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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of "Unto Caesar", by Baroness Emmuska Orczy
+
+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: "Unto Caesar"
+
+Author: Baroness Emmuska Orczy
+
+Release Date: March 10, 2008 [EBook #24789]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK "UNTO CAESAR" ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+"UNTO CAESAR"
+
+BARONESS ORCZY
+
+
+
+
+By BARONESS ORCZY
+
+"UNTO CAESAR"
+EL DORADO
+MEADOWSWEET
+THE NOBLE ROGUE
+THE HEART OF A WOMAN
+PETTICOAT RULE
+
+GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
+NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "LOOK INTO MY EYES NOW!... DO THEY LOOK AS IF THEY MEANT
+TO RELENT?"]
+
+
+
+
+UNTO CAESAR
+
+BY BARONESS ORCZY
+
+AUTHOR OF 'THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL', 'ELDORADO'
+
+
+[Illustration: Coin inscribed C CAESAR AVG GERMANICVS PON M TR POT]
+
+"RENDER THEREFORE UNTO
+CAESAR THE THINGS WHICH
+ARE CAESAR'S; AND UNTO
+GOD THE THINGS THAT
+ARE GOD'S"
+
+ST. MATTHEW XX. 21.
+
+
+
+
+NEW YORK
+GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
+
+Copyright, 1914,
+BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+TO ALL THOSE WHO BELIEVE
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER I.             1
+CHAPTER II.            9
+CHAPTER III.          19
+CHAPTER IV.           30
+CHAPTER V.            39
+CHAPTER VI.           54
+CHAPTER VII.          72
+CHAPTER VIII.         83
+CHAPTER IX.          107
+CHAPTER X.           119
+CHAPTER XI.          128
+CHAPTER XII.         146
+CHAPTER XIII.        155
+CHAPTER XIV.         161
+CHAPTER XV.          183
+CHAPTER XVI.         193
+CHAPTER XVII.        199
+CHAPTER XVIII.       204
+CHAPTER XIX.         209
+CHAPTER XX.          212
+CHAPTER XXI.         220
+CHAPTER XXII.        226
+CHAPTER XXIII.       233
+CHAPTER XXIV.        239
+CHAPTER XXV.         247
+CHAPTER XXVI.        257
+CHAPTER XXVII.       267
+CHAPTER XXVIII.      277
+CHAPTER XXIX.        286
+CHAPTER XXX.         296
+CHAPTER XXXI.        321
+CHAPTER XXXII.       329
+CHAPTER XXXIII.      343
+CHAPTER XXXIV.       355
+CHAPTER XXXV.        370
+CHAPTER XXXVI.       376
+
+
+
+
+"UNTO CAESAR"
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+"Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount
+Zion...."--PSALM XLVIII. 2.
+
+
+And it came to pass in Rome after the kalends of September, and when
+Caius Julius Caesar Caligula ruled over Imperial Rome.
+
+Arminius Quirinius, the censor, was dead. He had died by his own hand,
+and thus was a life of extortion and of fraud brought to an ignominious
+end through the force of public opinion, and by the decree of that same
+Caesar who himself had largely benefited by the mal-practices of his
+minion.
+
+Arminius Quirinius had committed every crime, sunk to every kind of
+degradation which an inordinate love of luxury and the insatiable
+desires of jaded senses had suggested as a means to satisfaction, until
+the treachery of his own accomplices had thrown the glaring light of
+publicity on a career of turpitude such as even these decadent times had
+seldom witnessed ere this.
+
+Enough that the end had come at last. A denunciation from the rostrum, a
+discontented accomplice thirsting for revenge, an angry crowd eager to
+listen, and within an hour the mighty, much-feared censor was forced to
+flee from Rome to escape the fury of a populace which would have torn
+him to pieces, and was ready even to massacre his family and his
+womenfolk, his clients and his slaves.
+
+He escaped to his villa at Ostia. But the Emperor Caligula, having duly
+enjoyed the profits derived from his favourite's extortions, hurled
+anathema and the full weight of his displeasure on the man who had been
+not only fool enough to be found out, but who had compromised the
+popularity of the Caesar in the eyes of the people and of the army.
+Twenty-four hours later the imperial decree went forth that the
+disgraced censor must end his days in any manner which he thought
+best--seeing that a patrician and member of the Senate could not be
+handed over to common justice--and also that the goods of Arminius
+Quirinius should be publicly sold for the benefit of the State and the
+profit of those whom the extortioner had wronged.
+
+The latter phrase, though somewhat vague, pleased the people and soothed
+public irritation, and the ephemeral popularity of a half-crazy tyrant
+was momentarily restored. Be it said however, that less than a month
+later the Caesar decided that he himself had been the person most wronged
+by Arminius, and that the bulk of the profits derived from the sale of
+the late censor's goods must therefore find its way into the imperial
+coffers.
