
+death. Let me never see him again."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Pisander sprang up in his corner, quivering with righteous
+wrath.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What is this?" he cried. "The lad is not guilty of any
+real crime. It would be absurd to punish a horse for an action
+like his, and a slave is as good as a horse. What philosopher
+could endure to see such an outrage?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Valeria was too excited to hear him. Pratinas coolly took
+the perturbed philosopher round the waist, and by sheer force
+seated him in a chair.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My friend," he said calmly, "you can only lose your place by
+interfering; the boy is food for the crows already. Philosophy
+should teach you to regard little affairs like this unmoved."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Before Pisander could remonstrate further Alfidius had
+caught up Agias as if he had been an infant, and carried him,
+while moaning and pleading, out of the room. Iasus was still
+trembling. He was not a knave—simply unheroic, and he
+knew that he had committed the basest of actions. Semiramis
+and Arsinoë were both very pale, but spoke never a word.
+Arsinoë looked pityingly after the poor boy, for she had grown
+very fond of his bright words and obliging manners. For
+some minutes there was, in fact, perfect silence in the boudoir.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alfidius carried his victim out into the slaves' quarters in
+the rear of the house; there he bound his hands and called in
+the aid of an assistant to help him execute his mistress's stern
+mandate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias had been born for far better things than to be a slave.
+His father had been a cultured Alexandrine Greek, a banker,
+and had given his young son the beginnings of a good education.
+But the rascality of a business partner had sent the
+father to the grave bankrupt, the son to the slave-market to
+satisfy the creditors. And now Alfidius and his myrmidon
+bound their captive to a furca, a wooden yoke passing down
+the back of the neck and down each arm. The rude thongs
+cut the flesh cruelly, and the wretches laughed to see how the
+delicate boy writhed and faltered under the pain and the load.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ah, ha! my fine <i>Furcifer</i>,"<a name="r45" href="#fn45">[45]</a> cried Alfidius, when this
+work was completed. "How do you find yourself?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Do you mock at me, you '<i>three letter man</i>'?" retorted
+Agias in grim despair, referring cuttingly to FVR<a name="r46" href="#fn46">[46]</a> branded
+on Alfidius's forehead.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"So you sing, my pretty bird," laughed the executioner.
+"I think you will croak sorrowfully enough before long. Call
+me '<i>man of letters</i>' if you will; to-night the dogs tear that
+soft skin of yours, while my hide is sound. Now off for the
+Porta Esquilina! Trot along with you!" and he swung his
+lash over the wretched boy's shoulders.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias was led out into the street. He was too pained and
+numbed to groan, resist, or even think and fear. The thongs
+might well have been said to press his mind as much as his
+skin.
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h2 id="ch3">CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h2>THE PRIVILEGE OF A VESTAL</h2>
+
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+Drusus started long before daybreak on his journey to
+Rome; with him went Cappadox, his ever faithful body-servant,
+and Pausanias, the amiable and cultivated freedman
+who had been at his elbow ever since he had visited Athens.
+For a while the young master dozed in his carriage; but, as
+they whirled over mile after mile of the Campagna, the sun
+arose; then, when sleep left him, the Roman was all alive to
+the patriotic reminiscences each scene suggested. Yonder to
+the far south lay Alba, the old home of the Latins, and a little
+southward too was the Lake of Regillus, where tradition had
+it the free Romans won their first victory, and founded the
+greatness of the Republic. Along the line of the Anio, a few
+miles north, had marched Hannibal on his mad dash against
+Rome to save the doomed Capua. And these pictures of brave
+days, and many another vision like them, welled up in Drusus's
+mind, and the remembrance of the marble temples of the
+Greek cities faded from his memory; for, as he told himself,
+Rome was built of nobler stuff than marble;—she was built
+of the deeds of men strong and brave, and masters of every
+hostile fate. And he rejoiced that he could be a Roman, and
+share in his country's deathless fame, perhaps could win for
+her new honour,—could be consul, triumphator, and lead his
+applauding legions up to the temple of Capitoline Jove—another
+national glory added to so many.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So the vision of the great city of tall ugly tenement houses,
+basking on her "Seven Hills," which only on their summits
+showed the nobler temples or the dwellings of the great patricians,
+broke upon him. And it was with eyes a-sparkle with
+enthusiasm, and a light heart, that he reached the Porta
+Esquilina, left the carriage for a litter borne by four stout
+Syrians sent out from the house of his late uncle, and was
+carried soon into the hubbub of the city streets.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Everywhere was the same crowd; shopping parties were
+pressing in and out the stores, outrunners and foot-boys were
+continually colliding. Drusus's escort could barely win a slow
+progress for their master. Once on the Sacred Way the
+advance was more rapid; although even this famous street
+was barely twenty-two feet wide from house wall to house wall.
+Here was the "Lombard" or "Wall Street" of antiquity.
+Here were the offices of the great banking houses and syndicates
+that held the world in fee. Here centred those busy
+equites, the capitalists, whose transactions ran out even beyond
+the lands covered by the eagles, so that while Gaul was yet
+unconquered, Cicero could boast, "not a sesterce in Gaul
+changes hands without being entered in a Roman ledger."
+And here were brokers whose clients were kings, and who
+by their "influence" almost made peace or war, like modern
+Rothschilds.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thither Drusus's litter carried him, for he knew that his
+first act on coming to Rome to take possession of his uncle's
+property should be to consult without delay his agent and
+financial and legal adviser, lest any loophole be left for a
+disappointed fortune-hunter to contest the will. The bearers
+put him down before the important firm of Flaccus and Sophus.
+Out from the open, windowless office ran the senior partner,
+Sextus Fulvius Flaccus, a stout, comfortable, rosy-faced old
+eques, who had half Rome as his financial clients, the other
+half in his debt. Many were his congratulations upon Drusus's
+manly growth, and many more upon the windfall of Vibulanus's
+fortune, which, as he declared, was too securely conveyed
+to the young man to be open to any legal attack.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But when Drusus intimated that he expected soon to invite
+the good man to his marriage feast, Flaccus shook his
+head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You will never get a sesterce of Cornelia's dowry," he
+declared. "Her uncle Lentulus Crus is head over ears in debt.
+Nothing can save him, unless—"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I don't understand you," said the other.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well," continued Flaccus, "to be frank; unless there is
+nothing short of a revolution."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Will it come to that?" demanded Drusus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Can't say," replied Flaccus, as if himself perplexed.
+"Everybody declares Cæsar and Pompeius are dreadfully
+alienated. Pompeius is joining the Senate. Half the great
+men of Rome are in debt, as I have cause to know, and unless
+we have an overturn, with 'clean accounts' as a result, more
+than one noble lord is ruined. I am calling in all my loans,
+turning everything into cash. Credit is bad—bad. Cæsar
+paid Curio's debts—sixty millions of sesterces.<a name="r47" href="#fn47">[47]</a> That's why
+Curio is a Cæsarian now. Oh! money is the cause of all
+these vile political changes! Trouble is coming! Sulla's old
+throat cuttings will be nothing to it! But don't marry Lentulus's
+niece!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well," said Drusus, when the business was done, and he
+turned to go, "I want Cornelia, not her dowry."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Strange fellow," muttered Flaccus, while Drusus started
+off in his litter. "I always consider the dowry the principal
+part of a marriage."
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+Drusus regained his litter, and ordered his bearers to take
+him to the house of the Vestals,—back of the Temple of
+Vesta,—where he wished to see his aunt Fabia and Livia,
+his little half-sister. The Temple itself—a small, round
+structure, with columns, a conical roof which was fringed
+about with dragons and surmounted by a statue—still
+showed signs of the fire, which, in 210 B.C., would have
+destroyed it but for thirteen slaves, who won their liberty
+by checking the blaze. Tradition had it that here the holy
+Numa had built the hut which contained the hearth-fire of
+Rome,—the divine spark which now shed its radiance over
+the nations. Back of the Temple was the House of the Vestals,
+a structure with a plain exterior, differing little from the
+ordinary private dwellings. Here Drusus had his litter set
+down for a second time, and notified the porter that he would
+be glad to see his aunt and sister. The young man was
+ushered into a spacious, handsomely furnished and decorated
+atrium, where were arranged lines of statues of the various
+<i>maximæ</i><a name="r48" href="#fn48">[48]</a> of the little religious order. A shy young girl with
+a white dress and fillet, who was reading in the apartment,
+slipped noiselessly out, as the young man entered; for the
+novices were kept under strict control, with few liberties, until
+their elder sisters could trust them in male society. Then
+there was a rustle of robes and ribbons, and in came a tall,
+stately lady, also in pure white, and a little girl of about five,
+who shrank coyly back when Drusus called her his "Liviola"<a name="r49" href="#fn49">[49]</a>
+and tried to catch her in his arms. But the lady embraced
+him, and kissed him, and asked a thousand things about him,
+as tenderly as if she had been his mother.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fabia the Vestal was now about thirty-seven years of age.
+One and thirty years before had the Pontifex Maximus chosen
+her out—a little girl—to become the priestess of Vesta, the
+hearth-goddess, the home-goddess of Pagan Rome. Fabia had
+dwelt almost all her life in the house of the Vestals. Her very
+existence had become identified with the little sisterhood, which
+she and her five associates composed. It was a rather isolated
+yet singularly pure and peaceful life which she had led. Revolutions
+might rock the city and Empire; Marians and Sullians
+contend; Catilina plot ruin and destruction; Clodius and his
+ruffians terrorize the streets; but the fire of the great hearth-goddess
+was never scattered, nor were its gentle ministers
+molested. Fabia had thus grown to mature womanhood. Ten
+years she had spent in learning the Temple ritual, ten years in
+performing the actual duties of the sacred fire and its cultus,
+ten years in teaching the young novices. And now she was
+free, if she chose, to leave the Temple service, and even to
+marry. But Fabia had no intention of taking a step which
+would tear her from the circle in which she was dearly loved,
+and which, though permitted by law, would be publicly deplored
+as an evil omen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Vestal's pure simple life had left its impress on her
+features. Peace and innocent delight in innocent things shone
+through her dark eyes and soft, well-rounded face. Her light
+brown hair was covered and confined by a fillet of white wool.<a name="r50" href="#fn50">[50]</a>
+She wore a stola and outer garment of stainless white linen—the
+perfectly plain badge of her chaste and holy office; while
+on her small feet were dainty sandals, bound on by thongs of
+whitened leather. Everything about her dress and features
+betokened the priestess of a gentle religion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When questions and repeated salutations were over, and
+Livia had ceased to be too afraid of her quite strange brother,
+Fabia asked what she could do for her nephew. As one of the
+senior Vestals, her time was quite her own. "Would he like
+to have her go out with him to visit friends, or go shopping?
+Or could she do anything to aid him about ordering frescoers
+and carpenters for the old Præneste villa?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This last was precisely what Drusus had had in mind. And
+so forth aunt and nephew sallied. Some of the streets they
+visited were so narrow that they had to send back even their
+litters; but everywhere the crowds bowed such deference and
+respect to the Vestal's white robes that their progress was
+easy. Drusus soon had given his orders to cabinet-makers and
+selected the frescoer's designs. It remained to purchase Cornelia's
+slave-boy. He wanted not merely an attractive serving-lad,
+but one whose intelligence and probity could be relied
+upon; and in the dealers' stalls not one of the dark orientals,
+although all had around their necks tablets with long lists of
+encomiums, promised conscience or character. Drusus visited,
+several very choice boys that were exhibited in separate rooms,
+at fancy prices, but none of these pretty Greeks or Asiatics
+seemed promising.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Deeply disgusted, he led Fabia away from the slave-market.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I will try to-morrow," he said, vexed at his defeat. "I
+need a new toga. Let us go to the shop on the Clivus Suburanus;
+there used to be a good woollen merchant, Lucius Marius,
+on the way to the Porta Esquilina."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Accordingly the two went on in the direction indicated; but
+at the spot where the Clivus Suburanus was cut by the Vicus
+Longus, there was so dense a crowd and so loud a hubbub, that
+their attendants could not clear a way. For a time it was impossible
+to see what was the matter. Street gamins were
+howling, and idle slaves and hucksters were pouring forth volleys
+of taunts and derision at some luckless wight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Away with them! the whip-scoundrel! <i>Verbero!</i>"<a name="r51" href="#fn51">[51]</a> yelled
+a lusty produce-vender. "Lash him again! Tan his hide for
+him! Don't you enjoy it? Not accustomed to such rough
+handling, eh! my pretty sparrow?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fabia without the least hesitation thrust herself into the
+dirty-robed, foul-mouthed crowd. At sight of the Vestal's white
+dress and fillets the pack gave way before her, as a swarm of
+gnats at the wave of a hand. Drusus strode at her heels.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a sorry enough sight that met them—though not
+uncommon in the age and place. Some wretched slave-boy, a
+slight, delicate fellow, had been bound to the bars of a furca,
+and was being driven by two brutal executioners to the place
+of doom outside the gates. At the street-crossing he had sunk
+down, and all the blows of the driver's scourge could not compel
+him to arise. He lay in the dust, writhing and moaning,
+with the great welts showing on his bare back, where the brass
+knots of the lash had stripped away the cloth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Release this boy! Cease to beat him!" cried Fabia, with
+a commanding mien, that made the crowd shrink further back;
+while the two executioners looked stupid and sheepish, but
+did nothing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Release this boy!" commanded the Vestal. "Dare you
+hesitate? Do you wish to undo yourselves by defying me?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Mercy, august lady," cried Alfidius,—for the chief executioner
+was he,—with a supplicatory gesture. "If our mistress
+knows that her commands are unexecuted, it is we, who
+are but slaves, that must suffer!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Who is your mistress?" demanded Fabia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Valeria, wife of Lucius Calatinus."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Livia's precious mother!" whispered Drusus. "I can
+imagine her doing a thing like this." Then aloud, "What
+has the boy done?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"He dropped a murrhine vase," was the answer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And so he must be beaten to death!" exclaimed the young
+man, who, despite the general theory that most slaves were on
+a par with cattle, had much of the milk of human kindness in
+his nature. "<i>Phui!</i> What brutality! You must insist on
+your rights, aunt. Make them let him go."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sulkily enough the executioners unbound the heavy furca.
+Agias staggered to his feet, too dazed really to know what
+deliverance had befallen him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why don't you thank the Vestal?" said Alfidius. "She
+has made us release you—you ungrateful dog!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Released? Saved?" gasped Agias, and he reeled as
+though his head were in a whirl. Then, as if recollecting
+his faculties, he fell down at Fabia's feet, and kissed the hem
+of her robe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The gods save us all now," muttered Alfidius. "Valeria
+will swear that we schemed to have the boy released. We
+shall never dare to face her again!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh! do not send me back to that cruel woman!" moaned
+Agias. "Better die now, than go back to her and incur her
+anger again! Kill me, but do not send me back!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And he broke down again in inward agony.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus had been surveying the boy, and saw that though
+he was now in a pitiable enough state, he had been good-looking;
+and that though his back had been cruelly marred, his
+face had not been cut with the lashes. Perhaps the very fact
+that Agias had been the victim of Valeria, and the high contempt
+in which the young Drusian held his divorced stepmother,
+made him instinctively take the outraged boy's part.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"See here," began Drusus, "were you to be whipped by
+orders of Calatinus?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No," moaned Agias; "Valeria gave the orders. My master
+was out."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ha!" remarked Drusus to his aunt, "won't the good man
+be pleased to know how his wife has killed a valuable slave in
+one of her tantrums?" Then aloud. "If I can buy you of
+Calatinus, and give you to the Lady Cornelia, niece of Lentulus,
+the consul-elect, will you serve her faithfully, will you
+make her wish the law of your life?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I will die for her!" cried Agias, his despair mingled with
+a ray of hope.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Where is your master?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"At the Forum, I think, soliciting votes," replied the boy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well then, follow me," said Drusus, "our road leads back
+to the Forum. We may meet him. If I can arrange with
+him, your executioners have nothing to fear from Valeria.
+Come along."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias followed, with his head again in a whirl.
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>III</h3>
+
+<p>
+The little company worked its way back to the Forum, not,
+as now, a half-excavated ruin, the gazing-stock for excursionists,
+a commonplace whereby to sum up departed greatness:
+the splendid buildings of the Empire had not yet arisen, but
+the structures of the age were not unimposing. Here, in plain
+view, was the Capitoline Hill, crowned by the Temple of
+Jupiter Capitolinus and the Arx. Here was the site of the
+Senate House, the Curia (then burned), in which the men who
+had made Rome mistress of the world had taken counsel.
+Every stone, every basilica, had its history for Drusus—though,
+be it said, at the moment the noble past was little in his mind.
+And the historic enclosure was all swarming, beyond other
+places, with the dirty, bustling crowd, shoppers, hucksters,
+idlers. Drusus and his company searched for Calatinus along
+the upper side of the Forum, past the Rostra, the Comitium,<a name="r52" href="#fn52">[52]</a>
+and the Temple of Saturn. Then they were almost caught in
+the dense throng that was pouring into the plaza from the busy
+commercial thoroughfares of the Vicus Jugarius, or the Vicus
+Tuscus. But just as the party had almost completed their circuit
+of the square, and Drusus was beginning to believe that
+his benevolent intentions were leading him on a bootless
+errand, a man in a conspicuously white toga rushed out upon
+him from the steps of the Temple of Castor, embraced him
+violently, and imprinted a firm, garlic-flavoured kiss on both
+cheeks; crying at the same time heartily:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, my dear Publius Dorso, I am so glad to meet you!
+How are all your affairs up in Fidenæ?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus recoiled in some disgust, and began rubbing his outraged
+cheeks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Dorso? Dorso? There is surely some mistake, my good
+man. I am known as Quintus Drusus of Præneste."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Before he had gotten further, his assailant was pounding
+and shaking a frightened-looking slave-lad who had stood at
+his elbow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The gods blast you, you worthless <i>nomenclator</i>!<a name="r53" href="#fn53">[53]</a> You
+have forgotten the worthy gentleman's name, and have made
+me play the fool! You may have lost me votes! All Rome
+will hear of this! I shall be a common laughing-stock! <i>Hei!
+vah!</i> But I'll teach you to behave!" And he shook the
+wretched boy until the latter's teeth rattled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this instant a young man of faultless toilet, whom we
+have already recognized as Lucius Ahenobarbus, pushed into
+the little knot as a peacemaker.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Most excellent Calatinus," said he, half suppressing his
+laughter at the candidate's fury, the nomenclator's anguish,
+and Drusus's vexed confusion, "allow me to introduce to you
+a son of Sextus Drusus, who was an old friend of my father's.
+This is Quintus Drusus, if in a few years I have not forgotten
+his face; and this, my dear Quintus, is my good friend Lucius
+Calatinus, who would be glad of your vote and influence to
+help on his candidacy as tribune."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The atmosphere was cleared instantly. Calatinus forgot his
+anger, in order to apologize in the most obsequious manner for
+his headlong salutation. Drusus, pleased to find the man he
+had been seeking, forgave the vile scent of the garlic, and graciously
+accepted the explanation. Then the way was open to
+ask Calatinus whether he was willing to dispose of Agias. The
+crestfallen candidate was only too happy to do something to
+put himself right with the person he had offended. Loudly he
+cursed his wife's temper, that would have wasted a slave
+worth a "hundred thousand sesterces" to gratify a mere
+burst of passion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, he was willing to sell the boy to accommodate his
+excellency, Quintus Drusus," said Calatinus, "although he
+was a valuable slave. Still, in honesty he had to admit that
+Agias had some mischievous points. Calatinus had boxed his
+ears only the day before for licking the pastry. But, since his
+wife disliked the fellow, he would be constrained to sell him,
+if a purchaser would take him."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The result of the conference was that Drusus, who had
+inherited that keen eye for business which went with most of
+his race, purchased Agias for thirty thousand sesterces, considerably
+less than the boy would have brought in the market.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While Drusus was handing over a money order payable with
+Flaccus, Lucius Ahenobarbus again came forward, with all
+seeming friendliness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My dear Quintus," said he, "Marcus Læca has commissioned
+me to find a ninth guest to fill his <i>triclinium</i><a name="r54" href="#fn54">[54]</a> this evening.
+We should be delighted if you would join us. I don't
+know what the good Marcus will offer us to-night, but you can
+be sure of a slice of peacock<a name="r55" href="#fn55">[55]</a> and a few other nice bits."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I am very grateful," replied Drusus, who felt all the while
+that Lucius Ahenobarbus was the last man in the world with
+whom he cared to spend an evening's carousing; "but," and
+here he concocted a white lie, "an old friend I met in Athens
+has already invited me to spend the night, and I cannot well
+refuse him. I thank you for your invitation."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lucius muttered some polite and conventional terms of
+regret, and fell back to join Servius Flaccus and Gabinius,
+who were near him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I invited him and he refused," he said half scornfully,
+half bitterly. "That little minx, Cornelia, has been complaining
+of me to him, I am sure. The gods ruin him! If
+he wishes to become my enemy, he'll have good cause to fear
+my bite."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You say he's from Præneste," said Gabinius, "and yet
+can he speak decent Latin? Doesn't he say '<i>conia</i>' for '<i>ciconia</i>,'
+and '<i>tammodo</i>' for '<i>tantummodo</i>'<i>?</i> I wonder you invite
+such a boor."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh! he can speak good enough Latin," said Lucius.
+"But I invited him because he is rich; and it might be worth
+our while to make him gamble."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Rich!" lisped Servius Flaccus. "Rich (h)as my (h)uncle
+the broker? That silly straightlac(h)ed fellow, who's (h)a
+C(h)ato, (h)or worse? For shame!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well," said Lucius, "old Crassus used to say that no one
+who couldn't pay out of his own purse for an army was rich.
+But though Drusus cannot do quite that, he has enough
+sesterces to make happy men of most of us, if his fortune were
+mine or yours."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"(H)its (h)an (h)outrage for him to have (h)it," cried Servius
+Flaccus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It's worse than an outrage," replied Ahenobarbus; "it's
+a sheer blunder of the Fates. Remind me to tell you about
+Drusus and his fortune, before I have drunk too much
+to-night."
+</p>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+Agias went away rejoicing with his new master. Drusus
+owned an apartment house on the Vicus Longus, and there had
+a furnished suite of rooms. He gave Agias into the charge of
+the porter<a name="r56" href="#fn56">[56]</a> and ordered him to dress the boy's wounds. Cappadox
+waited on his master when he lunched.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Master Quintus," said he, with the familiar air of a privileged
+servant, "did you see that knavish-looking Gabinius
+following Madame Fabia all the way back to the Temple of
+Vesta?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No," said Drusus; "what do you mean, you silly fellow?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, nothing," said Cappadox, humbly. "I only thought
+it a little queer."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Perhaps so," said his master, carelessly.
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h2 id="ch4">CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h2>LUCIUS AHENOBARBUS AIRS HIS GRIEVANCE</h2>
+
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+The pomp and gluttony of Roman banquets have been too
+often described to need repetition here; neither would we be
+edified by learning all the orgies that Marcus Læca (an old
+Catilinian conspirator) and his eight guests indulged in that
+night: only after the dinner had been cleared, and before the
+Gadesian<a name="r57" href="#fn57">[57]</a> dancing girls were called in, the dice began to rattle,
+and speedily all were engrossed in drink and play.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lucius Ahenobarbus soon lost so heavily that he was cursing
+every god that presided over the noble game.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I am ruined next Ides," he groaned. "Phormio the broker
+has only continued my loan at four per cent a month. All my
+villas and furniture are mortgaged, and will be sold at auction.
+<i>Mehercle</i>, destruction stares me in the face!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, well, my dear fellow," said Pratinas, who, having
+won the stakes, was in a mood to be sympathetic, "we must
+really see what can be done to remedy matters."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I can see nothing!" was his answer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Won't your father come to the rescue?" put in Gabinius,
+between deep pulls on a beaker.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My father!" snapped Ahenobarbus. "Never a sesterce
+will I get out of him! He's as good as turned me adrift, and
+Cato my uncle is always giving him bad reports of me, like
+the hypocritical Stoic that Cato is."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"By the bye," began Gabinius again, putting down the
+wine-cup, "you hinted to-day that you had been cheated out
+of a fortune, after a manner. Something about that Drusus of
+Præneste, if I recollect. What's the story?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lucius settled down on his elbow, readjusted the cushions
+on the banqueting couch, and then began, interrupted by many
+a hiccough because of his potations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It is quite a story, but I won't bore you with details. It
+has quite as much to do with Cornelia, Lentulus Crus's pretty
+niece, as with Drusus himself. Here it is in short. Sextus
+Drusus and Caius Lentulus were such good friends that, as
+you know, they betrothed their son and daughter when the latter
+were mere children. To make the compact doubly strong,
+Sextus Drusus inserted in his will a clause like this: 'Let my
+son Quintus enjoy the use of my estate and its income, until
+he become twenty-five and cease to be under the care of Flaccus
+his <i>tutor</i>.<a name="r58" href="#fn58">[58]</a> If he die before that time, let his property go
+to Cornelia, the daughter of Caius Lentulus, except;' and here
+Sextus left a small legacy for his own young daughter, Livia.
+You see Drusus can make no will until he is five-and-twenty.
+But then comes another provision. 'If Cornelia shall marry
+any person save my son, my son shall at once be free to dispose
+of my estates.' So Cornelia is laid under a sort of obligation
+also to marry Quintus. The whole aim of the will is
+to make it very hard for the young people to fail to wed as
+their fathers wished."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"True," said Gabinius; "but how such an arrangement can
+affect you and your affairs, I really cannot understand."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That is so," continued Ahenobarbus, "but here is the
+other side of the matter. Caius Lentulus was a firm friend of
+Sextus Drusus; he also was very close and dear to my father.
+Caius desired that Cornelia wed young Drusus, and so enjoined
+her in his will; but out of compliment to my father, put in a
+clause which was something like this: 'If Quintus Drusus die
+before he marry Cornelia, or refuse to marry Cornelia at the
+proper time, then let Cornelia and all her property be given to
+Lucius, the second son of my dearly loved friend, Lucius Domitius
+Ahenobarbus,' Now I think you will begin to see why
+Quintus Drusus's affairs interest me a little. If he refuse to
+marry Cornelia before he be five-and-twenty, she falls to me.
+But I understand that Lentulus, her uncle, is badly in debt, and
+her dowry won't be much. But if Drusus is not married to her,
+and die before he is twenty-five, <i>his property is hers and she is mine.</i>
+Do you understand why I have a little grudge against him?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"For what?" cried Læca, with breathless interest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"For living!" sighed Ahenobarbus, hopelessly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The handsome face of Pratinas was a study. His nostrils
+dilated; his lips quivered; his eyes were bright and keen
+with what evidently passed in his mind for a great discovery.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Eureka!" cried the Greek, clapping his hands. "My
+dear Lucius, let me congratulate you! You are saved!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What?" exclaimed the young man, starting up.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You are saved!" repeated Pratinas, all animation.
+"Drusus's sesterces shall be yours! Every one of them!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lucius Ahenobarbus was a debauchee, a mere creature of
+pleasure, without principle or character; but even he had a
+revulsion of spirit at the hardly masked proposal of the enthusiastic
+Greek. He flushed in spite of the wine, then turned
+pale, then stammered, "Don't mention such a thing, Pratinas.
+I was never Drusus's enemy. I dare not dream of such a
+move. The Gods forefend!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The Gods?" repeated Pratinas, with a cynical intonation.
+"Do you believe there are any?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Do you?" retorted Lucius, feeling all the time that a
+deadly temptation had hold of him, which he could by no
+means resist.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why?" said the Greek. "Your Latin Ennius states my
+view, in some of your rather rough and blundering native
+tetrameters. He says:—
+</p>
+
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>
+"'There's a race of gods in heaven; so I've said and still will say.<br />
+But I deem that we poor mortals do not come beneath their sway.<br />
+Otherwise the good would triumph, whereas evil reigns to-day.'"<br />
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>
+"And you advise?" said Ahenobarbus, leaning forward with
+pent-up excitement.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I advise?" replied Pratinas; "I am only a poor ignorant
+Hellene, and who am I, to give advice to Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus,
+a most noble member of the most noble of nations!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If Pratinas had said: "My dear Lucius, you are a thick-headed,
+old-fashioned, superstitious Roman, whom I, in my
+superior wisdom, utterly despise," he would have produced
+about the same effect upon young Ahenobarbus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Lucius still fluttered vainly,—a very weak conscience
+whispering that Drusus had never done him any harm; that
+murder was a dangerous game, and that although his past life
+had been bad enough, he had never made any one—unless
+it were a luckless slave or two—the victim of bloodthirsty
+passion or rascality.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Don't propose it," he groaned. "I don't dare to think of
+such a thing! What disgrace and trouble, if it should all
+come out!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Come, come, Ahenobarbus," thrust in Marcus Læca, who
+had been educated in Catilina's school for polite villains and
+cut-throats. "Pratinas is only proposing what, if you were a
+man of spirit, would have been done long ago. You can't complain
+of Fortune, when she's put a handsome estate in your
+hands for the asking."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My admirable fellow," said Pratinas, benevolently, "I
+highly applaud your scruples. But, permit me to say it, I
+must ask you to defer to me as being a philosopher. Let us
+look at the matter in a rational way. We have gotten over
+any bogies which our ancestors had about Hades, or the punishments
+of the wicked. In fact, what we know—as good
+Epicureans—is that, as Democritus of Abdera<a name="r59" href="#fn59">[59]</a> early taught,
+this world of ours is composed of a vast number of infinitely
+small and indivisible atoms, which have by some strange hap
+come to take the forms we see in the world of life and matter.
+Now the soul of man is also of atoms, only they are finer and
+more subtile. At death these atoms are dissolved, and so far
+as that man is concerned, all is over with him. The atoms
+may recombine, or join with others, but never form anew that
+same man. Hence we may fairly conclude that this life is
+everything and death ends all. Do you follow, and see to
+what I am leading?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I think so," said the wretched Lucius, feeling himself like
+a bird caught in a snare, yet not exactly grasping the direct
+bearing of all this learned exposition.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My application is this," went on Pratinas, glibly. "Life is
+all—all either for pleasure or pain. Therefore every man
+has a right to extract all the sweetness he can out of it. But
+suppose a man deliberately makes himself gloomy, extracts no
+joy from life; lets himself be overborne by care and sorrow,—is
+not such a man better dead than living? Is not a dreamless
+sleep preferable to misery or even cold asceticism? And
+how much more does this all apply when we see a man who
+makes himself unhappy, preventing by his very act of existence
+the happiness of another more equably tempered mortal!
+Now I believe this is the present case. Drusus, I understand,
+is leading a spare, joyless, workaday sort of existence, which
+is, or by every human law should be, to him a burden. So
+long as he lives, he prevents you from enjoying the means of
+acquiring pleasure. Now I have Socrates of imperishable
+memory on my side, when I assert that death under any circumstances
+is either no loss or a very great gain. Considering
+then the facts of the case in its philosophic and rational bearings,
+I may say this: Not merely would it be no wrong to
+remove Drusus from a world in which he is evidently out of
+place, but I even conceive such an act to rise to the rank of a
+truly meritorious deed."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lucius Ahenobarbus was conquered. He could not resist
+the inexorable logic of this train of reasoning, all the premises
+of which he fully accepted. Perhaps, we should add, he was
+not very unwilling to have his wine-befuddled intellect satisfied,
+and his conscience stilled. He turned down a huge beaker of
+liquor, and coughed forth:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Right as usual, Pratinas! By all the gods, but I believe
+you can save me!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes; as soon as Drusus is dead," insinuated the Greek
+who was already computing his bill for brokerage in this little
+affair, "you can raise plenty of loans, on the strength of your
+coming marriage with Cornelia."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But how will you manage it?" put in the alert Gabinius.
+"There mustn't be any clumsy bungling."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Rest assured," said Pratinas, with a grave dignity, perhaps
+the result of his drinking, "that in my affairs I leave no room
+for bungling."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And your plan is—" asked Lucius.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Till to-morrow, friend," said the Greek; "meet me at the
+Temple of Saturn, just before dusk. Then I'll be ready."
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+Lucius Ahenobarbus's servants escorted their tipsy master
+home to his lodgings in a fashionable apartment house on the
+Esquiline. When he awoke, it was late the next day, and
+head and wits were both sadly the worse for the recent entertainment.
+Finally a bath and a luncheon cleared his brain,
+and he realized his position. He was on the brink of concocting
+a deliberate murder. Drusus had never wronged him; the
+crime would be unprovoked; avarice would be its only justification.
+Ahenobarbus had done many things which a far laxer code
+of ethics than that of to-day would frown upon; but, as said,
+he had never committed murder—at least had only had crucified
+those luckless slaves, who did not count. He roused with
+a start, as from a dream. What if Pratinas were wrong?
+What if there were really gods, and furies, and punishments
+for the wicked after death? And then came the other side of
+the shield: a great fortune his; all his debts paid off; unlimited
+chances for self-enjoyment; last, but not least, Cornelia
+his. She had slighted him, and turned her back upon all his
+advances; and now what perfect revenge! Lucius was more
+in love with Cornelia than he admitted even to himself. He
+would even give up Clyte, if he could possess her. And so
+the mental battle went on all day; and the prick of conscience,
+the fears of superstition, and the lingerings of religion ever grew
+fainter. Near nightfall he was at his post, at the Temple of
+Saturn. Pratinas was awaiting him. The Greek had only a
+few words of greeting, and the curt injunction:—"Draw
+your cloak up to shield your face, and follow me."
+Then they passed out from the Forum, forced their way
+through the crowded streets, and soon were through the <i>Porta
+Ratumena,</i> outside the walls, and struck out across the Campus
+Martius, upon the Via Flaminia. It was rapidly darkening.
+The houses grew fewer and fewer. At a little distance the
+dim structures of the Portico and Theatre of Pompeius could
+be seen, looming up to an exaggerated size in the evening haze.
+A grey fog was drifting up from the Tiber, and out of a rift
+in a heavy cloud-bank a beam of the imprisoned moon was
+struggling. Along the road were peasants with their carts
+and asses hastening home. Over on the Pincian Mount the
+dark green masses of the splendid gardens of Pompeius and of
+Lucullus were just visible. The air was filled with the croak
+of frogs and the chirp of crickets, and from the river came the
+creak of the sculls and paddles of a cumbrous barge that was
+working its way down the Tiber.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ahenobarbus felt awed and uncomfortable. Pratinas, with
+his mantle wrapped tightly around his head, continued at a
+rapid pace. Lucius had left his attendants at home, and now
+began to recall gruesome tales of highwaymen and bandits
+frequenting this region after dark. His fears were not allayed
+by noticing that underneath his himation Pratinas
+occasionally let the hilt of a short sword peep forth. Still
+the Greek kept on, never turning to glance at a filthy, half-clad
+beggar, who whined after them for an alms, and who
+did not so much as throw a kiss after the young Roman
+when the latter tossed forth a denarius,<a name="r60" href="#fn60">[60]</a> but snatched up the
+coin, muttered at its being no more, and vanished into the
+gathering gloom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Where are you leading me?" asked Ahenobarbus, a second
+time, after all his efforts to communicate with the usually fluent
+Greek met with only monosyllables.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"To the <i>lanista</i><a name="r61" href="#fn61">[61]</a> Dumnorix," replied Pratinas, quickening an
+already rapid pace.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And his barracks are—?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"By the river, near the Mulvian bridge."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At length a pile of low square buildings was barely visible in
+the haze. It was close to the Tiber, and the rush of the water
+against the piling of the bridge was distinctly audible. As the
+two drew near to a closed gateway, a number of mongrel dogs
+began to snap and bark around them. From within the building
+came the roar of coarse hilarity and coarser jests. As Pratinas
+approached the solidly barred doorway, a grating was
+pushed aside and a rude voice demanded:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Your business? What are you doing here?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Is Dumnorix sober?" replied Pratinas, nothing daunted.
+"If so, tell him to come and speak with me. I have something
+for his advantage."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Either Pratinas was well known at the gladiators' school, or
+something in his speech procured favour. There was a rattling
+of chains and bolts, and the door swung open. A man of unusual
+height and ponderous proportions appeared in the opening.
+That was all which could be seen in the semi-darkness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You are Pratinas?" he asked, speaking Latin with a northern
+accent. The Hellene nodded, and replied softly: "Yes. No
+noise. Tell Dumnorix to come quietly."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The two stepped in on to the flags of a courtyard, and the
+doorkeeper, after rebolting, vanished into the building. Ahenobarbus
+could only see that he was standing in a large stone-paved
+court, perhaps one hundred and forty feet wide and
+considerably longer. A colonnade of low whitewashed pillars
+ran all about: and behind them stretched rows of small
+rooms and a few larger apartments. There were <i>tyros</i> practising
+with wooden swords in one of the rooms, whence a light
+streamed, and a knot of older gladiators was urging them on,
+mocking, praising, and criticising their efforts. Now and then
+a burly gladiator would stroll across the court; but the young
+noble and his escort remained hidden in shadow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently a door opened at the other end of the courtyard,
+and some one with a lantern began to come toward the entrance.
+Long before the stranger was near, Ahenobarbus
+thought he was rising like a giant out of the darkness; and
+when at last Dumnorix—for it was he—was close at hand, both
+Roman and Greek seemed veritable dwarfs beside him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Dumnorix—so far as he could be seen in the lantern light—was
+a splendid specimen of a northern giant. He was at least
+six feet five inches in height, and broad proportionately. His
+fair straight hair tumbled in disorder over his shoulders, and
+his prodigiously long mustaches seemed, to the awed Ahenobarbus,
+almost to curl down to his neck. His breath came in hot
+pants like a winded horse, and when he spoke, it was in short
+Latin monosyllables, interlarded with outlandish Gallic oaths.
+He wore cloth trousers with bright stripes of red and orange;
+a short-sleeved cloak of dark stuff, falling down to the thigh;
+and over the cloak, covering back and shoulders, another sleeveless
+mantle, clasped under the chin with a huge golden buckle.
+At his right thigh hung, from a silver set girdle, by weighty
+bronze chains, a heavy sabre, of which the steel scabbard banged
+noisily as its owner advanced.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Holla! Pratinas," cried the Gaul, as he came close. "By the
+holy oak! but I'm glad to see you! Come to my room. Have a
+flagon of our good northern mead."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Hist," said the Greek, cautiously. "Not so boisterous.
+Better stay here in the dark. I can't tell who of your men may
+hear us."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"As you say," said Dumnorix, setting down the light at a
+little distance and coming closer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You remember that little affair of last year," said Pratinas,
+continuing;—"how you helped me get rid of a witness in a
+very troublesome law case?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ha! ha!" chuckled the giant, "I wish I had the sesterces
+I won then, in my coffer now."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well," replied Pratinas, "I don't need to tell you what I
+and my noble friend here—Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus—have
+come for. A little more business along the same line.
+Are you our man?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I should say so," answered Dumnorix, with a grin worthy
+of a baboon. "Only make it worth my while."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Now," said Pratinas, sinking his voice still lower, "this
+affair of ours will pay you well; but it is more delicate than
+the other. A blunder will spoil it all. You must do your best;
+and we will do the fair thing by you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Go on," said the Gaul, folding his huge paws on his breast.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Have you ever been in Præneste?" questioned Pratinas.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I matched two <i>mirmillones</i><a name="r62" href="#fn62">[62]</a> of mine there against two
+<i>threces</i><a name="r63" href="#fn63">[63]</a> of another lanista, and my dogs won the prize; but I
+can't say that I am acquainted with the place," answered the
+other.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You should find out, then," said Pratinas, "for here lies
+your work." And then he proceeded, with occasional prompting
+from the better-informed Ahenobarbus, to point out the
+location of Drusus's estate, and the character and habits of the
+man whom Dumnorix was cheerfully proposing to put out of
+the way. Dumnorix assented and bade him go on, with hoarse
+grunts; and when the Greek had concluded, growled out in his
+barbarous Latin:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But why all this pother? Why not let me send a knave
+or two and knock the fellow some dark night in the head? It
+will save us both time and trouble."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My excellent master of the gladiators," said Pratinas, as
+smoothly as ever, "you must not take it ill, if I tell you that
+to have a taking off such as you propose would be a very bad
+thing both for you and the most noble Ahenobarbus. This
+Drusus is not a helpless wight, without friends, waiting to
+become the fair prey of any dagger man.<a name="r64" href="#fn64">[64]</a> He has friends, I
+have learned, who, if he were to be disposed of in such a rude
+and bungling manner, would not fail to probe deeply into the
+whole thing. Flaccus the great banker, notably, would spare
+no pains to bring the responsibility of the matter home, not
+merely to the poor wretch who struck the blow, but the persons
+who placed the weapon in his hands. All of which would
+be very awkward for Ahenobarbus. No, your rough-and-ready
+plan won't in the least work."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well," replied Dumnorix, testily, "I'm a man of shallow
+wits and hard blows. If I had been of keener mind, the gods
+know, I would have been a free chief among the Nervii,
+instead of making sport for these straw-limbed Romans. If
+what I propose won't answer, what can be done?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"A great deal," said Pratinas, who knew perfectly how to
+cringe low, yet preserve his ascendency; "first of all, it is very
+necessary that the murderers of the amiable Drusus should
+receive a meet reward for their crime—that justice should
+be speedy and severe."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Man!" cried Dumnorix, griping the Greek's arm in his
+tremendous clutch. "What are you asking?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"By  Zeus!" burst out Pratinas, rubbing his crushed member.
+"What a grip is yours! Don't be alarmed. Surely you
+would be as willing to have one or two of your newest <i>tiros</i>
+hung on a cross, as stabbed on the arena—especially when it
+will pay a great deal better?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I don't follow you," said the Gaul, though a little reassured.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Simply this," said Pratinas, who evidently felt that he was
+coming to the revealing of an especially brilliant piece of
+<i>finesse</i>. "My general proposal is this. Let you and your
+company march through Præneste,—of course carefully timing
+your march so as to find the innocent and unfortunate
+Drusus at his farm. You will have a very disorderly band
+of gladiators, and they begin to attack Drusus's orchard, and
+maltreat his slaves. You try to stop them,—without avail.
+Finally, in a most unfortunate and outrageous outbreak they
+slay the master of the house. The tumult is quelled. The
+heirs proceed against you. You can only hand over the murderers
+for crucifixion, and offer to pay any money damages
+that may be imposed. A heavy fine is laid upon you, as
+being responsible for the killing of Drusus by your slaves.
+You pay the damages. Ahenobarbus marries Cornelia and
+enters upon the estate. The world says that all that can be
+done to atone for Drusus's murder has been done. All of the
+guilty are punished. The dead cannot be recalled. The matter
+is at an end. Ahenobarbus has what he wished for; you
+have all the money you paid in damages quietly refunded;
+also the cost of the poor rascals crucified, and a fair sum over
+and above for your trouble."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"By the god Belew!"<a name="r65" href="#fn65">[65]</a> cried the enthusiastic Dumnorix.
+"What a clever plan! How the world will be cheated! Ha!
+ha! How sharp you little Greeks must be. Only I must
+have fair return for my work, and an oath that the business
+shall never be coming to the point of giving my eyes to the
+crows. I can't risk my life in anything but a square fight."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well," said Pratinas, after a few words with his companion,
+"how will this proposition suit you? All expenses, before
+and after the affair itself, of course refunded; one hundred
+thousand sesterces clear gain for doing the deed, twenty-five
+thousand sesterces for every poor fellow we have to nail up
+to satisfy the law, and you to be guaranteed against any evil
+consequence. Is this sufficient?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I think so," growled Dumnorix, in his mustaches, "but I
+must have the oath."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The oath?" said Pratinas, "oh, certainly!" and the Greek
+raised his hands toward heaven, and muttered some words to
+the effect that "if he and his friend did not fulfil their oath,
+let Zeus, the regarder of oaths, destroy them," etc., etc.—an
+imprecation which certainly, so far as words went, was strong
+enough to bind the most graceless. Then he proceeded to
+arrange with Dumnorix how the latter should wait until it
+was known Drusus had gone back to Præneste, and was likely
+to stay there for some time; as to how many gladiators the
+lanista was to have ready. Dumnorix complained that the
+rather recent law against keeping gladiators at Rome prevented
+him from assembling in his school any considerable
+number. But out of his heterogeneous collection of Gauls,
+Germans, Spaniards, Greeks, and Asiatics he would find enough
+who could be used for the purpose without letting them know
+the full intent with which they were launched against Drusus.
+At all events, if their testimony was taken, it would have to
+be as slaves on the rack; and if they accused their master of
+instigating them to riot, it was what any person would expect
+of such degraded and lying wretches. So, after promising to
+come again with final word and some bags of earnest-money,
+Pratinas parted with the lanista, and he and Lucius Ahenobarbus
+found themselves again in the now entirely darkened
+Campus Martius. Lucius again feared brigands, but they fell
+in with no unpleasant nocturnal wayfarers, and reached the
+city without incident. Ahenobarbus seemed to himself to be
+treading on air—Cornelia, villas, Drusus's money—these
+were dancing in his head in a delightful confusion. He had
+abandoned himself completely to the sway of Pratinas; the
+Greek was omniscient, was invincible, was a greater than
+Odysseus. Ahenobarbus hardly dared to think for himself
+as to the plan which his friend had arranged for him. One
+observation, however, he made before they parted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You swore that Dumnorix should get into no trouble.
+May it not prove expensive to keep him out of difficulty?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My dear Lucius," replied Pratinas, "in cases of that kind
+there is a line from the Hippolytus of the immortal tragedian
+Euripides, which indicates the correct attitude for a philosopher
+and a man of discretion to assume. It runs thus,—
+</p>
+
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>
+"'My tongue an oath took, but my mind's unsworn.'
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>
+Not an inelegant sentiment, as you must see."
+</p>
+
+
+<h3>III</h3>
+
+<p>
+We left the excellent man of learning, Pisander, in no
+happy frame of mind, after Agias had been dragged away,
+presumably to speedy doom. And indeed for many days the
+shadow of Valeria's crime, for it was nothing else, plunged
+him in deep melancholy. Pisander was not a fool, only
+amongst his many good qualities he did not possess that of
+being able to make a success in life. He had been tutor to
+a young Asiatic prince, and had lost his position by a local
+revolution; then he had drifted to Alexandria, and finally
+Rome, where he had struggled first to teach philosophy, and
+found no pupils to listen to his lectures; then to conduct an
+elementary school, but his scholars' parents were backward in
+paying even the modest fees he charged. Finally, in sheer
+despair, to keep from starving, he accepted the position as
+Valeria's "house-philosopher."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His condition was infinitely unsatisfactory for a variety of
+reasons. The good lady wished him to be at her elbow, ready
+to read from the philosophers or have on hand a talk on ethics
+or metaphysics to deliver extempore. Besides, though not a
+slave or freedman, he fared in the household much worse
+sometimes than they. A slave stole the dainties, and drained
+a beaker of costly wine on the sly. Pisander, like Thales,
+who was so intent looking at the stars that he fell into a well,
+"was so eager to know what was going on in heaven that
+he could not see what was before his feet."<a name="r66" href="#fn66">[66]</a> And consequently
+the poor pedant dined on the remnants left after his employer
+and her husband had cleared the board; and had rancid oil
+and sour wine given him, when they enjoyed the best. The
+slaves had snubbed him and made fun of him; the freedmen
+regarded him with absolute disdain; Valeria's regular visitors
+treated him as a nonentity. Besides, all his standards of ethical
+righteousness were outraged by the round of life which he
+was compelled daily to witness. The worthy man would long
+before have ceased from a vassalage so disgraceful, had he
+possessed any other means of support. Once he meditated
+suicide, but was scared out of it by the thought that his
+bones would moulder in those huge pits on the Esquiline—far
+from friend or native land—where artisans, slaves, and
+cattle, creatures alike without means of decent burial, were
+left under circumstances unspeakably revolting to moulder
+away to dust.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The day of Agias's misfortune, Pisander sat in his corner of
+the boudoir, after Valeria had left it, in a very unphilosophical
+rage, gnawing his beard and cursing inwardly his mistress,
+Pratinas, and the world in general.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Arsinoë with a pale, strained face was moving about, replacing
+the bottles of cosmetics and perfumery in cabinets and
+caskets. Pisander had been kind to Arsinoë, and had taught
+her to read; and there was a fairly firm friendship between
+the slave and the luckless man, who felt himself degraded by
+an equal bondage.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Poor Agias," muttered Pisander.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Poor Agias," repeated Arsinoë, mournfully; then in some
+scorn, "Come, Master Pisander, now is the time to console
+yourself with your philosophy. Call out everything,—your
+Zeno, or Parmenides, or Heraclitus, or others of the thousand
+nobodies I've heard you praise to Valeria,—and make thereby
+my heart a jot the less sore, or Agias's death the less bitter!
+Don't sit there and snap at your beard, if your philosophy is
+good for anything! People used to pray to the gods in
+trouble, but you philosophers turn the gods into mists or thin
+air. You are a man! You are free! Do something! Say
+something!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But what can I do?" groaned Pisander, bursting into
+tears, and wishing for the instant Epicureans, Stoics, Eclectics,
+Peripatetics, and every other school of learning in the nethermost
+Hades.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Phui!</i> Fudge!" cried Arsinoë. "What is life made for
+then, if a man who has spent all his days studying it is as
+good as helpless! Look at me! Have I not hands, feet, a
+head, and wits? Am I not as well informed and naturally
+capable as three fine ladies out of every four? Would I not
+look as handsome as they, if I had a chance to wear their
+dresses and jewels? Have I any blemish, any defect, that
+makes me cease to be a woman, and become a thing? Bah,
+master <i>Pisander!</i> I am only a slave, but I will talk. Why
+does my blood boil at the fate of Agias, if it was not meant that
+it should heat up for some end? And yet I am as much a
+piece of property of that woman whom I hate, as this chair or
+casket. I have a right to no hope, no ambition, no desire,
+no reward. I can only aspire to live without brutal treatment.
+That would be a sort of Elysium. If I was brave
+enough, I would kill myself, and go to sleep and forget it all.
+But I am weak and cowardly, and so—here I am."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Pisander only groaned and went away to his room to turn over
+his Aristotle, and wonder why nothing in the "Nicomachean
+Ethics" or any other learned treatise contained the least word
+that made him contented over the fate of Agias or his own
+unhappy situation. Arsinoë and Semiramis, when he went
+from them, cried, and cried again, in pity and helpless grief
+at their whole situation. And so a considerable number of
+days passed. Calatinus could have given joy to the hearts of
+several in his household if he had simply remembered that
+Agias had not been scourged to death, but sold. But Calatinus
+feared, now that he was well out of the matter, to stir up an
+angry scene with his wife, by hinting that Agias had not been
+punished according to her orders. Alfidius, too, and the other
+slaves with him, imagined that his mistress would blame them
+if they admitted that Agias was alive. So the household
+gathered, by the silence of all concerned, that the bright Greek
+boy had long since passed beyond power of human torment.
+Pisander recovered part of his equanimity, and Arsinoë and
+Semiramis began to see life a shade less darkened.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Pratinas occasionally repeated his morning calls upon Valeria.
+He seemed much engrossed with business, but was always the
+same suave, elegant, accomplished personage that had endeared
+him to that lady's heart. One morning he came in, in unusually
+good spirits. "Congratulate me," he exclaimed, after
+saluting Valeria; "I have disposed of a very delicate piece of
+work, and my mind can take a little rest. At least I have
+roughly chiselled out the matter, as a sculptor would say, and
+can now wait a bit before finishing. Ah! what elegant study
+is this which is engrossing your ladyship this morning?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Pisander is reading from the works of Gorgias of Leontini,"
+said Valeria, languidly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"To be sure," went on Pratinas; "I have always had the
+greatest respect for the three nihilistic propositions of that
+philosopher. To read him one is half convinced of the affirmation
+that nothing exists; that if anything existed, the fact
+could not be known, and that if the fact were known, it could
+not be communicated; although of course, my dear madam,
+there are very grave objections to accepting such views in their
+fulness."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Of course," echoed Valeria. "Pisander, read Pratinas that
+little poem of Archilochus, whose sentiment I so much admired,
+when I happened on it yesterday."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Pisander fumbled among his rolls, then read, perhaps throwing
+a bit of sarcasm into his tone:—
+</p>
+
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>
+"Gyges'<a name="r67" href="#fn67">[67]</a> wealth and honours great<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Come not nigh to me!<br />
+Heavenly pow'r, or tyrant's state,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;I'll not envy thee.<br />
+Swift let any sordid prize<br />
+Fade and vanish from my eyes!"
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>
+"Your ladyship," said Pratinas, appearing entranced by the
+lines, "is ever in search of the pearls of refined expression!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I wish," said Valeria, whose mind ran from Gorgias to
+Archilochus, and then back to quite foreign matters, with lightning
+rapidity, "you would tell Kallias, the sculptor, that the
+head-dress on my statue in the atrium must be changed. I
+don't arrange my hair that way any longer. He must put on
+a new head-dress without delay."<a name="r68" href="#fn68">[68]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Certainly," assented the Greek.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And now," said the lady, half entreating, half insinuating,
+"<i>you must</i> tell me what has made you so abstracted lately;
+that business you mentioned, which compelled you to restrict
+your calls."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My dear Valeria," said Pratinas, casting a glance over at
+Pisander in his corner, "I dislike mysteries; but perhaps
+there are some things which I had better not reveal to any
+one. Don't be offended, but—"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I am offended," exclaimed the lady, striking her lap with
+her hands, "and I accept no '<i>buts</i>.' I will be as silent about
+all your affairs as about the mysteries of the <i>Bona
+Dea</i>.<a name="r69" href="#fn69">[69]</a>"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I believe I can be confident you will not betray me," said
+Pratinas, who in fact considered precautions that were necessary
+to take among so blundering and thick-witted people as
+the Latins, almost superfluous. He muttered to himself, "I
+wouldn't dare to do this in Alexandria,—prate of a murder,—"
+and then glanced again toward Pisander.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Pisander," said Valeria, sharply, noting Pratinas's disquietude,
+"go out of the room. I don't need you at present."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Pisander, unlike many contemporaries, was affected by a
+sensitive conscience. But if there was one man whom he despised
+to the bottom of his soul, it was Pratinas. Pratinas
+had lorded it over him and patronized him, in a way which
+drove the mild-tempered man of learning to desperation. The
+spirit of evil entered into the heart of Pisander as he left the
+room. The average chatter of Pratinas and Valeria had been
+gall and wormwood to him, and he had been glad enough to
+evade it; but here was Pratinas with a secret which he clearly
+did not wish Pisander to know. And Pisander, prompted
+by most unphilosophical motives, resolved within himself to
+play the eavesdropper. The boudoir was approached by three
+doors, one from the peristylium, one from Valeria's private
+sleeping chamber, one from the servants' quarters. Pisander
+went out through the first, and going through other rooms to
+the third, took his station by that entrance. He met Arsinoë,
+and took the friendly maid into his plot, by stationing her
+on guard to prevent the other servants from interfering with
+him. Then applying his ear to the large keyhole of the
+door, he could understand all that was passing in the boudoir.
+What Pratinas was saying it is hardly necessary to repeat.
+The Greek was relating with infinite zest, and to Valeria's
+intense delight and amusement, the story of the two wills
+which placed Drusus's estate and the hand of Cornelia within
+reach of Lucius Ahenobarbus; of the manner in which this
+last young man had been induced to take steps to make way
+with an unfortunate rival. Finally, in a low, half-audible
+tone, he told of the provisional arrangements with Dumnorix,
+and how very soon the plan was to be put in execution.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And you must be sure and tell me," cried Valeria, clapping
+her hands when Pratinas concluded, "what the details of the
+affair all are, and when and how you succeed. Poor Quintus
+Drusus! I am really sorry for him. But when one doesn't
+make use of what Fortune has given him, there is nothing
+else to do!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes," said Pratinas, sententiously. "He who fails to realize
+what is for him the highest good, forfeits, thereby, the right
+to life itself."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Pisander slipped away from the keyhole, with a white
+face, and panting for breath. Briefly, he repeated what he
+had gathered to Arsinoë, then blurted out:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I will go in and meet that well-oiled villain face to face.
+By Zeus! I will make him feel the depths of an honest man's
+scorn and indignation!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You will be a fool," replied Arsinoë, quietly, "if you do.
+Valeria would instantly dismiss you from her service."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I will go at once to Drusus," asserted Pisander.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Drusus may or may not be convinced that what you say is
+true," answered the girl; "but he, I gather from what you repeat,
+has just gone back to Præneste. Before you could reach
+Præneste, you are a dead man."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"How so?" demanded the excited philosopher, brandishing
+his fists. "I am as strong as Pratinas."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"How little wisdom," commented Arsinoë, "you do gather
+from your books! Can't you see Pratinas is a reckless scoundrel—with
+every gladiator in Dumnorix's school at his call if
+needs be—who would stop at nothing to silence promptly the
+mouth of a dangerous witness? This isn't worse than many
+another case. Don't share the ruin of a man who is an utter
+stranger! We have troubles enough of our own."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And with this consolation Arsinoë left him, again consumed
+with impotent rage.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Villain," fumed Pisander to himself, "if I could only
+place my fingers round your neck! But what can I do?
+What can I do? I am helpless, friendless, penniless! And I
+can only tear out my heart, and pretend to play the philosopher.
+I, a philosopher! If I were a true one, I would have
+had the courage to kill myself before this."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And in this mental state he continued, till he learned that
+Pratinas had taken his farewell, and that Calatinus wished
+him—since all the slaves seemed busy, and the poor house
+philosopher was often sent on menial errands—to go to the
+<i>Forum Boarium</i>,<a name="r70" href="#fn70">[70]</a> and bring back some ribs of beef for a dinner
+that evening. Pisander went as bidden, tugging a large
+basket, and trying to muster up courage to continue his walk
+to the Fabrician Bridge, and plunge into the Tiber. In classic
+days suicide was a commendable act under a great many circumstances,
+and Pisander was perfectly serious and sincere
+in his belief that he and the world had been companions too
+long for the good of either. But the jar and din of the streets
+certainly served to make connected philosophical meditation
+upon the futility and unimportance of human existence decidedly
+unfruitful. By the time he reached the cattle-market the
+noise of this strange place drove all suicidal intentions from
+him. Butchers were slaughtering kine; drovers were driving
+oxen off of barges that had come down the Tiber; sheep and
+goats were bleating—everywhere around the stalls, booths,
+shops, and pens was the bustle of an enormous traffic. Pisander
+picked his way through the crowd, searching for the
+butcher to whom he had been especially sent. He had gone as
+far as the ancient shrine of Mater Matuta, which found place
+in these seemingly unhallowed precincts, when, as he gazed
+into the throng before him, his hair stood as it were on end,
+his voice choked in his throat, and cold sweat broke out over
+him. The next moment his hand was seized by another, young
+and hearty, and he was gasping forth the name of Agias.
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h2 id="ch5">CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h2>A VERY OLD PROBLEM</h2>
+
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+Drusus had at last finished the business which centred
+around the death of his uncle, old Publius Vibulanus. He
+had walked behind the bier, in company with the other relatives
+of the deceased—all very distant, saving himself. On
+the day, too, of the funeral, he had been obliged to make his
+first public oration—a eulogy delivered in the Forum from
+the Rostra—in which Drusus tried to pay a graceful but not
+fulsome tribute to the old eques, who had never distinguished
+himself in any way, except the making of money. The many
+clients of Vibulanus, who now looked upon the young man as
+their patron, had raised a prodigious din of applause during
+the oration, and Quintus was flattered to feel that he had not
+studied rhetoric in vain. Finally, as next of kin, he had to
+apply the torch to the funeral pyre, and preside over the
+funeral feast, held by custom nine days after the actual
+burning, and over the contests of gladiators which took place
+at this festivity. Meanwhile Sextus Flaccus had been attending
+to the legal business connected with the transfer of the
+dead man's estate to his heir. All this took time—time which
+Drusus longed to be spending with Cornelia in shady and
+breezy Præneste, miles from unhealthy, half-parched Rome.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus had sent Agias ahead to Cornelia, as soon as the poor
+boy had recovered in the least from his brutal scourging. The
+lad had parted from his deliverer with the most extravagant
+demonstrations of gratitude, which Quintus had said he could
+fully repay by implicit devotion to Cornelia. How that young
+lady had been pleased with her present, Drusus could not tell;
+although he had sent along a letter explaining the circumstances
+of the case. But Quintus had other things on his
+mind than Agias and his fortunes, on the morning when at last
+he turned his face away from the sultry capital, and found his
+carriage whirling him once more over the Campagna.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus had by personal experience learned the bitterness of
+the political struggle in which he had elected to take part.
+The Cæsarians at Rome (Balbus, Antonius, and Curio) had welcomed
+him to their number, for young as he was, his wealth
+and the prestige of the Livian name were not to be despised.
+And Drusus saw how, as in his younger days he had not
+realized, the whole fabric of the state was in an evil way, and
+rapidly approaching its mending or ending. The Roman
+Republic had exported legions; she had imported slaves, who
+heaped up vast riches for their masters, while their competition
+reduced the free peasantry to starvation. And now a splendid
+aristocracy claimed to rule a subject world, while the "Roman
+people" that had conquered that world were a degenerate mob,
+whose suffrages in the elections were purchasable—almost
+openly—by the highest bidder. The way was not clear before
+Drusus; he only saw, with his blind, Pagan vision, that no
+real liberty existed under present conditions; that Pompeius
+and his allies, the Senate party, were trying to perpetuate the
+aristocracy in power, and that Cæsar, the absent proconsul of
+the Gauls, stood, at least, for a sweeping reform. And so the
+young man made his decision and waited the march of events.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But once at Præneste all these forebodings were thrust into
+the background. The builders and frescoers had done their
+work well in his villa. A new colonnade was being erected.
+Coloured mosaic floors were being laid. The walls of the rooms
+were all a-dance with bright Cupids and Bacchantes—cheerful
+apartments for their prospective mistress. But it was over
+to the country-house of the Lentuli that Drusus made small
+delay to hasten, there to be in bliss in company with Cornelia,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And how," he asked, after the young lady had talked of a
+dozen innocent nothings, "do you like Agias, the boy I sent
+you?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I can never thank you enough—at least if he is always as
+clever and witty as he has been since I have had him," was
+the reply. "I was vexed at first to have a servant with such
+dreadful scars all over him; but he is more presentable now.
+And he has a very droll way of saying bright things. What
+fun he has made of Livia's dear mother, his former mistress!
+I shall have to give up reading any wise authors, if it will
+make me grow like Valeria. Then, too, Agias has won my
+favour, if in no other way, by getting a thick grass stem out of
+the throat of my dear little pet sparrow, that was almost choking
+to death. I am so grateful to you for him!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I am very glad you are fond of him," said Drusus. "Has
+your uncle come back from Rome yet? I did not meet him
+while there. I was busy; and besides, to speak honestly, I
+have a little hesitation in seeing him, since the political
+situation is so tense."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"He returns to-night, I believe," replied Cornelia. Then
+as if a bit apprehensive, "Tell me about the world, Drusus;
+I don't care to be one of those fine ladies of the sort of Clodia,<a name="r71" href="#fn71">[71]</a>
+who are all in the whirl of politics, and do everything a man
+does except to speak in the Senate; but I like to know what is
+going on. There isn't going to be a riot, I hope, as there was
+two years ago, when no consuls were elected, and Pompeius had
+to become sole magistrate?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"There have been no tumults so far," said Drusus, who did
+not care to unfold all his fears and expectations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yet things are in a very bad way, I hear," said Cornelia
+"Can't Cæsar and my uncle's party agree?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I'm afraid not," replied Drusus, shaking his head. "Cæsar
+wishes to be consul a second time. Pompeius and he were
+friends when at Lucca six years ago this was agreed on. Cæsar
+was then promised that he should have his Gallic proconsulship
+up to the hour when he should be consul, and besides
+Pompeius promised to have permission granted Cæsar to be
+elected consul, without appearing as a candidate in Rome; so
+at no moment was Cæsar to be without office,<a name="r72" href="#fn72">[72]</a> and consequently
+he was not to be liable to prosecution from his enemies.
+All this was secured to Cæsar by the laws,—laws which
+Pompeius aided to have enacted. But now Crassus the third
+triumvir is dead; Julia, Cæsar's daughter and Pompeius's wife,
+whom both dearly loved, is dead. And Pompeius has been
+persuaded by your uncle and his friends to break with Cæsar
+and repudiate his promise. Cæsar and Pompeius have long
+been so powerful together that none could shake their authority;
+but if one falls away and combines with the common
+enemy, what but trouble is to be expected?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The enemy! the enemy!" repeated Cornelia, looking down,
+and sighing. "Quintus, these feuds are a dreadful thing. Can't
+you," and here she threw a bit of pathetic entreaty into her
+voice, "join with my uncle's party, and be his friend? I hate
+to think of having my husband at variance with the man who
+stands in place of my father."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus took her face between his hands, and looked straight
+at her. They were standing within the colonnade of the villa
+of the Lentuli, and the sunlight streaming between the pillars
+fell directly upon Cornelia's troubled face, and made a sort of
+halo around her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My dearest, delectissima," said Quintus, earnestly, "I could
+not honourably take your hand in marriage, if I had not done
+that which my conscience, if not my reason, tells me is the only
+right thing to do. It grieves me to hurt you; but we are not
+fickle Greeks, nor servile Easterns; but Romans born to rule,
+and because born to rule, born to count nothing dear that will
+tend to advance the strength and prosperity not of self, but of
+the state. You would not love me if I said I cared more for
+keeping a pang from your dear heart, than for the performance
+of that which our ancestors counted the one end of life—duty
+to the commonwealth."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia threw her arms around him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You are the noblest man on the whole earth!" she cried
+with bright enthusiasm. "Of course I would not love you if
+you did what you believed to be wrong! My uncle may scold,
+may storm. I shan't care for all his anger, for you <i>must be</i>
+right."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ah! delectissima," cried Drusus, feeling at the moment as
+if he were capable of refuting senates and confounding kings,
+"we will not look at too gloomy a side of the picture. Pompeius
+and Cæsar will be reconciled. Your uncle's party will
+see that it is best to allow the proconsul an election as
+promised. We will have wise laws and moderate reforms.
+All will come out aright. And we—we two—will go along
+through life as softly and as merrily as now we stroll up and
+down in the cool shade of these columns; and I will turn philosopher
+and evolve a new system that will forever send Plato
+and Zeno, Epicurus and Timon, to the most remote and spider-spun
+cupboard of the most old-fashioned library, and you shall
+be a poetess, a Sappho, an Erinna, who shall tinkle in Latin
+metres sweeter than they ever sing in Aiolic. And so we will
+fleet the time as though we were Zeus and Hera on Olympus."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Zeus and Hera!" repeated Cornelia, laughing. "You silly
+Græcule.<a name="r73" href="#fn73">[73]</a> You may talk about that misbehaved pair, who
+were anything but harmonious and loving, if Homer tells truly.
+I prefer our own Juppiter and our Juno of the Aventine. <i>They</i>
+are a staid and home-keeping couple, worth imitating, if we are
+to imitate any celestials. But nothing Greek for me."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Intolerant, intolerant," retorted Drusus, "we are all Greek,
+we Romans of to-day—what is left of old Latium but her half-discarded
+language, her laws worse than discarded, perverted,
+her good pilum<a name="r74" href="#fn74">[74]</a> which has not quite lost its cunning, and
+her—"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Men," interrupted Cornelia, "such as you!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And women," continued Drusus, "such as you! Ah!
+There is something left of Rome after all. We are not altogether
+fallen, unworthy of our ancestors. Why shall we not be
+merry? A Greek would say that it was always darkest before
+Eōs leaves the couch of Tithonus,<a name="r75" href="#fn75">[75]</a> and who knows that our
+Helios is not soon to dawn and be a long, long time ere his
+setting? I feel like throwing formality to the winds, crying
+'Iacchos evoë,' and dancing like a bacchanal, and singing in
+tipsy delight,—
+</p>
+
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>
+"'Oh, when through the long night,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;With fleet foot glancing white,<br />
+Shall I go dancing in my revelry,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;My neck cast back, and bare<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Unto the dewy air,<br />
+Like sportive faun in the green meadow's glee?'<a name="r76" href="#fn76">[76]</a>
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>
+as old Euripides sings in his 'Bacchæ.' Yes, the Hellenes
+were right when they put nymphs in the forest and in the
+deep. Only our blind practical Latin eyes will not see them.
+We will forget that we are Romans; we will build for ourselves
+some cosey little Phæacia up in the Sabine hills beside some
+lake; and there my Sappho shall also be my Nausicaä to
+shine fair as a goddess upon her distressed and shipwrecked
+Odysseus."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes," said Cornelia, smiling, "a delightful idyl; but
+Odysseus would not stay with Nausicaä."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I was wrong," replied Drusus, as they walked arm in
+arm out from the portico, and down the broad avenue of
+stately shade trees. "You shall be the faithful Penelope, who
+receives back her lord in happiness after many trials. Your
+clever Agias can act as Telemachus for us."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But the suitors whom Odysseus must slay?" asked Cornelia,
+entering into the fun.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, for them," said Drusus, lightly, "we need not search
+far. Who other than Ahenobarbus?"
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+Rather late in the afternoon, a few days subsequently, the
+most noble Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Crus, consul-designate,
+and one of the most prominent politicians of his time and
+nation, arrived at Præneste; having hurried away from Rome
+to escape for a little while the summer heats which made the
+capital anything but a pleasant place for residence. Drusus's
+travelling cortège would have seemed small enough compared
+with the hedge of outriders, footmen, and body-servants that
+surrounded the great man. But notwithstanding his prospective
+dignities, and his present importance, Lentulus Crus was
+hardly an imposing personality. He was a bald-pated, florid
+individual, with rough features, a low, flat forehead, and coarse
+lips. He was dressed very fashionably, and was perfumed
+and beringed to an extent that would have been derided anywhere
+save in the most select circles of Rome. He was stout,
+and when he alighted from his carriage, he moved away with
+a somewhat waddling gait, and lifted up a rasping, high-pitched
+voice in unsonorous complaint against a slave who let
+fall a parcel of baggage.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Clearly the master of the house had returned, and all the
+familia and freedmen bustled about their various tasks with
+the unusual promptitude and diligence which is the outcome
+of a healthy fear of retribution for slackness. Lentulus went
+into the atrium, and there had an angry conference with the
+local land-steward, over some accounts which the latter presented.
+In fact, so ill was the humour of the noble lord, that
+Cornelia avoided going out from her room to meet him, and
+pretended to be so engrossed in her Ennius that she did not
+hear he had come.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This pretence, however, could not last long. Lentulus called
+out in a surly tone to know where his niece was, and the latter
+was fain to present herself. It could not be said that the
+meeting between Cornelia and her uncle was extremely affectionate.
+The interchange of kisses was painfully formal, and
+then Lentulus demanded somewhat abruptly:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"How have you been spending your time? With that
+young ne'er-do-weel son of Sextus Drusus?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Quintus was here this morning," said Cornelia, feeling a
+little reproachful at the manner in which her uncle had spoken
+of her lover.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Just back from Rome, I presume?" said Lentulus, icily,
+"and he must fly over to the cote of his little dove and see
+that she hasn't flitted away? He'd better have a care in his
+doings. He'll have something more serious on hand than lovemaking
+before long."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I don't understand you, uncle," said Cornelia, turning
+rather red; "Quintus has never done anything for which he
+has cause to fear."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, he hasn't, eh?" retorted Lentulus. "<i>Mehercle!</i>
+what donkeys you women are! You may go, I want to see
+your mother."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"She is in her own room," said Cornelia, turning her
+back; "I wish you would not speak to me in that way
+again."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lentulus wandered through the mazes of courts, colonnades,
+and the magnificently decorated and finished rooms of the
+villa, until he came to the chamber of Claudia, his sister-in-law.
+Claudia was a woman of the same fashionable type as
+Valeria, good-looking, ostentatious, proud, selfish, devoid of
+any aim in life save the securing of the most vapid pleasure.
+At the moment, she was stretched out on a thickly cushioned
+couch. She had thrown on a loose dress of silken texture.
+A negress was waving over her head a huge fan of long white
+feathers. A second negress was busy mixing in an <i>Authepsa</i>,—a
+sort of silver urn, heated by charcoal,—a quantity
+of spices, herbs, and water, which the lady was to take as
+soon as it was sufficiently steeped. Claudia had been enjoying
+an unusually gay round of excitement while at Baiæ,
+and she had but just come up to Præneste, to recover herself
+after the exertions of a score of fashionable suppers, excursions
+on the Lucrine Lake, and the attendant exhausting
+amusements. When her brother-in-law entered the room, she
+raised her carefully tinted eyebrows, and observed with great
+languor:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"So you have gotten away from Rome, at last, my Lucius?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"For a few days," replied Lentulus, in no very affable tone;
+"the heat and din of the city will drive me mad! And I
+have had no end of troublesome business. The senators
+are all fools or slaves of Cæsar. That treacherous rascal,
+Curio, is blocking all our efforts. Even Pompeius is half-hearted
+in the cause. It wouldn't take much to make him go
+back to Cæsar, and then where would we be?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Where would we be?" said Claudia, half conscious of
+what she said, turning over wearily. "Don't talk politics, my
+dear brother. They are distressingly dull. My head aches
+at the very word." And she held out her hand and took
+the golden cup of hot drink which the negress offered her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Aye," replied Lentulus, not in the least subdued, "where
+<i>will</i> we be, if Pompeius and Cæsar become friends? If there
+is no war, no proscription, no chance to make a sesterce in a
+hurry!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My dear brother," said Claudia, still more languidly, and
+yawning at length, as she handed back the cup, "have I not
+said that the mere mention of politics makes my head
+ache?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Then let it," said the other, brutally; "I must have some
+plain words with you." And he pointed toward the door.
+The two serving-maids took the hint, and retired.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Claudia settled her head back on the pillows, and folded
+her hands as if to resign herself to a very dull tête-à-tête.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Have you any new debts?" demanded Lentulus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What a tiresome question," murmured the lady. "No—no—yes;
+I owe Pomponius the fancier—I don't quite know
+how much—for my last Maltese lap dog."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Thank the gods that is all," went on her brother-in-law.
+"Now listen to me. I have been living beyond my means.
+Last year the canvass to get on the board of guardians of the
+Sibylline Books—in which that graceless son-in-law of Cicero's,
+Publius Dolabella, defeated me—cost a deal of money. This
+year I have the consulship. But it has taken every denarius I
+own, and more too. All my estates are involved, so that it will
+require years to redeem them, in the ordinary way."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"How extremely unfortunate!" sighed Claudia, looking
+dreadfully bored.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"If that was all I had to tell you," snapped back Lentulus,
+"I would not have disturbed your ladyship's repose. But you
+must be so indulgent as to listen."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well?" said Claudia, yawning again and settling herself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Your late husband left some little property," began the
+other.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, to be sure; oh! my poor Caius!" and Claudia began
+to sob and wipe away the tears.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And this property I have involved," continued Lentulus,
+driving straight ahead and never heeding the widow's display
+of emotions. "It will be impossible for me to clear away the
+encumbrances for some little time."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Claudia was excited now. She sprang up from her cushions
+and cried, or rather screamed:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Brute! Robber of orphans and widows! Heartless wretch!
+Have you pledged the slender fortune Caius left me, and the
+dowry of my poor dear Cornelia?" And her voice sank into
+hoarseness, and she began to sob once more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lentulus regarded her with vexation and contempt. "<i>Mehercle!</i>
+what a fuss you are making! The deed is done, and
+there's no helping it. I came here, not to offer excuses, but to
+state the facts. You may call me what you please; I <i>had to do
+it</i>, or lose the consulship. Now look the matter in the face.
+You must contract no more debts; I can't discharge the old
+ones. Live as reasonably as you can."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And no more nice dinners? No more visits to Baiæ?"
+groaned the lady, rocking to and fro.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, yes," broke in her brother-in-law, sharply, "I can
+still raise enough to meet all ordinary expenses. If I let down
+in my household, my creditors would see I was pinched, and
+begin to pluck me. I can weather the storm. But look here:
+Cornelia must have an end with that young Drusus. I can
+never pay her dowry, and would not have him for a nephew-in-law
+if I could."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Cornelia break off with Drusus?" and Claudia stopped
+whimpering, and sat staring at Lentulus with astonished eyes.
+To tell the truth she had always liked the young Livian, and
+thought her daughter was destined for a most advantageous
+match.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Certainly, my dear Claudia," said the consul-elect, half
+relieved to change what had been a very awkward subject; "I
+can assure you that Quintus is far from being a proper and
+worthy man for a husband for your daughter. I have heard
+very evil reports of him while in the city. He has cast in his
+lot with that gang of knavish Cæsarians centring around Marcus
+Antonius, Cælius, and that Caius Sallustius<a name="r77" href="#fn77">[77]</a> whom our excellent
+censors have just ejected from the Senate, because of his
+evil living and Cæsarian tendencies. Do I need to say more
+of him? A worthless, abandoned, shameless profligate!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Claudia had a little sense of humour; and when Lentulus was
+working himself up into a righteous rage over the alleged misdoings
+of Drusus, she interrupted:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You do well to say so, my dear Lucius; for all men know
+that your life is as morally severe as your good friend Cato's."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lentulus was silent for a moment, and bit his lip; then
+recommenced:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What I meant to say was this. Quintus Drusus and I are
+enemies; and I will not give him my niece in marriage. If we
+were friends, I would not be able to pay the dowry. You can
+complain if you please; but you can't alter my inclinations or
+my inability to carry out the marriage agreement."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Though Claudia in many respects was an empty woman of
+the world, she had in a way a desire to promote her daughter's
+happiness, and, as has been said, she had been extremely fond
+of Drusus. So she replied diplomatically that Quintus was
+probably willing to wait a reasonable time for the dowry; and
+that even if he had held communication with the Cæsarians,
+he was little more than a boy and could be shaken out of any
+unfortunate political opinions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I will be reasonable," said Lentulus, after pacing up and
+down for a few minutes. "I was told of his folly by Caius
+Calvus.<a name="r78" href="#fn78">[78]</a> Calvus is as a rule accurate in his information. He
+said he met Drusus in company with Balbus and Curio. But
+there may have been some mistake. And the lad, as you declare,
+may be willing to cut loose from a bad course. If he
+really cares for Cornelia, he will be moderate in his demands
+for the dowry. Your suggestion is worth taking, Claudia. Let
+us send for him, and let him know the only terms on which he
+can have my niece."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lentulus clapped his hands, and a serving-boy came in for
+orders.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Go to the villa of Quintus Drusus," commanded the master,
+"and tell him that I would see him at once on business of
+weight."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Claudia arose, and let her maids throw over her a long
+white <i>stola</i>,<a name="r79" href="#fn79">[79]</a> with deep flounces and an elaborate embroidery
+of sea-nymphs and marine monsters. Lentulus went out into
+the atrium and walked up and down, biting his nails, and
+trying to think out the arguments by which he would confute
+the political heresies of Drusus. Lentulus was too good a
+politician not to know that the young man would be a valuable
+catch for the party that secured him; and the consul-elect
+was determined, not so much to spare breaking the heart of
+his niece, but to rob the enemy of a valuable adherent. Cornelia
+had gone back to her book; but when she saw the
+boy go down the path, evidently on an errand to the villa
+of the Drusi, she rolled up the volume, and went into the
+atrium.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You have sent after Quintus, uncle?" she asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I have," was the reply; "I expect him shortly."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What is the matter?" continued Cornelia, growing apprehensive.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I wish to make the arrangements for your wedding,"
+replied Lentulus, continuing his pacing to and fro.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, I am so glad!" cried Cornelia, cheerily. "I am so
+pleased you wish to make everything agreeable for Quintus
+and for me!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I hope so," was the rather gloomy response.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently Drusus was seen coming up the shaded path at a
+very brisk stride. He had been playing at fencing with old
+Mamercus, and his face was all aglow with a healthy colour;
+there was a bright light in his eye. When he saw Cornelia in
+the doorway he gave a laugh and broke into a run, which
+brought him up to her panting and merry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then as he saw Lentulus he paused, half ashamed of his
+display of boyish ardour, and yet, with a smile and a gracious
+salutation, asked the older man if he was enjoying good health,
+and congratulated him on his election.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The consul-designate was a little disarmed by this straightforward
+mode of procedure. He dropped unuttered the elaborate
+exordium he had been preparing on the tendency of
+young men to be led astray by speciously pleading schemers,
+and found himself replying mildly to questions about himself
+and various old friends of his, whom Drusus had known as a
+boy before he went to Athens. But finally the young man
+interrupted this pacific discourse with the query:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And, most noble Lentulus, what is the business on which
+you sent for me? So far as I am able, the uncle of Cornelia
+has but to command."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lentulus glanced at Claudia, as if expecting her to open a
+delicate subject; but that excellent lady only fingered her
+<i>palla</i>,<a name="r80" href="#fn80">[80]</a> and gave vent to a slight cough. Cornelia, whose
+fears had all passed away, stood beside Drusus, with one
+arm resting on his shoulder, glancing pertly from one man to
+the other. Lentulus began:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I am very sorry to tell you, Quintus, that I fear your
+wedding with Cornelia cannot be celebrated as soon as you
+hoped."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Must be postponed!" exclaimed the young man, in alarm;
+and Cornelia dropped her arm, and stared at her uncle in
+dismay.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I fear so," said Lentulus, dryly. "I have done my best
+to husband the fortune Caius left his daughter; but, as perhaps
+you know, I invested a very large part of it in the tax
+farming syndicate for farther Spain. The speculation seemed
+safe, but local wars have so reduced the profits that they
+amount to nothing, and it will be some time before the principal
+is set free. Of course, in ordinary times I would make
+up the sum from my own means, but I have had very heavy
+expenses lately; consequently, I fear you cannot marry Cornelia
+until I am in a position to pay over her dowry."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus burst out into a hearty, boyish laugh.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My dear uncle," cried he, "for do let me call you so, I
+would have you know that when I take Cornelia I have dowry
+sufficient. Thanks to old Vibulanus's will, I may call
+myself passing wealthy. As far as I am concerned, you
+may pay over the marriage portion to my heirs, if so you
+wish."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lentulus seemed considerably relieved. Claudia broke out
+with loud ejaculations to the effect that Drusus, she always
+knew, was a generous, affectionate fellow, and she loved him
+dearly. Cornelia, however, looked disturbed, and presently
+exclaimed:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It isn't right, Quintus, that I should come into your house
+with not a sesterce in my own name, as if you had married
+some low farmer's daughter."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Phy!</i> pish!" replied Drusus. "You always scold the
+Greeks, my good mistress, and yet, like them, you hold that
+a marriage between people of unequal means is unhappy. A
+penny for your scruples! I have more money to-day than I
+know what to do with. Besides, if it will make you happier,
+your uncle can doubtless pay over the dowry before a great
+while."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It's certainly very kind of you, Quintus," said Lentulus
+(who had quite made up his mind that if the young man
+could wait for what was a very tidy fortune, through sheer
+affection for Cornelia, he would be pliable enough in the political
+matter), "not to press me in this affair. Rest assured,
+neither you nor my niece will be the losers in the end. But
+there's one other thing I would like to ask you about. From
+what Calvus told me in Rome, Curio and certain other still
+worse <i>Populares</i><a name="r81" href="#fn81">[81]</a> were trying to induce you to join their
+abominable faction. I trust you gave those men no encouragement?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus was evidently confused. He was wishing strongly
+that Cornelia was away, and he could talk to her uncle with
+less constraint. He felt that he was treading on very dangerous
+ground.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It is true," said he, trying painfully to answer as if the
+words cost him no thought. "Antonius had met many of my
+father's old comrades in Gaul, and they had sent a number of
+kind messages to me. Then, too, Balbus invited me to a
+dinner-party and there I met Curio, and a very pleasant time
+we had. I cannot recall that they made any special efforts to
+enlist me as a partisan."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In this last, Drusus spoke truly; for he had already
+thrown in his lot with the Cæsarian cause. But Lentulus
+knew enough of the case to realize that he was receiving not
+the whole truth but only a half; and being a man of a sharp
+temper that was under very imperfect control, threw diplomacy
+to the winds, and replied vehemently: "Don't
+attempt to cover up your folly! I know how you have put
+yourself in the power of those conspirators. Are you planning
+to turn out another Catilina?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My dear sir," expostulated Drusus, doing his best to retain
+his outward calm, "I cannot understand of what fault I have
+become guilty. Is it wrong in Rome to accept a kindly
+invitation from an old family friend to a dinner? Am I
+responsible for the persons the host summoned to meet me
+there?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus had been simply sparring to ward off the real point
+at issue; like many persons he would not assert his convictions
+and motives till fairly brought to bay. But that moment
+came almost instantly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Don't equivocate! <i>Mehercle!</i>" cried Lentulus, getting thoroughly
+angry. "Can't you speak, except to lie and quibble
+before my face? Have you joined the gang Curio is rallying
+for Cæsar?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus was losing his own patience now.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes! And we shall shortly see whether the Republic is
+to be longer ruined by incompetence and corruption!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Uncle! Quintus!" implored Cornelia, forcing herself
+between them, and casting out of her wide-open eyes on each
+a look full of distress. "Don't contend! For my sake be
+friends!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"For your sake!" raged Lentulus, his florid face growing
+redder and redder. "I will take care to keep you out of the
+clutches of a man who deliberately chooses to associate with
+all that is base and villanous. Until your handsome lover
+throws over connections with Cæsar and his fellow-conspirators,
+let him never ask for your hand!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Sir," burst in Drusus, flushing with passion, "do you dare
+to set at naught the will of your brother and its express commands?
+Dare you withhold from me what is legally my
+own?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Legally?" replied Lentulus, with sharp scorn. "Don't
+use that word to a consul-elect, who has the whole Senate and
+Pompeius behind him. Laws are very dangerous tools for a
+young man to meddle with in a case like this. You will be
+wise not to resort to the courts."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You defy the law!" thundered Drusus, all the blood of
+his fighting ancestors tingling in his veins. "Do you say that
+to a Livian; to the heir of eight consuls, two censors, a master
+of the horse, a dictator, and three triumphators? Shall not
+<i>he</i> obtain justice?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And perhaps," said Lentulus, sinking into an attitude of
+irritating coldness, "you will further press your claim on the
+ground that your mother was a Fabian, and the Fabii claim
+the sole right to sacrifice to Hercules on the Great Altar<a name="r82" href="#fn82">[82]</a> in
+the Cattle-market by the Flaminian Circus, because they are
+descended from Hercules and Evander. I think the Cornelian
+gens can show quite as many death-masks in its atria, and your
+mock heroics will only stamp you as a very bad tragedian."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Uncle! Quintus!" implored Cornelia again, the tears
+beginning to start from her eyes. "Cease this dreadful quarrel.
+Go away until you can talk calmly."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Quintus Livius," shouted Lentulus, dropping the "Drusus,"
+a part of the name which was omitted in formal address,
+"you can choose here and now. Forswear your Cæsarian
+connections, or consider my niece's betrothal at an end!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus stood looking in blank dismay from one to the other
+of the little company. Claudia had started to speak, but closed,
+her lips without uttering a word. Lentulus faced him, hot,
+flushed, and with a cynical smile of delight, at the infliction of
+mental torture, playing over his face. Cornelia had dropped
+down upon a chair, buried her pretty face in her hands, and was
+sobbing as if her heart would break. It was a moment Drusus
+would not soon forget. The whole scene in the atrium was
+stamped upon his memory; the drops of the fountain seemed
+frozen in mid-air; the rioting satyr on the fresco appeared to
+be struggling against the limitations of paint and plaster to
+complete his bound; he saw Cornelia lift her head and begin
+to address him, but what she said was drowned by the buzzing
+and swirl which unsteadied the young man's entire faculties.
+Drusus felt himself turning hot and cold, and in semi-faintness
+he caught at a pillar, and leaned upon it. He felt
+numbed mentally and physically. Then, by a mental reaction,
+his strong, well-balanced nature reasserted itself. His
+head cleared, his muscles relaxed their feverish tension, he
+straightened himself and met the cool leer of Lentulus with a
+glance stern and high; such a glance as many a Livian before
+him had darted on foe in Senate or field of battle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Lucius Cornelius," said he, his voice perfectly under command,
+"do you propose to defy law and right and refuse me
+the hand of your niece, unless I do your will?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lentulus thought that in this unimpassioned speech he detected
+the premonitions of a capitulation on the part of Drusus,
+and with a voice of ill-timed persuasion, replied, "Be reasonable,
+Drusus; you have everything to gain and nothing to lose
+by not thwarting my wishes."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Your wishes!" retorted Drusus, with a menacing step
+forward. "Your wishes! You are consul-designate. You
+have the Senate, you have your tool, Pompeius, you have the
+gangs of gladiators and street ruffians and all the machinery
+of your political clubs to invoke to defy the law! I grant it;
+but though you deny me Cornelia, though by your machinations
+you bring me any other loss or shame, the grandson of
+the murdered Marcus Drusus will do that which is right in his
+own eyes, and accept no mandate from you or any man, against
+his will!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Cornelia," cried Claudia, infinitely distressed, "speak to
+Quintus, reason with him, implore him, pray him not to
+resist the requests of your uncle."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, girl!" said Lentulus, savagely, turning livid with
+sheer rage, "use all your arts on that graceless would-be conspirator
+now, or see his face no more!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Cornelia interposed in a most summary and unexpected
+manner. Her face was very white; her nails pressed into her
+smooth arms, her breath came thick and spasmodically, and
+her eyes flamed with the intense passion of a strong spirit
+thoroughly aroused.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Go, Quintus," she cried, with a strained, loud voice, "go,
+and never see my face again, until my uncle repents of his
+cruel madness! He is master here; only woe will come from
+defying him. Do not anger him further; depart."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Depart?" burst from Drusus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Depart!" replied Cornelia, desperately; "if you stay I shall
+go mad. I shall beg you to yield,—which would be base of me;
+and if you heard my prayers, it would be more base in you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Fool," shouted Lentulus, "don't you know you will be the
+first I'll mark for slaughter in the next proscription? You,
+mistress, go to your room, if you cannot keep a civil tongue!
+And you, sir, get you gone, unless you wish the slaves to cast
+you out."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Farewell, Cornelia!" gasped the young man; and he turned
+his back, and started out into the colonnade.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, Quintus, return!" shrieked Claudia, wringing her
+hands. "All the gods blast you!" muttered Lentulus, quivering
+with fury; then he shouted at the top of his shrill, harsh
+voice: "My enemies are my enemies. You are warned. Take
+care!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And do you take warning! A Livian never forgets! <i>Mars
+regat!</i> Let War rule!" cried Drusus, turning at the vestibule,
+and brandishing a knotted fist. Lentulus stared after him,
+half furious, half intimidated. But Claudia glanced back into
+the room from the just emptied doorway, and gave a scream.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The servants! Help! Water! Cornelia has fainted!"
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>III</h3>
+
+<p>
+Drusus strode down the long avenue of shade trees. The
+gardener stared after him, as the young man went by, his face
+knitted with a scowl of combined pain and fury, with never a
+word in reply to the rustic's kindly salutation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Papæ!</i>"<a name="r83" href="#fn83">[83]</a> muttered the man, "what has befallen Master
+Quintus? Has he fallen out with her ladyship?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus kept on, looking neither to the right hand nor to the
+left, until he found himself past the boundary stone between
+his own estate and that of the Lentuli. Then he stopped
+and passed his hand over his forehead. It was damp with an
+unhealthy sweat. His hands and frame were quivering as if
+in an ague. He seated himself on a stone bench by the roadway,
+and tried to collect his faculties.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Bear up, Drusus; be a Livian, as you boast yourself," he
+declaimed frantically to himself. "Cornelia shall still be
+yours! All things are possible to one who is young and
+strong, with a clear conscience!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If this self-debate did not actually stimulate cheerfulness, it
+at least revived the embers of hope; and Drusus found himself
+trying to look the situation fairly in the face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You have thrown away your right to marry the dearest,
+loveliest, and noblest girl in the world," he reflected bitterly.
+"You have made an implacable enemy of one of the most
+powerful men of the state. In short, your happiness is gone,
+and perhaps your life is in danger—and for what? A dream
+of reform which can never be realized? A mad conspiracy to
+overthrow the commonwealth? Is Cæsar to be saviour or
+despot? For what have you sacrificed yourself?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lentulus, he knew perfectly well, was really above law.
+No jury would ever convict the leader of the Senate party.
+Drusus could never contract lawful marriage with Cornelia, so
+long as her guardian withheld consent. And for one moment
+he regretted of his determination, of his defiance. Then came
+reaction. Drusus called up all his innate pride, all the
+strength of his nobler inspirations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I have set my face toward that which is honourable and
+right," cried Drusus to his own soul; "I will not doubt.
+Whether there be gods, I cannot tell. But this I know, the
+wise and good have counted naught dear but virtues; and
+toward this end I will strive."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And by a strong effort at self-command, he forced himself
+to arise from the bench and walk back to his own estate,
+and soon he was pouring the whole story into the sympathetic
+ears of Mamercus, Pausanias, and other worthy retainers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The scene that had taken place at the villa of the Lentuli,
+soon was reported through all the adjacent farms; for several
+slaves had been the mute witnesses of the angry colloquy,
+and had not been slow to publish the report. The familia of
+Drusus was in a tumult of indignation. All the brawny Germans
+and Africans whom the young master had released from
+the slave-prison, and had since treated with kindness, listened
+with no unfavourable ear to the proposal which Titus Mamercus—more
+valorous than discreet—was laying before them:
+to arm and attack Lentulus in his own villa, and so avenge
+their lord in a summary fashion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the elder Mamercus dashed the martial ambitions of his
+son.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Fool," cried the veteran, emphatically, when the project
+came to his ears, "do you wish to undo yourself and Quintus
+too? No power short of Jove could protect you and him, if
+aught were to befall Lentulus, in the way you propose."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But what can we do, father?" replied Titus, sorry to see
+his scheme for vengeance blocked; "shall that despicable
+tyrant defy law and justice, and refuse to give Mistress Cornelia
+to Quintus?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Silence your folly!" thundered the other, who was himself
+quite nonplussed over the situation, and felt Titus's bold
+chatter would goad him into something desperate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The truth was, neither Pausanias nor any other of Quintus's
+friends could see any means of coercing the consul-elect into
+receding from his position. He was practically above law, and
+could not with safety be attacked in any way. Pausanias could
+only counsel moderation and patience; perhaps some fortunate
+chance would alter matters. Drusus spent the evening in a
+pathetically forced attempt to read his Callimachus. He was
+weary physically, and intended to retire early. Æmilia, who
+felt sorry enough for the plight of her rather distant cousin,
+had tried to console him and divert him with guitar<a name="r84" href="#fn84">[84]</a> music,
+and had called in an itinerant piper,<a name="r85" href="#fn85">[85]</a> but these well-meant
+efforts at amusement had been dreary failures. Drusus had
+just bidden his body-servants undress him, when he was
+informed that Agias had come from the Lentulan villa, and
+wished to see him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias was full of protestations of delight at beholding his
+intercessor and ransomer. Drusus could hardly recognize in
+the supple-limbed, fair-complexioned, vivacious lad before him,
+the wretched creature whom Alfidius had driven through the
+streets. Agias's message was short, but quite long enough to
+make Drusus's pale cheeks flush with new life, his sunken eyes
+rekindle, and his languor vanish into energy. Cornelia would
+be waiting for him by the great cypress in the gardens of the
+Lentulan villa, as soon as the moon rose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus prepared himself hurriedly, and refused all the
+entreaties of Titus to take him along as a body-guard. Time
+coursed on winged feet, as the young man hastened out into
+the night, and half ran down the familiar pathway. The day
+had been only moderately warm for the season, and the night
+was cool, though not cold. A soft east wind was blowing
+down from the distant Apennines, and all the trees were
+rustling gently. Up to the giant arm of a gnarled oak, fluttered
+an owl, which hooted noisily as the young man hurried beneath.
+The crickets were chirping. A little way off was a small
+stream plunging over a dam; from it came a liquid roar; and
+the little wall of white spray was just visible in the darkness.
+Out from the orchards drifted the fragrant scent of apple,
+pear, plum, and quince. Still more sweet was the breeze, as it
+swept over the wide-stretching rose-beds. Overhead Orion and
+Arcturus were glittering in that hazy splendour which belongs
+to the heavens on a summer's night.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus kept on, only half noting the beauty of the darkness.
+When he entered the groves of the Lentulan villa, almost all
+light failed him, and but for his intimate knowledge—from
+boyhood—of the whole locality, he could never have kept the
+path. Then the moonlight began to stream up in the east,
+and between the trees and thickets lay the long, yellow bars of
+brightness, while all else was still in gloom. Drusus pushed
+on with confidence, and soon the gurgle of the tiny cataract
+told him that he was near the old cypress. A few steps more,
+and a figure rose from out the fern thicket. It was Cornelia.
+Her hair was tumbling loosely over her shoulders; she wore
+a soft, light-blue dress that covered her arms and her feet.
+In the moonlight her face and hands appeared as bloodless as
+white marble.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I knew you would come, Quintus," she cried. "I couldn't
+say farewell to you, in the presence of my uncle!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My beautiful!" cried Drusus; and he caught her in his
+arms.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The moments that followed were as bitter-sweet as may be
+conceivable. Each knew that they had small hope of an
+honourable realization of their love one for another; that the
+moment of parting would soon come. But for the instant
+they were in Elysium, caught out of mortal care and mortal
+sorrow, and knowing nothing but the pure delight of the
+other's presence. Then, at last, their talk became less enraptured;
+the vision of Olympus faded little by little; the stern
+reality confronted them in all its seriousness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Cornelia," said Quintus, at length, "you are still a very
+young woman. This day's heart-breakings may, perhaps, be
+long painful to you; but the pangs will grow faint in time.
+You and I may still cherish fondness in our hearts for each
+other, but how dare we reasonably hope for more? Evil times
+are at hand. If your uncle's party prevail in the struggle, my
+ruin is assured. But not yours. There are many worthy men
+who would be proud to take in marriage the niece of the next
+consul; and with one of these you can live happily. Do not
+try to forget me. I don't ask that. But do not let my misfortune
+cast a shadow over your dear life. Marry some honourable
+man. Only think kindly of me sometimes."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They had been sitting beside the brooklet, on the soft
+green-sward. Cornelia had been resting both her hands in Drusus's,
+but now she drew them back, and sprang to her feet, as if
+swept away by a gust of anger.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"How dare you!" she cried, "how dare you bid me throw
+away all that my heart has turned on, and my hopes depended
+on, and my imagination dreamed of, since our fathers were
+slain side by side; and more especially since you came back
+from Athens? Why might not I bid you renounce your adherence
+to Cæsar's cause, and say, 'There is no need of blasting
+your career by such a sacrifice; remember Cæsar and his party
+kindly, wish them well, but do not dwell too much thereon;
+submit cheerfully to what is inevitable'? Shall I argue thus?
+Have I argued thus? If you will, abandon me, and wed some
+other maiden, and many there are, fair, wealthy, noble, who
+will be glad to be given in marriage to a Livius Drusus. But
+till you thus repudiate your father's will, no power of gods or
+of men shall drive me to violate that of mine."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Cornelia," said Drusus, in a husky voice, "do you know
+what you are saying? What resistance to threats and unkind
+treatment your resolve will mean?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I both know the future and accept it," answered the maiden
+firmly, looking fairly into his face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Then by all the powers of earth, sky, and Hades!" cried
+the young man, lifting one arm toward heaven, and throwing
+the other about his sweetheart, "I will defy Lentulus, defy
+Pompeius, defy Senate, army, mob, or any other human might.
+Hitherto I have thought to play the patriot in espousing
+Cæsar's cause. Now let love and fury fire my ardour. When
+the party of violence and tyranny falls, then too will fall the
+power of Lentulus to outrage your right and mine! Ours shall
+be a triumph of Venus as well as of Mars, and until that time,
+may you and I endure faithful unto our fathers, ourselves, and
+one another!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hardly had he spoken ere loud voices were heard calling
+through the grove. Torches were glaring among the trees, and
+the harsh tones of Lentulus burst out:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Take the wretched girl into the house when you find her;
+but as for her lover, let him not escape!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My uncle!" groaned Cornelia, quivering with terror; "one
+of my maids has betrayed me! Flee! run! He has called
+out all his slaves; they will kill you!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Kill me?" gasped Drusus, incredulously; "commit deliberate
+murder?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes," moaned Cornelia; "he dares anything. He is all
+fury and violence. Escape! Do not throw yourself away in
+vain!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The lights flashed nearer; the slaves were shouting and
+blundering through the bushes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Two philippi to the man who strikes Drusus down!"
+bawled Lentulus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was no time for delay and affectionate leave-taking. The
+young man threw his arms around Cornelia, kissed her once,
+twice, and then bounded into the thicket. A moment later
+several of the servants came splashing over the little stream,
+and found Cornelia alone beside the great cypress, pale and
+trembling and sobbing. Drusus caught one last sight of her,
+surrounded by the torches of the pursuers. Then he struck
+off into the grove, and thanks to his perfect local knowledge
+easily avoided meeting Lentulus or his slaves. Lentulus he
+would gladly have confronted alone. What would have followed,
+the athletic young man could only surmise grimly; but
+he was unarmed, and for Cornelia's sake he must take no risks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Close to the confines of his own land he met the Mamerci,
+father and son, and several slaves and freedmen, all armed
+and anxious to know whether the din that had been raised over
+at the Lentulan villa betokened any danger to their young
+master.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus satisfied them that he had suffered no injury. The
+personal peril through which he had passed brought a reaction
+of excitement which raised his spirits, and he went to bed in
+a mood at least tolerably cheerful. If he could not enjoy his
+love, he had at least something else to live for—vengeance;
+and he told himself that he had a whole mature lifetime left
+in which to make Lentulus repent of his folly and tyrannical
+cruelty. He awoke late the next morn in a calm frame of mind,
+and was able to receive with outward equanimity the news
+that early in the morning Lentulus had taken his sister-in-law
+and niece, and a large part of his household, back to Rome.
+This was only to have been expected, and Drusus listened to
+the information without useless comment.
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h2 id="ch6">CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h2>POMPEIUS MAGNUS</h2>
+
+
+<p>
+If we had been painting an ideal heroine, gifted with all
+the virtues which Christian traditions of female perfection
+throw around such characters, Cornelia would have resigned
+herself quietly to the inevitable, and exhibited a seraphic
+serenity amid tribulation. But she was only a grieved,
+embittered, disappointed, sorely wronged, Pagan maiden, who
+had received few enough lessons in forbearance and meekness.
+And now that her natural sweetness of character had received
+so severe a shock, she vented too often the rage she felt
+against her uncle upon her helpless servants. Her maid
+Cassandra—who was the one that had told Lentulus of her
+mistress's nocturnal meeting with Drusus—soon felt the
+weight of Cornelia's wrath. The young lady, as soon as
+Lentulus was out of the way, caused the tell-tale to receive
+a cruel whipping, which kept the poor slave-girl groaning in
+her cell for ten days, and did not relieve Cornelia's own distress
+in the slightest degree. As a matter of fact, Cornelia
+was perpetually goaded into fresh outbursts of desperation
+by the tyrannical attitude of her uncle. Lentulus boasted in
+her presence that he would accomplish Drusus's undoing.
+"I'll imitate Sulla," he would announce, in mean pleasure at
+giving his niece pain; "I'll see how many heads I can have
+set up as he did at the Lacus Servilius. You can go <i>there</i>,
+if you wish to kiss your lover."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Cornelia's life at Rome was rendered unhappy by many
+other things besides these occasional brutal stabs from her
+uncle. Her mother, as has been hinted, was a woman of the
+world, and had an intense desire to draw her daughter into
+her own circle of society. Claudia cared for Cornelia in a
+manner, and believed it was a real kindness to tear the poor
+girl away from her solitary broodings and plunge her into the
+whirl of the world of Roman fashion. Claudia had become
+an intimate of Clodia, the widow of Quintus Metellus, a
+woman of remarkable gifts and a notoriously profligate character.
+"The Medea of the Palatine Hill," Cicero had bitingly
+styled her. Nearly all the youth of parts and social distinction
+enjoyed the wild pleasures of Clodia's garden by the
+Tiber. Catullus the poet, Cælius the brilliant young politician,
+and many another had figured as lovers of this soulless
+and enchanting woman. And into Clodia's gilded circle
+Claudia tried desperately to drag her daughter. The Lentuli
+had a handsome palace on the Carinæ, one of the most fashionable
+quarters of the capital; and here there were many
+gay gatherings and dinner parties. Cornelia was well born
+enough, by reputation wealthy enough, and in feature handsome
+enough, to have a goodly proportion of the young men
+of this coterie her devoted admirers and slaves. Claudia
+observed her daughter's social triumphs with glee, and did all
+she could to give Cornelia plenty of this kind of company.
+Cornelia would not have been a mortal woman if she had not
+taken a certain amount of pleasure in noticing and exercising
+her power. The first occasion when she appeared at a formal
+banquet in the splendid Apollo dinner hall of the Luculli,
+where the outlay on the feast was fixed by a regular scale at
+two hundred thousand sesterces, she gathered no little satisfaction
+by the consciousness that all the young men were
+admiring her, and all the women were fuming with jealousy.
+But this life was unspeakably wearisome, after the first
+novelty had worn away. Cornelia lived in an age when many
+of the common proprieties and decencies of our present society
+would have been counted prudish, but she could not close her
+eyes to the looseness and license that pervaded her mother's
+world. Woman had become almost entirely independent of
+man in social and economic matters, though the law still kept
+its fictions of tutelage. Honourable marriages were growing
+fewer and fewer. Divorces were multiplying. The morality
+of the time can be judged from the fact that the "immaculate"
+Marcus Cato separated from his wife that a friend might marry
+her; and when the friend died, married her himself again.
+Scandals and love intrigues were common in the highest
+circles; noble ladies, and not ballet-dancers<a name="r86" href="#fn86">[86]</a> merely, thought
+it of little account to have their names besmirched. Everything
+in society was splendid, polished, decorous, cultivated
+without; but within, hollow and rotten.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia grew weary and sick of the excitement, the fashionable
+chatter, the mongering of low gossips. She loathed
+the sight of the effeminate young fops who tried to win
+her smiles by presenting themselves for a polite call each
+morning, polished and furbelowed, and rubbed sleek and
+smooth with Catanian pumice. Her mother disgusted her so
+utterly that she began to entertain the most unfilial feeling
+toward the worthy woman. Cornelia would not or could not
+understand that in such hot weather it was proper to wear
+lighter rings than in winter, and that each ring must be set
+carefully on a different finger joint to prevent touching.
+Cornelia watched her servants, and reached the astonishing
+conclusion that these humble creatures were really extracting
+more pleasure out of life than herself. Cassandra had
+recovered from her whipping, and was bustling about her
+tasks as if nothing had happened. Agias seemed to have a
+never failing fund of good spirits. He was always ready to
+tell the funniest stories or retail the latest news. Once or
+twice he brought his mistress unspeakable delight, by smuggling
+into the house letters from Drusus, which contained
+words of love and hope, if no really substantial promises for
+the future. But this was poor enough comfort. Drusus wrote
+that he could not for the time see that any good end would be
+served by coming to Rome, and he would remain for the
+present in Præneste. He and she must try to wait in patience,
+until politics took such a turn as would drive Lentulus into
+a more tractable attitude. Cornelia found the days monotonous
+and dreary. Her uncle's freedman kept her under constant
+espionage to prevent a chance meeting with Drusus, and
+but for Agias she would have been little better than a prisoner,
+ever in charge of his keepers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In a way, however, Cornelia found that there was enough
+stirring in the outside world to lend zest and often venom
+to the average emptiness of polite conversation. Politics
+were penetrating deeper and deeper into fashionable society.
+Cornelia heard how Paulus, the consul, had taken a large
+present from Cæsar to preserve neutrality; and how Curio, the
+tribune, had checked Clodius Marcellus, the other consul,
+when he wished to take steps in the Senate against Cæsar.
+All that Cornelia heard of that absent statesman was from
+hostile lips; consequently she had him painted to her as
+blood-thirsty, treacherous, of flagrant immorality, with his
+one object to gather a band of kindred spirits to his cause,
+and become despot. And to hear such reports and yet to
+keep confident that Drusus was not sacrificing both himself
+and her in a worse than unworthy cause—this tested her to
+the uttermost.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To add to her troubles, Lucius Ahenobarbus was ever thrusting
+in his attentions at every party and at the theatre; and
+her uncle openly favoured his suit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I wish you would be more friendly to him," remarked
+Lentulus on one occasion. "I should be glad to have a closer
+tie between his family and ours."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Uncle," said Cornelia, much distressed, "I do not think I
+understand what you mean."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well," chuckled Lentulus, moving away, "think it over
+until you do understand."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia had been reading in the library when this conversation
+took place. There was to be another party that evening
+at the house of Marcus Favonius, a prominent anti-Cæsarian,
+and since it was growing late in the afternoon, it was time to
+dress. Cornelia went into her own room, and was summoning
+her maids, when a young lady of about her own age, who
+affected to be on terms of considerable intimacy, was announced—Herennia,
+a daughter of a certain rich old eques, Caius
+Pontius, who had kept out of politics and hoarded money,
+which his daughter was doing her best to spend.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Herennia was already dressed for the party. Her brown
+hair had been piled up in an enormous mass on her head, eked
+out by false tresses and puffings, and the whole plentifully
+powdered with gold dust. She wore a prodigious number of
+gaudily set rings; her neck and ears and girdle were ablaze
+with gold and jewels. So far from aiming, as do modern
+ladies, to reduce the waist to the slenderest possible proportions,
+Herennia, who was actually quite thin, had carefully
+padded out her form to proper dimensions, and showed this
+fact by her constrained motions. She was rouged and painted,
+and around her floated an incense of a thousand and one rare
+perfumes. Her amethystine tunic and palla were of pure
+silk—then literally worth its weight in gold—and embroidered
+with an elaborate pattern in which pearls and other gems
+played a conspicuous part. For all this display of extravagance,
+Herennia was of only very mediocre beauty; and it was
+on this account that she was always glad to make uncomfortable
+flings at her "dear friend" Cornelia, whenever possible.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Herennia seated herself on a divan, and proceeded to plunge
+into all the flying gossip of the day. Incidentally she managed
+to hint that Servius Maccus, her devoted admirer, had
+told her that the night before Lucius Ahenobarbus and some
+of his friends had attacked and insulted a lady on her way
+back from a late dinner.<a name="r87" href="#fn87">[87]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The outrageous scapegrace!" cried Cornelia, while her
+maids hurried along a toilet which, if not as elaborate as
+Herennia's, took some little time. "I imagined he might do
+such things! I always detested him!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Then you are not so very fond of Lucius Ahenobarbus,"
+said Herennia, raising her carefully painted eyebrows, as if
+in astonishment. "I am really a little surprised."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Surprised?" reëchoed Cornelia. "What have I done or
+said that makes Lucius Ahenobarbus anything more than a
+very distant, a <i>very</i> distant acquaintance?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My dear girl," exclaimed Herennia, throwing up her
+hands, "either you are the best actress, or the most innocent
+little wight, in Rome! Don't you know all that they say about
+you?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Who—say—what—about—me?" stammered Cornelia,
+rising in her chair so suddenly, as to disarrange all the work
+Cassandra had been doing on her hair.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, everybody," said Herennia, smiling with an exasperating
+deliberation. "And then it has all come out in the
+daily gazette."<a name="r88" href="#fn88">[88]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Where is it? Read! Let me see," pleaded Cornelia,
+agitated and trembling.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, how troubled you are," giggled Herennia. "Yes, I
+have my freedman copy down the whole bulletin every day,
+as soon as it is posted by the censor's officers; now let me
+see," and she produced from under her robe a number of
+wooden, wax-covered tablets, strung together: "the last prætor's
+edict; the will of old Publius Blæsus;" and she ran over
+the headings with maddening slowness: "the speech in the
+Senate of Curio—what an impudent rascal; the money paid
+yesterday into the treasury,—how dull to copy all that
+down!—the meteor which fell over in Tibur, and was such a
+prodigy; oh, yes, here it is at last; you may as well hear
+what all Rome knows now, it's at the end, among the private
+affairs. 'Lucius Ahenobarbus, son of Lucius Domitius, the
+Consular, and Cornelia, daughter of the late tribune, Caius
+Lentulus, are in love. They will be married soon.'"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These two brief sentences, which the mechanical difficulties
+under which journalistic enterprise laboured at that day made
+it impossible to expand into a modern "article," were quite
+sufficient to tell a whole story to Rome. Cornelia realized
+instantly that she had been made the victim of some vile
+trick, which she doubted not her would-be lover and her
+uncle had executed in collusion. She took the tablets from
+Herennia's hand, without a word, read the falsehoods once,
+twice, thrice. The meaning of the day attached to the terms
+used intimated the existence of a low intrigue, quite as much
+as any honourable "engagement." If Cornelia did not soon
+become the lawful wife of Lucius Ahenobarbus, the world
+would feel justified in piling scandal upon her name. The
+blow was numbing in its brutality. Instead of crying and
+execrating the liars, as Herennia fully expected her to do,
+Cornelia merely handed back the tablets, and said with cold
+dignity, "I think some very unfortunate mistake has been
+made. Lucius Ahenobarbus is no friend of mine. Will you
+be so kind as to leave me with my maids?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Herennia was overborne by the calm, commanding attitude
+of the rival she had meant to annoy. When Cornelia became
+not the radiant <i>debutante</i>, but the haughty patrician lady,
+there was that about her which made her wish a mandate.
+Herennia, in some confusion, withdrew. When she was gone,
+Cornelia ordered her maids out of the room, stripped off the
+golden tiara they had been plaiting into her hair, tore away
+the rings, bracelets, necklaces, and flung herself upon the
+pillows of the divan, quivering with sobs. She did not know
+of a single friend who could help her. All the knowledge
+that she had imbibed taught her that there was no God either
+to hear prayer, or succour the wronged. Her name would
+become a laughing-stock and a hissing, to be put on a par
+with Clodia's or that of any other frivolous woman, unless she
+not merely gave up the man she loved, but also threw herself
+into the arms of the man she utterly hated. The craving for
+any respite was intense. She was young; but for the moment,
+at least, life had lost every glamour. If death was an endless
+sleep, why not welcome it as a blessed release? The idea of
+suicide had a grasp on the ancient world which it is hard at
+first to estimate. A healthy reaction might have stirred
+Cornelia out of her despair, but at that instant the impulse
+needed to make her commit an irrevocable deed must have
+been very slight. But while she lay on the pillows, wretched
+and heart-sick, the voice of Agias was heard without, bidding
+the maids admit him to their mistress.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Stay outside. I can't see you now," moaned poor Cornelia,
+feeling that for once the sight of the good-humoured,
+vivacious slave-boy would be maddening. But Agias thrust
+back the curtains and boldly entered. What he said will be
+told in its due time and place; but the moment he had gone
+Cornelia was calling in Cassandra, and ordering the maids to
+dress her with all possible speed for the dinner-party.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I must be all smiles, all enchantments," she was saying to
+herself. "I must dissemble. I must win confidences. I must
+do everything, and anything. I have no right to indulge in
+grief any longer. Quintus's dear life is at stake!"
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+Lentulus did not go to the banquet of Favonius, to see the
+unwonted graciousness with which his niece received the
+advances of Lucius Ahenobarbus, Neither was Favonius himself
+present at his own entertainment. They, and several
+others of the high magnates of their party, had been called
+away by an urgent summons, and spent the evening in secluded
+conference with no less a personage than Pompeius, or as he
+dearly loved to be called, "the Magnus," in his splendid palace
+outside the walls on the Campus Martius. And here the
+conqueror of Mithridates—a stout, soldierly man of six-and-fifty,
+whose best quality was a certain sense of financial honesty,
+and whose worst an extreme susceptibility to the grossest
+adulation—told them that he had received letters from
+Labienus, Cæsar's most trusted lieutenant in Gaul, declaring
+that the proconsul's troops would never fight for him, that
+Cæsar would never be able to stir hand or foot against the
+decrees of the Senate, and that he, Labienus, would desert
+him at the first opportunity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cheerful news this to the noble lords, who had for years
+scented in Cæsar's existence and prosperity destruction to
+their own oligarchic rule of almost the known world. But
+when Cato, the most violent anti-Cæsarian of them all, a
+sharp, wiry man with angular features, and keen black eyes,
+demanded:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And now, Magnus, you will not hesitate to annihilate the
+enemies of the Republic?" a look of pained indecision flitted
+across Pompeius's face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Perpol</i>, gentlemen," he exclaimed, "I would that I were
+well out of this. Sometimes I think that you are leading me
+into breaking with Cæsar for some ends of your own. He
+was my friend before you had a word of praise for me. He
+loved Julia; so did I." And the Magnus paused a moment,
+overcome by the thought of his dead wife. "Perhaps the
+Republic demands his sacrifice, perhaps—" and he cast a
+glance half of menace upon Lentulus Crus and Cato, "you are
+the guilty, not he. But I am in grievous doubt."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Perhaps, Magnus," said Favonius, with half a sneer,
+"you think your forces inadequate. The two legions at
+Luceria are just detached from Cæsar. Perhaps you question
+their fidelity."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Man," retorted the general, fiercely, bringing his foot down
+upon the soft rug on the floor, "I have but to stamp upon the
+ground to call up legions out of Italy; it is not that which I
+fear!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The members of the conference looked uneasy; there was
+still a bare chance that Pompeius would go back to his old
+friendship with Cæsar.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Gentlemen," went on the Magnus, "I have called you
+here to reach a final decision—peace or war. Let us consult
+a higher power than human." And he touched a little silver
+bell that was upon the table close at hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Forthwith there was a rustle of curtains, and out of the gloom
+of the doorway—for the hour was now very late—advanced
+a tall, gaunt figure, dressed in a plain, sleeveless robe that fell
+to the feet. The skin was dry, hard, wrinkled by a hundred
+furrows; the bones of the face were thrust out prominently;
+on the head was a plain white turban, and a beard quite as
+white fell down upon the breast. Only from under the turban
+shone the eyes, which were bright and piercing as coals of fire.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The stranger advanced without a word, till he stood before
+Pompeius, then knelt and made an elaborate Oriental prostration.
+The noble Romans, twelve or more of the magnates of
+the greatest power on the earth, held their breath in uneasy anticipation.
+Not one of them perhaps really believed in a personal
+god; but though atheists, they could not forswear their
+superstition. Piso, the censor, who notoriously feared neither
+divine nor human law in his reckless life, spat thrice to ward
+off the effects of the evil eye, if the stranger were a magician.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ulamhala," said Pompeius, addressing the newcomer,
+"arise. Since I have been in the East,<a name="r89" href="#fn89">[89]</a> I have consulted
+you and your science of the stars, in every intended step, and
+your warnings have never failed."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My lord doth overcommend the wisdom of his slave,"
+replied Ulamhala (for such was his name) in Syriac Greek,
+with a second deep obeisance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Now, therefore," went on Pompeius—and his voice was
+unsteady with evident excitement and anxiety,—"I have
+called you hither to declare the warnings of the stars upon
+the most important step of my life. What lies now at stake,
+you know full well. Three days ago I bade you consult the
+heavens, that this night you might be able to declare their
+message, not merely to me, but to these my friends, who will
+shape their actions by mine. Have you a response from the
+planets?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I have, lord," and again Ulamhala salaamed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Then declare, be it good or ill;" commanded Pompeius,
+and he gripped the arms of his chair to conceal his anxiety.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The scene was in a way weird enough. The visitors exchanged
+uneasy glances, and Cato, who broke out in some silly
+remark to Favonius, in a bold attempt to interrupt the
+oppressive silence, suddenly found his words growing thick
+and broken, and he abruptly became silent. Each man present
+tried to tell himself that Pompeius was a victim of superstition,
+but every individual felt an inward monition that
+something portentous was about to be uttered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The conference had lasted long. The lamps were flickering
+low. Dark shadows were loitering in every corner of the
+room. The aroma of flowers from the adjacent gardens floated
+in at the open windows, and made the hot air drugged and
+heavy. Ulamhala slowly and noiseless as a cat stepped to
+the window, and, leaning out over the marble railing, looked
+up into the violet-black heavens. There was no moon, but a
+trembling flame on one of the candelabras threw a dull, ruddy
+glow over his white dress and snowy turban. His face was
+hid in the gloom, but the others knew, though they could
+hardly see, that he was pointing upward with his right hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Behold," began the astrologer, "three thousand seven
+hundred and fifty years since the days of the great Sargon of
+Agade have we of the race of the Chaldeans studied the stars.
+One generation of watchers succeeded another, scanning the
+heavens nightly from our <i>ziggurats</i>,<a name="r90" href="#fn90">[90]</a> and we have learned the
+laws of the constellations; the laws of Sin the moon, the laws
+of Samas the sun, the laws of the planets, the laws of the
+fixed stars. Their motions and their influence on the affairs
+of men our fathers discovered, and have handed their wisdom
+down to us."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But the word of the stars to <i>us</i>?" broke in Pompeius, in
+extreme disquietude, and trying to shake off the spell that
+held him in mastery.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Know, lord, that thy slave has not been disobedient unto
+thy commandment. Look, yonder burneth a bright red planet,
+called by us Nergal, which ye Westerns call by the name of
+Mars. Who denieth that when Mars shines in the heavens,
+war will break forth among men? Know that I have carefully
+compared the settings, risings, and movements of the
+planets at this season with their settings, risings, and movements
+at the time when my lord was born; and also at the
+time of the birth of his great enemy. I have made use of the
+tables which my wise predecessors among the Chaldees have
+prepared; and which I myself, thy slave, copied from those
+at the Temple of Bel, in Babylon."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And they say?" breathlessly interrupted Lentulus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"This is the message from the planets," and Ulamhala's
+form grew higher, his voice firmer; he raised his long bony
+arms above his head, and stood in the dull light like a skeleton
+arisen in all its white grave clothes to convey a warning to the
+living. "To the Lord Pompeius, this is the warning, and to
+his enemy,
+</p>
+
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>
+"'<i>He that is highest shall rise yet higher;<br />
+He that is second shall utterly fall!</i>'
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+I have said."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And before the noble Romans could command the free play
+of their senses, the vision at the window had vanished, either
+out of doors, or behind some doorway or curtain. The company
+sat gazing uneasily at each other for several minutes.
+The Magnus was breathing heavily, as though he had passed
+through a terrible mental ordeal. Cato, the Stoic and ascetic,
+had his eyes riveted on the carpet, and his face was as stony
+as an Egyptian Colossus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then a coarse forced laugh from Piso broke the spell.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Capital, Pompeius! You <i>are</i> a favourite of the gods!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I?" ventured the Magnus, moving his lips slowly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Of course," cried several voices at once, catching the cue
+from Piso. "You are the first in the world, Cæsar the second!
+You are to rise to new glories, and Cæsar is to utterly fall!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The stars have said it, gentlemen," said Pompeius, solemnly;
+"Cæsar shall meet his fate. Let there be war."
+</p>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+Lentulus Crus rode away from the conference, his litter
+side by side with that of Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, the
+consular, whom we will know as Domitius to distinguish from
+his son and namesake. Domitius, a handsome, highly polished,
+vigorous, but none the less unprincipled man, who was
+just reaching the turn of years, was in high spirits. No
+oligarch hated Cæsar more violently than he, and the decision
+of Pompeius was a great personal triumph, the crowning of
+many years of political intrigue. What Pompeius had said,
+he had said; and Cæsar, the great foe of the Senate party,
+was a doomed man.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lentulus had a question to ask his companion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Would you care to consider a marriage alliance between
+the Lentuli and the Domitii?" was his proposition.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I should be rejoiced and honoured to have the opportunity,"
+was the reply; and then in another tone Domitius
+added, "Lentulus, do you believe in astrologers?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I do not really know," answered the other, uneasily.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Neither do I," continued Domitius. "But suppose the
+stars speak truly; and suppose," and here his voice fell, "it
+is Cæsar who is highest in power, in ability, in good fortune;—what
+then for Pompeius? for us?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Be silent, O prophet of evil!" retorted Lentulus, laughing,
+but not very naturally.
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h2 id="ch7">CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h2>AGIAS'S ADVENTURE</h2>
+
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+Pisander's view of life became a score of shades more
+rosy when he seized the hand of the handsome slave-boy,
+then embraced him, and began praising the gods for preserving
+his favourite's life. Then the worthy philosopher
+recollected that his wisdom taught him there were no gods,
+and he plunged into a rambling explanation of his position,
+which would have lasted forever, unless Agias had cut
+him short with a merry gibe, and told him that he must
+positively come to a tavern and enjoy at least one beaker of
+good Massic in memory of old friendship. And Pisander,
+whose spareness of living arose more from a lack of means
+than from a philosophic aversion to food and good cheer,
+was soon seated on a bench in one of the cheap restaurants<a name="r91" href="#fn91">[91]</a>
+that abounded in the city, balancing a very large goblet, and
+receiving a volley of questions which Agias was discharging
+about Valeria's eccentricities, Calatinus's canvass, Arsinoë,
+Semiramis, and the rest of the household of which he had
+been a member.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But you haven't told me, Agias," finally interrupted the
+poor philosopher, who had been struggling in turn to satisfy
+his curiosity, "how you are here, and not—ugh! I hate to
+think of it—feeding the dogs and the crows."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias's face grew grave while he gave the story of his
+release by the Vestal, and subsequent transfer of ownership.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What was the name of the young man who purchased
+you, eh?" interpolated Pisander. "I didn't get it."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Quintus Livius Drusus," replied Agias.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Who?" cried the philosopher, starting up.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Quintus Drusus, of Præneste," repeated the other.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Ai! Ai!</i> In the name of Zeus!" cried Pisander, dropping
+the beaker, and spilling the wine all over his threadbare himation.
+"Oh, such a plot! Such a crime! Was ever anything so
+villanous ever heard of before!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My dear Pisander," exclaimed Agias, all amazement, "what
+<i>is</i> the matter? Your speech is as obscure as Cinna's<a name="r92" href="#fn92">[92]</a> poem
+called 'Zmyrna,' which I've heard was ten years in being
+written, and must be very fine, because no one can understand
+it. No more can I fathom you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What a stroke of fortune!" raved the philosopher.
+"How we will be revenged on that rascal, Pratinas! O
+Destiny, thy decrees are just!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again Agias expostulated, and at last brought out of
+Pisander a tolerably coherent account of the conversation
+which he had heard between Valeria and Pratinas. Then,
+indeed, the merry slave-boy was troubled. Accustomed to a
+rather limited ambition in life, he had attached himself with
+implicit devotion to Cornelia; first because his preserver,
+Drusus, had so enjoined him, and second because each day
+he grew more drawn to her personally. The peril which
+yawned before the unfortunate Drusus menaced at the same
+time the happiness of his mistress and his own welfare,—for
+if Lucius Ahenobarbus had his way, Agias himself would
+become the slave of that not very gentle patrician. Cornelia
+and Drusus had had troubles enough before; but in the present
+crisis, actual destruction stared Agias's saviour in the face.
+The situation was maddening, was sickening. Agias wrung
+his hands in anguish. Then came the healthy reaction.
+Drusus was still alive and well. He could be warned. The
+plot could be thwarted. Pratinas and Ahenobarbus were
+not yet beyond the reach of retribution. He—Agias—was
+no longer to be a mere foot-boy and lackey; he was to match
+his keen Greek wits in subtle intrigue against foemen worthy
+of his steel. He would save Drusus's life, would save Cornelia's
+happiness. If he succeeded, who knew but that his
+owner would reward him—would give him freedom. And
+with a natural rebound of spirits, Agias's eyes glittered with
+expectation and excitement, his cheeks flushed, his form
+expanded to a manly height.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Euge!</i> Well done, old friend!" he cried, with the merriment
+of intense excitement. "No matter if you say you
+were only able to hear a small part of what our dear fellow-Hellene,
+Pratinas, told Valeria. I have gathered enough to
+defeat the plotters. Leave all to me. If you learn anything
+new, send word to the house of Lentulus Crus, and ask to see
+me. And now I must forsake this pleasant wine untasted, and
+hurry away. My mistress will bless you, and perhaps there
+will be some reward."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And leaving the bewildered Pisander to wipe the wine
+from his dress, Agias had darted out of the tavern, and was
+lost in the hurly-burly of the cattle-market.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+How Agias had forced his way into Cornelia's presence we
+have related. The young Greek had stated his unpleasant
+intelligence as diplomatically and guardedly as possible; but
+Cornelia had borne this shock—following so soon upon one
+sufficiently cruel—grievously enough. After all, she was only
+a girl—perhaps more mature for her years than the average
+maiden of her age of to-day, but almost friendless, hopeless,
+and beset with many trials. And this new one was almost
+more than she could bear. We have said that to her suicide
+had but just before appeared a refuge to be desired; but to
+have Quintus die, to have him taken out of that life that ought
+to be so fair for him, no matter how darksome it was for her;
+to have him never realize her ambition that he become a
+statesman, warrior, philosopher, in short her ideal hero—this
+was unbearable! This phase of the question was so
+overpowering that she forgot to feel rage against Ahenobarbus
+and his wily ally. Cornelia threw herself down upon the
+floor, and cried to Agias to slay her quickly. She did not
+care to live; she could endure no more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias here manifested exquisite tact. Instead of attempting
+any ordinary means of expostulation, he pleaded with her
+not to give way to despair; that Drusus was not yet at the
+mercy of his enemies; that she, if she would, could do an
+infinite deal to assist him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I save Quintus?" questioned Cornelia, with white, quivering
+lips.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You can do much, my lady," replied Agias, kindly taking
+her by the hand, and with gentle pressure forcing her to
+sit on the divan. "You can do what neither I, nor Pisander,
+nor any one else can accomplish. You can make Lucius
+Ahenobarbus betray his own plot. You, and you only, can
+penetrate the final plans of the conspirators. Therefore be
+strong, and do not despair."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I? What can <i>I</i> do?" cried Cornelia, staring at him with
+sad, tearless eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Lady Cornelia," said Agias, delicately, "Drusus would
+never receive back his life if it were to be purchased by any sacrifice
+of honour on your part. But this is not needed. Lucius
+Ahenobarbus—forgive my plain speech—worships the ground
+whereon you tread. A smile from you raises him to Olympus; a
+compliment from you makes him feel himself a god; a soft word
+from you creates him the peer of Zeus. Lady, I know you hate
+that man; but for Master Drusus's sake make Ahenobarbus believe
+that you are not indifferent to his advances. Slander
+Drusus before him. Complain of the provisions of your
+father's will that, despite your uncle's intention, will make it
+difficult to avoid a hateful marriage. If in the past you have
+been cold to Ahenobarbus, grow gracious; but not too rapidly.
+Finally, at the proper time, do not hesitate to urge him to commit
+the act we know he is meditating. Then he will make you
+a full partner of his plot, and Pratinas and he can be permanently
+thwarted."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You say that Drusus can be saved by this?" asked Cornelia,
+steadying herself as she rose from the divan;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I will warn him at once," replied Agias. "Any premature
+attempt on his life will certainly fail. But it is not Ahenobarbus
+that I fear; it is Pratinas. Pratinas, if baffled once, will only
+be spurred on to use all his cunning in a second trial. We
+must enmesh the conspirators so completely that when their
+stab is parried, not merely will their power to repeat it be gone,
+but they themselves will be in danger of retribution. And for
+this, some one must be confederate to their final plan."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Agias," said Cornelia, quietly, "Quintus said that you would
+be a faithful servant to him and to myself. I believe he was
+right. You have asked a great thing of me, Agias. I would
+not do it unless I believed that you were unlike other slaves.
+I might imagine that Lucius Ahenobarbus had bribed you to
+tell me this story, in order that I should put myself in his power.
+But I trust you. I will do anything you say. For you Hellenes
+have wits as keen as sharp steel, and I know that you will
+do all you may to repay your debt to Quintus."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias knelt down and kissed the robe of his mistress. "My
+lady," he said gently, "it is no grievous thing to be a slave of
+such as you. Believe me; I will not betray my trust. And now
+if you can let me leave you, I will hurry to Præneste, and for
+the present our minds may be at rest. For old Mamercus will,
+I am sure, be able to take good care of Master Drusus for yet
+awhile."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Go, and the gods—if there be gods—go with you!" replied
+Cornelia. Agias kissed her robe a second time, and was
+gone. His mistress stood in the middle of the empty room.
+On the wall facing her was a painting of "Aphrodite rising from
+the Foam," which Drusus had given her. The sensuous smiles
+on the face of the goddess sickened Cornelia, as she looked upon
+it. To her, at the moment, laughter was more hideous than any
+sobbing. Outside the door she heard the gay, witless chatter
+of the maids and the valets. They were happy—they—slaves,
+"speaking tools,"—and she with the blood of the Claudii
+and Cornelii in her veins, a patrician among patricians, the
+niece of a consul-elect, a woman who was the heiress of statesmen
+and overturners of kingdoms,—<i>she</i> was miserable beyond
+endurance. Cornelia paced up and down the room, wishing she
+might order the giggling maids to be flogged and their laughter
+turned into howling. Then she summoned Cassandra.
+</p>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+Cornelia had never before tried to play the actress, but that
+night she flung herself into the game for life and death with all
+the earnestness of an energetic, intelligent, and spontaneous
+woman. She had been barely civil to Lucius Ahenobarbus before;
+to-night the young man began to persuade himself that the
+object of his affections was really a most adorable coquette, who
+used a certain brusqueness of speech to add to her witchery.
+He had heard that there had been some very disagreeable scenes
+at Præneste, when Lentulus had told his niece that Drusus, on
+account of his dangerous politics, was unfit to be her husband.
+But Ahenobarbus was sure that either these accounts were exaggerated,
+or more likely, Cornelia, like most women, was quick
+to fall in love and quick to leave an old sweetheart for a new
+one. Be that as it may, Lucius felt that night on good terms
+with himself and all the world. Phormio had consented to continue
+his loans—until his debtor could realize on "certain
+property." Pratinas had said that Dumnorix would shortly
+start with a band of gladiators for some local festival at Anagnia,
+a little beyond Præneste; and on the way back, if nothing
+went amiss, the prearranged programme could be carried out.
+Some pretext must be found for keeping Drusus on his estate
+at the time when Dumnorix would march past it, and that
+task could be confided to Phaon, Lucius's freedman, a sly fox
+entirely after his patron's own heart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia, to whom the dinner-party at Favonius's house began
+as a dreary enough tragedy, before long discovered that it was
+by no means more easy to suck undiluted sorrow than unmixed
+gladness out of life. It gratified her to imagine the rage and
+dismay of the young exquisite whose couch was beside her
+chair,<a name="r93" href="#fn93">[93]</a> when he should learn how completely he had been duped.
+Then, too, Lucius Ahenobarbus had a voluble flow of polite
+small talk, and he knew how to display his accomplishments
+to full advantage. He had a fair share of wit and humour; and
+when he fancied that Cornelia was not impervious to his advances,
+he became more agreeable and more ardent. Once or
+twice Cornelia frightened herself by laughing without conscious
+forcing. Yet it was an immense relief to her when the banquet
+was over, and the guests—for Favonius had ordered
+that none should be given enough wine to be absolutely
+drunken—called for their sandals and litters and went their
+ways.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And you, O Adorable, Calypso, Circe, Nausicaä, Medēa,—what
+shall I call you?—you will not be angry if I call to see
+you to-morrow?" said Ahenobarbus, smiling as he parted from
+Cornelia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"If you come," was her response, "I shall not perhaps order
+the slaves to pitch you out heels over head."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ah! That is a guarded assent, indeed," laughed Lucius,
+"but farewell, <i>pulcherrima!</i>"<a name="r94" href="#fn94">[94]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia that night lay down and sobbed herself to sleep.
+Her mother had congratulated her on her brilliant social success
+at the dinner-party, and had praised her for treating Lucius
+Ahenobarbus as she had.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You know, my dear," the worthy woman had concluded,
+"that since it has seemed necessary to break off with Drusus,
+a marriage with Lucius would be at once recommended by your
+father's will, and in many ways highly desirable."
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+Only a very few days later Lucius Ahenobarbus received a
+message bidding him come to see his father at the family palace
+on the Palatine. Lucius had almost cut himself clear from
+his relations. He had his own bachelor apartments, and Domitius
+had been glad to have him out of the way. A sort of
+fiction existed that he was legally under <i>the patria potestas</i>,<a name="r95" href="#fn95">[95]</a> and
+could only have debts and assets on his father's responsibility,
+but as a matter of fact his parent seldom paid him any attention;
+and only called on him to report at home when there
+was a public or family festival, or something very important.
+Consequently he knew that matters serious were on foot, when
+he read in his father's note a request to visit Domitius's palace
+as soon as convenient. Lucius was just starting, in his most
+spotless toga,—after a prolonged season with his hairdresser,—to
+pay a morning call on Cornelia, and so he was the more
+vexed and perturbed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Curses on Cato,<a name="r96" href="#fn96">[96]</a> my old uncle," he muttered, while he waited
+in the splendid atrium of the house of the Ahenobarbi. "He has
+been rating my father about my pranks with Gabinius and Læca,
+and something unpleasant is in store for me."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Domitius presently appeared, and his son soon noticed by
+the affable yet diplomatic manner of his father, and the gentle
+warmth of his greeting, that although there was something in
+the background, it was not necessarily very disagreeable.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My dear Lucius," began Domitius, after the first civilities
+were over, and the father and son had strolled into a handsomely
+appointed library and taken seats on a deeply upholstered
+couch, "I have, I think, been an indulgent parent. But
+I must tell you, I have heard some very bad stories of late
+about your manner of life."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh!" replied Lucius, smiling. "As your worthy friend
+Cicero remarked when defending young Cælius, 'those sorts of
+reproaches are regularly heaped on every one whose person or
+appearance in youth is at all gentlemanly.'"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I will thank you if you will not quote Cicero to me,"
+replied the elder man, a little tartly. "He will soon be back
+from Cilicia, and will be prodding and wearying us in the
+Senate quite enough, with his rhetoric and sophistries. But I
+must be more precise. I have found out how much you owe
+Phormio. I thought your dead uncle had left you a moderately
+large estate for a young man. Where has it gone to? Don't
+try to conceal it! It's been eaten up and drunk up—spent
+away for unguents, washed away in your baths, the fish-dealer
+and the caterer have made way with it, yes, and butchers and
+cooks, and greengrocers and perfume sellers, and poulterers—not
+to mention people more scandalous—have made off with
+it."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lucius stretched himself out on the divan, caught at a thick,
+richly embroidered pillow, tossed it over his head on to the
+floor, yawned, raised himself again upright, and said drawlingly:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Y-e-s, it's as you say. I find I spend every sesterce I
+have, and all I can borrow. But so long as Phormio is accommodating,
+I don't trouble myself very much about the
+debts."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Lucius," said Domitius, sternly, "you are a graceless spendthrift.
+Of course you must have the sport which all young
+blood needs. But your extravagance goes beyond all bounds.
+I call myself a rich man, but to leave you half my fortune,
+dividing with your older brother Cnæus, who is a far steadier
+and saner man than you, would be to assure myself that Greek
+parasites and low women would riot through that part of my
+estate in a twelvemonth. You must reform, Lucius; you must
+reform."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This was getting extremely disagreeable in spite of his
+expectations, and the young man yawned a second time, then
+answered:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, I presume Uncle Cato has told you all kinds of
+stories; but they aren't at all true. I really never had a great
+deal of money."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Lucius," went on his father, "you are grown to manhood.
+It is time that you steadied in life. I have let you live by
+yourself too long. You are even too indolent to engage in
+politics, or to go into the army. I have come to a determination.
+You must marry the woman I have selected for
+you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ahenobarbus pricked up his ears. As a matter of fact, he
+had surmised what was coming, but he had no intention of
+admitting anything prematurely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Really, father," he said, "I hope you won't use your legal
+right and force a wife on me. I have no desire to tie myself
+up to a decent married life."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I hardly think," said Domitius, smiling, "that you will
+resist my wishes long. I have seen Lentulus Crus the consul-elect,
+and he and I agree that since your mother's distant kinsman
+Quintus Drusus of Præneste is an unsuitable husband for
+Cornelia, Lentulus's niece, on account of his very dangerous
+political tendencies, no happier alliance could bind our families
+together than a marriage between Cornelia and yourself."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lucius yawned a third time and fell back on the couch.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It's true," he ventured, "I have cared a good deal for Cornelia;
+and I've thrown over that little Greek Clyte and all the
+others for her; but then, to make a girl your sweetheart and to
+make her your wife are two very different things. <i>Vina
+Opimia</i> is best; but because one drinks a <i>cyathus</i><a name="r97" href="#fn97">[97]</a> of that,
+why should he forego a good nil of Thasian or Cæcuban? If I
+could have but one choice, give me plenty of the good, and I'll
+give up my few drops of the best."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Come, come," said Domitius, a little impatiently, "you must
+positively reform. Besides, while appearances must be kept
+up, there is no need for leading the life of a Stoic. You won't
+find Cornelia a hard companion. You have your pleasures and
+she hers, and you will live harmoniously enough and not the
+least scandal."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And with this remark Domitius closed the matter, and Lucius
+was actually delighted at the situation. What his father had
+said had been true enough; half, nay, nearly all, Rome lived in
+the manner Domitius had guardedly proposed for his son and
+intended daughter-in-law. Marriage was becoming more and
+more a mere formality, something that was kept up as the
+ancient state Pagan worship was kept up by the remnants of
+old-time superstition, and as a cloak to hide a multitude of sins.
+Fifty-nine years before, the consul Metellus Numidicus had
+declaimed, "Quirites, we would fain be free from all this
+annoyance (of marriage); but since nature has so brought it
+about that it is neither possible to live pleasantly with our
+wives nor by any means to live (as a race) without them, we
+ought to consider the welfare of the future rather than the
+mere passing pleasure of the present." And ever since that
+day Romans had been striving desperately to make the married
+state as endurable as possible; usually by reducing the importance
+of lawful wedlock to a minimum.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of course the announcement of the informal betrothal was
+soon spread over Rome. The contracting parties were in the
+very highest life, and everybody declared that the whole affair
+was a political deal between Lentulus Crus and Domitius. It
+was commonly reported, too, how Cornelia had broken with
+Drusus, and every one remarked that if the young man had
+cared to enforce her father's will in the courts, his claim to her
+hand and fortune would be valid unless—and here most people
+exchanged sly winks, for they knew the power of Domitius
+and Lentulus Crus over a jury.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And how had Cornelia borne it—she at whom Herennia
+had stared in amazement, when that "dear friend" discovered
+the friendship the other was displaying to Lucius Ahenobarbus?
+Cornelia had received the announcement very quietly,
+one might almost say resignedly. She had one great hope and
+consolation to support her. They would not force her to marry
+Lucius Ahenobarbus until Drusus was dead or had reached
+the age of five-and-twenty. The marriage formula with Ahenobarbus
+once uttered, while Quintus lived, and by no possibility,
+save by an open spoliation that would have stirred even calloused
+Rome, could Lucius touch a sesterce of his intended
+victim's property. Cornelia's hope now, strangely enough, was
+in the man she regarded as the most consummate villain in the
+world, Pratinas. Ahenobarbus might have his debts paid by
+his father, and forego risk and crime if he did not absolutely
+need Drusus's fortune; but Pratinas, she knew, must have
+planned to secure rich pickings of his own, and if Ahenobarbus
+married permanently, all these were lost; and the Greeks never
+turned back or let another turn back, when there was a fortune
+before them. It was a fearful sort of confidence. Drusus had
+been warned promptly by Agias. Old Mamercus had straightway
+taken every precaution, and forced his foster son to put
+himself in a sort of custody, which was sufficiently galling, in
+addition to the ever present sense of personal danger. The villa
+at Præneste was guarded quietly by several armed slaves and
+peasants; not a morsel or drop passed Drusus's lips that had not
+been tested and tasted by a trusty dependent. The young man
+was not to go to Rome, despite his infinite yearning to see
+Cornelia, for every opportunity would be given in the dark
+city streets for an assassin. In fact, Drusus was virtually a
+prisoner in his own estates, for only there could he feel reasonably
+safe from attack.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All these precautions Cornelia knew, for Agias was a master
+at smuggling letters in and out. She had told Drusus
+frankly all that had passed, and how that she was acting as
+she did only for his sake. She asked him to trust her, and he
+wrote back that no doubt of her fidelity to him had crossed his
+mind; he was not worthy of such love as she had for him; it
+did not matter very much if Ahenobarbus did kill him, except
+that it would give her new grief and pain, and the thought of
+that he could not bear. Cornelia had replied that if Drusus
+was murdered, she was woman enough and Roman enough to
+stab Lucius Ahenobarbus on their marriage night, and then
+plunge the dagger into her own breast. And there the fearful
+matter had rested; Cornelia smiled by day, and dazzled all
+she met by her vivacity, and her aggressive queenliness; and
+by night cried with tearless sobs, which came out of the depths
+of her heart. And all the time she waited for Agias to foil
+the plot, and assure Drusus of his life. Let Quintus once be
+safe, and then—how could she resist the irresistible pressure
+that would be brought to bear to force her into a hated
+marriage, which Ahenobarbus—balked though he might be
+of a fortune—would no longer care to defer? And when Cornelia
+thought of this, and when she was alone, she would open
+a little casket, of which no other had the key, and touch the
+ivory-carved hilt of a small damascened knife. The blade was
+very sharp; and there was a sticky gum all along the edge,—deadly
+poison; only a very slight scratch put one beyond
+aid of physician.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The bitterest cup of all was the attitude she felt forced to
+assume toward Lucius Ahenobarbus. There were limits of
+familiarity and simulated affection beyond which she could
+not drive herself to go. Lucius was with her at all hours and
+in all places. The more she saw of him the more she abhorred
+his effeminate sensuality and lack of almost every quality that
+made life worth the living. But she must—she must learn
+the plot against Drusus, and precisely how and when the trap
+was to be sprung. And in a measure, at least so far as
+Lucius was concerned, she succeeded. By continually and
+openly reviling Quintus, by professing to doubt the legality of
+a marriage contracted against the terms of her father's will, by
+all but expressing the wish that her late lover were out of
+harm's way, she won her point. In a fit of half-drunken confidence
+Ahenobarbus assured her that she would not be troubled
+by Drusus for long; that he would soon be unable to annoy her.
+And then came a great disappointment. When Cornelia asked—and
+how much the request cost her, only she herself knew—to
+be let into the plot, Lucius owned that he had left the
+details in the hands of Pratinas, and did not himself know
+just how or when the blow was to fall. In Pratinas—whom
+Cornelia met very seldom—she met with a sphinx, ever smiling,
+ever gracious, but who, as if regretting the burst of confidence
+he had allowed Valeria, kept himself closed to the
+insinuations and half-questions of every one else. The truth
+was, the lanista Dumnorix was unwilling to do his part of the
+business until the festival at Anagnia brought him and his
+band through Præneste, and this festival had been postponed.
+Consequently, the projected murder had been postponed a few
+days also. Agias had tried to penetrate into the secrets of
+Pratinas, but found that judicious intriguer had, as a rule,
+carefully covered his tracks. He spent a good deal of time
+and money, which Cornelia gave him, trying to corrupt some
+of the gladiators of Dumnorix's band and get at the intentions
+of their master; but he was not able to find that any of these
+wretches, who took his gold greedily enough, really knew in
+the least what were the appointments and engagements of the
+Gallic giant. As a matter of fact, the boy began to feel
+decidedly discouraged. Pisander had nothing more to tell;
+and, moreover, the worthy philosopher often gave such contradictory
+accounts of what he had overheard in Valeria's
+boudoir, that Agias was at his wit's end when and where to
+begin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So passed the rest of the month since Cornelia had been
+brought from Præneste to Rome.
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>III</h3>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia began to grow sick at heart. The conviction was
+stealing over her that she was the victim of a cruel destiny,
+and it was useless to fight against fate. She had made sacrifices
+for Drusus's sake that had cost her infinitely. All Rome
+said that Cornelia returned the love of Lucius Ahenobarbus.
+And with it all, she knew that she had not succeeded in discovering
+the real plot of Pratinas, and could not thwart it.
+She knew that nearly every one placed her, if actually not as
+vicious as the rest, at least in the same coterie with Clodia,
+and the wife of Lentulus Spinther the younger Metella, and
+only a grade better than such a woman as Arbuscula, the
+reigning actress of the day. There was no defence to offer to
+the world. Did she not go with her mother to the gay gathering,
+in the gardens by the Tiber? Was she not waited on by
+half the fashionable young aristocrats of Rome? Was she
+not affianced to a man who was notoriously a leader of what
+might to-day be called the "fast set" of the capital? And
+from Drusus, poor fellow, she gained not the least consolation.
+That he loved her as she loved him, she had never cause to
+doubt. But in his self-renunciation he gave her advice that
+sprang out of his own sorrow and pessimism. It was no use,
+ran his letters, for a woman like her to try and battle against
+the evident decrees of Fortune. He was a man, and must fight
+his battle or die his death bravely; but she was not called
+on for this. There was no reason why she should not really
+enjoy herself, in the way most of the world thought she was
+enjoying herself. She had better wed Lucius Ahenobarbus,
+and stoop to the inevitable. Her husband could go his way
+and she go hers, and none would complain. Perhaps the Epicureans
+were right,—this life was all, and it was best to suck
+from it all the sweets one might, and not be disturbed by
+pricks of conscience. Drusus and Cornelia were not lovers of
+a modern romance, to entertain fantastic ideas of love and
+duty, to throw themselves away for a fancy, or tie themselves
+with vows which militated against almost every worldly
+advantage. They were both Romans, and by that we mean
+eminently practical persons, faithful to one another, pure and
+noble in their affections, but habituated to look a situation in
+the face and accept the plain consequences. In this spirit
+Drusus had advised as he did, and Cornelia became discouraged
+accordingly. Her reason told her to submit to the
+inevitable. Her heart cried out against it. And so she continued
+to finger the hilt of the little dagger, and look at its
+keen poison-smeared edge.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But one day at the end of this dreary period Agias appeared
+before his mistress with a smiling face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Don't raise high hopes, my lady, but trust me. I have
+struck a path that I'm sure Pratinas will wish I'd never
+travelled." And that was all he would say, but laid his
+finger on his lips as though it was a great secret. When he
+was gone, for Cornelia the sun shone brighter, and the tinkling
+of the water in the fountain in the peristylium sounded
+sweeter than before. After all, there had come a gleam of
+hope.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia needed the encouragement. That same day when
+Herennia called to see her, that excellent young lady—for
+not the least reason in the world—had been full of stories of
+poisoning and murders, how some years ago a certain Balbutius
+of Larinum was taken off, it was said, at a wedding
+feast of a friend for whom the poison had been intended;
+and then again she had to tell how, at another time, poison
+had been put in a bit of bread of which the victim partook.
+The stories were old ones and perhaps nothing more than second-hand
+scandal, but they were enough to make poor Cornelia
+miserable; so she was doubly rejoiced when Agias that evening
+pressed his lips again and smiled and said briefly: "All is
+going well. We shall have the root of the matter in a few
+days."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias had actually come upon what he was right in considering
+a great piece of good fortune. He had easily found the
+tenement in the Subura where Pratinas lodged, but to learn
+anything there that would be useful was a far more difficult
+affair. He had hung around the place, however, as much as
+he dared, making his headquarters at a tavern conveniently
+near, and tried to learn Pratinas's habits, and whether he
+ever took any visitors home with him. All this came to
+little purpose till one morning he observed an old Ethiop,
+who was tugging a heavy provision basket, stagger up the
+street, through the nondescript crowd. The old slave was
+being assailed by a mob of street gamins and low pedlers
+who saw in the contents of the hamper so much fair plunder.
+These vagabonds had just thrown the Ethiop down
+into the mud, and were about to divide their booty, when
+Agias, acting on a generous impulse, rushed out from the
+tavern to the rescue. Nimble, for his age powerful, and
+armed with a stout staff which he had caught up in the
+wine-shop to aid him, the young Greek won an easy victory
+over cowardly antagonists, put all the plunderers to flight,
+and lifted the old slave out of the mire. The Ethiop was
+profuse in his thanks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And whose slave are you?" demanded Agias, well pleased
+to be out of the adventure.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I'm Sesostris, servant of Pratinas the Greek."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias pricked up his ears. "And you live—"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"In the top story of this tenement;" and Sesostris tried
+to pick up the hamper.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh!" laughed his rescuer, "you must let me save you
+that trouble. I will carry up the basket. Your master is
+a brute to pile on such loads."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sesostris again fawned his gratitude, and Agias, with
+quickened wits and eyes alert, toiled up the dark stairway,
+and found himself at the top of the building. He had "entered
+the enemy's country." The Ethiop might not have been open
+to bribes, but he might be unlocked through friendship, and
+Agias never needed all his senses more than now. They had
+reached the topmost flight of stairs, and Sesostris had stopped
+as if embarrassed whether to invite his deliverer in to enjoy
+some hospitality, or say him farewell. Then of a sudden from
+behind the closed door came a clear, sweet, girlish voice,
+singing, in Greek:—
+</p>
+
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>
+"O Aitnë, mother mine: A grotto fair<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Scooped in the rocks have I, and there I keep<br />
+All that in dreams man pictures! Treasured there<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Are multitudes of she-goats and of sheep,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Swathed in whose wool from top to toe I sleep."
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+It was an idyl of Theocritus, very well known by Agias,
+and without the least hesitation he took up the strain, and
+continued:—
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>
+"The fire boils my pot; with oak or beech<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Is piled,—dry beech logs when the snow lies deep.<br />
+And storm and sunshine, I disdain them each<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;As toothless sires a nut, when broth is in their reach."<a name="r98" href="#fn98">[98]</a>
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+Agias paused. There was a silence, then a giggle behind the
+door, and it half opened, and out peered the plump and rosy
+face of the young girl we have heard Pratinas salute as his
+niece, Artemisia. The moment she caught sight of the rather
+manly form of Agias, the door started to close with a slam,
+but the latter thrust out his foot, blocked the door, and forced
+an entrance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Eleleu!</i>" cried Agias, pushing into a small but neatly
+furnished room. "What have we here? Do the muses sing
+in Subura? Has Sappho brought hither her college of poetesses
+from Lesbos?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Ai!</i>" exclaimed Artemisia, drawing back, "who are you?
+You're dreadfully rude. I never saw you before."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Nor I you;" replied Agias, in capital good humour, "but
+that is no reason why I should take my eyes away from your
+pretty little face. No, you needn't point your middle finger
+at me so, to ward off the evil eye. I'm neither Chaldean
+astrologer, nor Etruscan soothsayer. Come, tell me who you
+are, and whom you belong to?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Artemisia did not have the least idea what to say. Agias,
+partly through youthful love of adventure, partly because he
+felt that he was playing now for very high stakes and must
+risk a good deal, had thrown himself on the divan, and was
+holding Artemisia captive under his keen, genial eyes. She
+grew redder in face than before, began to speak, then broke
+off with more confused blushes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"She means to say," finally ventured Sesostris, "that she
+is Artemisia, the niece of Pratinas."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The niece of Pratinas!" exclaimed Agias, settling himself
+upon the cushions in a manner that indicated his intention to
+make a prolonged stay; "and does Pratinas keep his pretty
+niece shut up in a gloomy tenement, when she has the voice
+of one of the Graces, and more than their share of beauty!
+Shame on him; I thought he had better sense than that!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Sir," ventured Artemisia, trying desperately to stand on
+her dignity, "I do not know you. My uncle will be greatly
+vexed to find you here. Will you go away at once?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That I will not," replied Agias, firmly; and he drew
+from the hamper a baker's bun, and began to munch it, as
+though laying in provision for a lengthy stay.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Artemisia and Sesostris exchanged glances of dismay.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What <i>shall</i> I do?" said the girl to the Ethiop in a very
+audible whisper.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Sing," interrupted Agias. "Let me hear the rest of the
+Theocritus."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I don't like to sing those songs," objected Artemisia.
+"Pratinas makes me, I don't know why."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well," said Agias, smiling, "I wouldn't for the-world
+make you sing against your will. Suppose you tell me about
+yourself. Tell me when your uncle is away, and when I may
+come and see you again."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"He's away nearly all the time," said Artemisia, very incautiously.
+"But <i>who are</i> you? Why do you want to come
+and see me?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why do I want to look at a flower? Why do I want to
+hear the nightingale sing? Why do I like a cup of good
+wine?" laughed Agias. "Then, fair mistress, you may look
+for my answer when <i>you</i> have answered all of these questions
+of mine."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I don't see what you mean," said poor Artemisia, looking
+dreadfully puzzled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I mean," exclaimed the other, "what Sappho meant of the
+bride,—
+</p>
+
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>
+'She like an apple turned red; which reddens far up on the tree-top:—<br />
+Upon the topmost of boughs,—the gatherers they have quite missed it.<br />
+Yes, they saw it indeed; but too high to dare try to pluck it.'
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+Only I, if you don't greatly mind, will be the bold tree-climber
+and pluck the apple."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But I do mind," cried Artemisia, all blushes, and springing
+a little back. Old Sesostris looked alarmed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You—you mean the girl no ill?" he faltered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias looked from the innocent little thing over to the
+Ethiop, snapped his finger, and replied:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ill? I am not a human wolf, making pretty objects like
+this my prey!" Then, choosing his moment carefully, by a
+quick turn he confronted Sesostris sternly, and almost thundered:
+"<i>You</i> speak of my doing ill to this maiden? You
+speak—the slave of Pratinas, who is the leader in every vice
+and wild prank in Rome! Has the slave as well as the master
+learned to play the hypocrite? Do you want to be tortured
+into confessing your part in all your master's crimes when the
+hour of reckoning comes and he is brought to justice. <i>A! A!</i>"
+he went on, seeing that Sesostris was rolling the whites of his
+eyes, and was trembling in every limb, "you know for a certainty
+how and when Pratinas is to have Quintus Drusus
+killed! Don't deny it. You will soon be in the meshes.
+Don't hope to escape. If murder comes to Drusus he may
+perish, but he has friends who will fearfully avenge his
+death."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Mercy! Mercy!" howled the Ethiop, falling on his knees
+and clutching at the young Greek's robe, "I know very little
+of the plot. I only know—"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Don't equivocate," thundered Agias. "If I had known
+the kind of man you were, I would hardly have saved you
+from those street ruffians. You don't deserve to live. Well,
+the crows will soon have you! You Egyptians believe in a
+judgment of the dead; what defence can you make before the
+court of Osiris<a name="r99" href="#fn99">[99]</a> for being privy to a foul murder? You'll
+come back to earth as a fly, or a toad, or a dung-beetle, to pay
+the penalty for your sins."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Mercy," whined Sesostris, who was in a paroxysm of
+fright. "Indeed I am innocent! I am only a poor slave! I
+can't help knowing what Pratinas is doing; but how can I
+prevent him? Don't look at me so! I am innocent—innocent!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I can scarce believe you," said Agias, affecting great
+reluctance to show any leniency. "Doubtless you are steeped
+in blood. Still, you may save yourself this once. Remember,
+you are known, and the plans of Pratinas against Drusus
+are partly known. We know about Dumnorix, and Lucius
+Ahenobarbus, and—"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh!" cried Sesostris, as though a hot iron had touched
+him, "I will find out everything, and tell you. Indeed I will.
+Only do not send me to the rack or crucify me if my master's
+plans go astray!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well," said Agias, still simulating hesitancy, "I will
+report to my superiors. Perhaps you are not a willing accomplice
+of your master. In that case, if he is apprehended, your
+life will doubtless be spared. But we must thwart his plot
+before it can be carried out. This you must aid us to do.
+When will Dumnorix start for Præneste?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again Sesostris quailed. "I don't know," he faltered,
+"there has been a postponement. There was a plan that if
+Drusus came to the city he was to be lured outside the
+Esquiline gate, as if going to some villa, and murdered in the
+sand-pits, as have been many people."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But this plan has been given up? Speak the truth!"
+sharply demanded Agias.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes; for Drusus will not stir from Præneste. So there
+the scheme must be executed, as originally arranged."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And Dumnorix will go soon?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I think in a few days. I will find out."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"As you love your own life do so! I will call on each day
+at this hour. If Pratinas is at home, leave some bright garment
+outside near the door, that I may not stumble on him.
+Deceive or betray me, and my masters will take a terrible
+revenge on you; for you haven't the least idea what is the
+power of the men Pratinas has for enemies."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias turned to depart. Then to Artemisia:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And you, my pretty,—when I come again, I will try to
+stay longer, and make you feel as glad to see Agias, as Agias
+will be to see Artemisia."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias was descending the stairs, when Sesostris called him
+back with a whisper.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You are a dreadful youth; but since I am so utterly in
+your power, hear something that may prove that I am not a
+knave at heart. You have a fancy to the girl?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Certainly I have eyes for her face, and ears for her sweet
+little voice," said Agias, smiling.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Then listen," went on the Ethiop; "I care for the dear
+more than anything else in the world. She said she was
+Pratinas's niece. It isn't true. She is a slave-girl he picked
+up when very little at Delos,<a name="r100" href="#fn100">[100]</a> as he told me, though I doubt
+it. He took a fancy to her, and really thought of adopting
+her. Then his soul became so set on money, that he saw she
+would fetch a great price when grown; and sell her he will.
+He still pretends to call her his niece; but that won't be for
+long. He is teaching her to sing, to add to her value. <i>A!</i>
+But my old heart is almost breaking for her sake. <i>Mu, mu!</i>"
+and Sesostris puffed his groans through his nostrils. "Think
+of it! He has an idea to sell her to that rich Roman, Lucius
+Calatinus—and then I don't dare hint what will be her fate."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Calatinus!" hissed Agias, concentrating volumes of scorn
+into a word.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You know him! You hate him!" cried Sesostris. "Then
+by Ammon-Ra, by Isis, by every god in whom you believe,
+save my darling from worse than death! Do that, and I will
+die for you!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sesostris's emotion was too genuine to be a mere trap for
+ensnaring his visitor; and Agias in turn was stirred.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Old man," he exclaimed, seizing the other's hand, "you
+and I have suffered much from evil masters. Thank the gods,
+I am now serving one I love—albeit unfortunate enough!
+But we have a common right to punish the wrongdoers, and
+earn a little bit of happiness for ourselves. Come, now! If
+Artemisia is a slave, she is in no wise above me. Let me
+save Drusus from Pratinas, and I pledge my word that I will
+save Artemisia from him and his nefarious schemes,—yes,
+and you, too. If Artemisia likes me, why then there will be
+perhaps more to add to the story. Come—I am your friend,
+and you, mine."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sesostris wrung the other's hand. The honest servant was
+moved too much to speak. His heart and soul had been bound
+up in Artemisia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"May your <i>Ka</i><a name="r101" href="#fn101">[101]</a> stand before Osiris justified!" he choked.
+"I have been privy to many a dark action, until I used to try
+to forget the day when I must answer to the Judge of the
+Dead for every deed done and word spoken. But I could not
+stifle my fear for the only dear thing in the world."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias went away in a happy frame of mind. He had every
+confidence that Sesostris would worm out of Pratinas the
+exact details of the plot, and put the conspirators at the
+mercy of Drusus and Mamercus.
+</p>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+And Agias had felt there was good reason to rejoice in his
+discovery in more ways than one. Especially was he conscious
+that there were no lips as red and as merry, no cheeks
+as rosy, no eyes as dancing, no chatter as sweet, as those of
+Artemisia. And what is more, he rejoiced to believe that
+that young lady was not half so shy of him as at first, and
+was as anxious to see him as he to see her. Thanks to due
+warnings and precautions, Agias never stumbled on Pratinas,
+when the latter was at his lodgings. The time he dared to
+stay was all too short for Artemisia. She was always telling
+how lonesome she was with only old Sesostris for company,
+before she knew Agias. Once when the latter was late in
+his daily visit, he was delighted to find scribbled on the
+wall, "Artemisia to her Agias: you are real mean." Agias
+hated to make her erase it lest it fall under Pratinas's
+eagle eye.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But still Sesostris had nothing to tell about the plot against
+Drusus. Some days passed. Agias began to grow uneasy.
+Sesostris had represented that he was conversant with everything
+his master had on foot; but Pratinas might have been
+more discreet than to unfold all his affairs, even before his
+servant; and then, too, there was always the possibility that
+Sesostris was playing fast and loose, and about to betray
+Agias to his master. So the latter grew disquieted, and
+found it a little hard to preserve the character of cheerful
+mystery which he simulated to Cornelia. The long-sought
+information came at a time when he was really off his guard.
+Agias had been visiting Artemisia. Sesostris as well as Pratinas
+had been out; the two young people were amusing themselves
+trying to teach a pet magpie to speak, when the Ethiop
+rushed into the room, all in a tremble with anxious excitement.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>A! A!</i>" he was ejaculating. "Up, speed, don't delay!
+There's murder afoot!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias let the bird slip from his hands, and never noticed
+that it fluttered on its clipped wings around the room, to Artemisia's
+infinite dismay.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What? Is the plot hatched?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, yes," puffed Sesostris, great beads of perspiration on
+his honest face. "I was attending Pratinas when he met Lucius
+Ahenobarbus in the Forum. They veiled their talk, but I
+readily caught its drift. Dumnorix went yesterday with the
+pick of his band to Anagnia for some games. To-morrow he
+will return through Præneste, and the deed will be done.
+Phaon, Ahenobarbus's freedman, has started already for Præneste
+to spy out the ground and be ready to direct Dumnorix
+where, when, and how to find Drusus. Phaon has been spying
+at Præneste, and is the dangerous man!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"He has gone?" demanded Agias.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Gone, early this morning!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Then,—the gods reward you for your news,—I am gone
+too!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And without another word to Artemisia or the old slave,
+Agias had rushed out into the street. He had a double game
+to play—to prevent Phaon from ever reaching Præneste, and
+then get such help to Drusus as would enable him to beat off
+Dumnorix and his gang. For Agias felt certain that the hard-hitting
+Gaul would execute his part of the bargain, whether he
+met Phaon or not, and afterward look into the consequences
+of what—unmitigated by the freedman's <i>finesse</i>—would take
+the form of an open clumsy murder. But Phaon had started
+that morning; and it was now well into the afternoon. Time
+was dangerously scanty. Cornelia he felt he should inform;
+but she could do nothing really to help him. He turned his
+steps toward the Forum and the Atrium Vestæ. He had some
+difficulty in inducing the porter to summon Fabia, to meet in
+personal interview a mere slave, but a gratuity won the point;
+and a minute later he was relating the whole story and the
+present situation of Drusus to Fabia, with a sincere directness
+that carried conviction with it. She had known that Drusus
+had enemies; but now her whole strong nature was stirred at
+the sense of her nephew's imminent peril.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"If you were a freeman, Agias," were her words, "and could
+give witness as such, Pratinas and Ahenobarbus—high as the
+latter is—should know that my influence at the law outweighs
+theirs. But they shall be thwarted. I will go to Marcellus
+the consul, and demand that troops be started to Præneste
+to-night. But you must go after Phaon."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You will send word to Cornelia?" requested Agias.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes," said Fabia, "but not now; it is useless. Here is an
+order on Gallus, who keeps a livery-stable<a name="r102" href="#fn102">[102]</a> by the Porta Esquilina.
+He will give you my new white Numidian, that I keep
+with him. Ride as you have never ridden before. And here
+is money. Twenty gold philippi in this bag. Bribe, do anything.
+Only save Drusus! Now go!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Farewell, lady," cried Agias, "may I redeem the debt of
+gratitude I owe you!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fabia stood looking after him, as he hastened out from the
+quiet atrium into the busy street. Little Livia had cuddled up
+beside her aunt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, Livia," said Fabia, "I feel as though it were of no use
+to live good and pure in this world! Who knows what trouble
+may come to me from this day's doings? And why should
+they plot against your brother's dear life? But I mustn't talk
+so." And she called for her attendants to escort her abroad.
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h2 id="ch8">CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h2>"WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK"</h2>
+
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia had surmised correctly that Pratinas, not Lucius
+Ahenobarbus, would be the one to bring the plot against Drusus
+to an issue. Lucius had tried in vain to escape from the snares
+the wily intriguer had cast about him. His father had told
+him that if he would settle down and lead a moderately respectable
+life, Phormio should be paid off. And with this burden
+off his mind, for reformation was very easily promised, Lucius
+had time to consider whether it was worth his while to mix in
+a deed that none of Pratinas's casuistry could quite convince him
+was not a foul, unprovoked murder, of an innocent man. The
+truth was, Ahenobarbus was desperately in love with Cornelia,
+and had neither time nor desire to mingle in any business not
+connected with the pursuit of his "tender passion." None of
+his former sweethearts—and he had had almost as many as
+he was years old—were comparable in his eyes to her. She
+belonged to a different world from that of the Spanish dancers,
+the saucy maidens of Greece, or even the many noble-born
+Roman women that seemed caught in the eddy of Clodia's
+fashionable whirlpool. Lucius frankly told himself that he
+would want to be divorced from Cornelia in five years—it
+would be tedious to keep company longer with a goddess. But
+for the present her vivacity, her wit, her bright intelligence,
+no less than her beauty, charmed him. And he was rejoiced
+to believe that she was quite as much ensnared by his own
+attractions. He did not want any unhappy accident to mar
+the smooth course which was to lead up to the marriage in no
+distant future. He did not need Drusus's money any longer to
+save him from bankruptcy. The legacy would be highly desirable,
+but life would be very pleasant without it. Lucius was
+almost induced by his inward qualms to tell Pratinas to throw
+over the whole matter, and inform Dumnorix that his services
+were not needed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was at this juncture that Cornelia committed an error,
+the full consequences of which were, to her, happily veiled.
+In her anxiety to discover the plot, she had made Lucius
+believe that she was really pining for the news of the murder
+of Drusus. Cornelia had actually learned nothing by a sacrifice
+that tore her very heart out; but her words and actions
+did almost irreparable harm to the cause she was trying to
+aid.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And you have never given me a kiss," Lucius had said
+one morning, when he was taking leave of Cornelia in
+the atrium of the Lentuli. "Will you ever play the siren,
+and lure me to you? and then devour, as it were, your victim,
+not with your lips, but with your eyes?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Eho!</i> Not so bold!" replied Cornelia, drawing back.
+"How can I give you what you wish, unless I am safe from
+that awful Polyphemus up in Præneste?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When Ahenobarbus went away, his thoughts were to the
+following effect: "I had always thought Cornelia different
+from most women; but now I can see that, like them all, she
+hates and hates. To say to her, 'Drusus is dead,' will be a
+more grateful present than the largest diamond Lucullus
+brought from the East, from the treasure of King Tigranes."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And it was in such a frame of mind that he met Pratinas
+by appointment at a low tavern on the Vicus Tuscus. The
+Greek was, as ever, smiling and plausible.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Congratulations!" was his greeting. "Dumnorix has
+already started. He has my orders; and now I must borrow
+your excellent freedman, Phaon, to go to Præneste and spy
+out, for the last time, the land, and general our army. Let
+him start early to-morrow morning. The time is ample, and
+unless some malevolent demon hinder us, there will be no
+failure. I have had a watch kept over the Drusus estate.
+An old sentry of a steward, Mamercus,—so I learn,—has
+been afraid, evidently, of some foul play on the part of the
+consul-designate, and has stationed a few armed freedmen
+on guard. Drusus himself keeps very carefully on his own
+premises. This is all the better for us. Dumnorix will dispose
+of the freedmen in a hurry, and our man will be in waiting
+there just for the gladiators. Phaon will visit him—cook
+up some errand, and inveigle him, if possible, well out in the
+colonnade in front of the house, before Dumnorix and his
+band pass by. Then there will be that very deplorable
+scuffle, and its sad, sad results. Alas, poor Drusus! Another
+noble Livian gathered to his fathers!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I don't feel very merry about it," ventured Lucius. "I
+don't need Drusus's money as much as I did. If it wasn't for
+Cornelia, I would drop it all, even now. Sometimes I feel
+there are avenging Furies—<i>Diræ</i>, we Latins call them—haunting
+me."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Pratinas laughed incredulously. "Surely, my dear fellow,"
+he began, "you don't need to have the old superstitions
+explained away again, do you?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No, no," was his answer; Lucius capitulating another
+time.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So it came to pass that Pratinas had an interview with
+Phaon, Lucius's freedman, a sleek, well-oiled Sicilian Greek,
+who wore his hair very long to cover the holes bored in his
+ears—the mark of old-time servitude. He was the darling
+of waiting-maids; the collector of all current scandal; the
+master spirit in arranging dinners, able to tell a Tuscan from
+a Lucanian boar by mere taste. He used also to help his
+patron compose <i>billets-doux,</i> and had, by his twistings and
+scrapings, repeatedly staved off Phormio, Lucius's importunate
+creditor. As for Phaon's heart, it was so soft and
+tender that the pricks of conscience, if he ever had any, went
+straight through, without leaving a trace behind. And when
+Pratinas now informed him as to his final duties at Præneste,
+Phaon rubbed his beringed hands and smoothed his carefully
+scraped chin with ill-concealed satisfaction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And a word more in closing," said Pratinas, as he parted
+with Phaon in the tavern—while Lucius, who had been
+drinking very heavily, nodded stupidly over his goblet of
+amber Falernian, in a vain attempt to gulp down eight
+<i>cyathi</i> at once, one measure to each letter in the name of
+Cornelia—"a word more. Dumnorix is a thick-skulled
+knave, who is, after all, good for little but blows. I have
+made an arrangement which will ensure having a careful
+man at his elbow in time of need. You, of course, will have
+to do your best to save the unfortunate Quintus from inevitable
+fate. But I have asked Publius Gabinius to leave for
+Præneste very early on the morning when Dumnorix passes
+through that place. Gabinius has a small villa a little beyond
+the town, and there will be nothing suspicious in a journey to
+visit one's country house. He will meet Dumnorix, and be
+at his side when the pinch comes. You see? He is an
+adventurous fellow, and will help us just for the sake of the
+mischief. Besides, I believe he has a grudge against the
+Drusian family as a whole, for he lately tried to pass some
+familiarities with Fabia the Vestal, Drusus's aunt, and she
+proved disgustingly prudish."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And how much will you and I," said Phaon, with a sly
+smirk, "gain out of this little business, if all goes well? Of
+course one should help one's patron, but—"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It is folly to divide the spoils of Troy before Troy is
+taken," laughed Pratinas. "Don't be alarmed, my good fellow.
+Your excellent patron will reward us, no doubt, amply."
+And he muttered to himself: "If I don't bleed that Lucius
+Ahenobarbus, that Roman donkey, out of two-thirds of his
+new fortune; if I don't levy blackmail on him without mercy
+when he's committed himself, and becomes a partner in crime,
+I'm no fox of a Hellene. I wonder that he is the son of a man
+like Domitius, who was so shrewd in that old affair with me
+at Antioch."
+</p>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+So it came to pass that the next morning, long before Pratinas
+and Ahenobarbus met in the Forum and reviewed the
+steps taken in the words that gave Sesostris the key to the
+situation, Phaon was driving toward Præneste. Of course a
+mere freedman, on a journey preferably kept quiet, travelled
+in not the least state. He rode alone, but had borrowed from
+his patron two of those small but speedy Gallic horses called
+mammi, that whirled his gig over the Campagna at a rapid
+trot. Still there was no great call for haste. He wished to
+get to Præneste about dark, and there make a few inquiries
+as to the whereabouts and recent doings of Drusus. Pratinas
+had had considerable espionage kept up over his intended
+victim, and the last results of this detective work were to be
+reported to Phaon by the slaves of Ahenobarbus performing
+it. Perhaps there would be no real harm in driving straight
+through to Præneste in the open daylight, but it was better
+not to show himself until the right time. So it was that,
+halfway on the road, Phaon turned in to the tavern of the
+decaying little town of Gabii, gave his team to the hostler,
+and rested himself by fuming over the squalor and poor cooking
+of the inn.
+</p>
+
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+Agias secured the fast Numidian from the stables of Gallus,
+and was soon away. His frequent journeys between Rome and
+Præneste, in service of Cornelia and Drusus, made him a fairly
+expert rider, and his noble mount went pounding past the mile-stones
+at a steady, untiring gallop. The young Hellene was
+all tingling with excitement and expectation; he would save
+Drusus; he would send the roses back into his beloved mistress's
+cheeks; and they would reward him, give him freedom;
+and then the future would be bright indeed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But it grew late, fast as the horse bore him. He felt it his
+duty to press on with all speed to Præneste. He had still a
+very vague notion of the final form of the conspiracy, especially
+of the rôle assigned to Phaon. Of one thing he was
+certain: to intercept Phaon was to deprive Dumnorix of an
+essential ally; but how to intercept the wily freedman was
+nothing easy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As the Numidian swept into Gabii, Agias drew rein, telling
+himself that the horse would make better speed for a little
+rest and baiting. The tavern court into which he rode was exceedingly
+filthy; the whole building was in a state of decay;
+the odours were indescribable. In the great public-room a
+carter was trolling a coarse ditty, while through the doorway
+ran a screaming serving-maid to escape some low familiarity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A shock-headed boy with a lantern took Agias's bridle, and
+the Greek alighted; almost under his eyes the dim light fell
+on a handsome, two-horse gig, standing beside the entrance
+to the court. Agias gave the vehicle close attention.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It belongs to a gentleman from Rome, now inside," explained
+the boy, "one horse went lame, and the veterinary<a name="r103" href="#fn103">[103]</a>
+is coming." Agias's eye caught a very peculiar bend in the
+hollow in the neck-yoke. He had seen that carriage before,
+on the fashionable boulevards—along the Tiber, in the Campus
+Martius—the carriage of Lucius Ahenobarbus. Phaon was
+waiting in the tavern!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Care for my horse at once," remarked Agias, a little
+abruptly. "Time presses." And he turned on his heel, and
+leaving the boy gaping after him, went into the squalid public-room
+of the tavern.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The landlord of the establishment, a small, red-faced,
+bustling man, was fussing over some lean thrushes roasting
+on a spit before the open fire that was roaring on the hearth.
+The landlady, lazy, muscular, corpulent, and high-voiced, was
+expostulating with a pedler who was trying to slip out without
+settling. Four other persons, slaves and peasants, were
+sitting on two low benches beside a small, circular table, and
+were busy pouring down the liquor which a young serving-boy
+brought them in tumbler-shaped cups, or eating greedily at
+loaves of coarse bread which they snatched from the table.
+It was so late that little light came into the room from the
+door and windows. The great fire tossed its red, flickering
+glow out into the apartment and cast a rosy halo over the
+hard brown marble pavement of the floor. Upon the dingy
+walls and rafters hung from pegs flitches of bacon, sausages,
+and nets of vegetables. Agias stopped in the doorway and
+waited till his eyes were fairly accustomed to the fire-light.
+Over in a remote corner he saw a lamp gleaming, and there,
+sprawling on a bench, beside a table of his own, well piled
+with food and drink, he distinguished in solitary majesty
+Phaon—too exquisite to mingle with the other guests of the
+tavern.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The landlord quickly noticed his new customer, and sprang
+up from the fire. Agias had on a coarse grey woollen cloak
+over his light tunic, and he drew his hood up so as partly to
+cover his face as he stepped into the room.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Salve!</i>" was the landlord's salutation. "What hospitality
+can the Elephant<a name="r104" href="#fn104">[104]</a> afford you?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The good host did not think Agias anything more by his
+dress than a common slave, and saw no need of excessive
+politeness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias noticed that he was expected to join the other drinkers
+around the centre table.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Eho</i>, mine host!" cried he, letting the fire give one glint on
+a gold piece. "Can't you give me a seat at the other end of
+the room? I don't know these good people, and they won't
+thank me for thrusting myself on them."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Certainly, certainly," exclaimed the landlord, all condescension.
+"There is a gentleman from Rome drinking by
+himself at that table over there. Perhaps he will not object."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now was the crisis. Agias had seen Phaon many times
+with Lucius Ahenobarbus; but he was reasonably certain that
+the freedman had never degraded himself by taking any notice
+of the numerous slaves of Lentulus's household. Without
+waiting for the host to continue, he hastened over to the
+farther table, and exclaimed with all the effrontery at his
+command:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Hem!</i> Phaon; don't you remember an old friend?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The freedman for once was completely off his guard. He
+started up, stared at Agias, and began to mutter excuses for
+a very short memory.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, well," cried Agias. "You <i>have</i> a poor recollection
+of faces! Don't you remember how Pratinas took you to the
+Big Eagle restaurant, down on the Vicus Jugarius, on the last
+Calends, and how you met me there, and what good Lesbian
+and Chian wine there was? None of your weak, sickening
+Italian stuff! Surely you remember Cleombrotus, from whom
+you won four hundred sesterces."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Phaon, who remembered the tavern, a visit, and winning
+four hundred sesterces at one time or another, tried to make
+himself believe that he won them from a young man, like the
+one before him, and that his name was Cleombrotus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Um! Yes, of course," he faltered. "I'm very glad to see
+you. What brings you here?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Business, business," complained Agias; "my master's a
+grain merchant with dealings at Puteoli, and he has sent me
+thither, to make some payments." Phaon pricked up his ears.
+"The Via Appia is more direct, but there is less chance of
+robbers by the Via Prænestina."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I hope your master can trust you not to lighten his pouch
+on the way," remarked Phaon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well," chuckled Agias, "he'll have to take his risk. If
+it's lost on the road, why, highwaymen stripped me. It is
+one of the fortunes of trade." Phaon was fully convinced
+that here was a fine chance to do some picking on his own
+account.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Doubtless," he began, "you are not in such haste that you
+cannot enjoy one of those thrushes that sheep of a landlord is
+roasting for me. <i>Phui!</i> What a nasty place to have one's
+horse give out in. You will give me at least a little company
+to pass the time?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias affected reluctance; then as the host brought up the
+birds, savory and hot, on an earthen platter, he gracefully
+accepted the invitation. The thrushes and the rest of the bill
+of fare, bacon, sweet nut-flavoured oil, bread, and the cheap
+wine of the Campagna were not unwelcome, though Phaon
+cursed the coarse food roundly. Then, when hunger had
+begun to yield, Phaon suggested that Cleombrotus "try to
+secure revenge for his losses on the Calends"; and Agias,
+nothing loth, replied that he did not wish to risk a great sum;
+but if a denarius were worth playing for, there was no objection
+to venturing a few casts, and "he would ask the host to
+bring them the gaming implements."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So the landlord brought dice and dice boxes, and Phaon—who
+had come to the conclusion that he had to deal with a
+light-headed bumpkin, who represented merely so much fair
+plunder—began to play with a careless heart. The landlord
+brought more and more flagons of wine, wine that was mixed
+with little water and was consequently very heady. But
+the game—with some veering of fortune—went the freedman's
+way. He won a denarius; then another; then a third;
+lost a fourth time; won back everything and five denarii more;
+and finally his opponent, heated with play, consented to stake
+two gold pieces.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What did you say a minute ago to the landlord?" muttered
+Phaon, feeling that the undiluted liquor was getting the best
+of him. "This wine is very strong. It makes my head
+ache."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Phy!</i>" retorted Agias. "Who complains of good liquor?
+I only told the host to set another lamp near us. Shall we
+play again?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"By Zeus!" exclaimed the delighted freedman. "Here I
+have cast four 'sixes' once more." And again he drained
+the beaker.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Vah!</i>" sniffed Agias. "Luck will turn at last. Let us
+play for real stakes. More wine, mine host! I will put down
+ten philippi. This will be worth winning or losing."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"As you say," gleefully chuckled Phaon, tossing the gold
+on the table. "Yes, more wine, I say too. One always enjoys
+play when his temples are all athrob."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias quietly reached over, took up his opponent's dice
+box, and rattled it, and appeared inspecting and fingering the
+<i>tali</i>.<a name="r105" href="#fn105">[105]</a> "You have won your throws fairly," he said, handing
+it back. "Now let us invoke the decision of Fortune once
+more. A libation to the Genius of Good Luck!" And instead
+of spilling out a few drops only, he canted the flagon too far
+and spattered the wine on to the floor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Heracles!" growled Phaon, "what a poor hazard! I have
+thrown four 'ones'!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And I have all 'fours' and 'sixes,'" cried Agias, in delight,
+sweeping the money toward him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The gods blast my luck," muttered the freedman, "I shall
+be ruined at this rate." And he poured down more liquor.
+"I have hardly five philippi left."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Come," shouted Agias, jumping up; "I make a fair offer.
+Your five philippi against all my winnings."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Phaon had a dim consciousness that he was getting very
+drunk, that he ought to start at once for Præneste, and that it
+was absolutely needful for him to have some money for bribes
+and gratuities if he was not to jeopardize seriously the success
+of his undertaking. But Agias stood before him exultant and
+provoking. The freedman could not be induced to confess to
+himself that he had been badly fleeced by a fellow he expected
+to plunder. In drunken desperation he pulled out his last
+gold and threw it on the table.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Play for that, and all the Furies curse me if I lose," he
+stormed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias cast two "threes," two "fours."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I must better that," thundered the freedman, slapping the
+tali out on to the table.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"'Ones' again," roared Agias; "all four! you have
+lost!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Phaon sprang up in a storm of anger, and struck over the
+dice. "Three of them are 'sixes,'" he raged. "I have won!
+You got loaded dice from the landlord, just now, when he
+brought the wine!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Not at all, you cheating scoundrel," retorted Agias, who
+had already scooped in the money, "I have you fairly enough."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Fair?" shouted Phaon, dashing down the dice again,
+"they are loaded! Lack-shame! Villain! Whipping-post!
+Tomb-robber! Gallows-bird! You changed them when you
+pretended to inspect them! Give me my money, thief, or—"
+and he took a menacing but unsteady step toward Agias.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The young Greek was ready for the emergency. He knew
+that Phaon was almost overcome with his wine, and had no
+dread of the issue. A stroke of his fist sent the freedman reeling
+back against the wall, all the wind pounded from his chest.
+"You born blackguard," coughed Phaon, "I won it." Agias
+was renewing the attack, when the landlord interfered. Seizing
+both of the gamesters by their cloaks, he pushed them out
+a side door into the court-yard. "Out with you!" cried the
+host. "Quarrel without, if you must! This is no place for
+brawls."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Phaon staggered a step or two out into the dark, then reeled
+and fell heavily upon the dirty pavement. Agias prodded him
+with his foot, but he was quite insensible. For the present
+he was harmless enough.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My good host," said Agias, to the disquieted landlord, "I
+did not ask you to give us an unmixed wine and those dice for
+no purpose. This excellent gentleman here seems sadly in
+need of a bed, where he must stay for some time. But since
+I have won every sesterce he owns I must needs pay for his
+board. Take good care of him, and here are six philippi
+which are yours on condition that you keep him quiet until
+to-morrow at this time, and suffer no one coming from Rome
+to see him, or send him a message. To-morrow evening a
+messenger from Præneste will come here, and if your guest
+is still safe in your custody, you shall have six more gold
+pieces. At that time, doubtless, you can let him go; but don't
+violate my orders, or—"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Your excellency pays like a senator," said the landlord,
+bowing, as he fingered the gold. "Trust me that your wishes
+shall be obeyed."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"They had better be," hinted Agias. "I am not what I
+seem by my dress. If you disobey, fear the wrath of a man
+before whom the world trembles!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"He must be an agent of Cæsar, or Pompeius," muttered
+the landlord to himself. And Agias, having seen two serving-boys
+tugging Phaon's prone weight away to a secluded hay-mow,
+called for his refreshed Numidian, clattered out of the
+filthy court, and rode away into the night, with the stars
+burning above him.
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h2 id="ch9">CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h2>HOW GABINIUS MET WITH A REBUFF</h2>
+
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+Publius Gabinius, the boon comrade of Lucius Ahenobarbus,
+differed little from many another man of his age in
+mode of life, or variety of aspirations. He had run through
+all the fashionable excitements of the day; was tired of horse-racing,
+peacock dinners, Oriental sweethearts; tired even of
+dice. And of late he had begun to grow morose, and his
+friends commenced to think him rather dull company.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But for some days he had found a new object of interest.