+
+The furniture of Arminius' house within the city and that of his villa
+at Ostia had fetched vast sums at a public auction which had lasted
+three days. Everything had been sold, from the bed with the gilt legs on
+which the body of the censor had been laid after his death, to the last
+vase of murra that adorned his walls and the cups of crystal from which
+his guests had drunk. His pet monkeys were sold and his tame magpies,
+the pots of flowers out of the hothouses and the bunches of melons and
+winter grapes ripening under glass.
+
+After that it was the turn of the slaves. There were, so I understand,
+over seven thousand of these: scribes and carpenters, litter-bearers and
+sculptors, cooks and musicians; there were a quantity of young children,
+and some half-witted dolts and misshapen dwarfs, kept for the amusement
+of guests during the intervals of supper.
+
+The bulk of them had been sent to the markets of Delos and Phaselis, but
+the imperator had had the most valuable items amongst the human goods
+set aside for himself, and not a few choice pieces had found their way
+into the households of the aediles in charge of the sales: the State too
+had appropriated some hundreds of useful scribes, sculptors and
+mechanics, but there were still a thousand or so who--in compliance with
+the original imperial edict--would have to be sold by public auction in
+Rome for the benefit of the late censor's defrauded victims.
+
+And thus, on this ninth day of September, a human load panting under the
+heat of this late summer's sun, huddled one against the other, pushed
+and jostled by the crowd, was exposed to the public gaze in the Forum
+over against the rostrum Augustini, so that all who had a mind, and a
+purse withal, might suit their fancy and buy.
+
+A bundle of humanity--not over-wretched, for the condition of the slaves
+in the household of Arminius Quirinius had not been an unhappy one--they
+all seemed astonished, some even highly pleased, at thus finding
+themselves the centre of attraction in the Forum, they who had spent
+their lives in getting humbly out of other people's way.
+
+Fair and dark, ivory skin and ebony, male and female, or almost sexless
+in the excess of deformity, there were some to suit all tastes. Each
+wore a tablet hung round the neck by a green cord: on this were writ the
+chief merits of the wearer, and also a list of his or her defects, so
+that intending purchasers might know what to expect.
+
+There were the Phrygians with fair curly hair and delicate hands skilled
+in the limner's art; the Numidians with skins of ebony and keen black
+eyes that shone like dusky rubies; they were agile at the chase, could
+capture a lion or trap the wild beasts that are so useful in
+gladiatorial games. There were Greeks here, pale of face and gentle of
+manner who could strike the chords of a lyre and sing to its
+accompaniment, and there were swarthy Spaniards who fashioned
+breast-plates of steel and fine chain mail to resist the assassin's
+dagger: there were Gauls with long lithe limbs and brown hair tied in a
+knot high above the forehead, and Allemanni from the Rhine with
+two-coloured hair heavy and crisp like a lion's mane. There was a
+musician from Memphis whose touch upon the sistrum would call a dying
+spirit back to the land of the living, and a cook from Judaea who could
+stew a peacock's tongue so that it melted like nectar in the mouth:
+there was a white-skinned Iceni from Britain, versed in the art of
+healing, and a negress from Numidia who had killed a raging lion by one
+hit on the jaw from her powerful fist.
+
+Then there were those freshly brought to Rome from overseas, whose
+merits or demerits had not yet been appraised--they wore no tablet round
+the neck, but their feet were whitened all over with chalk; and there
+were those whose heads were surmounted by an ugly felt hat in token that
+the State treasury tendered no guarantee for them. Their period of
+servitude had been so short that nothing was known about them, about
+their health, their skill, or their condition.
+
+
+Above them towered the gigantic rostrum with tier upon tier of massive
+blocks of marble, and in the centre, up aloft, the bronze figure of the
+wolf--the foster-mother of the great city--with metal jaws distended and
+polished teeth that gleamed like emeralds in the sun.
+
+And all around the stately temples of the Forum, with their rich
+carvings and colonnades and walls in tones of delicate creamy white,
+scarce less brilliant than the clouds which a gentle morning breeze was
+chasing westwards to the sea. And under the arcades of the temples cool
+shadows, dense and blue, trenchant against the white marble like an
+irregular mosaic of lapis lazuli, with figures gliding along between the
+tall columns, priests in white robes, furtive of gait, slaves of the
+pontificate, shoeless and silent and as if detached from the noise and
+bustle of the Forum, like ghosts that haunt the precincts of graves.
+
+Throughout all this the gorgeous colouring that a summer's mid-morning
+throws over imperial Rome. Above, that canopy of translucent blue,
+iridescent and scintillating with a thousand colours, flicks of emerald
+and crimson, of rose and of mauve that merge and dance together, divide
+and reunite before the retina, until the gaze loses consciousness of all
+colour save one all-pervading sense of gold.
+
+In the distance the Capitol, temple-crowned, rearing its deified summit
+upwards to the dome of heaven above, holding on its triple shoulders a
+throng of metal gods, with Jupiter Victor right in the centre, a
+thunderbolt in his hand which throws back ten thousand reflections of
+dazzling light--another sun engendered by the sun. And to the west the
+Aventine wrapped in its mantle of dull brown, its smooth incline barren
+and scorched, and with tiny mud-huts dotted about like sleepy eyes that
+close beneath the glare.
+
+And far away beyond the Aventine, beyond the temples and palaces, the
+blue ribbon of the Tiber flowing lazily to the sea: there where a
+rose-coloured haze hung in mid-air, hiding with filmy, transparent veil
+the vast Campania beyond, its fever-haunted marshes and its reed-covered
+fastnesses.
+
+The whole, a magnificent medley of cream and gold and azure, and deep
+impenetrable shadows trenchant as a thunder cloud upon an horizon of
+gold, and the moving crowd below, ivory and bronze and black, with here
+and there the brilliant note of a snow-white robe or of crimson
+head-band gleaming through dark locks.
+
+
+Up and around the rostrum, noise that was almost deafening had prevailed
+from an early hour. On one of the gradients some ten or a dozen scribes
+were squatting on mats of twisted straw, making notes of the sales and
+entries of the proceeds on rolls of parchment which they had for the
+purpose, whilst a swarthy slave, belonging to the treasury, acted as
+auctioneer under direct orders from the praefect of Rome. He was perched
+high up aloft, immediately beneath the shadow of the yawning bronze
+wolf; he stood bare-headed under the glare of the sun, but a linen tunic
+covered his shoulders, and his black hair was held close to his head by
+a vivid crimson band.
+
+He shouted almost incessantly in fluent Latin, but with the lisp
+peculiar to the African races.
+
+A sun-tanned giant whose massive frame and fair hair, that gleamed ruddy
+in the sun, proclaimed some foreign ancestry was the praefectus in
+command of this tangled bundle of humanity.
+
+He had arrived quite early in the day and his litter stood not far from
+the rostrum; its curtains of crimson silk, like vivid stains of blood
+upon the walls of cream and gold, fluttered restlessly in the breeze.
+Around the litter a crowd of his own slaves and attendants remained
+congregated, but he himself stood isolated on the lowest gradient of the
+central rostrum, leaning his powerful frame against the marble, with
+arms folded across his mighty chest; his deep-set eyes were overshadowed
+by heavy brows and his square forehead cut across by the furrow of a
+perpetual frown which gave the whole face a strange expression of
+untamed will and of savage pride, in no way softened by the firm lines
+of the tightly closed lips or the contour of the massive jaws.
+
+His lictors, at some little distance from him, kept his person well
+guarded, but it was he who, with word or nod, directed the progress of
+the sale, giving occasional directions to the lictors who--wielding
+heavy flails--had much ado to keep the herd of human cattle within the
+bounds of its pens. His voice was harsh and peremptory and he pronounced
+the Latin words with but the faintest semblance of foreign intonation.
+
+Now and then at a word from a likely purchaser he would with a sign
+order a lictor to pick out one of his wares, to drag him forward out of
+a compact group and set him up on the catasta. A small crowd would then
+collect round the slave thus exposed, the tablet on his neck would be
+carefully perused and the chattel made to turn round and round, to walk
+backwards and forwards, to show his teeth and his muscle, whilst the
+African up on the rostrum would with loud voice and profuse gesture
+point out every line of beauty on a lithe body and expatiate on the full
+play of every powerful muscle.
+
+The slave thus singled out for show seemed neither resentful nor
+distressed, ready enough most times to exhibit his merits, anxious only
+for the chance of a good master and the momentary avoidance of the
+lictor's flail. At the praefect's bidding he cracked his knuckles or
+showed his teeth, strained the muscles of his arm to make them stand up
+like cords, turned a somersault, jumped, danced or stood on his head if
+ordered so to do.
+
+The women were more timid and very frightened of blows, especially the
+older ones; the younger shoulders escaped a chastisement which would
+have marred their beauty, and the pretty maids from Corinth or
+Carthage, conscious of their own charms, displayed them with
+good-natured _naivete_, deeming obedience the surest way to comfort.
+
+Nor did the praefect perform his duty with any show of inhumanity or
+conscious cruelty. Himself a wealthy member of the patriciate, second
+only to the Caesar, with a seat in the Senate and a household full of
+slaves, he had neither horror nor contempt for the state of slavery--a
+necessary one in the administration of the mightiest Empire in the
+world.