+With Lucius Ahenobarbus he had been at the Circus Flaminius,
+waiting for the races to begin, when he startled his friend by
+a clutch on the arm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Look!" was Gabinius's exclamation. "Is she not beautiful?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He pointed to where Fabia, the Vestal, was taking her seat
+upon a cushion placed for her by a maid, and all the people
+around were standing, very respectfully, until she was seated
+The priestess was clothed in perfect white,—dress, ribbons,
+fillet—a notable contrast to the brave show of purple, and
+scarlet, and blue mantles all about her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Beautiful? Yes," repeated Lucius, rather carelessly.
+"But such birds are not for our net."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Are not?" repeated Gabinius, a little sharply. "What
+makes you so sure of that?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I hardly think that you will find my dear friend Quintus
+Drusus's aunt, for so I understand she is," said Ahenobarbus,
+"very likely to reciprocate your devotion."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And why not?" reiterated Gabinius, in a vexed tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My dear fellow," answered Lucius, "I won't argue with
+you. There are plenty of women in Rome quite as handsome
+as Fabia, and much younger, who will smile on you. Don't
+meddle in a business that is too dangerous to be profitable."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Gabinius had been wrought up to a pitch of amorous
+excitement, from which Ahenobarbus was the last one to move
+him. For days he had haunted the footsteps of the Vestal;
+had contrived to thrust himself as near to her in the theatre
+and circus as possible; had bribed one of the Temple servants
+to steal for him a small panel painting of Fabia; had, in fact,
+poured over his last romance all the ardour and passion of an
+intense, violent, uncontrolled nature. Gabinius was not the
+kind of a man either to analyze his motives, or express himself
+in the sobbing lyrics of a Catullus. He was thrilled with
+a fierce passion, and knew it, and it only. Therefore he
+merely replied to Lucius Ahenobarbus:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I can't help myself. What does Terence say about a like
+case? 'This indeed can, to some degree, be endured; night,
+passion, liquor, young blood, urged him on; it's only human
+nature.'"<a name="r106" href="#fn106">[106]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And all the afternoon, while the chariots ran, and wager
+on wager marked the excitement of the cloud of spectators,
+Gabinius had only eyes for one object, Fabia, who, perfectly
+unconscious of his state of fascination, sat with flushed cheeks
+and bright, eager eyes, watching the fortunes of the races, or
+turned now and then to speak a few words to little Livia, who
+was at her side. When the games were over, Gabinius struggled
+through the crowd after the Vestal, and kept near to her
+until she had reached her litter and the eight red-liveried
+Cappadocian porters bore her away. Gabinius continued to
+gaze after her until Fabia drew the leather curtains of her
+conveyance and was hid from sight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Perpol!"</i> reflected Gabinius. "How utterly enslaved I
+am!"
+</p>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+The following morning Fabia received a letter in a strange
+hand, asking her to come to a villa outside the Porta Capena,
+and receive a will from one Titus Denter, who lay dying.
+The receiving and safe-keeping of wills was a regular duty of
+Vestals, and Fabia at once summoned her litter, and started
+out of the city, along the Via Appia, until, far out in the suburbs
+where the houses were wide apart, she was set down
+before the country-house indicated. A stupid-appearing slave-boy
+received her at the gateway. The villa was old, small, and
+in very indifferent repair. The slave could not seem to explain
+whether it had been occupied of late, but hastened to declare
+that his master lay nigh to death. There was no porter in
+the outer vestibule.<a name="r107" href="#fn107">[107]</a> The heavy inner door turned slowly on
+its pivot, by some inside force, and disclosed a small, darkened
+atrium, only lighted by a clear sunbeam from the opening
+above, that passed through and illumined a playing fountain.
+A single attendant stood in the doorway. He was a tall,
+gaunt man in servile dress, with a rather sickly smile on his
+sharp yellow face. Fabia alighted from her litter. There
+was a certain secluded uncanniness about the house, which
+made her dislike for an instant to enter. The slave in the
+door silently beckoned for her to come in. The Vestal informed
+her bearers that she was likely to be absent some little
+time, and they must wait quietly without, and not annoy a
+dying man with unseemly laughter or loud conversation.
+Then, without hesitancy, Fabia gathered her priestess's cloak
+about her, and boldly entered the strange atrium. As she did
+so, the attendant noiselessly closed the door, and what was
+further, shot home a bolt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"There is no need for that," remarked the Vestal, who
+never before in her life had experienced such an unaccountable
+sense of disquietude.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It is my habit always to push the bolt," said the slave,
+bowing, and leading the way toward the peristylium.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You are Titus Denter's slave?" asked Fabia. The other
+nodded. "And your master is a very sick man?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Your most noble ladyship shall judge for herself."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Take me to him at once, if he can see me."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"He is waiting."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The two went through the narrow passageway which led
+from the outer court of the atrium into the inner court of the
+peristylium. Fabia was surprised to see that here all the
+marble work had been carefully washed clean, the little enclosed
+garden was in beautiful order, and in various corners
+and behind some of the pillars were bronze and sculptured
+statues of really choice art. The slave stopped and pointed
+to a couch upholstered in crimson, beside the fish tank, where
+tame lampreys were rising for a bit of food.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Take me to your master!" repeated Fabia, puzzled by the
+gesture. "I am not weary. You say he waits me?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"He will be here," replied the servant, with another bow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Here?" exclaimed the Vestal, now really alarmed. "Here?
+He, a man sick unto death?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Certainly; here!" broke in a strange voice; and forth
+from behind a pillar stepped Publius Gabinius, all pomaded
+and rouged, dressed only in a gauzy, many-folded scarlet
+<i>synthesis</i>.<a name="r108" href="#fn108">[108]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fabia gave a scream and sprang back in instinctive alarm.
+In the twinkling of an eye it flashed over her that for some
+purpose or other she had been trapped. Gabinius she knew
+barely by sight; but his reputation had come to her ears, and
+fame spoke nothing good of him. Yet even at the moment
+when she felt herself in the most imminent personal peril, the
+inbred dignity and composed hauteur of the Vestal did not
+desert her. At the selfsame instant that she said to herself,
+"Can I escape through the atrium before they can stop me?"
+recovering from her first surprise, and with never a quiver of
+eyelash or a paling of cheek, she was saying aloud, in a tone
+cold as ice, "And indeed, most excellent Gabinius, you must
+pardon me for being startled; for all that I know of you tells
+me that you are likely to find a sombre Vestal sorry enough
+company."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Gabinius had been counting coolly on a very noisy scene,
+one of a kind he was fairly familiar with—an abundance of
+screaming, expostulation, tearing of hair, and other manifestations
+of feminine agony—to be followed, of course, by
+ultimate submission to the will of all-dominant man. He
+was not accustomed to have a woman look him fairly in the
+eye and speak in tones, not of bootless fury, but of superior
+scorn. And his answer was painfully lacking in the ascendant
+volubility which would have befitted the occasion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Forgive me; pardon; it was of course necessary to resort to
+some subterfuge in order—in order to prevent your attendants
+from becoming suspicious."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fabia cast a glance behind her, and saw that before the two
+doors leading to the atrium her conductor and another tall
+slave had placed themselves; but she replied in a tone a little
+more lofty, if possible, than before:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I cannot well, sir, understand you. Are you a friend of
+Titus Denter, who is sick? I do not see that any subterfuge
+is necessary when I am to receive the deposit of a will from a
+dying man. It is a recognized duty of my office."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Gabinius was still more at a loss.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You should certainly understand, lady," he began, cursing
+himself for having to resort to circumlocutions, "that this is
+my own villa, and I have not the pleasure of knowing Titus
+Denter. I sent the letter because—"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Because, my worthy sir," interrupted Fabia, not however
+raising her voice in the least, "you are weary of Greek flute-players
+for sweethearts or such Roman young ladies as admire
+either the ointments or the pimples of your face, and consequently
+seek a little diversion by laying snares for a sacred
+Vestal."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Gabinius at last found free use for his tongue.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, lady; Lady Fabia," he cried, stretching out his arms
+and taking a step nearer, "don't misjudge me so cruelly! I
+will forsake anything, everything, for you! I have nothing
+to dream of day or night but your face. You have served
+your thirty years in the Temple, and can quit its service.
+Why entertain any superstitious scruple against doing what
+the law allows? Come with me to Egypt; to Spain; to Parthia;
+anywhere! Only do not reject me and my entreaties! I will
+do anything for your sake!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Critical as was her situation, Fabia could not refrain from
+a sense of humour, when she saw and heard this creature—the
+last intimate she would select in the world—pressing his suit
+with such genuine passion. When she answered, an exasperating
+smile was on her lips.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"By Castor!" she replied, "the noble Gabinius is not a bad
+tragedian. If he has nothing further to inform me than that
+I am favoured by his good graces, I can only decline his proposals
+with humble firmness, and depart."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"By the immortal gods!" cried Gabinius, feeling that he
+and not his would-be victim were like to go into a frenzy,
+"you shan't go! I have you here. And here you shall
+remain until I have your word that you will quit the Temple
+service and fly with me to Egypt. If you won't have me as
+your slave, I'll have you as your master!" And again he
+advanced.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What restrains me here?" queried Fabia, sternly, the blood
+sinking from her cheeks, but by step or by glance quailing not
+in the least. "Who dare restrain or offer harm to a Vestal
+of the Roman Republic?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I!" shouted Gabinius in mad defiance, with a menacing
+gesture.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fabia took a step toward him, and instinctively he fell back.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You?" she repeated, her black eyes, ablaze with the fire of
+a holy indignation, searching Gabinius's impure heart through
+and through. "You, little man? Are you fond of death, and
+yet lack courage to drink the poison yourself?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I dare anything!" cried Gabinius, getting more and more
+uncontrolled. "This is my house. These are my slaves.
+The high walls will cut off any screams you may utter in this
+court. I have you in my power. You have placed yourself
+in my hands by coming here. Refuse to do as I say, and a
+charge will be laid against you before the <i>pontifices,</i><a name="r109" href="#fn109">[109]</a> that you
+have broken the vow which binds every Vestal. All the
+appearances will be against you, and you know what will follow
+then!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fabia grew a shade paler, if it were possible, than before.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I know," she replied, still very gently, "that an unfaithful
+Vestal is buried alive in the Campus Sceleratus; but I know,
+too, that her seducer is beaten to death with rods. Accuse
+me, or attack me, and whatever be <i>my</i> fate, I can say that
+which will send your black soul down to Tartarus with guilt
+enough for Minos to punish. Your delicately anointed skin
+would be sadly bruised by the stripes falling upon it. And
+now, if these creatures will stand one side, I will leave you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And Fabia drew her mantle about her, and walked straight
+past the awestruck slaves into the atrium, where she unbolted
+the door and passed out. Gabinius stood gazing after her,
+half-fascinated, half-dazed. Only when the door closed did
+he burst out to one of the slaves:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Timid dog, why did you let her escape?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Dominus," whimpered the menial, "why did <i>you</i> let her
+escape?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Insolence!" cried Gabinius, seizing a staff, and beating
+first one, then the other, of his servants indiscriminately; and
+so he continued to vent his vexation, until Fabia's litter was
+well inside the Porta Capena.
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+Fabia had thus escaped from the clutches of Gabinius, and
+the latter was sullen and foiled. But none the less the Vestal
+was in a tremor of fear for the consequences of her meeting
+with the libertine. She knew that Gabinius was determined,
+dexterous, and indefatigable; that he was baffled, but not
+necessarily driven to throw over his illicit quest. And Fabia
+realized keenly that going as she had unattended into a strange
+house, and remaining there some time with no friendly eye to
+bear witness to her actions, would count terribly against her,
+if Gabinius was driven to bay. She dared not, as she would
+gladly have done, appear before the pontifices and demand of
+them that they mete out due punishment on Gabinius for
+grossly insulting the sanctity of a Vestal. Her hope was that
+Gabinius would realize that he could not incriminate her without
+ruining himself, and that he had been so thoroughly terrified
+on reflection as to what might be the consequences to
+himself, if he tried to follow the intrigue, that he would prudently
+drop it. These considerations hardly served to lighten
+the gloom which had fallen across Fabia's life. It was not so
+much the personal peril that saddened her. All her life she
+had heard the ugly din of the world's wickedness pass harmlessly
+over her head, like a storm dashing at the doors of
+some secluded dwelling that shielded its inhabitants from the
+tempest. But now she had come personally face to face with
+the demon of impurity; she had felt the fetid touch almost
+upon herself; and it hurt, it sickened her. Therefore it was
+that the other Vestals marvelled, asking what change had come
+over their companion, to quench the mild sunshine of her life;
+and Fabia held little Livia very long and very closely in her
+arms, as if it were a solace to feel near her an innocent little
+thing "unspotted of the world."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All this had happened a very few days before the breathless
+Agias came to inform Fabia of the plot against her nephew.
+Perhaps, as with Cornelia, the fact that one near and dear
+was in peril aided to make the consciousness of her own unhappiness
+less keen. None could question Fabia's resolute
+energy. She sent Agias on his way, then hurried off in her
+litter in quest of Caius Marcellus, the consul. Æmilius
+Paulus, the other consul, was a nonentity, not worth appealing
+to, since he had virtually abdicated office upon selling his
+neutrality to Cæsar. But Marcellus gave her little comfort.
+She broke in upon the noble lord, while he was participating
+in a drunken garden-party in the Gardens of Lucullus. The
+consul—hardly sober enough to talk coherently—had declared
+that it was impossible to start any troops that day to
+Præneste. "To-morrow, when he had time, he would consider
+the matter." And Fabia realized that the engine of government
+would be very slow to set in motion in favour of a marked
+Cæsarian.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But she had another recourse, and hastened her litter down
+one of the quieter streets of the Subura, where was the modest
+house occupied by Julius Cæsar before he became Pontifex
+Maximus. This building was now used by the Cæsarian
+leaders as a sort of party headquarters. Fabia boldly ordered
+the porter to summon before her Curio—whom she was sure
+was in the house. Much marvelling at the visit of a Vestal,
+the slave obeyed, and in a few moments that tribune was in
+her presence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Caius Scribonius Curio was probably a very typical man of
+his age. He was personally of voluptuous habits, fearfully
+extravagant, endowed with very few scruples and a very weak
+sense of right and wrong. But he was clear-headed, energetic,
+a good orator, a clever reasoner, an astute handler of men,
+courageous, versatile, full of recourse, and on the whole above
+the commission of any really glaring moral infraction. He
+was now in his early prime, and he came before Fabia as a
+man tall, athletic, deep-chested, deep-voiced, with a regular
+profile, a clear, dark complexion, curly hair carefully dressed,
+freshly shaven, and in perfect toilet. It was a pleasure, in
+short, to come in contact with such a vigorous, aggressive
+personality, be the dark corners of his life what they might.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Curio yielded to no man in his love of Lucrine oysters and
+good Cæcuban wine. But he had been spending little time on
+the dining couch that evening. In fact he had at that moment
+in his hand a set of tablets on which he had been writing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Salve! Domina!</i>" was his greeting, "what unusual honour
+is this which brings the most noble Vestal to the trysting spot
+of us poor Populares."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And, with the courtesy of a gentleman of the world, he
+offered Fabia an armchair.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Caius Curio," said the Vestal, wasting very few words,
+"do you know my nephew, Quintus Drusus of Præneste?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It is an honour to acknowledge friendship with such an
+excellent young man," said Curio, bowing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I am glad to hear so. I understand that he has already
+suffered no slight calamity for adhering to your party."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Vah!</i>" and the tribune shrugged his shoulders. "Doubtless
+he has had a disagreeable time with the consul-elect, but from
+all that I can hear, the girl he lost was hardly one to make his
+life a happy one. It's notorious the way she has displayed her
+passion for young Lucius Ahenobarbus, and we all know what
+kind of a man <i>he</i> is. But I may presume to remark that your
+ladyship would hardly come here simply to remind me of this."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No," replied Fabia, directly, "I have come here to appeal to
+you to do something for me which Marcellus the consul was
+too drunk to try to accomplish if he would."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fabia had struck the right note. Only a few days before
+Appius Claudius, the censor, had tried to strike Curio's name
+from the rolls of the Senate. Piso, the other censor, had resisted.
+There had been an angry debate in the Senate, and
+Marcellus had inveighed against the Cæsarian tribune, and had
+joined in a furious war of words. The Senate had voted to
+allow Curio to keep his seat; and the anti-Cæsarians had paraded
+in mourning as if the vote were a great calamity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Curio's eyes lit up with an angry fire.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Lump of filth! Who was he, to disoblige you!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You will understand," said Fabia, still quietly; and then
+briefly she told of the conspiracy against the life of Drusus, so
+far as she had gathered it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Where did you learn all this," queried Curio, "if I may
+venture to ask?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"From Agias, the slave of Cornelia, niece of Lentulus."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But what is Drusus to her?" demanded the marvelling
+tribune.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"He is everything to her. She has been trying to win her
+way into Ahenobarbus's confidence, and learn all of the plot."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A sudden light seemed to break over the face of the politician.
+He actually smiled with relieved pleasure, and cried, "<i>Papæ!</i>
+Wonderful! I may be the farthest of all the world from Diogenes
+the Cynic; but a man cannot go through life, unless he
+has his eyes shut, and not know that there are different kinds
+of women. I was sorry enough to have to feel that a girl like
+Cornelia was becoming one of Clodia's coterie. After all, the
+world isn't so bad as we make it out to be, if it is Curio the profligate
+who says it."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But Drusus, my nephew?" exclaimed Fabia. "He is in
+frightful danger. You know Dumnorix will have a great band
+of gladiators, and there is no force in Præneste that can be
+counted on to restrain him."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My dear lady," said Curio, laughing, "I am praising the
+happy Genius that brought you here. We Cæsarians are taught
+by our leaders never to desert a friend in need; and Drusus has
+been a very good friend to us, especially by using all his influence,
+very successfully, for our cause among the Prænestians
+and the people of those parts. When did you say that Dumnorix
+would pass through the town?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Early to-morrow, possibly," replied the Vestal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Phui!</i> Dismiss all care. I'll find out at once how many
+gladiators he took with him to Anagnia. Some of his gang will
+be killed in the games there, and more will be wounded and
+weak or disabled. I am tribune, and I imagine I ought not to
+be out of the city over night,<a name="r110" href="#fn110">[110]</a> but before daybreak to-morrow I
+will take Antonius and Sallustius and Quintus Cassius; and
+perhaps I can get Balbus and our other associates to go. We
+will arm a few slaves and freedmen; and it will be strange indeed
+if we cannot scatter to the four winds Dumnorix's gladiators,
+before they have accomplished any mischief."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The gods reward you!" said Fabia, simply. "I will go back
+to the Temple, and pray that my nephew be kept from harm;
+and you also, and your friends who will defend him."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Curio stood in the atrium a long time after the Vestal had
+left.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The gods reward you!" he repeated. "So <i>she</i> believes in
+the gods, that there are gods, and that they care for us struggling
+men. Ah! Caius, Caius Curio; if the mob had murdered
+you that day you protected Cæsar after he spoke in the Senate
+in favour of the Catilinarians, where would you be to-day?
+Whence have you come? Whither do you go? What assurance
+have you that you can depend on anything, but your own
+hand and keen wits? What is to become of you, if you are
+knocked on the head in that adventure to-morrow? And yet
+that woman believes there are gods! What educated man is
+there that does? Perhaps we would, if we led the simple lives
+our fathers did, and that woman lives. Enough of this! I
+must be over letters to Cæsar at Ravenna till midnight: and
+then at morn off to gallop till our horses are foundered."
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h2 id="ch10">CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h2>MAMERCUS GUARDS THE DOOR</h2>
+
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+Agias left Phaon in the clutches of the landlord and his
+subordinates and was reasonably certain that since the freedman
+had not a farthing left with which to bribe his keepers,
+he was out of harm's way for the time being. The moon was
+risen, and guided by its light the young slave flew on toward
+Præneste without incident. Whatever part of the conspirator's
+plans depended on Phaon was sure to collapse. For the
+rest, Agias could only warn Drusus, and have the latter arm
+his clients and slaves, and call in his friends from the town.
+With such precautions Dumnorix could hardly venture to risk
+himself and his men, whatever might be the plot.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus satisfied in mind, Agias arrived at the estate of the
+Drusi, close to Præneste, and demanded admittance, about two
+hours before midnight. He had some difficulty in stirring up
+the porter, and when that worthy at last condescended to unbar
+the front door, the young Greek was surprised and dismayed
+to hear that the master of the house had gone to visit a
+farm at Lanuvium, a town some fifteen miles to the south.
+Agias was thunderstruck; he had not counted on Drusus being
+absent temporarily. But perhaps his very absence would cause
+the plot to fail.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And what time will he return?" asked Agias.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What time?" replied the porter, with a sudden gleam of
+intelligence darting up in his lack-lustre eyes. "We expect he
+will return early to-morrow morning. But the road from Lanuvium
+is across country and you have to skirt the Alban Mount.
+He may be rather late in arriving, drives he ever so hard."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Hercules!" cried the agitated messenger. "My horse is
+blown, and I don't know the road in the dark. Send, I pray
+you—by all the gods—to Lanuvium this instant."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Aye," drawled the porter, "And wherefore at such an
+hour?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It's for life and death!" expostulated Agias.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The porter, who was a thick-set, powerful man, with a
+bristly black beard, and a low forehead crowned by a heavy
+shock of dark hair, at this instant thrust out a capacious paw,
+and seized Agias roughly by the wrist.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ha, ha, ha, young cut-throat! I wondered how long this
+would last on your part! Well, now I must take you to Falto,
+to get the beginning of your deserts."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Are you mad, fellow?" bawled Agias, while the porter,
+grasping him by the one hand, and the dim lamp by the other,
+dragged him into the house. "Do you know who I am? or
+what my business is? Do you want to have your master
+murdered?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Perpol!</i> Not in the least. That's why I do as I do. Tell
+your story to Falto. <i>Eho!</i> What's that you've got under
+your cloak?" And he pounced upon a small dagger poor Agias
+had carried as a precaution against eventualities. "I imagine
+you are accustomed to use a little knife like this." And the
+fellow gave a gleeful chuckle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was in vain that Agias expostulated and tried to explain.
+The porter kept him fast as a prisoner, and in a few moments
+by his shouts had aroused the whole sleeping household, and
+stewards, freedmen, and slaves came rushing into the atrium.
+Candelabra blazed forth. Torches tossed. Maids screamed.
+Many tongues were raised in discordant shout and question.
+At last order was in some measure restored. Agias found himself
+before a tribunal composed of Falto, the subordinate <i>villicus</i>,<a name="r111" href="#fn111">[111]</a>
+as chief judge, and two or three freedmen to act in
+capacity of assessors. All of this bench were hard, grey-headed,
+weazened agriculturists, who looked with no very
+lenient eye upon the delicate and handsome young prisoner
+before them. Agias had to answer a series of savagely propounded
+questions which led he knew not whither, and which
+he was almost too bewildered to answer intelligently. The true
+state of the case only came over him by degrees. These were
+the facts. Drusus had known that there was a conspiracy
+against his life, and had taken precautions against poisoning
+or being waylaid by a small band of cut-throats such as he
+imagined Ahenobarbus might have sent to despatch him. He
+had not expected an attack on the scale of Dumnorix's whole
+band; and he had seen no reason why, accompanied by the
+trusty Mamerci and Cappadox, he should not visit his Lanuvian
+farm. The whole care of guarding against conspirators
+had been left to Marcus Mamercus, and that worthy ex-warrior
+had believed he had taken all needed precautions. He
+had warned the porter and the other slaves and freedmen to
+be on the lookout for suspicious characters, and had let just
+enough of the plot—as it was known to him—leak out, to put
+all the household on the <i>qui vive</i> to apprehend any would-be
+assassin of their beloved young master. But with that fatuity
+which often ruins the plans of "mice and men," he had failed
+to inform even his subordinate Falto of the likelihood of Agias
+arriving from Rome. It had obviously been desirable that it
+should not be bruited among the servants that Cornelia and
+Drusus were still communicating, and when Agias was haled
+into the atrium, his only identification was by some over-zealous
+slave, who declared that the prisoner belonged to the
+familia of Lentulus Crus, the bitter foe of their master.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With senses unduly alert the porter, as soon as he was aroused
+from his slumbers, had noticed that evening that Agias had
+come on some unusual business, and that he was obviously confused
+when he learned that Drusus was not at home. With his
+suspicions thus quickened, every word the luckless Greek
+uttered went to incriminate him in the mind of the porter.
+Agias was certainly an accomplice in the plot against Drusus,
+sent to the house at an unseasonable hour, on some dark errand.
+The porter had freely protested this belief to Falto and his
+court, and to support his indictment produced the captured
+dagger, the sure sign of a would-be murderer. Besides, a
+large sum of gold was found on Agias's person; his fast Numidian
+horse was still steaming before the door—and what honest
+slave could travel thus, with such a quantity of money?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias tried to tell his story, but to no effect; Falto and his
+fellow-judges dryly remarked to one another that the prisoner
+was trying to clear himself, by plausibly admitting the existence
+of the conspiracy, but of course suppressing the real
+details. Agias reasoned. He was met with obstinate incredulity.
+He entreated, prayed, implored. The prejudiced rustics
+mocked at him, and hinted that they cared too much for their
+patron to believe any tale that such a manifest impostor
+might tell them. Pausanias, the Mamerci, and Cappadox, the
+only persons, besides Drusus, who could readily identify him,
+were away at Lanuvium.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The verdict of guilty was so unanimous that it needed little
+or no discussion; and Falto pronounced sentence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Mago," to the huge African, "take this wretched boy to
+the slave-prison; fetter him heavily. On your life do not let
+him escape. Give him bread and water at sunrise. When
+Master Drusus returns he will doubtless bid us crucify the villain,
+and in the morning Natta the carpenter shall prepare two
+beams for the purpose."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias comforted himself by reflecting that things would
+hardly go to that terrible extremity; but it was not reassuring
+to hear Ligus, the crabbed old cellarer, urge that he be made to
+confess then and there under the cat. Falto overruled the
+proposition. "It was late, and Mamercus was the man to extort
+confession." So Agias found himself thrust into a filthy cell,
+lighted only by a small chink, near the top of the low stone
+wall, into which strayed a bit of moonlight. The night he
+passed wretchedly enough, on a truss of fetid straw; while the
+tight irons that confined him chafed his wrists and ankles.
+Needless to add, he cursed roundly all things human and heavenly,
+before he fell into a brief, troubled sleep. In the morning
+Mago, who acted as jailer, brought him a pot of water and
+a saucer of uncooked wheat porridge;<a name="r112" href="#fn112">[112]</a> and informed him, with
+a grin, that Natta was making the beams ready. Agias contented
+himself by asking Mago to tell Drusus about him, as
+soon as the master returned. "You are very young to wish to
+die," said the Libyan, grimly. Agias did not argue. Mago
+left him. By climbing up a rude stool, Agias could peer
+through the loophole, which by great luck commanded a fairly
+ample view of the highway. Drusus he naturally expected
+would come from the south, toward Præneste. And thence
+every moment he trembled lest Dumnorix's gang should appear
+in sight. But every distant dust-cloud for a long time resolved
+itself sooner or later into a shepherd with a flock of unruly
+sheep, or a wagon tugged by a pair of mules and containing a
+single huge wine-skin. Drusus came not; Dumnorix came
+not. Agias grew weary of watching, and climbed painfully
+down from the stool to eat his raw porridge. Hardly had he
+done so than a loud clatter of hoofs sounded without. With a
+bound that twisted his confined ankles and wrists sadly, Agias
+was back at his post. A single rider on a handsome bay horse
+was coming up from the direction of Rome. As he drew near
+to the villa, he pulled at his reins, and brought his steed down
+to a walk. The horseman passed close to the loophole, and
+there was no mistaking his identity. Agias had often seen
+that pale, pimpled face, and those long effeminate curls in company
+with Lucius Ahenobarbus. The rider was Publius Gabinius,
+and the young Greek did not need to be told that his
+coming boded no good to Drusus. Gabinius looked carefully
+at the villa, into the groves surrounding it, and then up and
+down the highway. Then he touched the spur to his mount,
+and was gone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias wrung his manacled hands. Drusus would be murdered,
+Cornelia's happiness undone, and he himself would
+become the slave of Lucius Ahenobarbus, who, when he had
+heard Phaon's story, would show little enough of mercy. He
+cursed the suspicious porter, cursed Falto, cursed every slave
+and freedman on the estate, cursed Mamercus for not leaving
+some word about the possibility of his coming from Rome.
+Agias's imprecations spent themselves in air; and he was none
+the happier. Would Drusus never come? The time was drifting
+on. The sun had been up three or more hours. At any
+instant the gladiators might arrive.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then again there was a clatter of hoofs, at the very moment
+when Agias had again remounted to the loophole. There were
+voices raised in questions and greetings; slave-boys were
+scampering to and fro to take the horses; Drusus with Pausanias
+and the Mamerci had returned from Lanuvium. Agias
+pressed his head out the loophole and screamed to attract
+attention. His voice could not penetrate the domestic hubbub.
+Drusus was standing shaking hands with a couple of clients
+and evidently in a very good humour over some blunt rustic
+compliment. Mago was nowhere to be seen. Agias glanced
+up the road toward Præneste. The highway was straight and
+fairly level, but as it went over a hill-slope some little way off,
+what was that he saw upon it?—the sun flashing on bright
+arms, which glinted out from the dust-cloud raised by a considerable
+number of men marching!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Drusus! Master Drusus!" Agias threw all his soul
+into the cry. As if to blast his last hope, Drusus hastily
+bowed away the salves and aves of the two clients, turned,
+and went into the villa. Agias groaned in agony. A very
+few moments would bring Dumnorix to the villa, and the
+young slave did not doubt that Gabinius was with the lanista
+to direct the attack. Agias tore at his chains, and cursed
+again, calling on all the Furies of Tartarus to confound the
+porter and Falto. Suddenly before the loophole passed a
+slave damsel of winning face and blithesome manner, humming
+to herself a rude little ditty, while she balanced a large
+earthen water-pot on her head. It was Chloë, whom the
+reader has met in the opening scene of this book, though
+Agias did not know her name.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"By all the gods, girl!" he cried frantically, "do you
+want to have your master slaughtered before your very
+eyes?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Chloë stopped, a little startled at this voice, almost from
+under her feet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, you, Master Assassin!" she sneered. "Do you want
+to repeat those pretty stories of yours, such as I heard you
+tell last night?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Woman," cried Agias, with all the earnestness which
+agony and fear could throw into face and voice, "go this
+instant! Tell Master Drusus that Dumnorix and his gang
+are not a furlong<a name="r113" href="#fn113">[113]</a> away. They mean to murder him. Say
+that I, Agias, say so, and he, at least, will believe me. You
+yourself can see the sun gleaming on their steel as they march
+down the hill."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Perhaps it was the sight which Agias indicated, perhaps it
+was his earnest words, perhaps it was his handsome face—Chloë
+was very susceptible to good looks—but for some cause
+she put down the pot and was off, as fast as her light heels
+could carry her, toward the house.
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+Drusus had ridden hard to get back early from Lanuvium
+and write some letters to Cornelia, for he had expected that
+Agias would come on that very afternoon, on one of his regular,
+though private, visits; and he wished to be able to tell
+Cornelia that, so long a time had elapsed since he had been
+warned against Ahenobarbus and Pratinas, and as no attempt
+at all had been made on his life, her fears for him were probably
+groundless and the plot had been for some cause abandoned.
+Drusus himself was weary, and was glad to shake off
+the little knot of clients and retire to his chamber, preparatory
+for a bath and a change of clothes. He had seen Falto, but
+the latter deemed it best not to trouble his patron at the time
+by mentioning the prisoner. Mago, too, concluded that it was
+best to defer executing his promise. Drusus was just letting
+Cappadox take off his cloak, when the shrill voice of Chloë
+was heard outside the door, expostulating with the boy on
+guard.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I must see the dominus at once. It's very important."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Don't you see, you idiot, that you can't while he's dressing?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I <i>must!</i>" screamed Chloë. And, violating every law of
+subordination and decorum, she threw open the door.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cappadox flew to eject her, but Chloë's quick tongue did its
+work.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"A lad who calls himself Agias is chained in the ergastulum.
+He says some gladiators are going to attack the house,
+and will be here in a moment! Oh, I am so frightened!"
+and the poor girl threw her mantle over her head, and began
+to whimper and sob.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Agias!" shouted Drusus, at the top of his voice. "In
+the ergastulum? <i>Per deos immortales!</i> What's this? Mamercus!
+Falto!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And the young master rushed out of the room, Cappadox,
+who like lightning had caught up a sword, following him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Falto came running from the stables; Mamercus from the
+garden. Drusus faced his two subordinates, and in an eye's
+twinkling had taken in the situation. Mamercus, who felt
+within himself that he, by his oversight, had been the chief
+blunderer, to vent his vexation smote Falto so sound a cuff
+that the under villicus sprawled his full length.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Go to the ergastulum and fetch Agias this instant," cried
+Drusus, in thundering accents, to the trembling Mago, who
+had appeared on the scene.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mago disappeared like magic, but in an instant a din was
+rising from the front of the house,—cries, blows, clash of
+steel. Into the peristylium, where the angry young master
+was standing, rushed the old slave woman, Laïs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Hei! hei!</i>" she screamed, "they are breaking in! Monsters!
+a hundred of them! They will kill us all!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus grew calm in an instant.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Barricade the doors to the atrium!" he commanded, "while
+I can put on my armour. You, Mamercus, are too old for this
+kind of work; run and call in the field-hands, the clients, and
+the neighbours. Cappadox, Falto, and I can hold the doors
+till aid comes."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I run?" cried the veteran, in hot incredulity, while with
+his single hand he tore from its stout leather wall-fastenings
+a shield that had been beaten with Punic swords at the
+Metaurus.<a name="r114" href="#fn114">[114]</a> "I run?" he repeated, while a mighty crash told
+that the front door had given way, and the attackers were
+pouring into the atrium. And the veteran had thrust a venerable
+helmet over his grizzled locks, and was wielding his shield
+with his handless left arm, while a good Spanish short-sword
+gleamed in his right hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The others had not been idle. Cappadox had barred both
+doors leading into the front part of the house. Drusus had
+armed, and Falto,—a more loyal soul than whom lived not,—burning
+to retrieve his blunder, had sprung to his patron's side,
+also in shield and helm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"They will soon force these doors," said Drusus, quietly,
+growing more composed as closer and closer came the actual
+danger. "Falto and I will guard the right. Cappadox and
+you, Mamercus, if you will stay, must guard the left. Some
+aid must come before a great while."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But again the veteran whipped out an angry oath, and
+thundered, "You stay, you soft-fingered Quintus! You stay
+and face those German giants! Why, you are the very man
+they are after! Leave fighting to an old soldier! Take him
+away, Cappadox, if you love him!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I will never leave!" blazed forth Drusus. "My place is
+here. A Livian always faces his foes. Here, if needs be, I
+will die." But before he could protest further, Cappadox had
+caught him in his powerful arms, and despite his struggles
+was running with him through the rear of the house.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Pandemonium reigned in the atrium. The gladiators were
+shivering fine sculptures, ripping up upholstery, swearing in
+their uncouth Celtic or German dialects, searching everywhere
+for their victim in the rooms that led off the atrium. A voice
+in Latin was raising loud remonstrance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Ædepol!</i> Dumnorix, call off your men! Phaon hasn't
+led our bird into the net. We shall be ruined if this keeps on!
+Drusus isn't here!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"By the Holy Oak, Gabinius," replied another voice, in
+barbarous Latin, "what I've begun I'll end! I'll find Drusus
+yet; and we won't leave a soul living to testify against us!
+You men, break down that door and let us into the rest of
+the house!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mamercus heard a rush down one of the passages leading
+to the peristylium. The house was almost entirely deserted,
+except by the shrieking maids. The clients and freedmen and
+male slaves were almost all in the fields. The veteran, Falto,
+and Pausanias, who had come in, and who was brave enough,
+but nothing of a warrior, were the only defenders of the
+peristylium.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You two," shouted Mamercus, "guard the other door!
+Move that heavy chest against it. Pile the couch and cabinet
+on top. This door I will hold."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was the blow of a heavy mace on the portal, and the
+wood sprang out, and the pivots started.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Leave this alone," roared Mamercus, when his two helpers
+paused, as if to join him. "Guard your own doorway!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Down with it!" bellowed the voice of the leaders without.
+"Don't let the game escape! Strike again!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Crash! And the door, beaten from its fastenings by a
+mighty stroke, tumbled inward on to the mosaic pavement of
+the peristylium. The light was streaming bright and free
+into that court, but the passageway from the atrium was
+shrouded in darkness. Mamercus, sword drawn, stood across
+the entrance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"By the god Tarann!"<a name="r115" href="#fn115">[115]</a> shouted Dumnorix, who from the
+rear of his followers was directing the attack. "Here is a
+stout old game-cock! Out of the way, greybeard! We'll
+spare you for your spirit. Take him, some of you, alive!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Two gigantic, blond Germans thrust their prodigious bodies
+through the doorway. Mamercus was no small man, but slight
+he seemed before these mighty Northerners.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Germans had intended to seize him in their naked
+hands, but something made them swing their ponderous long
+swords and then, two flashes from the short blade in the hand
+of the veteran, and both the giants were weltering across the
+threshold, their breasts pierced and torn by the Roman's murderous
+thrusts.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Habet!</i>" cried Mamercus. "A fair hit! Come on, you
+scum of the earth; come on, you German and Gallic dogs; do
+you think I haven't faced the like of you before? Do you
+think your great bulks and fierce mustaches will make a soldier
+of Marius quiver? Do you want to taste Roman steel
+again?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And then there was a strange sight. A phantasm seemed to
+have come before every member of that mad, murderous band;
+for they saw, as it were, in the single champion before them, a
+long, swaying line of men of slight stature like him; of men
+who dashed through their phalanxes and spear hedges; who
+beat down their chieftains; whom no arrow fire, no sword-play,
+no stress of numbers, might stop; but who charged home with
+pilum and short-sword, and defeated the most valorous enemy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ha! Dogs!" taunted Mamercus, "you have seen Romans
+fight before, else you were not all here, to make sport for our
+holiday!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"He is Tyr,<a name="r116" href="#fn116">[116]</a> the 'one-armed,' who put his left hand in the
+jaws of Fenris-wolf!" cried a German, shrinking back in
+dread. "A god is fighting us!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Fools!" shouted Gabinius from a distance. "At him, and
+cut him down!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Cut him down!" roared Dumnorix, who had wits enough
+to realize that every instant's delay gave Drusus time to escape,
+or collect help.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was another rush down the passage; but at the narrow
+doorway the press stopped. Mamercus fought as ten. His
+shield and sword were everywhere. The Roman was as one
+inspired; his eyes shone bright and clear; his lips were parted
+in a grim, fierce smile; he belched forth rude soldier oaths
+that had been current in the army of fifty years before.
+Thrusting and parrying, he yielded no step, he sustained no
+wound. And once, twice, thrice his terrible short-sword found
+its sheath in the breast of a victim. In impotent rage the
+gladiators recoiled a second time.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Storm the other door!" commanded Dumnorix.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The two defenders there had undertaken to pile up furniture
+against it; but a few blows beat down the entire barrier.
+Falto and Pausanias stood to their posts stoutly enough; but
+there was no master-swordsman to guard this entrance. The
+first gladiator indeed went down with a pierced neck, but the
+next instant Falto was beside him, atoning for his stupid folly,
+the whole side of his head cleft away by a stroke from a Gallic
+long-sword.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"One rush and we have the old man surrounded," exhorted
+Dumnorix, when only Pausanias barred the way.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a growl and a bound, and straight at the foremost
+attacker flew Argos, Mamercus's great British mastiff, who had
+silently slipped on to the scene. The assailant fell with the
+dog's fangs in his throat. Again the gladiators recoiled, and
+before they could return to the charge, back into the peristylium
+rushed Drusus, escaped from Cappadox, with that
+worthy and Mago and Agias, just released, at his heels.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Here's your man!" cried Gabinius, who still kept discreetly
+in the rear.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Freedom and ten <i>sestertia</i><a name="r117" href="#fn117">[117]</a> to the one who strikes Drusus
+down," called Dumnorix, feeling that at last the game was in
+his hands.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Mamercus had made of his young patron an apt pupil.
+All the fighting blood of the great Livian house, of the consulars
+and triumphators, was mantling in Drusus's veins, and
+he threw himself into the struggle with the deliberate courage
+of an experienced warrior. His short-sword, too, found its
+victims; and across Falto's body soon were piled more. And
+now Drusus was not alone. For in from the barns and fields
+came running first the servants from the stables, armed with
+mattocks and muck-forks, and then the farm-hands with their
+scythes and reaping hooks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We shall never force these doors," exclaimed Gabinius, in
+despair, as he saw the defenders augmenting.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Dumnorix turned to his men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Go, some of you. Enter from behind! Take this rabble
+from the rear. In fair fight we can soon master it."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A part of the gladiators started to leave the atrium, Gabinius
+with them. An instant later he had rushed back in blank
+dismay.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Horsemen! They are dismounting before the house. There
+are more than a score of them. We shall be cut to pieces."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We have more than fifty," retorted Dumnorix, viciously.
+"I will sacrifice them all, rather than have the attack fail!—" But
+before he could speak further, to the din of the fighting at
+the doors of the peristylium was added a second clamour without.
+And into the atrium, sword in hand, burst Caius Curio,
+and another young, handsome, aquiline-featured man, dressed
+in a low-girt tunic, with a loose, coarse mantle above it,—a
+man known to history as Marcus Antonius, or "Marc Antony ";
+and at their backs were twenty men in full armour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The courage of the lanista had failed him. Already Drusus's
+reinforcements in the peristylium had become so numerous and
+so well armed that the young chieftain was pushing back the
+gladiators and rapidly assuming the offensive. Gabinius was
+the first to take flight. He plunged into one of the rooms off
+the atrium, and through a side door gained the open. The
+demoralized and beaten gladiators followed him, like a flock of
+sheep. Only Dumnorix and two or three of his best men stood
+at the exit long enough to cover, in some measure, the retreat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Once outside, the late assailants gained a temporary respite,
+owing to the fact that the defenders had been disorganized by
+their very victory.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We have lost," groaned Gabinius, as the lanista drew his
+men together in a compact body, before commencing his
+retreat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We are alive," growled Dumnorix.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We cannot go back to Rome," moaned the other. "We
+are all identified. No bribe or favour can save us now."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"A robber's life is still left," retorted Dumnorix, "and we
+must make of it what we can. Some of my men know these
+parts, where they have been slaves, before coming to my hands.
+We must strike off for the mountains, if we live to get there."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All that day the country was in a turmoil. The Prænestean
+senate had met in hasty session, and the <i>decurions</i><a name="r118" href="#fn118">[118]</a> ordered
+the entire community under arms to hunt down the disturbers
+of the peace. Not until nightfall did Dumnorix and a mere
+remnant of his band find themselves able, under the shadow
+of the darkness, to shake off the pursuit. Gabinius was still
+with him. Curio and Antonius had chased them down with
+their horsemen; many of the gladiators had been slain, many
+more taken. For the survivors only the life of outlaws remained.
+The fastnesses of the Apennines were their sole
+safety; and thither—scarce daring to stop to pillage for
+victuals—they hurried their weary steps.
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>III</h3>
+
+<p>
+Lucius Ahenobarbus spent that day in frightful anxiety.
+One moment he was fingering Drusus's money bags; the next
+haunted by the murdered man's ghost. When he called on
+Cornelia, her slaves said she had a headache and would receive
+no one. Pratinas held aloof. No news all day—the suspense
+became unendurable. He lived through the following
+night harassed by waking visions of every conceivable calamity;
+but toward morning fell asleep, and as was his wont,
+awoke late. The first friend he met on the street was Calvus,
+the young poet and orator.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Have you heard the news from Præneste?" began Calvus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"News? What news?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, how Dumnorix's gang of gladiators attacked the
+villa of your distant relative, Quintus Drusus, and were beaten
+off, while they tried to murder him. A most daring attempt!
+But you will hear all about it. I have a case at the courts and
+cannot linger."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And Calvus was gone, leaving Ahenobarbus as though he
+had been cudgelled into numbness. With a great effort he collected
+himself. After all, Dumnorix's gladiators were nothing
+to him. And when later he found that neither Dumnorix, nor
+Gabinius, nor Phaon had been taken or slain at Præneste, he
+breathed the easier. No one else except Pratinas, he was certain,
+knew <i>why</i> the lanista had made his attack; and there
+was no danger of being charged with complicity in the conspiracy.
+And so he was able to bear the stroke of ill-fortune with
+some equanimity, and at last rejoice that his dreams would no
+longer be haunted by the shade of Drusus. He was in no
+mood to meet Pratinas, and the smooth Greek evidently did
+not care to meet him. He went around to visit Cornelia again—she
+was still quite indisposed. So he spent that morning
+with Servius Flaccus playing draughts, a game at which his
+opponent was so excessively stupid that Ahenobarbus won at
+pleasure, and consequently found himself after lunch<a name="r119" href="#fn119">[119]</a> in a
+moderately equable humour. Then it was he was agreeably
+surprised to receive the following note from Cornelia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Cornelia to her dearest Lucius, greeting.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I have been very miserable these past two days, but this
+afternoon will be better. Come and visit me and my uncle,
+for there are several things I would be glad to say before you
+both. Farewell."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I think," remarked Lucius to himself, "that the girl wants
+to have the wedding-day hastened. I know of nothing else to
+make her desire both Lentulus and myself at once. I want to
+see her alone. Well, I cannot complain. I'll have Drusus's
+bride, even if I can't have his money or his life."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so deliberating, he put on his finest saffron-tinted synthesis,
+his most elegant set of rings, his newest pair of black
+shoes,<a name="r120" href="#fn120">[120]</a> and spent half an hour with his hairdresser; and thus
+habited he repaired to the house of the Lentuli.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The Lady Cornelia is in the Corinthian hall," announced
+the slave who carried in the news of his coming, "and there
+she awaits you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lucius, nothing loth, followed the servant. A moment and
+he was in the large room. It was empty. The great marble
+pillars rose cold and magnificent in four stately rows, on all
+sides of the high-vaulted apartment. On the walls Cupids
+and blithesome nymphs were careering in fresco. The floor
+was soft with carpets. A dull scent of burning incense from
+a little brazier, smoking before a bronze Minerva, in one
+corner of the room, hung heavy on the air. The sun was
+shining warm and bright without, but the windows of the hall
+were small and high and the shutters also were drawn. Everything
+was cool, still, and dark. Only through a single aperture
+shot a clear ray of sunlight, and stretched in a radiant bar
+across the gaudy carpets.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lucius stumbled, half groping, into a chair, and seated himself.
+Cornelia had never received him thus before. What
+was she preparing? Another moment and Lentulus Crus
+entered the darkened hall.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Perpol!</i> Ahenobarbus," he cried, as he came across his
+prospective nephew-in-law, "what can Cornelia be wanting of
+us both? And in this place? I can't imagine. Ah! Those
+were strange doings yesterday up in Præneste. I would
+hardly have put on mourning if Drusus had been ferried over
+the Styx; but it was a bold way to attack him. I don't know
+that he has an enemy in the world except myself, and I can
+bide my time and pay off old scores at leisure. Who could have
+been back of Dumnorix when he blundered so evidently?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ahenobarbus felt that it was hardly possible Lentulus would
+condemn his plot very severely; but he replied diplomatically:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"One has always plenty of enemies."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Mehercle!</i> of course," laughed the consul-elect, "what
+would life be without the pleasure of revenge! But why does
+my niece keep us waiting? Jupiter, what can she want of
+us?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Uncle, Lucius, I am here." And before them, standing
+illumined in the panel of sunlight, stood Cornelia. Ahenobarbus
+had never seen her so beautiful before. She wore a flowing
+violet-tinted stola, that tumbled in soft, silky flounces down
+to her ankles, and from beneath it peered the tint of her
+shapely feet bound to thin sandals by bright red ribbons.
+Her bare rounded arms were clasped above and below the
+elbow and at the wrists by circlets shaped as coiled serpents,
+whose eyes were gleaming rubies. At her white throat was
+fastened a necklace of interlinked jewel-set gold pendants
+that shimmered on her half-bare shoulders and breast. In
+each ear was the lustre of a great pearl. Her thick black hair
+fell unconfined down her back; across her brow was a frontlet
+blazing with great diamonds, with one huge sapphire in their
+midst. As she stood in the sunlight she was as a goddess, an
+Aphrodite descended from Olympus, to drive men to sweet
+madness by the ravishing puissance of her charms.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Cornelia!" cried Lucius, with all the fierce impure admiration
+of his nature welling up in his black heart, "you are an
+immortal! Let me throw my arms about you! Let me kiss
+you! Kiss your neck but once!" And he took a step
+forward.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Be quiet, Lucius," said Cornelia, speaking slowly and with
+as little passion as a sculptured marble endued with the powers
+of speech. "We have other things to talk of now. That is
+why I have called you here; you and my uncle."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Cornelia!" exclaimed the young man, shrinking back as
+though a sight of some awful mystery had stricken him with
+trembling reverence, "why do you look at me so? Why do your
+eyes fasten on me that way? What are you going to do?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was as if he had never spoken. Cornelia continued
+steadily, looking straight before her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Uncle, is it your wish that I become the wife of Lucius
+Ahenobarbus?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You know it is," replied Lentulus, a little uneasily. He
+could not see where this bit of affection on the part of his
+niece would end. He had never heard her speak in such a tone
+before.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I think, uncle," went on Cornelia, "that before we say anything
+further it will be well to read this letter. It was sent to
+me, but both you and Lucius will find it of some interest."
+And she held out two or three wax tablets.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lentulus took them, eager to have done with the by-play.
+But when he saw on the binding-cords the seal—which, though
+broken, still showed its impression—he gave a start and
+exclamation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Perpol!</i> The seal of Sextus Flaccus, the great capitalist."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Certainly, why should it not be from him?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lentulus stepped nearer to the light, and read: Lucius
+standing by and hanging on every word, Cornelia remaining
+at her previous station rigid as the bronze faun on the pedestal
+at her elbow. Lentulus read:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Sextus Fulvius Flaccus, to the most noble lady Cornelia:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If you are well it is well with me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Perhaps you have heard how the plots of the conspirators
+against my dear friend and financial client Quintus Drusus
+have been frustrated, thanks, next to the god, to the wit and
+dexterity of Agias, who has been of late your slave. Drusus
+as soon as he had fairly beaten off the gladiators sent at once
+for me, to aid him and certain other of his friends in taking
+the confession of one Phaon, the freedman of Lucius Ahenobarbus,
+whom Agias had contrived to entrap in Gabii, and hold
+prisoner until the danger was over. Phaon's confession puts
+us in complete possession of all the schemes of the plotters;
+and it will be well for you to inform that worthy young gentleman,
+Lucius Ahenobarbus, that I only forbear to prosecute
+him, and Pratinas, who really made him his supple tool,
+because I am a peaceable man who would not bring scandal
+upon an old and noble family. If, however, anything should
+befall Drusus which should indicate that fresh plots against
+his life were on foot, let Ahenobarbus be assured that I can no
+more regard him so leniently. I may add that since it was
+through a marriage with you that Ahenobarbus expected to
+profit by the murder, I have already advised Drusus that,
+according to the decisions of several of the most eminent
+<i>jurisconsulti</i>,<a name="r121" href="#fn121">[121]</a> a property provision such as his father inserted
+in his will would not be binding, especially in view of the
+present facts of the case. Drusus has accordingly prepared a
+new will which, if questioned, I shall defend in the courts with
+all my power. Farewell."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lentulus turned and glared with sullen amazement at his
+niece. That Ahenobarbus should conspire against Drusus
+seemed the most natural thing in the world. That the news
+that the conspiracy had failed should come from such a
+quarter, and through the hands of his own niece, at once terrified
+and angered him. Lucius was standing gaping, in half
+horror, half fascination, at Cornelia. Had she not urged him
+on? Had she not almost expressed her wish for Drusus's
+blood? The name of Flaccus fell on his heart like a stone;
+for the great banker never went back when he had taken a
+stand, and was rich enough to corrupt the most lax and merciful
+jury. Ahenobarbus felt a trap snap upon him, and yet
+he had no hope of revenge.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Cornelia," cried Lentulus, regaining at last the powers of
+speech, "why was this letter sent to you? What to you is
+that wretched youth, Quintus Drusus, who escaped a fate he
+richly deserved? Why do you not condole with your lover
+on his misfortune? What do you mean by your stony stare,
+your—"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I mean," retorted Cornelia, every word coming as a deep
+pant from her heaving chest, while her fingers clasped and
+unclasped nervously, and the blood surged to her pallid
+cheeks, "I mean that I need no longer profess to love what
+I hate; to cherish what I despise; to fondle what I loathe;
+to cast soft looks on that which I would pierce with daggers!"
+And she in turn took a step, quick and menacing, toward her
+wretched lover, who cowered and shrank back into the shadow
+of a pillar.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But you yourself said you hoped I would soon rid you of
+Drusus," howled Lucius.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Fool!" hissed the woman, through her clenched teeth.
+"Didn't you know that all that I said, all that I did, all that I
+thought, was for this end—how might I save Quintus by learning
+the plans of the wretch who thirsted for his blood? Do
+you feel paid, now, for all your labours to secure the
+wealth of a man whose name should not be uttered beside
+that of yours?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And you do not love me!" screamed Ahenobarbus,
+springing at her, as if to force his arms around her neck.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Dog!" and Cornelia smote him so fairly in the face that
+he shrank back, and pressed his hand to a swelling cheek.
+"I said I hated and despised you. What I despise, though, is
+beneath my hate. I would tread on you as on a viper or a
+desert asp, as a noxious creature that is not fit to live. I have
+played my game; and though it was not I who won, but Agias
+who won for me, I am well content. Drusus lives! Lives to
+see you miserably dead! Lives to grow to glory and honour,
+to happiness and a noble old age, when the worms have long
+since finished their work on you!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Girl," thundered Lentulus, fiercely, "you are raving!
+Ahenobarbus is your affianced husband. Rome knows it.
+I will compel you to marry him. Otherwise you may well
+blush to think of the stories that vulgar report will fasten
+around your name."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Cornelia faced him in turn, and threw her white arms
+aloft as though calling down some mightier power than human
+to her aid; and her words came fast:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What Rome says is not what my heart says! My heart
+tells me that I am pure where others are vile; that I keep
+truth where others are false; that I love honourably where
+others love dishonourably. I knew the cost of what I would
+do for Drusus's sake; and, though the vilest slave gibber and
+point at me, I would hold my head as proudly as did ever a
+Cornelian or Claudian maiden; for I have done that which
+my own heart tells me was right; and more than that or less
+than that, can no true woman do!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ahenobarbus felt the room spinning round him. He saw
+himself ruined in everything that he had held dear. He
+would be the laughing-stock of Rome; he, the hero of a
+score of amorous escapades, the darling of as many patrician
+maidens, jilted by the one woman to whom he had become
+the abject slave. Courage came from despair.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Be silent!" he gasped, his face black with fury. "If
+every word you say were true, yet with all the more reason
+would I drag you in my marriage procession, and force you
+to avow yourself my wife. Never have I been balked of
+woman; and you, too, with all your tragic bathos, shall learn
+that, if you won't have me for a slave, I'll bow your neck to
+my yoke."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I think the very noble Lucius Ahenobarbus," replied
+Cornelia, in that high pitch of excitement which produces a
+calm more terrible than any open fury, "will in person be
+the protagonist in a tragedy very sorry for himself. For I
+can assure him that if he tries to make good his threat, I
+shall show myself one of the Danaides, and he will need his
+funeral feast full soon after the wedding banquet."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Woman!" and Lentulus, thoroughly exasperated, broke in
+furiously. "Say another word, and I with my own hands will
+flog you like a common slave."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia laughed hysterically.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Touch me!" she shouted; and in her grasp shone a small
+bright dagger.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lentulus fell back. There was something about his niece
+that warned him to be careful.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Wretched girl!" he commanded, "put down that dagger."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I will not," and Cornelia stood resolutely, confronting her
+two persecutors; her head thrown back, and the light making
+her throat and face shine white as driven snow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was very little chivalry among the ancients. Lentulus
+deliberately clapped his hands, and two serving-men appeared.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Take that dagger from the Lady Cornelia!" commanded the
+master. The men exchanged sly glances, and advanced to accomplish
+the disarming.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But before they could catch Cornelia's slender wrists in their
+coarse, rough hands, and tear the little weapon from her, there
+were cuts and gashes on their own arms; for the struggle if
+brief was vicious. Cornelia stood disarmed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You see what these mock heroics will lead to," commented
+Lentulus, with sarcastic smile, as he observed his order had
+been obeyed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>You</i> will see!" was her quick retort.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Hei! hei!</i>" screamed one of the slaves an instant later,
+sinking to the floor. "Poison! It's running through my veins!
+I shall die!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You will die," repeated Cornelia, in ineffable scorn, spurning
+the wretch with her foot. "Lie there and die! Cease
+breathing; sleep! And that creature, Ahenobarbus, yonder,
+shall sleep his sleep too, ere he work his will on me! Ha! ha!
+Look at my handiwork; the other slave is down!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Girl! Murderess!" raged Lentulus. "What is this? You
+have slain these men."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I have slain your slaves," said Cornelia, resolutely folding
+her arms; "the poison on the dagger was very swift. You did
+excellently well, Lucius, not to come near me." And she picked
+up the dagger, which the slave, writhing in agony, had dropped.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Do you wish to attack me again? <i>Phy!</i> I have more resources
+than this. This venom works too quickly. See, Syrax
+is already out of his misery; and his fellow will soon be beyond
+reach of woe. When I strike <i>you</i>, Lucius Ahenobarbus, you
+shall die slowly, that I may enjoy your pain. What need have
+I of this weapon?" And she flung the dagger across the carpet
+so that it struck on the farther wall. "Pick it up, and come
+and kill me if you wish! Drusus lives, and in him I live, for
+him I live, and by him I live. And you—and you are but as
+evil dreams in the first watch of a night which shall be forgotten
+either in sweet unending slumbers, or the brightness of the
+morning. And now I have spoken. Do with me as it lies in
+your power to do; but remember what power is mine. <i>Vale!</i>"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And Cornelia vanished from the darkened hall. The two
+men heard the click of the door, and turned and gazed blankly
+into one another's faces.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The gods defend me, but I shall be yoked to one of the
+Diræ!" stammered Ahenobarbus.
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h2 id="ch11">CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h2>THE GREAT PROCONSUL</h2>
+
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+The plot was foiled. Drusus was unquestionably safe. So
+long as Flaccus had the affidavits of Phaon's confession and
+the depositions of the captured gladiators stored away in his
+strong-box, neither Lucius Ahenobarbus nor the ever versatile
+Pratinas would be likely to risk a new conspiracy—especially
+as their intended victim had carefully drawn up a will leaving
+the bulk of his property to Titus Mamercus and Æmilia.
+Drusus had no near relatives, except Fabia and Livia; unless
+the Ahenobarbi were to be counted such; and it pleased him
+to think that if aught befell him the worthy children of his
+aged defender would acquire opulence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But after the excitement was over, after Phaon had been
+brought up from the inn at Gabii to Præneste, and there had
+the truth wormed out of him by the merciless cross-examination
+of Curio and Flaccus; after the freedman had been suffered
+to depart with a warning and threat to his prompters, after
+the captured gladiators had been crucified along the roadway
+leading toward Rome, and the wreck left in the atrium of the
+villa caused by the attack had been cleared away,—after all
+this, then the reaction came. Drusus, indeed, found that
+though the sun shone bright, its brightness was not for him.
+He had friends in plenty; but not such friends as he needed—as
+his heart craved. Truth to tell, he was one of those
+more delicate natures to whom the average pity and the
+ordinary demonstrations of sympathy come with an offending
+jar, and open, not heal, long-festering wounds. Curio was
+kind, but could only hold out the vaguest hopes that, for the
+present at least, anything would compel the consul-elect to
+consent to his niece's marriage with a mortal enemy. Flaccus
+took the same position. The hard-headed man of money
+thought that Drusus was a visionary, to be so distraught over
+the loss of a wife—as if the possession of a fortune of thirty
+odd millions did not make up for every possible calamity.
+Antonius was still less happy in his efforts at consolation.
+This dashing young politician, who had been equally at home
+basking in the eyes of the young Egyptian princess, Cleopatra,
+eight years before, when he was in the East with Aulus Gabinius,
+or when fighting the Gauls as he had until recently under
+his uncle, the great proconsul,—had now been elected Tribune
+of the Plebs for the coming year; and was looking forward to
+a prosperous and glorious career in statecraft. He had had
+many a love intrigue, and made such matters a sort of recreation
+to the real business of life. Why Drusus—who certainly
+had very fair worldly prospects before him—should not console
+himself for one unsuccessful passage of arms with Cupid,
+by straightway engaging in another, he could not see. He
+plainly intimated to his friend that there were a great many
+women, almost if not quite as good looking as Cornelia, who
+would survey him with friendly eyes if he made but a few
+advances. And Drusus, wounded and stung, was thrown back
+on himself; and within himself he found very little comfort.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Although he believed himself safe at last from the wiles of
+Ahenobarbus and his Greek coadjutors, there was still a great
+dread which would steal over Drusus lest at any moment a
+stroke might fall. Those were days when children murdered
+parents, wives husbands, for whim or passion, and very little
+came to punish their guilt. The scramble for money was
+universal. Drusus looked forth into the world, and saw little
+in it that was good. He had tried to cherish an ideal, and
+found fidelity to it more than difficult. His philosophy
+did not assure him that a real deity existed. Death ended
+all. Was it not better to be done with the sham of life;
+to drink the Lethe water, and sink into eternal, dreamless
+slumber? He longed unspeakably to see Cornelia face to face;
+to kiss her; to press her in his arms; and the desire grew and
+grew.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She was no longer in the capital. Her uncle had sent her
+away—guarded by trusty freedmen—to the villa of the
+Lentuli at Baiæ. The fashionable circles of the great city
+had made of her name a three days' scandal, of which the
+echo all too often came to Drusus's outraged ears. His only
+comfort was that Ahenobarbus had become the butt and
+laughing-stock of every one who knew of his repulse by his
+last inamorata. Then at last Drusus left Præneste for Rome.
+Ahenobarbus and Pratinas were as well checked as it was
+possible they could be, and there was no real ground to dread
+assassination while in the city, if moderate precautions were
+taken. Then too the time was coming when the young man
+felt that he could accomplish something definite for the party
+for which he had already sacrificed so much.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The events clustering around Dumnorix's unsuccessful attack
+had made Drusus a sort of hero in the eyes of the Prænesteans.
+They had years before elected his father as their patron, their
+legal representative at Rome, and now they pitched upon the
+son, proud to have this highly honourable function continued
+in the same family. This election gave Drusus some little
+prestige at the capital, and some standing in the courts and
+politics. When he went to Rome it was not as a mere individual
+who had to carve out his own career, but as a man of
+honour in his own country, a representative of a considerable
+local interest, and the possessor of both a noble pedigree and
+an ample fortune.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Curio found him plenty to do; wire-pulling, speech-making,
+private bargaining,—all these were rife, for everybody
+knew that with the first of January, when Lentulus became
+consul, the fortunes of Cæsar were to be made or marred irretrievably.
+There were rumours, always rumours, now of
+Cæsar, now of Pompeius. The proconsul was going to march
+on Rome at once, and put all his enemies to the sword.
+Pompeius was to be proclaimed dictator and exterminate all
+who adhered to the anti-senatorial party. And into this <i>mêlée</i>
+of factions Drusus threw himself, and found relief and inspiration
+in the conflict. His innate common-sense, a very considerable
+talent for oratory which had received a moderate
+training, his energy, his enthusiasm, his incorruptibility, his
+straightforwardness, all made him valuable to the Cæsarians,
+and he soon found himself deep in the counsels of his party,
+although he was too young to be advanced as a candidate for
+any public office.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias continued with him. He had never formally deeded
+the boy to Cornelia, and now it was not safe for the lad to be
+sent to dwell at Baiæ, possibly to fall into the revengeful
+clutches of Phaon, or Pratinas, or Ahenobarbus. Drusus had
+rewarded Agias by giving him his freedom; but the boy had
+nowhere to go, and did not desire to leave Quintus's service;
+so he continued as a general assistant and understrapper, to
+carry important letters and verbal messages, and to aid his
+patron in every case where quick wits or nimble feet were
+useful. He went once to Baiæ, and came back with a letter
+from Cornelia, in which she said that she was kept actually as
+a prisoner in her uncle's villa, and that Lentulus still threatened
+to force Ahenobarbus upon her; but that she had prepared
+herself for that final emergency.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The letter came at a moment when Drusus was feeling the
+exhilaration of a soldier in battle, and the missive was depressing
+and maddening. What did it profit if the crowd roared
+its plaudits, when he piled execration on the oligarchs from
+the Rostra, if all his eloquence could not save Cornelia one
+pang? Close on top of this letter came another disquieting
+piece of information, although it was only what he had
+expected. He learned that Lentulus Crus had marked him
+out personally for confiscation of property and death as a
+dangerous agitator, as soon as the Senate could decree martial
+law. To have even a conditional sentence of death hanging
+over one is hard to bear with equanimity. But it was too late
+for Drusus to turn back. He had chosen his path; he had
+determined on the sacrifice; he would follow it to the end.
+And from one source great comfort came to him. His aunt,
+Fabia, had always seen in him her hero. With no children
+of her own, with very little knowledge of the world, she had
+centred all her hopes and ambitions on her sister's son; and
+he was not disappointing her. She dreamed of him as consul,
+triumphator, and dictator. She told him her hopes. She
+applauded his sacrifice. She told him of the worthies of old,
+of Camillus, of the Scipios, of Marcellus, the "Sword of
+Rome," of Lucius Æmilius Paulus, and a host of others, good
+men and true, whose names were graven on the fabric of the
+great Republic, and bade him emulate them, and be her perfect
+Fabian and Livian. And from his aunt Drusus gained
+infinite courage. If she was not Cornelia, yet it was a boon
+ineffable to be able to hear a pure, loving woman tell him face
+to face that her heart suffered when he suffered, and that all
+his hopes and fears were hers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Finally an interlude came to Quintus's political activity.
+Curio was becoming uneasy, lest his distant superior should
+fail to realize the full venom of the Senate party and the
+determination of his enemies to work his ruin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I must go to Ravenna," said the politician to his young
+associate. "My tribuneship is nearly run out. Antonius and
+Cassius will take my place in the office. And you, who have
+done so much for Cæsar, must go also, for he loves to meet and
+to know all who are his friends."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"To Cæsar I will go," answered Drusus; and of himself
+he asked, "What manner of man will this prove, whom I am
+serving? A selfish grasper of power? Or will he be what
+I seek—a man with an ideal?"
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+Night was falling on the dark masses of the huge Prætorium,
+the government-house and army barracks of the provincial
+capital of Ravenna. Outside, sentinels were changing
+guard; Roman civil officials and provincials were strolling in
+the cool of the porticos. Laughter, the shout of loungers at
+play, broke the evening silence. But far in the interior,
+where there was a secluded suite of rooms, nothing but the
+tinkle of a water-duct emptying into a cistern broke the stillness,
+save as some soft-footed attendant stole in and out across
+the rich, thick carpet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The room was small; the ceiling low; the frescos not elaborate,
+but of admirable simplicity and delicacy. The furniture
+comprised merely a few divans, chairs, and tripods, but all of
+the choicest wood or brass, and the most excellent upholstery.
+One or two carved wooden cupboards for books completed the
+furnishings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There were only two persons in the room. One of them,—a
+handsome young Hellene, evidently a freedman, was sitting
+on a low chair with an open roll before him. His companion
+half sat and half lay on a divan near by. This second person
+was a man of height unusual to Italians of his day; his cheeks
+were pale and a little sunken; his dark eyes were warm, penetrating;
+his mouth and chin mobile and even affable, but not
+a line suggested weakness. The forehead was high, massive,
+and was exaggerated by a semi-baldness which was only partially
+concealed by combing the dark, grey-streaked hair
+forward. He was reclining; if he had arisen he would have
+displayed a frame at once to be called soldierly, though
+spare and hardly powerful. To complete the figure it should
+be added that on one finger he wore a large ring set with a
+very beautiful seal of an armed Venus; and over his loose but
+carefully arranged tunic was thrown a short, red mantle,
+caught together on the left shoulder—the paludamentum, a
+garment only worn by Roman military officers of the very
+highest rank.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The general—for so his dress proclaimed him—was playing
+with a stylus and a waxen tablet, while the young
+Greek read. Now and then he would bid the latter pause
+while he made a few notes. The book was Euripides's
+"Troades."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Read those lines again," interrupted the general. The
+voice was marvellously flexile, powerful, and melodious.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And the freedman repeated:—
+</p>
+
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>
+"Sow far and wide, plague, famine, and distress;<br />
+Make women widows, children fatherless;<br />
+Break down the altars of the gods, and tread<br />
+On quiet graves, the temples of the dead;<br />
+Play to life's end this wicked witless game<br />
+And you will win what knaves and fools call Fame!"<a name="r122" href="#fn122">[122]</a>
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+The freedman waited for his superior to ask him to continue,
+but the request did not come. The general seemed lost in a
+reverie; his expressive dark eyes were wandering off in a kind
+of quiet melancholy, gazing at the glass water-clock at the end
+of the room, but evidently not in the least seeing it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I have heard enough Euripides to-day," at length he remarked.
+"I must attend to more important matters. You
+may leave me."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Greek rolled up the volume, placed it in the cupboard,
+and left the room with noiseless step. The general had arisen,
+and was standing beside the open window that looked out into
+a quiet little court. It was dark. The lamps of the room
+threw the court-yard into a sombre relief. Overhead, in the
+dimming, violet arch of the sky, one or two faint stars were
+beginning to twinkle.
+</p>
+
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>
+"Play to life's end this wicked witless game<br />
+And you will win what knaves and fools call Fame!"
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+repeated the general, leaning out from the stone work of the
+window-casing in order to catch the cool air of the court.
+"Yes, fame, the fame of a Xerxes; perhaps the fame of a
+Hannibal—no, I wrong the Carthaginian, for he at least struck
+for his country. And what is it all worth, after all? Does
+Agamemnon feel that his glory makes the realm of Hades
+more tolerable? Does not Homer set forth Achilles as a
+warrior with renown imperishable? And yet, 'Mock me not,'
+he makes the shade of Achilles say; 'Better to be the hireling
+of a stranger and serve a man of mean estate, whose living is
+but small, than be the monarch over all those dead and gone.'"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The general leaned yet farther out, and looked upward.
+"These were the stars that twinkled over the Troy of Priam;
+these were the stars that shone on Carthage when she sent
+forth her armies and her fleets, and nigh drove the Greeks
+from Sicily; and these are the stars which will shine when
+Rome is as Troy and Carthage. And I—I am an atom, a
+creature of chance, thrown out of the infinite to flash like a
+shooting star for a moment across a blackened firmament and
+then in the infinite to expire. <i>Cui bono?</i> Why should I
+care how I live my life, since in a twinkling it will all be as
+if it had never been? And if Cato and Domitius and Lentulus
+Crus have their way with me, what matter? What matter
+if a stab in the dark, or open violence, or the sham forms of
+justice end this poor comedy? I and all others play. All
+comedy is tragedy, and at its merriest is but dolorous stuff.
+While the curtain stays down<a name="r123" href="#fn123">[123]</a> we are sorry actors with the
+whole world for our audience, and the hoots mingle full often
+with the applause. And when the curtain rises, that which
+is good, the painstaking effort, the labour, is quickly forgotten;
+the blunders, the false quantities in our lives, are treasured up
+to be flung against our names. We play, but we do not know
+our parts; we are Oedipus, who has committed unwitting sin,
+and yet must reap his reward; we are Prometheus who is to
+be chained to the rock forever, for offending the gods; we are
+Orestes whom the Eumenides pursue, chasing him down for
+his guilt. And all the time we vainly imagine that we are
+some victorious hero, some Perseus, especially favoured by the
+gods to fare scatheless over land and sea, and bear away the
+Medusa's head, and live renowned and happy forever." The
+reverie was becoming deeper and deeper; the Roman was beginning
+no longer to whisper merely to himself, he was half
+declaiming; then of a sudden, by a quick revolution of mind,
+he broke short the thread of his monologue. "<i>Phui!</i> Caius, you
+are ranting as if you were still a youth at Rhodes, and Apollonius
+Molo were just teaching you rhetoric! Why has no
+letter come from Curio to-day? I am anxious for him. There
+may have been a riot. I hadn't expected that those excellent
+'Optimates' would begin to murder tribunes quite so soon.
+The carrier is late!" and the general moved away from the
+window, and took from a cupboard a package of tablets, which
+he ran over hastily. "Here are the despatches of yesterday.
+None to-day. I fear the worst." The brow of the solitary
+speaker grew darker. "Poor Curio, poor Antonius; if they've
+dared to murder them, let them tremble. I could forgive a
+mortal enemy to myself, but not one who had slaughtered a
+friend."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There were steps in the court below, and voices were raised.
+In an instant the general's eyes were kindled, his frame on a
+poise. He sprang to the window, and shouted down the dark
+court.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Curio! Do I hear you speaking?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Salve!</i> Cæsar. It is I!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Venus be praised!" and the proconsul, with almost undignified
+haste, was running out upon the stairs to meet his friend.
+"Has the city broken out? Has Antonius been murdered?
+Is the truce at an end? Are you alone?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And Curio, who did not quite possess his leader's ability to
+"do all things at the same time," answered in a breath: "The
+city so far keeps tolerable order. Antonius is safe. The consuls
+and Senate still keep the peace; but so poorly that I
+thought it my duty to come to you and say things that cannot
+go in a letter."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And who is this young man with you?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My friend," said Curio, turning to his companion, "is
+Quintus Livius Drusus, of whom I have had occasion to write
+no little."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The proconsul sprang forward and seized Drusus by both
+hands, and looked him fairly in the eye.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Papæ!</i> I see Sextus Drusus once more, the best tribune in
+his legion, and my dear friend. Your face should be cause
+for your welcome, if nothing else. Ah! how much we shall
+have to say! But you are travel-stained and weary. Words
+will keep while you bathe, and our dinner is prepared; for I
+myself have not dined, waiting, as I thought, for your despatches."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Your excellency shows me too much courtesy," said Drusus,
+bowing in what was, to tell truth, some little embarrassment;
+"it is not fit that a young man like myself should dine at the
+same table with an imperator before whom nations have
+trembled."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And then it was that Drusus caught his first glimpse of
+that noble and sententious egotism which was a characteristic
+of the great proconsul.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"To be a friend of Cæsar is to be the peer of kings."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus bowed again, and then, with Curio, followed the
+attendants who were leading them to comfortably, though not
+sumptuously, furnished apartments.
+</p>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+Quintus Drusus in years to come sat at the boards of many
+great men, enjoyed their conversation, entered into their hopes
+and fears, but he never forgot the first dinner with the proconsul
+of the Gauls. Cæsar kept a double table. His hospitality
+was always ready for the people of note of the district where
+he happened to be staying, and for his own regular army officers.
+But he dined personally with such high-rank Romans
+and very noble Provincials as chanced to be with him from
+day to day. To this last select company Drusus found himself
+that evening admitted; and in fact he and Curio were the proconsul's
+only personal guests. The dinner itself was more
+remarkable for the refinement of the whole service, the exquisite
+chasteness of the decorations of the dining room, the excellent
+cooking of the dishes, and the choiceness of the wines
+than for any lavish display either of a great bill of fare, or of an
+ostentatious amount of splendour. The company of officers and
+gentlemen of the Ravenna district dined together in a spacious
+hall, where Drusus imagined they had a rather more bounteous
+repast than did the immediate guests of their entertainer. At
+one end of this large hall was a broad alcove, raised a single
+step, and here was laid the dinner for the proconsul. Cæsar
+passed through the large company of his humbler guests, followed
+by Curio and Drusus,—now speaking a familiar word
+to a favourite centurion; now congratulating a country visitor
+on his election to his local Senate; now introducing the new-comers
+to this or that friend. And so presently Drusus found
+himself resting on his elbow on the same couch with Cæsar,
+while Curio occupied the other end. For a time the latter
+held by far the larger part of the conversation in his hands.
+There were a myriad tales to tell of politics at the capital, a
+myriad warnings to give. Cæsar listened to them all; and
+only rarely interrupted, and then with words so terse and
+penetrating that Drusus marvelled. The proconsul seemed to
+know the innermost life history and life motives of everything
+and everybody. He described a character with an epithet;
+he fathomed a political problem with an expletive. Only now
+and then did his words or motions betray any deep personal
+concern or anxiety, and once only did Drusus see him flush
+with passion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That affair of the magistrate of Coma, to whom you gave
+the franchise," said Curio, "was extremely unfortunate. You
+of course heard long ago how Marcellus, the consul, had him
+beaten with rods and sent home, to show<a name="r124" href="#fn124">[124]</a>—as he said—to
+you, Cæsar, the print of his stripes."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The face of the proconsul reddened, then grew black with
+hardly reined fury.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, most unfortunate for Marcellus." It was all that
+Cæsar said, but Drusus would not have exchanged his life then,
+for that of Marcellus, for a thousand talents of gold.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And our dear friend, Cato," went on Curio, who was perhaps
+not unwilling to stir the vials of his superior's wrath,
+"has just sworn with an oath in public, that as soon as your
+army is disbanded he will press an impeachment against you;
+and I've heard it reported that you will be compelled to plead,
+like Milo when he was tried for the Clodius affair, before
+judges overawed by armed men."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I anticipate no such proceeding," said Cæsar, dryly, in an
+accent of infinite contempt. Then turning to Drusus, he
+entirely changed his intonation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"So long," he said, with a shrug of his rather slight shoulders,
+"we have talked of comitias and senates! Praise to the gods,
+all life is not passed in the Forum or Curia! And now, my
+dear Quintus, let us put aside those tedious matters whereof
+we all three have talked and thought quite enough, and tell
+me of yourself; for, believe me, our friendship would be one-sided
+indeed, if all your trouble and exertion went for me, and
+you received no solicitude in return."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And Drusus, who had at first found his words coming awkwardly
+enough, presently grew fluent as he conversed with the
+proconsul. He told of his student days at Athens, of his studies
+of rhetoric and philosophy, of his journey back to Præneste,
+and the incidents of the sea voyage, and land travel; of his
+welcome at Præneste by the old retainers and the familia of
+the Drusi, and then of his recent political work at Rome.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"These have been the chief events of my life, Cæsar," he
+concluded, "and since you have condescended to hear, I have
+ventured to tell; but why need I ask if such a commonplace
+tale of a young man who has yet his life to live, should interest
+you?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cæsar smiled, and laying down the beaker from which he
+was sipping very slowly, replied:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Mehercle!</i> And do you wish to have all your exploits
+crowded into a few short years of youth, that mature age will
+have nothing to surpass? Listen,—I believe that when the
+historians, by whom our dear Cicero is so anxious to be remembered
+favourably, write their books, they will say something
+of my name,—good or bad, the Genius knows,—but fame at
+least will not be denied me. Twelve years ago when I was in
+Spain I was reading in some book of the exploits of Alexander
+the Great. Suddenly it seemed as though I could not control
+myself. I began to weep; and this was the explanation I gave
+to my friends, 'I have just cause to weep, when I consider that
+Alexander at my age had conquered so many nations, and I
+have all this time done nothing that is memorable.'"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But even when your excellency went into Spain," remarked
+Drusus, "you had done that which should have given renown.
+Consider, you had won the prætorship, the office of Pontifex
+Maximus—"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>St</i>," interrupted the proconsul, "a list of titles is not a
+pledge from Fortune that she will grant fame. Besides, I was
+about to add—what folly it was for me to weep! Do I imagine
+now, that Alexander was happy and contented in the midst of
+his conquests? Rather, unless he were, indeed, of more than
+mortal stuff, for every morsel of fame, he paid a talent of care
+and anxiety. Rush not too quickly after fame; only with age
+comes the strength to pay the price thereof."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus was half wondering at, half admiring, the unconscious
+comparison the proconsul was drawing between himself and
+Alexander. But Cæsar went on:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But you, O Drusus, have not dealt honestly with me, in
+that you have failed to tell that which lies nearest your heart,
+and which you consider the pivot of all your present life."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus flushed. "Doubtless, your excellency will pardon a
+young man for speaking with diffidence on a subject, to recollect
+which is to cause pain."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cæsar put off the half-careless air of the good-natured wit,
+which he had been affecting.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Quintus Livius Drusus," and as he spoke, his auditor
+turned as if magnetized by his eye and voice, and hung on
+every word, "be not ashamed to own to me, of all men, that
+you claim a good woman's love, and for that love are ready to
+make sacrifice."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And as if to meet a flitting thought in the other's mind, Cæsar
+continued:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No, blush not before me, although the fashionable world of
+Rome will have its stories. I care not enough for such gossip
+to take pains to say it lies. But this would I have declared,
+when at your age, and let all the world hear, that I, Caius
+Cæsar, loved honourably, purely, and worthily; and for the sake
+of that love would and did defy death itself."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The proconsul's pale face flushed with something very akin
+to passion; his bright eyes were more lustrous than ever.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I was eighteen years old when I married Cornelia, the
+daughter of Cinna, the great leader of the 'Populares.' Sulla,
+then dictator, ordered me to put her away. Cornelia had not
+been the wife of my father's choice. He had wished to force
+upon me Cossutia, an heiress, but with little save riches to
+commend her. I gained neither riches, political influence, nor
+family good-will by the marriage. Sulla was in the fulness of
+his strength. I had seen nearly all my friends proscribed,
+exiled, or murdered. Sulla bade me put away my wife, and
+take such a one as he should appoint. He was graciously
+pleased to spare my life, in order that I might become his tool.
+Why did I refuse?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cæsar was sitting upon the couch and speaking nervously,
+in a manner that betokened great and unusual excitement.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I knew the dictator meant to favour me if I would only
+humour him in this matter. A word from him and all ambition
+of mine had probably been at an end, I take no praise to myself
+for this. I refused him. I defied his threats. He seized
+my property, deprived me of my priesthood,<a name="r125" href="#fn125">[125]</a> finally let loose his
+pack of assassins upon me. I almost became their victim. But
+my uncle, Aurelius Cotta, and some good friends of mine among
+the Vestal Virgins pleaded my cause. I escaped. Sulla said
+he was over-persuaded in sparing me; 'In me were many
+Mariuses.' But did I regret the loss, the danger, the check for
+the time being to my career? Quintus Drusus, I counted
+them as of little importance, not to be weighed beside the pure
+love that mastered me. And as the faithful husband of my
+Cornelia I remained, until cruel death closed her dear eyes forever.
+One can love once, and honourably, with his whole being,
+but not truly and honourably love a second time, at least not in
+a manner like unto the first. Therefore, my Quintus, blush
+not to confess that which I know is yours,—a thing which too
+many of us Romans do not know in these declining days,—something
+that would almost convince me there were indeed
+celestial gods, who care for us and guide our darkened
+destinies. For when we reason of the gods, our reason tells
+us they are not. But when pure passion possesses our hearts,
+then we see tangible visions, then our dreams become no dreams
+but realities; we mount up on wings, we fly, we soar to Olympus,
+to Atlantis, to the Elysian fields; we no longer wish to
+know, we feel; we no longer wish to prove, we see; and what
+our reason bids us to reject, a surer monitor bids us to receive:
+the dangers and perils of this life of shades upon the earth are
+of no account, for we are transformed into immortals in whose
+veins courses the divine ichor, and whose food is ambrosial.
+Therefore while we love we do indeed dwell in the Islands of
+the Blessed: and when the vision fades away, its sweet memory
+remains to cheer us in our life below, and teach us that where
+the cold intellect may not go, there is indeed some way, on
+through the mists of the future, which leads we know not
+whither; but which leads to things purer and fairer than those
+which in our most ambitious moments we crave."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The voice of the conqueror of Gaul and German sank with
+a half tremor; his eye was moist, his lips continued moving
+after his words had ceased to flow. Drusus felt himself
+searched through and through by glance and speech. Was the
+proconsul a diviner to find all that was deepest in his soul and
+give it an utterance which Drusus had never expressed even to
+himself? The young man was thrilled, fascinated. And
+Cæsar, in quite another tone, recovered himself and spoke.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Wherefore, O Drusus! be ashamed to tell how the Lady
+Cornelia loves you and you love her? What if the grim old
+consul-elect, like the jealous elder in the comedy, will stand in
+your way! <i>Phui!</i> What are the complaints, threats, and
+prohibitions of such as he? At present, the wind blows from
+his quarter, but it will not be ever so. Either Lentulus will
+be in no place to hinder you before long, or we all shall be beyond
+caring for his triumph or failure."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Your excellency bids me hope!" cried Drusus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I bid you love," replied Cæsar, smiling. "I bid you go to
+Baiæ, for there I have heard your dear lady waits her long-absent
+Odysseus, and tell her that all will be well in time; for
+Cæsar will make it so."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"For Cæsar will make it so," repeated the young man, half-unconscious
+that he was speaking aloud.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"For Cæsar will make it so," reiterated the proconsul, as
+though Zeus on Olympus were nodding his head in awful and
+irrevocable promise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And the proconsul took both of his guest's hands in his
+own, and said, with seriousness:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Quintus Drusus, why did you abandon your bride to support
+my cause?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Because," replied the other, with perfect frankness, "I
+should not be worthy to look Cornelia in the face, if I did not
+sacrifice all to aid the one Roman who can save the state."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Young man," replied the proconsul, "many follow me for
+selfish gain, many follow me to pay off a grudge, but few follow
+me because they believe that because Cæsar is ambitious,
+he is ambitious as a god should be ambitious—to bestow the
+greatest benefits possible upon the men entrusted to his charge.
+I know not what thread for me the Fates have spun; but this
+I know, that Cæsar will never prove false to those who
+trust him to bring righteousness to Rome, and peace to the
+world."
+</p>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+That night, as Drusus was retiring, Curio spoke to him:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And what manner of man do you think is the proconsul?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I think," replied Drusus, "that I have discovered the one
+man in the world whom I craved to find."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And who is that?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The man with an ideal."
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 id="ch12">CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h2>PRATINAS MEETS ILL-FORTUNE</h2>
+
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+Probably of the various personages mentioned in the
+course of our story none was more thoroughly enjoying life
+about this time than Agias. Drusus had left him in the city
+when he started for Ravenna, with general instructions to
+keep an eye on Lucius Ahenobarbus and Pratinas, and also to
+gather all he could of the political drift among the lower
+classes. Agias was free now. He let his hair grow long in
+token of his newly gained liberty; paraded a many-folded
+toga; and used part of the donatives which Drusus and Fabia
+had lavished upon him, in buying one or two slave-boys of his
+own, whom, so far from treating gently on account of his own
+lately servile position, he cuffed and abused with grim satisfaction
+at being able to do what had so often been done to him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias had been given lodgings by Drusus in a tenement
+house, owned by the latter, in the Subura.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The rooms were over a bakery, and at the sides were a doctor's
+and surgeon's office and a barber's shop—a rendezvous
+which gave the young Greek an admirable chance to pick up
+the current gossip. Every street-pedler, every forum-idler,
+had his political convictions and pet theories. The partisans
+who arrogated to themselves the modest epithet of "The Company
+of All Good Men," clamoured noisily that "Liberty and
+Ancient Freedom" were in danger, if Cæsar set foot in Rome
+save as an impeached traitor. And the Populares—the supporters
+of the proconsul—raged equally fiercely against the
+greed of the Senate party that wished to perpetuate itself forever
+in office. Agias could only see that neither faction really
+understood the causes for and against which they fought; and
+observed in silence, trusting that his patron knew more of the
+issues than he.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the newly manumitted freedman was thoroughly enjoying
+himself. The windy speeches in the Senate, the crowded
+and excited meetings in the Forum, the action and reaction of
+the tides of popular prejudice and fancy, the eloquence of Antonius,
+and the threatenings and ravings of Marcellus the consul—all
+these were interesting but not disturbing. Agias
+was catching glimpses of a little Olympus of his own—an
+Olympus in which he was at once Zeus, Poseidon, and Apollo;
+Sesostris—so he declared—the lame cup-bearer Hephæstus;
+and in place of Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, were the smiles
+and laughter of Artemisia. Agias was head over ears in love
+with this pretty little cage-bird shut up in Pratinas's gloomy
+suite of rooms. Her "uncle" took her out now and then to
+the theatre or to the circus; but she had had little enough
+companionship save such as Sesostris could give; and to her,
+Agias was a wonderful hero, the master of every art, the victor
+over a hundred monsters. He had told her of his adventure
+with Phaon—not calling names, lest disagreeable consequences
+ensue—and Artemisia dreamed of him as the cleverest
+creature on the earth, able to outwit Hermes in subtlety.
+Agias had found out when Pratinas was likely to be away from
+home—and that worthy Hellene, be it said, never declined an
+invitation to dine with a friend—and Agias timed his visits
+accordingly. He taught Artemisia to play the cithera and to
+sing, and she made such rapid progress under his tutoring that
+the unconscious Pratinas commended her efforts to acquire the
+accomplishments he wished. And Agias was never so happy
+as when those bright eyes were hanging on his lips or that
+merry tongue was chattering a thousand pointless remarks or
+jests.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Yes, Agias found himself in a condition when he could well
+ask to have no change. The possibility that Pratinas would
+come home, and put an end to the romance once and for all, was
+just great enough to give the affair the zest of a dangerous adventure.
+Despite Sesostris's warnings that Artemisia might at
+any time be sold away by her pseudo-uncle, Agias could not discover
+that that danger was imminent enough to need frustration.
+He was content to live himself and to let Artemisia live, basking
+in the stolen sunshine of the hour, and to let the thought
+of the approaching shadows fade out of his mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Another person who saw the sunshine rather brighter than
+before was Pisander. That excellent philosopher had received
+his share of the gratitude Drusus had bestowed on his deliverers.
+But he was still in the service of Valeria, for Drusus saw
+that he had admirable opportunities for catching the stray bits
+of political gossip that inevitably intermixed themselves with
+the conversation of Valeria and her circle. Pisander had continued
+to read Plato to his mistress, and to groan silently at
+her frivolity; albeit, he did not groan so hopelessly as before,
+because he had good money in his pouch and knew where to
+procure more when he needed it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So Agias enjoyed himself. He was a youth; a Pagan youth;
+and in his short life he had seen many a scene of wickedness
+and shame. Yet there was nothing unholy in the affection
+which he found was daily growing stronger and stronger for
+Artemisia. She was a pure, innocent flower, that by the very
+whiteness of her simple sweet presence drove away anything
+that "defiled or made a lie." Agias did not worship her; she
+was too winning; too cunning and pretty to attract the least
+reverence; but in her company the young Greek was insensibly
+raised pinnacles above the murky moral atmosphere in which
+most men and youths of his station walked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was all like an Idyl of Theocritus; with the tenement of
+Pratinas for a shepherd's hut; and Sesostris for a black-backed
+sheep to whom the herdsmen and the nymph of his love could
+play on "oaten reed." At first, Agias had never dreamed of
+telling a word of his affection to Artemisia. In truth, it was
+very hard to tell, for she, with an absolute innocence, took all
+his advances for far more than they were worth; told him that
+next to her "uncle and dear Sesostris" he was quite the best
+friend she had; that she loved him, and was glad to hear him
+say that he loved her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All this was delightful in the ears of her admirer, but very
+disconcerting. Agias thought of the hollow civilities of Valeria's
+life, as he had seen it; of the outward decorum of language, of
+the delicately veiled compliments, of the interchange of words
+that summed up, in a few polished commonplaces, a whole network
+of low intrigue and passion. Was this the same world!
+Could Valeria and Artemisia both be women! The one—a
+beauty, whose guilty heart was not ignorant of a single form
+of fashionable sin; the other—as it were, a blossom, that was
+pure sweetness, in whose opening petals the clear diamond
+of the morning dew still remained! Agias did not compare
+Artemisia with Cornelia; for Cornelia, in his eyes, was a goddess,
+and in beauty and passions was above the hope or regard
+of mortal men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But what was one to do in an emergency like the following?
+Agias had been singing the "Love Song" from the "Cyclops,"
+and trying to throw into the lines all the depth of tender
+affection which voice and look rendered possible.
+</p>
+
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>
+"One with eyes the fairest<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Cometh from his dwelling,<br />
+Some one loves thee, rarest,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Bright beyond my telling.<br />
+In thy grace thou shinest<br />
+Like some nymph divinest,<br />
+In her caverns dewy;—<br />
+All delights pursue thee,<br />
+Soon pied flowers, sweet-breathing,<br />
+Shall thy head be wreathing."<a name="r126" href="#fn126">[126]</a>
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+And at the conclusion of the song Artemisia threw her arms
+around Agias's neck and kissed him; and then with astounding
+impartiality sprang into Sesostris's lap, and patted the old
+Ethiop's black cheeks, and bestowed on him all manner of endearing
+epithets. What was poor Agias to do in such a case?
+He blankly concluded that it had proved easier to blast the
+plot of Pratinas and Ahenobarbus, than to win the love—as
+he meant "love"—of this provokingly affectionate girl. It
+was growing late. Pratinas might at any time return. And
+Agias constrained himself to depart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"By Zeus!" was the exclamation he addressed to himself
+as he fought his way through the crowds toward his own
+quarters; "where will this all end? How much longer are
+you going to lie in the toils of that most innocent of Circes?
+Will she never open her eyes? If I could only make her
+cry, 'I hate you!' there would be some hope; for when one
+hates, as I want her to, love is but a step away. Confound
+that Sesostris! For me to have to sit there, and see that
+baboon kissed and fondled!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so reflecting, he reached his rooms. One of the luckless
+slave-boys who now addressed him as "Dominus," was
+waiting to tell him that a very gaunt, strange-looking man,
+with an enormous beard, had called to see him while he was
+out, and would return—so the visitor said—in the evening,
+for his business was important. "Pisander," remarked Agias;
+and he stayed in that evening to meet the philosopher, although
+he had arranged to share a dinner with one or two other freedmen,
+who were his friends.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The man of learning appeared at a very late hour. In fact,
+the water-clock showed that it wanted little of midnight before
+he came. His explanation was that Valeria had called him
+in to read verses to a company of friends who were supping
+with her, and he could not get away sooner. Besides,
+the dark streets were full of bandits, and he had therefore
+taken a circuitous route to avoid attack. Agias had to let
+him ramble through all the details, although he knew very
+well that Pisander would never have taken so much trouble
+to come if he had not had information of the first importance
+to impart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And now, my dear Pisander," ventured the young Greek,
+at length, "I will ask Dromo to set something to drink before
+us; and I hope you will tell me why you have come."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Pisander glanced timidly over his shoulder, pulled at his
+beard with suppressed excitement, then bent down, and in a
+very low voice burst out:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Pratinas and"—he hesitated—"Valeria!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Ai"</i> cried Agias, "I have suspected it for a very long
+time. You are sure the fox has snapped up his goose?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"By Hercules, very sure! They are planning to go to
+Egypt. Pratinas has just had a wonderful stroke of luck.
+He received six hundred thousand sesterces<a name="r127" href="#fn127">[127]</a> with which to
+corrupt a jury for some poor wretch who expected to enlist
+Pratinas's cunning to get him out of the toils of the law.
+Pratinas calmly put the money in his strong-box, and let the
+unhappy wight be cast. He is not at all poor—he has
+amassed a large fortune while he has been in Rome. Shade
+of Plato! how this knave has prospered! And now he is
+arranging with Valeria to strip poor Calatinus of nearly all
+his valuables, before they fly the country."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ah, luckless Calatinus!" laughed Agias. "That will be
+the end of his marrying the handsomest woman in Rome.
+And so this is what you came here to tell me? It really was
+a good secret to keep."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>St!</i>" interrupted Pisander, "Pratinas has something else
+to attend to. Calatinus will get consolation for losing his
+dear spouse. I suppose Pratinas wishes to indemnify him,
+but he himself will make a good bit at the same time."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In a twinkling a thought had flashed through Agias's mind,
+that made a cold sweat break out all over him, and a hot surge
+of blood mount to his head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Man, man!" he cried, grasping Pisander's wrists with all
+his strength, "speak! Don't look at me this way! Don't
+say that you mean Artemisia?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Ai!</i> You know the girl, then?" said the other, with the
+most excruciating inquisitiveness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Know her?" raged Agias, "I love the sunbeam on which
+her eyes rest. Speak! Tell me all, everything, all about it I
+Quick! I must know!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Pisander drew himself together, and with a deliberation
+that was nearly maddening to his auditor, began:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, you see, I had occasion this morning to be in Calatinus's
+library. Yes, I remember, I was just putting the new
+copy of Theognis back into the cupboard, when I noticed
+that the Mimnermus was not neatly rolled, and so I happened
+to stay in the room, and—"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"By Zeus, speak faster and to the point!" cried Agias.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, there wasn't very much to it all! Why, how excited
+you are! Pratinas came into the atrium, and Calatinus was
+already there. I heard the latter say, 'So I am to give you
+forty thousand sesterces for the little girl you had with you
+at the circus yesterday?' And Pratinas replied, 'Yes, if she
+pleases you. I told you her name was Artemisia, and that
+I always taught her to believe that she was my niece.'"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Hei! Hei!</i>" groaned Agias, rushing up and down the
+room, half frantic. "Don't tell any more, I've heard enough!
+Fool, fool I have been, to sit in the sunshine, and never think
+of preparing to carry out my promise to Sesostris. No, you
+must tell me—you must tell me if you have learned any
+more. Did Calatinus fix on any time at which he was to take
+possession of the poor girl?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No," replied the still amazed Pisander. "I did not hear
+the whole conversation. There was something about 'a very
+few days,' and then Pratinas began to condole with Calatinus
+over being beaten for the tribunate after having spent so much
+money for the canvass. But why are you so stirred up? As
+Plato very admirably observes in his 'Philebus'—"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The Furies seize upon your 'Philebus'!" thundered Agias.
+"Keep quiet, if you've nothing good to tell! Oh, Agias, Agias!
+where are your wits, where is your cunning? What in the
+world can I do?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so he poured out his distress and anger. But, after all,
+there was nothing to be done that night. Pisander, who at
+last began to realize the dilemma of his friend, ventured on a
+sort of sympathy which was worse than no sympathy at all,
+for philosophical platitudes are ever the worst of consolations.
+Agias invited the good man to spend the night with him, and
+not risk a second time the robbers of the streets. The young
+Greek himself finally went to bed, with no definite purpose in
+his mind except to rescue Artemisia, at any and every hazard,
+from falling into the clutches of Calatinus, who was perhaps
+the one man in the world Agias detested the most heartily.
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+Early in the morning Agias was awake. He had slept very
+little. The face of Artemisia was ever before him, and he
+saw it bathed in tears, and clouded with anguish and terror.
+But, early as he arose, it was none too early. Dromo, one of
+his slaves, came to announce to his dread lord that an aged
+Ethiop was waiting to see him, and Agias did not need to be
+told that this was Sesostris.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That faithful servant of an unworthy master was indeed in
+a pitiable condition. His ordinarily neat and clean dress was
+crumpled and disarranged, as though he had not changed it
+during the night, but had rather been tossing and wakeful.
+His eyes were swollen, and tears were trickling down his
+cheeks. His voice had sunk to a husky choking, and when he
+stood before Agias he was unable to get out a word, but, after
+a few vain attempts which ended in prolonged sniffles, thrust
+into his young friend's hand a tablet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was in Greek, in the childish, awkward hand of Artemisia,
+and ran as follows:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Artemisia to her dear, dear Agias. I never wrote a letter
+before, and you must excuse the blunders in this. I don't
+know how to begin to tell you the dreadful thing that may
+happen to me. I will try and stop crying, and write it out
+just as it all happened. The day before yesterday Pratinas
+took me to the circus, where I enjoyed the racing very much.
+While we were sitting there, a very fine gentleman—at least
+he had purple stripes on his tunic and ever so many rings—came
+and sat down beside us. Pratinas told me that this gentleman
+was Lucius Calatinus, who was a great lord, but a friend
+of his. I tried to say something polite to Calatinus, but I
+didn't like him. He seemed coarse, and looked as though
+he might be cruel at times. He talked to me something the
+way you have talked—said I was pretty and my voice sounded
+very sweet. But I didn't enjoy these things from him, I can
+hardly tell why—though I'm delighted to hear you say them.
+Well, after quite a while he went away, and I didn't think
+anything more about him for a time, and yesterday you know
+how happy I was when you visited me. Only a little while
+after you left, Pratinas came back. I could see that he had
+something on his mind, although he said nothing. He seemed
+uneasy, and kept casting sidelong glances at me, which made
+me feel uncomfortable. I went up to him, and put my arms
+around his neck. 'Dear uncle,' I said, 'what is troubling
+you to-night?' 'Nothing,' he answered, and he half tried to
+take my arms away. Then he said, 'I was thinking how soon
+I was to go back to Alexandria.' 'To Alexandria!' I cried,
+and I was just going to clap my hands when I thought that,
+although Alexandria was a far nicer place than Rome, you
+could not go with us, and so I felt very sorry. Then Pratinas
+spoke again in a hard, cold voice he has never used to me
+before. 'Artemisia, I must tell you now the truth about yourself.
+I have let you call me uncle, and have tried to be kind
+to you. But you cannot come back to Alexandria with me.
+The day after to-morrow Calatinus, the gentleman you met at
+the circus yesterday, will come and take you away. He is a
+very rich man, and if you please him will give you everything
+you desire.' I couldn't understand at all what he meant, and
+cried out, 'But, uncle, I don't like Calatinus, and you—you
+don't really mean to leave me behind?' 'You little donkey,'
+said Pratinas, laughing, oh! so heartlessly, 'I'm not your
+uncle. You've been my slave, and I've sold you to Calatinus;
+so don't quarrel with him, but learn to like him quickly.' I
+don't remember what he said or I said next. I was so frightened
+and grieved that I don't know what I did. I know Pratinas
+finally whipped me, something he never did before. I
+went to bed feeling so sore, that I could not get really to sleep,
+but dreadful visions of Calatinus kept frightening me. I don't
+know which grieves me most, to know I am a slave, to know
+that Pratinas is not my uncle and does not love me, or to be
+about to be sold to Calatinus. Dear Sesostris has done all he
+can to console me, but that's very little; and so, very early this
+morning, I've written to you, Agias, just as soon as Pratinas
+left the house, for I am sure that you, who are so clever and
+wise, can see some way to get me out of my dreadful trouble."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It would be hardly necessary to say that, after reading this
+appeal, Agias hurried away to do all that lay in his power to
+console Artemisia, and deliver her from her danger. When
+he reached Pratinas's tenement, Artemisia ran to meet him,
+and kissed him again and again, and cuddled down in his
+strong, young arms, quite content to believe that she had
+found a protector on whom she could cast all her burdens.
+And Agias? He laughed and bade her wipe away her tears,
+and swore a great oath that, so long as he breathed, Calatinus
+should not lay a finger upon her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Artemisia had practically told all her story in her letter. It
+was clear that Calatinus had caught sight of her several times,—though
+she had remained in blissful ignorance,—and Pratinas
+had deliberately planned to waylay him as a customer
+who would pay a good price for the girl, whom it would be
+manifestly inconvenient for him to take with Valeria on his
+premeditated flight to Egypt. But this enlightenment did not
+make Agias's task any the easier. He knew perfectly well that
+he could never raise a tithe of the forty thousand sesterces that
+Pratinas was to receive from Calatinus, and so redeem Artemisia.
+He had no right to expect the gift of such a sum from
+Drusus. If Pratinas really owned the poor girl as a slave, he
+could do anything he listed with her, and no law could be invoked
+to say him nay. There was only one recourse left to
+Agias, and that was fairly desperate—to carry off Artemisia
+and keep her in hiding until Pratinas should give up the quest
+and depart for Egypt. That there was peril in such a step he
+was well aware. Not merely could Artemisia, if recaptured,
+receive any form whatsoever of brutal punishment, but he, as
+the abettor of her flight, would be liable to a heavy penalty.
+Slave property was necessarily very precarious property, and
+to aid a slave to escape was an extremely heinous crime. "So
+many slaves, so many enemies," ran the harsh maxim; and it
+was almost treason to society for a freedman to aid a servant
+to run away.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Agias had no time to count the cost, no time to evolve
+a plan of escape that admitted no form of disaster. Artemisia
+besought him not to leave her for a moment, and accordingly
+he remained by her, laughing, poking fun, and making reckless
+gibes at her fears. Sesostris went about his simple household
+duties with a long face, and now and then a tear trickled down
+his cheek. Whatever came of the matter, Artemisia would
+have to be separated from him. He might never see her
+again, and the old Ethiopian loved her more than he did life
+itself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You will not wrong the girl when she is with you?" he
+whispered dolefully to Agias.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I swear by Zeus she shall be treated as if she were my
+own dear sister," was his reply.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It is well. I can trust you; but <i>mu! mu!</i> it is hard, it is
+hard! I love her like my own eyes! Isis preserve her dear
+life!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so at last Artemisia, having cried out all her first burst
+of grief, was beginning to smile once more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And now, oh! makaira,"<a name="r128" href="#fn128">[128]</a> said Agias, "I must go away for
+just a little while. I have ever so many things to attend to;
+and you must be a good, brave girl, and wait until I come back."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>St!"</i> broke in Sesostris, "there's a step on the stairs.
+Pratinas is coming!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Hide me!" cried Agias, as the approaching feet grew
+nearer. There was no time to take refuge in one of the farther
+rooms.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Here;" and Sesostris threw open the same iron clamped
+chest in which some time ago we saw Pratinas inspecting his
+treasure. "The money was taken out yesterday."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias bounded into the box, and Sesostris pushed down the
+cover. The luckless occupant had only a chance to push out a
+corner of his tunic through the slit to admit a little air, when
+Pratinas entered the room. Agias longed to spring forth and
+throttle him, but such an act would have been folly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The young Greek's prison was sufficiently cramped and
+stuffy; but for a moment Agias tried to persuade himself that
+he had only to wait with patience until Pratinas should be gone,
+and no one would be the worse. An exclamation from the
+room without dispelled this comforting illusion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"By Zeus!" cried Pratinas, "what is this? Whence came
+this new toga?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias writhed in his confinement. In the plentitude of the
+glory of his newly acquired freedom, he had come abroad in an
+elegant new toga; but he had laid it on a chair when he entered
+the room.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was an awkward pause outside; then Pratinas burst
+out, "You worthless Ethiopian, you, where did this toga come
+from? It hasn't wings or feet! How came it here? Who's
+been here? Speak, speak, you fool, or I will teach you a
+lesson!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias gathered himself for a spring; for he expected to
+hear Sesostris whimper out a confession, and see Pratinas's
+wickedly handsome face peering into the chest. "He shan't
+cut my throat without a struggle!" was his vow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But, to his surprise, Sesostris answered with a tone of unlooked-for
+firmness, "Master, I cannot tell you where the toga
+came from."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The tone of Pratinas, in reply, indicated his passion. "Sheep!
+Dog! Have I had you all these years that you should need a
+thrashing for impertinence! What rascal has been here to ogle
+at this wretched girl?" He might have thundered his commands
+to Artemisia, who was sobbing in evident distress; but
+his anger was concentrated on Sesostris. "Will you not speak?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Master," came the same firm reply, "I will not tell you,
+though you take my life for refusing."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What followed was, as Agias heard it, a volley of curses,
+blows, groans, and scuffling; then a heavy fall; an extremely
+fierce execration from Pratinas, and a loud shrill scream from
+Artemisia, "O Sesostris; dear Sesostris! He doesn't speak!
+He doesn't move! You've killed him!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And I will kill you too if you won't tell the truth!" thundered
+Pratinas, in an ungovernable passion. Agias heard a
+blow as of a clinched fist, and a low moan. It was enough.
+One spring, and the ponderous cover flew back. The toga, the
+innocent cause of the catastrophe, lay on the chair close at
+hand. Agias grasped the whole picture in a twinkling:
+Sesostris lying beside a heavy wooden bench, with blood
+flowing from a great wound in his head which had struck
+in falling on a sharp corner; Artemisia crying in unspeakable
+dread on a divan; Pratinas, his face black as night, with
+uplifted hand prepared to strike a second time. Agias saw;
+and while he saw acted. Down over Pratinas's head dashed the
+broad linen folds of the toga, and two muscular arms drew it
+tight around the neck. Then began the struggle. Pratinas
+was of powerful physique, and resisted like a madman. The
+carpet was torn to shreds, the chairs shivered. But Agias, too,
+battled for grim life. He kept the hood over his opponent's
+eyes and never gave Pratinas a glimpse of the identity of his
+assailant. And at last a life of debauches and late dinners and
+unhealthy excitement began to tell against even so powerful a
+constitution as that of Pratinas. Tighter and tighter grew the
+pressure around his neck. And now Artemisia sprang up, and
+flew like a tiny tigress to her lover's assistance, and caught at
+her tormentor's hands, tearing them with her white little teeth,
+and pulling the enveloping mantle closer and closer. The contest
+could only have one end. Ere long, Pratinas was lying on
+the floor, bound hand and foot with strings of torn clothing,
+and his head still muffled in the toga. Agias, victorious, but
+with not a whole rag on his back, rose from his contest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Sesostris! help him!" cried Artemisia, trying in vain to get
+some response from the motionless form by the bench. Agias
+looked at the Ethiop. The hard wood had struck the top of
+his skull, and death must have been instantaneous.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"He does not feel any pain," explained the young Greek,
+who realized that this was no moment to indulge in emotions
+of any sort. "Now, Artemisia, you must hurry and put on a
+clean dress yourself; and give me at least a new tunic, for I
+cannot show this on the streets. Put into a basket all the
+bread you have, and some oil, and some olives, and some slices
+of salt fish."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Artemisia disappeared in the next room. Agias returned
+to his prisoner. Pratinas was coughing and twisting, and
+trying to ejaculate oaths.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My good sir," said Agias, "I am not a bloodthirsty man,
+otherwise I would cut your throat, and so let you forget a
+predicament which doubtless embarrasses you not a little.
+But, since that is not to be, do not blame me if I arrange so
+that it will be unlikely that two such cold friends as you and
+myself will ever meet again. First of all, that purse which is
+at your side, and which, by its weight, shows that it contains
+a fair night's winnings, must go with me to speed me on my
+way. I have never stolen very much before. But I believe
+you, sir, are an Epicurean, who teach that pleasure is the
+highest good, and that all things are the result of chance.
+Now," and here he detached the purse, and counted over a
+very considerable sum, "you will observe that Fortune has
+thrown this money in my way, and it is my pleasure to take
+it. Therefore I am fulfilling the highest good. And you, as
+a philosopher, should be quite reconciled."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Artemisia came back into the room, having completed the
+few simple preparations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Now, my excellent sir," continued Agias, suiting his
+actions to his words, "I will stand you on your feet—so. I
+will push you, still bound, into this closet—so. I will pile
+furniture against the door, so that, when you have worked
+clear of your bonds, as I imagine you will in a few hours,
+even then you will not get out too quickly. And now, as
+your dear Roman friends say, <i>Vale!</i> We are off!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Artemisia flung herself on the form of Sesostris, and covered
+the black, ugly face with kisses.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"He's growing cold," she lamented. "What is the matter?
+I can't leave him this way!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Agias did not dare to admit the least delaying.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Dear Artemisia," he said, "we can't do anything for
+Sesostris. I will explain to you by and by about him. He
+is not feeling cold now at all. You must come at once with
+me. I will take you where Pratinas will never touch you."
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>III</h3>
+
+<p>
+If Agias had been a trifle more reckless he would have cut
+short Pratinas's thread of life then and there, and greatly
+diminished the chance of unpleasant consequences. But he
+had not sunk so low as that. Besides, he had already worked
+out in his versatile head a plan that seemed practicable, albeit
+utterly audacious. Cornelia was at Baiæ. Cornelia owed him
+a great debt of gratitude for saving Drusus. Cornelia might
+harbour Artemisia as a new maid, if he could contrive to get
+his charge over the hundred long miles that lay between
+Rome and Baiæ.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the street he made Artemisia draw her mantle over her
+pretty face, and pressed through the crowds as fast as he
+could drag her onward. Quickly as he might he left the
+noisy Subura behind, and led on toward the Palatine. At
+length he turned in toward a large house, and by a narrow
+alley reached a garden gate, and gained admission to the rear.
+By his confident movements he showed himself familiar with
+the spot. The dwelling, as a matter of fact, was that of
+Calatinus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As Agias pushed open the gate, and led Artemisia into a
+little garden enclosed with a high stone wall, he surprised
+a dapper-appearing young slave-lad of about his age, who
+was lying idly on the tiny grass plot, and indulging in a
+solitary game of backgammon.<a name="r129" href="#fn129">[129]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Hem!</i> Iasus," was Agias's salutation, "can you do an old
+friend a favour?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Iasus sprang to his feet, with eyes, nose, and mouth wide
+open. He turned red, turned white, turned red once more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Phy!</i>" cried the other; "you aren't so silly as to take
+me for a shade from Hades? I've as much strength and
+muscle as you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Agias!" blurted out Iasus, "are you alive? Really alive?
+They didn't beat you to death! I am so glad! You know—"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>St!</i>" interrupted Agias. "You did, indeed, serve me an
+awkward trick some time since; but who can blame you for
+wanting to save your own skin. Pisander and Arsinoë and
+Semiramis have kept the secret that I'm alive very well, for
+in some ways it shouldn't come to Valeria's ears. My story
+later. Where's her most noble ladyship?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The domina," replied Iasus, with a sniff, "has just gone
+out on a visit to a friend who has a country-house near
+Fidenæ, up the Tiber."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Praise the gods! Far enough to be abroad for the day,
+and perhaps over night! This suits my purpose wonderfully.
+Is Pisander at home, and Arsinoë?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I will fetch them," replied Iasus; and in a minute the
+philosopher and the waiting-maid were in the garden.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A very few words explained to these two sympathetic souls
+the whole situation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Artemisia shrank back at sight of Pisander.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I am afraid of that man. He wears a great beard like
+Pratinas, and I don't love Pratinas any longer."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, don't say that, my little swallow," said the worthy
+man of books, looking very sheepish. "I should be sorry to
+think that your bright eyes were vexed to see me."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Phui!</i> Pisander," laughed Arsinoë, "what have Zeno and
+Diogenes to do with 'bright eyes'?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But for once Pisander's heart was wiser than his head, and
+he only tossed Artemisia an enormous Persian peach, at which,
+when she sampled the gift, she made peace at once, and forever
+after held Pisander in her toils as a devoted servant.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Agias was soon gone; and Artemisia spent the rest of
+the morning and the whole of the afternoon in that very satisfactory
+Elysium of Syrian pears and honey-apples which Semiramis
+and Arsinoë supplied in full measure, with Pisander to
+sit by, and stare, boylike, at her clear, fair profile, and cast
+jealous glances at Iasus when that young man ventured to
+utilize his opportunity for a like advantage. Many of the servants
+had gone with Valeria, and the others readily agreed to
+preserve secrecy in a matter in which their former fellow-slave
+and favourite had so much at stake. So the day passed, and no
+one came to disturb her; and just as the shadows were falling
+Agias knocked at the garden gate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>St!</i>" were his words, "I have hired a gig which will carry
+us both. Pratinas is loose and has been raising heaven and
+earth to get at us. There is a crier going the rounds of the
+Forum offering a thousand sesterces for the return of Artemisia.
+Pratinas has gone before the <i>triumviri capitales</i><a name="r130" href="#fn130">[130]</a> and
+obtained from them an order on the <i>apparitores</i><a name="r131" href="#fn131">[131]</a> to track
+down the runaway and her abettor."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Eho!</i>" cried Pisander, "then you'd better leave your
+treasure here awhile, for us to take care of."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Not at all," replied Agias; "I could have taken her out of
+the city at once, but in the daytime we should have been certainly
+noticed and subsequently tracked. No one will imagine
+Artemisia is here—at least for a while. But this is a
+large familia; all may be my friends, but all may not have
+prudent tongues in their heads. The reward is large, and
+perhaps some will be tempted;" he glanced at Iasus, who,
+to do him justice, had never thought of a second deed of
+baseness. "I cannot risk that. No, Artemisia goes out of
+the city to-night, and she must get ready without the least
+delay."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Artemisia, who was charmed with her present surroundings
+and adulation, demurred at leaving her entertainers; but Agias
+was imperative, and the others realized well enough that there
+was not much time to be lost. Agias, however, waited until it
+had become tolerably dark before starting. Meantime, he proceeded
+to make certain changes of his own and Artemisia's
+costume that indicated the rather serious character of the risk
+he was preparing to run. For himself he put on a very full
+and flowing crimson evening dress, as if he were proceeding
+to a dinner-party; he piled a dozen odd rings upon his fingers,
+and laughingly asked Semiramis to arrange his hair for him in
+the most fashionable style, and anoint it heavily with Valeria's
+most pungent perfumes. At the same time, Arsinoë was quite
+transforming Artemisia. Valeria's cosmetic vials were for
+once put into play for a purpose, and when Artemisia reappeared
+from the dressing-room after her treatment, Agias
+saw before him no longer a fair-skinned little Greek, but a
+small, slender, but certainly very handsome Egyptian serving-lad,
+with bronzed skin, conspicuous carmine lips, and features
+that Arsinoë's paint and pencils had coarsened and exaggerated.
+Fortunately, the classic costume both for men and
+women was so essentially alike, that Artemisia did not have
+to undergo that mortification from a change of clothes which
+might have befallen one at the present day in a like predicament.
+Her not very long black hair was loose, and shaken
+over her shoulders. Agias had brought for her a short, variegated
+<i>lacerna</i><a name="r132" href="#fn132">[132]</a> which answered well enough as the habit of a
+boy-valet who was on good terms with his master.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Eho!</i>" cried Agias, when he had witnessed the transformation,
+"we must hasten or Valeria will be anxious to
+keep you as her serving-boy! Ah, I forgot she is going with
+her dear Pratinas to Egypt. Now, Arsinoë, and you, Semiramis,
+I shall not forget the good turn you have done me; don't
+let Valeria miss her unguents and ask questions that might
+prove disagreeable. Farewell, Iasus and Pisander; we shall
+soon meet again, the gods willing."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The friends took leave of Artemisia; the slave-women
+kissed her; Pisander, presuming on his age, kissed her, albeit
+very sheepishly, as though he feared the ghosts of all the
+Stoics would see him. Iasus cast an angry jealous glance at
+the philosopher; he contented himself with a mere shake of
+the hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias swung Artemisia into the gig and touched the lash to
+the swift mules.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Good-by, dear friends!" she cried, her merry Greek smile
+shining out through her bronze disguise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The gig rolled down the street, Agias glancing to right and
+left to see that no inquisitive eye followed them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh! Agias," cried the girl, "am I at last going away with
+you? Going away all alone, with only you to take care of me?
+I feel—I feel queerly!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias only touched the mules again, and laughed and
+squeezed Artemisia's hand, then more gravely said:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Now, makaira, you must do everything as I say, or we
+shall never get away from Pratinas. Remember, if I tell you
+to do anything you must do it instantly; and, above everything
+else, no matter what happens, speak not a word; don't
+scream or cry or utter a sound. If anybody questions us I
+shall say that I am a gentleman driving out to the suburbs to
+enjoy a late party at a friend's villa, and you are my valet,
+who is a mute, whom it is useless to question because he cannot
+answer. Do you understand?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Artemisia nodded her little head, and bit her pretty lips
+very hard to keep from speaking. The fear of Pratinas made
+her all obedience.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was after sundown, and driving was permitted in the
+city, though nearly all the teams that blocked Agias's way,
+as he drove down the crowded streets to turn on to the Via
+Appia, were heavy wagons loaded with timber and builders'
+stone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So far, all was safe enough; but Agias knew perfectly well
+that Pratinas was an awkward man to have for an enemy.
+The critical moment, however, was close at hand, and Agias
+called up all his wits to meet it. Under the damp arch of the
+ancient Porta Capena were pacing several men, whose lanterns
+and clinking sword-scabbards proclaimed them to be members
+of the city constabulary. There was no possibility of evading
+their scrutiny. No doubt any other gate was equally well
+watched. Agias drove straight ahead, as though he had seen
+nothing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Hold!" and one of the constables was at the heads of the
+mules, and another was waving a lantern up into the face of
+the occupants of the gig.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Rascals," roared Agias, menacing with his whip, "are
+you highwaymen grown so impudent!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We have an order from the triumviri," began one officer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Eho!</i>" replied Agias, settling back, as though relieved not
+to have to fight for his purse, "I can't see what for; I owe
+nothing. I have no suit pending."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We are to search all carriages and pedestrians," recommenced
+the constable, "to find if we may a certain Artemisia,
+a runaway slave-girl of the most noble Greek gentleman,
+Pratinas."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My good sirs," interrupted Agias, "I am already like to be
+very late at my dear friend Cimber's dinner party"—he mentioned
+the name of the owner of a very large villa not far
+down the road; "I have with me only Midas, my mute valet.
+If you detain me any longer I shall complain—"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And here a denarius slipped into the hands of the officer
+with the lantern.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I think it's all right, Macer," was his report to his comrade.
+The latter left the heads of the mules.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Mehercle!</i> how handsome some of those Egyptians grow!"
+commented the first constable.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the rest of his remarks were lost on Agias. He was
+whizzing down the "Queen of Roads," with a good team before
+him, Artemisia at his side, and a happy consciousness that two
+excellent officials had missed a chance to earn one thousand
+sesterces.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hardly were they beyond earshot, when Artemisia burst out
+into an uncontrollable fit of giggling, which lasted a long time,
+only to be renewed and renewed, as often as a desperate effort
+seemed to have suppressed it. Then she drew the robes of the
+carriage round her, laid her head on Agias's shoulder, and with
+a confidence in her protector that would have inspired him to
+go through fire and water for her sake, shook out her dark locks
+and fell fast asleep, despite the fact that the mules were running
+their fastest. Agias grasped the reins with one hand, and
+with the other pressed tight the sleeping girl. He would not
+have exchanged his present position for all the wealth of
+Sardanapalus.
+</p>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+Five days later Agias was back in Rome. He had succeeded
+in reaching Baiæ, and introducing Artemisia into the familia
+of the villa of the Lentuli, as a new waiting-maid from Rome
+sent by Claudia to her daughter. For the present at least there
+was practically no chance of Pratinas recovering his lost property.
+And indeed, when Agias reached Rome once more, all
+fears in that direction were completely set at rest. The fashionable
+circle in which Claudia and Herennia were enmeshed
+was in a flutter and a chatter over no ordinary scandal.
+Valeria, wife of Calatinus, and Pratinas, the "charming"
+Epicurean philosopher, had both fled Rome two days before,
+and rumour had it that they had embarked together at Ostia on
+a ship leaving direct for Egypt. Of course Calatinus was
+receiving all the sympathy, and was a much abused man; and
+so the tongues ran on.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To Agias this great event brought a considerable gain in
+peace of mind, and some little loss. Valeria had taken with
+her her two maids, Agias's good friends, and also Iasus.
+Pisander ignominiously had been left behind. Calatinus had
+no use for the man of learning, and Agias was fain to take him
+before Drusus, who had returned from Ravenna, and induce
+his patron to give Pisander sufficient capital to start afresh a
+public school of philosophy, although the chances of acquiring
+opulence in that profession were sufficiently meagre.
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h2 id="ch13">CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<h2>WHAT BEFELL AT BAIÆ</h2>
+
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia was at Baiæ, the famous watering-place, upon
+the classic Neapolitan bay,—which was the Brighton or Newport
+of the Roman. Here was the haunt of the sybarites,
+whose gay barks skimmed the shallow waters of the Lucrine
+lake; and not far off slumbered in its volcanic hollow that
+other lake, Avernus, renowned in legend and poetry, through
+whose caverns, fable had it, lay the entrance to the world of
+the dead. The whole country about was one city of stately
+villas, of cool groves, of bright gardens; a huge pleasure
+world, where freedom too often became license; where the
+dregs of the nectar cup too often meant physical ruin and
+moral death.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia had lost all desire to die now. She no longer
+thought of suicide. Lentulus's freedmen held her in close
+surveillance, but she was very happy. Drusus lived, was
+safe, would do great things, would win a name and a fame
+in the world of politics and arms. For herself she had but
+one ambition—to hear men say, "This woman is the wife
+of the great Quintus Drusus." That would have been Elysium
+indeed. Cornelia, in fact, was building around her a world of
+sweet fantasy, that grew so real, so tangible, that the stern
+realities of life, realities that had hitherto worn out her very
+soul, became less galling. The reaction following the collapse
+of the plot against Drusus had thrown her into an
+unnatural cheerfulness. For the time the one thought when
+she arose in the morning, the one thought when she fell asleep
+at night, was, "One day," or "One night more is gone, of the
+time that severs me from Quintus." It was a strained, an
+unhealthy cheerfulness; but while it lasted it made all the
+world fair for Cornelia. Indeed, she had no right—from one
+way of thinking—not to enjoy herself, unless it be that she
+had no congenial companions. The villa of the Lentuli was
+one of the newest and finest at Baiæ. It rested on a sort
+of breakwater built out into the sea, so that the waves actually
+beat against the embankment at the foot of Cornelia's
+chamber. The building rose in several stories, each smaller
+than the one below it, an ornamental cupola highest of all.
+On the successive terraces were formally plotted, but luxuriant,
+gardens. Cornelia, from her room in the second story,
+could command a broad vista of the bay. Puteoli was only
+two miles distant. Vesuvius was ten times as far; but the
+eye swept clear down the verdant coast toward Surrentum
+to the southward. At her feet was the sea,—the Italian,
+Neapolitan sea,—dancing, sparkling, dimpling from the first
+flush of morning to the last glint of the fading western
+clouds at eve. The azure above glowed with living brightness,
+and by night the stars and planets burned and twinkled
+down from a crystalline void, through which the unfettered
+soul might soar and soar, swimming onward through the
+sweet darkness of the infinite.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And there were pleasures enough for Cornelia if she would
+join therein. Lentulus had ordered his freedmen not to deny
+her amusements; anything, in fact, that would divert her
+from her morbid infatuation for Drusus. The consul-designate
+had indeed reached the conclusion that his niece was
+suffering some serious mental derangement, or she would not
+thus continue to pursue a profitless passion, obviously impossible
+of fulfilment. So Cornelia had every chance to make
+herself a centre to those gay pleasure-seekers who were still
+at Baiæ; for the summer season was a little past, and all
+but confirmed or fashionable invalids and professional vacationers
+were drifting back to Rome. For a time all went
+merrily enough. Just sufficient of the Lucius Ahenobarbus
+affair had come to the Baiæans to make Cornelia the object
+of a great amount of curiosity. When she invited a select
+number of the pleasure-seekers to her dinner parties, she
+had the adulation and plaudits of every guest, and plenty of
+return favours. Lucius Ahenobarbus soon had a score of hot
+rivals; and Cornelia's pretty face was chipped on more than
+one admirer's seal ring. But presently it began to be said
+that the niece of the consul-designate was an extremely stoical
+and peculiar woman; she did not enjoy freedom which the
+very air of Baiæ seemed to render inevitable. She never
+lacked wit and vivacity, but there was around her an air of
+restraint and cold modesty that was admirable in every way—only
+it would never do in Baiæ. And so Cornelia, without
+ceasing to be admired, became less courted; and presently,
+quite tiring of the butterfly life, was thrown back more and
+more on herself and on her books. This did not disturb her.
+A levee or a banquet had never given her perfect pleasure;
+and it was no delight to know that half the women of Baiæ
+hated her with a perfect jealousy. Cornelia read and studied,
+now Greek, now Latin; and sometimes caught herself half
+wishing to be a man and able to expound a cosmogony, or to
+decide the fate of empires by words flung down from the
+rostrum. Then finally Agias came bringing Artemisia, who,
+as has been related, was introduced—by means of some little
+contriving—into the familia as a new serving-maid. Such
+Artemisia was in name; but Cornelia, whose gratitude to
+Agias had known no bounds, took the little thing into her
+heart, and determined to devote herself to instructing an innocence
+that must not continue too long, despite its charming
+naiveté.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus the days had passed for Cornelia. But only a
+little while after Agias left for Rome,—with a very large
+packet of letters for Drusus,—the pleasant, self-created world
+of fantasy, that had given Cornelia some portion of happiness,
+vanished. Like a clap of thunder from a cloudless sky
+Lucius Ahenobarbus suddenly arrived in Baiæ. He was tired
+of Rome, which was still very hot and uncomfortable. He
+loathed politics, they were stupid. He had lost a boon companion
+when Publius Gabinius was driven into outlawry.
+Marcus Læca was too deeply in debt to give any more dinners.
+Pratinas was fled to Egypt. And so he had come to
+Baiæ, to harass Cornelia by his presence; to gibe at her;
+and assure her that her uncle was more determined than ever
+that she should marry him—say and do what she might.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ahenobarbus quartered himself in the Lentulan villa as the
+prospective nephew-in-law of its owner. He brought with
+him his customary train of underlings, and had travelled in
+appropriate state, in a litter with eight picked bearers, lolling
+on a cushion stuffed with rose-leaves, and covered with Maltese
+gauze, one garland on his head, another round his neck, and
+holding to his nose a smelling-bag of small-meshed linen
+filled with roses.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With all his effeminacy, he was beyond the least doubt
+desperately determined to possess himself of Cornelia. His
+passion was purely animal and unrefined, but none could doubt
+it. Cornelia feared to have him near her, and knew peace
+neither day nor night. He assumed all a master's rights over
+the slaves and freedmen, sending them hither and yon to do
+his bidding. He had recovered from the fear Cornelia had
+struck into him, in her first defiance, and met her threats and
+hauteur with open scorn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You are a most adorable actress!" was his constant sneer.
+And his every action told that he did not intend to let Cornelia
+play with him a second time. With all his profligacy
+and moral worthlessness, he had a tenacity of purpose and an
+energy in this matter that showed that either Cornelia must in
+the end bow to his will, or their contest would end in something
+very like a tragedy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And if a tragedy, so be it, was the desperate resolve of Cornelia;
+whose eyes were too stern for tears when she saw that
+Lucius was still the former creature of appetite; full of
+intrigue, sweethearts, seashore revels, carouses, singing, and
+music parties and water excursions with creatures of his
+choice from morning until midnight. She could not altogether
+shun him, though she successfully resisted his half
+blandishments, half coercion, to make her join in his wild
+frivolities. One revenge she found she could take on him—a
+revenge that she enjoyed because it proclaimed her own
+intellectual superiority, and made Ahenobarbus writhe with
+impotent vexation—she had him at her mercy when they
+played at checkers;<a name="r133" href="#fn133">[133]</a> and at last Lucius lost so much money
+and temper at this game of wit, not chance, that he would
+sulkily decline a challenge. But this was poor consolation
+to Cornelia. The time was drifting on. Before many days
+Lentulus Crus and Caius Clodius Marcellus would be consuls,
+and the anti-Cæsarians would be ready to work their great
+opponent's undoing, or be themselves forever undone. Where
+was Drusus? What was he doing? What part would he
+play in the struggle, perhaps of arms, about to begin? O
+for one sight of him, for one word! And the hunger in Cornelia's
+breast grew and grew.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Many are our wishes. Some flit through our hearts like
+birds darting under the foliage of trees, then out again, lost
+in the sunshine; others linger awhile and we nestle them in
+our bosoms until we forget that they are there, and the noble
+desire, the craving for something dear, for something that
+bears for us as it were a divine image, is gone—we are the
+poorer that we no longer wish to wish it. But some things
+there are—some things too high or too deep for speech, too
+secret for really conscious thought, too holy to call from the
+innermost shrines of the heart; and there they linger and
+hover, demanding to be satisfied, and until they are satisfied
+there is void and dreariness within, be the sunshine never so
+bright without. And so Cornelia was a-hungered. She could
+fight against herself to save Drusus's life no longer; she could
+build around herself her dream castles no more; she must see
+him face to face, must hold his hand in hers, must feel his
+breath on her cheek.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Is it but a tale that is told, that soul can communicate to
+distant soul? That through two sundered hearts without
+visible communication can spring up, unforewarned, a single
+desire, a single purpose? Is there no magnetism subtle beyond
+all thought, that bounds from spirit to spirit, defying every
+bond, every space? We may not say; but if Cornelia longed,
+she longed not utterly in vain. One morning, as she was
+dressing, Cassandra, who was moving around the room aiding
+her mistress, let fall a very tiny slip of papyrus into Cornelia's
+lap, and with it a whisper, "Don't look; but keep it carefully."
+The injunction was needed, for several other serving-women
+were in the room, and Cornelia more than suspected
+that they were ready to spy on her to prevent unauthorized
+correspondence with Drusus. When she was dressed, and
+could walk alone on the terrace overlooking the sea, she
+unrolled the papyrus and read:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Delectissima, I have come from Rome to Puteoli. I cannot
+live longer without seeing you. Great things are stirring,
+and it may well be that ere long, if your uncle and his friends
+have their way, I may be a proscribed fugitive from Italy, or
+a dead man. But I must talk with your dear self first. Agias
+was known by the familia, and had no difficulty in seeing
+you quietly; but I have no such facility. I cannot remain
+long. Plan how we may meet and not be interrupted. I
+have taken Cassandra into my pay, and believe that she can
+be trusted. <i>Vale</i>."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was no name of the sender; but Cornelia did not need
+to question. Cassandra, who evidently knew that her mistress
+would require her services, came carelessly strolling out
+on to the terrace.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Cassandra," said Cornelia, "the last time I saw Quintus,
+you betrayed us to my uncle; will you be more faithful
+now?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The woman hung down her head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>A!</i> domina, your uncle threatened me terribly. I did
+not intentionally betray you! Did I not receive my beating?
+And then Master Drusus is such a handsome and generous
+young gentleman."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I can rely on you alone," replied Cornelia. "You must
+arrange everything. If you are untrue, be sure that it is not
+I who will in the end punish, but Master Drusus, whose
+memory is long. You have more schemes than I, now that
+Agias is not here to devise for me. You must make up any
+stories that are necessary to save us from interruption, and
+see that no one discovers anything or grows suspicious. My
+hands are tied. I cannot see to plan. I will go to the
+library, and leave everything to you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And with this stoical resolve to bear with equanimity whatever
+the Fates flung in her way for good or ill, Cornelia tried
+to bury herself in her Lucretius. Vain resolution! What
+care for the atomic theory when in a day, an hour, a moment,
+she might be straining to her heart another heart that was
+reaching out toward hers, as hers did toward it. It was
+useless to read; useless to try to admire the varying shades
+of blue on the sea, tones of green, and tones of deep cerulean,
+deepening and deepening, as her eye drifted off toward the
+horizon, like the blendings of a chromatic series. And so
+Cornelia passed the morning in a mood of joyful discontent.
+Lucius Ahenobarbus, who came to have his usual passage of
+arms with her, found her so extremely affable, yet half-preoccupied,
+that he was puzzled, yet on the whole delighted.
+"She must be yielding," he mentally commented; and when
+they played at draughts, Cornelia actually allowed herself to
+be beaten. Ahenobarbus started off for Puteoli in an excellent
+humour. His litter had barely swung down the road
+from the villa before Cassandra was knocking at her mistress's
+chamber door.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Io!</i> domina," was her joyful exclamation, "I think I
+have got every eavesdropper out of the way. Ahenobarbus
+is off for Puteoli. I have cooked up a story to keep the
+freedmen and other busybodies off. You have a desperate
+headache, and cannot leave the room, nor see any one. But
+remember the terrace over the water, where the colonnade
+shuts it in on all sides but toward the sea. This afternoon,
+if a boat with two strange-looking fishermen passes under the
+embankment, don't be surprised."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And having imparted this precious bit of information, the
+woman was off. Drusus's gold pieces had made her the most
+successful of schemers.
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia feigned her headache, and succeeded in making
+herself so thoroughly petulant and exacting to all her maids,
+that when she ordered them out of the room, and told them on
+no account to disturb her in any respect for the rest of the
+day, they "rejoiced with trembling," and had no anxiety to
+thrust their attentions upon so unreasonable a mistress. And
+a little while later a visit of a strolling juggler—whose call
+had perhaps been prompted by Cassandra—made their respite
+from duty doubly welcome.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia was left to herself, and spent the next hour in a
+division of labour before her silver wall-mirror, dressing—something
+which was sufficiently troublesome for her, accustomed
+to the services of a bevy of maids—and at the window,
+gazing toward Puteoli for the fishing-boat that seemed never
+in sight. At last the toilet was completed to her satisfaction.
+Cornelia surveyed herself in her best silken purple flounced
+stola, thrust the last pin into her hair, and confined it all
+in a net of golden thread. Roman maidens were not as a
+rule taught to be modest about their charms, and Cornelia,
+with perfect frankness, said aloud to herself, "You are so
+beautiful that Drusus can't help loving you;" and with this
+candid confession, she was again on the terrace, straining her
+eyes toward Puteoli. Boats came, boats went, but there was
+none that approached the villa; and Cornelia began to harbour
+dark thoughts against Cassandra.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"If the wretched woman had played false to her mistress
+again—" but the threat was never formulated. There was a
+chink and click of a pair of oars moving on their thole-pins.
+For an instant a skiff was visible at the foot of the embankment;
+two occupants were in it. The boat disappeared under
+the friendly cover of the protecting sea-wall of the lower
+terrace. There was a little landing-place here, with a few
+steps leading upward, where now and then a yacht was
+moored. The embankment shut off this tiny wharf from view
+on either side. Cornelia dared not leave the upper terrace.
+Her heart beat faster and faster. Below she heard the slap,
+slap, of the waves on the sea-wall, and a rattle of rings and
+ropes as some skiff was being made fast. An instant more
+and Drusus was coming, with quick, athletic bounds, up the
+stairway to the second terrace. It was he! she saw him! In
+her eyes he was everything in physique and virile beauty that
+a maiden of the Republic could desire! The bitterness and
+waiting of months were worth the blessedness of the instant.
+Cornelia never knew what Drusus said to her, or what she
+said to him. She only knew that he was holding her in his
+strong arms and gazing into her eyes; while the hearts of
+both talked to one another so fast that they had neither
+time nor need for words. They were happy, happy! Long it
+was before their utterance passed beyond the merest words of
+endearment; longer still before they were composed enough for
+Cornelia to listen to Drusus while he gave his own account of
+Mamercus's heroic resistance to Dumnorix's gang at Præneste;
+and told of his own visit to Ravenna, of his intense
+admiration for the proconsul of the two Gauls; and of how he
+had come to Puteoli and opened communications with Cassandra,
+through Cappadox, the trusty body-servant who in the
+guise of a fisherman was waiting in the boat below.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And as Homer puts it, so with us," cried Cornelia, at
+length: "'And so the pair had joy in happy love, and joyed
+in talking too, and each relating; she, the royal lady, what
+she had endured at home, watching the wasteful throng of
+suitors; and he, high-born Odysseus, what miseries he
+brought on other men, and bore himself in anguish;—all
+he told, and she was glad to hear.'"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So laughed Cornelia when all their stories were finished,
+likening their reunion to that of the son of Laërtes and the
+long-faithful Penelope.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"How long were Penelope and Odysseus asunder?" quoth
+Drusus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Twenty years."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Vah!</i> We have not been sundered twenty months or
+one-third as many. How shall we make the time fly more
+rapidly?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I know not," said Cornelia, for the first time looking down
+and sighing, "a lifetime seems very long; but lifetimes will
+pass. I shall be an old woman in a few years; and my hair
+will be all grey, and you won't love me."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Eho</i>," cried Drusus, "do you think I love you for your
+hair?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I don't know," replied Cornelia, shaking her head, "I am
+afraid so. What is there in me more than any other woman
+that you should love; except—" and here she raised her face
+half-seriously, half in play—"I am very beautiful? Ah! if
+I were a man, I would have something else to be loved for; I
+would have eloquence, or strength, or power of command, or
+wisdom in philosophy. But no, I can be loved for only two
+things; an ignoble or a poor man would take me if I were
+hideous as Atropos, for I am noble, and, if my uncle were an
+honest guardian, rich. But you need not regard these at all,
+so—" and she brushed her face across Drusus's cheek, touching
+it with her hair.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"O Cornelia," cried the young man, out of the fulness of
+his heart, "we must not waste this precious time asking why
+we love each other. Love each other we do as long as we
+view the sun. O carissima! we cannot trust ourselves to
+look too deeply into the whys and wherefores of things. We
+men and women are so ignorant! We know nothing. What
+is all our philosophy—words! What is all our state religion—empty
+form! What is all our life—a dream, mostly evil,
+that comes out of the eternal unconscious sleep and into that
+unconscious sleep will return! And yet not all a dream;
+for when I feel your hands in mine I know that I am not
+dreaming—for dreamers feel nothing so delicious as this!
+Not long ago I recalled what old Artabanus said to King
+Xerxes when the millions of Persia passed in review before
+their lord at Abydos, 'Short as our time is, death, through
+the wretchedness of our life, is the most sweet refuge of our
+race; and God, who gives us tastes that we enjoy of pleasant
+times, is seen, in His very gift, to be envious.' And I
+thought, 'How wise was the Persian!' And then I thought,
+'No, though to live were to drag one's days in torture and in
+woe, if only love come once into life, an eternity of misery is
+endurable; yes, to be chained forever, as Prometheus, on
+drearest mountain crag, if only the fire which is stolen be
+that which kindles soul by soul.'"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ah!" cried Cornelia, "if only these were to be real souls!
+But what can we say? See my Lucretius here; read: 'I have
+shown the soul to be formed fine and to be of minute bodies
+and made up of much smaller first-beginnings than the liquid
+air, or mist, or smoke. As you see water, when the vessels
+are shattered, flow away on every side, and as mist and smoke
+vanish away into the air, believe that the soul, too, is shed
+abroad, and perishes much more quickly and dissolves sooner
+into its first bodies, when once it has been taken out of the
+limbs of a man and has withdrawn.' O Quintus, is the
+thing within me that loves you lighter, more fragile, than
+smoke? Shall I blow away, and vanish into nothingness?
+It is that which affrights me!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And Drusus tried as best he might to comfort her, telling
+her there was no danger that she or he would be dissipated
+speedily, and that she must not fret her dear head with
+things that set the sagest greybeards a-wrangling. Then he
+told her about the political world, and how in a month at most
+either every cloud would have cleared away, and Lentulus be
+in no position to resist the legal claims which Drusus had on
+the hand of his niece; or, if war came, if fortune but favoured
+Cæsar, Cornelia's waiting for deliverance would not be for
+long. Drusus did not dwell on the alternative presented if
+civic strife came to arms; he only knew that, come what
+might, Cornelia could never be driven to become the bride of
+Lucius Ahenobarbus; and he had no need to exact a new
+pledge of her faithful devotion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So at last, like everything terrestrial that is sweet and
+lovely, the slowly advancing afternoon warned Drusus that
+for this day, at least, they must separate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I will come again to-morrow, or the next day, if Cassandra
+can so arrange," said he, tearing himself away. "But part
+to-night we must, nor will it make amends to imitate Carbo,
+who, when he was being led to execution, was suddenly seized
+with a pain in the stomach, and begged not to be beheaded
+until he should feel a little better."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He kissed her, strained her to his breast, and stepped
+toward the landing-place. Cappadox had taken the boat out
+from the moorings to minimize a chance of discovery by some
+one in the house. Drusus was just turning for a last embrace,
+when many voices and the plash of oars sounded below. Cornelia
+staggered with dread.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It's Ahenobarbus," she gasped, in a deathly whisper; "he
+sometimes comes back from Puteoli by boat. He will murder
+you when he finds you here!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Can't I escape through the house?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The words, however, were no sooner out of Drusus's mouth,
+than Lucius Ahenobarbus, dressed in the most fashionably cut
+scarlet lacerna, perfumed and coiffured to a nicety, appeared
+on the terrace. Some evil genius had led him straight up
+without the least delay.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was the first time that the two enemies had met face to
+face since Drusus had declined the invitation to Marcus Læca's
+supper. Be it said to Lucius's credit that he sensed the
+situation with only the minimum of confusion, and instantly
+realized all of Cornelia's worst fears. Drusus had drawn back
+from the steps to the lower terrace, and stood with stern brow
+and knotted fist, trapped by a blunder that could hardly have
+been guarded against, no submissive victim to what fate had
+in store. Cornelia, for once quite distraught with terror,
+cowered on a bench, unable to scream through sheer fright.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Salve!</i> amice," was the satirical salutation of Ahenobarbus.
+"How excellently well met. <i>Heus!</i> Phaon, bring
+your boatmen, quick! Not an instant to lose!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Pity! mercy!" gasped Cornelia, "I will do anything for
+you, but spare him;" and she made as if to fall on her knees
+before Ahenobarbus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Girl!" Drusus had never spoken in that way to her before;
+his tones were cold as ice. "Go into the house! Your place
+is not here. If Lucius Ahenobarbus intends to murder me—"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The boatmen and two or three other slaves that were
+always at Ahenobarbus's heels were crowding up on to the
+terrace ready to do their master's bidding.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Throw me that fellow over the balcony," ordered Lucius,
+his sense of triumph and opportunity mastering every fear
+that Flaccus would execute his threat of prosecution. "See
+that he does not float!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia found her voice. She screamed, screamed shrilly,
+and ran into the house. Already the familia was alarmed.
+Two or three freedmen of Lentulus were rushing toward the
+terrace. They were murdering Quintus! He was resisting,
+resisting with all the powers of a wild animal driven to its
+last lair. Outside, on the terrace, where but an instant before
+she and her lover were cooing in delicious ecstasy, there were
+oaths, blows, and the sharp pants and howls of mortal struggle.
+And she could do nothing—nothing! And it was through his
+love for her that Drusus was to go down to his untimely grave!
+The seconds of struggle and anguish moved on leaden feet.
+Every breath was agony, every sound maddening. And she
+could do nothing—nothing. Still they were fighting. Phaon—she
+knew his voice—was crying out as if in grievous pain.
+And now the voice of Lucius Ahenobarbus sounded again:
+"One thousand denarii if you fling him into the sea!" and
+she could do nothing—nothing! She tore down the purple
+tapestries around her bed, and dashed from its tripod a costly
+bowl of opal Alexandrian glass—all in the mere rage of
+impotence. And still they were fighting. What was that
+ornament hanging on the wall, half hid behind the torn tapestry?
+A scabbard—a sword, some relic of ancient wars!
+And all the combatants were unarmed! The antique weapon
+was held by stout thongs to the wall; she plucked it from
+its fastenings with the strength of a Titaness. The rusty blade
+resisted an instant; she dragged it forth. Then out on to the
+terrace. Really only a moment had elapsed since she left it.
+One of the slaves was lying dead, or stunned, prone on the
+turf. Phaon was writhing and howling beside him, nursing a
+broken jaw. The other assailants had sunk back in temporary
+repulse and were preparing for a second rush. Drusus was
+still standing. He half leaned upon the stone pedestal of an
+heroic-sized Athena, who seemed to be spreading her protecting
+ægis above him. His garments were rent to the veriest
+shreds. His features were hidden behind streaming blood,
+his arms and neck were bruised and bleeding; but clearly
+his adversaries could not yet congratulate themselves that the
+lion's strength was too sapped to be no longer dreaded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Come, you," was his hot challenge to Lucius Ahenobarbus,
+who stood, half delighted, half afraid, shivering and laughing
+spasmodically, as he surveyed the struggle from a safe distance.
+"Come, you, and have your share in the villany!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And again, for it was all the affair of the veriest moment,
+the slaves rushed once more on their indocile victim. "Freedom
+to the man who pulls him down!" was the incentive of
+Ahenobarbus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But again Drusus, who, to tell the truth, had to contend with
+only the flabby, soft-handed, unskilful underlings of Lucius,
+struck out so furiously that another of his attackers fell backward
+with a groan and a gasp. All this Cornelia saw while,
+sword in hand, she flew toward the knot of writhing men.
+She pushed aside the slaves by sheer force. She asked no
+civilities, received none.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Pull her away!" shouted Lucius, and started himself to
+accomplish his purpose. A rude hand smote her in the face;
+she staggered, fell; but as she fell a hand snatched the sword
+out of her grasp. She released her hold gladly, for did she
+not know that hand? When she rose to her feet there were
+shrieks of fear and pain on every side. The slaves were
+cringing in dread before him. Drusus was standing under the
+Athena, with the keen steel in his hand—its blade dyed
+crimson; and at his feet lay Ahenobarbus's favourite valet—the
+wretch literally disembowelled by one deadly stroke.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Fly, fly!" she implored; "they will bring arms! They
+will never let you escape."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I'll pay you for letting him kill Croesus," howled Lucius,
+facing himself resolutely toward his enemy. "How can he
+fly when the house is full of servants, and his boat is away
+from the landing? You give yourself trouble for no purpose,
+my lady! Lentulus's people will be here with swords in a
+moment!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But as he spoke a blow of some unseen giant dashed him
+prostrate, and upon the terrace from below came Cappadox,
+foaming with anxious rage, his brow blacker than night, his
+brawny arms swinging a heavy paddle with which he clubbed
+the cowering slaves right and left.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Have they killed him! Have the gods spared him!"
+These two demands came bounding in a breath from the
+honest servant's lips. And when he saw Drusus, bleeding,
+but still standing, he rushed forward to fling his arms about
+his master's neck.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Fly! fly!" urged Cornelia, and out of the building, armed
+now with swords and staves, came flocking the freedmen of
+the house and as many slaves as they could muster.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Salve!</i> carissima," and Drusus, who never at the instant
+gave thought to the blood all over him, pressed her in one
+last kiss. He gained the terrace steps by a single bound
+ahead of his armed attackers. Cappadox smote down the
+foremost freedman with a buffet of the oar. Ahenobarbus
+staggered to his feet as Drusus sprang over him, and the latter
+tore a packet of tablets from his hand, never stopping in
+his own flight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then down on to the little landing-place pursuers and pursued
+tumbled. The large six-oared boat of Ahenobarbus was
+moored close beside Cappadox's skiff.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus was into the skiff and casting loose before Lucius
+could descend from the upper terrace. The young Domitian
+was in a terrible distress.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The letters! The letters! Freedom to you all if you save
+them! Cast off! Chase! Sink the skiff!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But before any of the unskilful assailants could execute the
+order, Cappadox had driven the butt of his paddle clean through
+the bottom planking of the larger boat, and she was filling
+rapidly. The paddle shivered, but it was madness to embark
+on the stoven craft.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The skiff shot away from the landing as though an intelligent
+soul, rising equal to the needs of the crisis. The blue
+dancing water lapped between her gunwale and the shore.
+Drusus stood erect in the boat, brushed back the blood that
+was still streaming over his eyes, and looked landward. The
+slaves and freedmen were still on the landing, gazing blankly
+after their escaped prey. Ahenobarbus was pouring out upon
+their inefficiency a torrent of wrathful malediction, that promised
+employment for the "whipper" for some time to come.
+But Drusus gave heed to none of these things. Standing on
+the upper terrace, her hair now dishevelled and blowing in
+tresses upon the wind, was Cornelia, and on her all her
+lover's gaze was fixed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Safe?" and the melodious shout drifted out over the
+widening stretch of water.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Safe! to live and to love!" And Drusus thought, with
+his keen lover's eye, he could see the dimming face brighten,
+and the hands go up in a gesture of thanksgiving.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was all that was said. Another boat might be procured
+at any time by Lucius Ahenobarbus; and with only one paddle
+Cappadox could make but slow headway. Stiff and bruised,
+the young man flung himself on the bottom of the skiff, and
+panted and nursed himself after his mortal struggle. Now
+that the combat was over he felt weak and sore enough, and
+was quite content to let Cappadox adjust such improvised
+bandages as were available, and scull him toward Puteoli.
+Fortunately none of the bruises was caused by any harder
+weapons than fists, and, though his body was black and blue,
+he had sustained no serious hurt. And so he rested his head
+on a wrap, and closed his eyes, and called up before his mind
+the vision of Cornelia. How beautiful she had been when he
+met her! How much more beautiful when she thrust her way
+through the fighting slaves and put the sword in his hand, at
+that moment of mortal combat, which he expected to be his
+last! Did he only love her because her face was sweet, her
+voice was sweet, and the touch of her hair was sweet? Happy
+was he, her lover;—he could say "no," and have never a fear
+that his sincerity would be tested. And Lucius Ahenobarbus?
+He hated him with a perfect hatred. A Roman who was no
+Roman! A womanish man whom every true woman must
+despise! A serpent who had not even the bright scales of a
+serpent! What would he do to Cornelia? Drusus's face grew
+hard. Had he, Drusus, yet done any injury worth mentioning
+to his enemy? Why had he not used the moment when Lucius
+lay prostrate, and run the sword through his body? Ill-timed,
+thoughtless mercy! But the letters, the packet he had
+wrenched from Ahenobarbus's hand? Why was it so precious?
+Drusus had flung it into the boat. He took up the packet.
+Doubtless some <i>billet-doux</i>. Why should he degrade his mind
+by giving an instant's thought to any of his enemy's foul
+intrigues? He could only open his eyes with difficulty, but a
+curiosity that did not add to his self-esteem overmastered him.
+The seal! Could he believe his senses—the imprint of three
+trophies of victory? It was the seal of Pompeius! The
+instinct of the partisan and politician conquered every infirmity.
+He broke the wax, untied the thread, and opened.
+The letters were in cipher, and at first sight illegible.
+But this did not present any insuperable difficulty. Most
+classic ciphers were sufficiently simple to be solved without
+very much trouble. Drusus knew that in all Cæsar's correspondence
+a cipher had been used which consisted merely of
+substituting for each letter the fourth letter beyond it, as
+D for A; and a little examination showed that the present
+cryptogram was made on the same rude method. After a few
+guesses he struck the proper substitutions, and was able to
+read.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Pompeius Magnus, Imperator, to the most excellent Lucius
+Domitius Ahenobarbus, Rome, tenth day before the Calends of
+January. If it is well with you, it is well; I am well.<a name="r134" href="#fn134">[134]</a> I
+write to warn you that we are told that Quintus Drusus, your
+personal enemy and the friend of our own foes, is in Campania.
+We need not add more, for we trust to you to see to
+it that he stirs up no faction in favour of his master in those
+parts. Be assured that you will not be long troubled by this
+enemy. He is marked out as one of the earliest of those to
+pay with their lives for their conspiracy against the Republic.
+If possible see that Drusus is seized for some alleged offence,
+and lodged in prison until the new consuls come into office.
+After that time he can work little or no mischief. Use the
+uttermost endeavours in this matter; check him and his
+schemes at all hazards. I trust your energy and prudence,
+which your father and Lentulus Crus assure me will not fail.
+<i>Vale!</i>"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus lay back in the bottom of the boat, and looked up
+into the blue dome. It was the same azure as ever, but a
+strange feeling of disenchantment seemed to have come over
+him. For the first time he realized the deadly stakes for which
+he and his party were playing their game. What fate had
+been treasured up for him in the impending chaos of civil
+war? If he perished in battle or by the executioner's axe,
+what awaited Cornelia? But he had chosen his road; he
+would follow it to the end. The battle spirit mounted in
+him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The sky was darkening when the boat drew up to one of the
+busy quays of Puteoli. Stars had begun to twinkle. Cappadox
+aided his bruised and stiffened master to disembark.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"To-night rest," cried Drusus, forgetting all his wounds.
+"To-morrow away to Rome. And at Rome—the war of the
+Gods and the Giants!"
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h2 id="ch14">CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<h2>THE NEW CONSULS</h2>
+
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+It had come—the great crisis that by crooked ways or
+straight was to set right all the follies and crimes of many a
+generation. On the Calends of January Lentulus Crus and
+Caius Clodius Marcellus were inaugurated consuls. In solemn
+procession with Senate, priesthoods, and people, they had gone
+up to the Capitol and sacrificed chosen white steers to Jupiter,
+"Best and Greatest,"<a name="r135" href="#fn135">[135]</a> and invoked his blessing upon the
+Roman State. And so began the last consulship of the Free
+Republic.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Rome was in a ferment. All knew the intention of the
+consuls to move the recall of Cæsar from his government.
+All knew that Curio had brought a letter from Ravenna, the
+contents whereof he carefully guarded. That same afternoon
+the consuls convened the Senate in the Temple of Capitoline
+Jove, and every man knew to what purpose. All Rome swept
+in the direction of the Capitol. Drusus accompanied his
+friend, the tribune Antonius, as the latter's viator, for there
+was need of a trusty guard.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The excitement in the streets ran even higher than when
+Catilina's great plot was exposed. The streets were jammed
+with crowds,—not of the idle and base born, but of equites and
+noble ladies, and young patricians not old enough to step into
+their fathers' places. They were howling and cheering for
+Pompeius and Lentulus, and cursing the absent proconsul.
+As Drusus passed along at the side of Antonius, he could not
+fail to hear the execrations and vile epithets flung from every
+side at him and his friend. He had always supposed the
+masses were on Cæsar's side, but now every man's hand
+seemed turned against the conqueror of the Gauls. Was there
+to be but a repetition of the same old tragedy of the Gracchi
+and of Marcus Drusus? A brave man standing out for the
+people, and the people deserting him in his hour of need?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They reached the Temple. The Senate was already nearly
+ready for business; every toothless consular who had been in
+public service for perquisites only, and who for years had
+been wasting his life enjoying the pickings of an unfortunate
+province—all such were in their seats on the front row of
+benches. Behind them were the <i>prætorii</i> and the <i>ædilicii,</i><a name="r136" href="#fn136">[136]</a> a
+full session of that great body which had matched its tireless
+wisdom and tenacity against Pyrrhus, Hannibal, and Antiochus
+the Great, and been victorious. Drusus ran his eye over
+the seats. There they sat, even in the midst of the general
+excitement, a body of calm, dignified elders, severe and
+immaculate in their long white togas and purple-edged tunics.
+The multitudes without were howling and jeering; within the
+temple, reigned silence—the silence that gathered about the
+most august and powerful assembly the world has ever seen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Temple was built of cool, grey stone; the assembly hall
+was quite apart from the shrine. The Senate had convened
+in a spacious semicircular vaulted chamber, cut off from the
+vulgar world by a row of close, low Doric columns. From
+the shade of these pillars one could command a sweeping view
+of the Forum, packed with a turbulent multitude. Drusus
+stood on the Temple steps and looked out and in. Without,
+confusion; within, order; without, a leaderless mob;
+within, an assembly almost every member of which had been
+invested with some high command. For a moment the young
+man revived courage; after all, the Roman Senate was left as
+a bulwark against passion and popular wrath; and for the
+time being, as he looked on those motionless, venerable faces,
+his confidence in this court of final appeal was restored. Then
+he began to scan the features of the consulars, and his heart
+sank. There was Lucius Calpurnius Piso, with the visage of
+a philosopher, but within mere moral turpitude. There was
+Favonius; there were the two sanguinary Marcelli, consuls
+respectively for the two preceding years; there was Domitius;
+there was Cato, his hard face illumined doubtless by
+the near realization of unholy hopes; there was Faustus Sulla,
+another bitter oligarch. Drusus saw them all, and knew that
+the Cæsarian cause had been doomed without a hearing. Caius
+Marcellus, the new consul, sat in his separate seat, in all the
+splendid dignity of his embroidered toga. Around him stood
+his twelve lictors. But Lentulus, at whose behest the Senate
+had been convened, and who was to act as its president, had
+not come. Drusus followed Antonius over to the farther side
+of the house, where on a long, low bench<a name="r137" href="#fn137">[137]</a> the other tribunes
+of the plebs were seated. Quintus Cassius was already there.
+The other tribunes darted angry glances at their newly arrived
+colleague. Drusus remained standing behind Antonius, ready
+to act as a body-guard, as much as to serve in mere official
+capacity. Even as they entered he had noticed a buzz and
+rustle pass along the tiers of seats, and whisper pass on
+whisper, "There come the Cæsarians!" "What treason is in
+that letter!" "We must have an end of their impudence!"
+And Drusus ran his eye over the whole company, and sought
+for one friendly look; but he met with only stony glances or
+dark frowns. There was justice neither in the people nor in
+the Senate. Their hearts were drunk with a sense of revenge
+and self-willed passion; and Justice literally weighed out her
+bounty with blinded eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was another hum and rustle. And into the hall
+swept Lentulus Crus, in robes of office, with Scipio, the
+father-in-law of Pompeius, at his side. Before him strode
+his twelve lictors bearing their fasces erect. Not a word was
+spoken while Lentulus Crus seated himself in the ivory curule
+chair of office. No sign marked the extreme gravity of the
+occasion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Let the sacred chickens be brought," said Lentulus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Never a lip twitched or curled in all that august multitude
+while several public attendants brought in a wooden cage
+containing three or four rather skinny specimens of poultry.
+Not even Drusus saw anything really ridiculous when Lentulus
+arose, took grain from an attendant, and scattered a
+quantity of it before the coop. Close at his elbow stood the
+augur, to interpret the omen,—a weazened, bald-headed old
+senator, who wore a purple-striped tunic,<a name="r138" href="#fn138">[138]</a> and carried in his
+hand a long stick,<a name="r139" href="#fn139">[139]</a> curved at its head into a spiral. Drusus
+knew perfectly well that the fowls had been kept without
+food all that day; but it would have seemed treason to all
+the traditions of his native land to cry out against this pompous
+farce. The hungry chickens pecked up the grain. The
+augur muttered formula after formula, and Lentulus took
+pains to repeat the meaningless jargon after him. Presently
+the augur ceased his chatter and nodded to the consul. Lentulus
+turned toward the Senate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"There is no evil sight or sound!"<a name="r140" href="#fn140">[140]</a> was his announcement,
+meaning that business could be transacted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whereupon up from his seat sprang Marcus Antonius, flourishing
+in his hand a packet. Loudly Lentulus bade him hold
+his peace; loudly the tribunes who sided with the Senate party
+forbade him to read. But a rustle and stir of eager curiosity
+ran along all the benches, and first one voice, then many, cried
+out that the letter must be made public. With very ill grace
+the consul declared that Antonius should be allowed to read
+the communication from Cæsar.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Antonius read, and all were astonished at the moderation of
+the much-maligned proconsul. Cæsar made it clear that he
+would stand on his rights as to the second consulship; but
+to withdraw possibilities of seeming to issue a threat, he
+would disband his entire army if Pompeius would only do the
+same, or, if preferred, he would retain simply Cisalpine Gaul
+and Illyria with two legions, until the consular elections were
+over. In either event it would be out of his power to menace
+the constitution, and the public tranquillity would remain
+quite undisturbed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But before the murmur of approbation at this unexpected
+docility wore away, Lentulus burst forth into a fiery invective.
+All knew why the Senate had been convened, nor would he
+allow a few smooth promises to bring the state into danger.
+The law provided that a proconsul should leave his province
+at a certain time; and if Cæsar thought that a special law
+exempted him from this requirement, it were well he were
+disabused of the notion. The Senate had been convened
+because the presiding consul felt that the continuance of
+Cæsar in his governorship was a menace to the safety of the
+Republic. Let the Conscript Fathers express themselves
+boldly, and he, Lentulus, would not desert them; let them
+waver and try to court the favour of Cæsar as in former
+times, and the consul would have to look to his own safety—and
+he could make his own terms with Cæsar.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lentulus had started out with studied moderation. His
+harangue ended with a stinging menace. A low mutter, difficult
+to interpret, ran through the Senate. Again Antonius
+leaped to his feet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Conscript Fathers, will you not consider the mild offers of
+Cæsar? Do not reject them without debate."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I ask the opinion of the Senate on my own proposition,"
+broke in Lentulus. "Metellus Scipio, declare what is your
+judgment."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I protest at this unseemly haste," cried Antonius; "let us
+consider the letter first!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And I protest against this boisterous and unlawful interruption,"
+retorted the consul, fiercely. "Rise, Metellus Scipio!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Antonius flushed with rage, but sank into his seat. Drusus
+leaned over his friend's shoulder and whispered "Veto." Antonius
+shook his head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"They must speak. We should be foolish to shoot away our
+best arrow before the battle had really begun."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Scipio arose. He was not the "chief senator,"<a name="r141" href="#fn141">[141]</a> usually
+entitled to speak first; but everybody knew that his words
+were the mere expressions of his son-in-law, the mighty Pompeius.
+His oratory and physical presence were wretched,
+but all the Senate hung upon his words.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Pompeius did not intend to abandon the Republic, if the
+Senate would support him; but let them act with energy, for
+otherwise in the future they might need his aid never so much,
+and yet implore it in vain."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You want to destroy the Republic!" cried Quintus Cassius,
+half leaping from his seat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We want to destroy <i>you</i>!" retorted Domitius, savagely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But all men were not so blinded by fury, hate, and greed
+of power and revenge. To the dismay of his party Caius
+Marcellus, the second consul, counselled a certain kind of
+moderation. There was no love lost by the noble "Optimates"
+upon Pompeius, and Marcellus hinted this plainly
+when he said that all Italy must be put under arms, and with
+such an army at the disposal of the Senate, it could act as it
+saw fit,—to get rid of a troublesome protector, he implied,
+no less than an open enemy. And close after him followed
+Marcus Calidius and Marcus Rufus, two senators, who had at
+least the sagacity to perceive that it would not free the Commonwealth
+to crush Cæsar, by flinging themselves into the
+arms of Pompeius. "Let Pompeius go off to his Spanish
+province, to which he was accredited proconsul; it was but
+natural Cæsar should think himself ill treated, seeing that
+two legions had been taken from him for Eastern service, and
+Pompeius was keeping these very troops close to Rome."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For one moment it seemed to Drusus that wisdom and justice
+had not deserted the Senate of his native state. The
+consuls were divided; two influential men were counselling
+moderation. Surely the Senate would not push to extremities.
+But he had not reckoned on the spell which the malevolent
+spirit of Lentulus had cast over the assembly. In bitter
+words the presiding consul refused to put Calidius's proposal
+to a vote, and then, turning directly upon his colleague before
+the face of the whole multitude, he poured out reproof and
+vituperation. Marcellus turned red and then black in the
+face with rage. Drusus's heart was beating rapidly with
+hope. So long as the consuls were at enmity, little would
+be done! Suddenly Scipio started as if to leave the assembly.
+"He's going to call in Pompeius's cohorts!" belched Lentulus.
+Marcellus turned pale. Drusus saw Calidius's friends
+whispering with him, evidently warning and remonstrating.
+Senators cast uneasy glances toward the doorways, as if
+expecting to see a century of legionaries march in to enforce
+the decrees of Pompeius's spokesmen. Marcellus staggered
+to his feet. He was cowed, and evidently felt himself in
+personal danger.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Conscript Fathers," he stammered, "I—I withdraw my
+motion to delay action for considering the recall of
+Cæsar."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You have done well!" shouted Lentulus, triumphing
+savagely. Scipio ostentatiously settled back on his seat,
+while Cato called with warning, yet exultation:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Take care what you do. Cæsar is the only sober man
+among all those engaged in the plot to overturn the government.
+Remember with whom you must deal, and act!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then Scipio arose once more. Every one knew that his
+fiat was law. "Conscript Fathers," he began, "Marcus Cato
+speaks well. Consider the power of Cæsar. He has trained
+up bands of gladiators whom his friends, both senators and
+knights, are drilling for him. He is doubling his soldiers'
+pay, giving them extra corn, slaves, attendants, and land
+grants. A great part of the Senate,—yes, Cicero even, they
+say,—owes him money, at low and favourable rates of interest;
+he has actually made presents to freedmen and influential
+slaves. All young prodigals in debt are in his pay. He has
+made presents to win the favour of cities and princes, or been
+lending them troops without vote of the Senate. In Italy,
+Gaul, and Spain,—yes, in Greece, too, and Asia, he is winning
+the good-will of communities by erecting splendid public
+buildings. So great is his present power! What he will do
+in a second consulship I dare not say. I dare not assign
+bounds to his ambition. Conscript Fathers, shall we vote
+ourselves freemen or slaves? What more can I add to the
+words of the consul? I vote to ratify the proposition of
+Lucius Lentulus, that Cæsar either disband his army on a
+fixed day, or be declared a public enemy!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And what is your opinion, Lucius Domitius?" demanded
+Lentulus, while never a voice was raised to oppose Scipio.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Let the Senate remember," replied Domitius, "that Cæsar
+will justify the meaning of his name—the 'hard-hitter,' and
+let us strike the first and telling blow."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A ripple of applause swept down the Senate. The anti-Cæsarians
+had completely recovered from their first discomfiture,
+and were carrying all sentiment before them. Already
+there were cries of "A vote! a vote! Divide the Senate!
+A vote!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Conscript Fathers," said Lentulus, "in days of great emergency
+like this, when your minds seem so happily united in
+favour of doing that which is for the manifest safety of the
+Republic, I will not ask for the opinions of each senator in
+turn. Let the Senate divide; let all who favour the recall of
+the proconsul of the Gauls pass to the right, those against to
+the left. And so may it be well and prosperous for the
+Commonwealth."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Antonius was again on his feet; and at his side stood
+Quintus Cassius.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Lucius Lentulus," he thundered, "I forbid the division.
+<i>Veto!</i>"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Veto!</i>" shouted Cassius.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Domitius, too, had risen. "Conscript Fathers, let the consuls
+remonstrate with the tribunes to withdraw their prohibition.
+And, if they do not succeed, let them lay before
+the Senate that order which is the safeguard of the
+Republic."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Everybody knew what Domitius meant. If Antonius would
+not give way, martial law was to be declared. Hot and furious
+raged the debate. More and more passionate the expressions
+of party hatred. More and more menacing the gestures directed
+upon the two Cæsarian tribunes. But even the impetuous fierceness
+of Lentulus, Cato, Scipio, and Domitius combined could
+not drive the browbeaten Senate to cast loose from its last
+mooring that night. Domitius's measure went over. It was
+late—the stars were shining outside. Lamps had been brought
+in, and threw their ruddy glare over the long tiers of seats and
+their august occupants. Finally the angry debate ended, because
+it was a physical impossibility to continue longer. Senators
+went away with dark frowns or care-knit foreheads.
+Out in the Forum bands of young "Optimates" were shouting
+for Pompeius, and cursing Cæsar and his followers. Drusus,
+following Antonius, felt that he was the adherent of a lost
+cause, the member of a routed army that was defending its
+last stronghold, which overwhelming numbers must take, be
+the defence never so valiant. And when very late he lay down
+on his bed that night, the howls of the fashionable mob were
+still ringing in his ears.
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+That night the most old-fashioned and sober Roman went
+to bed at an advanced hour. Men were gathered in little knots
+along the streets, in the forums, in the porticos and basilicas,
+arguing, gesticulating, wrangling. Military tribunes and centurions
+in armour of Pompeius's legions were parading on the
+<i>comitium</i>.<a name="r142" href="#fn142">[142]</a> Veterans of that leader were jostling about in the
+crowd, clanking their newly furbished armour and shouting
+for their old general. If a man spoke for Cæsar, a crowd of
+bystanders was ready to hoot him down. Staid householders
+locked up their dwellings and stationed trusty slaves at the
+doors to see that the crowds did not take to riot and pillage.
+The sailors from the wharves had been drinking heavily in all
+the taverns, and now roved up and down the crowded streets,
+seeking opportunity for brawls. Thieves and cutpurses were
+plying their most successful work; but no officials had time to
+direct the efforts of the harassed and slender police corps. To
+Pompeius's palace, without the gates, every man whose voice or
+vote seemed worth the winning had been summoned. All the
+senators had streamed out thither; and there the Magnus had
+brought them under the spell of his martial authority and made
+them as wax in his hand. And all "that majesty that doth
+hedge about a king," or about a victorious general, exerted its
+full influence. The senators came into the palace of Pompeius
+as into the palace of their despot. He stood before them in his
+largest hall, wearing the embroidered robe of a triumphator,
+with the laurel crown of his victories upon his head. At his
+right hand, as first vizir of his state, stood Lentulus Crus;
+at his left Lucius Domitius. The senators came to him and
+bowed low, and said their "<i>Aves</i>" and "<i>Salves</i>" as though
+cringing before a Mithridates or Tigranes of the East; and
+Pompeius, by the cordiality or coolness of his response, indicated
+which of his vassals had or had not fallen under his
+disfavour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Yes, despotism had come at last for Rome. The oligarchy
+had by its corrupt incapacity made a tyranny inevitable. They
+could make choice of masters, but a master they must have.
+Many were the proud Fabii, Claudii, and Valerii present that
+night—men whose lines of curule ancestors were as long as the
+duration of the Republic—who ground their teeth with shame
+and inward rage the very moment they cried, "<i>Salve, Magne!</i>"
+Yet the recipient of all this adulation was in no enviable frame
+of mind. He looked harassed and weary, despite the splendour
+of his dress and crown. And many were the whispered conversations
+that passed between him and his ministers, or rather
+custodians, Lentulus and Domitius.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ah! poor Julia," sighed Pompeius, whose mind ever
+reverted to his dead wife, "what misery would have been
+yours if you had seen this day. Poor Julia; how I loved her;
+and Cæsar, her father, loved her too; and now—"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Be yourself, Magnus," expostulated the consul at his side;
+"remember that for the good of the Republic every personal
+affection is to be put away. Recall Brutus, who put his own
+sons to death because they committed treason. Remember what
+Scipio Æmilianus said when he learned that Tiberius Gracchus,
+his dear brother-in-law, had been put to death for sedition. He
+quoted Homer's line:—
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>
+"'So perish all who do the like again!'"
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+"And must I trample down every tie, every affection?" complained
+wretched Pompeius, who never ceased hoping against
+hope that something would avert the catastrophe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"There is no tie, no affection, Magnus," said Domitius,
+sternly, "that binds you to Cæsar. Cast his friendship from
+your breast as you would a viper. Think only of being justly
+hailed with Romulus, Camillus, and Marius as the fourth
+founder of Rome. Strike, and win immortal glory."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so to the last hour these confederates wrought upon
+their supple instrument, and bent him to their will; and their
+tool in turn had all else at his mercy. Pompeius addressed the
+senators, and, well trained by his guardians, spoke with brutal
+frankness to those who had dared to advise moderation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You, Rufus," he said, pointing a menacing finger, before
+which that senator cowered in dread, "have been advising the
+Republic to tolerate the chief of its enemies. You bid me to
+disarm or withdraw from Italy, as though the lives and property
+of any good men would be safe the moment Cæsar was
+left unopposed to pour his cohorts of barbarous Gauls and Germans
+into the country. You, Calidius, have given the same
+untimely advice. Beware lest you repent the hour when you
+counselled that I should disarm or quit the neighbourhood of
+Rome." The two-edged suggestion contained in this last warning
+was too marked for the reproved men not to turn pale with
+dread, and slink away trembling behind their associates.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But," continued Pompeius, "I have praise as well as blame;
+Marcus Cato has not deserted the Republic. He has advised,
+and advised well, that the proconsul of the Gauls be stripped
+of his legions." It was Cato's turn now to bite his lips with
+mortification, for in times past he had foretold that through
+Pompeius great miseries would come to the state, and in his
+prætorship had declared that Pompeius ought to go to his
+province, and not stay at home to stir up tumults and anarchy
+from which he could emerge as monarch. And such praise
+from the Magnus's lips, under the present circumstances, was
+gall and wormwood to his haughty soul.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And," continued Pompeius, "I shall not forget to applaud
+the energetic counsels of Domitius and Lentulus Crus. Let
+those who wish to preserve life and property," he added, with
+a menacing significance, "see to it that they do as these gentlemen
+advise."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And thereupon there was a great shout of applause from
+all the more rabid senators, in which the rest thought it safer
+to join, with simulated heartiness. But Pompeius did not stop
+here. He brought before the senators tribunes from the two
+legions taken from Cæsar, and these tribunes loudly declaimed—having
+learned their lesson well—that their troops were ill-affected
+toward their former commander, and would follow
+Pompeius to the last. And the Magnus produced veteran
+officers of his old campaigns, whom hope of reward and promotion
+had induced to come and declare for their former commander.
+Late, very late, the informal session of the Senate
+broke up. The "Fathers of the Republic" went each man to
+his own dwelling; but there was no longer any doubt as to what
+was to come of the doings of the day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Flaccus, the banker, had of course no access to the conference;
+but he had waited outside the gate of the palace, to learn
+the issue from an acquaintance in the Senate. His patience
+was at last rewarded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Tell me, friend," was his question, "what will be the outcome
+of this; shall I risk any loans to-morrow?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The friendly senator seemed doubtful.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Cæsar is a ruined man. Who imagines his legions will
+fight? We know Labienus is with Pompeius."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You are wrong," said Flaccus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Wrong? I?" replied the senator. "I know whereof I
+speak."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Phy!"</i> cried the banker, "not Cæsar, but you are ruined.
+The legions will fight."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Don't prophesy," sneered the acquaintance, "seeing that
+you brokers always keep out of politics."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You politicians are blind," retorted Flaccus.
+</p>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+The debate raged on. But by law the Senate could not
+convene on the third and fourth of the month, and the question
+of setting aside the tribunician veto went over until the fifth.
+It was the last lull before the outbreak of the great tempest.
+The little group of Cæsarians put forth their final efforts.
+Drusus went in person to call on Cicero, the great orator, and
+plead with him to come out from his residence in the suburbs
+and argue for peace. The destroyer of Catilina had declared
+that he would not forfeit his rights to a triumph for his Cilician
+victories by appearing prematurely in the Senate. Besides,
+he could never antagonize Pompeius. Curio smiled
+grimly when his colleague reported his fruitless embassy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I think, my friends," said the politician, "we shall soon
+prove the old saying, 'Whom the gods would destroy, they first
+make mad.'"
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 id="ch15">CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<h2>THE SEVENTH OF JANUARY</h2>
+
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+The rapid march of events that week had taken Drusus out
+of himself, and made him forgetful of personal consequences;
+but it sobered him when he heard Curio and Cælius, his associates,
+telling Balbus where their wills would be found deposited
+if anything calamitous were to befall them. After all, life was
+very sweet to the young Livian. He could not at heart desire
+to drift off into nothingness—to stop breathing, thinking, feeling.
+And for the last time he reviewed his position; told
+himself that it was not an unworthy cause for which he was
+contending; that it was not treason, but patriotism, to wish to
+overthrow the great oligarchy of noble families, who by their
+federated influence had pulled the wires to every electoral
+assembly, so that hardly a man not of their own coterie had
+been elected to high office for many a long year; while the
+officials themselves had grown full and wanton on the revenues
+wrung from the score of unfortunate provinces.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The feeling against the Cæsarians was very bitter in the city.
+Cæsar had always been the friend and darling of the populace;
+but, now that his star seemed setting, hardly a voice was raised,
+save to cry up the patriotism and determination of the consuls
+and Pompeius Magnus. Soldiers of the latter's legions were
+everywhere. The Senate was to convene the afternoon of the
+seventh, in the Curia of Pompeius, in the Campus Martius.
+Lentulus Crus was dragging forth every obscure senator, every
+retired politician, whose feet almost touched the grave, to swell
+his majority. All knew that the tribunes' vetoes were to be set
+aside, and arbitrary power decreed to the consuls. Drusus began
+to realize that the personal peril was pressing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Won't his head look pretty for the crows to pick at?" commented
+Marcus Læca to a friend, as the two swept past Drusus
+on the street. The Livian heard the loudly muttered words and
+trembled. It was easy to laud the Decii who calmly sacrificed
+their lives for the Republic, and many another martyr to patriotism;
+it was quite another thing to feel the mortal fear of death
+coursing in one's veins, to reflect that soon perhaps the dogs
+might be tearing this body which guarded that strange thing
+one calls self; to reflect that all which soon will be left of one
+is a bleaching skull, fixed high in some public place, at which
+the heartless mob would point and gibber, saying, "That is the
+head of Quintus Livius Drusus, the rebel!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus wandered on—on to the only place in Rome where
+he could gain the moral courage to carry him undaunted through
+that which was before him—to the Atrium of Vesta. He
+entered the house of the Vestals and sent for his aunt. Fabia
+came quickly enough, for her heart had been with her nephew
+all these days that tried men's souls. The noble woman put
+her arms around the youth—for he was still hardly more—and
+pressed him to her breast.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Aunt Fabia," said Drusus, growing very weak and pale,
+now that he felt her warm, loving caress, "do you know that
+in two or three days you will have as nephew a proscribed
+insurgent, perhaps with a price on his head, who perhaps
+is speedily to die by the executioner, like the most ignoble
+felon?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes," said Fabia, also very pale, yet smiling with a sweet,
+grave smile—the smile of a goddess who grieves at the miseries
+of mortal men, yet with divine omniscience glances beyond,
+and sees the happiness evolved from pain. "Yes, I have
+heard of all that is passing in the Senate. And I know, too,
+that my Quintus will prove himself a Fabian and a Livian, to
+whom the right cause and the good of the Republic are all—and
+the fear of shame and death is nothing." And then she
+sat down with him upon a couch, and took his head in her
+lap, and stroked him as if she were his mother. "Ah! my
+Quintus," she said, "you are still very young, and it is easy
+for one like you to enlist with all your ardour in a cause that
+seems righteous; yes, and in the heat of the moment to make
+any sacrifice for it; but it is not so easy for you or any other
+man calmly to face shame and annihilation, when the actual
+shadow of danger can be seen creeping up hour by hour. I
+know that neither you nor many another man wise and good
+believes that there are any gods. And I—I am only a silly
+old woman, with little or no wisdom and wit—"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Not silly and not old, carissima!" interrupted Drusus,
+smiling at her self-depreciation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We won't argue," said Fabia, in a bit lighter vein. "But—as
+I would say—I believe in gods, and that they order all
+things well."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, then," protested the young man, "do we suffer wrong
+or grief? If gods there are, they are indifferent; or, far worse,
+malevolent, who love to work us woe."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again Fabia shook her head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"If we were gods," said she, "we would all be wise, and
+could see the good to come out of every seeming evil. There!
+I am, as I said, silly and old, and little enough comfort can
+words of mine bring a bright young man whose head is crammed
+with all the learned lore of the schools of Athens. But know
+this, Quintus, so long as I live, you shall live in my heart—living
+or dead though you be. And believe me, the pleasure of
+life is but a very little thing; it is sweet, but how quickly it
+passes! And the curses or praises of men—these, too, only a
+few mouldy rolls of books keep for decay! What profits it to
+Miltiades this hour, that a few marks on a papyrus sheet ascribe
+to him renown; or how much is the joy of Sextus Tarquinius
+darkened because a group of other marks cast reproach upon
+his name? If so be death is a sleep, how much better to feel
+at the end, 'I die, but I die self-approved, and justified by
+self!' And if death is not all a sleep; if, as Socrates tells us,
+there are hopes that we but pass from a base life to another
+with less of dross, then how do pleasures and glories, griefs
+and dishonours, of this present life touch upon a man whose
+happiness or woe will be found all within?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so the good woman talked, giving to Drusus her own
+pure faith and hope and courage; and when the intellectual
+philosopher within him revolted at some of her simple premises
+and guileless sophistries, against his will he was persuaded
+by them, and was fain to own to himself that the heart
+of a good woman is past finding out; that its impulses are more
+genuine, its intuitions truer, its promptings surer, than all the
+fine-spun intellectuality of the most subtle metaphysician.
+When at last Drusus rose to leave his aunt, his face was glowing
+with a healthy colour, his step was elastic, his voice resonant
+with a noble courage. Fabia embraced him again and
+again. "Remember, whatever befalls," were her parting words,
+"I shall still love you." And when Drusus went out of the
+house he saw the dignified figure of the Vestal gazing after
+him. A few minutes later he passed no less a personage than
+the consular Lucius Domitius on his way to some political
+conference. He did not know what that dignitary muttered
+as he swept past in spotless toga, but the gloomy ferocity of
+his brow needed no interpreter. Drusus, however, never for
+a moment gave himself disquietude. He was fortified for the
+best and the worst, not by any dumb resignation, not by any
+cant of philosophy, but by an inward monitor which told him
+that some power in some way would lead him forth out of all
+dangers in a manner whereof man could neither ask nor think.
+</p>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+On the sixth of January the debate, as already said, drew
+toward its end. All measures of conciliation had been voted
+down; the crisis was close at hand. On the seventh, after his
+interview with Fabia, Drusus went back to his own lodgings,
+made a few revisions in his will, and in the presence of two or
+three friends declared Cappadox manumitted,<a name="r143" href="#fn143">[143]</a> lest he, by some
+chance, fall into the clutches of a brutal master. The young
+man next wrote a long letter to Cornelia for Agias to forward
+to Baiæ, and put in it such hope as he could glean from the
+dark words of the philosophers; that even if destruction now
+overtook him, death perhaps did not end all; that perhaps they
+would meet beyond the grave. Then he took leave of his weeping
+freedmen and slaves, and strolled out into the city, and
+wandered about the Forum and the Sacred Way, to enjoy, perchance,
+a last view of the sites that were to the Roman so dear.
+Then finally he turned toward the Campus Martius, and was
+strolling down under the long marble-paved colonnade of
+the Portico of Pompeius. Lost in a deep reverie, he was forgetful
+of all present events, until he was roused by a quick
+twitch at the elbow; he looked around and found Agias before
+him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>A!</i> domine," cried the young Greek, "I have friends in
+the house of Lentulus. I have just been told by them that
+the consul has sworn that he will begin to play Sulla this very
+day. Neither you, nor Antonius, Cassius, Curio, nor the
+other supporters of Cæsar will be alive to-night. Do not
+go into the Curia. Get away, quickly! Warn your friends,
+and leave Rome, or to-night you will all be strangled in the
+Tullianum!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Tullianum! Drusus knew no other term to conjure up
+a like abode of horrors—the ancient prison of the city, a mere
+chamber sunk in the ground, and beneath that a dungeon, accessible
+only by an opening in the floor above—where the luckless
+Jugurtha had perished of cold and starvation, and where Lentulus
+Sura, Cethegus, and the other lieutenants of Catilina had
+been garroted, in defiance of all their legal rights, by the arbitrary
+decree of a rancorous Senate! So at last the danger had
+come! Drusus felt himself quiver at every fibre. He endured
+a sensation the like of which he had never felt before—one of
+utter moral faintness. But he steadied himself quickly. Shame
+at his own recurring cowardice overmastered him. "I am an
+unworthy Livian, indeed," he muttered, not perhaps realizing
+that it is far more heroic consciously to confront and receive
+the full terrors of a peril, and put them by, than to have them
+harmlessly roll off on some self-acting mental armour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Escape! There is yet time!" urged Agias, pulling his
+toga. Drusus shook his head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Not until the Senate has set aside the veto of the tribunes,"
+he replied quietly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But the danger will then be imminent!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"A good soldier does not leave his post, my excellent Agias,"
+said the Roman, "until duty orders him away. Our duty is in
+the Senate until we can by our presence and voice do no more.
+When that task is over, we go to Cæsar as fast as horse may
+bear us; but not until then."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Then I have warned you all in vain!" cried Agias.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Not at all. You may still be of the greatest service.
+Arrange so that we can leave Rome the instant we quit the
+Curia."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But if the lictors seize you before you get out of the
+building?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We can only take our chance. I think we shall be permitted
+to go out. I had intended to ride out of the city this
+evening if nothing hindered and the final vote had been
+passed. But now I see that cannot be done. You have wit
+and cunning, Agias. Scheme, provide. We must escape
+from Rome at the earliest moment consistent with our duty
+and honour."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I have it," said Agias, his face lighting up. "Come at
+once after leaving the Curia, to the rear of the Temple of
+Mars.<a name="r144" href="#fn144">[144]</a> I know one or two of the temple servants, and they
+will give me the use of their rooms. There I will have ready
+some slave dresses for a disguise, and just across the Æmilian
+bridge I will have some fast horses waiting—that is, if you can
+give me an order on your stables."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus took off his signet ring.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Show that to Pausanias. He will honour every request
+you make, be it for a million sesterces."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias bowed and was off. For the last time Drusus was
+tempted to call him back and say that the flight would begin
+at once. But the nimble Greek was already out of sight, and
+heroism became a necessity. Drusus resolutely turned his
+steps toward the senate-house. Not having been able to
+forecast the immediate moves of the enemy, he had not arranged
+for hurried flight; it was to be regretted, although he had
+known that on that day the end of the crisis would come.