+
+Many there were who averred that the praefect of Rome was himself the
+descendant of a freedman--a prisoner of war brought over by Caesar from
+the North--who had amassed wealth and purchased his own freedom. Indeed
+his name proclaimed his foreign origin, for he was called Taurus Antinor
+Anglicanus, and surnamed Niger because of his dark eyes and sun-tanned
+skin. Certain it is that when the sale of Arminius' goods was ordered by
+imperial edict for the benefit of the State, no one complained that the
+praefect decided to preside over the sale himself.
+
+He had discharged such duties before and none had occasion to complain
+of the manner in which he did it. In these days of unbridled excesses
+and merciless outbursts of rage, he remained throughout--on these
+occasions--temperate and even impassive.
+
+He only ordered his lictor to use the flail when necessary, when the
+bundle of human goods was so huddled up that it ceased to look
+attractive, and likely purchasers seemed to fall away. Then, at his
+command, the heavy thongs would descend indiscriminately on the bronze
+shoulder of an Ethiopian or the fair skin of a barbarian from the North;
+but he gave the order without any show of cruelty or passion, just as he
+heard the responsive cry of pain without any outward sign of pity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+"To be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than
+vanity."--PSALM LXII. 9.
+
+
+As the day wore on, trade became more brisk and the work of the lictors
+more arduous, for the crowd was dense and the bargain-hunters eager to
+push to the front.
+
+Now a bronze-skinned artisan with slender limbs and narrow tapering
+hands was attracting attention. He was standing on the platform, passive
+and indifferent, apparently unconscious alike of the scorching sun which
+bit into his bare flesh, as of the murmurs of the dealers round him and
+the eloquence of the African up on the rostrum, who was shouting himself
+hoarse in praise of his wares.
+
+"A leather worker from Hispania," he thundered with persuasive rhetoric,
+"his age but two dozen years, his skill unequalled on either bank of the
+Tiber ... A tunic worked by him is softer than the fleeciest wool, and
+the sheath of a dagger becomes in his hands as hard as steel.... Good
+health and strength, two thousand sesterces were a poor price to pay for
+the use of these skilled hands.... Two thousand sesterces.... His
+lordship's grace, the censor Arminius Quirinius paid four thousand for
+him...."
+
+He paused a moment whilst a couple of Jews from Galilee, in long dark
+robes and black caps covering their shaggy hair, turned critically round
+this paragon from Hispania, lifted his hands and gazed on each
+finger-tip as if trying to find traces on these of that much-vaunted
+skill.
+
+"Two thousand sesterces, kind sirs, and you will have at your disposal
+the talent of a master in the noble art of leather working; pouches and
+coverings for your chairs, caskets and sword-hilts, nothing comes amiss
+to him.... Come! shall we say two thousand sesterces?"
+
+The Jews were hesitating. With a rapid glance of their keen, deep-set
+eyes they consulted one with the other, whilst their long bony fingers
+wandered hesitatingly to the wallets at their belts.
+
+"Two thousand sesterces!" urged the auctioneer, as he looked with marked
+severity on the waverers.
+
+He himself received a percentage on the proceeds of the sale, a few
+sesterces mayhap that would go to swell the little hoard which
+ultimately would purchase freedom. The scribes stilet in hand waited in
+patient silence. The praefect, indifferent to the whole transaction, was
+staring straight in front of him, like one whose thoughts are strangers
+to his will.
+
+"One thousand we'll give," said one of the Jews timidly.
+
+"Nay! an you'll not give more, kind sirs," quoth the auctioneer airily,
+"this paragon among leather workers will bring fortune to your rival
+dealers...."
+
+"One thousand," repeated one of the intending purchasers, "and no more."
+
+The African tried persuasion, contempt, even lofty scorn; he threatened
+to withdraw the paragon from the sale altogether, for he knew of a
+dealer in leather goods over in Corinth who would give two fingers of
+his own hand for the exclusive use of those belonging to this Hispanian
+treasure.
+
+But the Jews were obstinate. With the timid obstinacy peculiar to their
+race, they stuck to their point and refused to be enticed into
+purposeless extravagance.
+
+In the end the wonderful worker in leather was sold to the Jew traders
+from Galilee for the sum of one thousand sesterces; his dark face had
+expressed nothing but stolid indifference whilst the colloquy between
+the purchasers and the auctioneer had been going on.
+
+The next piece of goods however was in more pressing demand; a solid
+German, with massive thorax half-hidden beneath a shaggy goatskin held
+in at the waist by a belt; his hairy arms bare to the shoulder, his
+gigantic fists clenched as if ready to fell an ox.
+
+A useful man with plough or harrow, he was said to be skilled in smith's
+work too. After a preliminary and minute examination of the man's
+muscles, of his teeth, of the calves of his legs, bidding became very
+brisk between an agriculturist from Sicilia and a freedman from the
+Campania, until the praefect himself intervened, desiring the slave for
+his own use on a farm which he had near Ostia.
+
+Some waiting-maids from Judaea fetched goodly money; an innkeeper of
+Etruria bought them, for they were well-looking and knew how to handle
+and carry wine jars without shaking up the costly liquor; and the
+negroes were sought after by the lanistae for training to gladiatorial
+combats.
+
+Scribes were also in great demand for copying purposes. The
+disseminators of the news of the day were willing to pay high prices for
+quick shorthand writers who had learned their business in the house of
+Arminius the censor.
+
+In the meanwhile the throng in the Forum had become more and more dense.
+Already one or two gorgeously draped litters had been seen winding their
+way in from the Sacra Via or the precincts of the temples, their silken
+draperies making positive notes of brilliant colour against the
+iridescent whiteness of Phrygian marble walls.
+
+The lictors now had at times to use their flails against the crowd.
+Room had to be made for the masters of Rome, the wealthy and the idle,
+who threw sesterces about for the gratification of their smallest whim,
+as a common man would shake the dust from his shoes.
+
+Young Hortensius Martius, the rich patrician owner of five thousand
+slaves, had stepped out of his litter, and a way being made for him in
+the crowd by his men, he had strolled up to the rostrum, and mounting
+its first gradient he leaned with studied grace against the block of
+white marble, giving to the common herd below the pleasing spectacle of
+a young exquisite, rich and well-favoured--his handsome person carefully
+perfumed and bedecked after the morning bath, his crisp fair hair
+daintily curled, his body clad in a tunic of soft white wool splendidly
+worked in purple stripes, the insignia of his high patrician state.
+
+He passed a languid eye over the bundle of humanity spread out for sale
+at his feet and gave courteous greeting to the praefect.
+
+"Thou art early abroad, Hortensius Martius," quoth Taurus Antinor in
+response; "'tis not often thou dost grace the Forum with thy presence at
+this hour."
+
+"They told me it would be amusing," replied young Hortensius lazily,
+"but methinks that they lied."
+
+He yawned, and with a tiny golden tool he began picking his teeth.
+
+"What did they tell thee?" queried the other, "and who were they that
+told?"
+
+"There was Caius Nepos and young Escanes, and several others at the
+bath. They were all talking about the sale."
+
+"Are they coming hither?"
+
+"They will be here anon; but some declared that much rubbish would have
+to be sold ere the choice bargains be put up. Escanes wants a cook who
+can fry a capon in a special way they wot of in Gaul. Stuffed with
+ortolans and covered with the juice of three melons--Escanes says it is
+mightily pleasing to the palate."
+
+"There is no cook from Gaul on the list," interposed the praefect
+curtly.
+
+"And Caius Nepos wants some well-favoured girls to wait on his guests at
+supper to-morrow. He gives a banquet, as thou knowest. Wilt be there,
+Taurus Antinor?"
+
+He had spoken these last words in a curious manner which suggested that
+some significance other than mere conviviality would be attached to the
+banquet given by Caius Nepos on the morrow. And now he drew nearer to
+the praefect and cast a quick glance around him as if to assure himself
+that the business of the sale was engrossing everyone's attention.
+
+"Caius Nepos," he said, trying to speak with outward indifference,
+"asked me to tell thee that if thou wilt come to his banquet to-morrow
+thou wilt find it to thine advantage. Many of us are of one mind with
+regard to certain matters and could talk these over undisturbed. Wilt
+join us, Taurus Antinor?" he added eagerly.
+
+"Join you," retorted the other with a grim smile, "join you in what? in
+this senseless folly of talking in whispers in public places? The Forum
+this day is swarming with spies, Hortensius Martius. Hast a wish to make
+a spectacle for the plebs on the morrow by being thrown to a pack of
+tigers for their midday meal?"
+
+And with a nod of his head he pointed up to the rostrum where the dusky
+auctioneer had momentarily left off shouting and had thrown himself flat
+down upon the matting, ostensibly in order to speak with one of the
+scribes on the tier below, but who was in reality casting furtive
+glances in the direction where Hortensius Martius stood talking with the
+praefectus.
+
+"These slaves," said Taurus Antinor curtly, "all belong to the imperial
+treasury; their peculium is entirely made up of money gained through
+giving information--both false and true. Have a care, O Hortensius
+Martius!"
+
+But the other shrugged his shoulders with well-studied indifference. It
+was not the mode at this epoch to seem anything but bored at all the
+circumstances of public and private life in Rome, at the simple
+occurrences of daily routine or at the dangers which threatened every
+man through the crazy whims of a demented despot.