+He soon met Antonius, and imparted to him what he had
+just learned from Agias, and the precautions taken.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Antonius shook his head, and remarked:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You ought not to go with me. Little enough can we who
+are tribunes do; you have neither voice nor vote, and Lentulus
+is your personal foe. So back, before it is too late. Let
+us shift for ourselves."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus replied never a word, but simply took the tribune's
+arm and walked the faster toward the Curia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I am a very young soldier," he said presently; "do not be
+angry if I wish to show that I am not afraid of the whizzing
+arrows."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Then, my friend, whatever befalls, so long as life is
+in my body, remember you have a brother in Marcus
+Antonius."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The two friends pressed one another's hands, and entered
+the Curia Pompeii. There in one of the foremost seats sat the
+Magnus,<a name="r145" href="#fn145">[145]</a> the centre of a great flock of adulators, who were
+basking in the sunshine of his favour. Yet Drusus, as he
+glanced over at the Imperator, thought that the great man
+looked harassed and worried—forced to be partner in a scheme
+when he would cheerfully be absent. Fluttering in their broad
+togas about the senate-house were Domitius, Cato, the Marcelli,
+and Scipio, busy whipping into line the few remaining
+waverers. As Cato passed the tribune's bench, and saw the
+handful of Cæsarians gathered there, he cast a glance of indescribable
+malignity upon them, a glance that made Drusus
+shudder, and think again of the horrors of the Tullianum.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I know now how Cato looked," said he to Antonius, "when
+he denounced the Catilinarians and urged that they should be
+put to death without trial."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Antonius shrugged his shoulders, and replied:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Cato cannot forgive Cæsar. When Cæsar was consul, Cato
+interrupted his speech, and Cæsar had him haled off to prison.
+Marcus Cato never forgives or forgets."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Curio, Cælius, and Quintus Cassius had entered the senate-house—the
+only Cæsarians present besides Antonius and his
+viator. The first two went and took their seats in the body of
+the building, and Drusus noticed how their colleagues shrank
+away from them, refusing to sit near the supporters of the
+Gallic proconsul.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Eho!</i>" remarked Antonius, his spirits rising as the crisis
+drew on. "This is much like Catilina's days, to be sure! No
+one would sit with him when he went into the Senate. However,
+I imagine that these excellent gentlemen will hardly find
+Cæsar as easy to handle as Catilina."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again Lentulus was in his curule chair, and again the solemn
+farce of taking the auspices, preparatory to commencing the
+session, was gone through.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then for the last time in that memorable series of debates
+Lentulus arose and addressed the Senate, storming, browbeating,
+threatening, and finally ending with these words, that
+brought everything to a head:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Seeing then, Conscript Fathers, that Quintus Cassius and
+Marcus Antonius are using their tribunician office to aid
+Caius Cæsar to perpetuate his tyranny, the consuls ask you to
+clothe the magistrates with dictatorial power in order that the
+liberties of the Republic may not be subverted!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The liberties of the Republic! Liberty to plunder provinces!
+To bribe! To rob the treasury! To defraud! To
+violate the law of man and God! To rule the whole world so
+that a corrupt oligarchy might be aggrandized! Far, far had
+the nation of the older Claudii, Fabii, and Cornelii fallen from
+that proud eminence when, a hundred years before, Polybius,
+contrasting the Romans with the degenerate Greeks, had
+exclaimed, "A statesman of Hellas, with ten checking clerks
+and ten seals, ... cannot keep faith with a single talent;
+Romans, in their magistracies and embassies, handle great
+sums of money, and yet from pure respect of oath keep their
+faith intact."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the words of selfish virulence and cant had been uttered,
+and up from the body of the house swelled a shout of approval,
+growing louder and louder every instant.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then up rose Domitius, on his face the leer of a brutal
+triumph.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Conscript Fathers," he said, "I call for a vote on the question
+of martial law. Have the Senate divide on the motion.
+'Let the consuls, prætors, tribunes of the plebs, and men of
+consular rank see to it that the Republic suffers no harm.'"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Another shout of applause rolled along the seats, fiercer
+and fiercer, and through it all a shower of curses and abusive
+epithets upon the Cæsarians. All around Drusus seemed to be
+tossing and bellowing the breakers of some vast ocean, an ocean
+of human forms and faces, that was about to dash upon him
+and overwhelm him, in mad fury irresistible. The din was
+louder and louder. The bronze casings on the walls rattled,
+the pediments and pavements seemed to vibrate; outside, the vast
+mob swarming around the Curia reëchoed the shout. "Down
+with Cæsar!" "Down with the tribunes!" "<i>Io!</i> Pompeius!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was all as some wild distorted dream passing before Drusus's
+eyes. He could not bring himself to conceive the scene
+as otherwise. In a sort of stupor he saw the senators swarming
+to the right of the building, hastening to cast their votes
+in favour of Domitius's motion. Only two men—under a
+storm of abuse and hootings, passed to the left and went on
+record against the measure. These were Curio and Cælius;
+and they stood for some moments alone on the deserted side of
+the house, defiantly glaring at the raging Senate. Antonius
+and Cassius contemptuously remained in their seats—for no
+magistrate could vote in the Senate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was done; it could not be undone. Not Cæsar, but the
+Senate, had decreed the end of the glorious Republic. Already,
+with hasty ostentation, some senators were stepping outside the
+Curia, and returning clad no longer in the toga of peace, but in
+a military cloak<a name="r146" href="#fn146">[146]</a> which a slave had been keeping close at hand
+in readiness. Already Cato was on his feet glaring at the
+Cæsarian tribunes, and demanding that first of all they be subjected
+to punishment for persisting in their veto. The Senate
+was getting more boisterous each minute. A tumult was like
+to break out, in which some deed of violence would be committed,
+which would give the key-note to the whole sanguinary
+struggle impending. Yet in the face of the raging tempest
+Marcus Antonius arose and confronted the assembly. It
+raged, hooted, howled, cursed. He still remained standing.
+Cato tried to continue his invective. The tempest that he had
+done so much to raise drowned his own voice, and he relapsed
+into his seat. But still Antonius stood his ground, quietly,
+with no attempt to shout down the raging Senate, as
+steadfastly as though a thousand threats were not buzzing
+around his ears. Drusus's heart went with his friend that
+instant. He had never been in a battle, yet he realized
+that it was vastly more heroic to stand undaunted before
+this audience, than to walk into the bloodiest mêlée without
+a tremor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then of a sudden, like the interval between the recession of
+one wave and the advance of a second billow, came a moment
+of silence; and into that silence Antonius broke, with a voice
+so strong, so piercing, so resonant, that the most envenomed
+oligarch checked his clamour to give ear.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Hearken, ye senators of the Republic, ye false <i>patres</i>,
+ye fathers of the people who are no fathers! So far have we
+waited; we wait no more! So much have we seen; we'll see
+no further! So much have we endured,—reproaches, repulses,
+deceits, insult, outrage, yes, for I see it in the consul's eye,
+next do we suffer violence itself; but that we will not tamely
+suffer. Ay! drive us from our seats, as Marcus Cato bids you!
+Ay! strike our names from the Senate list, as Domitius will
+propose! Ay! hound your lictors, sir consul, after us, to lay
+their rods across our backs! Ay! enforce your decree proclaiming
+martial law! So have you acted before to give legal
+fiction to your tyranny! But tell me this, senators, prætorii,
+consulars, and consuls, where will this mad violence of yours
+find end? Tiberius Gracchus you have murdered. Caius Gracchus
+you have murdered. Marcus Drusus you have murdered.
+Ten thousand good men has your creature Sulla murdered.
+Without trial, without defence, were the friends of Catilina
+murdered. And now will ye add one more deed of blood to
+those going before? Will ye strike down an inviolate tribune,
+in Rome,—in the shadow of the very Curia? Ah! days of the
+Decemvirs, when an evil Ten ruled over the state—would that
+those days might return! Not ten tyrants but a thousand oppress
+us now! Then despotism wore no cloak of patriotism
+or legal right, but walked unmasked in all its blackness!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Hearken, ye senators, and in the evil days to come, remember
+all I say. Out of the seed which ye sow this hour come
+wars, civil wars; Roman against Roman, kinsman against
+kinsman, brother against brother! There comes impiety,
+violence, cruelty, bloodshed, anarchy! There comes the destruction
+of the old; there comes the birth, amid pain and
+anguish, of the new! Ye who grasp at money, at power, at
+high office; who trample on truth and right to serve your selfish
+ends; false, degenerate Romans,—one thing can wipe
+away your crimes—"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What?" shouted Cato, across the senate-house; while
+Pompeius, who was shifting uncomfortably in his seat, had
+turned very red.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Blood!" cried back Antonius, carried away by the frenzy
+of his own invective; then, shooting a lightning glance over
+the awe-struck Senate, he spoke as though gifted with some
+terrible prophetic omniscience. "Pompeius Magnus, the day
+of your prosperity is past—prepare ingloriously to die!
+Lentulus Crus, you, too, shall pay the forfeit of your crimes!
+Metellus Scipio, Marcus Cato, Lucius Domitius, within five
+years shall you all be dead—dead and with infamy upon your
+names! Your blood, your blood shall wipe away your folly and
+your lust for power. Ye stay, we go. Ye stay to pass once
+more unvetoed the decree declaring Cæsar and his friends
+enemies of the Republic; we go—go to endure our outlaw
+state. But we go to appeal from the unjust scales of your
+false Justice to the juster sword of an impartial Mars, and
+may the Furies that haunt the lives of tyrants and
+shedders of innocent blood attend you—attend your persons
+so long as ye are doomed to live, and your memory
+so long as men shall have power to heap on your names
+reproach!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus hardly knew that Antonius had so much as stopped,
+when he found his friend leading him out of the Curia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Behind, all was still as they walked away toward the Temple
+of Mars. Then, as they proceeded a little distance, a great
+roar as of a distant storm-wind drifted out from the senate-house—so
+long had Antonius held his audience spellbound.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Finitum est!</i>" said Curio, his eyes cast on the ground.
+"We have seen, my friends, the last day of the Republic."
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+Behind the Temple of Mars the faithful Agias was ready
+with the slaves' dresses which were to serve as a simple disguise.
+Antonius and his companions tossed off their cumbrous
+togas and put on the dark, coarse cloaks and slippers
+which were worn by slaves and people of the lower classes.
+These changes were quickly made, but valuable time was
+wasted while Antonius—who, as a bit of a dandy, wore his
+hair rather long<a name="r147" href="#fn147">[147]</a>—underwent a few touches with the shears.
+It was now necessary to get across the Tiber without being
+recognized, and once fairly out of Rome the chances of a successful
+pursuit were not many. On leaving the friendly shelter
+of the Temple buildings, nothing untoward was to be seen. The
+crowds rushing to and fro, from the Curia and back, were too
+busy and excited to pay attention to a little group of slaves,
+who carefully kept from intruding themselves into notice.
+Occasionally the roar and echo of applause and shouting came
+from the now distant Curia, indicating that the Senate was still
+at its unholy work of voting wars and destructions. A short
+walk would bring them across the Pons Æmilius, and there,
+in the shelter of one of the groves of the new public gardens
+which Cæsar had just been laying out on Janiculum, were waiting
+several of the fastest mounts which the activity of Agias and
+the lavish expenditures of Pausanias had been able to procure.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The friends breathed more easily.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I hardly think," said Quintus Cassius, "we shall be
+molested. The consuls cannot carry their mad hate so far."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They were close to the bridge. The way was lined with tall
+warehouses and grain storehouses,<a name="r148" href="#fn148">[148]</a> the precursors of the modern
+"elevators." They could see the tawny Tiber water flashing
+between the stone arches of the bridge. The swarms of peasants
+and countrymen driving herds of lowing kine and bleating sheep
+toward the adjacent Forum Boarium seemed unsuspicious and
+inoffensive. A moment more and all Drusus's tremors and
+anxieties would have passed as harmless fantasy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Their feet were on the bridge. They could notice the wind
+sweeping through the tall cypresses in the gardens where
+waited the steeds that were to take them to safety. The
+friends quickened their pace. A cloud had drifted across the
+sun; there was a moment's gloom. When the light danced
+back, Drusus caught Curio's arm with a start.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Look!" The new sunbeams had glanced on the polished
+helmet of a soldier standing guard at the farther end of the
+bridge.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was only an instant for hesitation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Lentulus has foreseen that we must try to escape by this
+way," said Curio, seriously, but without panic. "We must go
+back at once, and try to cross by the wooden bridge below or by
+some other means."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But a great herd of dirty silver-grey Etruscan cattle came
+over the causeway, and to get ahead of them would have been
+impracticable without attracting the most unusual attention. It
+was now evident enough that there was a considerable guard at
+the head of the bridge, and to make a rush and overpower it was
+impossible. The heavy-uddered cows and snorting, bellowing
+bulls dragged by with a slow plodding that almost drove Drusus
+frantic. They were over at last, and the friends hastened after
+them, far more anxious to leave the bridge than they had been
+an instant before to set foot upon it. On they pressed, until
+as if by magic there stood across their path the twelve lictors
+of one of the consuls, with upraised fasces. Behind the lictors
+was a half-century of soldiers in full armour led by their <i>optio</i>.<a name="r149" href="#fn149">[149]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Sirs," announced the head lictor, "I am commanded by
+the consul, Lucius Lentulus Crus, to put you all under arrest
+for treason against the Republic. Spare yourselves the indignity
+of personal violence, by offering no resistance."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To resist would indeed have been suicide. The friends had
+worn their short swords under their cloaks, but counting Agias
+they were only six, and the lictors were twelve, to say nothing
+of the soldiers, of whom there were thirty or more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The ground seemed swaying before Drusus's eyes; in his ears
+was a buzzing; his thoughts came to him, thick, confused, yet
+through them all ran the vision of Cornelia, and the conviction
+that he was never to see her again. He looked back. The
+soldiers at the head of the bridge had taken alarm and were
+marching down to complete the arrest. He looked before. The
+lictors, the troops, the stupid cattle and their stolid drivers,
+and the great black-sided warehouses, casting their gloomy
+shadow over the rippling river. Down stream; not a skiff
+seemed stirring. The water was plashing, dancing, glancing
+in the sunshine. Below the wooden bridge the spars of a huge
+merchantman were just covering with canvas, as she stood
+away from her quay. Up stream (the views were all compressed
+into the veriest moment)—with the current came working, or
+rather drifting, a heavy barge loaded with timber. Only two
+men, handling rude paddles, stood upon her deck. The barge
+was about to pass under the very arch upon which stood the
+handful of entrapped Cæsarians. A word, a motion, and the
+last hope of escape would have been comprehended by the enemy,
+and all would have been lost. But in moments of extreme peril
+it is easy to make a glance full of pregnancy. Antonius saw
+the face of his friend—saw and understood; and the other seemingly
+doomed men understood likewise. In an instant the
+barge would pass under the bridge!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Fellow," replied Antonius (the whole inspection of the situation,
+formation of the plot, and visual dialogue had really been
+so rapid as to make no long break after the lictor ceased speaking),
+"do you dare thus to do what even the most profane and
+impious have never dared before? Will you lay hands on two
+inviolate tribunes of the plebs, and those under their personal
+protection; and by your very act become a <i>sacer</i>—an outlaw
+devoted to the gods, whom it is a pious thing for any man to
+slay?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I have my orders, sir," replied the head lictor, menacingly.
+"And I would have you know that neither you nor Quintus
+Cassius are reckoned tribunes longer by the Senate; so by no
+such plea can you escape arrest."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Tribunes no longer!" cried Antonius; "has tyranny progressed
+so far that no magistrate can hold office after he ceases
+to humour the consuls?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We waste time, sir," said the lictor, sternly. "Forward,
+men; seize and bind them!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Antonius's brief parley had done its work. As the bow
+of the barge shot under the bridge, Curio, with a single bound
+over the parapet, sprang on to its deck; after him leaped Quintus
+Cassius, and after him Cælius. Before Drusus could follow,
+however, the stern of the barge had vanished under the archway.
+The lictors and soldiers had sprung forward, but a second
+had been lost by rushing to the eastern side of the bridge,
+where the barge had just disappeared from sight. Agias, Antonius,
+and Drusus were already standing on the western parapet.
+The lictors and soldiers were on them in an instant. The blow
+of one of the fasces smote down Antonius, but he fell directly
+into the vessel beneath—stunned but safe. A soldier caught
+Agias by the leg to drag him down. Drusus smote the man
+under the ear so that he fell without a groan; but Agias himself
+had been thrown from the parapet on to the bridge; the soldiers
+were thronging around. Drusus saw the naked steel of
+their swords flashing before his eyes; he knew that the barge
+was slipping away in the current. It was a time of seconds,
+but of seconds expanded for him into eternities. With one
+arm he dashed back a lictor, with the other cast Agias—he
+never knew whence came that strength which enabled him to
+do the feat—over the stonework, and into the arms of Curio
+in the receding boat. Then he himself leaped. A rude hand
+caught his cloak. It was torn from his back. A sword
+whisked past his head—he never learned how closely. He
+was in the air, saw that the barge was getting away, and
+next he was chilled by a sudden dash of water and Cælius was
+dragging him aboard; he had landed under the very stern of
+the barge. Struggling in the water, weighed down by their
+armour, were several soldiers who had leaped after him and
+had missed their distance completely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The young man clambered on to the rude vessel. Its crew
+(two simple, harmless peasants) were cowering among the
+lumber. Curio had seized one of the paddles and was guiding
+the craft out into the middle of the current; for the soldiers
+were already running along the wharves and preparing to fling
+their darts. The other men, who had just been plucked out
+of the jaws of destruction, were all engaged in collecting their
+more or less scattered wits and trying to discover the next turn
+of calamity in store. Antonius—who, despite his fall, had
+come down upon a coil of rope and so escaped broken bones and
+serious bruises—was the first to sense the great peril of even
+their present situation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"In a few moments," he remarked, casting a glance down
+the river, "we shall be under the Pons Sublicius, and we shall
+either be easily stopped and taken, or crushed with darts as
+we pass by. You see they are already signalling from the
+upper bridge to their guard at the lower. We shall drift down
+into their hands, and gain nothing by our first escape."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Anchor," suggested Cassius, who was an impulsive and
+rather inconsiderate man. And he prepared to pitch overboard
+the heavy mooring-stone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Phui!</i> You sheep," cried Curio, contemptuously, mincing
+no words at that dread moment. "How long will it be before
+there will be ten boatloads of soldiers alongside? Can we beat
+off all Pompeius's legions?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Antonius caught up another paddle and passed it through a
+rower's thong.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Friends," he said, with that ready command which his military
+life had given him, "these soldiers are in armour and can
+run none too swiftly. Once show them the back, and they must
+throw away their arms or give over the chase. It is madness
+to drift down upon the lower bridge. We must turn across
+the river, risk the darts, and try to land on the farther bank.
+Take oars!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was but one remaining paddle. Drusus seized it and
+pushed against the water with so much force that the tough
+wood bent and creaked, but did not snap. The unwieldy barge
+sluggishly answered this powerful pressure, and under the
+stroke of the three oars began to head diagonally across the
+current and move slowly toward the farther shore. The soldiers
+did not at once perceive the intent of this move. By
+their actions they showed that they had expected the barge to
+try to slip through the Pons Sublicius, and so escape down the
+river. They had run some little way along the south bank
+of the Tiber, to reënforce their comrades at the lower bridge,
+when they saw the new course taken by their expected prey.
+Much valuable time had thus been gained by the pursued,
+time which they needed sadly enough, for, despite their frantic
+rowing, their unwieldy craft would barely crawl across
+the current.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Long before the barge was within landing distance of the
+northern bank, the soldiers who had been on guard at the
+head of the Pons Æmilius had regained their former station,
+and were running along the shore to cut off any attempt there
+to escape. Soon a whizzing javelin dug into the plank at
+Drusus's feet, and a second rushed over Cælius's head, and
+plashed into the water beyond the barge. Other soldiers on
+the now receding southern bank were piling into a light skiff
+to second their comrades' efforts by a direct attack on the
+fugitives.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A third dart grazed Antonius's hair and buried its head in
+the pile of lumber. The tribune handed his oar to Cælius, and,
+deliberately wresting the weapon from the timber, flung it back
+with so deadly an aim that one pursuing legionary went down,
+pierced through the breastplate. The others recoiled for an
+instant, and no more javelins were thrown, which was some
+slight gain for the pursued.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It seemed, however, that the contest could have only a single
+ending. The soldiers were running parallel and apace with
+the barge, which was now as close to the northern bank as was
+safe in view of the missiles. The Pons Sublicius was getting
+minute by minute nearer, and upon it could be seen a considerable
+body of troops ready with darts and grapnels to cut off the
+last hope of escape.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Antonius never withdrew his eye from the line of dark
+weatherbeaten warehouses that stretched down to the river's
+edge on the north bank just above the Pons Sublicius.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Row," he exhorted his companions, "row! as life is dear!
+Row as never before!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And under the combined impulse of the three desperate men,
+even the heavy barge leaped forward and a little eddy of foaming
+waves began to trail behind her stern. Drusus had no time
+to ask of himself or Antonius the special object of this last burst
+of speed. He only knew that he was flinging every pound of
+strength into the heavy handle of his oar, and that his life
+depended on making the broad blade push back the water as
+rapidly as possible. Antonius, however, had had good cause for
+his command. A searching scrutiny had revealed to him that
+a single very long warehouse ran clear down to the river's edge,
+and so made it impossible to continue running along the bank.
+A pursuer must double around the whole length of the building
+before continuing the chase of the barge. And for a small
+quay just beyond this warehouse Antonius headed his clumsy
+vessel. The soldiers continued their chase up to the very walls
+of the warehouse, where they, of a sudden, found themselves
+stopped by an impenetrable barrier. They lost an instant of
+valuable time in trying to wade along the bank, where the
+channel shelved off rapidly, and, finding the attempt useless,
+dashed a volley of their missiles after the barge. But the range
+was very long. Few reached the vessel; none did damage.
+The soldiers disappeared behind the warehouse, still running
+at a headlong pace. Before they reappeared on the other side,
+Antonius had brought his craft to the quay. There was no time
+for mooring, and the instant the barge lost way the hard-pressed
+Cæsarians were on shore. Another instant, and the clumsy
+vessel had been caught by the current, and swung out into the
+stream.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She had done her work. The pursued men broke into a dash
+for the nearest highway. The soldiers were close after them.
+But they had flung away their javelins, and what with their
+heavy armour and the fatigue of running were quite as exhausted
+as the Cæsarians, three of whom had been thoroughly winded
+by their desperate rowing. On the Pons Sublicius, where a
+great crowd had gathered to watch the exciting chase, there was
+shouting and tumult. No doubt voices few enough would have
+been raised for the Cæsarians if they had been captured; but
+now that they bade fair to escape, the air was thick with gibes
+at the soldiers, and cries of encouragement to the pursued. On
+the two parties ran. Soon they were plunged in the tortuous,
+dirty lanes of the "Trans-Tiber" district, rushing at frantic
+speed past the shops of dirty Jews and the taverns of noisy
+fishermen and sailors. Already news of the chase had gone
+before them, and, as Drusus followed his friends under the
+half-arching shadows of the tall tenement houses, drunken
+pedlers and ribald women howled out their wishes of success,
+precisely as though they were in a race-course. Now the dirty
+streets were left behind and the fatigued runners panted up the
+slopes of the Janiculum, toward the gardens of Cæsar. They
+passed the little grove sacred to the Furies, and, even as for life
+he ran, Drusus recalled with shame how over this very road
+to this very grove, had fled Caius Gracchus, the great tribune
+of the people, whom Drusus's own great grandfather, Marcus
+Livius Drusus, had hounded to his death; that day when all
+men encouraged him as he ran, but none would raise a hand
+to aid.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But now up from the bridge came the thunder of horses'
+hoofs,—cavalry, tearing at a furious gallop. Pompeius had
+evidently ordered out a <i>turma</i><a name="r150" href="#fn150">[150]</a> of mounted men to chase down
+the runaways. More and more frantic the race—Drusus's
+tongue hung from his mouth like a dog's. He flew past a
+running fountain, and was just desperate enough to wonder if
+it was safe to stop one instant and touch—he would not ask
+to drink—one drop of the cool water. Fortunately the Cæsarians
+were all active young men, of about equal physical powers,
+and they kept well together and encouraged one another, not
+by word—they had no breath for that—but by interchange
+of courage and sympathy from eye to eye. The heavy legionaries
+had given up the chase; it was the cavalry, now flying
+almost at their very heels, that urged them to their final burst
+of speed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last! Here were the gardens of Cæsar, and close by the
+roadway under a spreading oak, their grooms holding them in
+readiness for instant service, were six of the best specimens
+of horseflesh money could command.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+None of the little party had breath left to speak a word. To
+fling themselves into the saddles, to snatch the reins from the
+attendants' hands, to plunge the heels of their sandals, in lieu
+of spurs, into the flanks of their already restless steeds,—these
+things were done in an instant, but none too soon. For, almost
+as the six riders turned out upon the road to give head to their
+horses, the cavalry were upon them. The foremost rider sent
+his lance over Curio's shoulder, grazing the skin and starting
+blood; a second struck with his short sword at Cælius's steed,
+but the horse shied, and before the blow could be repeated the
+frightened beast had taken a great bound ahead and out of
+danger. This exciting phase of the pursuit, however, was of
+only momentary duration. The horses of the Cæsarians were
+so incomparably superior to the common army hacks of the
+soldiers, that, as soon as the noble blooded animals began to
+stretch their long limbs on the hard Roman road, the troopers
+dropped back to a harmless distance in the rear. The cavalrymen's
+horses, furthermore, had been thoroughly winded by the
+fierce gallop over the bridge, and now it was out of the question
+for them to pursue. Before the flight had continued a mile,
+the Cæsarians had the satisfaction of seeing their enemies draw
+rein, then turn back to the city. The friends, however, did not
+check their pace until, safe beyond chance of overtaking, they
+reined in at an hospitable tavern in the old Etruscan town of
+Veii.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here Drusus took leave of Agias.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You are quite too unimportant an enemy," said he to the
+young Greek, "to be worth arrest by the consuls, if indeed
+they know what part you have had in our escape. I know not
+what perils are before me, and I have no right to ask you to
+share them. You have long ago paid off any debt of gratitude
+that you owed me and mine when Fabia saved your life. I am
+your patron no longer; go, and live honourably, and you will
+find deposited with Flaccus a sum that will provide for all your
+needs. If ever I return to Rome, my party victorious, myself
+in favour, then let us renew our friendship; but till then you
+and I meet no more."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias knelt and kissed Drusus's robe in a semi-Oriental
+obeisance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And is there nothing," he asked half wistfully at the parting,
+"that I can yet do for you?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Nothing," said Drusus, "except to see that no harm come
+to my Aunt Fabia, and if it be possible deliver Cornelia from
+the clutches of her bloody uncle."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ah!" said Agias, smiling, "that is indeed <i>something</i>! But
+be not troubled, domine,"—he spoke as if Drusus was still
+his master,—"I will find a way."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That evening, under the canopy of night, the five Cæsarians
+sped, swift as their horses could bear them, on their way to
+Ravenna.
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h2 id="ch16">CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<h2>THE RUBICON</h2>
+
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+It was growing late, but the proconsul apparently was manifesting
+no impatience. All the afternoon he had been transacting
+the routine business of a provincial governor—listening
+to appeals to his judgment seat, signing requisitions for tax
+imposts, making out commissions, and giving undivided attention
+to a multitude of seeming trifles. Only Decimus Mamercus,
+the young centurion,—elder son of the veteran of Præneste,—who
+stood guard at the doorway of the public office of the prætorium,
+thought he could observe a hidden nervousness and a
+still more concealed petulance in his superior's manner that betokened
+anxiety and a desire to be done with the routine of the
+day. Finally the last litigant departed, the governor descended
+from the curule chair, the guard saluted as he passed out to his
+own private rooms, and soon, as the autumn darkness began to
+steal over the cantonment, nothing but the call of the sentries
+broke the calm of the advancing night.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cæsar was submitting to the attentions of his slaves, who
+were exchanging his robes of state for the comfortable evening
+<i>synthesis</i>. But the proconsul was in no mood for the publicity
+of the evening banquet. When his chief freedman announced
+that the invited guests had assembled, the master bade him go
+to the company and inform them that their host was indisposed,
+and wished them to make merry without him. The evening
+advanced. Twice Cæsar touched to his lips a cup of spiced
+wine, but partook of nothing else. Sending his servants from
+his chamber, he alternately read, and wrote nervously on his
+tablets, then erased all that he had inscribed, and paced up
+and down the room. Presently the anxious head-freedman
+thrust his head into the apartment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My lord, it is past midnight. The guests have long
+departed. There will be serious injury done your health, if
+you take no food and rest."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My good Antiochus," replied the proconsul, "you are a
+faithful friend."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The freedman—an elderly, half-Hellenized Asiatic—knelt
+and kissed the Roman's robe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My lord knows that I would die for him."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I believe you, Antiochus. The gods know I never needed
+a friend more than now! Do not leave the room."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The general's eyes were glittering, his cheeks flushed with
+an unhealthy colour. The freedman was startled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Domine, domine!" he began, "you are not well—let me
+send for Calchas, the physician; a mild sleeping powder—"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For the first time in his long service of Cæsar, Antiochus
+met with a burst of wrath from his master.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Vagabond! Do you think a sleeping potion will give peace
+to <i>me</i>? Speak again of Calchas, and I'll have you crucified!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Domine, domine!" cried the trembling freedman; but
+Cæsar swept on:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Don't go from the room! I am desperate to-night. I may
+lay violent hands on myself. Why should I not ask you for a
+poisoned dagger?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Antiochus cowered at his master's feet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, why not? What have I to gain by living? I have
+won some little fame. I have conquered all Gaul. I have invaded
+Britain. I have made the Germans tremble. Life is
+an evil dream, a nightmare, a frightful delusion. Death is
+real. Sleep—sleep—forever sleep! No care, no ambition,
+no vexation, no anger, no sorrow. Cornelia, the wife of my
+love, is asleep. Julia is asleep. All that I loved sleep. Why
+not I also?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Domine, speak not so!" and Antiochus clasped the proconsul's
+knees.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cæsar bent down and lifted him up by the hand. When he
+spoke again, the tone was entirely changed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Old friend, you have known me; have loved me. You
+were my <i>pedagogue</i><a name="r151" href="#fn151">[151]</a> when I went to school at Rome. You
+taught me to ride and fence and wrestle. You aided me to
+escape the myrmidons of Sulla. You were with me in Greece.
+You shared my joy in my political successes, my triumphs in
+the field. And now what am I to do? You know the last
+advices from Rome; you know the determination of the consuls
+to work my ruin. To-day no news has come at all, and
+for us no news is the worst of news."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Domine," said Antiochus, wiping his eyes, "I cannot
+dream that the Senate and Pompeius will deny you your right
+to the second consulship."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But if they do? You know what Curio reports. What
+then?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Antiochus shook his head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It would mean war, bloody war, the upturning of the whole
+world!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"War, or—" and Cæsar paused.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What, my lord?" said the freedman.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I cease either to be a care to myself or my enemies."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I do not understand you, domine," ventured Antiochus,
+turning pale.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I mean, good friend," said the proconsul, calmly, "that
+when I consider how little life often seems worth, and how
+much disaster the continuance of my act of living means to
+my fellow-men, I feel often that I have no right to live."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Antiochus staggered with dread. Cæsar was no longer talking
+wildly; and the freedman knew that when in a calm mood
+the proconsul was always perfectly serious.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Domine, you have not rashly determined this?" he hinted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I have determined nothing. I never rashly determine
+anything. Hark! Some one is at the door."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a loud military knock, and the clang of armour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Enter," commanded Cæsar.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Decimus Mamercus hastened into the room. So great was
+his excitement that his Roman discipline had forsaken him.
+He neglected to salute.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"News! news! Imperator! from Rome! News which will
+set all Italy afire!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whereupon the man who had but just before been talking
+of suicide, with the greatest possible deliberation seated himself
+on a comfortable chair, arranged his dress, and remarked
+with perfect coldness:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No tidings can justify a soldier in neglecting to salute his
+general."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Decimus turned red with mortification, and saluted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Now," said Cæsar, icily, "what have you to report?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Imperator," replied Decimus, trying to speak with unimpassioned
+preciseness, "a messenger has just arrived from Rome.
+He reports that the Senate and consuls have declared the
+Republic in peril, that the veto of your tribunes has been over-ridden,
+and they themselves forced to flee for their lives."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cæsar had carelessly dropped a writing tablet that he was
+holding, and now he stooped slowly and picked it up again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The messenger is here?" he inquired, after a pause.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"He is," replied the centurion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Has he been duly refreshed after a hard ride?" was the next
+question.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"He has just come."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Then let him have the best food and drink my butler and
+cellarer can set before him."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But his news is of extreme importance," gasped Decimus,
+only half believing his ears.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I have spoken," said the general, sternly. "What is his
+name?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"He is called Quintus Drusus, Imperator."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ah!" was his deliberate response, "send him to me when
+he will eat and drink no more."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Decimus saluted again, and withdrew, while his superior
+opened the roll in his hands, and with all apparent fixity and
+interest studied at the precepts and definitions of the grammar
+of Dionysius Thrax, the noted philologist.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the end of some minutes Quintus Drusus stood before
+him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The young Prænestian was covered with dust, was unkempt,
+ragged; his step was heavy, his arms hung wearily at his side,
+his head almost drooped on his breast with exhaustion. But
+when he came into the Imperator's presence, he straightened
+himself and tried to make a gesture of salutation. Cæsar had
+risen from his chair.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Fools!" he cried, to the little group of slaves and soldiers,
+who were crowding into the room, "do you bring me this
+worn-out man, who needs rest? Who dared this? Has he
+been refreshed as I commanded?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"He would take nothing but some wine—" began Decimus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I would have waited until morning, if necessary, before
+seeing him. Here!" and while Cæsar spoke he half led,
+half thrust, the messenger into his own chair, and, anticipating
+the nimblest slave, unclasped the travel-soiled pænula from
+Drusus's shoulders. The young man tried to rise and shake
+off these ministrations, but the proconsul gently restrained
+him. A single look sufficed to send all the curious retinue
+from the room. Only Antiochus remained, sitting on a stool
+in a distant corner.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And now, my friend," said Cæsar, smiling, and drawing a
+chair close up to that of Drusus, "tell me when it was that
+you left Rome."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Two days ago," gasped the wearied messenger.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Mehercle!</i>" cried the general, "a hundred and sixty miles
+in two days! This is incredible! And you come alone?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I had Andræmon, the fastest horse in Rome. Antonius,
+Cælius, Cassius, Curio, and myself kept together as far as
+Clusium. There was no longer any danger of pursuit, no
+need for more than one to hasten." Drusus's sentences were
+coming in hot pants. "I rode ahead. Rode my horse dead.
+Took another at Arretium. And so I kept changing. And
+now—I am here." And with this last utterance he stopped,
+gasping.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cæsar, instead of demanding the tidings from Rome, turned
+to Antiochus, and bade him bring a basin and perfumed water
+to wash Drusus's feet. Meantime the young man had recovered
+his breath.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You have heard of the violence of the new consuls and how
+Antonius and Cassius withstood them. On the seventh the
+end came. The vetoes were set aside. Our protests were disregarded.
+The Senate has clothed the consuls and other
+magistrates with dictatorial power; they are about to make
+Lucius Domitius proconsul of Gaul."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And I?" asked Cæsar, for the first time displaying any
+personal interest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You, Imperator, must disband your army and return to
+Rome speedily, or be declared an outlaw, as Sertorius or Catilina
+was."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ah!" and for a minute the proconsul sat motionless, while
+Drusus again kept silence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But you—my friends—the tribunes?" demanded the general,
+"you spoke of danger; why was it that you fled?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We fled in slaves' dresses, O Cæsar, because otherwise we
+should long ago have been strangled like bandits in the Tullianum.
+Lentulus Crus drove us with threats from the Senate.
+On the bridge, but for the favour of the gods, his lictors would
+have taken us. We were chased by Pompeius's foot soldiers as
+far as Janiculum. We ran away from his cavalry. If they
+hate us, your humble friends, so bitterly, how much the more
+must they hate you!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And the tribunes, and Curio, and Cælius are on their way
+hither?" asked Cæsar.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"They will be here very soon."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That is well," replied the proconsul; then, with a totally
+unexpected turn, "Quintus Drusus, what do you advise me
+to do?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I—I advise, Imperator?" stammered the young man.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And who should advise, if not he who has ridden so hard
+and fast in my service? Tell me, is there any hope of
+peace, of reconciliation with Pompeius?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"None."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Any chance that the senators will recover their senses, and
+propose a reasonable compromise?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"None."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Will not Cicero use his eloquence in the cause of peace and
+common justice?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I have seen him. He dare not open his mouth."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ah!" and again Cæsar was silent, this time with a smile,
+perhaps of scorn, playing around his mouth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Are the people, the equites, given body and soul over to
+the war party?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus nodded sadly. "So long as the consuls are in the
+ascendant, they need fear no revolution at home. The people
+are not at heart your enemies, Imperator; but they will wait
+to be led by the winning side."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And you advise?"—pressed Cæsar, returning to the charge.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"War!" replied Drusus, with all the rash emphasis of youth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Young man," said Cæsar, gravely, half sadly, "what you
+have said is easy to utter. Do you know what war will mean?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus was silent.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Let us grant that our cause is most just. Even then, if we
+fight, we destroy the Republic. If I conquer, it must be over
+the wreck of the Commonwealth. If Pompeius—on the same
+terms. I dare not harbour any illusions. The state cannot
+endure the farce of another Sullian restoration and reformation.
+A permanent government by one strong man will be the only
+one practicable to save the world from anarchy. Have you
+realized that?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I only know, Imperator," said Drusus, gloomily, "that no
+future state can be worse than ours to-day, when the magistrates
+of the Republic are the most grievous despots."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cæsar shook his head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You magnify your own wrongs and mine. If mere revenge
+prompts us, we are worse than Xerxes, or Sulla. The gods
+alone can tell us what is right."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The gods!" cried Drusus, half sunken though he was in a
+weary lethargy, "do you believe there are any gods?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cæsar threw back his head. "Not always; but at moments
+I do not <i>believe</i> in them, I <i>know</i>! And now I <i>know</i> that gods
+are guiding us!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Whither?" exclaimed the young man, starting from his
+weary drowsiness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I know not whither; neither do I care. Enough to be conscious
+that they guide us!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And then, as though there was no pressing problem involving
+the peace of the civilized world weighing upon him, the proconsul
+stood by in kind attention while Antiochus and an
+attendant bathed the wearied messenger's feet before taking
+him away to rest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After Drusus had been carried to his room, Cæsar collected
+the manuscripts and tablets scattered about the apartment,
+methodically placed them in the proper cases and presses, suffered
+himself to be undressed, and slept late into the following
+morning, as sweetly and soundly as a little child.
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+On the next day Cæsar called before him the thirteenth
+legion,—the only force he had at Ravenna,—and from a
+pulpit in front of the prætorium he told them the story of
+what had happened at Rome; of how the Senate had outraged
+the tribunes of the plebs, whom even the violent Sulla had
+respected; of how the mighty oligarchy had outraged every
+soldier in insulting their commander. Then Curio, just arrived,
+declaimed with indignant fervour of the violence and fury of
+the consuls and Pompeius; and when he concluded, the veterans
+could restrain their ardour and devotion no more, five
+thousand martial throats roared forth an oath of fealty, and
+as many swords were waved on high in mad defiance to the
+Senate and the Magnus. Then cohort after cohort cried out
+that on this campaign they would accept no pay; and the military
+tribunes and centurions pledged themselves, this officer
+for the support of two recruits, and that for three.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a great personal triumph for Cæsar. He stood receiving
+the pledges and plaudits, and repaying each protestation of
+loyalty with a few gracious words, or smiles, that were worth
+fifty talents to each acclaiming maniple. Drusus, who was
+standing back of the proconsul, beside Curio, realized that
+never before had he seen such outgoing of magnetism and personal
+energy from man to man, one mind holding in vassalage
+five thousand. Yet it was all very quickly over. Almost
+while the plaudits of the centuries were rending the air,
+Cæsar turned to the senior tribune of the legion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Are your men ready for the march, officer?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The soldier instantly fell into rigid military pose. "Ready
+this instant, Imperator. We have expected the order."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"March to Ariminum, and take possession of the town.
+March rapidly."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The tribune saluted, and stepped back among his cohort.
+And as if some conjurer had flourished a wand of magic, in
+the twinkling of an eye the first century had formed in marching
+order; every legionary had flung over his shoulder his
+shield and pack, and at the harsh blare of the military trumpet
+the whole legion fell into line; the aquilifer with the bronze
+eagle, that had tossed on high in a score of hard-fought fights,
+swung off at the head of the van; and away went the legion, a
+thing not of thinking flesh and blood, but of brass and iron—a
+machine that marched as readily and carelessly against the
+consuls of the Roman Republic as against the wretched Gallic
+insurgents. The body of troops—cohort after cohort—was
+vanishing down the road in a cloud of dust, the pack train
+following after, almost before Drusus could realize that the
+order to advance had been given.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cæsar was still standing on the little pulpit before the
+prætorium. Except for Curio and Drusus, almost all the vast
+company that had but just now been pressing about him with
+adulation and homage were disappearing from sight. For an
+instant the Imperator seemed alone, stripped of all the
+panoply of his high estate. He stood watching the legion
+until its dust-cloud settled behind some low-lying hills. Then
+he stepped down from the pulpit. Beyond a few menials and
+Drusus and that young man's late comrade in danger, no one
+else was visible. The transaction had been so sudden as to
+have something of the phantasmagoric about it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cæsar took his two friends, one by each hand, and led them
+back to his private study in the prætorium.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The army is yours, Imperator," said Curio, breaking a
+rather oppressive silence. "The newest recruit is yours to the
+death."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, to the death," replied the general, abstractedly; and
+his keen eyes wandered down upon the mosaic, seemingly
+penetrating the stone and seeking something hidden beneath.
+"The thirteenth legion," he continued, "will do as a test of
+the loyalty of the others. They will not fail me. The eighth
+and the twelfth will soon be over the Alps. Fabius is at
+Narbo with three. They will check Pompeius's Spaniards.
+I must send to Trebonius for his four among the Belgæ; he is
+sending Fabius one." And then, as if wearied by this recapitulation,
+Cæsar's eyes wandered off again to the pavement.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus had an uneasy sensation. What was this strange
+mingling of energy and listlessness? Why this soliloquy and
+internal debate, when the moment called for the most intense
+activity? The general being still silent, his friends did not
+venture to disturb him. But Antiochus passed in and out of
+the study, gathering up writing materials, tablets, and books;
+and presently Drusus heard the freedman bidding an underling
+have ready and packed the marble slabs used for the tessellated
+floor of the Imperator's tent—a bit of luxury that Cæsar
+never denied himself while in the field. Presently the proconsul
+raised his eyes. He was smiling; there was not the
+least cloud on his brow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"There will be some public games here this afternoon," he
+remarked, as though the sole end in view was to make their
+stay pleasant to his guests: "I have promised the good people
+of the town to act as <i>editor</i>,<a name="r152" href="#fn152">[152]</a> and must not fail to honour them.
+Perhaps the sport will amuse you, although the provincials
+cannot of course get such good lanista-trained men as you see
+at Rome. I have a new fencing school in which perhaps we
+may find a few <i>threces</i><a name="r153" href="#fn153">[153]</a> and <i>retiarii</i>,<a name="r154" href="#fn154">[154]</a> who will give some tolerable
+sword and net play."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Hei!</i>" groaned Curio, with a lugubrious whisper, "to
+think of it, I have never a sesterce left that I can call my
+own, to stake on the struggle!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"At least," laughed Drusus, "I am a companion of your
+grief; already Lentulus and Ahenobarbus have been sharing
+my forfeited estate."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the proconsul looked serious and sad.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Vah</i>, my friends! Would that I could say that your loyalty
+to my cause would cost you nothing! It is easy to promise to
+win back for you everything you have abandoned, but as the
+poets say, 'All that lies in the lap of the gods.' But you shall
+not be any longer the mere recipients of my bounty. Stern
+work is before us. I need not ask you if you will play your
+part. You, Curio, shall have a proper place on my staff of
+legates as soon as I have enough troops concentrated; but you,
+my dear Drusus, what post would best reward you for your
+loyalty? Will you be a military tribune, and succeed your
+father?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Your kindness outruns your judgment, Imperator," replied
+Drusus. "Save repelling Dumnorix and Ahenobarbus, I never
+struck a blow in anger. Small service would I be to you, and
+little glory would I win as an officer, when the meanest legionary
+knows much that I may learn."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Then, amice," said Cæsar, smiling, perhaps with the satisfaction
+of a man who knows when it is safe to make a gracious
+offer which he is aware will not be accepted, though none the
+less flattering, "if you will thus misappraise yourself, you shall
+act as centurion for the present, on my corps of <i>prætoriani</i>,<a name="r155" href="#fn155">[155]</a>
+where you will be among friends and comrades of your father,
+and be near my person if I have any special need of you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus proffered the best thanks he could; it was a great
+honour—one almost as great as a tribuneship, though hardly
+as responsible; and he felt repaid for all the weariness of his
+desperate ride to Ravenna.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And then, with another of those strange alternations of
+behaviour, Cæsar led him and Curio off to inspect the fencing-school;
+then showed them his favourite horse, pointed out its
+peculiar toelike hoofs, and related merrily how when it was a
+young colt, a soothsayer had predicted that its owner would
+be master of the world, and how he—Cæsar,—had broken
+its fiery spirit, and made it perfectly docile, although no other
+man could ride the beast.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The afternoon wore on. Cæsar took his friends to the
+games, and watched with all apparent interest the rather
+sanguinary contests between the gladiators. Drusus noticed
+the effusive loyalty of the Ravenna citizens, who shouted a
+tumultuous welcome to the illustrious <i>editor</i>, but Cæsar acted
+precisely as though the presidency of the sports were his most
+important office. Only his young admirer observed that as
+often as a gladiator brought his opponent down and appealed
+to the <i>editor</i> for a decision on the life or death of the vanquished,
+Cæsar invariably waved his handkerchief, a sign
+of mercy, rather than brutally turned down his thumb, the
+sentence of death. After the games, the proconsul interchanged
+personal greetings with the more prominent townspeople.
+Drusus began to wonder whether the whole day and
+evening were to pass in this manner; and indeed so it seemed,
+for that night the Imperator dispensed his usual open-handed
+hospitality. His great banqueting hall contained indeed no
+army officers, but there were an abundance of the provincial
+gentry. Cæsar dined apart with his two friends. The courses
+went in and out. The proconsul continued an unceasing flow
+of light conversation: witty comments on Roman society and
+fashion, scraps of literary lore, now and then a bit of personal
+reminiscence of Gaul. Drusus forgot all else in the
+agreeable pleasure of the moment. Presently Cæsar arose and
+mingled with his less exalted guests; when he returned to the
+upper table the attendants were bringing on the beakers, and
+the Cisalpine provincials were pledging one another in
+draughts of many <i>cyathi</i>, "prosperity to the proconsul, and
+confusion to his enemies." Cæsar took a shallow glass of
+embossed blue and white bas-relief work,—a triumph of Alexandrian
+art,—poured into it a few drops of undiluted Cæcuban
+liquor, dashed down the potion, then dropped the priceless
+beaker on to the floor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"An offering to Fortuna!" he cried, springing from his
+couch. "My friends, let us go!" And quietly leaving the
+table on the dais, the three found themselves outside the banqueting
+hall, while the provincials, unconscious that their
+host had departed, continued their noisy revelry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus at once saw that everything was ready for departure.
+Antiochus was at hand with travelling cloaks, and assured the
+young man that due care had been taken to send in advance
+for him a complete wardrobe and outfit. The proconsul evidently
+intended to waste no time in starting. Drusus realized
+by the tone of his voice that Cæsar the host had vanished, and
+Cæsar the imperator was present. His words were terse and
+to the point.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Curio, you will find a fast horse awaiting you. Take it.
+Bide at full speed after the legion. Take command of the
+rear cohorts and of the others as you come up with them.
+Lead rapidly to Ariminum."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And Curio, who was a man of few words, when few were
+needed, saluted and disappeared in the darkness. Drusus followed
+the general out after him. But no saddle-horses were
+prepared for Cæsar. Antiochus and one or two slaves were
+ready with lanterns, and led the general and Drusus out of the
+gloomy cantonment, along a short stretch of road, to a mill
+building, where in the dim light of the last flickers of day
+could be seen a carriage with mules.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I have hired this as you wished," said the freedman,
+briefly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It is well," responded his patron.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Antiochus clambered upon the front seat; a stout German
+serving-man was at the reins. Cæsar motioned to Drusus to sit
+beside him behind. There were a few necessaries in the carriage,
+but no other attendants, no luggage cart. The German shook
+the reins over the backs of the two mules, and admonished
+them in his barbarous native dialect. The dim shadow of the
+mill faded from sight; the lights of the prætorium grew dimmer
+and dimmer: soon nothing was to be seen outside the
+narrow circle of pale light shed on the ground ahead by the
+lantern.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The autumn season was well advanced. The day however
+had been warm. The night was sultry. There were no stars
+above, no moon, no wind. A sickening miasmic odour rose
+from the low flat country sloping off toward the Adriatic—the
+smell of overripe fruit, of decaying vegetation, of the harvest
+grown old. There had been a drought, and now the dust
+rose thick and heavy, making the mules and travellers cough,
+and the latter cover their faces. Out of the darkness came
+not the least sound: save the creaking of the dead boughs on
+trees, whose dim tracery could just be distinguished against
+the sombre background of the sky.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+No one spoke, unless the incoherent shouts of the German
+to the mules be termed speech. Antiochus and Cæsar were
+sunk in stupor or reverie. Drusus settled back on the cushions,
+closed his eyes, and bade himself believe that it was all
+a dream. Six months ago he had been a student at Athens,
+wandering with his friends along the trickling Cephissus, or
+climbing, in holiday sport, the marble cone of Hymettus.
+And now—he was a proscribed rebel! Enemies thirsted for
+his blood! He was riding beside a man who made no disclaimer
+of his intention to subvert the constitution! If Cæsar
+failed, he, Drusus, would share in "that bad eminence"
+awarded by fame to the execrated Catilinarians. Was it—was
+it not all a dream? Connected thought became impossible.
+Now he was in the dear old orchard at Præneste playing
+<i>micare</i><a name="r156" href="#fn156">[156]</a> with Cornelia and Æmilia; now back in Athens, now
+in Rome. Poetry, prose, scraps of oratory, philosophy, and rules
+of rhetoric,—Latin and Greek inextricably intermixed,—ideas
+without the least possible connection, raced through his head.
+How long he thus drifted on in his reverie he might not say.
+Perhaps he fell asleep, for the fatigue of his extraordinary riding
+still wore on him. A cry from Antiochus, a curse from the
+German, startled him out of his stupor. He stared about. It
+was pitch dark. "The gods blast it!" Antiochus was bawling.
+"The lantern has jolted out!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To relight it under existing circumstances, in an age when
+friction matches were unknown, was practically impossible.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Fellow," said the proconsul's steady voice, "do you know
+the road to Ariminum?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The driver answered in his broken Latin that he was the
+slave of the stable keeper who had let the carriage, and had
+been often over the road, but to go safely in the dark was
+more than he could vouch for. The only thing the German
+saw to be done was to wait in the road until the morning, or
+until the moon broke out through the clouds.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Drusus," remarked the proconsul, "you are the youngest.
+Can your eyes make out anything to tell us where we are?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The young man yawned, shook off his drowsiness, and stared
+out into the gloomy void.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I can just make out that to our left are tall trees, and I
+imagine a thicket."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Very good. If you can see as much as that here, it is safe
+to proceed. Let us change places. I will take the reins. Do
+you, Drusus, come and direct me."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh! domine!" entreated Antiochus, "don't imperil yourself
+to-night! I'm sure some calamity impends before dawn.
+I consulted a soothsayer before setting out, and the dove
+which he examined had no heart—a certain sign of evil."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Rascal!" retorted his patron, "the omens will be more
+favourable when I please. A beast wants a heart—no very
+great prodigy! men lose theirs very often, and think it slight
+disgrace. Change your seat, sirrah!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cæsar took the reins, smote the mules, and went off at so
+furious a pace that the worthy Antiochus was soon busy invoking
+first one, then another, member of the pantheon, to avert
+disaster. Drusus speedily found that the general's vision was
+far more keen than his own. Indeed, although the road, he
+knew, was rough and crooked, they met with no mishaps.
+Presently a light could be seen twinkling in the distance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We must get a guide," remarked the Imperator decisively,
+and he struck the mules again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They at last approached what the owl-like discernment of
+Cæsar pronounced to be a small farmhouse with a few out-buildings.
+But it was no easy matter to arouse the drowsy
+countrymen, and a still more difficult task to convince the good
+man of the house that his nocturnal visitors were not brigands.
+At last it was explained that two gentlemen from Ravenna were
+bound for Ariminum, on urgent business, and he must furnish
+a guide for which he would be amply paid. As a result, the
+German driver at last resumed the reins, and sped away with
+a fresh lantern, and at his side a stupid peasant boy, who was
+almost too shy to make himself useful.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But more misfortune was in store. Barely a mile had they
+traversed, before an ominous crack proclaimed the splitting of
+an axletree. The cheap hired vehicle could go no farther.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"'Tis a sure sign the gods are against our proceeding this
+night," expostulated Antiochus; "let us walk back to the farmhouse,
+my lord."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cæsar did not deign to give him an answer. He deliberately
+descended, clasped his pænula over his shoulders, and bade
+the German make the best of his way back to Ravenna. The
+peasant boy, he declared, could lead them on foot until dawn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The freedman groaned, but he was helpless. The guide,
+bearing the lantern, convoyed them out of the highroad, to
+strike what he assured them was a less circuitous route; and
+soon had his travellers, now plunged in quagmires that in daylight
+would have seemed impassable, now clambering over
+stocks and stones, now leaping broad ditches. At last, after
+thoroughly exhausting the patience of his companions, the
+wretched fellow confessed that he had missed the by-path, and
+indeed did not know the way back.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Antiochus was now too frightened to declare his warnings confirmed.
+Drusus liked the prospect of a halt on these swampy,
+miasmic fields little enough, But again the proconsul was all
+resources. With almost omniscience he led his companions
+through blind mazes of fallow land and stubble fields: came
+upon a brook at the only point where there appeared to be any
+stepping-stones; and at length, just as the murky clouds seemed
+about to lift, and the first beams of the moon struggled out
+into the black chaos, the wanderers saw a multitude of fires
+twinkling before them, and knew that they had come upon the
+rear cohort of the thirteenth legion, on its way to Ariminum.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The challenge of the sentry was met by a quick return of the
+watchword, but the effusively loyal soldier was bidden to hold
+his peace and not disturb his comrades.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What time is it?" inquired his general. The fellow
+replied it lacked one hour of morn. Cæsar skirted the sleeping
+camp, and soon came out again on the highroad. There
+was a faint paleness in the east; a single lark sang from out
+the mist of grey ether overhead; an ox of the baggage train
+rattled his tethering chain and bellowed. A soft, damp river
+fog touched on Drusus's face. Suddenly an early horseman,
+coming at a moderate gallop, was heard down the road. In the
+stillness, the pounding of his steed crept slowly nearer and
+nearer; then, as he was almost on them, came the hollow
+clatter of the hoofs upon the planks of a bridge. <i>Cæsar
+stopped.</i> Drusus felt himself clutched by the arm so tightly
+that the grasp almost meant pain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Do you hear? Do you see?" muttered the Imperator's
+voice in his ear. "The bridge, the river—we have reached
+it!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Your excellency—" began Drusus, sorely at a loss.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No compliments, this is the Rubicon; the boundaries of
+Cisalpine Gaul and Italy. On this side I am still the Proconsul—not
+as yet rightly deposed. On the other—Cæsar,
+the Outlaw, the Insurgent, the Enemy of his Country, whose
+hand is against every man, every man's hand against him.
+What say you? Speak! speak quickly! Shall I cross? Shall
+I turn back?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Imperator," said the young man, struggling to collect his
+wits and realize the gravity of his own words, "if you did not
+intend to cross, why send the legion over to commence the
+invasion? Why harangue them, if you had no test to place
+upon their loyalty?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Because," was his answer, "I would not through my own
+indecision throw away my chance to strike. But the troops
+can be recalled. It is not too late. No blood has been shed.
+I am merely in a position to strike if so I decide. No,—nothing
+is settled."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus had never felt greater embarrassment. Before he
+could make reply, Cæsar had bidden Antiochus and the peasant
+boy remain in the roadway, and had led the young man down
+the embankment that ran sloping toward the river. The light
+was growing stronger every moment, though the mist still
+hung heavy and dank. Below their feet the slender stream—it
+was the end of the season—ran with a monotonous gurgle,
+now and then casting up a little fleck of foam, as it rolled by
+a small boulder in its bed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Imperator," said Drusus, while Cæsar pressed his hand
+tighter and tighter, "why advise with an inexperienced young
+man like myself? Why did you send Curio away? I have
+no wisdom to offer; nor dare proffer it, if such I had."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Quintus Drusus," replied Cæsar, sinking rather wearily
+down upon the dry, dying grass, "if I had needed the counsel
+of a soldier, I should have waited until Marcus Antonius
+arrived; if I had needed that of a politician, I was a fool to
+send away Curio; if I desire the counsel of one who is, as yet,
+neither a man of the camp, nor a man of the Forum, but who
+can see things with clear eyes, can tell what may be neither
+glorious nor expedient, but what will be the will,"—and here
+the Imperator hesitated,—"the will of the gods, tell me to
+whom I shall go."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus was silent; the other continued;—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Listen, Quintus Drusus. I do not believe in blind fate.
+We were not given wills only to have them broken. The
+function of a limb is not to be maimed, nor severed from the
+body. A limb is to serve a man; just so a man and his actions
+are to serve the ends of a power higher and nobler than he.
+If he refuse to serve that power, he is like the mortifying
+limb,—a thing of evil to be cut off. And this is true of all
+of us; we all have some end to serve, we are not created for
+no purpose." Cæsar paused. When he began again it was
+in a different tone of voice. "I have brought you with me,
+because I know you are intelligent, are humane, love your
+country, and can make sacrifices for her; because you are
+my friend and to a certain extent share my destiny; because
+you are too young to have become overprejudiced, and calloused
+to pet foibles and transgressions. Therefore I took
+you with me, having put off the final decision to the last possible
+instant. And now I desire your counsel."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"How can I counsel peace!" replied Drusus, warming to a
+sense of the situation. "Is not Italy in the hand of tyrants?
+Is not Pompeius the tool of coarse schemers? Do they not
+pray for proscriptions and confiscations and abolition of debt?
+Will there be any peace, any happiness in life, so long as we
+call ourselves freemen, yet endure the chains of a despotism
+worse than that of the Parthians?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ah! amice!" said Cæsar, twisting the long limp grass,
+"every enemy is a tyrant, if he has the upper hand. Consider,
+what will the war be? Blood, the blood of the noblest Romans!
+The overturning of time-honoured institutions! A shock that
+will make the world to tremble, kings be laid low, cities annihilated!
+East, west, north, south—all involved—so great has
+our Roman world become!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And are there not wrongs, abuses, Imperator, which cry for
+vengeance and for righting?" replied Drusus, vehemently.
+"Since the fall of Carthage, have not the fears of Scipio
+Æmilianus almost come true: Troy has fallen, Carthage has
+fallen; has not Rome almost fallen, fallen not by the might of
+her enemies, but by the decay of her morals, the degeneracy of
+her statesmen? What is the name of liberty, without the
+semblance! Is it liberty for a few mighty families to enrich
+themselves, while the Republic groans? Is it liberty for the
+law courts to have their price, for the provinces to be the farms
+of a handful of nobles?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cæsar shook his head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You do not know what you say. This is no moment for
+declamation. Every man has his own life to live, his own
+death to die. Our intellects cannot assure us of any consciousness
+the instant that breath has left our bodies. It is then as
+if we had never hoped, had never feared; it is rest, peace.
+Quintus Drusus, I have dared many things in my life. I defied
+Sulla; it was boyish impetuosity. I took the unpopular and
+perilous side when Catilina's confederates were sent to their
+deaths; it was the ardour of a young politician. I defied the
+rage of the Senate, while I was prætor; still more hot madness.
+I faced death a thousand times in Gaul, against the
+Nervii, in the campaign with Vercingetorix; all this was the
+mere courage of the common soldier. But it is not of death I
+am afraid; be it death on the field of battle, or death at the
+hands of the executioner, should I fall into the power of my
+enemies, I fear myself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You ask me to explain?" went on the general, without
+pausing for a question. "Hearken! I am a man, you are a
+man, our enemies are men. I have slain a hundred thousand
+men in Gaul. Cruel? No, for had they lived the great designs
+which the deity wills to accomplish in that country could not
+be executed! But then my mind was at rest. I said, 'Let
+these men die,' and no Nemesis has required their blood at my
+hands. What profit these considerations? The Republic is
+nothing but a name, without substance or reality. It is doomed
+to fall. Sulla was a fool to abdicate the dictatorship. Why
+did he not establish a despotism, and save us all this turmoil of
+politics? But Lentulus Crus, Pompeius, Cato, Scipio—they
+are men with as much ambition, as much love of life, as myself.
+The Republic will fall into their hands. Why will it be worse
+off than in mine? Why shed rivers of blood? After death
+one knows no regrets. If I were dead, what would it matter
+to me if obloquy was imputed to my name, if my enemies
+triumphed, if the world went to chaos over my grave. It
+would not mean so much as a single evil dream in my perpetual
+slumber."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cæsar was no longer resting on the bank. He was pacing to
+and fro, with rapid, nervous steps, crushing the dry twigs under
+his shoes, pressing his hands together behind his back, knitting
+and unknitting his fingers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus knew enough to be aware that he was present as a
+spectator of that most terrible of all conflicts—a strong man's
+wrestle with his own misgivings. To say something, to say
+anything, that would ease the shock of the contest—that was
+the young man's compelling desire; but he felt as helpless as
+though he, single handed, confronted ten legions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But your friends, Imperator," he faltered, "think of them!
+They have made sacrifices for you. They trust in you. Do not
+abandon them to their enemies!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cæsar stopped in his impetuous pacings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Look here," he exclaimed, almost fiercely, "you wish to be
+happy. You are still very young; life is sweet. You have just
+forsaken wealth, friends, love, because you have a fantastic
+attachment for my cause. You will live to repent of your
+boyish decision. You will wish to win back all you have lost.
+Well, I will give you the chance; do what I tell you, and you
+shall ride into Rome the hero of Senate and people! The
+consuls will be to you all smiles. Pompeius will canvass for
+you if you desire to become a candidate for curule office
+before you reach the legal age limit. Cicero will extol your
+name in an immortal oration, in which he will laud your deed
+above the slaying of the dangerous demagogue Mælius by
+Servilius Ahala. Will you do as I shall bid you?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus's eyes had been riveted on those of the general. He
+saw that at Cæsar's side was girded a long slender dagger in
+an embossed silver sheath. He saw the Imperator draw out
+the blade halfway, then point off into the river where the
+water ran sluggishly through a single deep mist-shaded pool.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Do you understand?" went on Cæsar, as calmly as though
+he had been expounding a problem of metaphysics. "You can
+take this ring of mine, and by its aid go through the whole
+legion, and obtain the best horses for flight, before anything is
+discovered. Your conscience need not trouble you. You will
+only have done as I earnestly requested."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The cold sweat started to Drusus's forehead, his head swam;
+he knew that it was more than the mist of the river-fog that
+drifted before his eyes. Then, filled with a sudden impulse,
+he sprang on the general and wrenched the dagger from its
+sheath.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Here!" cried Cæsar, tearing back the mantle from his
+breast.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"There!" cried Drusus, and the bright blade glinted once
+in the air, and splashed down into the dark ripple. He caught
+the Imperator about the arms, and flung his head on the other's
+neck.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh! Imperator," he cried, "do not desert us. Do not
+desert the Commonwealth! Do not hand us back to new ruin,
+new tyrants, new wars! Strike, strike, and so be merciful!
+Surely the gods have not led you thus far, and no farther!
+But yesterday you said they were leading us. To-day they
+still must guide! To you it has been given to pull down and
+to build up. Fail not! If there be gods, trust in them! If
+there be none slay me first, then do whatever you will!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cæsar shook himself. His voice was harsh with command.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Unhand me! I must accomplish my own fate!" and then,
+in a totally different tone, "Quintus Drusus, I have been a
+coward for the first time in my life. Are you ashamed of your
+general?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I never admired you more, Imperator."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Thank you. And will you go aside a little, please? I will
+need a few moments for meditation."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus hesitated. His eyes wandered off to the river. In
+one spot it was quite deep.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Phui!</i>" said the proconsul, carelessly, "I am too brave for
+such a venture now. Leave me on my embankment, like
+Diogenes and his tub."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus clambered part way up the slope, and seated himself
+under a stunted oak tree. The light was growing stronger.
+The east was overshot with ripples of crimson and orange,
+here blending into lines each more gorgeous than a moment
+before. The wind was chasing in from the bosom of Adria,
+and driving the fleeting mists up the little valley. The hills
+were springing out of the gloom, the thrushes were swinging
+in the boughs overhead, and pouring out their morning song.
+Out from the camp the bugles were calling the soldiers for the
+march; the baggage trains were rumbling over the bridge.
+But still below on the marge lingered the solitary figure; now
+walking, now motionless, now silent, now speaking in indistinct
+monologue. Drusus overheard only an occasional word, "Pompeius,
+poor tool of knaves! I pity him! I must show mercy
+to Cato if I can! Sulla is not to be imitated! The Republic is
+fallen; what I put in its place must not fall." Then, after a
+long pause, "So this was to be my end in life—to destroy the
+Commonwealth; what is destined, is destined!" And a
+moment later Drusus saw the general coming up the embankment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We shall find horses, I think, a little way over the bridge,"
+said Cæsar; "the sun is nearly risen. It is nine miles to Ariminum;
+there we can find refreshment."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Imperator's brow was clear, his step elastic, the fatigues
+of the night seemed to have only added to his vigorous good
+humour. Antiochus met them. The good man evidently was
+relieved of a load of anxiety. The three approached the
+bridge; as they did so, a little knot of officers of the rear cohort,
+Asinius Pollio and others, rode up and saluted. The golden
+rim of the sun was just glittering above the eastern lowlands.
+Cæsar put foot upon the bridge. Drusus saw the blood recede
+from his face, his muscles contract, his frame quiver. The
+general turned to his officers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Gentlemen," he said quietly, "we may still retreat; but if
+we once pass this little bridge, nothing is left for us but to
+fight it out in arms."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The group was silent, each waiting for the other to speak. At
+this instant a mountebank piper sitting by the roadway struck
+up his ditty, and a few idle soldiers and wayfaring shepherds
+ran up to him to catch the music. The man flung down his
+pipe, snatched a trumpet from a bugler, and, springing up, blew
+a shrill blast. It was the "advance." Cæsar turned again to
+his officers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Gentlemen," he said, "let us go where the omens of the
+gods and the iniquity of our enemies call us! <i>The die is now
+cast!"</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And he strode over the bridge, looking neither to the right
+hand nor to the left. As his feet touched the dust of the road
+beyond, the full sun touched the horizon, the landscape was
+bathed with living, quivering gold, and the brightness shed
+itself over the steadfast countenance, not of Cæsar the Proconsul,
+but of Cæsar the Insurgent.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Rubicon was crossed!
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h2 id="ch17">CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+<h2>THE PROFITABLE CAREER OF GABINIUS</h2>
+
+
+<p>
+Very wretched had been the remnants of Dumnorix's band
+of gladiators, when nightfall had covered them from pursuit
+by the enraged Prænestians. And for some days the defeated
+assassins led a desperate struggle for existence on the uplands
+above the Latin plain. Then, when the hue and cry aroused
+by their mad exploit had died away, Dumnorix was able to
+reorganize his men into a regular horde of banditti. In the
+sheltered valleys of the upper Apennines they found moderately
+safe and comfortable fastnesses, and soon around them
+gathered a number of unattached highwaymen, who sought
+protection and profit in allying themselves with the band led
+by the redoubtable lanista. But if Dumnorix was the right arm
+of this noble company, Publius Gabinius was its head. The
+Roman had sorely missed the loss of the thousand and one
+luxuries that made his former life worth living. But, as
+has been said, he had become sated with almost every current
+amusement and vice; and when the freshness of the physical
+hardships of his new career was over, he discovered that he
+had just begun to taste joys of which he would not soon grow
+weary.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so for a while the bandits ranged over the mountains,
+infested the roads, stopped travellers to ease them of their
+purses, or even dashed down on outlying country houses, which
+they plundered, and left burning as beacons of their handiwork.
+Even this occupation after a time, however, grew
+monotonous to Gabinius. To be sure, a goodly pile of money
+was accumulating in the hut where he and Dumnorix, his fellow-leader,
+made their headquarters; and the bandits carried
+away with them to their stronghold a number of slave and
+peasant girls, who aided to make the camp the scene of
+enough riot and orgy to satisfy the most graceless; but
+Gabinius had higher ambitions than these. He could not
+spend the gold on dinner parties, or bronze statuettes; and
+the maidens picked up in the country made a poor contrast to
+his city sweethearts. Gabinius was planning a great piece of
+<i>finesse</i>. He had not forgotten Fabia; least of all had he forgotten
+how he had had her as it were in his very arms, and
+let her vanish from him as though she had been a "shade" of
+thin air. If he must be a bandit, he would be an original one.
+A Vestal taken captive by robbers! A Vestal imprisoned in
+the hold of banditti, forced to become the consort, lawful or
+unlawful, of the brigands' chief! The very thought grew and
+grew in Gabinius's imagination, until he could think of little
+else. Dumnorix and his comrades trusted him almost implicitly;
+he had been successful as their schemer and leader in
+several dark enterprises, that proved his craft if not his valour.
+He would not fail in this.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+An overmastering influence was drawing him to Rome. He
+took one or two fellow-spirits in his company, and ventured
+over hill and valley to the suburbs of the city on a reconnoissance,
+while by night he ventured inside the walls.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The capital he found in the ferment that preceded the
+expulsion of the tribunes, on the fateful seventh of January.
+Along with many another evil-doer, he and his followers
+filched more than one wallet during the commotions and
+tumults. He dared not show himself very openly. His crime
+had been too notorious to be passed over, even if committed
+against a doomed Cæsarian like Drusus; besides, he was utterly
+without any political influence that would stand him in good
+stead. But around the Atrium Vestæ he lurked in the dark,
+spying out the land and waiting for a glimpse of Fabia. Once
+only his eye caught a white-robed stately figure appearing in
+the doorway toward evening, a figure which instinct told him
+was the object of his passion. He had to restrain himself, or
+he would have thrown off all concealment then and there,
+and snatched her away in his arms. He saved himself that
+folly, but his quest seemed hopeless. However weak the
+patrol in other parts of the city, there was always an ample
+watch around the Atrium Vestæ.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Gabinius saw that his stay around Rome was only likely to
+bring him into the clutches of the law, and reluctantly he
+started back, by a night journey in a stolen wagon, for the
+safer hill country beyond the Anio. But he was not utterly
+cast down. He had overheard the street talk of two equites,
+whom in more happy days he had known as rising politicians.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I hope the consuls are right," the first had said, "that
+Cæsar's army will desert him."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Perpol</i>," responded the other, "your wish is mine! If the
+proconsul really <i>does</i> advance, nothing will stand between him
+and the city!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Gabinius kept his own counsel. "In times of war and confusion,
+the extremity of the many is the opportunity of the
+few," was the maxim he repeated to himself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When he was well out of the city and moving up the Via
+Salaria, the trot and rattle of an approaching carriage drifted
+up upon him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Shall we stop and strip them?" asked Dromo, one of the
+accompanying brigands, in a matter-of-fact tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ay," responded Gabinius, reining in his own plodding
+draught-horse, and pulling out a short sword. "Let us take
+what the Fates send!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A moment later and Servius Flaccus was being tumbled
+out of his comfortable travelling carriage, while one brigand
+stood guard over him with drawn sabre, a second held at bay
+his trembling driver and whimpering valet, and a third rifled
+his own person and his conveyance. There was a bright moon,
+and the luckless traveller's gaze fastened itself on the third
+bandit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"By all the gods, Gabinius!" cried Servius, forgetting to
+lisp his Greekisms, "don't you know me? Let me go, for old
+friendship's sake!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Gabinius turned from his task, and held to his nose a glass
+scent-bottle he had found in the vehicle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ah! amice," he responded deliberately, "I really did not
+anticipate the pleasure of meeting you thus! You are returning
+very late to Rome from your Fidenæ villa. But this is
+very excellent oil of rose!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Enough of this, man!" expostulated the other. "The
+jest has gone quite far enough. Make this horrible fellow
+lower that sword."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Not until I have finished making up my package of little
+articles," replied Gabinius, "and," suiting the action to the
+word, "relieved your fingers of the weight of those very heavy
+rings."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Gabinius," roared Servius, in impotent fury, "what are you
+doing? Are you a common bandit?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"A bandit, my excellent friend," was his answer, "but not
+a common one; no ordinary footpad could strip the noble
+Servius Flaccus without a harder struggle."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Servius burst into lamentations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My box of unguents! My precious rings! My money-bag!
+You are not leaving me one valuable! Have you sunk as low
+as this?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Really," returned the robber, "I have no time to convince
+you that the brigand's life is the only one worth living. You
+do not care to join our illustrious brotherhood? No? Well,
+I must put these trinkets and fat little wallet in my own wagon.
+I leave you your cloak out of old friendship's sake. Really
+you must not blame me. Remember Euripides's line:—
+</p>
+
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>
+"'Money can warp the judgment of a God.'
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+Thus I err in good company. And with this, <i>vale!</i>"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Flaccus was left with his menials to clamber back into his
+plundered carriage. Gabinius drove his horse at topmost
+speed, and before morning was saluted by the remainder of
+the banditti, near their mountain stronghold. Dumnorix met
+him with news.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It is rumoured in the country towns that Cæsar is driving
+all before him in the north, and will be down on Rome in less
+days than I have fingers."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Gabinius clapped his hands.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And we will be down on Rome, and away from it, before a
+legionary shows himself at the gates!"
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 id="ch18">CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+<h2>HOW POMPEIUS STAMPED WITH HIS FEET</h2>
+
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+A messenger to the consuls! He had ridden fast and
+furious, his horse was flecked with foam and straining on his
+last burst of speed. On over the Mulvian Bridge he thundered;
+on across the Campus Martius; on to the Porta Ratumena—with
+all the hucksters and street rabble howling and
+chasing at his heels.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"News! News for the consuls!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What news?" howled old Læca, who was never backward
+in a street press.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Terrible!" shouted the messenger, drawing rein, "Cæsar
+is sweeping all before him! All Thermus's troops have deserted
+him at Iguvium. Attius Varus has evacuated Auximum,
+and his troops too have dispersed, or joined Cæsar. All
+the towns are declaring for the enemy. <i>Vah!</i> He will be
+here in a few days at most! I am the last of the relay with
+the news. I have hardly breathed from Eretum!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And the courier plunged the spur into his hard-driven mount,
+and forced his way into the city, through the mob. "Cæsar
+advancing on Rome!" The Jewish pedlers took up the tale,
+and carried it to the remotest tenement houses of Janiculum.
+The lazy street-idlers shouted it shrilly. Læca, catching sight
+of Lucius Ahenobarbus, just back from Baiæ, and a little knot
+of kindred spirits about him, was in an instant pouring it all
+in their ears. The news spread, flew, grew. The bankers on
+the Via Sacra closed their credit books, raised their shutters,
+and sent trusted clerks off to suburban villas, with due orders
+how to bury and hide weighty money-bags. The news came
+to that very noble lady Claudia, sister-in-law of the consul,
+just at the moment when she was discussing the latest style
+of hairdressing with the most excellent Herennia; and the
+cheeks of those patrician ladies grew pale, and they forgot
+whether or not it was proper to wear ivory pins or a jewel-set
+head-band, at the dinner-party of Lucius Piso that evening.
+The news came to Lentulus Crus while he was wrangling with
+Domitius as to who should be Cæsar's successor as Pontifex
+Maximus—and those distinguished statesmen found other
+things to think of.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The news flew and grew. The noble senators overheard
+their slaves whispering,—how it was rumoured on the street
+or in the Forum that Cæsar was in full advance on the city,
+that his cavalry were close to the gates. Cæsar at the gates!
+Why had they not remembered how rapidly he could advance?
+Why had they trusted the assurance of the traitor
+Labienus that the legions would desert their Imperator? Resist?
+By what means? The walls were walls only in name;
+the city had long outgrown them, spreading through a thousand
+breaches. There was not a trained soldier this side of
+Capua, whither Pompeius had departed only the day before to
+take command of the Apulian legions. Cæsar was coming!
+Cæsar—whose tribunes the oligarchs had chased from the
+Senate! Cæsar—whom they had proclaimed a rebel and public
+enemy! He was coming like a second Marius, who thirty-eight
+years before had swept down on Rome, and taken a
+terrible vengeance on enemies less bitter to him than they to
+the great Julian. "<i>Moriendum est</i>,"<a name="r157" href="#fn157">[157]</a> had been the only reply
+to every plea for mercy. And would Cæsar now be more
+lenient to those who had aimed to blast his honour and shed
+his blood?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Evening drew on, but the calamity was only delayed.
+There was not a soldier to confront the invader. Few men
+that night could sleep. Rich and poor alike, all trembled.
+To their imaginations their foe was an ogre, implacable,
+unsparing. "Remember how it was in Sulla's day," croaked
+Læca to Ahenobarbus. "Remember how he proscribed forty
+senators and sixteen hundred equites with one stroke. A fine
+example for Cæsar! And Drusus, who is with the rebels, is
+little likely to say a good word in your behalf, eh?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The gods blast your tongue!" cried the young man, wringing
+his hands in terror; for that Drusus would ruin him, if
+he gained the chance, Lucius had not the least doubt in the
+world.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So passed the night, in fear and panic. When morning
+came everything save flight seemed suicide. There was a
+great government treasure in the Temple of Saturn. The
+Senate had voted that the money be delivered to Pompeius.
+But the consuls were too demoralized to take away a denarius.
+They left the great hoard under mere lock and key—a present
+to their bitterest enemy. Then began the great exodus.
+Hardly a man had done more than gather a few valuables
+together: property, children, wives—all these were left to
+the avenger. Down the Via Appia, toward Campania,
+where was their only safety, poured the panic-stricken
+company. Every carriage, every horse, was in service.
+The hard-driven chariots of the consuls were the tokens
+merely of the swiftest flight. Lentulus Crus fled; Caius Marcellus,
+his colleague, was close behind; Domitius fled, with
+his sons; Cato fled, ironically exclaiming that they would
+have to leave everything to Pompeius now, "for those who
+can raise up great evils can best allay them." Favonius fled,
+whose first words, when he met the Magnus, were to command
+him to "stamp on the ground for the legions so sorely needed."
+Piso, Scipio, and many another fled—their guilty hearts adding
+wings to their goings. Cicero fled—gazing in cynical disgust
+at the panic and incompetence, yet with a sword of Damocles,
+as he believed, hanging over his head also. "I fear that
+Cæsar will be a very Phalaris, and that we may expect the
+very worst," he wrote to his intimate friend Atticus, who,
+safe from harm and turmoil, was dwelling under the calm
+Athenian sky. A great fraction of the Senate departed; only
+those stayed who felt that their loyalty to the advancing
+Imperator was beyond dispute, or who deemed themselves too
+insignificant to fall beneath his displeasure. In the hour of
+crisis the old ties of religion and superstition reasserted themselves.
+Senators and magistrates, who had deemed it a polite
+avocation to mock at the gods and deny the existence of any
+absolute ethical standards, now, before they climbed into
+their carriages for flight, went, with due ritual, into the
+temples of the gods of their fathers, and swore hecatombs of
+milk-white Umbrian steers to Capitoline Jove, if the awful
+deity would restore them to the native land they then were
+quitting. And as they went down from the temples and
+hastened toward the gates, friends and clients who could not
+join their flight crowded after them, sighing, lamenting, and
+moaning. Out over the Campagna they streamed, this company
+of senators, prætors, consuls—men who had voted thrones
+to kings, and decreed the deposition of monarchs; whose
+personal wealth was princely, whose lineage the noblest in the
+world, whose ancestors had beaten down Etruscan, Gaul, Samnite,
+and Carthaginian, that their posterity might enjoy the
+glory of unequalled empire. And these descendants fled, fled
+not before any foe, but before their own guilty consciences;
+abandoning the city of their fathers when not a sword had
+flashed against her gates! The war had been of their making;
+to send Cæsar into outlawry the aristocracy had laboured ten
+long years. And now the noble lords were exiles, wanderers
+among the nations. To Capua they went, to find small comfort
+there, and thence to join Pompeius in further flight beyond
+the seas to Greece. But we anticipate. Enough that neither
+Lentulus Crus, nor Domitius, nor Cato, nor the great Magnus
+himself, ever saw Rome again.
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+Agias stood in a shop by the Sacred Way watching the stream
+of fugitives pouring down toward the Porta Capena. At his
+side was a person whom a glance proclaimed to be a fellow-Greek.
+The stranger was perhaps fifty, his frame presented
+a faultless picture of symmetry and manly vigour, great of
+stature, the limbs large but not ungainly. His features were
+regular, but possessed just enough prominence to make them
+free from the least tinge of weakness. The Greek's long, thick,
+dark but grey-streaked beard streamed down upon his breast;
+his hair, of similar hue, was long, and tossed back over his
+shoulders in loose curls. His dress was rich, yet rude, his
+chiton and cloak short, but of choice Milesian wool and dyed
+scarlet and purple; around his neck dangled a very heavy
+gold chain set with conspicuously blazing jewels. The ankles,
+however, were bare, and the sandals of the slightest and meanest
+description. The stranger must once have been of a light,
+not to say fair, complexion; but cheeks, throat, arms, and feet
+were all deeply bronzed, evidently by prolonged exposure to
+wind and weather. Agias and his companion watched the
+throng of panic-struck exiles. The younger Greek was pointing
+out, with the complacency of familiar knowledge, the
+names and dignities of the illustrious fugitives.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yonder goes Cato," he was saying; "mark his bitter
+scowl! There goes Marcus Marcellus, the consular. There
+drives the chariot of Lucius Domitius, Cæsar's great enemy."
+And Agias stopped, for his friend had seized his arm with a
+sudden grasp, crushing as iron. "Why, by all the gods,
+Demetrius, why are you staring at him that way?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"By Zeus!" muttered the other, "if I had only my sword!
+It would be easy to stab him, and then escape in this crowd!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Stab him!" cried Agias. "Demetrius, good cousin, control
+yourself. You are not on the deck of your trireme, with all
+your men about you. Why should you be thus sanguinary,
+when you see Lucius Domitius? Why hate him more than
+any other Roman?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The consular, unaware of the threat against him, but with
+a compelling fear of Cæsar's Gallic cavalry lending strength
+to the arm with which he plied the whip—for the law against
+driving inside the city no man respected that day—whirled
+out of sight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Demetrius still strained at his cousin's arm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Listen, Agias," he said, still hoarsely. "Only yesterday I
+ran upon you by chance in the crowd. We have many things
+to tell one another, chiefly I to tell you. Why do I hate
+Lucius Domitius? Why should you hate him? Who made
+you a slave and me an outlaw? Your father died bankrupt;
+you know it was said that Philias, his partner, ruined
+him. That was truth, but not the whole truth. Philias was
+under deep obligations to a certain Roman then in the East,
+who knew of several crimes Philias had committed, crimes
+that would bring him to the cross if discovered. Do you
+understand?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Hardly," said Agias, still bewildered. "I was very young
+then."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I will go on. It was shortly before Pompeius returned
+to Rome from the East. Your father had charge of the banking
+firm in Alexandria, Philias of the branch at Antioch. I
+was a clerk in the Antioch banking-house. I knew that Philias
+was misusing his partner's name and credit. The Roman
+whom I have mentioned knew it too, and had a supple Greek
+confidant who shared his spoils and gave the touches to his
+schemes. He had good cause to know: he was levying blackmail
+on Philias. At last a crisis came; the defalcation could
+be concealed no longer. Philias was duly punished; he was
+less guilty than he seemed. But the Roman—who had forced
+from him the money—he was high on the staff of the proconsul—let
+his confederate and tool suffer for his own fault.
+He kept his peace. I would not have kept mine; I would not
+have let the real ruiner of my uncle escape. But the Roman had
+me seized, with the aid of his Greek ally; he charged me with
+treasonable correspondence with the Parthians. He, through
+his influence with the proconsul, had me bound to the oar as
+a galley slave for life. I would have been executed but for
+another Roman, of the governor's suite, who was my friend.
+He pleaded for my life; he believed me innocent. He saved
+my life—on what terms! But that is not all he did. He
+bribed my guards; I escaped and turned outlaw. I joined
+the last remnants of the Cilician pirates, the few free mariners
+who have survived Pompeius's raid. And here I am in
+Rome with one of my ships, disguised as a trader, riding at
+the river wharf."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And the name of the Roman who ruined you and my
+father?" said Agias.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Was Lucius Domitius. The friend who saved me was
+Sextus Drusus, son of Marcus Drusus, the reformer. And if
+I do not recompense them both as they deserve, I am not
+Demetrius the pirate, captain of seven ships!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You will never recompense Sextus Drusus," remarked
+Agias, quietly. "He has been dead, slain in Gaul, these five
+years."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Such is the will of the gods," said Demetrius, looking
+down.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But he has left a son."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ah! What sort of a man?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The noblest of all noble Romans. He is the Quintus
+Drusus who saved my life, as last night I told you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Mithras be praised! The name is so common among these
+Latins that I did not imagine any connection when you mentioned
+it. What can I do to serve him?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Immediately, nothing. He is with Cæsar, and, as you
+see, the enemies of the Imperator are not likely, at present,
+to work his friends much mischief. Yet it is singular that
+his chief enemy and yours are so near akin. Lucius Ahenobarbus,
+son of Domitius, is thirsting for Drusus's blood."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"If I had my sword!" muttered Demetrius, clapping his
+hand to his thigh. "It is not too late to run after the fugitives!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Come, come," remonstrated Agias, feeling that his newly
+found cousin was indeed a fearful and wonderful man after
+twelve years of lawless and godless freebooter's life. "At
+my lodgings we will talk it all over; and there will be
+time enough to scheme the undoing of Domitius and all his
+family."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And with these words he led the sanguinary sea-king away.
+</p>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+Agias indeed found in Demetrius a perfect mine of bloody
+romance and adventure. It had been the banking clerk's
+misfortune, not his fault, that every man's hand had been
+against him and his against every man. Demetrius had been
+declared an outlaw to Roman authority; and Roman authority
+at that time stretched over very nearly every quarter of the
+civilized world. Demetrius had been to India, to intercept the
+Red Sea traders. He had been beyond the Pillars of Hercules
+and set foot on those then half-mythical islands of the Canaries.
+He had plundered a hundred merchantmen; he had fought a
+score of Roman government galleys; he had been principal or
+accessory to the taking of ten thousand lives. All this had
+been forced upon him, because there was no tolerable spot on
+the planet where he might settle down and be free from the
+grasp of punishment for a crime he had never committed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Demetrius had boldly come up to Rome on a light undecked
+yacht.<a name="r158" href="#fn158">[158]</a> The harbor masters had been given to understand
+that the captain of the craft was an Asiatic princeling, who
+was visiting the capital of the world out of a quite legitimate
+curiosity. If they had had any doubts, they accepted extremely
+large fees and said nothing. The real object of the venture
+was to dispose of a large collection of rare gems and other
+valuables that Demetrius had collected in the course of his
+wanderings. Despite the perturbed state of the city, the
+worthy pirate had had little difficulty in arranging with certain
+wealthy jewellers, who asked no questions, when they bought,
+at a very large discount, bargains of a most satisfactory character.
+And so it came to pass, by the merest luck, that
+the two cousins were thrown together in a crowd, and partly
+Agias, through his dim childish recollections of his unfortunate
+relative, and partly Demetrius, through memories of his uncle's
+boy and the close resemblance of the lad to his father, had
+been prompted first to conversation, then to mutual inquiries,
+then to recognition.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Demetrius had no intention of leaving Rome for a few days.
+Under existing circumstances the chances of his arrest were
+not worth considering. His cousin was eager to show him all
+the sights; and the freebooter was glad of a little relaxation
+from his roving life, glad to forget for an instant that his
+country was his squadron, his rights at law were his cutlass.
+Moreover, he had taken a vast liking to Agias; deeply dipped
+in blood himself, he dared not desire his cousin to join him in
+his career of violence—yet he could not part with the bright,
+genial lad so hastily. Agias needed no entreaties, therefore, to
+induce his cousin to enjoy his hospitality.
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>III</h3>
+
+<p>
+Fabia the Vestal was in direful perplexity. Her heart had
+gone with Drusus in his flight to Ravenna; she had wished
+herself beside him, to be a man, able to fight a man's battles
+and win a man's glory. For the first time in her life the quiet
+routine of the Temple service brought her no contentment; for
+the first time she felt herself bound to a career that could not
+satisfy. She was restless and moody. The younger Vestals,
+whose attendance on the sacred fire and care of the Temple
+she oversaw, wondered at her exacting petulance. Little Livia
+brought her aunt to her senses, by asking why she, Fabia, did
+not love her any more. The lady summoned all her strength
+of character, and resumed her outward placidity. She knew
+that Drusus was safe with Cæsar, and exposed only to the
+ordinary chances of war. She became more at ease as each
+successive messenger came into the city, bearing the tidings of
+the Gallic proconsul's advance. Too innocent herself of the
+political turmoils of the day to decide upon the merits of the
+parties, her hopes and wishes had gone with those of her
+nephew; so pure and unquestioning was her belief that he
+would espouse only the right. And when the great panic came;
+when trembling consulars and pallid magistrates rushed to the
+Temple of Vesta to proffer their last hurried vows, before
+speeding away to Capua, their refuge; Fabia stood all day
+beside the altar, stately, gracious, yet awe-inspiring, the fitting
+personification of the benignant Hearth Goddess, who was
+above the petty passions of mortals and granted to each an
+impartial favour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Yet Fabia was sorely distressed, and that too on the very
+day of the great exodus of the Senate. She had heard for
+some time past rumours of the depredations of a certain band
+of robbers upon the Sabine and Æquian country. It was said
+that a gang of bandits, headed by a gigantic Gaul, had
+plundered some farms near Carsioli and infested the mountain
+regions round about. Fabia had connected this gang and its
+chieftain with Dumnorix and the remnant of his gladiators,
+who escaped after their disastrous affray at Præneste. As for
+Publius Gabinius, who had on one occasion given her such distress,
+nothing had been heard or seen of him since the Præneste
+affair. It was generally believed, however, that he was still
+with Dumnorix. And a few days before the panic in the city,
+Fabia had received a letter. A strange slave had left it at the
+Atrium Vestæ, and had gone away without explanations. It
+ran thus:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"To the very noble Vestal, the Lady Fabia, greeting:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Though I am now so unfortunate as to be barred from the
+doors of all law-abiding men, do not imagine this will forever
+continue. In the confusion and readjustments of war, and the
+calamities of many, the affairs of some, one time enemies of
+Fortune, come to a happy issue. Do not say that Mars may
+not lead Amor and Hymen in his train. All things come to
+them who wait. I wait. Remember the life you spend in the
+Temple is no longer obligatory. Be no cage bird who will not
+fly out into the sunlight when the door is opened freely. Be
+surprised and angry at nothing. <i>Vale</i>."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was no date, no signature. The hand was distorted,
+evidently for disguise. Fabia was in a dilemma. She did not
+need to be told that in all probability—though she had no
+proof—the writer was Gabinius. She was extremely reluctant
+to tell any one of her escape from his clutches in the villa by
+the Appian Way. However, some confidant seemed necessary.
+She knew that Fonteia, the senior Vestal, the Maxima, would
+never treat her other than as a sister, and to her she read the
+letter and imparted her story and fears. Fonteia did not
+regard the matter in a very serious light. She was herself an
+old woman, grown grey in the service of Vesta. She said that
+Fabia had been most fortunate to remain in the Temple service
+so long as she had and not be harassed by more than one
+impious and overbold suitor. The only thing to do was to be
+careful and avoid anything that would give false appearances.
+As for Fabia's fears that Gabinius would attempt to carry her
+away perforce, as he had perhaps treated earlier sweethearts,
+Fonteia scoffed at the suggestion. The Atrium Vestæ was in
+the heart of the city; there was a constant patrol on duty.
+For a man to enter the Building at night meant the death penalty.
+Whosoever did violence to a Vestal fell under a religious
+curse; he was a <i>homo sacer</i>, a "sacred man," a victim devoted
+to the gods, whom it was a pious deed to slay. And thus comforted,
+with the assurance that the whole power of the Republic
+would rise for her personal defence, Fabia was fain to put
+the disquieting letter from her heart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then followed the night of panic, and the succeeding day.
+There were no longer any magistrates in Rome. The great
+palaces of the patricians stood deserted, exposed to the unfaithful
+guardianship of freedmen and slaves. The bankers' booths
+were closed, the shops did not raise their shutters. On the
+streets swarmed the irresponsible and the vicious. Men of
+property who had not fled barred their doors and stood guard
+with their servants to beat back would-be plunderers. There
+were no watchmen at the gates, no courts sitting in the basilicas.
+After the great flight of the early morning, Rome was a city
+without warders, police, or government.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fabia did not realize this fact until late in the afternoon,
+when she started forth, on foot and unattended, to visit a friend
+on the Cælian. The half-deserted streets and barricaded houses
+filled her with uneasy tremors. The low, brutish creatures
+that she met gave her little heed; but the sight of them, alone
+and not offset by any more respectable fellow-strollers, made
+her turn back to the Atrium Vestæ. As she hastened on her
+way homeward an uneasy sensation haunted her that she was
+being followed. She halted, faced about. The street was narrow,
+the light was beginning to fade. The figure of a man was
+vanishing in the booth of some bold vintner, who had ventured
+to risk plunder for the sake of sales. She proceeded. A
+moment later a half glance over the shoulder and a straining
+of the eyes told her that the stranger was continuing his pursuit.
+He kept very close to the side of the buildings. His
+face and form were quite lost in shadow. Fabia quickened
+her pace; the stranger increased his also, yet made no effort
+to cut down the distance between them. The Vestal began to
+feel the blood mantling to her cheeks and leaving them again.
+She was so near to the Forum and the Atrium Vestæ now that
+she could not be overtaken. But why did the stranger follow?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a gap in the houses ahead. Through a narrow
+alley the dying light was streaming. Fabia passed it, timed
+herself, glanced back. For an instant, and only an instant
+(for the stranger walked rapidly), the light glared full upon
+his face. But Fabia needed to see no more. It was the face
+of Publius Gabinius. By a mighty effort she prevented herself
+from breaking into a run. She passed into the doorway
+of the Atrium Vestæ, and sank upon a divan, shivering with
+fright. Recollecting herself, she went to Fonteia and told her
+the discovery. The Maxima, however, by that singular fatuity
+which sometimes takes possession of the wisest of people,—especially
+when the possible danger is one which never in all
+their long experience has come to a head,—received her warnings
+with blank incredulity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You should not go out of the house and Temple," she said,
+"until there is some proper policing of the city. No doubt
+Gabinius has come back for the sake of riot and plunder, and
+having met with you by chance could not resist the temptation
+to try to have an interview; but you are in no possible danger
+here."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But, Fonteia," urged the younger Vestal, "I know him to
+be a bold, desperate man, who fears not the gods, and who
+from the law can expect no mercy. And we in this house are
+but weak women folk. Our only defence is our purity and the
+reverence of the people. But only the evil wander the streets
+to-night; and our virtuous lives make us only the more
+attractive prey to such men as Gabinius."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Fabia," said the other Vestal, severely, "I am older than
+you. I have beheld sights you have never seen. I saw the
+riots when Saturninus and Glaucia came to their ends; when
+Marius was chased from Rome and Sulpicius put to death;
+when Marius returned with Cinna; and all the massacres and
+strife attending the taking of the city by Sulla. But never
+has the name of Vesta been insufficient to protect us from
+the violence of the basest or the most godless. Nor will it
+now. I will trust in the goddess, and the fear of her, which
+protects her maidens against all men. We will sleep to-night
+as usual. I will not send anywhere to have guards stationed
+around the house and Temple."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fabia bowed her head. The word of the aged Maxima was
+law in the little community. Fabia told herself that Fonteia
+was right—not even Gabinius would dare to set unhallowed
+foot inside the Atrium Vestæ. But the vision of the coarse,
+sensual face of her unloved lover was ever before her. In
+ordinary times she would have been tempted to go to one of
+the consuls and demand that Fonteia be overruled; but in
+ordinary times there would not have been the least need of
+adding to the already sufficient city watch. It lacked four
+hours of midnight before she brought herself to take her
+tablets and write the following brief note:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Fabia the Vestal to Agias her good friend, greeting. I am
+in some anxiety to-night. Gabinius, Lucius Ahenobarbus's
+friend, is in the city. He means, I fear, to work me some
+mischief, though the cause whereby I have good reason to
+dread him is too long here to write. The Atrium Vestæ has
+nothing to protect it to-night—as you well may understand—from
+impious, violent men. Can you not guard me overnight?
+I do not know how. Gabinius may have all Dumnorix's band
+with him. But you alone are equal to an host. I trust you,
+as Drusus and Cornelia have trusted you. <i>Vale</i>."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fabia called one of the young slave-girls who waited on
+the Vestals. The relation between servant and mistress,
+in the Temple company, was almost ideal in its gentle loyalty.
+The slaves were happy in their bondage.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Erigone," she said, putting the tablets in the girl's hand,
+"I am about to ask of you a very brave thing. Do you dare
+to take this letter through the city?" and she told her how to
+find Agias's lodgings. "Come back in the morning if you
+dread a double journey. But do not tell Fonteia; she would
+be angry if she knew I sent you, though there is nothing but
+what is right in the letter."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I will carry the tablets to Scythia for you, domina,"
+replied the girl, kissing the hem of her mistress's robe. "I
+know all the streets. If I live, the letter shall be delivered."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Go by the alleys," enjoined Fabia; "they are safer, for
+you will not be seen. Speak to no one. Let none stop
+you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Erigone was gone in the night, and Fabia went to her
+chamber. She was reproaching herself for having sent the
+letter. Rome by darkness was an evil place for a young maid
+to traverse, and never worse than that night. Fabia repeated
+to herself that she had committed an act of selfish folly, possibly
+sacrificing an implicitly loyal servant to the mere gratification
+of a perfectly ungrounded panic. She was undressed
+by her other women, and lay down with Livia fast asleep in
+her arms; and she kissed the little one again and again before
+slumber stole over her.
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>IV</h3>
+
+<p>
+Demetrius had been astonishing his cousin that evening
+by the quantity of strong wine he could imbibe without becoming
+in the least tipsy. Agias marvelled at the worthy
+pirate's capacity and hardness of head, and, fortunately for
+his own wits, did not attempt to emulate the other's potations.
+Consequently, as the evening advanced, Demetrius
+simply became more and more good-natured and talkative,
+and Agias more entranced with his cousin's narration of the
+Indian voyage.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The younger Greek was about to order his yawning servants
+to fill up another <i>krater</i>,<a name="r159" href="#fn159">[159]</a> when the conversation and drinking
+were interrupted by the arrival of Erigone. She, poor girl, had
+set out bravely enough; but once outside of the Atrium Vestæ
+every shadow had been a refuge of cutthroats, every noise the
+oncoming of goblins. Fortunately for her, she did not know
+the contents of the tablets she carried pressed to her breast, or
+she would have been all the more timorous. Once a few half-sober
+topers screamed ribald words after her, as she stole past
+a low tavern. She had lost her way, in the darkness and
+fright, among the alleys; she had dodged into a doorway more
+than once to hide from approaching night rovers. But at last
+she had reached her destination, and, pale and weary, placed
+the letter in Agias's hands. The young Greek read and grew
+grave. Even better than Fabia he understood how reckless a
+profligate Publius Gabinius might be, and how opportune was
+the night for carrying out any deed of darkness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Brave girl!" he said, commending Erigone for persevering
+on her errand. "But how long ago did you leave your mistress?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It was the second hour of the night<a name="r160" href="#fn160">[160]</a> when I started," she
+replied.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias glanced at the water-clock.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"By Zeus!" he cried, "it is now the fourth hour! You
+have been two hours on the way! Immortal gods! What's
+to be done? Look here, Demetrius!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And he thrust the letter before his cousin, and explained its
+meaning as rapidly as he could.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Demetrius puffed hard through his nostrils.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Mū! mū!</i> This is bad business. If there were time I could
+have twenty as stout men as ever swung sword up from the
+yacht and on guard to die for any relative or friend of Sextus
+Drusus. But there's not a moment to lose. Have you any
+arms?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias dragged two short swords out of a chest. Demetrius
+was already throwing on his cloak.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Those are poor, light weapons," commented the pirate.
+"I want my heavy cutlass. But take what the gods send;"
+and he girded one about him. "At least, they will cut a
+throat. Do you know how to wield them?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"After a fashion," replied Agias, modestly, making haste
+to clasp his pænula.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Leaving Erigone to be cared for by the slaves and sent home
+the next morning, the two Greeks hastened from the house.
+Agias could hardly keep pace with his cousin's tremendous
+stride. Demetrius was like a war-horse, which snuffs the battle
+from afar and tugs at the rein to join in the fray. They
+plunged through the dark streets. Once a man sprang out
+from a doorway before them with a cudgel. He may have
+been a footpad; but Demetrius, without pausing in his haste,
+smote the fellow between the eyes with a terrible fist, and the
+wretched creature dropped without a groan. Demetrius seemed
+guided to the Forum and Via Sacra as if by an inborn instinct.
+Agias almost ran at his heels.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"How many may this Dumnorix have with him?" shouted
+the pirate over his shoulder.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Perhaps ten, perhaps twenty!" gasped Agias.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"A very pretty number! Some little credit to throttle them,"
+was his answer; and Demetrius plunged on.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The night was cloudy, there was no moonlight. The cold,
+chill wind swept down the Tiber valley, and howled mournfully
+among the tall, silent basilicas and temples of the Forum.
+The feet of the two Greeks echoed and reechoed as they crossed
+the pavement of the enclosure. None addressed them, none
+met them. It was as if they walked in a city of the dead. In
+the darkness, like weird phantoms, rose the tall columns and
+pediments of the deserted buildings. From nowhere twinkled
+the ray of lamp. Dim against the sky-line the outlines of the
+Capitoline and its shrines were now and then visible, when
+the night seemed for an instant to grow less dark.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They were close to the Atrium Vestæ. All was quiet. No
+light within, no sound but that of the wind and their own
+breathing without.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We are not too late," whispered Agias.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The two groped their way in among the pillars of the portico
+of the <i>Regia,</i><a name="r161" href="#fn161">[161]</a> and crouched down under cover of the masonry,
+half sheltered from the chilly blasts. They could from their
+post command a tolerably good view of one side of the Atrium
+Vestæ. Still the darkness was very great, and they dared not
+divide their force by one of them standing watch on the other
+side. The moments passed. It was extremely cold. Agias
+shivered and wound himself in his mantle. The wine was
+making him drowsy, and he felt himself sinking into semiconsciousness,
+when a touch on his arm aroused him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>St!"</i> whispered Demetrius. "I saw a light moving."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias stared into the darkness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"There," continued the pirate, "see, it is a lantern carefully
+covered! Only a little glint on the ground now and then.
+Some one is creeping along the wall to enter the house of
+the Vestals!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I see nothing," confessed Agias, rubbing his eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You are no sailor; look harder. I can count four men in
+the gloom. They are stealing up to the gate of the building.
+Is your sword ready? Now—"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But at this instant Demetrius was cut short by a scream—scream
+of mortal terror—from within the Atrium Vestæ.
+There were shouts, howls, commands, moans, entreaties,
+shrieks. Light after light blazed up in the building; women
+rushed panic-struck to the doorway to burst forth into the
+night; and at the open portal Agias saw a gigantic figure
+with upraised long sword, a Titan, malevolent, destroying,
+terrible,—at the sight whereof the women shrank back,
+screaming yet the more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Dumnorix!" shouted Agias; but before he spoke Demetrius
+had leaped forward.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Right past the sword-wielding monster sprang the pirate,
+and Agias, all reckless, was at his heels. The twain were in
+the atrium of the house. A torch was spluttering and blazing
+on the pavement, shedding all around a bright, flickering, red
+glare. Young Vestals and maid-servants were cowering on
+their knees, or prone on cushions, writhing and screaming with
+fear unspeakable. A swart Spanish brigand, with his sabre
+gripped in his teeth, was tearing a gold-thread and silk covering
+from a pillow; a second plunderer was wrenching from
+its chain a silver lamp. Demetrius rushed past these also,
+before any could inquire whether he was not a comrade in
+infamy. But there were other shouts from the peristylium,
+other cries and meanings. As the pirate sprang to the head
+of the passage leading to the inner house, a swarm of desperadoes
+poured through it, Gauls, Germans, Africans, Italian
+renegadoes,—perhaps ten in all,—and in their midst—half
+borne, half dragged—something white!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Io triumphe!</i>" called a voice from the throng, "my bird
+will leave her cage!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The lady! Gabinius!" cried Agias, and, without waiting
+for his cousin, the young Greek flung himself forward. One
+stroke of his short sword sent a leering negro prone upon the
+pavement; one snatch of his hand seized the white mantle,
+and held it—held it though half a dozen blades were flashing
+in his face in an eye's twinkling. But the prowess of twenty
+men was in the arm of Demetrius; his sword was at once
+attacker and shield; with a single sweeping blow he smote
+down the guard and cleft the skull of a towering Teuton; with
+a lightning dart he caught up the ponderous long sword of the
+falling brigand, passed his own shorter weapon to his left
+hand, and so fought,—doubly armed,—parrying with his
+left and striking with his right. And how he struck! The
+whole agile, supple nature of the Greek entered into every
+fence. He struck and foiled with his entire body. Now a
+bound to one side; now a dart at an opponent's head; fighting
+with feet, head, frame, and not with hands only. And
+Agias—he fought too, and knew not how he fought! When
+a blow was aimed at him, Demetrius always parried it before
+he could raise his sword; if he struck, Demetrius had felled
+the man first; but he never let go of the white dress, nor
+quitted the side of the lady. And presently, he did not know
+after how long—for hours make minutes, and minutes hours,
+in such a mêlée—there was a moment's silence, and he
+saw Publius Gabinius sinking down upon the pavement, the
+blood streaming over his cloak; and the brigands, such as
+were left of them, scurrying out of the atrium cowed and
+panic-struck at the fall of their leader. Then, as he threw
+his arms about Fabia, and tried to raise her to her feet, he
+saw the giant Dumnorix, with his flail-like sword, rushing
+back to the rescue.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Four brigands lay dead in the atrium and none of the others
+dared look the redoubtable Greek swordsman in the eyes; but
+Dumnorix came on—the incarnation of brute fury. Then
+again Demetrius fought,—fought as the angler fights the fish
+that he doubts not to land, yet only after due play; and the
+Gaul, like some awkward Polyphemus, rushed upon him,
+flinging at him barbarous curses in his own tongue, and snorting
+and raging like a bull. Thrice the Greek sprang back
+before the monster; thrice the giant swung his mighty sword
+to cleave his foeman down, and cut the empty air; but at the
+fourth onset the Hellene smote the ex-lanista once across the
+neck, and the great eyes rolled, and the panting stopped, and
+the mighty Gaul lay silent in a spreading pool of blood.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Already there were shouts and cries in the Forum. Torches
+were dancing hither and thither. The slave-maids of the
+Vestals ran down the Via Sacra shrieking and calling for aid.
+Out from the dark tenements rushed the people. The thieves
+ran from their lairs; the late drinkers sprang from their wine.
+And when the wretched remnants of Dumnorix's band of
+ex-gladiators and brigands strove to flee from the holy house
+they had polluted, a hundred hands were put forth against
+each one, and they were torn to pieces by the frenzied mob.
+Into the Atrium Vestæ swarmed the people, howling, shouting,
+praising the goddess, fighting one another—every man imagining
+his neighbour a cutthroat and abductor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias stood bearing up Fabia in his arms; she was pale as
+the driven snow. Her lips moved, but no sound passed from
+them. Fonteia, the old Maxima, with her white hair tumbling
+over her shoulders, was still huddled in one corner, groaning
+and moaning in a paroxysm of unreasoning terror, without dignity
+or self-control. A frightened maid had touched the torch
+to the tall candelabra, and the room blazed with a score of
+lights; while in at the doorway pressed the multitude—the
+mob of low tapsters, brutal butchers, coarse pedlers, and
+drunkards just staggering from their cups. The scene was
+one of pandemonium. Dumnorix lay prone on a costly rug,
+whose graceful patterns were being dyed to a hideous crimson;
+over one divan lay a brigand—struggling in the last agony
+of a mortal wound. Three comrades lay stretched stiff and
+motionless on the floor. Gory swords and daggers were strewn
+all over the atrium; the presses of costly wood had been torn
+open, their contents scattered across the room. There was
+blood on the frescoes, blood on the marble feet of the magnificent
+Diomedes, which stood rigid in cold majesty on its
+pedestal, dominating the wreck below.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias with Fabia stood at the end of the atrium near the
+exit to the peristylium. Demetrius, seemingly hardly breathed
+by his exertions, leaned on his captured long sword at his
+cousin's side. The multitude, for an instant, as they saw the
+ruin and slaughter, drew back with a hush. Men turned away
+their faces as from a sight of evil omen. Who were they to
+set foot in the mansion of the servants of the awful Vesta?
+But others from behind, who saw and heard nothing, pressed
+their fellows forward. The mob swept on. As with one consent
+all eyes were riveted on Fabia. What had happened?
+Who was guilty? Why had these men of violence done this
+wrong to the home of the hearth goddess? And then out of a
+farther corner, while yet the people hesitated from reverence,
+staggered a figure, its face streaming with blood, its hands
+pressing its side.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Quirites</i>," cried a voice, the voice of one speaking with but
+one remaining breath, "ye have rewarded me as the law
+demands; see that <i>she</i>" and a bloody forefinger pointed at
+Fabia, "who led me to this deed, is not unpunished. <i>She</i> is
+the more guilty!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And with a groan the figure fell like a statue of wood to the
+pavement; fell heavily, and lay stirring not, neither giving any
+sound. In his last moment Publius Gabinius had sought a
+terrible revenge.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And then madness seized on the people.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"She is his sweetheart! She is his paramour!" cried a
+score of filthy voices. "She has brought down this insult to
+the goddess! There is no pontifex here to try her! Tear her
+in pieces! Strike! Slay!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Demetrius had turned to his cousin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Agias," he said, making himself heard despite the clamour,
+"do you believe the charge of that man?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No villain ever would avenge himself more basely."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Then at all costs we must save the lady."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was time. A fat butcher, flourishing a heavy cleaver, had
+leaped forward; Fabia saw him with glassy, frightened eyes,
+but neither shrieked nor drew back. But Demetrius smote the
+man with his long sword through the body, and the brute
+dropped the cleaver as he fell.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Now," and Demetrius seized the Vestal around the waist,
+as lightly as a girl would raise a kitten, and flung her across
+his shoulders. One stride and he was in the passage leading
+to the peristylium; and before the mob could follow Agias had
+dashed the door in their faces, and shot the bolt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It will hold them back a moment," muttered Demetrius,
+"but we must hasten."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They ran across the peristylium, the pirate chief with his
+burden no less swift than Agias. The door to the rear street
+was flung open, and they were out in a narrow alleyway. Just
+as they did so, a howl of many voices proclaimed that the peristylium
+door had yielded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Guide me by the straightest way," commanded the sea
+rover.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Where?" was Agias's question.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"To the wharves. The yacht is the only safe place for the
+lady. There I will teach her how I can honour a friend of
+Sextus Drusus."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias felt that it was no time for expostulation. A Vestal
+Virgin take refuge on a pirate ship! But it was a matter of
+life and death now, and there was no time for forming another
+plan. Once let the mob overtake them, and the lives of all
+three were not worth a sesterce. Agias found it necessary to
+keep himself collected while he ran, or he would lose the way
+in the maze of streets. The yacht was moored far below the
+Pons Sublicius, and the whole way was full of peril. It was
+no use to turn off into alleys and by-paths; to do so at night
+meant to be involved in a labyrinth as deadly for them as that
+of the Cretan Minos. The mob was on their heels, howling,
+raging. The people were beginning to wake in their houses
+along the streets. Men bawled "Stop thief!" from the windows,
+imagining there had been a robbery. Once two or three
+figures actually swung out into the way before them, but at a
+stray glint of lantern light falling on Demetrius's naked long
+sword, they vanished in the gloom. But still the mob pressed
+on, ever gaining accessions, ever howling the more fiercely.
+Agias realized that the weight of his burden was beginning to
+tell on even the iron frame of his cousin. The pursuers and
+pursued were drawing closer together. The mob was ever
+reenforced by relays; the handicap on Demetrius was too
+great. They had passed down the Vicus Tuscus, flown past
+the dark shadow of the lower end of the Circus Maximus. At
+the Porta Trigemina the unguarded portal had stood open;
+there was none to stop them. They passed by the Pons Sublicius,
+and skirted the Aventine. Stones and billets of wood
+began to whistle past their ears,—the missiles of the on-rushing
+multitude. At last the wharves! Out in the darkness
+stood the huge bulk of a Spanish lumberman; but there was no
+refuge there. The grain wharves and the oil wharves were
+passed; the sniff of the mackerel fisher, the faint odour from
+the great Alexandrian merchantman loaded with the spices of
+India, were come and gone. A stone struck Agias in the
+shoulder, he felt numb in one arm, to drag his feet was a
+burden; the flight with the Cæsarians to the Janiculum had
+not been like to this,—death at the naked sword had been at
+least in store then, and now to be plucked in pieces by a mob!
+Another stone brushed forward his hair and dashed, not against
+Demetrius ahead, but against his burden. There was—Agias
+could hear—a low moan; but at the same instant the fleeing
+pirate uttered a whistle so loud, so piercing, that the foremost
+pursuers came to a momentary stand, in half-defined fright,
+In an instant there came an answering whistle from the wharf
+just ahead. In a twinkling half a dozen torches had flashed
+out all over a small vessel, now barely visible in the night, at
+one of the mooring rings. There was a strange jargon of voices
+calling in some Oriental tongue; and Demetrius, as he ran,
+answered them in a like language. Then over Agias's head
+and into the thick press of the mob behind, something—arrows
+no doubt—flew whistling; and there were groans and cries of
+pain. And Agias found uncouth, bearded men helping or
+rather casting him over the side of the vessel. The yacht
+was alive with men: some were bounding ashore to loose the
+hawsers, others were lifting ponderous oars, still more were
+shooting fast and cruelly in the direction of the mob, while
+its luckless leaders struggled to turn in flight, and the multitude
+behind, ignorant of the slaughter, was forcing them on to
+death. Above the clamour, the howls of the mob, the shouts
+of the sailors, the grating of oars, and the creaking of cables,
+rang the voice of Demetrius; and at his word a dozen ready
+hands put each command into action. The narrow, easy-moving
+yacht caught the current; a long tier of white oars glinted
+in the torchlight, smote the water, and the yacht bounded
+away, while a parting flight of arrows left misery and death
+upon the quay.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias, sorely bewildered, clambered on to the little poop.
+His cousin stood grasping one of the steering paddles; the
+ruddy lantern light gleamed on the pirate's frame and face,
+and made him the perfect personification of a sea-king; he
+was some grandly stern Poseidon, the "Storm-gatherer" and
+the "Earth-shaker." When he spoke to Agias, it was in the
+tone of a despot to a subject.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The lady is below. Go to her. You are to care for her until
+I rejoin my fleet. Tell her my sister shall not be more honoured
+than she, nor otherwise treated. When I am aboard my
+flag-ship, she shall have proper maids and attendance. Go!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias obeyed, saying nothing. He found Fabia lying on a
+rude pallet, with a small bale of purple silk thrust under her
+head for a pillow. She stared at him with wild, frightened
+eyes, then round the little cabin, which, while bereft of all
+but the most necessary comforts, was decorated with bejeweled
+armour, golden lamps, costly Indian tapestries and ivory—the
+trophies of half a score of voyages.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Agias," she faintly whispered, "tell me what has happened
+since I awoke from my sleep and found Gabinius's ruffians
+about me. By whatsoever god you reverence most, speak
+truly!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias fell on his knees, kissed the hem of her robe, kissed
+her hands. Then he told her all,—as well as his own sorely
+confused wits would admit. Fabia heard him through to the
+end, then laid her face between her hands.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Would that—would that they had murdered me as they
+wished! It would be all over now," she agonized. "I have
+no wish again to see the light. Whether they believe me
+innocent or guilty of the charge is little; I can never be happy
+again."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And why not, dear lady?" cried Agias.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Don't ask me! I do not know. I do not know anything!
+Leave me! It is not fit that you should see me crying like a
+child. Leave me! Leave me!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And thus conjured, Agias went up to the poop once more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The yacht was flying down the current under her powerful
+oarage. Demetrius was still standing with his hands fixed on
+the steering paddle; his gaze was drifting along in the plashing
+water. The shadowy outlines of the great city had vanished;
+the yacht was well on her way down the river to Ostia. Save
+for the need to avoid a belated merchantman anchored in midstream
+for the night, there was little requiring the master's
+skill. Agias told his cousin how Fabia had sent him away.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>A!</i> Poor lady!" replied the pirate, "perhaps she was the
+Vestal I saw a few days since, and envied her, to see the consuls'
+lictors lowering their rods to her, and all the people
+making way before her; she, protected by the whole might of
+this terrible Roman people, and honoured by them all; and I,
+a poor outlaw, massing gold whereof I have no need, slaying
+men when I would be their friend, with only an open sea and
+a few planks for native land. And now, see how the Fates
+bring her down so low, that at my hands she receives hospitality,
+nay, life!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You did not seem so very loath to shed blood to-night,"
+commented Agias, dryly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No, by Zeus!" was his frank answer. "It is easy to send
+men over the Styx after having been Charon's substitute for so
+many years. But the trade was not pleasant to learn, and,
+bless the gods, you may not have to be apprenticed to it."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Then you will not take me with you in your rover's life?"
+asked Agias, half-disappointedly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Apollo forbid! I will take you and the lady to some place
+where she can be safe until she may return vindicated, and
+where you can earn an honest livelihood, marry a wife of
+station, in accordance with the means which I shall give you,
+dwell peaceably, and be happy."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But I cannot accept your present," protested the younger
+Greek.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Phui!</i> What use have I of money? To paraphrase
+Æschylus: 'For more of money than I would is mine.' I
+can't eat it, or beat swords out of gold, or repair my ships
+therewith."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Then why amass it at all?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why drink when you know it is better to keep sober? I
+can no more stop plundering than a toper leave a wine-jar.
+Besides, perhaps some day I may see a road to amnesty open,—and,
+then, what will not money do for a man or woman?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Quintus Drusus, my patron, the Lady Cornelia, and the
+Lady Fabia all are rich. But I would not take up their
+sorrows for all their wealth."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"True," and Demetrius stared down into the inky water.
+"It will not give back those who are gone forever. Achilles
+could ask Hephæstus for his armour, but he could not put
+breath into the body of Patroclus. <i>Plutus</i> and <i>Cratus</i><a name="r162" href="#fn162">[162]</a> are,
+after all, but weaklings. <i>A!</i> This is an unequal world!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When Agias fell asleep that night, or rather that morning,
+on a hard seaman's pallet, two names were stirring in his heart,
+names inextricably connected: Cornelia, whom he had promised
+Quintus Drusus to save from Ahenobarbus's clutches, and Artemisia.
+In the morning the yacht, having run her sixteen
+miles to Ostia, stood out to sea, naught hindering.
+</p>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+It was two months later when Quintus Drusus reentered
+Rome, no more a fugitive, but a trusted staff officer of the
+lawfully appointed dictator Julius Cæsar. He had taken part
+in a desperate struggle around Corfinium, where his general
+had cut off and captured the army with which Domitius had
+aimed to check his advance. Drusus had been severely
+wounded, and had not recovered in time to participate in the
+futile siege of Brundusium, when Cæsar vainly strove to prevent
+Pompeius's flight across the sea to Greece. Soon as he
+was convalescent, the young officer had hurried away to Rome;
+and there he was met by a story concerning his aunt, whereof
+no rational explanation seemed possible. And when, upon
+this mystery, was added a tale he received from Baiæ, he
+marvelled, yet dreaded, the more.
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 id="ch19">CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+
+<h2>THE HOSPITALITY OF DEMETRIUS</h2>
+
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+While grave senators were contending, tribunes haranguing,
+imperators girding on the sword, legions marching, cohorts
+clashing,—while all this history was being made in the outside
+world, Cornelia, very desolate, very lonely, was enduring her
+imprisonment at Baiæ.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If she had had manacles on her wrists and fetters on her
+feet, she would not have been the more a prisoner. Lentulus
+Crus had determined, with the same grim tenacity of purpose
+which led him to plunge a world into war, that his niece should
+comply with his will and marry Lucius Ahenobarbus. He sent
+down to Baiæ, Phaon,—the evil-eyed freedman of Ahenobarbus,—and
+gave to that worthy full power to do anything he
+wished to break the will of his prospective patroness. Cassandra
+had been taken away from Cornelia—she could not learn
+so much as whether the woman had been scourged to death for
+arranging the interview with Drusus, or no. Two ill-favoured
+slatternly Gallic maids, the scourings of the Puteoli slave-market,
+had been forced upon Cornelia as her attendants—creatures
+who stood in abject fear of the whip of Phaon, and
+who obeyed his mandates to the letter. Cornelia was never out
+of sight of some person whom she knew was devoted to Lentulus,
+or rather to Phaon and his patron. She received no letters
+save those from her mother, uncle, or Ahenobarbus; she saw no
+visitors; she was not allowed to go outside of the walls of the
+villa, nor indeed upon any of its terraces where she would be exposed
+to sight from without, whether by land or sea. At every
+step, at every motion, she was confronted with the barriers
+built around her, and by the consciousness that, so long as she
+persisted in her present attitude, her durance was likely to
+continue unrelaxed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia was thirsty for the news from the world without.
+Her keepers were dumb to the most harmless inquiry. Her
+mother wrote more of the latest fashions than of the progress
+of events in the Senate and in the field; besides, Claudia—as
+Cornelia knew very well—never took her political notions from
+any one except her brother-in-law, and Cornelia noted her
+mother's rambling observations accordingly. Lentulus studiously
+refrained from adverting to politics in letters to his niece.
+Ahenobarbus wrote of wars and rumours of wars, but in a tone
+of such partisan venom and overreaching sarcasm touching all
+things Cæsarian, that Cornelia did not need her prejudices to
+tell her that Lucius was simply abusing her credulity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then at last all the letters stopped. Phaon had no explanation
+to give. He would not suffer his evil, smiling lips to tell
+the story of the flight of the oligarchs from Rome, and confess
+that Lentulus and Claudia were no farther off than Capua.
+The consul had ordered that his niece should not know of
+their proximity and its cause,—lest she pluck up hope, and
+all his coercion be wasted. So there was silence, and that was
+all. Even her mother did not write to her. Cornelia grew
+very, very lonely and desolate—more than words may tell.
+She had one consolation—Drusus was not dead, or she would
+have been informed of it! Proof that her lover was dead
+would have been a most delightful weapon in Lentulus's hands,
+too delightful to fail to use instantly. And so Cornelia
+hoped on.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She tried again to build a world of fantasy, of unreal delight,
+around her; to close her eyes, and wander abroad with
+her imagination. She roamed in reverie over land and sea,
+from Atlantis to Serica; and dwelt in the dull country of
+the Hyperboreans and saw the gold-sanded plains of the Ethiops.
+She took her Homer and fared with Odysseus into
+Polyphemus's cave, and out to the land of Circe; and heard the
+Sirens sing, and abode on Calypso's fairy isle; and saw the
+maiden Nausicaä and her maids at the ball-play on the marge
+of the stream. But it was sorry work; for ever and again the
+dream-woven mist would break, and the present—stern,
+unchanging, joyless—she would see, and that only.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia was thrown more and more back on her books. In
+fact, had she been deprived of that diversion, she must have
+succumbed in sheer wretchedness; but Phaon, for all his crafty
+guile, did not realize that a roll of Æschylus did almost as
+much to undo his jailer's work as a traitor among his underlings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The library was a capacious, well-lighted room, prettily frescoed,
+and provided with comfortably upholstered couches. In
+the niches were a few choice busts: a Sophocles, a Xenophon,
+an Ennius, and one or two others. Around the room in wooden
+presses were the rolled volumes on Egyptian papyrus, each
+labelled with author and title in bright red marked on the
+tablet attached to the cylinder of the roll. Here were the
+poets and historians of Hellas; the works of Plato, Aristotle,
+Callimachus, Apollonius Rhodius and the later Greek philosophers.
+Here, too, were books which the Greek-hating young
+lady loved best of all—the rough metres of Livius Andronicus
+and Cnæus Nævius, whose uncouth lines of the old Saturnian
+verse breathed of the hale, hearty, uncultured, uncorrupted life of
+the period of the First Punic War. Beside them were the other
+great Latinists: Ennius, Plautus, Terence, and furthermore,
+Pacuvius and Cato Major, Lucilius, the memoirs of Sulla, the
+orations of Antonius "the orator" and Gracchus, and the histories
+of Claudius Quadrigarius and Valerius Antias.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The library became virtually Cornelia's prison. She read
+tragedy, comedy, history, philosophy,—anything to drive from
+her breast her arch enemy, thought. But if, for example, she
+turned to Apollonius Rhodius and read—
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>
+"Amidst them all, the son of Æson chief<br />
+Shone forth divinely in his comeliness,<br />
+And graces of his form. On him the maid<br />
+Looked still askance, and gazed him o'er;"<a name="r163" href="#fn163">[163]</a>
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+straightway she herself became Medea, Jason took on the form
+of Drusus, and she would read no more; "while," as the
+next line of the learned poet had it, "grief consumed her
+heart."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Only one other recreation was left her. Artemisia had not
+been taken away by Phaon, who decided that the girl was quite
+impotent to thwart his ends. Cornelia devoted much of her
+time to teaching the bright little Greek. The latter picked up
+the scraps of knowledge with a surprising readiness, and would
+set Cornelia a-laughing by her <i>naïveté</i>, when she soberly intermixed
+her speech with bits of grave poetical and philosophical
+lore, uttered more for sake of sound than sense.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As a matter of fact, however, Cornelia was fast approaching
+a point where her position would have been intolerable. She
+did not even have the stimulus that comes from an active
+aggressive persecution. Drusus was in the world of action,
+not forgetful of his sweetheart, yet not pent up to solitary
+broodings on his ill-fated passion. Cornelia was thrust back
+upon herself, and found herself a very discontented, wretched,
+love-lorn, and withal—despite her polite learning—ignorant
+young woman, who took pleasure neither in sunlight nor starlight;
+who saw a mocking defiance in every dimple of the
+sapphire bay; who saw in each new day merely a new period
+for impotent discontent. Something had to determine her situation,
+or perhaps she would not indeed have bowed her head to
+her uncle's will; but she certainly would have been driven to
+resolutions of the most desperate nature.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia had practically lost reckoning of time and seasons.
+She had ceased hoping for a letter from her mother; even a
+taunting missive from Ahenobarbus would have been a diversion.
+She was so closely guarded that she found herself praying that
+Drusus would not try to steal a second interview, for the attempt
+might end in his murder. Only one stray crumb of comfort at
+last did she obtain, and it was Artemisia who brought it to
+her. The girl had been allowed by Phaon to walk outside the
+grounds of the villa for a little way, and her pretty face had
+won the good graces of one or two slave-boys in an adjoining
+seaside house. Artemisia came back full of news which they
+had imparted: the consuls had fled from Rome; Pompeius
+was retreating before Cæsar; the latest rumour had it that
+Domitius was shut up in Corfinium and likely to come off
+hardly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The words were precious as rubies to Cornelia. She went
+all that day and the next with her head in the air. Perhaps
+with a lover's subtle omniscience she imagined that it was
+Drusus who had some part in bringing Domitius to bay. She
+pictured the hour when he—with a legion no doubt at his
+back—would come to Baiæ, not a stealthy, forbidden lover,
+but a conqueror, splendid in the triumph of his arms; would
+enter the villa with a strong hand, and lead her forth in the
+eyes of all the world—his wife! and then back to Præneste,
+to Rome—happy as the Immortals on Olympus; and what
+came after, Cornelia neither thought nor cared.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On those days the sea was lovely, the sunlight fair, and all
+the circling sea-gulls as they hovered over the waves cried
+shrilly one to the other; "How good is all the world!" And
+then, just as Cornelia was beginning to count the hours,—to
+wonder whether it would be one day or ten before Drusus
+would be sufficiently at liberty to ride over hill and dale to
+Baiæ,—Phaon thrust himself upon her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Your ladyship," was his curt statement, "will have all
+things prepared in readiness to take ship for Greece, to-morrow
+morning."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"For Greece!" was the agonized exclamation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Certainly; it is useless to conceal matters from your ladyship
+now. Cæsar has swept all Italy. Corfinium may fall at
+any time. His excellency the consul Lentulus is now at
+Brundusium. He orders me to put you on board a vessel that
+has just finished her lading for the Piræus."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This then was the end of all those glittering day-dreams!
+Cæsar's victories only would transfer Cornelia to a more secure
+bondage. She had enough pride left not to moan aloud and
+plead with an animal like Phaon not to crush her utterly. In
+fact she was benumbed, and did not fully sense the changed
+situation. She went through a mechanical process of collecting
+her wardrobe, of putting her jewellery in cases and boxes,
+of laying aside for carriage a few necessaries for Artemisia.
+Phaon, who had expected a terrible scene when he made his
+announcement, observed to himself that, "The domina is more
+sensible than I supposed. I think her uncle will have his
+way now soon enough, if Master Lucius does not get his throat
+cut at Corfinium." And having thus concluded to himself,—satisfactorily,
+if erroneously,—he, too, made arrangements for
+the voyage impending.
+</p>
+
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia's sleeping room was large and airy. It had windows
+overlooking the sea—windows closed by the then extravagant
+luxury of panes of glass. When these were swung back
+the full sweep of the southwest wind poured its mild freshness
+into the room. The apartment was decorated and furnished
+with every taste and luxury. In one corner was the occupant's
+couch,—the frame inlaid with ivory and tortoise-shell, the
+mattress soft with the very choicest feathers of white German
+geese. Heaped on the cushion were gorgeous coverlets, of
+purple wool or even silk, and embroidered with elaborate figures,
+or covered with rare feather tapestry. Around the room
+were silver mirrors, chairs, divans, cabinets, dressers, and elegant
+tripods.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On one of the divans slept Artemisia, and just outside of
+the door one of the Gallic maids, whom Cornelia detested so
+heartily.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When Artemisia's curly head touched her pillow, its owner
+was fast asleep in an instant. When her patroness sank back
+on the cushions worth a king's ransom, Somnus, Hypnus, or
+whatever name the drowsy god may be called by, was far from
+present. Cornelia tossed on the pillows, tossed and cried
+softly to herself. The battle was too hard! She had tried:
+tried to be true to Drusus and her own higher aspirations. But
+there was some limit to her strength, and Cornelia felt that
+limit very near at hand. Earlier in the conflict with her uncle
+she had exulted in the idea that suicide was always in her
+power; now she trembled at the thought of death, at the
+thought of everything contained in the unlovely future. She
+did not want to die, to flicker out in nothingness, never to
+smile and never to laugh again. Why should she not be happy—rightly
+happy? Was she not a Cornelian, a Claudian, born to
+a position that a princess might enjoy? Was not wealth hers,
+and a fair degree of wit and a handsome face? Why then
+should she, the patrician maiden, eat her heart out, while close
+at hand Artemisia, poor little foundling Greek, was sleeping
+as sweetly as though people never grieved nor sorrows tore the
+soul?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia was almost angry with Artemisia for being thus
+oblivious to and shielded from calamity. So hot in fact did her
+indignation become against the innocent girl, that Cornelia herself
+began to smile at her own passion. And there was one
+thought very comforting to her pride.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Artemisia is only an uneducated slave, or little better than
+a slave; if she were in my station she would be just as
+unhappy. I am wretched just in proportion to the greatness
+of my rank;" then she added to herself, "<i>Hei!</i> but how
+wretched then the gods must be!" And then again she
+smiled at admitting for an instant that there were any gods at
+all; had not her philosophy taught her much better?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So at last Cornelia turned over the pillows for the last time,
+and finally slept, in heavy, dreamless slumber.
+</p>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+Cornelia did not know at what watch of the night she awoke;
+awoke, not suddenly, but slowly, as consciousness stole over her
+that <i>something</i> was happening. It was a dark, cloudy night,
+yet a strange red light was glinting faintly through the windows
+and making very dim panels on the rugs of the floor.
+There was a bare gleam of fire from the charcoal in the portable
+metal stove that stood in a remote corner of the room to
+dispel the chill of night. Artemisia was stirring in her sleep,
+and saying something—probably in a one-sided dream-dialogue.
+Cornelia opened her eyes, shut them again; peeped
+forth a second time, and sat up in bed. There was a confused
+din without, many voices speaking at once, all quite unintelligible,
+though now and then she caught a few syllables of
+Greek. The din grew louder and louder. At the same time,
+as if directly connected with the babel, the strange light flamed
+up more brightly—as if from many advancing torches. Cornelia
+shook the sleep from her eyes, and flung back the coverlets.
+What was it? She had not yet reached the stage of
+feeling any terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Suddenly, drowning all lesser noise, came the blows of a heavy
+timber beating on the main door of the villa.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Crash! and with the stroke, a torrent of wild shouts, oaths,
+and imprecations burst forth from many score throats.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Crash! The slaves sleeping near the front door began to
+howl and shout. The great Molossian hound that stood watch
+was barking and snapping. The Gallic maid sprang from her
+pallet by Cornelia's door, and gave a shrill, piercing scream.
+Artemisia was sitting up on her bed, rubbing her eyes, blinking
+at the strange light, and about to begin to cry. Cornelia
+ran over the floor to her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>A! A!</i> what is going to happen!" whimpered the girl.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I do not know, <i>philotata</i>"<a name="r164" href="#fn164">[164]</a> said Cornelia in Greek, putting
+her hand on Artemisia's cheek; "but don't cry, and I'll soon
+find out."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Crash! and at this the door could be heard to fall inward.
+Then, with yells of triumph and passion, there was a great
+sweep of feet over the threshold, and the clang of weapons and
+armour. Cornelia found herself beginning to tremble. As she
+stepped across the room, she passed before her largest mirror,
+whereon the outside light was shining directly. She saw herself
+for an instant; her hair streaming down her back, her only dress
+her loose white tunic, her arms bare, and nothing on her throat
+except a string of yellow amber beads. "And my feet are
+bare," she added to herself, diverted from her panic by her
+womanly embarrassment. She advanced toward the door, but
+had not long to wait. Down below the invaders had burst loose
+in wild pillage, then up into the sleeping room came flying
+a man—Phaon, his teeth chattering, his face ghastly with
+fright.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Domina! domina!" and he knelt and seized Cornelia's
+robe. "Save, <i>A!</i> save! We are undone! Pirates! They
+will kill us all! <i>Mu! mu!</i> don't let them murder me!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A moment longer and Cornelia, in her rising contempt,
+would have spurned him with her foot. There were more
+feet on the stairway. Glaring torches were tossing over gold
+inlaid armour. A man of unusual height and physique strode
+at the head of the oncomers, clutching and dragging by the
+wrist a quivering slave-boy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Your mistress, boy! where is she? Point quickly, if you
+would not die!" cried the invader, whom we shall at once
+recognize as Demetrius.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia advanced to the doorway, and stood in her maidenly
+dignity, confronting the pirates, who fell back a step, as
+though before an apparition.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I am the Lady Cornelia, mistress of the villa," she said
+slowly, speaking in tones of high command. "On what
+errand do you come thus unseasonably, and with violence?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whereat, out from the little group of armed men sprang
+one clad in costly, jewel-set armour, like the rest, but shorter
+than the others, and with fair hair flowing down from his
+helmet on to his shoulders.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Domina, do you not know me? Do not be afraid."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Agias!" cried Cornelia, in turn giving back a step.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Assuredly," quoth the young Hellene, nothing dismayed;
+"and with your leave, this great man is Demetrius, my cousin,
+whose trade, perchance, is a little irregular, but who has come
+hither not so much to plunder as to save you from the clutches
+of his arch-enemy's son, Lucius Ahenobarbus."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia staggered, and caught the curtain in the doorway
+to keep from falling.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Has Master Drusus sent him to me?" she asked, very
+pale around the lips.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Master Drusus is at Corfinium. No one knows what will
+be the issue of the war, for Pompeius is making off. It is I
+who counselled my cousin to come to Baiæ."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Then what will you do with me? How may I dare to
+trust you? Deliver myself into the hands of pirates! Ah!
+Agias, I did not think that <i>you</i> would turn to such a trade!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The youth flushed visibly, even under the ruddy torchlight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, lady," he cried, "have I not always been true to
+you? I am no pirate, and you will not blame my cousin,
+when you have heard his story. But do not fear us. Come
+down to the ship—Fabia is there, waiting for you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Fabia!" and again Cornelia was startled. Then, fixing
+her deep gaze full on Agias, "I believe you speak the truth.
+If not you—whom? Take—take me!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And she fell forward in a swoon, and Demetrius caught her
+in his powerful arms.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"This is the affianced wife of Quintus Drusus?" he cried
+to Agias.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"None other."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"She is worthy of Sextus's son. A right brave lady!"
+cried the pirate. "But this is no place for her, poor thing.
+Here, Eurybiades," and he addressed a lieutenant,—an athletic,
+handsome Hellene like himself,—"carry the lady down
+to the landing, put her on the trireme, and give her to Madam
+Fabia. Mind you lift her gently."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Never fear," replied the other, picking up his burden carefully.
+"Who would not delight to bear Aphrodite to the
+arms of Artemis!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so for a while sight, sound, and feeling were at an end
+for Cornelia, but for Agias the adventures of the evening were
+but just begun. The pirates had broken loose in the villa,
+and Demetrius made not the slightest effort to restrain them.
+On into the deserted bedroom, ahead of the others, for reasons
+of his own, rushed Agias. As he came in, some one cried out
+his name, and a second vision in white confronted him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Ai! ai!</i> Agias, I knew you would come!" and then and
+there, with the sword-blades glinting, and the armed men all
+around, Artemisia tossed her plump arms around his neck.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The nymph, attendant on Aphrodite!" cried Demetrius,
+laughing. And then, when Artemisia saw the strange throng
+and the torches, and heard the din over the villa, she hung
+down her head in mingled fear and mortification. But Agias
+whispered something in her ear, that made her lift her face,
+laughing, and then he in turn caught her up in his arms to
+hasten down to the landing—for the scene was becoming one
+of little profit for a maid. Groans and entreaties checked
+him. Two powerful Phoenician seamen were dragging forward
+Phaon, half clothed, trembling at every joint. "Mercy!
+Mercy! Oh! Master Agias, oh! Your excellency, <i>clarissime</i>,<a name="r165" href="#fn165">[165]</a>
+<i>despotes!</i><a name="r166" href="#fn166">[166]</a>" whined the wretched man, now in Latin, now
+in Greek, "ask them to spare me; don't let them murder me
+in cold blood!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Ai!</i>" cried Demetrius. "What fool have we here? Do
+you know him, Agias?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"He is the freedman of Lucius Ahenobarbus. I can vouch
+for his character, after its way."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Ō-op!</i>"<a name="r167" href="#fn167">[167]</a> thundered the chief, "drag him down to the
+boats! I'll speak with him later!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And Agias carried his precious burden down to the landing-place,
+while the seamen followed with their captive.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Once Artemisia safe on her way to the trireme, which was a
+little off shore, Agias ran back to the villa; the pirates were
+ransacking it thoroughly. Everything that could be of the
+slightest value was ruthlessly seized upon, everything else
+recklessly destroyed. The pirates had not confined their
+attack to the Lentulan residence alone. Rushing down upon
+the no less elaborate neighbouring villas, they forced in the
+gates, overcame what slight opposition the trembling slaves
+might make, and gave full sway to their passion for plunder
+and rapine. The noble ladies and fine gentlemen who had
+dared the political situation and lingered late in the season to
+enjoy the pleasures of Baiæ, now found themselves roughly
+dragged away into captivity to enrich the freebooters by their
+ransoms. From pillage the pirates turned to arson, Demetrius
+in fact making no effort to control his men. First a fragile
+wooden summer-house caught the blaze of a torch and
+flared up; then a villa itself, and another and another. The
+flames shot higher and higher, great glowing, wavering pyramids
+of heat, roaring and crackling, flinging a red circle of
+glowing light in toward the mainland by Cumæ, and shimmering
+out over the bay toward Prochyta. Overhead was the
+inky dome of the heavens, and below fire; fire, and men with
+passions unreined.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Demetrius stood on the terrace of the burning villa of the
+Lentuli, barely himself out of range of the raging heat. As
+Agias came near to him, the gilded Medusa head emblazoned
+on his breastplate glared out; the loose scarlet mantle he
+wore under his armour was red as if dipped in hot blood; he
+seemed the personification of Ares, the destroyer, the waster of
+cities. The pirate was gazing fixedly on the blazing wreck
+and ruin. His firm lips were set with an expression grave
+and hard. He took no part in the annihilating frenzy of his
+men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"This is terrible destruction!" cried Agias in his ear, for
+the roar of the flames was deafening, he himself beginning to
+turn sick at the sight of the ruin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It is frightful," replied Demetrius, gloomily; "why did the
+gods ever drive me to this? My men are but children to exult
+as they do; as boys love to tear the thatch from the roof of a
+useless hovel, in sheer wantonness. I cannot restrain them."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this instant a seaman rushed up in breathless haste.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Eleleu!</i> Captain, the soldiers are on us. There must have
+been a cohort in Cumæ."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whereat the voice of Demetrius rang above the shouts of
+the plunderers and the crash and roar of the conflagration, like
+a trumpet:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Arms, men! Gather the spoil and back to the ships!
+Back for your lives!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Already the cohort of Pompeian troops, that had not yet
+evacuated Cumæ, was coming up on the double-quick, easily
+guided by the burning buildings which made the vicinity
+bright as day. The pirates ran like cats out of the blazing
+villas, bounded over terraces and walls, and gathered near
+the landing-place by the Lentulan villa. The soldiers were
+already on them. For a moment it seemed as though the
+cohort was about to drive the whole swarm of the marauders
+over the sea-wall, and make them pay dear for their night's
+diversion. But the masterly energy of Demetrius turned the
+scale. With barely a score of men behind him, he charged
+the nearest century so impetuously that it broke like water
+before him; and when sheer numbers had swept his little
+group back, the other pirates had rallied on the very brink of
+tie sea-wall, and returned to the charge.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Never was battle waged more desperately. The pirates
+knew that to be driven back meant to fall over a high embankment
+into water so shallow as to give little safety in a dive;
+capture implied crucifixion. Their only hope was to hold
+their own while their boats took them off to the ships in
+small detachments. The conflagration made the narrow
+battle-field as bright as day. The soldiers were brave, and for
+new recruits moderately disciplined. The pirates could hardly
+bear up under the crushing discharge of darts, and the steady
+onset of the maniples. Up and down the contest raged,
+swaying to and fro like the waves of the sea. Again and
+again the pirates were driven so near to the brink of the seawall
+that one or two would fall, dashed to instant death on the
+submerged rocks below. Demetrius was everywhere at once,
+as it were, precisely when he was most needed, always exposing
+himself, always aggressive. Even while he himself fought
+for dear life, Agias admired as never before the intelligently
+ordered puissance of his cousin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The boats to and from the landing were pulled with frantic
+energy. The ships had run in as close as possible, but they
+could not use their <i>balistæ</i>,<a name="r168" href="#fn168">[168]</a> for fear of striking down friend as
+well as foe. As relays of pirates were carried away, the position
+of the remainder became the more desperate with their
+lessening numbers. The boats came back for the last relay.
+Demetrius drew the remnant of his men together, and charged
+so furiously that the whole cohort gave way, leaving the ground
+strewn with its own slain. The pirates rushed madly aboard
+the boats, they sunk them to the gunwales; other fugitives
+clung to the oars. At perilous risk of upsetting they thrust
+off, just as the rallied soldiers ran down to the landing-place.
+Demetrius and Agias were the only ones standing on the
+embankment. They had been the last to retire, and therefore
+the boats had filled without them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A great cry went up from the pirates.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Save the captain!" and some boats began to back water,
+loaded as they were; but Demetrius motioned them back with
+his hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Can you swim, boy!" he shouted to Agias, while both tore
+off their body-armour. Their shields had already dropped.
+Agias shook his head doubtfully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My arm is hurt," he muttered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No matter!" and Demetrius seized his cousin under one
+armpit, and stepped down from the little landing-platform into
+the water just below. A single powerful stroke sent the two
+out of reach of the swing of the sword of the nearest soldier.
+The front files of the cohort had pressed down on to the landing
+in a dense mass, loath to let go its prey.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Let fly, men!" cried Demetrius, as he swam, and javelins
+spat into the water about him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a cruel thing to do. The three pirate vessels, two
+large triremes and the yacht, discharged all their enginery.
+Heavy stones crashed down upon the soldiers, crushing several
+men together. Huge arrows tore through shield and armour,
+impaling more than one body. It was impossible to miss
+working havoc in so close a throng. The troops, impotent
+to make effective reply, turned in panic and fled toward
+the upper terraces to get beyond the decimating artillery.
+The pirates raised a great shout of triumph that shook the
+smoke-veiled skies. A fresh boat, pulling out from one of
+the vessels, rescued the captain and Agias; and soon the two
+cousins were safe on board the trireme Demetrius used as his
+flagship.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The pirates swarmed on the decks and rigging and cheered
+the escape of their commander. On shore the burning buildings
+were still sending up their pillars of flame. The water
+and sky far out to sea were red, and beyond, blackness. Again
+the pirates shouted, then at the order of their commander the
+cables creaked, the anchors rose, hundreds of long oars flashed
+in the lurid glare, and the three vessels slipped over the dark
+waves.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Demetrius remained on the poop of his ship; Agias was
+below in the cabin, bending over Artemisia, who was already
+smiling in her sleep.
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>III</h3>
+
+<p>
+When Cornelia awoke, it was with Fabia bending over her
+at the bedside. The portholes of the cabin were open; the
+warm, fresh southern wind was pouring in its balmy sweetness.
+Cornelia pressed her hands to her eyes, then looked
+forth. The cabin ceiling was low, but studded with rare ornamental
+bronze work; the furniture glittered with gilding and
+the smooth sheen of polished ivory; the tapestry of the curtains
+and on the walls was of the choicest scarlet wool, and
+Coan silk, semi-transparent and striped with gold. Gold
+plating shone on the section of the mast enclosed within the
+cabin. An odour of the rarest Arabian frankincense was
+wafted from the pastils burning on a curiously wrought tripod
+of Corinthian brass. The upholsteries and rugs were more
+splendid than any that Cornelia had seen gracing the palace
+of Roman patrician.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus it came to pass that Fabia repeated over and over again
+to Cornelia the tale of recent happenings, until the latter's
+sorely perturbed brain might comprehend. And then, when
+Cornelia understood it all: how that she was not to go to
+Greece with Phaon; how that she was under the protection
+of a man who owed his life to Sextus Drusus, and hated the
+Ahenobarbi with a perfect hatred; how that Demetrius had
+sworn to carry her to Alexandria, where, safe out of the way
+of war and commotion, she might await the hour when Drusus
+should be free to come for her—when, we repeat, she understood
+all this, and how it came to pass that the Vestal herself
+was on the vessel,—then Cornelia strained Fabia to her breast,
+and laid her head on the elder woman's shoulder, and cried
+and cried for very relief of soul. Then she arose and let the
+maids Demetrius had sent to serve her—dark-skinned Hindoos,
+whose words were few, but whose fingers quick and dexterous
+—dress her from the very complete wardrobe that the sea
+prince had placed at her disposal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Never before had the sunlight shone so fair; never before
+had the sniff of the sea-breeze been so sweet. The galleys were
+still in the bay, close by Prochyta, scarce a mile and a half
+from the nearest mainland. The pirates were landing to procure
+water from the desolate, unsettled isle. The bay was
+dancing and sparkling with ten million golden ripples; the
+sun had risen high enough above the green hills of the coast-land
+to spread a broad pathway of shimmering fire across the
+waters. Not a cloud flecked the light-bathed azure. Up from
+the forward part of the ships sounded the notes of tinkling
+cithera and the low-breathing double flutes<a name="r169" href="#fn169">[169]</a> in softest Lydian
+mood. In and out of the cabin passed bronzed-faced Ethiopian
+mutes with silver cups of the precious Mareotic white wine
+of Egypt for the lady, and plates of African pomegranates,
+Armenian apricots, and strange sweetmeats flavoured with a
+marvellous powder, an Oriental product worth its weight in gold
+as a medicine, which later generations were to designate under
+the name of sugar.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so Cornelia was refreshed and dressed; and when the
+maids held the mirror before her and she saw that the gold
+trinkets were shining in her hair, and the jewels which Demetrius
+had sent her were sparkling brightly at her throat, and
+realized that she was very fair to see,—then she laughed,
+the first real, unforced laugh for many a weary day, whereupon
+she laughed again and again, and grew the more pleased
+with her own face when she beheld a smile upon it. Then
+Fabia kissed her, and told her that no woman was ever more
+beautiful; and the dark Indian maids drew back, saying nothing,
+but admiring with their eyes. So Cornelia went up upon the
+deck, where Demetrius came to meet her. If she had been a
+Semiramis rewarding a deserving general, she could not have
+been more queenly. For she thanked him and his lieutenants
+with a warm gratitude which made every rough seaman
+feel himself more than repaid, and yet throughout it all bore
+herself as though the mere privilege on their part of rescuing
+her ought to be sufficient reward and honour. Then Demetrius
+knelt down before all his men, and kissed the hem of her robe,
+and swore that he would devote himself and all that was his
+to her service, until she and Quintus Drusus should meet, with
+no foe to come between; so swore all the pirates after their
+captain, and thus it was Cornelia entered into her life on the
+ship of the freebooters.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Other work, however, was before Demetrius that day, than
+casting glances of dutiful admiration at the stately lady that
+had deigned to accept his hospitality. Out from the various
+other cabins, less luxurious assuredly than the one in which
+Cornelia had awakened, the pirates led their several captives
+to stand before the chief. Demetrius, indeed, had accomplished
+what he euphemistically described as "a fair night's work."
+Half a dozen once very fashionable and now very disordered
+and dejected noble ladies and about as many more sadly
+bedraggled fine gentlemen were haled before his tribunal for
+judgment. The pirate prince stood on the raised roof of a
+cabin, a step higher than the rest of the poop. He was again
+in his splendid armour, his naked sword was in his hand, at
+his side was stationed Eurybiades and half a score more stalwart
+seamen, all swinging their bare cutlasses. Demetrius
+nevertheless conducted his interrogations with perhaps superfluous
+demonstrations of courtesy, and a general distribution
+of polite "domini" "dominæ," "clarissimi," and "illustres."
+He spoke in perfectly good Latin, with only the slightest foreign
+accent; and Cornelia, who—unregenerate pagan that she
+was—was taking thorough delight in the dilemma of persons
+whom she knew had made her the butt of their scandalous
+gibes, could only admire the skilful manner in which he
+brought home to the several captives the necessity of finding
+a very large sum of money at their bankers' in a very short
+time, or enduring an indefinite captivity. After more or less
+of surly threats and resistance on the part of the men, and
+screaming on the part of the women, the prisoners one and all
+capitulated, and put their names to the papyri they were commanded
+to sign; and away went a boat dancing over the waves
+to Puteoli to cash the money orders, after which the captives
+would be set ashore at Baiæ.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Last of the wretches brought before Demetrius came Phaon.
+The freedman had been roughly handled; across his brow a
+great welt had risen where a pirate had struck him with a rope's
+end. His arms were pinioned behind his back. He was perfectly
+pale, and his eyes wandered from one person to another
+as if vainly seeking some intercessor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Euge! Kyrios</i><a name="r170" href="#fn170">[170]</a>" cried the pirate chief, "you indeed seem
+to enjoy our hospitality but ill."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Phaon fell on his knees.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I am a poor man," he began to whimper. "I have no
+means of paying a ransom. My patron is not here to protect
+or rescue me. I have nothing to plunder. <i>Mu! mu!</i>
+set me free, most noble pirate! Oh! most excellent prince,
+what have I done, that you should bear a grudge against
+me?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Get up, fellow," snapped Demetrius; "I'm not one of those
+crocodile-headed Egyptian gods that they grovel before in the
+Nile country. My cousin Agias here says he knows you. Now
+answer—are you a Greek?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I am an Athenian born."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Don't you think I can smell your Doric accent by that
+broad alpha? You are a Sicilian, I'll be bound!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Phaon made a motion of sorrowful assent.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Phui!</i>" continued Demetrius, "tell me, Agias, is this the
+creature that tried to murder Quintus Drusus?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias nodded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"A fit minister for such a man as I imagine the son of Lucius
+Domitius to be. Eurybiades, take off that fellow's bands; he
+is not worth one stroke of the sword."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The captain will not spare the knave!" remonstrated the
+sanguinary lieutenant.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What I have said, I have said," retorted the other; then,
+when Phaon's arms hung free, "See, on the strength of our
+fellowship in our both being Greeks, I have set you at large!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Phaon again sank to his knees to proffer thanks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Hold!" cried Demetrius, with a menacing gesture. "Don't
+waste your gratitude. Greek you pretend to be, more the
+shame! Such as you it is that have brought Hellas under
+the heel of the oppressor; such as you have made the word
+of a Hellene almost valueless in the Roman courts, so that
+juries have to be warned to consider us all liars; such as you
+have dragged down into the pit many an honest man; ay,
+myself too!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Phaon left off his thanks and began again to supplicate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Stop whining, hound!" roared Demetrius; "haven't I said
+you are free? Free, but on one condition!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Anything, anything, my lord," professed the freedman,
+"money, service—"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"On this condition," and a broad, wicked smile over-spread
+the face of the pirate, "that you quit this ship
+instantly!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Gladly, gladly, merciful sir!" commenced Phaon again;
+"where is the boat?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Wretch!" shouted the other, "what did I say about a
+boat? Depart—depart into the sea! Swim ashore, if the
+load on your legs be not too heavy. Seize him and see that he
+sinks,"—this last to Eurybiades and the seamen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Phaon's terror choked his utterance; he turned livid with
+mortal fright. He pleaded for life; life on the terms most
+degrading, most painful, most joyless—life, life and that only.
+He cried out to Cornelia to save him, he confessed his villanies,
+and vowed repentance a score of times all in one breath. But
+Cornelia lived in an age when the wisest and best—whatever
+the philosophers might theorize—thought it no shame to
+reward evil for evil, not less than good for good. When Demetrius
+asked her, "Shall I spare this man, lady?" she replied:
+"As he has made my life bitter for many days, why should I
+spare him a brief moment's pain? Death ends all woe!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a dull splash over the side, a circle spreading
+out in the water, wider and wider, until it could be seen no
+more among the waves.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"There were heavy stones to his feet, Captain," reported
+Eurybiades, "and the cords will hold."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It is well," answered Demetrius, very grave....
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Later in the day the boat returned from Puteoli, and with it
+sundry small round-bellied bags, which the pirate prince duly
+stowed away in his strong chest. The ransomed captives were
+put on board a small unarmed yacht that had come out to
+receive them. Demetrius himself handed the ladies over the
+side, and salaamed to them as the craft shot off from the flagship.
+Then the pirates again weighed anchor, the great
+purple<a name="r171" href="#fn171">[171]</a> square sail of each of the ships was cast to the piping
+breeze, the triple tiers of silver-plated oars<a href="#fn171">[171]</a> began to rise and
+fall in unison to the soft notes of the piper. The land grew
+fainter and more faint, and the three ships sprang away,
+speeding over the broad breast of the sea.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That night Cornelia and Fabia held each other in their
+arms for a long time. They were leaving Rome, leaving Italy,
+their closest friend at hand was only the quondam slave-boy
+Agias, yet Cornelia, at least, was happy—almost as happy as
+the girl Artemisia; and when she lay down to sleep, it was to
+enjoy the first sound slumber, unhaunted by dread of trouble,
+for nigh unto half a year.
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h2 id="ch20">CHAPTER XX</h2>
+
+<h2>CLEOPATRA</h2>
+
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+A "clear singing zephyr" out of the west sped the ships
+on their way. Down they fared along the coast, past the isle
+of Capreæ, then, leaving the Campanian main behind, cut the
+blue billows of the Tyrrhenian Sea; all that day and night, and
+more sail and oar swept them on. They flew past the beaches
+of Magna Græcia, then, betwixt Scylla and Charybdis, and
+Sicilia and its smoke-beclouded cone of Ætna faded out of
+view, and the long, dark swells of the Ionian Sea caught them.
+No feeble merchantman, hugging coasts and headlands, was
+Demetrius. He pushed his three barques boldly forward
+toward the watery sky-line; the rising and setting sun by day
+and the slowly circling stars by night were all-sufficient pilots;
+and so the ships flew onward, and, late though the season was,
+no tempest racked them, no swollen billow tossed them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia sat for hours on the poop, beneath a crimson awning,
+watching the foam scudding out from under the swift-moving
+keel, and feeling the soft, balmy Notos, the kind wind
+of the south, now and then puff against her face, when the
+west wind veered away, and so brought up a whiff of the spices
+and tropic bloom of the great southern continent, over the
+parching deserts and the treacherous quicksands of the Syrtes
+and the broad "unharvested sea."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia had seen the cone of Ætna sinking away in the
+west, and then she looked westward no more. For eastward
+and ever eastward fared the ships, and on beyond them on
+pinions of mind flew Cornelia. To Africa, to the Orient!
+And she dreamed of the half-fabulous kingdoms of Assyria
+and Babylonia; of the splendours of Memphis and Nineveh
+and Susa and Ecbatana; of Eastern kings and Eastern
+gold, and Eastern pomp and circumstance of war; of Ninus,
+and Cyrus the Great, and Alexander; of Cheops and Sesostris
+and Amasis; of the hanging gardens; of the treasures of Sardanapalus;
+of the labyrinth of Lake Moeris; of a thousand
+and one things rare and wonderful. Half was she persuaded
+that in the East the heart might not ache nor the soul grow
+cold with pain. And all life was fair to Cornelia. She was
+sure of meeting Drusus soon or late now, if so be the gods—she
+could not help using the expression despite her atheism—spared
+him in war. She could wait; she could be very patient.
+She was still very young. And when she counted her remaining
+years to threescore, they seemed an eternity. The pall
+which had rested on her life since her uncle and her lover
+parted after their stormy interview was lifted; she could
+smile, could laugh, could breathe in the fresh air, and cry,
+"How good it all is!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Demetrius held his men under control with an iron hand.
+If ever the pirate ship was filled with sights and sounds
+unseemly for a lady's eyes and ears, there were none of them
+now. Cornelia was a princess, abjectly waited on by her subjects.
+Demetrius's attention outran all her least desires.
+He wearied her with presents of jewellery and costly dresses,
+though, as he quietly remarked to Agias, the gifts meant no
+more of sacrifice to him than an obol to a rich spendthrift. He
+filled her ears with music all day long; he entertained her with
+inimitable narrations of his own adventurous voyages and
+battles. And only dimly could Cornelia realize that the gems
+she wore in her hair, her silken dress, nay, almost everything
+she touched, had come from earlier owners with scant process
+of law.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Demetrius was no common rover. He had been a young
+man of rare culture before misfortune struck him. He knew
+his Homer and his Plato as well as how to swing a sword.
+"Yet," as he remarked with half jest, half sigh, "all his philosophy
+did not make him one whit more an honest man."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And in his crew of Greeks, Orientals, and Spaniards were
+many more whom calamity, not innate wickedness, so Cornelia
+discovered, had driven to a life of violence and rapine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Demetrius, too, gave no little heed to Artemisia. That
+pretty creature had been basking in the sunshine of Agias's
+presence ever since coming on shipboard. It was tacitly
+understood that Cornelia would care for the welfare and education
+of Pratinas's runaway, until she reached a maturity at
+which Agias could assert his claims. The young Hellene
+himself had been not a little anxious lest his cousin cast
+obstacles in the way of an alliance with a masterless slavegirl;
+for of late Demetrius had been boasting to his kinsman
+that their family, before business misfortunes, had been
+wealthy and honourable among the merchant princes of Alexandria.
+But the worthy pirate had not an objection to make;
+on the contrary, he would sit for hours staring at Artemisia,
+and when Agias demanded if he was about to turn rival,
+shook his head and replied, rather brusquely:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I was only thinking that Daphne might be about her age,
+and look perhaps like her."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Then you do not think your little daughter is dead?" asked
+Agias, sympathetic, yet personally relieved.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I know nothing, nothing," replied his cousin, a look of
+ineffable pain passing over his fine features; "she was a
+mere infant when I was arrested. When I broke loose, I
+had to flee for my life. When I could set searchers after her,
+she had vanished. Poor motherless thing; I imagine she is
+the slave of some gay lady at Antioch or Ephesus or Rome
+now."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And you do not know who stole her?" asked Agias.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Don't tear open old wounds," was the retort. "I know
+nothing. I think—but it matters little what I think. There
+was that sly-eyed, smooth-tongued Greek, like that Phaon who
+met his deserts, who was no stranger to Domitius's blackmailings.
+I <i>feel</i> that he did it. Never mind his name. If ever
+I get the snake into my power—" and Demetrius's fingers
+tightened around the thick, hard cable he was clutching, and
+crushed the solid hemp into soft, loose strands; then he broke
+out again, "Never mention this another time, Agias, or I shall
+go mad, and plunge down, down into the waves, to go to sleep
+and forget it all!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias was faithful to the injunction; but he observed that
+Demetrius showed Artemisia the same attention as Cornelia,
+albeit mingled with a little gracious and unoffending familiarity.
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+After a voyage in which one pleasant day succeeded another,
+Cornelia awoke one morning to hear the creak of blocks and
+tackle as the sailors were lowering sail. The full banks of
+oars were plashing in the waves, and on deck many feet were
+rushing to and fro, while officers shouted their orders. Coming
+out of her cabin, the young lady saw that the end of her
+seafaring was close at hand. Even to one fresh from the
+azure atmosphere of the Campanian Bay, the sky was marvellously
+clear. The water was of a soft green tint, that shaded
+off here and there into dark cerulean. The wind was blowing
+in cool puffs out of the north. A long, slow swell made the
+stately triremes rock gracefully. Before them, in clear view,
+rose the tall tower of the Pharos,—the lighthouse of Alexandria,—and
+beyond it, on the low-lying mainland, rose in
+splendid relief against the cloudless sky the glittering piles
+and fanes of the city of the Ptolemies. It was a magnificent
+picture,—a "picture" because the colours everywhere were as
+bright as though laid on freshly by a painter's brush. The
+stonework of the buildings, painted to gaudy hues, brought out
+all the details of column, cornice, and pediment. Here Demetrius
+pointed out the Royal Palace, here the Theatre; here,
+farther inland, the Museum, where was the great University;
+in the distance the whole looked like a painting in miniature.
+Only there was more movement in this picture: a splendid
+yacht, with the gold and ivory glittering on its prow and poop,
+was shooting out from the royal dockyards in front of the
+palace; a ponderous corn-ship was spreading her dirty sails to
+try to beat out against the adverse breeze, and venture on a
+voyage to Rome, at a season when the Italian traffic was usually
+suspended. The harbour and quays were one forest of
+masts. Boats and small craft were gliding everywhere.
+Behind the pirate's triremes several large merchantmen were
+bearing into the harbour under a full press of sail.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And this, your ladyship," said Demetrius, smiling, "is
+Egypt. Does the first sight please you?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Does it not!" exclaimed Cornelia, drinking in the matchless
+spectacle. "But you, kind sir, do you not run personal
+peril by putting into this haven for my sake?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Demetrius laughed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It speaks ill for the law-abiding qualities of my countrymen,
+lady," said he, "that I have nothing now to fear. I have
+too many great friends both in the court and in the city to
+fear arrest or annoyance. Here I may not stay long, for if it
+were to be noised in Rome that a pirate were harboured
+habitually at Alexandria, a demand for my arrest would come
+to the king quickly enough, and he must needs comply. But
+for a few days, especially while all Rome is in chaos, I am
+safe; and, come what may, I would be first warned if any one
+intended to lay hands on me."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Indeed, Demetrius's boast as to his own importance in
+Alexandria was soon verified. The customs officials were all
+obsequiousness when they went through the form of levying
+on the cargo of the ship. The master of the port was soon in
+Demetrius's own cabin over a crater of excellent wine, and no
+sooner had the vessels touched the quay than their crews were
+fraternizing with the hosts of stevedores and flower-girls who
+swarmed to meet the new arrivals.
+</p>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+A few days later Cornelia and Fabia found themselves
+received as members of the household of no less a person than
+Cleomenes, a distant kinsman of Demetrius and Agias, and
+himself one of the great merchant princes of the Egyptian capital.
+The Roman ladies found a certain amount of shyness to
+overcome on their own part and on that of their hosts. Cleomenes
+himself was a widower, and his ample house was presided
+over by two dark-skinned, dark-eyed daughters, Berenice and
+Monime—girls who blended with the handsome Greek features
+of their father the soft, sensuous charm of his dead Egyptian
+wife. Bashful indeed had been these maidens in contact with
+the strangers who came bearing with them the haughty pride
+of all-conquering Rome. But after a day or two, when
+Cornelia had cast off the hauteur begotten of diffidence, and
+Fabia had opened the depths of her pure womanly character,
+the barriers were thrown down rapidly enough; and Cornelia
+and Fabia gained, not merely an access to a new world of life
+and ideas, but two friends that they could regard almost as
+sisters.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a new thing for these Roman ladies to meet a foreigner
+on terms approaching equality. A non-Roman had been
+for them a servant, an intelligent underling, nothing more;
+even Agias and Demetrius they had regarded as friends, very
+close and agreeable, but whom it was a distinct condescension
+not to treat with ostentatious superiority. But to sustain
+this feeling long with Berenice and Monime was impossible.
+The young Egyptians were every whit as cultured, as intelligent,
+as themselves, every whit as accustomed to deference
+from others, and implicitly assumed the right to demand it.
+The result was that Cornelia found herself thinking less and
+less about being a Roman, and more and more regarded her
+gracious hosts as persons in every way equal to herself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And less and less of a Roman, Cornelia, the Hellene-hater,
+became. Greek was the only tongue now that sounded in her
+ear, unless she talked privately with Fabia or was beguiled
+into trying to learn a little Egyptian—a language Berenice
+and Monime spoke fluently. The clothes she wore were no
+longer stola and palla, but chiton and himation. The whole
+atmosphere about her was foreign, down to the cries on the
+streets. And Italy was very far away, and the last memories
+thereof none the most pleasant.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It chanced that one morning Cleomenes, Monime, and Cornelia
+were driving down the great central street, under the
+shadow of seemingly endless colonnades.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>A!</i> dearest one," cried Monime, "why must you think
+of leaving our lovely Alexandria, of going back to cold, cheerless
+Rome? What good thing does Rome send out but stern
+men and sharp iron?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia shook her head and made answer—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You Alexandrians are not one nation, but all the world;
+therefore you think all who are less cosmopolitan poor. See,
+I count in the crowds not only the dark Egyptians and fair
+Greeks, but a Persian in his splendid long kaftan, and a very
+venerable Jew, and a wiry little Arab, and Syrians, and negroes,
+and, I think, a Hindoo."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And yourself, my lady, a Roman," concluded Cleomenes.
+"Truly all the earth has met in our city."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They whirled down the splendid highway that ran straight
+as an arrow the whole length of the city, lined on either side
+by a forest of the infinite number of columns of the great
+stretches of porticos. Handsomely dressed cavalrymen of the
+palace guard were dashing to and fro over the clean, hard pavement;
+elegant carriages containing the noble and wealthy were
+whirling in every direction. At each glance, the eye lit on
+some pleasing bit of sculpture, some delicate curve of architecture.
+Statues were everywhere, everywhere colour, everywhere
+crowds of gayly dressed citizens and foreigners. Cornelia
+contrasted the symmetrical streets, all broad, swept, and at
+right angles—the triumph of the wise architectural planning
+of Dinocrates—with the dirty, unsightly, and crooked lanes of
+the City of the Seven Hills, and told herself, as she had told
+herself often in recent days, that Romans had much yet to learn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They drove on past the Amphitheatre toward the Egyptian
+quarter of the Rhacotis; and here, at the intersection of the
+Great Street with the other broad way leading from the "Gate
+of the Moon" on the harbour to the "Gate of the Sun" on Lake
+Mareotis, a moving hedge of outriders, cavalrymen, and foot-guards
+met them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The queen coming from the Serapeum," said Cleomenes,
+drawing rein.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia saw half-naked Numidian footmen thrusting back
+the crowd that bustled in the Omphalos—the great square
+where the two highroads met. Behind them pushed a squadron
+of light cavalry in silvered armour and splendid purple
+and scarlet uniforms. Then, in the midst of all, moved a
+chariot drawn by four horses white as snow, the harness
+resplendent with gold and jewels; at either side ran fan-bearers,
+waving great masses of bright ostrich plumes; a gaudy
+parasol swept over the carriage itself. There were three occupants,
+whereof two stood: an Egyptian, gaunt and of great
+height, clad in plain white linen, who was driving, and a handsome,
+gaudily dressed Greek youth, who was holding the parasol.
+Cornelia could just catch the profile of a young woman
+seated between them. The face was not quite regular, but
+marvellously intelligent and sensitive; the skin not pale, yet
+far from dark, and perfectly healthy and clear; the eyes restive
+and piercing. The queen was dressed plainly in Greek fashion;
+her himation was white, her only ornament a great diamond
+that was blazing like a star on her breast. Upon the coils of
+her heavy, dark hair sat a golden circlet faced in front with the
+likeness of the head of the venomous uræus snake—the emblem
+of Egyptian royalty. This was all Cornelia could observe
+in the brief time the queen was in view. Some of the people—Egyptians
+mostly—cried out to her in their own tongue:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Hail to the ever glorious Daughter of Ra!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the queen paid them little heed. Once her restless eyes
+lit on the carriage of Cleomenes, and she made a slight inclination
+of the head in return to that gentleman's salute, for Cleomenes
+had standing at court as one of the "friends of the king."<a name="r172" href="#fn172">[172]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+ The cortège rolled away toward the palace.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"This Cleopatra is a rather remarkable woman," observed
+Cornelia, for the sake of saying something.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Indeed, that is true," replied Cleomenes, as he turned to
+drive homeward. "She is worthy to have lived in the days of
+the first Ptolemies, of Ptolemæus Soter and Philadelphus and
+Euergetes. She is still very young, only twenty, and yet five
+years ago she was so fascinating that when Antonius, of whom
+I have heard you speak, came here with Gabinius's expeditions
+he quite lost his heart to her. She has a marvellous talent for
+statecraft and intrigue and diplomacy. You know that, nominally
+at least, she has to share her crown with young Ptolemæus,
+her younger brother. He is a worthless rascal, but
+his tutor, the eunuch Pothinus, really wields him. Pothinus,
+as the custom is, was brought up with him as his playmate, and
+now Pothinus wants to drive out the queen, and rule Egypt
+through his power over the king. His ambition is notorious,
+but the queen has not been able to lay hands on him for
+treason."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cleopatra and her fortunes and perils played a slight part in
+Cornelia's mind, however, that day. To know Alexandria in
+its sunlight and shadows was indeed to know a miniature world.
+First of all to notice, besides the heterogeneous nature of the
+crowds on the streets, was the fact that every person, high as
+well as low, was engaged in some trade. Very far was the
+typical Alexandrian from the quiet "leisure" which the average
+Greek or Latin believed requisite for a refined life—a life in
+which slaves did all the necessary work, and amassed an income
+for the master to expend in polite recreations. In Rome, for
+a free citizen to have been a handicraftsman would have been
+a disgrace; he could be farmer, banker, soldier,—nothing more.
+In Alexandria the glass-workers, paper-makers, and linen
+weavers were those who were proudest and most jealous of
+their title of "Men of Macedonia."<a name="r173" href="#fn173">[173]</a> Money, Cornelia soon
+discovered, was even a greater god here than in Rome. Cleomenes
+himself was not ashamed to spend a large part of the
+day inspecting his factories, and did not hesitate to declare
+that during a period when he and his family had been in great
+distress, following the failure of the banking house of Agias's
+father, he had toiled with his own hands to win bread for his
+daughters.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The conception that any honest labour, except a certain
+genteel agriculture, might not make a man the less of a gentleman,
+or a woman the less of a lady, was as new to Cornelia
+as the idea that some non-Romans could claim equality with
+herself. Neither proposition did she accept consciously. The
+prejudice wore quietly away. But other things about the city
+she gathered quickly enough from the caustic explanations of
+Cleomenes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Here in Alexandria," he asserted on one occasion, "we are
+always ripe for a riot. Never a chariot race without stone-throwing
+and throat-cutting after it. An unpopular official is
+torn in pieces by a mob. If you chance to kill a cat, the
+Egyptians are after you for your life. The Greeks hate the
+Jews, and are always ready to plunder their quarter; the Egyptians
+are on bad terms with both. We talk about being free
+citizens of the capital of the Ptolemies, and pretend to go to
+the Gymnasium for discussion, and claim a right to consult
+with the king; but our precious Senate, and all our tribes and
+wards, are only fictions. We are as much slaves as the poor
+creatures down in the royal quarries; only we demand the right
+to riot and give nicknames. We called the last Ptolemæus,
+Auletes "the Piper," because in that way we have punished
+him in all history for the way he oppressed us. <i>Euge!</i> Have
+we not a wonderful city!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was on the very next day that Cleopatra was recalled to
+Cornelia's mind in a quite marked fashion. It was rather
+early, and she was upon the roof-garden, on the third story of
+the house, where there was a commanding view of the city.
+Berenice was busy reading from a papyrus the Egyptian legend
+of the "Adventures of Sinuhit," translating into Greek as she
+read.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cleomenes broke in upon the reading. His face wore a
+mysterious smile.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I have a rather strange piece of news for you, my lady,"
+he said. "A chamberlain of the court has just been here, and
+brings a royal command."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I am not accustomed to being commanded," interrupted
+Cornelia, all her Roman haughtiness rising.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I do not think you will be found disobedient. The queen,
+it seems, noticed you in my carriage yesterday, and at once
+divined, with that wonderfully quick wit of hers, that you must
+be a Roman lady of rank. She immediately made inquiries,
+and now sends her chamberlain to ask you and the Lady Fabia,
+as well as myself, to dine with her at the palace to-night. You
+may be sure nothing will be lacking to do you honour."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia meekly acquiesced in this royal mandate. Fabia,
+however, could not stir from the house. The shock to her
+finely strung nature when she was taken from Rome had,
+indeed, produced a physical reaction. She was not seriously
+ill, but could endure no excitement. So it was with only
+Cleomenes for an escort that Cornelia mounted into one of the
+splendid royal chariots sent from the palace about dusk, and
+drove away surrounded by a cloud of guardsmen sent to do
+honour to the guests of the queen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia herself felt highly strung and slightly nervous. She
+wished, for the first time since she reached Alexandria, that
+she could go dressed in the native costume of a Roman lady,
+She was going to enjoy the hospitality of a princess who was
+the successor of thirty odd dynasties of Pharaohs; who was
+worshipped herself as a goddess by millions of Egyptians; who
+was hailed as "Daughter of the Sun," and with fifty other
+fulsome titles; a princess, furthermore, who was supposed to
+dispose of the lives of her subjects as seemed right in her own
+eyes, without law of man or god to hinder. Cornelia was not
+afraid, nay rather, anticipatory; only she had never before
+been so thoroughly conscious that she was Roman down to her
+finger-tips—Roman, and hence could look upon the faces of
+princes unabashed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The people saw the royal chariot, and some shouted salutations
+to the guests whom the queen delighted to honour. The
+company swept up under the magnificent archway leading to
+the palace; above them rose tall Ionic columns of red granite
+of Syene, building rising above building, labyrinths of pillars,
+myriads of statues. Torches were blazing from every direction.
+The palace grounds were as bright as day. The light breeze
+was sweeping through rare Indian ferns and tropical palms.
+The air was heavy with the breath of innumerable roses. Huge
+fountains were tossing up showers of spray, which fell tinkling
+onto broad basins wherein the cups of the blue and white lotus
+were floating. It was indeed as if one had been led on to
+enchanted ground.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia and her friend dismounted from their chariot, and
+were led through an endless colonnade, past a second, lower
+gateway, and then into a hall, not very high or large, but
+admirable in its proportions, with a whole gallery of choice
+mythological paintings on its walls. Small heed did Cornelia
+give to them. For at the end of the hall rose a low dais,
+whereon sat, in a gilded chair, the same person who had been
+pointed out to Cornelia the day before as the mistress of
+Upper and Lower Egypt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The light was too dim to discover in the distance anything
+new in the face of the queen. She wore a loose, long gown of
+some light blue silken stuff; and her belt, shoes, neck, breast,
+and ears were all glittering with gems. At the foot of the dais
+was a group of half a dozen showily dressed chamberlains and
+courtiers, who made a slight motion of greeting when the two
+guests darkened the doorway. One of these functionaries
+advanced to Cornelia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Your ladyship," he began, in a smooth, colourless voice,
+"I have the honour to be the Royal Introducing Chamberlain.
+In approaching the queen, do as I shall direct. First, before
+advancing to the dais bow slightly; then at the foot of the dais
+it is proper—"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Sir," interrupted Cornelia, drawing herself up to her full
+height, "I am not accustomed to your prostrations and genuflections,
+and of them my countrymen make sorry work; pray
+excuse me." And without waiting for reply or expostulation
+she advanced straight toward the dais. The hall was small,
+the steps from the door to the queen's chair few; but never
+did Cornelia fare on more tedious journey. She knew that a
+half-horrified titter was passing through the group of courtiers
+She knew that Cleopatra herself had stirred in her seat, as if
+to rise. But one word sounded in Cornelia's ears, and that
+word was "Rome." Were not Roman citizens nobles among
+nobles, and Roman senators peers of kings! And she, daughter
+of the Cornelii and Claudii, whose ancestors had broken the
+might of Antiochus the Great and Mithridates—should she
+not look in the face the heiress of the Lagidæ? Had not one
+hundred years before Popilius, the Roman commissioner, come
+unarmed into the presence of Antiochus Epiphanes, while he
+was advancing to the gates of defenceless Alexandria, drawn
+a circle in the dust about the king, and bidden him answer,
+before he stepped over, whether he would court destruction or
+obey the mandate of the Republic and leave Egypt in peace?
+And had not the great king obeyed—humbly? Why, then,
+should not a Roman patrician maiden look down on a mere
+monarch, who was a pawn in the hands of her kinsfolk and
+countrymen?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To repeat these things is long. The mind moves faster than
+the sunlight. Cornelia came to the dais, and there gave the
+slightest inclination of her head—the greeting of a mistress to
+slaves—to the group of courtiers. She advanced straight
+toward the royal chair and stretched forth her hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I am your debtor, O queen, for a kindness that I may not
+soon, I fear, repay—unless you come to Rome."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She spoke as a superior addressing an inferior who had rendered
+some slight service. The queen rose from her seat and
+took the proffered hand without the least hesitation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And I will ask for none other reward than that you do
+honour to my entertainment."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The voice was wonderfully soft, modulated, and ringing;
+like an instrument of many strings. Every syllable blended
+into the next in perfect harmony; to hear a few words was like
+listening unto music.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia knew later, when she was older and had thought
+more, that the queen had instantly caught the defiant mood of
+her guest, and thereupon left nothing unspared to conciliate
+it. At that moment, however, she attempted no such analysis
+of motive. She was conscious of only one thing: the luminous
+personality of Cleopatra. The queen was all that Cornelia had
+noticed her to be when they met at the Great Square; but she
+was more than a beautiful woman. In fact, in mere bodily
+perfection Monime or Berenice might well have stood beside
+her. The glance of the queen went through and through her
+guests like arrows of softly burning light. It was impossible
+to withdraw one's eyes from her; impossible to shake off the
+spell of an enjoyable magnetism. If she moved her long,
+shapely fingers, it was speech; if she raised her hand, eloquence.
+As shade after shade of varying emotion seemed to
+pass across Cleopatra's face, it was as if one saw the workings
+of a masterful spirit as in a mirror; and now could cry, "This
+is one of the Graces," and now "This is one of the Fates," as
+half-girlish candour and sweetness was followed by a lightning
+flash from the eyes, disclosing the deep, far-recessed
+subtleties of the soul within. Cornelia had entered the
+hall haughty, defiant; a word and a look—she was the most
+obedient vassal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia had seen many a splendid banquet and dinner party
+in Rome. Even Oriental kings had not a great deal to teach
+the "masters of the toga" in ostentatious luxury. Perhaps the
+queen had realized this. The present occasion called, indeed
+for very little formality, for, besides Cornelia, Cleomenes was
+the only guest; and when that gentleman inquired politely if
+his Majesty, the King Ptolemæus, was to honour them with
+his presence, Cleopatra replied, with an eloquent raising of
+the eyebrows:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The king will be to-night, as he always is, with his tutor—Pothinus."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was indescribable scorn in the last word.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The doors of the reception hall had been flung back on noiseless
+pivots by unseen hands. The banqueting room disclosed
+within was not so much a room as a garden. Flowers, flowers
+were everywhere, roses, violets, narcissuses, and a score of
+others breathing forth a heavy fragrance. Overhead, the goldstudded
+ceiling was converted into a vast arbour of blending
+flowery tints. The room was large, very large for only three
+banqueters; on the walls, from out between the potted tropical
+plants, shone marvellous marble reliefs, one hundred in
+all; and in betwixt them were matchless paintings. Framing,
+after a fashion, the pictures, were equally perfect embroideries,
+portraying in silk and fine linen the stories of Thebes,
+the kingly house of Argos, and many another myth of fame.
+The pillars of the room represented palm trees and Bacchic
+thyrsi; skins of wild beasts were fastened high up to the
+walls; and everywhere was the sheen of silver and gold, the
+splendour of scarlet and purple tapestries.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The decorations of this room," said the queen, as her two
+guests entered, "are nearly all preserved from the great banqueting
+pavilion of Ptolemæus Philadelphus, which he erected
+for the grand festival that ushered in his reign."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia drew back as her foot crossed the threshold. Her
+sandals trod on the fair white cup of a blooming lily. The
+queen laughed as merrily as a little girl at her confusion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"In Rome, I doubt not," she said, smiling, "there are not
+flowers enough at this time of year to have them for a carpet.
+But this is Alexandria. Flowers are never out of bloom."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So Cornelia advanced, but perhaps it grieved her more to
+tread on the innocent flowers, than any small thing had since
+she left Baiæ.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And then the banquet, if such it may be termed when there
+are but three to enjoy it, began. Cleopatra knew well that she
+could not overwhelm her Roman guest with show of plate and
+gems, nor did she try. But Cornelia forgot about such things
+long before they rose. For the queen displayed to her a
+myriad dainty perfections and refinements that never had
+endeared themselves to the grosser Italian gourmands. Cleomenes
+had whispered to his companion, before they reached
+the palace, "Plato tells of four sorts of flattery; but I can
+promise you a thousand sorts from Cleopatra if she but cares
+to win your friendship." And surely the queen did thus
+desire. For Cornelia was surfeited with strange dishes, and
+rare sherbets, flowers, and music; surfeited with everything
+save the words that fell from the lips of Cleopatra.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The more the queen spoke, the more complete became the
+vassalage of her guest. Cornelia discovered that this woman,
+who was but little older than she, could speak fluently seven
+languages, and carried about with her an exceedingly accurate
+knowledge, not merely of the administration of Egypt, but of
+the politics of Rome, and the details of the great contest racking
+the Republic. When Cleopatra asked questions concerning
+Roman affairs, Cornelia was fain to confess ignorance and
+be put to shame. And as the evening advanced, Cornelia
+found herself talking with more and more confidence to this
+woman that she had never addressed until an hour before.
+Cleopatra of course knew, as all Alexandria knew, that Cornelia
+and Fabia were Roman ladies of the highest rank, who
+had been forced to take refuge abroad until the political crisis
+was over. But now Cornelia told the queen the true reasons
+that had led her to be willing to submit to Demetrius's friendly
+kidnapping; and when, in a burst of frankness,—which in a
+saner moment Cornelia would have deemed unwise,—she told
+of her betrothal to Drusus and willingness to wait long for him,
+if they might only come together in the end, the queen seemed
+unable to speak with her usual bright vivacity. Presently
+she said:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"So you love this young man as none other? You are willing
+to be all your life his handmaid, his slave?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I love him, assuredly," said Cornelia, with a little heat.
+"And so far as being all my life his slave, I've given that never
+so much as a thought. Where love is, there slavery cannot be."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And where love is not, there slavery must be, doubtless you
+wish to add?" broke in the queen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I should be very miserable if I had nothing to love, which
+I might love purely, and feel myself the nobler and happier
+thereby."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Then pity us poor mortals who cannot climb up to your
+Olympus! Eh, my very noble Cleomenes," went on the queen,
+addressing the Greek, "do I not deserve compassion, that
+I have not been able to find some Tigranes of Armenia, or
+Parthian prince, who will be all in all to me, and make me
+forget everything in worshipping him?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These were the first words that evening that had grated on
+Cornelia. A little ruffled, she replied:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I fear, O queen, that if you are awaiting a Tigranes or an
+Artavasdes to sue for your hand, you will indeed never find a
+lord to worship. Quintus Drusus is indeed wealthy at Rome,
+his family noble, he may rise to great things; but I would not
+lay down my life for him because of his wealth, his lineage,
+or his fair prospects. It is not these things which make a
+common woman love a man."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But I am not a common woman," responded Cleopatra,
+with emphasis. "I am ambitious, not to be led, but to lead.
+I must rule or I must die. I cannot love a master, only fear
+him. Why, because I was born a woman, must I give up all
+my royal aspirations to rise to a great place among princes,
+to build up a great empire in the East, to make Alexandria
+a capital with the power of Rome, the culture of Athens, the
+splendour of Babylon, all in one? It is because I have these
+hopes stirring in me that I may love no man, can love no man!
+Nothing shall stand in my way; nothing shall oppose me.
+Whoever thwarts my ambitions, the worse for him; let him
+die—all things must die, but not I, until I have won my
+power and glory!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For once, at least, the queen's emotions had run away with
+her; she spoke hotly, passionately, as though tearing her words
+from the recesses of her throbbing heart. Her wonderful voice
+was keyed in half-bitter defiance. For the moment Cornelia
+was mistress, and not the queen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"O queen," broke in the young Roman, "would you know how
+I feel toward you?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cleopatra looked at her with dilated eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I feel for you a very great sorrow. I know not whether
+you will or will not do as you wish—set your empire over the
+far East, a rival, friendly, I hope, to our Rome; but this I
+know, that with your glory, and with your renown among men
+for all time, you will go down to your grave with an empty
+heart. And I know not what may compensate for that."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cleomenes was clearly a little disturbed at this turn to the
+conversation; but Cleopatra bowed her head on her hands. It
+was only for an instant. When she looked up once more there
+were tears in her eyes, which she made no effort to conceal.