+
+It had even become the fashion to accept outwardly and without the
+slightest show of interest the wild extravagances and insane
+debaucheries of the ferocious tyrant who for the nonce wielded the
+sceptre of the Caesars. The young patricians of the day looked on with
+apparent detachment at his excesses and the savage displays of unbridled
+power of which he was so inordinately fond, and they affected a lofty
+disregard for the horrible acts of injustice and of cruelty which this
+half-crazy Emperor had rendered familiar to the citizens of Rome.
+
+Nothing in the daily routine of life amused these votaries of
+fashion--nothing roused them from their attitude of somnolent placidity,
+except perhaps some peculiarly bloody combat in the arena--one of those
+unfettered orgies of lust of blood which they loved to witness and which
+have for ever disgraced the glorious pages of Roman history.
+
+Then horror would rouse them for a brief moment from their apathy, for
+they were not cruel, only satiated with every sight, every excitement
+and luxury which their voluptuous city and the insane caprice of the
+imperator perpetually offered them; and they thirsted for horrors as a
+sane man thirsts for beauty, that it might cause a diversion in the even
+tenor of their lives, and mayhap raise a thrill in their dormant brains.
+
+Therefore even now, when apparently he was toying with his life,
+Hortensius Martius did not depart outwardly from the attitude of
+supercilious indifference which fashion demanded. They were all actors,
+these men, always before an audience, and even among themselves they
+never really left off acting the part which they had made so completely
+their own.
+
+But that the indifference was only on the surface was evidenced in this
+instance by the young exquisite's scarce perceptible change of position.
+He drew away slightly from the praefect and anon said in a loud tone of
+voice so that all around him might hear:
+
+"Aye! as thou sayest, Taurus Antinor, I might find a dwarf or some kind
+of fool to suit me. Mine are getting old and dull. Ye gods, how they
+bore me at times!"
+
+And it was in a whisper that he added:
+
+"Caius Nepos specially desired thy presence at supper to-morrow, O
+Taurus Antinor! He feared that he might not get speech with thee anon,
+so hath asked me to make sure of thy presence. Thou'lt not fail us?
+There are over forty of us now, all prepared to give our lives for the
+good of the Empire."
+
+The praefect made no reply this time; his attention was evidently
+engrossed by some close bidding over a useful slave, but as Hortensius
+now finally turned away from him, his dark eyes under the shadow of that
+perpetual frown swept over the figure of the young exquisite, from the
+crown of the curled and perfumed head to the soles of the daintily shod
+feet, and a smile of contempt not altogether unkind played round the
+corners of his firm lips.
+
+"For the good of the Empire?" he murmured under his breath as he
+shrugged his broad shoulders and once more turned his attention to his
+duties.
+
+Hortensius in the meanwhile had spied some of his friends. Gorgeously
+embroidered tunics could now be seen all the time pushing their way
+through the more common crowd, and soon a compact group of rich
+patricians had congregated around the rostra.
+
+They had come one by one--from the baths mostly--refreshed and perfumed,
+ready to gaze with fashionable lack of interest on the spectacle of this
+public auction. They had exchanged greetings with the praefect and with
+Hortensius Martius. They all knew one another, were all members of the
+same caste, the ruling caste of Rome. Young Escanes was now there, he
+who wanted a cook, and Caius Nepos--the praetorian praefect who was in
+search of pretty waiting-maids.
+
+"Hast had speech with Anglicanus?" asked the latter in a whisper to
+Hortensius.
+
+"Aye! a few words," replied the other, "but he warned me of spies."
+
+"Will he join us, thinkest thou?"
+
+"I think that he will sup with thee, O Caius Nepos, but as to joining us
+in----"
+
+"Hush!" admonished the praetorian praefect, "Taurus Antinor is right.
+There are spies all around here to-day. But if he comes to supper we'll
+persuade him, never fear."
+
+And with a final significant nod the two men parted and once more mixed
+with the crowd.
+
+More than one high-born lady now had ordered her bearers to set her
+litter down close to the rostrum whence she could watch the sale, and
+mayhap make a bid for a purchase on her own account; the rich Roman
+matrons with large private fortunes and households of their own,
+imperious and independent, were the object of grave deference and of
+obsequious courtesy--not altogether unmixed with irony, on the part of
+the young men around them.
+
+They did not mix with the crowd but remained in their litters, reclining
+on silken cushions, their dark tunics and richly coloured stoles
+standing out in sombre notes against the more gaily-decked-out gilded
+youth of Rome, whilst their serious and oft-times stern manner, their
+measured and sober speech, seemed almost set in studied opposition to
+the idle chattering, the flippant tone, the bored affectation of the
+outwardly more robust sex.