+The look of high defiance had faded from her face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Think kindly of me, Lady Cornelia," she said; "I am but
+a wilful girl with many things to learn. Perhaps you yourself
+know that purple robes do not make a light heart."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That I know well and sadly."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Therefore," went on the queen, "if I forget myself, and
+half envy a cup of happiness that seems dashed from my lips,
+do not be over blameful."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Never," responded the young Roman.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Time advances," said the queen; "let us forget that any
+barriers shut us out from perfect bliss. Let us call in the
+Egyptian musicians; and cry out upon me if my looks grow
+sad!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whereat a whole section in the side of the room turned on a
+pivot, and there entered three native harpers and eight pretty
+Egyptian girls, in gauzy dresses, who danced in intricate figures,
+and juggled with balls; now with two, now with three,
+catching them with their hands crossed. Boys ran in and out
+and sprinkled <i>kyphi</i><a name="r174" href="#fn174">[174]</a> on the heads of the three feasters, and
+flung huge wreaths of flowers round their necks, and thrust
+lotus flowers in their hair. And all the time the girls sang
+sweetly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The queen kept her guests very late.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We of Alexandria," said she, "make little difference
+between night and day. Our city is a new Sybaris."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And all through the evening Cleopatra kept close to Cornelia,
+often with her hand upon her, as though extremely loath to let
+her go. At last the moon crept up into the heavens, and as
+the queen and her guests roved out of the heated banqueting
+hall into the cool gardens, the pale yellow light gently bathed
+the sweep of the city, which lay in full view of the palace terrace.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"All sleep," said Cleopatra, "all but ourselves. Let there
+be one more song, and then farewell!—but soon to meet again."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The chorus of maidens, which followed them, sang, in Greek,
+the hymn of Onomacritus:<a name="r175" href="#fn175">[175]</a>—
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>
+"Heavenly Selene! goddess queen! that shed'st abroad the light!<br />
+Bull-horned moon! air-habiting! thou wanderer through the night!<br />
+Moon bearer of mighty torch! thou star-encircled maid!<br />
+Woman thou, yet male the same, still fresh and undecayed!<br />
+Thou that in thy steeds delightest, as they travel through the sky,<br />
+Clothed in brightness! mighty mother of the rapid years that fly;<br />
+Fruit dispenser! amber-visaged! melancholy, yet serene!<br />
+All beholding! sleep-enamour'd! still with trooping planets seen!<br />
+Quiet loving; who in pleasance and in plenty tak'st delight;<br />
+Joy diffusing! Fruit maturing! Sparkling ornament of night!<br />
+Swiftly pacing! ample-vested! star-bright! all divining maid!<br />
+Come benignant! come spontaneous! with starry sheen arrayed!<br />
+Sweetly shining! save us virgin, give thy holy suppliants aid!"
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+"Yes," said Cleopatra, passing her hand over her brow, "give
+us aid, either thou, O moon, or some other power, for we are
+full weak ourselves."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When the queen parted with her guests she put her arms
+around Cornelia's waist and kissed her on the forehead.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I sent for you," said Cleopatra, "half intending to amuse
+myself with the boorishness and clumsy insolence which I
+conceived a noble Roman lady to possess. I have been punished.
+Promise to come to see me often, very often, or I shall
+call my body-guards and keep you prisoner. For I have very
+few friends."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While the chariot was bearing the two guests away, Cleomenes
+asked Cornelia what she thought of the queen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"She is the most wonderful woman I have ever met," was
+her answer, enthusiastic and characteristically feminine. "I
+admire her. I am almost her slave."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The frequency of Cornelia's visits to the palace on following
+days seemed to prove that the admiration was not unreciprocated.
+Indeed, Monime and Berenice grew jealous of the queen
+for stealing their new friend from them.
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h2 id="ch21">CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+
+<h2>HOW ULAMHALA'S WORDS CAME TRUE</h2>
+
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+The sentries were going their rounds; the camp-fires were
+burning low. Over on the western hills bounding the Thessalian
+plain-land lingered the last bars of light. It was
+oppressively warm, and man and beast were utterly fatigued.
+Quintus Drusus stripped off his armour, and flung himself on
+the turf inside his tattered leather tent. Vast had been the
+changes eighteen months of campaigning had made in him.
+He had fought in Italy, in Spain, in the long blockade of the
+Pompeians at Dyrrachium. He had learned the art of war in
+no gentle school. He had ceased even so much as to grumble
+inwardly at the hardships endured by the hard-pressed Cæsarian
+army. The campaign was not going well. Pompeius
+had broken through the blockade; and now the two armies
+had been executing tedious manoeuvres, fencing for a vantage-ground
+before joining pitched battle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus was exceedingly weary. The events of the past two
+years,—loves, hates, pleasures, perils, battles,—all coursed
+through his mind; the fairest and most hideous of things
+were blended into buzzing confusion; and out of that confusion
+came a dull consciousness that he, Quintus Drusus, was
+thoroughly weary of everything and anything—was heavy of
+heart, was consumed with hatred, was chafing against a hundred
+barriers of time, space, and circumstance, and was
+utterly impotent to contend against them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Imperator—how he loved and adored him! Through
+all the campaigning nothing could seem to break the strength
+of that nervous, agile, finely strung physique. Sleeping in
+carriages or litters; ever moving; dictating continually books
+and letters to a secretary if for an hour there was a halt;
+dictating even while on horseback, in fact, and composing two
+letters at the same time; riding the most ungovernable horses
+fearlessly and without a fall; galloping at full speed with his
+hands clasped behind his back,—these were the mere external
+traits that made him wonderful among men. Worthy of all
+praise was the discipline by which the Imperator had held his
+troops to him by bonds firmer than iron; neither noticing all
+petty transgressions, nor punishing according to a rigid rule;
+swift and sure to apprehend mutineers and deserters; certain
+to relax the tight bands of discipline after a hard-fought battle
+with the genial remark that "his soldiers fought none the
+worse for being well oiled "; ever treating the troops as comrades,
+and addressing them as "fellow-soldiers," as if they
+were but sharers with him in the honour of struggling for a
+single great end. Drusus had known him to ride one hundred
+miles a day in a light chariot without baggage, march continually
+at the head of his legions on foot, sharing their fatigues
+in the most malignant weather, swim a swollen river on a float
+of inflated skins, always travelling faster than the news of his
+coming might fly before him. Tireless, unsleeping, all providing,
+all accomplishing, omniscient,—this was what made
+Drusus look upon his general as a being raised up by the
+Fates, to go up and down the world, destroying here and
+building there. The immediate future might be sombre
+enough, with all the military advantages falling, one after
+another, into Pompeius's lap; but doubt the ultimate triumph
+of Cæsar? The young Livian would have as readily questioned
+his own existence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Some one thrust back the flaps of the tent, and called inside
+into the darkness:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Are you here, Drusus?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I am," was the wearied answer. "Is that Antonius?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes. Come out. We may as well dispose of our cold
+<i>puls</i> before the moon rises, and while we can imagine it peacocks,
+Lucrine oysters, or what not."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"If sight were the only sense!" grumbled Drusus, as he
+pulled himself together by a considerable effort, and staggered
+to his feet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Outside the tent Antonius was waiting with a helmet half
+full of the delectable viand, which the two friends proceeded
+to share together as equally as they might in the increasing
+darkness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You are over sober to-night," said Antonius, when this
+scarcely elaborate meal was nearly finished.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Perpol!</i>" replied Drusus, "have I been as a rule drunken
+of late? My throat hardly knows the feeling of good Falernian,
+it is so long since I have tasted any."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I doubt if there is so much as a draught of <i>posca</i><a name="r176" href="#fn176">[176]</a> in the
+army," said Antonius, yawning. "I imagine that among our
+friends, the Pompeians, there is plenty, and more to spare.
+<i>Mehercle</i>, I feel that we must storm their camp just to get
+something worth drinking. But I would stake my best villa
+that you have not been so gloomy for mere lack of victuals,
+unless you have just joined the Pythagoreans, and have taken
+a vow not to eat fish or beans."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I do not know that I am especially gloomy to-night,"
+replied Drusus, a bit testily. "I know little whereon to make
+merry."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The arrows of Amor," hinted Antonius, "sink deep in the
+soul, and the god is unfair; he shoots venomed darts; the
+poison ever makes the pain greater."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I would you could endure your own troubles," retorted the
+other, "and let me care for mine!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Perpol,</i> friend," replied Antonius, "don't be vexed! I
+see it is a case of your wanting little said on a sore point.
+Well, keep silent, I won't tease you. Doesn't Theognis
+declare:—
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>
+"'Caress me not with words, while far away<br />
+Thy heart is absent and thy feelings stray'?<a name="r177" href="#fn177">[177]</a>
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+And doubtless you would reverse the saying and put 'my
+heart' for 'thy heart.' Forgive me."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Drusus, now that the ice was broken, was glad to
+talk.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Now, amice, I won't harbour any ill feeling. I know that
+you don't look at women the way I do. If you had ever fallen
+in love with one like Cornelia, it would have been different.
+As it is, you can only stare at me, and say to yourself, 'How
+strange a sensible fellow like Drusus should care for a girl
+from whom he has been parted for nearly two years!' That's
+why I doubt if your sympathy can be of any great solace to
+me."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well," said Antonius, washing down his <i>puls</i> with a draught
+of water from a second helmet at hand, "I can't say that I
+would be full of grief two years from the day my beloved Fulvia
+was taken from me. But there are women of many a sort.
+Some are vipers to sting your breast, some are playthings, some
+are—what shall I call them—goddesses? no, one may not
+kiss Juno; flowers? they fade too early; silver and gold? that
+is rubbish. I have no name for them. But believe me, Quintus,
+I have met this Cornelia of yours once or twice, and I believe
+that she is one of those women for whom my words grow
+weak."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Then you can sympathize, can feel, for me," said Drusus,
+as he lay back with his head on the dark green sward.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, as a poor man who has always possessed nothing can
+feel for a rich merchant whose whole fortune is about to
+founder at sea. Do not spurn my feeble sort of pity. But do
+you know nothing of her, not a word, a sign? Is she alive or
+dead? Much less, does she still care for you?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Nothing!" answered Drusus, and the sense of vexation
+and helplessness choked his utterance. "She vanished out of
+sight at Baiæ, as a flash of lightning passes away in the sky.
+I cannot imagine the cause of her disappearance. The pirates,
+indeed, might have wished to take her for ransom; but no,
+they bore her off with never a demand for money from any
+friend or relative. I have tried to trace them—the Pompeian
+ships on every sea make it impossible. I have questioned
+many prisoners and spies; she is not at the Pompeian camp
+with her uncle. Neither can I discover that her kinsmen
+among the enemy themselves know where she is. And to this
+is added that other mystery: whither has my Aunt Fabia vanished?
+How much of the account of those who followed her
+to the river dock is to be believed—that pirates saved her
+from Gabinius, and then abducted her? Upon all, my clever
+freedman Agias is gone—gone without ever a word, though I
+counted him faithful as my own soul!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And what then do you expect?" asked Antonius, not without
+friendly interest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What can a man, who dares to look the situation in the
+face, expect, except something too horrible to utter?" and
+Drusus groaned in his agony.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You mean—" began his friend.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That the pirates have kept Cornelia and perhaps Fabia in
+their vile clutches until this hour; unless, indeed, the Fates
+have been merciful and they are dead! Do you wonder at my
+pain?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Phui!</i> we will not imagine any such disagreeable thing!"
+said Antonius, in a sickly effort to make banter at the other's
+fears.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Don't speak again unless you want me your enemy,"
+threatened Drusus, springing up in fury. Antonius knew his
+own interests enough to keep quiet; besides, his friend's pain
+cut him to the heart, and he knew himself that Drusus's dread
+was justified under the circumstances.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Do you think there will be a battle to-morrow?" demanded
+Drusus, after some interval of gloomy silence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I would to the gods it might be so," was his answer; "are
+you thirsting for blood?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus half drew his short sword, which even in camp
+never left the side of officer or private during that campaign.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Thirst for blood?" he growled. "Yes, for the lives of
+Lucius Lentulus, and Domitius and his accursed younger son.
+I am hot as an old gladiator for a chance to spill their blood!
+If Cornelia suffers woe unutterable, it will be they—they
+who brought the evil upon her! It may not be a philosophic
+mood, but all the animal has risen within me, and rises more
+and more the longer I think upon them and on <i>her</i>."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Come," said Antonius, lifting his friend by the arm, "and
+let us lie down in the tent. There will be toil enough to-morrow;
+and we must take what rest we may."
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+On that same night, in a very sumptuous tent, fresh from an
+ample dinner and a season over choice wines, the high and the
+mighty of Cæsar's enemies were taking counsel together. No
+longer were they despairing, panic-stricken fugitives, driven
+from their native land which they had abandoned a prey to the
+invader. The strength of the East had gathered about them.
+Jews, Armenians, and Arabians were among their auxiliary
+forces; Asia Minor, Greece, the Archipelago, had poured out
+for them levies and subsidies. In the encampment were the
+vassal kings, Deiotarus of Galatia and Ariarathes of Cappadocia,
+allies who would share the triumph of the victorious Pompeius.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For none could doubt that the Magnus had proved his right
+to be called the favoured child of Fortune. Had not Cæsar
+been utterly defeated at Dyrrachium? Was he not now almost
+a fugitive in the interior of Greece,—liable at any moment to
+have his forces cut to pieces, and he himself to be slain, in
+battle like a second Catilina, or to die by the executioner's
+axe like another Carbo? Had not several delighted Pompeians
+just hastened away to Lesbos, to convey to Cornelia, the wife
+of the Magnus, the joyful tidings that Cæsar's power was
+broken and the war was over?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Throughout the Pompeian camps there was feasting and
+revelry, soldiers trolled low songs deriding their opponents,
+and drank themselves stupid, celebrating in advance the return
+of the victorious army to Italy. Their officers were looking
+forward even more eagerly to their reinstatement in their
+old haunts and pleasures at Rome. Lucius Ahenobarbus, who
+was outside the tent of the Magnus, while his father was taking
+part in the conference, was busy recounting to a crony the
+arrangements he was making.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I have sent a freedman back to Rome to see that my rooms
+are furnished and put in order. But I have told him that I
+need a suite near the Forum, if possible, so as to be convenient
+for the canvass when I sue for quæstor at the next election,
+for it is time I began on my 'round of offices.'" (A "round
+of offices" being, according to this worthy young gentleman,
+an inalienable right to every male scion of his family.)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Within the debate was waxing hot. Not that any one had
+the least doubts that the Cæsarians were at their last gasp;
+rather it was so extremely difficult to decide how the spoils
+of victory were to be equitably shared, and what was almost
+equally important, how the hostile and the neutral were to be
+punished. The noble lords were busy settling amongst themselves
+who should be consuls for several years to come, and
+how the confiscated villas of the proscribed Cæsarians should
+be divided. As to the military situation, they were all complaisance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"There is no need for a real battle," Pompeius was saying.
+"Our superior cavalry will rout their whole army before the
+infantry join the attack."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And Labienus, the only officer who had deserted Cæsar, protested
+that the opposing legions had long since been thinned of
+their Gallic veterans, that only raw recruits composed them now.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Loudly the councillors wrangled over the successor to Cæsar's
+pontificate; Scipio, Domitius, and another great noble, Lentulus
+Spinther, all had their claims. Domitius was clamouring against
+delay in disposing of Cæsar, and in returning to Italy, to begin
+a general distribution of spoils, and sanguinary requital
+of enemies and neutrals. The contest over the pontificate grew
+more and more acrimonious each minute.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Gentlemen," broke in Pompeius, "I would that you could
+agree amongst yourselves. It is a grievous thing that we
+must thus quarrel with bitterness, when victory is within our
+grasp."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the war of words went on hotter and hotter. Lentulus
+Crus noticed that Pompeius looked pale and worried.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You look careworn, Magnus," he whispered; "it will be a
+relief for the burdens of war to be off your shoulders!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I know not how this all will come out," said the general.
+"All the chances are in our favour. We have numbers, the best
+position, cavalry, the prestige of victory. Labienus cannot be
+mistaken in his estimate of Cæsar's men; yet I am afraid, I
+am almost timorous."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It is but the natural fear lest some slight event dim your
+excellency's great glory. Our position is too secure for reverse,"
+remarked Lentulus, soothingly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Great glory—" repeated Pompeius, "yes, that makes me
+afraid. Remember Ulamhala's words,—they haunt me:—
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>
+"'He that is highest shall rise yet higher,<br />
+He that is second shall utterly fall.'
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+Lentulus, I <i>know</i> Cæsar is greater than I!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Before he could continue, Labienus had risen to his feet in
+the council.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"An oath! an oath, gentlemen!" cried the renegade legate.
+"Swear all after me! 'By Jupiter Capitolinus, Optimus, Maximus,
+I swear not to return from the battle until victorious over
+Cæsar!'"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All the council rose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We swear!" cried a score of tongues, as though their oath
+was the lightest thing imaginable.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Bravely done!" shouted Labienus, while the two Lentuli
+and Domitius and Scipio and many another scion of the great
+noble houses joined in the oath. "<i>Hem!</i> Most excellent
+Magnus, you do not have confidence enough in your own cause
+to join us. Do you doubt our loyalty or soldierly qualities!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Perpol!</i>" replied Pompeius, with a rather ill-concealed
+effort to speak gayly, "do you think, good Labienus, that I am
+as distrustful of you as Cæsar ought to be of his men?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And the Magnus also took the oath.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Outside the tent the sentries were exchanging their challenges.
+It was the end of the second watch of the night.<a name="r178" href="#fn178">[178]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It is late, gentlemen," said Pompeius. "I believe that I
+have given my orders. Remember our watch word for to-morrow."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Hercules Invictus!" shouted one and all.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Unconquerable' we shall be, I trust," continued the
+commander-in-chief. "Good-night, gentlemen; we meet to-morrow."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The council broke up, and filed out of the tent. Lentulus
+Spinther paused to cast a look of savage anger at Scipio, who
+lingered behind. The contest over the pontificate still rankled
+in his breast. That four and twenty hours hence both
+of these aristocratic gentlemen might have more pressing things
+to think of seemingly entered the head of neither. Lentulus
+Crus, Domitius, and Scipio waited after the others were gone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I have been wondering all day," said the genial Domitius,
+when the tent had emptied, "how Cæsar will comport himself
+if he is taken prisoner and not slain in battle. I give him
+credit for not being likely to flee away."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I trust he will die a soldier's death," replied Pompeius,
+gloomily. "It would be a grievous thing to have him fall into
+my hands. He has been my friend, my father-in-law. I
+could not treat him harshly."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Doubtless," said the ever suave Lentulus Crus, "it would
+be most disagreeable for you, Magnus, to have to reward such
+an enemy of the Republic as he deserves. But your excellency
+will, of course, bow to the decrees of the Senate, and—I
+fear it will be very hard to persuade the conscript fathers that
+Cæsar has earned any mercy."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Vah!</i> gentlemen," retorted Pompeius, pressing his hands
+together, and walking up and down: "I have been your
+tool a long while! I never at heart desired this war! A hundred
+times I would draw back, but you in some way prevented.
+I have been made to say things that I would fain have left
+unsaid. I am perhaps less educated and more superstitious
+than you. I believe that there are gods, and they punish the
+shedders of innocent blood. And much good Roman blood
+has been shed since you had your way, and drove Cæsar into
+open enmity!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Of course," interposed Domitius, his face a little flushed
+with suppressed anger, "it is a painful thing to take the
+lives of fellow-countrymen; but consider the price that
+patriots must pay for liberty."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Price paid for liberty," snorted Pompeius, in rising disgust,
+"<i>phui!</i> Let us at least be honest, gentlemen! It is very
+easy to cry out on tyrants when our ambition has been disappointed.
+But I am wasting words. Only this let me say.
+When, to-morrow, we have slain or captured our enemy, it will
+be <i>I</i> that determine the future policy of the state, and not
+<i>you</i>! I will prove myself indeed the Magnus! I will be a
+tool no longer."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The three consulars stared at each other, at loss for words.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Time wastes, gentlemen," said Pompeius. "To your several
+commands! You have your orders."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Magnus spoke in a tone that admonished the three oligarchs
+to bow in silence and go out without a word.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"His excellency is a bit tempted to play the high tragedian
+to-night," sneered Domitius, recovering from his first consternation.
+"He will think differently to-morrow. But of all things,
+my good Lentulus (if it comes your way), see that Cæsar is
+quietly killed—no matter what fashion; it will save us endless
+trouble."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Mehercle!</i>" quoth the other, "do I need that advice? And
+again remind me to-morrow of this. We must arrange the
+dividing of the estate of that young reprobate, Quintus Drusus,
+who gave us some anxiety two years ago. But I imagine that
+must be deferred until after the battle."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so they separated, and the two armies—scarce five
+miles apart—slept; and the stars watched over them.
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>III</h3>
+
+<p>
+The sun was climbing out of the dark bank of clouds that
+pressed down upon the eastern horizon. The green plain of
+Pharsalus lay spread out far and wide under the strengthening
+light; the distant hills were peering dimly out from the mist;
+the acropolis of Pharsalus itself,—perhaps the Homeric
+Phthia, dwelling of Achilles,—with its two peaked crags, five
+hundred feet in height, frowned down upon the Cæsarian camp.
+The Enipeus and one or two minor streams were threading
+their way in silver ribbons down toward the distant Peneus.
+The fertile plain was green and verdant with the bursting summer.
+The scent of clover hung in the air, and with it the
+fragrance of thyme. Wild flowers were scattered under the
+feet. The early honeybee was hovering over the dew-laden
+petals. Wakeful thrushes were carolling out of the thickets.
+A thin grey fog was drifting off of the valley, soon to vanish
+in the blue of a perfect day. Clear and sweet the notes of the
+trumpets called the soldiers from their camp. The weary men
+shook the sleep from their eyes. There was a hurried pounding
+of grain in the stone mortars, breakfasts even more hurried.
+Then again the trumpets called out their signal. Busy
+hands tore up the tent pegs, other hands were folding the
+coverings, gathering up the poles and impedimenta, and loading
+them on the baggage animals.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The soldiers were grumbling as soldiers will. Drusus, who
+emerged from his own tent just as it was about to be pulled
+down about his ears, heard one private growl to another: "Look
+at the sun rising! What a hot day we shall have! <i>Ædepol!</i>
+will there never be an end to this marching and countermarching,
+skirmishing and intrenching,—water to drink, <i>puls</i> to
+eat,—I didn't take the oath<a name="r179" href="#fn179">[179]</a> for that. No plunder here, and
+the sack of Gomphi, the last town stormed, amounted to
+nothing."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus would have rebuked the man for breeding discontent
+in the army, but at that moment he and every other
+around him for once relaxed that stringent discipline that held
+them in bands of iron. A third trumpet call cut the air, quick,
+shrill, penetrating.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"To arms!" Every centurion was shouting it to his men.
+The baggage animals were left unladen. A cohort that was
+about to leave the camp in marching order halted, and began
+to throw away its impedimenta, when Cæsar himself rode up
+to them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Fellow-soldiers," said the Imperator, smiling as though he
+had to reveal a great piece of good fortune, "we can postpone
+the march. Let us put our hearts into the battle for which we
+have longed, and meet the foe with resolute souls, for now or
+never is our opportunity!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Io! Io!</i>" cried a thousand hoarse throats.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Out of confusion came the most perfect order. Drusus ran
+to the horse that he had yielded for a pack animal on the
+march, saddled, mounted, flew away to Cæsar's side, his heart
+pounding in his breast.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Pompeius is leading out his men!" soldier was shouting to
+soldier. Legion after legion filed forth from the camp. Cæsar,
+sitting with easy grace on his own favourite charger which he
+himself had bred, gave in calm, deliberate voice the last orders
+to his legates. Drusus drew rein at the general's side, ready
+to go anywhere or do anything that was needed, his position
+being one of general aide-de-camp.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cæsar was facing east; Pompeius, west. Five miles of
+mainly level country had extended between the camps, but
+Pompeius had pitched on a hill site, with a river and hills to
+flank him. There he might safely have defied attack. But he
+had come down from the eminence. He had led his army out
+into the plain, and the camp was a full mile behind. The long
+ranks of the Pompeians were splendid with all the bravery of
+war. On the right wing by the river lay his Cilician and
+Spanish cohorts, led by Lentulus Crus,—the flower of the Pompeian
+infantry. Scipio held the centre with two Syrian legions.
+On the left, Domitius was in command and Pompeius accompanied
+him. Seven cohorts were behind in the fortified camp.
+A great mass of auxiliaries and volunteers, as well as two
+thousand reenlisted veterans, gave strength to the lines of
+fully recruited cohorts. Out on the left wing, reaching up on to
+the foothills, lay the pride of the oligarchs, seven thousand
+splendid cavalry, the pick and flower of the exiled youth and
+nobility of Rome, reenforced by the best squadrons of the East.
+Here Labienus led. The Pompeian ranks were in three lines,
+drawn up ten deep. Forty-five thousand heavy infantry were
+they; and the horse and light troops were half as many—Spaniards,
+Africans, Italian exiles, Greeks, Asiatics—the glory
+of every warlike, classic race.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Slowly, slowly, the Cæsarian legionaries advanced over the
+plain. Drusus knew that one of the most crucial hours of his
+life was before him, yet he was very calm. He saw some wild
+roses growing on a bush by the way, and thought how pretty
+they would look in a wreath on Cornelia's hair. He exchanged
+jokes with his fellow-officers; scolded a soldier who had come
+away without his sword in his sheath; asked Antonius, when
+he came across him, if he did not envy Achilles for his country-seat.
+It was as if he were going on the same tedious march of
+days and days gone by. Yet, with it all he felt himself far
+more intensely excited than ever before. He knew that his
+calm was so unnatural that he wished to cry aloud, to run,
+weep, to do anything to break it. This was to be the end of
+the great drama that had begun the day Lentulus and Marcellus
+first sat down as consuls!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Slowly, slowly, that long snake, the marching army,
+dragged out of the camp. The sun was high in the sky;
+the last cloud had vanished; the blue above was as clear
+and translucent as it is conceivable anything may be and
+yet retain its colour—not become clear light. The head of
+the column was six hundred paces from the silent Pompeian
+lines which awaited them. Then cohort after cohort
+filed off to the right and left, and the line of battle was ready.
+On the right was the tenth legion, on the left the weak ninth,
+reenforced by the eighth. There were eighty cohorts in all,
+to oppose one hundred and ten. But the ranks of Cæsar's
+cohorts were thin. The numbers were scarce half as many as
+in those of the foe. And to confront Labienus and his cavalry
+Cæsar had but one thousand horse. His army stood in
+three lines, facing the enemy's infantry; but, though it weakened
+his own legions dangerously, there was but one thing to
+do, unless Labienus was to force around the flank, and sweep
+all before him. Six cohorts Cæsar stationed at the rear of his
+right wing, a defence against the hostile cavalry. The third
+line of the legions the Imperator commanded to hold back
+until he ordered them otherwise, for on them lay the turning
+of the battle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Antonius commanded the left, Publius Sulla the right, Calvinus
+the centre. Cæsar himself took post on his own right
+wing opposite Pompeius. Then, when the lines were formed, he
+rode down before his men, and addressed them; not in gaudy
+eloquence, as if to stir a flagging courage, but a manly request
+that they quit themselves as became his soldiers. Ever had
+he sought reconciliation, he said, ever peace; unwillingly had
+he exposed his own soldiers, and unwillingly attacked his enemies.
+And to the six chosen cohorts in the fourth line he
+gave a special word, for he bade them remember that doubtless
+on their firmness would depend the fate of the battle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes," he said in closing, while every scarred and tattered
+veteran laughed at the jest, "only thrust your pila in the
+faces of those brave cavaliers. They will turn and flee if
+their handsome faces are likely to be bruised." And a grim
+chuckle went down the line, relieving the tension that was
+making the oldest warriors nervous.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cæsar galloped back to his position on his own right wing.
+The legions were growing restive, and there was no longer
+cause for delay. The officers were shouting the battle-cry
+down the lines. The Imperator nodded to his trumpeter, and
+a single sharp, long peal cut the air. The note was drowned
+in the rush of twenty thousand feet, the howl of myriads of
+voices.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Venus victrix!</i>" The battle-cry was tossed from mouth to
+mouth, louder and louder, as the mighty mass of men in iron
+swept on.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Venus victrix!" And the shout itself was dimmed in the
+crash of mortal battle, when the foremost Cæsarians sent their
+pila dashing in upon the enemy, and closed with the short
+sword, while their comrades piled in upon them. Crash after
+crash, as cohort struck cohort; and so the battle joined.
+</p>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+Why was the battle of Pharsalus more to the world than
+fifty other stricken fields where armies of strength equal to
+those engaged there joined in conflict? Why can these other
+battles be passed over as dates and names to the historian,
+while he assigns to this a position beside Marathon and
+Arbela and Tours and the Defeat of the Armada and Waterloo
+and Gettysburg? What was at stake—that Cæsar or Pompeius
+and his satellites should rule the world? Infinitely
+more—the struggle was for the very existence of civilization,
+to determine whether or not the fabric of ordered society was
+to be flung back into chaos. The Roman Republic had conquered
+the civilized world; it had thrown down kings; it had
+destroyed the political existence of nations. What but feebleness,
+corruption, decay, anarchy, disintegration, disruption,
+recurring barbarism, had the oligarchs, for whom Pompeius
+was fighting his battle, to put in the place of what the Republic
+had destroyed? Could a Senate where almost every man
+had his price, where almost every member looked on the provinces
+as a mere feeding ground for personal enrichment—could
+such a body govern the world? Were not German and
+Gaul ready to pluck this unsound organism called the Republic
+limb from limb, and where was the reviving, regenerating
+force that was to hold them back with an iron hand until a
+force greater than that of the sword was ready to carry its
+evangel unto all nations, Jew, Greek, Roman, barbarian,—bond
+and free? These were the questions asked and answered
+on that ninth day of August, forty-nine years, before the birth
+of a mightier than Pompeius Magnus or Julius Cæsar. And
+because men fought and agonized and died on those plains by
+Pharsalus, the edict could go from Rome that all the world
+should be taxed, and a naturalized Roman citizen could scorn
+the howls of the provincial mobs, could mock at Sanhedrins
+seeking his blood, and cry: <i>"Civis Romanus sum. Cæsarem
+appello!"</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+How long did the battle last? Drusus did not know. No
+one knew. He flew at the heels of his general's charger, for
+where Cæsar went there the fight was thickest. He saw the
+Pompeian heavy infantry standing stolidly in their ranks to
+receive the charge—a fatal blunder, that lost them all the enthusiasm
+aggression engenders. The Cæsarian veterans would
+halt before closing in battle, draw breath, and dash over the
+remaining interval with redoubled vigour. The Pompeians
+received them manfully, sending back javelin for javelin;
+then the short swords flashed from their scabbards, and man
+pressed against man—staring into one another's face—seeking
+one another's blood; striking, striking with one thought,
+hope, instinct—to stride across his enemy's dead body.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Pompeian reserves ran up to aid their comrades in the
+line. The odds against the Cæsarian cohorts were tremendous.
+The pressure of shield against shield never abated. Woe to
+the man who lost footing and fell; his life was trampled
+out in a twinkling! The battle-cries grew fewer and fewer;
+shouting requires breath; breath, energy; and every scruple of
+energy was needed in pushing on those shields. There were
+few pila left now. The short swords dashed upon the armour,
+but in the press even to swing a blade was difficult. More and
+more intense grew the strain; Cæsarians gave ground here
+and then regained it. Pompeians did the like yonder. The
+long reach of the line swayed to and fro, rippling like a dark
+ribbon in the wind. Now and then a combatant would receive
+a mortal wound, and go down out of sight in the throng, which
+closed over him almost ere he could utter one sharp cry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cæsar was everywhere. His voice rang like a clarion down
+the lines; he knew, as it were, each soldier by name—and
+when a stout blow was to be struck, or a stand was needed to
+bear up against the weight of hostile numbers, Cæsar's praise
+or admonition to stand firm was as a fresh cohort flung into
+the scale. Drusus rode with him, both mounted, hence unable
+to mingle in the press, but exposed to the showers of arrows
+and sling-stones which the Pompeian auxiliaries rained upon
+them. Cæsar's red paludamentum marked him out a conspicuous
+figure for the aim of the missiles, but he bore a charmed
+life.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus himself did what he could to steady the men. The
+contest in the line of battle could not continue long, flesh and
+blood might not endure the strain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Imperator," cried Drusus, riding up to his chief, "you see
+that this can last no longer. Our men are overmatched. Shall
+I order up the third line? The centurion Crastinus, who swore
+that he would win your gratitude living or dead, is slain after
+performing deeds worthy of his boast. Many others have gone
+down. What shall I do?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cæsar drew rein, and cast his eyes down the swaying lines.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I dare not order up the third line so early," he began; then,
+with a glance to the extreme right, "Ah, <i>Mehercle!</i> we are at
+the crisis now! Our cavalry have given way before the
+enemy's horse. They are outflanking us!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The six cohorts!" cried Drusus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The six cohorts—ride! Make them stop those horse, or
+all is lost! On your life, go!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And away went Drusus. The supreme moment of his life
+had come. The whole act of being, he felt, he knew, had been
+only that he might live at that instant. What the next hour
+had in store—life, death—he cared not at all. The Cæsarian
+horse, outnumbered seven to one, had fought valiantly, but
+been borne back by sheer weight of numbers. With not a man
+in sight to oppose them, the whole mass of the splendid Pompeian
+cavalry was sweeping around to crush the unprotected
+flank of the tenth legion. The sight of the on-rushing squadrons
+was beyond words magnificent. The tossing mass of their
+panoplies was a sea of scarlet, purple, brass, and flashing steel;
+the roar of the hoof-beats of seven thousand blooded coursers
+swept on like the approaching of the wind leading the clouds
+in whose breast are thunder and lightning unfettered. Behind
+them rose the dun vapour of the dust, drifting up toward
+heaven,—the whirling vortex of the storm. It was indeed the
+crisis.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The six cohorts were standing, resting on their shields, in
+the rear of the extreme right flank of the third line. They
+were in an oblique formation. The most distant cohort extended
+far back, and far beyond the Cæsarian line of battle. The
+hearts of the soldiers were in the deathly press ahead, but they
+were veterans; discipline held them quiet, albeit restive in
+soul.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On swept the roar of the advancing Pompeians. What
+must be done must be done quickly. Drusus drove the
+spurs into his horse, and approached the cohorts on a headlong
+gallop.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Forward! I will lead you against the enemy!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+No need of second command. The maniples rushed onward
+as though the men were runners in a race, not soldiers clothed
+in armour. Drusus flew down the ranks and swung the farthest
+cohorts into alignment with the others. There was not a
+moment to lose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Now, men, if ye be indeed soldiers of Cæsar, at them!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus was astounded at the resonance of his own voice; a
+thousand others caught up the shout.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Venus victrix!</i>" And straight into the teeth of the galloping
+hosts charged the thin line of infantry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The line was weak, its members strong. They were rural
+Italians, uncorrupted by city life, hardy, god-fearing peasants
+and sons of peasants, worthy descendants of the men who died
+in the legions at Cannæ, or triumphed at the Metaurus.
+Steady as on a review the six cohorts bore down into action.
+And when they struck the great mass of horsemen they thrust
+their pila into the riders' eyes and prodded the steeds. The
+foremost cavalrymen drew rein; the horses reared. The
+squadrons were colliding and plunging. In an eye's twinkling
+their momentum had been checked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Charge! Charge!" Drusus sent the word tossing down
+along the cohorts, and the legionaries pressed forward. It
+was done. The whole splendid array of horsemen broke in
+rout; they went streaming back in disordered squadrons over
+the plain, each trooper striving to outride his fellow in the
+flight. Pompeius had launched his most deadly bolt, and it
+had failed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now was Drusus's chance. No further order had been given
+him; to pursue cavalry with infantry were folly; he needed
+no new commands. The six cohorts followed his lead like
+machinery. The crash of battle dimmed his voice; the sight
+of his example led the legionaries on. They fell on the Pompeian
+archers and slingers and dispersed them like smoke.
+They wheeled about as on a pivot and struck the enemy's left
+wing; struck the Pompeian fighting line from the rear, and
+crushed it betwixt the upper and nether millstone of themselves
+and the tenth legion. Drusus drove into the very foremost of
+the fight; it was no longer a press, it was flight, pursuit,
+slaughter, and he forced his horse over one enemy after another—transformed,
+transfigured as he was into a demon of destruction,
+while the delirium of battle gained upon him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus saw the figure of a horseman clothed, like Cæsar, in
+a red general's cloak spurring away to the enemy's camp.
+He called to his men that Pompeius had taken panic and fled
+away; that the battle was won. He saw the third line of the
+Cæsarians drive through the Pompeian centre and right as a
+plough cuts through the sandy field, and then spread terror,
+panic, rout—the battle became a massacre.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So the Cæsarians hunted their foes over the plain to the
+camp. And, though the sun on high rained down a pitiless
+heat, none faltered when the Imperator bade them use their
+favour with Fortune, and lose not a moment in storming the
+encampment. They assailed the ramparts. The Pompeian
+reserve cohorts stood against them like men; the Thracian and
+other auxiliary light troops sent down clouds of missiles—of
+what avail? There are times when mortal might can pass seas
+of fire and mountains of steel; and this was one of those
+moments. The Pompeians were swept from the ramparts by
+a pitiless shower of javelins. The panic still was upon them;
+standards of cohorts, eagles of legions, they threw them all
+away. They fled—fled casting behind shields, helmets,
+swords, anything that hindered their running. The hills, the
+mountain tops, were their only safety. Their centurions and
+tribunes were foremost among the fugitives. And from these
+mountain crests they were to come down the next morning
+and surrender themselves prisoners to the conquerors—petitioners
+for their lives.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Not all were thus fated. For in the flight from the camp
+Domitius fell down from fatigue, and Marcus Antonius, whose
+hand knew no weariness, neither his heart remorse or mercy,
+slew him as a man would slay a snake. And so perished one
+of the evil spirits that hounded Pompeius to his death, the
+Roman oligarchy to its downfall.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus sought far and wide for Lentulus and Lucius Ahenobarbus.
+The consular had fought on the most distant wing, and
+in the flight he and his mortal enemy did not meet. Neither
+did Drusus come upon the younger son of the slain Domitius.
+Fortune kept the two asunder. But slaying enough for one
+day the young Livian had wrought. He rode with Cæsar
+through the splendid camp just captured. The flowers had
+been twined over the arbours under which the victory was to
+be celebrated; the plate was on the tables; choice viands and
+wines were ready; the floors of the tents were covered with
+fresh sods; over the pavilion of Lentulus Crus was a great
+shade of ivy. The victors rode out from the arbours toward
+the newly taken ramparts. There lay the dead, heaps upon
+heaps, the patrician dress proclaiming the proud lineage of the
+fallen; Claudii, Fabii, Æmilii, Furii, Cornelii, Sempronii, and
+a dozen more great <i>gentes</i> were represented—scions of the
+most magnificent oligarchy the world has ever seen. And this
+was their end! Cæsar passed his hand over his forehead and
+pressed his fingers upon his eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"They would have it so," he said, in quiet sadness, to the
+little knot of officers around him. "After all that I had done
+for my country, I, Caius Cæsar, would have been condemned
+by them like a criminal, if I had not appealed to my army."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so ended that day and that battle. On the field and in
+the camp lay dead two hundred Cæsarians and fifteen thousand
+Pompeians. Twenty-four thousand prisoners had been taken,
+one hundred and eighty standards, nine eagles. As for the
+Magnus, he had stripped off his general's cloak and was riding
+with might and main for the seacoast, accompanied by thirty
+horsemen.
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h2 id="ch22">CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+
+<h2>THE END OF THE MAGNUS</h2>
+
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+The months had come and gone for Cornelia as well as for
+Quintus Drusus, albeit in a very different manner. The war
+was raging upon land and sea. The Pompeian fleet controlled
+all the water avenues; the Italian peninsula was held by the
+Cæsarians. Cornelia wrote several times to old Mamercus at
+Præneste, enclosing a letter which she begged him to forward
+to her lover wherever he might be. But no answer came.
+Once she learned definitely that the ship had been captured.
+For the other times she could imagine the same catastrophe.
+Still she had her comfort. Rumours of battles, of sieges, and
+arduous campaigning drifted over the Mediterranean. Now it
+was that a few days more would see Cæsar an outlaw without
+a man around him, and then Cornelia would believe none of it.
+Now it was that Pompeius was in sore straits, and then she
+was all credulity. Yet beside these tidings there were other
+stray bits of news very dear to her heart. Cæsar, so it was
+said, possessed a young aide-de-camp of great valour and
+ability, one Quintus Drusus, and the Imperator was already
+entrusting him with posts of danger and of responsibility. He
+had behaved gallantly at Ilerda; he had won more laurels at
+the siege of Massilia. At Dyrrachium he had gained yet
+more credit. And on account of these tidings, it may easily
+be imagined that Cornelia was prepared to be very patient and
+to be willing to take the trying vicissitudes of her own life
+more lightly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As a matter of fact, her own position at Alexandria had
+begun to grow complicated. First of all, Agias had made
+one day a discovery in the city which it was exceeding well
+for Artemisia was not postponed for a later occasion. Pratinas
+was in Alexandria. The young Greek had not been recognized
+when, as chance meetings will occur, he came across his
+one-time antagonist face to face on the street. He had no
+fears for himself. But Artemisia was no longer safe in the
+city. Cleomenes arranged that the girl should be sent to a
+villa, owned by the relatives of his late wife, some distance up
+the Nile. Artemisia would thus be parted from Agias, but
+she would be quite safe; and to secure that, any sacrifice of
+stolen looks and pretty coquetry was cheerfully accepted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Soon after this unpleasant little discovery, a far more serious
+event occurred. Pothinus the eunuch, Achillas, the
+Egyptian commander of the army, and Theodotus, a "rhetoric
+teacher," whose real business was to spin, not words, but court
+intrigues, had plotted together to place the young King Ptolemæus
+in sole power. The conspiracy ran its course. There
+was a rising of the "Macedonian"<a name="r180" href="#fn180">[180]</a> guard at the palace, a
+gathering of citizens in the squares of the capital, culminating
+in bloody riots and proclamations declaring the king vested
+with the only supreme power. Hot on the heels of this
+announcement it was bruited around the city that Cleopatra
+had escaped safely to Palestine, where, in due time, she would
+doubtless be collecting an army at the courts of Hyrcanus, the
+Jewish prince, and other Syrian potentates, to return and
+retake the crown.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alexandria was accustomed to such dynastic disruptions.
+The rioting over, the people were ready to go back to the
+paper and linen factories, and willing to call Ptolemæus the
+"Son of Ra," or "King," until his sister should defeat him in
+battle. Cornelia grieved that Cleopatra should thus be forced
+into exile. She had grown more and more intimate with the
+queen. The first glamour of Cleopatra's presence had worn
+away. Cornelia saw her as a woman very beautiful, very
+wilful, gifted with every talent, yet utterly lacking that moral
+stability which would have been the crown of a perfect human
+organism. The two women had grown more and more in
+friendship and intimacy; and when Cornelia studied in detail
+the dark, and often hideous, coils and twistings of the history
+of the Hellenistic royal families, the more vividly she realized
+that Cleopatra was the heiress of generations of legalized
+license,<a name="r181" href="#fn181">[181]</a> of cultured sensuality, of veneered cruelty, and sheer
+blood-thirstiness. Therefore Cornelia had pitied, not blamed,
+the queen, and, now that misfortune had fallen upon her, was
+distressed for the plight of Cleopatra.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That Cornelia had been an intimate of the queen was perfectly
+well known in Alexandria. In fact, Cleomenes himself
+was of sufficiently high rank to make any guest he might long
+entertain more or less of a public personage. Cornelia was a
+familiar sight to the crowds, as she drove daily on the streets
+and attended the theatre. Cleomenes began to entertain suspicions
+that the new government was not quite pleased to leave
+such a friend of Cleopatra's at liberty; and Agias took pains to
+discover that Pratinas was deep in the counsels of the virtual
+regent—Pothinus. But Cornelia scoffed at any suggestions
+that it might be safer to leave the city and join Artemisia in
+the retreat up the Nile. She had taken no part whatsoever in
+Egyptian politics, and she was incapable of assisting to restore
+Cleopatra. As for the possible influence of Pratinas in court,
+it seemed to her incredible that a man of his caliber could
+work her any injury, save by the dagger and poison cup. That
+an ignoble intriguer of his type could influence the policy of
+state she refused to believe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus it came to pass that Cornelia had only herself to thank,
+when the blow, such as it was, fell. The eunuch prime minister
+knew how to cover his actions with a velvet glove. One
+evening a splendidly uniformed division of Macedonian guard,
+led by one of the royal <i>somatophylakes</i>,<a name="r182" href="#fn182">[182]</a> came with an empty
+chariot to the house of Cleomenes. The request they bore
+was signed with the royal seal, and was politeness itself. It
+overflowed with semi-Oriental compliment and laudation; but
+the purport was clear. On account of the great danger in the
+city to foreigners from riots—ran the gist of the letter—and
+the extremely disturbed condition of the times, the king was
+constrained to request Cornelia and Fabia to take up their
+residence in the palace, where they could receive proper protection
+and be provided for in a princely manner, as became
+their rank.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia had enough wisdom to see that only by taking the
+letter for the intentions written on its face could she submit
+to the implied command without loss of dignity. She had
+much difficulty in persuading Fabia to yield; for the Vestal
+was for standing on her Roman prerogatives and giving way
+to nothing except sheer force. But Cleomenes added his word,
+that only harm would come from resistance; and the two
+Roman ladies accompanied the escort back to the palace. It
+was not pleasant to pass into the power of a creature like
+Pothinus, even though the smooth-faced eunuch received his
+unwilling guests with Oriental salaams and profuse requests
+to be allowed to humour their least desires. But the restraint,
+if such it can be called, could hardly take a less objectionable
+form. Monime and Berenice, as ladies whose father was
+known as a merchant prince of colourless politics, were allowed
+free access to their friends at the palace. Young Ptolemæus,
+who was a dark-eyed and, at bottom, dark-hearted youth, completely
+under the thumb of Pothinus, exerted himself, after a
+fashion, to be agreeable to his visitors; but he was too unfavourable
+a contrast to his gifted sister to win much grace in
+Cornelia's eyes. Agias, who was living with Cleomenes, nominally
+for the purpose of learning the latter's business, preparatory
+to becoming a partner on capital to come from his
+predatory cousin, as a matter of fact spent a great part of his
+time at the palace also, dancing attendance upon his Roman
+friends. Pratinas, indeed, was on hand, not really to distress
+them, but to vex by the mere knowledge of his presence. Cornelia
+met the Greek with a stony haughtiness that chilled all
+his professions of desire to serve her and to renew the acquaintance
+formed at Rome. Agias had discovered that Pratinas
+had advised Pothinus to keep his hands on the ladies, especially
+on Cornelia, because whichever side of the Roman factions
+won, there were those who would reward suitably any
+who could deliver her over to them. From this Cornelia had to
+infer that the defeat of the Cæsarians meant her own enthralment
+to her uncle and Lucius Ahenobarbus. Such a contingency
+she would not admit as possible. She was simply
+rendered far more anxious. Pratinas had given up seeking
+Drusus's life, it was clear; his interest in the matter had
+ended the very instant the chance to levy blackmail on Ahenobarbus
+had disappeared. Pratinas, in fact, Agias learned for
+her, was never weary ridiculing the Roman oligarchs, and professing
+his disgust with them; so Cornelia no longer had
+immediate cause to fear him, though she hated him none the
+less.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After all, Pratinas thrust himself little upon her. He had
+his own life to live, and it ran far apart from hers. Perhaps
+it was as well for Cornelia that she was forced to spend the
+winter and ensuing months in the ample purlieus of the palace.
+If living were but the gratification of sensuous indolence, if
+existence were but luxurious dozing and half-waking, then the
+palace of the Ptolemies were indeed an Elysium, with its soft-footed,
+silent, swift, intelligent Oriental servants; rooms where
+the eye grew weary of rare sculpture or fresco; books drawn
+from the greatest library in the world—the Museum close
+at hand; a broad view of the blue Mediterranean, ever changing
+and ever the same, and of the swarming harbour and the
+bustling city; and gardens upon gardens shut off from the outside
+by lofty walls—some great enclosures containing besides
+forests of rare trees a vast menagerie of wild beasts, whose
+roarings from their cages made one think the groves a tropical
+jungle; some gardens, dainty, secluded spots laid out in Egyptian
+fashion, under the shade of a few fine old sycamores, with
+a vineyard and a stone trellis-work in the midst, with arbours
+and little parks of exotic plants, a palm or two, and a tank
+where the half-tame water-fowl would plash among the lotus
+and papyrus plants. In such a nook as this Cornelia would
+sit and read all the day long, and put lotus flowers in her
+hair, look down into the water, and, Narcissus-like, fall in
+love with her own face, and tell herself that Drusus would be
+delighted that she had not grown ugly since he parted with her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So passed the winter and the spring and early summer
+months; and, however hot and parched might be the city under
+the burning sun, there was coolness and refreshment in the
+gardens of the palace.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With it all, however, Cornelia began to wax restive. It is
+no light thing to command one's self to remain quiet in Sybaritic
+ease. More and more she began to wish that this butterfly
+existence, this passive basking in the sun of indolent luxury,
+would come to an end. She commenced again to wish that she
+were a man, with the tongue of an orator, the sword of a
+soldier, able to sway senates and to lead legions. Pothinus
+finally discovered that he was having some difficulty in keeping
+his cage-bird contented. The eunuch had entertained
+great expectations of being able to win credit and favour with
+the conquerors among the Romans by delivering over Cornelia
+safe and sound either to Lentulus Crus or Quintus Drusus.
+Now he began to fear that Pratinas had advised him ill; that
+Cornelia and Fabia were incapable of intriguing in Cleopatra's
+favour, and by his "protection at the palace" he was only earning
+the enmity of his noble guests. But it was too late to
+retrace his steps, and he accordingly plied Cornelia with so
+many additional attentions, presents, and obsequious flatteries,
+that she grew heartily disgusted and repined even more over
+her present situation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Bad news came, which added to her discomfort. Cæsar had
+been driven from his lines at Dyrrachium. He had lost a
+great many men. If the Pompeian sources of information
+were to be believed, he was now really a negligible military
+factor, and the war was practically over. The tidings fell on
+Cornelia's soul like lead. She knew perfectly well that the
+defeat of the Cæsarians would mean the death of Quintus
+Drusus. Her uncle and the Domitii, father and son, would
+be all powerful, and they never forgave an enmity. As for
+herself—but she did not think much thereon; if Drusus was
+slain or executed, she really had very little to live for, and
+there were many ways of getting out of the world. For the
+first time since the memorable night of the raid on Baiæ, she
+went about with an aching heart. Fabia, too, suffered, but,
+older and wiser, comforted Cornelia not so much by what she
+might say, by way of extending hopes, as by the warm, silent
+contact of her pure, noble nature. Monime and Berenice were
+grieved that their friends were so sad, and used a thousand
+gentle arts to comfort them. Cornelia bore up more bravely
+because of the sympathy—she did not have to endure her
+burden alone, as at Rome and Baiæ; but, nevertheless, for her
+the days crept slowly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And then out of the gloom came the dazzling brightness. A
+Rhodian merchantman came speeding into the haven with
+news. "Is Cæsar taken?" cried the inquisitive crowd on the
+quay, as the vessel swung up to her mooring. "Is Pompeius
+not already here?" came back from the deck. And in a
+twinkling it was all over the city: in the Serapeium, in the
+Museum, under the colonnades, in the factories, in the palace.
+"Pompeius's army has been destroyed. The Magnus barely
+escaped with his life. Lucius Domitius is slain. Cæsar is
+master of the world!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Never did the notes of the great water-organ of the palace
+sound so sweet in any ears as these words in those of the Roman
+ladies. They bore with complacency a piece of petty tyranny
+on the part of Pothinus, which at another time they would
+have found galling indeed. Report had it that Cleopatra had
+gathered an army in Syria, and the eunuch, with his royal
+puppet, was going forth to the frontier town of Pelusium, to
+head the forces that should resist the invasion. Cornelia and
+Fabia were informed that they would accompany the royal
+party on its progress to the frontier. Pothinus clearly was
+beginning to fear the results of his "honourable entertainment,"
+and did not care to have his guests out of his sight. It was
+vexatious to be thus at his mercy; but Cornelia was too joyous
+in soul, at that time, to bear the indignity heavily. They
+had to part with Monime and Berenice, but Agias went with
+them; and Cornelia sent off another letter to Italy, in renewed
+hope that the seas would be clear and it would find its way
+safely to Drusus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Very luxurious was the progress of the royal party to Pelusium.
+The king, his escort, and his unwilling guests travelled
+slowly by water, in magnificent river barges that were fitted
+with every requisite or ornament that mind of man might ask
+or think. They crossed the Lake Mareotis, glided along one
+of the minor outlets of the delta until they reached the Bolbitinic
+branch of the Nile, then, by canals and natural water-courses,
+worked their way across to Bubastis, and thence
+straight down the Pelusiac Nile to Pelusium. And thus it
+was Cornelia caught glimpses of that strange, un-Hellenized
+country that stretched away to the southward, tens and hundreds
+of miles, to Memphis and its pyramids, and Thebes and
+its temples—ancient, weird, wonderful; a civilization whereof
+everything was older than human thought might trace; a
+civilization that was almost like the stars, the same yesterday,
+to-day, and forever. Almost would Cornelia have been glad if
+the prows of the barges had been turned up the river, and she
+been enabled to behold with her own eyes the mighty piles
+of Cheops, Chephren, Mycerinus, Sesostris, Rhampsinitus,
+and a score of other Pharaohs whose deeds are recorded in
+stone imperishable. But the barges glided again northward,
+and Cornelia only occasionally caught some glimpse of a massive
+temple, under whose huge propylons the priests had
+chanted their litanies to Pakht or Ptah for two thousand years,
+or passed some boat gliding with its mourners to the necropolis,
+there to leave the mummy that was to await the judgment
+of Osiris. And down the long valley swept the hot winds
+from the realm of the Pygmies, and from those strange lakes
+and mountains whence issued the boundless river, which was
+the life-giver and mother of all the fertile country of Egypt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus with a glimpse, all too short, of the "Black Land,"<a name="r183" href="#fn183">[183]</a>
+as its native denizens called it, the royal party reached the
+half-Hellenized town of Pelusium, where the army was in waiting
+and a most splendid camp was ready for Ptolemæus and
+his train. Cleopatra had not yet advanced. The journey was
+over, and the novelty of the luxurious quarters provided in the
+frontier fortress soon died away. Cornelia could only possess
+her soul in patience, and wonder how long it would be before
+a letter could reach Italy, and the answer return. Where was
+Drusus? Had aught befallen him in the great battle? Did he
+think of her? And so, hour by hour, she repeated her questions—and
+waited.
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+Cleopatra's forces had not reached proportions sufficient for
+her to risk an engagement, when a little squadron appeared
+before Pelusium bearing no less a person than Pompeius himself,
+who sent ashore to demand, on the strength of former
+services to the late King Ptolemæus Auletes, a safe asylum,
+and assistance to make fresh head against the Cæsarians.
+There was a hurried convening of the council of Pothinus—a
+select company of eunuchs, amateur generals, intriguing rhetoricians.
+The conference was long; access to its debates
+closely guarded. The issue could not be evaded; on the
+decision depended the reestablishment of the Pompeians in a
+new and firm stronghold, or their abandonment to further
+wanderings over the ocean. All Pelusium realized what was
+at stake, and the excitement ran high.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia beyond others was agitated by the report of the
+arrival of the Magnus. Rumour had it that Lucius Lentulus
+was close behind him. If the council of Pothinus voted to
+receive the fugitives, her own position would be unhappy
+indeed. For a time at least she would fall into the power of
+her uncle and of Lucius Ahenobarbus. She was fully determined,
+if it was decided to harbour the Pompeians, to try
+to escape from the luxurious semi-captivity in which she was
+restrained. She could escape across the frontier to the camp
+of Cleopatra, where she knew a friendly welcome was in
+waiting. Agias, ever resourceful, ever anxious to anticipate
+the slightest wish on the part of the Roman ladies, actually
+began to bethink himself of the ways and means for a flight.
+When finally it was announced in the camp and city that
+Pompeius was to be received as a guest of the king, Cornelia
+was on the point of demanding of Agias immediate action
+toward escape.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"In a few days," were her words, "my uncle will be here;
+and I am undone, if not you also. There is not an hour to
+lose."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Agias reasoned otherwise. If Pothinus and Achillas
+had really consented to receive the Magnus, flight was indeed
+necessary. Agias, however, had grounds, he thought, for hesitancy.
+He knew that Achillas, the head of the army, bitterly
+opposed the idea of letting Pompeius land; he knew, what was
+almost as much to the point, that Pratinas did not care to
+renew certain acquaintanceships contracted at Rome. Therefore
+the young Hellene calmed Cornelia's fears, and waited as
+best he might.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The council had convened early in the day; the herald went
+through the squares of Pelusium announcing that Ptolemæus,
+"Son of Ra," would receive as his guest the Roman suppliant.
+The shore fronting the anchorage was covered with the files of
+the royal army in full array. Several Egyptian men-of-war
+had been drawn down into the water and their crews were
+hastening on board. Out in the haven rode the little fleet of
+the Pompeians. Agias had heard the proclamation, and hurried
+down to the mole to bear the earliest definite information to
+his mistress. Presently, out of the throng of officers and
+court magnates on the quay, stepped Achillas in a splendid
+panoply of gilded armour, with a purple chiton flowing down
+from beneath. Beside him, with the firm swinging step of the
+Roman legionary, strode two other officers in magnificent
+armour, whom Agias at once recognized as Lucius Septimius, a
+Roman tribune now in Egyptian service, and a certain Salvius,
+who had once been a centurion of the Republic. The three
+advanced on to the quay and stood for a moment at a loss.
+Agias, who was quite near, could hear their conversation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The yacht is not ready for us."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We cannot delay a moment."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a large open boat moored to the quay, a fisher
+man's craft. In a moment a few subalterns had taken possession
+of it and there was a call for rowers. Agias, who, like all
+his race, never declined a chance "to see or hear some new
+thing," took his seat on one of the benches, and soon the craft
+shot away from the mole with the three officers in its stern.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a short pull to the Pompeian ships; Agias, as he
+glanced over his shoulder thought he could see a motion on
+board the vessels as if to sheer away from the boat; but in a
+moment the little craft was alongside, under the lee of the
+flagship.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Where is Pompeius Magnus?" cried Achillas, rising from
+his seat; "we are sent to carry him to the king."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A martial, commanding figure was seen peering over the
+side,—a figure that every inhabitant of Rome knew right well.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I am he; but why do you come thus meanly with only a
+fisher's boat? Is this honourable, is this worthy of a great
+king's guest?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Assuredly, kyrios," began Achillas, "we are forced to
+come in this small craft, because the water is too shallow for
+larger ships to approach the shore."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias knew that this was a lie; he was very certain that he
+was about to be witness to a deed of the darkest treachery.
+A vague feeling of shrinking and horror froze his limbs, and
+made his tongue swell in his mouth. Yet he was perfectly
+powerless to warn; a sign or a word would have meant his
+instant death.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Salve</i>, Imperator!" shouted Septimius in Latin, rising in
+turn. "Don't you remember the campaign I had with you
+against the pirates?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The fugitive general's care-worn face lighted up at the
+recognition of an old officer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Eu!</i>" he answered, "I shall not want for good friends, I
+see! How glad I shall be to grasp your hands! But is not
+this a very small boat? I see men going on board the galleys
+by the shore."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You shall be satisfied in a moment, kyrios," repeated
+Achillas, with suave assurance, "that the quicksands by the
+mole are very dangerous to large vessels. Will you do us the
+honour to come aboard?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias felt as though he must howl, scream, spring into the
+sea—do anything to break the horrible suspense that
+oppressed him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A woman was taking leave of Pompeius on the deck, a tall,
+stately, patrician lady, with a sweet, trouble-worn face; Agias
+knew that she was Cornelia Scipionis. She was adjuring
+her husband not to go ashore, and he was replying that it was
+impossible to refuse; that if the Egyptians meant evil, they
+could easily master all the fugitives with their armament.
+Several of the Magnus's servants came down into the boat—couple
+of trusted centurions, a valued freedman called Philip,
+a slave named Scythes. Finally Pompeius tore himself from
+his wife's arms.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Do not grieve, all will be well!" were his words, while the
+boat's crew put out their hands to receive him; and he added,
+"We must make the best choice of evils. I am no longer my
+own master. Remember Sophocles's iambics,
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>
+"He that once enters at a tyrant's door<br />
+Becomes a slave, though he were free before.'"
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+The general seated himself on the stern seat between the
+Egyptian officers. Agias bent to his oar in sheer relief at
+finding some way in which to vent his feelings; and tugged at
+the heavy paddle until its tough blade bent almost to cracking.
+The silence on the part of the officers was ominous. Not a
+word, not a hint of recognition, came from Achillas or his
+Italian associates, from the instant that Pompeius set foot in
+the boat. The stillness became awkward. The Magnus,
+flushed and embarrassed, turned to Septimius. "I was not
+mistaken in understanding that you were my fellow-soldier in
+years past?" His answer was a surly nod. Pompeius, however,
+reined his rising feelings, and took up and began to re-read
+some tablets on which he had written an address in Greek,
+to be delivered before the king. Agias rowed on with the
+energy of helpless desperation. They were very close to the
+quay. A company of the royal body-guard in gala armour
+stood as if awaiting the distinguished visitor. For a moment
+the young Hellene believed that Achillas was sincere in his
+errand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The boat drew up to the landing; one or two of the rowers
+sprang to the dock and made her fast. Agias was unshipping
+his oar. His thought was that he must now contrive the escape
+of Cornelia. Pompeius half rose from his seat; the boat was
+pitching in the choppy harbour swell; the general steadied
+himself by grasping the hands of Philip the freedman. Suddenly,
+like the swoop of a hawk on its prey, Agias saw the
+right hand of Septimius tear his short sword from its sheath.
+A scream broke from the Hellene's lips; before the Magnus
+could turn his head, the blow was struck. Pompeius received
+the blade full in the back, and staggered, while Salvius and
+Achillas likewise drew and thrust at him. Agias gazed on,
+paralyzed with horror. The general seized his red paludamentum,
+threw it over his face, groaned once, and fell. Even
+as he did so Septimius struck him across the neck, decapitating
+the corpse. The brutal boatmen tore the blood-soaked
+clothes off of the body, and flung it overboard, to drift ashore
+with the current. And so it ended with Pompeius Magnus,
+Imperator, the Fortunate, the favourite general of Sulla, the
+chieftain of "godlike and incredible virtue," the conquerer of
+the kingdoms of the East, thrice consul, thrice triumphator,
+joint ruler with Cæsar of the civilized world!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias hastened back to Cornelia to tell her that the danger
+was past, that there was no need of a flight to Cleopatra; but
+he was sick at heart when he thought of the treachery in which
+he had shared, albeit so unwillingly.
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h2 id="ch23">CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+
+<h2>BITTERNESS AND JOY</h2>
+
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia knew not whether to be merry or to weep when
+the report of the fate of Pompeius reached her. That she
+would be delivered up to her uncle was no longer to be
+dreaded; but into the hands of what manner of men had she
+herself fallen? Her own life and that of Fabia, she realized,
+would be snuffed out in a twinkling, by Pothinus and his confederates,
+the instant they saw in such a deed the least advantage.
+The splendid life of the court at the garrison city went
+on; there was an unending round of fêtes, contests in the
+gymnasium and stadium; chariot races; contests of poets and
+actors for prizes in dramatic art. To the outward eye nothing
+could be more decorous and magnificent than the pleasures of
+the Egyptian king. And so some days passed while Cornelia
+crushed her fears, and waited for the news that she was sure
+would come—that Cæsar was pressing on the tracks of his
+rival.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Late one afternoon, as the king and his suite were just
+returned from a visit by boat up the river to inspect a temple
+under restoration at Sethroë, Agias sought the private apartment
+of his patroness. His face was extremely grave, and
+Cornelia at once realized that he brought serious news.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Domina," he said, speaking in Latin to evade the curiosity
+of the maids present, "when you are at leisure, I have a curious
+story to tell you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia presently found pretexts to get rid of all her
+women. Agias reconnoitred, made certain that there was
+no eavesdropper, and began afresh.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What I have to say is so different from that which we
+feared a few days since, that I scarce know how you will
+receive it. I have just learned that your uncle Lucius Lentulus
+and Lucius Ahenobarbus made a landing on the coast
+the day after Pompeius was murdered; they have been
+quietly arrested and the matter hushed up. I believe that
+Pothinus intends to execute them without your knowledge.
+Only by a friendship with some of the officers of the guard
+did I get at this."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia's lips twitched; her hands pressed on her cheeks
+till the pale skin flushed red. In her heart a hundred conflicting
+emotions held sway. She said nothing for a long time,
+and then it was only to ask where the prisoners were confined.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"They are in the dungeon of the fortress," said Agias.
+"That is all that I can discover."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I must see them at once," declared the lady.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I do not know how Pothinus will take this," replied the
+young freedman; "the discovery of his secret will be rightly
+attributed to me, and your ladyship would not care to imperil
+my life unless something very great is to be gained thereby."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I shall miss you very much," said Cornelia, soberly. "But
+though Lucius Lentulus has done me grievous ill, he is my
+uncle. You must leave Pelusium this very night, and keep
+out of danger until Pothinus's vexation can abate. In the
+morning I shall demand to see the prisoners and to learn the
+eunuch's intentions touching them."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias accordingly fared away, much to Cornelia's regret;
+but not quite so much to his own, because his enforced journeying
+would take him to the Nile villa, where was the pretty
+Artemisia. Early on the following day Cornelia boldly went
+to Pothinus, and, without any explanations, demanded to see
+her uncle. The regent, who had tried to keep the matter
+profoundly secret, first was irate, then equivocated, and tried
+to deny that he had any Roman prisoners; then, driven to
+bay by Cornelia's persistency and quiet inflexibility before
+his denials and protests, gave her permission to be taken to
+the prison and see the captives.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To pass from the palace of Pelusium to the fortress-prison
+was to pass, by a few steps, from the Oriental life, in all its
+sensuous splendour, to Orientalism in its most degraded savagery.
+The prison was a half-underground kennel of stone
+and brick, on which the parching sun beat pitilessly, and
+made the galleries and cells like so many furnaces in
+heat. The fetid odour of human beings confined in the most
+limited space in which life can be maintained; the rattle of
+fetters; the grating of ponderous doors on slow-turning pivots;
+the coarse oaths and brutish aspect of both jailers and prisoners;
+the indescribable squalor, filth, misery,—these may
+not be enlarged upon. The attendants led Cornelia to the
+cell, hardly better than the rest, wherein Lentulus and Ahenobarbus
+were confined.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But another had been before Cornelia to visit the unfortunates.
+As the lady drew toward the open door she saw the
+graceful, easy form of Pratinas on the threshold, one hand carelessly
+thrust in the folds of his himation, the other gesturing
+animatedly, while he leaned against the stone casing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lucius Lentulus, his purple-lined tunic dirty and torn, his
+hair disordered, his face knitted into a bitter frown, crouched
+on a stool in the little low-ceiled room, confronting the Hellene.
+Cowering on a mass of filthy straw, his head bowed, his
+body quaking in a paroxysm of fear, was another whose name
+Cornelia knew full well.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Pratinas was evidently just concluding a series of remarks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And so, my friends, amici, as we say at Rome," he was
+jauntily vapouring, "I regret indeed that the atomic theory,—which
+my good Ahenobarbus, I am sure, holds in common
+with myself,—can leave us no hope of meeting in a future
+world, where I can expect to win any more of his good sesterces
+with loaded dice. But let him console himself! He will
+shortly cease from any pangs of consciousness that our good
+friend Quintus Drusus will, in all probability, enjoy the fortune
+that he has inherited from his father, and marry the lady for
+whose hand the very noble Ahenobarbus for some time disputed.
+Therefore let me wish you both a safe voyage to the
+kingdom of Hades; and if you need money for the ferryman,
+accept now, as always, the use of my poor credit."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"May all the infernal gods requite you!" broke forth
+Lentulus, half rising, and uplifting his fettered hands to call
+down a solemn curse.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It has been often observed by philosophers," said Pratinas,
+with a smile, "that even among the most sceptical, in times
+of great extremity, there exists a certain belief in the existence
+of gods. Your excellency sees how the observation is
+confirmed."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The gods blast you!" howled Lentulus, in impotent fury.
+Before further words could pass, Cornelia put Pratinas aside,
+and entered the cell.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Your presence, sir," she said haughtily, to the Hellene, "is
+needed no longer." And she pointed down the gallery.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Pratinas flushed, hesitated as if for once at a loss, and
+nimbly vanished. Lentulus sat in speechless astonishment
+"Uncle," continued Cornelia, "what may I do for you? I
+did not know till last evening that you were here."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But ere the other could reply the figure in the corner had
+sprung up, and flung itself at the lady's feet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Save me! save me! By all that you hold dear, save my
+life! I have loved you. I thought once that you loved me.
+Plead for me! Pray for me! Anything that I may but
+live!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Vah</i>, wretch!" cried the consular; and he spurned Ahenobarbus
+with his foot. "It is indeed well that you have not
+married into family of mine! If you can do naught else, you
+can at least die with dignity as becomes a Roman patrician—and
+not beg intercession from this woman who has cut herself
+off from all her kin by disobedience."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Uncle," cried Cornelia in distress, "must we be foes to
+the end? Must our last words be of bitterness?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Girl," thundered the unbending Lentulus, "when a Roman
+maiden disobeys, there is no expiation. You are no niece of
+mine. I care not how you came here. I accept nothing at
+your hands. I will not hear your story. If I must die, it is to
+die cursing your name. Go! I have no more words for you!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Ahenobarbus caught the skirt of Cornelia's robe, and
+pleaded and moaned. "Let them imprison him in the lowest
+dungeons, load him with the heaviest fetters; place upon him
+the most toilsome labour—only let him still see the light and
+breathe the air!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Uncle," said Cornelia, "I will plead for you despite your
+wrath—-though little may my effort avail. You are my
+father's brother, and neither act of yours nor of mine can
+make you otherwise. But as for you, Lucius Ahenobarbus,"—and
+her words came hot and thick, as she hissed out her contempt,—"though
+I beg for your life, know this, that if I
+despised you less I would not so do. I despise you too much
+to hate; and if I ask to have you live, it is because I know the
+pains of a base and ignoble life are a myriad fold more than
+those of a swift and honourable death. Were I your judge—I
+would doom you; doom you <i>to live</i> and know the sting of
+your ignominy!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She left them; and hatred and pity, triumph and anguish,
+mingled within her. She went to the young King Ptolemæus
+and besought him to spare the prisoners; the lad professed
+his inability to take a step without the initiative of Pothinus.
+She went to Pothinus; the eunuch listened to her courteously,
+then as courteously told her that grave reasons of state made
+it impossible to comply with the request—much, as he blandly
+added, it would delight him personally to gratify her. Cornelia
+could do no more. Pratinas she would not appeal to,
+though he had great influence with Pothinus. She went back
+to her rooms to spend the day with Fabia, very heavy of heart.
+The world, as a whole, she beheld as a thing very evil; treachery,
+guile, wrath, hatred, were everywhere. The sight of
+Ahenobarbus had filled her with loathsome memories of past
+days. The sunlight fell in bright warm panels over the rich
+rugs on the floor of her room. The sea-breeze sweeping in
+from the north blew fresh and sweet; out against the azure
+light, into which she could gaze, a swarm of swallows was in
+silhouette—black dots crawling along across the dome of light.
+Out in one of the public squares of the city great crowds of
+people were gathering. Cornelia knew the reason of the concourse—the
+heads of two noble Romans, just decapitated,
+were being exposed to the gibes and howls of the coarse Greek
+and Egyptian mob. And Cornelia wished that she were herself
+a swallow, and might fly up into the face of the sun, until
+the earth beneath her had vanished.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But while she leaned from the parapet by the window of the
+room, footsteps sounded on the mosaic pavement without; the
+drapery in the doorway was flung aside; Agias entered, and
+after him—another.
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+Drusus ran to Cornelia and caught her in his arms; and
+she—neither fainted nor turned pale, but gave a little laugh,
+and cried softly:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I always knew you were coming!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What more followed Agias did not know; his little affair
+with Artemisia had taught him that his Hellenic inquisitiveness
+sometimes would do more harm than good.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Very different from the good-humoured, careless, half-boyish
+student youth who had driven down the Præneste road two
+years before, was the soldierly figure that Cornelia pressed
+to her heart. The campaigning life had left its mark upon
+Drusus. Half of a little finger the stroke of a Spanish sword
+had cleft away at Ilerda; across his forehead was the broad
+scar left by the fight at Pharsalus, from a blow that he had
+never felt in the heat of the battle. During the forced marchings
+and voyages no razor had touched his cheeks, and he was
+thickly bearded. But what cared Cornelia? Had not her
+ideal, her idol, gone forth into the great world and stood its
+storm and stress, and fought in its battles, and won due glory?
+Was he not alive, and safe, and in health of mind and body
+after ten thousand had fallen around him? Were not the
+clouds sped away, the lightnings ceased? And she? She was
+happy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So Drusus told her of all that had befallen him since the
+day he escaped out of Lucius Ahenobarbus's hands at Baiæ.
+And Cornelia told of her imprisonment at the villa, and how
+Demetrius had saved her, and how it came to pass that she was
+here at the Egyptian court. In turn Drusus related how Cæsar
+had pursued Pompeius into Asia, and then, hearing that the
+Magnus had fled to Egypt, placed two legions on shipboard
+and sailed straight for Alexandria.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And when he landed," continued the young officer, "the
+magistrates of the city came to Cæsar, and gave him first Pompeius's
+seal-ring of a lion holding a sword in his paw, and then
+another black-faced and black-hearted Egyptian, without noticing
+the distress the Imperator was in, came up and uncovered
+something he had wrapped in a mantle. I was beside the general
+when the bundle was unwrapped. I am sickened when I
+speak of it. It was the head of Pompeius Magnus. The fools
+thought to give Cæsar a great delight."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And what did the Imperator do or say?" asked Cornelia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"He shrank back from the horror as though the Egyptian
+had been a murderer, as indeed all of his race are. Cæsar said
+nothing. Yet all saw how great was his grief and anger. Soon
+or late he will requite the men who slew thus foully the husband
+of his daughter Julia."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You must take me away from them," said Cornelia, shuddering;
+"I am afraid every hour."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And I, till you are safe among our troops at Alexandria,"
+replied Drusus. "I doubt if they would have let me see you,
+but for Agias. He met us on the road from Alexandria and
+told me about you. I had received a special despatch from
+Cæsar to bear with all haste to the king. So across the Delta
+I started, hardly waiting for the troops to disembark, for there
+was need for speed. Agias I took back with me, and my first
+demand when I came here was to see the king and deliver my
+letter, which was easily done an hour ago; and my next to see
+you. Whereat that nasty sheep Pothinus declared that you
+had been sent some days before up the river on a trip to the
+Memphis palace to see the pyramids. But Agias was close at
+hand, and I gave the eunuch the lie without difficulty. The
+rascal blandly said, 'that he had not seen you of late; had
+only spoken by hearsay about you, and he might have been misinformed;'
+and so—What do I look like?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You look like Quintus Livius Drusus, the Roman soldier,"
+said Cornelia, "and I would not have you otherwise than what
+you are."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Eho!</i>" replied Drusus, passing his hand over her hair.
+"Do you want me to tell you something?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What is it?" said Cornelia, pressing closer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I can never write a cosmology. I shall never be able to
+evolve a new system of ethics. I cannot improve on Plato's
+ideal state. I know I am a very ignorant man, with only a
+few ideas worth uttering, with a hand that is very heavy, with a
+mind that works to little purpose save when it deals with
+politics and war. In short"—and Drusus's voice grew really
+pathetic—"all my learning carries me no farther than did the
+wisdom of Socrates, 'I know that I know nothing;' and I have
+no time to spend in advancing beyond that stage."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But Socrates," said Cornelia, laughing, "was the wisest
+man in Greece, and for that very reason."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well," said Drusus, ignoring the compliment, as a certain
+type of men will when the mood is on them, "what do you
+wish me to make of myself?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I wish you to make nothing different," was her reply,
+"for you are precisely what I have always wanted you to be.
+When you have read as much as I have," this with an air
+of utter weariness, "you will realize the futility of philosophic
+study."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Eho!</i>" remarked Drusus again. "So you would have me
+feel that I am turning my back on nothing very great, after
+all?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And so I mean."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Seriously?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I am serious, Quintus." And indeed Cornelia was. "I
+can read Aristotle and Plato, and Zeno and Cleanthes, and
+Pyrrho, and a score of others. I can spin out of my own
+brain a hundred theories of the universe as good as theirs, but
+my heart will not be the happier, if things outside make me sad.
+I am sick of the learning that is no learning, that answers our
+questions by other questions that are more riddling."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ah, scoffer at the wise," laughed Drusus, "what do you
+wish, then?" He spoke in Greek.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Speak in Latin, in Latin, Quintus," was her retort. "I am
+weary of this fine, sweet language that tinkles so delicately,
+every word of which hides a hundred meanings, every sentence
+attuned like the notes for a harp. Let us have our own
+language, blunt and to the point; the language, not of men
+who wonder what they ought to do, but who <i>do</i>. We are
+Romans, not Greeks. We have to rule the world, not growl
+as to how Jupiter made it. When you came back from
+Athens I said, 'I love Quintus Drusus, but I would love him
+more if he were less a Hellene.' And, now I see you wholly
+Roman, I love you wholly. And for myself, I wish neither
+to be a Sappho, nor an Aspasia, nor a Semiramis, but Cornelia
+the Roman matron, who obeys her husband, Quintus Drusus,
+who cares for his house, and whom, in turn, her household
+fears and obeys."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>O tempora! O mores!</i>" cried the young soldier, in delight.
+"When had ever a woman such ambition in these degenerate
+days? <i>Eu!</i> Then I will burn my books, if you can get no
+profit out of them."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I do not think books are bad," said Cornelia, still soberly,
+"but I know that they can never make me happy."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What can?" demanded her tormenter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>You!</i>"
+</p>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+So the hours of the afternoon ran on, and the lovers gave
+them little heed. But they were not too selfish to refuse to
+Fabia's sharing in their joy; and Drusus knew that he was
+dear no less, though differently, in the eyes of his aunt than
+of his betrothed. And there were duties to perform that not
+even the long-deferred delights of the afternoon could postpone.
+Chief of these were the arrangements for the immediate
+departure of the Roman ladies for Alexandria. Agias, who
+was called into the council, was invaluable in information and
+suggestion. He said that Pothinus had acted at Pratinas's
+advice, when he took Fabia and Cornelia to the palace. The
+eunuch had expected to use them half as hostages, half as
+captives to be put to ransom. If Cæsar had delayed a few
+days, Pothinus would not have lied when he made excuse that
+the ladies had been sent up the river. But now Agias believed
+that the regent was afraid, having overreached himself, and
+it was best to make a prompt demand for conveyance to Alexandria.
+This, indeed, proved advantageous policy. The eunuch
+made difficulties and suggested obstacles, but Drusus made
+his native Italian haughtiness stand him in good stead. It
+would largely depend, he said insinuatingly, on the way in
+which his demand was complied with, what sort of a report
+he made to Cæsar touching the execution of Lucius Lentulus
+and Ahenobarbus. During his interview with Pothinus, the
+Roman came face to face with Pratinas. No words were
+exchanged, but Drusus noticed that the elegant Hellene
+flushed, and then turned pale, when he fastened upon him a
+gaze steady and half menacing. Pothinus ended by yielding
+everything—the use of the royal chariots and horses, the
+use of the Nile boats needed for swift transit across the Delta,
+and orders on the local garrisons and governors to provide
+entertainment and assistance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As a result Cornelia speedily found herself again journeying,
+not this time in a slow barge following the main branches
+of the Nile, but by more rapid, if less luxurious, conveyance,
+now by land, now by water, hurrying westward. They passed
+through Sethroë and Tanis, Mendes and Sebennytus, Xaïs and
+Saïs, where were the tomb of Osiris and the great Egyptian
+university in this the capital of the mighty Pharaohs who had
+wrested the nation from the clutches of Assyria. Then they
+fared up the Nile to the old Milesian trading factory of Naucratis,—now
+dropping into decline beside the thriving Alexandria,—and
+then by boat they pressed on to the capital itself.
+Never more delightful journey for Cornelia or for Drusus;
+they saw the strange land through one another's eyes; they
+expressed their own thoughts through one another's lips; they
+were happy together, as if children at play; and Fabia was
+their never exacting, ever beneficent, guardian goddess.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus and Cornelia were neither of them the same young
+persons who had met in the gardens of the villa of the Lentuli
+two short years before. They saw life with a soberer gaze;
+they had both the wisdom that experience teaches. Yet for the
+time not a cloud was drifting across their sky. Their passions
+and hates had been too fierce, too pagan, to feel the death of
+even Cornelia's uncle very keenly. Lucius Ahenobarbus was
+dead—they had no more thought for him than for a dead
+viper. Lucius Domitius was dead. Gabinius and Dumnorix
+were dead. Pompeius, the tool of guiltier men than himself,
+was dead. Pratinas alone of all those who had crossed their
+path remained; but the wily Greek was a mere creature of
+self-interest—what had he to gain by pressing his animosity,
+if he had any, against them? Cæsar was triumphant. His
+enemies were barely lifting their heads in Africa. Doubtless
+there was stern work awaiting the Imperator there, but what of
+it? Was he not invincible? Was he not about to commence
+a new order of things in the world, to tear down the old and
+decaying, to raise up a steadfast fabric? Therefore the little
+party took its pleasure, and enjoyed every ancient temple of the
+Amenhoteps, Thothmeses, and Ramesides that they hurriedly
+visited; won the favour of the wrinkled old priests by their
+plentiful votives of bright philippi; heard a hundred time-honoured
+tales that they knew not whether to believe or laugh
+at; speculated among themselves as to the sources of the Nile,
+the cause of the vocal Memnon, and fifty more darkened wonders,
+and resolved to solve every mystery during a second and
+more prolonged visit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So they came to Alexandria, but on the way called at the
+Nile villa where was Artemisia, and, to the great satisfaction
+of that young lady and of Agias, carried her along with them to
+the house of Cleomenes, where that affable host and Berenice
+and Monime received them with open arms.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Their pleasure at this reunion, however, began to abate when
+they realized the disturbed state of the city.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I can't say I like the situation," admitted Cleomenes, as
+soon as he had been introduced to Drusus, and the first greetings
+were over; "you know when Cæsar landed he took his consular
+insignia with him, and the mob made this mean that he
+was intending to overthrow the government and make Egypt
+a Roman province. If you had not left for Pelusium so hastily,
+you would have been present at a very serious riot, that was
+with great difficulty put down. The soldiers of the royal
+garrison are in an ugly mood, and so are the people. I suspect
+the king, or rather Pothinus, is doing nothing to quiet them.
+There have been slight riots for several days past, and a good
+many Roman soldiers who have straggled away from the palace
+into the lower quarters of the city have been murdered."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I am glad," replied Drusus, "that I can leave Cornelia and
+my aunt under your protection, for my duty may keep me continuously
+with the Imperator."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The young officer at once hastened to the palace and reported
+for service. Cæsar questioned him as to the situation at
+Pelusium, and Drusus described the unpromising attitude of
+Pothinus, and also mentioned how he had found Cornelia and
+his aunt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The general, engrossed as he was with his business of state
+and threatening war, put all his duties aside and at once went
+to the house of Cleomenes. It was the first time Cornelia had
+ever met the man whose career had exerted such an influence
+upon her own life. She had at first known of him only through
+the filthy, slanderous verses of such oligarchs as Catullus and
+Calvus; then through her lover she had come to look upon
+Cæsar as an incarnation as it were of omniscience, omnipotence,
+and benevolence—the man for whom everything was worth
+sacrificing, from whom every noble thing was to be expected.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She met the conquerer of Ariovistus, Vercingetorix, and
+Pompeius like the frank-hearted, patrician maiden that she
+was, without shyness, without servility.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My father died in your army," she said on meeting; "my
+affianced husband has taught me to admire you, as he himself
+does. Let us be friends!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And Cæsar bowed as became the polished gentleman, who
+had been the centre of the most brilliant salons of Rome, and
+took the hand she offered, and replied:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ah! Lady Cornelia, we have been friends long, though
+never we met before! But I am doubly the friend of whosoever
+is the friend of Quintus Livius Drusus."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whereupon Cornelia was more completely the vassal of the
+Imperator than ever, and words flew fast between them. In
+short, just as in the case with Cleopatra, she opened her heart
+before she knew that she had said anything, and told of all
+her life, with its shadows and brightness; and Cæsar listened
+and sympathized as might a father; and Drusus perfectly
+realized, if Cornelia could not—how many-sided was the man
+who could thus turn from weighing the fate of empires to
+entering unfeignedly into a sharing of the hopes and fears of
+a very young, and still quite unsophisticated, woman.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When the Imperator departed Drusus accompanied him to
+the palace. Neither of the two, general nor subaltern, spoke
+for a long while; at last Cæsar remarked:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Do you know what is uppermost in my mind, after meeting
+women like Fabia or Cornelia?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus shook his head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I believe that there are gods, who bring such creatures into
+the world. They are not chance accretions of atoms." And
+then Cæsar added, half dreamily: "You ought to be a very
+happy man. I was once—it was many years ago. Her name
+was Cornelia also."
+</p>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+Serious and more serious, grew the situation at Alexandria.
+King Ptolemæus and Pothinus came to the city from Pelusium.
+Cæsar had announced that he intended to examine the title of
+the young monarch to the undivided crown, and make him
+show cause why he had expelled Cleopatra. This the will of
+Ptolemæus Auletes had enjoined the Roman government to do;
+for in it he had commissioned his allies to see that his oldest
+children shared the inheritance equally.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Pothinus came to Alexandria, and trouble came with
+him. He threw every possible obstacle in Cæsar's way when
+the latter tried to collect a heavy loan due the Romans by the
+late king. The etesian winds made it impossible to bring up
+reënforcements, and Cæsar's force was very small. Pothinus
+grew more insolent each day. For the first time, Drusus observed
+that his general was nervous, and suspicious lest he be
+assassinated. Finally the Imperator determined to force a
+crisis. To leave Egypt without humbling Pothinus meant a
+great lowering of prestige. He sent off a private message to
+Palestine that Cleopatra should come to Alexandria.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cleopatra came, not in royal procession, for she knew too
+well the finesse of the regent's underlings; but entered the
+harbour in disguise in a small boat; and Apollodorus, her Sicilian
+confidant, carried her into Cæsar's presence wrapped in a
+bale of bedding which he had slung across his back.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The queen's suit was won. Cleopatra and the Imperator met,
+and the two strong personalities recognized each other's affinity
+instantly. Her coming was as a thunder-clap to Pothinus and
+his puppet Ptolemæus. They could only cringe and acquiesce
+when Cæsar ordered them to be reconciled with the queen,
+and seal her restoration by a splendid court banquet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The palace servants made ready for the feast. The rich and
+noble of Alexandria were invited. The stores of gold and silver
+vessels treasured in the vaults of the Lagidæ were brought
+forth. The arches and columns of the palace were festooned
+with flowers. The best pipers and harpers of the great city
+were summoned to delight with their music. Precious wine of
+Tanis was ready to flow like water.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus saw the preparations with a glad heart. Cornelia
+would be present in all her radiancy; and who there would be
+more radiant than she?
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h2 id="ch24">CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+
+<h2>BATTLING FOR LIFE</h2>
+
+
+<p>
+And then it was,—with the chariots bearing the guests
+almost driving in at the gates of the palace,—that Cerrinius,
+Cæsar's barber, came before his master with an alarming tale.
+The worthy man declared that he had lighted on nothing less
+than a plot to murder the Romans, one and all, by admitting
+Achillas's soldiery to the palace enclosure, while all the banqueters
+were helpless with drugged wine. Pratinas, who had
+been supposed to be at Pelusium, Cerrinius had caught in
+retired conference with Pothinus, planning the arrangement of
+the feast. Achillas's mercenary army was advancing by
+stealthy marches to enter the city in the course of the evening.
+The mob had been aroused by agitators, until it was in
+a mood to rise en masse against the Romans, and join in
+destroying them. Such, in short, was the barber's story.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was no time to delay. Cæsar was a stranger in a
+strange and probably hostile land, and to fail to take warning
+were suicide. He sent for Pothinus, and demanded the
+whereabouts of Achillas's army. The regent stammered that
+it was at Pelusium. Cæsar followed up the charge by inquiring
+about Pratinas. Pothinus swore that he was at Pelusium
+also. But Cæsar cut his network of lies short, by commanding
+that a malefactor should be forced to swallow a beaker of
+the wine prepared for the banquet. In a few moments the
+man was in a helpless stupor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The case was proved and Cæsar became all action. A
+squad of legionaries haled Pothinus away to an execution not
+long delayed. Other legionaries disarmed and replaced the
+detachment of the royal guard that controlled the palace gates
+and walls. And barely had these steps been taken, when a
+courier thundered into the palace, hardly escaped through the
+raging mob that was gaining control of the city. Achillas, he
+reported, had wantonly murdered Dioscorides and Serapion,
+whom Cæsar had sent as envoys to Pelusium, and was marching
+on the city with his whole army of Italian renegades, Syrian
+banditti, convicts, and runaway slaves, twenty thousand strong.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was nothing to do but to prepare to weather the storm
+in the palace enclosure, which, with its high walls, was practically
+a fortress in itself. There were only four thousand
+Romans, and yet there was a long circuit of defences to man.
+But Drusus never saw his general putting forth greater energy.
+That night, instead of feasting, the soldiers laboured, piling up
+the ramparts by the light of torches. The city was surging
+and thundering without the palace gates. Cæsar had placed
+the king under guard, but Arsinoë—his younger sister—had
+slipped out of the palace to join herself to the advancing host
+of Achillas, and speedily that general would be at hand. Cæsar
+as usual was everywhere, with new schemes for the defences,
+new enthusiasm for his officers, new inspiration for his men.
+No one slept nor cared to sleep inside the palace walls. They
+toiled for dear life, for with morning, at most, Achillas would
+be upon them; and by morning, if Pothinus's plans had not
+failed, they would have been drugged and helpless to a man,
+none able to draw sword from scabbard. It was a new experience
+to one and all, for these Romans to stand on the defensive.
+For once Cæsar had made a false step—he ought to have taken
+on his voyage more men. He stood with his handful, with
+the sea on one side of him and a great city and a nation in
+arms against him on the other. The struggle was not to be for
+empire, but for life. But the Romans were too busy that night
+to realize anything save the need of untiring exertion. If
+they had counted the odds against them, four thousand against
+a nation, they might well have despaired, though their chieftain
+were Cæsar.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Two years earlier Drusus, as he hurried to and fro transmitting
+orders for his general, might have been fain to draw aside
+and muse on the strangeness of the night scene. The sky was
+clear, as almost always in a land where a thunder-storm is often
+as rare as an eclipse; the stars twinkled out of heavens of soft
+blackness; the crescent of a new moon hung like a silvered
+bow out over the harbour, and made a thin pathway of lustre
+across the moving, shimmering waters. Dimly the sky-line
+was visible; by the Pharos and its mole loomed the vague
+tracery of masts. On the west and the south lay the white and
+dark masses of the city, now and then brought into clearer
+relief as the moonbeams swept across some stately pile, and
+touched on its Corinthian columns and nobly wrought pediments.
+But Drusus was a soldier; and the best of poets doubtless
+work poorly when their lives are hanging in the balance.
+Over the flower-strewn walks, under the festooned colonnades,
+ran the busy legionaries, bestirring themselves as never before;
+while Diomedes, and Hector, and Patroclus, and fifty other
+heroic worthies waged perpetual battle on their marble heights
+above the soldiers' heads. On occasion Drusus was called to
+one of the upper terraces and pinnacles of the palace buildings,
+and then he could catch a glimpse of the whole sweep of the
+mighty city. Over to the southeast, where was the Jewish
+quarter, the sky was beginning to redden. The mob had begun
+to vent its passions on the innocent Israelites, and the incendiary
+was at his work. A deep, low, growling hum, as of ten
+thousand angry voices, drifted upon the night air. The beast
+called the Alexandrian rabble was loose, and it was a terrible
+animal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was midnight. Drusus had toiled since noon. He had
+hardly tasted food or drink since morning, but there were three
+feet more of brick, stone, and rubbish to be added still to this
+and that rampart before it would be secure, and a whole wing
+of the overgrown palace must be pulled down to furnish the
+material. He had climbed out upon the roof to aid in tearing
+up the tiles and to encourage the men by his example, when
+some one plucked him from behind on the cloak—it was Cæsar.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You are not needed here," said the general, in a voice that
+seemed a bit strained to keep calm. "Read this—take all the
+men you want."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And the Imperator himself held up the torch, while Drusus
+took the tablet thrust into his hands and read the hastily scribbled
+lines:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Cleomenes to Drusus. The ladies are in danger. I will
+resist the mob as long as I can. Send help."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus threw down the tablet; forgot to so much as salute
+his commander. He had laid off his armour during the work on
+the ramparts; he ran for it, put it on with feverish haste. A
+moment more and he was running among the soldiers, calling
+this and that legionary by name. The troops all knew him,
+and would have followed him to the death. When he asked
+for thirty volunteers for dangerous service, none demanded of
+him the occasion; he simply selected his men as fast as he
+might. He secured four chariots and placed in them the fastest
+horses in the royal stables and trusted men for drivers.
+He mounted the rest of his thirty on other steeds, and the
+preparations were over. The gate was thrown open; Decimus
+Mamercus, who was his subaltern, led out the little company.
+Drusus rode out last, in one of the chariots. The troops on the
+walls cheered them as they departed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the immediate neighbourhood of the palace there prevailed
+an ominous silence. Earlier in the night a few cohorts had
+charged out and scattered the street rabble; and the mob had
+kept at a distance. There was no light save that of the moon
+and the distant glow of the burning buildings. Drusus felt his
+breath coming thick and fast, the drops of sweat were hanging
+on his forehead, something within was driving his heart
+into his throat. "If—" he never went further; unless he
+brought Cornelia and Fabia back to the palace unscathed, he
+knew the Alexandrian rabble would howl over his unconscious
+body.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ride!" he commanded, as if the rush of the chariots and
+horses would drown the fears that nearly drove him frantic.
+"Ride!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The drivers lashed the teams, the horsemen pricked with
+the spur. Drusus caught the reins from his chariot companion,
+and swung the lash himself over the four steeds. Faster
+and faster they flew down the splendidly paved and built highways.
+Temples and majestic public buildings rose in sombre
+grandeur above their heads; above them winged "Victories"
+seemed springing up into dark void, their sculptured symmetries
+just visible in the moonlight. On and on, swift and
+more swift—persons began shouting from the buildings which
+they passed, now a few voices, now many, now a hundred. A
+volley of stones was dashed down from the safe recesses of the
+pillars at the head of the long flight of steps leading up to a
+temple. Presently an arrow whirred over Drusus's head and
+smote on the masonry across the street. There were lights
+ahead—scores of torches waving—a small building was on
+fire; the glare grew redder and brighter every instant; and
+a din, a din lifted by ten thousand men when their brute
+instincts are enkindled, grew and grew. Drusus dashed the
+cold sweat from his brow, his hand was trembling. He had a
+quiver and bow in the chariot,—a powerful Parthian bow,
+and the arrows were abundant. Mamercus had taught him to
+be a good archer, as a boy. Could he turn his old skill to
+account? Not unless his hand became more steady.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Women screamed out at him and his band from the house
+roofs; a tile struck one of the chariot horses and made it
+plunge wildly; Drusus flung his strength into the reins, and
+curbed in the raging beast; he tossed the lines back to his
+driver and tore the bow from its casings. His car had rushed
+on ahead of Decimus Mamercus and the rest; two furlongs more
+would bring him to the house of Cleomenes on one of the
+squares of the city. The chariot swung around a street corner
+for the final stretch, the way was broad, the buildings on
+either side (the residences of the Alexandrian gentry) high;
+but the whole street from wall to wall was a seething mass of
+human forms. The fire was spreading; the brightening
+flames shone down on the tossing, howling multitude—excited
+Egyptians from the quarter of Rhacotis, frenzied Asiatics in
+their turbans, mad sailors from the Eunostian port and the
+Pharos island. At the head of the street the flames were
+pressing in upon a stately mansion around which the raging
+mob was packed thickly. On the roof of the threatened house
+figures could be seen in the lurid light, running to and fro,
+flinging down bricks and stones, and trying to beat back the
+fire. It was the house of Cleomenes. Insensibly the veteran
+who had been driving reined in the horses, who themselves
+drew back, loath to plunge into the living barriers ahead. But
+Drusus was past fear or prudence; with his own hands he
+sent the lash stinging over all the four, and the team, that had
+won more than a single trophy in the games, shot forward.
+The chariot struck the multitude and went, not through it, but
+over it. The on-rush was too rapid, too unexpected, for resistance.
+To right and left, as the water gives way before the
+bows of an on-rushing ship, the crowd surged back, the
+instinct of panic reigning in every breast. Thick and fast,
+as quickly as he might set shaft to string, flew Drusus's arrows—not
+a shaft that failed a mark, as it cut into the living
+masses. The chariot reeled again and again, as this wheel or
+that passed over something animate and struggling. The
+horses caught the fire of conflict; they raced, they ran—and
+the others sped after them. The mob left off howling: it
+screamed with a single voice of mortal dread. And before
+Drusus or any one else realized, the deed was done, the long
+lane was cleared, and the drivers were drawing rein before
+the house of Cleomenes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The heavily barred carriage-way was thrown open, the
+valiant merchant and his faithful employees and slaves greeted
+their rescuers as the little cavalcade drove in. There was not
+a moment to lose. Cleomenes and his household might indeed
+have long made good the house against the mere attacks of the
+mob; but the rioters had set the torch to some adjacent buildings,
+and all efforts to beat back the flames were proving futile.
+There was no time to condole with the merchant over the loss
+of his house. The mob had surged again into the streets and
+was pressing back, this time more or less prepared to resist the
+Romans. The colonnades and the house roofs were swarming,
+the din was indescribable, and the crackling and roar of the
+advancing flames grew ever louder.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The only alternative was a return to the palace. Cleomenes's
+employees and slaves were to scatter into the crowd, where
+they would easily escape notice; he himself, with his daughters,
+Artemisia, and the Roman ladies, must go in the chariots to
+the palace. Cornelia came down from her chamber, her face
+more flushed with excitement than alarm. Troubles enough
+she had had, but never before personal danger; and she could
+not easily grasp the peril.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Are you afraid, carissima," said Drusus, lifting her into
+his chariot, "to ride back with me to the palace, through that
+wolf pack?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"With you?" she said, admiring the ease with which he
+sprang about in full armour; "I would laugh at Medusa or the
+Hydra of Lerna with you beside me."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cleomenes had been again upon the housetop to watch the
+progress of the fire. He came down, and Drusus instantly
+saw that there was dismay written on his face. The merchant,
+who was himself armed with sword and target, drew the
+officer aside and whispered:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Pray, Roman, to all your native gods! I can see a <i>lochos</i><a name="r184" href="#fn184">[184]</a>
+of regular troops filing into the square before the house.
+Achillas is entering the city with his men. We shall have to
+fight our way through his thousands."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus uttered a deep and silent curse on himself for the
+mad bravado that led him to leave the palace with but thirty
+men; why had he not waited to assemble more? He could
+ride over the mob; to master Achillas's disciplined forces was
+otherwise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A freedman came running down from the roof, crying out
+that it was already on fire. It was a time for action, not
+thought, yet even at the moment Drusus's schoolboy Polybius
+was running through his mind—the description of the
+great riot when Agathocles, the wicked regent of Ptolemæus
+Philopator, and his sister Agathocleia, and his mother Oenanthe,
+had been seized by the multitude and torn in pieces, bit
+by bit, while yet they lived. Cornelia seemed to have caught
+some new cause for fear; she was trembling and shivering
+when Drusus took her in his arms and swung her into the
+chariot. He lifted in Fabia likewise, but the Vestal only
+bowed her head in calm silence. She had overheard Cleomenes's
+tidings, but, by stress of all the force of her strong
+nature, remained composed. Decimus Mamercus took Artemisia,
+frightened and crying, into his own chariot. Monime,
+Berenice, and their father were to go in the other cars. The
+fire was gaining on the roof, smoke was pouring down into the
+court-yard, and now and then a gleam came from a firebrand.
+The horses were growing restive and frightened.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Throw open the gate!" commanded Drusus; his anxieties
+and despair were driving him almost to frenzy, but the gods,
+if gods there were, knew that it was not for himself that he
+was fearful. His voice sounded hollow in his throat; he
+would have given a talent of gold for a draught of water.
+One of his men flung back the gateway, and in at the entrance
+came the glare of great bonfires lighted in the streets, of
+hundreds of tossing torches. The yelling of the multitude
+was louder than ever. There it was, packed thick on all
+sides: in its midst Drusus could see bright lines of tossing
+steel—the armour of Achillas's soldiery! As the portal
+opened, a mighty howl of triumph burst from the people;
+the fire had driven forth to the mob its prey. Cornelia
+heard the howl—the voice of a wild and raging beast—and
+trembled more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Cornelia," said Drusus, lowering his head so as to make
+himself heard, "do not look above the framework of the
+chariot. Cling to it tightly, for we may have to pass over
+obstacles. Above all, do not spring out, however much we
+may be swayed and shaken."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I will not, Quintus," and that was all she could be heard
+to say in the din.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so the little cavalcade drove forth. Cornelia cowered
+in the chariot and saw nothing and heard everything, which
+was the same as nothing. Was she frightened? She did not
+know. The peril was awful. Of course she realized that;
+but how could calamity come to pass, when it was Drusus
+whose powerful form towered above her, when it was Drusus
+whose voice rang like a trumpet out into the press swaying
+around?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was very dark crouching in the body of the chariot. She
+could just see the face of Fabia opposite, very white, but, she
+knew, very calm. She reached out and caught the Vestal's
+hand, and discovered that her own was trembling, while the
+other's was perfectly steady. But the contest, the fighting all
+about! Now the horses were dashing forward, making the
+chariot spring as though it were a thing of life; now reined
+in sharply, and the heavily loaded car swayed this way and
+that, almost to overturning. The uproar above her head passed
+the telling by words; but there was one shout, now in Greek,
+now in Egyptian, that drowned all others: "Death to the
+Romans! tear them in pieces!" Missiles smote against the
+chariot; an arrow went cutting into the wood, driving its keen
+point home, and Cornelia experienced a thrill of pain in her
+shoulder. She felt for the smart, found the mere tip of the
+point only had penetrated the wood; but her fingers were wet
+when she took them away. Drusus was shooting; his bow-string
+snapped and snapped. Once a soldier in armour sprang
+behind the chariot when it came to a stop, and his javelin was
+poised to discharge; but an arrow tore through his throat, and
+he went down to the pavement with a crash. The car rocked
+more and more; once the wheels slipped without revolving, as
+though sliding over some smooth liquid—not water. Cornelia
+felt powers of discriminating sensation becoming fainter
+and fainter; a great force seemed pressing out from within her;
+the clamour and shocks were maddening. She felt driven to
+raise her head, to look out into the raging chaos, though the
+first glance were death. Peering back out of the body of the
+chariot now and then, she saw a little. The Romans were
+charging this way and that, forcing their passage down the
+street, barred no longer by a mere mob, but by Achillas's
+infantrymen, who were hastening into action. The chariot
+horses were wounded, some seriously; she was sure of that.
+They could not be driven through the spearmen, and the little
+handful of cavalry was trying to break through the enemy and
+make space for a rush. It was thirty against thousands; yet
+even in the mortal peril, which Cornelia realized now if she
+had never before, she had a strange sort of pride. Her countrymen
+were showing these Orientals how one Roman could
+slay his tens, could put in terror his hundreds. Drusus was
+giving orders with the same mechanical exactitude of the drill,
+albeit his voice was high-pitched and strained—not entirely,
+perhaps, because of the need of calling above the din.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Form in line by fours!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia raised her head above the chariot frame. The
+Romans had worked their way down into a square formed by
+the intersection of streets. Behind them and on every building
+were swarming the people; right across the eastern avenue,
+where their escape lay, stood the bristling files of one of
+Achillas's companies. Stones and roof-tiles were being tossed
+in a perfect hail from the houses, and now and then an arrow
+or a dart. The four chariots—one had only three horses left—were
+standing in the little plaza, and the troopers were
+forming before them. The arrows of the chariot warriors
+made the mob behind keep a respectful distance. It was the
+triumph of discipline over man's animal sense of fear. Even
+the mob felt this, when it saw the little squadron fall into line
+with as much precision as on the parade ground. A tile smote
+one soldier upon the head, and he tumbled from his horse like
+a stone. His comrades never paused in their evolution. Then,
+for the first time, Cornelia screamed with horror and fright.
+Drusus, who was setting a new arrow to his bow, looked down
+upon her; he had never seemed so handsome before, with the
+fierce light of the battle in his eyes, with his whole form
+swelling with the exertions of conflict.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Down, Cornelia!" commanded the officer; and Cornelia
+did so implicitly—to disobey him at that moment was
+inconceivable.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"At them, men!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And then came a new bound from the horses, and then a
+mighty crash and clash of bodies, blades, and shields, the snort
+of dying beasts, the splintering of spear-shafts, the groans
+and cries of men in battle for their lives. The car rose on one
+wheel higher and higher; Cornelia was thrown against Fabia,
+and the two women clung to each other, too terrified and
+crushed to scream; then on a sudden it righted, and as it did
+so the soldier who had acted as charioteer reeled, his face
+bathed in blood, the death-rattle in his throat. Back he fell,
+pierced in face and breast, and tumbled from the car; and, as
+if answering to this lightening of their burden, the hoofs of the
+hard-pressed horses bit on the pavement, and the team bounded
+onward.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Io triumphe!</i>" It was Drusus who called; and in answer
+to his shout came the deep Cæsarian battle-cry from hundreds
+of throats, "<i>Venus Victrix!</i>"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The chariot was advancing, but less rapidly. Cornelia rose
+and looked forth again, not this time to be rebuked. Down
+the moon-lighted street were moving several infantry cohorts
+from the palace; the avenue was clear, the mob and hostile
+soldiery had melted away like a mist; a mounted officer came
+flying down the street ahead of the legionaries.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The ladies are safe, Imperator!" Drusus was reporting
+with military exactitude. "I have lost twelve men."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cæsar galloped along beside the chariot. He had his horse
+under absolute control, and he extended his hand, first to
+Fabia, then to Cornelia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Fortune has been kind to us," said he, smiling.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Vesta has protected us," said Fabia, bowing her head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cæsar cast a single inquiring, keen glance at the Vestal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Your excellency doubts the omnipotence of the goddess,"
+continued she, looking him steadily in the face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That a power has protected you," was his answer, "I am
+the last to deny."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the Imperator and Drusus were exchanging glances;
+that a woman of the intelligence of Fabia could believe in
+the regular, personal intervention of the Deity in human
+affairs was to them, not an absurdity, but a mystery unfathomable.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so, safe-guarded by the troops, they rode back to the
+palace, where the preparations for defence were ready, and all
+were awaiting the onset of Achillas. The weary men on the
+walls cheered as the carriages with their precious burdens
+rolled in at the gate; and cheered again for Drusus and his
+eighteen who had taught the Alexandrian rabble how Roman
+steel could bite. But Drusus himself was sad when he thought
+of the twelve good men that he had left behind—who need not
+have been sacrificed but for his headlong rashness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And how had the mob come to attack the house of Cleomenes?
+It was a long story, but in a few words probably this.
+Pratinas had come and demanded of Cleomenes that he surrender
+the ladies (doubtless because they would be useful hostages)
+to go with him to Achillas. Cleomenes had refused,
+the more especially as Cornelia adjured him not to deliver them
+over to the clutches of such a creature; and Pratinas went
+away full of anger and threatenings. How he came to be in
+Alexandria, and had returned so soon from Achillas's forces,
+if he had indeed gone to Achillas, was neither clear nor important.
+But that he had excited the mob to assail Cleomenes's
+mansion needed no great proof. Cleomenes himself had seen
+his artful fellow-countryman surveying the riot from a housetop,
+though doubtless he had kept at a prudent distance during
+the fighting.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So ended that exciting day, or rather that night. It was
+Cleopatra who with her own hands laid the bandages on Cornelia's
+wounded shoulder, but the hurt was not serious; only,
+as Drusus laughingly assured her, it was an honourable scar,
+as became the descendant of so many fighting Claudii and
+Cornelii.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ah! delectissime," replied she, "it isn't the hurt that
+gives me pain; it is that I was frightened—frightened when
+you were acting like one of the Heroes!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Mehercle!</i>" laughed Drusus, before he left her to snatch a
+few hours of well-earned rest and see to the dressing of his
+own bruises, "I would not blame a veteran for being panic-struck
+in that mêlée, if he didn't have a chance to swing a
+weapon and so keep his heart from standing still."
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+On the next day Achillas moved up his thousands and
+attacked the palace fortifications. There was a desperate
+struggle in the streets outside the royal residence; the assailants
+were five to the defenders' one, and the mob was arming
+to aid in the assault; but the Egyptians soon realized that it
+was no light thing to carry barricades held by men who had
+fought in Gaul, Britain, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Greece,
+and never tasted overthrow. Fiercest of all was the fight at
+the harbour, where the navy of the king lay, and which, if
+seized, would have put Cæsar at his enemies' mercy. But
+here, also, Roman valour prevailed over Oriental temerity.
+All the ships that Cæsar could not use were burned. With
+the rest he sailed over to the Pharos island, and landed men
+to make good the tower on that point of vantage. So ended
+the first round of battle; and the initial danger of being overwhelmed
+by sheer force was over.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But day after day of conflict followed. Princess Arsinoë
+and Achillas quarrelled in the camp of the besiegers, and this
+occasioned some respite to the Romans. Still there was no
+end to the fighting. Cæsar sent off to Asia Minor, Syria, and
+Crete for reënforcements; but these, all knew, could not come
+at once. A sharp struggle cleared the houses nearest to the
+palace, and the general caused them to be razed and the positions
+thoroughly fortified. He seized the low-lying ground
+which ran as an insignificant valley down between the halves
+of the city and tried to cut his enemies' position in twain. So
+the struggle dragged on. Achillas had been murdered by
+Arsinoë, and she had placed in command her governor, the
+eunuch Ganymed, who was more dangerous by his sly craft
+than fifty common generals. One day a frightened centurion
+reported to Cæsar that all the cisterns used by the troops were
+becoming flooded with sea-water. It was a contrivance of
+Ganymed. The soldiers were in a panic, and it was all that
+their leader could do to pacify them. And then one of those
+strokes of fortune which will always come to a favoured few
+was vouchsafed; as the terrified Romans delved in the earth
+where rain had seldom fallen, lo! on the very first night of
+their toil fresh water bubbled up, and all the danger was at an
+end.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But it is needless to tell how the contest was waged; how the
+thirty-seventh legion arrived as help, how the wind kept them
+off port exposed to the enemy, and how Cæsar sailed out and
+succoured them, and worsted the Alexandrian ships. Then,
+again, Ganymed stirred the disheartened citizens to build
+another fleet, and, by tremendous exertions, a new flotilla arose
+to threaten to cut Cæsar off; and there was a second battle for
+dear life—this time on sea close by the city; while Roman
+and Alexandrian stood staring on the housetops, with their
+hearts beating quickly, for defeat meant ruin to the Romans.
+And, again, the gods of the waters fought for Cæsar, and the
+beaten Alexandrian fleet drifted back to the shelter of its mole
+in the harbour of Eunostus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Next came a great struggle for the possession of the Pharos.
+The fighting was severe, the footing on the island hard to
+win, up steep crags and rocks swept by volleys of missiles;
+but Italian courage seemed inexhaustible. The legionaries,
+without ladders or fascines, stormed towers and battlements.
+The town on the island was taken and the fort by it; then
+came the contest along the mole, driving the Alexandrians to
+the fort at the lower end. On the next day the second fort,
+too, was taken. There was a bridge at the lower end of the
+mole, and the Alexandrians had tried to sail under to attack
+the Cæsarians in the western harbour. The legionaries toiled
+to fill up the passage. All seemed going well, but of a sudden
+befell calamity.
+</p>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+Panic will seize the most hardened veterans, and so it was
+that day. A flank attack from the Alexandrian ships, and of
+other foes by land, a sudden giving way on the part of some
+sailors who were defending the working party, and then terror
+spread among the three veteran cohorts at the lower fort.
+Cæsar had been among his men directing the work, with him
+had gone Drusus, as aide-de-camp, and Agias, who had long
+been chafing under the restraints of the beleaguered palace
+and imagined the position safe and unassailable. The panic
+came more quickly than words may tell: a few hostile shouts
+from behind, cries of fear and alarm, a volley of darts, and the
+men who had hunted the Magnus to his death fled like raw
+recruits at their first arrow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Cæsarian ships beside the mole began to thrust back,
+lest the enemy seize them. The terrified legionaries rushed
+from their ranks, cast away shield and cuirass, sword and dart.
+Every man cared but to save himself, the spirit of mere fear
+uppermost. Cæsar and Drusus rushed into the press, and commanded
+and exhorted; they might have better striven to turn
+the flight of a herd of frightened cattle; their words fell on
+deaf ears; the panic-struck soldiers swept them aside in a mad
+dash to get on board the receding shipping. The danger was
+terrible. On either side the enemy were rushing down the
+mole, and over the defences just forsaken by the Romans.
+Cæsar had been caught in the swirl of his men and carried
+along despite his resistance. He fell, and Drusus, who struggled
+to be near him, ran to his side.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We must escape, Imperator!" cried he, in his commander's
+ear. He saw that there was blood on the general's face, and
+for an instant that thought overpowered all others.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Save yourselves," gasped Cæsar, striving to struggle to his
+feet." You cannot aid me."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A burly Egyptian soldier was running toward them, far
+ahead of the other enemies, flourishing a battle-axe. Did he
+realize the prize that lay almost in his power? Drusus had
+not been fighting, but his sword was now out. One blow of
+the terrible weapon of the legionary sent the oncomer sprawling
+in his own gore. A trifling respite had been gained.
+Cæsar steadied himself and looked about him. They were
+alone with Agias facing the foe; the legionaries were struggling
+one over another at the edge of the causeway, battling
+for dear life to force their way into the only galley that had
+not thrust off.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Come," said Cæsar, turning; and the three joined in the
+flight. To linger were madness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was only a trifling distance across the mole, but a frightful
+tragedy was enacted before their eyes as they ran. The
+galley by the mole was none too large; as the frightened men
+piled into her, the shifting and increasing weight threw her
+on an uneven keel; and then came the horror. A cry of mortal
+agony burst from hundreds of throats as the ship capsized.
+Drusus, as he ran, saw, but for a twinkling, her deck black
+with writhing men, then her curving sides and keel, ere all
+vanished behind the embankment of the mole. The three
+fugitives ran to the edge of the causeway: below them, the
+water full of men battling for life; behind, the foe, now fully
+aware of their advantage and pressing on with exultant shouts.
+Never had the Imperator been in greater peril. Drusus
+glanced at his chief and saw that he was very pale, evidently
+hurt in the scuffle. There was not a ship within hail, not a
+ship within two arrow-flights; and all seemed pulling back as
+if to escape from the danger.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Leap, swim!" cried Cæsar, casting off his breastplate.<a name="r185" href="#fn185">[185]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"There is no ship within reach, Imperator," replied the
+young man, gravely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You are young and strong," was his answer, "and will
+come away safe." Cæsar was preparing to spring over the
+edge.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And you?" cried Drusus, catching him by the wrist. He
+knew that Cæsar could never swim the distance to the nearest
+ship.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"In the hands of the Fates."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Agias, whose eyes had been straining out into the
+western harbour, cried, "Help! A galley is coming!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Imperator," said Drusus, "you must wait for this galley."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The foe were almost on them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Are you mad?" was the exclamation of the general.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I can hold them off until it is safe to swim," and Drusus
+had covered himself behind a coping in the masonry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cæsar measured the distance with his eye.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We play at dice with Fortuna, whatever we do," was his
+comment. "Come, then." And the three steadied themselves
+on the narrow footing behind the parapet, one thrust being
+enough to send them headlong. Fortunately weapons were
+ready—thrown away by the luckless fugitives. When the
+Alexandrians rushed up, three pila crashed in upon them, and,
+caught unawares by the little volley, they held back an instant.
+The three desperate men were counting their hearts' beats,
+while the distance from the friendly galley lessened. Then
+the rush came, but it was met, and, narrow as was the ledge,
+the attempt to carry it failed. The victors were stripping the
+dead, and, thus engaged, few joined in the attack. Cæsar
+had laid down his paludamentum, and the attackers thought
+they had to deal simply with three ordinary Romans, who
+meant to sell their lives dearly. Another rush; the Imperator
+was forced hard, so that another push would have sent him
+plunging into the sea; but his companions sent the attackers
+reeling back, and there was more breathing time. The Alexandrians
+had received a taste of these Roman blades, and they
+did not enjoy it. Stripping the dead and picking up lost arms
+was more profitable than bearding the three lions. The galley
+was drawing nearer. Drusus began to think of something else
+besides thrusting at men before him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"They will give us time to escape, Imperator."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I think so;" but as Cæsar spoke all three started in dismay.
+There was a new face among the little band immediately
+opposed to them—Pratinas.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Greek had never looked so handsome as in armour.
+His beautifully polished mail sat on him with perfect grace;
+he was a model for an artist's Ares, the beautiful genius of
+battle. <i>He</i>, at least, knew whose were those three stern, set
+faces defiantly peering over the low parapet that ran waist-high
+along the edge of the mole.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"At them!" cried the Hellene. "A thousand drachmas to
+the man who brings the middle Roman down!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The "middle Roman" was Cæsar. The enemy came on
+again, this time some springing over the parapet to run along
+the narrow outer platform and attack from either side. But
+the galley was still nearer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Throw off your armour and leap!" It was Drusus who
+commanded now, and Cæsar who obeyed. The Imperator tore
+off his greaves and helmet, caught his general's cloak in his
+teeth, that it might not fall as a trophy to the foe, and sprang
+down into the waves; it was all done in a twinkling. But,
+quick as the leap had been, it was but just in time. A rush
+of irresistible numbers carried Drusus off of his feet, and he
+fell also—but fell in all his armour. It was an instant too
+crowded for sensations. He just realized that his helmet
+tumbled from his head as he fell backward. The weight of
+his greaves righted him while he was in the air. He struck
+the water with his feet. There was a chilling shock; and then,
+as he went down, the shield on his left arm caught the water
+in its hollow and bore him upward. Nature reasserted itself;
+by a mighty tug at the straps he wrenched away his breastplate,
+and could make shift to float. The short harbour
+waves lifted him, and he saw Cæsar striking out boldly toward
+the now rapidly approaching galley. Even as the general
+swam, Drusus observed that he held up a package of papyri in
+his left hand to keep it out of the wet; in uttermost perils
+Cæsar could not forget his books. But while the young man
+gazed seaward, shook the water from his eyes, and struck out
+to reach the friendly galley, groans and shouts arose from the
+waters near beside him. A voice—Agias's voice—was calling
+out for help. The sound of his freedman's cries drove the
+Roman to action. Twice the waves lifted him, and he saw
+nothing; but at the third time he lit on two forms clinging to
+a bit of wreckage, and yet struggling together. A few powerful
+strokes sent him beside them, and, to his unutterable
+astonishment, he beheld in the person who was battling with
+Agias for possession of the float none other than Pratinas.
+There are times when nothing has opportunity to appear wonderful.
+This moment was one of these. Actions, not words,
+were wanted. The elder Greek had made shift to draw a
+dagger, and was making a vicious effort to stab the other, who
+had gripped him round the neck with a tenacity that would
+end only with life. One stroke of Drusus's fist as he surged
+alongside the wreckage sent the dagger flying; and in a
+twinkling he had borne Pratinas down and had him pinioned
+fast on the planking of the rude raft. There was a great shout
+rising from the enemy on the mole. A few darts spat in the
+water beside the fugitives; but at the sight of the approaching
+galley the Alexandrians gave way, for on her decks were
+swarming archers and slingers, and her powerful ballistæ were
+already working havoc. The pulsations of her banks of oars
+grew slower as she swept up to the fugitives, the great column
+of white spray curling around her prow sank, and while she
+drifted past them a boat shot forth. In a minute Drusus was
+standing on her deck, and the sailors were passing up Pratinas,
+still feebly resisting, and Agias, who was weak and helpless
+with his wounds. On the poop Cæsar was conversing with
+a seaman of magnificent presence, who was in the act of assuring
+the Imperator that his vessel and crew were at the general's
+service.
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>III</h3>
+
+<p>
+The boats of the rescuer were pulling about, taking up such
+few Romans as had been able to keep afloat; but Drusus was
+too exhausted to give them further heed. He realized that the
+vessel he was aboard was no member of the Roman squadron,
+that its crew were neither Cæsarians nor Alexandrians. Deft
+hands aided him off with his water-soaked clothing, and placed
+bandages on his bruises and cuts. A beaker of spiced wine,
+the like of which he had never drunk before, sent a thrill of
+reinvigorated life through his veins. When he came back upon
+the deck he found Cæsar—pale, yet, as ever, active and untiring—still
+conversing with the captain of the vessel. The
+Imperator had a bandage drawn across his forehead, but otherwise
+he seemed none the worse for his recent danger. The
+galley, under a swinging oar, was pulling back across the
+"Great Harbour" to the palace quay. The battle was over;
+four hundred good Roman lives had been lost, but the disaster
+had not entailed any serious compromise of Cæsar's position.
+There was no need of continuing at the Pharos, and it was well
+to assure the anxious garrison at the palace-fortress that their
+general was safe and sound.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus, as the one thing natural under the circumstances,
+went to the captain of his rescuers to express his obligation
+and gratitude.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"This is Quintus Livius Drusus," said Cæsar, good-naturedly,
+already at his ease, to the strange commander,
+"who serves on my staff. In saving him I owe you a debt,
+O Demetrius, in addition to my own rescue."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The stranger caught Drusus by both hands.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Are you indeed the son of Sextus Drusus of Præneste?"
+he questioned with eagerness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Assuredly, my good sir," replied the young Roman, a bit
+confused at the other's impetuosity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And did your father never tell you of a certain Demetrius,
+a Greek, who was his friend?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"He did; this Demetrius was cast into prison and condemned
+by Pompeius; my father secured his escape;" and
+Drusus hesitated. His mind had worked rapidly, and he
+could jump at a conclusion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Say it out, your excellency," pressed the seaman.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"He became a pirate, though my father did not blame him
+overmuch."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Eu!</i>" interrupted Cæsar, as if to prevent a moment of
+awkwardness. "Before King Minos's days nothing was more
+honourable. I have known some excellent men who were
+pirates."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Demetrius had, in true Eastern fashion, fallen on his
+knees and kissed the feet of Drusus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The son of my preserver! I have saved him! Praises to
+Mithras!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After this, there was no longer any constraint on the part
+of rescuers or rescued. And that evening, when all were safe
+behind the palace walls, Cæsar called the pirate chief into the
+hall where he had been banqueting with Cleopatra, Fabia, and
+Cornelia, and his favourite officers, and asked for an account
+of his life. A strange enough story it was Demetrius had to
+tell, though Cornelia had heard it before; of two voyages to
+wealthy Taprobane,<a name="r186" href="#fn186">[186]</a> one as far as the Golden Chersonesos,<a name="r187" href="#fn187">[187]</a>
+almost to the Silk Land, Serica, of voyages out beyond the
+Pillars of Hercules into the Sea of Darkness,—everywhere
+that keel of ship had ploughed within the memory of man.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And the men that drove you to freebooting?" asked Cæsar,
+when the company had ceased applauding this recital, which
+the sailor set forth with a spontaneous elegance that made it
+charming.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I have said that they were Lucius Domitius, whom the
+gods have rewarded, and a certain Greek."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The Greek's name was—"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Kyrios," said Demetrius, his fine features contracting with
+pain and disgust, "I do not willingly mention his name. He
+has done me so great a wrong, that I only breathe his name
+with a curse. Must you know who it was that took my child,
+my Daphne,—though proof I have not against him, but only
+the warnings of an angry heart?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But he was—" pressed Cæsar.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Menon." And as he spoke he hissed the words between
+his teeth. "He is one knave among ten thousand. Why
+burden your excellency with remembering him?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So the conversation went on, and Cæsar told how he had
+been taken prisoner, when a young man, by pirates near
+Rhodes, and how he had been kept captive by them on a little
+isle while his ransom was coming.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ah!" interrupted Demetrius, "I have heard the whole
+tale from one of my men who was there. You, kyrios,
+behaved like a prince. You bade your captors take fifty
+talents instead of twenty, as they asked, and wrote verses and
+declaimed to your guards all the time you were awaiting the
+money, and joined in all their sports; howbeit, you kept
+telling them that you would crucify them all for the matter."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Hem!</i>" laughed Cæsar. "Didn't I make good the
+threat?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You did with all save this man, who got away," was his
+unflinching answer. "Although in mercy you strangled all
+your captors before you had them put on the crosses."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Hei!</i>" quoth the Imperator. "I should have spared
+them to give me criticism of those verses now."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Kyrios," rejoined Demetrius, "the man who survived
+assures me that the verses at least were wretched, though
+your excellency was a very good wrestler."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Euge!</i> Bravo!" cried Cæsar, and all the company joined
+in. "I must take a few of your men back to Rome, for we
+need critics for our rough Latin versifiers."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus, as soon as the laugh passed away, arose, and
+addressed his chief:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Imperator," he said, "Agias this morning dragged from off
+the mole with him into the water one of the most dangerous
+men in the councils of our enemies. I mean, as you know,
+Pratinas the Greek. He is now in the palace prison, but
+every one is aware that, so long as he so much as lives, we
+are hardly safe. What shall be done?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cæsar frowned.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"This is hardly a basilica for a trial," he replied, "but
+'<i>inter arma silent leges</i>.' Tell the centurions on guard to bring
+him here. I imagine we must grant him the form of an
+examination."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drusus went out to give the necessary orders.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You did not see Agias's prisoner?" asked Cornelia of
+Demetrius, who was now an old friend.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I did not," answered the pirate prince, pouring down the
+contents of a prodigious beaker at a single draught. "A very
+desperate man, I imagine. But it is hard for me to blame
+any one so long as he fights openly. Still," he added, with a
+laugh, "I mustn't express such sentiments, now that his
+excellency has given me this." And he tossed over to Cornelia
+a little roll, tiny but precious, for it was a general
+pardon, in the name of the Republic, for all past offences,
+by land or sea, against the peace. "<i>Babai!</i>" continued
+Demetrius, lolling back his great length on the couch, "who
+would have imagined that I, just returning from a mere voyage
+to Delos to get rid of some slaves, should save the lives
+of my cousin, my benefactor's son, and Cæsar himself, and
+become once more an honest man. Gods! gods! avert the
+misfortunes that come from too much good fortune!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Was Agias badly wounded?" asked Cornelia, with some
+concern.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh," replied his cousin, "he will do well. If his precious
+captive had thrust his dagger a bit deeper, we might have a
+sorry time explaining it all to that pretty little girl—Artemisia
+he calls her—whom he dotes upon. By the bye,"
+continued Demetrius, as entirely at his ease in the company
+as though he had been one of the world's high-born and
+mighty, "can your ladyship tell me where Artemisia is just
+now? She was a very attractive child."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Assuredly," said Cornelia. "She is here in the palace,
+very anxious, I doubt not, about Agias. Come, I will send
+for her. You shall tell her all about his escape."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Demetrius appeared pleased, and Cornelia whispered to a
+serving-lad, who immediately went out.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The tramp of heavy feet sounded on the mosaics outside
+the banqueting room; the tapestry over the doorway was
+thrust aside, and in the dim lamplight—for it had long been
+dark—two rigid soldiers in armour could be seen, standing at
+attention. Drusus stepped past them, and saluted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The prisoner is here, Imperator," he said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Bring him in," replied Cæsar, laying down his wine-cup.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The curtain swayed again, and the rest of a decuria of
+troops entered. In their centre was a figure whose manacles
+were clinking ominously. In the uncertain light it was only
+possible to see that the prisoner was bent and shivering with
+fright. The general shrugged his shoulders in disgust.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"This is the sort of creature, Drusus," quoth he, derisively,
+"that is so dangerous that we must despatch him at once?
+<i>Phui!</i> Let him stand forth. I suppose he can still speak?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Pratinas made a pitiable picture. The scuffle and wetting
+had done little benefit to his clothes; his armour the pirates
+had long since appropriated; his hair, rather long through
+affectation, hung in disorder around his neck. He had shaved
+off his "philosopher's" beard, and his smooth cheeks showed
+ugly scratches. He was as pale as white linen, and quaking
+like a blade of grass in the wind, the very antithesis of the
+splendid Ares of the fight on the mole.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Your name is Pratinas?" began Cæsar, with the snappish
+energy of a man who discharges a disagreeable formality.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, despotes," began the other, meekly; but as he did so
+he raised his head, and the rays of one of the great candelabra
+fell full on his face. In a twinkling a shout, or rather a scream,
+had broken from Demetrius. The pirate had leaped from his
+couch, and, with straining frame and dilated eyes, sprang
+between the prisoner and his judge.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Menon!" The word smote on the captive like the missile
+of a catapult. He reeled back, almost to falling; his eyes
+closed involuntarily. His face had been pale before, now it
+was swollen, as with the sight of a horror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Demetrius!" and at this counter exclamation, the cornered
+man burst into a howl of animal fear. And well he might, for
+Demetrius had sprung upon him as a tiger upon an antelope.
+One of the guards indiscreetly interposed, and a stroke of the
+pirate's fist sent the soldier sprawling. Demetrius caught his
+victim around the body, and crushed the wretched man in
+beneath his grasp. The pseudo-Pratinas did not cry out twice.
+He had no breath. Demetrius tore him off of his feet and
+shook him in mid-air.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Daphne! Daphne!" thundered the awful pirate; "speak—or
+by the infernal gods—"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Put him down!" shouted Cæsar and Drusus. They were
+almost appealing to an unchained lion roaring over his prey,
+Drusus caught one of Demetrius's arms, and with all his
+strength tore it from its grasp.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The man cannot say a word! you are choking him," he
+cried in the pirate's ear.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Demetrius relaxed his mighty grip. Pratinas, for so we still
+call him, leaned back against one of the soldiers, panting and
+gasping. Drusus took his assailant by the arm, and led him
+back to a seat. Cæsar sat waiting until the prisoner could
+speak.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Pratinas," said the Imperator, sternly, "as you hope for
+an easy death or a hard one, tell this man the truth about his
+daughter."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Pratinas drew himself together by a mighty effort. For an
+instant he was the former easy, elegant, versatile Hellene.
+When he answered it was with the ring of triumph and
+defiance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Imperator, it would be easy to tell a lie, for there is no
+means of proof at hand. This man," with a derisive glance
+at his enemy, "says that I know something about his daughter.
+Doubtless, though, since he has pursued for recent years so
+noble an avocation, it were more grateful if he thanked me for
+caring for the deserted girl. Well, I kept her until she was
+sufficiently old, and then—for I was at the time quite poor—disposed
+of her to a dealer at Antioch, who was planning to
+take a slave caravan to Seleucia. My good friend probably
+will find his daughter in some Parthian harem, unless—"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia had arisen and was whispering to Drusus; the
+latter turned and held the raging pirate in his seat. Pratinas
+had made of every word a venomed arrow, and each and all
+struck home. The workings of Demetrius's face were frightful,
+the beads of agony stood on his brows,—doubtless he had
+always feared nothing less,—the certainty was awful. Cornelia
+looked upon him half-anxious, yet serene and smiling. Drusus,
+too, seemed composed and expectant. The Imperator gazed
+straight before him, his eyes searching the prisoner through
+and through, and under the glance the Greek again showed
+signs of fear and nervousness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The curtain at the opposite end of the hall rustled, Cornelia
+rose and walked to the doorway, and returned, leading Artemisia
+by the hand. The girl was dressed in a pure white
+chiton; her thick hair was bound back with a white fillet, but
+in the midst of its mass shone a single golden crescent studded
+with little gems. She came with shy steps and downcast eyes—abashed
+before so many strangers; and, as she came, all gazed
+at her in admiration, not as upon the bright beauty of a rose,
+but the perfect sweetness of a modest lily. Cornelia led her
+on, until they stood before the prisoner.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Artemisia," said Cornelia, in a low voice, "have you ever
+seen this man before?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Artemisia raised her eyes, and, as they lit on Pratinas, there
+was in them a gleam of wonder, then of fear, and she shrank
+back in dread, so that Cornelia threw her arm about her to
+comfort her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>A! A!</i>" and the girl began to cry. "Has he found me?
+Will he take me? Pity! mercy! Pratinas!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But no one had paid her any more attention. It was Cæsar
+who had sprung from his seat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Wretch!" and his terrible eyes burned into Pratinas's guilty
+breast, so that he writhed, and held down his head, and began
+to mutter words inaudible. "Can you tell the truth to save
+yourself the most horrible tortures human wit can devise?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Pratinas had nothing to say.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again Demetrius leaped upon him. The pirate was a frantic
+animal. His fingers moved as though they were claws to pluck
+the truth from the offender's heart. He hissed his question
+between teeth that ground together in frenzy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"How did you get her? Where from? When?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Pratinas choked for utterance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Artemisia! Daphne! Yours! I lost her! Ran away at
+Rome!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The words shook out of him like water from a well-filled
+flask. Demetrius relaxed his hold. A whole flood of conflicting
+emotions was displayed upon his manly face. He turned
+to Artemisia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>Makaira!</i> dearest! don't you know me?" he cried, holding
+outstretched his mighty arms.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I am afraid!" sobbed poor Artemisia in dismay.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Come!" It was Cornelia who spoke; and, with the daughter
+crying softly on one arm, and the father dragged along in a
+confused state of ecstasy on the other, she led them both out
+of the room.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Pratinas was on his knees before Cæsar. The Hellene was
+again eloquent—eloquent as never before. In the hour of
+extremity his sophistry and his rhetoric did not leave him.
+His antitheses, epigrams, well-rounded maxims, figures of
+speech, never were at a better command. For a time, charmed
+by the flow of his own language, he gathered strength and confidence,
+and launched out into bolder flights of subtly wrought
+rhetoric. He excused, explained away each fault, vivified
+and magnified a hundred non-existent virtues, reared a splendid
+word-fabric in praise of clemency. To what end? Before
+him sat Cæsar, and Drusus, and a dozen Romans more, who,
+with cold, unmoved Italian faces, listened to his artificial eloquence,
+and gave no sign of pity. And as he went on, the
+sense of his hopeless position overcame the wretched man, and
+his skill began to leave him. He became thick and confused
+of speech; his periods tripped; his thought moved backward.
+Then his supple tongue failed him utterly, and, in cries and
+incoherent groans, he pleaded for the right to exist.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Man," said the Imperator, when the storm of prayers and
+moans was over, "you conspired against Quintus Drusus, my
+friend. You failed—that is forgiven. You conspired, I have
+cause to believe, against Pompeius, my enemy, but a Roman—that
+is unproved, and therefore forgiven. You conspired
+with Pothinus against me—that was an offence touching me
+alone, and so that, too, may be forgiven. But to the prayers of
+a father you had wronged, you answered so that you might
+gloat over his pain. Therefore you shall die and not live.
+Take him away, guards, and strike off his head, for his body is
+too vile to nail to any cross."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The face of the Greek was livid. He raised his manacled
+hands, and strained at the irons in sheer despair. The soldiers
+caught him roughly to hale him away.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Mercy! kyrios! kyrios!" he shrieked. "Spare me the
+torments of Hades! The Furies will pursue me forever!
+Pity! Mercy!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cornelia had reëntered the room, and saw this last scene.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"When my uncle and Ahenobarbus were nigh their deaths,"
+she said stingingly, "this man observed that often, in times
+of mortal peril, skeptics call on the gods."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The rule is proved," said Cæsar, casting a cynical smile
+after the soldiers with their victim. "All men need gods,
+either to worship when they live, or to dread when they die."
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h2 id="ch25">CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+
+<h2>CALM AFTER STORM</h2>
+
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+Like all human things, the war ended. The Alexandrians
+might rage and dash their numbers against the palace walls.
+Ganymed and young Ptolemæus, who had gone out to him,
+pressed the siege, but all in vain. And help came to the hard-pressed
+Romans at last. Mithridates, a faithful vassal king,
+advanced his army over Syria, and came down into the Delta,
+sweeping all before him. Then Cæsar effected a junction with
+the forces of his ally, and there was one pitched battle on the
+banks of the Nile, where Ptolemæus was defeated, and drowned
+in his flight. Less than a month later Alexandria capitulated,
+and saw the hated consular insignia again within her gates.
+There was work to do in Egypt, and Cæsar—just named
+dictator at Rome and consul for five years—devoted himself
+to the task of reform and reorganization. Cleopatra was to be
+set back upon her throne, and her younger brother, another
+Ptolemæus, was to be her colleague. So out of war came
+peace, and the great Imperator gave laws to yet another
+kingdom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But before Cæsar sailed away to chastise Pharnaces of
+Pontus, and close up his work in the East, ere returning to
+break down the stand of the desperate Pompeians in Africa,
+there was joy and high festival in the palace of Alexandria;
+and all the noble and great of the capital were at the feast,—the
+wedding feast of Cornelia and the favourite staff officer of
+the Imperator. The soft warm air of the Egyptian springtime
+blew over the festoons of flowers and over the carpets of blossoms;
+never before was the music more sweet and joyous.
+And overhead hung the great light-laden dome of the glowing
+azure, where the storks were drifting northward with the
+northward march of the sun.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And they sang the bridal hymns, both Greek and Latin, and
+cried "Hymen" and "Talasio"; and when evening came,
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>
+"The torches tossed their tresses of flame,"
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+as said the marriage song of Catullus; and underneath the
+yellow veil of the bride gleamed forth the great diamond
+necklace, the gift of Cleopatra, which once had been the joy
+of some Persian princess before the Greeks took the hoard
+at Persepolis.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agias was there; and Cleomenes and his daughters; and
+Demetrius, with Artemisia, the most beautiful of girls,—as
+Cornelia was the fairest of women,—clinging fondly to her
+father's side. So there was joy that day and night at the
+Alexandrian palace. And on the next morning the fleet trireme
+was ready which Demetrius had provided to bear Drusus
+and Cornelia and Fabia back to Italy. Many were the partings
+at the royal quay, and Agias wept when he said farewell
+to his late patron and patroness; but he had some comfort,
+for his cousin (who had arranged with Cleomenes that, since
+his freebooting days were happily over, the two should join
+in a partnership for the India trade) had made him a promise
+to be fulfilled in due course of time—for Artemisia was still
+very young.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You are no Ichomachus, Xenophon's perfect wife-educator,"
+the ex-pirate had said to his importunate cousin; "wait
+a few years."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And Agias was fain to be content, with this hope before
+him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There were other partings than his; but at last the adieus
+were over, and all save Cæsar went back upon the quay. The
+Imperator alone tarried on the poop of the vessel for an instant.
+His features were half wistful as he held Drusus by the hand,
+but his eyes were kindly as ever to the young man.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ah, amice!" he said, "we who play at philosophy may
+not know all the time that there are gods, but at all times we
+know that there is the most godlike of divine attributes—love
+undefiled. Therefore let us hope, for we see little, and the
+cosmos is past finding out."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He sprang back on to the quay. The musicians on the bow
+struck up with pipe and lyre; the friends on the pier flung
+aboard the last garlands of rose and lily and scented thyme;
+the rowers bent to their task; the one hundred and seventy
+blades—pumiced white—smote the yellow waves of the
+harbour, and the ship sped away. Cornelia, Fabia, and Drusus
+stood on the poop gazing toward the receding quay. Long
+after they had ceased to recognize forms and faces they stared
+backward, until the pier itself was a speck, and the great
+buildings of the city grew dim. Then they passed the Pharos,
+and the land dwindled more and more into a narrow, dark
+ribbon betwixt blue water and bluer sky. The long swells
+of the open sea caught the trireme, and she rode gallantly
+over them—while the music still played, and her hardy
+crew, pirates no longer, but pardoned men,—seamen, employees
+of the honest merchant Demetrius,—sent the good ship bounding
+faster and faster, as they pressed their strength against
+the springing oars. Higher and higher rose the column of
+foam around the cutwater; louder and louder sang the foam
+under the stern, as they swept it past. The distant land
+faded to a thread, to a line, was gone; and to north and south
+and east and west were but the water and the cloudless ether.
+Fabia, Cornelia, and Drusus said little for a long time. Their
+eyes wandered, sometimes, over the track of the foam, and in
+their minds they saw again the water-birds plashing among
+lotus plants, and heard the ancient Egyptian litanies softly
+chanted behind the propylons of a temple built by some king
+two thousand years departed. But oftener their eyes ran
+ahead over the prow, and they walked again across the Forum
+of the city of their fathers, and drove across the Latin plain-land,
+and spoke their own dear, sonorous, yet half-polished
+native tongue.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last came evening; the sun sank lower and lower; now
+his broad red disk hung over the crest of the western waves;
+now it touched them; now it was gone, and only the lines of
+dying fire streamed behind him—the last runners in his
+chariot train. Up from the cabin below came the voice of the
+ship's steward, "Would their excellencies take any refreshment?"
+But they did not go at once. They watched the fire
+grow dimmer and dimmer, the pure light change to red gold,
+the red gold to crimson, and the crimson sink away.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ah, carissima!" cried Drusus, "would that when the orbs
+of our lives go down to their setting, they might go down like
+the sunlight, more beautiful in each act of the very dying, as
+they approach the final goal!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, surely," replied Cornelia, touching her hands upon
+his head; "but who knows but that Catullus the poet is
+wrong when he says the sun of life will never rise save once;
+who knows but that, if our sun set in beauty, it will rise
+again in grandeur even more?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My children," said Fabia, gently, "the future lies in the
+knowledge of the gods; but out of the present we must shape
+our own future."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No, delectissima," replied her nephew, "to do that we are
+all too weak; except it be true, as Aratus the poet has said,
+'that we men are also the offspring of gods,' in which case
+Heaven itself must stoop to give us aid."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Cornelia's eyes had wandered down into the foam, still
+gleaming as snow in the failing light.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ah!" she said, "the ages are long; if there be gods, their
+days are our lifetimes, and we but see a little and know not
+what to think. But to live a noble life will always be the
+fairest thing, whether death be an unending sleep or the
+threshold to Pindar's Elysium."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And what more of grave wisdom might have dropped from
+her lips none may relate, for her husband had shaken off the
+spell, and laughed aloud in the joy of his strong life and
+buoyant hopes. Then they all three laughed, and thought no
+more of sober things. They went down into the cabin just as
+the last bars of light flickered out in the west, and only the
+starlight broke the darkness that spread out over the face of
+the sea.
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+Drusus, as he himself had predicted, never wrote a great
+treatise on philosophy, and never drew up a cosmology that
+set at rest all the problems of the universe; nor did Cornelia
+become a Latin Sappho or Corinna, and her wise lore never
+went further than to make her friends afraid to affect a shammed
+learning in her presence. But they both did the tasks that fell
+to them better because they had "tasted the well of Parnassus"
+and "walked in the grove with the sages." And Drusus,
+through an active life, played an honourable part as a soldier
+and a statesman: with his beloved Imperator in the battles of
+Thapsus and Munda, when the last of the oligarchs were beaten
+down; then, after the great crime of murder, with his friend
+Marcus Antonius; and then, when Cleopatra's evil star lured
+both her and Antonius to their ruin, he turned to the only
+man whose wisdom and firmness promised safety to the state—and
+he joined himself to the rising fortunes of Octavius,
+the great Augustus, and fought with him to the end, until
+there was no longer a foreign or civil enemy, and the "Pax
+Romana" gave quiet to a subject world.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So Drusus had share with Mæcenas and Agrippa and the
+other imperial statesmen in shaping the fabric of the mighty
+Roman Empire. Not in his day did he or Cornelia know that
+it was wrong to buy slaves like cattle, or to harbour an
+implacable hate. They were but pagans. To them the truth
+was but seen in a glass darkly; enough if they lived up to
+such truth as was vouchsafed. But in their children's day
+the brightness arose in the East, and spread westward, and
+ever westward, until the Capitoline Jupiter was nigh forgotten,
+the glories of the Roman eagles became a tradition,
+the splendour of the imperial city a dream. For there came
+to the world a better Deity, a diviner glory, a more heavenly
+city. The greater grew out of the less. Out of the world-fabric
+prepared by Julius Cæsar grew the fabric of the Christian
+Church, and out of the Christian Church shall rise a yet
+nobler spiritual edifice when the stars have all grown cold.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+THE END
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Footnotes</h2>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn1" href="#r1">[1]</a> Water columbarium.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn2" href="#r2">[2]</a> The Phoenician god, also worshipped in North Africa, in whose idol was
+  built a fire to consume human sacrifices.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn3" href="#r3">[3]</a> A few years at the philosophy schools of that famous city were almost
+  as common to Roman students and men of culture as "studying in Germany"
+  to their American successors.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn4" href="#r4">[4]</a> Master, "Lord" of slaves and freedmen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn5" href="#r5">[5]</a> <i>Rheda</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn6" href="#r6">[6]</a> Most wealthy Romans had such a <i>major domo</i>, whose position was often
+  one of honour and trust.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn7" href="#r7">[7]</a> <i>Pænula</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn8" href="#r8">[8]</a> The second order of the Roman nobility.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn9" href="#r9">[9]</a> A Greek gold piece worth about $3.60 at the time of the story. At this
+time Rome coined little gold.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn10" href="#r10">[10]</a> Good! Good! Hurrah!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn11" href="#r11">[11]</a> <i>Ergastulum</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn12" href="#r12">[12]</a> Slave household.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn13" href="#r13">[13]</a> Every Roman had a <i>prænomen</i>, or "Christian name"; also a gentile name
+  of the gens or clan to which he belonged; and commonly in addition a cognomen,
+  usually an epithet descriptive of some personal peculiarity of an ancestor,
+  which had fastened itself upon the immediate descendants of that ancestor.
+  The <i>Livii Drusi</i> were among the noblest of the Roman houses.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn14" href="#r14">[14]</a> Died in 91 B.C.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn15" href="#r15">[15]</a> In 54 B.C.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+   <a name="fn16" href="#r16">[16]</a> The two Roman consuls were magistrates of the highest rank, and were
+  chosen each year by the people.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn17" href="#r17">[17]</a> The famous watering-place on the Bay of Naples.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn18" href="#r18">[18]</a> An ex-consul was known by this title.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn19" href="#r19">[19]</a> Built by Pompeius the Great, in 55-54 B.C.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn20" href="#r20">[20]</a> A member of the band who with Catiline conspired in 63 B.C. to overthrow
+  the Roman government.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn21" href="#r21">[21]</a> The Roman millionaire who had just been slain in Parthia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn22" href="#r22">[22]</a> <i>Domina</i>, mistress.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn23" href="#r23">[23]</a> By Hercules.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn24" href="#r24">[24]</a> The right of kissing kinsfolk within the sixth degree.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn25" href="#r25">[25]</a> No teaming was allowed in Rome by day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn26" href="#r26">[26]</a> Greek outer mantle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn27" href="#r27">[27]</a> Greek under garment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn28" href="#r28">[28]</a> At an age when respectable men were almost invariably smooth shaven,
+  the philosophers wore flowing beards, as a sort of professional badge.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn29" href="#r29">[29]</a> A "fad" of this time. Such tables often cost $20,000.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn30" href="#r30">[30]</a> The ten tribunes had power to convene the people and Senate, propose laws
+  and "veto" the actions of other magistrates.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn31" href="#r31">[31]</a> <i>Sequestres</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn32" href="#r32">[32]</a> <i>Interpres</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn33" href="#r33">[33]</a> Assembly of the Roman tribes for election.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn34" href="#r34">[34]</a> Suet., "Nero," 51.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn35" href="#r35">[35]</a> An inner private court back of the atrium.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn36" href="#r36">[36]</a> The opponents of the Epicureans; they nobly antagonized the mere pursuit
+  of pleasure held out as the one end of life by the Epicurean, and glorified
+  duty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn37" href="#r37">[37]</a> <i>Cubicularius</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn38" href="#r38">[38]</a> To let out the ointment. Capua was a famed emporium for perfumes
+  and like wares.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn39" href="#r39">[39]</a> Born 180 B.C.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn40" href="#r40">[40]</a> <i>Ornatrices</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn41" href="#r41">[41]</a> Demeter and Persephone, a Greek woman's oath.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn42" href="#r42">[42]</a> A costly substance, probably porcelain agate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn43" href="#r43">[43]</a> Whipper; many Roman houses had such a functionary, and he does not
+  seem to have lacked employment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn44" href="#r44">[44]</a> <i>Flagellum</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn45" href="#r45">[45]</a> Furca-bearer, a coarse epithet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn46" href="#r46">[46]</a> Thief. Branding was a common punishment for slaves.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn47" href="#r47">[47]</a> I.e. $2,400,000; a sesterce was about 4 cents.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn48" href="#r48">[48]</a> Senior Vestals.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn49" href="#r49">[49]</a> A diminutive of endearment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn50" href="#r50">[50]</a> <i>Infula</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn51" href="#r51">[51]</a> A coarse epithet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn52" href="#r52">[52]</a> <i>Comitium</i>, assembly-place round the Rostra.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn53" href="#r53">[53]</a> Great men, and candidates for office who wished to "know" everybody,
+  kept smart slaves at their elbow to whisper strangers' names in their ears.
+  Sometimes the slaves themselves were at fault.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn54" href="#r54">[54]</a> Dining room with couch seats for nine, the regular size.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn55" href="#r55">[55]</a> The <i>ne plus ultra</i> of Roman gastronomy at the time.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn56" href="#r56">[56]</a> Porter—<i>Insularius.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn57" href="#r57">[57]</a> From Cadiz, Spain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn58" href="#r58">[58]</a> Commercial adviser required for young men under five-and-twenty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn59" href="#r59">[59]</a> Born about 470 B.C.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn60" href="#r60">[60]</a> Four sesterces, 16 cents.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn61" href="#r61">[61]</a> Keeper of a school of gladiators.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn62" href="#r62">[62]</a> Gladiators equipped as Gaulish warriors.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn63" href="#r63">[63]</a> Buckler men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn64" href="#r64">[64]</a> <i>Sicarius</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn65" href="#r65">[65]</a> The Gallic sun-god.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn66" href="#r66">[66]</a> See Plato's "Theætetus," 174.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn67" href="#r67">[67]</a> A Lydian king whose wealth was placed on a par with that of the better
+  known Croesus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn68" href="#r68">[68]</a> Such alterations were actually made in Rome.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn69" href="#r69">[69]</a> To whose mysteries only women were admitted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn70" href="#r70">[70]</a> Cattle-market.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn71" href="#r71">[71]</a> She was a sister of Clodius, a famous demagogue, and was a brilliant
+  though abandoned woman.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn72" href="#r72">[72]</a> Without the <i>imperium</i>—so long as a Roman official held this he was
+  above prosecution.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn73" href="#r73">[73]</a> Contemptuous diminutive for Greek.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn74" href="#r74">[74]</a> The heavy short javelin carried by the Roman legionary, only about six
+  feet long. In practised hands it was a terrible weapon, and won many a
+  Roman victory.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn75" href="#r75">[75]</a> The "rosy-fingered Dawn" of Homer; Tithonos was her consort.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn76" href="#r76">[76]</a> Milman, translator.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn77" href="#r77">[77]</a> Sallust, the well-known historian.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn78" href="#r78">[78]</a> A distinguished poet and orator—a friend of Catullus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn79" href="#r79">[79]</a> A long tunic worn by Roman ladies.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn80" href="#r80">[80]</a> A shawl worn over the stola.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn81" href="#r81">[81]</a> The party in opposition, since the time of Tiberius Gracchus, to the Senate
+  party—Optimates; at this time the <i>Populares</i> were practically all Cæsarians.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn82" href="#r82">[82]</a> <i>Ara Maxima</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn83" href="#r83">[83]</a> "Strange! Marvellous!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn84" href="#r84">[84]</a> <i>Cithara</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn85" href="#r85">[85]</a> Itinerant pipers have existed in Italy from earliest times; they still survive,
+  albeit in alien lands and with less tuneful instruments.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn86" href="#r86">[86]</a> <i>Mimæ</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn87" href="#r87">[87]</a> A common diversion for "young men of spirit."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn88" href="#r88">[88]</a> <i>Acta Diurna</i>, prepared officially.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn89" href="#r89">[89]</a> "Chaldean" astrologers played an almost incredibly important part
+  among even the highest-class Romans of the period.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn90" href="#r90">[90]</a> Babylonian temple towers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn91" href="#r91">[91]</a> <i>Popinæ</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn92" href="#r92">[92]</a> A poet at that time of some little reputation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn93" href="#r93">[93]</a> Women sat at Roman banquets, unless the company was of a questionable
+  character.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn94" href="#r94">[94]</a> Most beautiful.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn95" href="#r95">[95]</a> Sons remained under the legal control of a father until the latter's death,
+  unless the tie was dissolved by elaborate ceremonies.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn96" href="#r96">[96]</a> Cato Minor's sister Portia was the wife of Lucius Domitius. Cato was
+  also connected with the Drusi through Marcus Livius Drusus, the murdered
+  reformer, who was the maternal uncle of Cato and Portia. Lucius Ahenobarbus
+  and Quintus Drusus were thus third cousins.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn97" href="#r97">[97]</a> About one-twelfth pint.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn98" href="#r98">[98]</a> Calverly's translation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn99" href="#r99">[99]</a> The Egyptian judge of the dead.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn100" href="#r100">[100]</a> At this period the great slave emporium of the world.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn101" href="#r101">[101]</a> The spiritual double which belonged to every man according to the Egyptian
+  ideas.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn102" href="#r102">[102]</a> Such establishments were common near the gates, and the Vestals often
+  had their horses at such places.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn103" href="#r103">[103]</a> <i>Equarius</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn104" href="#r104">[104]</a> Inns were known by such signs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn105" href="#r105">[105]</a> Four-sided dice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn106" href="#r106">[106]</a> Terence, "Adelphoe," 467 and 471.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn107" href="#r107">[107]</a> <i>Ostium</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn108" href="#r108">[108]</a> The "dinner coat" of the Romans.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn109" href="#r109">[109]</a> College of chief priests.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn110" href="#r110">[110]</a> This was the law, that the tribunes might always be ready to render help
+  (<i>auxilium</i>) to the distressed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn111" href="#r111">[111]</a> Farm steward.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn112" href="#r112">[112]</a> <i>Puls</i>, the primitive Italian food.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn113" href="#r113">[113]</a> About 606-3/4 English feet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn114" href="#r114">[114]</a> The great battle won in 207 B.C. over Hasdrubal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn115" href="#r115">[115]</a> The Gallic thunder-god.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn116" href="#r116">[116]</a> A Germanic war-god.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn117" href="#r117">[117]</a> About $400.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn118" href="#r118">[118]</a> Local municipal magistrates.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn119" href="#r119">[119]</a> <i>Prandium</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn120" href="#r120">[120]</a> Black shoes were worn as a sort of badge by <i>equites</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn121" href="#r121">[121]</a> Expounders of the Roman law.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn122" href="#r122">[122]</a> Translated in the collection "Sales Attici."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn123" href="#r123">[123]</a> The ancient curtain (<i>aulæum</i>) had its roller at the bottom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn124" href="#r124">[124]</a> Cæsar had given the magistrates of towns of the north of Italy the Roman
+  franchise: no Roman citizens could be lawfully flogged. By his action Marcellus
+  denied Cæsar's right to confer the franchise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn125" href="#r125">[125]</a> Marius had made young Cæsar, Flamen Dialis: priest of Jupiter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn126" href="#r126">[126]</a> Translated by Shelley.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn127" href="#r127">[127]</a> $24,000.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn128" href="#r128">[128]</a> Blessed dear.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn129" href="#r129">[129]</a> <i>Duodecim scripta</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn130" href="#r130">[130]</a> One of their functions made these officers practically chiefs of police.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn131" href="#r131">[131]</a> A part of these public officers performed police duty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn132" href="#r132">[132]</a> A sort of mantle held on the shoulders by a clasp.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn133" href="#r133">[133]</a> <i>Latrunculi</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn134" href="#r134">[134]</a> <i>Si vales bene est ego valeo</i>, written commonly simply S. V. B. E. E. V.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn135" href="#r135">[135]</a> <i>Optimus maximus</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn136" href="#r136">[136]</a> Ex-prætors and ex-ædiles.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn137" href="#r137">[137]</a> <i>Subsellium</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn138" href="#r138">[138]</a> <i>Trabea</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn139" href="#r139">[139]</a> <i>Lituus</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn140" href="#r140">[140]</a> <i>Silentium esse videtur</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn141" href="#r141">[141]</a> <i>Princeps senatus</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn142" href="#r142">[142]</a> Assembly-place in the <i>Forum Romanum</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn143" href="#r143">[143]</a> <i>Manumissio inter amicos</i> was less formal than the regular ceremony
+  before the prætor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn144" href="#r144">[144]</a> The Ædes Martis of the Campus Martius.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn145" href="#r145">[145]</a> Pompeius was not allowed by law to attend sessions of the Senate (so
+  long as he was proconsul of Spain) when held inside the old city limits; but
+  the Curia which he himself built was outside the walls in the Campus Martius.
+  This meeting seems to have been convened there especially that he might
+  attend it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn146" href="#r146">[146]</a> <i>Sagum</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn147" href="#r147">[147]</a> Slaves were always close clipped.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn148" href="#r148">[148]</a> <i>Horreæ</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn149" href="#r149">[149]</a> Adjutant, subordinate to a centurion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn150" href="#r150">[150]</a> Squadron of 30 horse.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn151" href="#r151">[151]</a> Slave who looked after the welfare and conduct of a schoolboy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn152" href="#r152">[152]</a> President of the games.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn153" href="#r153">[153]</a> Buckler and cutlass men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn154" href="#r154">[154]</a> Net and trident men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn155" href="#r155">[155]</a> General's body-guard of picked veterans.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn156" href="#r156">[156]</a> A finger-guessing game.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn157" href="#r157">[157]</a> He has got to die.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn158" href="#r158">[158]</a> A <i>celox</i> of one bank of oars, a small ship much used by the pirates.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn159" href="#r159">[159]</a> Wine-mixing bowl.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn160" href="#r160">[160]</a> The Romans divided the night into 12 hours (from sunrise to sunset); thus
+  the length of the hour varied with the seasons: but at the time here mentioned
+  the "second hour" was about 8 P.M. The water-clocks could show only regular,
+  not solar, time.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn161" href="#r161">[161]</a> The official residence of the Pontifex Maximus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn162" href="#r162">[162]</a> Riches and strength.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn163" href="#r163">[163]</a> Elton, translator.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn164" href="#r164">[164]</a> Dearest one.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn165" href="#r165">[165]</a> Very distinguished sir.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn166" href="#r166">[166]</a> Master.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn167" href="#r167">[167]</a> <i>Ō-op</i>—avast there.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn168" href="#r168">[168]</a> Missile-throwing engines.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn169" href="#r169">[169]</a> <i>Tibiæ</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn170" href="#r170">[170]</a> Your Highness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn171" href="#r171">[171]</a> These were real affectations of the Cilician pirates.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn172" href="#r172">[172]</a> A high order of Egyptian nobility.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn173" href="#r173">[173]</a> The official title of Alexandrian Greek citizens.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn174" href="#r174">[174]</a> A mixture of myrrh, frankincense, and other aromatic materials.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn175" href="#r175">[175]</a> Elton, translator.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn176" href="#r176">[176]</a> A drink of vinegar and water very common among the soldiers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn177" href="#r177">[177]</a> Elton, translator.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn178" href="#r178">[178]</a> Midnight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn179" href="#r179">[179]</a> The military oath of obedience.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn180" href="#r180">[180]</a> Macedonian it is needless to say was a mere name. The Græco-Egyptian
+  soldiery and citizen body of Alexandria probably had hardly a drop of Macedonian
+  blood in their veins.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn181" href="#r181">[181]</a> As, for instance, the repeated wedlock of brothers and sisters among the
+  Ptolemies.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn182" href="#r182">[182]</a> Commanders of the body-guard.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn183" href="#r183">[183]</a> "Black" because of the black fertile mud deposited by the inundation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn184" href="#r184">[184]</a> A company of about one hundred men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn185" href="#r185">[185]</a> <i>Lorica</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn186" href="#r186">[186]</a> Ceylon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  <a name="fn187" href="#r187">[187]</a> Malay Peninsula.
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Friend of Caesar, by William Stearns Davis
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A FRIEND OF CAESAR ***
+
+***** This file should be named 15694-h.htm or 15694-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/6/9/15694/
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Stefan Cramme and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+*** END: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/15694.txt b/15694.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dbb11b2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/15694.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,17179 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Friend of Caesar, by William Stearns Davis
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Friend of Caesar
+       A Tale of the Fall of the Roman Republic. Time, 50-47 B.C.
+
+Author: William Stearns Davis
+
+Release Date: April 24, 2005 [EBook #15694]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A FRIEND OF CAESAR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Stefan Cramme and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+A Friend of Caesar
+
+A Tale of the Fall of the Roman Republic
+
+Time, 50-47 B.C.
+
+By William Stearns Davis
+
+
+
+
+
+  "Others better may mould the life-breathing brass of the image,
+  And living features, I ween, draw from the marble, and better
+  Argue their cause in the court; may mete out the span of the heavens,
+  Mark out the bounds of the poles, and name all the stars in their turnings.
+  _Thine_ 'tis the peoples to rule with dominion--this, Roman, remember!--
+  These for thee are the arts, to hand down the laws of the treaty,
+  The weak in mercy to spare, to fling from their high seats the haughty."
+
+--VERGIL, _AEn._ vi. 847-858.
+
+
+New York
+Grosset & Dunlap Publishers
+1900
+
+
+
+
+To My Father
+
+William Vail Wilson Davis
+
+Who Has Taught Me More
+Than All My Books
+
+
+
+
+Preface
+
+
+If this book serves to show that Classical Life presented many phases
+akin to our own, it will not have been written in vain.
+
+After the book was planned and in part written, it was discovered that
+Archdeacon Farrar had in his story of "Darkness and Dawn" a scene,
+"Onesimus and the Vestal," which corresponds very closely to the scene,
+"Agias and the Vestal," in this book; but the latter incident was too
+characteristically Roman not to risk repetition. If it is asked why such
+a book as this is desirable after those noble fictions, "Darkness and
+Dawn" and "Quo Vadis," the reply must be that these books necessarily
+take and interpret the Christian point of view. And they do well; but
+the Pagan point of view still needs its interpretation, at least as a
+help to an easy apprehension of the life and literature of the great age
+of the Fall of the Roman Republic. This is the aim of "A Friend of
+Caesar." The Age of Caesar prepared the way for the Age of Nero, when
+Christianity could find a world in a state of such culture, unity, and
+social stability that it could win an adequate and abiding triumph.
+
+Great care has been taken to keep to strict historical probability; but
+in one scene, the "Expulsion of the Tribunes," there is such a confusion
+of accounts in the authorities themselves that I have taken some slight
+liberties.
+
+W. S. D.
+
+Harvard University,
+January 16,1900.
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+
+Chapter                                      Page
+
+    I. Praeneste                                1
+
+   II. The Upper Walks of Society             21
+
+  III. The Privilege of a Vestal              37
+
+   IV. Lucius Ahenobarbus Airs His Grievance  50
+
+    V. A Very Old Problem                     73
+
+   VI. Pompeius Magnus                       102
+
+  VII. Agias's Adventure                     117
+
+ VIII. "When Greek Meets Greek"              146
+
+   IX. How Gabinius Met with a Rebuff        159
+
+    X. Mamercus Guards the Door              172
+
+   XI. The Great Proconsul                   198
+
+  XII. Pratinas Meets Ill-Fortune            217
+
+ XIII. What Befell at Baiae                   241
+
+  XIV. The New Consuls                       262
+
+   XV. The Seventh of January                277
+
+  XVI. The Rubicon                           302
+
+ XVII. The Profitable Career of Gabinius     329
+
+XVIII. How Pompeius Stamped with His Feet    334
+
+  XIX. The Hospitality of Demetrius          364
+
+   XX. Cleopatra                             387
+
+  XXI. How Ulamhala's Words Came True        409
+
+ XXII. The End of the Magnus                 433
+
+XXIII. Bitterness and Joy                    448
+
+ XXIV. Battling for Life                     464
+
+  XXV. Calm after Storm                      496
+
+
+
+
+Chapter I
+
+Praeneste
+
+
+I
+
+It was the Roman month of September, seven hundred and four years after
+Romulus--so tradition ran--founded the little village by the Tiber which
+was to become "Mother of Nations," "Centre of the World," "Imperial
+Rome." To state the time according to modern standards it was July,
+fifty years before the beginning of the Christian Era. The fierce
+Italian sun was pouring down over the tilled fields and stretches of
+woodland and grazing country that made up the landscape, and the
+atmosphere was almost aglow with the heat. The dust lay thick on the
+pavement of the highway, and rose in dense, stifling clouds, as a mule,
+laden with farm produce and driven by a burly countryman, trudged
+reluctantly along.
+
+Yet, though the scene suggested the heat of midsummer, it was far from
+being unrefreshing, especially to the eyes of one newly come. For this
+spot was near "cool Praeneste," one of the favourite resorts of Latium to
+the wealthy, invalid, or indolent of Rome, who shunned the excessive
+heat of the capital. And they were wise in their choice; for Praeneste,
+with its citadel, which rose twelve hundred feet over the adjoining
+country, commanded in its ample sweep both the views and the breezes of
+the whole wide-spreading Campagna. Here, clustering round the hill on
+which stood the far-famed "Temple of Fortune," lay the old Latin town of
+the Praenestians; a little farther westward was the settlement founded
+some thirty odd years before by Sulla as a colony. Farther out, and
+stretching off into the open country, lay the farmhouses and villas,
+gardens and orchards, where splendid nuts and roses, and also wine, grew
+in abundant measure.
+
+A little stream ran close to the highway, and here an irrigating
+machine[1] was raising water for the fields. Two men stood on the
+treadmill beside the large-bucketed wheel, and as they continued their
+endless walk the water dashed up into the trough and went splashing down
+the ditches into the thirsty gardens. The workers were tall,
+bronze-skinned Libyans, who were stripped to the waist, showing their
+splendid chests and rippling muscles. Beside the trough had just come
+two women, by their coarse and unpretentious dress evidently slaves,
+bearing large earthen water-pots which they were about to fill. One of
+the women was old, and bore on her face all the marks which a life of
+hard manual toil usually leaves behind it; the other young, with a
+clear, smooth complexion and a rather delicate Greek profile. The
+Libyans stopped their monotonous trudge, evidently glad to have some
+excuse for a respite from their exertions.
+
+  [1] Water columbarium.
+
+"Ah, ha! Chloe," cried one of them, "how would you like it, with your
+pretty little feet, to be plodding at this mill all the day? Thank the
+Gods, the sun will set before a great while. The day has been hot as
+the lap of an image of Moloch!"[2]
+
+  [2] The Phoenician god, also worshipped in North Africa, in whose idol
+  was built a fire to consume human sacrifices.
+
+"Well, Hasdrubal," said Chloe, the younger woman, with a pert toss of
+her head, "if my feet were as large as yours, and my skin as black and
+thick, I should not care to complain if I had to work a little now and
+then."
+
+"Oh! of course," retorted Hasdrubal, a little nettled. "Your ladyship
+is too refined, too handsome, to reflect that people with black skins
+as well as white may get heated and weary. Wait five and twenty years,
+till your cheeks are a bit withered, and see if Master Drusus doesn't
+give you enough to make you tired from morning till night."
+
+"You rude fellow," cried Chloe, pouting with vexation, "I will not
+speak to you again. If Master Drusus were here, I would complain of
+you to him. I have heard that he is not the kind of a master to let a
+poor maid of his be insulted."
+
+"Oh, be still, you hussy!" said the elder woman, who felt that a life
+of labour had spoiled what might have been quite the equal of Chloe's
+good looks. "What do you know of Master Drusus? He has been in Athens
+ever since you were bought. I'll make Mamercus, the steward, believe
+you ought to be whipped."
+
+What tart answer Chloe might have had on the end of her tongue will
+never be known; for at this moment Mago, the other Libyan, glanced up
+the road, and cried:--
+
+"Well, mistress, perhaps you will see our master very soon. He was due
+this afternoon or next day from Puteoli, and what is that great cloud
+of dust I see off there in the distance? Can't you make out carriages
+and horsemen in the midst of it, Hasdrubal?"
+
+Certainly there was a little cavalcade coming up the highway. Now it
+was a mere blotch moving in the sun and dust; then clearer; and then
+out of the cloud of light, flying sand came the clatter of hoofs on
+the pavement, the whir of wheels, and ahead of the rest of the party
+two dark Numidian outriders in bright red mantles appeared, pricking
+along their white African steeds. Chloe clapped her little hands,
+steadied her water-pot, and sprang up on the staging of the treadmill
+beside Mago.
+
+"It is he!" she cried. "It must be Master Drusus coming back from
+Athens!" She was a bit excited, for an event like the arrival of a new
+master was a great occurrence in the monotonous life of a country
+slave.
+
+The cortege was still a good way off.
+
+"What is Master Drusus like?" asked Chloe "Will he be kind, or will he
+be always whipping like Mamercus?"
+
+"He was not in charge of the estate," replied Lais, the older woman,
+"when he went away to study at Athens[3] a few years ago. But he was
+always kind as a lad. Cappadox, his old body-servant, worshipped him.
+I hope he will take the charge of the farm out of the steward's hands."
+
+  [3] A few years at the philosophy schools of that famous city were
+  almost as common to Roman students and men of culture as "studying
+  in Germany" to their American successors.
+
+"Here he comes!" cried Hasdrubal. "I can see him in the nearest
+carriage." And then all four broke out with their salutation, "_Salve!
+Salve, Domine!_"[4] "Good health to your lordship!"
+
+  [4] Master, "Lord" of slaves and freedmen.
+
+A little way behind the outriders rolled a comfortable, four-wheeled,
+covered carriage,[5] ornamented with handsome embossed plate-work of
+bronze. Two sleek, jet-black steeds were whirling it swiftly onward.
+Behind, a couple of equally speedy grey mules were drawing an open
+wagon loaded with baggage, and containing two smart-looking
+slave-boys. But all four persons at the treadmill had fixed their eyes
+on the other conveyance. Besides a sturdy driver, whose ponderous
+hands seemed too powerful to handle the fine leather reins, there were
+sitting within an elderly, decently dressed man, and at his side
+another much younger. The former personage was Pausanias, the freedman
+and travelling companion[6] of his friend and patron, Quintus Livius
+Drusus, the "Master Drusus" of whom the slaves had been speaking.
+Chloe's sharp eyes scanned her strange owner very keenly, and the
+impression he created was not in the least unfavourable. Drusus was
+apparently of about two and twenty. As he was sitting, he appeared a
+trifle short in stature, with a thick frame, solid shoulders, long
+arms, and large hands. His face was distinctively Roman. The features
+were a little irregular, though not to an unpleasant extent. The
+profile was aquiline. His eyes were brown and piercing, turning
+perpetually this way and that, to grasp every detail of the scene
+around. His dark, reddish hair was clipped close, and his chin was
+smooth shaven and decidedly firm--stern, even, the face might have
+been called, except for the relief afforded by a delicately curved
+mouth--not weak, but affable and ingenuous. Drusus wore a dark
+travelling cloak,[7] and from underneath it peeped his tunic, with its
+stripe of narrow purple--the badge of the Roman equestrian order.[8]
+On his finger was another emblem of nobility--a large, plain, gold
+ring, conspicuous among several other rings with costly settings.
+
+  [5] _Rheda_.
+
+  [6] Most wealthy Romans had such a _major domo_, whose position was
+  often one of honour and trust.
+
+  [7] _Paenula_.
+
+  [8] The second order of the Roman nobility.
+
+"_Salve! Salve, Domine!_" cried the slaves a second time, as the
+carriage drew near. The young master pushed back the blue woollen
+curtains in order to gain a better view, then motioned to the driver
+to stop.
+
+"Are you slaves of mine?" was his question. The tone was interested
+and kindly, and Mago saluted profoundly, and replied:--
+
+"We are the slaves of the most noble Quintus Livius Drusus, who owns
+this estate."
+
+"I am he," replied the young man, smiling. "The day is hot. It grows
+late. You have toiled enough. Go you all and rest. Here, Pausanias,
+give them each a philippus,[9] with which to remember my home-coming!"
+
+  [9] A Greek gold piece worth about $3.60 at the time of the story.
+  At this time Rome coined little gold.
+
+"_Eu! Eu! Io!_[10] _Domine!_" cried the slaves, giving vent to their
+delight. And Chloe whispered to Lais: "You were right. The new master
+will be kind. There will not be so many whippings."
+
+  [10] Good! Good! Hurrah!
+
+But while Pausanias was fumbling in the money-bags, a new instance of
+the generosity of Drusus was presented. Down a by-path in the field
+filed a sorrowful company; a long row of slaves in fetters, bound
+together by a band and chain round the waist of each. They were a
+disreputable enough gang of unkempt, unshaven, half-clothed wretches:
+Gauls and Germans with fair hair and giant physiques; dark-haired
+Syrians; black-skinned Africans,--all panting and groaning, clanking
+their chains, and cursing softly at the two sullen overseers, who,
+with heavy-loaded whips, were literally driving them down into the
+road.
+
+Again Drusus spoke.
+
+"Whose slaves are these? Mine?"
+
+"They are your lordship's," said the foremost overseer, who had just
+recognized his newly come employer.
+
+"Why are they in chains?" asked Drusus.
+
+"Mamercus found them refractory," replied the guard, "and ordered them
+to be kept in the underground prison,[11] and to work in the chain
+gang."
+
+  [11] _Ergastulum_.
+
+The young man made a motion of disgust.
+
+"Bah!" he remarked, "the whole _familia_[12] will be in fetters if
+Mamercus has his way much longer. Knock off those chains. Tell the
+wretches they are to remain unshackled only so long as they behave.
+Give them three skins to-night from which to drink their master's
+health. Drive on, Cappadox!"
+
+  [12] Slave household.
+
+And before the fettered slaves could comprehend their release from
+confinement, and break out into a chorus of barbarous and uncouth
+thanksgivings and blessings, the carriage had vanished from sight down
+the turn of the road.
+
+
+II
+
+Who was Quintus Livius Drusus? Doubtless he would have felt highly
+insulted if his family history had not been fairly well known to every
+respectable person around Praeneste and to a very large and select
+circle at Rome. When a man could take Livius[13] for his gentile name,
+and Drusus for his cognomen, he had a right to hold his head high, and
+regard himself as one of the noblest and best of the imperial city.
+But of course the Drusian house had a number of branches, and the
+history of Quintus's direct family was this. He was the grandson of
+that Marcus Livius Drusus[14] who, though an aristocrat of the
+aristocrats, had dared to believe that the oligarchs were too strong,
+the Roman Commons without character, and that the Italian freemen were
+suffering from wrongs inflicted by both of the parties at the capital.
+For his efforts to right the abuses, he had met with a reward very
+common to statesmen of his day, a dagger-thrust from the hand of an
+undiscovered assassin. He had left a son, Sextus, a man of culture and
+talent, who remembered his father's fate, and walked for a time warily
+in politics. Sextus had married twice. Once to a very noble lady of
+the Fabian gens, the mother of his son Quintus. Then some years after
+her death he took in marriage a reigning beauty, a certain Valeria,
+who soon developed such extravagance and frivolity, that, soon after
+she bore him a daughter, he was forced "to send her a messenger"; in
+other words, to divorce her. The daughter had been put under the
+guardianship of Sextus's sister-in-law Fabia, one of the Vestal
+virgins at Rome. Sextus himself had accepted an appointment to a
+tribuneship in a legion of Caesar in Gaul. When he departed for the
+wars he took with him as fellow officer a life-long friend, Caius
+Cornelius Lentulus; and ere leaving for the campaign the two had
+formed a compact quite in keeping with the stern Roman spirit that
+made the child the slave of the father: Young Quintus Drusus should
+marry Cornelia, Lentulus's only child, as soon as the two came to a
+proper age. And so the friends went away to win glory in Gaul; to
+perish side by side, when Sabinus's ill-fated legion was cut off by
+the Eburones.[15]
+
+  [13] Every Roman had a _praenomen_, or "Christian name"; also a gentile
+  name of the gens or clan to which he belonged; and commonly in addition
+  a cognomen, usually an epithet descriptive of some personal peculiarity
+  of an ancestor, which had fastened itself upon the immediate descendants
+  of that ancestor. The _Livii Drusi_ were among the noblest of the Roman
+  houses.
+
+  [14] Died in 91 B.C.
+
+  [15] In 54 B.C.
+
+The son and the daughter remained. Quintus Drusus had had kindly
+guardians; he had been sent for four years to the "University" at
+Athens; had studied rhetoric and philosophy; and now he was back with
+his career before him,--master of himself, of a goodly fortune, of a
+noble inheritance of high-born ancestry. And he was to marry Cornelia.
+No thought of thwarting his father's mandate crossed his mind; he was
+bound by the decree of the dead. He had not seen his betrothed for
+four years. He remembered her as a bright-eyed, merry little girl, who
+had an arch way of making all to mind her. But he remembered too, that
+her mother was a vapid lady of fashion, that her uncle and guardian
+was Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Crus, Consul-elect,[16] a man of little
+refinement or character. And four years were long enough to mar a
+young girl's life. What would she be like? What had time made of her?
+The curiosity--we will not call it passion--was overpowering. Pure
+"love" was seldom recognized as such by the age. When the carriage
+reached a spot where two roads forked, leading to adjacent estates,
+Drusus alighted.
+
+  [16] The two Roman consuls were magistrates of the highest rank, and
+  were chosen each year by the people.
+
+"Is her ladyship Cornelia at the villa of the Lentuli?" was his demand
+of a gardener who was trimming a hedge along the way.
+
+"Ah! Master Drusus," cried the fellow, dropping his sickle in delight.
+"Joy to see you! Yes, she is in the grove by the villa; by the great
+cypress you know so well. But how you have changed, sir--"
+
+But Drusus was off. The path was familiar. Through the trees he caught
+glimpses of the stately mazes of colonnades of the Lentulan villa,
+surrounded by its artificially arranged gardens, and its wide
+stretches of lawn and orchard. The grove had been his playground. Here
+was the oak under which Cornelia and he had gathered acorns. The
+remnants of the little brush house they had built still survived. His
+step quickened. He heard the rush of the little stream that wound
+through the grove. Then he saw ahead of him a fern thicket, and the
+brook flashing its water beyond. In his recollection a bridge had here
+crossed the streamlet. It had been removed. Just across, swayed the
+huge cypress. Drusus stepped forward. At last! He pushed carefully
+through the thicket, making only a little noise, and glanced across
+the brook.
+
+There were ferns all around the cypress. Ivies twined about its trunk.
+On the bank the green turf looked dry, but cool. Just under the tree
+the brook broke into a miniature cascade, and went rippling down in a
+score of pygmy, sparkling waterfalls. On a tiny promontory a marble
+nymph, a fine bit of Greek sculpture, was pouring, without respite,
+from a water-urn into the gurgling flood. But Drusus did not gaze at
+the nymph. Close beside the image, half lying, half sitting, in an
+abandon only to be produced by a belief that she was quite alone,
+rested a young woman. It was Cornelia.
+
+Drusus had made no disturbance, and the object on which he fastened
+his eyes had not been in the least stirred out of a rather deep
+reverie. He stood for a while half bashful, half contemplative.
+Cornelia had taken off her shoes and let her little white feet trail
+down into the water. She wore only her white tunic, and had pushed it
+back so that her arms were almost bare. At the moment she was resting
+lazily on one elbow, and gazing abstractedly up at the moving ocean of
+green overhead. She was only sixteen; but in the warm Italian clime
+that age had brought her to maturity. No one would have said that she
+was beautiful, from the point of view of mere softly sensuous Greek
+beauty. Rather, she was handsome, as became the daughter of Cornelii
+and Claudii. She was tall; her hair, which was bound in a plain knot
+on the back of her head, was dark--almost black; her eyes were large,
+grey, lustrous, and on occasion could be proud and angry. Yet with it
+all she was pretty--pretty, said Drusus to himself, as any girl he had
+seen in Athens. For there were coy dimples in her delicate little
+chin, her finely chiselled features were not angular, while her cheeks
+were aglow with a healthy colour that needed no rouge to heighten. In
+short, Cornelia, like Drusus, was a Roman; and Drusus saw that she was
+a Roman, and was glad.
+
+Presently something broke the reverie. Cornelia's eyes dropped from
+the treetops, and lighted up with attention. One glance across the
+brook into the fern thicket; then one irrepressible feminine scream;
+and then:--
+
+"Cornelia!" "Quintus!"
+
+Drusus sprang forward, but almost fell into the brooklet. The bridge
+was gone. Cornelia had started up, and tried to cover her arms and
+shake her tunic over her feet. Her cheeks were all smiles and blushes.
+But Drusus's situation was both pathetic and ludicrous. He had his
+fiancee almost in his arms, and yet the stream stopped him. Instantly
+Cornelia was in laughter.
+
+"Oh! My second Leander," she cried, "will you be brave, and swim again
+from Abydos to Sestos to meet your Hero?"
+
+"Better!" replied Drusus, now nettled; "see!" And though the leap was
+a long one he cleared it, and landed close by the marble nymph.
+
+Drusus had not exactly mapped out for himself the method of
+approaching the young woman who had been his child playmate. Cornelia,
+however, solved all his perplexity. Changing suddenly from laughter
+into what were almost tears, she flung her arms around his neck, and
+kissed him again and again.
+
+"Oh, Quintus! Quintus!" she cried, nearly sobbing, "_I am_ so glad you
+have come!"
+
+"And I am glad," said the young man, perhaps with a tremor in his
+voice.
+
+"I never knew how I wanted you, until you are here," she continued; "I
+didn't look for you to-day. I supposed you would come from Puteoli
+to-morrow. Oh! Quintus, you must be very kind to me. Perhaps I am very
+stupid. But I am tired, tired."
+
+Drusus looked at her in a bit of astonishment.
+
+"Tired! I can't see that you look fatigued."
+
+"Not in body," went on Cornelia, still holding on to him. "But here,
+sit down on the grass. Let me hold your hands. You do not mind. I want
+to talk with you. No, don't interrupt. I must tell you. I have been
+here in Praeneste only a week. I wanted to get away from Baiae.[17] I
+was afraid to stay there with my mother."
+
+  [17] The famous watering-place on the Bay of Naples.
+
+"Afraid to stay at that lovely seashore house with your mother!"
+exclaimed Drusus, by no means unwilling to sit as entreated, but
+rather bewildered in mind.
+
+"I was afraid of Lucius Ahenobarbus, the consular[18] Domitius's
+second son. _I don't like him! there!_" and Cornelia's grey eyes lit
+up with menacing fire.
+
+  [18] An ex-consul was known by this title.
+
+"Afraid of Lucius Ahenobarbus!" laughed Drusus. "Well, I don't think I
+call him a very dear friend. But why should he trouble you?"
+
+"It was ever since last spring, when I was in the new theatre[19]
+seeing the play, that he came around, thrust himself upon me, and
+tried to pay attentions. Then he has kept them up ever since; he
+followed us to Baiae; and the worst of it is, my mother and uncle
+rather favour him. So I had Stephanus, my friend the physician, say
+that sea air was not good for me, and I was sent here. My mother and
+uncle will come in a few days, but not that fellow Lucius, I hope. I
+was so tired trying to keep him off."
+
+  [19] Built by Pompeius the Great, in 55-54 B.C.
+
+"I will take care of the knave," said Drusus, smiling. "So this is the
+trouble? I wonder that your mother should have anything to do with
+such a fellow. I hear in letters that he goes with a disreputable
+gang. He is a boon companion with Marcus Laeca, the old Catilinian,[20]
+who is a smooth-headed villain, and to use a phrase of my father's
+good friend Cicero--'has his head and eyebrows always shaved, that he
+may not be said to have one hair of an honest man about him.' But he
+will have to reckon with me now. Now it is my turn to talk. Your long
+story has been very short. Nor is mine long. My old uncle Publius
+Vibulanus is dead. I never knew him well enough to be able to mourn
+him bitterly. Enough, he died at ninety; and just as I arrive at
+Puteoli comes a message that I am his sole heir. His freedmen knew I
+was coming, embalmed the body, and wait for me to go to Rome to-morrow
+to give the funeral oration and light the pyre. He has left a fortune
+fit to compare with that of Crassus[21]--real estate, investments, a
+lovely villa at Tusculum. And now I--no, _we_--are wealthy beyond
+avarice. Shall we not thank the Gods?"
+
+  [20] A member of the band who with Catiline conspired in 63 B.C. to
+  overthrow the Roman government.
+
+  [21] The Roman millionaire who had just been slain in Parthia.
+
+"I thank them for nothing," was her answer; then more shyly, "except
+for your own coming; for, Quintus, you--you--will marry me before very
+long?"
+
+"What hinders?" cried the other, in the best of spirits. "To-morrow I
+go to Rome; then back again! And then all Praeneste will flock to our
+marriage train. No, pout no more over Lucius Ahenobarbus. He shan't
+pay disagreeable attentions. And now over to the old villa; for
+Mamercus is eating his heart out to see me!"
+
+And away they went arm in arm.
+
+Drusus's head was in the air. He had resolved to marry Cornelia, cost
+what it might to his desires. He knew now that he was affianced to the
+one maiden in the world quite after his own heart.
+
+
+III
+
+The paternal villa of Drusus lay on the lower part of the slope of the
+Praeneste citadel, facing the east. It was a genuine country and
+farming estate--not a mere refuge from the city heat and hubbub. The
+Drusi had dwelt on it for generations, and Quintus had spent his
+boyhood upon it. The whole mass of farm land was in the very pink of
+cultivation. There were lines of stately old elms enclosing the
+estate; and within, in regular sequence, lay vineyards producing the
+rather poor Praeneste wine, olive orchards, groves of walnut trees, and
+many other fruits. Returning to the point where he had left the
+carriage, Drusus led Cornelia up a broad avenue flanked by noble
+planes and cypresses. Before them soon stood, or rather stretched, the
+country house. It was a large grey stone building, added to, from time
+to time, by successive owners. Only in front did it show signs of
+modern taste and elegance. Here ran a colonnade of twelve red porphyry
+pillars, with Corinthian capitals. The part of the house reserved for
+the master lay behind this entrance way. Back of it rambled the
+structure used by the farm steward, and the slaves and cattle. The
+whole house was low--in fact practically one-storied; and the effect
+produced was perhaps substantial, but hardly imposing.
+
+Up the broad avenue went the two young people; too busy with their own
+gay chatter to notice at a distance how figures were running in and
+out amid the colonnade, and how the pillars were festooned with
+flowers. But as they drew nearer a throng was evident. The whole farm
+establishment--men, women, and children--had assembled, garlanded and
+gayly dressed, to greet the young master. Perhaps five hundred
+persons--nearly all slaves--had been employed on the huge estate, and
+they were all at hand. As Drusus came up the avenue, a general shout
+of welcome greeted him.
+
+"_Ave! Ave! Domine!_" and there were some shouts as Cornelia was seen
+of, "_Ave! Domina!_"
+
+"_Domina_[22] here very soon," said Drusus, smiling to the young lady;
+and disengaging himself from her, he advanced to greet personally a
+tall, ponderous figure, with white, flowing hair, a huge white beard,
+and a left arm that had been severed at the wrist, who came forward
+with a swinging military stride that seemed to belie his evident years.
+
+  [22] _Domina_, mistress.
+
+"All hail, dearest Mamercus!" exclaimed the young man, running up to
+the burly object. "Here is the little boy you used to scold, fondle,
+and tell stories to, back safe and sound to hear the old tales and to
+listen to some more admonitions."
+
+The veteran made a hurried motion with his remaining hand, as if to
+brush something away from his eyes, and his deep voice seemed a trifle
+husky when he replied, speaking slowly:--
+
+"_Mehercle!_[23] All the Gods be praised! The noble Sextus living
+again in the form of his son! Ah! This makes my old heart glad;" and
+he held out his hand to Drusus. But the young man dashed it away, and
+flinging his arms around Mamercus's neck, kissed him on both cheeks.
+Then when this warm greeting was over, Drusus had to salute Titus
+Mamercus, a solid, stocky, honest-faced country lad of eighteen, the
+son of the veteran; and after Titus--since the Mamerci and Drusi were
+remotely related and the _jus oscului_[24]--less legally, the "right
+of kissing"--existed between them, he felt called upon to press the
+cheek of AEmilia, Mamercus's pretty daughter, of about her brother's
+age. Cornelia seemed a little discomposed at this, and perhaps so gave
+her lover a trifling delight. But next he had to shake all the
+freedmen by the hand, also the older and better known slaves; and to
+say something in reply to their congratulations. The mass of the
+slaves he could not know personally; but to the assembled company he
+spoke a few words, with that quiet dignity which belongs to those who
+are the heirs of generations of lordly ancestors.
+
+  [23] By Hercules.
+
+  [24] The right of kissing kinsfolk within the sixth degree.
+
+"This day I assume control of my estate. All past offences are
+forgiven. I remit any punishments, however justly imposed. To those
+who are my faithful servants and clients I will prove a kind and
+reasonable master. Let none in the future be mischievous or idle; for
+them I cannot spare. But since the season is hot, in honour of my
+home-coming, for the next ten days I order that no work, beyond that
+barely needed, be done in the fields. Let the familia enjoy rest, and
+let them receive as much wine as they may take without being unduly
+drunken. Geta, Antiochus, and Kebes, who have been in this house many
+years, shall go with me before the praetor, to be set free."
+
+And then, while the slaves still shouted their _aves_ and _salves_,
+Mamercus led Drusus and Cornelia through the old villa, through the
+atrium where the fountain tinkled, and the smoky, waxen death-masks of
+Quintus's noble ancestors grinned from the presses on the wall;
+through the handsomely furnished rooms for the master of the house;
+out to the barns and storehouses, that stretched away in the rear of
+the great farm building. Much pride had the veteran when he showed the
+sleek cattle, the cackling poultry-yard, and the tall stacks of hay;
+only he growled bitterly over what he termed the ill-timed leniency of
+his young patron in releasing the slaves in the chain-gang.
+
+"Oh, such times!" he muttered in his beard; "here's this young upstart
+coming home, and teaches me that such dogs as I put in fetters are
+better set at large! There'll be a slave revolt next, and some night
+all our throats will be cut. But it's none of my doing."
+
+"Well," said Drusus, smiling, "I've been interested at Athens in
+learning from philosophy that one owes some kindness even to a slave.
+But it's always your way, Mamercus, to tell how much better the old
+times were than the new."
+
+"And I am right," growled the other. "Hasn't a man who fought with
+Marius, and helped to beat those northern giants, the Cimbri and
+Teutones, a right to his opinion? The times are evil--evil! No justice
+in the courts. No patriotism in the Senate. Rascality in every consul
+and praetor. And the 'Roman People' orators declaim about are only a
+mob! _Vah!_ We need an end to this game of fauns and satyrs!"
+
+"Come," said Drusus, "we are not at such a direful strait yet. There
+is one man at least whom I am convinced is not altogether a knave; and
+I have determined to throw in my lot with him. Do you guess,
+Mamercus?"
+
+"Caesar?"
+
+Drusus nodded. Mamercus broke out into a shout of approval.
+
+"_Euge!_ Unless my son Decimus, who is centurion with him, writes me
+false, _he_ is a man!"
+
+But Cornelia was distressed of face.
+
+"Quintus," she said very gravely, "do you know that I have often heard
+that Caesar is a wicked libertine, who wishes to make himself tyrant?
+What have you done?"
+
+"Nothing rashly," said Drusus, also quite grave; "but I have counted
+the matter on both sides--the side of Pompeius and the Senate, and the
+side of Caesar--and I have written to Balbus, Caesar's manager at Rome,
+that I shall use my tiny influence for the proconsul of the Gauls."
+
+Cornelia seemed greatly affected; she clasped and unclasped her hands,
+pressed them to her brows; then when she let them fall, she was again
+smiling.
+
+"Quintus," she said, putting her arm around him, "Quintus, I am only a
+silly little girl. I do not know anything about politics. You are
+wiser than I, and I can trust you. But please don't quarrel with my
+uncle Lentulus about your decision. He would be terribly angry."
+
+Quintus smiled in turn, and kissing her, said: "Can you trust me? I
+hope so. And be assured I will do all I may, not to quarrel with your
+uncle. And now away with all this silly serious talk! What a pity for
+Mamercus to have been so gloomy as to introduce it! What a pity I must
+go to Rome to-morrow, and leave this dear old place! But then, I have
+to see my aunt Fabia, and little Livia, the sister I haven't met since
+she was a baby. And while I am in Rome I will do something else--can
+you guess?" Cornelia shook her head. "Carpenters, painters, masons! I
+will send them out to make this old villa fresh and pretty for some
+one who, I hope, will come here to live in about a month. No, don't
+run away," for Cornelia was trying to hide her flushed face by flight;
+"I have something else to get--a present for your own dear self. What
+shall it be? I am rich; cost does not matter."
+
+Cornelia pursed her lips in thought.
+
+"Well," she remarked, "if you could bring me out a pretty boy, not too
+old or too young, one that was honest and quick-witted, he would be
+very convenient to carry messages to you, and to do any little
+business for me."
+
+Cornelia asked for a slave-boy just as she might have asked for a new
+pony, with that indifference to the question of humanity which
+indicated that the demarcation between a slave and an animal was very
+slight in her mind.
+
+"Oh! that is nothing," said Drusus; "you shall have the handsomest and
+cleverest in all Rome. And if Mamercus complains that I am extravagant
+in remodelling the house, let him remember that his wonderful Caesar,
+when a young man, head over ears in debt, built an expensive villa at
+Aricia, and then pulled it down to the foundations and rebuilt on an
+improved plan. Farewell, Sir Veteran, I will take Cornelia home, and
+then come back for that dinner which I know the cook has made ready
+with his best art."
+
+Arm in arm the young people went away down the avenue of shade trees,
+dim in the gathering twilight. Mamercus stood gazing after them.
+
+"What a pity! What a pity!" he repeated to himself, "that Sextus and
+Caius are not alive; how they would have rejoiced in their children!
+Why do the fates order things as they do? Only let them be kind enough
+to let me live until I hold another little Drusus on my knee, and tell
+him of the great battles! But the Gods forbid, Lentulus should find
+out speedily that his lordship has gone over to Caesar; or there will
+be trouble enough for both his lordship and my lady. The consul-elect
+is a stubborn, bitter man. He would be terribly offended to give his
+niece in marriage to a political enemy. But it may all turn out well.
+Who knows?" And he went into the house.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter II
+
+The Upper Walks of Society
+
+
+I
+
+It was very early in the morning. From the streets, far below, a dull
+rumbling was drifting in at the small, dim windows. On the couch,
+behind some faded curtains, a man turned and yawned, grunted and
+rubbed his eyes. The noise of the heavy timber, stone, and merchandise
+wagons hastening out of the city before daybreak,[25] jarred the room,
+and made sleep almost impossible. The person awakened swore quietly to
+himself in Greek.
+
+  [25] No teaming was allowed in Rome by day.
+
+"_Heracles!_ Was ever one in such a city! What malevolent spirit
+brought me here? Throat-cutting on the streets at night; highwaymen in
+every foul alley; unsafe to stir at evening without an armed band! No
+police worth mentioning; freshets every now and then; fires every day
+or else a building tumbles down. And then they must wake me up at an
+unearthly hour in the morning. Curses on me for ever coming near the
+place!" And the speaker rolled over on the bed, and shook himself,
+preparatory to getting up.
+
+"Bah! Can these Roman dogs never learn that power is to be used, not
+abused? Why don't they spend some of their revenues to level these
+seven hills that shut off the light, and straighten and widen their
+abominable, ill-paved streets, and keep houses from piling up as if to
+storm Olympus? Pshaw, I had better stop croaking, and be up and
+about."
+
+The speaker sat up in bed, and clapped his hands. Into the ill-lighted
+and unpretentiously furnished room came a tall, bony, ebon-skinned old
+Ethiopian, very scantily attired, who awaited the wishes of his
+master.
+
+"Come, Sesostris," said the latter, "get out my best
+_himation_[26]--the one with the azure tint. Give me a clean
+_chiton_,[27] and help me dress."
+
+  [26] Greek outer mantle.
+
+  [27] Greek under garment.
+
+And while the servant bustled briskly about his work, Pratinas, for
+such was his lord's name, continued his monologue, ignoring the
+presence of his attendant. "Not so bad with me after all. Six years
+ago to-day it was I came to Rome, with barely an obol of ready money,
+to make my fortune by my wits. Zeus! But I can't but say I've
+succeeded. A thousand sesterces here and five hundred there, and now
+and then a better stroke of fortune--politics, intrigues, gambling;
+all to the same end. And now?--oh, yes, my 'friends' would say I am
+very respectable, but quite poor--but they don't know how I have
+economized, and how my account stands with Sosthenes the banker at
+Alexandria. My old acquaintance with Lucius Domitius was of some use.
+A few more months of this life and I am away from this beastly Rome,
+to enjoy myself among civilized people."
+
+Pratinas went over to a large wooden chest with iron clasps, unlocked
+it, and gazed for a moment inside with evident satisfaction. "There
+are six good talents in there," he remarked to himself, "and then
+there is Artemisia."
+
+He had barely concluded this last, hardly intelligible assertion, when
+the curtain of the room was pushed aside, and in came a short, plump,
+rosy-faced little maiden of twelve, with a clearly chiselled Greek
+profile and lips as red as a cherry. Her white chiton was mussed and a
+trifle soiled; and her thick black hair was tied back in a low knot,
+so as to cover what were two very shapely little ears. All in all, she
+presented a very pretty picture, as the sunlight streamed over her,
+when she drew back the hangings at the window.
+
+"Good morning, Uncle Pratinas," she said sweetly.
+
+"Good morning, Artemisia, my dear," replied the other, giving her
+round neck a kiss, and a playful pinch. "You will practise on your
+lyre, and let Sesostris teach you to sing. You know we shall go back
+to Alexandria very soon; and it is pleasant there to have some
+accomplishments."
+
+"And must you go out so early, uncle?" said the girl. "Can't you stay
+with me any part of the day? Sometimes I get very lonely."
+
+"Ah! my dear," said Pratinas, smoothly, "if I could do what I wished,
+I would never leave you. But business cannot wait. I must go and see
+the noble Lucius Calatinus on some very important political matters,
+which you could not understand. Now run away like a good girl, and
+don't become doleful."
+
+Artemisia left the room, and Pratinas busied himself about the fine
+touches of his toilet. When he held the silver mirror up to his face,
+he remarked to himself that he was not an unhandsome man. "If I did
+not have to play the philosopher, and wear this thick, hot beard,[28]
+I would not be ashamed to show my head anywhere." Then while he
+perfumed himself with oil of saffron out of a little onyx bottle, he
+went on:--
+
+  [28] At an age when respectable men were almost invariably smooth
+  shaven, the philosophers wore flowing beards, as a sort of professional
+  badge.
+
+"What dogs and gluttons these Romans are! They have no real taste for
+art, for beauty. They cannot even conduct a murder, save in a bungling
+way. They have to call in us Hellenes to help them. Ha! ha! this is
+the vengeance for Hellas, for the sack and razing of Corinth and all
+the other atrocities! Rome can conquer with the sword; but we Greeks,
+though conquered, can, unarmed, conquer Rome. How these Italians can
+waste their money! Villas, statues, pretty slaves, costly vases, and
+tables of mottled cypress,[29] oysters worth their weight in gold, and
+I know not what else! And I, poor Pratinas, the Greek, who lives in an
+upper floor of a Subura house at only two thousand sesterces rental,
+find in these noble Roman lords only so much plunder. Ha! ha! Hellas,
+thou art avenged!"
+
+  [29] A "fad" of this time. Such tables often cost $20,000.
+
+And gathering his mantle about him, he went down the several flights
+of very rickety stairs, and found himself in the buzzing street.
+
+
+II
+
+The Romans hugged a fond belief that houses shut out from sunlight and
+air were extremely healthy. If such were the fact, there should have
+been no sickness in a great part of the capital. The street in which
+Pratinas found himself was so dark, that he was fain to wait till his
+eyes accommodated themselves to the change. The street was no wider
+than an alley, yet packed with booths and hucksters,--sellers of
+boiled peas and hot sausage, and fifty other wares. On the worthy
+Hellene pressed, while rough German slaves or swarthy Africans jostled
+against him; the din of scholars declaiming in an adjoining school
+deafened him; a hundred unhappy odors made him wince. Then, as he
+fought his way, the streets grew a trifle wider; as he approached the
+Forum the shops became more pretentious; at last he reached his
+destination in the aristocratic quarter of the Palatine, and paused
+before a new and ostentatious mansion, in whose vestibule was swarming
+a great bevy of clients, all come in the official calling costume--a
+ponderous toga--to pay their respects to the great man. But as the
+inner door was pushed aside by the vigilant keeper, all the rest of
+the crowd were kept out till Pratinas could pass within.
+
+The atrium of the house was a splendid sight, with its veined marble
+pillars, mosaic floor, bubbling fountain, choice frescoes, and
+expensive furniture upholstered in Tyrian purple. A little in the rear
+of this gorgeous room was seated in a high armchair the individual who
+boasted himself the lord of this establishment, Lucius Atilius
+Calatinus. He was a large, coarse man, with a rough, bull-dog face and
+straight red hair. He had been drinking heavily the night before, and
+his small bluish eyes had wide dark circles beneath them, and his
+breath showed strongly the garlic with which he had seasoned the bread
+and grapes of his early lunch. He was evidently very glad to see his
+Greek visitor, and drove the six large, heavily gemmed rings which he
+wore on one of his fat fingers, almost into the other's hand when he
+shook it.
+
+"Well met, Pratinas!" was his salutation. "Tell me, is that little
+affair of yours settled? Have you stopped the mouth of that beastly
+fellow, Postumus Pyrgensis, who said that I was a base upstart, with
+no claim to my gentile name, and a bad record as a tax farmer in
+Spain, and therefore should not be elected tribune[30]?"
+
+  [30] The ten tribunes had power to convene the people and Senate,
+  propose laws and "veto" the actions of other magistrates.
+
+"I have stopped him," said Pratinas, with a little cough. "But it was
+expensive. He stuck out for ten thousand sesterces."
+
+"Oh, cheaply off," said Calatinus, laughing. "I will give you my
+cheque on Flaccus the banker. But I want to know about the other
+matter. Can you make sure of the votes of the Suburana tribe? Have you
+seen Autronius?"
+
+"I have seen him," said Pratinas, dryly.
+
+"And he said?"
+
+"Twenty thousand sesterces for him to deposit with trustees[31] until
+the election is over. Then he as go-between[32] will make sure of a
+majority of the tribesmen, and distribute to them the money if all
+goes well at the _comitia_.[33] It was the best bargain I could make;
+for Autronius really controls the tribe, and some one might outbid us."
+
+  [31] _Sequestres_.
+
+  [32] _Interpres_.
+
+  [33] Assembly of the Roman tribes for election.
+
+"All right," broke out Calatinus with a laugh, "another cheque on
+Flaccus."
+
+"One thing else," said Pratinas; "I must have a little money to shut
+up any complaints that those ridiculous anti-bribery Licinian and
+Pompeian Laws are being broken. Then there is my fee."
+
+"Oh, yes," replied the other, not to be daunted in his good humour,
+"I'll give you fifty thousand in all. Now I must see this rabble."
+
+And the mob of clients swept up to the armchair, grasping after the
+great man's hand, and raining on him their _aves_, while some daring
+mortals tried to thrust in a kiss.
+
+Pratinas drew back and watched the crowd with a smile half cynical,
+half amused. Some of the visitors were regular hangers-on, who perhaps
+expected an invitation to dine; some were seekers of patronage; some
+had an eye to political preferment, a few were real acquaintances of
+Calatinus or came on some legitimate business. Pratinas observed three
+friends waiting to speak with Calatinus, and was soon in conversation.
+
+The first of the trio was known as Publius Gabinius, who was by far
+the oldest. Coarse-featured, with broken complexion, it needed but a
+glance to proclaim him as gifted with no other distinctions than those
+of a hard drinker, fast liver, and the owner of an attenuated
+conscience. Servius Flaccus, the second, was of a different type. He
+was languid; spirited only when he railed at a slave who brushed
+against his immaculate toga. The frills on his robes made him almost
+feminine; and he spoke, even in invective, in a soft, lisping voice.
+Around him floated the aroma of countless rare unguents, that made his
+coming known afar off. His only aim in life was evidently to get
+through it with as little exertion of brain or muscle as was possible.
+The third friend was unlike the others. Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus
+clearly amounted to more than either of his companions. A constant
+worship of three very popular gods of the day--Women, Wine, and
+Gaming--with the other excitements of a dissipated life, had ruined a
+fine fair complexion. As it was, he had the profile of a handsome,
+affable man; only the mouth was hard and sensual, and his skin was
+faded and broken. He wore a little brown beard carefully trimmed
+around his well-oiled chin after the manner of Roman men of fashion;
+and his dark hair was crimped in regular steps or gradations, parting
+in the middle and arranged on both sides like a girl's.[34]
+
+  [34] Suet., "Nero," 51.
+
+"Good morning, Pratinas!" said Lucius, warmly, taking the Greek's
+hand. "How glad we are to find you here. I wanted to ask you around to
+Marcus Laeca's to-night; we think he will give something of a feast,
+and you must see my latest sweetheart--Clyte! She is a little pearl. I
+have had her head cut in intaglio on this onyx; is she not pretty?"
+
+"Very pretty," said Pratinas, looking at the engraving on the ring.
+"But perhaps it is not right for me, a grave philosopher, to go to
+your banquet."
+
+"How (h)absurd! (H)of c(h)ourse you c(h)an!" lisped Flaccus, who
+affected Greek so far as to aspirate every word beginning with a
+vowel, and to change every _c_ into a _ch_.
+
+"Well," said Pratinas, laughing, for he was a dearly loved favourite
+of all these gilded youth, "I will see! And now Gabinius is inviting
+Calatinus also, and we are dispersing for the morning."
+
+"Alas," groaned Ahenobarbus, "I must go to the Forum to plead with
+that wretch Phormio, the broker, to arrange a new loan."
+
+"And I to the Forum, also," added Calatinus, coming up, "to continue
+this pest of a canvass for votes."
+
+The clients fell into line behind Calatinus like a file of soldiers,
+but before Pratinas could start away with the other friends, a
+slave-boy came running out from the inner house, to say that "the Lady
+Valeria would be glad of his company in her boudoir." The Greek bowed
+his farewells, then followed the boy back through the court of the
+peristylium.[35]
+
+  [35] An inner private court back of the atrium.
+
+
+III
+
+The dressing room occupied by Valeria--once wife of Sextus Drusus and
+now living with Calatinus as her third husband in about four
+years--was fitted up with every luxury which money, and a taste which
+carried refinement to an extreme point, could accomplish. The walls
+were bright with splendid mythological scenes by really good artists;
+the furniture itself was plated with silver; the rugs were
+magnificent. The mistress of this palatial abode was sitting in a low
+easy-chair, holding before her a fairly large silver mirror. She wore
+a loose gown of silken texture, edged to an ostentatious extent with
+purple. Around her hovered Arsinoe and Semiramis, two handsome Greek
+slave-girls, who were far better looking than their owner, inasmuch as
+their complexions had never been ruined by paints and ointments. They
+were expert hairdressers, and Valeria had paid twenty-five thousand
+sesterces for each of them, on the strength of their proficiency in
+that art, and because they were said to speak with a pure Attic Greek
+accent. At the moment they were busy stripping off from the lady's
+face a thick layer of dried enamel that had been put on the night
+before.
+
+Had Valeria been willing, she might have feared no comparison with her
+maids; for from a merely sensuous standpoint, she would have been
+reckoned very beautiful. She had by nature large brown eyes, luxuriant
+brown hair, and what had been a clear brunette skin, and well-rounded
+and regular features. But her lips were curled in hard, haughty lines,
+her long eyelashes drooped as though she took little interest in life;
+and, worse than all, to satisfy the demands of fashion, she had
+bleached her hair to a German blonde, by a process ineffective and
+injurious. The lady was just fuming to herself over a gray hair
+Arsinoe had discovered, and Arsinoe went around in evident fear lest
+Valeria should vent her vexation on her innocent ministers.
+
+Over in one corner of the room, on a low divan, was sitting a
+strange-looking personage. A gaunt, elderly man clothed in a very
+dingy Greek himation, with shaggy grey hair, and an enormous beard
+that tumbled far down his breast. This personage was Pisander,
+Valeria's "house-philosopher," who was expected to be always at her
+elbow pouring into her ears a rain of learned lore. For this worthy
+lady (and two thousand years later would she not be attending lectures
+on Dante or Browning?) was devoted to philosophy, and loved to hear
+the Stoics[36] and Epicureans expound their varying systems of the
+cosmos. At this moment she was feasting her soul on Plato. Pisander
+was reading from the "Phaidros," "They might have seen beauty shining
+in brightness, when the happy band, following in the train of Zeus (as
+we philosophers did; or with the other gods, as others did), saw a
+vision, and were initiated into most blessed mysteries, which we
+celebrated in our state of innocence; and having no feeling of evils
+yet to come; beholding apparitions, innocent and simple and calm and
+happy as in a mystery; shining in pure light; pure ourselves, and not
+yet enchained in that living tomb which we carry about, now that we
+are imprisoned in the body ..."
+
+  [36] The opponents of the Epicureans; they nobly antagonized the mere
+  pursuit of pleasure held out as the one end of life by the Epicurean,
+  and glorified duty.
+
+"Pratinas, to see her ladyship!" bawled a servant-boy[37] at the
+doorway, very unceremoniously interrupting the good man and his
+learnedly sublime lore. And Pratinas, with the softest and sweetest of
+his Greek smiles, entered the room.
+
+  [37] _Cubicularius_.
+
+"Your ladyship does me the honour," he began, with an extremely
+deferential salutation.
+
+"Oh, my dear Pratinas," cried Valeria, in a language she called Greek,
+seizing his hand and almost embracing him, "how delighted I am to see
+you! We haven't met since--since yesterday morning. I did so want to
+have a good talk with you about Plato's theory of the separate
+existence of ideas. But first I must ask you, have you heard whether
+the report is true that Terentia, Caius Glabrio's wife, has run off
+with a gladiator?"
+
+"So Gabinius, I believe," replied Pratinas, "just told me. And I heard
+something else. A great secret. You must not tell."
+
+"Oh! I am dying to know," smirked Valeria.
+
+"Well," said the Greek, confidentially, "Publius Silanus has divorced
+his wife, Crispia. 'She went too much,' he says, 'with young
+Purpureo.'"
+
+"You do not say so!" exclaimed the lady. "I always knew that would
+happen! Now tell me, don't you think this perfume of iris is delicate?
+It's in that little glass scent bottle; break the neck.[38] I shall
+use it in a minute. I have just had some bottles sent up from Capua.
+Roman perfumes are so vulgar!"
+
+  [38] To let out the ointment. Capua was a famed emporium for perfumes
+  and like wares.
+
+"I fear," said Pratinas, doing as bidden, and testing the essence with
+evident satisfaction, "that I have interrupted your philosophical
+studies." And he glanced at Pisander, who was sitting lonesome and
+offended in his corner.
+
+"Oh! not in the least," ran on Valeria; "but though I know you are
+Epicurean, surely you enjoy Plato?"
+
+"Certainly," said Pratinas, with dramatic dignity, "I suck the sweets
+from the flowers left us by all the wise and good. Epicurean though I
+am, your ladyship must permit me to lend you a copy of an essay I have
+with me, by that great philosopher, the Stoic Chrysippos,[39] although
+I cannot agree with all his teachings; and this copy of Panaitios, the
+Eclectic's great _Treatise on Duty_, which cannot fail to edify your
+ladyship." And he held out the two rolls.
+
+  [39] Born 180 B.C.
+
+"A thousand thanks," said Valeria, languidly, "hand them to Pisander.
+I will have him read them. A little more white lead, Arsinoe, I am too
+tanned; make me paler. Just run over the veins of my temples with a
+touch of blue paint. Now a tint of antimony on my eyelids."
+
+"Your ladyship seems in wonderfully good spirits this morning,"
+insinuated Pratinas.
+
+"Yes," said Valeria, with a sigh, "I endure the woes of life as should
+one who is consoled by philosophy."
+
+"Shall I continue the Plato?" edged in poor Pisander, who was raging
+inwardly to think that Pratinas should dare to assume the name of a
+"lover of learning."
+
+"When you are needed, I can tell you," snapped Valeria, sharply, at
+the feeble remonstrance. "Now, Semiramis, you may arrange my hair."
+
+The girl looked puzzled. To tell the truth, Valeria was speaking in a
+tongue that was a babel of Greek and Latin, although she fondly
+imagined it to be the former, and Semiramis could hardly understand
+her.
+
+"If your ladyship will speak in Latin," faltered the maid.
+
+"Speak in Latin! Speak in Latin!" flared up Valeria. "Am I deceived?
+Are you not Greeks? Are you some ignorant Italian wenches who can't
+speak anything but their native jargon? Bah! You've misplaced a curl.
+Take that!" And she struck the girl across the palms, with the flat of
+her silver mirror. Semiramis shivered and flushed, but said nothing.
+
+"Do I not have a perfect Greek pronunciation?" said the lady, turning
+to Pratinas. "It is impossible to carry on a polite conversation in
+Latin."
+
+"I can assure your ladyship," said the Hellene, with still another
+bland smile, "that your pronunciation is something exceedingly
+remarkable."
+
+Valeria was pacified, and lay back submitting to her hairdressers[40],
+while Pratinas, who knew what kind of "philosophy" appealed most to
+his fair patroness, read with a delicate yet altogether admirable
+voice, a number of scraps of erotic verse that he said friends had
+just sent on from Alexandria.
+
+  [40] _Ornatrices_.
+
+"Oh! the shame to call himself a philosopher," groaned the neglected
+Pisander to himself. "If I believed in the old gods, I would invoke
+the Furies upon him."
+
+But Valeria was now in the best of spirits. "By the two
+Goddesses,"[41] she swore, "what charming sentiments you Greeks can
+express. Now I think I look presentable, and can go around and see
+Papiria, and learn about that dreadful Silanus affair. Tell Agias to
+bring in the cinnamon ointment. I will try that for a change. It is in
+the murrhine[42] vase in the other room."
+
+  [41] Demeter and Persephone, a Greek woman's oath.
+
+  [42] A costly substance, probably porcelain agate.
+
+Iasus the serving-boy stepped into the next apartment, and gave the
+order to one of his fellow slaves. A minute later there was a crash.
+Arsinoe, who was without, screamed, and Semiramis, who thrust her head
+out the door, drew it back with a look of dismay.
+
+"What has happened?" cried Valeria, startled and angry.
+
+Into the room came Arsinoe, Iasus, and a second slave-boy, a
+well-favoured, intelligent looking young Greek of about seventeen. His
+ruddy cheeks had turned very pale, as had those of Iasus.
+
+"What has happened?" thundered Valeria, in a tone that showed that a
+sorry scene was impending.
+
+The slaves fell on their knees; cowered, in fact, on the rugs at the
+lady's feet.
+
+"_A! A! A!_ Lady! Mercy!" they all began in a breath. "The murrhina
+vase! It is broken!"
+
+"Who broke it?" cried their mistress, casting lightning glances from
+one to another.
+
+Now the truth had been, that while Agias was coming through a door
+covered with a curtain, carrying the vase, Iasus had carelessly
+blundered against him and caused the catastrophe. But there had been
+no other witnesses to the accident; and when Iasus saw that his
+mistress's anger would promptly descend on somebody, he had not the
+moral courage to take the consequences of his carelessness. What
+amounted to a frightful crime was committed in an instant.
+
+"Agias stumbled and dropped the vase," said Iasus, telling the truth,
+but not the whole truth.
+
+"Send for Alfidius the _lorarius_,"[43] raged Valeria, who, with the
+promptness that characterizes a certain class of women, jumped at a
+conclusion and remained henceforth obstinate. "This shall not happen
+again! Oh! my vase! my vase! I shall never get another one like it! It
+was one of the spoils of Mithridates, and"--here her eye fell on
+Agias, cringing and protesting his innocence in a fearful agony.
+
+  [43] Whipper; many Roman houses had such a functionary, and he does
+  not seem to have lacked employment.
+
+"Stand up, boy! Stop whining! Of course you broke the vase. Who else
+had it? I will make you a lesson to all the slaves in my house. They
+need one badly. I will get another serving-boy who will be more
+careful."
+
+Agias was deathly pale; the beads of sweat stood out on his forehead;
+he grasped convulsively at the hem of his mistress's robe, and
+murmured wildly of "mercy! mercy!" Pratinas stood back with his
+imperturbable smile on his face; and if he felt the least pity for his
+fellow-countryman, he did not show it.
+
+"Alfidius awaits the mistress," announced Semiramis, with trembling
+lips.
+
+Into the room came a brutish, hard-featured, shock-headed man, with a
+large scar, caused by branding, on his forehead. He carried a short
+rope and scourge,[44]--a whip with a short handle to which were
+attached three long lashes, set at intervals with heavy bits of
+bronze. He cast one glance over the little group in the room, and his
+dull piglike eyes seemed to light up with a fierce glee, as he
+comprehended the situation.
+
+  [44] _Flagellum_.
+
+"What does your ladyship wish?" he growled.
+
+"Take this wretched boy," cried Valeria, spurning Agias with her foot;
+"take him away. Make an example of him. Take him out beyond the Porta
+Esquilina and whip him to death. Let me never see him again."
+
+Pisander sprang up in his corner, quivering with righteous wrath.
+
+"What is this?" he cried. "The lad is not guilty of any real crime. It
+would be absurd to punish a horse for an action like his, and a slave
+is as good as a horse. What philosopher could endure to see such an
+outrage?"
+
+Valeria was too excited to hear him. Pratinas coolly took the
+perturbed philosopher round the waist, and by sheer force seated him
+in a chair.
+
+"My friend," he said calmly, "you can only lose your place by
+interfering; the boy is food for the crows already. Philosophy should
+teach you to regard little affairs like this unmoved."
+
+Before Pisander could remonstrate further Alfidius had caught up Agias
+as if he had been an infant, and carried him, while moaning and
+pleading, out of the room. Iasus was still trembling. He was not a
+knave--simply unheroic, and he knew that he had committed the basest
+of actions. Semiramis and Arsinoe were both very pale, but spoke never
+a word. Arsinoe looked pityingly after the poor boy, for she had grown
+very fond of his bright words and obliging manners. For some minutes
+there was, in fact, perfect silence in the boudoir.
+
+Alfidius carried his victim out into the slaves' quarters in the rear
+of the house; there he bound his hands and called in the aid of an
+assistant to help him execute his mistress's stern mandate.
+
+Agias had been born for far better things than to be a slave. His
+father had been a cultured Alexandrine Greek, a banker, and had given
+his young son the beginnings of a good education. But the rascality of
+a business partner had sent the father to the grave bankrupt, the son
+to the slave-market to satisfy the creditors. And now Alfidius and his
+myrmidon bound their captive to a furca, a wooden yoke passing down
+the back of the neck and down each arm. The rude thongs cut the flesh
+cruelly, and the wretches laughed to see how the delicate boy writhed
+and faltered under the pain and the load.
+
+"Ah, ha! my fine _Furcifer_,"[45] cried Alfidius, when this work was
+completed. "How do you find yourself?"
+
+  [45] Furca-bearer, a coarse epithet.
+
+"Do you mock at me, you '_three letter man_'?" retorted Agias in grim
+despair, referring cuttingly to FVR[46] branded on Alfidius's
+forehead.
+
+  [46] Thief. Branding was a common punishment for slaves.
+
+"So you sing, my pretty bird," laughed the executioner. "I think you
+will croak sorrowfully enough before long. Call me '_man of letters_'
+if you will; to-night the dogs tear that soft skin of yours, while my
+hide is sound. Now off for the Porta Esquilina! Trot along with you!"
+and he swung his lash over the wretched boy's shoulders.
+
+Agias was led out into the street. He was too pained and numbed to
+groan, resist, or even think and fear. The thongs might well have been
+said to press his mind as much as his skin.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter III
+
+The Privilege of a Vestal
+
+
+I
+
+Drusus started long before daybreak on his journey to Rome; with him
+went Cappadox, his ever faithful body-servant, and Pausanias, the
+amiable and cultivated freedman who had been at his elbow ever since
+he had visited Athens. For a while the young master dozed in his
+carriage; but, as they whirled over mile after mile of the Campagna,
+the sun arose; then, when sleep left him, the Roman was all alive to
+the patriotic reminiscences each scene suggested. Yonder to the far
+south lay Alba, the old home of the Latins, and a little southward too
+was the Lake of Regillus, where tradition had it the free Romans won
+their first victory, and founded the greatness of the Republic. Along
+the line of the Anio, a few miles north, had marched Hannibal on his
+mad dash against Rome to save the doomed Capua. And these pictures of
+brave days, and many another vision like them, welled up in Drusus's
+mind, and the remembrance of the marble temples of the Greek cities
+faded from his memory; for, as he told himself, Rome was built of
+nobler stuff than marble;--she was built of the deeds of men strong
+and brave, and masters of every hostile fate. And he rejoiced that he
+could be a Roman, and share in his country's deathless fame, perhaps
+could win for her new honour,--could be consul, triumphator, and lead
+his applauding legions up to the temple of Capitoline Jove--another
+national glory added to so many.
+
+So the vision of the great city of tall ugly tenement houses, basking
+on her "Seven Hills," which only on their summits showed the nobler
+temples or the dwellings of the great patricians, broke upon him. And
+it was with eyes a-sparkle with enthusiasm, and a light heart, that he
+reached the Porta Esquilina, left the carriage for a litter borne by
+four stout Syrians sent out from the house of his late uncle, and was
+carried soon into the hubbub of the city streets.
+
+Everywhere was the same crowd; shopping parties were pressing in and
+out the stores, outrunners and foot-boys were continually colliding.
+Drusus's escort could barely win a slow progress for their master.
+Once on the Sacred Way the advance was more rapid; although even this
+famous street was barely twenty-two feet wide from house wall to house
+wall. Here was the "Lombard" or "Wall Street" of antiquity. Here were
+the offices of the great banking houses and syndicates that held the
+world in fee. Here centred those busy equites, the capitalists, whose
+transactions ran out even beyond the lands covered by the eagles, so
+that while Gaul was yet unconquered, Cicero could boast, "not a
+sesterce in Gaul changes hands without being entered in a Roman
+ledger." And here were brokers whose clients were kings, and who by
+their "influence" almost made peace or war, like modern Rothschilds.
+
+Thither Drusus's litter carried him, for he knew that his first act on
+coming to Rome to take possession of his uncle's property should be to
+consult without delay his agent and financial and legal adviser, lest
+any loophole be left for a disappointed fortune-hunter to contest the
+will. The bearers put him down before the important firm of Flaccus
+and Sophus. Out from the open, windowless office ran the senior
+partner, Sextus Fulvius Flaccus, a stout, comfortable, rosy-faced old
+eques, who had half Rome as his financial clients, the other half in
+his debt. Many were his congratulations upon Drusus's manly growth,
+and many more upon the windfall of Vibulanus's fortune, which, as he
+declared, was too securely conveyed to the young man to be open to any
+legal attack.
+
+But when Drusus intimated that he expected soon to invite the good man
+to his marriage feast, Flaccus shook his head.
+
+"You will never get a sesterce of Cornelia's dowry," he declared. "Her
+uncle Lentulus Crus is head over ears in debt. Nothing can save him,
+unless--"
+
+"I don't understand you," said the other.
+
+"Well," continued Flaccus, "to be frank; unless there is nothing short
+of a revolution."
+
+"Will it come to that?" demanded Drusus.
+
+"Can't say," replied Flaccus, as if himself perplexed. "Everybody
+declares Caesar and Pompeius are dreadfully alienated. Pompeius is
+joining the Senate. Half the great men of Rome are in debt, as I have
+cause to know, and unless we have an overturn, with 'clean accounts'
+as a result, more than one noble lord is ruined. I am calling in all
+my loans, turning everything into cash. Credit is bad--bad. Caesar paid
+Curio's debts--sixty millions of sesterces.[47] That's why Curio is a
+Caesarian now. Oh! money is the cause of all these vile political
+changes! Trouble is coming! Sulla's old throat cuttings will be
+nothing to it! But don't marry Lentulus's niece!"
+
+  [47] I.e. $2,400,000; a sesterce was about 4 cents.
+
+"Well," said Drusus, when the business was done, and he turned to go,
+"I want Cornelia, not her dowry."
+
+"Strange fellow," muttered Flaccus, while Drusus started off in his
+litter. "I always consider the dowry the principal part of a
+marriage."
+
+
+II
+
+Drusus regained his litter, and ordered his bearers to take him to the
+house of the Vestals,--back of the Temple of Vesta,--where he wished
+to see his aunt Fabia and Livia, his little half-sister. The Temple
+itself--a small, round structure, with columns, a conical roof which
+was fringed about with dragons and surmounted by a statue--still
+showed signs of the fire, which, in 210 B.C., would have destroyed it
+but for thirteen slaves, who won their liberty by checking the blaze.
+Tradition had it that here the holy Numa had built the hut which
+contained the hearth-fire of Rome,--the divine spark which now shed
+its radiance over the nations. Back of the Temple was the House of the
+Vestals, a structure with a plain exterior, differing little from the
+ordinary private dwellings. Here Drusus had his litter set down for a
+second time, and notified the porter that he would be glad to see his
+aunt and sister. The young man was ushered into a spacious, handsomely
+furnished and decorated atrium, where were arranged lines of statues
+of the various _maximae_[48] of the little religious order. A shy young
+girl with a white dress and fillet, who was reading in the apartment,
+slipped noiselessly out, as the young man entered; for the novices
+were kept under strict control, with few liberties, until their elder
+sisters could trust them in male society. Then there was a rustle of
+robes and ribbons, and in came a tall, stately lady, also in pure
+white, and a little girl of about five, who shrank coyly back when
+Drusus called her his "Liviola"[49] and tried to catch her in his
+arms. But the lady embraced him, and kissed him, and asked a thousand
+things about him, as tenderly as if she had been his mother.
+
+  [48] Senior Vestals.
+
+  [49] A diminutive of endearment.
+
+Fabia the Vestal was now about thirty-seven years of age. One and
+thirty years before had the Pontifex Maximus chosen her out--a little
+girl--to become the priestess of Vesta, the hearth-goddess, the
+home-goddess of Pagan Rome. Fabia had dwelt almost all her life in the
+house of the Vestals. Her very existence had become identified with
+the little sisterhood, which she and her five associates composed. It
+was a rather isolated yet singularly pure and peaceful life which she
+had led. Revolutions might rock the city and Empire; Marians and
+Sullians contend; Catilina plot ruin and destruction; Clodius and his
+ruffians terrorize the streets; but the fire of the great
+hearth-goddess was never scattered, nor were its gentle ministers
+molested. Fabia had thus grown to mature womanhood. Ten years she had
+spent in learning the Temple ritual, ten years in performing the
+actual duties of the sacred fire and its cultus, ten years in teaching
+the young novices. And now she was free, if she chose, to leave the
+Temple service, and even to marry. But Fabia had no intention of
+taking a step which would tear her from the circle in which she was
+dearly loved, and which, though permitted by law, would be publicly
+deplored as an evil omen.
+
+The Vestal's pure simple life had left its impress on her features.
+Peace and innocent delight in innocent things shone through her dark
+eyes and soft, well-rounded face. Her light brown hair was covered and
+confined by a fillet of white wool.[50] She wore a stola and outer
+garment of stainless white linen--the perfectly plain badge of her
+chaste and holy office; while on her small feet were dainty sandals,
+bound on by thongs of whitened leather. Everything about her dress and
+features betokened the priestess of a gentle religion.
+
+  [50] _Infula_.
+
+When questions and repeated salutations were over, and Livia had
+ceased to be too afraid of her quite strange brother, Fabia asked what
+she could do for her nephew. As one of the senior Vestals, her time
+was quite her own. "Would he like to have her go out with him to visit
+friends, or go shopping? Or could she do anything to aid him about
+ordering frescoers and carpenters for the old Praeneste villa?"
+
+This last was precisely what Drusus had had in mind. And so forth aunt
+and nephew sallied. Some of the streets they visited were so narrow
+that they had to send back even their litters; but everywhere the
+crowds bowed such deference and respect to the Vestal's white robes
+that their progress was easy. Drusus soon had given his orders to
+cabinet-makers and selected the frescoer's designs. It remained to
+purchase Cornelia's slave-boy. He wanted not merely an attractive
+serving-lad, but one whose intelligence and probity could be relied
+upon; and in the dealers' stalls not one of the dark orientals,
+although all had around their necks tablets with long lists of
+encomiums, promised conscience or character. Drusus visited, several
+very choice boys that were exhibited in separate rooms, at fancy
+prices, but none of these pretty Greeks or Asiatics seemed promising.
+
+Deeply disgusted, he led Fabia away from the slave-market.
+
+"I will try to-morrow," he said, vexed at his defeat. "I need a new
+toga. Let us go to the shop on the Clivus Suburanus; there used to be
+a good woollen merchant, Lucius Marius, on the way to the Porta
+Esquilina."
+
+Accordingly the two went on in the direction indicated; but at the
+spot where the Clivus Suburanus was cut by the Vicus Longus, there was
+so dense a crowd and so loud a hubbub, that their attendants could not
+clear a way. For a time it was impossible to see what was the matter.
+Street gamins were howling, and idle slaves and hucksters were pouring
+forth volleys of taunts and derision at some luckless wight.
+
+"Away with them! the whip-scoundrel! _Verbero!_"[51] yelled a lusty
+produce-vender. "Lash him again! Tan his hide for him! Don't you enjoy
+it? Not accustomed to such rough handling, eh! my pretty sparrow?"
+
+  [51] A coarse epithet.
+
+Fabia without the least hesitation thrust herself into the
+dirty-robed, foul-mouthed crowd. At sight of the Vestal's white dress
+and fillets the pack gave way before her, as a swarm of gnats at the
+wave of a hand. Drusus strode at her heels.
+
+It was a sorry enough sight that met them--though not uncommon in the
+age and place. Some wretched slave-boy, a slight, delicate fellow, had
+been bound to the bars of a furca, and was being driven by two brutal
+executioners to the place of doom outside the gates. At the
+street-crossing he had sunk down, and all the blows of the driver's
+scourge could not compel him to arise. He lay in the dust, writhing
+and moaning, with the great welts showing on his bare back, where the
+brass knots of the lash had stripped away the cloth.
+
+"Release this boy! Cease to beat him!" cried Fabia, with a commanding
+mien, that made the crowd shrink further back; while the two
+executioners looked stupid and sheepish, but did nothing.
+
+"Release this boy!" commanded the Vestal. "Dare you hesitate? Do you
+wish to undo yourselves by defying me?"
+
+"Mercy, august lady," cried Alfidius,--for the chief executioner was
+he,--with a supplicatory gesture. "If our mistress knows that her
+commands are unexecuted, it is we, who are but slaves, that must
+suffer!"
+
+"Who is your mistress?" demanded Fabia.
+
+"Valeria, wife of Lucius Calatinus."
+
+"Livia's precious mother!" whispered Drusus. "I can imagine her doing
+a thing like this." Then aloud, "What has the boy done?"
+
+"He dropped a murrhine vase," was the answer.
+
+"And so he must be beaten to death!" exclaimed the young man, who,
+despite the general theory that most slaves were on a par with cattle,
+had much of the milk of human kindness in his nature. "_Phui!_ What
+brutality! You must insist on your rights, aunt. Make them let him
+go."
+
+Sulkily enough the executioners unbound the heavy furca. Agias
+staggered to his feet, too dazed really to know what deliverance had
+befallen him.
+
+"Why don't you thank the Vestal?" said Alfidius. "She has made us
+release you--you ungrateful dog!"
+
+"Released? Saved?" gasped Agias, and he reeled as though his head were
+in a whirl. Then, as if recollecting his faculties, he fell down at
+Fabia's feet, and kissed the hem of her robe.
+
+"The gods save us all now," muttered Alfidius. "Valeria will swear
+that we schemed to have the boy released. We shall never dare to face
+her again!"
+
+"Oh! do not send me back to that cruel woman!" moaned Agias. "Better
+die now, than go back to her and incur her anger again! Kill me, but
+do not send me back!"
+
+And he broke down again in inward agony.
+
+Drusus had been surveying the boy, and saw that though he was now in a
+pitiable enough state, he had been good-looking; and that though his
+back had been cruelly marred, his face had not been cut with the
+lashes. Perhaps the very fact that Agias had been the victim of
+Valeria, and the high contempt in which the young Drusian held his
+divorced stepmother, made him instinctively take the outraged boy's
+part.
+
+"See here," began Drusus, "were you to be whipped by orders of
+Calatinus?"
+
+"No," moaned Agias; "Valeria gave the orders. My master was out."
+
+"Ha!" remarked Drusus to his aunt, "won't the good man be pleased to
+know how his wife has killed a valuable slave in one of her tantrums?"
+Then aloud. "If I can buy you of Calatinus, and give you to the Lady
+Cornelia, niece of Lentulus, the consul-elect, will you serve her
+faithfully, will you make her wish the law of your life?"
+
+"I will die for her!" cried Agias, his despair mingled with a ray of
+hope.
+
+"Where is your master?"
+
+"At the Forum, I think, soliciting votes," replied the boy.
+
+"Well then, follow me," said Drusus, "our road leads back to the
+Forum. We may meet him. If I can arrange with him, your executioners
+have nothing to fear from Valeria. Come along."
+
+Agias followed, with his head again in a whirl.
+
+
+III
+
+The little company worked its way back to the Forum, not, as now, a
+half-excavated ruin, the gazing-stock for excursionists, a commonplace
+whereby to sum up departed greatness: the splendid buildings of the
+Empire had not yet arisen, but the structures of the age were not
+unimposing. Here, in plain view, was the Capitoline Hill, crowned by
+the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus and the Arx. Here was the site of
+the Senate House, the Curia (then burned), in which the men who had
+made Rome mistress of the world had taken counsel. Every stone, every
+basilica, had its history for Drusus--though, be it said, at the
+moment the noble past was little in his mind. And the historic
+enclosure was all swarming, beyond other places, with the dirty,
+bustling crowd, shoppers, hucksters, idlers. Drusus and his company
+searched for Calatinus along the upper side of the Forum, past the
+Rostra, the Comitium,[52] and the Temple of Saturn. Then they were
+almost caught in the dense throng that was pouring into the plaza from
+the busy commercial thoroughfares of the Vicus Jugarius, or the Vicus
+Tuscus. But just as the party had almost completed their circuit of
+the square, and Drusus was beginning to believe that his benevolent
+intentions were leading him on a bootless errand, a man in a
+conspicuously white toga rushed out upon him from the steps of the
+Temple of Castor, embraced him violently, and imprinted a firm,
+garlic-flavoured kiss on both cheeks; crying at the same time
+heartily:--
+
+  [52] _Comitium_, assembly-place round the Rostra.
+
+"Oh, my dear Publius Dorso, I am so glad to meet you! How are all your
+affairs up in Fidenae?"
+
+Drusus recoiled in some disgust, and began rubbing his outraged
+cheeks.
+
+"Dorso? Dorso? There is surely some mistake, my good man. I am known
+as Quintus Drusus of Praeneste."
+
+Before he had gotten further, his assailant was pounding and shaking a
+frightened-looking slave-lad who had stood at his elbow.
+
+"The gods blast you, you worthless _nomenclator_![53] You have
+forgotten the worthy gentleman's name, and have made me play the fool!
+You may have lost me votes! All Rome will hear of this! I shall be a
+common laughing-stock! _Hei! vah!_ But I'll teach you to behave!" And
+he shook the wretched boy until the latter's teeth rattled.
+
+  [53] Great men, and candidates for office who wished to "know"
+  everybody, kept smart slaves at their elbow to whisper strangers'
+  names in their ears. Sometimes the slaves themselves were at fault.
+
+At this instant a young man of faultless toilet, whom we have already
+recognized as Lucius Ahenobarbus, pushed into the little knot as a
+peacemaker.
+
+"Most excellent Calatinus," said he, half suppressing his laughter at
+the candidate's fury, the nomenclator's anguish, and Drusus's vexed
+confusion, "allow me to introduce to you a son of Sextus Drusus, who
+was an old friend of my father's. This is Quintus Drusus, if in a few
+years I have not forgotten his face; and this, my dear Quintus, is my
+good friend Lucius Calatinus, who would be glad of your vote and
+influence to help on his candidacy as tribune."
+
+The atmosphere was cleared instantly. Calatinus forgot his anger, in
+order to apologize in the most obsequious manner for his headlong
+salutation. Drusus, pleased to find the man he had been seeking,
+forgave the vile scent of the garlic, and graciously accepted the
+explanation. Then the way was open to ask Calatinus whether he was
+willing to dispose of Agias. The crestfallen candidate was only too
+happy to do something to put himself right with the person he had
+offended. Loudly he cursed his wife's temper, that would have wasted a
+slave worth a "hundred thousand sesterces" to gratify a mere burst of
+passion.
+
+"Yes, he was willing to sell the boy to accommodate his excellency,
+Quintus Drusus," said Calatinus, "although he was a valuable slave.
+Still, in honesty he had to admit that Agias had some mischievous
+points. Calatinus had boxed his ears only the day before for licking
+the pastry. But, since his wife disliked the fellow, he would be
+constrained to sell him, if a purchaser would take him."
+
+The result of the conference was that Drusus, who had inherited that
+keen eye for business which went with most of his race, purchased
+Agias for thirty thousand sesterces, considerably less than the boy
+would have brought in the market.
+
+While Drusus was handing over a money order payable with Flaccus,
+Lucius Ahenobarbus again came forward, with all seeming friendliness.
+
+"My dear Quintus," said he, "Marcus Laeca has commissioned me to find a
+ninth guest to fill his _triclinium_[54] this evening. We should be
+delighted if you would join us. I don't know what the good Marcus will
+offer us to-night, but you can be sure of a slice of peacock[55] and a
+few other nice bits."
+
+  [54] Dining room with couch seats for nine, the regular size.
+
+  [55] The _ne plus ultra_ of Roman gastronomy at the time.
+
+"I am very grateful," replied Drusus, who felt all the while that
+Lucius Ahenobarbus was the last man in the world with whom he cared to
+spend an evening's carousing; "but," and here he concocted a white
+lie, "an old friend I met in Athens has already invited me to spend
+the night, and I cannot well refuse him. I thank you for your
+invitation."
+
+Lucius muttered some polite and conventional terms of regret, and fell
+back to join Servius Flaccus and Gabinius, who were near him.
+
+"I invited him and he refused," he said half scornfully, half
+bitterly. "That little minx, Cornelia, has been complaining of me to
+him, I am sure. The gods ruin him! If he wishes to become my enemy,
+he'll have good cause to fear my bite."
+
+"You say he's from Praeneste," said Gabinius, "and yet can he speak
+decent Latin? Doesn't he say '_conia_' for '_ciconia_,' and
+'_tammodo_' for '_tantummodo_'_?_ I wonder you invite such a boor."
+
+"Oh! he can speak good enough Latin," said Lucius. "But I invited him
+because he is rich; and it might be worth our while to make him
+gamble."
+
+"Rich!" lisped Servius Flaccus. "Rich (h)as my (h)uncle the broker?
+That silly straightlac(h)ed fellow, who's (h)a C(h)ato, (h)or worse?
+For shame!"
+
+"Well," said Lucius, "old Crassus used to say that no one who couldn't
+pay out of his own purse for an army was rich. But though Drusus
+cannot do quite that, he has enough sesterces to make happy men of
+most of us, if his fortune were mine or yours."
+
+"(H)its (h)an (h)outrage for him to have (h)it," cried Servius
+Flaccus.
+
+"It's worse than an outrage," replied Ahenobarbus; "it's a sheer
+blunder of the Fates. Remind me to tell you about Drusus and his
+fortune, before I have drunk too much to-night."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Agias went away rejoicing with his new master. Drusus owned an
+apartment house on the Vicus Longus, and there had a furnished suite
+of rooms. He gave Agias into the charge of the porter[56] and ordered
+him to dress the boy's wounds. Cappadox waited on his master when he
+lunched.
+
+  [56] Porter--_Insularius._
+
+"Master Quintus," said he, with the familiar air of a privileged
+servant, "did you see that knavish-looking Gabinius following Madame
+Fabia all the way back to the Temple of Vesta?"
+
+"No," said Drusus; "what do you mean, you silly fellow?"
+
+"Oh, nothing," said Cappadox, humbly. "I only thought it a little
+queer."
+
+"Perhaps so," said his master, carelessly.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IV
+
+Lucius Ahenobarbus Airs His Grievance
+
+
+I
+
+The pomp and gluttony of Roman banquets have been too often described
+to need repetition here; neither would we be edified by learning all
+the orgies that Marcus Laeca (an old Catilinian conspirator) and his
+eight guests indulged in that night: only after the dinner had been
+cleared, and before the Gadesian[57] dancing girls were called in, the
+dice began to rattle, and speedily all were engrossed in drink and
+play.
+
+  [57] From Cadiz, Spain.
+
+Lucius Ahenobarbus soon lost so heavily that he was cursing every god
+that presided over the noble game.
+
+"I am ruined next Ides," he groaned. "Phormio the broker has only
+continued my loan at four per cent a month. All my villas and
+furniture are mortgaged, and will be sold at auction. _Mehercle_,
+destruction stares me in the face!"
+
+"Well, well, my dear fellow," said Pratinas, who, having won the
+stakes, was in a mood to be sympathetic, "we must really see what can
+be done to remedy matters."
+
+"I can see nothing!" was his answer.
+
+"Won't your father come to the rescue?" put in Gabinius, between deep
+pulls on a beaker.
+
+"My father!" snapped Ahenobarbus. "Never a sesterce will I get out of
+him! He's as good as turned me adrift, and Cato my uncle is always
+giving him bad reports of me, like the hypocritical Stoic that Cato
+is."
+
+"By the bye," began Gabinius again, putting down the wine-cup, "you
+hinted to-day that you had been cheated out of a fortune, after a
+manner. Something about that Drusus of Praeneste, if I recollect.
+What's the story?"
+
+Lucius settled down on his elbow, readjusted the cushions on the
+banqueting couch, and then began, interrupted by many a hiccough
+because of his potations.
+
+"It is quite a story, but I won't bore you with details. It has quite
+as much to do with Cornelia, Lentulus Crus's pretty niece, as with
+Drusus himself. Here it is in short. Sextus Drusus and Caius Lentulus
+were such good friends that, as you know, they betrothed their son and
+daughter when the latter were mere children. To make the compact
+doubly strong, Sextus Drusus inserted in his will a clause like this:
+'Let my son Quintus enjoy the use of my estate and its income, until
+he become twenty-five and cease to be under the care of Flaccus his
+_tutor_.[58] If he die before that time, let his property go to
+Cornelia, the daughter of Caius Lentulus, except;' and here Sextus
+left a small legacy for his own young daughter, Livia. You see Drusus
+can make no will until he is five-and-twenty. But then comes another
+provision. 'If Cornelia shall marry any person save my son, my son
+shall at once be free to dispose of my estates.' So Cornelia is laid
+under a sort of obligation also to marry Quintus. The whole aim of the
+will is to make it very hard for the young people to fail to wed as
+their fathers wished."
+
+  [58] Commercial adviser required for young men under five-and-twenty.
+
+"True," said Gabinius; "but how such an arrangement can affect you and
+your affairs, I really cannot understand."
+
+"That is so," continued Ahenobarbus, "but here is the other side of
+the matter. Caius Lentulus was a firm friend of Sextus Drusus; he also
+was very close and dear to my father. Caius desired that Cornelia wed
+young Drusus, and so enjoined her in his will; but out of compliment
+to my father, put in a clause which was something like this: 'If
+Quintus Drusus die before he marry Cornelia, or refuse to marry
+Cornelia at the proper time, then let Cornelia and all her property be
+given to Lucius, the second son of my dearly loved friend, Lucius
+Domitius Ahenobarbus,' Now I think you will begin to see why Quintus
+Drusus's affairs interest me a little. If he refuse to marry Cornelia
+before he be five-and-twenty, she falls to me. But I understand that
+Lentulus, her uncle, is badly in debt, and her dowry won't be much.
+But if Drusus is not married to her, and die before he is twenty-five,
+_his property is hers and she is mine._ Do you understand why I have a
+little grudge against him?"
+
+"For what?" cried Laeca, with breathless interest.
+
+"For living!" sighed Ahenobarbus, hopelessly.
+
+The handsome face of Pratinas was a study. His nostrils dilated; his
+lips quivered; his eyes were bright and keen with what evidently
+passed in his mind for a great discovery.
+
+"Eureka!" cried the Greek, clapping his hands. "My dear Lucius, let me
+congratulate you! You are saved!"
+
+"What?" exclaimed the young man, starting up.
+
+"You are saved!" repeated Pratinas, all animation. "Drusus's sesterces
+shall be yours! Every one of them!"
+
+Lucius Ahenobarbus was a debauchee, a mere creature of pleasure,
+without principle or character; but even he had a revulsion of spirit
+at the hardly masked proposal of the enthusiastic Greek. He flushed in
+spite of the wine, then turned pale, then stammered, "Don't mention
+such a thing, Pratinas. I was never Drusus's enemy. I dare not dream
+of such a move. The Gods forefend!"
+
+"The Gods?" repeated Pratinas, with a cynical intonation. "Do you
+believe there are any?"
+
+"Do you?" retorted Lucius, feeling all the time that a deadly
+temptation had hold of him, which he could by no means resist.
+
+"Why?" said the Greek. "Your Latin Ennius states my view, in some of
+your rather rough and blundering native tetrameters. He says:--
+
+  "'There's a race of gods in heaven; so I've said and still will say.
+  But I deem that we poor mortals do not come beneath their sway.
+  Otherwise the good would triumph, whereas evil reigns to-day.'"
+
+"And you advise?" said Ahenobarbus, leaning forward with pent-up
+excitement.
+
+"I advise?" replied Pratinas; "I am only a poor ignorant Hellene, and
+who am I, to give advice to Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, a most noble
+member of the most noble of nations!"
+
+If Pratinas had said: "My dear Lucius, you are a thick-headed,
+old-fashioned, superstitious Roman, whom I, in my superior wisdom,
+utterly despise," he would have produced about the same effect upon
+young Ahenobarbus.
+
+But Lucius still fluttered vainly,--a very weak conscience whispering
+that Drusus had never done him any harm; that murder was a dangerous
+game, and that although his past life had been bad enough, he had
+never made any one--unless it were a luckless slave or two--the victim
+of bloodthirsty passion or rascality.
+
+"Don't propose it," he groaned. "I don't dare to think of such a
+thing! What disgrace and trouble, if it should all come out!"
+
+"Come, come, Ahenobarbus," thrust in Marcus Laeca, who had been
+educated in Catilina's school for polite villains and cut-throats.
+"Pratinas is only proposing what, if you were a man of spirit, would
+have been done long ago. You can't complain of Fortune, when she's put
+a handsome estate in your hands for the asking."
+
+"My admirable fellow," said Pratinas, benevolently, "I highly applaud
+your scruples. But, permit me to say it, I must ask you to defer to me
+as being a philosopher. Let us look at the matter in a rational way.
+We have gotten over any bogies which our ancestors had about Hades, or
+the punishments of the wicked. In fact, what we know--as good
+Epicureans--is that, as Democritus of Abdera[59] early taught, this
+world of ours is composed of a vast number of infinitely small and
+indivisible atoms, which have by some strange hap come to take the
+forms we see in the world of life and matter. Now the soul of man is
+also of atoms, only they are finer and more subtile. At death these
+atoms are dissolved, and so far as that man is concerned, all is over
+with him. The atoms may recombine, or join with others, but never form
+anew that same man. Hence we may fairly conclude that this life is
+everything and death ends all. Do you follow, and see to what I am
+leading?"
+
+  [59] Born about 470 B.C.
+
+"I think so," said the wretched Lucius, feeling himself like a bird
+caught in a snare, yet not exactly grasping the direct bearing of all
+this learned exposition.
+
+"My application is this," went on Pratinas, glibly. "Life is all--all
+either for pleasure or pain. Therefore every man has a right to
+extract all the sweetness he can out of it. But suppose a man
+deliberately makes himself gloomy, extracts no joy from life; lets
+himself be overborne by care and sorrow,--is not such a man better
+dead than living? Is not a dreamless sleep preferable to misery or
+even cold asceticism? And how much more does this all apply when we
+see a man who makes himself unhappy, preventing by his very act of
+existence the happiness of another more equably tempered mortal! Now I
+believe this is the present case. Drusus, I understand, is leading a
+spare, joyless, workaday sort of existence, which is, or by every
+human law should be, to him a burden. So long as he lives, he prevents
+you from enjoying the means of acquiring pleasure. Now I have Socrates
+of imperishable memory on my side, when I assert that death under any
+circumstances is either no loss or a very great gain. Considering then
+the facts of the case in its philosophic and rational bearings, I may
+say this: Not merely would it be no wrong to remove Drusus from a
+world in which he is evidently out of place, but I even conceive such
+an act to rise to the rank of a truly meritorious deed."
+
+Lucius Ahenobarbus was conquered. He could not resist the inexorable
+logic of this train of reasoning, all the premises of which he fully
+accepted. Perhaps, we should add, he was not very unwilling to have
+his wine-befuddled intellect satisfied, and his conscience stilled. He
+turned down a huge beaker of liquor, and coughed forth:--
+
+"Right as usual, Pratinas! By all the gods, but I believe you can save
+me!"
+
+"Yes; as soon as Drusus is dead," insinuated the Greek who was already
+computing his bill for brokerage in this little affair, "you can raise
+plenty of loans, on the strength of your coming marriage with
+Cornelia."
+
+"But how will you manage it?" put in the alert Gabinius. "There
+mustn't be any clumsy bungling."
+
+"Rest assured," said Pratinas, with a grave dignity, perhaps the
+result of his drinking, "that in my affairs I leave no room for
+bungling."
+
+"And your plan is--" asked Lucius.
+
+"Till to-morrow, friend," said the Greek; "meet me at the Temple of
+Saturn, just before dusk. Then I'll be ready."
+
+
+II
+
+Lucius Ahenobarbus's servants escorted their tipsy master home to his
+lodgings in a fashionable apartment house on the Esquiline. When he
+awoke, it was late the next day, and head and wits were both sadly the
+worse for the recent entertainment. Finally a bath and a luncheon
+cleared his brain, and he realized his position. He was on the brink
+of concocting a deliberate murder. Drusus had never wronged him; the
+crime would be unprovoked; avarice would be its only justification.
+Ahenobarbus had done many things which a far laxer code of ethics than
+that of to-day would frown upon; but, as said, he had never committed
+murder--at least had only had crucified those luckless slaves, who did
+not count. He roused with a start, as from a dream. What if Pratinas
+were wrong? What if there were really gods, and furies, and
+punishments for the wicked after death? And then came the other side
+of the shield: a great fortune his; all his debts paid off; unlimited
+chances for self-enjoyment; last, but not least, Cornelia his. She had
+slighted him, and turned her back upon all his advances; and now what
+perfect revenge! Lucius was more in love with Cornelia than he
+admitted even to himself. He would even give up Clyte, if he could
+possess her. And so the mental battle went on all day; and the prick
+of conscience, the fears of superstition, and the lingerings of
+religion ever grew fainter. Near nightfall he was at his post, at the
+Temple of Saturn. Pratinas was awaiting him. The Greek had only a few
+words of greeting, and the curt injunction:--"Draw your cloak up to
+shield your face, and follow me." Then they passed out from the Forum,
+forced their way through the crowded streets, and soon were through
+the _Porta Ratumena,_ outside the walls, and struck out across the
+Campus Martius, upon the Via Flaminia. It was rapidly darkening. The
+houses grew fewer and fewer. At a little distance the dim structures
+of the Portico and Theatre of Pompeius could be seen, looming up to an
+exaggerated size in the evening haze. A grey fog was drifting up from
+the Tiber, and out of a rift in a heavy cloud-bank a beam of the
+imprisoned moon was struggling. Along the road were peasants with
+their carts and asses hastening home. Over on the Pincian Mount the
+dark green masses of the splendid gardens of Pompeius and of Lucullus
+were just visible. The air was filled with the croak of frogs and the
+chirp of crickets, and from the river came the creak of the sculls and
+paddles of a cumbrous barge that was working its way down the Tiber.
+
+Ahenobarbus felt awed and uncomfortable. Pratinas, with his mantle
+wrapped tightly around his head, continued at a rapid pace. Lucius had
+left his attendants at home, and now began to recall gruesome tales of
+highwaymen and bandits frequenting this region after dark. His fears
+were not allayed by noticing that underneath his himation Pratinas
+occasionally let the hilt of a short sword peep forth. Still the Greek
+kept on, never turning to glance at a filthy, half-clad beggar, who
+whined after them for an alms, and who did not so much as throw a kiss
+after the young Roman when the latter tossed forth a denarius,[60] but
+snatched up the coin, muttered at its being no more, and vanished into
+the gathering gloom.
+
+  [60] Four sesterces, 16 cents.
+
+"Where are you leading me?" asked Ahenobarbus, a second time, after
+all his efforts to communicate with the usually fluent Greek met with
+only monosyllables.
+
+"To the _lanista_[61] Dumnorix," replied Pratinas, quickening an
+already rapid pace.
+
+  [61] Keeper of a school of gladiators.
+
+"And his barracks are--?"
+
+"By the river, near the Mulvian bridge."
+
+At length a pile of low square buildings was barely visible in the
+haze. It was close to the Tiber, and the rush of the water against the
+piling of the bridge was distinctly audible. As the two drew near to a
+closed gateway, a number of mongrel dogs began to snap and bark around
+them. From within the building came the roar of coarse hilarity and
+coarser jests. As Pratinas approached the solidly barred doorway, a
+grating was pushed aside and a rude voice demanded:--
+
+"Your business? What are you doing here?"
+
+"Is Dumnorix sober?" replied Pratinas, nothing daunted. "If so, tell
+him to come and speak with me. I have something for his advantage."
+
+Either Pratinas was well known at the gladiators' school, or something
+in his speech procured favour. There was a rattling of chains and
+bolts, and the door swung open. A man of unusual height and ponderous
+proportions appeared in the opening. That was all which could be seen
+in the semi-darkness.
+
+"You are Pratinas?" he asked, speaking Latin with a northern accent.
+The Hellene nodded, and replied softly: "Yes. No noise. Tell Dumnorix
+to come quietly."
+
+The two stepped in on to the flags of a courtyard, and the doorkeeper,
+after rebolting, vanished into the building. Ahenobarbus could only
+see that he was standing in a large stone-paved court, perhaps one
+hundred and forty feet wide and considerably longer. A colonnade of
+low whitewashed pillars ran all about: and behind them stretched rows
+of small rooms and a few larger apartments. There were _tyros_
+practising with wooden swords in one of the rooms, whence a light
+streamed, and a knot of older gladiators was urging them on, mocking,
+praising, and criticising their efforts. Now and then a burly
+gladiator would stroll across the court; but the young noble and his
+escort remained hidden in shadow.
+
+Presently a door opened at the other end of the courtyard, and some
+one with a lantern began to come toward the entrance. Long before the
+stranger was near, Ahenobarbus thought he was rising like a giant out
+of the darkness; and when at last Dumnorix--for it was he--was close
+at hand, both Roman and Greek seemed veritable dwarfs beside him.
+
+Dumnorix--so far as he could be seen in the lantern light--was a
+splendid specimen of a northern giant. He was at least six feet five
+inches in height, and broad proportionately. His fair straight hair
+tumbled in disorder over his shoulders, and his prodigiously long
+mustaches seemed, to the awed Ahenobarbus, almost to curl down to his
+neck. His breath came in hot pants like a winded horse, and when he
+spoke, it was in short Latin monosyllables, interlarded with
+outlandish Gallic oaths. He wore cloth trousers with bright stripes of
+red and orange; a short-sleeved cloak of dark stuff, falling down to
+the thigh; and over the cloak, covering back and shoulders, another
+sleeveless mantle, clasped under the chin with a huge golden buckle.
+At his right thigh hung, from a silver set girdle, by weighty bronze
+chains, a heavy sabre, of which the steel scabbard banged noisily as
+its owner advanced.
+
+"Holla! Pratinas," cried the Gaul, as he came close. "By the holy oak!
+but I'm glad to see you! Come to my room. Have a flagon of our good
+northern mead."
+
+"Hist," said the Greek, cautiously. "Not so boisterous. Better stay
+here in the dark. I can't tell who of your men may hear us."
+
+"As you say," said Dumnorix, setting down the light at a little
+distance and coming closer.
+
+"You remember that little affair of last year," said Pratinas,
+continuing;--"how you helped me get rid of a witness in a very
+troublesome law case?"
+
+"Ha! ha!" chuckled the giant, "I wish I had the sesterces I won then,
+in my coffer now."
+
+"Well," replied Pratinas, "I don't need to tell you what I and my
+noble friend here--Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus--have come for. A
+little more business along the same line. Are you our man?"
+
+"I should say so," answered Dumnorix, with a grin worthy of a baboon.
+"Only make it worth my while."
+
+"Now," said Pratinas, sinking his voice still lower, "this affair of
+ours will pay you well; but it is more delicate than the other. A
+blunder will spoil it all. You must do your best; and we will do the
+fair thing by you."
+
+"Go on," said the Gaul, folding his huge paws on his breast.
+
+"Have you ever been in Praeneste?" questioned Pratinas.
+
+"I matched two _mirmillones_[62] of mine there against two
+_threces_[63] of another lanista, and my dogs won the prize; but I
+can't say that I am acquainted with the place," answered the other.
+
+  [62] Gladiators equipped as Gaulish warriors.
+
+  [63] Buckler men.
+
+"You should find out, then," said Pratinas, "for here lies your work."
+And then he proceeded, with occasional prompting from the
+better-informed Ahenobarbus, to point out the location of Drusus's
+estate, and the character and habits of the man whom Dumnorix was
+cheerfully proposing to put out of the way. Dumnorix assented and bade
+him go on, with hoarse grunts; and when the Greek had concluded,
+growled out in his barbarous Latin:--
+
+"But why all this pother? Why not let me send a knave or two and knock
+the fellow some dark night in the head? It will save us both time and
+trouble."
+
+"My excellent master of the gladiators," said Pratinas, as smoothly as
+ever, "you must not take it ill, if I tell you that to have a taking
+off such as you propose would be a very bad thing both for you and the
+most noble Ahenobarbus. This Drusus is not a helpless wight, without
+friends, waiting to become the fair prey of any dagger man.[64] He has
+friends, I have learned, who, if he were to be disposed of in such a
+rude and bungling manner, would not fail to probe deeply into the
+whole thing. Flaccus the great banker, notably, would spare no pains
+to bring the responsibility of the matter home, not merely to the poor
+wretch who struck the blow, but the persons who placed the weapon in
+his hands. All of which would be very awkward for Ahenobarbus. No,
+your rough-and-ready plan won't in the least work."
+
+  [64] _Sicarius_.
+
+"Well," replied Dumnorix, testily, "I'm a man of shallow wits and hard
+blows. If I had been of keener mind, the gods know, I would have been
+a free chief among the Nervii, instead of making sport for these
+straw-limbed Romans. If what I propose won't answer, what can be
+done?"
+
+"A great deal," said Pratinas, who knew perfectly how to cringe low,
+yet preserve his ascendency; "first of all, it is very necessary that
+the murderers of the amiable Drusus should receive a meet reward for
+their crime--that justice should be speedy and severe."
+
+"Man!" cried Dumnorix, griping the Greek's arm in his tremendous
+clutch. "What are you asking?"
+
+"By  Zeus!" burst out Pratinas, rubbing his crushed member. "What a
+grip is yours! Don't be alarmed. Surely you would be as willing to
+have one or two of your newest _tiros_ hung on a cross, as stabbed on
+the arena--especially when it will pay a great deal better?"
+
+"I don't follow you," said the Gaul, though a little reassured.
+
+"Simply this," said Pratinas, who evidently felt that he was coming to
+the revealing of an especially brilliant piece of _finesse_. "My
+general proposal is this. Let you and your company march through
+Praeneste,--of course carefully timing your march so as to find the
+innocent and unfortunate Drusus at his farm. You will have a very
+disorderly band of gladiators, and they begin to attack Drusus's
+orchard, and maltreat his slaves. You try to stop them,--without
+avail. Finally, in a most unfortunate and outrageous outbreak they
+slay the master of the house. The tumult is quelled. The heirs proceed
+against you. You can only hand over the murderers for crucifixion, and
+offer to pay any money damages that may be imposed. A heavy fine is
+laid upon you, as being responsible for the killing of Drusus by your
+slaves. You pay the damages. Ahenobarbus marries Cornelia and enters
+upon the estate. The world says that all that can be done to atone for
+Drusus's murder has been done. All of the guilty are punished. The
+dead cannot be recalled. The matter is at an end. Ahenobarbus has what
+he wished for; you have all the money you paid in damages quietly
+refunded; also the cost of the poor rascals crucified, and a fair sum
+over and above for your trouble."
+
+"By the god Belew!"[65] cried the enthusiastic Dumnorix. "What a
+clever plan! How the world will be cheated! Ha! ha! How sharp you
+little Greeks must be. Only I must have fair return for my work, and
+an oath that the business shall never be coming to the point of giving
+my eyes to the crows. I can't risk my life in anything but a square
+fight."
+
+  [65] The Gallic sun-god.
+
+"Well," said Pratinas, after a few words with his companion, "how will
+this proposition suit you? All expenses, before and after the affair
+itself, of course refunded; one hundred thousand sesterces clear gain
+for doing the deed, twenty-five thousand sesterces for every poor
+fellow we have to nail up to satisfy the law, and you to be guaranteed
+against any evil consequence. Is this sufficient?"
+
+"I think so," growled Dumnorix, in his mustaches, "but I must have the
+oath."
+
+"The oath?" said Pratinas, "oh, certainly!" and the Greek raised his
+hands toward heaven, and muttered some words to the effect that "if he
+and his friend did not fulfil their oath, let Zeus, the regarder of
+oaths, destroy them," etc., etc.--an imprecation which certainly, so
+far as words went, was strong enough to bind the most graceless. Then
+he proceeded to arrange with Dumnorix how the latter should wait until
+it was known Drusus had gone back to Praeneste, and was likely to stay
+there for some time; as to how many gladiators the lanista was to have
+ready. Dumnorix complained that the rather recent law against keeping
+gladiators at Rome prevented him from assembling in his school any
+considerable number. But out of his heterogeneous collection of Gauls,
+Germans, Spaniards, Greeks, and Asiatics he would find enough who
+could be used for the purpose without letting them know the full
+intent with which they were launched against Drusus. At all events, if
+their testimony was taken, it would have to be as slaves on the rack;
+and if they accused their master of instigating them to riot, it was
+what any person would expect of such degraded and lying wretches. So,
+after promising to come again with final word and some bags of
+earnest-money, Pratinas parted with the lanista, and he and Lucius
+Ahenobarbus found themselves again in the now entirely darkened Campus
+Martius. Lucius again feared brigands, but they fell in with no
+unpleasant nocturnal wayfarers, and reached the city without incident.
+Ahenobarbus seemed to himself to be treading on air--Cornelia, villas,
+Drusus's money--these were dancing in his head in a delightful
+confusion. He had abandoned himself completely to the sway of
+Pratinas; the Greek was omniscient, was invincible, was a greater than
+Odysseus. Ahenobarbus hardly dared to think for himself as to the plan
+which his friend had arranged for him. One observation, however, he
+made before they parted.
+
+"You swore that Dumnorix should get into no trouble. May it not prove
+expensive to keep him out of difficulty?"
+
+"My dear Lucius," replied Pratinas, "in cases of that kind there is a
+line from the Hippolytus of the immortal tragedian Euripides, which
+indicates the correct attitude for a philosopher and a man of
+discretion to assume. It runs thus,--
+
+  "'My tongue an oath took, but my mind's unsworn.'
+
+Not an inelegant sentiment, as you must see."
+
+
+III
+
+We left the excellent man of learning, Pisander, in no happy frame of
+mind, after Agias had been dragged away, presumably to speedy doom.
+And indeed for many days the shadow of Valeria's crime, for it was
+nothing else, plunged him in deep melancholy. Pisander was not a fool,
+only amongst his many good qualities he did not possess that of being
+able to make a success in life. He had been tutor to a young Asiatic
+prince, and had lost his position by a local revolution; then he had
+drifted to Alexandria, and finally Rome, where he had struggled first
+to teach philosophy, and found no pupils to listen to his lectures;
+then to conduct an elementary school, but his scholars' parents were
+backward in paying even the modest fees he charged. Finally, in sheer
+despair, to keep from starving, he accepted the position as Valeria's
+"house-philosopher."
+
+His condition was infinitely unsatisfactory for a variety of reasons.
+The good lady wished him to be at her elbow, ready to read from the
+philosophers or have on hand a talk on ethics or metaphysics to
+deliver extempore. Besides, though not a slave or freedman, he fared
+in the household much worse sometimes than they. A slave stole the
+dainties, and drained a beaker of costly wine on the sly. Pisander,
+like Thales, who was so intent looking at the stars that he fell into
+a well, "was so eager to know what was going on in heaven that he
+could not see what was before his feet."[66] And consequently the poor
+pedant dined on the remnants left after his employer and her husband
+had cleared the board; and had rancid oil and sour wine given him,
+when they enjoyed the best. The slaves had snubbed him and made fun of
+him; the freedmen regarded him with absolute disdain; Valeria's
+regular visitors treated him as a nonentity. Besides, all his
+standards of ethical righteousness were outraged by the round of life
+which he was compelled daily to witness. The worthy man would long
+before have ceased from a vassalage so disgraceful, had he possessed
+any other means of support. Once he meditated suicide, but was scared
+out of it by the thought that his bones would moulder in those huge
+pits on the Esquiline--far from friend or native land--where artisans,
+slaves, and cattle, creatures alike without means of decent burial,
+were left under circumstances unspeakably revolting to moulder away to
+dust.
+
+  [66] See Plato's "Theaetetus," 174.
+
+The day of Agias's misfortune, Pisander sat in his corner of the
+boudoir, after Valeria had left it, in a very unphilosophical rage,
+gnawing his beard and cursing inwardly his mistress, Pratinas, and the
+world in general.
+
+Arsinoe with a pale, strained face was moving about, replacing the
+bottles of cosmetics and perfumery in cabinets and caskets. Pisander
+had been kind to Arsinoe, and had taught her to read; and there was a
+fairly firm friendship between the slave and the luckless man, who
+felt himself degraded by an equal bondage.
+
+"Poor Agias," muttered Pisander.
+
+"Poor Agias," repeated Arsinoe, mournfully; then in some scorn, "Come,
+Master Pisander, now is the time to console yourself with your
+philosophy. Call out everything,--your Zeno, or Parmenides, or
+Heraclitus, or others of the thousand nobodies I've heard you praise
+to Valeria,--and make thereby my heart a jot the less sore, or Agias's
+death the less bitter! Don't sit there and snap at your beard, if your
+philosophy is good for anything! People used to pray to the gods in
+trouble, but you philosophers turn the gods into mists or thin air.
+You are a man! You are free! Do something! Say something!"
+
+"But what can I do?" groaned Pisander, bursting into tears, and
+wishing for the instant Epicureans, Stoics, Eclectics, Peripatetics,
+and every other school of learning in the nethermost Hades.
+
+"_Phui!_ Fudge!" cried Arsinoe. "What is life made for then, if a man
+who has spent all his days studying it is as good as helpless! Look at
+me! Have I not hands, feet, a head, and wits? Am I not as well
+informed and naturally capable as three fine ladies out of every four?
+Would I not look as handsome as they, if I had a chance to wear their
+dresses and jewels? Have I any blemish, any defect, that makes me
+cease to be a woman, and become a thing? Bah, master _Pisander!_ I am
+only a slave, but I will talk. Why does my blood boil at the fate of
+Agias, if it was not meant that it should heat up for some end? And
+yet I am as much a piece of property of that woman whom I hate, as
+this chair or casket. I have a right to no hope, no ambition, no
+desire, no reward. I can only aspire to live without brutal treatment.
+That would be a sort of Elysium. If I was brave enough, I would kill
+myself, and go to sleep and forget it all. But I am weak and cowardly,
+and so--here I am."
+
+Pisander only groaned and went away to his room to turn over his
+Aristotle, and wonder why nothing in the "Nicomachean Ethics" or any
+other learned treatise contained the least word that made him
+contented over the fate of Agias or his own unhappy situation. Arsinoe
+and Semiramis, when he went from them, cried, and cried again, in pity
+and helpless grief at their whole situation. And so a considerable
+number of days passed. Calatinus could have given joy to the hearts of
+several in his household if he had simply remembered that Agias had
+not been scourged to death, but sold. But Calatinus feared, now that
+he was well out of the matter, to stir up an angry scene with his
+wife, by hinting that Agias had not been punished according to her
+orders. Alfidius, too, and the other slaves with him, imagined that
+his mistress would blame them if they admitted that Agias was alive.
+So the household gathered, by the silence of all concerned, that the
+bright Greek boy had long since passed beyond power of human torment.
+Pisander recovered part of his equanimity, and Arsinoe and Semiramis
+began to see life a shade less darkened.
+
+Pratinas occasionally repeated his morning calls upon Valeria. He
+seemed much engrossed with business, but was always the same suave,
+elegant, accomplished personage that had endeared him to that lady's
+heart. One morning he came in, in unusually good spirits.
+"Congratulate me," he exclaimed, after saluting Valeria; "I have
+disposed of a very delicate piece of work, and my mind can take a
+little rest. At least I have roughly chiselled out the matter, as a
+sculptor would say, and can now wait a bit before finishing. Ah! what
+elegant study is this which is engrossing your ladyship this morning?"
+
+"Pisander is reading from the works of Gorgias of Leontini," said
+Valeria, languidly.
+
+"To be sure," went on Pratinas; "I have always had the greatest
+respect for the three nihilistic propositions of that philosopher. To
+read him one is half convinced of the affirmation that nothing exists;
+that if anything existed, the fact could not be known, and that if the
+fact were known, it could not be communicated; although of course, my
+dear madam, there are very grave objections to accepting such views in
+their fulness."
+
+"Of course," echoed Valeria. "Pisander, read Pratinas that little poem
+of Archilochus, whose sentiment I so much admired, when I happened on
+it yesterday."
+
+Pisander fumbled among his rolls, then read, perhaps throwing a bit of
+sarcasm into his tone:--
+
+  "Gyges'[67] wealth and honours great
+    Come not nigh to me!
+  Heavenly pow'r, or tyrant's state,
+    I'll not envy thee.
+  Swift let any sordid prize
+  Fade and vanish from my eyes!"
+
+  [67] A Lydian king whose wealth was placed on a par with that of the
+  better known Croesus.
+
+"Your ladyship," said Pratinas, appearing entranced by the lines, "is
+ever in search of the pearls of refined expression!"
+
+"I wish," said Valeria, whose mind ran from Gorgias to Archilochus,
+and then back to quite foreign matters, with lightning rapidity, "you
+would tell Kallias, the sculptor, that the head-dress on my statue in
+the atrium must be changed. I don't arrange my hair that way any
+longer. He must put on a new head-dress without delay."[68]
+
+  [68] Such alterations were actually made in Rome.
+
+"Certainly," assented the Greek.
+
+"And now," said the lady, half entreating, half insinuating, "_you
+must_ tell me what has made you so abstracted lately; that business
+you mentioned, which compelled you to restrict your calls."
+
+"My dear Valeria," said Pratinas, casting a glance over at Pisander in
+his corner, "I dislike mysteries; but perhaps there are some things
+which I had better not reveal to any one. Don't be offended, but--"
+
+"I am offended," exclaimed the lady, striking her lap with her hands,
+"and I accept no '_buts_.' I will be as silent about all your affairs
+as about the mysteries of the _Bona Dea_.[69]"
+
+  [69] To whose mysteries only women were admitted.
+
+"I believe I can be confident you will not betray me," said Pratinas,
+who in fact considered precautions that were necessary to take among
+so blundering and thick-witted people as the Latins, almost
+superfluous. He muttered to himself, "I wouldn't dare to do this in
+Alexandria,--prate of a murder,--" and then glanced again toward
+Pisander.
+
+"Pisander," said Valeria, sharply, noting Pratinas's disquietude, "go
+out of the room. I don't need you at present."
+
+Pisander, unlike many contemporaries, was affected by a sensitive
+conscience. But if there was one man whom he despised to the bottom of
+his soul, it was Pratinas. Pratinas had lorded it over him and
+patronized him, in a way which drove the mild-tempered man of learning
+to desperation. The spirit of evil entered into the heart of Pisander
+as he left the room. The average chatter of Pratinas and Valeria had
+been gall and wormwood to him, and he had been glad enough to evade
+it; but here was Pratinas with a secret which he clearly did not wish
+Pisander to know. And Pisander, prompted by most unphilosophical
+motives, resolved within himself to play the eavesdropper. The boudoir
+was approached by three doors, one from the peristylium, one from
+Valeria's private sleeping chamber, one from the servants' quarters.
+Pisander went out through the first, and going through other rooms to
+the third, took his station by that entrance. He met Arsinoe, and took
+the friendly maid into his plot, by stationing her on guard to prevent
+the other servants from interfering with him. Then applying his ear to
+the large keyhole of the door, he could understand all that was
+passing in the boudoir. What Pratinas was saying it is hardly
+necessary to repeat. The Greek was relating with infinite zest, and to
+Valeria's intense delight and amusement, the story of the two wills
+which placed Drusus's estate and the hand of Cornelia within reach of
+Lucius Ahenobarbus; of the manner in which this last young man had
+been induced to take steps to make way with an unfortunate rival.
+Finally, in a low, half-audible tone, he told of the provisional
+arrangements with Dumnorix, and how very soon the plan was to be put
+in execution.
+
+"And you must be sure and tell me," cried Valeria, clapping her hands
+when Pratinas concluded, "what the details of the affair all are, and
+when and how you succeed. Poor Quintus Drusus! I am really sorry for
+him. But when one doesn't make use of what Fortune has given him,
+there is nothing else to do!"
+
+"Yes," said Pratinas, sententiously. "He who fails to realize what is
+for him the highest good, forfeits, thereby, the right to life
+itself."
+
+Pisander slipped away from the keyhole, with a white face, and panting
+for breath. Briefly, he repeated what he had gathered to Arsinoe, then
+blurted out:--
+
+"I will go in and meet that well-oiled villain face to face. By Zeus!
+I will make him feel the depths of an honest man's scorn and
+indignation!"
+
+"You will be a fool," replied Arsinoe, quietly, "if you do. Valeria
+would instantly dismiss you from her service."
+
+"I will go at once to Drusus," asserted Pisander.
+
+"Drusus may or may not be convinced that what you say is true,"
+answered the girl; "but he, I gather from what you repeat, has just
+gone back to Praeneste. Before you could reach Praeneste, you are a dead
+man."
+
+"How so?" demanded the excited philosopher, brandishing his fists. "I
+am as strong as Pratinas."
+
+"How little wisdom," commented Arsinoe, "you do gather from your
+books! Can't you see Pratinas is a reckless scoundrel--with every
+gladiator in Dumnorix's school at his call if needs be--who would stop
+at nothing to silence promptly the mouth of a dangerous witness? This
+isn't worse than many another case. Don't share the ruin of a man who
+is an utter stranger! We have troubles enough of our own."
+
+And with this consolation Arsinoe left him, again consumed with
+impotent rage.
+
+"Villain," fumed Pisander to himself, "if I could only place my
+fingers round your neck! But what can I do? What can I do? I am
+helpless, friendless, penniless! And I can only tear out my heart, and
+pretend to play the philosopher. I, a philosopher! If I were a true
+one, I would have had the courage to kill myself before this."
+
+And in this mental state he continued, till he learned that Pratinas
+had taken his farewell, and that Calatinus wished him--since all the
+slaves seemed busy, and the poor house philosopher was often sent on
+menial errands--to go to the _Forum Boarium_,[70] and bring back some
+ribs of beef for a dinner that evening. Pisander went as bidden,
+tugging a large basket, and trying to muster up courage to continue
+his walk to the Fabrician Bridge, and plunge into the Tiber. In
+classic days suicide was a commendable act under a great many
+circumstances, and Pisander was perfectly serious and sincere in his
+belief that he and the world had been companions too long for the good
+of either. But the jar and din of the streets certainly served to make
+connected philosophical meditation upon the futility and unimportance
+of human existence decidedly unfruitful. By the time he reached the
+cattle-market the noise of this strange place drove all suicidal
+intentions from him. Butchers were slaughtering kine; drovers were
+driving oxen off of barges that had come down the Tiber; sheep and
+goats were bleating--everywhere around the stalls, booths, shops, and
+pens was the bustle of an enormous traffic. Pisander picked his way
+through the crowd, searching for the butcher to whom he had been
+especially sent. He had gone as far as the ancient shrine of Mater
+Matuta, which found place in these seemingly unhallowed precincts,
+when, as he gazed into the throng before him, his hair stood as it
+were on end, his voice choked in his throat, and cold sweat broke out
+over him. The next moment his hand was seized by another, young and
+hearty, and he was gasping forth the name of Agias.
+
+  [70] Cattle-market.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter V
+
+A Very Old Problem
+
+
+I
+
+Drusus had at last finished the business which centred around the
+death of his uncle, old Publius Vibulanus. He had walked behind the
+bier, in company with the other relatives of the deceased--all very
+distant, saving himself. On the day, too, of the funeral, he had been
+obliged to make his first public oration--a eulogy delivered in the
+Forum from the Rostra--in which Drusus tried to pay a graceful but not
+fulsome tribute to the old eques, who had never distinguished himself
+in any way, except the making of money. The many clients of Vibulanus,
+who now looked upon the young man as their patron, had raised a
+prodigious din of applause during the oration, and Quintus was
+flattered to feel that he had not studied rhetoric in vain. Finally,
+as next of kin, he had to apply the torch to the funeral pyre, and
+preside over the funeral feast, held by custom nine days after the
+actual burning, and over the contests of gladiators which took place
+at this festivity. Meanwhile Sextus Flaccus had been attending to the
+legal business connected with the transfer of the dead man's estate to
+his heir. All this took time--time which Drusus longed to be spending
+with Cornelia in shady and breezy Praeneste, miles from unhealthy,
+half-parched Rome.
+
+Drusus had sent Agias ahead to Cornelia, as soon as the poor boy had
+recovered in the least from his brutal scourging. The lad had parted
+from his deliverer with the most extravagant demonstrations of
+gratitude, which Quintus had said he could fully repay by implicit
+devotion to Cornelia. How that young lady had been pleased with her
+present, Drusus could not tell; although he had sent along a letter
+explaining the circumstances of the case. But Quintus had other things
+on his mind than Agias and his fortunes, on the morning when at last
+he turned his face away from the sultry capital, and found his
+carriage whirling him once more over the Campagna.
+
+Drusus had by personal experience learned the bitterness of the
+political struggle in which he had elected to take part. The Caesarians
+at Rome (Balbus, Antonius, and Curio) had welcomed him to their
+number, for young as he was, his wealth and the prestige of the Livian
+name were not to be despised. And Drusus saw how, as in his younger
+days he had not realized, the whole fabric of the state was in an evil
+way, and rapidly approaching its mending or ending. The Roman Republic
+had exported legions; she had imported slaves, who heaped up vast
+riches for their masters, while their competition reduced the free
+peasantry to starvation. And now a splendid aristocracy claimed to
+rule a subject world, while the "Roman people" that had conquered that
+world were a degenerate mob, whose suffrages in the elections were
+purchasable--almost openly--by the highest bidder. The way was not
+clear before Drusus; he only saw, with his blind, Pagan vision, that
+no real liberty existed under present conditions; that Pompeius and
+his allies, the Senate party, were trying to perpetuate the
+aristocracy in power, and that Caesar, the absent proconsul of the
+Gauls, stood, at least, for a sweeping reform. And so the young man
+made his decision and waited the march of events.
+
+But once at Praeneste all these forebodings were thrust into the
+background. The builders and frescoers had done their work well in his
+villa. A new colonnade was being erected. Coloured mosaic floors were
+being laid. The walls of the rooms were all a-dance with bright Cupids
+and Bacchantes--cheerful apartments for their prospective mistress.
+But it was over to the country-house of the Lentuli that Drusus made
+small delay to hasten, there to be in bliss in company with Cornelia,
+
+"And how," he asked, after the young lady had talked of a dozen
+innocent nothings, "do you like Agias, the boy I sent you?"
+
+"I can never thank you enough--at least if he is always as clever and
+witty as he has been since I have had him," was the reply. "I was
+vexed at first to have a servant with such dreadful scars all over
+him; but he is more presentable now. And he has a very droll way of
+saying bright things. What fun he has made of Livia's dear mother, his
+former mistress! I shall have to give up reading any wise authors, if
+it will make me grow like Valeria. Then, too, Agias has won my favour,
+if in no other way, by getting a thick grass stem out of the throat of
+my dear little pet sparrow, that was almost choking to death. I am so
+grateful to you for him!"
+
+"I am very glad you are fond of him," said Drusus. "Has your uncle
+come back from Rome yet? I did not meet him while there. I was busy;
+and besides, to speak honestly, I have a little hesitation in seeing
+him, since the political situation is so tense."
+
+"He returns to-night, I believe," replied Cornelia. Then as if a bit
+apprehensive, "Tell me about the world, Drusus; I don't care to be one
+of those fine ladies of the sort of Clodia,[71] who are all in the
+whirl of politics, and do everything a man does except to speak in the
+Senate; but I like to know what is going on. There isn't going to be a
+riot, I hope, as there was two years ago, when no consuls were
+elected, and Pompeius had to become sole magistrate?"
+
+  [71] She was a sister of Clodius, a famous demagogue, and was a
+  brilliant though abandoned woman.
+
+"There have been no tumults so far," said Drusus, who did not care to
+unfold all his fears and expectations.
+
+"Yet things are in a very bad way, I hear," said Cornelia "Can't Caesar
+and my uncle's party agree?"
+
+"I'm afraid not," replied Drusus, shaking his head. "Caesar wishes to
+be consul a second time. Pompeius and he were friends when at Lucca
+six years ago this was agreed on. Caesar was then promised that he
+should have his Gallic proconsulship up to the hour when he should be
+consul, and besides Pompeius promised to have permission granted Caesar
+to be elected consul, without appearing as a candidate in Rome; so at
+no moment was Caesar to be without office,[72] and consequently he was
+not to be liable to prosecution from his enemies. All this was secured
+to Caesar by the laws,--laws which Pompeius aided to have enacted. But
+now Crassus the third triumvir is dead; Julia, Caesar's daughter and
+Pompeius's wife, whom both dearly loved, is dead. And Pompeius has
+been persuaded by your uncle and his friends to break with Caesar and
+repudiate his promise. Caesar and Pompeius have long been so powerful
+together that none could shake their authority; but if one falls away
+and combines with the common enemy, what but trouble is to be
+expected?"
+
+  [72] Without the _imperium_--so long as a Roman official held this
+  he was above prosecution.
+
+"The enemy! the enemy!" repeated Cornelia, looking down, and sighing.
+"Quintus, these feuds are a dreadful thing. Can't you," and here she
+threw a bit of pathetic entreaty into her voice, "join with my uncle's
+party, and be his friend? I hate to think of having my husband at
+variance with the man who stands in place of my father."
+
+Drusus took her face between his hands, and looked straight at her.
+They were standing within the colonnade of the villa of the Lentuli,
+and the sunlight streaming between the pillars fell directly upon
+Cornelia's troubled face, and made a sort of halo around her.
+
+"My dearest, delectissima," said Quintus, earnestly, "I could not
+honourably take your hand in marriage, if I had not done that which my
+conscience, if not my reason, tells me is the only right thing to do.
+It grieves me to hurt you; but we are not fickle Greeks, nor servile
+Easterns; but Romans born to rule, and because born to rule, born to
+count nothing dear that will tend to advance the strength and
+prosperity not of self, but of the state. You would not love me if I
+said I cared more for keeping a pang from your dear heart, than for
+the performance of that which our ancestors counted the one end of
+life--duty to the commonwealth."
+
+Cornelia threw her arms around him.
+
+"You are the noblest man on the whole earth!" she cried with bright
+enthusiasm. "Of course I would not love you if you did what you
+believed to be wrong! My uncle may scold, may storm. I shan't care for
+all his anger, for you _must be_ right."
+
+"Ah! delectissima," cried Drusus, feeling at the moment as if he were
+capable of refuting senates and confounding kings, "we will not look
+at too gloomy a side of the picture. Pompeius and Caesar will be
+reconciled. Your uncle's party will see that it is best to allow the
+proconsul an election as promised. We will have wise laws and moderate
+reforms. All will come out aright. And we--we two--will go along
+through life as softly and as merrily as now we stroll up and down in
+the cool shade of these columns; and I will turn philosopher and
+evolve a new system that will forever send Plato and Zeno, Epicurus
+and Timon, to the most remote and spider-spun cupboard of the most
+old-fashioned library, and you shall be a poetess, a Sappho, an
+Erinna, who shall tinkle in Latin metres sweeter than they ever sing
+in Aiolic. And so we will fleet the time as though we were Zeus and
+Hera on Olympus."
+
+"Zeus and Hera!" repeated Cornelia, laughing. "You silly Graecule.[73]
+You may talk about that misbehaved pair, who were anything but
+harmonious and loving, if Homer tells truly. I prefer our own Juppiter
+and our Juno of the Aventine. _They_ are a staid and home-keeping
+couple, worth imitating, if we are to imitate any celestials. But
+nothing Greek for me."
+
+  [73] Contemptuous diminutive for Greek.
+
+"Intolerant, intolerant," retorted Drusus, "we are all Greek, we
+Romans of to-day--what is left of old Latium but her half-discarded
+language, her laws worse than discarded, perverted, her good pilum[74]
+which has not quite lost its cunning, and her--"
+
+  [74] The heavy short javelin carried by the Roman legionary, only
+  about six feet long. In practised hands it was a terrible weapon,
+  and won many a Roman victory.
+
+"Men," interrupted Cornelia, "such as you!"
+
+"And women," continued Drusus, "such as you! Ah! There is something
+left of Rome after all. We are not altogether fallen, unworthy of our
+ancestors. Why shall we not be merry? A Greek would say that it was
+always darkest before Eos leaves the couch of Tithonus,[75] and who
+knows that our Helios is not soon to dawn and be a long, long time ere
+his setting? I feel like throwing formality to the winds, crying
+'Iacchos evoe,' and dancing like a bacchanal, and singing in tipsy
+delight,--
+
+  [75] The "rosy-fingered Dawn" of Homer; Tithonos was her consort.
+
+  "'Oh, when through the long night,
+    With fleet foot glancing white,
+  Shall I go dancing in my revelry,
+    My neck cast back, and bare
+    Unto the dewy air,
+  Like sportive faun in the green meadow's glee?'[76]
+
+  [76] Milman, translator.
+
+as old Euripides sings in his 'Bacchae.' Yes, the Hellenes were right
+when they put nymphs in the forest and in the deep. Only our blind
+practical Latin eyes will not see them. We will forget that we are
+Romans; we will build for ourselves some cosey little Phaeacia up in
+the Sabine hills beside some lake; and there my Sappho shall also be
+my Nausicaa to shine fair as a goddess upon her distressed and
+shipwrecked Odysseus."
+
+"Yes," said Cornelia, smiling, "a delightful idyl; but Odysseus would
+not stay with Nausicaa."
+
+"I was wrong," replied Drusus, as they walked arm in arm out from the
+portico, and down the broad avenue of stately shade trees. "You shall
+be the faithful Penelope, who receives back her lord in happiness
+after many trials. Your clever Agias can act as Telemachus for us."
+
+"But the suitors whom Odysseus must slay?" asked Cornelia, entering
+into the fun.
+
+"Oh, for them," said Drusus, lightly, "we need not search far. Who
+other than Ahenobarbus?"
+
+
+II
+
+Rather late in the afternoon, a few days subsequently, the most noble
+Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Crus, consul-designate, and one of the most
+prominent politicians of his time and nation, arrived at Praeneste;
+having hurried away from Rome to escape for a little while the summer
+heats which made the capital anything but a pleasant place for
+residence. Drusus's travelling cortege would have seemed small enough
+compared with the hedge of outriders, footmen, and body-servants that
+surrounded the great man. But notwithstanding his prospective
+dignities, and his present importance, Lentulus Crus was hardly an
+imposing personality. He was a bald-pated, florid individual, with
+rough features, a low, flat forehead, and coarse lips. He was dressed
+very fashionably, and was perfumed and beringed to an extent that
+would have been derided anywhere save in the most select circles of
+Rome. He was stout, and when he alighted from his carriage, he moved
+away with a somewhat waddling gait, and lifted up a rasping,
+high-pitched voice in unsonorous complaint against a slave who let
+fall a parcel of baggage.
+
+Clearly the master of the house had returned, and all the familia and
+freedmen bustled about their various tasks with the unusual
+promptitude and diligence which is the outcome of a healthy fear of
+retribution for slackness. Lentulus went into the atrium, and there
+had an angry conference with the local land-steward, over some
+accounts which the latter presented. In fact, so ill was the humour of
+the noble lord, that Cornelia avoided going out from her room to meet
+him, and pretended to be so engrossed in her Ennius that she did not
+hear he had come.
+
+This pretence, however, could not last long. Lentulus called out in a
+surly tone to know where his niece was, and the latter was fain to
+present herself. It could not be said that the meeting between
+Cornelia and her uncle was extremely affectionate. The interchange of
+kisses was painfully formal, and then Lentulus demanded somewhat
+abruptly:--
+
+"How have you been spending your time? With that young ne'er-do-weel
+son of Sextus Drusus?"
+
+"Quintus was here this morning," said Cornelia, feeling a little
+reproachful at the manner in which her uncle had spoken of her lover.
+
+"Just back from Rome, I presume?" said Lentulus, icily, "and he must
+fly over to the cote of his little dove and see that she hasn't
+flitted away? He'd better have a care in his doings. He'll have
+something more serious on hand than lovemaking before long."
+
+"I don't understand you, uncle," said Cornelia, turning rather red;
+"Quintus has never done anything for which he has cause to fear."
+
+"Oh, he hasn't, eh?" retorted Lentulus. "_Mehercle!_ what donkeys you
+women are! You may go, I want to see your mother."
+
+"She is in her own room," said Cornelia, turning her back; "I wish you
+would not speak to me in that way again."
+
+Lentulus wandered through the mazes of courts, colonnades, and the
+magnificently decorated and finished rooms of the villa, until he came
+to the chamber of Claudia, his sister-in-law. Claudia was a woman of
+the same fashionable type as Valeria, good-looking, ostentatious,
+proud, selfish, devoid of any aim in life save the securing of the
+most vapid pleasure. At the moment, she was stretched out on a thickly
+cushioned couch. She had thrown on a loose dress of silken texture. A
+negress was waving over her head a huge fan of long white feathers. A
+second negress was busy mixing in an _Authepsa_,--a sort of silver
+urn, heated by charcoal,--a quantity of spices, herbs, and water,
+which the lady was to take as soon as it was sufficiently steeped.
+Claudia had been enjoying an unusually gay round of excitement while
+at Baiae, and she had but just come up to Praeneste, to recover herself
+after the exertions of a score of fashionable suppers, excursions on
+the Lucrine Lake, and the attendant exhausting amusements. When her
+brother-in-law entered the room, she raised her carefully tinted
+eyebrows, and observed with great languor:--
+
+"So you have gotten away from Rome, at last, my Lucius?"
+
+"For a few days," replied Lentulus, in no very affable tone; "the heat
+and din of the city will drive me mad! And I have had no end of
+troublesome business. The senators are all fools or slaves of Caesar.
+That treacherous rascal, Curio, is blocking all our efforts. Even
+Pompeius is half-hearted in the cause. It wouldn't take much to make
+him go back to Caesar, and then where would we be?"
+
+"Where would we be?" said Claudia, half conscious of what she said,
+turning over wearily. "Don't talk politics, my dear brother. They are
+distressingly dull. My head aches at the very word." And she held out
+her hand and took the golden cup of hot drink which the negress
+offered her.
+
+"Aye," replied Lentulus, not in the least subdued, "where _will_ we
+be, if Pompeius and Caesar become friends? If there is no war, no
+proscription, no chance to make a sesterce in a hurry!"
+
+"My dear brother," said Claudia, still more languidly, and yawning at
+length, as she handed back the cup, "have I not said that the mere
+mention of politics makes my head ache?"
+
+"Then let it," said the other, brutally; "I must have some plain words
+with you." And he pointed toward the door. The two serving-maids took
+the hint, and retired.
+
+Claudia settled her head back on the pillows, and folded her hands as
+if to resign herself to a very dull tete-a-tete.
+
+"Have you any new debts?" demanded Lentulus.
+
+"What a tiresome question," murmured the lady. "No--no--yes; I owe
+Pomponius the fancier--I don't quite know how much--for my last
+Maltese lap dog."
+
+"Thank the gods that is all," went on her brother-in-law. "Now listen
+to me. I have been living beyond my means. Last year the canvass to
+get on the board of guardians of the Sibylline Books--in which that
+graceless son-in-law of Cicero's, Publius Dolabella, defeated me--cost
+a deal of money. This year I have the consulship. But it has taken
+every denarius I own, and more too. All my estates are involved, so
+that it will require years to redeem them, in the ordinary way."
+
+"How extremely unfortunate!" sighed Claudia, looking dreadfully bored.
+
+"If that was all I had to tell you," snapped back Lentulus, "I would
+not have disturbed your ladyship's repose. But you must be so
+indulgent as to listen."
+
+"Well?" said Claudia, yawning again and settling herself.
+
+"Your late husband left some little property," began the other.
+
+"Yes, to be sure; oh! my poor Caius!" and Claudia began to sob and
+wipe away the tears.
+
+"And this property I have involved," continued Lentulus, driving
+straight ahead and never heeding the widow's display of emotions. "It
+will be impossible for me to clear away the encumbrances for some
+little time."
+
+Claudia was excited now. She sprang up from her cushions and cried, or
+rather screamed:--
+
+"Brute! Robber of orphans and widows! Heartless wretch! Have you
+pledged the slender fortune Caius left me, and the dowry of my poor
+dear Cornelia?" And her voice sank into hoarseness, and she began to
+sob once more.
+
+Lentulus regarded her with vexation and contempt. "_Mehercle!_ what a
+fuss you are making! The deed is done, and there's no helping it. I
+came here, not to offer excuses, but to state the facts. You may call
+me what you please; I _had to do it_, or lose the consulship. Now look
+the matter in the face. You must contract no more debts; I can't
+discharge the old ones. Live as reasonably as you can."
+
+"And no more nice dinners? No more visits to Baiae?" groaned the lady,
+rocking to and fro.
+
+"Yes, yes," broke in her brother-in-law, sharply, "I can still raise
+enough to meet all ordinary expenses. If I let down in my household,
+my creditors would see I was pinched, and begin to pluck me. I can
+weather the storm. But look here: Cornelia must have an end with that
+young Drusus. I can never pay her dowry, and would not have him for a
+nephew-in-law if I could."
+
+"Cornelia break off with Drusus?" and Claudia stopped whimpering, and
+sat staring at Lentulus with astonished eyes. To tell the truth she
+had always liked the young Livian, and thought her daughter was
+destined for a most advantageous match.
+
+"Certainly, my dear Claudia," said the consul-elect, half relieved to
+change what had been a very awkward subject; "I can assure you that
+Quintus is far from being a proper and worthy man for a husband for
+your daughter. I have heard very evil reports of him while in the
+city. He has cast in his lot with that gang of knavish Caesarians
+centring around Marcus Antonius, Caelius, and that Caius Sallustius[77]
+whom our excellent censors have just ejected from the Senate, because
+of his evil living and Caesarian tendencies. Do I need to say more of
+him? A worthless, abandoned, shameless profligate!"
+
+  [77] Sallust, the well-known historian.
+
+Claudia had a little sense of humour; and when Lentulus was working
+himself up into a righteous rage over the alleged misdoings of Drusus,
+she interrupted:--
+
+"You do well to say so, my dear Lucius; for all men know that your
+life is as morally severe as your good friend Cato's."
+
+Lentulus was silent for a moment, and bit his lip; then recommenced:--
+
+"What I meant to say was this. Quintus Drusus and I are enemies; and I
+will not give him my niece in marriage. If we were friends, I would
+not be able to pay the dowry. You can complain if you please; but you
+can't alter my inclinations or my inability to carry out the marriage
+agreement."
+
+Though Claudia in many respects was an empty woman of the world, she
+had in a way a desire to promote her daughter's happiness, and, as has
+been said, she had been extremely fond of Drusus. So she replied
+diplomatically that Quintus was probably willing to wait a reasonable
+time for the dowry; and that even if he had held communication with
+the Caesarians, he was little more than a boy and could be shaken out
+of any unfortunate political opinions.
+
+"I will be reasonable," said Lentulus, after pacing up and down for a
+few minutes. "I was told of his folly by Caius Calvus.[78] Calvus is
+as a rule accurate in his information. He said he met Drusus in
+company with Balbus and Curio. But there may have been some mistake.
+And the lad, as you declare, may be willing to cut loose from a bad
+course. If he really cares for Cornelia, he will be moderate in his
+demands for the dowry. Your suggestion is worth taking, Claudia. Let
+us send for him, and let him know the only terms on which he can have
+my niece."
+
+  [78] A distinguished poet and orator--a friend of Catullus.
+
+Lentulus clapped his hands, and a serving-boy came in for orders.
+
+"Go to the villa of Quintus Drusus," commanded the master, "and tell
+him that I would see him at once on business of weight."
+
+Claudia arose, and let her maids throw over her a long white
+_stola_,[79] with deep flounces and an elaborate embroidery of
+sea-nymphs and marine monsters. Lentulus went out into the atrium and
+walked up and down, biting his nails, and trying to think out the
+arguments by which he would confute the political heresies of Drusus.
+Lentulus was too good a politician not to know that the young man
+would be a valuable catch for the party that secured him; and the
+consul-elect was determined, not so much to spare breaking the heart
+of his niece, but to rob the enemy of a valuable adherent. Cornelia
+had gone back to her book; but when she saw the boy go down the path,
+evidently on an errand to the villa of the Drusi, she rolled up the
+volume, and went into the atrium.
+
+  [79] A long tunic worn by Roman ladies.
+
+"You have sent after Quintus, uncle?" she asked.
+
+"I have," was the reply; "I expect him shortly."
+
+"What is the matter?" continued Cornelia, growing apprehensive.
+
+"I wish to make the arrangements for your wedding," replied Lentulus,
+continuing his pacing to and fro.
+
+"Oh, I am so glad!" cried Cornelia, cheerily. "I am so pleased you
+wish to make everything agreeable for Quintus and for me!"
+
+"I hope so," was the rather gloomy response.
+
+Presently Drusus was seen coming up the shaded path at a very brisk
+stride. He had been playing at fencing with old Mamercus, and his face
+was all aglow with a healthy colour; there was a bright light in his
+eye. When he saw Cornelia in the doorway he gave a laugh and broke
+into a run, which brought him up to her panting and merry.
+
+Then as he saw Lentulus he paused, half ashamed of his display of
+boyish ardour, and yet, with a smile and a gracious salutation, asked
+the older man if he was enjoying good health, and congratulated him on
+his election.
+
+The consul-designate was a little disarmed by this straightforward
+mode of procedure. He dropped unuttered the elaborate exordium he had
+been preparing on the tendency of young men to be led astray by
+speciously pleading schemers, and found himself replying mildly to
+questions about himself and various old friends of his, whom Drusus
+had known as a boy before he went to Athens. But finally the young man
+interrupted this pacific discourse with the query:--
+
+"And, most noble Lentulus, what is the business on which you sent for
+me? So far as I am able, the uncle of Cornelia has but to command."
+
+Lentulus glanced at Claudia, as if expecting her to open a delicate
+subject; but that excellent lady only fingered her _palla_,[80] and
+gave vent to a slight cough. Cornelia, whose fears had all passed
+away, stood beside Drusus, with one arm resting on his shoulder,
+glancing pertly from one man to the other. Lentulus began:--
+
+  [80] A shawl worn over the stola.
+
+"I am very sorry to tell you, Quintus, that I fear your wedding with
+Cornelia cannot be celebrated as soon as you hoped."
+
+"Must be postponed!" exclaimed the young man, in alarm; and Cornelia
+dropped her arm, and stared at her uncle in dismay.
+
+"I fear so," said Lentulus, dryly. "I have done my best to husband the
+fortune Caius left his daughter; but, as perhaps you know, I invested
+a very large part of it in the tax farming syndicate for farther
+Spain. The speculation seemed safe, but local wars have so reduced the
+profits that they amount to nothing, and it will be some time before
+the principal is set free. Of course, in ordinary times I would make
+up the sum from my own means, but I have had very heavy expenses
+lately; consequently, I fear you cannot marry Cornelia until I am in a
+position to pay over her dowry."
+
+Drusus burst out into a hearty, boyish laugh.
+
+"My dear uncle," cried he, "for do let me call you so, I would have
+you know that when I take Cornelia I have dowry sufficient. Thanks to
+old Vibulanus's will, I may call myself passing wealthy. As far as I
+am concerned, you may pay over the marriage portion to my heirs, if so
+you wish."
+
+Lentulus seemed considerably relieved. Claudia broke out with loud
+ejaculations to the effect that Drusus, she always knew, was a
+generous, affectionate fellow, and she loved him dearly. Cornelia,
+however, looked disturbed, and presently exclaimed:--
+
+"It isn't right, Quintus, that I should come into your house with not
+a sesterce in my own name, as if you had married some low farmer's
+daughter."
+
+"_Phy!_ pish!" replied Drusus. "You always scold the Greeks, my good
+mistress, and yet, like them, you hold that a marriage between people
+of unequal means is unhappy. A penny for your scruples! I have more
+money to-day than I know what to do with. Besides, if it will make you
+happier, your uncle can doubtless pay over the dowry before a great
+while."
+
+"It's certainly very kind of you, Quintus," said Lentulus (who had
+quite made up his mind that if the young man could wait for what was a
+very tidy fortune, through sheer affection for Cornelia, he would be
+pliable enough in the political matter), "not to press me in this
+affair. Rest assured, neither you nor my niece will be the losers in
+the end. But there's one other thing I would like to ask you about.
+From what Calvus told me in Rome, Curio and certain other still worse
+_Populares_[81] were trying to induce you to join their abominable
+faction. I trust you gave those men no encouragement?"
+
+  [81] The party in opposition, since the time of Tiberius Gracchus,
+  to the Senate party--Optimates; at this time the _Populares_ were
+  practically all Caesarians.
+
+Drusus was evidently confused. He was wishing strongly that Cornelia
+was away, and he could talk to her uncle with less constraint. He felt
+that he was treading on very dangerous ground.
+
+"It is true," said he, trying painfully to answer as if the words cost
+him no thought. "Antonius had met many of my father's old comrades in
+Gaul, and they had sent a number of kind messages to me. Then, too,
+Balbus invited me to a dinner-party and there I met Curio, and a very
+pleasant time we had. I cannot recall that they made any special
+efforts to enlist me as a partisan."
+
+In this last, Drusus spoke truly; for he had already thrown in his lot
+with the Caesarian cause. But Lentulus knew enough of the case to
+realize that he was receiving not the whole truth but only a half; and
+being a man of a sharp temper that was under very imperfect control,
+threw diplomacy to the winds, and replied vehemently: "Don't attempt
+to cover up your folly! I know how you have put yourself in the power
+of those conspirators. Are you planning to turn out another Catilina?"
+
+"My dear sir," expostulated Drusus, doing his best to retain his
+outward calm, "I cannot understand of what fault I have become guilty.
+Is it wrong in Rome to accept a kindly invitation from an old family
+friend to a dinner? Am I responsible for the persons the host summoned
+to meet me there?"
+
+Drusus had been simply sparring to ward off the real point at issue;
+like many persons he would not assert his convictions and motives till
+fairly brought to bay. But that moment came almost instantly.
+
+"Don't equivocate! _Mehercle!_" cried Lentulus, getting thoroughly
+angry. "Can't you speak, except to lie and quibble before my face?
+Have you joined the gang Curio is rallying for Caesar?"
+
+Drusus was losing his own patience now.
+
+"Yes! And we shall shortly see whether the Republic is to be longer
+ruined by incompetence and corruption!"
+
+"Uncle! Quintus!" implored Cornelia, forcing herself between them, and
+casting out of her wide-open eyes on each a look full of distress.
+"Don't contend! For my sake be friends!"
+
+"For your sake!" raged Lentulus, his florid face growing redder and
+redder. "I will take care to keep you out of the clutches of a man who
+deliberately chooses to associate with all that is base and villanous.
+Until your handsome lover throws over connections with Caesar and his
+fellow-conspirators, let him never ask for your hand!"
+
+"Sir," burst in Drusus, flushing with passion, "do you dare to set at
+naught the will of your brother and its express commands? Dare you
+withhold from me what is legally my own?"
+
+"Legally?" replied Lentulus, with sharp scorn. "Don't use that word to
+a consul-elect, who has the whole Senate and Pompeius behind him. Laws
+are very dangerous tools for a young man to meddle with in a case like
+this. You will be wise not to resort to the courts."
+
+"You defy the law!" thundered Drusus, all the blood of his fighting
+ancestors tingling in his veins. "Do you say that to a Livian; to the
+heir of eight consuls, two censors, a master of the horse, a dictator,
+and three triumphators? Shall not _he_ obtain justice?"
+
+"And perhaps," said Lentulus, sinking into an attitude of irritating
+coldness, "you will further press your claim on the ground that your
+mother was a Fabian, and the Fabii claim the sole right to sacrifice
+to Hercules on the Great Altar[82] in the Cattle-market by the
+Flaminian Circus, because they are descended from Hercules and
+Evander. I think the Cornelian gens can show quite as many death-masks
+in its atria, and your mock heroics will only stamp you as a very bad
+tragedian."
+
+  [82] _Ara Maxima_.
+
+"Uncle! Quintus!" implored Cornelia again, the tears beginning to
+start from her eyes. "Cease this dreadful quarrel. Go away until you
+can talk calmly."
+
+"Quintus Livius," shouted Lentulus, dropping the "Drusus," a part of
+the name which was omitted in formal address, "you can choose here and
+now. Forswear your Caesarian connections, or consider my niece's
+betrothal at an end!"
+
+Drusus stood looking in blank dismay from one to the other of the
+little company. Claudia had started to speak, but closed, her lips
+without uttering a word. Lentulus faced him, hot, flushed, and with a
+cynical smile of delight, at the infliction of mental torture, playing
+over his face. Cornelia had dropped down upon a chair, buried her
+pretty face in her hands, and was sobbing as if her heart would break.
+It was a moment Drusus would not soon forget. The whole scene in the
+atrium was stamped upon his memory; the drops of the fountain seemed
+frozen in mid-air; the rioting satyr on the fresco appeared to be
+struggling against the limitations of paint and plaster to complete
+his bound; he saw Cornelia lift her head and begin to address him, but
+what she said was drowned by the buzzing and swirl which unsteadied
+the young man's entire faculties. Drusus felt himself turning hot and
+cold, and in semi-faintness he caught at a pillar, and leaned upon it.
+He felt numbed mentally and physically. Then, by a mental reaction,
+his strong, well-balanced nature reasserted itself. His head cleared,
+his muscles relaxed their feverish tension, he straightened himself
+and met the cool leer of Lentulus with a glance stern and high; such a
+glance as many a Livian before him had darted on foe in Senate or
+field of battle.
+
+"Lucius Cornelius," said he, his voice perfectly under command, "do
+you propose to defy law and right and refuse me the hand of your
+niece, unless I do your will?"
+
+Lentulus thought that in this unimpassioned speech he detected the
+premonitions of a capitulation on the part of Drusus, and with a voice
+of ill-timed persuasion, replied, "Be reasonable, Drusus; you have
+everything to gain and nothing to lose by not thwarting my wishes."
+
+"Your wishes!" retorted Drusus, with a menacing step forward. "Your
+wishes! You are consul-designate. You have the Senate, you have your
+tool, Pompeius, you have the gangs of gladiators and street ruffians
+and all the machinery of your political clubs to invoke to defy the
+law! I grant it; but though you deny me Cornelia, though by your
+machinations you bring me any other loss or shame, the grandson of the
+murdered Marcus Drusus will do that which is right in his own eyes,
+and accept no mandate from you or any man, against his will!"
+
+"Cornelia," cried Claudia, infinitely distressed, "speak to Quintus,
+reason with him, implore him, pray him not to resist the requests of
+your uncle."
+
+"Yes, girl!" said Lentulus, savagely, turning livid with sheer rage,
+"use all your arts on that graceless would-be conspirator now, or see
+his face no more!"
+
+But Cornelia interposed in a most summary and unexpected manner. Her
+face was very white; her nails pressed into her smooth arms, her
+breath came thick and spasmodically, and her eyes flamed with the
+intense passion of a strong spirit thoroughly aroused.
+
+"Go, Quintus," she cried, with a strained, loud voice, "go, and never
+see my face again, until my uncle repents of his cruel madness! He is
+master here; only woe will come from defying him. Do not anger him
+further; depart."
+
+"Depart?" burst from Drusus.
+
+"Depart!" replied Cornelia, desperately; "if you stay I shall go mad.
+I shall beg you to yield,--which would be base of me; and if you heard
+my prayers, it would be more base in you."
+
+"Fool," shouted Lentulus, "don't you know you will be the first I'll
+mark for slaughter in the next proscription? You, mistress, go to your
+room, if you cannot keep a civil tongue! And you, sir, get you gone,
+unless you wish the slaves to cast you out."
+
+"Farewell, Cornelia!" gasped the young man; and he turned his back,
+and started out into the colonnade.
+
+"Oh, Quintus, return!" shrieked Claudia, wringing her hands. "All the
+gods blast you!" muttered Lentulus, quivering with fury; then he
+shouted at the top of his shrill, harsh voice: "My enemies are my
+enemies. You are warned. Take care!"
+
+"And do you take warning! A Livian never forgets! _Mars regat!_ Let
+War rule!" cried Drusus, turning at the vestibule, and brandishing a
+knotted fist. Lentulus stared after him, half furious, half
+intimidated. But Claudia glanced back into the room from the just
+emptied doorway, and gave a scream.
+
+"The servants! Help! Water! Cornelia has fainted!"
+
+
+III
+
+Drusus strode down the long avenue of shade trees. The gardener stared
+after him, as the young man went by, his face knitted with a scowl of
+combined pain and fury, with never a word in reply to the rustic's
+kindly salutation.
+
+"_Papae!_"[83] muttered the man, "what has befallen Master Quintus? Has
+he fallen out with her ladyship?"
+
+  [83] "Strange! Marvellous!"
+
+Drusus kept on, looking neither to the right hand nor to the left,
+until he found himself past the boundary stone between his own estate
+and that of the Lentuli. Then he stopped and passed his hand over his
+forehead. It was damp with an unhealthy sweat. His hands and frame
+were quivering as if in an ague. He seated himself on a stone bench by
+the roadway, and tried to collect his faculties.
+
+"Bear up, Drusus; be a Livian, as you boast yourself," he declaimed
+frantically to himself. "Cornelia shall still be yours! All things are
+possible to one who is young and strong, with a clear conscience!"
+
+If this self-debate did not actually stimulate cheerfulness, it at
+least revived the embers of hope; and Drusus found himself trying to
+look the situation fairly in the face.
+
+"You have thrown away your right to marry the dearest, loveliest, and
+noblest girl in the world," he reflected bitterly. "You have made an
+implacable enemy of one of the most powerful men of the state. In
+short, your happiness is gone, and perhaps your life is in danger--and
+for what? A dream of reform which can never be realized? A mad
+conspiracy to overthrow the commonwealth? Is Caesar to be saviour or
+despot? For what have you sacrificed yourself?"
+
+Lentulus, he knew perfectly well, was really above law. No jury would
+ever convict the leader of the Senate party. Drusus could never
+contract lawful marriage with Cornelia, so long as her guardian
+withheld consent. And for one moment he regretted of his
+determination, of his defiance. Then came reaction. Drusus called up
+all his innate pride, all the strength of his nobler inspirations.
+
+"I have set my face toward that which is honourable and right," cried
+Drusus to his own soul; "I will not doubt. Whether there be gods, I
+cannot tell. But this I know, the wise and good have counted naught
+dear but virtues; and toward this end I will strive."
+
+And by a strong effort at self-command, he forced himself to arise
+from the bench and walk back to his own estate, and soon he was
+pouring the whole story into the sympathetic ears of Mamercus,
+Pausanias, and other worthy retainers.
+
+The scene that had taken place at the villa of the Lentuli, soon was
+reported through all the adjacent farms; for several slaves had been
+the mute witnesses of the angry colloquy, and had not been slow to
+publish the report. The familia of Drusus was in a tumult of
+indignation. All the brawny Germans and Africans whom the young master
+had released from the slave-prison, and had since treated with
+kindness, listened with no unfavourable ear to the proposal which
+Titus Mamercus--more valorous than discreet--was laying before them:
+to arm and attack Lentulus in his own villa, and so avenge their lord
+in a summary fashion.
+
+But the elder Mamercus dashed the martial ambitions of his son.
+
+"Fool," cried the veteran, emphatically, when the project came to his
+ears, "do you wish to undo yourself and Quintus too? No power short of
+Jove could protect you and him, if aught were to befall Lentulus, in
+the way you propose."
+
+"But what can we do, father?" replied Titus, sorry to see his scheme
+for vengeance blocked; "shall that despicable tyrant defy law and
+justice, and refuse to give Mistress Cornelia to Quintus?"
+
+"Silence your folly!" thundered the other, who was himself quite
+nonplussed over the situation, and felt Titus's bold chatter would
+goad him into something desperate.
+
+The truth was, neither Pausanias nor any other of Quintus's friends
+could see any means of coercing the consul-elect into receding from
+his position. He was practically above law, and could not with safety
+be attacked in any way. Pausanias could only counsel moderation and
+patience; perhaps some fortunate chance would alter matters. Drusus
+spent the evening in a pathetically forced attempt to read his
+Callimachus. He was weary physically, and intended to retire early.
+AEmilia, who felt sorry enough for the plight of her rather distant
+cousin, had tried to console him and divert him with guitar[84] music,
+and had called in an itinerant piper,[85] but these well-meant efforts
+at amusement had been dreary failures. Drusus had just bidden his
+body-servants undress him, when he was informed that Agias had come
+from the Lentulan villa, and wished to see him.
+
+  [84] _Cithara_.
+
+  [85] Itinerant pipers have existed in Italy from earliest times;
+  they still survive, albeit in alien lands and with less tuneful
+  instruments.
+
+Agias was full of protestations of delight at beholding his
+intercessor and ransomer. Drusus could hardly recognize in the
+supple-limbed, fair-complexioned, vivacious lad before him, the
+wretched creature whom Alfidius had driven through the streets.
+Agias's message was short, but quite long enough to make Drusus's pale
+cheeks flush with new life, his sunken eyes rekindle, and his languor
+vanish into energy. Cornelia would be waiting for him by the great
+cypress in the gardens of the Lentulan villa, as soon as the moon
+rose.
+
+Drusus prepared himself hurriedly, and refused all the entreaties of
+Titus to take him along as a body-guard. Time coursed on winged feet,
+as the young man hastened out into the night, and half ran down the
+familiar pathway. The day had been only moderately warm for the
+season, and the night was cool, though not cold. A soft east wind was
+blowing down from the distant Apennines, and all the trees were
+rustling gently. Up to the giant arm of a gnarled oak, fluttered an
+owl, which hooted noisily as the young man hurried beneath. The
+crickets were chirping. A little way off was a small stream plunging
+over a dam; from it came a liquid roar; and the little wall of white
+spray was just visible in the darkness. Out from the orchards drifted
+the fragrant scent of apple, pear, plum, and quince. Still more sweet
+was the breeze, as it swept over the wide-stretching rose-beds.
+Overhead Orion and Arcturus were glittering in that hazy splendour
+which belongs to the heavens on a summer's night.
+
+Drusus kept on, only half noting the beauty of the darkness. When he
+entered the groves of the Lentulan villa, almost all light failed him,
+and but for his intimate knowledge--from boyhood--of the whole
+locality, he could never have kept the path. Then the moonlight began
+to stream up in the east, and between the trees and thickets lay the
+long, yellow bars of brightness, while all else was still in gloom.
+Drusus pushed on with confidence, and soon the gurgle of the tiny
+cataract told him that he was near the old cypress. A few steps more,
+and a figure rose from out the fern thicket. It was Cornelia. Her hair
+was tumbling loosely over her shoulders; she wore a soft, light-blue
+dress that covered her arms and her feet. In the moonlight her face
+and hands appeared as bloodless as white marble.
+
+"I knew you would come, Quintus," she cried. "I couldn't say farewell
+to you, in the presence of my uncle!"
+
+"My beautiful!" cried Drusus; and he caught her in his arms.
+
+The moments that followed were as bitter-sweet as may be conceivable.
+Each knew that they had small hope of an honourable realization of
+their love one for another; that the moment of parting would soon
+come. But for the instant they were in Elysium, caught out of mortal
+care and mortal sorrow, and knowing nothing but the pure delight of
+the other's presence. Then, at last, their talk became less
+enraptured; the vision of Olympus faded little by little; the stern
+reality confronted them in all its seriousness.
+
+"Cornelia," said Quintus, at length, "you are still a very young
+woman. This day's heart-breakings may, perhaps, be long painful to
+you; but the pangs will grow faint in time. You and I may still
+cherish fondness in our hearts for each other, but how dare we
+reasonably hope for more? Evil times are at hand. If your uncle's
+party prevail in the struggle, my ruin is assured. But not yours.
+There are many worthy men who would be proud to take in marriage the
+niece of the next consul; and with one of these you can live happily.
+Do not try to forget me. I don't ask that. But do not let my
+misfortune cast a shadow over your dear life. Marry some honourable
+man. Only think kindly of me sometimes."
+
+They had been sitting beside the brooklet, on the soft green-sward.
+Cornelia had been resting both her hands in Drusus's, but now she drew
+them back, and sprang to her feet, as if swept away by a gust of
+anger.
+
+"How dare you!" she cried, "how dare you bid me throw away all that my
+heart has turned on, and my hopes depended on, and my imagination
+dreamed of, since our fathers were slain side by side; and more
+especially since you came back from Athens? Why might not I bid you
+renounce your adherence to Caesar's cause, and say, 'There is no need
+of blasting your career by such a sacrifice; remember Caesar and his
+party kindly, wish them well, but do not dwell too much thereon;
+submit cheerfully to what is inevitable'? Shall I argue thus? Have I
+argued thus? If you will, abandon me, and wed some other maiden, and
+many there are, fair, wealthy, noble, who will be glad to be given in
+marriage to a Livius Drusus. But till you thus repudiate your father's
+will, no power of gods or of men shall drive me to violate that of
+mine."
+
+"Cornelia," said Drusus, in a husky voice, "do you know what you are
+saying? What resistance to threats and unkind treatment your resolve
+will mean?"
+
+"I both know the future and accept it," answered the maiden firmly,
+looking fairly into his face.
+
+"Then by all the powers of earth, sky, and Hades!" cried the young
+man, lifting one arm toward heaven, and throwing the other about his
+sweetheart, "I will defy Lentulus, defy Pompeius, defy Senate, army,
+mob, or any other human might. Hitherto I have thought to play the
+patriot in espousing Caesar's cause. Now let love and fury fire my
+ardour. When the party of violence and tyranny falls, then too will
+fall the power of Lentulus to outrage your right and mine! Ours shall
+be a triumph of Venus as well as of Mars, and until that time, may you
+and I endure faithful unto our fathers, ourselves, and one another!"
+
+Hardly had he spoken ere loud voices were heard calling through the
+grove. Torches were glaring among the trees, and the harsh tones of
+Lentulus burst out:--
+
+"Take the wretched girl into the house when you find her; but as for
+her lover, let him not escape!"
+
+"My uncle!" groaned Cornelia, quivering with terror; "one of my maids
+has betrayed me! Flee! run! He has called out all his slaves; they
+will kill you!"
+
+"Kill me?" gasped Drusus, incredulously; "commit deliberate murder?"
+
+"Yes," moaned Cornelia; "he dares anything. He is all fury and
+violence. Escape! Do not throw yourself away in vain!"
+
+The lights flashed nearer; the slaves were shouting and blundering
+through the bushes.
+
+"Two philippi to the man who strikes Drusus down!" bawled Lentulus.
+
+It was no time for delay and affectionate leave-taking. The young man
+threw his arms around Cornelia, kissed her once, twice, and then
+bounded into the thicket. A moment later several of the servants came
+splashing over the little stream, and found Cornelia alone beside the
+great cypress, pale and trembling and sobbing. Drusus caught one last
+sight of her, surrounded by the torches of the pursuers. Then he
+struck off into the grove, and thanks to his perfect local knowledge
+easily avoided meeting Lentulus or his slaves. Lentulus he would
+gladly have confronted alone. What would have followed, the athletic
+young man could only surmise grimly; but he was unarmed, and for
+Cornelia's sake he must take no risks.
+
+Close to the confines of his own land he met the Mamerci, father and
+son, and several slaves and freedmen, all armed and anxious to know
+whether the din that had been raised over at the Lentulan villa
+betokened any danger to their young master.
+
+Drusus satisfied them that he had suffered no injury. The personal
+peril through which he had passed brought a reaction of excitement
+which raised his spirits, and he went to bed in a mood at least
+tolerably cheerful. If he could not enjoy his love, he had at least
+something else to live for--vengeance; and he told himself that he had
+a whole mature lifetime left in which to make Lentulus repent of his
+folly and tyrannical cruelty. He awoke late the next morn in a calm
+frame of mind, and was able to receive with outward equanimity the
+news that early in the morning Lentulus had taken his sister-in-law
+and niece, and a large part of his household, back to Rome. This was
+only to have been expected, and Drusus listened to the information
+without useless comment.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VI
+
+Pompeius Magnus
+
+
+If we had been painting an ideal heroine, gifted with all the virtues
+which Christian traditions of female perfection throw around such
+characters, Cornelia would have resigned herself quietly to the
+inevitable, and exhibited a seraphic serenity amid tribulation. But
+she was only a grieved, embittered, disappointed, sorely wronged,
+Pagan maiden, who had received few enough lessons in forbearance and
+meekness. And now that her natural sweetness of character had received
+so severe a shock, she vented too often the rage she felt against her
+uncle upon her helpless servants. Her maid Cassandra--who was the one
+that had told Lentulus of her mistress's nocturnal meeting with
+Drusus--soon felt the weight of Cornelia's wrath. The young lady, as
+soon as Lentulus was out of the way, caused the tell-tale to receive a
+cruel whipping, which kept the poor slave-girl groaning in her cell
+for ten days, and did not relieve Cornelia's own distress in the
+slightest degree. As a matter of fact, Cornelia was perpetually goaded
+into fresh outbursts of desperation by the tyrannical attitude of her
+uncle. Lentulus boasted in her presence that he would accomplish
+Drusus's undoing. "I'll imitate Sulla," he would announce, in mean
+pleasure at giving his niece pain; "I'll see how many heads I can have
+set up as he did at the Lacus Servilius. You can go _there_, if you
+wish to kiss your lover."
+
+But Cornelia's life at Rome was rendered unhappy by many other things
+besides these occasional brutal stabs from her uncle. Her mother, as
+has been hinted, was a woman of the world, and had an intense desire
+to draw her daughter into her own circle of society. Claudia cared for
+Cornelia in a manner, and believed it was a real kindness to tear the
+poor girl away from her solitary broodings and plunge her into the
+whirl of the world of Roman fashion. Claudia had become an intimate of
+Clodia, the widow of Quintus Metellus, a woman of remarkable gifts and
+a notoriously profligate character. "The Medea of the Palatine Hill,"
+Cicero had bitingly styled her. Nearly all the youth of parts and
+social distinction enjoyed the wild pleasures of Clodia's garden by
+the Tiber. Catullus the poet, Caelius the brilliant young politician,
+and many another had figured as lovers of this soulless and enchanting
+woman. And into Clodia's gilded circle Claudia tried desperately to
+drag her daughter. The Lentuli had a handsome palace on the Carinae,
+one of the most fashionable quarters of the capital; and here there
+were many gay gatherings and dinner parties. Cornelia was well born
+enough, by reputation wealthy enough, and in feature handsome enough,
+to have a goodly proportion of the young men of this coterie her
+devoted admirers and slaves. Claudia observed her daughter's social
+triumphs with glee, and did all she could to give Cornelia plenty of
+this kind of company. Cornelia would not have been a mortal woman if
+she had not taken a certain amount of pleasure in noticing and
+exercising her power. The first occasion when she appeared at a formal
+banquet in the splendid Apollo dinner hall of the Luculli, where the
+outlay on the feast was fixed by a regular scale at two hundred
+thousand sesterces, she gathered no little satisfaction by the
+consciousness that all the young men were admiring her, and all the
+women were fuming with jealousy. But this life was unspeakably
+wearisome, after the first novelty had worn away. Cornelia lived in an
+age when many of the common proprieties and decencies of our present
+society would have been counted prudish, but she could not close her
+eyes to the looseness and license that pervaded her mother's world.
+Woman had become almost entirely independent of man in social and
+economic matters, though the law still kept its fictions of tutelage.
+Honourable marriages were growing fewer and fewer. Divorces were
+multiplying. The morality of the time can be judged from the fact that
+the "immaculate" Marcus Cato separated from his wife that a friend
+might marry her; and when the friend died, married her himself again.
+Scandals and love intrigues were common in the highest circles; noble
+ladies, and not ballet-dancers[86] merely, thought it of little
+account to have their names besmirched. Everything in society was
+splendid, polished, decorous, cultivated without; but within, hollow
+and rotten.
+
+  [86] _Mimae_.
+
+Cornelia grew weary and sick of the excitement, the fashionable
+chatter, the mongering of low gossips. She loathed the sight of the
+effeminate young fops who tried to win her smiles by presenting
+themselves for a polite call each morning, polished and furbelowed,
+and rubbed sleek and smooth with Catanian pumice. Her mother disgusted
+her so utterly that she began to entertain the most unfilial feeling
+toward the worthy woman. Cornelia would not or could not understand
+that in such hot weather it was proper to wear lighter rings than in
+winter, and that each ring must be set carefully on a different finger
+joint to prevent touching. Cornelia watched her servants, and reached
+the astonishing conclusion that these humble creatures were really
+extracting more pleasure out of life than herself. Cassandra had
+recovered from her whipping, and was bustling about her tasks as if
+nothing had happened. Agias seemed to have a never failing fund of
+good spirits. He was always ready to tell the funniest stories or
+retail the latest news. Once or twice he brought his mistress
+unspeakable delight, by smuggling into the house letters from Drusus,
+which contained words of love and hope, if no really substantial
+promises for the future. But this was poor enough comfort. Drusus
+wrote that he could not for the time see that any good end would be
+served by coming to Rome, and he would remain for the present in
+Praeneste. He and she must try to wait in patience, until politics took
+such a turn as would drive Lentulus into a more tractable attitude.
+Cornelia found the days monotonous and dreary. Her uncle's freedman
+kept her under constant espionage to prevent a chance meeting with
+Drusus, and but for Agias she would have been little better than a
+prisoner, ever in charge of his keepers.
+
+In a way, however, Cornelia found that there was enough stirring in
+the outside world to lend zest and often venom to the average
+emptiness of polite conversation. Politics were penetrating deeper and
+deeper into fashionable society. Cornelia heard how Paulus, the
+consul, had taken a large present from Caesar to preserve neutrality;
+and how Curio, the tribune, had checked Clodius Marcellus, the other
+consul, when he wished to take steps in the Senate against Caesar. All
+that Cornelia heard of that absent statesman was from hostile lips;
+consequently she had him painted to her as blood-thirsty, treacherous,
+of flagrant immorality, with his one object to gather a band of
+kindred spirits to his cause, and become despot. And to hear such
+reports and yet to keep confident that Drusus was not sacrificing both
+himself and her in a worse than unworthy cause--this tested her to the
+uttermost.
+
+To add to her troubles, Lucius Ahenobarbus was ever thrusting in his
+attentions at every party and at the theatre; and her uncle openly
+favoured his suit.
+
+"I wish you would be more friendly to him," remarked Lentulus on one
+occasion. "I should be glad to have a closer tie between his family
+and ours."
+
+"Uncle," said Cornelia, much distressed, "I do not think I understand
+what you mean."
+
+"Well," chuckled Lentulus, moving away, "think it over until you do
+understand."
+
+Cornelia had been reading in the library when this conversation took
+place. There was to be another party that evening at the house of
+Marcus Favonius, a prominent anti-Caesarian, and since it was growing
+late in the afternoon, it was time to dress. Cornelia went into her
+own room, and was summoning her maids, when a young lady of about her
+own age, who affected to be on terms of considerable intimacy, was
+announced--Herennia, a daughter of a certain rich old eques, Caius
+Pontius, who had kept out of politics and hoarded money, which his
+daughter was doing her best to spend.
+
+Herennia was already dressed for the party. Her brown hair had been
+piled up in an enormous mass on her head, eked out by false tresses
+and puffings, and the whole plentifully powdered with gold dust. She
+wore a prodigious number of gaudily set rings; her neck and ears and
+girdle were ablaze with gold and jewels. So far from aiming, as do
+modern ladies, to reduce the waist to the slenderest possible
+proportions, Herennia, who was actually quite thin, had carefully
+padded out her form to proper dimensions, and showed this fact by her
+constrained motions. She was rouged and painted, and around her
+floated an incense of a thousand and one rare perfumes. Her
+amethystine tunic and palla were of pure silk--then literally worth
+its weight in gold--and embroidered with an elaborate pattern in which
+pearls and other gems played a conspicuous part. For all this display
+of extravagance, Herennia was of only very mediocre beauty; and it was
+on this account that she was always glad to make uncomfortable flings
+at her "dear friend" Cornelia, whenever possible.
+
+Herennia seated herself on a divan, and proceeded to plunge into all
+the flying gossip of the day. Incidentally she managed to hint that
+Servius Maccus, her devoted admirer, had told her that the night
+before Lucius Ahenobarbus and some of his friends had attacked and
+insulted a lady on her way back from a late dinner.[87]
+
+  [87] A common diversion for "young men of spirit."
+
+"The outrageous scapegrace!" cried Cornelia, while her maids hurried
+along a toilet which, if not as elaborate as Herennia's, took some
+little time. "I imagined he might do such things! I always detested
+him!"
+
+"Then you are not so very fond of Lucius Ahenobarbus," said Herennia,
+raising her carefully painted eyebrows, as if in astonishment. "I am
+really a little surprised."
+
+"Surprised?" reëchoed Cornelia. "What have I done or said that makes
+Lucius Ahenobarbus anything more than a very distant, a _very_ distant
+acquaintance?"
+
+"My dear girl," exclaimed Herennia, throwing up her hands, "either you
+are the best actress, or the most innocent little wight, in Rome!
+Don't you know all that they say about you?"
+
+"Who--say--what--about--me?" stammered Cornelia, rising in her chair
+so suddenly, as to disarrange all the work Cassandra had been doing on
+her hair.
+
+"Why, everybody," said Herennia, smiling with an exasperating
+deliberation. "And then it has all come out in the daily gazette."[88]
+
+  [88] _Acta Diurna_, prepared officially.
+
+"Where is it? Read! Let me see," pleaded Cornelia, agitated and
+trembling.
+
+"Why, how troubled you are," giggled Herennia. "Yes, I have my
+freedman copy down the whole bulletin every day, as soon as it is
+posted by the censor's officers; now let me see," and she produced
+from under her robe a number of wooden, wax-covered tablets, strung
+together: "the last praetor's edict; the will of old Publius Blaesus;"
+and she ran over the headings with maddening slowness: "the speech in
+the Senate of Curio--what an impudent rascal; the money paid yesterday
+into the treasury,--how dull to copy all that down!--the meteor which
+fell over in Tibur, and was such a prodigy; oh, yes, here it is at
+last; you may as well hear what all Rome knows now, it's at the end,
+among the private affairs. 'Lucius Ahenobarbus, son of Lucius
+Domitius, the Consular, and Cornelia, daughter of the late tribune,
+Caius Lentulus, are in love. They will be married soon.'"
+
+These two brief sentences, which the mechanical difficulties under
+which journalistic enterprise laboured at that day made it impossible
+to expand into a modern "article," were quite sufficient to tell a
+whole story to Rome. Cornelia realized instantly that she had been
+made the victim of some vile trick, which she doubted not her would-be
+lover and her uncle had executed in collusion. She took the tablets
+from Herennia's hand, without a word, read the falsehoods once, twice,
+thrice. The meaning of the day attached to the terms used intimated
+the existence of a low intrigue, quite as much as any honourable
+"engagement." If Cornelia did not soon become the lawful wife of
+Lucius Ahenobarbus, the world would feel justified in piling scandal
+upon her name. The blow was numbing in its brutality. Instead of
+crying and execrating the liars, as Herennia fully expected her to do,
+Cornelia merely handed back the tablets, and said with cold dignity,
+"I think some very unfortunate mistake has been made. Lucius
+Ahenobarbus is no friend of mine. Will you be so kind as to leave me
+with my maids?"
+
+Herennia was overborne by the calm, commanding attitude of the rival
+she had meant to annoy. When Cornelia became not the radiant
+_debutante_, but the haughty patrician lady, there was that about her
+which made her wish a mandate. Herennia, in some confusion, withdrew.
+When she was gone, Cornelia ordered her maids out of the room,
+stripped off the golden tiara they had been plaiting into her hair,
+tore away the rings, bracelets, necklaces, and flung herself upon the
+pillows of the divan, quivering with sobs. She did not know of a
+single friend who could help her. All the knowledge that she had
+imbibed taught her that there was no God either to hear prayer, or
+succour the wronged. Her name would become a laughing-stock and a
+hissing, to be put on a par with Clodia's or that of any other
+frivolous woman, unless she not merely gave up the man she loved, but
+also threw herself into the arms of the man she utterly hated. The
+craving for any respite was intense. She was young; but for the
+moment, at least, life had lost every glamour. If death was an endless
+sleep, why not welcome it as a blessed release? The idea of suicide
+had a grasp on the ancient world which it is hard at first to
+estimate. A healthy reaction might have stirred Cornelia out of her
+despair, but at that instant the impulse needed to make her commit an
+irrevocable deed must have been very slight. But while she lay on the
+pillows, wretched and heart-sick, the voice of Agias was heard
+without, bidding the maids admit him to their mistress.
+
+"Stay outside. I can't see you now," moaned poor Cornelia, feeling
+that for once the sight of the good-humoured, vivacious slave-boy
+would be maddening. But Agias thrust back the curtains and boldly
+entered. What he said will be told in its due time and place; but the
+moment he had gone Cornelia was calling in Cassandra, and ordering the
+maids to dress her with all possible speed for the dinner-party.
+
+"I must be all smiles, all enchantments," she was saying to herself.
+"I must dissemble. I must win confidences. I must do everything, and
+anything. I have no right to indulge in grief any longer. Quintus's
+dear life is at stake!"
+
+
+II
+
+Lentulus did not go to the banquet of Favonius, to see the unwonted
+graciousness with which his niece received the advances of Lucius
+Ahenobarbus, Neither was Favonius himself present at his own
+entertainment. They, and several others of the high magnates of their
+party, had been called away by an urgent summons, and spent the
+evening in secluded conference with no less a personage than Pompeius,
+or as he dearly loved to be called, "the Magnus," in his splendid
+palace outside the walls on the Campus Martius. And here the conqueror
+of Mithridates--a stout, soldierly man of six-and-fifty, whose best
+quality was a certain sense of financial honesty, and whose worst an
+extreme susceptibility to the grossest adulation--told them that he
+had received letters from Labienus, Caesar's most trusted lieutenant in
+Gaul, declaring that the proconsul's troops would never fight for him,
+that Caesar would never be able to stir hand or foot against the
+decrees of the Senate, and that he, Labienus, would desert him at the
+first opportunity.
+
+Cheerful news this to the noble lords, who had for years scented in
+Caesar's existence and prosperity destruction to their own oligarchic
+rule of almost the known world. But when Cato, the most violent
+anti-Caesarian of them all, a sharp, wiry man with angular features,
+and keen black eyes, demanded:--
+
+"And now, Magnus, you will not hesitate to annihilate the enemies of
+the Republic?" a look of pained indecision flitted across Pompeius's
+face.
+
+"_Perpol_, gentlemen," he exclaimed, "I would that I were well out of
+this. Sometimes I think that you are leading me into breaking with
+Caesar for some ends of your own. He was my friend before you had a
+word of praise for me. He loved Julia; so did I." And the Magnus
+paused a moment, overcome by the thought of his dead wife. "Perhaps
+the Republic demands his sacrifice, perhaps--" and he cast a glance
+half of menace upon Lentulus Crus and Cato, "you are the guilty, not
+he. But I am in grievous doubt."
+
+"Perhaps, Magnus," said Favonius, with half a sneer, "you think your
+forces inadequate. The two legions at Luceria are just detached from
+Caesar. Perhaps you question their fidelity."
+
+"Man," retorted the general, fiercely, bringing his foot down upon the
+soft rug on the floor, "I have but to stamp upon the ground to call up
+legions out of Italy; it is not that which I fear!"
+
+The members of the conference looked uneasy; there was still a bare
+chance that Pompeius would go back to his old friendship with Caesar.
+
+"Gentlemen," went on the Magnus, "I have called you here to reach a
+final decision--peace or war. Let us consult a higher power than
+human." And he touched a little silver bell that was upon the table
+close at hand.
+
+Forthwith there was a rustle of curtains, and out of the gloom of the
+doorway--for the hour was now very late--advanced a tall, gaunt
+figure, dressed in a plain, sleeveless robe that fell to the feet. The
+skin was dry, hard, wrinkled by a hundred furrows; the bones of the
+face were thrust out prominently; on the head was a plain white
+turban, and a beard quite as white fell down upon the breast. Only
+from under the turban shone the eyes, which were bright and piercing
+as coals of fire.
+
+The stranger advanced without a word, till he stood before Pompeius,
+then knelt and made an elaborate Oriental prostration. The noble
+Romans, twelve or more of the magnates of the greatest power on the
+earth, held their breath in uneasy anticipation. Not one of them
+perhaps really believed in a personal god; but though atheists, they
+could not forswear their superstition. Piso, the censor, who
+notoriously feared neither divine nor human law in his reckless life,
+spat thrice to ward off the effects of the evil eye, if the stranger
+were a magician.
+
+"Ulamhala," said Pompeius, addressing the newcomer, "arise. Since I
+have been in the East,[89] I have consulted you and your science of
+the stars, in every intended step, and your warnings have never
+failed."
+
+  [89] "Chaldean" astrologers played an almost incredibly important
+  part among even the highest-class Romans of the period.
+
+"My lord doth overcommend the wisdom of his slave," replied Ulamhala
+(for such was his name) in Syriac Greek, with a second deep obeisance.
+
+"Now, therefore," went on Pompeius--and his voice was unsteady with
+evident excitement and anxiety,--"I have called you hither to declare
+the warnings of the stars upon the most important step of my life.
+What lies now at stake, you know full well. Three days ago I bade you
+consult the heavens, that this night you might be able to declare
+their message, not merely to me, but to these my friends, who will
+shape their actions by mine. Have you a response from the planets?"
+
+"I have, lord," and again Ulamhala salaamed.
+
+"Then declare, be it good or ill;" commanded Pompeius, and he gripped
+the arms of his chair to conceal his anxiety.
+
+The scene was in a way weird enough. The visitors exchanged uneasy
+glances, and Cato, who broke out in some silly remark to Favonius, in
+a bold attempt to interrupt the oppressive silence, suddenly found his
+words growing thick and broken, and he abruptly became silent. Each
+man present tried to tell himself that Pompeius was a victim of
+superstition, but every individual felt an inward monition that
+something portentous was about to be uttered.
+
+The conference had lasted long. The lamps were flickering low. Dark
+shadows were loitering in every corner of the room. The aroma of
+flowers from the adjacent gardens floated in at the open windows, and
+made the hot air drugged and heavy. Ulamhala slowly and noiseless as a
+cat stepped to the window, and, leaning out over the marble railing,
+looked up into the violet-black heavens. There was no moon, but a
+trembling flame on one of the candelabras threw a dull, ruddy glow
+over his white dress and snowy turban. His face was hid in the gloom,
+but the others knew, though they could hardly see, that he was
+pointing upward with his right hand.
+
+"Behold," began the astrologer, "three thousand seven hundred and
+fifty years since the days of the great Sargon of Agade have we of the
+race of the Chaldeans studied the stars. One generation of watchers
+succeeded another, scanning the heavens nightly from our
+_ziggurats_,[90] and we have learned the laws of the constellations;
+the laws of Sin the moon, the laws of Samas the sun, the laws of the
+planets, the laws of the fixed stars. Their motions and their
+influence on the affairs of men our fathers discovered, and have
+handed their wisdom down to us."
+
+  [90] Babylonian temple towers.
+
+"But the word of the stars to _us_?" broke in Pompeius, in extreme
+disquietude, and trying to shake off the spell that held him in
+mastery.
+
+"Know, lord, that thy slave has not been disobedient unto thy
+commandment. Look, yonder burneth a bright red planet, called by us
+Nergal, which ye Westerns call by the name of Mars. Who denieth that
+when Mars shines in the heavens, war will break forth among men? Know
+that I have carefully compared the settings, risings, and movements of
+the planets at this season with their settings, risings, and movements
+at the time when my lord was born; and also at the time of the birth
+of his great enemy. I have made use of the tables which my wise
+predecessors among the Chaldees have prepared; and which I myself, thy
+slave, copied from those at the Temple of Bel, in Babylon."
+
+"And they say?" breathlessly interrupted Lentulus.
+
+"This is the message from the planets," and Ulamhala's form grew
+higher, his voice firmer; he raised his long bony arms above his head,
+and stood in the dull light like a skeleton arisen in all its white
+grave clothes to convey a warning to the living. "To the Lord
+Pompeius, this is the warning, and to his enemy,
+
+  "'_He that is highest shall rise yet higher;
+  He that is second shall utterly fall!_'
+
+I have said."
+
+And before the noble Romans could command the free play of their
+senses, the vision at the window had vanished, either out of doors, or
+behind some doorway or curtain. The company sat gazing uneasily at
+each other for several minutes. The Magnus was breathing heavily, as
+though he had passed through a terrible mental ordeal. Cato, the Stoic
+and ascetic, had his eyes riveted on the carpet, and his face was as
+stony as an Egyptian Colossus.
+
+Then a coarse forced laugh from Piso broke the spell.
+
+"Capital, Pompeius! You _are_ a favourite of the gods!"
+
+"I?" ventured the Magnus, moving his lips slowly.
+
+"Of course," cried several voices at once, catching the cue from Piso.
+"You are the first in the world, Caesar the second! You are to rise to
+new glories, and Caesar is to utterly fall!"
+
+"The stars have said it, gentlemen," said Pompeius, solemnly; "Caesar
+shall meet his fate. Let there be war."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Lentulus Crus rode away from the conference, his litter side by side
+with that of Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, the consular, whom we will
+know as Domitius to distinguish from his son and namesake. Domitius, a
+handsome, highly polished, vigorous, but none the less unprincipled
+man, who was just reaching the turn of years, was in high spirits. No
+oligarch hated Caesar more violently than he, and the decision of
+Pompeius was a great personal triumph, the crowning of many years of
+political intrigue. What Pompeius had said, he had said; and Caesar,
+the great foe of the Senate party, was a doomed man.
+
+Lentulus had a question to ask his companion.
+
+"Would you care to consider a marriage alliance between the Lentuli
+and the Domitii?" was his proposition.
+
+"I should be rejoiced and honoured to have the opportunity," was the
+reply; and then in another tone Domitius added, "Lentulus, do you
+believe in astrologers?"
+
+"I do not really know," answered the other, uneasily.
+
+"Neither do I," continued Domitius. "But suppose the stars speak
+truly; and suppose," and here his voice fell, "it is Caesar who is
+highest in power, in ability, in good fortune;--what then for
+Pompeius? for us?"
+
+"Be silent, O prophet of evil!" retorted Lentulus, laughing, but not
+very naturally.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VII
+
+Agias's Adventure
+
+
+I
+
+Pisander's view of life became a score of shades more rosy when he
+seized the hand of the handsome slave-boy, then embraced him, and
+began praising the gods for preserving his favourite's life. Then the
+worthy philosopher recollected that his wisdom taught him there were
+no gods, and he plunged into a rambling explanation of his position,
+which would have lasted forever, unless Agias had cut him short with a
+merry gibe, and told him that he must positively come to a tavern and
+enjoy at least one beaker of good Massic in memory of old friendship.
+And Pisander, whose spareness of living arose more from a lack of
+means than from a philosophic aversion to food and good cheer, was
+soon seated on a bench in one of the cheap restaurants[91] that
+abounded in the city, balancing a very large goblet, and receiving a
+volley of questions which Agias was discharging about Valeria's
+eccentricities, Calatinus's canvass, Arsinoe, Semiramis, and the rest
+of the household of which he had been a member.
+
+  [91] _Popinae_.
+
+"But you haven't told me, Agias," finally interrupted the poor
+philosopher, who had been struggling in turn to satisfy his curiosity,
+"how you are here, and not--ugh! I hate to think of it--feeding the
+dogs and the crows."
+
+Agias's face grew grave while he gave the story of his release by the
+Vestal, and subsequent transfer of ownership.
+
+"What was the name of the young man who purchased you, eh?"
+interpolated Pisander. "I didn't get it."
+
+"Quintus Livius Drusus," replied Agias.
+
+"Who?" cried the philosopher, starting up.
+
+"Quintus Drusus, of Praeneste," repeated the other.
+
+"_Ai! Ai!_ In the name of Zeus!" cried Pisander, dropping the beaker,
+and spilling the wine all over his threadbare himation. "Oh, such a
+plot! Such a crime! Was ever anything so villanous ever heard of
+before!"
+
+"My dear Pisander," exclaimed Agias, all amazement, "what _is_ the
+matter? Your speech is as obscure as Cinna's[92] poem called 'Zmyrna,'
+which I've heard was ten years in being written, and must be very
+fine, because no one can understand it. No more can I fathom you."
+
+  [92] A poet at that time of some little reputation.
+
+"What a stroke of fortune!" raved the philosopher. "How we will be
+revenged on that rascal, Pratinas! O Destiny, thy decrees are just!"
+
+Again Agias expostulated, and at last brought out of Pisander a
+tolerably coherent account of the conversation which he had heard
+between Valeria and Pratinas. Then, indeed, the merry slave-boy was
+troubled. Accustomed to a rather limited ambition in life, he had
+attached himself with implicit devotion to Cornelia; first because his
+preserver, Drusus, had so enjoined him, and second because each day he
+grew more drawn to her personally. The peril which yawned before the
+unfortunate Drusus menaced at the same time the happiness of his
+mistress and his own welfare,--for if Lucius Ahenobarbus had his way,
+Agias himself would become the slave of that not very gentle
+patrician. Cornelia and Drusus had had troubles enough before; but in
+the present crisis, actual destruction stared Agias's saviour in the
+face. The situation was maddening, was sickening. Agias wrung his
+hands in anguish. Then came the healthy reaction. Drusus was still
+alive and well. He could be warned. The plot could be thwarted.
+Pratinas and Ahenobarbus were not yet beyond the reach of retribution.
+He--Agias--was no longer to be a mere foot-boy and lackey; he was to
+match his keen Greek wits in subtle intrigue against foemen worthy of
+his steel. He would save Drusus's life, would save Cornelia's
+happiness. If he succeeded, who knew but that his owner would reward
+him--would give him freedom. And with a natural rebound of spirits,
+Agias's eyes glittered with expectation and excitement, his cheeks
+flushed, his form expanded to a manly height.
+
+"_Euge!_ Well done, old friend!" he cried, with the merriment of
+intense excitement. "No matter if you say you were only able to hear a
+small part of what our dear fellow-Hellene, Pratinas, told Valeria. I
+have gathered enough to defeat the plotters. Leave all to me. If you
+learn anything new, send word to the house of Lentulus Crus, and ask
+to see me. And now I must forsake this pleasant wine untasted, and
+hurry away. My mistress will bless you, and perhaps there will be some
+reward."
+
+And leaving the bewildered Pisander to wipe the wine from his dress,
+Agias had darted out of the tavern, and was lost in the hurly-burly of
+the cattle-market.
+
+How Agias had forced his way into Cornelia's presence we have related.
+The young Greek had stated his unpleasant intelligence as
+diplomatically and guardedly as possible; but Cornelia had borne this
+shock--following so soon upon one sufficiently cruel--grievously
+enough. After all, she was only a girl--perhaps more mature for her
+years than the average maiden of her age of to-day, but almost
+friendless, hopeless, and beset with many trials. And this new one was
+almost more than she could bear. We have said that to her suicide had
+but just before appeared a refuge to be desired; but to have Quintus
+die, to have him taken out of that life that ought to be so fair for
+him, no matter how darksome it was for her; to have him never realize
+her ambition that he become a statesman, warrior, philosopher, in
+short her ideal hero--this was unbearable! This phase of the question
+was so overpowering that she forgot to feel rage against Ahenobarbus
+and his wily ally. Cornelia threw herself down upon the floor, and
+cried to Agias to slay her quickly. She did not care to live; she
+could endure no more.
+
+Agias here manifested exquisite tact. Instead of attempting any
+ordinary means of expostulation, he pleaded with her not to give way
+to despair; that Drusus was not yet at the mercy of his enemies; that
+she, if she would, could do an infinite deal to assist him.
+
+"I save Quintus?" questioned Cornelia, with white, quivering lips.
+
+"You can do much, my lady," replied Agias, kindly taking her by the
+hand, and with gentle pressure forcing her to sit on the divan. "You
+can do what neither I, nor Pisander, nor any one else can accomplish.
+You can make Lucius Ahenobarbus betray his own plot. You, and you
+only, can penetrate the final plans of the conspirators. Therefore be
+strong, and do not despair."
+
+"I? What can _I_ do?" cried Cornelia, staring at him with sad,
+tearless eyes.
+
+"Lady Cornelia," said Agias, delicately, "Drusus would never receive
+back his life if it were to be purchased by any sacrifice of honour on
+your part. But this is not needed. Lucius Ahenobarbus--forgive my
+plain speech--worships the ground whereon you tread. A smile from you
+raises him to Olympus; a compliment from you makes him feel himself a
+god; a soft word from you creates him the peer of Zeus. Lady, I know
+you hate that man; but for Master Drusus's sake make Ahenobarbus
+believe that you are not indifferent to his advances. Slander Drusus
+before him. Complain of the provisions of your father's will that,
+despite your uncle's intention, will make it difficult to avoid a
+hateful marriage. If in the past you have been cold to Ahenobarbus,
+grow gracious; but not too rapidly. Finally, at the proper time, do
+not hesitate to urge him to commit the act we know he is meditating.
+Then he will make you a full partner of his plot, and Pratinas and he
+can be permanently thwarted."
+
+"You say that Drusus can be saved by this?" asked Cornelia, steadying
+herself as she rose from the divan;
+
+"I will warn him at once," replied Agias. "Any premature attempt on
+his life will certainly fail. But it is not Ahenobarbus that I fear;
+it is Pratinas. Pratinas, if baffled once, will only be spurred on to
+use all his cunning in a second trial. We must enmesh the conspirators
+so completely that when their stab is parried, not merely will their
+power to repeat it be gone, but they themselves will be in danger of
+retribution. And for this, some one must be confederate to their final
+plan."
+
+"Agias," said Cornelia, quietly, "Quintus said that you would be a
+faithful servant to him and to myself. I believe he was right. You
+have asked a great thing of me, Agias. I would not do it unless I
+believed that you were unlike other slaves. I might imagine that
+Lucius Ahenobarbus had bribed you to tell me this story, in order that
+I should put myself in his power. But I trust you. I will do anything
+you say. For you Hellenes have wits as keen as sharp steel, and I know
+that you will do all you may to repay your debt to Quintus."
+
+Agias knelt down and kissed the robe of his mistress. "My lady," he
+said gently, "it is no grievous thing to be a slave of such as you.
+Believe me; I will not betray my trust. And now if you can let me
+leave you, I will hurry to Praeneste, and for the present our minds may
+be at rest. For old Mamercus will, I am sure, be able to take good
+care of Master Drusus for yet awhile."
+
+"Go, and the gods--if there be gods--go with you!" replied Cornelia.
+Agias kissed her robe a second time, and was gone. His mistress stood
+in the middle of the empty room. On the wall facing her was a painting
+of "Aphrodite rising from the Foam," which Drusus had given her. The
+sensuous smiles on the face of the goddess sickened Cornelia, as she
+looked upon it. To her, at the moment, laughter was more hideous than
+any sobbing. Outside the door she heard the gay, witless chatter of
+the maids and the valets. They were happy--they--slaves, "speaking
+tools,"--and she with the blood of the Claudii and Cornelii in her
+veins, a patrician among patricians, the niece of a consul-elect, a
+woman who was the heiress of statesmen and overturners of
+kingdoms,--_she_ was miserable beyond endurance. Cornelia paced up and
+down the room, wishing she might order the giggling maids to be
+flogged and their laughter turned into howling. Then she summoned
+Cassandra.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Cornelia had never before tried to play the actress, but that night
+she flung herself into the game for life and death with all the
+earnestness of an energetic, intelligent, and spontaneous woman. She
+had been barely civil to Lucius Ahenobarbus before; to-night the young
+man began to persuade himself that the object of his affections was
+really a most adorable coquette, who used a certain brusqueness of
+speech to add to her witchery. He had heard that there had been some
+very disagreeable scenes at Praeneste, when Lentulus had told his niece
+that Drusus, on account of his dangerous politics, was unfit to be her
+husband. But Ahenobarbus was sure that either these accounts were
+exaggerated, or more likely, Cornelia, like most women, was quick to
+fall in love and quick to leave an old sweetheart for a new one. Be
+that as it may, Lucius felt that night on good terms with himself and
+all the world. Phormio had consented to continue his loans--until his
+debtor could realize on "certain property." Pratinas had said that
+Dumnorix would shortly start with a band of gladiators for some local
+festival at Anagnia, a little beyond Praeneste; and on the way back, if
+nothing went amiss, the prearranged programme could be carried out.
+Some pretext must be found for keeping Drusus on his estate at the
+time when Dumnorix would march past it, and that task could be
+confided to Phaon, Lucius's freedman, a sly fox entirely after his
+patron's own heart.
+
+Cornelia, to whom the dinner-party at Favonius's house began as a
+dreary enough tragedy, before long discovered that it was by no means
+more easy to suck undiluted sorrow than unmixed gladness out of life.
+It gratified her to imagine the rage and dismay of the young exquisite
+whose couch was beside her chair,[93] when he should learn how
+completely he had been duped. Then, too, Lucius Ahenobarbus had a
+voluble flow of polite small talk, and he knew how to display his
+accomplishments to full advantage. He had a fair share of wit and
+humour; and when he fancied that Cornelia was not impervious to his
+advances, he became more agreeable and more ardent. Once or twice
+Cornelia frightened herself by laughing without conscious forcing. Yet
+it was an immense relief to her when the banquet was over, and the
+guests--for Favonius had ordered that none should be given enough wine
+to be absolutely drunken--called for their sandals and litters and
+went their ways.
+
+  [93] Women sat at Roman banquets, unless the company was of a
+  questionable character.
+
+"And you, O Adorable, Calypso, Circe, Nausicaa, Medea,--what shall I
+call you?--you will not be angry if I call to see you to-morrow?" said
+Ahenobarbus, smiling as he parted from Cornelia.
+
+"If you come," was her response, "I shall not perhaps order the slaves
+to pitch you out heels over head."
+
+"Ah! That is a guarded assent, indeed," laughed Lucius, "but farewell,
+_pulcherrima!_"[94]
+
+  [94] Most beautiful.
+
+Cornelia that night lay down and sobbed herself to sleep. Her mother
+had congratulated her on her brilliant social success at the
+dinner-party, and had praised her for treating Lucius Ahenobarbus as
+she had.
+
+"You know, my dear," the worthy woman had concluded, "that since it
+has seemed necessary to break off with Drusus, a marriage with Lucius
+would be at once recommended by your father's will, and in many ways
+highly desirable."
+
+
+II
+
+Only a very few days later Lucius Ahenobarbus received a message
+bidding him come to see his father at the family palace on the
+Palatine. Lucius had almost cut himself clear from his relations. He
+had his own bachelor apartments, and Domitius had been glad to have
+him out of the way. A sort of fiction existed that he was legally
+under _the patria potestas_,[95] and could only have debts and assets
+on his father's responsibility, but as a matter of fact his parent
+seldom paid him any attention; and only called on him to report at
+home when there was a public or family festival, or something very
+important. Consequently he knew that matters serious were on foot,
+when he read in his father's note a request to visit Domitius's palace
+as soon as convenient. Lucius was just starting, in his most spotless
+toga,--after a prolonged season with his hairdresser,--to pay a
+morning call on Cornelia, and so he was the more vexed and perturbed.
+
+  [95] Sons remained under the legal control of a father until the
+  latter's death, unless the tie was dissolved by elaborate ceremonies.
+
+"Curses on Cato,[96] my old uncle," he muttered, while he waited in
+the splendid atrium of the house of the Ahenobarbi. "He has been
+rating my father about my pranks with Gabinius and Laeca, and something
+unpleasant is in store for me."
+
+  [96] Cato Minor's sister Portia was the wife of Lucius Domitius.
+  Cato was also connected with the Drusi through Marcus Livius Drusus,
+  the murdered reformer, who was the maternal uncle of Cato and Portia.
+  Lucius Ahenobarbus and Quintus Drusus were thus third cousins.
+
+Domitius presently appeared, and his son soon noticed by the affable
+yet diplomatic manner of his father, and the gentle warmth of his
+greeting, that although there was something in the background, it was
+not necessarily very disagreeable.
+
+"My dear Lucius," began Domitius, after the first civilities were
+over, and the father and son had strolled into a handsomely appointed
+library and taken seats on a deeply upholstered couch, "I have, I
+think, been an indulgent parent. But I must tell you, I have heard
+some very bad stories of late about your manner of life."
+
+"Oh!" replied Lucius, smiling. "As your worthy friend Cicero remarked
+when defending young Caelius, 'those sorts of reproaches are regularly
+heaped on every one whose person or appearance in youth is at all
+gentlemanly.'"
+
+"I will thank you if you will not quote Cicero to me," replied the
+elder man, a little tartly. "He will soon be back from Cilicia, and
+will be prodding and wearying us in the Senate quite enough, with his
+rhetoric and sophistries. But I must be more precise. I have found out
+how much you owe Phormio. I thought your dead uncle had left you a
+moderately large estate for a young man. Where has it gone to? Don't
+try to conceal it! It's been eaten up and drunk up--spent away for
+unguents, washed away in your baths, the fish-dealer and the caterer
+have made way with it, yes, and butchers and cooks, and greengrocers
+and perfume sellers, and poulterers--not to mention people more
+scandalous--have made off with it."
+
+Lucius stretched himself out on the divan, caught at a thick, richly
+embroidered pillow, tossed it over his head on to the floor, yawned,
+raised himself again upright, and said drawlingly:--
+
+"Y-e-s, it's as you say. I find I spend every sesterce I have, and all
+I can borrow. But so long as Phormio is accommodating, I don't trouble
+myself very much about the debts."
+
+"Lucius," said Domitius, sternly, "you are a graceless spendthrift. Of
+course you must have the sport which all young blood needs. But your
+extravagance goes beyond all bounds. I call myself a rich man, but to
+leave you half my fortune, dividing with your older brother Cnaeus, who
+is a far steadier and saner man than you, would be to assure myself
+that Greek parasites and low women would riot through that part of my
+estate in a twelvemonth. You must reform, Lucius; you must reform."
+
+This was getting extremely disagreeable in spite of his expectations,
+and the young man yawned a second time, then answered:--
+
+"Well, I presume Uncle Cato has told you all kinds of stories; but
+they aren't at all true. I really never had a great deal of money."
+
+"Lucius," went on his father, "you are grown to manhood. It is time
+that you steadied in life. I have let you live by yourself too long.
+You are even too indolent to engage in politics, or to go into the
+army. I have come to a determination. You must marry the woman I have
+selected for you."
+
+Ahenobarbus pricked up his ears. As a matter of fact, he had surmised
+what was coming, but he had no intention of admitting anything
+prematurely.
+
+"Really, father," he said, "I hope you won't use your legal right and
+force a wife on me. I have no desire to tie myself up to a decent
+married life."
+
+"I hardly think," said Domitius, smiling, "that you will resist my
+wishes long. I have seen Lentulus Crus the consul-elect, and he and I
+agree that since your mother's distant kinsman Quintus Drusus of
+Praeneste is an unsuitable husband for Cornelia, Lentulus's niece, on
+account of his very dangerous political tendencies, no happier
+alliance could bind our families together than a marriage between
+Cornelia and yourself."
+
+Lucius yawned a third time and fell back on the couch.
+
+"It's true," he ventured, "I have cared a good deal for Cornelia; and
+I've thrown over that little Greek Clyte and all the others for her;
+but then, to make a girl your sweetheart and to make her your wife are
+two very different things. _Vina Opimia_ is best; but because one
+drinks a _cyathus_[97] of that, why should he forego a good nil of
+Thasian or Caecuban? If I could have but one choice, give me plenty of
+the good, and I'll give up my few drops of the best."
+
+  [97] About one-twelfth pint.
+
+"Come, come," said Domitius, a little impatiently, "you must
+positively reform. Besides, while appearances must be kept up, there
+is no need for leading the life of a Stoic. You won't find Cornelia a
+hard companion. You have your pleasures and she hers, and you will
+live harmoniously enough and not the least scandal."
+
+And with this remark Domitius closed the matter, and Lucius was
+actually delighted at the situation. What his father had said had been
+true enough; half, nay, nearly all, Rome lived in the manner Domitius
+had guardedly proposed for his son and intended daughter-in-law.
+Marriage was becoming more and more a mere formality, something that
+was kept up as the ancient state Pagan worship was kept up by the
+remnants of old-time superstition, and as a cloak to hide a multitude
+of sins. Fifty-nine years before, the consul Metellus Numidicus had
+declaimed, "Quirites, we would fain be free from all this annoyance
+(of marriage); but since nature has so brought it about that it is
+neither possible to live pleasantly with our wives nor by any means to
+live (as a race) without them, we ought to consider the welfare of the
+future rather than the mere passing pleasure of the present." And ever
+since that day Romans had been striving desperately to make the
+married state as endurable as possible; usually by reducing the
+importance of lawful wedlock to a minimum.
+
+Of course the announcement of the informal betrothal was soon spread
+over Rome. The contracting parties were in the very highest life, and
+everybody declared that the whole affair was a political deal between
+Lentulus Crus and Domitius. It was commonly reported, too, how
+Cornelia had broken with Drusus, and every one remarked that if the
+young man had cared to enforce her father's will in the courts, his
+claim to her hand and fortune would be valid unless--and here most
+people exchanged sly winks, for they knew the power of Domitius and
+Lentulus Crus over a jury.
+
+And how had Cornelia borne it--she at whom Herennia had stared in
+amazement, when that "dear friend" discovered the friendship the other
+was displaying to Lucius Ahenobarbus? Cornelia had received the
+announcement very quietly, one might almost say resignedly. She had
+one great hope and consolation to support her. They would not force
+her to marry Lucius Ahenobarbus until Drusus was dead or had reached
+the age of five-and-twenty. The marriage formula with Ahenobarbus once
+uttered, while Quintus lived, and by no possibility, save by an open
+spoliation that would have stirred even calloused Rome, could Lucius
+touch a sesterce of his intended victim's property. Cornelia's hope
+now, strangely enough, was in the man she regarded as the most
+consummate villain in the world, Pratinas. Ahenobarbus might have his
+debts paid by his father, and forego risk and crime if he did not
+absolutely need Drusus's fortune; but Pratinas, she knew, must have
+planned to secure rich pickings of his own, and if Ahenobarbus married
+permanently, all these were lost; and the Greeks never turned back or
+let another turn back, when there was a fortune before them. It was a
+fearful sort of confidence. Drusus had been warned promptly by Agias.
+Old Mamercus had straightway taken every precaution, and forced his
+foster son to put himself in a sort of custody, which was sufficiently
+galling, in addition to the ever present sense of personal danger. The
+villa at Praeneste was guarded quietly by several armed slaves and
+peasants; not a morsel or drop passed Drusus's lips that had not been
+tested and tasted by a trusty dependent. The young man was not to go
+to Rome, despite his infinite yearning to see Cornelia, for every
+opportunity would be given in the dark city streets for an assassin.
+In fact, Drusus was virtually a prisoner in his own estates, for only
+there could he feel reasonably safe from attack.
+
+All these precautions Cornelia knew, for Agias was a master at
+smuggling letters in and out. She had told Drusus frankly all that had
+passed, and how that she was acting as she did only for his sake. She
+asked him to trust her, and he wrote back that no doubt of her
+fidelity to him had crossed his mind; he was not worthy of such love
+as she had for him; it did not matter very much if Ahenobarbus did
+kill him, except that it would give her new grief and pain, and the
+thought of that he could not bear. Cornelia had replied that if Drusus
+was murdered, she was woman enough and Roman enough to stab Lucius
+Ahenobarbus on their marriage night, and then plunge the dagger into
+her own breast. And there the fearful matter had rested; Cornelia
+smiled by day, and dazzled all she met by her vivacity, and her
+aggressive queenliness; and by night cried with tearless sobs, which
+came out of the depths of her heart. And all the time she waited for
+Agias to foil the plot, and assure Drusus of his life. Let Quintus
+once be safe, and then--how could she resist the irresistible pressure
+that would be brought to bear to force her into a hated marriage,
+which Ahenobarbus--balked though he might be of a fortune--would no
+longer care to defer? And when Cornelia thought of this, and when she
+was alone, she would open a little casket, of which no other had the
+key, and touch the ivory-carved hilt of a small damascened knife. The
+blade was very sharp; and there was a sticky gum all along the
+edge,--deadly poison; only a very slight scratch put one beyond aid of
+physician.
+
+The bitterest cup of all was the attitude she felt forced to assume
+toward Lucius Ahenobarbus. There were limits of familiarity and
+simulated affection beyond which she could not drive herself to go.
+Lucius was with her at all hours and in all places. The more she saw
+of him the more she abhorred his effeminate sensuality and lack of
+almost every quality that made life worth the living. But she
+must--she must learn the plot against Drusus, and precisely how and
+when the trap was to be sprung. And in a measure, at least so far as
+Lucius was concerned, she succeeded. By continually and openly
+reviling Quintus, by professing to doubt the legality of a marriage
+contracted against the terms of her father's will, by all but
+expressing the wish that her late lover were out of harm's way, she
+won her point. In a fit of half-drunken confidence Ahenobarbus assured
+her that she would not be troubled by Drusus for long; that he would
+soon be unable to annoy her. And then came a great disappointment.
+When Cornelia asked--and how much the request cost her, only she
+herself knew--to be let into the plot, Lucius owned that he had left
+the details in the hands of Pratinas, and did not himself know just
+how or when the blow was to fall. In Pratinas--whom Cornelia met very
+seldom--she met with a sphinx, ever smiling, ever gracious, but who,
+as if regretting the burst of confidence he had allowed Valeria, kept
+himself closed to the insinuations and half-questions of every one
+else. The truth was, the lanista Dumnorix was unwilling to do his part
+of the business until the festival at Anagnia brought him and his band
+through Praeneste, and this festival had been postponed. Consequently,
+the projected murder had been postponed a few days also. Agias had
+tried to penetrate into the secrets of Pratinas, but found that
+judicious intriguer had, as a rule, carefully covered his tracks. He
+spent a good deal of time and money, which Cornelia gave him, trying
+to corrupt some of the gladiators of Dumnorix's band and get at the
+intentions of their master; but he was not able to find that any of
+these wretches, who took his gold greedily enough, really knew in the
+least what were the appointments and engagements of the Gallic giant.
+As a matter of fact, the boy began to feel decidedly discouraged.
+Pisander had nothing more to tell; and, moreover, the worthy
+philosopher often gave such contradictory accounts of what he had
+overheard in Valeria's boudoir, that Agias was at his wit's end when
+and where to begin.
+
+So passed the rest of the month since Cornelia had been brought from
+Praeneste to Rome.
+
+
+III
+
+Cornelia began to grow sick at heart. The conviction was stealing over
+her that she was the victim of a cruel destiny, and it was useless to
+fight against fate. She had made sacrifices for Drusus's sake that had
+cost her infinitely. All Rome said that Cornelia returned the love of
+Lucius Ahenobarbus. And with it all, she knew that she had not
+succeeded in discovering the real plot of Pratinas, and could not
+thwart it. She knew that nearly every one placed her, if actually not
+as vicious as the rest, at least in the same coterie with Clodia, and
+the wife of Lentulus Spinther the younger Metella, and only a grade
+better than such a woman as Arbuscula, the reigning actress of the
+day. There was no defence to offer to the world. Did she not go with
+her mother to the gay gathering, in the gardens by the Tiber? Was she
+not waited on by half the fashionable young aristocrats of Rome? Was
+she not affianced to a man who was notoriously a leader of what might
+to-day be called the "fast set" of the capital? And from Drusus, poor
+fellow, she gained not the least consolation. That he loved her as she
+loved him, she had never cause to doubt. But in his self-renunciation
+he gave her advice that sprang out of his own sorrow and pessimism. It
+was no use, ran his letters, for a woman like her to try and battle
+against the evident decrees of Fortune. He was a man, and must fight
+his battle or die his death bravely; but she was not called on for
+this. There was no reason why she should not really enjoy herself, in
+the way most of the world thought she was enjoying herself. She had
+better wed Lucius Ahenobarbus, and stoop to the inevitable. Her
+husband could go his way and she go hers, and none would complain.
+Perhaps the Epicureans were right,--this life was all, and it was best
+to suck from it all the sweets one might, and not be disturbed by
+pricks of conscience. Drusus and Cornelia were not lovers of a modern
+romance, to entertain fantastic ideas of love and duty, to throw
+themselves away for a fancy, or tie themselves with vows which
+militated against almost every worldly advantage. They were both
+Romans, and by that we mean eminently practical persons, faithful to
+one another, pure and noble in their affections, but habituated to
+look a situation in the face and accept the plain consequences. In
+this spirit Drusus had advised as he did, and Cornelia became
+discouraged accordingly. Her reason told her to submit to the
+inevitable. Her heart cried out against it. And so she continued to
+finger the hilt of the little dagger, and look at its keen
+poison-smeared edge.
+
+But one day at the end of this dreary period Agias appeared before his
+mistress with a smiling face.
+
+"Don't raise high hopes, my lady, but trust me. I have struck a path
+that I'm sure Pratinas will wish I'd never travelled." And that was
+all he would say, but laid his finger on his lips as though it was a
+great secret. When he was gone, for Cornelia the sun shone brighter,
+and the tinkling of the water in the fountain in the peristylium
+sounded sweeter than before. After all, there had come a gleam of
+hope.
+
+Cornelia needed the encouragement. That same day when Herennia called
+to see her, that excellent young lady--for not the least reason in the
+world--had been full of stories of poisoning and murders, how some
+years ago a certain Balbutius of Larinum was taken off, it was said,
+at a wedding feast of a friend for whom the poison had been intended;
+and then again she had to tell how, at another time, poison had been
+put in a bit of bread of which the victim partook. The stories were
+old ones and perhaps nothing more than second-hand scandal, but they
+were enough to make poor Cornelia miserable; so she was doubly
+rejoiced when Agias that evening pressed his lips again and smiled and
+said briefly: "All is going well. We shall have the root of the matter
+in a few days."
+
+Agias had actually come upon what he was right in considering a great
+piece of good fortune. He had easily found the tenement in the Subura
+where Pratinas lodged, but to learn anything there that would be
+useful was a far more difficult affair. He had hung around the place,
+however, as much as he dared, making his headquarters at a tavern
+conveniently near, and tried to learn Pratinas's habits, and whether
+he ever took any visitors home with him. All this came to little
+purpose till one morning he observed an old Ethiop, who was tugging a
+heavy provision basket, stagger up the street, through the nondescript
+crowd. The old slave was being assailed by a mob of street gamins and
+low pedlers who saw in the contents of the hamper so much fair
+plunder. These vagabonds had just thrown the Ethiop down into the mud,
+and were about to divide their booty, when Agias, acting on a generous
+impulse, rushed out from the tavern to the rescue. Nimble, for his age
+powerful, and armed with a stout staff which he had caught up in the
+wine-shop to aid him, the young Greek won an easy victory over
+cowardly antagonists, put all the plunderers to flight, and lifted the
+old slave out of the mire. The Ethiop was profuse in his thanks.
+
+"And whose slave are you?" demanded Agias, well pleased to be out of
+the adventure.
+
+"I'm Sesostris, servant of Pratinas the Greek."
+
+Agias pricked up his ears. "And you live--"
+
+"In the top story of this tenement;" and Sesostris tried to pick up
+the hamper.
+
+"Oh!" laughed his rescuer, "you must let me save you that trouble. I
+will carry up the basket. Your master is a brute to pile on such
+loads."
+
+Sesostris again fawned his gratitude, and Agias, with quickened wits
+and eyes alert, toiled up the dark stairway, and found himself at the
+top of the building. He had "entered the enemy's country." The Ethiop
+might not have been open to bribes, but he might be unlocked through
+friendship, and Agias never needed all his senses more than now. They
+had reached the topmost flight of stairs, and Sesostris had stopped as
+if embarrassed whether to invite his deliverer in to enjoy some
+hospitality, or say him farewell. Then of a sudden from behind the
+closed door came a clear, sweet, girlish voice, singing, in Greek:--
+
+  "O Aitne, mother mine: A grotto fair
+    Scooped in the rocks have I, and there I keep
+  All that in dreams man pictures! Treasured there
+    Are multitudes of she-goats and of sheep,
+    Swathed in whose wool from top to toe I sleep."
+
+It was an idyl of Theocritus, very well known by Agias, and without
+the least hesitation he took up the strain, and continued:--
+
+  "The fire boils my pot; with oak or beech
+    Is piled,--dry beech logs when the snow lies deep.
+  And storm and sunshine, I disdain them each
+    As toothless sires a nut, when broth is in their reach."[98]
+
+  [98] Calverly's translation.
+
+Agias paused. There was a silence, then a giggle behind the door, and
+it half opened, and out peered the plump and rosy face of the young
+girl we have heard Pratinas salute as his niece, Artemisia. The moment
+she caught sight of the rather manly form of Agias, the door started
+to close with a slam, but the latter thrust out his foot, blocked the
+door, and forced an entrance.
+
+"_Eleleu!_" cried Agias, pushing into a small but neatly furnished
+room. "What have we here? Do the muses sing in Subura? Has Sappho
+brought hither her college of poetesses from Lesbos?"
+
+"_Ai!_" exclaimed Artemisia, drawing back, "who are you? You're
+dreadfully rude. I never saw you before."
+
+"Nor I you;" replied Agias, in capital good humour, "but that is no
+reason why I should take my eyes away from your pretty little face.