+
+And among them all Taurus Antinor, praefect of Rome, with his ruddy hair
+and bronzed skin, his massive frame clad in gorgeously embroidered
+tunic, his whole appearance heavy and almost rough, in strange contrast
+alike to the young decadents of the day as to the rigid primness of the
+patrician matrons, just as his harsh, even voice seemed to dominate the
+lazy and mellow trebles of the votaries of fashion.
+
+
+The auctioneer had in the meanwhile cast a quick comprehensive glance
+over his wares, throwing an admonition here, a command there.
+
+"That yellow hair--let it hang, woman! do not touch it I say.... Slip
+that goatskin off thy loins, man ... By Jupiter 'tis the best of thee
+thou hidest.... Hold thy chin up girl, we'll have no doleful faces
+to-day."
+
+Sometimes his admonition required more vigorous argument. The praefect
+was appealed to against the recalcitrant. Then the harsh unimpassioned
+voice with its curious intonation in the pronouncing of the Latin
+words, would give a brief order and the lictor's flail would whizz in
+the air and descend with a short sharp whistling sound on obstinately
+bowed shoulder or unwilling hand, and the auctioneer would continue his
+perorations.
+
+"What will it please my lord's grace to buy this day? A skilled horseman
+from Dacia?... I have one.... A pearl.... He can mount an untamed steed
+and drive a chariot in treble harness through the narrowest streets of
+Rome.... He can ... What--no?--not a horseman to-day?... then mayhap a
+hunchback acrobat from Pannonia, bronzed as the tanned hide of an ox,
+with arms so long that his finger-nails will scrape the ground as he
+runs; he can turn a back somersault, walk the tight-rope, or ... Here,
+Pipus the hunchback, show thine ugly face to my lord's grace, maybe
+thou'lt help to dissipate the frown between my Lord's eyes, maybe my
+lord's grace will e'en smile at thine antics.... Turn then, show thy
+hump, 'tis worth five hundred sesterces, my lord ... turn again ... see
+my lord, is he not like an ape?"
+
+My lord was smiling, so the auctioneer prattled on, and the deformed
+creature upon the catasta wound his ill-shapen body into every kind of
+contortion, grinning from ear to ear, displaying the malformation of his
+spine, and the hideousness of his long hairy arms, whilst he uttered
+weird cries that were supposed to imitate those of wild animals in the
+forest.
+
+These antics caused my lord to smile outright. He was willing to expend
+two thousand sesterces in order to have such a creature about his house,
+to have him ready to call when his guests seemed dull between the
+courses of a sumptuous meal. The deal was soon concluded and the
+hunchback transferred from the platform to the keeping of my lord's
+slaves, and thence to my lord's household.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+"Fairer than the children of men."--PSALM XLV. 2.
+
+
+"Hun Rhavas, dost mind thy promise made to Menecreta?" whispered a timid
+voice in the African's ear.
+
+"Aye, aye!" he replied curtly, "I had not forgotten."
+
+There was a lull in the trade whilst the scribes were making entries on
+their tablets.
+
+The auctioneer had descended from the rostrum. Panting after his
+exertions, perspiring profusely under the heat of the noonday sun, he
+was wiping the moisture from his dripping forehead and incidentally
+refreshing his parched throat with copious drafts from out a leather
+bottle.
+
+His swarthy skin streaming with perspiration shone in the glare of the
+noonday sun like the bronze statue of mother-wolf up aloft.
+
+An elderly woman in rough linen tunic, her hair hidden beneath a simple
+cloth, had succeeded in engaging his attention.
+
+"It had been better to put the child up for sale an hour ago, whilst
+these rich folk were still at the bath," she said with a tone of
+reproach in her gentle voice.
+
+"It was not my fault," rejoined the African curtly, "she comes one of
+the last on the list. The praefect made out the lists. Thou shouldst
+have spoken to him."
+
+"Oh I should never dare," she replied, her voice trembling at the mere
+suggestion of such boldness, "but I did promise thee five aurei if I
+succeeded in purchasing the child."
+
+"I know that," quoth the African with a nod of satisfaction.
+
+"My own child, Hun Rhavas," continued the pleading voice; "think on it,
+for thou too hast children of thine own."
+
+"I purchased my son's freedom only last year," acquiesced the slave with
+a touch of pride. "Next year, an the gods will, it shall be my
+daughter's and after that mine own. In three years from now we shall all
+be free."
+
+"Thou art a man; 'tis more easy for thee to make money. It took me six
+years to save up twenty-five aurei which should purchase my child:
+twenty for her price, five for thy reward, for thou alone canst help me,
+an thou wilt."