+No, you needn't point your middle finger at me so, to ward off the
+evil eye. I'm neither Chaldean astrologer, nor Etruscan soothsayer.
+Come, tell me who you are, and whom you belong to?"
+
+Artemisia did not have the least idea what to say. Agias, partly
+through youthful love of adventure, partly because he felt that he was
+playing now for very high stakes and must risk a good deal, had thrown
+himself on the divan, and was holding Artemisia captive under his
+keen, genial eyes. She grew redder in face than before, began to
+speak, then broke off with more confused blushes.
+
+"She means to say," finally ventured Sesostris, "that she is
+Artemisia, the niece of Pratinas."
+
+"The niece of Pratinas!" exclaimed Agias, settling himself upon the
+cushions in a manner that indicated his intention to make a prolonged
+stay; "and does Pratinas keep his pretty niece shut up in a gloomy
+tenement, when she has the voice of one of the Graces, and more than
+their share of beauty! Shame on him; I thought he had better sense
+than that!"
+
+"Sir," ventured Artemisia, trying desperately to stand on her dignity,
+"I do not know you. My uncle will be greatly vexed to find you here.
+Will you go away at once?"
+
+"That I will not," replied Agias, firmly; and he drew from the hamper
+a baker's bun, and began to munch it, as though laying in provision
+for a lengthy stay.
+
+Artemisia and Sesostris exchanged glances of dismay.
+
+"What _shall_ I do?" said the girl to the Ethiop in a very audible
+whisper.
+
+"Sing," interrupted Agias. "Let me hear the rest of the Theocritus."
+
+"I don't like to sing those songs," objected Artemisia. "Pratinas
+makes me, I don't know why."
+
+"Well," said Agias, smiling, "I wouldn't for the-world make you sing
+against your will. Suppose you tell me about yourself. Tell me when
+your uncle is away, and when I may come and see you again."
+
+"He's away nearly all the time," said Artemisia, very incautiously.
+"But _who are_ you? Why do you want to come and see me?"
+
+"Why do I want to look at a flower? Why do I want to hear the
+nightingale sing? Why do I like a cup of good wine?" laughed Agias.
+"Then, fair mistress, you may look for my answer when _you_ have
+answered all of these questions of mine."
+
+"I don't see what you mean," said poor Artemisia, looking dreadfully
+puzzled.
+
+"I mean," exclaimed the other, "what Sappho meant of the bride,--
+
+  'She like an apple turned red; which reddens far up on the tree-top:--
+  Upon the topmost of boughs,--the gatherers they have quite missed it.
+  Yes, they saw it indeed; but too high to dare try to pluck it.'
+
+Only I, if you don't greatly mind, will be the bold tree-climber and
+pluck the apple."
+
+"But I do mind," cried Artemisia, all blushes, and springing a little
+back. Old Sesostris looked alarmed.
+
+"You--you mean the girl no ill?" he faltered.
+
+Agias looked from the innocent little thing over to the Ethiop,
+snapped his finger, and replied:--
+
+"Ill? I am not a human wolf, making pretty objects like this my prey!"
+Then, choosing his moment carefully, by a quick turn he confronted
+Sesostris sternly, and almost thundered: "_You_ speak of my doing ill
+to this maiden? You speak--the slave of Pratinas, who is the leader in
+every vice and wild prank in Rome! Has the slave as well as the master
+learned to play the hypocrite? Do you want to be tortured into
+confessing your part in all your master's crimes when the hour of
+reckoning comes and he is brought to justice. _A! A!_" he went on,
+seeing that Sesostris was rolling the whites of his eyes, and was
+trembling in every limb, "you know for a certainty how and when
+Pratinas is to have Quintus Drusus killed! Don't deny it. You will
+soon be in the meshes. Don't hope to escape. If murder comes to Drusus
+he may perish, but he has friends who will fearfully avenge his
+death."
+
+"Mercy! Mercy!" howled the Ethiop, falling on his knees and clutching
+at the young Greek's robe, "I know very little of the plot. I only
+know--"
+
+"Don't equivocate," thundered Agias. "If I had known the kind of man
+you were, I would hardly have saved you from those street ruffians.
+You don't deserve to live. Well, the crows will soon have you! You
+Egyptians believe in a judgment of the dead; what defence can you make
+before the court of Osiris[99] for being privy to a foul murder?
+You'll come back to earth as a fly, or a toad, or a dung-beetle, to
+pay the penalty for your sins."
+
+  [99] The Egyptian judge of the dead.
+
+"Mercy," whined Sesostris, who was in a paroxysm of fright. "Indeed I
+am innocent! I am only a poor slave! I can't help knowing what
+Pratinas is doing; but how can I prevent him? Don't look at me so! I
+am innocent--innocent!"
+
+"I can scarce believe you," said Agias, affecting great reluctance to
+show any leniency. "Doubtless you are steeped in blood. Still, you may
+save yourself this once. Remember, you are known, and the plans of
+Pratinas against Drusus are partly known. We know about Dumnorix, and
+Lucius Ahenobarbus, and--"
+
+"Oh!" cried Sesostris, as though a hot iron had touched him, "I will
+find out everything, and tell you. Indeed I will. Only do not send me
+to the rack or crucify me if my master's plans go astray!"
+
+"Well," said Agias, still simulating hesitancy, "I will report to my
+superiors. Perhaps you are not a willing accomplice of your master. In
+that case, if he is apprehended, your life will doubtless be spared.
+But we must thwart his plot before it can be carried out. This you
+must aid us to do. When will Dumnorix start for Praeneste?"
+
+Again Sesostris quailed. "I don't know," he faltered, "there has been
+a postponement. There was a plan that if Drusus came to the city he
+was to be lured outside the Esquiline gate, as if going to some villa,
+and murdered in the sand-pits, as have been many people."
+
+"But this plan has been given up? Speak the truth!" sharply demanded
+Agias.
+
+"Yes; for Drusus will not stir from Praeneste. So there the scheme must
+be executed, as originally arranged."
+
+"And Dumnorix will go soon?"
+
+"I think in a few days. I will find out."
+
+"As you love your own life do so! I will call on each day at this
+hour. If Pratinas is at home, leave some bright garment outside near
+the door, that I may not stumble on him. Deceive or betray me, and my
+masters will take a terrible revenge on you; for you haven't the least
+idea what is the power of the men Pratinas has for enemies."
+
+Agias turned to depart. Then to Artemisia:--
+
+"And you, my pretty,--when I come again, I will try to stay longer,
+and make you feel as glad to see Agias, as Agias will be to see
+Artemisia."
+
+Agias was descending the stairs, when Sesostris called him back with a
+whisper.
+
+"You are a dreadful youth; but since I am so utterly in your power,
+hear something that may prove that I am not a knave at heart. You have
+a fancy to the girl?"
+
+"Certainly I have eyes for her face, and ears for her sweet little
+voice," said Agias, smiling.
+
+"Then listen," went on the Ethiop; "I care for the dear more than
+anything else in the world. She said she was Pratinas's niece. It
+isn't true. She is a slave-girl he picked up when very little at
+Delos,[100] as he told me, though I doubt it. He took a fancy to her,
+and really thought of adopting her. Then his soul became so set on
+money, that he saw she would fetch a great price when grown; and sell
+her he will. He still pretends to call her his niece; but that won't
+be for long. He is teaching her to sing, to add to her value. _A!_ But
+my old heart is almost breaking for her sake. _Mu, mu!_" and Sesostris
+puffed his groans through his nostrils. "Think of it! He has an idea
+to sell her to that rich Roman, Lucius Calatinus--and then I don't
+dare hint what will be her fate."
+
+  [100] At this period the great slave emporium of the world.
+
+"Calatinus!" hissed Agias, concentrating volumes of scorn into a word.
+
+"You know him! You hate him!" cried Sesostris. "Then by Ammon-Ra, by
+Isis, by every god in whom you believe, save my darling from worse
+than death! Do that, and I will die for you!"
+
+Sesostris's emotion was too genuine to be a mere trap for ensnaring
+his visitor; and Agias in turn was stirred.
+
+"Old man," he exclaimed, seizing the other's hand, "you and I have
+suffered much from evil masters. Thank the gods, I am now serving one
+I love--albeit unfortunate enough! But we have a common right to
+punish the wrongdoers, and earn a little bit of happiness for
+ourselves. Come, now! If Artemisia is a slave, she is in no wise above
+me. Let me save Drusus from Pratinas, and I pledge my word that I will
+save Artemisia from him and his nefarious schemes,--yes, and you, too.
+If Artemisia likes me, why then there will be perhaps more to add to
+the story. Come--I am your friend, and you, mine."
+
+Sesostris wrung the other's hand. The honest servant was moved too
+much to speak. His heart and soul had been bound up in Artemisia.
+
+"May your _Ka_[101] stand before Osiris justified!" he choked. "I have
+been privy to many a dark action, until I used to try to forget the
+day when I must answer to the Judge of the Dead for every deed done
+and word spoken. But I could not stifle my fear for the only dear
+thing in the world."
+
+  [101] The spiritual double which belonged to every man according to
+  the Egyptian ideas.
+
+Agias went away in a happy frame of mind. He had every confidence that
+Sesostris would worm out of Pratinas the exact details of the plot,
+and put the conspirators at the mercy of Drusus and Mamercus.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And Agias had felt there was good reason to rejoice in his discovery
+in more ways than one. Especially was he conscious that there were no
+lips as red and as merry, no cheeks as rosy, no eyes as dancing, no
+chatter as sweet, as those of Artemisia. And what is more, he rejoiced
+to believe that that young lady was not half so shy of him as at
+first, and was as anxious to see him as he to see her. Thanks to due
+warnings and precautions, Agias never stumbled on Pratinas, when the
+latter was at his lodgings. The time he dared to stay was all too
+short for Artemisia. She was always telling how lonesome she was with
+only old Sesostris for company, before she knew Agias. Once when the
+latter was late in his daily visit, he was delighted to find scribbled
+on the wall, "Artemisia to her Agias: you are real mean." Agias hated
+to make her erase it lest it fall under Pratinas's eagle eye.
+
+But still Sesostris had nothing to tell about the plot against Drusus.
+Some days passed. Agias began to grow uneasy. Sesostris had
+represented that he was conversant with everything his master had on
+foot; but Pratinas might have been more discreet than to unfold all
+his affairs, even before his servant; and then, too, there was always
+the possibility that Sesostris was playing fast and loose, and about
+to betray Agias to his master. So the latter grew disquieted, and
+found it a little hard to preserve the character of cheerful mystery
+which he simulated to Cornelia. The long-sought information came at a
+time when he was really off his guard. Agias had been visiting
+Artemisia. Sesostris as well as Pratinas had been out; the two young
+people were amusing themselves trying to teach a pet magpie to speak,
+when the Ethiop rushed into the room, all in a tremble with anxious
+excitement.
+
+"_A! A!_" he was ejaculating. "Up, speed, don't delay! There's murder
+afoot!"
+
+Agias let the bird slip from his hands, and never noticed that it
+fluttered on its clipped wings around the room, to Artemisia's
+infinite dismay.
+
+"What? Is the plot hatched?"
+
+"Yes, yes," puffed Sesostris, great beads of perspiration on his
+honest face. "I was attending Pratinas when he met Lucius Ahenobarbus
+in the Forum. They veiled their talk, but I readily caught its drift.
+Dumnorix went yesterday with the pick of his band to Anagnia for some
+games. To-morrow he will return through Praeneste, and the deed will be
+done. Phaon, Ahenobarbus's freedman, has started already for Praeneste
+to spy out the ground and be ready to direct Dumnorix where, when, and
+how to find Drusus. Phaon has been spying at Praeneste, and is the
+dangerous man!"
+
+"He has gone?" demanded Agias.
+
+"Gone, early this morning!"
+
+"Then,--the gods reward you for your news,--I am gone too!"
+
+And without another word to Artemisia or the old slave, Agias had
+rushed out into the street. He had a double game to play--to prevent
+Phaon from ever reaching Praeneste, and then get such help to Drusus as
+would enable him to beat off Dumnorix and his gang. For Agias felt
+certain that the hard-hitting Gaul would execute his part of the
+bargain, whether he met Phaon or not, and afterward look into the
+consequences of what--unmitigated by the freedman's _finesse_--would
+take the form of an open clumsy murder. But Phaon had started that
+morning; and it was now well into the afternoon. Time was dangerously
+scanty. Cornelia he felt he should inform; but she could do nothing
+really to help him. He turned his steps toward the Forum and the
+Atrium Vestae. He had some difficulty in inducing the porter to summon
+Fabia, to meet in personal interview a mere slave, but a gratuity won
+the point; and a minute later he was relating the whole story and the
+present situation of Drusus to Fabia, with a sincere directness that
+carried conviction with it. She had known that Drusus had enemies; but
+now her whole strong nature was stirred at the sense of her nephew's
+imminent peril.
+
+"If you were a freeman, Agias," were her words, "and could give
+witness as such, Pratinas and Ahenobarbus--high as the latter
+is--should know that my influence at the law outweighs theirs. But
+they shall be thwarted. I will go to Marcellus the consul, and demand
+that troops be started to Praeneste to-night. But you must go after
+Phaon."
+
+"You will send word to Cornelia?" requested Agias.
+
+"Yes," said Fabia, "but not now; it is useless. Here is an order on
+Gallus, who keeps a livery-stable[102] by the Porta Esquilina. He will
+give you my new white Numidian, that I keep with him. Ride as you have
+never ridden before. And here is money. Twenty gold philippi in this
+bag. Bribe, do anything. Only save Drusus! Now go!"
+
+  [102] Such establishments were common near the gates, and the Vestals
+  often had their horses at such places.
+
+"Farewell, lady," cried Agias, "may I redeem the debt of gratitude I
+owe you!"
+
+Fabia stood looking after him, as he hastened out from the quiet
+atrium into the busy street. Little Livia had cuddled up beside her
+aunt.
+
+"Oh, Livia," said Fabia, "I feel as though it were of no use to live
+good and pure in this world! Who knows what trouble may come to me
+from this day's doings? And why should they plot against your
+brother's dear life? But I mustn't talk so." And she called for her
+attendants to escort her abroad.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VIII
+
+"When Greek Meets Greek"
+
+
+I
+
+Cornelia had surmised correctly that Pratinas, not Lucius Ahenobarbus,
+would be the one to bring the plot against Drusus to an issue. Lucius
+had tried in vain to escape from the snares the wily intriguer had
+cast about him. His father had told him that if he would settle down
+and lead a moderately respectable life, Phormio should be paid off.
+And with this burden off his mind, for reformation was very easily
+promised, Lucius had time to consider whether it was worth his while
+to mix in a deed that none of Pratinas's casuistry could quite
+convince him was not a foul, unprovoked murder, of an innocent man.
+The truth was, Ahenobarbus was desperately in love with Cornelia, and
+had neither time nor desire to mingle in any business not connected
+with the pursuit of his "tender passion." None of his former
+sweethearts--and he had had almost as many as he was years old--were
+comparable in his eyes to her. She belonged to a different world from
+that of the Spanish dancers, the saucy maidens of Greece, or even the
+many noble-born Roman women that seemed caught in the eddy of Clodia's
+fashionable whirlpool. Lucius frankly told himself that he would want
+to be divorced from Cornelia in five years--it would be tedious to
+keep company longer with a goddess. But for the present her vivacity,
+her wit, her bright intelligence, no less than her beauty, charmed
+him. And he was rejoiced to believe that she was quite as much
+ensnared by his own attractions. He did not want any unhappy accident
+to mar the smooth course which was to lead up to the marriage in no
+distant future. He did not need Drusus's money any longer to save him
+from bankruptcy. The legacy would be highly desirable, but life would
+be very pleasant without it. Lucius was almost induced by his inward
+qualms to tell Pratinas to throw over the whole matter, and inform
+Dumnorix that his services were not needed.
+
+It was at this juncture that Cornelia committed an error, the full
+consequences of which were, to her, happily veiled. In her anxiety to
+discover the plot, she had made Lucius believe that she was really
+pining for the news of the murder of Drusus. Cornelia had actually
+learned nothing by a sacrifice that tore her very heart out; but her
+words and actions did almost irreparable harm to the cause she was
+trying to aid.
+
+"And you have never given me a kiss," Lucius had said one morning,
+when he was taking leave of Cornelia in the atrium of the Lentuli.
+"Will you ever play the siren, and lure me to you? and then devour, as
+it were, your victim, not with your lips, but with your eyes?"
+
+"_Eho!_ Not so bold!" replied Cornelia, drawing back. "How can I give
+you what you wish, unless I am safe from that awful Polyphemus up in
+Praeneste?"
+
+When Ahenobarbus went away, his thoughts were to the following effect:
+"I had always thought Cornelia different from most women; but now I
+can see that, like them all, she hates and hates. To say to her,
+'Drusus is dead,' will be a more grateful present than the largest
+diamond Lucullus brought from the East, from the treasure of King
+Tigranes."
+
+And it was in such a frame of mind that he met Pratinas by appointment
+at a low tavern on the Vicus Tuscus. The Greek was, as ever, smiling
+and plausible.
+
+"Congratulations!" was his greeting. "Dumnorix has already started. He
+has my orders; and now I must borrow your excellent freedman, Phaon,
+to go to Praeneste and spy out, for the last time, the land, and
+general our army. Let him start early to-morrow morning. The time is
+ample, and unless some malevolent demon hinder us, there will be no
+failure. I have had a watch kept over the Drusus estate. An old sentry
+of a steward, Mamercus,--so I learn,--has been afraid, evidently, of
+some foul play on the part of the consul-designate, and has stationed
+a few armed freedmen on guard. Drusus himself keeps very carefully on
+his own premises. This is all the better for us. Dumnorix will dispose
+of the freedmen in a hurry, and our man will be in waiting there just
+for the gladiators. Phaon will visit him--cook up some errand, and
+inveigle him, if possible, well out in the colonnade in front of the
+house, before Dumnorix and his band pass by. Then there will be that
+very deplorable scuffle, and its sad, sad results. Alas, poor Drusus!
+Another noble Livian gathered to his fathers!"
+
+"I don't feel very merry about it," ventured Lucius. "I don't need
+Drusus's money as much as I did. If it wasn't for Cornelia, I would
+drop it all, even now. Sometimes I feel there are avenging
+Furies--_Dirae_, we Latins call them--haunting me."
+
+Pratinas laughed incredulously. "Surely, my dear fellow," he began,
+"you don't need to have the old superstitions explained away again, do
+you?"
+
+"No, no," was his answer; Lucius capitulating another time.
+
+So it came to pass that Pratinas had an interview with Phaon, Lucius's
+freedman, a sleek, well-oiled Sicilian Greek, who wore his hair very
+long to cover the holes bored in his ears--the mark of old-time
+servitude. He was the darling of waiting-maids; the collector of all
+current scandal; the master spirit in arranging dinners, able to tell
+a Tuscan from a Lucanian boar by mere taste. He used also to help his
+patron compose _billets-doux,_ and had, by his twistings and
+scrapings, repeatedly staved off Phormio, Lucius's importunate
+creditor. As for Phaon's heart, it was so soft and tender that the
+pricks of conscience, if he ever had any, went straight through,
+without leaving a trace behind. And when Pratinas now informed him as
+to his final duties at Praeneste, Phaon rubbed his beringed hands and
+smoothed his carefully scraped chin with ill-concealed satisfaction.
+
+"And a word more in closing," said Pratinas, as he parted with Phaon
+in the tavern--while Lucius, who had been drinking very heavily,
+nodded stupidly over his goblet of amber Falernian, in a vain attempt
+to gulp down eight _cyathi_ at once, one measure to each letter in the
+name of Cornelia--"a word more. Dumnorix is a thick-skulled knave, who
+is, after all, good for little but blows. I have made an arrangement
+which will ensure having a careful man at his elbow in time of need.
+You, of course, will have to do your best to save the unfortunate
+Quintus from inevitable fate. But I have asked Publius Gabinius to
+leave for Praeneste very early on the morning when Dumnorix passes
+through that place. Gabinius has a small villa a little beyond the
+town, and there will be nothing suspicious in a journey to visit one's
+country house. He will meet Dumnorix, and be at his side when the
+pinch comes. You see? He is an adventurous fellow, and will help us
+just for the sake of the mischief. Besides, I believe he has a grudge
+against the Drusian family as a whole, for he lately tried to pass
+some familiarities with Fabia the Vestal, Drusus's aunt, and she
+proved disgustingly prudish."
+
+"And how much will you and I," said Phaon, with a sly smirk, "gain
+out of this little business, if all goes well? Of course one should
+help one's patron, but--"
+
+"It is folly to divide the spoils of Troy before Troy is taken,"
+laughed Pratinas. "Don't be alarmed, my good fellow. Your excellent
+patron will reward us, no doubt, amply." And he muttered to himself:
+"If I don't bleed that Lucius Ahenobarbus, that Roman donkey, out of
+two-thirds of his new fortune; if I don't levy blackmail on him
+without mercy when he's committed himself, and becomes a partner in
+crime, I'm no fox of a Hellene. I wonder that he is the son of a man
+like Domitius, who was so shrewd in that old affair with me at
+Antioch."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So it came to pass that the next morning, long before Pratinas and
+Ahenobarbus met in the Forum and reviewed the steps taken in the words
+that gave Sesostris the key to the situation, Phaon was driving toward
+Praeneste. Of course a mere freedman, on a journey preferably kept
+quiet, travelled in not the least state. He rode alone, but had
+borrowed from his patron two of those small but speedy Gallic horses
+called mammi, that whirled his gig over the Campagna at a rapid trot.
+Still there was no great call for haste. He wished to get to Praeneste
+about dark, and there make a few inquiries as to the whereabouts and
+recent doings of Drusus. Pratinas had had considerable espionage kept
+up over his intended victim, and the last results of this detective
+work were to be reported to Phaon by the slaves of Ahenobarbus
+performing it. Perhaps there would be no real harm in driving straight
+through to Praeneste in the open daylight, but it was better not to
+show himself until the right time. So it was that, halfway on the
+road, Phaon turned in to the tavern of the decaying little town of
+Gabii, gave his team to the hostler, and rested himself by fuming over
+the squalor and poor cooking of the inn.
+
+
+II
+
+Agias secured the fast Numidian from the stables of Gallus, and was
+soon away. His frequent journeys between Rome and Praeneste, in service
+of Cornelia and Drusus, made him a fairly expert rider, and his noble
+mount went pounding past the mile-stones at a steady, untiring gallop.
+The young Hellene was all tingling with excitement and expectation; he
+would save Drusus; he would send the roses back into his beloved
+mistress's cheeks; and they would reward him, give him freedom; and
+then the future would be bright indeed.
+
+But it grew late, fast as the horse bore him. He felt it his duty to
+press on with all speed to Praeneste. He had still a very vague notion
+of the final form of the conspiracy, especially of the role assigned
+to Phaon. Of one thing he was certain: to intercept Phaon was to
+deprive Dumnorix of an essential ally; but how to intercept the wily
+freedman was nothing easy.
+
+As the Numidian swept into Gabii, Agias drew rein, telling himself
+that the horse would make better speed for a little rest and baiting.
+The tavern court into which he rode was exceedingly filthy; the whole
+building was in a state of decay; the odours were indescribable. In
+the great public-room a carter was trolling a coarse ditty, while
+through the doorway ran a screaming serving-maid to escape some low
+familiarity.
+
+A shock-headed boy with a lantern took Agias's bridle, and the Greek
+alighted; almost under his eyes the dim light fell on a handsome,
+two-horse gig, standing beside the entrance to the court. Agias gave
+the vehicle close attention.
+
+"It belongs to a gentleman from Rome, now inside," explained the boy,
+"one horse went lame, and the veterinary[103] is coming." Agias's eye
+caught a very peculiar bend in the hollow in the neck-yoke. He had
+seen that carriage before, on the fashionable boulevards--along the
+Tiber, in the Campus Martius--the carriage of Lucius Ahenobarbus.
+Phaon was waiting in the tavern!
+
+  [103] _Equarius_.
+
+"Care for my horse at once," remarked Agias, a little abruptly. "Time
+presses." And he turned on his heel, and leaving the boy gaping after
+him, went into the squalid public-room of the tavern.
+
+The landlord of the establishment, a small, red-faced, bustling man,
+was fussing over some lean thrushes roasting on a spit before the open
+fire that was roaring on the hearth. The landlady, lazy, muscular,
+corpulent, and high-voiced, was expostulating with a pedler who was
+trying to slip out without settling. Four other persons, slaves and
+peasants, were sitting on two low benches beside a small, circular
+table, and were busy pouring down the liquor which a young serving-boy
+brought them in tumbler-shaped cups, or eating greedily at loaves of
+coarse bread which they snatched from the table. It was so late that
+little light came into the room from the door and windows. The great
+fire tossed its red, flickering glow out into the apartment and cast a
+rosy halo over the hard brown marble pavement of the floor. Upon the
+dingy walls and rafters hung from pegs flitches of bacon, sausages,
+and nets of vegetables. Agias stopped in the doorway and waited till
+his eyes were fairly accustomed to the fire-light. Over in a remote
+corner he saw a lamp gleaming, and there, sprawling on a bench, beside
+a table of his own, well piled with food and drink, he distinguished
+in solitary majesty Phaon--too exquisite to mingle with the other
+guests of the tavern.
+
+The landlord quickly noticed his new customer, and sprang up from the
+fire. Agias had on a coarse grey woollen cloak over his light tunic,
+and he drew his hood up so as partly to cover his face as he stepped
+into the room.
+
+"_Salve!_" was the landlord's salutation. "What hospitality can the
+Elephant[104] afford you?"
+
+  [104] Inns were known by such signs.
+
+The good host did not think Agias anything more by his dress than a
+common slave, and saw no need of excessive politeness.
+
+Agias noticed that he was expected to join the other drinkers around
+the centre table.
+
+"_Eho_, mine host!" cried he, letting the fire give one glint on a
+gold piece. "Can't you give me a seat at the other end of the room? I
+don't know these good people, and they won't thank me for thrusting
+myself on them."
+
+"Certainly, certainly," exclaimed the landlord, all condescension.
+"There is a gentleman from Rome drinking by himself at that table over
+there. Perhaps he will not object."
+
+Now was the crisis. Agias had seen Phaon many times with Lucius
+Ahenobarbus; but he was reasonably certain that the freedman had never
+degraded himself by taking any notice of the numerous slaves of
+Lentulus's household. Without waiting for the host to continue, he
+hastened over to the farther table, and exclaimed with all the
+effrontery at his command:--
+
+"_Hem!_ Phaon; don't you remember an old friend?"
+
+The freedman for once was completely off his guard. He started up,
+stared at Agias, and began to mutter excuses for a very short memory.
+
+"Well, well," cried Agias. "You _have_ a poor recollection of faces!
+Don't you remember how Pratinas took you to the Big Eagle restaurant,
+down on the Vicus Jugarius, on the last Calends, and how you met me
+there, and what good Lesbian and Chian wine there was? None of your
+weak, sickening Italian stuff! Surely you remember Cleombrotus, from
+whom you won four hundred sesterces."
+
+Phaon, who remembered the tavern, a visit, and winning four hundred
+sesterces at one time or another, tried to make himself believe that
+he won them from a young man, like the one before him, and that his
+name was Cleombrotus.
+
+"Um! Yes, of course," he faltered. "I'm very glad to see you. What
+brings you here?"
+
+"Business, business," complained Agias; "my master's a grain merchant
+with dealings at Puteoli, and he has sent me thither, to make some
+payments." Phaon pricked up his ears. "The Via Appia is more direct,
+but there is less chance of robbers by the Via Praenestina."
+
+"I hope your master can trust you not to lighten his pouch on the
+way," remarked Phaon.
+
+"Well," chuckled Agias, "he'll have to take his risk. If it's lost on
+the road, why, highwaymen stripped me. It is one of the fortunes of
+trade." Phaon was fully convinced that here was a fine chance to do
+some picking on his own account.
+
+"Doubtless," he began, "you are not in such haste that you cannot
+enjoy one of those thrushes that sheep of a landlord is roasting for
+me. _Phui!_ What a nasty place to have one's horse give out in. You
+will give me at least a little company to pass the time?"
+
+Agias affected reluctance; then as the host brought up the birds,
+savory and hot, on an earthen platter, he gracefully accepted the
+invitation. The thrushes and the rest of the bill of fare, bacon,
+sweet nut-flavoured oil, bread, and the cheap wine of the Campagna
+were not unwelcome, though Phaon cursed the coarse food roundly. Then,
+when hunger had begun to yield, Phaon suggested that Cleombrotus "try
+to secure revenge for his losses on the Calends"; and Agias, nothing
+loth, replied that he did not wish to risk a great sum; but if a
+denarius were worth playing for, there was no objection to venturing a
+few casts, and "he would ask the host to bring them the gaming
+implements."
+
+So the landlord brought dice and dice boxes, and Phaon--who had come
+to the conclusion that he had to deal with a light-headed bumpkin, who
+represented merely so much fair plunder--began to play with a careless
+heart. The landlord brought more and more flagons of wine, wine that
+was mixed with little water and was consequently very heady. But the
+game--with some veering of fortune--went the freedman's way. He won a
+denarius; then another; then a third; lost a fourth time; won back
+everything and five denarii more; and finally his opponent, heated
+with play, consented to stake two gold pieces.
+
+"What did you say a minute ago to the landlord?" muttered Phaon,
+feeling that the undiluted liquor was getting the best of him. "This
+wine is very strong. It makes my head ache."
+
+"_Phy!_" retorted Agias. "Who complains of good liquor? I only told
+the host to set another lamp near us. Shall we play again?"
+
+"By Zeus!" exclaimed the delighted freedman. "Here I have cast four
+'sixes' once more." And again he drained the beaker.
+
+"_Vah!_" sniffed Agias. "Luck will turn at last. Let us play for real
+stakes. More wine, mine host! I will put down ten philippi. This will
+be worth winning or losing."
+
+"As you say," gleefully chuckled Phaon, tossing the gold on the table.
+"Yes, more wine, I say too. One always enjoys play when his temples
+are all athrob."
+
+Agias quietly reached over, took up his opponent's dice box, and
+rattled it, and appeared inspecting and fingering the _tali_.[105]
+"You have won your throws fairly," he said, handing it back. "Now let
+us invoke the decision of Fortune once more. A libation to the Genius
+of Good Luck!" And instead of spilling out a few drops only, he canted
+the flagon too far and spattered the wine on to the floor.
+
+  [105] Four-sided dice.
+
+"Heracles!" growled Phaon, "what a poor hazard! I have thrown four
+'ones'!"
+
+"And I have all 'fours' and 'sixes,'" cried Agias, in delight,
+sweeping the money toward him.
+
+"The gods blast my luck," muttered the freedman, "I shall be ruined at
+this rate." And he poured down more liquor. "I have hardly five
+philippi left."
+
+"Come," shouted Agias, jumping up; "I make a fair offer. Your five
+philippi against all my winnings."
+
+Phaon had a dim consciousness that he was getting very drunk, that he
+ought to start at once for Praeneste, and that it was absolutely
+needful for him to have some money for bribes and gratuities if he was
+not to jeopardize seriously the success of his undertaking. But Agias
+stood before him exultant and provoking. The freedman could not be
+induced to confess to himself that he had been badly fleeced by a
+fellow he expected to plunder. In drunken desperation he pulled out
+his last gold and threw it on the table.
+
+"Play for that, and all the Furies curse me if I lose," he stormed.
+
+Agias cast two "threes," two "fours."
+
+"I must better that," thundered the freedman, slapping the tali out on
+to the table.
+
+"'Ones' again," roared Agias; "all four! you have lost!"
+
+Phaon sprang up in a storm of anger, and struck over the dice. "Three
+of them are 'sixes,'" he raged. "I have won! You got loaded dice from
+the landlord, just now, when he brought the wine!"
+
+"Not at all, you cheating scoundrel," retorted Agias, who had already
+scooped in the money, "I have you fairly enough."
+
+"Fair?" shouted Phaon, dashing down the dice again, "they are loaded!
+Lack-shame! Villain! Whipping-post! Tomb-robber! Gallows-bird! You
+changed them when you pretended to inspect them! Give me my money,
+thief, or--" and he took a menacing but unsteady step toward Agias.
+
+The young Greek was ready for the emergency. He knew that Phaon was
+almost overcome with his wine, and had no dread of the issue. A stroke
+of his fist sent the freedman reeling back against the wall, all the
+wind pounded from his chest. "You born blackguard," coughed Phaon, "I
+won it." Agias was renewing the attack, when the landlord interfered.
+Seizing both of the gamesters by their cloaks, he pushed them out a
+side door into the court-yard. "Out with you!" cried the host.
+"Quarrel without, if you must! This is no place for brawls."
+
+Phaon staggered a step or two out into the dark, then reeled and fell
+heavily upon the dirty pavement. Agias prodded him with his foot, but
+he was quite insensible. For the present he was harmless enough.
+
+"My good host," said Agias, to the disquieted landlord, "I did not ask
+you to give us an unmixed wine and those dice for no purpose. This
+excellent gentleman here seems sadly in need of a bed, where he must
+stay for some time. But since I have won every sesterce he owns I must
+needs pay for his board. Take good care of him, and here are six
+philippi which are yours on condition that you keep him quiet until
+to-morrow at this time, and suffer no one coming from Rome to see him,
+or send him a message. To-morrow evening a messenger from Praeneste
+will come here, and if your guest is still safe in your custody, you
+shall have six more gold pieces. At that time, doubtless, you can let
+him go; but don't violate my orders, or--"
+
+"Your excellency pays like a senator," said the landlord, bowing, as
+he fingered the gold. "Trust me that your wishes shall be obeyed."
+
+"They had better be," hinted Agias. "I am not what I seem by my dress.
+If you disobey, fear the wrath of a man before whom the world
+trembles!"
+
+"He must be an agent of Caesar, or Pompeius," muttered the landlord to
+himself. And Agias, having seen two serving-boys tugging Phaon's prone
+weight away to a secluded hay-mow, called for his refreshed Numidian,
+clattered out of the filthy court, and rode away into the night, with
+the stars burning above him.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IX
+
+How Gabinius Met with a Rebuff
+
+
+I
+
+Publius Gabinius, the boon comrade of Lucius Ahenobarbus, differed
+little from many another man of his age in mode of life, or variety of
+aspirations. He had run through all the fashionable excitements of the
+day; was tired of horse-racing, peacock dinners, Oriental sweethearts;
+tired even of dice. And of late he had begun to grow morose, and his
+friends commenced to think him rather dull company.
+
+But for some days he had found a new object of interest. With Lucius
+Ahenobarbus he had been at the Circus Flaminius, waiting for the races
+to begin, when he startled his friend by a clutch on the arm.
+
+"Look!" was Gabinius's exclamation. "Is she not beautiful?"
+
+He pointed to where Fabia, the Vestal, was taking her seat upon a
+cushion placed for her by a maid, and all the people around were
+standing, very respectfully, until she was seated The priestess was
+clothed in perfect white,--dress, ribbons, fillet--a notable contrast
+to the brave show of purple, and scarlet, and blue mantles all about
+her.
+
+"Beautiful? Yes," repeated Lucius, rather carelessly. "But such birds
+are not for our net."
+
+"Are not?" repeated Gabinius, a little sharply. "What makes you so
+sure of that?"
+
+"I hardly think that you will find my dear friend Quintus Drusus's
+aunt, for so I understand she is," said Ahenobarbus, "very likely to
+reciprocate your devotion."
+
+"And why not?" reiterated Gabinius, in a vexed tone.
+
+"My dear fellow," answered Lucius, "I won't argue with you. There are
+plenty of women in Rome quite as handsome as Fabia, and much younger,
+who will smile on you. Don't meddle in a business that is too
+dangerous to be profitable."
+
+But Gabinius had been wrought up to a pitch of amorous excitement,
+from which Ahenobarbus was the last one to move him. For days he had
+haunted the footsteps of the Vestal; had contrived to thrust himself
+as near to her in the theatre and circus as possible; had bribed one
+of the Temple servants to steal for him a small panel painting of
+Fabia; had, in fact, poured over his last romance all the ardour and
+passion of an intense, violent, uncontrolled nature. Gabinius was not
+the kind of a man either to analyze his motives, or express himself in
+the sobbing lyrics of a Catullus. He was thrilled with a fierce
+passion, and knew it, and it only. Therefore he merely replied to
+Lucius Ahenobarbus:--
+
+"I can't help myself. What does Terence say about a like case? 'This
+indeed can, to some degree, be endured; night, passion, liquor, young
+blood, urged him on; it's only human nature.'"[106]
+
+  [106] Terence, "Adelphoe," 467 and 471.
+
+And all the afternoon, while the chariots ran, and wager on wager
+marked the excitement of the cloud of spectators, Gabinius had only
+eyes for one object, Fabia, who, perfectly unconscious of his state of
+fascination, sat with flushed cheeks and bright, eager eyes, watching
+the fortunes of the races, or turned now and then to speak a few words
+to little Livia, who was at her side. When the games were over,
+Gabinius struggled through the crowd after the Vestal, and kept near
+to her until she had reached her litter and the eight red-liveried
+Cappadocian porters bore her away. Gabinius continued to gaze after
+her until Fabia drew the leather curtains of her conveyance and was
+hid from sight.
+
+"_Perpol!"_ reflected Gabinius. "How utterly enslaved I am!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The following morning Fabia received a letter in a strange hand,
+asking her to come to a villa outside the Porta Capena, and receive a
+will from one Titus Denter, who lay dying. The receiving and
+safe-keeping of wills was a regular duty of Vestals, and Fabia at once
+summoned her litter, and started out of the city, along the Via Appia,
+until, far out in the suburbs where the houses were wide apart, she
+was set down before the country-house indicated. A stupid-appearing
+slave-boy received her at the gateway. The villa was old, small, and
+in very indifferent repair. The slave could not seem to explain
+whether it had been occupied of late, but hastened to declare that his
+master lay nigh to death. There was no porter in the outer
+vestibule.[107] The heavy inner door turned slowly on its pivot, by
+some inside force, and disclosed a small, darkened atrium, only
+lighted by a clear sunbeam from the opening above, that passed through
+and illumined a playing fountain. A single attendant stood in the
+doorway. He was a tall, gaunt man in servile dress, with a rather
+sickly smile on his sharp yellow face. Fabia alighted from her litter.
+There was a certain secluded uncanniness about the house, which made
+her dislike for an instant to enter. The slave in the door silently
+beckoned for her to come in. The Vestal informed her bearers that she
+was likely to be absent some little time, and they must wait quietly
+without, and not annoy a dying man with unseemly laughter or loud
+conversation. Then, without hesitancy, Fabia gathered her priestess's
+cloak about her, and boldly entered the strange atrium. As she did so,
+the attendant noiselessly closed the door, and what was further, shot
+home a bolt.
+
+  [107] _Ostium_.
+
+"There is no need for that," remarked the Vestal, who never before in
+her life had experienced such an unaccountable sense of disquietude.
+
+"It is my habit always to push the bolt," said the slave, bowing, and
+leading the way toward the peristylium.
+
+"You are Titus Denter's slave?" asked Fabia. The other nodded. "And
+your master is a very sick man?"
+
+"Your most noble ladyship shall judge for herself."
+
+"Take me to him at once, if he can see me."
+
+"He is waiting."
+
+The two went through the narrow passageway which led from the outer
+court of the atrium into the inner court of the peristylium. Fabia was
+surprised to see that here all the marble work had been carefully
+washed clean, the little enclosed garden was in beautiful order, and
+in various corners and behind some of the pillars were bronze and
+sculptured statues of really choice art. The slave stopped and pointed
+to a couch upholstered in crimson, beside the fish tank, where tame
+lampreys were rising for a bit of food.
+
+"Take me to your master!" repeated Fabia, puzzled by the gesture. "I
+am not weary. You say he waits me?"
+
+"He will be here," replied the servant, with another bow.
+
+"Here?" exclaimed the Vestal, now really alarmed. "Here? He, a man
+sick unto death?"
+
+"Certainly; here!" broke in a strange voice; and forth from behind a
+pillar stepped Publius Gabinius, all pomaded and rouged, dressed only
+in a gauzy, many-folded scarlet _synthesis_.[108]
+
+  [108] The "dinner coat" of the Romans.
+
+Fabia gave a scream and sprang back in instinctive alarm. In the
+twinkling of an eye it flashed over her that for some purpose or other
+she had been trapped. Gabinius she knew barely by sight; but his
+reputation had come to her ears, and fame spoke nothing good of him.
+Yet even at the moment when she felt herself in the most imminent
+personal peril, the inbred dignity and composed hauteur of the Vestal
+did not desert her. At the selfsame instant that she said to herself,
+"Can I escape through the atrium before they can stop me?" recovering
+from her first surprise, and with never a quiver of eyelash or a
+paling of cheek, she was saying aloud, in a tone cold as ice, "And
+indeed, most excellent Gabinius, you must pardon me for being
+startled; for all that I know of you tells me that you are likely to
+find a sombre Vestal sorry enough company."
+
+Gabinius had been counting coolly on a very noisy scene, one of a kind
+he was fairly familiar with--an abundance of screaming, expostulation,
+tearing of hair, and other manifestations of feminine agony--to be
+followed, of course, by ultimate submission to the will of
+all-dominant man. He was not accustomed to have a woman look him
+fairly in the eye and speak in tones, not of bootless fury, but of
+superior scorn. And his answer was painfully lacking in the ascendant
+volubility which would have befitted the occasion.
+
+"Forgive me; pardon; it was of course necessary to resort to some
+subterfuge in order--in order to prevent your attendants from becoming
+suspicious."
+
+Fabia cast a glance behind her, and saw that before the two doors
+leading to the atrium her conductor and another tall slave had placed
+themselves; but she replied in a tone a little more lofty, if
+possible, than before:--
+
+"I cannot well, sir, understand you. Are you a friend of Titus Denter,
+who is sick? I do not see that any subterfuge is necessary when I am
+to receive the deposit of a will from a dying man. It is a recognized
+duty of my office."
+
+Gabinius was still more at a loss.
+
+"You should certainly understand, lady," he began, cursing himself for
+having to resort to circumlocutions, "that this is my own villa, and I
+have not the pleasure of knowing Titus Denter. I sent the letter
+because--"
+
+"Because, my worthy sir," interrupted Fabia, not however raising her
+voice in the least, "you are weary of Greek flute-players for
+sweethearts or such Roman young ladies as admire either the ointments
+or the pimples of your face, and consequently seek a little diversion
+by laying snares for a sacred Vestal."
+
+Gabinius at last found free use for his tongue.
+
+"Oh, lady; Lady Fabia," he cried, stretching out his arms and taking a
+step nearer, "don't misjudge me so cruelly! I will forsake anything,
+everything, for you! I have nothing to dream of day or night but your
+face. You have served your thirty years in the Temple, and can quit
+its service. Why entertain any superstitious scruple against doing
+what the law allows? Come with me to Egypt; to Spain; to Parthia;
+anywhere! Only do not reject me and my entreaties! I will do anything
+for your sake!"
+
+Critical as was her situation, Fabia could not refrain from a sense of
+humour, when she saw and heard this creature--the last intimate she
+would select in the world--pressing his suit with such genuine
+passion. When she answered, an exasperating smile was on her lips.
+
+"By Castor!" she replied, "the noble Gabinius is not a bad tragedian.
+If he has nothing further to inform me than that I am favoured by his
+good graces, I can only decline his proposals with humble firmness,
+and depart."
+
+"By the immortal gods!" cried Gabinius, feeling that he and not his
+would-be victim were like to go into a frenzy, "you shan't go! I have
+you here. And here you shall remain until I have your word that you
+will quit the Temple service and fly with me to Egypt. If you won't
+have me as your slave, I'll have you as your master!" And again he
+advanced.
+
+"What restrains me here?" queried Fabia, sternly, the blood sinking
+from her cheeks, but by step or by glance quailing not in the least.
+"Who dare restrain or offer harm to a Vestal of the Roman Republic?"
+
+"I!" shouted Gabinius in mad defiance, with a menacing gesture.
+
+Fabia took a step toward him, and instinctively he fell back.
+
+"You?" she repeated, her black eyes, ablaze with the fire of a holy
+indignation, searching Gabinius's impure heart through and through.
+"You, little man? Are you fond of death, and yet lack courage to drink
+the poison yourself?"
+
+"I dare anything!" cried Gabinius, getting more and more uncontrolled.
+"This is my house. These are my slaves. The high walls will cut off
+any screams you may utter in this court. I have you in my power. You
+have placed yourself in my hands by coming here. Refuse to do as I
+say, and a charge will be laid against you before the _pontifices_,[109]
+that you have broken the vow which binds every Vestal. All the
+appearances will be against you, and you know what will follow then!"
+
+  [109] College of chief priests.
+
+Fabia grew a shade paler, if it were possible, than before.
+
+"I know," she replied, still very gently, "that an unfaithful Vestal
+is buried alive in the Campus Sceleratus; but I know, too, that her
+seducer is beaten to death with rods. Accuse me, or attack me, and
+whatever be _my_ fate, I can say that which will send your black soul
+down to Tartarus with guilt enough for Minos to punish. Your
+delicately anointed skin would be sadly bruised by the stripes falling
+upon it. And now, if these creatures will stand one side, I will leave
+you."
+
+And Fabia drew her mantle about her, and walked straight past the
+awestruck slaves into the atrium, where she unbolted the door and
+passed out. Gabinius stood gazing after her, half-fascinated,
+half-dazed. Only when the door closed did he burst out to one of the
+slaves:--
+
+"Timid dog, why did you let her escape?"
+
+"Dominus," whimpered the menial, "why did _you_ let her escape?"
+
+"Insolence!" cried Gabinius, seizing a staff, and beating first one,
+then the other, of his servants indiscriminately; and so he continued
+to vent his vexation, until Fabia's litter was well inside the Porta
+Capena.
+
+
+II
+
+Fabia had thus escaped from the clutches of Gabinius, and the latter
+was sullen and foiled. But none the less the Vestal was in a tremor of
+fear for the consequences of her meeting with the libertine. She knew
+that Gabinius was determined, dexterous, and indefatigable; that he
+was baffled, but not necessarily driven to throw over his illicit
+quest. And Fabia realized keenly that going as she had unattended into
+a strange house, and remaining there some time with no friendly eye to
+bear witness to her actions, would count terribly against her, if
+Gabinius was driven to bay. She dared not, as she would gladly have
+done, appear before the pontifices and demand of them that they mete
+out due punishment on Gabinius for grossly insulting the sanctity of a
+Vestal. Her hope was that Gabinius would realize that he could not
+incriminate her without ruining himself, and that he had been so
+thoroughly terrified on reflection as to what might be the
+consequences to himself, if he tried to follow the intrigue, that he
+would prudently drop it. These considerations hardly served to lighten
+the gloom which had fallen across Fabia's life. It was not so much the
+personal peril that saddened her. All her life she had heard the ugly
+din of the world's wickedness pass harmlessly over her head, like a
+storm dashing at the doors of some secluded dwelling that shielded its
+inhabitants from the tempest. But now she had come personally face to
+face with the demon of impurity; she had felt the fetid touch almost
+upon herself; and it hurt, it sickened her. Therefore it was that the
+other Vestals marvelled, asking what change had come over their
+companion, to quench the mild sunshine of her life; and Fabia held
+little Livia very long and very closely in her arms, as if it were a
+solace to feel near her an innocent little thing "unspotted of the
+world."
+
+All this had happened a very few days before the breathless Agias came
+to inform Fabia of the plot against her nephew. Perhaps, as with
+Cornelia, the fact that one near and dear was in peril aided to make
+the consciousness of her own unhappiness less keen. None could
+question Fabia's resolute energy. She sent Agias on his way, then
+hurried off in her litter in quest of Caius Marcellus, the consul.
+AEmilius Paulus, the other consul, was a nonentity, not worth appealing
+to, since he had virtually abdicated office upon selling his
+neutrality to Caesar. But Marcellus gave her little comfort. She broke
+in upon the noble lord, while he was participating in a drunken
+garden-party in the Gardens of Lucullus. The consul--hardly sober
+enough to talk coherently--had declared that it was impossible to
+start any troops that day to Praeneste. "To-morrow, when he had time,
+he would consider the matter." And Fabia realized that the engine of
+government would be very slow to set in motion in favour of a marked
+Caesarian.
+
+But she had another recourse, and hastened her litter down one of the
+quieter streets of the Subura, where was the modest house occupied by
+Julius Caesar before he became Pontifex Maximus. This building was now
+used by the Caesarian leaders as a sort of party headquarters. Fabia
+boldly ordered the porter to summon before her Curio--whom she was
+sure was in the house. Much marvelling at the visit of a Vestal, the
+slave obeyed, and in a few moments that tribune was in her presence.
+
+Caius Scribonius Curio was probably a very typical man of his age. He
+was personally of voluptuous habits, fearfully extravagant, endowed
+with very few scruples and a very weak sense of right and wrong. But
+he was clear-headed, energetic, a good orator, a clever reasoner, an
+astute handler of men, courageous, versatile, full of recourse, and on
+the whole above the commission of any really glaring moral infraction.
+He was now in his early prime, and he came before Fabia as a man tall,
+athletic, deep-chested, deep-voiced, with a regular profile, a clear,
+dark complexion, curly hair carefully dressed, freshly shaven, and in
+perfect toilet. It was a pleasure, in short, to come in contact with
+such a vigorous, aggressive personality, be the dark corners of his
+life what they might.
+
+Curio yielded to no man in his love of Lucrine oysters and good
+Caecuban wine. But he had been spending little time on the dining couch
+that evening. In fact he had at that moment in his hand a set of
+tablets on which he had been writing.
+
+"_Salve! Domina!_" was his greeting, "what unusual honour is this
+which brings the most noble Vestal to the trysting spot of us poor
+Populares."
+
+And, with the courtesy of a gentleman of the world, he offered Fabia
+an armchair.
+
+"Caius Curio," said the Vestal, wasting very few words, "do you know
+my nephew, Quintus Drusus of Praeneste?"
+
+"It is an honour to acknowledge friendship with such an excellent
+young man," said Curio, bowing.
+
+"I am glad to hear so. I understand that he has already suffered no
+slight calamity for adhering to your party."
+
+"_Vah!_" and the tribune shrugged his shoulders. "Doubtless he has had
+a disagreeable time with the consul-elect, but from all that I can
+hear, the girl he lost was hardly one to make his life a happy one.
+It's notorious the way she has displayed her passion for young Lucius
+Ahenobarbus, and we all know what kind of a man _he_ is. But I may
+presume to remark that your ladyship would hardly come here simply to
+remind me of this."
+
+"No," replied Fabia, directly, "I have come here to appeal to you to
+do something for me which Marcellus the consul was too drunk to try to
+accomplish if he would."
+
+Fabia had struck the right note. Only a few days before Appius
+Claudius, the censor, had tried to strike Curio's name from the rolls
+of the Senate. Piso, the other censor, had resisted. There had been an
+angry debate in the Senate, and Marcellus had inveighed against the
+Caesarian tribune, and had joined in a furious war of words. The Senate
+had voted to allow Curio to keep his seat; and the anti-Caesarians had
+paraded in mourning as if the vote were a great calamity.
+
+Curio's eyes lit up with an angry fire.
+
+"Lump of filth! Who was he, to disoblige you!"
+
+"You will understand," said Fabia, still quietly; and then briefly she
+told of the conspiracy against the life of Drusus, so far as she had
+gathered it.
+
+"Where did you learn all this," queried Curio, "if I may venture to
+ask?"
+
+"From Agias, the slave of Cornelia, niece of Lentulus."
+
+"But what is Drusus to her?" demanded the marvelling tribune.
+
+"He is everything to her. She has been trying to win her way into
+Ahenobarbus's confidence, and learn all of the plot."
+
+A sudden light seemed to break over the face of the politician. He
+actually smiled with relieved pleasure, and cried, "_Papae!_ Wonderful!
+I may be the farthest of all the world from Diogenes the Cynic; but a
+man cannot go through life, unless he has his eyes shut, and not know
+that there are different kinds of women. I was sorry enough to have to
+feel that a girl like Cornelia was becoming one of Clodia's coterie.
+After all, the world isn't so bad as we make it out to be, if it is
+Curio the profligate who says it."
+
+"But Drusus, my nephew?" exclaimed Fabia. "He is in frightful danger.
+You know Dumnorix will have a great band of gladiators, and there is
+no force in Praeneste that can be counted on to restrain him."
+
+"My dear lady," said Curio, laughing, "I am praising the happy Genius
+that brought you here. We Caesarians are taught by our leaders never to
+desert a friend in need; and Drusus has been a very good friend to us,
+especially by using all his influence, very successfully, for our
+cause among the Praenestians and the people of those parts. When did
+you say that Dumnorix would pass through the town?"
+
+"Early to-morrow, possibly," replied the Vestal.
+
+"_Phui!_ Dismiss all care. I'll find out at once how many gladiators
+he took with him to Anagnia. Some of his gang will be killed in the
+games there, and more will be wounded and weak or disabled. I am
+tribune, and I imagine I ought not to be out of the city over
+night,[110] but before daybreak to-morrow I will take Antonius and
+Sallustius and Quintus Cassius; and perhaps I can get Balbus and our
+other associates to go. We will arm a few slaves and freedmen; and it
+will be strange indeed if we cannot scatter to the four winds
+Dumnorix's gladiators, before they have accomplished any mischief."
+
+  [110] This was the law, that the tribunes might always be ready to
+  render help (_auxilium_) to the distressed.
+
+"The gods reward you!" said Fabia, simply. "I will go back to the
+Temple, and pray that my nephew be kept from harm; and you also, and
+your friends who will defend him."
+
+Curio stood in the atrium a long time after the Vestal had left.
+
+"The gods reward you!" he repeated. "So _she_ believes in the gods,
+that there are gods, and that they care for us struggling men. Ah!
+Caius, Caius Curio; if the mob had murdered you that day you protected
+Caesar after he spoke in the Senate in favour of the Catilinarians,
+where would you be to-day? Whence have you come? Whither do you go?
+What assurance have you that you can depend on anything, but your own
+hand and keen wits? What is to become of you, if you are knocked on
+the head in that adventure to-morrow? And yet that woman believes
+there are gods! What educated man is there that does? Perhaps we
+would, if we led the simple lives our fathers did, and that woman
+lives. Enough of this! I must be over letters to Caesar at Ravenna till
+midnight: and then at morn off to gallop till our horses are
+foundered."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter X
+
+Mamercus Guards the Door
+
+
+I
+
+Agias left Phaon in the clutches of the landlord and his subordinates
+and was reasonably certain that since the freedman had not a farthing
+left with which to bribe his keepers, he was out of harm's way for the
+time being. The moon was risen, and guided by its light the young
+slave flew on toward Praeneste without incident. Whatever part of the
+conspirator's plans depended on Phaon was sure to collapse. For the
+rest, Agias could only warn Drusus, and have the latter arm his
+clients and slaves, and call in his friends from the town. With such
+precautions Dumnorix could hardly venture to risk himself and his men,
+whatever might be the plot.
+
+Thus satisfied in mind, Agias arrived at the estate of the Drusi,
+close to Praeneste, and demanded admittance, about two hours before
+midnight. He had some difficulty in stirring up the porter, and when
+that worthy at last condescended to unbar the front door, the young
+Greek was surprised and dismayed to hear that the master of the house
+had gone to visit a farm at Lanuvium, a town some fifteen miles to the
+south. Agias was thunderstruck; he had not counted on Drusus being
+absent temporarily. But perhaps his very absence would cause the plot
+to fail.
+
+"And what time will he return?" asked Agias.
+
+"What time?" replied the porter, with a sudden gleam of intelligence
+darting up in his lack-lustre eyes. "We expect he will return early
+to-morrow morning. But the road from Lanuvium is across country and
+you have to skirt the Alban Mount. He may be rather late in arriving,
+drives he ever so hard."
+
+"Hercules!" cried the agitated messenger. "My horse is blown, and I
+don't know the road in the dark. Send, I pray you--by all the gods--to
+Lanuvium this instant."
+
+"Aye," drawled the porter, "And wherefore at such an hour?"
+
+"It's for life and death!" expostulated Agias.
+
+The porter, who was a thick-set, powerful man, with a bristly black
+beard, and a low forehead crowned by a heavy shock of dark hair, at
+this instant thrust out a capacious paw, and seized Agias roughly by
+the wrist.
+
+"Ha, ha, ha, young cut-throat! I wondered how long this would last on
+your part! Well, now I must take you to Falto, to get the beginning of
+your deserts."
+
+"Are you mad, fellow?" bawled Agias, while the porter, grasping him by
+the one hand, and the dim lamp by the other, dragged him into the
+house. "Do you know who I am? or what my business is? Do you want to
+have your master murdered?"
+
+"_Perpol!_ Not in the least. That's why I do as I do. Tell your story
+to Falto. _Eho!_ What's that you've got under your cloak?" And he
+pounced upon a small dagger poor Agias had carried as a precaution
+against eventualities. "I imagine you are accustomed to use a little
+knife like this." And the fellow gave a gleeful chuckle.
+
+It was in vain that Agias expostulated and tried to explain. The
+porter kept him fast as a prisoner, and in a few moments by his shouts
+had aroused the whole sleeping household, and stewards, freedmen, and
+slaves came rushing into the atrium. Candelabra blazed forth. Torches
+tossed. Maids screamed. Many tongues were raised in discordant shout
+and question. At last order was in some measure restored. Agias found
+himself before a tribunal composed of Falto, the subordinate
+_villicus_,[111] as chief judge, and two or three freedmen to act in
+capacity of assessors. All of this bench were hard, grey-headed,
+weazened agriculturists, who looked with no very lenient eye upon the
+delicate and handsome young prisoner before them. Agias had to answer
+a series of savagely propounded questions which led he knew not
+whither, and which he was almost too bewildered to answer
+intelligently. The true state of the case only came over him by
+degrees. These were the facts. Drusus had known that there was a
+conspiracy against his life, and had taken precautions against
+poisoning or being waylaid by a small band of cut-throats such as he
+imagined Ahenobarbus might have sent to despatch him. He had not
+expected an attack on the scale of Dumnorix's whole band; and he had
+seen no reason why, accompanied by the trusty Mamerci and Cappadox, he
+should not visit his Lanuvian farm. The whole care of guarding against
+conspirators had been left to Marcus Mamercus, and that worthy
+ex-warrior had believed he had taken all needed precautions. He had
+warned the porter and the other slaves and freedmen to be on the
+lookout for suspicious characters, and had let just enough of the
+plot--as it was known to him--leak out, to put all the household on
+the _qui vive_ to apprehend any would-be assassin of their beloved
+young master. But with that fatuity which often ruins the plans of
+"mice and men," he had failed to inform even his subordinate Falto of
+the likelihood of Agias arriving from Rome. It had obviously been
+desirable that it should not be bruited among the servants that
+Cornelia and Drusus were still communicating, and when Agias was haled
+into the atrium, his only identification was by some over-zealous
+slave, who declared that the prisoner belonged to the familia of
+Lentulus Crus, the bitter foe of their master.
+
+  [111] Farm steward.
+
+With senses unduly alert the porter, as soon as he was aroused from
+his slumbers, had noticed that evening that Agias had come on some
+unusual business, and that he was obviously confused when he learned
+that Drusus was not at home. With his suspicions thus quickened, every
+word the luckless Greek uttered went to incriminate him in the mind of
+the porter. Agias was certainly an accomplice in the plot against
+Drusus, sent to the house at an unseasonable hour, on some dark
+errand. The porter had freely protested this belief to Falto and his
+court, and to support his indictment produced the captured dagger, the
+sure sign of a would-be murderer. Besides, a large sum of gold was
+found on Agias's person; his fast Numidian horse was still steaming
+before the door--and what honest slave could travel thus, with such a
+quantity of money?
+
+Agias tried to tell his story, but to no effect; Falto and his
+fellow-judges dryly remarked to one another that the prisoner was
+trying to clear himself, by plausibly admitting the existence of the
+conspiracy, but of course suppressing the real details. Agias
+reasoned. He was met with obstinate incredulity. He entreated, prayed,
+implored. The prejudiced rustics mocked at him, and hinted that they
+cared too much for their patron to believe any tale that such a
+manifest impostor might tell them. Pausanias, the Mamerci, and
+Cappadox, the only persons, besides Drusus, who could readily identify
+him, were away at Lanuvium.
+
+The verdict of guilty was so unanimous that it needed little or no
+discussion; and Falto pronounced sentence.
+
+"Mago," to the huge African, "take this wretched boy to the
+slave-prison; fetter him heavily. On your life do not let him escape.
+Give him bread and water at sunrise. When Master Drusus returns he
+will doubtless bid us crucify the villain, and in the morning Natta
+the carpenter shall prepare two beams for the purpose."
+
+Agias comforted himself by reflecting that things would hardly go to
+that terrible extremity; but it was not reassuring to hear Ligus, the
+crabbed old cellarer, urge that he be made to confess then and there
+under the cat. Falto overruled the proposition. "It was late, and
+Mamercus was the man to extort confession." So Agias found himself
+thrust into a filthy cell, lighted only by a small chink, near the top
+of the low stone wall, into which strayed a bit of moonlight. The
+night he passed wretchedly enough, on a truss of fetid straw; while
+the tight irons that confined him chafed his wrists and ankles.
+Needless to add, he cursed roundly all things human and heavenly,
+before he fell into a brief, troubled sleep. In the morning Mago, who
+acted as jailer, brought him a pot of water and a saucer of uncooked
+wheat porridge;[112] and informed him, with a grin, that Natta was
+making the beams ready. Agias contented himself by asking Mago to tell
+Drusus about him, as soon as the master returned. "You are very young
+to wish to die," said the Libyan, grimly. Agias did not argue. Mago
+left him. By climbing up a rude stool, Agias could peer through the
+loophole, which by great luck commanded a fairly ample view of the
+highway. Drusus he naturally expected would come from the south,
+toward Praeneste. And thence every moment he trembled lest Dumnorix's
+gang should appear in sight. But every distant dust-cloud for a long
+time resolved itself sooner or later into a shepherd with a flock of
+unruly sheep, or a wagon tugged by a pair of mules and containing a
+single huge wine-skin. Drusus came not; Dumnorix came not. Agias grew
+weary of watching, and climbed painfully down from the stool to eat
+his raw porridge. Hardly had he done so than a loud clatter of hoofs
+sounded without. With a bound that twisted his confined ankles and
+wrists sadly, Agias was back at his post. A single rider on a handsome
+bay horse was coming up from the direction of Rome. As he drew near to
+the villa, he pulled at his reins, and brought his steed down to a
+walk. The horseman passed close to the loophole, and there was no
+mistaking his identity. Agias had often seen that pale, pimpled face,
+and those long effeminate curls in company with Lucius Ahenobarbus.
+The rider was Publius Gabinius, and the young Greek did not need to be
+told that his coming boded no good to Drusus. Gabinius looked
+carefully at the villa, into the groves surrounding it, and then up
+and down the highway. Then he touched the spur to his mount, and was
+gone.
+
+  [112] _Puls_, the primitive Italian food.
+
+Agias wrung his manacled hands. Drusus would be murdered, Cornelia's
+happiness undone, and he himself would become the slave of Lucius
+Ahenobarbus, who, when he had heard Phaon's story, would show little
+enough of mercy. He cursed the suspicious porter, cursed Falto, cursed
+every slave and freedman on the estate, cursed Mamercus for not
+leaving some word about the possibility of his coming from Rome.
+Agias's imprecations spent themselves in air; and he was none the
+happier. Would Drusus never come? The time was drifting on. The sun
+had been up three or more hours. At any instant the gladiators might
+arrive.
+
+Then again there was a clatter of hoofs, at the very moment when Agias
+had again remounted to the loophole. There were voices raised in
+questions and greetings; slave-boys were scampering to and fro to take
+the horses; Drusus with Pausanias and the Mamerci had returned from
+Lanuvium. Agias pressed his head out the loophole and screamed to
+attract attention. His voice could not penetrate the domestic hubbub.
+Drusus was standing shaking hands with a couple of clients and
+evidently in a very good humour over some blunt rustic compliment.
+Mago was nowhere to be seen. Agias glanced up the road toward
+Praeneste. The highway was straight and fairly level, but as it went
+over a hill-slope some little way off, what was that he saw upon
+it?--the sun flashing on bright arms, which glinted out from the
+dust-cloud raised by a considerable number of men marching!
+
+"Drusus! Master Drusus!" Agias threw all his soul into the cry. As if
+to blast his last hope, Drusus hastily bowed away the salves and aves
+of the two clients, turned, and went into the villa. Agias groaned in
+agony. A very few moments would bring Dumnorix to the villa, and the
+young slave did not doubt that Gabinius was with the lanista to direct
+the attack. Agias tore at his chains, and cursed again, calling on all
+the Furies of Tartarus to confound the porter and Falto. Suddenly
+before the loophole passed a slave damsel of winning face and
+blithesome manner, humming to herself a rude little ditty, while she
+balanced a large earthen water-pot on her head. It was Chloe, whom the
+reader has met in the opening scene of this book, though Agias did not
+know her name.
+
+"By all the gods, girl!" he cried frantically, "do you want to have
+your master slaughtered before your very eyes?"
+
+Chloe stopped, a little startled at this voice, almost from under her
+feet.
+
+"Oh, you, Master Assassin!" she sneered. "Do you want to repeat those
+pretty stories of yours, such as I heard you tell last night?"
+
+"Woman," cried Agias, with all the earnestness which agony and fear
+could throw into face and voice, "go this instant! Tell Master Drusus
+that Dumnorix and his gang are not a furlong[113] away. They mean to
+murder him. Say that I, Agias, say so, and he, at least, will believe
+me. You yourself can see the sun gleaming on their steel as they march
+down the hill."
+
+  [113] About 606-3/4 English feet.
+
+Perhaps it was the sight which Agias indicated, perhaps it was his
+earnest words, perhaps it was his handsome face--Chloe was very
+susceptible to good looks--but for some cause she put down the pot and
+was off, as fast as her light heels could carry her, toward the house.
+
+
+II
+
+Drusus had ridden hard to get back early from Lanuvium and write some
+letters to Cornelia, for he had expected that Agias would come on that
+very afternoon, on one of his regular, though private, visits; and he
+wished to be able to tell Cornelia that, so long a time had elapsed
+since he had been warned against Ahenobarbus and Pratinas, and as no
+attempt at all had been made on his life, her fears for him were
+probably groundless and the plot had been for some cause abandoned.
+Drusus himself was weary, and was glad to shake off the little knot of
+clients and retire to his chamber, preparatory for a bath and a change
+of clothes. He had seen Falto, but the latter deemed it best not to
+trouble his patron at the time by mentioning the prisoner. Mago, too,
+concluded that it was best to defer executing his promise. Drusus was
+just letting Cappadox take off his cloak, when the shrill voice of
+Chloe was heard outside the door, expostulating with the boy on guard.
+
+"I must see the dominus at once. It's very important."
+
+"Don't you see, you idiot, that you can't while he's dressing?"
+
+"I _must!_" screamed Chloe. And, violating every law of subordination
+and decorum, she threw open the door.
+
+Cappadox flew to eject her, but Chloe's quick tongue did its work.
+
+"A lad who calls himself Agias is chained in the ergastulum. He says
+some gladiators are going to attack the house, and will be here in a
+moment! Oh, I am so frightened!" and the poor girl threw her mantle
+over her head, and began to whimper and sob.
+
+"Agias!" shouted Drusus, at the top of his voice. "In the ergastulum?
+_Per deos immortales!_ What's this? Mamercus! Falto!"
+
+And the young master rushed out of the room, Cappadox, who like
+lightning had caught up a sword, following him.
+
+Falto came running from the stables; Mamercus from the garden. Drusus
+faced his two subordinates, and in an eye's twinkling had taken in the
+situation. Mamercus, who felt within himself that he, by his
+oversight, had been the chief blunderer, to vent his vexation smote
+Falto so sound a cuff that the under villicus sprawled his full
+length.
+
+"Go to the ergastulum and fetch Agias this instant," cried Drusus, in
+thundering accents, to the trembling Mago, who had appeared on the
+scene.
+
+Mago disappeared like magic, but in an instant a din was rising from
+the front of the house,--cries, blows, clash of steel. Into the
+peristylium, where the angry young master was standing, rushed the old
+slave woman, Lais.
+
+"_Hei! hei!_" she screamed, "they are breaking in! Monsters! a hundred
+of them! They will kill us all!"
+
+Drusus grew calm in an instant.
+
+"Barricade the doors to the atrium!" he commanded, "while I can put on
+my armour. You, Mamercus, are too old for this kind of work; run and
+call in the field-hands, the clients, and the neighbours. Cappadox,
+Falto, and I can hold the doors till aid comes."
+
+"I run?" cried the veteran, in hot incredulity, while with his single
+hand he tore from its stout leather wall-fastenings a shield that had
+been beaten with Punic swords at the Metaurus.[114] "I run?" he
+repeated, while a mighty crash told that the front door had given way,
+and the attackers were pouring into the atrium. And the veteran had
+thrust a venerable helmet over his grizzled locks, and was wielding
+his shield with his handless left arm, while a good Spanish
+short-sword gleamed in his right hand.
+
+  [114] The great battle won in 207 B.C. over Hasdrubal.
+
+The others had not been idle. Cappadox had barred both doors leading
+into the front part of the house. Drusus had armed, and Falto,--a more
+loyal soul than whom lived not,--burning to retrieve his blunder, had
+sprung to his patron's side, also in shield and helm.
+
+"They will soon force these doors," said Drusus, quietly, growing more
+composed as closer and closer came the actual danger. "Falto and I
+will guard the right. Cappadox and you, Mamercus, if you will stay,
+must guard the left. Some aid must come before a great while."
+
+But again the veteran whipped out an angry oath, and thundered, "You
+stay, you soft-fingered Quintus! You stay and face those German
+giants! Why, you are the very man they are after! Leave fighting to an
+old soldier! Take him away, Cappadox, if you love him!"
+
+"I will never leave!" blazed forth Drusus. "My place is here. A Livian
+always faces his foes. Here, if needs be, I will die." But before he
+could protest further, Cappadox had caught him in his powerful arms,
+and despite his struggles was running with him through the rear of the
+house.
+
+Pandemonium reigned in the atrium. The gladiators were shivering fine
+sculptures, ripping up upholstery, swearing in their uncouth Celtic or
+German dialects, searching everywhere for their victim in the rooms
+that led off the atrium. A voice in Latin was raising loud
+remonstrance.
+
+"_AEdepol!_ Dumnorix, call off your men! Phaon hasn't led our bird into
+the net. We shall be ruined if this keeps on! Drusus isn't here!"
+
+"By the Holy Oak, Gabinius," replied another voice, in barbarous
+Latin, "what I've begun I'll end! I'll find Drusus yet; and we won't
+leave a soul living to testify against us! You men, break down that
+door and let us into the rest of the house!"
+
+Mamercus heard a rush down one of the passages leading to the
+peristylium. The house was almost entirely deserted, except by the
+shrieking maids. The clients and freedmen and male slaves were almost
+all in the fields. The veteran, Falto, and Pausanias, who had come in,
+and who was brave enough, but nothing of a warrior, were the only
+defenders of the peristylium.
+
+"You two," shouted Mamercus, "guard the other door! Move that heavy
+chest against it. Pile the couch and cabinet on top. This door I will
+hold."
+
+There was the blow of a heavy mace on the portal, and the wood sprang
+out, and the pivots started.
+
+"Leave this alone," roared Mamercus, when his two helpers paused, as
+if to join him. "Guard your own doorway!"
+
+"Down with it!" bellowed the voice of the leaders without. "Don't let
+the game escape! Strike again!"
+
+Crash! And the door, beaten from its fastenings by a mighty stroke,
+tumbled inward on to the mosaic pavement of the peristylium. The light
+was streaming bright and free into that court, but the passageway from
+the atrium was shrouded in darkness. Mamercus, sword drawn, stood
+across the entrance.
+
+"By the god Tarann!"[115] shouted Dumnorix, who from the rear of his
+followers was directing the attack. "Here is a stout old game-cock!
+Out of the way, greybeard! We'll spare you for your spirit. Take him,
+some of you, alive!"
+
+  [115] The Gallic thunder-god.
+
+Two gigantic, blond Germans thrust their prodigious bodies through the
+doorway. Mamercus was no small man, but slight he seemed before these
+mighty Northerners.
+
+The Germans had intended to seize him in their naked hands, but
+something made them swing their ponderous long swords and then, two
+flashes from the short blade in the hand of the veteran, and both the
+giants were weltering across the threshold, their breasts pierced and
+torn by the Roman's murderous thrusts.
+
+"_Habet!_" cried Mamercus. "A fair hit! Come on, you scum of the
+earth; come on, you German and Gallic dogs; do you think I haven't
+faced the like of you before? Do you think your great bulks and fierce
+mustaches will make a soldier of Marius quiver? Do you want to taste
+Roman steel again?"
+
+And then there was a strange sight. A phantasm seemed to have come
+before every member of that mad, murderous band; for they saw, as it
+were, in the single champion before them, a long, swaying line of men
+of slight stature like him; of men who dashed through their phalanxes
+and spear hedges; who beat down their chieftains; whom no arrow fire,
+no sword-play, no stress of numbers, might stop; but who charged home
+with pilum and short-sword, and defeated the most valorous enemy.
+
+"Ha! Dogs!" taunted Mamercus, "you have seen Romans fight before, else
+you were not all here, to make sport for our holiday!"
+
+"He is Tyr,[116] the 'one-armed,' who put his left hand in the jaws of
+Fenris-wolf!" cried a German, shrinking back in dread. "A god is
+fighting us!"
+
+  [116] A Germanic war-god.
+
+"Fools!" shouted Gabinius from a distance. "At him, and cut him down!"
+
+"Cut him down!" roared Dumnorix, who had wits enough to realize that
+every instant's delay gave Drusus time to escape, or collect help.
+
+There was another rush down the passage; but at the narrow doorway the
+press stopped. Mamercus fought as ten. His shield and sword were
+everywhere. The Roman was as one inspired; his eyes shone bright and
+clear; his lips were parted in a grim, fierce smile; he belched forth
+rude soldier oaths that had been current in the army of fifty years
+before. Thrusting and parrying, he yielded no step, he sustained no
+wound. And once, twice, thrice his terrible short-sword found its
+sheath in the breast of a victim. In impotent rage the gladiators
+recoiled a second time.
+
+"Storm the other door!" commanded Dumnorix.
+
+The two defenders there had undertaken to pile up furniture against
+it; but a few blows beat down the entire barrier. Falto and Pausanias
+stood to their posts stoutly enough; but there was no master-swordsman
+to guard this entrance. The first gladiator indeed went down with a
+pierced neck, but the next instant Falto was beside him, atoning for
+his stupid folly, the whole side of his head cleft away by a stroke
+from a Gallic long-sword.
+
+"One rush and we have the old man surrounded," exhorted Dumnorix, when
+only Pausanias barred the way.
+
+There was a growl and a bound, and straight at the foremost attacker
+flew Argos, Mamercus's great British mastiff, who had silently slipped
+on to the scene. The assailant fell with the dog's fangs in his
+throat. Again the gladiators recoiled, and before they could return to
+the charge, back into the peristylium rushed Drusus, escaped from
+Cappadox, with that worthy and Mago and Agias, just released, at his
+heels.
+
+"Here's your man!" cried Gabinius, who still kept discreetly in the
+rear.
+
+"Freedom and ten _sestertia_[117] to the one who strikes Drusus down,"
+called Dumnorix, feeling that at last the game was in his hands.
+
+  [117] About $400.
+
+But Mamercus had made of his young patron an apt pupil. All the
+fighting blood of the great Livian house, of the consulars and
+triumphators, was mantling in Drusus's veins, and he threw himself
+into the struggle with the deliberate courage of an experienced
+warrior. His short-sword, too, found its victims; and across Falto's
+body soon were piled more. And now Drusus was not alone. For in from
+the barns and fields came running first the servants from the stables,
+armed with mattocks and muck-forks, and then the farm-hands with their
+scythes and reaping hooks.
+
+"We shall never force these doors," exclaimed Gabinius, in despair, as
+he saw the defenders augmenting.
+
+Dumnorix turned to his men.
+
+"Go, some of you. Enter from behind! Take this rabble from the rear.
+In fair fight we can soon master it."
+
+A part of the gladiators started to leave the atrium, Gabinius with
+them. An instant later he had rushed back in blank dismay.
+
+"Horsemen! They are dismounting before the house. There are more than
+a score of them. We shall be cut to pieces."
+
+"We have more than fifty," retorted Dumnorix, viciously. "I will
+sacrifice them all, rather than have the attack fail!--" But before he
+could speak further, to the din of the fighting at the doors of the
+peristylium was added a second clamour without. And into the atrium,
+sword in hand, burst Caius Curio, and another young, handsome,
+aquiline-featured man, dressed in a low-girt tunic, with a loose,
+coarse mantle above it,--a man known to history as Marcus Antonius, or
+"Marc Antony "; and at their backs were twenty men in full armour.
+
+The courage of the lanista had failed him. Already Drusus's
+reinforcements in the peristylium had become so numerous and so well
+armed that the young chieftain was pushing back the gladiators and
+rapidly assuming the offensive. Gabinius was the first to take flight.
+He plunged into one of the rooms off the atrium, and through a side
+door gained the open. The demoralized and beaten gladiators followed
+him, like a flock of sheep. Only Dumnorix and two or three of his best
+men stood at the exit long enough to cover, in some measure, the
+retreat.
+
+Once outside, the late assailants gained a temporary respite, owing to
+the fact that the defenders had been disorganized by their very
+victory.
+
+"We have lost," groaned Gabinius, as the lanista drew his men together
+in a compact body, before commencing his retreat.
+
+"We are alive," growled Dumnorix.
+
+"We cannot go back to Rome," moaned the other. "We are all identified.
+No bribe or favour can save us now."
+
+"A robber's life is still left," retorted Dumnorix, "and we must make
+of it what we can. Some of my men know these parts, where they have
+been slaves, before coming to my hands. We must strike off for the
+mountains, if we live to get there."
+
+All that day the country was in a turmoil. The Praenestean senate had
+met in hasty session, and the _decurions_[118] ordered the entire
+community under arms to hunt down the disturbers of the peace. Not
+until nightfall did Dumnorix and a mere remnant of his band find
+themselves able, under the shadow of the darkness, to shake off the
+pursuit. Gabinius was still with him. Curio and Antonius had chased
+them down with their horsemen; many of the gladiators had been slain,
+many more taken. For the survivors only the life of outlaws remained.
+The fastnesses of the Apennines were their sole safety; and
+thither--scarce daring to stop to pillage for victuals--they hurried
+their weary steps.
+
+  [118] Local municipal magistrates.
+
+
+III
+
+Lucius Ahenobarbus spent that day in frightful anxiety. One moment he
+was fingering Drusus's money bags; the next haunted by the murdered
+man's ghost. When he called on Cornelia, her slaves said she had a
+headache and would receive no one. Pratinas held aloof. No news all
+day--the suspense became unendurable. He lived through the following
+night harassed by waking visions of every conceivable calamity; but
+toward morning fell asleep, and as was his wont, awoke late. The first
+friend he met on the street was Calvus, the young poet and orator.
+
+"Have you heard the news from Praeneste?" began Calvus.
+
+"News? What news?"
+
+"Why, how Dumnorix's gang of gladiators attacked the villa of your
+distant relative, Quintus Drusus, and were beaten off, while they
+tried to murder him. A most daring attempt! But you will hear all
+about it. I have a case at the courts and cannot linger."
+
+And Calvus was gone, leaving Ahenobarbus as though he had been
+cudgelled into numbness. With a great effort he collected himself.
+After all, Dumnorix's gladiators were nothing to him. And when later
+he found that neither Dumnorix, nor Gabinius, nor Phaon had been taken
+or slain at Praeneste, he breathed the easier. No one else except
+Pratinas, he was certain, knew _why_ the lanista had made his attack;
+and there was no danger of being charged with complicity in the
+conspiracy. And so he was able to bear the stroke of ill-fortune with
+some equanimity, and at last rejoice that his dreams would no longer
+be haunted by the shade of Drusus. He was in no mood to meet Pratinas,
+and the smooth Greek evidently did not care to meet him. He went
+around to visit Cornelia again--she was still quite indisposed. So he
+spent that morning with Servius Flaccus playing draughts, a game at
+which his opponent was so excessively stupid that Ahenobarbus won at
+pleasure, and consequently found himself after lunch[119] in a
+moderately equable humour. Then it was he was agreeably surprised to
+receive the following note from Cornelia.
+
+  [119] _Prandium_.
+
+"Cornelia to her dearest Lucius, greeting.
+
+I have been very miserable these past two days, but this afternoon
+will be better. Come and visit me and my uncle, for there are several
+things I would be glad to say before you both. Farewell."
+
+"I think," remarked Lucius to himself, "that the girl wants to have
+the wedding-day hastened. I know of nothing else to make her desire
+both Lentulus and myself at once. I want to see her alone. Well, I
+cannot complain. I'll have Drusus's bride, even if I can't have his
+money or his life."
+
+And so deliberating, he put on his finest saffron-tinted synthesis,
+his most elegant set of rings, his newest pair of black shoes,[120]
+and spent half an hour with his hairdresser; and thus habited he
+repaired to the house of the Lentuli.
+
+  [120] Black shoes were worn as a sort of badge by _equites_.
+
+"The Lady Cornelia is in the Corinthian hall," announced the slave who
+carried in the news of his coming, "and there she awaits you."
+
+Lucius, nothing loth, followed the servant. A moment and he was in the
+large room. It was empty. The great marble pillars rose cold and
+magnificent in four stately rows, on all sides of the high-vaulted
+apartment. On the walls Cupids and blithesome nymphs were careering in
+fresco. The floor was soft with carpets. A dull scent of burning
+incense from a little brazier, smoking before a bronze Minerva, in one
+corner of the room, hung heavy on the air. The sun was shining warm
+and bright without, but the windows of the hall were small and high
+and the shutters also were drawn. Everything was cool, still, and
+dark. Only through a single aperture shot a clear ray of sunlight, and
+stretched in a radiant bar across the gaudy carpets.
+
+Lucius stumbled, half groping, into a chair, and seated himself.
+Cornelia had never received him thus before. What was she preparing?
+Another moment and Lentulus Crus entered the darkened hall.
+
+"_Perpol!_ Ahenobarbus," he cried, as he came across his prospective
+nephew-in-law, "what can Cornelia be wanting of us both? And in this
+place? I can't imagine. Ah! Those were strange doings yesterday up in
+Praeneste. I would hardly have put on mourning if Drusus had been
+ferried over the Styx; but it was a bold way to attack him. I don't
+know that he has an enemy in the world except myself, and I can bide
+my time and pay off old scores at leisure. Who could have been back of
+Dumnorix when he blundered so evidently?"
+
+Ahenobarbus felt that it was hardly possible Lentulus would condemn
+his plot very severely; but he replied diplomatically:--
+
+"One has always plenty of enemies."
+
+"_Mehercle!_ of course," laughed the consul-elect, "what would life be
+without the pleasure of revenge! But why does my niece keep us
+waiting? Jupiter, what can she want of us?"
+
+"Uncle, Lucius, I am here." And before them, standing illumined in the
+panel of sunlight, stood Cornelia. Ahenobarbus had never seen her so
+beautiful before. She wore a flowing violet-tinted stola, that tumbled
+in soft, silky flounces down to her ankles, and from beneath it peered
+the tint of her shapely feet bound to thin sandals by bright red
+ribbons. Her bare rounded arms were clasped above and below the elbow
+and at the wrists by circlets shaped as coiled serpents, whose eyes
+were gleaming rubies. At her white throat was fastened a necklace of
+interlinked jewel-set gold pendants that shimmered on her half-bare
+shoulders and breast. In each ear was the lustre of a great pearl. Her
+thick black hair fell unconfined down her back; across her brow was a
+frontlet blazing with great diamonds, with one huge sapphire in their
+midst. As she stood in the sunlight she was as a goddess, an Aphrodite
+descended from Olympus, to drive men to sweet madness by the ravishing
+puissance of her charms.
+
+"Cornelia!" cried Lucius, with all the fierce impure admiration of his
+nature welling up in his black heart, "you are an immortal! Let me
+throw my arms about you! Let me kiss you! Kiss your neck but once!"
+And he took a step forward.
+
+"Be quiet, Lucius," said Cornelia, speaking slowly and with as little
+passion as a sculptured marble endued with the powers of speech. "We
+have other things to talk of now. That is why I have called you here;
+you and my uncle."
+
+"Cornelia!" exclaimed the young man, shrinking back as though a sight
+of some awful mystery had stricken him with trembling reverence, "why
+do you look at me so? Why do your eyes fasten on me that way? What are
+you going to do?"
+
+It was as if he had never spoken. Cornelia continued steadily, looking
+straight before her.
+
+"Uncle, is it your wish that I become the wife of Lucius Ahenobarbus?"
+
+"You know it is," replied Lentulus, a little uneasily. He could not
+see where this bit of affection on the part of his niece would end. He
+had never heard her speak in such a tone before.
+
+"I think, uncle," went on Cornelia, "that before we say anything
+further it will be well to read this letter. It was sent to me, but
+both you and Lucius will find it of some interest." And she held out
+two or three wax tablets.
+
+Lentulus took them, eager to have done with the by-play. But when he
+saw on the binding-cords the seal--which, though broken, still showed
+its impression--he gave a start and exclamation.
+
+"_Perpol!_ The seal of Sextus Flaccus, the great capitalist."
+
+"Certainly, why should it not be from him?"
+
+Lentulus stepped nearer to the light, and read: Lucius standing by and
+hanging on every word, Cornelia remaining at her previous station
+rigid as the bronze faun on the pedestal at her elbow. Lentulus
+read:--
+
+"Sextus Fulvius Flaccus, to the most noble lady Cornelia:--
+
+If you are well it is well with me.
+
+Perhaps you have heard how the plots of the conspirators against my
+dear friend and financial client Quintus Drusus have been frustrated,
+thanks, next to the god, to the wit and dexterity of Agias, who has
+been of late your slave. Drusus as soon as he had fairly beaten off
+the gladiators sent at once for me, to aid him and certain other of
+his friends in taking the confession of one Phaon, the freedman of
+Lucius Ahenobarbus, whom Agias had contrived to entrap in Gabii, and
+hold prisoner until the danger was over. Phaon's confession puts us in
+complete possession of all the schemes of the plotters; and it will be
+well for you to inform that worthy young gentleman, Lucius
+Ahenobarbus, that I only forbear to prosecute him, and Pratinas, who
+really made him his supple tool, because I am a peaceable man who
+would not bring scandal upon an old and noble family. If, however,
+anything should befall Drusus which should indicate that fresh plots
+against his life were on foot, let Ahenobarbus be assured that I can
+no more regard him so leniently. I may add that since it was through a
+marriage with you that Ahenobarbus expected to profit by the murder, I
+have already advised Drusus that, according to the decisions of
+several of the most eminent _jurisconsulti_,[121] a property provision
+such as his father inserted in his will would not be binding,
+especially in view of the present facts of the case. Drusus has
+accordingly prepared a new will which, if questioned, I shall defend
+in the courts with all my power. Farewell."
+
+  [121] Expounders of the Roman law.
+
+Lentulus turned and glared with sullen amazement at his niece. That
+Ahenobarbus should conspire against Drusus seemed the most natural
+thing in the world. That the news that the conspiracy had failed
+should come from such a quarter, and through the hands of his own
+niece, at once terrified and angered him. Lucius was standing gaping,
+in half horror, half fascination, at Cornelia. Had she not urged him
+on? Had she not almost expressed her wish for Drusus's blood? The name
+of Flaccus fell on his heart like a stone; for the great banker never
+went back when he had taken a stand, and was rich enough to corrupt
+the most lax and merciful jury. Ahenobarbus felt a trap snap upon him,
+and yet he had no hope of revenge.
+
+"Cornelia," cried Lentulus, regaining at last the powers of speech,
+"why was this letter sent to you? What to you is that wretched youth,
+Quintus Drusus, who escaped a fate he richly deserved? Why do you not
+condole with your lover on his misfortune? What do you mean by your
+stony stare, your--"
+
+"I mean," retorted Cornelia, every word coming as a deep pant from her
+heaving chest, while her fingers clasped and unclasped nervously, and
+the blood surged to her pallid cheeks, "I mean that I need no longer
+profess to love what I hate; to cherish what I despise; to fondle what
+I loathe; to cast soft looks on that which I would pierce with
+daggers!" And she in turn took a step, quick and menacing, toward her
+wretched lover, who cowered and shrank back into the shadow of a
+pillar.
+
+"But you yourself said you hoped I would soon rid you of Drusus,"
+howled Lucius.
+
+"Fool!" hissed the woman, through her clenched teeth. "Didn't you know
+that all that I said, all that I did, all that I thought, was for this
+end--how might I save Quintus by learning the plans of the wretch who
+thirsted for his blood? Do you feel paid, now, for all your labours to
+secure the wealth of a man whose name should not be uttered beside
+that of yours?"
+
+"And you do not love me!" screamed Ahenobarbus, springing at her, as
+if to force his arms around her neck.
+
+"Dog!" and Cornelia smote him so fairly in the face that he shrank
+back, and pressed his hand to a swelling cheek. "I said I hated and
+despised you. What I despise, though, is beneath my hate. I would
+tread on you as on a viper or a desert asp, as a noxious creature that
+is not fit to live. I have played my game; and though it was not I who
+won, but Agias who won for me, I am well content. Drusus lives! Lives
+to see you miserably dead! Lives to grow to glory and honour, to
+happiness and a noble old age, when the worms have long since finished
+their work on you!"
+
+"Girl," thundered Lentulus, fiercely, "you are raving! Ahenobarbus is
+your affianced husband. Rome knows it. I will compel you to marry him.
+Otherwise you may well blush to think of the stories that vulgar
+report will fasten around your name."
+
+But Cornelia faced him in turn, and threw her white arms aloft as
+though calling down some mightier power than human to her aid; and her
+words came fast:--
+
+"What Rome says is not what my heart says! My heart tells me that I am
+pure where others are vile; that I keep truth where others are false;
+that I love honourably where others love dishonourably. I knew the
+cost of what I would do for Drusus's sake; and, though the vilest
+slave gibber and point at me, I would hold my head as proudly as did
+ever a Cornelian or Claudian maiden; for I have done that which my own
+heart tells me was right; and more than that or less than that, can no
+true woman do!"
+
+Ahenobarbus felt the room spinning round him. He saw himself ruined in
+everything that he had held dear. He would be the laughing-stock of
+Rome; he, the hero of a score of amorous escapades, the darling of as
+many patrician maidens, jilted by the one woman to whom he had become
+the abject slave. Courage came from despair.
+
+"Be silent!" he gasped, his face black with fury. "If every word you
+say were true, yet with all the more reason would I drag you in my
+marriage procession, and force you to avow yourself my wife. Never
+have I been balked of woman; and you, too, with all your tragic
+bathos, shall learn that, if you won't have me for a slave, I'll bow
+your neck to my yoke."
+
+"I think the very noble Lucius Ahenobarbus," replied Cornelia, in that
+high pitch of excitement which produces a calm more terrible than any
+open fury, "will in person be the protagonist in a tragedy very sorry
+for himself. For I can assure him that if he tries to make good his
+threat, I shall show myself one of the Danaides, and he will need his
+funeral feast full soon after the wedding banquet."
+
+"Woman!" and Lentulus, thoroughly exasperated, broke in furiously.
+"Say another word, and I with my own hands will flog you like a common
+slave."
+
+Cornelia laughed hysterically.
+
+"Touch me!" she shouted; and in her grasp shone a small bright dagger.
+
+Lentulus fell back. There was something about his niece that warned
+him to be careful.
+
+"Wretched girl!" he commanded, "put down that dagger."
+
+"I will not," and Cornelia stood resolutely, confronting her two
+persecutors; her head thrown back, and the light making her throat and
+face shine white as driven snow.
+
+There was very little chivalry among the ancients. Lentulus
+deliberately clapped his hands, and two serving-men appeared.
+
+"Take that dagger from the Lady Cornelia!" commanded the master. The
+men exchanged sly glances, and advanced to accomplish the disarming.
+
+But before they could catch Cornelia's slender wrists in their coarse,
+rough hands, and tear the little weapon from her, there were cuts and
+gashes on their own arms; for the struggle if brief was vicious.
+Cornelia stood disarmed.
+
+"You see what these mock heroics will lead to," commented Lentulus,
+with sarcastic smile, as he observed his order had been obeyed.
+
+"_You_ will see!" was her quick retort.
+
+"_Hei! hei!_" screamed one of the slaves an instant later, sinking to
+the floor. "Poison! It's running through my veins! I shall die!"
+
+"You will die," repeated Cornelia, in ineffable scorn, spurning the
+wretch with her foot. "Lie there and die! Cease breathing; sleep! And
+that creature, Ahenobarbus, yonder, shall sleep his sleep too, ere he
+work his will on me! Ha! ha! Look at my handiwork; the other slave is
+down!"
+
+"Girl! Murderess!" raged Lentulus. "What is this? You have slain these
+men."
+
+"I have slain your slaves," said Cornelia, resolutely folding her
+arms; "the poison on the dagger was very swift. You did excellently
+well, Lucius, not to come near me." And she picked up the dagger,
+which the slave, writhing in agony, had dropped.
+
+"Do you wish to attack me again? _Phy!_ I have more resources than
+this. This venom works too quickly. See, Syrax is already out of his
+misery; and his fellow will soon be beyond reach of woe. When I strike
+_you_, Lucius Ahenobarbus, you shall die slowly, that I may enjoy your
+pain. What need have I of this weapon?" And she flung the dagger
+across the carpet so that it struck on the farther wall. "Pick it up,
+and come and kill me if you wish! Drusus lives, and in him I live, for
+him I live, and by him I live. And you--and you are but as evil dreams
+in the first watch of a night which shall be forgotten either in sweet
+unending slumbers, or the brightness of the morning. And now I have
+spoken. Do with me as it lies in your power to do; but remember what
+power is mine. _Vale!_"
+
+And Cornelia vanished from the darkened hall. The two men heard the
+click of the door, and turned and gazed blankly into one another's
+faces.
+
+"The gods defend me, but I shall be yoked to one of the Dirae!"
+stammered Ahenobarbus.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XI
+
+The Great Proconsul
+
+
+I
+
+The plot was foiled. Drusus was unquestionably safe. So long as
+Flaccus had the affidavits of Phaon's confession and the depositions
+of the captured gladiators stored away in his strong-box, neither
+Lucius Ahenobarbus nor the ever versatile Pratinas would be likely to
+risk a new conspiracy--especially as their intended victim had
+carefully drawn up a will leaving the bulk of his property to Titus
+Mamercus and AEmilia. Drusus had no near relatives, except Fabia and
+Livia; unless the Ahenobarbi were to be counted such; and it pleased
+him to think that if aught befell him the worthy children of his aged
+defender would acquire opulence.
+
+But after the excitement was over, after Phaon had been brought up
+from the inn at Gabii to Praeneste, and there had the truth wormed out
+of him by the merciless cross-examination of Curio and Flaccus; after
+the freedman had been suffered to depart with a warning and threat to
+his prompters, after the captured gladiators had been crucified along
+the roadway leading toward Rome, and the wreck left in the atrium of
+the villa caused by the attack had been cleared away,--after all this,
+then the reaction came. Drusus, indeed, found that though the sun
+shone bright, its brightness was not for him. He had friends in
+plenty; but not such friends as he needed--as his heart craved. Truth
+to tell, he was one of those more delicate natures to whom the average
+pity and the ordinary demonstrations of sympathy come with an
+offending jar, and open, not heal, long-festering wounds. Curio was
+kind, but could only hold out the vaguest hopes that, for the present
+at least, anything would compel the consul-elect to consent to his
+niece's marriage with a mortal enemy. Flaccus took the same position.
+The hard-headed man of money thought that Drusus was a visionary, to
+be so distraught over the loss of a wife--as if the possession of a
+fortune of thirty odd millions did not make up for every possible
+calamity. Antonius was still less happy in his efforts at consolation.
+This dashing young politician, who had been equally at home basking in
+the eyes of the young Egyptian princess, Cleopatra, eight years
+before, when he was in the East with Aulus Gabinius, or when fighting
+the Gauls as he had until recently under his uncle, the great
+proconsul,--had now been elected Tribune of the Plebs for the coming
+year; and was looking forward to a prosperous and glorious career in
+statecraft. He had had many a love intrigue, and made such matters a
+sort of recreation to the real business of life. Why Drusus--who
+certainly had very fair worldly prospects before him--should not
+console himself for one unsuccessful passage of arms with Cupid, by
+straightway engaging in another, he could not see. He plainly
+intimated to his friend that there were a great many women, almost if
+not quite as good looking as Cornelia, who would survey him with
+friendly eyes if he made but a few advances. And Drusus, wounded and
+stung, was thrown back on himself; and within himself he found very
+little comfort.
+
+Although he believed himself safe at last from the wiles of
+Ahenobarbus and his Greek coadjutors, there was still a great dread
+which would steal over Drusus lest at any moment a stroke might fall.
+Those were days when children murdered parents, wives husbands, for
+whim or passion, and very little came to punish their guilt. The
+scramble for money was universal. Drusus looked forth into the world,
+and saw little in it that was good. He had tried to cherish an ideal,
+and found fidelity to it more than difficult. His philosophy did not
+assure him that a real deity existed. Death ended all. Was it not
+better to be done with the sham of life; to drink the Lethe water, and
+sink into eternal, dreamless slumber? He longed unspeakably to see
+Cornelia face to face; to kiss her; to press her in his arms; and the
+desire grew and grew.
+
+She was no longer in the capital. Her uncle had sent her away--guarded
+by trusty freedmen--to the villa of the Lentuli at Baiae. The
+fashionable circles of the great city had made of her name a three
+days' scandal, of which the echo all too often came to Drusus's
+outraged ears. His only comfort was that Ahenobarbus had become the
+butt and laughing-stock of every one who knew of his repulse by his
+last inamorata. Then at last Drusus left Praeneste for Rome.
+Ahenobarbus and Pratinas were as well checked as it was possible they
+could be, and there was no real ground to dread assassination while in
+the city, if moderate precautions were taken. Then too the time was
+coming when the young man felt that he could accomplish something
+definite for the party for which he had already sacrificed so much.
+
+The events clustering around Dumnorix's unsuccessful attack had made
+Drusus a sort of hero in the eyes of the Praenesteans. They had years
+before elected his father as their patron, their legal representative
+at Rome, and now they pitched upon the son, proud to have this highly
+honourable function continued in the same family. This election gave
+Drusus some little prestige at the capital, and some standing in the
+courts and politics. When he went to Rome it was not as a mere
+individual who had to carve out his own career, but as a man of honour
+in his own country, a representative of a considerable local interest,
+and the possessor of both a noble pedigree and an ample fortune.
+
+Curio found him plenty to do; wire-pulling, speech-making, private
+bargaining,--all these were rife, for everybody knew that with the
+first of January, when Lentulus became consul, the fortunes of Caesar
+were to be made or marred irretrievably. There were rumours, always
+rumours, now of Caesar, now of Pompeius. The proconsul was going to
+march on Rome at once, and put all his enemies to the sword. Pompeius
+was to be proclaimed dictator and exterminate all who adhered to the
+anti-senatorial party. And into this _melee_ of factions Drusus threw
+himself, and found relief and inspiration in the conflict. His innate
+common-sense, a very considerable talent for oratory which had
+received a moderate training, his energy, his enthusiasm, his
+incorruptibility, his straightforwardness, all made him valuable to
+the Caesarians, and he soon found himself deep in the counsels of his
+party, although he was too young to be advanced as a candidate for any
+public office.
+
+Agias continued with him. He had never formally deeded the boy to
+Cornelia, and now it was not safe for the lad to be sent to dwell at
+Baiae, possibly to fall into the revengeful clutches of Phaon, or
+Pratinas, or Ahenobarbus. Drusus had rewarded Agias by giving him his
+freedom; but the boy had nowhere to go, and did not desire to leave
+Quintus's service; so he continued as a general assistant and
+understrapper, to carry important letters and verbal messages, and to
+aid his patron in every case where quick wits or nimble feet were
+useful. He went once to Baiae, and came back with a letter from
+Cornelia, in which she said that she was kept actually as a prisoner
+in her uncle's villa, and that Lentulus still threatened to force
+Ahenobarbus upon her; but that she had prepared herself for that final
+emergency.
+
+The letter came at a moment when Drusus was feeling the exhilaration
+of a soldier in battle, and the missive was depressing and maddening.
+What did it profit if the crowd roared its plaudits, when he piled
+execration on the oligarchs from the Rostra, if all his eloquence
+could not save Cornelia one pang? Close on top of this letter came
+another disquieting piece of information, although it was only what he
+had expected. He learned that Lentulus Crus had marked him out
+personally for confiscation of property and death as a dangerous
+agitator, as soon as the Senate could decree martial law. To have even
+a conditional sentence of death hanging over one is hard to bear with
+equanimity. But it was too late for Drusus to turn back. He had chosen
+his path; he had determined on the sacrifice; he would follow it to
+the end. And from one source great comfort came to him. His aunt,
+Fabia, had always seen in him her hero. With no children of her own,
+with very little knowledge of the world, she had centred all her hopes
+and ambitions on her sister's son; and he was not disappointing her.
+She dreamed of him as consul, triumphator, and dictator. She told him
+her hopes. She applauded his sacrifice. She told him of the worthies
+of old, of Camillus, of the Scipios, of Marcellus, the "Sword of
+Rome," of Lucius AEmilius Paulus, and a host of others, good men and
+true, whose names were graven on the fabric of the great Republic, and
+bade him emulate them, and be her perfect Fabian and Livian. And from
+his aunt Drusus gained infinite courage. If she was not Cornelia, yet
+it was a boon ineffable to be able to hear a pure, loving woman tell
+him face to face that her heart suffered when he suffered, and that
+all his hopes and fears were hers.
+
+Finally an interlude came to Quintus's political activity. Curio was
+becoming uneasy, lest his distant superior should fail to realize the
+full venom of the Senate party and the determination of his enemies to
+work his ruin.
+
+"I must go to Ravenna," said the politician to his young associate.
+"My tribuneship is nearly run out. Antonius and Cassius will take my
+place in the office. And you, who have done so much for Caesar, must go
+also, for he loves to meet and to know all who are his friends."
+
+"To Caesar I will go," answered Drusus; and of himself he asked, "What
+manner of man will this prove, whom I am serving? A selfish grasper of
+power? Or will he be what I seek--a man with an ideal?"
+
+
+II
+
+Night was falling on the dark masses of the huge Praetorium, the
+government-house and army barracks of the provincial capital of
+Ravenna. Outside, sentinels were changing guard; Roman civil officials
+and provincials were strolling in the cool of the porticos. Laughter,
+the shout of loungers at play, broke the evening silence. But far in
+the interior, where there was a secluded suite of rooms, nothing but
+the tinkle of a water-duct emptying into a cistern broke the
+stillness, save as some soft-footed attendant stole in and out across
+the rich, thick carpet.
+
+The room was small; the ceiling low; the frescos not elaborate, but of
+admirable simplicity and delicacy. The furniture comprised merely a
+few divans, chairs, and tripods, but all of the choicest wood or
+brass, and the most excellent upholstery. One or two carved wooden
+cupboards for books completed the furnishings.
+
+There were only two persons in the room. One of them,--a handsome
+young Hellene, evidently a freedman, was sitting on a low chair with
+an open roll before him. His companion half sat and half lay on a
+divan near by. This second person was a man of height unusual to
+Italians of his day; his cheeks were pale and a little sunken; his
+dark eyes were warm, penetrating; his mouth and chin mobile and even
+affable, but not a line suggested weakness. The forehead was high,
+massive, and was exaggerated by a semi-baldness which was only
+partially concealed by combing the dark, grey-streaked hair forward.
+He was reclining; if he had arisen he would have displayed a frame at
+once to be called soldierly, though spare and hardly powerful. To
+complete the figure it should be added that on one finger he wore a
+large ring set with a very beautiful seal of an armed Venus; and over
+his loose but carefully arranged tunic was thrown a short, red mantle,
+caught together on the left shoulder--the paludamentum, a garment only
+worn by Roman military officers of the very highest rank.
+
+The general--for so his dress proclaimed him--was playing with a
+stylus and a waxen tablet, while the young Greek read. Now and then he
+would bid the latter pause while he made a few notes. The book was
+Euripides's "Troades."
+
+"Read those lines again," interrupted the general. The voice was
+marvellously flexile, powerful, and melodious.
+
+And the freedman repeated:--
+
+  "Sow far and wide, plague, famine, and distress;
+  Make women widows, children fatherless;
+  Break down the altars of the gods, and tread
+  On quiet graves, the temples of the dead;
+  Play to life's end this wicked witless game
+  And you will win what knaves and fools call Fame!"[122]
+
+  [122] Translated in the collection "Sales Attici."
+
+The freedman waited for his superior to ask him to continue, but the
+request did not come. The general seemed lost in a reverie; his
+expressive dark eyes were wandering off in a kind of quiet melancholy,
+gazing at the glass water-clock at the end of the room, but evidently
+not in the least seeing it.
+
+"I have heard enough Euripides to-day," at length he remarked. "I must
+attend to more important matters. You may leave me."
+
+The Greek rolled up the volume, placed it in the cupboard, and left
+the room with noiseless step. The general had arisen, and was standing
+beside the open window that looked out into a quiet little court. It
+was dark. The lamps of the room threw the court-yard into a sombre
+relief. Overhead, in the dimming, violet arch of the sky, one or two
+faint stars were beginning to twinkle.
+
+  "Play to life's end this wicked witless game
+  And you will win what knaves and fools call Fame!"
+
+repeated the general, leaning out from the stone work of the
+window-casing in order to catch the cool air of the court. "Yes, fame,
+the fame of a Xerxes; perhaps the fame of a Hannibal--no, I wrong the
+Carthaginian, for he at least struck for his country. And what is it
+all worth, after all? Does Agamemnon feel that his glory makes the
+realm of Hades more tolerable? Does not Homer set forth Achilles as a
+warrior with renown imperishable? And yet, 'Mock me not,' he makes the
+shade of Achilles say; 'Better to be the hireling of a stranger and
+serve a man of mean estate, whose living is but small, than be the
+monarch over all those dead and gone.'"
+
+The general leaned yet farther out, and looked upward. "These were the
+stars that twinkled over the Troy of Priam; these were the stars that
+shone on Carthage when she sent forth her armies and her fleets, and
+nigh drove the Greeks from Sicily; and these are the stars which will
+shine when Rome is as Troy and Carthage. And I--I am an atom, a
+creature of chance, thrown out of the infinite to flash like a
+shooting star for a moment across a blackened firmament and then in
+the infinite to expire. _Cui bono?_ Why should I care how I live my
+life, since in a twinkling it will all be as if it had never been? And
+if Cato and Domitius and Lentulus Crus have their way with me, what
+matter? What matter if a stab in the dark, or open violence, or the
+sham forms of justice end this poor comedy? I and all others play. All
+comedy is tragedy, and at its merriest is but dolorous stuff. While
+the curtain stays down[123] we are sorry actors with the whole world
+for our audience, and the hoots mingle full often with the applause.
+And when the curtain rises, that which is good, the painstaking
+effort, the labour, is quickly forgotten; the blunders, the false
+quantities in our lives, are treasured up to be flung against our
+names. We play, but we do not know our parts; we are Oedipus, who has
+committed unwitting sin, and yet must reap his reward; we are
+Prometheus who is to be chained to the rock forever, for offending the
+gods; we are Orestes whom the Eumenides pursue, chasing him down for
+his guilt. And all the time we vainly imagine that we are some
+victorious hero, some Perseus, especially favoured by the gods to fare
+scatheless over land and sea, and bear away the Medusa's head, and
+live renowned and happy forever." The reverie was becoming deeper and
+deeper; the Roman was beginning no longer to whisper merely to
+himself, he was half declaiming; then of a sudden, by a quick
+revolution of mind, he broke short the thread of his monologue.
+"_Phui!_ Caius, you are ranting as if you were still a youth at
+Rhodes, and Apollonius Molo were just teaching you rhetoric! Why has
+no letter come from Curio to-day? I am anxious for him. There may have
+been a riot. I hadn't expected that those excellent 'Optimates' would
+begin to murder tribunes quite so soon. The carrier is late!" and the
+general moved away from the window, and took from a cupboard a package
+of tablets, which he ran over hastily. "Here are the despatches of
+yesterday. None to-day. I fear the worst." The brow of the solitary
+speaker grew darker. "Poor Curio, poor Antonius; if they've dared to
+murder them, let them tremble. I could forgive a mortal enemy to
+myself, but not one who had slaughtered a friend."
+
+  [123] The ancient curtain (_aulaeum_) had its roller at the bottom.
+
+There were steps in the court below, and voices were raised. In an
+instant the general's eyes were kindled, his frame on a poise. He
+sprang to the window, and shouted down the dark court.
+
+"Curio! Do I hear you speaking?"
+
+"_Salve!_ Caesar. It is I!"
+
+"Venus be praised!" and the proconsul, with almost undignified haste,
+was running out upon the stairs to meet his friend. "Has the city
+broken out? Has Antonius been murdered? Is the truce at an end? Are
+you alone?"
+
+And Curio, who did not quite possess his leader's ability to "do all
+things at the same time," answered in a breath: "The city so far keeps
+tolerable order. Antonius is safe. The consuls and Senate still keep
+the peace; but so poorly that I thought it my duty to come to you and
+say things that cannot go in a letter."
+
+"And who is this young man with you?"
+
+"My friend," said Curio, turning to his companion, "is Quintus Livius
+Drusus, of whom I have had occasion to write no little."
+
+The proconsul sprang forward and seized Drusus by both hands, and
+looked him fairly in the eye.
+
+"_Papae!_ I see Sextus Drusus once more, the best tribune in his
+legion, and my dear friend. Your face should be cause for your
+welcome, if nothing else. Ah! how much we shall have to say! But you
+are travel-stained and weary. Words will keep while you bathe, and our
+dinner is prepared; for I myself have not dined, waiting, as I
+thought, for your despatches."
+
+"Your excellency shows me too much courtesy," said Drusus, bowing in
+what was, to tell truth, some little embarrassment; "it is not fit
+that a young man like myself should dine at the same table with an
+imperator before whom nations have trembled."
+
+And then it was that Drusus caught his first glimpse of that noble and
+sententious egotism which was a characteristic of the great proconsul.
+
+"To be a friend of Caesar is to be the peer of kings."
+
+Drusus bowed again, and then, with Curio, followed the attendants who
+were leading them to comfortably, though not sumptuously, furnished
+apartments.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Quintus Drusus in years to come sat at the boards of many great men,
+enjoyed their conversation, entered into their hopes and fears, but he
+never forgot the first dinner with the proconsul of the Gauls. Caesar
+kept a double table. His hospitality was always ready for the people
+of note of the district where he happened to be staying, and for his
+own regular army officers. But he dined personally with such high-rank
+Romans and very noble Provincials as chanced to be with him from day
+to day. To this last select company Drusus found himself that evening
+admitted; and in fact he and Curio were the proconsul's only personal
+guests. The dinner itself was more remarkable for the refinement of
+the whole service, the exquisite chasteness of the decorations of the
+dining room, the excellent cooking of the dishes, and the choiceness
+of the wines than for any lavish display either of a great bill of
+fare, or of an ostentatious amount of splendour. The company of
+officers and gentlemen of the Ravenna district dined together in a
+spacious hall, where Drusus imagined they had a rather more bounteous
+repast than did the immediate guests of their entertainer. At one end
+of this large hall was a broad alcove, raised a single step, and here
+was laid the dinner for the proconsul. Caesar passed through the large
+company of his humbler guests, followed by Curio and Drusus,--now
+speaking a familiar word to a favourite centurion; now congratulating
+a country visitor on his election to his local Senate; now introducing
+the new-comers to this or that friend. And so presently Drusus found
+himself resting on his elbow on the same couch with Caesar, while Curio
+occupied the other end. For a time the latter held by far the larger
+part of the conversation in his hands. There were a myriad tales to
+tell of politics at the capital, a myriad warnings to give. Caesar
+listened to them all; and only rarely interrupted, and then with words
+so terse and penetrating that Drusus marvelled. The proconsul seemed
+to know the innermost life history and life motives of everything and
+everybody. He described a character with an epithet; he fathomed a
+political problem with an expletive. Only now and then did his words
+or motions betray any deep personal concern or anxiety, and once only
+did Drusus see him flush with passion.
+
+"That affair of the magistrate of Coma, to whom you gave the
+franchise," said Curio, "was extremely unfortunate. You of course
+heard long ago how Marcellus, the consul, had him beaten with rods and
+sent home, to show[124]--as he said--to you, Caesar, the print of his
+stripes."
+
+  [124] Caesar had given the magistrates of towns of the north of Italy
+  the Roman franchise: no Roman citizens could be lawfully flogged.
+  By his action Marcellus denied Caesar's right to confer the franchise.
+
+The face of the proconsul reddened, then grew black with hardly reined
+fury.
+
+"Yes, most unfortunate for Marcellus." It was all that Caesar said, but
+Drusus would not have exchanged his life then, for that of Marcellus,
+for a thousand talents of gold.
+
+"And our dear friend, Cato," went on Curio, who was perhaps not
+unwilling to stir the vials of his superior's wrath, "has just sworn
+with an oath in public, that as soon as your army is disbanded he will
+press an impeachment against you; and I've heard it reported that you
+will be compelled to plead, like Milo when he was tried for the
+Clodius affair, before judges overawed by armed men."
+
+"I anticipate no such proceeding," said Caesar, dryly, in an accent of
+infinite contempt. Then turning to Drusus, he entirely changed his
+intonation.
+
+"So long," he said, with a shrug of his rather slight shoulders, "we
+have talked of comitias and senates! Praise to the gods, all life is
+not passed in the Forum or Curia! And now, my dear Quintus, let us put
+aside those tedious matters whereof we all three have talked and
+thought quite enough, and tell me of yourself; for, believe me, our
+friendship would be one-sided indeed, if all your trouble and exertion
+went for me, and you received no solicitude in return."
+
+And Drusus, who had at first found his words coming awkwardly enough,
+presently grew fluent as he conversed with the proconsul. He told of
+his student days at Athens, of his studies of rhetoric and philosophy,
+of his journey back to Praeneste, and the incidents of the sea voyage,
+and land travel; of his welcome at Praeneste by the old retainers and
+the familia of the Drusi, and then of his recent political work at
+Rome.
+
+"These have been the chief events of my life, Caesar," he concluded,
+"and since you have condescended to hear, I have ventured to tell; but
+why need I ask if such a commonplace tale of a young man who has yet
+his life to live, should interest you?"
+
+Caesar smiled, and laying down the beaker from which he was sipping
+very slowly, replied:--
+
+"_Mehercle!_ And do you wish to have all your exploits crowded into a
+few short years of youth, that mature age will have nothing to
+surpass? Listen,--I believe that when the historians, by whom our dear
+Cicero is so anxious to be remembered favourably, write their books,
+they will say something of my name,--good or bad, the Genius
+knows,--but fame at least will not be denied me. Twelve years ago when
+I was in Spain I was reading in some book of the exploits of Alexander
+the Great. Suddenly it seemed as though I could not control myself. I
+began to weep; and this was the explanation I gave to my friends, 'I
+have just cause to weep, when I consider that Alexander at my age had
+conquered so many nations, and I have all this time done nothing that
+is memorable.'"
+
+"But even when your excellency went into Spain," remarked Drusus, "you
+had done that which should have given renown. Consider, you had won
+the praetorship, the office of Pontifex Maximus--"
+
+"_St_," interrupted the proconsul, "a list of titles is not a pledge
+from Fortune that she will grant fame. Besides, I was about to
+add--what folly it was for me to weep! Do I imagine now, that
+Alexander was happy and contented in the midst of his conquests?
+Rather, unless he were, indeed, of more than mortal stuff, for every
+morsel of fame, he paid a talent of care and anxiety. Rush not too
+quickly after fame; only with age comes the strength to pay the price
+thereof."
+
+Drusus was half wondering at, half admiring, the unconscious
+comparison the proconsul was drawing between himself and Alexander.
+But Caesar went on:--
+
+"But you, O Drusus, have not dealt honestly with me, in that you have
+failed to tell that which lies nearest your heart, and which you
+consider the pivot of all your present life."
+
+Drusus flushed. "Doubtless, your excellency will pardon a young man
+for speaking with diffidence on a subject, to recollect which is to
+cause pain."
+
+Caesar put off the half-careless air of the good-natured wit, which he
+had been affecting.
+
+"Quintus Livius Drusus," and as he spoke, his auditor turned as if
+magnetized by his eye and voice, and hung on every word, "be not
+ashamed to own to me, of all men, that you claim a good woman's love,
+and for that love are ready to make sacrifice."
+
+And as if to meet a flitting thought in the other's mind, Caesar
+continued:--
+
+"No, blush not before me, although the fashionable world of Rome will
+have its stories. I care not enough for such gossip to take pains to
+say it lies. But this would I have declared, when at your age, and let
+all the world hear, that I, Caius Caesar, loved honourably, purely, and
+worthily; and for the sake of that love would and did defy death
+itself."
+
+The proconsul's pale face flushed with something very akin to passion;
+his bright eyes were more lustrous than ever.
+
+"I was eighteen years old when I married Cornelia, the daughter of
+Cinna, the great leader of the 'Populares.' Sulla, then dictator,
+ordered me to put her away. Cornelia had not been the wife of my
+father's choice. He had wished to force upon me Cossutia, an heiress,
+but with little save riches to commend her. I gained neither riches,
+political influence, nor family good-will by the marriage. Sulla was
+in the fulness of his strength. I had seen nearly all my friends
+proscribed, exiled, or murdered. Sulla bade me put away my wife, and
+take such a one as he should appoint. He was graciously pleased to
+spare my life, in order that I might become his tool. Why did I
+refuse?"
+
+Caesar was sitting upon the couch and speaking nervously, in a manner
+that betokened great and unusual excitement.
+
+"I knew the dictator meant to favour me if I would only humour him in
+this matter. A word from him and all ambition of mine had probably
+been at an end, I take no praise to myself for this. I refused him. I
+defied his threats. He seized my property, deprived me of my
+priesthood,[125] finally let loose his pack of assassins upon me. I
+almost became their victim. But my uncle, Aurelius Cotta, and some
+good friends of mine among the Vestal Virgins pleaded my cause. I
+escaped. Sulla said he was over-persuaded in sparing me; 'In me were
+many Mariuses.' But did I regret the loss, the danger, the check for
+the time being to my career? Quintus Drusus, I counted them as of
+little importance, not to be weighed beside the pure love that
+mastered me. And as the faithful husband of my Cornelia I remained,
+until cruel death closed her dear eyes forever. One can love once, and
+honourably, with his whole being, but not truly and honourably love a
+second time, at least not in a manner like unto the first. Therefore,
+my Quintus, blush not to confess that which I know is yours,--a thing
+which too many of us Romans do not know in these declining
+days,--something that would almost convince me there were indeed
+celestial gods, who care for us and guide our darkened destinies. For
+when we reason of the gods, our reason tells us they are not. But when
+pure passion possesses our hearts, then we see tangible visions, then
+our dreams become no dreams but realities; we mount up on wings, we
+fly, we soar to Olympus, to Atlantis, to the Elysian fields; we no
+longer wish to know, we feel; we no longer wish to prove, we see; and
+what our reason bids us to reject, a surer monitor bids us to receive:
+the dangers and perils of this life of shades upon the earth are of no
+account, for we are transformed into immortals in whose veins courses
+the divine ichor, and whose food is ambrosial. Therefore while we love
+we do indeed dwell in the Islands of the Blessed: and when the vision
+fades away, its sweet memory remains to cheer us in our life below,
+and teach us that where the cold intellect may not go, there is indeed
+some way, on through the mists of the future, which leads we know not
+whither; but which leads to things purer and fairer than those which
+in our most ambitious moments we crave."
+
+  [125] Marius had made young Caesar, Flamen Dialis: priest of Jupiter.
+
+The voice of the conqueror of Gaul and German sank with a half tremor;
+his eye was moist, his lips continued moving after his words had
+ceased to flow. Drusus felt himself searched through and through by
+glance and speech. Was the proconsul a diviner to find all that was
+deepest in his soul and give it an utterance which Drusus had never
+expressed even to himself? The young man was thrilled, fascinated. And
+Caesar, in quite another tone, recovered himself and spoke.
+
+"Wherefore, O Drusus! be ashamed to tell how the Lady Cornelia loves
+you and you love her? What if the grim old consul-elect, like the
+jealous elder in the comedy, will stand in your way! _Phui!_ What are
+the complaints, threats, and prohibitions of such as he? At present,
+the wind blows from his quarter, but it will not be ever so. Either
+Lentulus will be in no place to hinder you before long, or we all
+shall be beyond caring for his triumph or failure."
+
+"Your excellency bids me hope!" cried Drusus.
+
+"I bid you love," replied Caesar, smiling. "I bid you go to Baiae, for
+there I have heard your dear lady waits her long-absent Odysseus, and
+tell her that all will be well in time; for Caesar will make it so."
+
+"For Caesar will make it so," repeated the young man, half-unconscious
+that he was speaking aloud.
+
+"For Caesar will make it so," reiterated the proconsul, as though Zeus
+on Olympus were nodding his head in awful and irrevocable promise.
+
+And the proconsul took both of his guest's hands in his own, and said,
+with seriousness:--
+
+"Quintus Drusus, why did you abandon your bride to support my cause?"
+
+"Because," replied the other, with perfect frankness, "I should not be
+worthy to look Cornelia in the face, if I did not sacrifice all to aid
+the one Roman who can save the state."
+
+"Young man," replied the proconsul, "many follow me for selfish gain,
+many follow me to pay off a grudge, but few follow me because they
+believe that because Caesar is ambitious, he is ambitious as a god
+should be ambitious--to bestow the greatest benefits possible upon the
+men entrusted to his charge. I know not what thread for me the Fates
+have spun; but this I know, that Caesar will never prove false to those
+who trust him to bring righteousness to Rome, and peace to the world."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That night, as Drusus was retiring, Curio spoke to him:--
+
+And what manner of man do you think is the proconsul?"
+
+"I think," replied Drusus, "that I have discovered the one man in the
+world whom I craved to find."
+
+"And who is that?"
+
+"The man with an ideal."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XII
+
+Pratinas Meets Ill-Fortune
+
+
+I
+
+Probably of the various personages mentioned in the course of our
+story none was more thoroughly enjoying life about this time than
+Agias. Drusus had left him in the city when he started for Ravenna,
+with general instructions to keep an eye on Lucius Ahenobarbus and
+Pratinas, and also to gather all he could of the political drift among
+the lower classes. Agias was free now. He let his hair grow long in
+token of his newly gained liberty; paraded a many-folded toga; and
+used part of the donatives which Drusus and Fabia had lavished upon
+him, in buying one or two slave-boys of his own, whom, so far from
+treating gently on account of his own lately servile position, he
+cuffed and abused with grim satisfaction at being able to do what had
+so often been done to him.
+
+Agias had been given lodgings by Drusus in a tenement house, owned by
+the latter, in the Subura.
+
+The rooms were over a bakery, and at the sides were a doctor's and
+surgeon's office and a barber's shop--a rendezvous which gave the
+young Greek an admirable chance to pick up the current gossip. Every
+street-pedler, every forum-idler, had his political convictions and
+pet theories. The partisans who arrogated to themselves the modest
+epithet of "The Company of All Good Men," clamoured noisily that
+"Liberty and Ancient Freedom" were in danger, if Caesar set foot in
+Rome save as an impeached traitor. And the Populares--the supporters
+of the proconsul--raged equally fiercely against the greed of the
+Senate party that wished to perpetuate itself forever in office. Agias
+could only see that neither faction really understood the causes for
+and against which they fought; and observed in silence, trusting that
+his patron knew more of the issues than he.
+
+But the newly manumitted freedman was thoroughly enjoying himself. The
+windy speeches in the Senate, the crowded and excited meetings in the
+Forum, the action and reaction of the tides of popular prejudice and
+fancy, the eloquence of Antonius, and the threatenings and ravings of
+Marcellus the consul--all these were interesting but not disturbing.
+Agias was catching glimpses of a little Olympus of his own--an Olympus
+in which he was at once Zeus, Poseidon, and Apollo; Sesostris--so he
+declared--the lame cup-bearer Hephaestus; and in place of Hera, Athena,
+and Aphrodite, were the smiles and laughter of Artemisia. Agias was
+head over ears in love with this pretty little cage-bird shut up in
+Pratinas's gloomy suite of rooms. Her "uncle" took her out now and
+then to the theatre or to the circus; but she had had little enough
+companionship save such as Sesostris could give; and to her, Agias was
+a wonderful hero, the master of every art, the victor over a hundred
+monsters. He had told her of his adventure with Phaon--not calling
+names, lest disagreeable consequences ensue--and Artemisia dreamed of
+him as the cleverest creature on the earth, able to outwit Hermes in
+subtlety. Agias had found out when Pratinas was likely to be away from
+home--and that worthy Hellene, be it said, never declined an
+invitation to dine with a friend--and Agias timed his visits
+accordingly. He taught Artemisia to play the cithera and to sing, and
+she made such rapid progress under his tutoring that the unconscious
+Pratinas commended her efforts to acquire the accomplishments he
+wished. And Agias was never so happy as when those bright eyes were
+hanging on his lips or that merry tongue was chattering a thousand
+pointless remarks or jests.
+
+Yes, Agias found himself in a condition when he could well ask to have
+no change. The possibility that Pratinas would come home, and put an
+end to the romance once and for all, was just great enough to give the
+affair the zest of a dangerous adventure. Despite Sesostris's warnings
+that Artemisia might at any time be sold away by her pseudo-uncle,
+Agias could not discover that that danger was imminent enough to need
+frustration. He was content to live himself and to let Artemisia live,
+basking in the stolen sunshine of the hour, and to let the thought of
+the approaching shadows fade out of his mind.
+
+Another person who saw the sunshine rather brighter than before was
+Pisander. That excellent philosopher had received his share of the
+gratitude Drusus had bestowed on his deliverers. But he was still in
+the service of Valeria, for Drusus saw that he had admirable
+opportunities for catching the stray bits of political gossip that
+inevitably intermixed themselves with the conversation of Valeria and
+her circle. Pisander had continued to read Plato to his mistress, and
+to groan silently at her frivolity; albeit, he did not groan so
+hopelessly as before, because he had good money in his pouch and knew
+where to procure more when he needed it.
+
+So Agias enjoyed himself. He was a youth; a Pagan youth; and in his
+short life he had seen many a scene of wickedness and shame. Yet there
+was nothing unholy in the affection which he found was daily growing
+stronger and stronger for Artemisia. She was a pure, innocent flower,
+that by the very whiteness of her simple sweet presence drove away
+anything that "defiled or made a lie." Agias did not worship her; she
+was too winning; too cunning and pretty to attract the least
+reverence; but in her company the young Greek was insensibly raised
+pinnacles above the murky moral atmosphere in which most men and
+youths of his station walked.
+
+It was all like an Idyl of Theocritus; with the tenement of Pratinas
+for a shepherd's hut; and Sesostris for a black-backed sheep to whom
+the herdsmen and the nymph of his love could play on "oaten reed." At
+first, Agias had never dreamed of telling a word of his affection to
+Artemisia. In truth, it was very hard to tell, for she, with an
+absolute innocence, took all his advances for far more than they were
+worth; told him that next to her "uncle and dear Sesostris" he was
+quite the best friend she had; that she loved him, and was glad to
+hear him say that he loved her.
+
+All this was delightful in the ears of her admirer, but very
+disconcerting. Agias thought of the hollow civilities of Valeria's
+life, as he had seen it; of the outward decorum of language, of the
+delicately veiled compliments, of the interchange of words that summed
+up, in a few polished commonplaces, a whole network of low intrigue
+and passion. Was this the same world! Could Valeria and Artemisia both
+be women! The one--a beauty, whose guilty heart was not ignorant of a
+single form of fashionable sin; the other--as it were, a blossom, that
+was pure sweetness, in whose opening petals the clear diamond of the
+morning dew still remained! Agias did not compare Artemisia with
+Cornelia; for Cornelia, in his eyes, was a goddess, and in beauty and
+passions was above the hope or regard of mortal men.
+
+But what was one to do in an emergency like the following? Agias had
+been singing the "Love Song" from the "Cyclops," and trying to throw
+into the lines all the depth of tender affection which voice and look
+rendered possible.
+
+  "One with eyes the fairest
+    Cometh from his dwelling,
+  Some one loves thee, rarest,
+    Bright beyond my telling.
+  In thy grace thou shinest
+  Like some nymph divinest,
+  In her caverns dewy;--
+  All delights pursue thee,
+  Soon pied flowers, sweet-breathing,
+  Shall thy head be wreathing."[126]
+
+  [126] Translated by Shelley.
+
+And at the conclusion of the song Artemisia threw her arms around
+Agias's neck and kissed him; and then with astounding impartiality
+sprang into Sesostris's lap, and patted the old Ethiop's black cheeks,
+and bestowed on him all manner of endearing epithets. What was poor
+Agias to do in such a case? He blankly concluded that it had proved
+easier to blast the plot of Pratinas and Ahenobarbus, than to win the
+love--as he meant "love"--of this provokingly affectionate girl. It
+was growing late. Pratinas might at any time return. And Agias
+constrained himself to depart.
+
+"By Zeus!" was the exclamation he addressed to himself as he fought
+his way through the crowds toward his own quarters; "where will this
+all end? How much longer are you going to lie in the toils of that
+most innocent of Circes? Will she never open her eyes? If I could only
+make her cry, 'I hate you!' there would be some hope; for when one
+hates, as I want her to, love is but a step away. Confound that
+Sesostris! For me to have to sit there, and see that baboon kissed and
+fondled!"
+
+And so reflecting, he reached his rooms. One of the luckless
+slave-boys who now addressed him as "Dominus," was waiting to tell him
+that a very gaunt, strange-looking man, with an enormous beard, had
+called to see him while he was out, and would return--so the visitor
+said--in the evening, for his business was important. "Pisander,"
+remarked Agias; and he stayed in that evening to meet the philosopher,
+although he had arranged to share a dinner with one or two other
+freedmen, who were his friends.
+
+The man of learning appeared at a very late hour. In fact, the
+water-clock showed that it wanted little of midnight before he came.
+His explanation was that Valeria had called him in to read verses to a
+company of friends who were supping with her, and he could not get
+away sooner. Besides, the dark streets were full of bandits, and he
+had therefore taken a circuitous route to avoid attack. Agias had to
+let him ramble through all the details, although he knew very well
+that Pisander would never have taken so much trouble to come if he had
+not had information of the first importance to impart.
+
+"And now, my dear Pisander," ventured the young Greek, at length, "I
+will ask Dromo to set something to drink before us; and I hope you
+will tell me why you have come."
+
+Pisander glanced timidly over his shoulder, pulled at his beard with
+suppressed excitement, then bent down, and in a very low voice burst
+out:--
+
+"Pratinas and"--he hesitated--"Valeria!"
+
+"_Ai"_ cried Agias, "I have suspected it for a very long time. You are
+sure the fox has snapped up his goose?"
+
+"By Hercules, very sure! They are planning to go to Egypt. Pratinas
+has just had a wonderful stroke of luck. He received six hundred
+thousand sesterces[127] with which to corrupt a jury for some poor
+wretch who expected to enlist Pratinas's cunning to get him out of the
+toils of the law. Pratinas calmly put the money in his strong-box, and
+let the unhappy wight be cast. He is not at all poor--he has amassed a
+large fortune while he has been in Rome. Shade of Plato! how this
+knave has prospered! And now he is arranging with Valeria to strip
+poor Calatinus of nearly all his valuables, before they fly the
+country."
+
+  [127] $24,000.
+
+"Ah, luckless Calatinus!" laughed Agias. "That will be the end of his
+marrying the handsomest woman in Rome. And so this is what you came
+here to tell me? It really was a good secret to keep."
+
+"_St!_" interrupted Pisander, "Pratinas has something else to attend
+to. Calatinus will get consolation for losing his dear spouse. I
+suppose Pratinas wishes to indemnify him, but he himself will make a
+good bit at the same time."
+
+In a twinkling a thought had flashed through Agias's mind, that made a
+cold sweat break out all over him, and a hot surge of blood mount to
+his head.
+
+"Man, man!" he cried, grasping Pisander's wrists with all his
+strength, "speak! Don't look at me this way! Don't say that you mean
+Artemisia?"
+
+"_Ai!_ You know the girl, then?" said the other, with the most
+excruciating inquisitiveness.
+
+"Know her?" raged Agias, "I love the sunbeam on which her eyes rest.
+Speak! Tell me all, everything, all about it I Quick! I must know!"
+
+Pisander drew himself together, and with a deliberation that was
+nearly maddening to his auditor, began:--
+
+"Well, you see, I had occasion this morning to be in Calatinus's
+library. Yes, I remember, I was just putting the new copy of Theognis
+back into the cupboard, when I noticed that the Mimnermus was not
+neatly rolled, and so I happened to stay in the room, and--"
+
+"By Zeus, speak faster and to the point!" cried Agias.
+
+"Oh, there wasn't very much to it all! Why, how excited you are!
+Pratinas came into the atrium, and Calatinus was already there. I
+heard the latter say, 'So I am to give you forty thousand sesterces
+for the little girl you had with you at the circus yesterday?' And
+Pratinas replied, 'Yes, if she pleases you. I told you her name was
+Artemisia, and that I always taught her to believe that she was my
+niece.'"
+
+"_Hei! Hei!_" groaned Agias, rushing up and down the room, half
+frantic. "Don't tell any more, I've heard enough! Fool, fool I have
+been, to sit in the sunshine, and never think of preparing to carry
+out my promise to Sesostris. No, you must tell me--you must tell me if
+you have learned any more. Did Calatinus fix on any time at which he
+was to take possession of the poor girl?"
+
+"No," replied the still amazed Pisander. "I did not hear the whole
+conversation. There was something about 'a very few days,' and then
+Pratinas began to condole with Calatinus over being beaten for the
+tribunate after having spent so much money for the canvass. But why
+are you so stirred up? As Plato very admirably observes in his
+'Philebus'--"
+
+"The Furies seize upon your 'Philebus'!" thundered Agias. "Keep quiet,
+if you've nothing good to tell! Oh, Agias, Agias! where are your wits,
+where is your cunning? What in the world can I do?"
+
+And so he poured out his distress and anger. But, after all, there was
+nothing to be done that night. Pisander, who at last began to realize
+the dilemma of his friend, ventured on a sort of sympathy which was
+worse than no sympathy at all, for philosophical platitudes are ever
+the worst of consolations. Agias invited the good man to spend the
+night with him, and not risk a second time the robbers of the streets.
+The young Greek himself finally went to bed, with no definite purpose
+in his mind except to rescue Artemisia, at any and every hazard, from
+falling into the clutches of Calatinus, who was perhaps the one man in
+the world Agias detested the most heartily.
+
+
+II
+
+Early in the morning Agias was awake. He had slept very little. The
+face of Artemisia was ever before him, and he saw it bathed in tears,
+and clouded with anguish and terror. But, early as he arose, it was
+none too early. Dromo, one of his slaves, came to announce to his
+dread lord that an aged Ethiop was waiting to see him, and Agias did
+not need to be told that this was Sesostris.
+
+That faithful servant of an unworthy master was indeed in a pitiable
+condition. His ordinarily neat and clean dress was crumpled and
+disarranged, as though he had not changed it during the night, but had
+rather been tossing and wakeful. His eyes were swollen, and tears were
+trickling down his cheeks. His voice had sunk to a husky choking, and
+when he stood before Agias he was unable to get out a word, but, after
+a few vain attempts which ended in prolonged sniffles, thrust into his
+young friend's hand a tablet.
+
+It was in Greek, in the childish, awkward hand of Artemisia, and ran
+as follows:--
+
+"Artemisia to her dear, dear Agias. I never wrote a letter before, and
+you must excuse the blunders in this. I don't know how to begin to
+tell you the dreadful thing that may happen to me. I will try and stop
+crying, and write it out just as it all happened. The day before
+yesterday Pratinas took me to the circus, where I enjoyed the racing
+very much. While we were sitting there, a very fine gentleman--at
+least he had purple stripes on his tunic and ever so many rings--came
+and sat down beside us. Pratinas told me that this gentleman was
+Lucius Calatinus, who was a great lord, but a friend of his. I tried
+to say something polite to Calatinus, but I didn't like him. He seemed
+coarse, and looked as though he might be cruel at times. He talked to
+me something the way you have talked--said I was pretty and my voice
+sounded very sweet. But I didn't enjoy these things from him, I can
+hardly tell why--though I'm delighted to hear you say them. Well,
+after quite a while he went away, and I didn't think anything more
+about him for a time, and yesterday you know how happy I was when you
+visited me. Only a little while after you left, Pratinas came back. I
+could see that he had something on his mind, although he said nothing.
+He seemed uneasy, and kept casting sidelong glances at me, which made
+me feel uncomfortable. I went up to him, and put my arms around his
+neck. 'Dear uncle,' I said, 'what is troubling you to-night?'
+'Nothing,' he answered, and he half tried to take my arms away. Then
+he said, 'I was thinking how soon I was to go back to Alexandria.' 'To
+Alexandria!' I cried, and I was just going to clap my hands when I
+thought that, although Alexandria was a far nicer place than Rome, you
+could not go with us, and so I felt very sorry. Then Pratinas spoke
+again in a hard, cold voice he has never used to me before.
+'Artemisia, I must tell you now the truth about yourself. I have let
+you call me uncle, and have tried to be kind to you. But you cannot
+come back to Alexandria with me. The day after to-morrow Calatinus,
+the gentleman you met at the circus yesterday, will come and take you
+away. He is a very rich man, and if you please him will give you
+everything you desire.' I couldn't understand at all what he meant,
+and cried out, 'But, uncle, I don't like Calatinus, and you--you don't
+really mean to leave me behind?' 'You little donkey,' said Pratinas,
+laughing, oh! so heartlessly, 'I'm not your uncle. You've been my
+slave, and I've sold you to Calatinus; so don't quarrel with him, but
+learn to like him quickly.' I don't remember what he said or I said
+next. I was so frightened and grieved that I don't know what I did. I
+know Pratinas finally whipped me, something he never did before. I
+went to bed feeling so sore, that I could not get really to sleep, but
+dreadful visions of Calatinus kept frightening me. I don't know which
+grieves me most, to know I am a slave, to know that Pratinas is not my
+uncle and does not love me, or to be about to be sold to Calatinus.
+Dear Sesostris has done all he can to console me, but that's very
+little; and so, very early this morning, I've written to you, Agias,
+just as soon as Pratinas left the house, for I am sure that you, who
+are so clever and wise, can see some way to get me out of my dreadful
+trouble."
+
+It would be hardly necessary to say that, after reading this appeal,
+Agias hurried away to do all that lay in his power to console
+Artemisia, and deliver her from her danger. When he reached Pratinas's
+tenement, Artemisia ran to meet him, and kissed him again and again,
+and cuddled down in his strong, young arms, quite content to believe
+that she had found a protector on whom she could cast all her burdens.
+And Agias? He laughed and bade her wipe away her tears, and swore a
+great oath that, so long as he breathed, Calatinus should not lay a
+finger upon her.
+
+Artemisia had practically told all her story in her letter. It was
+clear that Calatinus had caught sight of her several times,--though
+she had remained in blissful ignorance,--and Pratinas had deliberately
+planned to waylay him as a customer who would pay a good price for the
+girl, whom it would be manifestly inconvenient for him to take with
+Valeria on his premeditated flight to Egypt. But this enlightenment
+did not make Agias's task any the easier. He knew perfectly well that
+he could never raise a tithe of the forty thousand sesterces that
+Pratinas was to receive from Calatinus, and so redeem Artemisia. He
+had no right to expect the gift of such a sum from Drusus. If Pratinas
+really owned the poor girl as a slave, he could do anything he listed
+with her, and no law could be invoked to say him nay. There was only
+one recourse left to Agias, and that was fairly desperate--to carry
+off Artemisia and keep her in hiding until Pratinas should give up the
+quest and depart for Egypt. That there was peril in such a step he was
+well aware. Not merely could Artemisia, if recaptured, receive any
+form whatsoever of brutal punishment, but he, as the abettor of her
+flight, would be liable to a heavy penalty. Slave property was
+necessarily very precarious property, and to aid a slave to escape was
+an extremely heinous crime. "So many slaves, so many enemies," ran the
+harsh maxim; and it was almost treason to society for a freedman to
+aid a servant to run away.
+
+But Agias had no time to count the cost, no time to evolve a plan of
+escape that admitted no form of disaster. Artemisia besought him not
+to leave her for a moment, and accordingly he remained by her,
+laughing, poking fun, and making reckless gibes at her fears.
+Sesostris went about his simple household duties with a long face, and
+now and then a tear trickled down his cheek. Whatever came of the
+matter, Artemisia would have to be separated from him. He might never
+see her again, and the old Ethiopian loved her more than he did life
+itself.
+
+"You will not wrong the girl when she is with you?" he whispered
+dolefully to Agias.
+
+"I swear by Zeus she shall be treated as if she were my own dear
+sister," was his reply.
+
+"It is well. I can trust you; but _mu! mu!_ it is hard, it is hard! I
+love her like my own eyes! Isis preserve her dear life!"
+
+And so at last Artemisia, having cried out all her first burst of
+grief, was beginning to smile once more.
+
+"And now, oh! makaira,"[128] said Agias, "I must go away for just a
+little while. I have ever so many things to attend to; and you must be
+a good, brave girl, and wait until I come back."
+
+  [128] Blessed dear.
+
+"_St!"_ broke in Sesostris, "there's a step on the stairs. Pratinas is
+coming!"
+
+"Hide me!" cried Agias, as the approaching feet grew nearer. There was
+no time to take refuge in one of the farther rooms.
+
+"Here;" and Sesostris threw open the same iron clamped chest in which
+some time ago we saw Pratinas inspecting his treasure. "The money was
+taken out yesterday."
+
+Agias bounded into the box, and Sesostris pushed down the cover. The
+luckless occupant had only a chance to push out a corner of his tunic
+through the slit to admit a little air, when Pratinas entered the
+room. Agias longed to spring forth and throttle him, but such an act
+would have been folly.
+
+The young Greek's prison was sufficiently cramped and stuffy; but for
+a moment Agias tried to persuade himself that he had only to wait with
+patience until Pratinas should be gone, and no one would be the worse.
+An exclamation from the room without dispelled this comforting
+illusion.
+
+"By Zeus!" cried Pratinas, "what is this? Whence came this new toga?"
+
+Agias writhed in his confinement. In the plentitude of the glory of
+his newly acquired freedom, he had come abroad in an elegant new toga;
+but he had laid it on a chair when he entered the room.
+
+There was an awkward pause outside; then Pratinas burst out, "You
+worthless Ethiopian, you, where did this toga come from? It hasn't
+wings or feet! How came it here? Who's been here? Speak, speak, you
+fool, or I will teach you a lesson!"
+
+Agias gathered himself for a spring; for he expected to hear Sesostris
+whimper out a confession, and see Pratinas's wickedly handsome face
+peering into the chest. "He shan't cut my throat without a struggle!"
+was his vow.
+
+But, to his surprise, Sesostris answered with a tone of unlooked-for
+firmness, "Master, I cannot tell you where the toga came from."
+
+The tone of Pratinas, in reply, indicated his passion. "Sheep! Dog!
+Have I had you all these years that you should need a thrashing for
+impertinence! What rascal has been here to ogle at this wretched
+girl?" He might have thundered his commands to Artemisia, who was
+sobbing in evident distress; but his anger was concentrated on
+Sesostris. "Will you not speak?"
+
+"Master," came the same firm reply, "I will not tell you, though you
+take my life for refusing."
+
+What followed was, as Agias heard it, a volley of curses, blows,
+groans, and scuffling; then a heavy fall; an extremely fierce
+execration from Pratinas, and a loud shrill scream from Artemisia, "O
+Sesostris; dear Sesostris! He doesn't speak! He doesn't move! You've
+killed him!"
+
+"And I will kill you too if you won't tell the truth!" thundered
+Pratinas, in an ungovernable passion. Agias heard a blow as of a
+clinched fist, and a low moan. It was enough. One spring, and the
+ponderous cover flew back. The toga, the innocent cause of the
+catastrophe, lay on the chair close at hand. Agias grasped the whole
+picture in a twinkling: Sesostris lying beside a heavy wooden bench,
+with blood flowing from a great wound in his head which had struck in
+falling on a sharp corner; Artemisia crying in unspeakable dread on a
+divan; Pratinas, his face black as night, with uplifted hand prepared
+to strike a second time. Agias saw; and while he saw acted. Down over
+Pratinas's head dashed the broad linen folds of the toga, and two
+muscular arms drew it tight around the neck. Then began the struggle.
+Pratinas was of powerful physique, and resisted like a madman. The
+carpet was torn to shreds, the chairs shivered. But Agias, too,
+battled for grim life. He kept the hood over his opponent's eyes and
+never gave Pratinas a glimpse of the identity of his assailant. And at
+last a life of debauches and late dinners and unhealthy excitement
+began to tell against even so powerful a constitution as that of
+Pratinas. Tighter and tighter grew the pressure around his neck. And
+now Artemisia sprang up, and flew like a tiny tigress to her lover's
+assistance, and caught at her tormentor's hands, tearing them with her
+white little teeth, and pulling the enveloping mantle closer and
+closer. The contest could only have one end. Ere long, Pratinas was
+lying on the floor, bound hand and foot with strings of torn clothing,
+and his head still muffled in the toga. Agias, victorious, but with
+not a whole rag on his back, rose from his contest.
+
+"Sesostris! help him!" cried Artemisia, trying in vain to get some
+response from the motionless form by the bench. Agias looked at the
+Ethiop. The hard wood had struck the top of his skull, and death must
+have been instantaneous.
+
+"He does not feel any pain," explained the young Greek, who realized
+that this was no moment to indulge in emotions of any sort. "Now,
+Artemisia, you must hurry and put on a clean dress yourself; and give
+me at least a new tunic, for I cannot show this on the streets. Put
+into a basket all the bread you have, and some oil, and some olives,
+and some slices of salt fish."
+
+Artemisia disappeared in the next room. Agias returned to his
+prisoner. Pratinas was coughing and twisting, and trying to ejaculate
+oaths.
+
+"My good sir," said Agias, "I am not a bloodthirsty man, otherwise I
+would cut your throat, and so let you forget a predicament which
+doubtless embarrasses you not a little. But, since that is not to be,
+do not blame me if I arrange so that it will be unlikely that two such
+cold friends as you and myself will ever meet again. First of all,
+that purse which is at your side, and which, by its weight, shows that
+it contains a fair night's winnings, must go with me to speed me on my
+way. I have never stolen very much before. But I believe you, sir, are
+an Epicurean, who teach that pleasure is the highest good, and that
+all things are the result of chance. Now," and here he detached the
+purse, and counted over a very considerable sum, "you will observe
+that Fortune has thrown this money in my way, and it is my pleasure to
+take it. Therefore I am fulfilling the highest good. And you, as a
+philosopher, should be quite reconciled."
+
+Artemisia came back into the room, having completed the few simple
+preparations.
+
+"Now, my excellent sir," continued Agias, suiting his actions to his
+words, "I will stand you on your feet--so. I will push you, still
+bound, into this closet--so. I will pile furniture against the door,
+so that, when you have worked clear of your bonds, as I imagine you
+will in a few hours, even then you will not get out too quickly. And
+now, as your dear Roman friends say, _Vale!_ We are off!"
+
+Artemisia flung herself on the form of Sesostris, and covered the
+black, ugly face with kisses.
+
+"He's growing cold," she lamented. "What is the matter? I can't leave
+him this way!"
+
+But Agias did not dare to admit the least delaying.
+
+"Dear Artemisia," he said, "we can't do anything for Sesostris. I will
+explain to you by and by about him. He is not feeling cold now at all.
+You must come at once with me. I will take you where Pratinas will
+never touch you."
+
+
+III
+
+If Agias had been a trifle more reckless he would have cut short
+Pratinas's thread of life then and there, and greatly diminished the
+chance of unpleasant consequences. But he had not sunk so low as that.
+Besides, he had already worked out in his versatile head a plan that
+seemed practicable, albeit utterly audacious. Cornelia was at Baiae.
+Cornelia owed him a great debt of gratitude for saving Drusus.
+Cornelia might harbour Artemisia as a new maid, if he could contrive
+to get his charge over the hundred long miles that lay between Rome
+and Baiae.
+
+In the street he made Artemisia draw her mantle over her pretty face,
+and pressed through the crowds as fast as he could drag her onward.
+Quickly as he might he left the noisy Subura behind, and led on toward
+the Palatine. At length he turned in toward a large house, and by a
+narrow alley reached a garden gate, and gained admission to the rear.
+By his confident movements he showed himself familiar with the spot.
+The dwelling, as a matter of fact, was that of Calatinus.
+
+As Agias pushed open the gate, and led Artemisia into a little garden
+enclosed with a high stone wall, he surprised a dapper-appearing young
+slave-lad of about his age, who was lying idly on the tiny grass plot,
+and indulging in a solitary game of backgammon.[129]
+
+  [129] _Duodecim scripta_.
+
+"_Hem!_ Iasus," was Agias's salutation, "can you do an old friend a
+favour?"
+
+Iasus sprang to his feet, with eyes, nose, and mouth wide open. He
+turned red, turned white, turned red once more.
+
+"_Phy!_" cried the other; "you aren't so silly as to take me for a
+shade from Hades? I've as much strength and muscle as you."
+
+"Agias!" blurted out Iasus, "are you alive? Really alive? They didn't
+beat you to death! I am so glad! You know--"
+
+"_St!_" interrupted Agias. "You did, indeed, serve me an awkward trick
+some time since; but who can blame you for wanting to save your own
+skin. Pisander and Arsinoe and Semiramis have kept the secret that I'm
+alive very well, for in some ways it shouldn't come to Valeria's ears.
+My story later. Where's her most noble ladyship?"
+
+"The domina," replied Iasus, with a sniff, "has just gone out on a
+visit to a friend who has a country-house near Fidenae, up the Tiber."
+
+"Praise the gods! Far enough to be abroad for the day, and perhaps
+over night! This suits my purpose wonderfully. Is Pisander at home,
+and Arsinoe?"
+
+"I will fetch them," replied Iasus; and in a minute the philosopher
+and the waiting-maid were in the garden.
+
+A very few words explained to these two sympathetic souls the whole
+situation.
+
+Artemisia shrank back at sight of Pisander.
+
+"I am afraid of that man. He wears a great beard like Pratinas, and I
+don't love Pratinas any longer."
+
+"Oh, don't say that, my little swallow," said the worthy man of books,
+looking very sheepish. "I should be sorry to think that your bright
+eyes were vexed to see me."
+
+"_Phui!_ Pisander," laughed Arsinoe, "what have Zeno and Diogenes to
+do with 'bright eyes'?"
+
+But for once Pisander's heart was wiser than his head, and he only
+tossed Artemisia an enormous Persian peach, at which, when she sampled
+the gift, she made peace at once, and forever after held Pisander in
+her toils as a devoted servant.
+
+But Agias was soon gone; and Artemisia spent the rest of the morning
+and the whole of the afternoon in that very satisfactory Elysium of
+Syrian pears and honey-apples which Semiramis and Arsinoe supplied in
+full measure, with Pisander to sit by, and stare, boylike, at her
+clear, fair profile, and cast jealous glances at Iasus when that young
+man ventured to utilize his opportunity for a like advantage. Many of
+the servants had gone with Valeria, and the others readily agreed to
+preserve secrecy in a matter in which their former fellow-slave and
+favourite had so much at stake. So the day passed, and no one came to
+disturb her; and just as the shadows were falling Agias knocked at the
+garden gate.
+
+"_St!_" were his words, "I have hired a gig which will carry us both.
+Pratinas is loose and has been raising heaven and earth to get at us.
+There is a crier going the rounds of the Forum offering a thousand
+sesterces for the return of Artemisia. Pratinas has gone before the
+_triumviri capitales_[130] and obtained from them an order on the
+_apparitores_[131] to track down the runaway and her abettor."
+
+  [130] One of their functions made these officers practically chiefs
+  of police.
+
+  [131] A part of these public officers performed police duty.
+
+"_Eho!_" cried Pisander, "then you'd better leave your treasure here
+awhile, for us to take care of."
+
+"Not at all," replied Agias; "I could have taken her out of the city
+at once, but in the daytime we should have been certainly noticed and
+subsequently tracked. No one will imagine Artemisia is here--at least
+for a while. But this is a large familia; all may be my friends, but
+all may not have prudent tongues in their heads. The reward is large,
+and perhaps some will be tempted;" he glanced at Iasus, who, to do him
+justice, had never thought of a second deed of baseness. "I cannot
+risk that. No, Artemisia goes out of the city to-night, and she must
+get ready without the least delay."
+
+Artemisia, who was charmed with her present surroundings and
+adulation, demurred at leaving her entertainers; but Agias was
+imperative, and the others realized well enough that there was not
+much time to be lost. Agias, however, waited until it had become
+tolerably dark before starting. Meantime, he proceeded to make certain
+changes of his own and Artemisia's costume that indicated the rather
+serious character of the risk he was preparing to run. For himself he
+put on a very full and flowing crimson evening dress, as if he were
+proceeding to a dinner-party; he piled a dozen odd rings upon his
+fingers, and laughingly asked Semiramis to arrange his hair for him in
+the most fashionable style, and anoint it heavily with Valeria's most
+pungent perfumes. At the same time, Arsinoe was quite transforming
+Artemisia. Valeria's cosmetic vials were for once put into play for a
+purpose, and when Artemisia reappeared from the dressing-room after
+her treatment, Agias saw before him no longer a fair-skinned little
+Greek, but a small, slender, but certainly very handsome Egyptian
+serving-lad, with bronzed skin, conspicuous carmine lips, and features
+that Arsinoe's paint and pencils had coarsened and exaggerated.
+Fortunately, the classic costume both for men and women was so
+essentially alike, that Artemisia did not have to undergo that
+mortification from a change of clothes which might have befallen one
+at the present day in a like predicament. Her not very long black hair
+was loose, and shaken over her shoulders. Agias had brought for her a
+short, variegated _lacerna_[132] which answered well enough as the
+habit of a boy-valet who was on good terms with his master.
+
+  [132] A sort of mantle held on the shoulders by a clasp.
+
+"_Eho!_" cried Agias, when he had witnessed the transformation, "we
+must hasten or Valeria will be anxious to keep you as her serving-boy!
+Ah, I forgot she is going with her dear Pratinas to Egypt. Now,
+Arsinoe, and you, Semiramis, I shall not forget the good turn you have
+done me; don't let Valeria miss her unguents and ask questions that
+might prove disagreeable. Farewell, Iasus and Pisander; we shall soon
+meet again, the gods willing."
+
+The friends took leave of Artemisia; the slave-women kissed her;
+Pisander, presuming on his age, kissed her, albeit very sheepishly, as
+though he feared the ghosts of all the Stoics would see him. Iasus
+cast an angry jealous glance at the philosopher; he contented himself
+with a mere shake of the hand.
+
+Agias swung Artemisia into the gig and touched the lash to the swift
+mules.
+
+"Good-by, dear friends!" she cried, her merry Greek smile shining out
+through her bronze disguise.
+
+The gig rolled down the street, Agias glancing to right and left to
+see that no inquisitive eye followed them.
+
+"Oh! Agias," cried the girl, "am I at last going away with you? Going
+away all alone, with only you to take care of me? I feel--I feel
+queerly!"
+
+Agias only touched the mules again, and laughed and squeezed
+Artemisia's hand, then more gravely said:--
+
+"Now, makaira, you must do everything as I say, or we shall never get
+away from Pratinas. Remember, if I tell you to do anything you must do
+it instantly; and, above everything else, no matter what happens,
+speak not a word; don't scream or cry or utter a sound. If anybody
+questions us I shall say that I am a gentleman driving out to the
+suburbs to enjoy a late party at a friend's villa, and you are my
+valet, who is a mute, whom it is useless to question because he cannot
+answer. Do you understand?"
+
+Artemisia nodded her little head, and bit her pretty lips very hard to
+keep from speaking. The fear of Pratinas made her all obedience.
+
+It was after sundown, and driving was permitted in the city, though
+nearly all the teams that blocked Agias's way, as he drove down the
+crowded streets to turn on to the Via Appia, were heavy wagons loaded
+with timber and builders' stone.
+
+So far, all was safe enough; but Agias knew perfectly well that
+Pratinas was an awkward man to have for an enemy. The critical moment,
+however, was close at hand, and Agias called up all his wits to meet
+it. Under the damp arch of the ancient Porta Capena were pacing
+several men, whose lanterns and clinking sword-scabbards proclaimed
+them to be members of the city constabulary. There was no possibility
+of evading their scrutiny. No doubt any other gate was equally well
+watched. Agias drove straight ahead, as though he had seen nothing.
+
+"Hold!" and one of the constables was at the heads of the mules, and
+another was waving a lantern up into the face of the occupants of the
+gig.
+
+"Rascals," roared Agias, menacing with his whip, "are you highwaymen
+grown so impudent!"
+
+"We have an order from the triumviri," began one officer.
+
+"_Eho!_" replied Agias, settling back, as though relieved not to have
+to fight for his purse, "I can't see what for; I owe nothing. I have
+no suit pending."
+
+"We are to search all carriages and pedestrians," recommenced the
+constable, "to find if we may a certain Artemisia, a runaway
+slave-girl of the most noble Greek gentleman, Pratinas."
+
+"My good sirs," interrupted Agias, "I am already like to be very late
+at my dear friend Cimber's dinner party"--he mentioned the name of
+the owner of a very large villa not far down the road; "I have with me
+only Midas, my mute valet. If you detain me any longer I shall
+complain--"
+
+And here a denarius slipped into the hands of the officer with the
+lantern.
+
+"I think it's all right, Macer," was his report to his comrade. The
+latter left the heads of the mules.
+
+"_Mehercle!_ how handsome some of those Egyptians grow!" commented the
+first constable.
+
+But the rest of his remarks were lost on Agias. He was whizzing down
+the "Queen of Roads," with a good team before him, Artemisia at his
+side, and a happy consciousness that two excellent officials had
+missed a chance to earn one thousand sesterces.
+
+Hardly were they beyond earshot, when Artemisia burst out into an
+uncontrollable fit of giggling, which lasted a long time, only to be
+renewed and renewed, as often as a desperate effort seemed to have
+suppressed it. Then she drew the robes of the carriage round her, laid
+her head on Agias's shoulder, and with a confidence in her protector
+that would have inspired him to go through fire and water for her
+sake, shook out her dark locks and fell fast asleep, despite the fact
+that the mules were running their fastest. Agias grasped the reins
+with one hand, and with the other pressed tight the sleeping girl. He
+would not have exchanged his present position for all the wealth of
+Sardanapalus.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Five days later Agias was back in Rome. He had succeeded in reaching
+Baiae, and introducing Artemisia into the familia of the villa of the
+Lentuli, as a new waiting-maid from Rome sent by Claudia to her
+daughter. For the present at least there was practically no chance of
+Pratinas recovering his lost property. And indeed, when Agias reached
+Rome once more, all fears in that direction were completely set at
+rest. The fashionable circle in which Claudia and Herennia were
+enmeshed was in a flutter and a chatter over no ordinary scandal.
+Valeria, wife of Calatinus, and Pratinas, the "charming" Epicurean
+philosopher, had both fled Rome two days before, and rumour had it
+that they had embarked together at Ostia on a ship leaving direct for
+Egypt. Of course Calatinus was receiving all the sympathy, and was a
+much abused man; and so the tongues ran on.
+
+To Agias this great event brought a considerable gain in peace of
+mind, and some little loss. Valeria had taken with her her two maids,
+Agias's good friends, and also Iasus. Pisander ignominiously had been
+left behind. Calatinus had no use for the man of learning, and Agias
+was fain to take him before Drusus, who had returned from Ravenna, and
+induce his patron to give Pisander sufficient capital to start afresh
+a public school of philosophy, although the chances of acquiring
+opulence in that profession were sufficiently meagre.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XIII
+
+What Befell at Baiae
+
+
+I
+
+Cornelia was at Baiae, the famous watering-place, upon the classic
+Neapolitan bay,--which was the Brighton or Newport of the Roman. Here
+was the haunt of the sybarites, whose gay barks skimmed the shallow
+waters of the Lucrine lake; and not far off slumbered in its volcanic
+hollow that other lake, Avernus, renowned in legend and poetry,
+through whose caverns, fable had it, lay the entrance to the world of
+the dead. The whole country about was one city of stately villas, of
+cool groves, of bright gardens; a huge pleasure world, where freedom
+too often became license; where the dregs of the nectar cup too often
+meant physical ruin and moral death.
+
+Cornelia had lost all desire to die now. She no longer thought of
+suicide. Lentulus's freedmen held her in close surveillance, but she
+was very happy. Drusus lived, was safe, would do great things, would
+win a name and a fame in the world of politics and arms. For herself
+she had but one ambition--to hear men say, "This woman is the wife of
+the great Quintus Drusus." That would have been Elysium indeed.
+Cornelia, in fact, was building around her a world of sweet fantasy,
+that grew so real, so tangible, that the stern realities of life,
+realities that had hitherto worn out her very soul, became less
+galling. The reaction following the collapse of the plot against
+Drusus had thrown her into an unnatural cheerfulness. For the time the
+one thought when she arose in the morning, the one thought when she
+fell asleep at night, was, "One day," or "One night more is gone, of
+the time that severs me from Quintus." It was a strained, an unhealthy
+cheerfulness; but while it lasted it made all the world fair for
+Cornelia. Indeed, she had no right--from one way of thinking--not to
+enjoy herself, unless it be that she had no congenial companions. The
+villa of the Lentuli was one of the newest and finest at Baiae. It
+rested on a sort of breakwater built out into the sea, so that the
+waves actually beat against the embankment at the foot of Cornelia's
+chamber. The building rose in several stories, each smaller than the
+one below it, an ornamental cupola highest of all. On the successive
+terraces were formally plotted, but luxuriant, gardens. Cornelia, from
+her room in the second story, could command a broad vista of the bay.
+Puteoli was only two miles distant. Vesuvius was ten times as far; but
+the eye swept clear down the verdant coast toward Surrentum to the
+southward. At her feet was the sea,--the Italian, Neapolitan
+sea,--dancing, sparkling, dimpling from the first flush of morning to
+the last glint of the fading western clouds at eve. The azure above
+glowed with living brightness, and by night the stars and planets
+burned and twinkled down from a crystalline void, through which the
+unfettered soul might soar and soar, swimming onward through the sweet
+darkness of the infinite.
+
+And there were pleasures enough for Cornelia if she would join
+therein. Lentulus had ordered his freedmen not to deny her amusements;
+anything, in fact, that would divert her from her morbid infatuation
+for Drusus. The consul-designate had indeed reached the conclusion
+that his niece was suffering some serious mental derangement, or she
+would not thus continue to pursue a profitless passion, obviously
+impossible of fulfilment. So Cornelia had every chance to make herself
+a centre to those gay pleasure-seekers who were still at Baiae; for the
+summer season was a little past, and all but confirmed or fashionable
+invalids and professional vacationers were drifting back to Rome. For
+a time all went merrily enough. Just sufficient of the Lucius
+Ahenobarbus affair had come to the Baiaeans to make Cornelia the object
+of a great amount of curiosity. When she invited a select number of
+the pleasure-seekers to her dinner parties, she had the adulation and
+plaudits of every guest, and plenty of return favours. Lucius
+Ahenobarbus soon had a score of hot rivals; and Cornelia's pretty face
+was chipped on more than one admirer's seal ring. But presently it
+began to be said that the niece of the consul-designate was an
+extremely stoical and peculiar woman; she did not enjoy freedom which
+the very air of Baiae seemed to render inevitable. She never lacked wit
+and vivacity, but there was around her an air of restraint and cold
+modesty that was admirable in every way--only it would never do in
+Baiae. And so Cornelia, without ceasing to be admired, became less
+courted; and presently, quite tiring of the butterfly life, was thrown
+back more and more on herself and on her books. This did not disturb
+her. A levee or a banquet had never given her perfect pleasure; and it
+was no delight to know that half the women of Baiae hated her with a
+perfect jealousy. Cornelia read and studied, now Greek, now Latin; and
+sometimes caught herself half wishing to be a man and able to expound
+a cosmogony, or to decide the fate of empires by words flung down from
+the rostrum. Then finally Agias came bringing Artemisia, who, as has
+been related, was introduced--by means of some little contriving--into
+the familia as a new serving-maid. Such Artemisia was in name; but
+Cornelia, whose gratitude to Agias had known no bounds, took the
+little thing into her heart, and determined to devote herself to
+instructing an innocence that must not continue too long, despite its
+charming naivete.
+
+Thus the days had passed for Cornelia. But only a little while after
+Agias left for Rome,--with a very large packet of letters for
+Drusus,--the pleasant, self-created world of fantasy, that had given
+Cornelia some portion of happiness, vanished. Like a clap of thunder
+from a cloudless sky Lucius Ahenobarbus suddenly arrived in Baiae. He
+was tired of Rome, which was still very hot and uncomfortable. He
+loathed politics, they were stupid. He had lost a boon companion when
+Publius Gabinius was driven into outlawry. Marcus Laeca was too deeply
+in debt to give any more dinners. Pratinas was fled to Egypt. And so
+he had come to Baiae, to harass Cornelia by his presence; to gibe at
+her; and assure her that her uncle was more determined than ever that
+she should marry him--say and do what she might.
+
+Ahenobarbus quartered himself in the Lentulan villa as the prospective
+nephew-in-law of its owner. He brought with him his customary train of
+underlings, and had travelled in appropriate state, in a litter with
+eight picked bearers, lolling on a cushion stuffed with rose-leaves,
+and covered with Maltese gauze, one garland on his head, another round
+his neck, and holding to his nose a smelling-bag of small-meshed linen
+filled with roses.
+
+With all his effeminacy, he was beyond the least doubt desperately
+determined to possess himself of Cornelia. His passion was purely
+animal and unrefined, but none could doubt it. Cornelia feared to have
+him near her, and knew peace neither day nor night. He assumed all a
+master's rights over the slaves and freedmen, sending them hither and
+yon to do his bidding. He had recovered from the fear Cornelia had
+struck into him, in her first defiance, and met her threats and
+hauteur with open scorn.
+
+"You are a most adorable actress!" was his constant sneer. And his
+every action told that he did not intend to let Cornelia play with him
+a second time. With all his profligacy and moral worthlessness, he had
+a tenacity of purpose and an energy in this matter that showed that
+either Cornelia must in the end bow to his will, or their contest
+would end in something very like a tragedy.
+
+And if a tragedy, so be it, was the desperate resolve of Cornelia;
+whose eyes were too stern for tears when she saw that Lucius was still
+the former creature of appetite; full of intrigue, sweethearts,
+seashore revels, carouses, singing, and music parties and water
+excursions with creatures of his choice from morning until midnight.
+She could not altogether shun him, though she successfully resisted
+his half blandishments, half coercion, to make her join in his wild
+frivolities. One revenge she found she could take on him--a revenge
+that she enjoyed because it proclaimed her own intellectual
+superiority, and made Ahenobarbus writhe with impotent vexation--she
+had him at her mercy when they played at checkers;[133] and at last
+Lucius lost so much money and temper at this game of wit, not chance,
+that he would sulkily decline a challenge. But this was poor
+consolation to Cornelia. The time was drifting on. Before many days
+Lentulus Crus and Caius Clodius Marcellus would be consuls, and the
+anti-Caesarians would be ready to work their great opponent's undoing,
+or be themselves forever undone. Where was Drusus? What was he doing?
+What part would he play in the struggle, perhaps of arms, about to
+begin? O for one sight of him, for one word! And the hunger in
+Cornelia's breast grew and grew.
+
+  [133] _Latrunculi_.
+
+Many are our wishes. Some flit through our hearts like birds darting
+under the foliage of trees, then out again, lost in the sunshine;
+others linger awhile and we nestle them in our bosoms until we forget
+that they are there, and the noble desire, the craving for something
+dear, for something that bears for us as it were a divine image, is
+gone--we are the poorer that we no longer wish to wish it. But some
+things there are--some things too high or too deep for speech, too
+secret for really conscious thought, too holy to call from the
+innermost shrines of the heart; and there they linger and hover,
+demanding to be satisfied, and until they are satisfied there is void
+and dreariness within, be the sunshine never so bright without. And so
+Cornelia was a-hungered. She could fight against herself to save
+Drusus's life no longer; she could build around herself her dream
+castles no more; she must see him face to face, must hold his hand in
+hers, must feel his breath on her cheek.
+
+Is it but a tale that is told, that soul can communicate to distant
+soul? That through two sundered hearts without visible communication
+can spring up, unforewarned, a single desire, a single purpose? Is
+there no magnetism subtle beyond all thought, that bounds from spirit
+to spirit, defying every bond, every space? We may not say; but if
+Cornelia longed, she longed not utterly in vain. One morning, as she
+was dressing, Cassandra, who was moving around the room aiding her
+mistress, let fall a very tiny slip of papyrus into Cornelia's lap,
+and with it a whisper, "Don't look; but keep it carefully." The
+injunction was needed, for several other serving-women were in the
+room, and Cornelia more than suspected that they were ready to spy on
+her to prevent unauthorized correspondence with Drusus. When she was
+dressed, and could walk alone on the terrace overlooking the sea, she
+unrolled the papyrus and read:--
+
+"Delectissima, I have come from Rome to Puteoli. I cannot live longer
+without seeing you. Great things are stirring, and it may well be that
+ere long, if your uncle and his friends have their way, I may be a
+proscribed fugitive from Italy, or a dead man. But I must talk with
+your dear self first. Agias was known by the familia, and had no
+difficulty in seeing you quietly; but I have no such facility. I
+cannot remain long. Plan how we may meet and not be interrupted. I
+have taken Cassandra into my pay, and believe that she can be trusted.
+_Vale_."
+
+There was no name of the sender; but Cornelia did not need to
+question. Cassandra, who evidently knew that her mistress would
+require her services, came carelessly strolling out on to the terrace.
+
+"Cassandra," said Cornelia, "the last time I saw Quintus, you betrayed
+us to my uncle; will you be more faithful now?"
+
+The woman hung down her head.
+
+"_A!_ domina, your uncle threatened me terribly. I did not
+intentionally betray you! Did I not receive my beating? And then
+Master Drusus is such a handsome and generous young gentleman."
+
+"I can rely on you alone," replied Cornelia. "You must arrange
+everything. If you are untrue, be sure that it is not I who will in
+the end punish, but Master Drusus, whose memory is long. You have more
+schemes than I, now that Agias is not here to devise for me. You must
+make up any stories that are necessary to save us from interruption,
+and see that no one discovers anything or grows suspicious. My hands
+are tied. I cannot see to plan. I will go to the library, and leave
+everything to you."
+
+And with this stoical resolve to bear with equanimity whatever the
+Fates flung in her way for good or ill, Cornelia tried to bury herself
+in her Lucretius. Vain resolution! What care for the atomic theory
+when in a day, an hour, a moment, she might be straining to her heart
+another heart that was reaching out toward hers, as hers did toward
+it. It was useless to read; useless to try to admire the varying
+shades of blue on the sea, tones of green, and tones of deep cerulean,
+deepening and deepening, as her eye drifted off toward the horizon,
+like the blendings of a chromatic series. And so Cornelia passed the
+morning in a mood of joyful discontent. Lucius Ahenobarbus, who came
+to have his usual passage of arms with her, found her so extremely
+affable, yet half-preoccupied, that he was puzzled, yet on the whole
+delighted. "She must be yielding," he mentally commented; and when
+they played at draughts, Cornelia actually allowed herself to be
+beaten. Ahenobarbus started off for Puteoli in an excellent humour.
+His litter had barely swung down the road from the villa before
+Cassandra was knocking at her mistress's chamber door.
+
+"_Io!_ domina," was her joyful exclamation, "I think I have got every
+eavesdropper out of the way. Ahenobarbus is off for Puteoli. I have
+cooked up a story to keep the freedmen and other busybodies off. You
+have a desperate headache, and cannot leave the room, nor see any one.
+But remember the terrace over the water, where the colonnade shuts it
+in on all sides but toward the sea. This afternoon, if a boat with two
+strange-looking fishermen passes under the embankment, don't be
+surprised."
+
+And having imparted this precious bit of information, the woman was
+off. Drusus's gold pieces had made her the most successful of
+schemers.
+
+
+II
+
+Cornelia feigned her headache, and succeeded in making herself so
+thoroughly petulant and exacting to all her maids, that when she
+ordered them out of the room, and told them on no account to disturb
+her in any respect for the rest of the day, they "rejoiced with
+trembling," and had no anxiety to thrust their attentions upon so
+unreasonable a mistress. And a little while later a visit of a
+strolling juggler--whose call had perhaps been prompted by
+Cassandra--made their respite from duty doubly welcome.
+
+Cornelia was left to herself, and spent the next hour in a division of
+labour before her silver wall-mirror, dressing--something which was
+sufficiently troublesome for her, accustomed to the services of a bevy
+of maids--and at the window, gazing toward Puteoli for the
+fishing-boat that seemed never in sight. At last the toilet was
+completed to her satisfaction. Cornelia surveyed herself in her best
+silken purple flounced stola, thrust the last pin into her hair, and
+confined it all in a net of golden thread. Roman maidens were not as a
+rule taught to be modest about their charms, and Cornelia, with
+perfect frankness, said aloud to herself, "You are so beautiful that
+Drusus can't help loving you;" and with this candid confession, she
+was again on the terrace, straining her eyes toward Puteoli. Boats
+came, boats went, but there was none that approached the villa; and
+Cornelia began to harbour dark thoughts against Cassandra.
+
+"If the wretched woman had played false to her mistress again--" but
+the threat was never formulated. There was a chink and click of a pair
+of oars moving on their thole-pins. For an instant a skiff was visible
+at the foot of the embankment; two occupants were in it. The boat
+disappeared under the friendly cover of the protecting sea-wall of the
+lower terrace. There was a little landing-place here, with a few steps
+leading upward, where now and then a yacht was moored. The embankment
+shut off this tiny wharf from view on either side. Cornelia dared not
+leave the upper terrace. Her heart beat faster and faster. Below she
+heard the slap, slap, of the waves on the sea-wall, and a rattle of
+rings and ropes as some skiff was being made fast. An instant more and
+Drusus was coming, with quick, athletic bounds, up the stairway to the
+second terrace. It was he! she saw him! In her eyes he was everything
+in physique and virile beauty that a maiden of the Republic could
+desire! The bitterness and waiting of months were worth the
+blessedness of the instant. Cornelia never knew what Drusus said to
+her, or what she said to him. She only knew that he was holding her in
+his strong arms and gazing into her eyes; while the hearts of both
+talked to one another so fast that they had neither time nor need for
+words. They were happy, happy! Long it was before their utterance
+passed beyond the merest words of endearment; longer still before they
+were composed enough for Cornelia to listen to Drusus while he gave
+his own account of Mamercus's heroic resistance to Dumnorix's gang at
+Praeneste; and told of his own visit to Ravenna, of his intense
+admiration for the proconsul of the two Gauls; and of how he had come
+to Puteoli and opened communications with Cassandra, through Cappadox,
+the trusty body-servant who in the guise of a fisherman was waiting in
+the boat below.
+
+"And as Homer puts it, so with us," cried Cornelia, at length: "'And
+so the pair had joy in happy love, and joyed in talking too, and each
+relating; she, the royal lady, what she had endured at home, watching
+the wasteful throng of suitors; and he, high-born Odysseus, what
+miseries he brought on other men, and bore himself in anguish;--all he
+told, and she was glad to hear.'"
+
+So laughed Cornelia when all their stories were finished, likening
+their reunion to that of the son of Laertes and the long-faithful
+Penelope.
+
+"How long were Penelope and Odysseus asunder?" quoth Drusus.
+
+"Twenty years."
+
+"_Vah!_ We have not been sundered twenty months or one-third as many.
+How shall we make the time fly more rapidly?"
+
+"I know not," said Cornelia, for the first time looking down and
+sighing, "a lifetime seems very long; but lifetimes will pass. I shall
+be an old woman in a few years; and my hair will be all grey, and you
+won't love me."
+
+"_Eho_," cried Drusus, "do you think I love you for your hair?"
+
+"I don't know," replied Cornelia, shaking her head, "I am afraid so.
+What is there in me more than any other woman that you should love;
+except--" and here she raised her face half-seriously, half in
+play--"I am very beautiful? Ah! if I were a man, I would have
+something else to be loved for; I would have eloquence, or strength,
+or power of command, or wisdom in philosophy. But no, I can be loved
+for only two things; an ignoble or a poor man would take me if I were
+hideous as Atropos, for I am noble, and, if my uncle were an honest
+guardian, rich. But you need not regard these at all, so--" and she
+brushed her face across Drusus's cheek, touching it with her hair.
+
+"O Cornelia," cried the young man, out of the fulness of his heart,
+"we must not waste this precious time asking why we love each other.
+Love each other we do as long as we view the sun. O carissima! we
+cannot trust ourselves to look too deeply into the whys and wherefores
+of things. We men and women are so ignorant! We know nothing. What is
+all our philosophy--words! What is all our state religion--empty form!
+What is all our life--a dream, mostly evil, that comes out of the
+eternal unconscious sleep and into that unconscious sleep will return!
+And yet not all a dream; for when I feel your hands in mine I know
+that I am not dreaming--for dreamers feel nothing so delicious as
+this! Not long ago I recalled what old Artabanus said to King Xerxes
+when the millions of Persia passed in review before their lord at
+Abydos, 'Short as our time is, death, through the wretchedness of our
+life, is the most sweet refuge of our race; and God, who gives us
+tastes that we enjoy of pleasant times, is seen, in His very gift, to
+be envious.' And I thought, 'How wise was the Persian!' And then I
+thought, 'No, though to live were to drag one's days in torture and in
+woe, if only love come once into life, an eternity of misery is
+endurable; yes, to be chained forever, as Prometheus, on drearest
+mountain crag, if only the fire which is stolen be that which kindles
+soul by soul.'"
+
+"Ah!" cried Cornelia, "if only these were to be real souls! But what
+can we say? See my Lucretius here; read: 'I have shown the soul to be
+formed fine and to be of minute bodies and made up of much smaller
+first-beginnings than the liquid air, or mist, or smoke. As you see
+water, when the vessels are shattered, flow away on every side, and as
+mist and smoke vanish away into the air, believe that the soul, too,
+is shed abroad, and perishes much more quickly and dissolves sooner
+into its first bodies, when once it has been taken out of the limbs of
+a man and has withdrawn.' O Quintus, is the thing within me that loves
+you lighter, more fragile, than smoke? Shall I blow away, and vanish
+into nothingness? It is that which affrights me!"
+
+And Drusus tried as best he might to comfort her, telling her there
+was no danger that she or he would be dissipated speedily, and that
+she must not fret her dear head with things that set the sagest
+greybeards a-wrangling. Then he told her about the political world,
+and how in a month at most either every cloud would have cleared away,
+and Lentulus be in no position to resist the legal claims which Drusus
+had on the hand of his niece; or, if war came, if fortune but favoured
+Caesar, Cornelia's waiting for deliverance would not be for long.
+Drusus did not dwell on the alternative presented if civic strife came
+to arms; he only knew that, come what might, Cornelia could never be
+driven to become the bride of Lucius Ahenobarbus; and he had no need
+to exact a new pledge of her faithful devotion.
+
+So at last, like everything terrestrial that is sweet and lovely, the
+slowly advancing afternoon warned Drusus that for this day, at least,
+they must separate.
+
+"I will come again to-morrow, or the next day, if Cassandra can so
+arrange," said he, tearing himself away. "But part to-night we must,
+nor will it make amends to imitate Carbo, who, when he was being led
+to execution, was suddenly seized with a pain in the stomach, and
+begged not to be beheaded until he should feel a little better."
+
+He kissed her, strained her to his breast, and stepped toward the
+landing-place. Cappadox had taken the boat out from the moorings to
+minimize a chance of discovery by some one in the house. Drusus was
+just turning for a last embrace, when many voices and the plash of
+oars sounded below. Cornelia staggered with dread.
+
+"It's Ahenobarbus," she gasped, in a deathly whisper; "he sometimes
+comes back from Puteoli by boat. He will murder you when he finds you
+here!"
+
+"Can't I escape through the house?"
+
+The words, however, were no sooner out of Drusus's mouth, than Lucius
+Ahenobarbus, dressed in the most fashionably cut scarlet lacerna,
+perfumed and coiffured to a nicety, appeared on the terrace. Some evil
+genius had led him straight up without the least delay.
+
+It was the first time that the two enemies had met face to face since
+Drusus had declined the invitation to Marcus Laeca's supper. Be it said
+to Lucius's credit that he sensed the situation with only the minimum
+of confusion, and instantly realized all of Cornelia's worst fears.
+Drusus had drawn back from the steps to the lower terrace, and stood
+with stern brow and knotted fist, trapped by a blunder that could
+hardly have been guarded against, no submissive victim to what fate
+had in store. Cornelia, for once quite distraught with terror, cowered
+on a bench, unable to scream through sheer fright.
+
+"_Salve!_ amice," was the satirical salutation of Ahenobarbus. "How
+excellently well met. _Heus!_ Phaon, bring your boatmen, quick! Not an
+instant to lose!"
+
+"Pity! mercy!" gasped Cornelia, "I will do anything for you, but spare
+him;" and she made as if to fall on her knees before Ahenobarbus.
+
+"Girl!" Drusus had never spoken in that way to her before; his tones
+were cold as ice. "Go into the house! Your place is not here. If
+Lucius Ahenobarbus intends to murder me--"
+
+The boatmen and two or three other slaves that were always at
+Ahenobarbus's heels were crowding up on to the terrace ready to do
+their master's bidding.
+
+"Throw me that fellow over the balcony," ordered Lucius, his sense of
+triumph and opportunity mastering every fear that Flaccus would
+execute his threat of prosecution. "See that he does not float!"
+
+Cornelia found her voice. She screamed, screamed shrilly, and ran into
+the house. Already the familia was alarmed. Two or three freedmen of
+Lentulus were rushing toward the terrace. They were murdering Quintus!
+He was resisting, resisting with all the powers of a wild animal
+driven to its last lair. Outside, on the terrace, where but an instant
+before she and her lover were cooing in delicious ecstasy, there were
+oaths, blows, and the sharp pants and howls of mortal struggle. And
+she could do nothing--nothing! And it was through his love for her
+that Drusus was to go down to his untimely grave! The seconds of
+struggle and anguish moved on leaden feet. Every breath was agony,
+every sound maddening. And she could do nothing--nothing. Still they
+were fighting. Phaon--she knew his voice--was crying out as if in
+grievous pain. And now the voice of Lucius Ahenobarbus sounded again:
+"One thousand denarii if you fling him into the sea!" and she could do
+nothing--nothing! She tore down the purple tapestries around her bed,
+and dashed from its tripod a costly bowl of opal Alexandrian
+glass--all in the mere rage of impotence. And still they were
+fighting. What was that ornament hanging on the wall, half hid behind
+the torn tapestry? A scabbard--a sword, some relic of ancient wars!
+And all the combatants were unarmed! The antique weapon was held by
+stout thongs to the wall; she plucked it from its fastenings with the
+strength of a Titaness. The rusty blade resisted an instant; she
+dragged it forth. Then out on to the terrace. Really only a moment had
+elapsed since she left it. One of the slaves was lying dead, or
+stunned, prone on the turf. Phaon was writhing and howling beside him,
+nursing a broken jaw. The other assailants had sunk back in temporary
+repulse and were preparing for a second rush. Drusus was still
+standing. He half leaned upon the stone pedestal of an heroic-sized
+Athena, who seemed to be spreading her protecting aegis above him. His
+garments were rent to the veriest shreds. His features were hidden
+behind streaming blood, his arms and neck were bruised and bleeding;
+but clearly his adversaries could not yet congratulate themselves that
+the lion's strength was too sapped to be no longer dreaded.
+
+"Come, you," was his hot challenge to Lucius Ahenobarbus, who stood,
+half delighted, half afraid, shivering and laughing spasmodically, as
+he surveyed the struggle from a safe distance. "Come, you, and have
+your share in the villany!"
+
+And again, for it was all the affair of the veriest moment, the slaves
+rushed once more on their indocile victim. "Freedom to the man who
+pulls him down!" was the incentive of Ahenobarbus.
+
+But again Drusus, who, to tell the truth, had to contend with only the
+flabby, soft-handed, unskilful underlings of Lucius, struck out so
+furiously that another of his attackers fell backward with a groan and
+a gasp. All this Cornelia saw while, sword in hand, she flew toward
+the knot of writhing men. She pushed aside the slaves by sheer force.
+She asked no civilities, received none.
+
+"Pull her away!" shouted Lucius, and started himself to accomplish his
+purpose. A rude hand smote her in the face; she staggered, fell; but
+as she fell a hand snatched the sword out of her grasp. She released
+her hold gladly, for did she not know that hand? When she rose to her
+feet there were shrieks of fear and pain on every side. The slaves
+were cringing in dread before him. Drusus was standing under the
+Athena, with the keen steel in his hand--its blade dyed crimson; and
+at his feet lay Ahenobarbus's favourite valet--the wretch literally
+disembowelled by one deadly stroke.
+
+"Fly, fly!" she implored; "they will bring arms! They will never let
+you escape."
+
+"I'll pay you for letting him kill Croesus," howled Lucius, facing
+himself resolutely toward his enemy. "How can he fly when the house is
+full of servants, and his boat is away from the landing? You give
+yourself trouble for no purpose, my lady! Lentulus's people will be
+here with swords in a moment!"
+
+But as he spoke a blow of some unseen giant dashed him prostrate, and
+upon the terrace from below came Cappadox, foaming with anxious rage,
+his brow blacker than night, his brawny arms swinging a heavy paddle
+with which he clubbed the cowering slaves right and left.
+
+"Have they killed him! Have the gods spared him!" These two demands
+came bounding in a breath from the honest servant's lips. And when he
+saw Drusus, bleeding, but still standing, he rushed forward to fling
+his arms about his master's neck.
+
+"Fly! fly!" urged Cornelia, and out of the building, armed now with
+swords and staves, came flocking the freedmen of the house and as many
+slaves as they could muster.
+
+"_Salve!_ carissima," and Drusus, who never at the instant gave
+thought to the blood all over him, pressed her in one last kiss. He
+gained the terrace steps by a single bound ahead of his armed
+attackers. Cappadox smote down the foremost freedman with a buffet of
+the oar. Ahenobarbus staggered to his feet as Drusus sprang over him,
+and the latter tore a packet of tablets from his hand, never stopping
+in his own flight.
+
+Then down on to the little landing-place pursuers and pursued tumbled.
+The large six-oared boat of Ahenobarbus was moored close beside
+Cappadox's skiff.
+
+Drusus was into the skiff and casting loose before Lucius could
+descend from the upper terrace. The young Domitian was in a terrible
+distress.
+
+"The letters! The letters! Freedom to you all if you save them! Cast
+off! Chase! Sink the skiff!"
+
+But before any of the unskilful assailants could execute the order,
+Cappadox had driven the butt of his paddle clean through the bottom
+planking of the larger boat, and she was filling rapidly. The paddle
+shivered, but it was madness to embark on the stoven craft.
+
+The skiff shot away from the landing as though an intelligent soul,
+rising equal to the needs of the crisis. The blue dancing water lapped
+between her gunwale and the shore. Drusus stood erect in the boat,
+brushed back the blood that was still streaming over his eyes, and
+looked landward. The slaves and freedmen were still on the landing,
+gazing blankly after their escaped prey. Ahenobarbus was pouring out
+upon their inefficiency a torrent of wrathful malediction, that
+promised employment for the "whipper" for some time to come. But
+Drusus gave heed to none of these things. Standing on the upper
+terrace, her hair now dishevelled and blowing in tresses upon the
+wind, was Cornelia, and on her all her lover's gaze was fixed.
+
+"Safe?" and the melodious shout drifted out over the widening stretch
+of water.
+
+"Safe! to live and to love!" And Drusus thought, with his keen lover's
+eye, he could see the dimming face brighten, and the hands go up in a
+gesture of thanksgiving.
+
+It was all that was said. Another boat might be procured at any time
+by Lucius Ahenobarbus; and with only one paddle Cappadox could make
+but slow headway. Stiff and bruised, the young man flung himself on
+the bottom of the skiff, and panted and nursed himself after his
+mortal struggle. Now that the combat was over he felt weak and sore
+enough, and was quite content to let Cappadox adjust such improvised
+bandages as were available, and scull him toward Puteoli. Fortunately
+none of the bruises was caused by any harder weapons than fists, and,
+though his body was black and blue, he had sustained no serious hurt.
+And so he rested his head on a wrap, and closed his eyes, and called
+up before his mind the vision of Cornelia. How beautiful she had been
+when he met her! How much more beautiful when she thrust her way
+through the fighting slaves and put the sword in his hand, at that
+moment of mortal combat, which he expected to be his last! Did he only
+love her because her face was sweet, her voice was sweet, and the
+touch of her hair was sweet? Happy was he, her lover;--he could say
+"no," and have never a fear that his sincerity would be tested. And
+Lucius Ahenobarbus? He hated him with a perfect hatred. A Roman who
+was no Roman! A womanish man whom every true woman must despise! A
+serpent who had not even the bright scales of a serpent! What would he
+do to Cornelia? Drusus's face grew hard. Had he, Drusus, yet done any
+injury worth mentioning to his enemy? Why had he not used the moment
+when Lucius lay prostrate, and run the sword through his body?
+Ill-timed, thoughtless mercy! But the letters, the packet he had
+wrenched from Ahenobarbus's hand? Why was it so precious? Drusus had
+flung it into the boat. He took up the packet. Doubtless some
+_billet-doux_. Why should he degrade his mind by giving an instant's
+thought to any of his enemy's foul intrigues? He could only open his
+eyes with difficulty, but a curiosity that did not add to his
+self-esteem overmastered him. The seal! Could he believe his
+senses--the imprint of three trophies of victory? It was the seal of
+Pompeius! The instinct of the partisan and politician conquered every
+infirmity. He broke the wax, untied the thread, and opened. The
+letters were in cipher, and at first sight illegible. But this did not
+present any insuperable difficulty. Most classic ciphers were
+sufficiently simple to be solved without very much trouble. Drusus
+knew that in all Caesar's correspondence a cipher had been used which
+consisted merely of substituting for each letter the fourth letter
+beyond it, as D for A; and a little examination showed that the
+present cryptogram was made on the same rude method. After a few
+guesses he struck the proper substitutions, and was able to read.
+
+"Pompeius Magnus, Imperator, to the most excellent Lucius Domitius
+Ahenobarbus, Rome, tenth day before the Calends of January. If it is
+well with you, it is well; I am well.[134] I write to warn you that we
+are told that Quintus Drusus, your personal enemy and the friend of
+our own foes, is in Campania. We need not add more, for we trust to
+you to see to it that he stirs up no faction in favour of his master
+in those parts. Be assured that you will not be long troubled by this
+enemy. He is marked out as one of the earliest of those to pay with
+their lives for their conspiracy against the Republic. If possible see
+that Drusus is seized for some alleged offence, and lodged in prison
+until the new consuls come into office. After that time he can work
+little or no mischief. Use the uttermost endeavours in this matter;
+check him and his schemes at all hazards. I trust your energy and
+prudence, which your father and Lentulus Crus assure me will not fail.
+_Vale!_"
+
+  [134] _Si vales bene est ego valeo_, written commonly simply
+  S. V. B. E. E. V.
+
+Drusus lay back in the bottom of the boat, and looked up into the blue
+dome. It was the same azure as ever, but a strange feeling of
+disenchantment seemed to have come over him. For the first time he
+realized the deadly stakes for which he and his party were playing
+their game. What fate had been treasured up for him in the impending
+chaos of civil war? If he perished in battle or by the executioner's
+axe, what awaited Cornelia? But he had chosen his road; he would
+follow it to the end. The battle spirit mounted in him.
+
+The sky was darkening when the boat drew up to one of the busy quays
+of Puteoli. Stars had begun to twinkle. Cappadox aided his bruised and
+stiffened master to disembark.
+
+"To-night rest," cried Drusus, forgetting all his wounds. "To-morrow
+away to Rome. And at Rome--the war of the Gods and the Giants!"
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XIV
+
+The New Consuls
+
+
+I
+
+It had come--the great crisis that by crooked ways or straight was to
+set right all the follies and crimes of many a generation. On the
+Calends of January Lentulus Crus and Caius Clodius Marcellus were
+inaugurated consuls. In solemn procession with Senate, priesthoods,
+and people, they had gone up to the Capitol and sacrificed chosen
+white steers to Jupiter, "Best and Greatest,"[135] and invoked his
+blessing upon the Roman State. And so began the last consulship of the
+Free Republic.
+
+  [135] _Optimus maximus_.
+
+Rome was in a ferment. All knew the intention of the consuls to move
+the recall of Caesar from his government. All knew that Curio had
+brought a letter from Ravenna, the contents whereof he carefully
+guarded. That same afternoon the consuls convened the Senate in the
+Temple of Capitoline Jove, and every man knew to what purpose. All
+Rome swept in the direction of the Capitol. Drusus accompanied his
+friend, the tribune Antonius, as the latter's viator, for there was
+need of a trusty guard.
+
+The excitement in the streets ran even higher than when Catilina's
+great plot was exposed. The streets were jammed with crowds,--not of
+the idle and base born, but of equites and noble ladies, and young
+patricians not old enough to step into their fathers' places. They
+were howling and cheering for Pompeius and Lentulus, and cursing the
+absent proconsul. As Drusus passed along at the side of Antonius, he
+could not fail to hear the execrations and vile epithets flung from
+every side at him and his friend. He had always supposed the masses
+were on Caesar's side, but now every man's hand seemed turned against
+the conqueror of the Gauls. Was there to be but a repetition of the
+same old tragedy of the Gracchi and of Marcus Drusus? A brave man
+standing out for the people, and the people deserting him in his hour
+of need?
+
+They reached the Temple. The Senate was already nearly ready for
+business; every toothless consular who had been in public service for
+perquisites only, and who for years had been wasting his life enjoying
+the pickings of an unfortunate province--all such were in their seats
+on the front row of benches. Behind them were the _praetorii_ and the
+_aedilicii,_[136] a full session of that great body which had matched
+its tireless wisdom and tenacity against Pyrrhus, Hannibal, and
+Antiochus the Great, and been victorious. Drusus ran his eye over the
+seats. There they sat, even in the midst of the general excitement, a
+body of calm, dignified elders, severe and immaculate in their long
+white togas and purple-edged tunics. The multitudes without were
+howling and jeering; within the temple, reigned silence--the silence
+that gathered about the most august and powerful assembly the world
+has ever seen.
+
+  [136] Ex-praetors and ex-aediles.
+
+The Temple was built of cool, grey stone; the assembly hall was quite
+apart from the shrine. The Senate had convened in a spacious
+semicircular vaulted chamber, cut off from the vulgar world by a row
+of close, low Doric columns. From the shade of these pillars one could
+command a sweeping view of the Forum, packed with a turbulent
+multitude. Drusus stood on the Temple steps and looked out and in.
+Without, confusion; within, order; without, a leaderless mob; within,
+an assembly almost every member of which had been invested with some
+high command. For a moment the young man revived courage; after all,
+the Roman Senate was left as a bulwark against passion and popular
+wrath; and for the time being, as he looked on those motionless,
+venerable faces, his confidence in this court of final appeal was
+restored. Then he began to scan the features of the consulars, and his
+heart sank. There was Lucius Calpurnius Piso, with the visage of a
+philosopher, but within mere moral turpitude. There was Favonius;
+there were the two sanguinary Marcelli, consuls respectively for the
+two preceding years; there was Domitius; there was Cato, his hard face
+illumined doubtless by the near realization of unholy hopes; there was
+Faustus Sulla, another bitter oligarch. Drusus saw them all, and knew
+that the Caesarian cause had been doomed without a hearing. Caius
+Marcellus, the new consul, sat in his separate seat, in all the
+splendid dignity of his embroidered toga. Around him stood his twelve
+lictors. But Lentulus, at whose behest the Senate had been convened,
+and who was to act as its president, had not come. Drusus followed
+Antonius over to the farther side of the house, where on a long, low
+bench[137] the other tribunes of the plebs were seated. Quintus
+Cassius was already there. The other tribunes darted angry glances at
+their newly arrived colleague. Drusus remained standing behind
+Antonius, ready to act as a body-guard, as much as to serve in mere
+official capacity. Even as they entered he had noticed a buzz and
+rustle pass along the tiers of seats, and whisper pass on whisper,
+"There come the Caesarians!" "What treason is in that letter!" "We must
+have an end of their impudence!" And Drusus ran his eye over the whole
+company, and sought for one friendly look; but he met with only stony
+glances or dark frowns. There was justice neither in the people nor in
+the Senate. Their hearts were drunk with a sense of revenge and
+self-willed passion; and Justice literally weighed out her bounty with
+blinded eyes.
+
+  [137] _Subsellium_.
+
+There was another hum and rustle. And into the hall swept Lentulus
+Crus, in robes of office, with Scipio, the father-in-law of Pompeius,
+at his side. Before him strode his twelve lictors bearing their fasces
+erect. Not a word was spoken while Lentulus Crus seated himself in the
+ivory curule chair of office. No sign marked the extreme gravity of
+the occasion.
+
+"Let the sacred chickens be brought," said Lentulus.
+
+Never a lip twitched or curled in all that august multitude while
+several public attendants brought in a wooden cage containing three or
+four rather skinny specimens of poultry. Not even Drusus saw anything
+really ridiculous when Lentulus arose, took grain from an attendant,
+and scattered a quantity of it before the coop. Close at his elbow
+stood the augur, to interpret the omen,--a weazened, bald-headed old
+senator, who wore a purple-striped tunic,[138] and carried in his hand
+a long stick,[139] curved at its head into a spiral. Drusus knew
+perfectly well that the fowls had been kept without food all that day;
+but it would have seemed treason to all the traditions of his native
+land to cry out against this pompous farce. The hungry chickens pecked
+up the grain. The augur muttered formula after formula, and Lentulus
+took pains to repeat the meaningless jargon after him. Presently the
+augur ceased his chatter and nodded to the consul. Lentulus turned
+toward the Senate.
+
+  [138] _Trabea_.
+
+  [139] _Lituus_.
+
+"There is no evil sight or sound!"[140] was his announcement, meaning
+that business could be transacted.
+
+  [140] _Silentium esse videtur_.
+
+Whereupon up from his seat sprang Marcus Antonius, flourishing in his
+hand a packet. Loudly Lentulus bade him hold his peace; loudly the
+tribunes who sided with the Senate party forbade him to read. But a
+rustle and stir of eager curiosity ran along all the benches, and
+first one voice, then many, cried out that the letter must be made
+public. With very ill grace the consul declared that Antonius should
+be allowed to read the communication from Caesar.
+
+Antonius read, and all were astonished at the moderation of the
+much-maligned proconsul. Caesar made it clear that he would stand on
+his rights as to the second consulship; but to withdraw possibilities
+of seeming to issue a threat, he would disband his entire army if
+Pompeius would only do the same, or, if preferred, he would retain
+simply Cisalpine Gaul and Illyria with two legions, until the consular
+elections were over. In either event it would be out of his power to
+menace the constitution, and the public tranquillity would remain
+quite undisturbed.
+
+But before the murmur of approbation at this unexpected docility wore
+away, Lentulus burst forth into a fiery invective. All knew why the
+Senate had been convened, nor would he allow a few smooth promises to
+bring the state into danger. The law provided that a proconsul should
+leave his province at a certain time; and if Caesar thought that a
+special law exempted him from this requirement, it were well he were
+disabused of the notion. The Senate had been convened because the
+presiding consul felt that the continuance of Caesar in his
+governorship was a menace to the safety of the Republic. Let the
+Conscript Fathers express themselves boldly, and he, Lentulus, would
+not desert them; let them waver and try to court the favour of Caesar
+as in former times, and the consul would have to look to his own
+safety--and he could make his own terms with Caesar.
+
+Lentulus had started out with studied moderation. His harangue ended
+with a stinging menace. A low mutter, difficult to interpret, ran
+through the Senate. Again Antonius leaped to his feet.
+
+"Conscript Fathers, will you not consider the mild offers of Caesar? Do
+not reject them without debate."
+
+"I ask the opinion of the Senate on my own proposition," broke in
+Lentulus. "Metellus Scipio, declare what is your judgment."
+
+"I protest at this unseemly haste," cried Antonius; "let us consider
+the letter first!"
+
+"And I protest against this boisterous and unlawful interruption,"
+retorted the consul, fiercely. "Rise, Metellus Scipio!"
+
+Antonius flushed with rage, but sank into his seat. Drusus leaned over
+his friend's shoulder and whispered "Veto." Antonius shook his head.
+
+"They must speak. We should be foolish to shoot away our best arrow
+before the battle had really begun."
+
+Scipio arose. He was not the "chief senator,"[141] usually entitled to
+speak first; but everybody knew that his words were the mere
+expressions of his son-in-law, the mighty Pompeius. His oratory and
+physical presence were wretched, but all the Senate hung upon his
+words.
+
+  [141] _Princeps senatus_.
+
+"Pompeius did not intend to abandon the Republic, if the Senate would
+support him; but let them act with energy, for otherwise in the future
+they might need his aid never so much, and yet implore it in vain."
+
+"You want to destroy the Republic!" cried Quintus Cassius, half
+leaping from his seat.
+
+"We want to destroy _you_!" retorted Domitius, savagely.
+
+But all men were not so blinded by fury, hate, and greed of power and
+revenge. To the dismay of his party Caius Marcellus, the second
+consul, counselled a certain kind of moderation. There was no love
+lost by the noble "Optimates" upon Pompeius, and Marcellus hinted this
+plainly when he said that all Italy must be put under arms, and with
+such an army at the disposal of the Senate, it could act as it saw
+fit,--to get rid of a troublesome protector, he implied, no less than
+an open enemy. And close after him followed Marcus Calidius and Marcus
+Rufus, two senators, who had at least the sagacity to perceive that it
+would not free the Commonwealth to crush Caesar, by flinging themselves
+into the arms of Pompeius. "Let Pompeius go off to his Spanish
+province, to which he was accredited proconsul; it was but natural
+Caesar should think himself ill treated, seeing that two legions had
+been taken from him for Eastern service, and Pompeius was keeping
+these very troops close to Rome."
+
+For one moment it seemed to Drusus that wisdom and justice had not
+deserted the Senate of his native state. The consuls were divided; two
+influential men were counselling moderation. Surely the Senate would
+not push to extremities. But he had not reckoned on the spell which
+the malevolent spirit of Lentulus had cast over the assembly. In
+bitter words the presiding consul refused to put Calidius's proposal
+to a vote, and then, turning directly upon his colleague before the
+face of the whole multitude, he poured out reproof and vituperation.
+Marcellus turned red and then black in the face with rage. Drusus's
+heart was beating rapidly with hope. So long as the consuls were at
+enmity, little would be done! Suddenly Scipio started as if to leave
+the assembly. "He's going to call in Pompeius's cohorts!" belched
+Lentulus. Marcellus turned pale. Drusus saw Calidius's friends
+whispering with him, evidently warning and remonstrating. Senators
+cast uneasy glances toward the doorways, as if expecting to see a
+century of legionaries march in to enforce the decrees of Pompeius's
+spokesmen. Marcellus staggered to his feet. He was cowed, and
+evidently felt himself in personal danger.
+
+"Conscript Fathers," he stammered, "I--I withdraw my motion to delay
+action for considering the recall of Caesar."
+
+"You have done well!" shouted Lentulus, triumphing savagely. Scipio
+ostentatiously settled back on his seat, while Cato called with
+warning, yet exultation:--
+
+"Take care what you do. Caesar is the only sober man among all those
+engaged in the plot to overturn the government. Remember with whom you
+must deal, and act!"
+
+Then Scipio arose once more. Every one knew that his fiat was law.
+"Conscript Fathers," he began, "Marcus Cato speaks well. Consider the
+power of Caesar. He has trained up bands of gladiators whom his
+friends, both senators and knights, are drilling for him. He is
+doubling his soldiers' pay, giving them extra corn, slaves,
+attendants, and land grants. A great part of the Senate,--yes, Cicero
+even, they say,--owes him money, at low and favourable rates of
+interest; he has actually made presents to freedmen and influential
+slaves. All young prodigals in debt are in his pay. He has made
+presents to win the favour of cities and princes, or been lending them
+troops without vote of the Senate. In Italy, Gaul, and Spain,--yes, in
+Greece, too, and Asia, he is winning the good-will of communities by
+erecting splendid public buildings. So great is his present power!
+What he will do in a second consulship I dare not say. I dare not
+assign bounds to his ambition. Conscript Fathers, shall we vote
+ourselves freemen or slaves? What more can I add to the words of the
+consul? I vote to ratify the proposition of Lucius Lentulus, that
+Caesar either disband his army on a fixed day, or be declared a public
+enemy!"
+
+"And what is your opinion, Lucius Domitius?" demanded Lentulus, while
+never a voice was raised to oppose Scipio.
+
+"Let the Senate remember," replied Domitius, "that Caesar will justify
+the meaning of his name--the 'hard-hitter,' and let us strike the
+first and telling blow."
+
+A ripple of applause swept down the Senate. The anti-Caesarians had
+completely recovered from their first discomfiture, and were carrying
+all sentiment before them. Already there were cries of "A vote! a
+vote! Divide the Senate! A vote!"
+
+"Conscript Fathers," said Lentulus, "in days of great emergency like
+this, when your minds seem so happily united in favour of doing that
+which is for the manifest safety of the Republic, I will not ask for
+the opinions of each senator in turn. Let the Senate divide; let all
+who favour the recall of the proconsul of the Gauls pass to the right,
+those against to the left. And so may it be well and prosperous for
+the Commonwealth."
+
+But Antonius was again on his feet; and at his side stood Quintus
+Cassius.
+
+"Lucius Lentulus," he thundered, "I forbid the division. _Veto!_"
+
+"_Veto!_" shouted Cassius.
+
+Domitius, too, had risen. "Conscript Fathers, let the consuls
+remonstrate with the tribunes to withdraw their prohibition. And, if
+they do not succeed, let them lay before the Senate that order which
+is the safeguard of the Republic."
+
+Everybody knew what Domitius meant. If Antonius would not give way,
+martial law was to be declared. Hot and furious raged the debate. More
+and more passionate the expressions of party hatred. More and more
+menacing the gestures directed upon the two Caesarian tribunes. But
+even the impetuous fierceness of Lentulus, Cato, Scipio, and Domitius
+combined could not drive the browbeaten Senate to cast loose from its
+last mooring that night. Domitius's measure went over. It was
+late--the stars were shining outside. Lamps had been brought in, and
+threw their ruddy glare over the long tiers of seats and their august
+occupants. Finally the angry debate ended, because it was a physical
+impossibility to continue longer. Senators went away with dark frowns
+or care-knit foreheads. Out in the Forum bands of young "Optimates"
+were shouting for Pompeius, and cursing Caesar and his followers.
+Drusus, following Antonius, felt that he was the adherent of a lost
+cause, the member of a routed army that was defending its last
+stronghold, which overwhelming numbers must take, be the defence never
+so valiant. And when very late he lay down on his bed that night, the
+howls of the fashionable mob were still ringing in his ears.
+
+
+II
+
+That night the most old-fashioned and sober Roman went to bed at an
+advanced hour. Men were gathered in little knots along the streets, in
+the forums, in the porticos and basilicas, arguing, gesticulating,
+wrangling. Military tribunes and centurions in armour of Pompeius's
+legions were parading on the _comitium_.[142] Veterans of that leader
+were jostling about in the crowd, clanking their newly furbished
+armour and shouting for their old general. If a man spoke for Caesar, a
+crowd of bystanders was ready to hoot him down. Staid householders
+locked up their dwellings and stationed trusty slaves at the doors to
+see that the crowds did not take to riot and pillage. The sailors from
+the wharves had been drinking heavily in all the taverns, and now
+roved up and down the crowded streets, seeking opportunity for brawls.
+Thieves and cutpurses were plying their most successful work; but no
+officials had time to direct the efforts of the harassed and slender
+police corps. To Pompeius's palace, without the gates, every man whose
+voice or vote seemed worth the winning had been summoned. All the
+senators had streamed out thither; and there the Magnus had brought
+them under the spell of his martial authority and made them as wax in
+his hand. And all "that majesty that doth hedge about a king," or
+about a victorious general, exerted its full influence. The senators
+came into the palace of Pompeius as into the palace of their despot.
+He stood before them in his largest hall, wearing the embroidered robe
+of a triumphator, with the laurel crown of his victories upon his
+head. At his right hand, as first vizir of his state, stood Lentulus
+Crus; at his left Lucius Domitius. The senators came to him and bowed
+low, and said their "_Aves_" and "_Salves_" as though cringing before
+a Mithridates or Tigranes of the East; and Pompeius, by the cordiality
+or coolness of his response, indicated which of his vassals had or had
+not fallen under his disfavour.
+
+  [142] Assembly-place in the _Forum Romanum_.
+
+Yes, despotism had come at last for Rome. The oligarchy had by its
+corrupt incapacity made a tyranny inevitable. They could make choice
+of masters, but a master they must have. Many were the proud Fabii,
+Claudii, and Valerii present that night--men whose lines of curule
+ancestors were as long as the duration of the Republic--who ground
+their teeth with shame and inward rage the very moment they cried,
+"_Salve, Magne!_" Yet the recipient of all this adulation was in no
+enviable frame of mind. He looked harassed and weary, despite the
+splendour of his dress and crown. And many were the whispered
+conversations that passed between him and his ministers, or rather
+custodians, Lentulus and Domitius.
+
+"Ah! poor Julia," sighed Pompeius, whose mind ever reverted to his
+dead wife, "what misery would have been yours if you had seen this
+day. Poor Julia; how I loved her; and Caesar, her father, loved her
+too; and now--"
+
+"Be yourself, Magnus," expostulated the consul at his side; "remember
+that for the good of the Republic every personal affection is to be
+put away. Recall Brutus, who put his own sons to death because they
+committed treason. Remember what Scipio AEmilianus said when he learned
+that Tiberius Gracchus, his dear brother-in-law, had been put to death
+for sedition. He quoted Homer's line:--
+
+  "'So perish all who do the like again!'"
+
+"And must I trample down every tie, every affection?" complained
+wretched Pompeius, who never ceased hoping against hope that something
+would avert the catastrophe.
+
+"There is no tie, no affection, Magnus," said Domitius, sternly, "that
+binds you to Caesar. Cast his friendship from your breast as you would
+a viper. Think only of being justly hailed with Romulus, Camillus, and
+Marius as the fourth founder of Rome. Strike, and win immortal glory."
+
+And so to the last hour these confederates wrought upon their supple
+instrument, and bent him to their will; and their tool in turn had all
+else at his mercy. Pompeius addressed the senators, and, well trained
+by his guardians, spoke with brutal frankness to those who had dared
+to advise moderation.
+
+"You, Rufus," he said, pointing a menacing finger, before which that
+senator cowered in dread, "have been advising the Republic to tolerate
+the chief of its enemies. You bid me to disarm or withdraw from Italy,
+as though the lives and property of any good men would be safe the
+moment Caesar was left unopposed to pour his cohorts of barbarous Gauls
+and Germans into the country. You, Calidius, have given the same
+untimely advice. Beware lest you repent the hour when you counselled
+that I should disarm or quit the neighbourhood of Rome." The two-edged
+suggestion contained in this last warning was too marked for the
+reproved men not to turn pale with dread, and slink away trembling
+behind their associates.
+
+"But," continued Pompeius, "I have praise as well as blame; Marcus
+Cato has not deserted the Republic. He has advised, and advised well,
+that the proconsul of the Gauls be stripped of his legions." It was
+Cato's turn now to bite his lips with mortification, for in times past
+he had foretold that through Pompeius great miseries would come to the
+state, and in his praetorship had declared that Pompeius ought to go to
+his province, and not stay at home to stir up tumults and anarchy from
+which he could emerge as monarch. And such praise from the Magnus's
+lips, under the present circumstances, was gall and wormwood to his
+haughty soul.
+
+"And," continued Pompeius, "I shall not forget to applaud the
+energetic counsels of Domitius and Lentulus Crus. Let those who wish
+to preserve life and property," he added, with a menacing
+significance, "see to it that they do as these gentlemen advise."
+
+And thereupon there was a great shout of applause from all the more
+rabid senators, in which the rest thought it safer to join, with
+simulated heartiness. But Pompeius did not stop here. He brought
+before the senators tribunes from the two legions taken from Caesar,
+and these tribunes loudly declaimed--having learned their lesson
+well--that their troops were ill-affected toward their former
+commander, and would follow Pompeius to the last. And the Magnus
+produced veteran officers of his old campaigns, whom hope of reward
+and promotion had induced to come and declare for their former
+commander. Late, very late, the informal session of the Senate broke
+up. The "Fathers of the Republic" went each man to his own dwelling;
+but there was no longer any doubt as to what was to come of the doings
+of the day.
+
+Flaccus, the banker, had of course no access to the conference; but he
+had waited outside the gate of the palace, to learn the issue from an
+acquaintance in the Senate. His patience was at last rewarded.
+
+"Tell me, friend," was his question, "what will be the outcome of
+this; shall I risk any loans to-morrow?"
+
+The friendly senator seemed doubtful.
+
+"Caesar is a ruined man. Who imagines his legions will fight? We know
+Labienus is with Pompeius."
+
+"You are wrong," said Flaccus.
+
+"Wrong? I?" replied the senator. "I know whereof I speak."
+
+"_Phy!"_ cried the banker, "not Caesar, but you are ruined. The legions
+will fight."
+
+"Don't prophesy," sneered the acquaintance, "seeing that you brokers
+always keep out of politics."
+
+"You politicians are blind," retorted Flaccus.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The debate raged on. But by law the Senate could not convene on the
+third and fourth of the month, and the question of setting aside the
+tribunician veto went over until the fifth. It was the last lull
+before the outbreak of the great tempest. The little group of
+Caesarians put forth their final efforts. Drusus went in person to call
+on Cicero, the great orator, and plead with him to come out from his
+residence in the suburbs and argue for peace. The destroyer of
+Catilina had declared that he would not forfeit his rights to a
+triumph for his Cilician victories by appearing prematurely in the
+Senate. Besides, he could never antagonize Pompeius. Curio smiled
+grimly when his colleague reported his fruitless embassy.
+
+"I think, my friends," said the politician, "we shall soon prove the
+old saying, 'Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.'"
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XV
+
+The Seventh of January
+
+
+I
+
+The rapid march of events that week had taken Drusus out of himself,
+and made him forgetful of personal consequences; but it sobered him
+when he heard Curio and Caelius, his associates, telling Balbus where
+their wills would be found deposited if anything calamitous were to
+befall them. After all, life was very sweet to the young Livian. He
+could not at heart desire to drift off into nothingness--to stop
+breathing, thinking, feeling. And for the last time he reviewed his
+position; told himself that it was not an unworthy cause for which he
+was contending; that it was not treason, but patriotism, to wish to
+overthrow the great oligarchy of noble families, who by their
+federated influence had pulled the wires to every electoral assembly,
+so that hardly a man not of their own coterie had been elected to high
+office for many a long year; while the officials themselves had grown
+full and wanton on the revenues wrung from the score of unfortunate
+provinces.
+
+The feeling against the Caesarians was very bitter in the city. Caesar
+had always been the friend and darling of the populace; but, now that
+his star seemed setting, hardly a voice was raised, save to cry up the
+patriotism and determination of the consuls and Pompeius Magnus.
+Soldiers of the latter's legions were everywhere. The Senate was to
+convene the afternoon of the seventh, in the Curia of Pompeius, in the
+Campus Martius. Lentulus Crus was dragging forth every obscure
+senator, every retired politician, whose feet almost touched the
+grave, to swell his majority. All knew that the tribunes' vetoes were
+to be set aside, and arbitrary power decreed to the consuls. Drusus
+began to realize that the personal peril was pressing.
+
+"Won't his head look pretty for the crows to pick at?" commented
+Marcus Laeca to a friend, as the two swept past Drusus on the street.
+The Livian heard the loudly muttered words and trembled. It was easy
+to laud the Decii who calmly sacrificed their lives for the Republic,
+and many another martyr to patriotism; it was quite another thing to
+feel the mortal fear of death coursing in one's veins, to reflect that
+soon perhaps the dogs might be tearing this body which guarded that
+strange thing one calls self; to reflect that all which soon will be
+left of one is a bleaching skull, fixed high in some public place, at
+which the heartless mob would point and gibber, saying, "That is the
+head of Quintus Livius Drusus, the rebel!"
+
+Drusus wandered on--on to the only place in Rome where he could gain
+the moral courage to carry him undaunted through that which was before
+him--to the Atrium of Vesta. He entered the house of the Vestals and
+sent for his aunt. Fabia came quickly enough, for her heart had been
+with her nephew all these days that tried men's souls. The noble woman
+put her arms around the youth--for he was still hardly more--and
+pressed him to her breast.
+
+"Aunt Fabia," said Drusus, growing very weak and pale, now that he
+felt her warm, loving caress, "do you know that in two or three days
+you will have as nephew a proscribed insurgent, perhaps with a price
+on his head, who perhaps is speedily to die by the executioner, like
+the most ignoble felon?"
+
+"Yes," said Fabia, also very pale, yet smiling with a sweet, grave
+smile--the smile of a goddess who grieves at the miseries of mortal
+men, yet with divine omniscience glances beyond, and sees the
+happiness evolved from pain. "Yes, I have heard of all that is passing
+in the Senate. And I know, too, that my Quintus will prove himself a
+Fabian and a Livian, to whom the right cause and the good of the
+Republic are all--and the fear of shame and death is nothing." And
+then she sat down with him upon a couch, and took his head in her lap,
+and stroked him as if she were his mother. "Ah! my Quintus," she said,
+"you are still very young, and it is easy for one like you to enlist
+with all your ardour in a cause that seems righteous; yes, and in the
+heat of the moment to make any sacrifice for it; but it is not so easy
+for you or any other man calmly to face shame and annihilation, when
+the actual shadow of danger can be seen creeping up hour by hour. I
+know that neither you nor many another man wise and good believes that
+there are any gods. And I--I am only a silly old woman, with little or
+no wisdom and wit--"
+
+"Not silly and not old, carissima!" interrupted Drusus, smiling at her
+self-depreciation.
+
+"We won't argue," said Fabia, in a bit lighter vein. "But--as I would
+say--I believe in gods, and that they order all things well."
+
+"Why, then," protested the young man, "do we suffer wrong or grief? If
+gods there are, they are indifferent; or, far worse, malevolent, who
+love to work us woe."
+
+Again Fabia shook her head.
+
+"If we were gods," said she, "we would all be wise, and could see the
+good to come out of every seeming evil. There! I am, as I said, silly
+and old, and little enough comfort can words of mine bring a bright
+young man whose head is crammed with all the learned lore of the
+schools of Athens. But know this, Quintus, so long as I live, you
+shall live in my heart--living or dead though you be. And believe me,
+the pleasure of life is but a very little thing; it is sweet, but how
+quickly it passes! And the curses or praises of men--these, too, only
+a few mouldy rolls of books keep for decay! What profits it to
+Miltiades this hour, that a few marks on a papyrus sheet ascribe to
+him renown; or how much is the joy of Sextus Tarquinius darkened
+because a group of other marks cast reproach upon his name? If so be
+death is a sleep, how much better to feel at the end, 'I die, but I
+die self-approved, and justified by self!' And if death is not all a
+sleep; if, as Socrates tells us, there are hopes that we but pass from
+a base life to another with less of dross, then how do pleasures and
+glories, griefs and dishonours, of this present life touch upon a man
+whose happiness or woe will be found all within?"
+
+And so the good woman talked, giving to Drusus her own pure faith and
+hope and courage; and when the intellectual philosopher within him
+revolted at some of her simple premises and guileless sophistries,
+against his will he was persuaded by them, and was fain to own to
+himself that the heart of a good woman is past finding out; that its
+impulses are more genuine, its intuitions truer, its promptings surer,
+than all the fine-spun intellectuality of the most subtle
+metaphysician. When at last Drusus rose to leave his aunt, his face
+was glowing with a healthy colour, his step was elastic, his voice
+resonant with a noble courage. Fabia embraced him again and again.
+"Remember, whatever befalls," were her parting words, "I shall still
+love you." And when Drusus went out of the house he saw the dignified
+figure of the Vestal gazing after him. A few minutes later he passed
+no less a personage than the consular Lucius Domitius on his way to
+some political conference. He did not know what that dignitary
+muttered as he swept past in spotless toga, but the gloomy ferocity of
+his brow needed no interpreter. Drusus, however, never for a moment
+gave himself disquietude. He was fortified for the best and the worst,
+not by any dumb resignation, not by any cant of philosophy, but by an
+inward monitor which told him that some power in some way would lead
+him forth out of all dangers in a manner whereof man could neither ask
+nor think.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the sixth of January the debate, as already said, drew toward its
+end. All measures of conciliation had been voted down; the crisis was
+close at hand. On the seventh, after his interview with Fabia, Drusus
+went back to his own lodgings, made a few revisions in his will, and
+in the presence of two or three friends declared Cappadox
+manumitted,[143] lest he, by some chance, fall into the clutches of a
+brutal master. The young man next wrote a long letter to Cornelia for
+Agias to forward to Baiae, and put in it such hope as he could glean
+from the dark words of the philosophers; that even if destruction now
+overtook him, death perhaps did not end all; that perhaps they would
+meet beyond the grave. Then he took leave of his weeping freedmen and
+slaves, and strolled out into the city, and wandered about the Forum
+and the Sacred Way, to enjoy, perchance, a last view of the sites that
+were to the Roman so dear. Then finally he turned toward the Campus
+Martius, and was strolling down under the long marble-paved colonnade
+of the Portico of Pompeius. Lost in a deep reverie, he was forgetful
+of all present events, until he was roused by a quick twitch at the
+elbow; he looked around and found Agias before him.
+
+  [143] _Manumissio inter amicos_ was less formal than the regular
+  ceremony before the praetor.
+
+"_A!_ domine," cried the young Greek, "I have friends in the house of
+Lentulus. I have just been told by them that the consul has sworn that
+he will begin to play Sulla this very day. Neither you, nor Antonius,
+Cassius, Curio, nor the other supporters of Caesar will be alive
+to-night. Do not go into the Curia. Get away, quickly! Warn your
+friends, and leave Rome, or to-night you will all be strangled in the
+Tullianum!"
+
+The Tullianum! Drusus knew no other term to conjure up a like abode of
+horrors--the ancient prison of the city, a mere chamber sunk in the
+ground, and beneath that a dungeon, accessible only by an opening in
+the floor above--where the luckless Jugurtha had perished of cold and
+starvation, and where Lentulus Sura, Cethegus, and the other
+lieutenants of Catilina had been garroted, in defiance of all their
+legal rights, by the arbitrary decree of a rancorous Senate! So at
+last the danger had come! Drusus felt himself quiver at every fibre.
+He endured a sensation the like of which he had never felt before--one
+of utter moral faintness. But he steadied himself quickly. Shame at
+his own recurring cowardice overmastered him. "I am an unworthy
+Livian, indeed," he muttered, not perhaps realizing that it is far
+more heroic consciously to confront and receive the full terrors of a
+peril, and put them by, than to have them harmlessly roll off on some
+self-acting mental armour.
+
+"Escape! There is yet time!" urged Agias, pulling his toga. Drusus
+shook his head.
+
+"Not until the Senate has set aside the veto of the tribunes," he
+replied quietly.
+
+"But the danger will then be imminent!"
+
+"A good soldier does not leave his post, my excellent Agias," said the
+Roman, "until duty orders him away. Our duty is in the Senate until we
+can by our presence and voice do no more. When that task is over, we
+go to Caesar as fast as horse may bear us; but not until then."
+
+"Then I have warned you all in vain!" cried Agias.
+
+"Not at all. You may still be of the greatest service. Arrange so that
+we can leave Rome the instant we quit the Curia."
+
+"But if the lictors seize you before you get out of the building?"
+
+"We can only take our chance. I think we shall be permitted to go out.
+I had intended to ride out of the city this evening if nothing
+hindered and the final vote had been passed. But now I see that cannot
+be done. You have wit and cunning, Agias. Scheme, provide. We must
+escape from Rome at the earliest moment consistent with our duty and
+honour."
+
+"I have it," said Agias, his face lighting up. "Come at once after
+leaving the Curia, to the rear of the Temple of Mars.[144] I know one
+or two of the temple servants, and they will give me the use of their
+rooms. There I will have ready some slave dresses for a disguise, and
+just across the AEmilian bridge I will have some fast horses
+waiting--that is, if you can give me an order on your stables."
+
+  [144] The AEdes Martis of the Campus Martius.
+
+Drusus took off his signet ring.
+
+"Show that to Pausanias. He will honour every request you make, be it
+for a million sesterces."
+
+Agias bowed and was off. For the last time Drusus was tempted to call
+him back and say that the flight would begin at once. But the nimble
+Greek was already out of sight, and heroism became a necessity. Drusus
+resolutely turned his steps toward the senate-house. Not having been
+able to forecast the immediate moves of the enemy, he had not arranged
+for hurried flight; it was to be regretted, although he had known that
+on that day the end of the crisis would come. He soon met Antonius,
+and imparted to him what he had just learned from Agias, and the
+precautions taken.
+
+Antonius shook his head, and remarked:--
+
+"You ought not to go with me. Little enough can we who are tribunes
+do; you have neither voice nor vote, and Lentulus is your personal
+foe. So back, before it is too late. Let us shift for ourselves."
+
+Drusus replied never a word, but simply took the tribune's arm and
+walked the faster toward the Curia.
+
+"I am a very young soldier," he said presently; "do not be angry if I
+wish to show that I am not afraid of the whizzing arrows."
+
+"Then, my friend, whatever befalls, so long as life is in my body,
+remember you have a brother in Marcus Antonius."
+
+The two friends pressed one another's hands, and entered the Curia
+Pompeii. There in one of the foremost seats sat the Magnus,[145] the
+centre of a great flock of adulators, who were basking in the sunshine
+of his favour. Yet Drusus, as he glanced over at the Imperator,
+thought that the great man looked harassed and worried--forced to be
+partner in a scheme when he would cheerfully be absent. Fluttering in
+their broad togas about the senate-house were Domitius, Cato, the
+Marcelli, and Scipio, busy whipping into line the few remaining
+waverers. As Cato passed the tribune's bench, and saw the handful of
+Caesarians gathered there, he cast a glance of indescribable malignity
+upon them, a glance that made Drusus shudder, and think again of the
+horrors of the Tullianum.
+
+  [145] Pompeius was not allowed by law to attend sessions of the Senate
+  (so long as he was proconsul of Spain) when held inside the old city
+  limits; but the Curia which he himself built was outside the walls in
+  the Campus Martius. This meeting seems to have been convened there
+  especially that he might attend it.
+
+"I know now how Cato looked," said he to Antonius, "when he denounced
+the Catilinarians and urged that they should be put to death without
+trial."
+
+Antonius shrugged his shoulders, and replied:--
+
+"Cato cannot forgive Caesar. When Caesar was consul, Cato interrupted
+his speech, and Caesar had him haled off to prison. Marcus Cato never
+forgives or forgets."
+
+Curio, Caelius, and Quintus Cassius had entered the senate-house--the
+only Caesarians present besides Antonius and his viator. The first two
+went and took their seats in the body of the building, and Drusus
+noticed how their colleagues shrank away from them, refusing to sit
+near the supporters of the Gallic proconsul.
+
+"_Eho!_" remarked Antonius, his spirits rising as the crisis drew on.
+"This is much like Catilina's days, to be sure! No one would sit with
+him when he went into the Senate. However, I imagine that these
+excellent gentlemen will hardly find Caesar as easy to handle as
+Catilina."
+
+Again Lentulus was in his curule chair, and again the solemn farce of
+taking the auspices, preparatory to commencing the session, was gone
+through.
+
+Then for the last time in that memorable series of debates Lentulus
+arose and addressed the Senate, storming, browbeating, threatening,
+and finally ending with these words, that brought everything to a
+head:--
+
+"Seeing then, Conscript Fathers, that Quintus Cassius and Marcus
+Antonius are using their tribunician office to aid Caius Caesar to
+perpetuate his tyranny, the consuls ask you to clothe the magistrates
+with dictatorial power in order that the liberties of the Republic may
+not be subverted!"
+
+The liberties of the Republic! Liberty to plunder provinces! To bribe!
+To rob the treasury! To defraud! To violate the law of man and God! To
+rule the whole world so that a corrupt oligarchy might be aggrandized!
+Far, far had the nation of the older Claudii, Fabii, and Cornelii
+fallen from that proud eminence when, a hundred years before,
+Polybius, contrasting the Romans with the degenerate Greeks, had
+exclaimed, "A statesman of Hellas, with ten checking clerks and ten
+seals, ... cannot keep faith with a single talent; Romans, in their
+magistracies and embassies, handle great sums of money, and yet from
+pure respect of oath keep their faith intact."
+
+But the words of selfish virulence and cant had been uttered, and up
+from the body of the house swelled a shout of approval, growing louder
+and louder every instant.
+
+Then up rose Domitius, on his face the leer of a brutal triumph.
+
+"Conscript Fathers," he said, "I call for a vote on the question of
+martial law. Have the Senate divide on the motion. 'Let the consuls,
+praetors, tribunes of the plebs, and men of consular rank see to it
+that the Republic suffers no harm.'"
+
+Another shout of applause rolled along the seats, fiercer and fiercer,
+and through it all a shower of curses and abusive epithets upon the
+Caesarians. All around Drusus seemed to be tossing and bellowing the
+breakers of some vast ocean, an ocean of human forms and faces, that
+was about to dash upon him and overwhelm him, in mad fury
+irresistible. The din was louder and louder. The bronze casings on the
+walls rattled, the pediments and pavements seemed to vibrate; outside,
+the vast mob swarming around the Curia reëchoed the shout. "Down with
+Caesar!" "Down with the tribunes!" "_Io!_ Pompeius!"
+
+It was all as some wild distorted dream passing before Drusus's eyes.
+He could not bring himself to conceive the scene as otherwise. In a
+sort of stupor he saw the senators swarming to the right of the
+building, hastening to cast their votes in favour of Domitius's
+motion. Only two men--under a storm of abuse and hootings, passed to
+the left and went on record against the measure. These were Curio and
+Caelius; and they stood for some moments alone on the deserted side of
+the house, defiantly glaring at the raging Senate. Antonius and
+Cassius contemptuously remained in their seats--for no magistrate
+could vote in the Senate.
+
+It was done; it could not be undone. Not Caesar, but the Senate, had
+decreed the end of the glorious Republic. Already, with hasty
+ostentation, some senators were stepping outside the Curia, and
+returning clad no longer in the toga of peace, but in a military
+cloak[146] which a slave had been keeping close at hand in readiness.
+Already Cato was on his feet glaring at the Caesarian tribunes, and
+demanding that first of all they be subjected to punishment for
+persisting in their veto. The Senate was getting more boisterous each
+minute. A tumult was like to break out, in which some deed of violence
+would be committed, which would give the key-note to the whole
+sanguinary struggle impending. Yet in the face of the raging tempest
+Marcus Antonius arose and confronted the assembly. It raged, hooted,
+howled, cursed. He still remained standing. Cato tried to continue his
+invective. The tempest that he had done so much to raise drowned his
+own voice, and he relapsed into his seat. But still Antonius stood his
+ground, quietly, with no attempt to shout down the raging Senate, as
+steadfastly as though a thousand threats were not buzzing around his
+ears. Drusus's heart went with his friend that instant. He had never
+been in a battle, yet he realized that it was vastly more heroic to
+stand undaunted before this audience, than to walk into the bloodiest
+melee without a tremor.
+
+  [146] _Sagum_.
+
+Then of a sudden, like the interval between the recession of one wave
+and the advance of a second billow, came a moment of silence; and into
+that silence Antonius broke, with a voice so strong, so piercing, so
+resonant, that the most envenomed oligarch checked his clamour to give
+ear.
+
+"Hearken, ye senators of the Republic, ye false _patres_, ye fathers
+of the people who are no fathers! So far have we waited; we wait no
+more! So much have we seen; we'll see no further! So much have we
+endured,--reproaches, repulses, deceits, insult, outrage, yes, for I
+see it in the consul's eye, next do we suffer violence itself; but
+that we will not tamely suffer. Ay! drive us from our seats, as Marcus
+Cato bids you! Ay! strike our names from the Senate list, as Domitius
+will propose! Ay! hound your lictors, sir consul, after us, to lay
+their rods across our backs! Ay! enforce your decree proclaiming
+martial law! So have you acted before to give legal fiction to your
+tyranny! But tell me this, senators, praetorii, consulars, and consuls,
+where will this mad violence of yours find end? Tiberius Gracchus you
+have murdered. Caius Gracchus you have murdered. Marcus Drusus you
+have murdered. Ten thousand good men has your creature Sulla murdered.
+Without trial, without defence, were the friends of Catilina murdered.
+And now will ye add one more deed of blood to those going before? Will
+ye strike down an inviolate tribune, in Rome,--in the shadow of the
+very Curia? Ah! days of the Decemvirs, when an evil Ten ruled over the
+state--would that those days might return! Not ten tyrants but a
+thousand oppress us now! Then despotism wore no cloak of patriotism or
+legal right, but walked unmasked in all its blackness!
+
+"Hearken, ye senators, and in the evil days to come, remember all I
+say. Out of the seed which ye sow this hour come wars, civil wars;
+Roman against Roman, kinsman against kinsman, brother against brother!
+There comes impiety, violence, cruelty, bloodshed, anarchy! There
+comes the destruction of the old; there comes the birth, amid pain and
+anguish, of the new! Ye who grasp at money, at power, at high office;
+who trample on truth and right to serve your selfish ends; false,
+degenerate Romans,--one thing can wipe away your crimes--"
+
+"What?" shouted Cato, across the senate-house; while Pompeius, who was
+shifting uncomfortably in his seat, had turned very red.
+
+"Blood!" cried back Antonius, carried away by the frenzy of his own
+invective; then, shooting a lightning glance over the awe-struck
+Senate, he spoke as though gifted with some terrible prophetic
+omniscience. "Pompeius Magnus, the day of your prosperity is
+past--prepare ingloriously to die! Lentulus Crus, you, too, shall pay
+the forfeit of your crimes! Metellus Scipio, Marcus Cato, Lucius
+Domitius, within five years shall you all be dead--dead and with
+infamy upon your names! Your blood, your blood shall wipe away your
+folly and your lust for power. Ye stay, we go. Ye stay to pass once
+more unvetoed the decree declaring Caesar and his friends enemies of
+the Republic; we go--go to endure our outlaw state. But we go to
+appeal from the unjust scales of your false Justice to the juster
+sword of an impartial Mars, and may the Furies that haunt the lives of
+tyrants and shedders of innocent blood attend you--attend your persons
+so long as ye are doomed to live, and your memory so long as men shall
+have power to heap on your names reproach!"
+
+Drusus hardly knew that Antonius had so much as stopped, when he found
+his friend leading him out of the Curia.
+
+Behind, all was still as they walked away toward the Temple of Mars.
+Then, as they proceeded a little distance, a great roar as of a
+distant storm-wind drifted out from the senate-house--so long had
+Antonius held his audience spellbound.
+
+"_Finitum est!_" said Curio, his eyes cast on the ground. "We have
+seen, my friends, the last day of the Republic."
+
+
+II
+
+Behind the Temple of Mars the faithful Agias was ready with the
+slaves' dresses which were to serve as a simple disguise. Antonius and
+his companions tossed off their cumbrous togas and put on the dark,
+coarse cloaks and slippers which were worn by slaves and people of the
+lower classes. These changes were quickly made, but valuable time was
+wasted while Antonius--who, as a bit of a dandy, wore his hair rather
+long[147]--underwent a few touches with the shears. It was now
+necessary to get across the Tiber without being recognized, and once
+fairly out of Rome the chances of a successful pursuit were not many.
+On leaving the friendly shelter of the Temple buildings, nothing
+untoward was to be seen. The crowds rushing to and fro, from the Curia
+and back, were too busy and excited to pay attention to a little group
+of slaves, who carefully kept from intruding themselves into notice.
+Occasionally the roar and echo of applause and shouting came from the
+now distant Curia, indicating that the Senate was still at its unholy
+work of voting wars and destructions. A short walk would bring them
+across the Pons AEmilius, and there, in the shelter of one of the
+groves of the new public gardens which Caesar had just been laying out
+on Janiculum, were waiting several of the fastest mounts which the
+activity of Agias and the lavish expenditures of Pausanias had been
+able to procure.
+
+  [147] Slaves were always close clipped.
+
+The friends breathed more easily.
+
+"I hardly think," said Quintus Cassius, "we shall be molested. The
+consuls cannot carry their mad hate so far."
+
+They were close to the bridge. The way was lined with tall warehouses
+and grain storehouses,[148] the precursors of the modern "elevators."
+They could see the tawny Tiber water flashing between the stone arches
+of the bridge. The swarms of peasants and countrymen driving herds of
+lowing kine and bleating sheep toward the adjacent Forum Boarium
+seemed unsuspicious and inoffensive. A moment more and all Drusus's
+tremors and anxieties would have passed as harmless fantasy.
+
+  [148] _Horreae_.
+
+Their feet were on the bridge. They could notice the wind sweeping
+through the tall cypresses in the gardens where waited the steeds that
+were to take them to safety. The friends quickened their pace. A cloud
+had drifted across the sun; there was a moment's gloom. When the light
+danced back, Drusus caught Curio's arm with a start.
+
+"Look!" The new sunbeams had glanced on the polished helmet of a
+soldier standing guard at the farther end of the bridge.
+
+There was only an instant for hesitation.
+
+"Lentulus has foreseen that we must try to escape by this way," said
+Curio, seriously, but without panic. "We must go back at once, and try
+to cross by the wooden bridge below or by some other means."
+
+But a great herd of dirty silver-grey Etruscan cattle came over the
+causeway, and to get ahead of them would have been impracticable
+without attracting the most unusual attention. It was now evident
+enough that there was a considerable guard at the head of the bridge,
+and to make a rush and overpower it was impossible. The heavy-uddered
+cows and snorting, bellowing bulls dragged by with a slow plodding
+that almost drove Drusus frantic. They were over at last, and the
+friends hastened after them, far more anxious to leave the bridge than
+they had been an instant before to set foot upon it. On they pressed,
+until as if by magic there stood across their path the twelve lictors
+of one of the consuls, with upraised fasces. Behind the lictors was a
+half-century of soldiers in full armour led by their _optio_.[149]
+
+  [149] Adjutant, subordinate to a centurion.
+
+"Sirs," announced the head lictor, "I am commanded by the consul,
+Lucius Lentulus Crus, to put you all under arrest for treason against
+the Republic. Spare yourselves the indignity of personal violence, by
+offering no resistance."
+
+To resist would indeed have been suicide. The friends had worn their
+short swords under their cloaks, but counting Agias they were only
+six, and the lictors were twelve, to say nothing of the soldiers, of
+whom there were thirty or more.
+
+The ground seemed swaying before Drusus's eyes; in his ears was a
+buzzing; his thoughts came to him, thick, confused, yet through them
+all ran the vision of Cornelia, and the conviction that he was never
+to see her again. He looked back. The soldiers at the head of the
+bridge had taken alarm and were marching down to complete the arrest.
+He looked before. The lictors, the troops, the stupid cattle and their
+stolid drivers, and the great black-sided warehouses, casting their
+gloomy shadow over the rippling river. Down stream; not a skiff seemed
+stirring. The water was plashing, dancing, glancing in the sunshine.
+Below the wooden bridge the spars of a huge merchantman were just
+covering with canvas, as she stood away from her quay. Up stream (the
+views were all compressed into the veriest moment)--with the current
+came working, or rather drifting, a heavy barge loaded with timber.
+Only two men, handling rude paddles, stood upon her deck. The barge
+was about to pass under the very arch upon which stood the handful of
+entrapped Caesarians. A word, a motion, and the last hope of escape
+would have been comprehended by the enemy, and all would have been
+lost. But in moments of extreme peril it is easy to make a glance full
+of pregnancy. Antonius saw the face of his friend--saw and understood;
+and the other seemingly doomed men understood likewise. In an instant
+the barge would pass under the bridge!
+
+"Fellow," replied Antonius (the whole inspection of the situation,
+formation of the plot, and visual dialogue had really been so rapid as
+to make no long break after the lictor ceased speaking), "do you dare
+thus to do what even the most profane and impious have never dared
+before? Will you lay hands on two inviolate tribunes of the plebs, and
+those under their personal protection; and by your very act become a
+_sacer_--an outlaw devoted to the gods, whom it is a pious thing for
+any man to slay?"
+
+"I have my orders, sir," replied the head lictor, menacingly. "And I
+would have you know that neither you nor Quintus Cassius are reckoned
+tribunes longer by the Senate; so by no such plea can you escape
+arrest."
+
+"Tribunes no longer!" cried Antonius; "has tyranny progressed so far
+that no magistrate can hold office after he ceases to humour the
+consuls?"
+
+"We waste time, sir," said the lictor, sternly. "Forward, men; seize
+and bind them!"
+
+But Antonius's brief parley had done its work. As the bow of the barge
+shot under the bridge, Curio, with a single bound over the parapet,
+sprang on to its deck; after him leaped Quintus Cassius, and after him
+Caelius. Before Drusus could follow, however, the stern of the barge
+had vanished under the archway. The lictors and soldiers had sprung
+forward, but a second had been lost by rushing to the eastern side of
+the bridge, where the barge had just disappeared from sight. Agias,
+Antonius, and Drusus were already standing on the western parapet. The
+lictors and soldiers were on them in an instant. The blow of one of
+the fasces smote down Antonius, but he fell directly into the vessel
+beneath--stunned but safe. A soldier caught Agias by the leg to drag
+him down. Drusus smote the man under the ear so that he fell without a
+groan; but Agias himself had been thrown from the parapet on to the
+bridge; the soldiers were thronging around. Drusus saw the naked steel
+of their swords flashing before his eyes; he knew that the barge was
+slipping away in the current. It was a time of seconds, but of seconds
+expanded for him into eternities. With one arm he dashed back a
+lictor, with the other cast Agias--he never knew whence came that
+strength which enabled him to do the feat--over the stonework, and
+into the arms of Curio in the receding boat. Then he himself leaped. A
+rude hand caught his cloak. It was torn from his back. A sword whisked
+past his head--he never learned how closely. He was in the air, saw
+that the barge was getting away, and next he was chilled by a sudden
+dash of water and Caelius was dragging him aboard; he had landed under
+the very stern of the barge. Struggling in the water, weighed down by
+their armour, were several soldiers who had leaped after him and had
+missed their distance completely.
+
+The young man clambered on to the rude vessel. Its crew (two simple,
+harmless peasants) were cowering among the lumber. Curio had seized
+one of the paddles and was guiding the craft out into the middle of
+the current; for the soldiers were already running along the wharves
+and preparing to fling their darts. The other men, who had just been
+plucked out of the jaws of destruction, were all engaged in collecting
+their more or less scattered wits and trying to discover the next turn
+of calamity in store. Antonius--who, despite his fall, had come down
+upon a coil of rope and so escaped broken bones and serious
+bruises--was the first to sense the great peril of even their present
+situation.
+
+"In a few moments," he remarked, casting a glance down the river, "we
+shall be under the Pons Sublicius, and we shall either be easily
+stopped and taken, or crushed with darts as we pass by. You see they
+are already signalling from the upper bridge to their guard at the
+lower. We shall drift down into their hands, and gain nothing by our
+first escape."
+
+"Anchor," suggested Cassius, who was an impulsive and rather
+inconsiderate man. And he prepared to pitch overboard the heavy
+mooring-stone.
+
+"_Phui!_ You sheep," cried Curio, contemptuously, mincing no words at
+that dread moment. "How long will it be before there will be ten
+boatloads of soldiers alongside? Can we beat off all Pompeius's
+legions?"
+
+Antonius caught up another paddle and passed it through a rower's
+thong.
+
+"Friends," he said, with that ready command which his military life
+had given him, "these soldiers are in armour and can run none too
+swiftly. Once show them the back, and they must throw away their arms
+or give over the chase. It is madness to drift down upon the lower
+bridge. We must turn across the river, risk the darts, and try to land
+on the farther bank. Take oars!"
+
+There was but one remaining paddle. Drusus seized it and pushed
+against the water with so much force that the tough wood bent and
+creaked, but did not snap. The unwieldy barge sluggishly answered this
+powerful pressure, and under the stroke of the three oars began to
+head diagonally across the current and move slowly toward the farther
+shore. The soldiers did not at once perceive the intent of this move.
+By their actions they showed that they had expected the barge to try
+to slip through the Pons Sublicius, and so escape down the river. They
+had run some little way along the south bank of the Tiber, to
+reenforce their comrades at the lower bridge, when they saw the new
+course taken by their expected prey. Much valuable time had thus been
+gained by the pursued, time which they needed sadly enough, for,
+despite their frantic rowing, their unwieldy craft would barely crawl
+across the current.
+
+Long before the barge was within landing distance of the northern
+bank, the soldiers who had been on guard at the head of the Pons
+AEmilius had regained their former station, and were running along the
+shore to cut off any attempt there to escape. Soon a whizzing javelin
+dug into the plank at Drusus's feet, and a second rushed over Caelius's
+head, and plashed into the water beyond the barge. Other soldiers on
+the now receding southern bank were piling into a light skiff to
+second their comrades' efforts by a direct attack on the fugitives.
+
+A third dart grazed Antonius's hair and buried its head in the pile of
+lumber. The tribune handed his oar to Caelius, and, deliberately
+wresting the weapon from the timber, flung it back with so deadly an
+aim that one pursuing legionary went down, pierced through the
+breastplate. The others recoiled for an instant, and no more javelins
+were thrown, which was some slight gain for the pursued.
+
+It seemed, however, that the contest could have only a single ending.
+The soldiers were running parallel and apace with the barge, which was
+now as close to the northern bank as was safe in view of the missiles.
+The Pons Sublicius was getting minute by minute nearer, and upon it
+could be seen a considerable body of troops ready with darts and
+grapnels to cut off the last hope of escape.
+
+But Antonius never withdrew his eye from the line of dark
+weatherbeaten warehouses that stretched down to the river's edge on
+the north bank just above the Pons Sublicius.
+
+"Row," he exhorted his companions, "row! as life is dear! Row as never
+before!"
+
+And under the combined impulse of the three desperate men, even the
+heavy barge leaped forward and a little eddy of foaming waves began to
+trail behind her stern. Drusus had no time to ask of himself or
+Antonius the special object of this last burst of speed. He only knew
+that he was flinging every pound of strength into the heavy handle of
+his oar, and that his life depended on making the broad blade push
+back the water as rapidly as possible. Antonius, however, had had good
+cause for his command. A searching scrutiny had revealed to him that a
+single very long warehouse ran clear down to the river's edge, and so
+made it impossible to continue running along the bank. A pursuer must
+double around the whole length of the building before continuing the
+chase of the barge. And for a small quay just beyond this warehouse
+Antonius headed his clumsy vessel. The soldiers continued their chase
+up to the very walls of the warehouse, where they, of a sudden, found
+themselves stopped by an impenetrable barrier. They lost an instant of
+valuable time in trying to wade along the bank, where the channel
+shelved off rapidly, and, finding the attempt useless, dashed a volley
+of their missiles after the barge. But the range was very long. Few
+reached the vessel; none did damage. The soldiers disappeared behind
+the warehouse, still running at a headlong pace. Before they
+reappeared on the other side, Antonius had brought his craft to the
+quay. There was no time for mooring, and the instant the barge lost
+way the hard-pressed Caesarians were on shore. Another instant, and the
+clumsy vessel had been caught by the current, and swung out into the
+stream.
+
+She had done her work. The pursued men broke into a dash for the
+nearest highway. The soldiers were close after them. But they had
+flung away their javelins, and what with their heavy armour and the
+fatigue of running were quite as exhausted as the Caesarians, three of
+whom had been thoroughly winded by their desperate rowing. On the Pons
+Sublicius, where a great crowd had gathered to watch the exciting
+chase, there was shouting and tumult. No doubt voices few enough would
+have been raised for the Caesarians if they had been captured; but now
+that they bade fair to escape, the air was thick with gibes at the
+soldiers, and cries of encouragement to the pursued. On the two
+parties ran. Soon they were plunged in the tortuous, dirty lanes of
+the "Trans-Tiber" district, rushing at frantic speed past the shops of
+dirty Jews and the taverns of noisy fishermen and sailors. Already
+news of the chase had gone before them, and, as Drusus followed his
+friends under the half-arching shadows of the tall tenement houses,
+drunken pedlers and ribald women howled out their wishes of success,
+precisely as though they were in a race-course. Now the dirty streets
+were left behind and the fatigued runners panted up the slopes of the
+Janiculum, toward the gardens of Caesar. They passed the little grove
+sacred to the Furies, and, even as for life he ran, Drusus recalled
+with shame how over this very road to this very grove, had fled Caius
+Gracchus, the great tribune of the people, whom Drusus's own great
+grandfather, Marcus Livius Drusus, had hounded to his death; that day
+when all men encouraged him as he ran, but none would raise a hand to
+aid.
+
+But now up from the bridge came the thunder of horses'
+hoofs,--cavalry, tearing at a furious gallop. Pompeius had evidently
+ordered out a _turma_[150] of mounted men to chase down the runaways.
+More and more frantic the race--Drusus's tongue hung from his mouth
+like a dog's. He flew past a running fountain, and was just desperate
+enough to wonder if it was safe to stop one instant and touch--he
+would not ask to drink--one drop of the cool water. Fortunately the
+Caesarians were all active young men, of about equal physical powers,
+and they kept well together and encouraged one another, not by
+word--they had no breath for that--but by interchange of courage and
+sympathy from eye to eye. The heavy legionaries had given up the
+chase; it was the cavalry, now flying almost at their very heels, that
+urged them to their final burst of speed.
+
+  [150] Squadron of 30 horse.
+
+At last! Here were the gardens of Caesar, and close by the roadway
+under a spreading oak, their grooms holding them in readiness for
+instant service, were six of the best specimens of horseflesh money
+could command.
+
+None of the little party had breath left to speak a word. To fling
+themselves into the saddles, to snatch the reins from the attendants'
+hands, to plunge the heels of their sandals, in lieu of spurs, into
+the flanks of their already restless steeds,--these things were done
+in an instant, but none too soon. For, almost as the six riders turned
+out upon the road to give head to their horses, the cavalry were upon
+them. The foremost rider sent his lance over Curio's shoulder, grazing
+the skin and starting blood; a second struck with his short sword at
+Caelius's steed, but the horse shied, and before the blow could be
+repeated the frightened beast had taken a great bound ahead and out of
+danger. This exciting phase of the pursuit, however, was of only
+momentary duration. The horses of the Caesarians were so incomparably
+superior to the common army hacks of the soldiers, that, as soon as
+the noble blooded animals began to stretch their long limbs on the
+hard Roman road, the troopers dropped back to a harmless distance in
+the rear. The cavalrymen's horses, furthermore, had been thoroughly
+winded by the fierce gallop over the bridge, and now it was out of the
+question for them to pursue. Before the flight had continued a mile,
+the Caesarians had the satisfaction of seeing their enemies draw rein,
+then turn back to the city. The friends, however, did not check their
+pace until, safe beyond chance of overtaking, they reined in at an
+hospitable tavern in the old Etruscan town of Veii.
+
+Here Drusus took leave of Agias.
+
+"You are quite too unimportant an enemy," said he to the young Greek,
+"to be worth arrest by the consuls, if indeed they know what part you
+have had in our escape. I know not what perils are before me, and I
+have no right to ask you to share them. You have long ago paid off any
+debt of gratitude that you owed me and mine when Fabia saved your
+life. I am your patron no longer; go, and live honourably, and you
+will find deposited with Flaccus a sum that will provide for all your
+needs. If ever I return to Rome, my party victorious, myself in
+favour, then let us renew our friendship; but till then you and I meet
+no more."
+
+Agias knelt and kissed Drusus's robe in a semi-Oriental obeisance.
+
+"And is there nothing," he asked half wistfully at the parting, "that
+I can yet do for you?"
+
+"Nothing," said Drusus, "except to see that no harm come to my Aunt
+Fabia, and if it be possible deliver Cornelia from the clutches of her
+bloody uncle."
+
+"Ah!" said Agias, smiling, "that is indeed _something_! But be not
+troubled, domine,"--he spoke as if Drusus was still his master,--"I
+will find a way."
+
+That evening, under the canopy of night, the five Caesarians sped,
+swift as their horses could bear them, on their way to Ravenna.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XVI
+
+The Rubicon
+
+
+I
+
+It was growing late, but the proconsul apparently was manifesting no
+impatience. All the afternoon he had been transacting the routine
+business of a provincial governor--listening to appeals to his
+judgment seat, signing requisitions for tax imposts, making out
+commissions, and giving undivided attention to a multitude of seeming
+trifles. Only Decimus Mamercus, the young centurion,--elder son of the
+veteran of Praeneste,--who stood guard at the doorway of the public
+office of the praetorium, thought he could observe a hidden nervousness
+and a still more concealed petulance in his superior's manner that
+betokened anxiety and a desire to be done with the routine of the day.
+Finally the last litigant departed, the governor descended from the
+curule chair, the guard saluted as he passed out to his own private
+rooms, and soon, as the autumn darkness began to steal over the
+cantonment, nothing but the call of the sentries broke the calm of the
+advancing night.
+
+Caesar was submitting to the attentions of his slaves, who were
+exchanging his robes of state for the comfortable evening _synthesis_.
+But the proconsul was in no mood for the publicity of the evening
+banquet. When his chief freedman announced that the invited guests had
+assembled, the master bade him go to the company and inform them that
+their host was indisposed, and wished them to make merry without him.
+The evening advanced. Twice Caesar touched to his lips a cup of spiced
+wine, but partook of nothing else. Sending his servants from his
+chamber, he alternately read, and wrote nervously on his tablets, then
+erased all that he had inscribed, and paced up and down the room.
+Presently the anxious head-freedman thrust his head into the
+apartment.
+
+"My lord, it is past midnight. The guests have long departed. There
+will be serious injury done your health, if you take no food and
+rest."
+
+"My good Antiochus," replied the proconsul, "you are a faithful
+friend."
+
+The freedman--an elderly, half-Hellenized Asiatic--knelt and kissed
+the Roman's robe.
+
+"My lord knows that I would die for him."
+
+"I believe you, Antiochus. The gods know I never needed a friend more
+than now! Do not leave the room."
+
+The general's eyes were glittering, his cheeks flushed with an
+unhealthy colour. The freedman was startled.
+
+"Domine, domine!" he began, "you are not well--let me send for
+Calchas, the physician; a mild sleeping powder--"
+
+For the first time in his long service of Caesar, Antiochus met with a
+burst of wrath from his master.
+
+"Vagabond! Do you think a sleeping potion will give peace to _me_?
+Speak again of Calchas, and I'll have you crucified!"
+
+"Domine, domine!" cried the trembling freedman; but Caesar swept on:--
+
+"Don't go from the room! I am desperate to-night. I may lay violent
+hands on myself. Why should I not ask you for a poisoned dagger?"
+
+Antiochus cowered at his master's feet.
+
+"Yes, why not? What have I to gain by living? I have won some little
+fame. I have conquered all Gaul. I have invaded Britain. I have made
+the Germans tremble. Life is an evil dream, a nightmare, a frightful
+delusion. Death is real. Sleep--sleep--forever sleep! No care, no
+ambition, no vexation, no anger, no sorrow. Cornelia, the wife of my
+love, is asleep. Julia is asleep. All that I loved sleep. Why not I
+also?"
+
+"Domine, speak not so!" and Antiochus clasped the proconsul's knees.
+
+Caesar bent down and lifted him up by the hand. When he spoke again,
+the tone was entirely changed.
+
+"Old friend, you have known me; have loved me. You were my
+_pedagogue_[151] when I went to school at Rome. You taught me to ride
+and fence and wrestle. You aided me to escape the myrmidons of Sulla.
+You were with me in Greece. You shared my joy in my political
+successes, my triumphs in the field. And now what am I to do? You know
+the last advices from Rome; you know the determination of the consuls
+to work my ruin. To-day no news has come at all, and for us no news is
+the worst of news."
+
+  [151] Slave who looked after the welfare and conduct of a schoolboy.
+
+"Domine," said Antiochus, wiping his eyes, "I cannot dream that the
+Senate and Pompeius will deny you your right to the second
+consulship."
+
+"But if they do? You know what Curio reports. What then?"
+
+Antiochus shook his head.
+
+"It would mean war, bloody war, the upturning of the whole world!"
+
+"War, or--" and Caesar paused.
+
+"What, my lord?" said the freedman.
+
+"I cease either to be a care to myself or my enemies."
+
+"I do not understand you, domine," ventured Antiochus, turning pale.
+
+"I mean, good friend," said the proconsul, calmly, "that when I
+consider how little life often seems worth, and how much disaster the
+continuance of my act of living means to my fellow-men, I feel often
+that I have no right to live."
+
+Antiochus staggered with dread. Caesar was no longer talking wildly;
+and the freedman knew that when in a calm mood the proconsul was
+always perfectly serious.
+
+"Domine, you have not rashly determined this?" he hinted.
+
+"I have determined nothing. I never rashly determine anything. Hark!
+Some one is at the door."
+
+There was a loud military knock, and the clang of armour.
+
+"Enter," commanded Caesar.
+
+Decimus Mamercus hastened into the room. So great was his excitement
+that his Roman discipline had forsaken him. He neglected to salute.
+
+"News! news! Imperator! from Rome! News which will set all Italy
+afire!"
+
+Whereupon the man who had but just before been talking of suicide,
+with the greatest possible deliberation seated himself on a
+comfortable chair, arranged his dress, and remarked with perfect
+coldness:--
+
+"No tidings can justify a soldier in neglecting to salute his
+general."
+
+Decimus turned red with mortification, and saluted.
+
+"Now," said Caesar, icily, "what have you to report?"
+
+"Imperator," replied Decimus, trying to speak with unimpassioned
+preciseness, "a messenger has just arrived from Rome. He reports that
+the Senate and consuls have declared the Republic in peril, that the
+veto of your tribunes has been over-ridden, and they themselves forced
+to flee for their lives."
+
+Caesar had carelessly dropped a writing tablet that he was holding, and
+now he stooped slowly and picked it up again.
+
+"The messenger is here?" he inquired, after a pause.
+
+"He is," replied the centurion.
+
+"Has he been duly refreshed after a hard ride?" was the next question.
+
+"He has just come."
+
+"Then let him have the best food and drink my butler and cellarer can
+set before him."
+
+"But his news is of extreme importance," gasped Decimus, only half
+believing his ears.
+
+"I have spoken," said the general, sternly. "What is his name?"
+
+"He is called Quintus Drusus, Imperator."
+
+"Ah!" was his deliberate response, "send him to me when he will eat
+and drink no more."
+
+Decimus saluted again, and withdrew, while his superior opened the
+roll in his hands, and with all apparent fixity and interest studied
+at the precepts and definitions of the grammar of Dionysius Thrax, the
+noted philologist.
+
+At the end of some minutes Quintus Drusus stood before him.
+
+The young Praenestian was covered with dust, was unkempt, ragged; his
+step was heavy, his arms hung wearily at his side, his head almost
+drooped on his breast with exhaustion. But when he came into the
+Imperator's presence, he straightened himself and tried to make a
+gesture of salutation. Caesar had risen from his chair.
+
+"Fools!" he cried, to the little group of slaves and soldiers, who
+were crowding into the room, "do you bring me this worn-out man, who
+needs rest? Who dared this? Has he been refreshed as I commanded?"
+
+"He would take nothing but some wine--" began Decimus.
+
+"I would have waited until morning, if necessary, before seeing him.
+Here!" and while Caesar spoke he half led, half thrust, the messenger
+into his own chair, and, anticipating the nimblest slave, unclasped
+the travel-soiled paenula from Drusus's shoulders. The young man tried
+to rise and shake off these ministrations, but the proconsul gently
+restrained him. A single look sufficed to send all the curious retinue
+from the room. Only Antiochus remained, sitting on a stool in a
+distant corner.
+
+"And now, my friend," said Caesar, smiling, and drawing a chair close
+up to that of Drusus, "tell me when it was that you left Rome."
+
+"Two days ago," gasped the wearied messenger.
+
+"_Mehercle!_" cried the general, "a hundred and sixty miles in two
+days! This is incredible! And you come alone?"
+
+"I had Andraemon, the fastest horse in Rome. Antonius, Caelius, Cassius,
+Curio, and myself kept together as far as Clusium. There was no longer
+any danger of pursuit, no need for more than one to hasten." Drusus's
+sentences were coming in hot pants. "I rode ahead. Rode my horse dead.
+Took another at Arretium. And so I kept changing. And now--I am here."
+And with this last utterance he stopped, gasping.
+
+Caesar, instead of demanding the tidings from Rome, turned to
+Antiochus, and bade him bring a basin and perfumed water to wash
+Drusus's feet. Meantime the young man had recovered his breath.
+
+"You have heard of the violence of the new consuls and how Antonius
+and Cassius withstood them. On the seventh the end came. The vetoes
+were set aside. Our protests were disregarded. The Senate has clothed
+the consuls and other magistrates with dictatorial power; they are
+about to make Lucius Domitius proconsul of Gaul."
+
+"And I?" asked Caesar, for the first time displaying any personal
+interest.
+
+"You, Imperator, must disband your army and return to Rome speedily,
+or be declared an outlaw, as Sertorius or Catilina was."
+
+"Ah!" and for a minute the proconsul sat motionless, while Drusus
+again kept silence.
+
+"But you--my friends--the tribunes?" demanded the general, "you spoke
+of danger; why was it that you fled?"
+
+"We fled in slaves' dresses, O Caesar, because otherwise we should long
+ago have been strangled like bandits in the Tullianum. Lentulus Crus
+drove us with threats from the Senate. On the bridge, but for the
+favour of the gods, his lictors would have taken us. We were chased by
+Pompeius's foot soldiers as far as Janiculum. We ran away from his
+cavalry. If they hate us, your humble friends, so bitterly, how much
+the more must they hate you!"
+
+"And the tribunes, and Curio, and Caelius are on their way hither?"
+asked Caesar.
+
+"They will be here very soon."
+
+"That is well," replied the proconsul; then, with a totally unexpected
+turn, "Quintus Drusus, what do you advise me to do?"
+
+"I--I advise, Imperator?" stammered the young man.
+
+"And who should advise, if not he who has ridden so hard and fast in
+my service? Tell me, is there any hope of peace, of reconciliation
+with Pompeius?"
+
+"None."
+
+"Any chance that the senators will recover their senses, and propose a
+reasonable compromise?"
+
+"None."
+
+"Will not Cicero use his eloquence in the cause of peace and common
+justice?"
+
+"I have seen him. He dare not open his mouth."
+
+"Ah!" and again Caesar was silent, this time with a smile, perhaps of
+scorn, playing around his mouth.
+
+"Are the people, the equites, given body and soul over to the war
+party?"
+
+Drusus nodded sadly. "So long as the consuls are in the ascendant,
+they need fear no revolution at home. The people are not at heart your
+enemies, Imperator; but they will wait to be led by the winning side."
+
+"And you advise?"--pressed Caesar, returning to the charge.
+
+"War!" replied Drusus, with all the rash emphasis of youth.
+
+"Young man," said Caesar, gravely, half sadly, "what you have said is
+easy to utter. Do you know what war will mean?"
+
+Drusus was silent.
+
+"Let us grant that our cause is most just. Even then, if we fight, we
+destroy the Republic. If I conquer, it must be over the wreck of the
+Commonwealth. If Pompeius--on the same terms. I dare not harbour any
+illusions. The state cannot endure the farce of another Sullian
+restoration and reformation. A permanent government by one strong man
+will be the only one practicable to save the world from anarchy. Have
+you realized that?"
+
+"I only know, Imperator," said Drusus, gloomily, "that no future state
+can be worse than ours to-day, when the magistrates of the Republic
+are the most grievous despots."
+
+Caesar shook his head.
+
+"You magnify your own wrongs and mine. If mere revenge prompts us, we
+are worse than Xerxes, or Sulla. The gods alone can tell us what is
+right."
+
+"The gods!" cried Drusus, half sunken though he was in a weary
+lethargy, "do you believe there are any gods?"
+
+Caesar threw back his head. "Not always; but at moments I do not
+_believe_ in them, I _know_! And now I _know_ that gods are guiding
+us!"
+
+"Whither?" exclaimed the young man, starting from his weary
+drowsiness.
+
+"I know not whither; neither do I care. Enough to be conscious that
+they guide us!"
+
+And then, as though there was no pressing problem involving the peace
+of the civilized world weighing upon him, the proconsul stood by in
+kind attention while Antiochus and an attendant bathed the wearied
+messenger's feet before taking him away to rest.
+
+After Drusus had been carried to his room, Caesar collected the
+manuscripts and tablets scattered about the apartment, methodically
+placed them in the proper cases and presses, suffered himself to be
+undressed, and slept late into the following morning, as sweetly and
+soundly as a little child.
+
+
+II
+
+On the next day Caesar called before him the thirteenth legion,--the
+only force he had at Ravenna,--and from a pulpit in front of the
+praetorium he told them the story of what had happened at Rome; of how
+the Senate had outraged the tribunes of the plebs, whom even the
+violent Sulla had respected; of how the mighty oligarchy had outraged
+every soldier in insulting their commander. Then Curio, just arrived,
+declaimed with indignant fervour of the violence and fury of the
+consuls and Pompeius; and when he concluded, the veterans could
+restrain their ardour and devotion no more, five thousand martial
+throats roared forth an oath of fealty, and as many swords were waved
+on high in mad defiance to the Senate and the Magnus. Then cohort
+after cohort cried out that on this campaign they would accept no pay;
+and the military tribunes and centurions pledged themselves, this
+officer for the support of two recruits, and that for three.
+
+It was a great personal triumph for Caesar. He stood receiving the
+pledges and plaudits, and repaying each protestation of loyalty with a
+few gracious words, or smiles, that were worth fifty talents to each
+acclaiming maniple. Drusus, who was standing back of the proconsul,
+beside Curio, realized that never before had he seen such outgoing of
+magnetism and personal energy from man to man, one mind holding in
+vassalage five thousand. Yet it was all very quickly over. Almost
+while the plaudits of the centuries were rending the air, Caesar turned
+to the senior tribune of the legion.
+
+"Are your men ready for the march, officer?"
+
+The soldier instantly fell into rigid military pose. "Ready this
+instant, Imperator. We have expected the order."
+
+"March to Ariminum, and take possession of the town. March rapidly."
+
+The tribune saluted, and stepped back among his cohort. And as if some
+conjurer had flourished a wand of magic, in the twinkling of an eye
+the first century had formed in marching order; every legionary had
+flung over his shoulder his shield and pack, and at the harsh blare of
+the military trumpet the whole legion fell into line; the aquilifer
+with the bronze eagle, that had tossed on high in a score of
+hard-fought fights, swung off at the head of the van; and away went
+the legion, a thing not of thinking flesh and blood, but of brass and
+iron--a machine that marched as readily and carelessly against the
+consuls of the Roman Republic as against the wretched Gallic
+insurgents. The body of troops--cohort after cohort--was vanishing
+down the road in a cloud of dust, the pack train following after,
+almost before Drusus could realize that the order to advance had been
+given.
+
+Caesar was still standing on the little pulpit before the praetorium.
+Except for Curio and Drusus, almost all the vast company that had but
+just now been pressing about him with adulation and homage were
+disappearing from sight. For an instant the Imperator seemed alone,
+stripped of all the panoply of his high estate. He stood watching the
+legion until its dust-cloud settled behind some low-lying hills. Then
+he stepped down from the pulpit. Beyond a few menials and Drusus and
+that young man's late comrade in danger, no one else was visible. The
+transaction had been so sudden as to have something of the
+phantasmagoric about it.
+
+Caesar took his two friends, one by each hand, and led them back to his
+private study in the praetorium.
+
+"The army is yours, Imperator," said Curio, breaking a rather
+oppressive silence. "The newest recruit is yours to the death."
+
+"Yes, to the death," replied the general, abstractedly; and his keen
+eyes wandered down upon the mosaic, seemingly penetrating the stone
+and seeking something hidden beneath. "The thirteenth legion," he
+continued, "will do as a test of the loyalty of the others. They will
+not fail me. The eighth and the twelfth will soon be over the Alps.
+Fabius is at Narbo with three. They will check Pompeius's Spaniards. I
+must send to Trebonius for his four among the Belgae; he is sending
+Fabius one." And then, as if wearied by this recapitulation, Caesar's
+eyes wandered off again to the pavement.
+
+Drusus had an uneasy sensation. What was this strange mingling of
+energy and listlessness? Why this soliloquy and internal debate, when
+the moment called for the most intense activity? The general being
+still silent, his friends did not venture to disturb him. But
+Antiochus passed in and out of the study, gathering up writing
+materials, tablets, and books; and presently Drusus heard the freedman
+bidding an underling have ready and packed the marble slabs used for
+the tessellated floor of the Imperator's tent--a bit of luxury that
+Caesar never denied himself while in the field. Presently the proconsul
+raised his eyes. He was smiling; there was not the least cloud on his
+brow.
+
+"There will be some public games here this afternoon," he remarked, as
+though the sole end in view was to make their stay pleasant to his
+guests: "I have promised the good people of the town to act as
+_editor_,[152] and must not fail to honour them. Perhaps the sport
+will amuse you, although the provincials cannot of course get such
+good lanista-trained men as you see at Rome. I have a new fencing
+school in which perhaps we may find a few _threces_[153] and
+_retiarii_,[154] who will give some tolerable sword and net play."
+
+  [152] President of the games.
+
+  [153] Buckler and cutlass men.
+
+  [154] Net and trident men.
+
+"_Hei!_" groaned Curio, with a lugubrious whisper, "to think of it, I
+have never a sesterce left that I can call my own, to stake on the
+struggle!"
+
+"At least," laughed Drusus, "I am a companion of your grief; already
+Lentulus and Ahenobarbus have been sharing my forfeited estate."
+
+But the proconsul looked serious and sad.
+
+"_Vah_, my friends! Would that I could say that your loyalty to my
+cause would cost you nothing! It is easy to promise to win back for
+you everything you have abandoned, but as the poets say, 'All that
+lies in the lap of the gods.' But you shall not be any longer the mere
+recipients of my bounty. Stern work is before us. I need not ask you
+if you will play your part. You, Curio, shall have a proper place on
+my staff of legates as soon as I have enough troops concentrated; but
+you, my dear Drusus, what post would best reward you for your loyalty?
+Will you be a military tribune, and succeed your father?"
+
+"Your kindness outruns your judgment, Imperator," replied Drusus.
+"Save repelling Dumnorix and Ahenobarbus, I never struck a blow in
+anger. Small service would I be to you, and little glory would I win
+as an officer, when the meanest legionary knows much that I may
+learn."
+
+"Then, amice," said Caesar, smiling, perhaps with the satisfaction of a
+man who knows when it is safe to make a gracious offer which he is
+aware will not be accepted, though none the less flattering, "if you
+will thus misappraise yourself, you shall act as centurion for the
+present, on my corps of _praetoriani_,[155] where you will be among
+friends and comrades of your father, and be near my person if I have
+any special need of you."
+
+  [155] General's body-guard of picked veterans.
+
+Drusus proffered the best thanks he could; it was a great honour--one
+almost as great as a tribuneship, though hardly as responsible; and he
+felt repaid for all the weariness of his desperate ride to Ravenna.
+
+And then, with another of those strange alternations of behaviour,
+Caesar led him and Curio off to inspect the fencing-school; then showed
+them his favourite horse, pointed out its peculiar toelike hoofs, and
+related merrily how when it was a young colt, a soothsayer had
+predicted that its owner would be master of the world, and how
+he--Caesar,--had broken its fiery spirit, and made it perfectly docile,
+although no other man could ride the beast.
+
+The afternoon wore on. Caesar took his friends to the games, and
+watched with all apparent interest the rather sanguinary contests
+between the gladiators. Drusus noticed the effusive loyalty of the
+Ravenna citizens, who shouted a tumultuous welcome to the illustrious
+_editor_, but Caesar acted precisely as though the presidency of the
+sports were his most important office. Only his young admirer observed
+that as often as a gladiator brought his opponent down and appealed to
+the _editor_ for a decision on the life or death of the vanquished,
+Caesar invariably waved his handkerchief, a sign of mercy, rather than
+brutally turned down his thumb, the sentence of death. After the
+games, the proconsul interchanged personal greetings with the more
+prominent townspeople. Drusus began to wonder whether the whole day
+and evening were to pass in this manner; and indeed so it seemed, for
+that night the Imperator dispensed his usual open-handed hospitality.
+His great banqueting hall contained indeed no army officers, but there
+were an abundance of the provincial gentry. Caesar dined apart with his
+two friends. The courses went in and out. The proconsul continued an
+unceasing flow of light conversation: witty comments on Roman society
+and fashion, scraps of literary lore, now and then a bit of personal
+reminiscence of Gaul. Drusus forgot all else in the agreeable pleasure
+of the moment. Presently Caesar arose and mingled with his less exalted
+guests; when he returned to the upper table the attendants were
+bringing on the beakers, and the Cisalpine provincials were pledging
+one another in draughts of many _cyathi_, "prosperity to the
+proconsul, and confusion to his enemies." Caesar took a shallow glass
+of embossed blue and white bas-relief work,--a triumph of Alexandrian
+art,--poured into it a few drops of undiluted Caecuban liquor, dashed
+down the potion, then dropped the priceless beaker on to the floor.
+
+"An offering to Fortuna!" he cried, springing from his couch. "My
+friends, let us go!" And quietly leaving the table on the dais, the
+three found themselves outside the banqueting hall, while the
+provincials, unconscious that their host had departed, continued their
+noisy revelry.
+
+Drusus at once saw that everything was ready for departure. Antiochus
+was at hand with travelling cloaks, and assured the young man that due
+care had been taken to send in advance for him a complete wardrobe and
+outfit. The proconsul evidently intended to waste no time in starting.
+Drusus realized by the tone of his voice that Caesar the host had
+vanished, and Caesar the imperator was present. His words were terse
+and to the point.
+
+"Curio, you will find a fast horse awaiting you. Take it. Bide at full
+speed after the legion. Take command of the rear cohorts and of the
+others as you come up with them. Lead rapidly to Ariminum."
+
+And Curio, who was a man of few words, when few were needed, saluted
+and disappeared in the darkness. Drusus followed the general out after
+him. But no saddle-horses were prepared for Caesar. Antiochus and one
+or two slaves were ready with lanterns, and led the general and Drusus
+out of the gloomy cantonment, along a short stretch of road, to a mill
+building, where in the dim light of the last flickers of day could be
+seen a carriage with mules.
+
+"I have hired this as you wished," said the freedman, briefly.
+
+"It is well," responded his patron.
+
+Antiochus clambered upon the front seat; a stout German serving-man
+was at the reins. Caesar motioned to Drusus to sit beside him behind.
+There were a few necessaries in the carriage, but no other attendants,
+no luggage cart. The German shook the reins over the backs of the two
+mules, and admonished them in his barbarous native dialect. The dim
+shadow of the mill faded from sight; the lights of the praetorium grew
+dimmer and dimmer: soon nothing was to be seen outside the narrow
+circle of pale light shed on the ground ahead by the lantern.
+
+The autumn season was well advanced. The day however had been warm.
+The night was sultry. There were no stars above, no moon, no wind. A
+sickening miasmic odour rose from the low flat country sloping off
+toward the Adriatic--the smell of overripe fruit, of decaying
+vegetation, of the harvest grown old. There had been a drought, and
+now the dust rose thick and heavy, making the mules and travellers
+cough, and the latter cover their faces. Out of the darkness came not
+the least sound: save the creaking of the dead boughs on trees, whose
+dim tracery could just be distinguished against the sombre background
+of the sky.
+
+No one spoke, unless the incoherent shouts of the German to the mules
+be termed speech. Antiochus and Caesar were sunk in stupor or reverie.
+Drusus settled back on the cushions, closed his eyes, and bade himself
+believe that it was all a dream. Six months ago he had been a student
+at Athens, wandering with his friends along the trickling Cephissus,
+or climbing, in holiday sport, the marble cone of Hymettus. And
+now--he was a proscribed rebel! Enemies thirsted for his blood! He was
+riding beside a man who made no disclaimer of his intention to subvert
+the constitution! If Caesar failed, he, Drusus, would share in "that
+bad eminence" awarded by fame to the execrated Catilinarians. Was
+it--was it not all a dream? Connected thought became impossible. Now
+he was in the dear old orchard at Praeneste playing _micare_[156] with
+Cornelia and AEmilia; now back in Athens, now in Rome. Poetry, prose,
+scraps of oratory, philosophy, and rules of rhetoric,--Latin and Greek
+inextricably intermixed,--ideas without the least possible connection,
+raced through his head. How long he thus drifted on in his reverie he
+might not say. Perhaps he fell asleep, for the fatigue of his
+extraordinary riding still wore on him. A cry from Antiochus, a curse
+from the German, startled him out of his stupor. He stared about. It
+was pitch dark. "The gods blast it!" Antiochus was bawling. "The
+lantern has jolted out!"
+
+  [156] A finger-guessing game.
+
+To relight it under existing circumstances, in an age when friction
+matches were unknown, was practically impossible.
+
+"Fellow," said the proconsul's steady voice, "do you know the road to
+Ariminum?"
+
+The driver answered in his broken Latin that he was the slave of the
+stable keeper who had let the carriage, and had been often over the
+road, but to go safely in the dark was more than he could vouch for.
+The only thing the German saw to be done was to wait in the road until
+the morning, or until the moon broke out through the clouds.
+
+"Drusus," remarked the proconsul, "you are the youngest. Can your eyes
+make out anything to tell us where we are?"
+
+The young man yawned, shook off his drowsiness, and stared out into
+the gloomy void.
+
+"I can just make out that to our left are tall trees, and I imagine a
+thicket."
+
+"Very good. If you can see as much as that here, it is safe to
+proceed. Let us change places. I will take the reins. Do you, Drusus,
+come and direct me."
+
+"Oh! domine!" entreated Antiochus, "don't imperil yourself to-night!
+I'm sure some calamity impends before dawn. I consulted a soothsayer
+before setting out, and the dove which he examined had no heart--a
+certain sign of evil."
+
+"Rascal!" retorted his patron, "the omens will be more favourable when
+I please. A beast wants a heart--no very great prodigy! men lose
+theirs very often, and think it slight disgrace. Change your seat,
+sirrah!"
+
+Caesar took the reins, smote the mules, and went off at so furious a
+pace that the worthy Antiochus was soon busy invoking first one, then
+another, member of the pantheon, to avert disaster. Drusus speedily
+found that the general's vision was far more keen than his own.
+Indeed, although the road, he knew, was rough and crooked, they met
+with no mishaps. Presently a light could be seen twinkling in the
+distance.
+
+"We must get a guide," remarked the Imperator decisively, and he
+struck the mules again.
+
+They at last approached what the owl-like discernment of Caesar
+pronounced to be a small farmhouse with a few out-buildings. But it
+was no easy matter to arouse the drowsy countrymen, and a still more
+difficult task to convince the good man of the house that his
+nocturnal visitors were not brigands. At last it was explained that
+two gentlemen from Ravenna were bound for Ariminum, on urgent
+business, and he must furnish a guide for which he would be amply
+paid. As a result, the German driver at last resumed the reins, and
+sped away with a fresh lantern, and at his side a stupid peasant boy,
+who was almost too shy to make himself useful.
+
+But more misfortune was in store. Barely a mile had they traversed,
+before an ominous crack proclaimed the splitting of an axletree. The
+cheap hired vehicle could go no farther.
+
+"'Tis a sure sign the gods are against our proceeding this night,"
+expostulated Antiochus; "let us walk back to the farmhouse, my lord."
+
+Caesar did not deign to give him an answer. He deliberately descended,
+clasped his paenula over his shoulders, and bade the German make the
+best of his way back to Ravenna. The peasant boy, he declared, could
+lead them on foot until dawn.
+
+The freedman groaned, but he was helpless. The guide, bearing the
+lantern, convoyed them out of the highroad, to strike what he assured
+them was a less circuitous route; and soon had his travellers, now
+plunged in quagmires that in daylight would have seemed impassable,
+now clambering over stocks and stones, now leaping broad ditches. At
+last, after thoroughly exhausting the patience of his companions, the
+wretched fellow confessed that he had missed the by-path, and indeed
+did not know the way back.
+
+Antiochus was now too frightened to declare his warnings confirmed.
+Drusus liked the prospect of a halt on these swampy, miasmic fields
+little enough, But again the proconsul was all resources. With almost
+omniscience he led his companions through blind mazes of fallow land
+and stubble fields: came upon a brook at the only point where there
+appeared to be any stepping-stones; and at length, just as the murky
+clouds seemed about to lift, and the first beams of the moon struggled
+out into the black chaos, the wanderers saw a multitude of fires
+twinkling before them, and knew that they had come upon the rear
+cohort of the thirteenth legion, on its way to Ariminum.
+
+The challenge of the sentry was met by a quick return of the
+watchword, but the effusively loyal soldier was bidden to hold his
+peace and not disturb his comrades.
+
+"What time is it?" inquired his general. The fellow replied it lacked
+one hour of morn. Caesar skirted the sleeping camp, and soon came out
+again on the highroad. There was a faint paleness in the east; a
+single lark sang from out the mist of grey ether overhead; an ox of
+the baggage train rattled his tethering chain and bellowed. A soft,
+damp river fog touched on Drusus's face. Suddenly an early horseman,
+coming at a moderate gallop, was heard down the road. In the
+stillness, the pounding of his steed crept slowly nearer and nearer;
+then, as he was almost on them, came the hollow clatter of the hoofs
+upon the planks of a bridge. _Caesar stopped._ Drusus felt himself
+clutched by the arm so tightly that the grasp almost meant pain.
+
+"Do you hear? Do you see?" muttered the Imperator's voice in his ear.
+"The bridge, the river--we have reached it!"
+
+"Your excellency--" began Drusus, sorely at a loss.
+
+"No compliments, this is the Rubicon; the boundaries of Cisalpine Gaul
+and Italy. On this side I am still the Proconsul--not as yet rightly
+deposed. On the other--Caesar, the Outlaw, the Insurgent, the Enemy of
+his Country, whose hand is against every man, every man's hand against
+him. What say you? Speak! speak quickly! Shall I cross? Shall I turn
+back?"
+
+"Imperator," said the young man, struggling to collect his wits and
+realize the gravity of his own words, "if you did not intend to cross,
+why send the legion over to commence the invasion? Why harangue them,
+if you had no test to place upon their loyalty?"
+
+"Because," was his answer, "I would not through my own indecision
+throw away my chance to strike. But the troops can be recalled. It is
+not too late. No blood has been shed. I am merely in a position to
+strike if so I decide. No,--nothing is settled."
+
+Drusus had never felt greater embarrassment. Before he could make
+reply, Caesar had bidden Antiochus and the peasant boy remain in the
+roadway, and had led the young man down the embankment that ran
+sloping toward the river. The light was growing stronger every moment,
+though the mist still hung heavy and dank. Below their feet the
+slender stream--it was the end of the season--ran with a monotonous
+gurgle, now and then casting up a little fleck of foam, as it rolled
+by a small boulder in its bed.
+
+"Imperator," said Drusus, while Caesar pressed his hand tighter and
+tighter, "why advise with an inexperienced young man like myself? Why
+did you send Curio away? I have no wisdom to offer; nor dare proffer
+it, if such I had."
+
+"Quintus Drusus," replied Caesar, sinking rather wearily down upon the
+dry, dying grass, "if I had needed the counsel of a soldier, I should
+have waited until Marcus Antonius arrived; if I had needed that of a
+politician, I was a fool to send away Curio; if I desire the counsel
+of one who is, as yet, neither a man of the camp, nor a man of the
+Forum, but who can see things with clear eyes, can tell what may be
+neither glorious nor expedient, but what will be the will,"--and here
+the Imperator hesitated,--"the will of the gods, tell me to whom I
+shall go."
+
+Drusus was silent; the other continued;--
+
+"Listen, Quintus Drusus. I do not believe in blind fate. We were not
+given wills only to have them broken. The function of a limb is not to
+be maimed, nor severed from the body. A limb is to serve a man; just
+so a man and his actions are to serve the ends of a power higher and
+nobler than he. If he refuse to serve that power, he is like the
+mortifying limb,--a thing of evil to be cut off. And this is true of
+all of us; we all have some end to serve, we are not created for no
+purpose." Caesar paused. When he began again it was in a different tone
+of voice. "I have brought you with me, because I know you are
+intelligent, are humane, love your country, and can make sacrifices
+for her; because you are my friend and to a certain extent share my
+destiny; because you are too young to have become overprejudiced, and
+calloused to pet foibles and transgressions. Therefore I took you with
+me, having put off the final decision to the last possible instant.
+And now I desire your counsel."
+
+"How can I counsel peace!" replied Drusus, warming to a sense of the
+situation. "Is not Italy in the hand of tyrants? Is not Pompeius the
+tool of coarse schemers? Do they not pray for proscriptions and
+confiscations and abolition of debt? Will there be any peace, any
+happiness in life, so long as we call ourselves freemen, yet endure
+the chains of a despotism worse than that of the Parthians?"
+
+"Ah! amice!" said Caesar, twisting the long limp grass, "every enemy is
+a tyrant, if he has the upper hand. Consider, what will the war be?
+Blood, the blood of the noblest Romans! The overturning of
+time-honoured institutions! A shock that will make the world to
+tremble, kings be laid low, cities annihilated! East, west, north,
+south--all involved--so great has our Roman world become!"
+
+"And are there not wrongs, abuses, Imperator, which cry for vengeance
+and for righting?" replied Drusus, vehemently. "Since the fall of
+Carthage, have not the fears of Scipio AEmilianus almost come true:
+Troy has fallen, Carthage has fallen; has not Rome almost fallen,
+fallen not by the might of her enemies, but by the decay of her
+morals, the degeneracy of her statesmen? What is the name of liberty,
+without the semblance! Is it liberty for a few mighty families to
+enrich themselves, while the Republic groans? Is it liberty for the
+law courts to have their price, for the provinces to be the farms of a
+handful of nobles?"
+
+Caesar shook his head.
+
+"You do not know what you say. This is no moment for declamation.
+Every man has his own life to live, his own death to die. Our
+intellects cannot assure us of any consciousness the instant that
+breath has left our bodies. It is then as if we had never hoped, had
+never feared; it is rest, peace. Quintus Drusus, I have dared many
+things in my life. I defied Sulla; it was boyish impetuosity. I took
+the unpopular and perilous side when Catilina's confederates were sent
+to their deaths; it was the ardour of a young politician. I defied the
+rage of the Senate, while I was praetor; still more hot madness. I
+faced death a thousand times in Gaul, against the Nervii, in the
+campaign with Vercingetorix; all this was the mere courage of the
+common soldier. But it is not of death I am afraid; be it death on the
+field of battle, or death at the hands of the executioner, should I
+fall into the power of my enemies, I fear myself.
+
+"You ask me to explain?" went on the general, without pausing for a
+question. "Hearken! I am a man, you are a man, our enemies are men. I
+have slain a hundred thousand men in Gaul. Cruel? No, for had they
+lived the great designs which the deity wills to accomplish in that
+country could not be executed! But then my mind was at rest. I said,
+'Let these men die,' and no Nemesis has required their blood at my
+hands. What profit these considerations? The Republic is nothing but a
+name, without substance or reality. It is doomed to fall. Sulla was a
+fool to abdicate the dictatorship. Why did he not establish a
+despotism, and save us all this turmoil of politics? But Lentulus
+Crus, Pompeius, Cato, Scipio--they are men with as much ambition, as
+much love of life, as myself. The Republic will fall into their hands.
+Why will it be worse off than in mine? Why shed rivers of blood? After
+death one knows no regrets. If I were dead, what would it matter to me
+if obloquy was imputed to my name, if my enemies triumphed, if the
+world went to chaos over my grave. It would not mean so much as a
+single evil dream in my perpetual slumber."
+
+Caesar was no longer resting on the bank. He was pacing to and fro,
+with rapid, nervous steps, crushing the dry twigs under his shoes,
+pressing his hands together behind his back, knitting and unknitting
+his fingers.
+
+Drusus knew enough to be aware that he was present as a spectator of
+that most terrible of all conflicts--a strong man's wrestle with his
+own misgivings. To say something, to say anything, that would ease the
+shock of the contest--that was the young man's compelling desire; but
+he felt as helpless as though he, single handed, confronted ten
+legions.
+
+"But your friends, Imperator," he faltered, "think of them! They have
+made sacrifices for you. They trust in you. Do not abandon them to
+their enemies!"
+
+Caesar stopped in his impetuous pacings.
+
+"Look here," he exclaimed, almost fiercely, "you wish to be happy. You
+are still very young; life is sweet. You have just forsaken wealth,
+friends, love, because you have a fantastic attachment for my cause.
+You will live to repent of your boyish decision. You will wish to win
+back all you have lost. Well, I will give you the chance; do what I
+tell you, and you shall ride into Rome the hero of Senate and people!
+The consuls will be to you all smiles. Pompeius will canvass for you
+if you desire to become a candidate for curule office before you reach
+the legal age limit. Cicero will extol your name in an immortal
+oration, in which he will laud your deed above the slaying of the
+dangerous demagogue Maelius by Servilius Ahala. Will you do as I shall
+bid you?"
+
+Drusus's eyes had been riveted on those of the general. He saw that at
+Caesar's side was girded a long slender dagger in an embossed silver
+sheath. He saw the Imperator draw out the blade halfway, then point
+off into the river where the water ran sluggishly through a single
+deep mist-shaded pool.
+
+"Do you understand?" went on Caesar, as calmly as though he had been
+expounding a problem of metaphysics. "You can take this ring of mine,
+and by its aid go through the whole legion, and obtain the best horses
+for flight, before anything is discovered. Your conscience need not
+trouble you. You will only have done as I earnestly requested."
+
+The cold sweat started to Drusus's forehead, his head swam; he knew
+that it was more than the mist of the river-fog that drifted before
+his eyes. Then, filled with a sudden impulse, he sprang on the general
+and wrenched the dagger from its sheath.
+
+"Here!" cried Caesar, tearing back the mantle from his breast.
+
+"There!" cried Drusus, and the bright blade glinted once in the air,
+and splashed down into the dark ripple. He caught the Imperator about
+the arms, and flung his head on the other's neck.
+
+"Oh! Imperator," he cried, "do not desert us. Do not desert the
+Commonwealth! Do not hand us back to new ruin, new tyrants, new wars!
+Strike, strike, and so be merciful! Surely the gods have not led you
+thus far, and no farther! But yesterday you said they were leading us.
+To-day they still must guide! To you it has been given to pull down
+and to build up. Fail not! If there be gods, trust in them! If there
+be none slay me first, then do whatever you will!"
+
+Caesar shook himself. His voice was harsh with command.
+
+"Unhand me! I must accomplish my own fate!" and then, in a totally
+different tone, "Quintus Drusus, I have been a coward for the first
+time in my life. Are you ashamed of your general?"
+
+"I never admired you more, Imperator."
+
+"Thank you. And will you go aside a little, please? I will need a few
+moments for meditation."
+
+Drusus hesitated. His eyes wandered off to the river. In one spot it
+was quite deep.
+
+"_Phui!_" said the proconsul, carelessly, "I am too brave for such a
+venture now. Leave me on my embankment, like Diogenes and his tub."
+
+Drusus clambered part way up the slope, and seated himself under a
+stunted oak tree. The light was growing stronger. The east was
+overshot with ripples of crimson and orange, here blending into lines
+each more gorgeous than a moment before. The wind was chasing in from
+the bosom of Adria, and driving the fleeting mists up the little
+valley. The hills were springing out of the gloom, the thrushes were
+swinging in the boughs overhead, and pouring out their morning song.
+Out from the camp the bugles were calling the soldiers for the march;
+the baggage trains were rumbling over the bridge. But still below on
+the marge lingered the solitary figure; now walking, now motionless,
+now silent, now speaking in indistinct monologue. Drusus overheard
+only an occasional word, "Pompeius, poor tool of knaves! I pity him! I
+must show mercy to Cato if I can! Sulla is not to be imitated! The
+Republic is fallen; what I put in its place must not fall." Then,
+after a long pause, "So this was to be my end in life--to destroy the
+Commonwealth; what is destined, is destined!" And a moment later
+Drusus saw the general coming up the embankment.
+
+"We shall find horses, I think, a little way over the bridge," said
+Caesar; "the sun is nearly risen. It is nine miles to Ariminum; there
+we can find refreshment."
+
+The Imperator's brow was clear, his step elastic, the fatigues of the
+night seemed to have only added to his vigorous good humour. Antiochus
+met them. The good man evidently was relieved of a load of anxiety.
+The three approached the bridge; as they did so, a little knot of
+officers of the rear cohort, Asinius Pollio and others, rode up and
+saluted. The golden rim of the sun was just glittering above the
+eastern lowlands. Caesar put foot upon the bridge. Drusus saw the blood
+recede from his face, his muscles contract, his frame quiver. The
+general turned to his officers.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said quietly, "we may still retreat; but if we once
+pass this little bridge, nothing is left for us but to fight it out in
+arms."
+
+The group was silent, each waiting for the other to speak. At this
+instant a mountebank piper sitting by the roadway struck up his ditty,
+and a few idle soldiers and wayfaring shepherds ran up to him to catch
+the music. The man flung down his pipe, snatched a trumpet from a
+bugler, and, springing up, blew a shrill blast. It was the "advance."
+Caesar turned again to his officers.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, "let us go where the omens of the gods and the
+iniquity of our enemies call us! _The die is now cast!"_
+
+And he strode over the bridge, looking neither to the right hand nor
+to the left. As his feet touched the dust of the road beyond, the full
+sun touched the horizon, the landscape was bathed with living,
+quivering gold, and the brightness shed itself over the steadfast
+countenance, not of Caesar the Proconsul, but of Caesar the Insurgent.
+
+The Rubicon was crossed!
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XVII
+
+The Profitable Career of Gabinius
+
+
+Very wretched had been the remnants of Dumnorix's band of gladiators,
+when nightfall had covered them from pursuit by the enraged
+Praenestians. And for some days the defeated assassins led a desperate
+struggle for existence on the uplands above the Latin plain. Then,
+when the hue and cry aroused by their mad exploit had died away,
+Dumnorix was able to reorganize his men into a regular horde of
+banditti. In the sheltered valleys of the upper Apennines they found
+moderately safe and comfortable fastnesses, and soon around them
+gathered a number of unattached highwaymen, who sought protection and
+profit in allying themselves with the band led by the redoubtable
+lanista. But if Dumnorix was the right arm of this noble company,
+Publius Gabinius was its head. The Roman had sorely missed the loss of
+the thousand and one luxuries that made his former life worth living.
+But, as has been said, he had become sated with almost every current
+amusement and vice; and when the freshness of the physical hardships
+of his new career was over, he discovered that he had just begun to
+taste joys of which he would not soon grow weary.
+
+And so for a while the bandits ranged over the mountains, infested the
+roads, stopped travellers to ease them of their purses, or even dashed
+down on outlying country houses, which they plundered, and left
+burning as beacons of their handiwork. Even this occupation after a
+time, however, grew monotonous to Gabinius. To be sure, a goodly pile
+of money was accumulating in the hut where he and Dumnorix, his
+fellow-leader, made their headquarters; and the bandits carried away
+with them to their stronghold a number of slave and peasant girls, who
+aided to make the camp the scene of enough riot and orgy to satisfy
+the most graceless; but Gabinius had higher ambitions than these. He
+could not spend the gold on dinner parties, or bronze statuettes; and
+the maidens picked up in the country made a poor contrast to his city
+sweethearts. Gabinius was planning a great piece of _finesse_. He had
+not forgotten Fabia; least of all had he forgotten how he had had her
+as it were in his very arms, and let her vanish from him as though she
+had been a "shade" of thin air. If he must be a bandit, he would be an
+original one. A Vestal taken captive by robbers! A Vestal imprisoned
+in the hold of banditti, forced to become the consort, lawful or
+unlawful, of the brigands' chief! The very thought grew and grew in
+Gabinius's imagination, until he could think of little else. Dumnorix
+and his comrades trusted him almost implicitly; he had been successful
+as their schemer and leader in several dark enterprises, that proved
+his craft if not his valour. He would not fail in this.
+
+An overmastering influence was drawing him to Rome. He took one or two
+fellow-spirits in his company, and ventured over hill and valley to
+the suburbs of the city on a reconnoissance, while by night he
+ventured inside the walls.
+
+The capital he found in the ferment that preceded the expulsion of the
+tribunes, on the fateful seventh of January. Along with many another
+evil-doer, he and his followers filched more than one wallet during
+the commotions and tumults. He dared not show himself very openly. His
+crime had been too notorious to be passed over, even if committed
+against a doomed Caesarian like Drusus; besides, he was utterly without
+any political influence that would stand him in good stead. But around
+the Atrium Vestae he lurked in the dark, spying out the land and
+waiting for a glimpse of Fabia. Once only his eye caught a white-robed
+stately figure appearing in the doorway toward evening, a figure which
+instinct told him was the object of his passion. He had to restrain
+himself, or he would have thrown off all concealment then and there,
+and snatched her away in his arms. He saved himself that folly, but
+his quest seemed hopeless. However weak the patrol in other parts of
+the city, there was always an ample watch around the Atrium Vestae.
+
+Gabinius saw that his stay around Rome was only likely to bring him
+into the clutches of the law, and reluctantly he started back, by a
+night journey in a stolen wagon, for the safer hill country beyond the
+Anio. But he was not utterly cast down. He had overheard the street
+talk of two equites, whom in more happy days he had known as rising
+politicians.
+
+"I hope the consuls are right," the first had said, "that Caesar's army
+will desert him."
+
+"_Perpol_," responded the other, "your wish is mine! If the proconsul
+really _does_ advance, nothing will stand between him and the city!"
+
+Gabinius kept his own counsel. "In times of war and confusion, the
+extremity of the many is the opportunity of the few," was the maxim he
+repeated to himself.
+
+When he was well out of the city and moving up the Via Salaria, the
+trot and rattle of an approaching carriage drifted up upon him.
+
+"Shall we stop and strip them?" asked Dromo, one of the accompanying
+brigands, in a matter-of-fact tone.
+
+"Ay," responded Gabinius, reining in his own plodding draught-horse,
+and pulling out a short sword. "Let us take what the Fates send!"
+
+A moment later and Servius Flaccus was being tumbled out of his
+comfortable travelling carriage, while one brigand stood guard over
+him with drawn sabre, a second held at bay his trembling driver and
+whimpering valet, and a third rifled his own person and his
+conveyance. There was a bright moon, and the luckless traveller's gaze
+fastened itself on the third bandit.
+
+"By all the gods, Gabinius!" cried Servius, forgetting to lisp his
+Greekisms, "don't you know me? Let me go, for old friendship's sake!"
+
+Gabinius turned from his task, and held to his nose a glass
+scent-bottle he had found in the vehicle.
+
+"Ah! amice," he responded deliberately, "I really did not anticipate
+the pleasure of meeting you thus! You are returning very late to Rome
+from your Fidenae villa. But this is very excellent oil of rose!"
+
+"Enough of this, man!" expostulated the other. "The jest has gone
+quite far enough. Make this horrible fellow lower that sword."
+
+"Not until I have finished making up my package of little articles,"
+replied Gabinius, "and," suiting the action to the word, "relieved
+your fingers of the weight of those very heavy rings."
+
+"Gabinius," roared Servius, in impotent fury, "what are you doing? Are
+you a common bandit?"
+
+"A bandit, my excellent friend," was his answer, "but not a common
+one; no ordinary footpad could strip the noble Servius Flaccus without
+a harder struggle."
+
+Servius burst into lamentations.
+
+"My box of unguents! My precious rings! My money-bag! You are not
+leaving me one valuable! Have you sunk as low as this?"
+
+"Really," returned the robber, "I have no time to convince you that
+the brigand's life is the only one worth living. You do not care to
+join our illustrious brotherhood? No? Well, I must put these trinkets
+and fat little wallet in my own wagon. I leave you your cloak out of
+old friendship's sake. Really you must not blame me. Remember
+Euripides's line:--
+
+  "'Money can warp the judgment of a God.'
+
+Thus I err in good company. And with this, _vale!_"
+
+Flaccus was left with his menials to clamber back into his plundered
+carriage. Gabinius drove his horse at topmost speed, and before
+morning was saluted by the remainder of the banditti, near their
+mountain stronghold. Dumnorix met him with news.
+
+"It is rumoured in the country towns that Caesar is driving all before
+him in the north, and will be down on Rome in less days than I have
+fingers."
+
+Gabinius clapped his hands.
+
+"And we will be down on Rome, and away from it, before a legionary
+shows himself at the gates!"
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XVIII
+
+How Pompeius Stamped with His Feet
+
+
+I
+
+A messenger to the consuls! He had ridden fast and furious, his horse
+was flecked with foam and straining on his last burst of speed. On
+over the Mulvian Bridge he thundered; on across the Campus Martius; on
+to the Porta Ratumena--with all the hucksters and street rabble
+howling and chasing at his heels.
+
+"News! News for the consuls!"
+
+"What news?" howled old Laeca, who was never backward in a street
+press.
+
+"Terrible!" shouted the messenger, drawing rein, "Caesar is sweeping
+all before him! All Thermus's troops have deserted him at Iguvium.
+Attius Varus has evacuated Auximum, and his troops too have dispersed,
+or joined Caesar. All the towns are declaring for the enemy. _Vah!_ He
+will be here in a few days at most! I am the last of the relay with
+the news. I have hardly breathed from Eretum!"
+
+And the courier plunged the spur into his hard-driven mount, and
+forced his way into the city, through the mob. "Caesar advancing on
+Rome!" The Jewish pedlers took up the tale, and carried it to the
+remotest tenement houses of Janiculum. The lazy street-idlers shouted
+it shrilly. Laeca, catching sight of Lucius Ahenobarbus, just back from
+Baiae, and a little knot of kindred spirits about him, was in an
+instant pouring it all in their ears. The news spread, flew, grew. The
+bankers on the Via Sacra closed their credit books, raised their
+shutters, and sent trusted clerks off to suburban villas, with due
+orders how to bury and hide weighty money-bags. The news came to that
+very noble lady Claudia, sister-in-law of the consul, just at the
+moment when she was discussing the latest style of hairdressing with
+the most excellent Herennia; and the cheeks of those patrician ladies
+grew pale, and they forgot whether or not it was proper to wear ivory
+pins or a jewel-set head-band, at the dinner-party of Lucius Piso that
+evening. The news came to Lentulus Crus while he was wrangling with
+Domitius as to who should be Caesar's successor as Pontifex
+Maximus--and those distinguished statesmen found other things to think
+of.
+
+The news flew and grew. The noble senators overheard their slaves
+whispering,--how it was rumoured on the street or in the Forum that
+Caesar was in full advance on the city, that his cavalry were close to
+the gates. Caesar at the gates! Why had they not remembered how rapidly
+he could advance? Why had they trusted the assurance of the traitor
+Labienus that the legions would desert their Imperator? Resist? By
+what means? The walls were walls only in name; the city had long
+outgrown them, spreading through a thousand breaches. There was not a
+trained soldier this side of Capua, whither Pompeius had departed only
+the day before to take command of the Apulian legions. Caesar was
+coming! Caesar--whose tribunes the oligarchs had chased from the
+Senate! Caesar--whom they had proclaimed a rebel and public enemy! He
+was coming like a second Marius, who thirty-eight years before had
+swept down on Rome, and taken a terrible vengeance on enemies less
+bitter to him than they to the great Julian. "_Moriendum est_,"[157]
+had been the only reply to every plea for mercy. And would Caesar now
+be more lenient to those who had aimed to blast his honour and shed
+his blood?
+
+  [157] He has got to die.
+
+Evening drew on, but the calamity was only delayed. There was not a
+soldier to confront the invader. Few men that night could sleep. Rich
+and poor alike, all trembled. To their imaginations their foe was an
+ogre, implacable, unsparing. "Remember how it was in Sulla's day,"
+croaked Laeca to Ahenobarbus. "Remember how he proscribed forty
+senators and sixteen hundred equites with one stroke. A fine example
+for Caesar! And Drusus, who is with the rebels, is little likely to say
+a good word in your behalf, eh?"
+
+"The gods blast your tongue!" cried the young man, wringing his hands
+in terror; for that Drusus would ruin him, if he gained the chance,
+Lucius had not the least doubt in the world.
+
+So passed the night, in fear and panic. When morning came everything
+save flight seemed suicide. There was a great government treasure in
+the Temple of Saturn. The Senate had voted that the money be delivered
+to Pompeius. But the consuls were too demoralized to take away a
+denarius. They left the great hoard under mere lock and key--a present
+to their bitterest enemy. Then began the great exodus. Hardly a man
+had done more than gather a few valuables together: property,
+children, wives--all these were left to the avenger. Down the Via
+Appia, toward Campania, where was their only safety, poured the
+panic-stricken company. Every carriage, every horse, was in service.
+The hard-driven chariots of the consuls were the tokens merely of the
+swiftest flight. Lentulus Crus fled; Caius Marcellus, his colleague,
+was close behind; Domitius fled, with his sons; Cato fled, ironically
+exclaiming that they would have to leave everything to Pompeius now,
+"for those who can raise up great evils can best allay them." Favonius
+fled, whose first words, when he met the Magnus, were to command him
+to "stamp on the ground for the legions so sorely needed." Piso,
+Scipio, and many another fled--their guilty hearts adding wings to
+their goings. Cicero fled--gazing in cynical disgust at the panic and
+incompetence, yet with a sword of Damocles, as he believed, hanging
+over his head also. "I fear that Caesar will be a very Phalaris, and
+that we may expect the very worst," he wrote to his intimate friend
+Atticus, who, safe from harm and turmoil, was dwelling under the calm
+Athenian sky. A great fraction of the Senate departed; only those
+stayed who felt that their loyalty to the advancing Imperator was
+beyond dispute, or who deemed themselves too insignificant to fall
+beneath his displeasure. In the hour of crisis the old ties of
+religion and superstition reasserted themselves. Senators and
+magistrates, who had deemed it a polite avocation to mock at the gods
+and deny the existence of any absolute ethical standards, now, before
+they climbed into their carriages for flight, went, with due ritual,
+into the temples of the gods of their fathers, and swore hecatombs of
+milk-white Umbrian steers to Capitoline Jove, if the awful deity would
+restore them to the native land they then were quitting. And as they
+went down from the temples and hastened toward the gates, friends and
+clients who could not join their flight crowded after them, sighing,
+lamenting, and moaning. Out over the Campagna they streamed, this
+company of senators, praetors, consuls--men who had voted thrones to
+kings, and decreed the deposition of monarchs; whose personal wealth
+was princely, whose lineage the noblest in the world, whose ancestors
+had beaten down Etruscan, Gaul, Samnite, and Carthaginian, that their
+posterity might enjoy the glory of unequalled empire. And these
+descendants fled, fled not before any foe, but before their own guilty
+consciences; abandoning the city of their fathers when not a sword had
+flashed against her gates! The war had been of their making; to send
+Caesar into outlawry the aristocracy had laboured ten long years. And
+now the noble lords were exiles, wanderers among the nations. To Capua
+they went, to find small comfort there, and thence to join Pompeius in
+further flight beyond the seas to Greece. But we anticipate. Enough
+that neither Lentulus Crus, nor Domitius, nor Cato, nor the great
+Magnus himself, ever saw Rome again.
+
+
+II
+
+Agias stood in a shop by the Sacred Way watching the stream of
+fugitives pouring down toward the Porta Capena. At his side was a
+person whom a glance proclaimed to be a fellow-Greek. The stranger was
+perhaps fifty, his frame presented a faultless picture of symmetry and
+manly vigour, great of stature, the limbs large but not ungainly. His
+features were regular, but possessed just enough prominence to make
+them free from the least tinge of weakness. The Greek's long, thick,
+dark but grey-streaked beard streamed down upon his breast; his hair,
+of similar hue, was long, and tossed back over his shoulders in loose
+curls. His dress was rich, yet rude, his chiton and cloak short, but
+of choice Milesian wool and dyed scarlet and purple; around his neck
+dangled a very heavy gold chain set with conspicuously blazing jewels.
+The ankles, however, were bare, and the sandals of the slightest and
+meanest description. The stranger must once have been of a light, not
+to say fair, complexion; but cheeks, throat, arms, and feet were all
+deeply bronzed, evidently by prolonged exposure to wind and weather.
+Agias and his companion watched the throng of panic-struck exiles. The
+younger Greek was pointing out, with the complacency of familiar
+knowledge, the names and dignities of the illustrious fugitives.
+
+"Yonder goes Cato," he was saying; "mark his bitter scowl! There goes
+Marcus Marcellus, the consular. There drives the chariot of Lucius
+Domitius, Caesar's great enemy." And Agias stopped, for his friend had
+seized his arm with a sudden grasp, crushing as iron. "Why, by all
+the gods, Demetrius, why are you staring at him that way?"
+
+"By Zeus!" muttered the other, "if I had only my sword! It would be
+easy to stab him, and then escape in this crowd!"
+
+"Stab him!" cried Agias. "Demetrius, good cousin, control yourself.
+You are not on the deck of your trireme, with all your men about you.
+Why should you be thus sanguinary, when you see Lucius Domitius? Why
+hate him more than any other Roman?"
+
+The consular, unaware of the threat against him, but with a compelling
+fear of Caesar's Gallic cavalry lending strength to the arm with which
+he plied the whip--for the law against driving inside the city no man
+respected that day--whirled out of sight.
+
+Demetrius still strained at his cousin's arm.
+
+"Listen, Agias," he said, still hoarsely. "Only yesterday I ran upon
+you by chance in the crowd. We have many things to tell one another,
+chiefly I to tell you. Why do I hate Lucius Domitius? Why should you
+hate him? Who made you a slave and me an outlaw? Your father died
+bankrupt; you know it was said that Philias, his partner, ruined him.
+That was truth, but not the whole truth. Philias was under deep
+obligations to a certain Roman then in the East, who knew of several
+crimes Philias had committed, crimes that would bring him to the cross
+if discovered. Do you understand?"
+
+"Hardly," said Agias, still bewildered. "I was very young then."
+
+"I will go on. It was shortly before Pompeius returned to Rome from
+the East. Your father had charge of the banking firm in Alexandria,
+Philias of the branch at Antioch. I was a clerk in the Antioch
+banking-house. I knew that Philias was misusing his partner's name and
+credit. The Roman whom I have mentioned knew it too, and had a supple
+Greek confidant who shared his spoils and gave the touches to his
+schemes. He had good cause to know: he was levying blackmail on
+Philias. At last a crisis came; the defalcation could be concealed no
+longer. Philias was duly punished; he was less guilty than he seemed.
+But the Roman--who had forced from him the money--he was high on the
+staff of the proconsul--let his confederate and tool suffer for his
+own fault. He kept his peace. I would not have kept mine; I would not
+have let the real ruiner of my uncle escape. But the Roman had me
+seized, with the aid of his Greek ally; he charged me with treasonable
+correspondence with the Parthians. He, through his influence with the
+proconsul, had me bound to the oar as a galley slave for life. I would
+have been executed but for another Roman, of the governor's suite, who
+was my friend. He pleaded for my life; he believed me innocent. He
+saved my life--on what terms! But that is not all he did. He bribed my
+guards; I escaped and turned outlaw. I joined the last remnants of the
+Cilician pirates, the few free mariners who have survived Pompeius's
+raid. And here I am in Rome with one of my ships, disguised as a
+trader, riding at the river wharf."
+
+"And the name of the Roman who ruined you and my father?" said Agias.
+
+"Was Lucius Domitius. The friend who saved me was Sextus Drusus, son
+of Marcus Drusus, the reformer. And if I do not recompense them both
+as they deserve, I am not Demetrius the pirate, captain of seven
+ships!"
+
+"You will never recompense Sextus Drusus," remarked Agias, quietly.
+"He has been dead, slain in Gaul, these five years."
+
+"Such is the will of the gods," said Demetrius, looking down.
+
+"But he has left a son."
+
+"Ah! What sort of a man?"
+
+"The noblest of all noble Romans. He is the Quintus Drusus who saved
+my life, as last night I told you."
+
+"Mithras be praised! The name is so common among these Latins that I
+did not imagine any connection when you mentioned it. What can I do to
+serve him?"
+
+"Immediately, nothing. He is with Caesar, and, as you see, the enemies
+of the Imperator are not likely, at present, to work his friends much
+mischief. Yet it is singular that his chief enemy and yours are so
+near akin. Lucius Ahenobarbus, son of Domitius, is thirsting for
+Drusus's blood."
+
+"If I had my sword!" muttered Demetrius, clapping his hand to his
+thigh. "It is not too late to run after the fugitives!"
+
+"Come, come," remonstrated Agias, feeling that his newly found cousin
+was indeed a fearful and wonderful man after twelve years of lawless
+and godless freebooter's life. "At my lodgings we will talk it all
+over; and there will be time enough to scheme the undoing of Domitius
+and all his family."
+
+And with these words he led the sanguinary sea-king away.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Agias indeed found in Demetrius a perfect mine of bloody romance and
+adventure. It had been the banking clerk's misfortune, not his fault,
+that every man's hand had been against him and his against every man.
+Demetrius had been declared an outlaw to Roman authority; and Roman
+authority at that time stretched over very nearly every quarter of the
+civilized world. Demetrius had been to India, to intercept the Red Sea
+traders. He had been beyond the Pillars of Hercules and set foot on
+those then half-mythical islands of the Canaries. He had plundered a
+hundred merchantmen; he had fought a score of Roman government
+galleys; he had been principal or accessory to the taking of ten
+thousand lives. All this had been forced upon him, because there was
+no tolerable spot on the planet where he might settle down and be free
+from the grasp of punishment for a crime he had never committed.
+
+Demetrius had boldly come up to Rome on a light undecked yacht.[158]
+The harbor masters had been given to understand that the captain of
+the craft was an Asiatic princeling, who was visiting the capital of
+the world out of a quite legitimate curiosity. If they had had any
+doubts, they accepted extremely large fees and said nothing. The real
+object of the venture was to dispose of a large collection of rare
+gems and other valuables that Demetrius had collected in the course of
+his wanderings. Despite the perturbed state of the city, the worthy
+pirate had had little difficulty in arranging with certain wealthy
+jewellers, who asked no questions, when they bought, at a very large
+discount, bargains of a most satisfactory character. And so it came to
+pass, by the merest luck, that the two cousins were thrown together in
+a crowd, and partly Agias, through his dim childish recollections of
+his unfortunate relative, and partly Demetrius, through memories of
+his uncle's boy and the close resemblance of the lad to his father,
+had been prompted first to conversation, then to mutual inquiries,
+then to recognition.
+
+  [158] A _celox_ of one bank of oars, a small ship much used by
+  the pirates.
+
+Demetrius had no intention of leaving Rome for a few days. Under
+existing circumstances the chances of his arrest were not worth
+considering. His cousin was eager to show him all the sights; and the
+freebooter was glad of a little relaxation from his roving life, glad
+to forget for an instant that his country was his squadron, his rights
+at law were his cutlass. Moreover, he had taken a vast liking to
+Agias; deeply dipped in blood himself, he dared not desire his cousin
+to join him in his career of violence--yet he could not part with the
+bright, genial lad so hastily. Agias needed no entreaties, therefore,
+to induce his cousin to enjoy his hospitality.
+
+
+III
+
+Fabia the Vestal was in direful perplexity. Her heart had gone with
+Drusus in his flight to Ravenna; she had wished herself beside him, to
+be a man, able to fight a man's battles and win a man's glory. For the
+first time in her life the quiet routine of the Temple service brought
+her no contentment; for the first time she felt herself bound to a
+career that could not satisfy. She was restless and moody. The younger
+Vestals, whose attendance on the sacred fire and care of the Temple
+she oversaw, wondered at her exacting petulance. Little Livia brought
+her aunt to her senses, by asking why she, Fabia, did not love her any
+more. The lady summoned all her strength of character, and resumed her
+outward placidity. She knew that Drusus was safe with Caesar, and
+exposed only to the ordinary chances of war. She became more at ease
+as each successive messenger came into the city, bearing the tidings
+of the Gallic proconsul's advance. Too innocent herself of the
+political turmoils of the day to decide upon the merits of the
+parties, her hopes and wishes had gone with those of her nephew; so
+pure and unquestioning was her belief that he would espouse only the
+right. And when the great panic came; when trembling consulars and
+pallid magistrates rushed to the Temple of Vesta to proffer their last
+hurried vows, before speeding away to Capua, their refuge; Fabia stood
+all day beside the altar, stately, gracious, yet awe-inspiring, the
+fitting personification of the benignant Hearth Goddess, who was above
+the petty passions of mortals and granted to each an impartial favour.
+
+Yet Fabia was sorely distressed, and that too on the very day of the
+great exodus of the Senate. She had heard for some time past rumours
+of the depredations of a certain band of robbers upon the Sabine and
+AEquian country. It was said that a gang of bandits, headed by a
+gigantic Gaul, had plundered some farms near Carsioli and infested the
+mountain regions round about. Fabia had connected this gang and its
+chieftain with Dumnorix and the remnant of his gladiators, who escaped
+after their disastrous affray at Praeneste. As for Publius Gabinius,
+who had on one occasion given her such distress, nothing had been
+heard or seen of him since the Praeneste affair. It was generally
+believed, however, that he was still with Dumnorix. And a few days
+before the panic in the city, Fabia had received a letter. A strange
+slave had left it at the Atrium Vestae, and had gone away without
+explanations. It ran thus:--
+
+"To the very noble Vestal, the Lady Fabia, greeting:--
+
+Though I am now so unfortunate as to be barred from the doors of all
+law-abiding men, do not imagine this will forever continue. In the
+confusion and readjustments of war, and the calamities of many, the
+affairs of some, one time enemies of Fortune, come to a happy issue.
+Do not say that Mars may not lead Amor and Hymen in his train. All
+things come to them who wait. I wait. Remember the life you spend in
+the Temple is no longer obligatory. Be no cage bird who will not fly
+out into the sunlight when the door is opened freely. Be surprised and
+angry at nothing. _Vale_."
+
+There was no date, no signature. The hand was distorted, evidently for
+disguise. Fabia was in a dilemma. She did not need to be told that in
+all probability--though she had no proof--the writer was Gabinius. She
+was extremely reluctant to tell any one of her escape from his
+clutches in the villa by the Appian Way. However, some confidant
+seemed necessary. She knew that Fonteia, the senior Vestal, the
+Maxima, would never treat her other than as a sister, and to her she
+read the letter and imparted her story and fears. Fonteia did not
+regard the matter in a very serious light. She was herself an old
+woman, grown grey in the service of Vesta. She said that Fabia had
+been most fortunate to remain in the Temple service so long as she had
+and not be harassed by more than one impious and overbold suitor. The
+only thing to do was to be careful and avoid anything that would give
+false appearances. As for Fabia's fears that Gabinius would attempt to
+carry her away perforce, as he had perhaps treated earlier
+sweethearts, Fonteia scoffed at the suggestion. The Atrium Vestae was
+in the heart of the city; there was a constant patrol on duty. For a
+man to enter the Building at night meant the death penalty. Whosoever
+did violence to a Vestal fell under a religious curse; he was a _homo
+sacer_, a "sacred man," a victim devoted to the gods, whom it was a
+pious deed to slay. And thus comforted, with the assurance that the
+whole power of the Republic would rise for her personal defence, Fabia
+was fain to put the disquieting letter from her heart.
+
+Then followed the night of panic, and the succeeding day. There were
+no longer any magistrates in Rome. The great palaces of the patricians
+stood deserted, exposed to the unfaithful guardianship of freedmen and
+slaves. The bankers' booths were closed, the shops did not raise their
+shutters. On the streets swarmed the irresponsible and the vicious.
+Men of property who had not fled barred their doors and stood guard
+with their servants to beat back would-be plunderers. There were no
+watchmen at the gates, no courts sitting in the basilicas. After the
+great flight of the early morning, Rome was a city without warders,
+police, or government.
+
+Fabia did not realize this fact until late in the afternoon, when she
+started forth, on foot and unattended, to visit a friend on the
+Caelian. The half-deserted streets and barricaded houses filled her
+with uneasy tremors. The low, brutish creatures that she met gave her
+little heed; but the sight of them, alone and not offset by any more
+respectable fellow-strollers, made her turn back to the Atrium Vestae.
+As she hastened on her way homeward an uneasy sensation haunted her
+that she was being followed. She halted, faced about. The street was
+narrow, the light was beginning to fade. The figure of a man was
+vanishing in the booth of some bold vintner, who had ventured to risk
+plunder for the sake of sales. She proceeded. A moment later a half
+glance over the shoulder and a straining of the eyes told her that the
+stranger was continuing his pursuit. He kept very close to the side of
+the buildings. His face and form were quite lost in shadow. Fabia
+quickened her pace; the stranger increased his also, yet made no
+effort to cut down the distance between them. The Vestal began to feel
+the blood mantling to her cheeks and leaving them again. She was so
+near to the Forum and the Atrium Vestae now that she could not be
+overtaken. But why did the stranger follow?
+
+There was a gap in the houses ahead. Through a narrow alley the dying
+light was streaming. Fabia passed it, timed herself, glanced back. For
+an instant, and only an instant (for the stranger walked rapidly), the
+light glared full upon his face. But Fabia needed to see no more. It
+was the face of Publius Gabinius. By a mighty effort she prevented
+herself from breaking into a run. She passed into the doorway of the
+Atrium Vestae, and sank upon a divan, shivering with fright.
+Recollecting herself, she went to Fonteia and told her the discovery.
+The Maxima, however, by that singular fatuity which sometimes takes
+possession of the wisest of people,--especially when the possible
+danger is one which never in all their long experience has come to a
+head,--received her warnings with blank incredulity.
+
+"You should not go out of the house and Temple," she said, "until
+there is some proper policing of the city. No doubt Gabinius has come
+back for the sake of riot and plunder, and having met with you by
+chance could not resist the temptation to try to have an interview;
+but you are in no possible danger here."
+
+"But, Fonteia," urged the younger Vestal, "I know him to be a bold,
+desperate man, who fears not the gods, and who from the law can expect
+no mercy. And we in this house are but weak women folk. Our only
+defence is our purity and the reverence of the people. But only the
+evil wander the streets to-night; and our virtuous lives make us only
+the more attractive prey to such men as Gabinius."
+
+"Fabia," said the other Vestal, severely, "I am older than you. I have
+beheld sights you have never seen. I saw the riots when Saturninus and
+Glaucia came to their ends; when Marius was chased from Rome and
+Sulpicius put to death; when Marius returned with Cinna; and all the
+massacres and strife attending the taking of the city by Sulla. But
+never has the name of Vesta been insufficient to protect us from the
+violence of the basest or the most godless. Nor will it now. I will
+trust in the goddess, and the fear of her, which protects her maidens
+against all men. We will sleep to-night as usual. I will not send
+anywhere to have guards stationed around the house and Temple."
+
+Fabia bowed her head. The word of the aged Maxima was law in the
+little community. Fabia told herself that Fonteia was right--not even
+Gabinius would dare to set unhallowed foot inside the Atrium Vestae.
+But the vision of the coarse, sensual face of her unloved lover was
+ever before her. In ordinary times she would have been tempted to go
+to one of the consuls and demand that Fonteia be overruled; but in
+ordinary times there would not have been the least need of adding to
+the already sufficient city watch. It lacked four hours of midnight
+before she brought herself to take her tablets and write the following
+brief note:--
+
+"Fabia the Vestal to Agias her good friend, greeting. I am in some
+anxiety to-night. Gabinius, Lucius Ahenobarbus's friend, is in the
+city. He means, I fear, to work me some mischief, though the cause
+whereby I have good reason to dread him is too long here to write. The
+Atrium Vestae has nothing to protect it to-night--as you well may
+understand--from impious, violent men. Can you not guard me overnight?
+I do not know how. Gabinius may have all Dumnorix's band with him. But
+you alone are equal to an host. I trust you, as Drusus and Cornelia
+have trusted you. _Vale_."
+
+Fabia called one of the young slave-girls who waited on the Vestals.
+The relation between servant and mistress, in the Temple company, was
+almost ideal in its gentle loyalty. The slaves were happy in their
+bondage.
+
+"Erigone," she said, putting the tablets in the girl's hand, "I am
+about to ask of you a very brave thing. Do you dare to take this
+letter through the city?" and she told her how to find Agias's
+lodgings. "Come back in the morning if you dread a double journey. But
+do not tell Fonteia; she would be angry if she knew I sent you, though
+there is nothing but what is right in the letter."
+
+"I will carry the tablets to Scythia for you, domina," replied the
+girl, kissing the hem of her mistress's robe. "I know all the streets.
+If I live, the letter shall be delivered."
+
+"Go by the alleys," enjoined Fabia; "they are safer, for you will not
+be seen. Speak to no one. Let none stop you."
+
+Erigone was gone in the night, and Fabia went to her chamber. She was
+reproaching herself for having sent the letter. Rome by darkness was
+an evil place for a young maid to traverse, and never worse than that
+night. Fabia repeated to herself that she had committed an act of
+selfish folly, possibly sacrificing an implicitly loyal servant to the
+mere gratification of a perfectly ungrounded panic. She was undressed
+by her other women, and lay down with Livia fast asleep in her arms;
+and she kissed the little one again and again before slumber stole
+over her.
+
+
+IV
+
+Demetrius had been astonishing his cousin that evening by the quantity
+of strong wine he could imbibe without becoming in the least tipsy.
+Agias marvelled at the worthy pirate's capacity and hardness of head,
+and, fortunately for his own wits, did not attempt to emulate the
+other's potations. Consequently, as the evening advanced, Demetrius
+simply became more and more good-natured and talkative, and Agias more
+entranced with his cousin's narration of the Indian voyage.
+
+The younger Greek was about to order his yawning servants to fill up
+another _krater_,[159] when the conversation and drinking were
+interrupted by the arrival of Erigone. She, poor girl, had set out
+bravely enough; but once outside of the Atrium Vestae every shadow had
+been a refuge of cutthroats, every noise the oncoming of goblins.
+Fortunately for her, she did not know the contents of the tablets she
+carried pressed to her breast, or she would have been all the more
+timorous. Once a few half-sober topers screamed ribald words after
+her, as she stole past a low tavern. She had lost her way, in the
+darkness and fright, among the alleys; she had dodged into a doorway
+more than once to hide from approaching night rovers. But at last she
+had reached her destination, and, pale and weary, placed the letter in
+Agias's hands. The young Greek read and grew grave. Even better than
+Fabia he understood how reckless a profligate Publius Gabinius might
+be, and how opportune was the night for carrying out any deed of
+darkness.
+
+  [159] Wine-mixing bowl.
+
+"Brave girl!" he said, commending Erigone for persevering on her
+errand. "But how long ago did you leave your mistress?"
+
+"It was the second hour of the night[160] when I started," she
+replied.
+
+  [160] The Romans divided the night into 12 hours (from sunrise to
+  sunset); thus the length of the hour varied with the seasons: but
+  at the time here mentioned the "second hour" was about 8 P.M. The
+  water-clocks could show only regular, not solar, time.
+
+Agias glanced at the water-clock.
+
+"By Zeus!" he cried, "it is now the fourth hour! You have been two
+hours on the way! Immortal gods! What's to be done? Look here,
+Demetrius!"
+
+And he thrust the letter before his cousin, and explained its meaning
+as rapidly as he could.
+
+Demetrius puffed hard through his nostrils.
+
+"_Mu! mu!_ This is bad business. If there were time I could have
+twenty as stout men as ever swung sword up from the yacht and on guard
+to die for any relative or friend of Sextus Drusus. But there's not a
+moment to lose. Have you any arms?"
+
+Agias dragged two short swords out of a chest. Demetrius was already
+throwing on his cloak.
+
+"Those are poor, light weapons," commented the pirate. "I want my
+heavy cutlass. But take what the gods send;" and he girded one about
+him. "At least, they will cut a throat. Do you know how to wield
+them?"
+
+"After a fashion," replied Agias, modestly, making haste to clasp his
+paenula.
+
+Leaving Erigone to be cared for by the slaves and sent home the next
+morning, the two Greeks hastened from the house. Agias could hardly
+keep pace with his cousin's tremendous stride. Demetrius was like a
+war-horse, which snuffs the battle from afar and tugs at the rein to
+join in the fray. They plunged through the dark streets. Once a man
+sprang out from a doorway before them with a cudgel. He may have been
+a footpad; but Demetrius, without pausing in his haste, smote the
+fellow between the eyes with a terrible fist, and the wretched
+creature dropped without a groan. Demetrius seemed guided to the Forum
+and Via Sacra as if by an inborn instinct. Agias almost ran at his
+heels.
+
+"How many may this Dumnorix have with him?" shouted the pirate over
+his shoulder.
+
+"Perhaps ten, perhaps twenty!" gasped Agias.
+
+"A very pretty number! Some little credit to throttle them," was his
+answer; and Demetrius plunged on.
+
+The night was cloudy, there was no moonlight. The cold, chill wind
+swept down the Tiber valley, and howled mournfully among the tall,
+silent basilicas and temples of the Forum. The feet of the two Greeks
+echoed and reëchoed as they crossed the pavement of the enclosure.
+None addressed them, none met them. It was as if they walked in a city
+of the dead. In the darkness, like weird phantoms, rose the tall
+columns and pediments of the deserted buildings. From nowhere twinkled
+the ray of lamp. Dim against the sky-line the outlines of the
+Capitoline and its shrines were now and then visible, when the night
+seemed for an instant to grow less dark.
+
+They were close to the Atrium Vestae. All was quiet. No light within,
+no sound but that of the wind and their own breathing without.
+
+"We are not too late," whispered Agias.
+
+The two groped their way in among the pillars of the portico of the
+_Regia,_[161] and crouched down under cover of the masonry, half
+sheltered from the chilly blasts. They could from their post command a
+tolerably good view of one side of the Atrium Vestae. Still the
+darkness was very great, and they dared not divide their force by one
+of them standing watch on the other side. The moments passed. It was
+extremely cold. Agias shivered and wound himself in his mantle. The
+wine was making him drowsy, and he felt himself sinking into
+semiconsciousness, when a touch on his arm aroused him.
+
+  [161] The official residence of the Pontifex Maximus.
+
+"_St!"_ whispered Demetrius. "I saw a light moving."
+
+Agias stared into the darkness.
+
+"There," continued the pirate, "see, it is a lantern carefully
+covered! Only a little glint on the ground now and then. Some one is
+creeping along the wall to enter the house of the Vestals!"
+
+"I see nothing," confessed Agias, rubbing his eyes.
+
+"You are no sailor; look harder. I can count four men in the gloom.
+They are stealing up to the gate of the building. Is your sword ready?
+Now--"
+
+But at this instant Demetrius was cut short by a scream--scream of
+mortal terror--from within the Atrium Vestae. There were shouts, howls,
+commands, moans, entreaties, shrieks. Light after light blazed up in
+the building; women rushed panic-struck to the doorway to burst forth
+into the night; and at the open portal Agias saw a gigantic figure
+with upraised long sword, a Titan, malevolent, destroying,
+terrible,--at the sight whereof the women shrank back, screaming yet
+the more.
+
+"Dumnorix!" shouted Agias; but before he spoke Demetrius had leaped
+forward.
+
+Right past the sword-wielding monster sprang the pirate, and Agias,
+all reckless, was at his heels. The twain were in the atrium of the
+house. A torch was spluttering and blazing on the pavement, shedding
+all around a bright, flickering, red glare. Young Vestals and
+maid-servants were cowering on their knees, or prone on cushions,
+writhing and screaming with fear unspeakable. A swart Spanish brigand,
+with his sabre gripped in his teeth, was tearing a gold-thread and
+silk covering from a pillow; a second plunderer was wrenching from its
+chain a silver lamp. Demetrius rushed past these also, before any
+could inquire whether he was not a comrade in infamy. But there were
+other shouts from the peristylium, other cries and meanings. As the
+pirate sprang to the head of the passage leading to the inner house, a
+swarm of desperadoes poured through it, Gauls, Germans, Africans,
+Italian renegadoes,--perhaps ten in all,--and in their midst--half
+borne, half dragged--something white!
+
+"_Io triumphe!_" called a voice from the throng, "my bird will leave
+her cage!"
+
+"The lady! Gabinius!" cried Agias, and, without waiting for his
+cousin, the young Greek flung himself forward. One stroke of his short
+sword sent a leering negro prone upon the pavement; one snatch of his
+hand seized the white mantle, and held it--held it though half a dozen
+blades were flashing in his face in an eye's twinkling. But the
+prowess of twenty men was in the arm of Demetrius; his sword was at
+once attacker and shield; with a single sweeping blow he smote down
+the guard and cleft the skull of a towering Teuton; with a lightning
+dart he caught up the ponderous long sword of the falling brigand,
+passed his own shorter weapon to his left hand, and so fought,--doubly
+armed,--parrying with his left and striking with his right. And how he
+struck! The whole agile, supple nature of the Greek entered into every
+fence. He struck and foiled with his entire body. Now a bound to one
+side; now a dart at an opponent's head; fighting with feet, head,
+frame, and not with hands only. And Agias--he fought too, and knew not
+how he fought! When a blow was aimed at him, Demetrius always parried
+it before he could raise his sword; if he struck, Demetrius had felled
+the man first; but he never let go of the white dress, nor quitted the
+side of the lady. And presently, he did not know after how long--for
+hours make minutes, and minutes hours, in such a melee--there was a
+moment's silence, and he saw Publius Gabinius sinking down upon the
+pavement, the blood streaming over his cloak; and the brigands, such
+as were left of them, scurrying out of the atrium cowed and
+panic-struck at the fall of their leader. Then, as he threw his arms
+about Fabia, and tried to raise her to her feet, he saw the giant
+Dumnorix, with his flail-like sword, rushing back to the rescue.
+
+Four brigands lay dead in the atrium and none of the others dared look
+the redoubtable Greek swordsman in the eyes; but Dumnorix came on--the
+incarnation of brute fury. Then again Demetrius fought,--fought as the
+angler fights the fish that he doubts not to land, yet only after due
+play; and the Gaul, like some awkward Polyphemus, rushed upon him,
+flinging at him barbarous curses in his own tongue, and snorting and
+raging like a bull. Thrice the Greek sprang back before the monster;
+thrice the giant swung his mighty sword to cleave his foeman down, and
+cut the empty air; but at the fourth onset the Hellene smote the
+ex-lanista once across the neck, and the great eyes rolled, and the
+panting stopped, and the mighty Gaul lay silent in a spreading pool of
+blood.
+
+Already there were shouts and cries in the Forum. Torches were dancing
+hither and thither. The slave-maids of the Vestals ran down the Via
+Sacra shrieking and calling for aid. Out from the dark tenements
+rushed the people. The thieves ran from their lairs; the late drinkers
+sprang from their wine. And when the wretched remnants of Dumnorix's
+band of ex-gladiators and brigands strove to flee from the holy house
+they had polluted, a hundred hands were put forth against each one,
+and they were torn to pieces by the frenzied mob. Into the Atrium
+Vestae swarmed the people, howling, shouting, praising the goddess,
+fighting one another--every man imagining his neighbour a cutthroat
+and abductor.
+
+Agias stood bearing up Fabia in his arms; she was pale as the driven
+snow. Her lips moved, but no sound passed from them. Fonteia, the old
+Maxima, with her white hair tumbling over her shoulders, was still
+huddled in one corner, groaning and moaning in a paroxysm of
+unreasoning terror, without dignity or self-control. A frightened maid
+had touched the torch to the tall candelabra, and the room blazed with
+a score of lights; while in at the doorway pressed the multitude--the
+mob of low tapsters, brutal butchers, coarse pedlers, and drunkards
+just staggering from their cups. The scene was one of pandemonium.
+Dumnorix lay prone on a costly rug, whose graceful patterns were being
+dyed to a hideous crimson; over one divan lay a brigand--struggling in
+the last agony of a mortal wound. Three comrades lay stretched stiff
+and motionless on the floor. Gory swords and daggers were strewn all
+over the atrium; the presses of costly wood had been torn open, their
+contents scattered across the room. There was blood on the frescoes,
+blood on the marble feet of the magnificent Diomedes, which stood
+rigid in cold majesty on its pedestal, dominating the wreck below.
+
+Agias with Fabia stood at the end of the atrium near the exit to the
+peristylium. Demetrius, seemingly hardly breathed by his exertions,
+leaned on his captured long sword at his cousin's side. The multitude,
+for an instant, as they saw the ruin and slaughter, drew back with a
+hush. Men turned away their faces as from a sight of evil omen. Who
+were they to set foot in the mansion of the servants of the awful
+Vesta? But others from behind, who saw and heard nothing, pressed
+their fellows forward. The mob swept on. As with one consent all eyes
+were riveted on Fabia. What had happened? Who was guilty? Why had
+these men of violence done this wrong to the home of the hearth
+goddess? And then out of a farther corner, while yet the people
+hesitated from reverence, staggered a figure, its face streaming with
+blood, its hands pressing its side.
+
+"_Quirites_," cried a voice, the voice of one speaking with but one
+remaining breath, "ye have rewarded me as the law demands; see that
+_she_" and a bloody forefinger pointed at Fabia, "who led me to this
+deed, is not unpunished. _She_ is the more guilty!"
+
+And with a groan the figure fell like a statue of wood to the
+pavement; fell heavily, and lay stirring not, neither giving any
+sound. In his last moment Publius Gabinius had sought a terrible
+revenge.
+
+And then madness seized on the people.
+
+"She is his sweetheart! She is his paramour!" cried a score of filthy
+voices. "She has brought down this insult to the goddess! There is no
+pontifex here to try her! Tear her in pieces! Strike! Slay!"
+
+But Demetrius had turned to his cousin.
+
+"Agias," he said, making himself heard despite the clamour, "do you
+believe the charge of that man?"
+
+"No villain ever would avenge himself more basely."
+
+"Then at all costs we must save the lady."
+
+It was time. A fat butcher, flourishing a heavy cleaver, had leaped
+forward; Fabia saw him with glassy, frightened eyes, but neither
+shrieked nor drew back. But Demetrius smote the man with his long
+sword through the body, and the brute dropped the cleaver as he fell.
+
+"Now," and Demetrius seized the Vestal around the waist, as lightly as
+a girl would raise a kitten, and flung her across his shoulders. One
+stride and he was in the passage leading to the peristylium; and
+before the mob could follow Agias had dashed the door in their faces,
+and shot the bolt.
+
+"It will hold them back a moment," muttered Demetrius, "but we must
+hasten."
+
+They ran across the peristylium, the pirate chief with his burden no
+less swift than Agias. The door to the rear street was flung open, and
+they were out in a narrow alleyway. Just as they did so, a howl of
+many voices proclaimed that the peristylium door had yielded.
+
+"Guide me by the straightest way," commanded the sea rover.
+
+"Where?" was Agias's question.
+
+"To the wharves. The yacht is the only safe place for the lady. There
+I will teach her how I can honour a friend of Sextus Drusus."
+
+Agias felt that it was no time for expostulation. A Vestal Virgin take
+refuge on a pirate ship! But it was a matter of life and death now,
+and there was no time for forming another plan. Once let the mob
+overtake them, and the lives of all three were not worth a sesterce.
+Agias found it necessary to keep himself collected while he ran, or he
+would lose the way in the maze of streets. The yacht was moored far
+below the Pons Sublicius, and the whole way was full of peril. It was
+no use to turn off into alleys and by-paths; to do so at night meant
+to be involved in a labyrinth as deadly for them as that of the Cretan
+Minos. The mob was on their heels, howling, raging. The people were
+beginning to wake in their houses along the streets. Men bawled "Stop
+thief!" from the windows, imagining there had been a robbery. Once two
+or three figures actually swung out into the way before them, but at a
+stray glint of lantern light falling on Demetrius's naked long sword,
+they vanished in the gloom. But still the mob pressed on, ever gaining
+accessions, ever howling the more fiercely. Agias realized that the
+weight of his burden was beginning to tell on even the iron frame of
+his cousin. The pursuers and pursued were drawing closer together. The
+mob was ever reenforced by relays; the handicap on Demetrius was too
+great. They had passed down the Vicus Tuscus, flown past the dark
+shadow of the lower end of the Circus Maximus. At the Porta Trigemina
+the unguarded portal had stood open; there was none to stop them. They
+passed by the Pons Sublicius, and skirted the Aventine. Stones and
+billets of wood began to whistle past their ears,--the missiles of the
+on-rushing multitude. At last the wharves! Out in the darkness stood
+the huge bulk of a Spanish lumberman; but there was no refuge there.
+The grain wharves and the oil wharves were passed; the sniff of the
+mackerel fisher, the faint odour from the great Alexandrian
+merchantman loaded with the spices of India, were come and gone. A
+stone struck Agias in the shoulder, he felt numb in one arm, to drag
+his feet was a burden; the flight with the Caesarians to the Janiculum
+had not been like to this,--death at the naked sword had been at least
+in store then, and now to be plucked in pieces by a mob! Another stone
+brushed forward his hair and dashed, not against Demetrius ahead, but
+against his burden. There was--Agias could hear--a low moan; but at
+the same instant the fleeing pirate uttered a whistle so loud, so
+piercing, that the foremost pursuers came to a momentary stand, in
+half-defined fright, In an instant there came an answering whistle
+from the wharf just ahead. In a twinkling half a dozen torches had
+flashed out all over a small vessel, now barely visible in the night,
+at one of the mooring rings. There was a strange jargon of voices
+calling in some Oriental tongue; and Demetrius, as he ran, answered
+them in a like language. Then over Agias's head and into the thick
+press of the mob behind, something--arrows no doubt--flew whistling;
+and there were groans and cries of pain. And Agias found uncouth,
+bearded men helping or rather casting him over the side of the vessel.
+The yacht was alive with men: some were bounding ashore to loose the
+hawsers, others were lifting ponderous oars, still more were shooting
+fast and cruelly in the direction of the mob, while its luckless
+leaders struggled to turn in flight, and the multitude behind,
+ignorant of the slaughter, was forcing them on to death. Above the
+clamour, the howls of the mob, the shouts of the sailors, the grating
+of oars, and the creaking of cables, rang the voice of Demetrius; and
+at his word a dozen ready hands put each command into action. The
+narrow, easy-moving yacht caught the current; a long tier of white
+oars glinted in the torchlight, smote the water, and the yacht bounded
+away, while a parting flight of arrows left misery and death upon the
+quay.
+
+Agias, sorely bewildered, clambered on to the little poop. His cousin
+stood grasping one of the steering paddles; the ruddy lantern light
+gleamed on the pirate's frame and face, and made him the perfect
+personification of a sea-king; he was some grandly stern Poseidon, the
+"Storm-gatherer" and the "Earth-shaker." When he spoke to Agias, it
+was in the tone of a despot to a subject.
+
+"The lady is below. Go to her. You are to care for her until I rejoin
+my fleet. Tell her my sister shall not be more honoured than she, nor
+otherwise treated. When I am aboard my flag-ship, she shall have
+proper maids and attendance. Go!"
+
+Agias obeyed, saying nothing. He found Fabia lying on a rude pallet,
+with a small bale of purple silk thrust under her head for a pillow.
+She stared at him with wild, frightened eyes, then round the little
+cabin, which, while bereft of all but the most necessary comforts, was
+decorated with bejeweled armour, golden lamps, costly Indian
+tapestries and ivory--the trophies of half a score of voyages.
+
+"Agias," she faintly whispered, "tell me what has happened since I
+awoke from my sleep and found Gabinius's ruffians about me. By
+whatsoever god you reverence most, speak truly!"
+
+Agias fell on his knees, kissed the hem of her robe, kissed her hands.
+Then he told her all,--as well as his own sorely confused wits would
+admit. Fabia heard him through to the end, then laid her face between
+her hands.
+
+"Would that--would that they had murdered me as they wished! It would
+be all over now," she agonized. "I have no wish again to see the
+light. Whether they believe me innocent or guilty of the charge is
+little; I can never be happy again."
+
+"And why not, dear lady?" cried Agias.
+
+"Don't ask me! I do not know. I do not know anything! Leave me! It is
+not fit that you should see me crying like a child. Leave me! Leave
+me!"
+
+And thus conjured, Agias went up to the poop once more.
+
+The yacht was flying down the current under her powerful oarage.
+Demetrius was still standing with his hands fixed on the steering
+paddle; his gaze was drifting along in the plashing water. The shadowy
+outlines of the great city had vanished; the yacht was well on her way
+down the river to Ostia. Save for the need to avoid a belated
+merchantman anchored in midstream for the night, there was little
+requiring the master's skill. Agias told his cousin how Fabia had sent
+him away.
+
+"_A!_ Poor lady!" replied the pirate, "perhaps she was the Vestal I
+saw a few days since, and envied her, to see the consuls' lictors
+lowering their rods to her, and all the people making way before her;
+she, protected by the whole might of this terrible Roman people, and
+honoured by them all; and I, a poor outlaw, massing gold whereof I
+have no need, slaying men when I would be their friend, with only an
+open sea and a few planks for native land. And now, see how the Fates
+bring her down so low, that at my hands she receives hospitality, nay,
+life!"
+
+"You did not seem so very loath to shed blood to-night," commented
+Agias, dryly.
+
+"No, by Zeus!" was his frank answer. "It is easy to send men over the
+Styx after having been Charon's substitute for so many years. But the
+trade was not pleasant to learn, and, bless the gods, you may not have
+to be apprenticed to it."
+
+"Then you will not take me with you in your rover's life?" asked
+Agias, half-disappointedly.
+
+"Apollo forbid! I will take you and the lady to some place where she
+can be safe until she may return vindicated, and where you can earn an
+honest livelihood, marry a wife of station, in accordance with the
+means which I shall give you, dwell peaceably, and be happy."
+
+"But I cannot accept your present," protested the younger Greek.
+
+"_Phui!_ What use have I of money? To paraphrase AEschylus: 'For more
+of money than I would is mine.' I can't eat it, or beat swords out of
+gold, or repair my ships therewith."
+
+"Then why amass it at all?"
+
+"Why drink when you know it is better to keep sober? I can no more
+stop plundering than a toper leave a wine-jar. Besides, perhaps some
+day I may see a road to amnesty open,--and, then, what will not money
+do for a man or woman?"
+
+"Quintus Drusus, my patron, the Lady Cornelia, and the Lady Fabia all
+are rich. But I would not take up their sorrows for all their wealth."
+
+"True," and Demetrius stared down into the inky water. "It will not
+give back those who are gone forever. Achilles could ask Hephaestus for
+his armour, but he could not put breath into the body of Patroclus.
+_Plutus_ and _Cratus_[162] are, after all, but weaklings. _A!_ This is
+an unequal world!"
+
+  [162] Riches and strength.
+
+When Agias fell asleep that night, or rather that morning, on a hard
+seaman's pallet, two names were stirring in his heart, names
+inextricably connected: Cornelia, whom he had promised Quintus Drusus
+to save from Ahenobarbus's clutches, and Artemisia. In the morning the
+yacht, having run her sixteen miles to Ostia, stood out to sea, naught
+hindering.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was two months later when Quintus Drusus reentered Rome, no more a
+fugitive, but a trusted staff officer of the lawfully appointed
+dictator Julius Caesar. He had taken part in a desperate struggle
+around Corfinium, where his general had cut off and captured the army
+with which Domitius had aimed to check his advance. Drusus had been
+severely wounded, and had not recovered in time to participate in the
+futile siege of Brundusium, when Caesar vainly strove to prevent
+Pompeius's flight across the sea to Greece. Soon as he was
+convalescent, the young officer had hurried away to Rome; and there he
+was met by a story concerning his aunt, whereof no rational
+explanation seemed possible. And when, upon this mystery, was added a
+tale he received from Baiae, he marvelled, yet dreaded, the more.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XIX
+
+The Hospitality of Demetrius
+
+
+I
+
+While grave senators were contending, tribunes haranguing, imperators
+girding on the sword, legions marching, cohorts clashing,--while all
+this history was being made in the outside world, Cornelia, very
+desolate, very lonely, was enduring her imprisonment at Baiae.
+
+If she had had manacles on her wrists and fetters on her feet, she
+would not have been the more a prisoner. Lentulus Crus had determined,
+with the same grim tenacity of purpose which led him to plunge a world
+into war, that his niece should comply with his will and marry Lucius
+Ahenobarbus. He sent down to Baiae, Phaon,--the evil-eyed freedman of
+Ahenobarbus,--and gave to that worthy full power to do anything he
+wished to break the will of his prospective patroness. Cassandra had
+been taken away from Cornelia--she could not learn so much as whether
+the woman had been scourged to death for arranging the interview with
+Drusus, or no. Two ill-favoured slatternly Gallic maids, the scourings
+of the Puteoli slave-market, had been forced upon Cornelia as her
+attendants--creatures who stood in abject fear of the whip of Phaon,
+and who obeyed his mandates to the letter. Cornelia was never out of
+sight of some person whom she knew was devoted to Lentulus, or rather
+to Phaon and his patron. She received no letters save those from her
+mother, uncle, or Ahenobarbus; she saw no visitors; she was not
+allowed to go outside of the walls of the villa, nor indeed upon any
+of its terraces where she would be exposed to sight from without,
+whether by land or sea. At every step, at every motion, she was
+confronted with the barriers built around her, and by the
+consciousness that, so long as she persisted in her present attitude,
+her durance was likely to continue unrelaxed.
+
+Cornelia was thirsty for the news from the world without. Her keepers
+were dumb to the most harmless inquiry. Her mother wrote more of the
+latest fashions than of the progress of events in the Senate and in
+the field; besides, Claudia--as Cornelia knew very well--never took
+her political notions from any one except her brother-in-law, and
+Cornelia noted her mother's rambling observations accordingly.
+Lentulus studiously refrained from adverting to politics in letters to
+his niece. Ahenobarbus wrote of wars and rumours of wars, but in a
+tone of such partisan venom and overreaching sarcasm touching all
+things Caesarian, that Cornelia did not need her prejudices to tell her
+that Lucius was simply abusing her credulity.
+
+Then at last all the letters stopped. Phaon had no explanation to
+give. He would not suffer his evil, smiling lips to tell the story of
+the flight of the oligarchs from Rome, and confess that Lentulus and
+Claudia were no farther off than Capua. The consul had ordered that
+his niece should not know of their proximity and its cause,--lest she
+pluck up hope, and all his coercion be wasted. So there was silence,
+and that was all. Even her mother did not write to her. Cornelia grew
+very, very lonely and desolate--more than words may tell. She had one
+consolation--Drusus was not dead, or she would have been informed of
+it! Proof that her lover was dead would have been a most delightful
+weapon in Lentulus's hands, too delightful to fail to use instantly.
+And so Cornelia hoped on.
+
+She tried again to build a world of fantasy, of unreal delight, around
+her; to close her eyes, and wander abroad with her imagination. She
+roamed in reverie over land and sea, from Atlantis to Serica; and
+dwelt in the dull country of the Hyperboreans and saw the gold-sanded
+plains of the Ethiops. She took her Homer and fared with Odysseus into
+Polyphemus's cave, and out to the land of Circe; and heard the Sirens
+sing, and abode on Calypso's fairy isle; and saw the maiden Nausicaa
+and her maids at the ball-play on the marge of the stream. But it was
+sorry work; for ever and again the dream-woven mist would break, and
+the present--stern, unchanging, joyless--she would see, and that only.
+
+Cornelia was thrown more and more back on her books. In fact, had she
+been deprived of that diversion, she must have succumbed in sheer
+wretchedness; but Phaon, for all his crafty guile, did not realize
+that a roll of AEschylus did almost as much to undo his jailer's work
+as a traitor among his underlings.
+
+The library was a capacious, well-lighted room, prettily frescoed, and
+provided with comfortably upholstered couches. In the niches were a
+few choice busts: a Sophocles, a Xenophon, an Ennius, and one or two
+others. Around the room in wooden presses were the rolled volumes on
+Egyptian papyrus, each labelled with author and title in bright red
+marked on the tablet attached to the cylinder of the roll. Here were
+the poets and historians of Hellas; the works of Plato, Aristotle,
+Callimachus, Apollonius Rhodius and the later Greek philosophers.
+Here, too, were books which the Greek-hating young lady loved best of
+all--the rough metres of Livius Andronicus and Cnaeus Naevius, whose
+uncouth lines of the old Saturnian verse breathed of the hale, hearty,
+uncultured, uncorrupted life of the period of the First Punic War.
+Beside them were the other great Latinists: Ennius, Plautus, Terence,
+and furthermore, Pacuvius and Cato Major, Lucilius, the memoirs of
+Sulla, the orations of Antonius "the orator" and Gracchus, and the
+histories of Claudius Quadrigarius and Valerius Antias.
+
+The library became virtually Cornelia's prison. She read tragedy,
+comedy, history, philosophy,--anything to drive from her breast her
+arch enemy, thought. But if, for example, she turned to Apollonius
+Rhodius and read--
+
+  "Amidst them all, the son of AEson chief
+  Shone forth divinely in his comeliness,
+  And graces of his form. On him the maid
+  Looked still askance, and gazed him o'er;"[163]
+
+  [163] Elton, translator.
+
+straightway she herself became Medea, Jason took on the form of
+Drusus, and she would read no more; "while," as the next line of the
+learned poet had it, "grief consumed her heart."
+
+Only one other recreation was left her. Artemisia had not been taken
+away by Phaon, who decided that the girl was quite impotent to thwart
+his ends. Cornelia devoted much of her time to teaching the bright
+little Greek. The latter picked up the scraps of knowledge with a
+surprising readiness, and would set Cornelia a-laughing by her
+_naivete_, when she soberly intermixed her speech with bits of grave
+poetical and philosophical lore, uttered more for sake of sound than
+sense.
+
+As a matter of fact, however, Cornelia was fast approaching a point
+where her position would have been intolerable. She did not even have
+the stimulus that comes from an active aggressive persecution. Drusus
+was in the world of action, not forgetful of his sweetheart, yet not
+pent up to solitary broodings on his ill-fated passion. Cornelia was
+thrust back upon herself, and found herself a very discontented,
+wretched, love-lorn, and withal--despite her polite learning--ignorant
+young woman, who took pleasure neither in sunlight nor starlight; who
+saw a mocking defiance in every dimple of the sapphire bay; who saw in
+each new day merely a new period for impotent discontent. Something
+had to determine her situation, or perhaps she would not indeed have
+bowed her head to her uncle's will; but she certainly would have been
+driven to resolutions of the most desperate nature.
+
+Cornelia had practically lost reckoning of time and seasons. She had
+ceased hoping for a letter from her mother; even a taunting missive
+from Ahenobarbus would have been a diversion. She was so closely
+guarded that she found herself praying that Drusus would not try to
+steal a second interview, for the attempt might end in his murder.
+Only one stray crumb of comfort at last did she obtain, and it was
+Artemisia who brought it to her. The girl had been allowed by Phaon to
+walk outside the grounds of the villa for a little way, and her pretty
+face had won the good graces of one or two slave-boys in an adjoining
+seaside house. Artemisia came back full of news which they had
+imparted: the consuls had fled from Rome; Pompeius was retreating
+before Caesar; the latest rumour had it that Domitius was shut up in
+Corfinium and likely to come off hardly.
+
+The words were precious as rubies to Cornelia. She went all that day
+and the next with her head in the air. Perhaps with a lover's subtle
+omniscience she imagined that it was Drusus who had some part in
+bringing Domitius to bay. She pictured the hour when he--with a legion
+no doubt at his back--would come to Baiae, not a stealthy, forbidden
+lover, but a conqueror, splendid in the triumph of his arms; would
+enter the villa with a strong hand, and lead her forth in the eyes of
+all the world--his wife! and then back to Praeneste, to Rome--happy as
+the Immortals on Olympus; and what came after, Cornelia neither
+thought nor cared.
+
+On those days the sea was lovely, the sunlight fair, and all the
+circling sea-gulls as they hovered over the waves cried shrilly one to
+the other; "How good is all the world!" And then, just as Cornelia was
+beginning to count the hours,--to wonder whether it would be one day
+or ten before Drusus would be sufficiently at liberty to ride over
+hill and dale to Baiae,--Phaon thrust himself upon her.
+
+"Your ladyship," was his curt statement, "will have all things
+prepared in readiness to take ship for Greece, to-morrow morning."
+
+"For Greece!" was the agonized exclamation.
+
+"Certainly; it is useless to conceal matters from your ladyship now.
+Caesar has swept all Italy. Corfinium may fall at any time. His
+excellency the consul Lentulus is now at Brundusium. He orders me to
+put you on board a vessel that has just finished her lading for the
+Piraeus."
+
+This then was the end of all those glittering day-dreams! Caesar's
+victories only would transfer Cornelia to a more secure bondage. She
+had enough pride left not to moan aloud and plead with an animal like
+Phaon not to crush her utterly. In fact she was benumbed, and did not
+fully sense the changed situation. She went through a mechanical
+process of collecting her wardrobe, of putting her jewellery in cases
+and boxes, of laying aside for carriage a few necessaries for
+Artemisia. Phaon, who had expected a terrible scene when he made his
+announcement, observed to himself that, "The domina is more sensible
+than I supposed. I think her uncle will have his way now soon enough,
+if Master Lucius does not get his throat cut at Corfinium." And having
+thus concluded to himself,--satisfactorily, if erroneously,--he, too,
+made arrangements for the voyage impending.
+
+
+II
+
+Cornelia's sleeping room was large and airy. It had windows
+overlooking the sea--windows closed by the then extravagant luxury of
+panes of glass. When these were swung back the full sweep of the
+southwest wind poured its mild freshness into the room. The apartment
+was decorated and furnished with every taste and luxury. In one corner
+was the occupant's couch,--the frame inlaid with ivory and
+tortoise-shell, the mattress soft with the very choicest feathers of
+white German geese. Heaped on the cushion were gorgeous coverlets, of
+purple wool or even silk, and embroidered with elaborate figures, or
+covered with rare feather tapestry. Around the room were silver
+mirrors, chairs, divans, cabinets, dressers, and elegant tripods.
+
+On one of the divans slept Artemisia, and just outside of the door one
+of the Gallic maids, whom Cornelia detested so heartily.
+
+When Artemisia's curly head touched her pillow, its owner was fast
+asleep in an instant. When her patroness sank back on the cushions
+worth a king's ransom, Somnus, Hypnus, or whatever name the drowsy god
+may be called by, was far from present. Cornelia tossed on the
+pillows, tossed and cried softly to herself. The battle was too hard!
+She had tried: tried to be true to Drusus and her own higher
+aspirations. But there was some limit to her strength, and Cornelia
+felt that limit very near at hand. Earlier in the conflict with her
+uncle she had exulted in the idea that suicide was always in her
+power; now she trembled at the thought of death, at the thought of
+everything contained in the unlovely future. She did not want to die,
+to flicker out in nothingness, never to smile and never to laugh
+again. Why should she not be happy--rightly happy? Was she not a
+Cornelian, a Claudian, born to a position that a princess might enjoy?
+Was not wealth hers, and a fair degree of wit and a handsome face? Why
+then should she, the patrician maiden, eat her heart out, while close
+at hand Artemisia, poor little foundling Greek, was sleeping as
+sweetly as though people never grieved nor sorrows tore the soul?
+
+Cornelia was almost angry with Artemisia for being thus oblivious to
+and shielded from calamity. So hot in fact did her indignation become
+against the innocent girl, that Cornelia herself began to smile at her
+own passion. And there was one thought very comforting to her pride.
+
+"Artemisia is only an uneducated slave, or little better than a slave;
+if she were in my station she would be just as unhappy. I am wretched
+just in proportion to the greatness of my rank;" then she added to
+herself, "_Hei!_ but how wretched then the gods must be!" And then
+again she smiled at admitting for an instant that there were any gods
+at all; had not her philosophy taught her much better?
+
+So at last Cornelia turned over the pillows for the last time, and
+finally slept, in heavy, dreamless slumber.
+
+       *        *        *        *        *
+
+Cornelia did not know at what watch of the night she awoke; awoke, not
+suddenly, but slowly, as consciousness stole over her that _something_
+was happening. It was a dark, cloudy night, yet a strange red light
+was glinting faintly through the windows and making very dim panels on
+the rugs of the floor. There was a bare gleam of fire from the
+charcoal in the portable metal stove that stood in a remote corner of
+the room to dispel the chill of night. Artemisia was stirring in her
+sleep, and saying something--probably in a one-sided dream-dialogue.
+Cornelia opened her eyes, shut them again; peeped forth a second time,
+and sat up in bed. There was a confused din without, many voices
+speaking at once, all quite unintelligible, though now and then she
+caught a few syllables of Greek. The din grew louder and louder. At
+the same time, as if directly connected with the babel, the strange
+light flamed up more brightly--as if from many advancing torches.
+Cornelia shook the sleep from her eyes, and flung back the coverlets.
+What was it? She had not yet reached the stage of feeling any terror.
+
+Suddenly, drowning all lesser noise, came the blows of a heavy timber
+beating on the main door of the villa.
+
+Crash! and with the stroke, a torrent of wild shouts, oaths, and
+imprecations burst forth from many score throats.
+
+Crash! The slaves sleeping near the front door began to howl and
+shout. The great Molossian hound that stood watch was barking and
+snapping. The Gallic maid sprang from her pallet by Cornelia's door,
+and gave a shrill, piercing scream. Artemisia was sitting up on her
+bed, rubbing her eyes, blinking at the strange light, and about to
+begin to cry. Cornelia ran over the floor to her.
+
+"_A! A!_ what is going to happen!" whimpered the girl.
+
+"I do not know, _philotata_"[164] said Cornelia in Greek, putting her
+hand on Artemisia's cheek; "but don't cry, and I'll soon find out."
+
+  [164] Dearest one.
+
+Crash! and at this the door could be heard to fall inward. Then, with
+yells of triumph and passion, there was a great sweep of feet over the
+threshold, and the clang of weapons and armour. Cornelia found herself
+beginning to tremble. As she stepped across the room, she passed
+before her largest mirror, whereon the outside light was shining
+directly. She saw herself for an instant; her hair streaming down her
+back, her only dress her loose white tunic, her arms bare, and nothing
+on her throat except a string of yellow amber beads. "And my feet are
+bare," she added to herself, diverted from her panic by her womanly
+embarrassment. She advanced toward the door, but had not long to wait.
+Down below the invaders had burst loose in wild pillage, then up into
+the sleeping room came flying a man--Phaon, his teeth chattering, his
+face ghastly with fright.
+
+"Domina! domina!" and he knelt and seized Cornelia's robe. "Save, _A!_
+save! We are undone! Pirates! They will kill us all! _Mu! mu!_ don't
+let them murder me!"
+
+A moment longer and Cornelia, in her rising contempt, would have
+spurned him with her foot. There were more feet on the stairway.
+Glaring torches were tossing over gold inlaid armour. A man of unusual
+height and physique strode at the head of the oncomers, clutching and
+dragging by the wrist a quivering slave-boy.
+
+"Your mistress, boy! where is she? Point quickly, if you would not
+die!" cried the invader, whom we shall at once recognize as Demetrius.
+
+Cornelia advanced to the doorway, and stood in her maidenly dignity,
+confronting the pirates, who fell back a step, as though before an
+apparition.
+
+"I am the Lady Cornelia, mistress of the villa," she said slowly,
+speaking in tones of high command. "On what errand do you come thus
+unseasonably, and with violence?"
+
+Whereat, out from the little group of armed men sprang one clad in
+costly, jewel-set armour, like the rest, but shorter than the others,
+and with fair hair flowing down from his helmet on to his shoulders.
+
+"Domina, do you not know me? Do not be afraid."
+
+"Agias!" cried Cornelia, in turn giving back a step.
+
+"Assuredly," quoth the young Hellene, nothing dismayed; "and with your
+leave, this great man is Demetrius, my cousin, whose trade, perchance,
+is a little irregular, but who has come hither not so much to plunder
+as to save you from the clutches of his arch-enemy's son, Lucius
+Ahenobarbus."
+
+Cornelia staggered, and caught the curtain in the doorway to keep from
+falling.
+
+"Has Master Drusus sent him to me?" she asked, very pale around the
+lips.
+
+"Master Drusus is at Corfinium. No one knows what will be the issue of
+the war, for Pompeius is making off. It is I who counselled my cousin
+to come to Baiae."
+
+"Then what will you do with me? How may I dare to trust you? Deliver
+myself into the hands of pirates! Ah! Agias, I did not think that
+_you_ would turn to such a trade!"
+
+The youth flushed visibly, even under the ruddy torchlight.
+
+"Oh, lady," he cried, "have I not always been true to you? I am no
+pirate, and you will not blame my cousin, when you have heard his
+story. But do not fear us. Come down to the ship--Fabia is there,
+waiting for you."
+
+"Fabia!" and again Cornelia was startled. Then, fixing her deep gaze
+full on Agias, "I believe you speak the truth. If not you--whom?
+Take--take me!"
+
+And she fell forward in a swoon, and Demetrius caught her in his
+powerful arms.
+
+"This is the affianced wife of Quintus Drusus?" he cried to Agias.
+
+"None other."
+
+"She is worthy of Sextus's son. A right brave lady!" cried the pirate.
+"But this is no place for her, poor thing. Here, Eurybiades," and he
+addressed a lieutenant,--an athletic, handsome Hellene like
+himself,--"carry the lady down to the landing, put her on the trireme,
+and give her to Madam Fabia. Mind you lift her gently."
+
+"Never fear," replied the other, picking up his burden carefully. "Who
+would not delight to bear Aphrodite to the arms of Artemis!"
+
+And so for a while sight, sound, and feeling were at an end for
+Cornelia, but for Agias the adventures of the evening were but just
+begun. The pirates had broken loose in the villa, and Demetrius made
+not the slightest effort to restrain them. On into the deserted
+bedroom, ahead of the others, for reasons of his own, rushed Agias. As
+he came in, some one cried out his name, and a second vision in white
+confronted him.
+
+"_Ai! ai!_ Agias, I knew you would come!" and then and there, with the
+sword-blades glinting, and the armed men all around, Artemisia tossed
+her plump arms around his neck.
+
+"The nymph, attendant on Aphrodite!" cried Demetrius, laughing. And
+then, when Artemisia saw the strange throng and the torches, and heard
+the din over the villa, she hung down her head in mingled fear and
+mortification. But Agias whispered something in her ear, that made her
+lift her face, laughing, and then he in turn caught her up in his arms
+to hasten down to the landing--for the scene was becoming one of
+little profit for a maid. Groans and entreaties checked him. Two
+powerful Phoenician seamen were dragging forward Phaon, half clothed,
+trembling at every joint. "Mercy! Mercy! Oh! Master Agias, oh! Your
+excellency, _clarissime_,[165] _despotes!_[166]" whined the wretched
+man, now in Latin, now in Greek, "ask them to spare me; don't let them
+murder me in cold blood!"
+
+  [165] Very distinguished sir.
+
+  [166] Master.
+
+"_Ai!_" cried Demetrius. "What fool have we here? Do you know him,
+Agias?"
+
+"He is the freedman of Lucius Ahenobarbus. I can vouch for his
+character, after its way."
+
+"_O-op!_"[167] thundered the chief, "drag him down to the boats! I'll
+speak with him later!"
+
+  [167] _O-op_--avast there.
+
+And Agias carried his precious burden down to the landing-place, while
+the seamen followed with their captive.
+
+Once Artemisia safe on her way to the trireme, which was a little off
+shore, Agias ran back to the villa; the pirates were ransacking it
+thoroughly. Everything that could be of the slightest value was
+ruthlessly seized upon, everything else recklessly destroyed. The
+pirates had not confined their attack to the Lentulan residence alone.
+Rushing down upon the no less elaborate neighbouring villas, they
+forced in the gates, overcame what slight opposition the trembling
+slaves might make, and gave full sway to their passion for plunder and
+rapine. The noble ladies and fine gentlemen who had dared the
+political situation and lingered late in the season to enjoy the
+pleasures of Baiae, now found themselves roughly dragged away into
+captivity to enrich the freebooters by their ransoms. From pillage the
+pirates turned to arson, Demetrius in fact making no effort to control
+his men. First a fragile wooden summer-house caught the blaze of a
+torch and flared up; then a villa itself, and another and another. The
+flames shot higher and higher, great glowing, wavering pyramids of
+heat, roaring and crackling, flinging a red circle of glowing light in
+toward the mainland by Cumae, and shimmering out over the bay toward
+Prochyta. Overhead was the inky dome of the heavens, and below fire;
+fire, and men with passions unreined.
+
+Demetrius stood on the terrace of the burning villa of the Lentuli,
+barely himself out of range of the raging heat. As Agias came near to
+him, the gilded Medusa head emblazoned on his breastplate glared out;
+the loose scarlet mantle he wore under his armour was red as if dipped
+in hot blood; he seemed the personification of Ares, the destroyer,
+the waster of cities. The pirate was gazing fixedly on the blazing
+wreck and ruin. His firm lips were set with an expression grave and
+hard. He took no part in the annihilating frenzy of his men.
+
+"This is terrible destruction!" cried Agias in his ear, for the roar
+of the flames was deafening, he himself beginning to turn sick at the
+sight of the ruin.
+
+"It is frightful," replied Demetrius, gloomily; "why did the gods ever
+drive me to this? My men are but children to exult as they do; as boys
+love to tear the thatch from the roof of a useless hovel, in sheer
+wantonness. I cannot restrain them."
+
+At this instant a seaman rushed up in breathless haste.
+
+"_Eleleu!_ Captain, the soldiers are on us. There must have been a
+cohort in Cumae."
+
+Whereat the voice of Demetrius rang above the shouts of the plunderers
+and the crash and roar of the conflagration, like a trumpet:--
+
+"Arms, men! Gather the spoil and back to the ships! Back for your
+lives!"
+
+Already the cohort of Pompeian troops, that had not yet evacuated
+Cumae, was coming up on the double-quick, easily guided by the burning
+buildings which made the vicinity bright as day. The pirates ran like
+cats out of the blazing villas, bounded over terraces and walls, and
+gathered near the landing-place by the Lentulan villa. The soldiers
+were already on them. For a moment it seemed as though the cohort was
+about to drive the whole swarm of the marauders over the sea-wall, and
+make them pay dear for their night's diversion. But the masterly
+energy of Demetrius turned the scale. With barely a score of men
+behind him, he charged the nearest century so impetuously that it
+broke like water before him; and when sheer numbers had swept his
+little group back, the other pirates had rallied on the very brink of
+tie sea-wall, and returned to the charge.
+
+Never was battle waged more desperately. The pirates knew that to be
+driven back meant to fall over a high embankment into water so shallow
+as to give little safety in a dive; capture implied crucifixion. Their
+only hope was to hold their own while their boats took them off to the
+ships in small detachments. The conflagration made the narrow
+battle-field as bright as day. The soldiers were brave, and for new
+recruits moderately disciplined. The pirates could hardly bear up
+under the crushing discharge of darts, and the steady onset of the
+maniples. Up and down the contest raged, swaying to and fro like the
+waves of the sea. Again and again the pirates were driven so near to
+the brink of the seawall that one or two would fall, dashed to instant
+death on the submerged rocks below. Demetrius was everywhere at once,
+as it were, precisely when he was most needed, always exposing
+himself, always aggressive. Even while he himself fought for dear
+life, Agias admired as never before the intelligently ordered
+puissance of his cousin.
+
+The boats to and from the landing were pulled with frantic energy. The
+ships had run in as close as possible, but they could not use their
+_balistae_,[168] for fear of striking down friend as well as foe. As
+relays of pirates were carried away, the position of the remainder
+became the more desperate with their lessening numbers. The boats came
+back for the last relay. Demetrius drew the remnant of his men
+together, and charged so furiously that the whole cohort gave way,
+leaving the ground strewn with its own slain. The pirates rushed madly
+aboard the boats, they sunk them to the gunwales; other fugitives
+clung to the oars. At perilous risk of upsetting they thrust off, just
+as the rallied soldiers ran down to the landing-place. Demetrius and
+Agias were the only ones standing on the embankment. They had been the
+last to retire, and therefore the boats had filled without them.
+
+  [168] Missile-throwing engines.
+
+A great cry went up from the pirates.
+
+"Save the captain!" and some boats began to back water, loaded as
+they were; but Demetrius motioned them back with his hand.
+
+"Can you swim, boy!" he shouted to Agias, while both tore off their
+body-armour. Their shields had already dropped. Agias shook his head
+doubtfully.
+
+"My arm is hurt," he muttered.
+
+"No matter!" and Demetrius seized his cousin under one armpit, and
+stepped down from the little landing-platform into the water just
+below. A single powerful stroke sent the two out of reach of the swing
+of the sword of the nearest soldier. The front files of the cohort had
+pressed down on to the landing in a dense mass, loath to let go its
+prey.
+
+"Let fly, men!" cried Demetrius, as he swam, and javelins spat into
+the water about him.
+
+It was a cruel thing to do. The three pirate vessels, two large
+triremes and the yacht, discharged all their enginery. Heavy stones
+crashed down upon the soldiers, crushing several men together. Huge
+arrows tore through shield and armour, impaling more than one body. It
+was impossible to miss working havoc in so close a throng. The troops,
+impotent to make effective reply, turned in panic and fled toward the
+upper terraces to get beyond the decimating artillery. The pirates
+raised a great shout of triumph that shook the smoke-veiled skies. A
+fresh boat, pulling out from one of the vessels, rescued the captain
+and Agias; and soon the two cousins were safe on board the trireme
+Demetrius used as his flagship.
+
+The pirates swarmed on the decks and rigging and cheered the escape of
+their commander. On shore the burning buildings were still sending up
+their pillars of flame. The water and sky far out to sea were red, and
+beyond, blackness. Again the pirates shouted, then at the order of
+their commander the cables creaked, the anchors rose, hundreds of long
+oars flashed in the lurid glare, and the three vessels slipped over
+the dark waves.
+
+Demetrius remained on the poop of his ship; Agias was below in the
+cabin, bending over Artemisia, who was already smiling in her sleep.
+
+
+III
+
+When Cornelia awoke, it was with Fabia bending over her at the
+bedside. The portholes of the cabin were open; the warm, fresh
+southern wind was pouring in its balmy sweetness. Cornelia pressed her
+hands to her eyes, then looked forth. The cabin ceiling was low, but
+studded with rare ornamental bronze work; the furniture glittered with
+gilding and the smooth sheen of polished ivory; the tapestry of the
+curtains and on the walls was of the choicest scarlet wool, and Coan
+silk, semi-transparent and striped with gold. Gold plating shone on
+the section of the mast enclosed within the cabin. An odour of the
+rarest Arabian frankincense was wafted from the pastils burning on a
+curiously wrought tripod of Corinthian brass. The upholsteries and
+rugs were more splendid than any that Cornelia had seen gracing the
+palace of Roman patrician.
+
+Thus it came to pass that Fabia repeated over and over again to
+Cornelia the tale of recent happenings, until the latter's sorely
+perturbed brain might comprehend. And then, when Cornelia understood
+it all: how that she was not to go to Greece with Phaon; how that she
+was under the protection of a man who owed his life to Sextus Drusus,
+and hated the Ahenobarbi with a perfect hatred; how that Demetrius had
+sworn to carry her to Alexandria, where, safe out of the way of war
+and commotion, she might await the hour when Drusus should be free to
+come for her--when, we repeat, she understood all this, and how it
+came to pass that the Vestal herself was on the vessel,--then Cornelia
+strained Fabia to her breast, and laid her head on the elder woman's
+shoulder, and cried and cried for very relief of soul. Then she arose
+and let the maids Demetrius had sent to serve her--dark-skinned
+Hindoos, whose words were few, but whose fingers quick and dexterous
+--dress her from the very complete wardrobe that the sea prince had
+placed at her disposal.
+
+Never before had the sunlight shone so fair; never before had the
+sniff of the sea-breeze been so sweet. The galleys were still in the
+bay, close by Prochyta, scarce a mile and a half from the nearest
+mainland. The pirates were landing to procure water from the desolate,
+unsettled isle. The bay was dancing and sparkling with ten million
+golden ripples; the sun had risen high enough above the green hills of
+the coast-land to spread a broad pathway of shimmering fire across the
+waters. Not a cloud flecked the light-bathed azure. Up from the
+forward part of the ships sounded the notes of tinkling cithera and
+the low-breathing double flutes[169] in softest Lydian mood. In and
+out of the cabin passed bronzed-faced Ethiopian mutes with silver cups
+of the precious Mareotic white wine of Egypt for the lady, and plates
+of African pomegranates, Armenian apricots, and strange sweetmeats
+flavoured with a marvellous powder, an Oriental product worth its
+weight in gold as a medicine, which later generations were to
+designate under the name of sugar.
+
+  [169] _Tibiae_.
+
+And so Cornelia was refreshed and dressed; and when the maids held the
+mirror before her and she saw that the gold trinkets were shining in
+her hair, and the jewels which Demetrius had sent her were sparkling
+brightly at her throat, and realized that she was very fair to
+see,--then she laughed, the first real, unforced laugh for many a
+weary day, whereupon she laughed again and again, and grew the more
+pleased with her own face when she beheld a smile upon it. Then Fabia
+kissed her, and told her that no woman was ever more beautiful; and
+the dark Indian maids drew back, saying nothing, but admiring with
+their eyes. So Cornelia went up upon the deck, where Demetrius came to
+meet her. If she had been a Semiramis rewarding a deserving general,
+she could not have been more queenly. For she thanked him and his
+lieutenants with a warm gratitude which made every rough seaman feel
+himself more than repaid, and yet throughout it all bore herself as
+though the mere privilege on their part of rescuing her ought to be
+sufficient reward and honour. Then Demetrius knelt down before all his
+men, and kissed the hem of her robe, and swore that he would devote
+himself and all that was his to her service, until she and Quintus
+Drusus should meet, with no foe to come between; so swore all the
+pirates after their captain, and thus it was Cornelia entered into her
+life on the ship of the freebooters.
+
+Other work, however, was before Demetrius that day, than casting
+glances of dutiful admiration at the stately lady that had deigned to
+accept his hospitality. Out from the various other cabins, less
+luxurious assuredly than the one in which Cornelia had awakened, the
+pirates led their several captives to stand before the chief.
+Demetrius, indeed, had accomplished what he euphemistically described
+as "a fair night's work." Half a dozen once very fashionable and now
+very disordered and dejected noble ladies and about as many more sadly
+bedraggled fine gentlemen were haled before his tribunal for judgment.
+The pirate prince stood on the raised roof of a cabin, a step higher
+than the rest of the poop. He was again in his splendid armour, his
+naked sword was in his hand, at his side was stationed Eurybiades and
+half a score more stalwart seamen, all swinging their bare cutlasses.
+Demetrius nevertheless conducted his interrogations with perhaps
+superfluous demonstrations of courtesy, and a general distribution of
+polite "domini" "dominae," "clarissimi," and "illustres." He spoke in
+perfectly good Latin, with only the slightest foreign accent; and
+Cornelia, who--unregenerate pagan that she was--was taking thorough
+delight in the dilemma of persons whom she knew had made her the butt
+of their scandalous gibes, could only admire the skilful manner in
+which he brought home to the several captives the necessity of finding
+a very large sum of money at their bankers' in a very short time, or
+enduring an indefinite captivity. After more or less of surly threats
+and resistance on the part of the men, and screaming on the part of
+the women, the prisoners one and all capitulated, and put their names
+to the papyri they were commanded to sign; and away went a boat
+dancing over the waves to Puteoli to cash the money orders, after
+which the captives would be set ashore at Baiae.
+
+Last of the wretches brought before Demetrius came Phaon. The freedman
+had been roughly handled; across his brow a great welt had risen where
+a pirate had struck him with a rope's end. His arms were pinioned
+behind his back. He was perfectly pale, and his eyes wandered from one
+person to another as if vainly seeking some intercessor.
+
+"_Euge! Kyrios_[170]" cried the pirate chief, "you indeed seem to
+enjoy our hospitality but ill."
+
+  [170] Your Highness.
+
+Phaon fell on his knees.
+
+"I am a poor man," he began to whimper. "I have no means of paying a
+ransom. My patron is not here to protect or rescue me. I have nothing
+to plunder. _Mu! mu!_ set me free, most noble pirate! Oh! most
+excellent prince, what have I done, that you should bear a grudge
+against me?"
+
+"Get up, fellow," snapped Demetrius; "I'm not one of those
+crocodile-headed Egyptian gods that they grovel before in the Nile
+country. My cousin Agias here says he knows you. Now answer--are you a
+Greek?"
+
+"I am an Athenian born."
+
+"Don't you think I can smell your Doric accent by that broad alpha?
+You are a Sicilian, I'll be bound!"
+
+Phaon made a motion of sorrowful assent.
+
+"_Phui!_" continued Demetrius, "tell me, Agias, is this the creature
+that tried to murder Quintus Drusus?"
+
+Agias nodded.
+
+"A fit minister for such a man as I imagine the son of Lucius Domitius
+to be. Eurybiades, take off that fellow's bands; he is not worth one
+stroke of the sword."
+
+"The captain will not spare the knave!" remonstrated the sanguinary
+lieutenant.
+
+"What I have said, I have said," retorted the other; then, when
+Phaon's arms hung free, "See, on the strength of our fellowship in our
+both being Greeks, I have set you at large!"
+
+Phaon again sank to his knees to proffer thanks.
+
+"Hold!" cried Demetrius, with a menacing gesture. "Don't waste your
+gratitude. Greek you pretend to be, more the shame! Such as you it is
+that have brought Hellas under the heel of the oppressor; such as you
+have made the word of a Hellene almost valueless in the Roman courts,
+so that juries have to be warned to consider us all liars; such as you
+have dragged down into the pit many an honest man; ay, myself too!"
+
+Phaon left off his thanks and began again to supplicate.
+
+"Stop whining, hound!" roared Demetrius; "haven't I said you are free?
+Free, but on one condition!"
+
+"Anything, anything, my lord," professed the freedman, "money,
+service--"
+
+"On this condition," and a broad, wicked smile over-spread the face of
+the pirate, "that you quit this ship instantly!"
+
+"Gladly, gladly, merciful sir!" commenced Phaon again; "where is the
+boat?"
+
+"Wretch!" shouted the other, "what did I say about a boat?
+Depart--depart into the sea! Swim ashore, if the load on your legs be
+not too heavy. Seize him and see that he sinks,"--this last to
+Eurybiades and the seamen.
+
+Phaon's terror choked his utterance; he turned livid with mortal
+fright. He pleaded for life; life on the terms most degrading, most
+painful, most joyless--life, life and that only. He cried out to
+Cornelia to save him, he confessed his villanies, and vowed repentance
+a score of times all in one breath. But Cornelia lived in an age when
+the wisest and best--whatever the philosophers might theorize--thought
+it no shame to reward evil for evil, not less than good for good. When
+Demetrius asked her, "Shall I spare this man, lady?" she replied: "As
+he has made my life bitter for many days, why should I spare him a
+brief moment's pain? Death ends all woe!"
+
+There was a dull splash over the side, a circle spreading out in the
+water, wider and wider, until it could be seen no more among the
+waves.
+
+"There were heavy stones to his feet, Captain," reported Eurybiades,
+"and the cords will hold."
+
+"It is well," answered Demetrius, very grave....
+
+Later in the day the boat returned from Puteoli, and with it sundry
+small round-bellied bags, which the pirate prince duly stowed away in
+his strong chest. The ransomed captives were put on board a small
+unarmed yacht that had come out to receive them. Demetrius himself
+handed the ladies over the side, and salaamed to them as the craft
+shot off from the flagship. Then the pirates again weighed anchor, the
+great purple[171] square sail of each of the ships was cast to the
+piping breeze, the triple tiers of silver-plated oars[171] began to
+rise and fall in unison to the soft notes of the piper. The land grew
+fainter and more faint, and the three ships sprang away, speeding over
+the broad breast of the sea.
+
+  [171] These were real affectations of the Cilician pirates.
+
+That night Cornelia and Fabia held each other in their arms for a long
+time. They were leaving Rome, leaving Italy, their closest friend at
+hand was only the quondam slave-boy Agias, yet Cornelia, at least, was
+happy--almost as happy as the girl Artemisia; and when she lay down to
+sleep, it was to enjoy the first sound slumber, unhaunted by dread of
+trouble, for nigh unto half a year.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XX
+
+Cleopatra
+
+
+I
+
+A "clear singing zephyr" out of the west sped the ships on their way.
+Down they fared along the coast, past the isle of Capreae, then,
+leaving the Campanian main behind, cut the blue billows of the
+Tyrrhenian Sea; all that day and night, and more sail and oar swept
+them on. They flew past the beaches of Magna Graecia, then, betwixt
+Scylla and Charybdis, and Sicilia and its smoke-beclouded cone of AEtna
+faded out of view, and the long, dark swells of the Ionian Sea caught
+them. No feeble merchantman, hugging coasts and headlands, was
+Demetrius. He pushed his three barques boldly forward toward the
+watery sky-line; the rising and setting sun by day and the slowly
+circling stars by night were all-sufficient pilots; and so the ships
+flew onward, and, late though the season was, no tempest racked them,
+no swollen billow tossed them.
+
+Cornelia sat for hours on the poop, beneath a crimson awning, watching
+the foam scudding out from under the swift-moving keel, and feeling
+the soft, balmy Notos, the kind wind of the south, now and then puff
+against her face, when the west wind veered away, and so brought up a
+whiff of the spices and tropic bloom of the great southern continent,
+over the parching deserts and the treacherous quicksands of the Syrtes
+and the broad "unharvested sea."
+
+Cornelia had seen the cone of AEtna sinking away in the west, and then
+she looked westward no more. For eastward and ever eastward fared the
+ships, and on beyond them on pinions of mind flew Cornelia. To Africa,
+to the Orient! And she dreamed of the half-fabulous kingdoms of
+Assyria and Babylonia; of the splendours of Memphis and Nineveh and
+Susa and Ecbatana; of Eastern kings and Eastern gold, and Eastern pomp
+and circumstance of war; of Ninus, and Cyrus the Great, and Alexander;
+of Cheops and Sesostris and Amasis; of the hanging gardens; of the
+treasures of Sardanapalus; of the labyrinth of Lake Moeris; of a
+thousand and one things rare and wonderful. Half was she persuaded
+that in the East the heart might not ache nor the soul grow cold with
+pain. And all life was fair to Cornelia. She was sure of meeting
+Drusus soon or late now, if so be the gods--she could not help using
+the expression despite her atheism--spared him in war. She could wait;
+she could be very patient. She was still very young. And when she
+counted her remaining years to threescore, they seemed an eternity.
+The pall which had rested on her life since her uncle and her lover
+parted after their stormy interview was lifted; she could smile, could
+laugh, could breathe in the fresh air, and cry, "How good it all is!"
+
+Demetrius held his men under control with an iron hand. If ever the
+pirate ship was filled with sights and sounds unseemly for a lady's
+eyes and ears, there were none of them now. Cornelia was a princess,
+abjectly waited on by her subjects. Demetrius's attention outran all
+her least desires. He wearied her with presents of jewellery and
+costly dresses, though, as he quietly remarked to Agias, the gifts
+meant no more of sacrifice to him than an obol to a rich spendthrift.
+He filled her ears with music all day long; he entertained her with
+inimitable narrations of his own adventurous voyages and battles. And
+only dimly could Cornelia realize that the gems she wore in her hair,
+her silken dress, nay, almost everything she touched, had come from
+earlier owners with scant process of law.
+
+Demetrius was no common rover. He had been a young man of rare culture
+before misfortune struck him. He knew his Homer and his Plato as well
+as how to swing a sword. "Yet," as he remarked with half jest, half
+sigh, "all his philosophy did not make him one whit more an honest
+man."
+
+And in his crew of Greeks, Orientals, and Spaniards were many more
+whom calamity, not innate wickedness, so Cornelia discovered, had
+driven to a life of violence and rapine.
+
+Demetrius, too, gave no little heed to Artemisia. That pretty creature
+had been basking in the sunshine of Agias's presence ever since coming
+on shipboard. It was tacitly understood that Cornelia would care for
+the welfare and education of Pratinas's runaway, until she reached a
+maturity at which Agias could assert his claims. The young Hellene
+himself had been not a little anxious lest his cousin cast obstacles
+in the way of an alliance with a masterless slavegirl; for of late
+Demetrius had been boasting to his kinsman that their family, before
+business misfortunes, had been wealthy and honourable among the
+merchant princes of Alexandria. But the worthy pirate had not an
+objection to make; on the contrary, he would sit for hours staring at
+Artemisia, and when Agias demanded if he was about to turn rival,
+shook his head and replied, rather brusquely:--
+
+"I was only thinking that Daphne might be about her age, and look
+perhaps like her."
+
+"Then you do not think your little daughter is dead?" asked Agias,
+sympathetic, yet personally relieved.
+
+"I know nothing, nothing," replied his cousin, a look of ineffable
+pain passing over his fine features; "she was a mere infant when I was
+arrested. When I broke loose, I had to flee for my life. When I could
+set searchers after her, she had vanished. Poor motherless thing; I
+imagine she is the slave of some gay lady at Antioch or Ephesus or
+Rome now."
+
+"And you do not know who stole her?" asked Agias.
+
+"Don't tear open old wounds," was the retort. "I know nothing. I
+think--but it matters little what I think. There was that sly-eyed,
+smooth-tongued Greek, like that Phaon who met his deserts, who was no
+stranger to Domitius's blackmailings. I _feel_ that he did it. Never
+mind his name. If ever I get the snake into my power--" and
+Demetrius's fingers tightened around the thick, hard cable he was
+clutching, and crushed the solid hemp into soft, loose strands; then
+he broke out again, "Never mention this another time, Agias, or I
+shall go mad, and plunge down, down into the waves, to go to sleep and
+forget it all!"
+
+Agias was faithful to the injunction; but he observed that Demetrius
+showed Artemisia the same attention as Cornelia, albeit mingled with a
+little gracious and unoffending familiarity.
+
+
+II
+
+After a voyage in which one pleasant day succeeded another, Cornelia
+awoke one morning to hear the creak of blocks and tackle as the
+sailors were lowering sail. The full banks of oars were plashing in
+the waves, and on deck many feet were rushing to and fro, while
+officers shouted their orders. Coming out of her cabin, the young lady
+saw that the end of her seafaring was close at hand. Even to one fresh
+from the azure atmosphere of the Campanian Bay, the sky was
+marvellously clear. The water was of a soft green tint, that shaded
+off here and there into dark cerulean. The wind was blowing in cool
+puffs out of the north. A long, slow swell made the stately triremes
+rock gracefully. Before them, in clear view, rose the tall tower of
+the Pharos,--the lighthouse of Alexandria,--and beyond it, on the
+low-lying mainland, rose in splendid relief against the cloudless sky
+the glittering piles and fanes of the city of the Ptolemies. It was a
+magnificent picture,--a "picture" because the colours everywhere were
+as bright as though laid on freshly by a painter's brush. The
+stonework of the buildings, painted to gaudy hues, brought out all the
+details of column, cornice, and pediment. Here Demetrius pointed out
+the Royal Palace, here the Theatre; here, farther inland, the Museum,
+where was the great University; in the distance the whole looked like
+a painting in miniature. Only there was more movement in this picture:
+a splendid yacht, with the gold and ivory glittering on its prow and
+poop, was shooting out from the royal dockyards in front of the
+palace; a ponderous corn-ship was spreading her dirty sails to try to
+beat out against the adverse breeze, and venture on a voyage to Rome,
+at a season when the Italian traffic was usually suspended. The
+harbour and quays were one forest of masts. Boats and small craft were
+gliding everywhere. Behind the pirate's triremes several large
+merchantmen were bearing into the harbour under a full press of sail.
+
+"And this, your ladyship," said Demetrius, smiling, "is Egypt. Does
+the first sight please you?"
+
+"Does it not!" exclaimed Cornelia, drinking in the matchless
+spectacle. "But you, kind sir, do you not run personal peril by
+putting into this haven for my sake?"
+
+Demetrius laughed.
+
+"It speaks ill for the law-abiding qualities of my countrymen, lady,"
+said he, "that I have nothing now to fear. I have too many great
+friends both in the court and in the city to fear arrest or annoyance.
+Here I may not stay long, for if it were to be noised in Rome that a
+pirate were harboured habitually at Alexandria, a demand for my arrest
+would come to the king quickly enough, and he must needs comply. But
+for a few days, especially while all Rome is in chaos, I am safe; and,
+come what may, I would be first warned if any one intended to lay
+hands on me."
+
+Indeed, Demetrius's boast as to his own importance in Alexandria was
+soon verified. The customs officials were all obsequiousness when they
+went through the form of levying on the cargo of the ship. The master
+of the port was soon in Demetrius's own cabin over a crater of
+excellent wine, and no sooner had the vessels touched the quay than
+their crews were fraternizing with the hosts of stevedores and
+flower-girls who swarmed to meet the new arrivals.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A few days later Cornelia and Fabia found themselves received as
+members of the household of no less a person than Cleomenes, a distant
+kinsman of Demetrius and Agias, and himself one of the great merchant
+princes of the Egyptian capital. The Roman ladies found a certain
+amount of shyness to overcome on their own part and on that of their
+hosts. Cleomenes himself was a widower, and his ample house was
+presided over by two dark-skinned, dark-eyed daughters, Berenice and
+Monime--girls who blended with the handsome Greek features of their
+father the soft, sensuous charm of his dead Egyptian wife. Bashful
+indeed had been these maidens in contact with the strangers who came
+bearing with them the haughty pride of all-conquering Rome. But after
+a day or two, when Cornelia had cast off the hauteur begotten of
+diffidence, and Fabia had opened the depths of her pure womanly
+character, the barriers were thrown down rapidly enough; and Cornelia
+and Fabia gained, not merely an access to a new world of life and
+ideas, but two friends that they could regard almost as sisters.
+
+It was a new thing for these Roman ladies to meet a foreigner on terms
+approaching equality. A non-Roman had been for them a servant, an
+intelligent underling, nothing more; even Agias and Demetrius they had
+regarded as friends, very close and agreeable, but whom it was a
+distinct condescension not to treat with ostentatious superiority. But
+to sustain this feeling long with Berenice and Monime was impossible.
+The young Egyptians were every whit as cultured, as intelligent, as
+themselves, every whit as accustomed to deference from others, and
+implicitly assumed the right to demand it. The result was that
+Cornelia found herself thinking less and less about being a Roman, and
+more and more regarded her gracious hosts as persons in every way
+equal to herself.
+
+And less and less of a Roman, Cornelia, the Hellene-hater, became.
+Greek was the only tongue now that sounded in her ear, unless she
+talked privately with Fabia or was beguiled into trying to learn a
+little Egyptian--a language Berenice and Monime spoke fluently. The
+clothes she wore were no longer stola and palla, but chiton and
+himation. The whole atmosphere about her was foreign, down to the
+cries on the streets. And Italy was very far away, and the last
+memories thereof none the most pleasant.
+
+It chanced that one morning Cleomenes, Monime, and Cornelia were
+driving down the great central street, under the shadow of seemingly
+endless colonnades.
+
+"_A!_ dearest one," cried Monime, "why must you think of leaving our
+lovely Alexandria, of going back to cold, cheerless Rome? What good
+thing does Rome send out but stern men and sharp iron?"
+
+Cornelia shook her head and made answer--
+
+"You Alexandrians are not one nation, but all the world; therefore you
+think all who are less cosmopolitan poor. See, I count in the crowds
+not only the dark Egyptians and fair Greeks, but a Persian in his
+splendid long kaftan, and a very venerable Jew, and a wiry little
+Arab, and Syrians, and negroes, and, I think, a Hindoo."
+
+"And yourself, my lady, a Roman," concluded Cleomenes. "Truly all the
+earth has met in our city."
+
+They whirled down the splendid highway that ran straight as an arrow
+the whole length of the city, lined on either side by a forest of the
+infinite number of columns of the great stretches of porticos.
+Handsomely dressed cavalrymen of the palace guard were dashing to and
+fro over the clean, hard pavement; elegant carriages containing the
+noble and wealthy were whirling in every direction. At each glance,
+the eye lit on some pleasing bit of sculpture, some delicate curve of
+architecture. Statues were everywhere, everywhere colour, everywhere
+crowds of gayly dressed citizens and foreigners. Cornelia contrasted
+the symmetrical streets, all broad, swept, and at right angles--the
+triumph of the wise architectural planning of Dinocrates--with the
+dirty, unsightly, and crooked lanes of the City of the Seven Hills,
+and told herself, as she had told herself often in recent days, that
+Romans had much yet to learn.
+
+They drove on past the Amphitheatre toward the Egyptian quarter of the
+Rhacotis; and here, at the intersection of the Great Street with the
+other broad way leading from the "Gate of the Moon" on the harbour to
+the "Gate of the Sun" on Lake Mareotis, a moving hedge of outriders,
+cavalrymen, and foot-guards met them.
+
+"The queen coming from the Serapeum," said Cleomenes, drawing rein.
+
+Cornelia saw half-naked Numidian footmen thrusting back the crowd that
+bustled in the Omphalos--the great square where the two highroads met.
+Behind them pushed a squadron of light cavalry in silvered armour and
+splendid purple and scarlet uniforms. Then, in the midst of all, moved
+a chariot drawn by four horses white as snow, the harness resplendent
+with gold and jewels; at either side ran fan-bearers, waving great
+masses of bright ostrich plumes; a gaudy parasol swept over the
+carriage itself. There were three occupants, whereof two stood: an
+Egyptian, gaunt and of great height, clad in plain white linen, who
+was driving, and a handsome, gaudily dressed Greek youth, who was
+holding the parasol. Cornelia could just catch the profile of a young
+woman seated between them. The face was not quite regular, but
+marvellously intelligent and sensitive; the skin not pale, yet far
+from dark, and perfectly healthy and clear; the eyes restive and
+piercing. The queen was dressed plainly in Greek fashion; her himation
+was white, her only ornament a great diamond that was blazing like a
+star on her breast. Upon the coils of her heavy, dark hair sat a
+golden circlet faced in front with the likeness of the head of the
+venomous uraeus snake--the emblem of Egyptian royalty. This was all
+Cornelia could observe in the brief time the queen was in view. Some
+of the people--Egyptians mostly--cried out to her in their own
+tongue:--
+
+"Hail to the ever glorious Daughter of Ra!"
+
+But the queen paid them little heed. Once her restless eyes lit on the
+carriage of Cleomenes, and she made a slight inclination of the head
+in return to that gentleman's salute, for Cleomenes had standing at
+court as one of the "friends of the king."[172]
+
+  [172] A high order of Egyptian nobility.
+
+The cortege rolled away toward the palace.
+
+"This Cleopatra is a rather remarkable woman," observed Cornelia, for
+the sake of saying something.
+
+"Indeed, that is true," replied Cleomenes, as he turned to drive
+homeward. "She is worthy to have lived in the days of the first
+Ptolemies, of Ptolemaeus Soter and Philadelphus and Euergetes. She is
+still very young, only twenty, and yet five years ago she was so
+fascinating that when Antonius, of whom I have heard you speak, came
+here with Gabinius's expeditions he quite lost his heart to her. She
+has a marvellous talent for statecraft and intrigue and diplomacy. You
+know that, nominally at least, she has to share her crown with young
+Ptolemaeus, her younger brother. He is a worthless rascal, but his
+tutor, the eunuch Pothinus, really wields him. Pothinus, as the custom
+is, was brought up with him as his playmate, and now Pothinus wants to
+drive out the queen, and rule Egypt through his power over the king.
+His ambition is notorious, but the queen has not been able to lay
+hands on him for treason."
+
+Cleopatra and her fortunes and perils played a slight part in
+Cornelia's mind, however, that day. To know Alexandria in its sunlight
+and shadows was indeed to know a miniature world. First of all to
+notice, besides the heterogeneous nature of the crowds on the streets,
+was the fact that every person, high as well as low, was engaged in
+some trade. Very far was the typical Alexandrian from the quiet
+"leisure" which the average Greek or Latin believed requisite for a
+refined life--a life in which slaves did all the necessary work, and
+amassed an income for the master to expend in polite recreations. In
+Rome, for a free citizen to have been a handicraftsman would have been
+a disgrace; he could be farmer, banker, soldier,--nothing more. In
+Alexandria the glass-workers, paper-makers, and linen weavers were
+those who were proudest and most jealous of their title of "Men of
+Macedonia."[173] Money, Cornelia soon discovered, was even a greater
+god here than in Rome. Cleomenes himself was not ashamed to spend a
+large part of the day inspecting his factories, and did not hesitate
+to declare that during a period when he and his family had been in
+great distress, following the failure of the banking house of Agias's
+father, he had toiled with his own hands to win bread for his
+daughters.
+
+  [173] The official title of Alexandrian Greek citizens.
+
+The conception that any honest labour, except a certain genteel
+agriculture, might not make a man the less of a gentleman, or a woman
+the less of a lady, was as new to Cornelia as the idea that some
+non-Romans could claim equality with herself. Neither proposition did
+she accept consciously. The prejudice wore quietly away. But other
+things about the city she gathered quickly enough from the caustic
+explanations of Cleomenes.
+
+"Here in Alexandria," he asserted on one occasion, "we are always ripe
+for a riot. Never a chariot race without stone-throwing and
+throat-cutting after it. An unpopular official is torn in pieces by a
+mob. If you chance to kill a cat, the Egyptians are after you for your
+life. The Greeks hate the Jews, and are always ready to plunder their
+quarter; the Egyptians are on bad terms with both. We talk about being
+free citizens of the capital of the Ptolemies, and pretend to go to
+the Gymnasium for discussion, and claim a right to consult with the
+king; but our precious Senate, and all our tribes and wards, are only
+fictions. We are as much slaves as the poor creatures down in the
+royal quarries; only we demand the right to riot and give nicknames.
+We called the last Ptolemaeus, Auletes "the Piper," because in that way
+we have punished him in all history for the way he oppressed us.
+_Euge!_ Have we not a wonderful city!"
+
+It was on the very next day that Cleopatra was recalled to Cornelia's
+mind in a quite marked fashion. It was rather early, and she was upon
+the roof-garden, on the third story of the house, where there was a
+commanding view of the city. Berenice was busy reading from a papyrus
+the Egyptian legend of the "Adventures of Sinuhit," translating into
+Greek as she read.
+
+Cleomenes broke in upon the reading. His face wore a mysterious smile.
+
+"I have a rather strange piece of news for you, my lady," he said. "A
+chamberlain of the court has just been here, and brings a royal
+command."
+
+"I am not accustomed to being commanded," interrupted Cornelia, all
+her Roman haughtiness rising.
+
+"I do not think you will be found disobedient. The queen, it seems,
+noticed you in my carriage yesterday, and at once divined, with that
+wonderfully quick wit of hers, that you must be a Roman lady of rank.
+She immediately made inquiries, and now sends her chamberlain to ask
+you and the Lady Fabia, as well as myself, to dine with her at the
+palace to-night. You may be sure nothing will be lacking to do you
+honour."
+
+Cornelia meekly acquiesced in this royal mandate. Fabia, however,
+could not stir from the house. The shock to her finely strung nature
+when she was taken from Rome had, indeed, produced a physical
+reaction. She was not seriously ill, but could endure no excitement.
+So it was with only Cleomenes for an escort that Cornelia mounted into
+one of the splendid royal chariots sent from the palace about dusk,
+and drove away surrounded by a cloud of guardsmen sent to do honour to
+the guests of the queen.
+
+Cornelia herself felt highly strung and slightly nervous. She wished,
+for the first time since she reached Alexandria, that she could go
+dressed in the native costume of a Roman lady, She was going to enjoy
+the hospitality of a princess who was the successor of thirty odd
+dynasties of Pharaohs; who was worshipped herself as a goddess by
+millions of Egyptians; who was hailed as "Daughter of the Sun," and
+with fifty other fulsome titles; a princess, furthermore, who was
+supposed to dispose of the lives of her subjects as seemed right in
+her own eyes, without law of man or god to hinder. Cornelia was not
+afraid, nay rather, anticipatory; only she had never before been so
+thoroughly conscious that she was Roman down to her finger-tips--Roman,
+and hence could look upon the faces of princes unabashed.
+
+The people saw the royal chariot, and some shouted salutations to the
+guests whom the queen delighted to honour. The company swept up under
+the magnificent archway leading to the palace; above them rose tall
+Ionic columns of red granite of Syene, building rising above building,
+labyrinths of pillars, myriads of statues. Torches were blazing from
+every direction. The palace grounds were as bright as day. The light
+breeze was sweeping through rare Indian ferns and tropical palms. The
+air was heavy with the breath of innumerable roses. Huge fountains
+were tossing up showers of spray, which fell tinkling onto broad
+basins wherein the cups of the blue and white lotus were floating. It
+was indeed as if one had been led on to enchanted ground.
+
+Cornelia and her friend dismounted from their chariot, and were led
+through an endless colonnade, past a second, lower gateway, and then
+into a hall, not very high or large, but admirable in its proportions,
+with a whole gallery of choice mythological paintings on its walls.
+Small heed did Cornelia give to them. For at the end of the hall rose
+a low dais, whereon sat, in a gilded chair, the same person who had
+been pointed out to Cornelia the day before as the mistress of Upper
+and Lower Egypt.
+
+The light was too dim to discover in the distance anything new in the
+face of the queen. She wore a loose, long gown of some light blue
+silken stuff; and her belt, shoes, neck, breast, and ears were all
+glittering with gems. At the foot of the dais was a group of half a
+dozen showily dressed chamberlains and courtiers, who made a slight
+motion of greeting when the two guests darkened the doorway. One of
+these functionaries advanced to Cornelia.
+
+"Your ladyship," he began, in a smooth, colourless voice, "I have the
+honour to be the Royal Introducing Chamberlain. In approaching the
+queen, do as I shall direct. First, before advancing to the dais bow
+slightly; then at the foot of the dais it is proper--"
+
+"Sir," interrupted Cornelia, drawing herself up to her full height, "I
+am not accustomed to your prostrations and genuflections, and of them
+my countrymen make sorry work; pray excuse me." And without waiting
+for reply or expostulation she advanced straight toward the dais. The
+hall was small, the steps from the door to the queen's chair few; but
+never did Cornelia fare on more tedious journey. She knew that a
+half-horrified titter was passing through the group of courtiers She
+knew that Cleopatra herself had stirred in her seat, as if to rise.
+But one word sounded in Cornelia's ears, and that word was "Rome."
+Were not Roman citizens nobles among nobles, and Roman senators peers
+of kings! And she, daughter of the Cornelii and Claudii, whose
+ancestors had broken the might of Antiochus the Great and
+Mithridates--should she not look in the face the heiress of the
+Lagidae? Had not one hundred years before Popilius, the Roman
+commissioner, come unarmed into the presence of Antiochus Epiphanes,
+while he was advancing to the gates of defenceless Alexandria, drawn a
+circle in the dust about the king, and bidden him answer, before he
+stepped over, whether he would court destruction or obey the mandate
+of the Republic and leave Egypt in peace? And had not the great king
+obeyed--humbly? Why, then, should not a Roman patrician maiden look
+down on a mere monarch, who was a pawn in the hands of her kinsfolk
+and countrymen?
+
+To repeat these things is long. The mind moves faster than the
+sunlight. Cornelia came to the dais, and there gave the slightest
+inclination of her head--the greeting of a mistress to slaves--to the
+group of courtiers. She advanced straight toward the royal chair and
+stretched forth her hand.
+
+"I am your debtor, O queen, for a kindness that I may not soon, I
+fear, repay--unless you come to Rome."
+
+She spoke as a superior addressing an inferior who had rendered some
+slight service. The queen rose from her seat and took the proffered
+hand without the least hesitation.
+
+"And I will ask for none other reward than that you do honour to my
+entertainment."
+
+The voice was wonderfully soft, modulated, and ringing; like an
+instrument of many strings. Every syllable blended into the next in
+perfect harmony; to hear a few words was like listening unto music.
+
+Cornelia knew later, when she was older and had thought more, that the
+queen had instantly caught the defiant mood of her guest, and
+thereupon left nothing unspared to conciliate it. At that moment,
+however, she attempted no such analysis of motive. She was conscious
+of only one thing: the luminous personality of Cleopatra. The queen
+was all that Cornelia had noticed her to be when they met at the Great
+Square; but she was more than a beautiful woman. In fact, in mere
+bodily perfection Monime or Berenice might well have stood beside her.
+The glance of the queen went through and through her guests like
+arrows of softly burning light. It was impossible to withdraw one's
+eyes from her; impossible to shake off the spell of an enjoyable
+magnetism. If she moved her long, shapely fingers, it was speech; if
+she raised her hand, eloquence. As shade after shade of varying
+emotion seemed to pass across Cleopatra's face, it was as if one saw
+the workings of a masterful spirit as in a mirror; and now could cry,
+"This is one of the Graces," and now "This is one of the Fates," as
+half-girlish candour and sweetness was followed by a lightning flash
+from the eyes, disclosing the deep, far-recessed subtleties of the
+soul within. Cornelia had entered the hall haughty, defiant; a word
+and a look--she was the most obedient vassal.
+
+Cornelia had seen many a splendid banquet and dinner party in Rome.
+Even Oriental kings had not a great deal to teach the "masters of the
+toga" in ostentatious luxury. Perhaps the queen had realized this. The
+present occasion called, indeed for very little formality, for,
+besides Cornelia, Cleomenes was the only guest; and when that
+gentleman inquired politely if his Majesty, the King Ptolemaeus, was to
+honour them with his presence, Cleopatra replied, with an eloquent
+raising of the eyebrows:--
+
+"The king will be to-night, as he always is, with his
+tutor--Pothinus."
+
+There was indescribable scorn in the last word.
+
+The doors of the reception hall had been flung back on noiseless
+pivots by unseen hands. The banqueting room disclosed within was not
+so much a room as a garden. Flowers, flowers were everywhere, roses,
+violets, narcissuses, and a score of others breathing forth a heavy
+fragrance. Overhead, the goldstudded ceiling was converted into a vast
+arbour of blending flowery tints. The room was large, very large for
+only three banqueters; on the walls, from out between the potted
+tropical plants, shone marvellous marble reliefs, one hundred in all;
+and in betwixt them were matchless paintings. Framing, after a
+fashion, the pictures, were equally perfect embroideries, portraying
+in silk and fine linen the stories of Thebes, the kingly house of
+Argos, and many another myth of fame. The pillars of the room
+represented palm trees and Bacchic thyrsi; skins of wild beasts were
+fastened high up to the walls; and everywhere was the sheen of silver
+and gold, the splendour of scarlet and purple tapestries.
+
+"The decorations of this room," said the queen, as her two guests
+entered, "are nearly all preserved from the great banqueting pavilion
+of Ptolemaeus Philadelphus, which he erected for the grand festival
+that ushered in his reign."
+
+Cornelia drew back as her foot crossed the threshold. Her sandals trod
+on the fair white cup of a blooming lily. The queen laughed as merrily
+as a little girl at her confusion.
+
+"In Rome, I doubt not," she said, smiling, "there are not flowers
+enough at this time of year to have them for a carpet. But this is
+Alexandria. Flowers are never out of bloom."
+
+So Cornelia advanced, but perhaps it grieved her more to tread on the
+innocent flowers, than any small thing had since she left Baiae.
+
+And then the banquet, if such it may be termed when there are but
+three to enjoy it, began. Cleopatra knew well that she could not
+overwhelm her Roman guest with show of plate and gems, nor did she
+try. But Cornelia forgot about such things long before they rose. For
+the queen displayed to her a myriad dainty perfections and refinements
+that never had endeared themselves to the grosser Italian gourmands.
+Cleomenes had whispered to his companion, before they reached the
+palace, "Plato tells of four sorts of flattery; but I can promise you
+a thousand sorts from Cleopatra if she but cares to win your
+friendship." And surely the queen did thus desire. For Cornelia was
+surfeited with strange dishes, and rare sherbets, flowers, and music;
+surfeited with everything save the words that fell from the lips of
+Cleopatra.
+
+The more the queen spoke, the more complete became the vassalage of
+her guest. Cornelia discovered that this woman, who was but little
+older than she, could speak fluently seven languages, and carried
+about with her an exceedingly accurate knowledge, not merely of the
+administration of Egypt, but of the politics of Rome, and the details
+of the great contest racking the Republic. When Cleopatra asked
+questions concerning Roman affairs, Cornelia was fain to confess
+ignorance and be put to shame. And as the evening advanced, Cornelia
+found herself talking with more and more confidence to this woman that
+she had never addressed until an hour before. Cleopatra of course
+knew, as all Alexandria knew, that Cornelia and Fabia were Roman
+ladies of the highest rank, who had been forced to take refuge abroad
+until the political crisis was over. But now Cornelia told the queen
+the true reasons that had led her to be willing to submit to
+Demetrius's friendly kidnapping; and when, in a burst of
+frankness,--which in a saner moment Cornelia would have deemed
+unwise,--she told of her betrothal to Drusus and willingness to wait
+long for him, if they might only come together in the end, the queen
+seemed unable to speak with her usual bright vivacity. Presently she
+said:--
+
+"So you love this young man as none other? You are willing to be all
+your life his handmaid, his slave?"
+
+"I love him, assuredly," said Cornelia, with a little heat. "And so
+far as being all my life his slave, I've given that never so much as a
+thought. Where love is, there slavery cannot be."
+
+"And where love is not, there slavery must be, doubtless you wish to
+add?" broke in the queen.
+
+"I should be very miserable if I had nothing to love, which I might
+love purely, and feel myself the nobler and happier thereby."
+
+"Then pity us poor mortals who cannot climb up to your Olympus! Eh, my
+very noble Cleomenes," went on the queen, addressing the Greek, "do I
+not deserve compassion, that I have not been able to find some
+Tigranes of Armenia, or Parthian prince, who will be all in all to me,
+and make me forget everything in worshipping him?"
+
+These were the first words that evening that had grated on Cornelia. A
+little ruffled, she replied:--
+
+"I fear, O queen, that if you are awaiting a Tigranes or an Artavasdes
+to sue for your hand, you will indeed never find a lord to worship.
+Quintus Drusus is indeed wealthy at Rome, his family noble, he may
+rise to great things; but I would not lay down my life for him because
+of his wealth, his lineage, or his fair prospects. It is not these
+things which make a common woman love a man."
+
+"But I am not a common woman," responded Cleopatra, with emphasis. "I
+am ambitious, not to be led, but to lead. I must rule or I must die. I
+cannot love a master, only fear him. Why, because I was born a woman,
+must I give up all my royal aspirations to rise to a great place among
+princes, to build up a great empire in the East, to make Alexandria a
+capital with the power of Rome, the culture of Athens, the splendour
+of Babylon, all in one? It is because I have these hopes stirring in
+me that I may love no man, can love no man! Nothing shall stand in my
+way; nothing shall oppose me. Whoever thwarts my ambitions, the worse
+for him; let him die--all things must die, but not I, until I have won
+my power and glory!"
+
+For once, at least, the queen's emotions had run away with her; she
+spoke hotly, passionately, as though tearing her words from the
+recesses of her throbbing heart. Her wonderful voice was keyed in
+half-bitter defiance. For the moment Cornelia was mistress, and not
+the queen.
+
+"O queen," broke in the young Roman, "would you know how I feel toward
+you?"
+
+Cleopatra looked at her with dilated eyes.
+
+"I feel for you a very great sorrow. I know not whether you will or
+will not do as you wish--set your empire over the far East, a rival,
+friendly, I hope, to our Rome; but this I know, that with your glory,
+and with your renown among men for all time, you will go down to your
+grave with an empty heart. And I know not what may compensate for
+that."
+
+Cleomenes was clearly a little disturbed at this turn to the
+conversation; but Cleopatra bowed her head on her hands. It was only
+for an instant. When she looked up once more there were tears in her
+eyes, which she made no effort to conceal. The look of high defiance
+had faded from her face.
+
+"Think kindly of me, Lady Cornelia," she said; "I am but a wilful girl
+with many things to learn. Perhaps you yourself know that purple robes
+do not make a light heart."
+
+"That I know well and sadly."
+
+"Therefore," went on the queen, "if I forget myself, and half envy a
+cup of happiness that seems dashed from my lips, do not be over
+blameful."
+
+"Never," responded the young Roman.
+
+"Time advances," said the queen; "let us forget that any barriers shut
+us out from perfect bliss. Let us call in the Egyptian musicians; and
+cry out upon me if my looks grow sad!"
+
+Whereat a whole section in the side of the room turned on a pivot, and
+there entered three native harpers and eight pretty Egyptian girls, in
+gauzy dresses, who danced in intricate figures, and juggled with
+balls; now with two, now with three, catching them with their hands
+crossed. Boys ran in and out and sprinkled _kyphi_[174] on the heads
+of the three feasters, and flung huge wreaths of flowers round their
+necks, and thrust lotus flowers in their hair. And all the time the
+girls sang sweetly.
+
+  [174] A mixture of myrrh, frankincense, and other aromatic materials.
+
+The queen kept her guests very late.
+
+"We of Alexandria," said she, "make little difference between night
+and day. Our city is a new Sybaris."
+
+And all through the evening Cleopatra kept close to Cornelia, often
+with her hand upon her, as though extremely loath to let her go. At
+last the moon crept up into the heavens, and as the queen and her
+guests roved out of the heated banqueting hall into the cool gardens,
+the pale yellow light gently bathed the sweep of the city, which lay
+in full view of the palace terrace.
+
+"All sleep," said Cleopatra, "all but ourselves. Let there be one more
+song, and then farewell!--but soon to meet again."
+
+The chorus of maidens, which followed them, sang, in Greek, the hymn
+of Onomacritus:[175]--
+
+  [175] Elton, translator.
+
+  "Heavenly Selene! goddess queen! that shed'st abroad the light!
+  Bull-horned moon! air-habiting! thou wanderer through the night!
+  Moon bearer of mighty torch! thou star-encircled maid!
+  Woman thou, yet male the same, still fresh and undecayed!
+  Thou that in thy steeds delightest, as they travel through the sky,
+  Clothed in brightness! mighty mother of the rapid years that fly;
+  Fruit dispenser! amber-visaged! melancholy, yet serene!
+  All beholding! sleep-enamour'd! still with trooping planets seen!
+  Quiet loving; who in pleasance and in plenty tak'st delight;
+  Joy diffusing! Fruit maturing! Sparkling ornament of night!
+  Swiftly pacing! ample-vested! star-bright! all divining maid!
+  Come benignant! come spontaneous! with starry sheen arrayed!
+  Sweetly shining! save us virgin, give thy holy suppliants aid!"
+
+"Yes," said Cleopatra, passing her hand over her brow, "give us aid,
+either thou, O moon, or some other power, for we are full weak
+ourselves."
+
+When the queen parted with her guests she put her arms around
+Cornelia's waist and kissed her on the forehead.
+
+"I sent for you," said Cleopatra, "half intending to amuse myself with
+the boorishness and clumsy insolence which I conceived a noble Roman
+lady to possess. I have been punished. Promise to come to see me
+often, very often, or I shall call my body-guards and keep you
+prisoner. For I have very few friends."
+
+While the chariot was bearing the two guests away, Cleomenes asked
+Cornelia what she thought of the queen.
+
+"She is the most wonderful woman I have ever met," was her answer,
+enthusiastic and characteristically feminine. "I admire her. I am
+almost her slave."
+
+The frequency of Cornelia's visits to the palace on following days
+seemed to prove that the admiration was not unreciprocated. Indeed,
+Monime and Berenice grew jealous of the queen for stealing their new
+friend from them.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XXI
+
+How Ulamhala's Words Came True
+
+
+I
+
+The sentries were going their rounds; the camp-fires were burning low.
+Over on the western hills bounding the Thessalian plain-land lingered
+the last bars of light. It was oppressively warm, and man and beast
+were utterly fatigued. Quintus Drusus stripped off his armour, and
+flung himself on the turf inside his tattered leather tent. Vast had
+been the changes eighteen months of campaigning had made in him. He
+had fought in Italy, in Spain, in the long blockade of the Pompeians
+at Dyrrachium. He had learned the art of war in no gentle school. He
+had ceased even so much as to grumble inwardly at the hardships
+endured by the hard-pressed Caesarian army. The campaign was not going
+well. Pompeius had broken through the blockade; and now the two armies
+had been executing tedious manoeuvres, fencing for a vantage-ground
+before joining pitched battle.
+
+Drusus was exceedingly weary. The events of the past two
+years,--loves, hates, pleasures, perils, battles,--all coursed through
+his mind; the fairest and most hideous of things were blended into
+buzzing confusion; and out of that confusion came a dull consciousness
+that he, Quintus Drusus, was thoroughly weary of everything and
+anything--was heavy of heart, was consumed with hatred, was chafing
+against a hundred barriers of time, space, and circumstance, and was
+utterly impotent to contend against them.
+
+The Imperator--how he loved and adored him! Through all the
+campaigning nothing could seem to break the strength of that nervous,
+agile, finely strung physique. Sleeping in carriages or litters; ever
+moving; dictating continually books and letters to a secretary if for
+an hour there was a halt; dictating even while on horseback, in fact,
+and composing two letters at the same time; riding the most
+ungovernable horses fearlessly and without a fall; galloping at full
+speed with his hands clasped behind his back,--these were the mere
+external traits that made him wonderful among men. Worthy of all
+praise was the discipline by which the Imperator had held his troops
+to him by bonds firmer than iron; neither noticing all petty
+transgressions, nor punishing according to a rigid rule; swift and
+sure to apprehend mutineers and deserters; certain to relax the tight
+bands of discipline after a hard-fought battle with the genial remark
+that "his soldiers fought none the worse for being well oiled "; ever
+treating the troops as comrades, and addressing them as
+"fellow-soldiers," as if they were but sharers with him in the honour
+of struggling for a single great end. Drusus had known him to ride one
+hundred miles a day in a light chariot without baggage, march
+continually at the head of his legions on foot, sharing their fatigues
+in the most malignant weather, swim a swollen river on a float of
+inflated skins, always travelling faster than the news of his coming
+might fly before him. Tireless, unsleeping, all providing, all
+accomplishing, omniscient,--this was what made Drusus look upon his
+general as a being raised up by the Fates, to go up and down the
+world, destroying here and building there. The immediate future might
+be sombre enough, with all the military advantages falling, one after
+another, into Pompeius's lap; but doubt the ultimate triumph of Caesar?
+The young Livian would have as readily questioned his own existence.
+
+Some one thrust back the flaps of the tent, and called inside into the
+darkness:--
+
+"Are you here, Drusus?"
+
+"I am," was the wearied answer. "Is that Antonius?"
+
+"Yes. Come out. We may as well dispose of our cold _puls_ before the
+moon rises, and while we can imagine it peacocks, Lucrine oysters, or
+what not."
+
+"If sight were the only sense!" grumbled Drusus, as he pulled himself
+together by a considerable effort, and staggered to his feet.
+
+Outside the tent Antonius was waiting with a helmet half full of the
+delectable viand, which the two friends proceeded to share together as
+equally as they might in the increasing darkness.
+
+"You are over sober to-night," said Antonius, when this scarcely
+elaborate meal was nearly finished.
+
+"_Perpol!_" replied Drusus, "have I been as a rule drunken of late? My
+throat hardly knows the feeling of good Falernian, it is so long since
+I have tasted any."
+
+"I doubt if there is so much as a draught of _posca_[176] in the
+army," said Antonius, yawning. "I imagine that among our friends, the
+Pompeians, there is plenty, and more to spare. _Mehercle_, I feel that
+we must storm their camp just to get something worth drinking. But I
+would stake my best villa that you have not been so gloomy for mere
+lack of victuals, unless you have just joined the Pythagoreans, and
+have taken a vow not to eat fish or beans."
+
+  [176] A drink of vinegar and water very common among the soldiers.
+
+"I do not know that I am especially gloomy to-night," replied Drusus,
+a bit testily. "I know little whereon to make merry."
+
+"The arrows of Amor," hinted Antonius, "sink deep in the soul, and the
+god is unfair; he shoots venomed darts; the poison ever makes the pain
+greater."
+
+"I would you could endure your own troubles," retorted the other, "and
+let me care for mine!"
+
+"_Perpol,_ friend," replied Antonius, "don't be vexed! I see it is a
+case of your wanting little said on a sore point. Well, keep silent, I
+won't tease you. Doesn't Theognis declare:--
+
+  "'Caress me not with words, while far away
+  Thy heart is absent and thy feelings stray'?[177]
+
+  [177] Elton, translator.
+
+And doubtless you would reverse the saying and put 'my heart' for 'thy
+heart.' Forgive me."
+
+But Drusus, now that the ice was broken, was glad to talk.
+
+"Now, amice, I won't harbour any ill feeling. I know that you don't
+look at women the way I do. If you had ever fallen in love with one
+like Cornelia, it would have been different. As it is, you can only
+stare at me, and say to yourself, 'How strange a sensible fellow like
+Drusus should care for a girl from whom he has been parted for nearly
+two years!' That's why I doubt if your sympathy can be of any great
+solace to me."
+
+"Well," said Antonius, washing down his _puls_ with a draught of water
+from a second helmet at hand, "I can't say that I would be full of
+grief two years from the day my beloved Fulvia was taken from me. But
+there are women of many a sort. Some are vipers to sting your breast,
+some are playthings, some are--what shall I call them--goddesses? no,
+one may not kiss Juno; flowers? they fade too early; silver and gold?
+that is rubbish. I have no name for them. But believe me, Quintus, I
+have met this Cornelia of yours once or twice, and I believe that she
+is one of those women for whom my words grow weak."
+
+"Then you can sympathize, can feel, for me," said Drusus, as he lay
+back with his head on the dark green sward.
+
+"Yes, as a poor man who has always possessed nothing can feel for a
+rich merchant whose whole fortune is about to founder at sea. Do not
+spurn my feeble sort of pity. But do you know nothing of her, not a
+word, a sign? Is she alive or dead? Much less, does she still care for
+you?"
+
+"Nothing!" answered Drusus, and the sense of vexation and helplessness
+choked his utterance. "She vanished out of sight at Baiae, as a flash
+of lightning passes away in the sky. I cannot imagine the cause of her
+disappearance. The pirates, indeed, might have wished to take her for
+ransom; but no, they bore her off with never a demand for money from
+any friend or relative. I have tried to trace them--the Pompeian ships
+on every sea make it impossible. I have questioned many prisoners and
+spies; she is not at the Pompeian camp with her uncle. Neither can I
+discover that her kinsmen among the enemy themselves know where she
+is. And to this is added that other mystery: whither has my Aunt Fabia
+vanished? How much of the account of those who followed her to the
+river dock is to be believed--that pirates saved her from Gabinius,
+and then abducted her? Upon all, my clever freedman Agias is
+gone--gone without ever a word, though I counted him faithful as my
+own soul!"
+
+"And what then do you expect?" asked Antonius, not without friendly
+interest.
+
+"What can a man, who dares to look the situation in the face, expect,
+except something too horrible to utter?" and Drusus groaned in his
+agony.
+
+"You mean--" began his friend.
+
+"That the pirates have kept Cornelia and perhaps Fabia in their vile
+clutches until this hour; unless, indeed, the Fates have been merciful
+and they are dead! Do you wonder at my pain?"
+
+"_Phui!_ we will not imagine any such disagreeable thing!" said
+Antonius, in a sickly effort to make banter at the other's fears.
+
+"Don't speak again unless you want me your enemy," threatened Drusus,
+springing up in fury. Antonius knew his own interests enough to keep
+quiet; besides, his friend's pain cut him to the heart, and he knew
+himself that Drusus's dread was justified under the circumstances.
+
+"Do you think there will be a battle to-morrow?" demanded Drusus,
+after some interval of gloomy silence.
+
+"I would to the gods it might be so," was his answer; "are you
+thirsting for blood?"
+
+Drusus half drew his short sword, which even in camp never left the
+side of officer or private during that campaign.
+
+"Thirst for blood?" he growled. "Yes, for the lives of Lucius
+Lentulus, and Domitius and his accursed younger son. I am hot as an
+old gladiator for a chance to spill their blood! If Cornelia suffers
+woe unutterable, it will be they--they who brought the evil upon her!
+It may not be a philosophic mood, but all the animal has risen within
+me, and rises more and more the longer I think upon them and on
+_her_."
+
+"Come," said Antonius, lifting his friend by the arm, "and let us lie
+down in the tent. There will be toil enough to-morrow; and we must
+take what rest we may."
+
+
+II
+
+On that same night, in a very sumptuous tent, fresh from an ample
+dinner and a season over choice wines, the high and the mighty of
+Caesar's enemies were taking counsel together. No longer were they
+despairing, panic-stricken fugitives, driven from their native land
+which they had abandoned a prey to the invader. The strength of the
+East had gathered about them. Jews, Armenians, and Arabians were among
+their auxiliary forces; Asia Minor, Greece, the Archipelago, had
+poured out for them levies and subsidies. In the encampment were the
+vassal kings, Deiotarus of Galatia and Ariarathes of Cappadocia,
+allies who would share the triumph of the victorious Pompeius.
+
+For none could doubt that the Magnus had proved his right to be called
+the favoured child of Fortune. Had not Caesar been utterly defeated at
+Dyrrachium? Was he not now almost a fugitive in the interior of
+Greece,--liable at any moment to have his forces cut to pieces, and he
+himself to be slain, in battle like a second Catilina, or to die by
+the executioner's axe like another Carbo? Had not several delighted
+Pompeians just hastened away to Lesbos, to convey to Cornelia, the
+wife of the Magnus, the joyful tidings that Caesar's power was broken
+and the war was over?
+
+Throughout the Pompeian camps there was feasting and revelry, soldiers
+trolled low songs deriding their opponents, and drank themselves
+stupid, celebrating in advance the return of the victorious army to
+Italy. Their officers were looking forward even more eagerly to their
+reinstatement in their old haunts and pleasures at Rome. Lucius
+Ahenobarbus, who was outside the tent of the Magnus, while his father
+was taking part in the conference, was busy recounting to a crony the
+arrangements he was making.
+
+"I have sent a freedman back to Rome to see that my rooms are
+furnished and put in order. But I have told him that I need a suite
+near the Forum, if possible, so as to be convenient for the canvass
+when I sue for quaestor at the next election, for it is time I began on
+my 'round of offices.'" (A "round of offices" being, according to this
+worthy young gentleman, an inalienable right to every male scion of
+his family.)
+
+Within the debate was waxing hot. Not that any one had the least
+doubts that the Caesarians were at their last gasp; rather it was so
+extremely difficult to decide how the spoils of victory were to be
+equitably shared, and what was almost equally important, how the
+hostile and the neutral were to be punished. The noble lords were busy
+settling amongst themselves who should be consuls for several years to
+come, and how the confiscated villas of the proscribed Caesarians
+should be divided. As to the military situation, they were all
+complaisance.
+
+"There is no need for a real battle," Pompeius was saying. "Our
+superior cavalry will rout their whole army before the infantry join
+the attack."
+
+And Labienus, the only officer who had deserted Caesar, protested that
+the opposing legions had long since been thinned of their Gallic
+veterans, that only raw recruits composed them now.
+
+Loudly the councillors wrangled over the successor to Caesar's
+pontificate; Scipio, Domitius, and another great noble, Lentulus
+Spinther, all had their claims. Domitius was clamouring against delay
+in disposing of Caesar, and in returning to Italy, to begin a general
+distribution of spoils, and sanguinary requital of enemies and
+neutrals. The contest over the pontificate grew more and more
+acrimonious each minute.
+
+"Gentlemen," broke in Pompeius, "I would that you could agree amongst
+yourselves. It is a grievous thing that we must thus quarrel with
+bitterness, when victory is within our grasp."
+
+But the war of words went on hotter and hotter. Lentulus Crus noticed
+that Pompeius looked pale and worried.
+
+"You look careworn, Magnus," he whispered; "it will be a relief for
+the burdens of war to be off your shoulders!"
+
+"I know not how this all will come out," said the general. "All the
+chances are in our favour. We have numbers, the best position,
+cavalry, the prestige of victory. Labienus cannot be mistaken in his
+estimate of Caesar's men; yet I am afraid, I am almost timorous."
+
+"It is but the natural fear lest some slight event dim your
+excellency's great glory. Our position is too secure for reverse,"
+remarked Lentulus, soothingly.
+
+"Great glory--" repeated Pompeius, "yes, that makes me afraid.
+Remember Ulamhala's words,--they haunt me:--
+
+  "'He that is highest shall rise yet higher,
+  He that is second shall utterly fall.'
+
+Lentulus, I _know_ Caesar is greater than I!"
+
+Before he could continue, Labienus had risen to his feet in the
+council.
+
+"An oath! an oath, gentlemen!" cried the renegade legate. "Swear all
+after me! 'By Jupiter Capitolinus, Optimus, Maximus, I swear not to
+return from the battle until victorious over Caesar!'"
+
+All the council rose.
+
+"We swear!" cried a score of tongues, as though their oath was the
+lightest thing imaginable.
+
+"Bravely done!" shouted Labienus, while the two Lentuli and Domitius
+and Scipio and many another scion of the great noble houses joined in
+the oath. "_Hem!_ Most excellent Magnus, you do not have confidence
+enough in your own cause to join us. Do you doubt our loyalty or
+soldierly qualities!"
+
+"_Perpol!_" replied Pompeius, with a rather ill-concealed effort to
+speak gayly, "do you think, good Labienus, that I am as distrustful of
+you as Caesar ought to be of his men?"
+
+And the Magnus also took the oath.
+
+Outside the tent the sentries were exchanging their challenges. It was
+the end of the second watch of the night.[178]
+
+  [178] Midnight.
+
+"It is late, gentlemen," said Pompeius. "I believe that I have given
+my orders. Remember our watch word for to-morrow."
+
+"Hercules Invictus!" shouted one and all.
+
+"Unconquerable' we shall be, I trust," continued the
+commander-in-chief. "Good-night, gentlemen; we meet to-morrow."
+
+The council broke up, and filed out of the tent. Lentulus Spinther
+paused to cast a look of savage anger at Scipio, who lingered behind.
+The contest over the pontificate still rankled in his breast. That
+four and twenty hours hence both of these aristocratic gentlemen might
+have more pressing things to think of seemingly entered the head of
+neither. Lentulus Crus, Domitius, and Scipio waited after the others
+were gone.
+
+"I have been wondering all day," said the genial Domitius, when the
+tent had emptied, "how Caesar will comport himself if he is taken
+prisoner and not slain in battle. I give him credit for not being
+likely to flee away."
+
+"I trust he will die a soldier's death," replied Pompeius, gloomily.
+"It would be a grievous thing to have him fall into my hands. He has
+been my friend, my father-in-law. I could not treat him harshly."
+
+"Doubtless," said the ever suave Lentulus Crus, "it would be most
+disagreeable for you, Magnus, to have to reward such an enemy of the
+Republic as he deserves. But your excellency will, of course, bow to
+the decrees of the Senate, and--I fear it will be very hard to
+persuade the conscript fathers that Caesar has earned any mercy."
+
+"_Vah!_ gentlemen," retorted Pompeius, pressing his hands together,
+and walking up and down: "I have been your tool a long while! I never
+at heart desired this war! A hundred times I would draw back, but you
+in some way prevented. I have been made to say things that I would
+fain have left unsaid. I am perhaps less educated and more
+superstitious than you. I believe that there are gods, and they punish
+the shedders of innocent blood. And much good Roman blood has been
+shed since you had your way, and drove Caesar into open enmity!"
+
+"Of course," interposed Domitius, his face a little flushed with
+suppressed anger, "it is a painful thing to take the lives of
+fellow-countrymen; but consider the price that patriots must pay for
+liberty."
+
+"Price paid for liberty," snorted Pompeius, in rising disgust,
+"_phui!_ Let us at least be honest, gentlemen! It is very easy to cry
+out on tyrants when our ambition has been disappointed. But I am
+wasting words. Only this let me say. When, to-morrow, we have slain or
+captured our enemy, it will be _I_ that determine the future policy of
+the state, and not _you_! I will prove myself indeed the Magnus! I
+will be a tool no longer."
+
+The three consulars stared at each other, at loss for words.
+
+"Time wastes, gentlemen," said Pompeius. "To your several commands!
+You have your orders."
+
+The Magnus spoke in a tone that admonished the three oligarchs to bow
+in silence and go out without a word.
+
+"His excellency is a bit tempted to play the high tragedian to-night,"
+sneered Domitius, recovering from his first consternation. "He will
+think differently to-morrow. But of all things, my good Lentulus (if
+it comes your way), see that Caesar is quietly killed--no matter what
+fashion; it will save us endless trouble."
+
+"_Mehercle!_" quoth the other, "do I need that advice? And again
+remind me to-morrow of this. We must arrange the dividing of the
+estate of that young reprobate, Quintus Drusus, who gave us some
+anxiety two years ago. But I imagine that must be deferred until after
+the battle."
+
+And so they separated, and the two armies--scarce five miles
+apart--slept; and the stars watched over them.
+
+
+III
+
+The sun was climbing out of the dark bank of clouds that pressed down
+upon the eastern horizon. The green plain of Pharsalus lay spread out
+far and wide under the strengthening light; the distant hills were
+peering dimly out from the mist; the acropolis of Pharsalus
+itself,--perhaps the Homeric Phthia, dwelling of Achilles,--with its
+two peaked crags, five hundred feet in height, frowned down upon the
+Caesarian camp. The Enipeus and one or two minor streams were threading
+their way in silver ribbons down toward the distant Peneus. The
+fertile plain was green and verdant with the bursting summer. The
+scent of clover hung in the air, and with it the fragrance of thyme.
+Wild flowers were scattered under the feet. The early honeybee was
+hovering over the dew-laden petals. Wakeful thrushes were carolling
+out of the thickets. A thin grey fog was drifting off of the valley,
+soon to vanish in the blue of a perfect day. Clear and sweet the notes
+of the trumpets called the soldiers from their camp. The weary men
+shook the sleep from their eyes. There was a hurried pounding of grain
+in the stone mortars, breakfasts even more hurried. Then again the
+trumpets called out their signal. Busy hands tore up the tent pegs,
+other hands were folding the coverings, gathering up the poles and
+impedimenta, and loading them on the baggage animals.
+
+The soldiers were grumbling as soldiers will. Drusus, who emerged from
+his own tent just as it was about to be pulled down about his ears,
+heard one private growl to another: "Look at the sun rising! What a
+hot day we shall have! _AEdepol!_ will there never be an end to this
+marching and countermarching, skirmishing and intrenching,--water to
+drink, _puls_ to eat,--I didn't take the oath[179] for that. No
+plunder here, and the sack of Gomphi, the last town stormed, amounted
+to nothing."
+
+  [179] The military oath of obedience.
+
+Drusus would have rebuked the man for breeding discontent in the army,
+but at that moment he and every other around him for once relaxed that
+stringent discipline that held them in bands of iron. A third trumpet
+call cut the air, quick, shrill, penetrating.
+
+"To arms!" Every centurion was shouting it to his men. The baggage
+animals were left unladen. A cohort that was about to leave the camp
+in marching order halted, and began to throw away its impedimenta,
+when Caesar himself rode up to them.
+
+"Fellow-soldiers," said the Imperator, smiling as though he had to
+reveal a great piece of good fortune, "we can postpone the march. Let
+us put our hearts into the battle for which we have longed, and meet
+the foe with resolute souls, for now or never is our opportunity!"
+
+"_Io! Io!_" cried a thousand hoarse throats.
+
+Out of confusion came the most perfect order. Drusus ran to the horse
+that he had yielded for a pack animal on the march, saddled, mounted,
+flew away to Caesar's side, his heart pounding in his breast.
+
+"Pompeius is leading out his men!" soldier was shouting to soldier.
+Legion after legion filed forth from the camp. Caesar, sitting with
+easy grace on his own favourite charger which he himself had bred,
+gave in calm, deliberate voice the last orders to his legates. Drusus
+drew rein at the general's side, ready to go anywhere or do anything
+that was needed, his position being one of general aide-de-camp.
+
+Caesar was facing east; Pompeius, west. Five miles of mainly level
+country had extended between the camps, but Pompeius had pitched on a
+hill site, with a river and hills to flank him. There he might safely
+have defied attack. But he had come down from the eminence. He had led
+his army out into the plain, and the camp was a full mile behind. The
+long ranks of the Pompeians were splendid with all the bravery of war.
+On the right wing by the river lay his Cilician and Spanish cohorts,
+led by Lentulus Crus,--the flower of the Pompeian infantry. Scipio
+held the centre with two Syrian legions. On the left, Domitius was in
+command and Pompeius accompanied him. Seven cohorts were behind in the
+fortified camp. A great mass of auxiliaries and volunteers, as well as
+two thousand reenlisted veterans, gave strength to the lines of fully
+recruited cohorts. Out on the left wing, reaching up on to the
+foothills, lay the pride of the oligarchs, seven thousand splendid
+cavalry, the pick and flower of the exiled youth and nobility of Rome,
+reenforced by the best squadrons of the East. Here Labienus led. The
+Pompeian ranks were in three lines, drawn up ten deep. Forty-five
+thousand heavy infantry were they; and the horse and light troops were
+half as many--Spaniards, Africans, Italian exiles, Greeks,
+Asiatics--the glory of every warlike, classic race.
+
+Slowly, slowly, the Caesarian legionaries advanced over the plain.
+Drusus knew that one of the most crucial hours of his life was before
+him, yet he was very calm. He saw some wild roses growing on a bush by
+the way, and thought how pretty they would look in a wreath on
+Cornelia's hair. He exchanged jokes with his fellow-officers; scolded
+a soldier who had come away without his sword in his sheath; asked
+Antonius, when he came across him, if he did not envy Achilles for his
+country-seat. It was as if he were going on the same tedious march of
+days and days gone by. Yet, with it all he felt himself far more
+intensely excited than ever before. He knew that his calm was so
+unnatural that he wished to cry aloud, to run, weep, to do anything to
+break it. This was to be the end of the great drama that had begun the
+day Lentulus and Marcellus first sat down as consuls!
+
+Slowly, slowly, that long snake, the marching army, dragged out of the
+camp. The sun was high in the sky; the last cloud had vanished; the
+blue above was as clear and translucent as it is conceivable anything
+may be and yet retain its colour--not become clear light. The head of
+the column was six hundred paces from the silent Pompeian lines which
+awaited them. Then cohort after cohort filed off to the right and
+left, and the line of battle was ready. On the right was the tenth
+legion, on the left the weak ninth, reenforced by the eighth. There
+were eighty cohorts in all, to oppose one hundred and ten. But the
+ranks of Caesar's cohorts were thin. The numbers were scarce half as
+many as in those of the foe. And to confront Labienus and his cavalry
+Caesar had but one thousand horse. His army stood in three lines,
+facing the enemy's infantry; but, though it weakened his own legions
+dangerously, there was but one thing to do, unless Labienus was to
+force around the flank, and sweep all before him. Six cohorts Caesar
+stationed at the rear of his right wing, a defence against the hostile
+cavalry. The third line of the legions the Imperator commanded to hold
+back until he ordered them otherwise, for on them lay the turning of
+the battle.
+
+Antonius commanded the left, Publius Sulla the right, Calvinus the
+centre. Caesar himself took post on his own right wing opposite
+Pompeius. Then, when the lines were formed, he rode down before his
+men, and addressed them; not in gaudy eloquence, as if to stir a
+flagging courage, but a manly request that they quit themselves as
+became his soldiers. Ever had he sought reconciliation, he said, ever
+peace; unwillingly had he exposed his own soldiers, and unwillingly
+attacked his enemies. And to the six chosen cohorts in the fourth line
+he gave a special word, for he bade them remember that doubtless on
+their firmness would depend the fate of the battle.
+
+"Yes," he said in closing, while every scarred and tattered veteran
+laughed at the jest, "only thrust your pila in the faces of those
+brave cavaliers. They will turn and flee if their handsome faces are
+likely to be bruised." And a grim chuckle went down the line,
+relieving the tension that was making the oldest warriors nervous.
+
+Caesar galloped back to his position on his own right wing. The legions
+were growing restive, and there was no longer cause for delay. The
+officers were shouting the battle-cry down the lines. The Imperator
+nodded to his trumpeter, and a single sharp, long peal cut the air.
+The note was drowned in the rush of twenty thousand feet, the howl of
+myriads of voices.
+
+"_Venus victrix!_" The battle-cry was tossed from mouth to mouth,
+louder and louder, as the mighty mass of men in iron swept on.
+
+"Venus victrix!" And the shout itself was dimmed in the crash of
+mortal battle, when the foremost Caesarians sent their pila dashing in
+upon the enemy, and closed with the short sword, while their comrades
+piled in upon them. Crash after crash, as cohort struck cohort; and so
+the battle joined.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Why was the battle of Pharsalus more to the world than fifty other
+stricken fields where armies of strength equal to those engaged there
+joined in conflict? Why can these other battles be passed over as
+dates and names to the historian, while he assigns to this a position
+beside Marathon and Arbela and Tours and the Defeat of the Armada and
+Waterloo and Gettysburg? What was at stake--that Caesar or Pompeius and
+his satellites should rule the world? Infinitely more--the struggle
+was for the very existence of civilization, to determine whether or
+not the fabric of ordered society was to be flung back into chaos. The
+Roman Republic had conquered the civilized world; it had thrown down
+kings; it had destroyed the political existence of nations. What but
+feebleness, corruption, decay, anarchy, disintegration, disruption,
+recurring barbarism, had the oligarchs, for whom Pompeius was fighting
+his battle, to put in the place of what the Republic had destroyed?
+Could a Senate where almost every man had his price, where almost
+every member looked on the provinces as a mere feeding ground for
+personal enrichment--could such a body govern the world? Were not
+German and Gaul ready to pluck this unsound organism called the
+Republic limb from limb, and where was the reviving, regenerating
+force that was to hold them back with an iron hand until a force
+greater than that of the sword was ready to carry its evangel unto all
+nations, Jew, Greek, Roman, barbarian,--bond and free? These were the
+questions asked and answered on that ninth day of August, forty-nine
+years, before the birth of a mightier than Pompeius Magnus or Julius
+Caesar. And because men fought and agonized and died on those plains by
+Pharsalus, the edict could go from Rome that all the world should be
+taxed, and a naturalized Roman citizen could scorn the howls of the
+provincial mobs, could mock at Sanhedrins seeking his blood, and cry:
+_"Civis Romanus sum. Caesarem appello!"_
+
+How long did the battle last? Drusus did not know. No one knew. He
+flew at the heels of his general's charger, for where Caesar went there
+the fight was thickest. He saw the Pompeian heavy infantry standing
+stolidly in their ranks to receive the charge--a fatal blunder, that
+lost them all the enthusiasm aggression engenders. The Caesarian
+veterans would halt before closing in battle, draw breath, and dash
+over the remaining interval with redoubled vigour. The Pompeians
+received them manfully, sending back javelin for javelin; then the
+short swords flashed from their scabbards, and man pressed against
+man--staring into one another's face--seeking one another's blood;
+striking, striking with one thought, hope, instinct--to stride across
+his enemy's dead body.
+
+The Pompeian reserves ran up to aid their comrades in the line. The
+odds against the Caesarian cohorts were tremendous. The pressure of
+shield against shield never abated. Woe to the man who lost footing
+and fell; his life was trampled out in a twinkling! The battle-cries
+grew fewer and fewer; shouting requires breath; breath, energy; and
+every scruple of energy was needed in pushing on those shields. There
+were few pila left now. The short swords dashed upon the armour, but
+in the press even to swing a blade was difficult. More and more
+intense grew the strain; Caesarians gave ground here and then regained
+it. Pompeians did the like yonder. The long reach of the line swayed
+to and fro, rippling like a dark ribbon in the wind. Now and then a
+combatant would receive a mortal wound, and go down out of sight in
+the throng, which closed over him almost ere he could utter one sharp
+cry.
+
+Caesar was everywhere. His voice rang like a clarion down the lines; he
+knew, as it were, each soldier by name--and when a stout blow was to
+be struck, or a stand was needed to bear up against the weight of
+hostile numbers, Caesar's praise or admonition to stand firm was as a
+fresh cohort flung into the scale. Drusus rode with him, both mounted,
+hence unable to mingle in the press, but exposed to the showers of
+arrows and sling-stones which the Pompeian auxiliaries rained upon
+them. Caesar's red paludamentum marked him out a conspicuous figure for
+the aim of the missiles, but he bore a charmed life.
+
+Drusus himself did what he could to steady the men. The contest in the
+line of battle could not continue long, flesh and blood might not
+endure the strain.
+
+"Imperator," cried Drusus, riding up to his chief, "you see that this
+can last no longer. Our men are overmatched. Shall I order up the
+third line? The centurion Crastinus, who swore that he would win your
+gratitude living or dead, is slain after performing deeds worthy of
+his boast. Many others have gone down. What shall I do?"
+
+Caesar drew rein, and cast his eyes down the swaying lines.
+
+"I dare not order up the third line so early," he began; then, with a
+glance to the extreme right, "Ah, _Mehercle!_ we are at the crisis
+now! Our cavalry have given way before the enemy's horse. They are
+outflanking us!"
+
+"The six cohorts!" cried Drusus.
+
+"The six cohorts--ride! Make them stop those horse, or all is lost! On
+your life, go!"
+
+And away went Drusus. The supreme moment of his life had come. The
+whole act of being, he felt, he knew, had been only that he might live
+at that instant. What the next hour had in store--life, death--he
+cared not at all. The Caesarian horse, outnumbered seven to one, had
+fought valiantly, but been borne back by sheer weight of numbers. With
+not a man in sight to oppose them, the whole mass of the splendid
+Pompeian cavalry was sweeping around to crush the unprotected flank of
+the tenth legion. The sight of the on-rushing squadrons was beyond
+words magnificent. The tossing mass of their panoplies was a sea of
+scarlet, purple, brass, and flashing steel; the roar of the hoof-beats
+of seven thousand blooded coursers swept on like the approaching of
+the wind leading the clouds in whose breast are thunder and lightning
+unfettered. Behind them rose the dun vapour of the dust, drifting up
+toward heaven,--the whirling vortex of the storm. It was indeed the
+crisis.
+
+The six cohorts were standing, resting on their shields, in the rear
+of the extreme right flank of the third line. They were in an oblique
+formation. The most distant cohort extended far back, and far beyond
+the Caesarian line of battle. The hearts of the soldiers were in the
+deathly press ahead, but they were veterans; discipline held them
+quiet, albeit restive in soul.
+
+On swept the roar of the advancing Pompeians. What must be done must
+be done quickly. Drusus drove the spurs into his horse, and approached
+the cohorts on a headlong gallop.
+
+"Forward! I will lead you against the enemy!"
+
+No need of second command. The maniples rushed onward as though the
+men were runners in a race, not soldiers clothed in armour. Drusus
+flew down the ranks and swung the farthest cohorts into alignment with
+the others. There was not a moment to lose.
+
+"Now, men, if ye be indeed soldiers of Caesar, at them!"
+
+Drusus was astounded at the resonance of his own voice; a thousand
+others caught up the shout.
+
+"_Venus victrix!_" And straight into the teeth of the galloping hosts
+charged the thin line of infantry.
+
+The line was weak, its members strong. They were rural Italians,
+uncorrupted by city life, hardy, god-fearing peasants and sons of
+peasants, worthy descendants of the men who died in the legions at
+Cannae, or triumphed at the Metaurus. Steady as on a review the six
+cohorts bore down into action. And when they struck the great mass of
+horsemen they thrust their pila into the riders' eyes and prodded the
+steeds. The foremost cavalrymen drew rein; the horses reared. The
+squadrons were colliding and plunging. In an eye's twinkling their
+momentum had been checked.
+
+"Charge! Charge!" Drusus sent the word tossing down along the cohorts,
+and the legionaries pressed forward. It was done. The whole splendid
+array of horsemen broke in rout; they went streaming back in
+disordered squadrons over the plain, each trooper striving to outride
+his fellow in the flight. Pompeius had launched his most deadly bolt,
+and it had failed.
+
+Now was Drusus's chance. No further order had been given him; to
+pursue cavalry with infantry were folly; he needed no new commands.
+The six cohorts followed his lead like machinery. The crash of battle
+dimmed his voice; the sight of his example led the legionaries on.
+They fell on the Pompeian archers and slingers and dispersed them like
+smoke. They wheeled about as on a pivot and struck the enemy's left
+wing; struck the Pompeian fighting line from the rear, and crushed it
+betwixt the upper and nether millstone of themselves and the tenth
+legion. Drusus drove into the very foremost of the fight; it was no
+longer a press, it was flight, pursuit, slaughter, and he forced his
+horse over one enemy after another--transformed, transfigured as he
+was into a demon of destruction, while the delirium of battle gained
+upon him.
+
+Drusus saw the figure of a horseman clothed, like Caesar, in a red
+general's cloak spurring away to the enemy's camp. He called to his
+men that Pompeius had taken panic and fled away; that the battle was
+won. He saw the third line of the Caesarians drive through the Pompeian
+centre and right as a plough cuts through the sandy field, and then
+spread terror, panic, rout--the battle became a massacre.
+
+So the Caesarians hunted their foes over the plain to the camp. And,
+though the sun on high rained down a pitiless heat, none faltered when
+the Imperator bade them use their favour with Fortune, and lose not a
+moment in storming the encampment. They assailed the ramparts. The
+Pompeian reserve cohorts stood against them like men; the Thracian and
+other auxiliary light troops sent down clouds of missiles--of what
+avail? There are times when mortal might can pass seas of fire and
+mountains of steel; and this was one of those moments. The Pompeians
+were swept from the ramparts by a pitiless shower of javelins. The
+panic still was upon them; standards of cohorts, eagles of legions,
+they threw them all away. They fled--fled casting behind shields,
+helmets, swords, anything that hindered their running. The hills, the
+mountain tops, were their only safety. Their centurions and tribunes
+were foremost among the fugitives. And from these mountain crests they
+were to come down the next morning and surrender themselves prisoners
+to the conquerors--petitioners for their lives.
+
+Not all were thus fated. For in the flight from the camp Domitius fell
+down from fatigue, and Marcus Antonius, whose hand knew no weariness,
+neither his heart remorse or mercy, slew him as a man would slay a
+snake. And so perished one of the evil spirits that hounded Pompeius
+to his death, the Roman oligarchy to its downfall.
+
+Drusus sought far and wide for Lentulus and Lucius Ahenobarbus. The
+consular had fought on the most distant wing, and in the flight he and
+his mortal enemy did not meet. Neither did Drusus come upon the
+younger son of the slain Domitius. Fortune kept the two asunder. But
+slaying enough for one day the young Livian had wrought. He rode with
+Caesar through the splendid camp just captured. The flowers had been
+twined over the arbours under which the victory was to be celebrated;
+the plate was on the tables; choice viands and wines were ready; the
+floors of the tents were covered with fresh sods; over the pavilion of
+Lentulus Crus was a great shade of ivy. The victors rode out from the
+arbours toward the newly taken ramparts. There lay the dead, heaps
+upon heaps, the patrician dress proclaiming the proud lineage of the
+fallen; Claudii, Fabii, AEmilii, Furii, Cornelii, Sempronii, and a
+dozen more great _gentes_ were represented--scions of the most
+magnificent oligarchy the world has ever seen. And this was their end!
+Caesar passed his hand over his forehead and pressed his fingers upon
+his eyes.
+
+"They would have it so," he said, in quiet sadness, to the little knot
+of officers around him. "After all that I had done for my country, I,
+Caius Caesar, would have been condemned by them like a criminal, if I
+had not appealed to my army."
+
+And so ended that day and that battle. On the field and in the camp
+lay dead two hundred Caesarians and fifteen thousand Pompeians.
+Twenty-four thousand prisoners had been taken, one hundred and eighty
+standards, nine eagles. As for the Magnus, he had stripped off his
+general's cloak and was riding with might and main for the seacoast,
+accompanied by thirty horsemen.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XXII
+
+The End of the Magnus
+
+
+I
+
+The months had come and gone for Cornelia as well as for Quintus
+Drusus, albeit in a very different manner. The war was raging upon
+land and sea. The Pompeian fleet controlled all the water avenues; the
+Italian peninsula was held by the Caesarians. Cornelia wrote several
+times to old Mamercus at Praeneste, enclosing a letter which she begged
+him to forward to her lover wherever he might be. But no answer came.
+Once she learned definitely that the ship had been captured. For the
+other times she could imagine the same catastrophe. Still she had her
+comfort. Rumours of battles, of sieges, and arduous campaigning
+drifted over the Mediterranean. Now it was that a few days more would
+see Caesar an outlaw without a man around him, and then Cornelia would
+believe none of it. Now it was that Pompeius was in sore straits, and
+then she was all credulity. Yet beside these tidings there were other
+stray bits of news very dear to her heart. Caesar, so it was said,
+possessed a young aide-de-camp of great valour and ability, one
+Quintus Drusus, and the Imperator was already entrusting him with
+posts of danger and of responsibility. He had behaved gallantly at
+Ilerda; he had won more laurels at the siege of Massilia. At
+Dyrrachium he had gained yet more credit. And on account of these
+tidings, it may easily be imagined that Cornelia was prepared to be
+very patient and to be willing to take the trying vicissitudes of her
+own life more lightly.
+
+As a matter of fact, her own position at Alexandria had begun to grow
+complicated. First of all, Agias had made one day a discovery in the
+city which it was exceeding well for Artemisia was not postponed for a
+later occasion. Pratinas was in Alexandria. The young Greek had not
+been recognized when, as chance meetings will occur, he came across
+his one-time antagonist face to face on the street. He had no fears
+for himself. But Artemisia was no longer safe in the city. Cleomenes
+arranged that the girl should be sent to a villa, owned by the
+relatives of his late wife, some distance up the Nile. Artemisia would
+thus be parted from Agias, but she would be quite safe; and to secure
+that, any sacrifice of stolen looks and pretty coquetry was cheerfully
+accepted.
+
+Soon after this unpleasant little discovery, a far more serious event
+occurred. Pothinus the eunuch, Achillas, the Egyptian commander of the
+army, and Theodotus, a "rhetoric teacher," whose real business was to
+spin, not words, but court intrigues, had plotted together to place
+the young King Ptolemaeus in sole power. The conspiracy ran its course.
+There was a rising of the "Macedonian"[180] guard at the palace, a
+gathering of citizens in the squares of the capital, culminating in
+bloody riots and proclamations declaring the king vested with the only
+supreme power. Hot on the heels of this announcement it was bruited
+around the city that Cleopatra had escaped safely to Palestine, where,
+in due time, she would doubtless be collecting an army at the courts
+of Hyrcanus, the Jewish prince, and other Syrian potentates, to return
+and retake the crown.
+
+  [180] Macedonian it is needless to say was a mere name. The
+  Graeco-Egyptian soldiery and citizen body of Alexandria probably
+  had hardly a drop of Macedonian blood in their veins.
+
+Alexandria was accustomed to such dynastic disruptions. The rioting
+over, the people were ready to go back to the paper and linen
+factories, and willing to call Ptolemaeus the "Son of Ra," or "King,"
+until his sister should defeat him in battle. Cornelia grieved that
+Cleopatra should thus be forced into exile. She had grown more and
+more intimate with the queen. The first glamour of Cleopatra's
+presence had worn away. Cornelia saw her as a woman very beautiful,
+very wilful, gifted with every talent, yet utterly lacking that moral
+stability which would have been the crown of a perfect human organism.
+The two women had grown more and more in friendship and intimacy; and
+when Cornelia studied in detail the dark, and often hideous, coils and
+twistings of the history of the Hellenistic royal families, the more
+vividly she realized that Cleopatra was the heiress of generations of
+legalized license,[181] of cultured sensuality, of veneered cruelty,
+and sheer blood-thirstiness. Therefore Cornelia had pitied, not
+blamed, the queen, and, now that misfortune had fallen upon her, was
+distressed for the plight of Cleopatra.
+
+  [181] As, for instance, the repeated wedlock of brothers and sisters
+  among the Ptolemies.
+
+That Cornelia had been an intimate of the queen was perfectly well
+known in Alexandria. In fact, Cleomenes himself was of sufficiently
+high rank to make any guest he might long entertain more or less of a
+public personage. Cornelia was a familiar sight to the crowds, as she
+drove daily on the streets and attended the theatre. Cleomenes began
+to entertain suspicions that the new government was not quite pleased
+to leave such a friend of Cleopatra's at liberty; and Agias took pains
+to discover that Pratinas was deep in the counsels of the virtual
+regent--Pothinus. But Cornelia scoffed at any suggestions that it
+might be safer to leave the city and join Artemisia in the retreat up
+the Nile. She had taken no part whatsoever in Egyptian politics, and
+she was incapable of assisting to restore Cleopatra. As for the
+possible influence of Pratinas in court, it seemed to her incredible
+that a man of his caliber could work her any injury, save by the
+dagger and poison cup. That an ignoble intriguer of his type could
+influence the policy of state she refused to believe.
+
+Thus it came to pass that Cornelia had only herself to thank, when the
+blow, such as it was, fell. The eunuch prime minister knew how to
+cover his actions with a velvet glove. One evening a splendidly
+uniformed division of Macedonian guard, led by one of the royal
+_somatophylakes_,[182] came with an empty chariot to the house of
+Cleomenes. The request they bore was signed with the royal seal, and
+was politeness itself. It overflowed with semi-Oriental compliment and
+laudation; but the purport was clear. On account of the great danger
+in the city to foreigners from riots--ran the gist of the letter--and
+the extremely disturbed condition of the times, the king was
+constrained to request Cornelia and Fabia to take up their residence
+in the palace, where they could receive proper protection and be
+provided for in a princely manner, as became their rank.
+
+  [182] Commanders of the body-guard.
+
+Cornelia had enough wisdom to see that only by taking the letter for
+the intentions written on its face could she submit to the implied
+command without loss of dignity. She had much difficulty in persuading
+Fabia to yield; for the Vestal was for standing on her Roman
+prerogatives and giving way to nothing except sheer force. But
+Cleomenes added his word, that only harm would come from resistance;
+and the two Roman ladies accompanied the escort back to the palace. It
+was not pleasant to pass into the power of a creature like Pothinus,
+even though the smooth-faced eunuch received his unwilling guests with
+Oriental salaams and profuse requests to be allowed to humour their
+least desires. But the restraint, if such it can be called, could
+hardly take a less objectionable form. Monime and Berenice, as ladies
+whose father was known as a merchant prince of colourless politics,
+were allowed free access to their friends at the palace. Young
+Ptolemaeus, who was a dark-eyed and, at bottom, dark-hearted youth,
+completely under the thumb of Pothinus, exerted himself, after a
+fashion, to be agreeable to his visitors; but he was too unfavourable
+a contrast to his gifted sister to win much grace in Cornelia's eyes.
+Agias, who was living with Cleomenes, nominally for the purpose of
+learning the latter's business, preparatory to becoming a partner on
+capital to come from his predatory cousin, as a matter of fact spent a
+great part of his time at the palace also, dancing attendance upon his
+Roman friends. Pratinas, indeed, was on hand, not really to distress
+them, but to vex by the mere knowledge of his presence. Cornelia met
+the Greek with a stony haughtiness that chilled all his professions of
+desire to serve her and to renew the acquaintance formed at Rome.
+Agias had discovered that Pratinas had advised Pothinus to keep his
+hands on the ladies, especially on Cornelia, because whichever side of
+the Roman factions won, there were those who would reward suitably any
+who could deliver her over to them. From this Cornelia had to infer
+that the defeat of the Caesarians meant her own enthralment to her
+uncle and Lucius Ahenobarbus. Such a contingency she would not admit
+as possible. She was simply rendered far more anxious. Pratinas had
+given up seeking Drusus's life, it was clear; his interest in the
+matter had ended the very instant the chance to levy blackmail on
+Ahenobarbus had disappeared. Pratinas, in fact, Agias learned for her,
+was never weary ridiculing the Roman oligarchs, and professing his
+disgust with them; so Cornelia no longer had immediate cause to fear
+him, though she hated him none the less.
+
+After all, Pratinas thrust himself little upon her. He had his own
+life to live, and it ran far apart from hers. Perhaps it was as well
+for Cornelia that she was forced to spend the winter and ensuing
+months in the ample purlieus of the palace. If living were but the
+gratification of sensuous indolence, if existence were but luxurious
+dozing and half-waking, then the palace of the Ptolemies were indeed
+an Elysium, with its soft-footed, silent, swift, intelligent Oriental
+servants; rooms where the eye grew weary of rare sculpture or fresco;
+books drawn from the greatest library in the world--the Museum close
+at hand; a broad view of the blue Mediterranean, ever changing and
+ever the same, and of the swarming harbour and the bustling city; and
+gardens upon gardens shut off from the outside by lofty walls--some
+great enclosures containing besides forests of rare trees a vast
+menagerie of wild beasts, whose roarings from their cages made one
+think the groves a tropical jungle; some gardens, dainty, secluded
+spots laid out in Egyptian fashion, under the shade of a few fine old
+sycamores, with a vineyard and a stone trellis-work in the midst, with
+arbours and little parks of exotic plants, a palm or two, and a tank
+where the half-tame water-fowl would plash among the lotus and papyrus
+plants. In such a nook as this Cornelia would sit and read all the day
+long, and put lotus flowers in her hair, look down into the water,
+and, Narcissus-like, fall in love with her own face, and tell herself
+that Drusus would be delighted that she had not grown ugly since he
+parted with her.
+
+So passed the winter and the spring and early summer months; and,
+however hot and parched might be the city under the burning sun, there
+was coolness and refreshment in the gardens of the palace.
+
+With it all, however, Cornelia began to wax restive. It is no light
+thing to command one's self to remain quiet in Sybaritic ease. More
+and more she began to wish that this butterfly existence, this passive
+basking in the sun of indolent luxury, would come to an end. She
+commenced again to wish that she were a man, with the tongue of an
+orator, the sword of a soldier, able to sway senates and to lead
+legions. Pothinus finally discovered that he was having some
+difficulty in keeping his cage-bird contented. The eunuch had
+entertained great expectations of being able to win credit and favour
+with the conquerors among the Romans by delivering over Cornelia safe
+and sound either to Lentulus Crus or Quintus Drusus. Now he began to
+fear that Pratinas had advised him ill; that Cornelia and Fabia were
+incapable of intriguing in Cleopatra's favour, and by his "protection
+at the palace" he was only earning the enmity of his noble guests. But
+it was too late to retrace his steps, and he accordingly plied
+Cornelia with so many additional attentions, presents, and obsequious
+flatteries, that she grew heartily disgusted and repined even more
+over her present situation.
+
+Bad news came, which added to her discomfort. Caesar had been driven
+from his lines at Dyrrachium. He had lost a great many men. If the
+Pompeian sources of information were to be believed, he was now really
+a negligible military factor, and the war was practically over. The
+tidings fell on Cornelia's soul like lead. She knew perfectly well
+that the defeat of the Caesarians would mean the death of Quintus
+Drusus. Her uncle and the Domitii, father and son, would be all
+powerful, and they never forgave an enmity. As for herself--but she
+did not think much thereon; if Drusus was slain or executed, she
+really had very little to live for, and there were many ways of
+getting out of the world. For the first time since the memorable night
+of the raid on Baiae, she went about with an aching heart. Fabia, too,
+suffered, but, older and wiser, comforted Cornelia not so much by what
+she might say, by way of extending hopes, as by the warm, silent
+contact of her pure, noble nature. Monime and Berenice were grieved
+that their friends were so sad, and used a thousand gentle arts to
+comfort them. Cornelia bore up more bravely because of the
+sympathy--she did not have to endure her burden alone, as at Rome and
+Baiae; but, nevertheless, for her the days crept slowly.
+
+And then out of the gloom came the dazzling brightness. A Rhodian
+merchantman came speeding into the haven with news. "Is Caesar taken?"
+cried the inquisitive crowd on the quay, as the vessel swung up to her
+mooring. "Is Pompeius not already here?" came back from the deck. And
+in a twinkling it was all over the city: in the Serapeium, in the
+Museum, under the colonnades, in the factories, in the palace.
+"Pompeius's army has been destroyed. The Magnus barely escaped with
+his life. Lucius Domitius is slain. Caesar is master of the world!"
+
+Never did the notes of the great water-organ of the palace sound so
+sweet in any ears as these words in those of the Roman ladies. They
+bore with complacency a piece of petty tyranny on the part of
+Pothinus, which at another time they would have found galling indeed.
+Report had it that Cleopatra had gathered an army in Syria, and the
+eunuch, with his royal puppet, was going forth to the frontier town of
+Pelusium, to head the forces that should resist the invasion. Cornelia
+and Fabia were informed that they would accompany the royal party on
+its progress to the frontier. Pothinus clearly was beginning to fear
+the results of his "honourable entertainment," and did not care to
+have his guests out of his sight. It was vexatious to be thus at his
+mercy; but Cornelia was too joyous in soul, at that time, to bear the
+indignity heavily. They had to part with Monime and Berenice, but
+Agias went with them; and Cornelia sent off another letter to Italy,
+in renewed hope that the seas would be clear and it would find its way
+safely to Drusus.
+
+Very luxurious was the progress of the royal party to Pelusium. The
+king, his escort, and his unwilling guests travelled slowly by water,
+in magnificent river barges that were fitted with every requisite or
+ornament that mind of man might ask or think. They crossed the Lake
+Mareotis, glided along one of the minor outlets of the delta until
+they reached the Bolbitinic branch of the Nile, then, by canals and
+natural water-courses, worked their way across to Bubastis, and thence
+straight down the Pelusiac Nile to Pelusium. And thus it was Cornelia
+caught glimpses of that strange, un-Hellenized country that stretched
+away to the southward, tens and hundreds of miles, to Memphis and its
+pyramids, and Thebes and its temples--ancient, weird, wonderful; a
+civilization whereof everything was older than human thought might
+trace; a civilization that was almost like the stars, the same
+yesterday, to-day, and forever. Almost would Cornelia have been glad
+if the prows of the barges had been turned up the river, and she been
+enabled to behold with her own eyes the mighty piles of Cheops,
+Chephren, Mycerinus, Sesostris, Rhampsinitus, and a score of other
+Pharaohs whose deeds are recorded in stone imperishable. But the
+barges glided again northward, and Cornelia only occasionally caught
+some glimpse of a massive temple, under whose huge propylons the
+priests had chanted their litanies to Pakht or Ptah for two thousand
+years, or passed some boat gliding with its mourners to the
+necropolis, there to leave the mummy that was to await the judgment of
+Osiris. And down the long valley swept the hot winds from the realm of
+the Pygmies, and from those strange lakes and mountains whence issued
+the boundless river, which was the life-giver and mother of all the
+fertile country of Egypt.
+
+Thus with a glimpse, all too short, of the "Black Land,"[183] as its
+native denizens called it, the royal party reached the half-Hellenized
+town of Pelusium, where the army was in waiting and a most splendid
+camp was ready for Ptolemaeus and his train. Cleopatra had not yet
+advanced. The journey was over, and the novelty of the luxurious
+quarters provided in the frontier fortress soon died away. Cornelia
+could only possess her soul in patience, and wonder how long it would
+be before a letter could reach Italy, and the answer return. Where was
+Drusus? Had aught befallen him in the great battle? Did he think of
+her? And so, hour by hour, she repeated her questions--and waited.
+
+  [183] "Black" because of the black fertile mud deposited by the
+  inundation.
+
+
+II
+
+Cleopatra's forces had not reached proportions sufficient for her to
+risk an engagement, when a little squadron appeared before Pelusium
+bearing no less a person than Pompeius himself, who sent ashore to
+demand, on the strength of former services to the late King Ptolemaeus
+Auletes, a safe asylum, and assistance to make fresh head against the
+Caesarians. There was a hurried convening of the council of Pothinus--a
+select company of eunuchs, amateur generals, intriguing rhetoricians.
+The conference was long; access to its debates closely guarded. The
+issue could not be evaded; on the decision depended the
+reestablishment of the Pompeians in a new and firm stronghold, or
+their abandonment to further wanderings over the ocean. All Pelusium
+realized what was at stake, and the excitement ran high.
+
+Cornelia beyond others was agitated by the report of the arrival of
+the Magnus. Rumour had it that Lucius Lentulus was close behind him.
+If the council of Pothinus voted to receive the fugitives, her own
+position would be unhappy indeed. For a time at least she would fall
+into the power of her uncle and of Lucius Ahenobarbus. She was fully
+determined, if it was decided to harbour the Pompeians, to try to
+escape from the luxurious semi-captivity in which she was restrained.
+She could escape across the frontier to the camp of Cleopatra, where
+she knew a friendly welcome was in waiting. Agias, ever resourceful,
+ever anxious to anticipate the slightest wish on the part of the Roman
+ladies, actually began to bethink himself of the ways and means for a
+flight. When finally it was announced in the camp and city that
+Pompeius was to be received as a guest of the king, Cornelia was on
+the point of demanding of Agias immediate action toward escape.
+
+"In a few days," were her words, "my uncle will be here; and I am
+undone, if not you also. There is not an hour to lose."
+
+But Agias reasoned otherwise. If Pothinus and Achillas had really
+consented to receive the Magnus, flight was indeed necessary. Agias,
+however, had grounds, he thought, for hesitancy. He knew that
+Achillas, the head of the army, bitterly opposed the idea of letting
+Pompeius land; he knew, what was almost as much to the point, that
+Pratinas did not care to renew certain acquaintanceships contracted at
+Rome. Therefore the young Hellene calmed Cornelia's fears, and waited
+as best he might.
+
+The council had convened early in the day; the herald went through the
+squares of Pelusium announcing that Ptolemaeus, "Son of Ra," would
+receive as his guest the Roman suppliant. The shore fronting the
+anchorage was covered with the files of the royal army in full array.
+Several Egyptian men-of-war had been drawn down into the water and
+their crews were hastening on board. Out in the haven rode the little
+fleet of the Pompeians. Agias had heard the proclamation, and hurried
+down to the mole to bear the earliest definite information to his
+mistress. Presently, out of the throng of officers and court magnates
+on the quay, stepped Achillas in a splendid panoply of gilded armour,
+with a purple chiton flowing down from beneath. Beside him, with the
+firm swinging step of the Roman legionary, strode two other officers
+in magnificent armour, whom Agias at once recognized as Lucius
+Septimius, a Roman tribune now in Egyptian service, and a certain
+Salvius, who had once been a centurion of the Republic. The three
+advanced on to the quay and stood for a moment at a loss. Agias, who
+was quite near, could hear their conversation.
+
+"The yacht is not ready for us."
+
+"We cannot delay a moment."
+
+There was a large open boat moored to the quay, a fisher man's craft.
+In a moment a few subalterns had taken possession of it and there was
+a call for rowers. Agias, who, like all his race, never declined a
+chance "to see or hear some new thing," took his seat on one of the
+benches, and soon the craft shot away from the mole with the three
+officers in its stern.
+
+It was a short pull to the Pompeian ships; Agias, as he glanced over
+his shoulder thought he could see a motion on board the vessels as if
+to sheer away from the boat; but in a moment the little craft was
+alongside, under the lee of the flagship.
+
+"Where is Pompeius Magnus?" cried Achillas, rising from his seat; "we
+are sent to carry him to the king."
+
+A martial, commanding figure was seen peering over the side,--a figure
+that every inhabitant of Rome knew right well.
+
+"I am he; but why do you come thus meanly with only a fisher's boat?
+Is this honourable, is this worthy of a great king's guest?"
+
+"Assuredly, kyrios," began Achillas, "we are forced to come in this
+small craft, because the water is too shallow for larger ships to
+approach the shore."
+
+Agias knew that this was a lie; he was very certain that he was about
+to be witness to a deed of the darkest treachery. A vague feeling of
+shrinking and horror froze his limbs, and made his tongue swell in his
+mouth. Yet he was perfectly powerless to warn; a sign or a word would
+have meant his instant death.
+
+"_Salve_, Imperator!" shouted Septimius in Latin, rising in turn.
+"Don't you remember the campaign I had with you against the pirates?"
+
+The fugitive general's care-worn face lighted up at the recognition of
+an old officer.
+
+"_Eu!_" he answered, "I shall not want for good friends, I see! How
+glad I shall be to grasp your hands! But is not this a very small
+boat? I see men going on board the galleys by the shore."
+
+"You shall be satisfied in a moment, kyrios," repeated Achillas, with
+suave assurance, "that the quicksands by the mole are very dangerous
+to large vessels. Will you do us the honour to come aboard?"
+
+Agias felt as though he must howl, scream, spring into the sea--do
+anything to break the horrible suspense that oppressed him.
+
+A woman was taking leave of Pompeius on the deck, a tall, stately,
+patrician lady, with a sweet, trouble-worn face; Agias knew that she
+was Cornelia Scipionis. She was adjuring her husband not to go ashore,
+and he was replying that it was impossible to refuse; that if the
+Egyptians meant evil, they could easily master all the fugitives with
+their armament. Several of the Magnus's servants came down into the
+boat--couple of trusted centurions, a valued freedman called Philip, a
+slave named Scythes. Finally Pompeius tore himself from his wife's
+arms.
+
+"Do not grieve, all will be well!" were his words, while the boat's
+crew put out their hands to receive him; and he added, "We must make
+the best choice of evils. I am no longer my own master. Remember
+Sophocles's iambics,
+
+  "He that once enters at a tyrant's door
+  Becomes a slave, though he were free before.'"
+
+The general seated himself on the stern seat between the Egyptian
+officers. Agias bent to his oar in sheer relief at finding some way in
+which to vent his feelings; and tugged at the heavy paddle until its
+tough blade bent almost to cracking. The silence on the part of the
+officers was ominous. Not a word, not a hint of recognition, came from
+Achillas or his Italian associates, from the instant that Pompeius set
+foot in the boat. The stillness became awkward. The Magnus, flushed
+and embarrassed, turned to Septimius. "I was not mistaken in
+understanding that you were my fellow-soldier in years past?" His
+answer was a surly nod. Pompeius, however, reined his rising feelings,
+and took up and began to re-read some tablets on which he had written
+an address in Greek, to be delivered before the king. Agias rowed on
+with the energy of helpless desperation. They were very close to the
+quay. A company of the royal body-guard in gala armour stood as if
+awaiting the distinguished visitor. For a moment the young Hellene
+believed that Achillas was sincere in his errand.
+
+The boat drew up to the landing; one or two of the rowers sprang to
+the dock and made her fast. Agias was unshipping his oar. His thought
+was that he must now contrive the escape of Cornelia. Pompeius half
+rose from his seat; the boat was pitching in the choppy harbour swell;
+the general steadied himself by grasping the hands of Philip the
+freedman. Suddenly, like the swoop of a hawk on its prey, Agias saw
+the right hand of Septimius tear his short sword from its sheath. A
+scream broke from the Hellene's lips; before the Magnus could turn his
+head, the blow was struck. Pompeius received the blade full in the
+back, and staggered, while Salvius and Achillas likewise drew and
+thrust at him. Agias gazed on, paralyzed with horror. The general
+seized his red paludamentum, threw it over his face, groaned once, and
+fell. Even as he did so Septimius struck him across the neck,
+decapitating the corpse. The brutal boatmen tore the blood-soaked
+clothes off of the body, and flung it overboard, to drift ashore with
+the current. And so it ended with Pompeius Magnus, Imperator, the
+Fortunate, the favourite general of Sulla, the chieftain of "godlike
+and incredible virtue," the conquerer of the kingdoms of the East,
+thrice consul, thrice triumphator, joint ruler with Caesar of the
+civilized world!
+
+Agias hastened back to Cornelia to tell her that the danger was past,
+that there was no need of a flight to Cleopatra; but he was sick at
+heart when he thought of the treachery in which he had shared, albeit
+so unwillingly.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XXIII
+
+Bitterness and Joy
+
+
+I
+
+Cornelia knew not whether to be merry or to weep when the report of
+the fate of Pompeius reached her. That she would be delivered up to
+her uncle was no longer to be dreaded; but into the hands of what
+manner of men had she herself fallen? Her own life and that of Fabia,
+she realized, would be snuffed out in a twinkling, by Pothinus and his
+confederates, the instant they saw in such a deed the least advantage.
+The splendid life of the court at the garrison city went on; there was
+an unending round of fetes, contests in the gymnasium and stadium;
+chariot races; contests of poets and actors for prizes in dramatic
+art. To the outward eye nothing could be more decorous and magnificent
+than the pleasures of the Egyptian king. And so some days passed while
+Cornelia crushed her fears, and waited for the news that she was sure
+would come--that Caesar was pressing on the tracks of his rival.
+
+Late one afternoon, as the king and his suite were just returned from
+a visit by boat up the river to inspect a temple under restoration at
+Sethroe, Agias sought the private apartment of his patroness. His face
+was extremely grave, and Cornelia at once realized that he brought
+serious news.
+
+"Domina," he said, speaking in Latin to evade the curiosity of the
+maids present, "when you are at leisure, I have a curious story to
+tell you."
+
+Cornelia presently found pretexts to get rid of all her women. Agias
+reconnoitred, made certain that there was no eavesdropper, and began
+afresh.
+
+"What I have to say is so different from that which we feared a few
+days since, that I scarce know how you will receive it. I have just
+learned that your uncle Lucius Lentulus and Lucius Ahenobarbus made a
+landing on the coast the day after Pompeius was murdered; they have
+been quietly arrested and the matter hushed up. I believe that
+Pothinus intends to execute them without your knowledge. Only by a
+friendship with some of the officers of the guard did I get at this."
+
+Cornelia's lips twitched; her hands pressed on her cheeks till the
+pale skin flushed red. In her heart a hundred conflicting emotions
+held sway. She said nothing for a long time, and then it was only to
+ask where the prisoners were confined.
+
+"They are in the dungeon of the fortress," said Agias. "That is all
+that I can discover."
+
+"I must see them at once," declared the lady.
+
+"I do not know how Pothinus will take this," replied the young
+freedman; "the discovery of his secret will be rightly attributed to
+me, and your ladyship would not care to imperil my life unless
+something very great is to be gained thereby."
+
+"I shall miss you very much," said Cornelia, soberly. "But though
+Lucius Lentulus has done me grievous ill, he is my uncle. You must
+leave Pelusium this very night, and keep out of danger until
+Pothinus's vexation can abate. In the morning I shall demand to see
+the prisoners and to learn the eunuch's intentions touching them."
+
+Agias accordingly fared away, much to Cornelia's regret; but not quite
+so much to his own, because his enforced journeying would take him to
+the Nile villa, where was the pretty Artemisia. Early on the following
+day Cornelia boldly went to Pothinus, and, without any explanations,
+demanded to see her uncle. The regent, who had tried to keep the
+matter profoundly secret, first was irate, then equivocated, and tried
+to deny that he had any Roman prisoners; then, driven to bay by
+Cornelia's persistency and quiet inflexibility before his denials and
+protests, gave her permission to be taken to the prison and see the
+captives.
+
+To pass from the palace of Pelusium to the fortress-prison was to
+pass, by a few steps, from the Oriental life, in all its sensuous
+splendour, to Orientalism in its most degraded savagery. The prison
+was a half-underground kennel of stone and brick, on which the
+parching sun beat pitilessly, and made the galleries and cells like so
+many furnaces in heat. The fetid odour of human beings confined in the
+most limited space in which life can be maintained; the rattle of
+fetters; the grating of ponderous doors on slow-turning pivots; the
+coarse oaths and brutish aspect of both jailers and prisoners; the
+indescribable squalor, filth, misery,--these may not be enlarged upon.
+The attendants led Cornelia to the cell, hardly better than the rest,
+wherein Lentulus and Ahenobarbus were confined.
+
+But another had been before Cornelia to visit the unfortunates. As the
+lady drew toward the open door she saw the graceful, easy form of
+Pratinas on the threshold, one hand carelessly thrust in the folds of
+his himation, the other gesturing animatedly, while he leaned against
+the stone casing.
+
+Lucius Lentulus, his purple-lined tunic dirty and torn, his hair
+disordered, his face knitted into a bitter frown, crouched on a stool
+in the little low-ceiled room, confronting the Hellene. Cowering on a
+mass of filthy straw, his head bowed, his body quaking in a paroxysm
+of fear, was another whose name Cornelia knew full well.
+
+Pratinas was evidently just concluding a series of remarks.
+
+"And so, my friends, amici, as we say at Rome," he was jauntily
+vapouring, "I regret indeed that the atomic theory,--which my good
+Ahenobarbus, I am sure, holds in common with myself,--can leave us no
+hope of meeting in a future world, where I can expect to win any more
+of his good sesterces with loaded dice. But let him console himself!
+He will shortly cease from any pangs of consciousness that our good
+friend Quintus Drusus will, in all probability, enjoy the fortune that
+he has inherited from his father, and marry the lady for whose hand
+the very noble Ahenobarbus for some time disputed. Therefore let me
+wish you both a safe voyage to the kingdom of Hades; and if you need
+money for the ferryman, accept now, as always, the use of my poor
+credit."
+
+"May all the infernal gods requite you!" broke forth Lentulus, half
+rising, and uplifting his fettered hands to call down a solemn curse.
+
+"It has been often observed by philosophers," said Pratinas, with a
+smile, "that even among the most sceptical, in times of great
+extremity, there exists a certain belief in the existence of gods.
+Your excellency sees how the observation is confirmed."
+
+"The gods blast you!" howled Lentulus, in impotent fury. Before
+further words could pass, Cornelia put Pratinas aside, and entered the
+cell.
+
+"Your presence, sir," she said haughtily, to the Hellene, "is needed
+no longer." And she pointed down the gallery.
+
+Pratinas flushed, hesitated as if for once at a loss, and nimbly
+vanished. Lentulus sat in speechless astonishment "Uncle," continued
+Cornelia, "what may I do for you? I did not know till last evening
+that you were here."
+
+But ere the other could reply the figure in the corner had sprung up,
+and flung itself at the lady's feet.
+
+"Save me! save me! By all that you hold dear, save my life! I have
+loved you. I thought once that you loved me. Plead for me! Pray for
+me! Anything that I may but live!"
+
+"_Vah_, wretch!" cried the consular; and he spurned Ahenobarbus with
+his foot. "It is indeed well that you have not married into family of
+mine! If you can do naught else, you can at least die with dignity as
+becomes a Roman patrician--and not beg intercession from this woman
+who has cut herself off from all her kin by disobedience."
+
+"Uncle," cried Cornelia in distress, "must we be foes to the end? Must
+our last words be of bitterness?"
+
+"Girl," thundered the unbending Lentulus, "when a Roman maiden
+disobeys, there is no expiation. You are no niece of mine. I care not
+how you came here. I accept nothing at your hands. I will not hear
+your story. If I must die, it is to die cursing your name. Go! I have
+no more words for you!"
+
+But Ahenobarbus caught the skirt of Cornelia's robe, and pleaded and
+moaned. "Let them imprison him in the lowest dungeons, load him with
+the heaviest fetters; place upon him the most toilsome labour--only
+let him still see the light and breathe the air!"
+
+"Uncle," said Cornelia, "I will plead for you despite your
+wrath---though little may my effort avail. You are my father's
+brother, and neither act of yours nor of mine can make you otherwise.
+But as for you, Lucius Ahenobarbus,"--and her words came hot and
+thick, as she hissed out her contempt,--"though I beg for your life,
+know this, that if I despised you less I would not so do. I despise
+you too much to hate; and if I ask to have you live, it is because I
+know the pains of a base and ignoble life are a myriad fold more than
+those of a swift and honourable death. Were I your judge--I would doom
+you; doom you _to live_ and know the sting of your ignominy!"
+
+She left them; and hatred and pity, triumph and anguish, mingled
+within her. She went to the young King Ptolemaeus and besought him to
+spare the prisoners; the lad professed his inability to take a step
+without the initiative of Pothinus. She went to Pothinus; the eunuch
+listened to her courteously, then as courteously told her that grave
+reasons of state made it impossible to comply with the request--much,
+as he blandly added, it would delight him personally to gratify her.
+Cornelia could do no more. Pratinas she would not appeal to, though he
+had great influence with Pothinus. She went back to her rooms to spend
+the day with Fabia, very heavy of heart. The world, as a whole, she
+beheld as a thing very evil; treachery, guile, wrath, hatred, were
+everywhere. The sight of Ahenobarbus had filled her with loathsome
+memories of past days. The sunlight fell in bright warm panels over
+the rich rugs on the floor of her room. The sea-breeze sweeping in
+from the north blew fresh and sweet; out against the azure light, into
+which she could gaze, a swarm of swallows was in silhouette--black
+dots crawling along across the dome of light. Out in one of the public
+squares of the city great crowds of people were gathering. Cornelia
+knew the reason of the concourse--the heads of two noble Romans, just
+decapitated, were being exposed to the gibes and howls of the coarse
+Greek and Egyptian mob. And Cornelia wished that she were herself a
+swallow, and might fly up into the face of the sun, until the earth
+beneath her had vanished.
+
+But while she leaned from the parapet by the window of the room,
+footsteps sounded on the mosaic pavement without; the drapery in the
+doorway was flung aside; Agias entered, and after him--another.
+
+
+II
+
+Drusus ran to Cornelia and caught her in his arms; and she--neither
+fainted nor turned pale, but gave a little laugh, and cried softly:--
+
+"I always knew you were coming!"
+
+What more followed Agias did not know; his little affair with
+Artemisia had taught him that his Hellenic inquisitiveness sometimes
+would do more harm than good.
+
+Very different from the good-humoured, careless, half-boyish student
+youth who had driven down the Praeneste road two years before, was the
+soldierly figure that Cornelia pressed to her heart. The campaigning
+life had left its mark upon Drusus. Half of a little finger the stroke
+of a Spanish sword had cleft away at Ilerda; across his forehead was
+the broad scar left by the fight at Pharsalus, from a blow that he had
+never felt in the heat of the battle. During the forced marchings and
+voyages no razor had touched his cheeks, and he was thickly bearded.
+But what cared Cornelia? Had not her ideal, her idol, gone forth into
+the great world and stood its storm and stress, and fought in its
+battles, and won due glory? Was he not alive, and safe, and in health
+of mind and body after ten thousand had fallen around him? Were not
+the clouds sped away, the lightnings ceased? And she? She was happy.
+
+So Drusus told her of all that had befallen him since the day he
+escaped out of Lucius Ahenobarbus's hands at Baiae. And Cornelia told
+of her imprisonment at the villa, and how Demetrius had saved her, and
+how it came to pass that she was here at the Egyptian court. In turn
+Drusus related how Caesar had pursued Pompeius into Asia, and then,
+hearing that the Magnus had fled to Egypt, placed two legions on
+shipboard and sailed straight for Alexandria.
+
+"And when he landed," continued the young officer, "the magistrates of
+the city came to Caesar, and gave him first Pompeius's seal-ring of a
+lion holding a sword in his paw, and then another black-faced and
+black-hearted Egyptian, without noticing the distress the Imperator
+was in, came up and uncovered something he had wrapped in a mantle. I
+was beside the general when the bundle was unwrapped. I am sickened
+when I speak of it. It was the head of Pompeius Magnus. The fools
+thought to give Caesar a great delight."
+
+"And what did the Imperator do or say?" asked Cornelia.
+
+"He shrank back from the horror as though the Egyptian had been a
+murderer, as indeed all of his race are. Caesar said nothing. Yet all
+saw how great was his grief and anger. Soon or late he will requite
+the men who slew thus foully the husband of his daughter Julia."
+
+"You must take me away from them," said Cornelia, shuddering; "I am
+afraid every hour."
+
+"And I, till you are safe among our troops at Alexandria," replied
+Drusus. "I doubt if they would have let me see you, but for Agias. He
+met us on the road from Alexandria and told me about you. I had
+received a special despatch from Caesar to bear with all haste to the
+king. So across the Delta I started, hardly waiting for the troops to
+disembark, for there was need for speed. Agias I took back with me,
+and my first demand when I came here was to see the king and deliver
+my letter, which was easily done an hour ago; and my next to see you.
+Whereat that nasty sheep Pothinus declared that you had been sent some
+days before up the river on a trip to the Memphis palace to see the
+pyramids. But Agias was close at hand, and I gave the eunuch the lie
+without difficulty. The rascal blandly said, 'that he had not seen you
+of late; had only spoken by hearsay about you, and he might have been
+misinformed;' and so--What do I look like?"
+
+"You look like Quintus Livius Drusus, the Roman soldier," said
+Cornelia, "and I would not have you otherwise than what you are."
+
+"_Eho!_" replied Drusus, passing his hand over her hair. "Do you want
+me to tell you something?"
+
+"What is it?" said Cornelia, pressing closer.
+
+"I can never write a cosmology. I shall never be able to evolve a new
+system of ethics. I cannot improve on Plato's ideal state. I know I am
+a very ignorant man, with only a few ideas worth uttering, with a hand
+that is very heavy, with a mind that works to little purpose save when
+it deals with politics and war. In short"--and Drusus's voice grew
+really pathetic--"all my learning carries me no farther than did the
+wisdom of Socrates, 'I know that I know nothing;' and I have no time
+to spend in advancing beyond that stage."
+
+"But Socrates," said Cornelia, laughing, "was the wisest man in
+Greece, and for that very reason."
+
+"Well," said Drusus, ignoring the compliment, as a certain type of men
+will when the mood is on them, "what do you wish me to make of
+myself?"
+
+"I wish you to make nothing different," was her reply, "for you are
+precisely what I have always wanted you to be. When you have read as
+much as I have," this with an air of utter weariness, "you will
+realize the futility of philosophic study."
+
+"_Eho!_" remarked Drusus again. "So you would have me feel that I am
+turning my back on nothing very great, after all?"
+
+"And so I mean."
+
+"Seriously?"
+
+"I am serious, Quintus." And indeed Cornelia was. "I can read
+Aristotle and Plato, and Zeno and Cleanthes, and Pyrrho, and a score
+of others. I can spin out of my own brain a hundred theories of the
+universe as good as theirs, but my heart will not be the happier, if
+things outside make me sad. I am sick of the learning that is no
+learning, that answers our questions by other questions that are more
+riddling."
+
+"Ah, scoffer at the wise," laughed Drusus, "what do you wish, then?"
+He spoke in Greek.
+
+"Speak in Latin, in Latin, Quintus," was her retort. "I am weary of
+this fine, sweet language that tinkles so delicately, every word of
+which hides a hundred meanings, every sentence attuned like the notes
+for a harp. Let us have our own language, blunt and to the point; the
+language, not of men who wonder what they ought to do, but who _do_.
+We are Romans, not Greeks. We have to rule the world, not growl as to
+how Jupiter made it. When you came back from Athens I said, 'I love
+Quintus Drusus, but I would love him more if he were less a Hellene.'
+And, now I see you wholly Roman, I love you wholly. And for myself, I
+wish neither to be a Sappho, nor an Aspasia, nor a Semiramis, but
+Cornelia the Roman matron, who obeys her husband, Quintus Drusus, who
+cares for his house, and whom, in turn, her household fears and
+obeys."
+
+"_O tempora! O mores!_" cried the young soldier, in delight. "When had
+ever a woman such ambition in these degenerate days? _Eu!_ Then I will
+burn my books, if you can get no profit out of them."
+
+"I do not think books are bad," said Cornelia, still soberly, "but I
+know that they can never make me happy."
+
+"What can?" demanded her tormenter.
+
+"_You!_"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So the hours of the afternoon ran on, and the lovers gave them little
+heed. But they were not too selfish to refuse to Fabia's sharing in
+their joy; and Drusus knew that he was dear no less, though
+differently, in the eyes of his aunt than of his betrothed. And there
+were duties to perform that not even the long-deferred delights of the
+afternoon could postpone. Chief of these were the arrangements for the
+immediate departure of the Roman ladies for Alexandria. Agias, who was
+called into the council, was invaluable in information and suggestion.
+He said that Pothinus had acted at Pratinas's advice, when he took
+Fabia and Cornelia to the palace. The eunuch had expected to use them
+half as hostages, half as captives to be put to ransom. If Caesar had
+delayed a few days, Pothinus would not have lied when he made excuse
+that the ladies had been sent up the river. But now Agias believed
+that the regent was afraid, having overreached himself, and it was
+best to make a prompt demand for conveyance to Alexandria. This,
+indeed, proved advantageous policy. The eunuch made difficulties and
+suggested obstacles, but Drusus made his native Italian haughtiness
+stand him in good stead. It would largely depend, he said
+insinuatingly, on the way in which his demand was complied with, what
+sort of a report he made to Caesar touching the execution of Lucius
+Lentulus and Ahenobarbus. During his interview with Pothinus, the
+Roman came face to face with Pratinas. No words were exchanged, but
+Drusus noticed that the elegant Hellene flushed, and then turned pale,
+when he fastened upon him a gaze steady and half menacing. Pothinus
+ended by yielding everything--the use of the royal chariots and
+horses, the use of the Nile boats needed for swift transit across the
+Delta, and orders on the local garrisons and governors to provide
+entertainment and assistance.
+
+As a result Cornelia speedily found herself again journeying, not this
+time in a slow barge following the main branches of the Nile, but by
+more rapid, if less luxurious, conveyance, now by land, now by water,
+hurrying westward. They passed through Sethroe and Tanis, Mendes and
+Sebennytus, Xais and Sais, where were the tomb of Osiris and the great
+Egyptian university in this the capital of the mighty Pharaohs who had
+wrested the nation from the clutches of Assyria. Then they fared up
+the Nile to the old Milesian trading factory of Naucratis,--now
+dropping into decline beside the thriving Alexandria,--and then by
+boat they pressed on to the capital itself. Never more delightful
+journey for Cornelia or for Drusus; they saw the strange land through
+one another's eyes; they expressed their own thoughts through one
+another's lips; they were happy together, as if children at play; and
+Fabia was their never exacting, ever beneficent, guardian goddess.
+
+Drusus and Cornelia were neither of them the same young persons who
+had met in the gardens of the villa of the Lentuli two short years
+before. They saw life with a soberer gaze; they had both the wisdom
+that experience teaches. Yet for the time not a cloud was drifting
+across their sky. Their passions and hates had been too fierce, too
+pagan, to feel the death of even Cornelia's uncle very keenly. Lucius
+Ahenobarbus was dead--they had no more thought for him than for a dead
+viper. Lucius Domitius was dead. Gabinius and Dumnorix were dead.
+Pompeius, the tool of guiltier men than himself, was dead. Pratinas
+alone of all those who had crossed their path remained; but the wily
+Greek was a mere creature of self-interest--what had he to gain by
+pressing his animosity, if he had any, against them? Caesar was
+triumphant. His enemies were barely lifting their heads in Africa.
+Doubtless there was stern work awaiting the Imperator there, but what
+of it? Was he not invincible? Was he not about to commence a new order
+of things in the world, to tear down the old and decaying, to raise up
+a steadfast fabric? Therefore the little party took its pleasure, and
+enjoyed every ancient temple of the Amenhoteps, Thothmeses, and
+Ramesides that they hurriedly visited; won the favour of the wrinkled
+old priests by their plentiful votives of bright philippi; heard a
+hundred time-honoured tales that they knew not whether to believe or
+laugh at; speculated among themselves as to the sources of the Nile,
+the cause of the vocal Memnon, and fifty more darkened wonders, and
+resolved to solve every mystery during a second and more prolonged
+visit.
+
+So they came to Alexandria, but on the way called at the Nile villa
+where was Artemisia, and, to the great satisfaction of that young lady
+and of Agias, carried her along with them to the house of Cleomenes,
+where that affable host and Berenice and Monime received them with
+open arms.
+
+Their pleasure at this reunion, however, began to abate when they
+realized the disturbed state of the city.
+
+"I can't say I like the situation," admitted Cleomenes, as soon as he
+had been introduced to Drusus, and the first greetings were over; "you
+know when Caesar landed he took his consular insignia with him, and the
+mob made this mean that he was intending to overthrow the government
+and make Egypt a Roman province. If you had not left for Pelusium so
+hastily, you would have been present at a very serious riot, that was
+with great difficulty put down. The soldiers of the royal garrison are
+in an ugly mood, and so are the people. I suspect the king, or rather
+Pothinus, is doing nothing to quiet them. There have been slight riots
+for several days past, and a good many Roman soldiers who have
+straggled away from the palace into the lower quarters of the city
+have been murdered."
+
+"I am glad," replied Drusus, "that I can leave Cornelia and my aunt
+under your protection, for my duty may keep me continuously with the
+Imperator."
+
+The young officer at once hastened to the palace and reported for
+service. Caesar questioned him as to the situation at Pelusium, and
+Drusus described the unpromising attitude of Pothinus, and also
+mentioned how he had found Cornelia and his aunt.
+
+The general, engrossed as he was with his business of state and
+threatening war, put all his duties aside and at once went to the
+house of Cleomenes. It was the first time Cornelia had ever met the
+man whose career had exerted such an influence upon her own life. She
+had at first known of him only through the filthy, slanderous verses
+of such oligarchs as Catullus and Calvus; then through her lover she
+had come to look upon Caesar as an incarnation as it were of
+omniscience, omnipotence, and benevolence--the man for whom everything
+was worth sacrificing, from whom every noble thing was to be expected.
+
+She met the conquerer of Ariovistus, Vercingetorix, and Pompeius like
+the frank-hearted, patrician maiden that she was, without shyness,
+without servility.
+
+"My father died in your army," she said on meeting; "my affianced
+husband has taught me to admire you, as he himself does. Let us be
+friends!"
+
+And Caesar bowed as became the polished gentleman, who had been the
+centre of the most brilliant salons of Rome, and took the hand she
+offered, and replied:--
+
+"Ah! Lady Cornelia, we have been friends long, though never we met
+before! But I am doubly the friend of whosoever is the friend of
+Quintus Livius Drusus."
+
+Whereupon Cornelia was more completely the vassal of the Imperator
+than ever, and words flew fast between them. In short, just as in the
+case with Cleopatra, she opened her heart before she knew that she had
+said anything, and told of all her life, with its shadows and
+brightness; and Caesar listened and sympathized as might a father; and
+Drusus perfectly realized, if Cornelia could not--how many-sided was
+the man who could thus turn from weighing the fate of empires to
+entering unfeignedly into a sharing of the hopes and fears of a very
+young, and still quite unsophisticated, woman.
+
+When the Imperator departed Drusus accompanied him to the palace.
+Neither of the two, general nor subaltern, spoke for a long while; at
+last Caesar remarked:--
+
+"Do you know what is uppermost in my mind, after meeting women like
+Fabia or Cornelia?"
+
+Drusus shook his head.
+
+"I believe that there are gods, who bring such creatures into the
+world. They are not chance accretions of atoms." And then Caesar added,
+half dreamily: "You ought to be a very happy man. I was once--it was
+many years ago. Her name was Cornelia also."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Serious and more serious, grew the situation at Alexandria. King
+Ptolemaeus and Pothinus came to the city from Pelusium. Caesar had
+announced that he intended to examine the title of the young monarch
+to the undivided crown, and make him show cause why he had expelled
+Cleopatra. This the will of Ptolemaeus Auletes had enjoined the Roman
+government to do; for in it he had commissioned his allies to see that
+his oldest children shared the inheritance equally.
+
+But Pothinus came to Alexandria, and trouble came with him. He threw
+every possible obstacle in Caesar's way when the latter tried to
+collect a heavy loan due the Romans by the late king. The etesian
+winds made it impossible to bring up reenforcements, and Caesar's force
+was very small. Pothinus grew more insolent each day. For the first
+time, Drusus observed that his general was nervous, and suspicious
+lest he be assassinated. Finally the Imperator determined to force a
+crisis. To leave Egypt without humbling Pothinus meant a great
+lowering of prestige. He sent off a private message to Palestine that
+Cleopatra should come to Alexandria.
+
+Cleopatra came, not in royal procession, for she knew too well the
+finesse of the regent's underlings; but entered the harbour in
+disguise in a small boat; and Apollodorus, her Sicilian confidant,
+carried her into Caesar's presence wrapped in a bale of bedding which
+he had slung across his back.
+
+The queen's suit was won. Cleopatra and the Imperator met, and the two
+strong personalities recognized each other's affinity instantly. Her
+coming was as a thunder-clap to Pothinus and his puppet Ptolemaeus.
+They could only cringe and acquiesce when Caesar ordered them to be
+reconciled with the queen, and seal her restoration by a splendid
+court banquet.
+
+The palace servants made ready for the feast. The rich and noble of
+Alexandria were invited. The stores of gold and silver vessels
+treasured in the vaults of the Lagidae were brought forth. The arches
+and columns of the palace were festooned with flowers. The best pipers
+and harpers of the great city were summoned to delight with their
+music. Precious wine of Tanis was ready to flow like water.
+
+Drusus saw the preparations with a glad heart. Cornelia would be
+present in all her radiancy; and who there would be more radiant than
+she?
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XXIV
+
+Battling for Life
+
+
+And then it was,--with the chariots bearing the guests almost driving
+in at the gates of the palace,--that Cerrinius, Caesar's barber, came
+before his master with an alarming tale. The worthy man declared that
+he had lighted on nothing less than a plot to murder the Romans, one
+and all, by admitting Achillas's soldiery to the palace enclosure,
+while all the banqueters were helpless with drugged wine. Pratinas,
+who had been supposed to be at Pelusium, Cerrinius had caught in
+retired conference with Pothinus, planning the arrangement of the
+feast. Achillas's mercenary army was advancing by stealthy marches to
+enter the city in the course of the evening. The mob had been aroused
+by agitators, until it was in a mood to rise en masse against the
+Romans, and join in destroying them. Such, in short, was the barber's
+story.
+
+There was no time to delay. Caesar was a stranger in a strange and
+probably hostile land, and to fail to take warning were suicide. He
+sent for Pothinus, and demanded the whereabouts of Achillas's army.
+The regent stammered that it was at Pelusium. Caesar followed up the
+charge by inquiring about Pratinas. Pothinus swore that he was at
+Pelusium also. But Caesar cut his network of lies short, by commanding
+that a malefactor should be forced to swallow a beaker of the wine
+prepared for the banquet. In a few moments the man was in a helpless
+stupor.
+
+The case was proved and Caesar became all action. A squad of
+legionaries haled Pothinus away to an execution not long delayed.
+Other legionaries disarmed and replaced the detachment of the royal
+guard that controlled the palace gates and walls. And barely had these
+steps been taken, when a courier thundered into the palace, hardly
+escaped through the raging mob that was gaining control of the city.
+Achillas, he reported, had wantonly murdered Dioscorides and Serapion,
+whom Caesar had sent as envoys to Pelusium, and was marching on the
+city with his whole army of Italian renegades, Syrian banditti,
+convicts, and runaway slaves, twenty thousand strong.
+
+There was nothing to do but to prepare to weather the storm in the
+palace enclosure, which, with its high walls, was practically a
+fortress in itself. There were only four thousand Romans, and yet
+there was a long circuit of defences to man. But Drusus never saw his
+general putting forth greater energy. That night, instead of feasting,
+the soldiers laboured, piling up the ramparts by the light of torches.
+The city was surging and thundering without the palace gates. Caesar
+had placed the king under guard, but Arsinoe--his younger sister--had
+slipped out of the palace to join herself to the advancing host of
+Achillas, and speedily that general would be at hand. Caesar as usual
+was everywhere, with new schemes for the defences, new enthusiasm for
+his officers, new inspiration for his men. No one slept nor cared to
+sleep inside the palace walls. They toiled for dear life, for with
+morning, at most, Achillas would be upon them; and by morning, if
+Pothinus's plans had not failed, they would have been drugged and
+helpless to a man, none able to draw sword from scabbard. It was a new
+experience to one and all, for these Romans to stand on the defensive.
+For once Caesar had made a false step--he ought to have taken on his
+voyage more men. He stood with his handful, with the sea on one side
+of him and a great city and a nation in arms against him on the other.
+The struggle was not to be for empire, but for life. But the Romans
+were too busy that night to realize anything save the need of untiring
+exertion. If they had counted the odds against them, four thousand
+against a nation, they might well have despaired, though their
+chieftain were Caesar.
+
+Two years earlier Drusus, as he hurried to and fro transmitting orders
+for his general, might have been fain to draw aside and muse on the
+strangeness of the night scene. The sky was clear, as almost always in
+a land where a thunder-storm is often as rare as an eclipse; the stars
+twinkled out of heavens of soft blackness; the crescent of a new moon
+hung like a silvered bow out over the harbour, and made a thin pathway
+of lustre across the moving, shimmering waters. Dimly the sky-line was
+visible; by the Pharos and its mole loomed the vague tracery of masts.
+On the west and the south lay the white and dark masses of the city,
+now and then brought into clearer relief as the moonbeams swept across
+some stately pile, and touched on its Corinthian columns and nobly
+wrought pediments. But Drusus was a soldier; and the best of poets
+doubtless work poorly when their lives are hanging in the balance.
+Over the flower-strewn walks, under the festooned colonnades, ran the
+busy legionaries, bestirring themselves as never before; while
+Diomedes, and Hector, and Patroclus, and fifty other heroic worthies
+waged perpetual battle on their marble heights above the soldiers'
+heads. On occasion Drusus was called to one of the upper terraces and
+pinnacles of the palace buildings, and then he could catch a glimpse
+of the whole sweep of the mighty city. Over to the southeast, where
+was the Jewish quarter, the sky was beginning to redden. The mob had
+begun to vent its passions on the innocent Israelites, and the
+incendiary was at his work. A deep, low, growling hum, as of ten
+thousand angry voices, drifted upon the night air. The beast called
+the Alexandrian rabble was loose, and it was a terrible animal.
+
+It was midnight. Drusus had toiled since noon. He had hardly tasted
+food or drink since morning, but there were three feet more of brick,
+stone, and rubbish to be added still to this and that rampart before
+it would be secure, and a whole wing of the overgrown palace must be
+pulled down to furnish the material. He had climbed out upon the roof
+to aid in tearing up the tiles and to encourage the men by his
+example, when some one plucked him from behind on the cloak--it was
+Caesar.
+
+"You are not needed here," said the general, in a voice that seemed a
+bit strained to keep calm. "Read this--take all the men you want."
+
+And the Imperator himself held up the torch, while Drusus took the
+tablet thrust into his hands and read the hastily scribbled lines:--
+
+"Cleomenes to Drusus. The ladies are in danger. I will resist the mob
+as long as I can. Send help."
+
+Drusus threw down the tablet; forgot to so much as salute his
+commander. He had laid off his armour during the work on the ramparts;
+he ran for it, put it on with feverish haste. A moment more and he was
+running among the soldiers, calling this and that legionary by name.
+The troops all knew him, and would have followed him to the death.
+When he asked for thirty volunteers for dangerous service, none
+demanded of him the occasion; he simply selected his men as fast as he
+might. He secured four chariots and placed in them the fastest horses
+in the royal stables and trusted men for drivers. He mounted the rest
+of his thirty on other steeds, and the preparations were over. The
+gate was thrown open; Decimus Mamercus, who was his subaltern, led out
+the little company. Drusus rode out last, in one of the chariots. The
+troops on the walls cheered them as they departed.
+
+In the immediate neighbourhood of the palace there prevailed an
+ominous silence. Earlier in the night a few cohorts had charged out
+and scattered the street rabble; and the mob had kept at a distance.
+There was no light save that of the moon and the distant glow of the
+burning buildings. Drusus felt his breath coming thick and fast, the
+drops of sweat were hanging on his forehead, something within was
+driving his heart into his throat. "If--" he never went further;
+unless he brought Cornelia and Fabia back to the palace unscathed, he
+knew the Alexandrian rabble would howl over his unconscious body.
+
+"Ride!" he commanded, as if the rush of the chariots and horses would
+drown the fears that nearly drove him frantic. "Ride!"
+
+The drivers lashed the teams, the horsemen pricked with the spur.
+Drusus caught the reins from his chariot companion, and swung the lash
+himself over the four steeds. Faster and faster they flew down the
+splendidly paved and built highways. Temples and majestic public
+buildings rose in sombre grandeur above their heads; above them winged
+"Victories" seemed springing up into dark void, their sculptured
+symmetries just visible in the moonlight. On and on, swift and more
+swift--persons began shouting from the buildings which they passed,
+now a few voices, now many, now a hundred. A volley of stones was
+dashed down from the safe recesses of the pillars at the head of the
+long flight of steps leading up to a temple. Presently an arrow
+whirred over Drusus's head and smote on the masonry across the street.
+There were lights ahead--scores of torches waving--a small building
+was on fire; the glare grew redder and brighter every instant; and a
+din, a din lifted by ten thousand men when their brute instincts are
+enkindled, grew and grew. Drusus dashed the cold sweat from his brow,
+his hand was trembling. He had a quiver and bow in the chariot,--a
+powerful Parthian bow, and the arrows were abundant. Mamercus had
+taught him to be a good archer, as a boy. Could he turn his old skill
+to account? Not unless his hand became more steady.
+
+Women screamed out at him and his band from the house roofs; a tile
+struck one of the chariot horses and made it plunge wildly; Drusus
+flung his strength into the reins, and curbed in the raging beast; he
+tossed the lines back to his driver and tore the bow from its casings.
+His car had rushed on ahead of Decimus Mamercus and the rest; two
+furlongs more would bring him to the house of Cleomenes on one of the
+squares of the city. The chariot swung around a street corner for the
+final stretch, the way was broad, the buildings on either side (the
+residences of the Alexandrian gentry) high; but the whole street from
+wall to wall was a seething mass of human forms. The fire was
+spreading; the brightening flames shone down on the tossing, howling
+multitude--excited Egyptians from the quarter of Rhacotis, frenzied
+Asiatics in their turbans, mad sailors from the Eunostian port and the
+Pharos island. At the head of the street the flames were pressing in
+upon a stately mansion around which the raging mob was packed thickly.
+On the roof of the threatened house figures could be seen in the lurid
+light, running to and fro, flinging down bricks and stones, and trying
+to beat back the fire. It was the house of Cleomenes. Insensibly the
+veteran who had been driving reined in the horses, who themselves drew
+back, loath to plunge into the living barriers ahead. But Drusus was
+past fear or prudence; with his own hands he sent the lash stinging
+over all the four, and the team, that had won more than a single
+trophy in the games, shot forward. The chariot struck the multitude
+and went, not through it, but over it. The on-rush was too rapid, too
+unexpected, for resistance. To right and left, as the water gives way
+before the bows of an on-rushing ship, the crowd surged back, the
+instinct of panic reigning in every breast. Thick and fast, as quickly
+as he might set shaft to string, flew Drusus's arrows--not a shaft
+that failed a mark, as it cut into the living masses. The chariot
+reeled again and again, as this wheel or that passed over something
+animate and struggling. The horses caught the fire of conflict; they
+raced, they ran--and the others sped after them. The mob left off
+howling: it screamed with a single voice of mortal dread. And before
+Drusus or any one else realized, the deed was done, the long lane was
+cleared, and the drivers were drawing rein before the house of
+Cleomenes.
+
+The heavily barred carriage-way was thrown open, the valiant merchant
+and his faithful employees and slaves greeted their rescuers as the
+little cavalcade drove in. There was not a moment to lose. Cleomenes
+and his household might indeed have long made good the house against
+the mere attacks of the mob; but the rioters had set the torch to some
+adjacent buildings, and all efforts to beat back the flames were
+proving futile. There was no time to condole with the merchant over
+the loss of his house. The mob had surged again into the streets and
+was pressing back, this time more or less prepared to resist the
+Romans. The colonnades and the house roofs were swarming, the din was
+indescribable, and the crackling and roar of the advancing flames grew
+ever louder.
+
+The only alternative was a return to the palace. Cleomenes's employees
+and slaves were to scatter into the crowd, where they would easily
+escape notice; he himself, with his daughters, Artemisia, and the
+Roman ladies, must go in the chariots to the palace. Cornelia came
+down from her chamber, her face more flushed with excitement than
+alarm. Troubles enough she had had, but never before personal danger;
+and she could not easily grasp the peril.
+
+"Are you afraid, carissima," said Drusus, lifting her into his
+chariot, "to ride back with me to the palace, through that wolf pack?"
+
+"With you?" she said, admiring the ease with which he sprang about in
+full armour; "I would laugh at Medusa or the Hydra of Lerna with you
+beside me."
+
+Cleomenes had been again upon the housetop to watch the progress of
+the fire. He came down, and Drusus instantly saw that there was dismay
+written on his face. The merchant, who was himself armed with sword
+and target, drew the officer aside and whispered:--
+
+"Pray, Roman, to all your native gods! I can see a _lochos_[184] of
+regular troops filing into the square before the house. Achillas is
+entering the city with his men. We shall have to fight our way through
+his thousands."
+
+  [184] A company of about one hundred men.
+
+Drusus uttered a deep and silent curse on himself for the mad bravado
+that led him to leave the palace with but thirty men; why had he not
+waited to assemble more? He could ride over the mob; to master
+Achillas's disciplined forces was otherwise.
+
+A freedman came running down from the roof, crying out that it was
+already on fire. It was a time for action, not thought, yet even at
+the moment Drusus's schoolboy Polybius was running through his
+mind--the description of the great riot when Agathocles, the wicked
+regent of Ptolemaeus Philopator, and his sister Agathocleia, and his
+mother Oenanthe, had been seized by the multitude and torn in pieces,
+bit by bit, while yet they lived. Cornelia seemed to have caught some
+new cause for fear; she was trembling and shivering when Drusus took
+her in his arms and swung her into the chariot. He lifted in Fabia
+likewise, but the Vestal only bowed her head in calm silence. She had
+overheard Cleomenes's tidings, but, by stress of all the force of her
+strong nature, remained composed. Decimus Mamercus took Artemisia,
+frightened and crying, into his own chariot. Monime, Berenice, and
+their father were to go in the other cars. The fire was gaining on the
+roof, smoke was pouring down into the court-yard, and now and then a
+gleam came from a firebrand. The horses were growing restive and
+frightened.
+
+"Throw open the gate!" commanded Drusus; his anxieties and despair
+were driving him almost to frenzy, but the gods, if gods there were,
+knew that it was not for himself that he was fearful. His voice
+sounded hollow in his throat; he would have given a talent of gold for
+a draught of water. One of his men flung back the gateway, and in at
+the entrance came the glare of great bonfires lighted in the streets,
+of hundreds of tossing torches. The yelling of the multitude was
+louder than ever. There it was, packed thick on all sides: in its
+midst Drusus could see bright lines of tossing steel--the armour of
+Achillas's soldiery! As the portal opened, a mighty howl of triumph
+burst from the people; the fire had driven forth to the mob its prey.
+Cornelia heard the howl--the voice of a wild and raging beast--and
+trembled more.
+
+"Cornelia," said Drusus, lowering his head so as to make himself
+heard, "do not look above the framework of the chariot. Cling to it
+tightly, for we may have to pass over obstacles. Above all, do not
+spring out, however much we may be swayed and shaken."
+
+"I will not, Quintus," and that was all she could be heard to say in
+the din.
+
+And so the little cavalcade drove forth. Cornelia cowered in the
+chariot and saw nothing and heard everything, which was the same as
+nothing. Was she frightened? She did not know. The peril was awful. Of
+course she realized that; but how could calamity come to pass, when it
+was Drusus whose powerful form towered above her, when it was Drusus
+whose voice rang like a trumpet out into the press swaying around?
+
+It was very dark crouching in the body of the chariot. She could just
+see the face of Fabia opposite, very white, but, she knew, very calm.
+She reached out and caught the Vestal's hand, and discovered that her
+own was trembling, while the other's was perfectly steady. But the
+contest, the fighting all about! Now the horses were dashing forward,
+making the chariot spring as though it were a thing of life; now
+reined in sharply, and the heavily loaded car swayed this way and
+that, almost to overturning. The uproar above her head passed the
+telling by words; but there was one shout, now in Greek, now in
+Egyptian, that drowned all others: "Death to the Romans! tear them in
+pieces!" Missiles smote against the chariot; an arrow went cutting
+into the wood, driving its keen point home, and Cornelia experienced a
+thrill of pain in her shoulder. She felt for the smart, found the mere
+tip of the point only had penetrated the wood; but her fingers were
+wet when she took them away. Drusus was shooting; his bow-string
+snapped and snapped. Once a soldier in armour sprang behind the
+chariot when it came to a stop, and his javelin was poised to
+discharge; but an arrow tore through his throat, and he went down to
+the pavement with a crash. The car rocked more and more; once the
+wheels slipped without revolving, as though sliding over some smooth
+liquid--not water. Cornelia felt powers of discriminating sensation
+becoming fainter and fainter; a great force seemed pressing out from
+within her; the clamour and shocks were maddening. She felt driven to
+raise her head, to look out into the raging chaos, though the first
+glance were death. Peering back out of the body of the chariot now and
+then, she saw a little. The Romans were charging this way and that,
+forcing their passage down the street, barred no longer by a mere mob,
+but by Achillas's infantrymen, who were hastening into action. The
+chariot horses were wounded, some seriously; she was sure of that.
+They could not be driven through the spearmen, and the little handful
+of cavalry was trying to break through the enemy and make space for a
+rush. It was thirty against thousands; yet even in the mortal peril,
+which Cornelia realized now if she had never before, she had a strange
+sort of pride. Her countrymen were showing these Orientals how one
+Roman could slay his tens, could put in terror his hundreds. Drusus
+was giving orders with the same mechanical exactitude of the drill,
+albeit his voice was high-pitched and strained--not entirely, perhaps,
+because of the need of calling above the din.
+
+"Form in line by fours!"
+
+Cornelia raised her head above the chariot frame. The Romans had
+worked their way down into a square formed by the intersection of
+streets. Behind them and on every building were swarming the people;
+right across the eastern avenue, where their escape lay, stood the
+bristling files of one of Achillas's companies. Stones and roof-tiles
+were being tossed in a perfect hail from the houses, and now and then
+an arrow or a dart. The four chariots--one had only three horses
+left--were standing in the little plaza, and the troopers were forming
+before them. The arrows of the chariot warriors made the mob behind
+keep a respectful distance. It was the triumph of discipline over
+man's animal sense of fear. Even the mob felt this, when it saw the
+little squadron fall into line with as much precision as on the parade
+ground. A tile smote one soldier upon the head, and he tumbled from
+his horse like a stone. His comrades never paused in their evolution.
+Then, for the first time, Cornelia screamed with horror and fright.
+Drusus, who was setting a new arrow to his bow, looked down upon her;
+he had never seemed so handsome before, with the fierce light of the
+battle in his eyes, with his whole form swelling with the exertions of
+conflict.
+
+"Down, Cornelia!" commanded the officer; and Cornelia did so
+implicitly--to disobey him at that moment was inconceivable.
+
+"At them, men!"
+
+And then came a new bound from the horses, and then a mighty crash and
+clash of bodies, blades, and shields, the snort of dying beasts, the
+splintering of spear-shafts, the groans and cries of men in battle for
+their lives. The car rose on one wheel higher and higher; Cornelia was
+thrown against Fabia, and the two women clung to each other, too
+terrified and crushed to scream; then on a sudden it righted, and as
+it did so the soldier who had acted as charioteer reeled, his face
+bathed in blood, the death-rattle in his throat. Back he fell, pierced
+in face and breast, and tumbled from the car; and, as if answering to
+this lightening of their burden, the hoofs of the hard-pressed horses
+bit on the pavement, and the team bounded onward.
+
+"_Io triumphe!_" It was Drusus who called; and in answer to his shout
+came the deep Caesarian battle-cry from hundreds of throats, "_Venus
+Victrix!_"
+
+The chariot was advancing, but less rapidly. Cornelia rose and looked
+forth again, not this time to be rebuked. Down the moon-lighted street
+were moving several infantry cohorts from the palace; the avenue was
+clear, the mob and hostile soldiery had melted away like a mist; a
+mounted officer came flying down the street ahead of the legionaries.
+
+"The ladies are safe, Imperator!" Drusus was reporting with military
+exactitude. "I have lost twelve men."
+
+Caesar galloped along beside the chariot. He had his horse under
+absolute control, and he extended his hand, first to Fabia, then to
+Cornelia.
+
+"Fortune has been kind to us," said he, smiling.
+
+"Vesta has protected us," said Fabia, bowing her head.
+
+Caesar cast a single inquiring, keen glance at the Vestal.
+
+"Your excellency doubts the omnipotence of the goddess," continued
+she, looking him steadily in the face.
+
+"That a power has protected you," was his answer, "I am the last to
+deny."
+
+But the Imperator and Drusus were exchanging glances; that a woman of
+the intelligence of Fabia could believe in the regular, personal
+intervention of the Deity in human affairs was to them, not an
+absurdity, but a mystery unfathomable.
+
+And so, safe-guarded by the troops, they rode back to the palace,
+where the preparations for defence were ready, and all were awaiting
+the onset of Achillas. The weary men on the walls cheered as the
+carriages with their precious burdens rolled in at the gate; and
+cheered again for Drusus and his eighteen who had taught the
+Alexandrian rabble how Roman steel could bite. But Drusus himself was
+sad when he thought of the twelve good men that he had left
+behind--who need not have been sacrificed but for his headlong
+rashness.
+
+And how had the mob come to attack the house of Cleomenes? It was a
+long story, but in a few words probably this. Pratinas had come and
+demanded of Cleomenes that he surrender the ladies (doubtless because
+they would be useful hostages) to go with him to Achillas. Cleomenes
+had refused, the more especially as Cornelia adjured him not to
+deliver them over to the clutches of such a creature; and Pratinas
+went away full of anger and threatenings. How he came to be in
+Alexandria, and had returned so soon from Achillas's forces, if he had
+indeed gone to Achillas, was neither clear nor important. But that he
+had excited the mob to assail Cleomenes's mansion needed no great
+proof. Cleomenes himself had seen his artful fellow-countryman
+surveying the riot from a housetop, though doubtless he had kept at a
+prudent distance during the fighting.
+
+So ended that exciting day, or rather that night. It was Cleopatra who
+with her own hands laid the bandages on Cornelia's wounded shoulder,
+but the hurt was not serious; only, as Drusus laughingly assured her,
+it was an honourable scar, as became the descendant of so many
+fighting Claudii and Cornelii.
+
+"Ah! delectissime," replied she, "it isn't the hurt that gives me
+pain; it is that I was frightened--frightened when you were acting
+like one of the Heroes!"
+
+"_Mehercle!_" laughed Drusus, before he left her to snatch a few hours
+of well-earned rest and see to the dressing of his own bruises, "I
+would not blame a veteran for being panic-struck in that melee, if he
+didn't have a chance to swing a weapon and so keep his heart from
+standing still."
+
+
+II
+
+On the next day Achillas moved up his thousands and attacked the
+palace fortifications. There was a desperate struggle in the streets
+outside the royal residence; the assailants were five to the
+defenders' one, and the mob was arming to aid in the assault; but the
+Egyptians soon realized that it was no light thing to carry barricades
+held by men who had fought in Gaul, Britain, Germany, Spain, Italy,
+and Greece, and never tasted overthrow. Fiercest of all was the fight
+at the harbour, where the navy of the king lay, and which, if seized,
+would have put Caesar at his enemies' mercy. But here, also, Roman
+valour prevailed over Oriental temerity. All the ships that Caesar
+could not use were burned. With the rest he sailed over to the Pharos
+island, and landed men to make good the tower on that point of
+vantage. So ended the first round of battle; and the initial danger of
+being overwhelmed by sheer force was over.
+
+But day after day of conflict followed. Princess Arsinoe and Achillas
+quarrelled in the camp of the besiegers, and this occasioned some
+respite to the Romans. Still there was no end to the fighting. Caesar
+sent off to Asia Minor, Syria, and Crete for reenforcements; but
+these, all knew, could not come at once. A sharp struggle cleared the
+houses nearest to the palace, and the general caused them to be razed
+and the positions thoroughly fortified. He seized the low-lying ground
+which ran as an insignificant valley down between the halves of the
+city and tried to cut his enemies' position in twain. So the struggle
+dragged on. Achillas had been murdered by Arsinoe, and she had placed
+in command her governor, the eunuch Ganymed, who was more dangerous by
+his sly craft than fifty common generals. One day a frightened
+centurion reported to Caesar that all the cisterns used by the troops
+were becoming flooded with sea-water. It was a contrivance of Ganymed.
+The soldiers were in a panic, and it was all that their leader could
+do to pacify them. And then one of those strokes of fortune which will
+always come to a favoured few was vouchsafed; as the terrified Romans
+delved in the earth where rain had seldom fallen, lo! on the very
+first night of their toil fresh water bubbled up, and all the danger
+was at an end.
+
+But it is needless to tell how the contest was waged; how the
+thirty-seventh legion arrived as help, how the wind kept them off port
+exposed to the enemy, and how Caesar sailed out and succoured them, and
+worsted the Alexandrian ships. Then, again, Ganymed stirred the
+disheartened citizens to build another fleet, and, by tremendous
+exertions, a new flotilla arose to threaten to cut Caesar off; and
+there was a second battle for dear life--this time on sea close by the
+city; while Roman and Alexandrian stood staring on the housetops, with
+their hearts beating quickly, for defeat meant ruin to the Romans.
+And, again, the gods of the waters fought for Caesar, and the beaten
+Alexandrian fleet drifted back to the shelter of its mole in the
+harbour of Eunostus.
+
+Next came a great struggle for the possession of the Pharos. The
+fighting was severe, the footing on the island hard to win, up steep
+crags and rocks swept by volleys of missiles; but Italian courage
+seemed inexhaustible. The legionaries, without ladders or fascines,
+stormed towers and battlements. The town on the island was taken and
+the fort by it; then came the contest along the mole, driving the
+Alexandrians to the fort at the lower end. On the next day the second
+fort, too, was taken. There was a bridge at the lower end of the mole,
+and the Alexandrians had tried to sail under to attack the Caesarians
+in the western harbour. The legionaries toiled to fill up the passage.
+All seemed going well, but of a sudden befell calamity.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Panic will seize the most hardened veterans, and so it was that day. A
+flank attack from the Alexandrian ships, and of other foes by land, a
+sudden giving way on the part of some sailors who were defending the
+working party, and then terror spread among the three veteran cohorts
+at the lower fort. Caesar had been among his men directing the work,
+with him had gone Drusus, as aide-de-camp, and Agias, who had long
+been chafing under the restraints of the beleaguered palace and
+imagined the position safe and unassailable. The panic came more
+quickly than words may tell: a few hostile shouts from behind, cries
+of fear and alarm, a volley of darts, and the men who had hunted the
+Magnus to his death fled like raw recruits at their first arrow.
+
+The Caesarian ships beside the mole began to thrust back, lest the
+enemy seize them. The terrified legionaries rushed from their ranks,
+cast away shield and cuirass, sword and dart. Every man cared but to
+save himself, the spirit of mere fear uppermost. Caesar and Drusus
+rushed into the press, and commanded and exhorted; they might have
+better striven to turn the flight of a herd of frightened cattle;
+their words fell on deaf ears; the panic-struck soldiers swept them
+aside in a mad dash to get on board the receding shipping. The danger
+was terrible. On either side the enemy were rushing down the mole, and
+over the defences just forsaken by the Romans. Caesar had been caught
+in the swirl of his men and carried along despite his resistance. He
+fell, and Drusus, who struggled to be near him, ran to his side.
+
+"We must escape, Imperator!" cried he, in his commander's ear. He saw
+that there was blood on the general's face, and for an instant that
+thought overpowered all others.
+
+"Save yourselves," gasped Caesar, striving to struggle to his feet."
+You cannot aid me."
+
+A burly Egyptian soldier was running toward them, far ahead of the
+other enemies, flourishing a battle-axe. Did he realize the prize that
+lay almost in his power? Drusus had not been fighting, but his sword
+was now out. One blow of the terrible weapon of the legionary sent the
+oncomer sprawling in his own gore. A trifling respite had been gained.
+Caesar steadied himself and looked about him. They were alone with
+Agias facing the foe; the legionaries were struggling one over another
+at the edge of the causeway, battling for dear life to force their way
+into the only galley that had not thrust off.
+
+"Come," said Caesar, turning; and the three joined in the flight. To
+linger were madness.
+
+It was only a trifling distance across the mole, but a frightful
+tragedy was enacted before their eyes as they ran. The galley by the
+mole was none too large; as the frightened men piled into her, the
+shifting and increasing weight threw her on an uneven keel; and then
+came the horror. A cry of mortal agony burst from hundreds of throats
+as the ship capsized. Drusus, as he ran, saw, but for a twinkling, her
+deck black with writhing men, then her curving sides and keel, ere all
+vanished behind the embankment of the mole. The three fugitives ran to
+the edge of the causeway: below them, the water full of men battling
+for life; behind, the foe, now fully aware of their advantage and
+pressing on with exultant shouts. Never had the Imperator been in
+greater peril. Drusus glanced at his chief and saw that he was very
+pale, evidently hurt in the scuffle. There was not a ship within hail,
+not a ship within two arrow-flights; and all seemed pulling back as if
+to escape from the danger.
+
+"Leap, swim!" cried Caesar, casting off his breastplate.[185]
+
+  [185] _Lorica_.
+
+"There is no ship within reach, Imperator," replied the young man,
+gravely.
+
+"You are young and strong," was his answer, "and will come away safe."
+Caesar was preparing to spring over the edge.
+
+"And you?" cried Drusus, catching him by the wrist. He knew that Caesar
+could never swim the distance to the nearest ship.
+
+"In the hands of the Fates."
+
+But Agias, whose eyes had been straining out into the western harbour,
+cried, "Help! A galley is coming!"
+
+"Imperator," said Drusus, "you must wait for this galley."
+
+The foe were almost on them.
+
+"Are you mad?" was the exclamation of the general.
+
+"I can hold them off until it is safe to swim," and Drusus had covered
+himself behind a coping in the masonry.
+
+Caesar measured the distance with his eye.
+
+"We play at dice with Fortuna, whatever we do," was his comment.
+"Come, then." And the three steadied themselves on the narrow footing
+behind the parapet, one thrust being enough to send them headlong.
+Fortunately weapons were ready--thrown away by the luckless fugitives.
+When the Alexandrians rushed up, three pila crashed in upon them, and,
+caught unawares by the little volley, they held back an instant. The
+three desperate men were counting their hearts' beats, while the
+distance from the friendly galley lessened. Then the rush came, but it
+was met, and, narrow as was the ledge, the attempt to carry it failed.
+The victors were stripping the dead, and, thus engaged, few joined in
+the attack. Caesar had laid down his paludamentum, and the attackers
+thought they had to deal simply with three ordinary Romans, who meant
+to sell their lives dearly. Another rush; the Imperator was forced
+hard, so that another push would have sent him plunging into the sea;
+but his companions sent the attackers reeling back, and there was more
+breathing time. The Alexandrians had received a taste of these Roman
+blades, and they did not enjoy it. Stripping the dead and picking up
+lost arms was more profitable than bearding the three lions. The
+galley was drawing nearer. Drusus began to think of something else
+besides thrusting at men before him.
+
+"They will give us time to escape, Imperator."
+
+"I think so;" but as Caesar spoke all three started in dismay. There
+was a new face among the little band immediately opposed to
+them--Pratinas.
+
+The Greek had never looked so handsome as in armour. His beautifully
+polished mail sat on him with perfect grace; he was a model for an
+artist's Ares, the beautiful genius of battle. _He_, at least, knew
+whose were those three stern, set faces defiantly peering over the low
+parapet that ran waist-high along the edge of the mole.
+
+"At them!" cried the Hellene. "A thousand drachmas to the man who
+brings the middle Roman down!"
+
+The "middle Roman" was Caesar. The enemy came on again, this time some
+springing over the parapet to run along the narrow outer platform and
+attack from either side. But the galley was still nearer.
+
+"Throw off your armour and leap!" It was Drusus who commanded now, and
+Caesar who obeyed. The Imperator tore off his greaves and helmet,
+caught his general's cloak in his teeth, that it might not fall as a
+trophy to the foe, and sprang down into the waves; it was all done in
+a twinkling. But, quick as the leap had been, it was but just in time.
+A rush of irresistible numbers carried Drusus off of his feet, and he
+fell also--but fell in all his armour. It was an instant too crowded
+for sensations. He just realized that his helmet tumbled from his head
+as he fell backward. The weight of his greaves righted him while he
+was in the air. He struck the water with his feet. There was a
+chilling shock; and then, as he went down, the shield on his left arm
+caught the water in its hollow and bore him upward. Nature reasserted
+itself; by a mighty tug at the straps he wrenched away his
+breastplate, and could make shift to float. The short harbour waves
+lifted him, and he saw Caesar striking out boldly toward the now
+rapidly approaching galley. Even as the general swam, Drusus observed
+that he held up a package of papyri in his left hand to keep it out of
+the wet; in uttermost perils Caesar could not forget his books. But
+while the young man gazed seaward, shook the water from his eyes, and
+struck out to reach the friendly galley, groans and shouts arose from
+the waters near beside him. A voice--Agias's voice--was calling out
+for help. The sound of his freedman's cries drove the Roman to action.
+Twice the waves lifted him, and he saw nothing; but at the third time
+he lit on two forms clinging to a bit of wreckage, and yet struggling
+together. A few powerful strokes sent him beside them, and, to his
+unutterable astonishment, he beheld in the person who was battling
+with Agias for possession of the float none other than Pratinas. There
+are times when nothing has opportunity to appear wonderful. This
+moment was one of these. Actions, not words, were wanted. The elder
+Greek had made shift to draw a dagger, and was making a vicious effort
+to stab the other, who had gripped him round the neck with a tenacity
+that would end only with life. One stroke of Drusus's fist as he
+surged alongside the wreckage sent the dagger flying; and in a
+twinkling he had borne Pratinas down and had him pinioned fast on the
+planking of the rude raft. There was a great shout rising from the
+enemy on the mole. A few darts spat in the water beside the fugitives;
+but at the sight of the approaching galley the Alexandrians gave way,
+for on her decks were swarming archers and slingers, and her powerful
+ballistae were already working havoc. The pulsations of her banks of
+oars grew slower as she swept up to the fugitives, the great column of
+white spray curling around her prow sank, and while she drifted past
+them a boat shot forth. In a minute Drusus was standing on her deck,
+and the sailors were passing up Pratinas, still feebly resisting, and
+Agias, who was weak and helpless with his wounds. On the poop Caesar
+was conversing with a seaman of magnificent presence, who was in the
+act of assuring the Imperator that his vessel and crew were at the
+general's service.
+
+
+III
+
+The boats of the rescuer were pulling about, taking up such few Romans
+as had been able to keep afloat; but Drusus was too exhausted to give
+them further heed. He realized that the vessel he was aboard was no
+member of the Roman squadron, that its crew were neither Caesarians nor
+Alexandrians. Deft hands aided him off with his water-soaked clothing,
+and placed bandages on his bruises and cuts. A beaker of spiced wine,
+the like of which he had never drunk before, sent a thrill of
+reinvigorated life through his veins. When he came back upon the deck
+he found Caesar--pale, yet, as ever, active and untiring--still
+conversing with the captain of the vessel. The Imperator had a bandage
+drawn across his forehead, but otherwise he seemed none the worse for
+his recent danger. The galley, under a swinging oar, was pulling back
+across the "Great Harbour" to the palace quay. The battle was over;
+four hundred good Roman lives had been lost, but the disaster had not
+entailed any serious compromise of Caesar's position. There was no need
+of continuing at the Pharos, and it was well to assure the anxious
+garrison at the palace-fortress that their general was safe and sound.
+
+Drusus, as the one thing natural under the circumstances, went to the
+captain of his rescuers to express his obligation and gratitude.
+
+"This is Quintus Livius Drusus," said Caesar, good-naturedly, already
+at his ease, to the strange commander, "who serves on my staff. In
+saving him I owe you a debt, O Demetrius, in addition to my own
+rescue."
+
+The stranger caught Drusus by both hands.
+
+"Are you indeed the son of Sextus Drusus of Praeneste?" he questioned
+with eagerness.
+
+"Assuredly, my good sir," replied the young Roman, a bit confused at
+the other's impetuosity.
+
+"And did your father never tell you of a certain Demetrius, a Greek,
+who was his friend?"
+
+"He did; this Demetrius was cast into prison and condemned by
+Pompeius; my father secured his escape;" and Drusus hesitated. His
+mind had worked rapidly, and he could jump at a conclusion.
+
+"Say it out, your excellency," pressed the seaman.
+
+"He became a pirate, though my father did not blame him overmuch."
+
+"_Eu!_" interrupted Caesar, as if to prevent a moment of awkwardness.
+"Before King Minos's days nothing was more honourable. I have known
+some excellent men who were pirates."
+
+But Demetrius had, in true Eastern fashion, fallen on his knees and
+kissed the feet of Drusus.
+
+"The son of my preserver! I have saved him! Praises to Mithras!"
+
+After this, there was no longer any constraint on the part of rescuers
+or rescued. And that evening, when all were safe behind the palace
+walls, Caesar called the pirate chief into the hall where he had been
+banqueting with Cleopatra, Fabia, and Cornelia, and his favourite
+officers, and asked for an account of his life. A strange enough story
+it was Demetrius had to tell, though Cornelia had heard it before; of
+two voyages to wealthy Taprobane,[186] one as far as the Golden
+Chersonesos,[187] almost to the Silk Land, Serica, of voyages out
+beyond the Pillars of Hercules into the Sea of Darkness,--everywhere
+that keel of ship had ploughed within the memory of man.
+
+  [186] Ceylon.
+
+  [187] Malay Peninsula.
+
+"And the men that drove you to freebooting?" asked Caesar, when the
+company had ceased applauding this recital, which the sailor set forth
+with a spontaneous elegance that made it charming.
+
+"I have said that they were Lucius Domitius, whom the gods have
+rewarded, and a certain Greek."
+
+"The Greek's name was--"
+
+"Kyrios," said Demetrius, his fine features contracting with pain and
+disgust, "I do not willingly mention his name. He has done me so great
+a wrong, that I only breathe his name with a curse. Must you know who
+it was that took my child, my Daphne,--though proof I have not against
+him, but only the warnings of an angry heart?"
+
+"But he was--" pressed Caesar.
+
+"Menon." And as he spoke he hissed the words between his teeth. "He is
+one knave among ten thousand. Why burden your excellency with
+remembering him?"
+
+So the conversation went on, and Caesar told how he had been taken
+prisoner, when a young man, by pirates near Rhodes, and how he had
+been kept captive by them on a little isle while his ransom was
+coming.
+
+"Ah!" interrupted Demetrius, "I have heard the whole tale from one of
+my men who was there. You, kyrios, behaved like a prince. You bade
+your captors take fifty talents instead of twenty, as they asked, and
+wrote verses and declaimed to your guards all the time you were
+awaiting the money, and joined in all their sports; howbeit, you kept
+telling them that you would crucify them all for the matter."
+
+"_Hem!_" laughed Caesar. "Didn't I make good the threat?"
+
+"You did with all save this man, who got away," was his unflinching
+answer. "Although in mercy you strangled all your captors before you
+had them put on the crosses."
+
+"_Hei!_" quoth the Imperator. "I should have spared them to give me
+criticism of those verses now."
+
+"Kyrios," rejoined Demetrius, "the man who survived assures me that
+the verses at least were wretched, though your excellency was a very
+good wrestler."
+
+"_Euge!_ Bravo!" cried Caesar, and all the company joined in. "I must
+take a few of your men back to Rome, for we need critics for our rough
+Latin versifiers."
+
+Drusus, as soon as the laugh passed away, arose, and addressed his
+chief:--
+
+"Imperator," he said, "Agias this morning dragged from off the mole
+with him into the water one of the most dangerous men in the councils
+of our enemies. I mean, as you know, Pratinas the Greek. He is now in
+the palace prison, but every one is aware that, so long as he so much
+as lives, we are hardly safe. What shall be done?"
+
+Caesar frowned.
+
+"This is hardly a basilica for a trial," he replied, "but '_inter arma
+silent leges_.' Tell the centurions on guard to bring him here. I
+imagine we must grant him the form of an examination."
+
+Drusus went out to give the necessary orders.
+
+"You did not see Agias's prisoner?" asked Cornelia of Demetrius, who
+was now an old friend.
+
+"I did not," answered the pirate prince, pouring down the contents of
+a prodigious beaker at a single draught. "A very desperate man, I
+imagine. But it is hard for me to blame any one so long as he fights
+openly. Still," he added, with a laugh, "I mustn't express such
+sentiments, now that his excellency has given me this." And he tossed
+over to Cornelia a little roll, tiny but precious, for it was a
+general pardon, in the name of the Republic, for all past offences, by
+land or sea, against the peace. "_Babai!_" continued Demetrius,
+lolling back his great length on the couch, "who would have imagined
+that I, just returning from a mere voyage to Delos to get rid of some
+slaves, should save the lives of my cousin, my benefactor's son, and
+Caesar himself, and become once more an honest man. Gods! gods! avert
+the misfortunes that come from too much good fortune!"
+
+"Was Agias badly wounded?" asked Cornelia, with some concern.
+
+"Oh," replied his cousin, "he will do well. If his precious captive
+had thrust his dagger a bit deeper, we might have a sorry time
+explaining it all to that pretty little girl--Artemisia he calls
+her--whom he dotes upon. By the bye," continued Demetrius, as entirely
+at his ease in the company as though he had been one of the world's
+high-born and mighty, "can your ladyship tell me where Artemisia is
+just now? She was a very attractive child."
+
+"Assuredly," said Cornelia. "She is here in the palace, very anxious,
+I doubt not, about Agias. Come, I will send for her. You shall tell
+her all about his escape."
+
+Demetrius appeared pleased, and Cornelia whispered to a serving-lad,
+who immediately went out.
+
+The tramp of heavy feet sounded on the mosaics outside the banqueting
+room; the tapestry over the doorway was thrust aside, and in the dim
+lamplight--for it had long been dark--two rigid soldiers in armour
+could be seen, standing at attention. Drusus stepped past them, and
+saluted.
+
+"The prisoner is here, Imperator," he said.
+
+"Bring him in," replied Caesar, laying down his wine-cup.
+
+The curtain swayed again, and the rest of a decuria of troops entered.
+In their centre was a figure whose manacles were clinking ominously.
+In the uncertain light it was only possible to see that the prisoner
+was bent and shivering with fright. The general shrugged his shoulders
+in disgust.
+
+"This is the sort of creature, Drusus," quoth he, derisively, "that is
+so dangerous that we must despatch him at once? _Phui!_ Let him stand
+forth. I suppose he can still speak?"
+
+Pratinas made a pitiable picture. The scuffle and wetting had done
+little benefit to his clothes; his armour the pirates had long since
+appropriated; his hair, rather long through affectation, hung in
+disorder around his neck. He had shaved off his "philosopher's" beard,
+and his smooth cheeks showed ugly scratches. He was as pale as white
+linen, and quaking like a blade of grass in the wind, the very
+antithesis of the splendid Ares of the fight on the mole.
+
+"Your name is Pratinas?" began Caesar, with the snappish energy of a
+man who discharges a disagreeable formality.
+
+"Yes, despotes," began the other, meekly; but as he did so he raised
+his head, and the rays of one of the great candelabra fell full on his
+face. In a twinkling a shout, or rather a scream, had broken from
+Demetrius. The pirate had leaped from his couch, and, with straining
+frame and dilated eyes, sprang between the prisoner and his judge.
+
+"Menon!" The word smote on the captive like the missile of a catapult.
+He reeled back, almost to falling; his eyes closed involuntarily. His
+face had been pale before, now it was swollen, as with the sight of a
+horror.
+
+"Demetrius!" and at this counter exclamation, the cornered man burst
+into a howl of animal fear. And well he might, for Demetrius had
+sprung upon him as a tiger upon an antelope. One of the guards
+indiscreetly interposed, and a stroke of the pirate's fist sent the
+soldier sprawling. Demetrius caught his victim around the body, and
+crushed the wretched man in beneath his grasp. The pseudo-Pratinas did
+not cry out twice. He had no breath. Demetrius tore him off of his
+feet and shook him in mid-air.
+
+"Daphne! Daphne!" thundered the awful pirate; "speak--or by the
+infernal gods--"
+
+"Put him down!" shouted Caesar and Drusus. They were almost appealing
+to an unchained lion roaring over his prey, Drusus caught one of
+Demetrius's arms, and with all his strength tore it from its grasp.
+
+"The man cannot say a word! you are choking him," he cried in the
+pirate's ear.
+
+Demetrius relaxed his mighty grip. Pratinas, for so we still call him,
+leaned back against one of the soldiers, panting and gasping. Drusus
+took his assailant by the arm, and led him back to a seat. Caesar sat
+waiting until the prisoner could speak.
+
+"Pratinas," said the Imperator, sternly, "as you hope for an easy
+death or a hard one, tell this man the truth about his daughter."
+
+Pratinas drew himself together by a mighty effort. For an instant he
+was the former easy, elegant, versatile Hellene. When he answered it
+was with the ring of triumph and defiance.
+
+"Imperator, it would be easy to tell a lie, for there is no means of
+proof at hand. This man," with a derisive glance at his enemy, "says
+that I know something about his daughter. Doubtless, though, since he
+has pursued for recent years so noble an avocation, it were more
+grateful if he thanked me for caring for the deserted girl. Well, I
+kept her until she was sufficiently old, and then--for I was at the
+time quite poor--disposed of her to a dealer at Antioch, who was
+planning to take a slave caravan to Seleucia. My good friend probably
+will find his daughter in some Parthian harem, unless--"
+
+Cornelia had arisen and was whispering to Drusus; the latter turned
+and held the raging pirate in his seat. Pratinas had made of every
+word a venomed arrow, and each and all struck home. The workings of
+Demetrius's face were frightful, the beads of agony stood on his
+brows,--doubtless he had always feared nothing less,--the certainty
+was awful. Cornelia looked upon him half-anxious, yet serene and
+smiling. Drusus, too, seemed composed and expectant. The Imperator
+gazed straight before him, his eyes searching the prisoner through and
+through, and under the glance the Greek again showed signs of fear and
+nervousness.
+
+The curtain at the opposite end of the hall rustled, Cornelia rose and
+walked to the doorway, and returned, leading Artemisia by the hand.
+The girl was dressed in a pure white chiton; her thick hair was bound
+back with a white fillet, but in the midst of its mass shone a single
+golden crescent studded with little gems. She came with shy steps and
+downcast eyes--abashed before so many strangers; and, as she came, all
+gazed at her in admiration, not as upon the bright beauty of a rose,
+but the perfect sweetness of a modest lily. Cornelia led her on, until
+they stood before the prisoner.
+
+"Artemisia," said Cornelia, in a low voice, "have you ever seen this
+man before?"
+
+Artemisia raised her eyes, and, as they lit on Pratinas, there was in
+them a gleam of wonder, then of fear, and she shrank back in dread, so
+that Cornelia threw her arm about her to comfort her.
+
+"_A! A!_" and the girl began to cry. "Has he found me? Will he take
+me? Pity! mercy! Pratinas!"
+
+But no one had paid her any more attention. It was Caesar who had
+sprung from his seat.
+
+"Wretch!" and his terrible eyes burned into Pratinas's guilty breast,
+so that he writhed, and held down his head, and began to mutter words
+inaudible. "Can you tell the truth to save yourself the most horrible
+tortures human wit can devise?"
+
+But Pratinas had nothing to say.
+
+Again Demetrius leaped upon him. The pirate was a frantic animal. His
+fingers moved as though they were claws to pluck the truth from the
+offender's heart. He hissed his question between teeth that ground
+together in frenzy.
+
+"How did you get her? Where from? When?"
+
+Pratinas choked for utterance.
+
+"Artemisia! Daphne! Yours! I lost her! Ran away at Rome!"
+
+The words shook out of him like water from a well-filled flask.
+Demetrius relaxed his hold. A whole flood of conflicting emotions was
+displayed upon his manly face. He turned to Artemisia.
+
+"_Makaira!_ dearest! don't you know me?" he cried, holding
+outstretched his mighty arms.
+
+"I am afraid!" sobbed poor Artemisia in dismay.
+
+"Come!" It was Cornelia who spoke; and, with the daughter crying
+softly on one arm, and the father dragged along in a confused state of
+ecstasy on the other, she led them both out of the room.
+
+Pratinas was on his knees before Caesar. The Hellene was again
+eloquent--eloquent as never before. In the hour of extremity his
+sophistry and his rhetoric did not leave him. His antitheses,
+epigrams, well-rounded maxims, figures of speech, never were at a
+better command. For a time, charmed by the flow of his own language,
+he gathered strength and confidence, and launched out into bolder
+flights of subtly wrought rhetoric. He excused, explained away each
+fault, vivified and magnified a hundred non-existent virtues, reared a
+splendid word-fabric in praise of clemency. To what end? Before him
+sat Caesar, and Drusus, and a dozen Romans more, who, with cold,
+unmoved Italian faces, listened to his artificial eloquence, and gave
+no sign of pity. And as he went on, the sense of his hopeless position
+overcame the wretched man, and his skill began to leave him. He became
+thick and confused of speech; his periods tripped; his thought moved
+backward. Then his supple tongue failed him utterly, and, in cries and
+incoherent groans, he pleaded for the right to exist.
+
+"Man," said the Imperator, when the storm of prayers and moans was
+over, "you conspired against Quintus Drusus, my friend. You
+failed--that is forgiven. You conspired, I have cause to believe,
+against Pompeius, my enemy, but a Roman--that is unproved, and
+therefore forgiven. You conspired with Pothinus against me--that was
+an offence touching me alone, and so that, too, may be forgiven. But
+to the prayers of a father you had wronged, you answered so that you
+might gloat over his pain. Therefore you shall die and not live. Take
+him away, guards, and strike off his head, for his body is too vile to
+nail to any cross."
+
+The face of the Greek was livid. He raised his manacled hands, and
+strained at the irons in sheer despair. The soldiers caught him
+roughly to hale him away.
+
+"Mercy! kyrios! kyrios!" he shrieked. "Spare me the torments of Hades!
+The Furies will pursue me forever! Pity! Mercy!"
+
+Cornelia had reentered the room, and saw this last scene.
+
+"When my uncle and Ahenobarbus were nigh their deaths," she said
+stingingly, "this man observed that often, in times of mortal peril,
+skeptics call on the gods."
+
+"The rule is proved," said Caesar, casting a cynical smile after the
+soldiers with their victim. "All men need gods, either to worship when
+they live, or to dread when they die."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XXV
+
+Calm after Storm
+
+
+I
+
+Like all human things, the war ended. The Alexandrians might rage and
+dash their numbers against the palace walls. Ganymed and young
+Ptolemaeus, who had gone out to him, pressed the siege, but all in
+vain. And help came to the hard-pressed Romans at last. Mithridates, a
+faithful vassal king, advanced his army over Syria, and came down into
+the Delta, sweeping all before him. Then Caesar effected a junction
+with the forces of his ally, and there was one pitched battle on the
+banks of the Nile, where Ptolemaeus was defeated, and drowned in his
+flight. Less than a month later Alexandria capitulated, and saw the
+hated consular insignia again within her gates. There was work to do
+in Egypt, and Caesar--just named dictator at Rome and consul for five
+years--devoted himself to the task of reform and reorganization.
+Cleopatra was to be set back upon her throne, and her younger brother,
+another Ptolemaeus, was to be her colleague. So out of war came peace,
+and the great Imperator gave laws to yet another kingdom.
+
+But before Caesar sailed away to chastise Pharnaces of Pontus, and
+close up his work in the East, ere returning to break down the stand
+of the desperate Pompeians in Africa, there was joy and high festival
+in the palace of Alexandria; and all the noble and great of the
+capital were at the feast,--the wedding feast of Cornelia and the
+favourite staff officer of the Imperator. The soft warm air of the
+Egyptian springtime blew over the festoons of flowers and over the
+carpets of blossoms; never before was the music more sweet and joyous.
+And overhead hung the great light-laden dome of the glowing azure,
+where the storks were drifting northward with the northward march of
+the sun.
+
+And they sang the bridal hymns, both Greek and Latin, and cried
+"Hymen" and "Talasio"; and when evening came,
+
+  "The torches tossed their tresses of flame,"
+
+as said the marriage song of Catullus; and underneath the yellow veil
+of the bride gleamed forth the great diamond necklace, the gift of
+Cleopatra, which once had been the joy of some Persian princess before
+the Greeks took the hoard at Persepolis.
+
+Agias was there; and Cleomenes and his daughters; and Demetrius, with
+Artemisia, the most beautiful of girls,--as Cornelia was the fairest
+of women,--clinging fondly to her father's side. So there was joy that
+day and night at the Alexandrian palace. And on the next morning the
+fleet trireme was ready which Demetrius had provided to bear Drusus
+and Cornelia and Fabia back to Italy. Many were the partings at the
+royal quay, and Agias wept when he said farewell to his late patron
+and patroness; but he had some comfort, for his cousin (who had
+arranged with Cleomenes that, since his freebooting days were happily
+over, the two should join in a partnership for the India trade) had
+made him a promise to be fulfilled in due course of time--for
+Artemisia was still very young.
+
+"You are no Ichomachus, Xenophon's perfect wife-educator," the
+ex-pirate had said to his importunate cousin; "wait a few years."
+
+And Agias was fain to be content, with this hope before him.
+
+There were other partings than his; but at last the adieus were over,
+and all save Caesar went back upon the quay. The Imperator alone
+tarried on the poop of the vessel for an instant. His features were
+half wistful as he held Drusus by the hand, but his eyes were kindly
+as ever to the young man.
+
+"Ah, amice!" he said, "we who play at philosophy may not know all the
+time that there are gods, but at all times we know that there is the
+most godlike of divine attributes--love undefiled. Therefore let us
+hope, for we see little, and the cosmos is past finding out."
+
+He sprang back on to the quay. The musicians on the bow struck up with
+pipe and lyre; the friends on the pier flung aboard the last garlands
+of rose and lily and scented thyme; the rowers bent to their task; the
+one hundred and seventy blades--pumiced white--smote the yellow waves
+of the harbour, and the ship sped away. Cornelia, Fabia, and Drusus
+stood on the poop gazing toward the receding quay. Long after they had
+ceased to recognize forms and faces they stared backward, until the
+pier itself was a speck, and the great buildings of the city grew dim.
+Then they passed the Pharos, and the land dwindled more and more into
+a narrow, dark ribbon betwixt blue water and bluer sky. The long
+swells of the open sea caught the trireme, and she rode gallantly over
+them--while the music still played, and her hardy crew, pirates no
+longer, but pardoned men,--seamen, employees of the honest merchant
+Demetrius,--sent the good ship bounding faster and faster, as they
+pressed their strength against the springing oars. Higher and higher
+rose the column of foam around the cutwater; louder and louder sang
+the foam under the stern, as they swept it past. The distant land
+faded to a thread, to a line, was gone; and to north and south and
+east and west were but the water and the cloudless ether. Fabia,
+Cornelia, and Drusus said little for a long time. Their eyes wandered,
+sometimes, over the track of the foam, and in their minds they saw
+again the water-birds plashing among lotus plants, and heard the
+ancient Egyptian litanies softly chanted behind the propylons of a
+temple built by some king two thousand years departed. But oftener
+their eyes ran ahead over the prow, and they walked again across the
+Forum of the city of their fathers, and drove across the Latin
+plain-land, and spoke their own dear, sonorous, yet half-polished
+native tongue.
+
+At last came evening; the sun sank lower and lower; now his broad red
+disk hung over the crest of the western waves; now it touched them;
+now it was gone, and only the lines of dying fire streamed behind
+him--the last runners in his chariot train. Up from the cabin below
+came the voice of the ship's steward, "Would their excellencies take
+any refreshment?" But they did not go at once. They watched the fire
+grow dimmer and dimmer, the pure light change to red gold, the red
+gold to crimson, and the crimson sink away.
+
+"Ah, carissima!" cried Drusus, "would that when the orbs of our lives
+go down to their setting, they might go down like the sunlight, more
+beautiful in each act of the very dying, as they approach the final
+goal!"
+
+"Yes, surely," replied Cornelia, touching her hands upon his head;
+"but who knows but that Catullus the poet is wrong when he says the
+sun of life will never rise save once; who knows but that, if our sun
+set in beauty, it will rise again in grandeur even more?"
+
+"My children," said Fabia, gently, "the future lies in the knowledge
+of the gods; but out of the present we must shape our own future."
+
+"No, delectissima," replied her nephew, "to do that we are all too
+weak; except it be true, as Aratus the poet has said, 'that we men are
+also the offspring of gods,' in which case Heaven itself must stoop to
+give us aid."
+
+But Cornelia's eyes had wandered down into the foam, still gleaming as
+snow in the failing light.
+
+"Ah!" she said, "the ages are long; if there be gods, their days are
+our lifetimes, and we but see a little and know not what to think. But
+to live a noble life will always be the fairest thing, whether death
+be an unending sleep or the threshold to Pindar's Elysium."
+
+And what more of grave wisdom might have dropped from her lips none
+may relate, for her husband had shaken off the spell, and laughed
+aloud in the joy of his strong life and buoyant hopes. Then they all
+three laughed, and thought no more of sober things. They went down
+into the cabin just as the last bars of light flickered out in the
+west, and only the starlight broke the darkness that spread out over
+the face of the sea.
+
+
+II
+
+Drusus, as he himself had predicted, never wrote a great treatise on
+philosophy, and never drew up a cosmology that set at rest all the
+problems of the universe; nor did Cornelia become a Latin Sappho or
+Corinna, and her wise lore never went further than to make her friends
+afraid to affect a shammed learning in her presence. But they both did
+the tasks that fell to them better because they had "tasted the well
+of Parnassus" and "walked in the grove with the sages." And Drusus,
+through an active life, played an honourable part as a soldier and a
+statesman: with his beloved Imperator in the battles of Thapsus and
+Munda, when the last of the oligarchs were beaten down; then, after
+the great crime of murder, with his friend Marcus Antonius; and then,
+when Cleopatra's evil star lured both her and Antonius to their ruin,
+he turned to the only man whose wisdom and firmness promised safety to
+the state--and he joined himself to the rising fortunes of Octavius,
+the great Augustus, and fought with him to the end, until there was no
+longer a foreign or civil enemy, and the "Pax Romana" gave quiet to a
+subject world.
+
+So Drusus had share with Maecenas and Agrippa and the other imperial
+statesmen in shaping the fabric of the mighty Roman Empire. Not in his
+day did he or Cornelia know that it was wrong to buy slaves like
+cattle, or to harbour an implacable hate. They were but pagans. To
+them the truth was but seen in a glass darkly; enough if they lived up
+to such truth as was vouchsafed. But in their children's day the
+brightness arose in the East, and spread westward, and ever westward,
+until the Capitoline Jupiter was nigh forgotten, the glories of the
+Roman eagles became a tradition, the splendour of the imperial city a
+dream. For there came to the world a better Deity, a diviner glory, a
+more heavenly city. The greater grew out of the less. Out of the
+world-fabric prepared by Julius Caesar grew the fabric of the Christian
+Church, and out of the Christian Church shall rise a yet nobler
+spiritual edifice when the stars have all grown cold.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Friend of Caesar, by William Stearns Davis
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A FRIEND OF CAESAR ***
+
+***** This file should be named 15694.txt or 15694.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/6/9/15694/
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Stefan Cramme and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+*** END: FULL LICENSE ***
+
diff --git a/15694.zip b/15694.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0a2c5ce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/15694.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7b8fd81
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #15694 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15694)