+
+"Well, I've done all I could for thee, Menecreta," retorted Hun Rhavas
+somewhat impatiently. "I've taken the titulus from off her neck and set
+the hat over her head, and that was difficult enough for the praefect's
+eyes are very sharp. Ten aurei should be the highest bid for a maid
+without guarantees as to skill, health or condition. And as she is not
+over well-favoured----"
+
+But this the mother would not admit. In weary and querulous tones she
+began expatiating on the merits of her daughter: her fair hair, her
+graceful neck--until the African, bored and impatient, turned on her
+roughly.
+
+"Nay! an thy daughter hath so many perfections, thou'lt not purchase her
+for twenty aurei. Fifty and sixty will be bid for her, and what can I do
+then to help thee?"
+
+"Hun Rhavas," said Menecreta in a sudden spirit of conciliation, "thou
+must not heed a mother's fancies. To me the child is beautiful beyond
+compare. Are not thine own in thy sight beautiful as a midsummer's
+day?" she added with subtle hypocrisy, thinking of the ugly little
+Africans of whom Hun Rhavas was so proud.
+
+Her motherly heart was prepared for every sacrifice, every humiliation,
+so long as she obtained what she wanted--possession of her child.
+Arminius Quirinius had given her her freedom some three years ago, but
+this seeming act of grace had been a cruel one since it had parted the
+mother from her child. The late censor had deemed Menecreta old, feeble,
+and therefore useless: she was but a worthless mouth to feed; but he
+kept the girl not because she was well-favoured or very useful in his
+house, but because he knew that Menecreta would work her fingers to the
+bone until she saved enough money to purchase her daughter's freedom.
+
+Arminius Quirinius, ever grasping for money, ever ready for any act of
+cupidity or oppression, knew that from the mother he could extract a far
+higher sum than the girl could possibly fetch in the open market. He had
+fixed her price as fifty aurei, and Menecreta had saved just one half
+that amount when fate and the vengeance of the populace overtook the
+extortioner. All his slaves--save the most valuable--were thrown on the
+market, and the patient, hard-working mother saw the fulfilment of her
+hopes well within sight.
+
+It was but a question of gaining Hun Rhavas' ear and of tempting his
+greed. The girl, publicly offered under unfavourable conditions, and
+unbacked by the auctioneer's laudatory harangues, could easily be
+knocked down for twenty aurei or even less.
+
+But Menecreta's heart was torn with anxiety the while she watched the
+progress of the sale. Every one of these indifferent spectators might
+become an enemy through taking a passing fancy to her child. These
+young patricians, these stern matrons, they had neither remorse nor pity
+where the gratification of a whim was at stake.
+
+And was not the timid, fair-haired girl more beautiful in the mother's
+eyes than any other woman put up on the platform for the purpose of
+rousing a momentary caprice.
+
+She gazed with jealous eyes on the young idlers and the high-born
+ladies, the possible foes who yet might part her from the child. And
+there was the praefect too, all-powerful in the matter.
+
+If he saw through the machinations of Hun Rhavas nothing would save the
+girl from being put up like all the others as the law directed, with the
+proper tablet attached to her neck, describing her many charms. Taurus
+Antinor was not cruel but he was pitiless. The slaves of his household
+knew that, as did the criminals brought to his tribunal. He never
+inflicted unnecessary punishment but when it was deserved he was
+relentless in its execution.
+
+What hope could a poor mother have against the weight of his authority.
+
+Fortunately the morning was rapidly wearing on. The hour for the midday
+rest was close at hand. Menecreta could watch, with a glad thrill in her
+heart, one likely purchaser after another being borne in gorgeously
+draped litter away from this scene of a mother's cruel anxiety. Already
+the ladies had withdrawn. Now there was only a group of men left around
+the rostrum; Hortensius Martius still lounging aimlessly, young Escanes
+who had not yet found the paragon amongst cooks, and a few others who
+eyed the final proceedings with the fashionable expression of boredom.
+
+"I wonder we have not seen Dea Flavia this day," remarked Escanes to
+the praefect. "Dost think she'll come, Taurus Antinor?"
+
+"Nay, I know not," he replied; "truly she cannot be in need of slaves.
+She has more than she can know what to do with."
+
+"Oh!" rejoined the other, "of a truth she has slaves enough. But 'tis
+this new craze of hers! She seems to be in need of innumerable models
+for the works of art she hath on hand."
+
+"Nay, 'tis no new craze," interposed Hortensius Martius, whose fresh
+young face had flushed very suddenly as if in anger. "Dea Flavia, as
+thou knowest full well, Escanes, hath fashioned exquisite figures both
+in marble and in clay even whilst thou didst waste thy boyhood in
+drunken revelries. She----"
+
+"A truce on thine ill-temper," broke in Escanes with a good-humoured
+laugh. "I had no thought of disparagement for Dea Flavia's genius. The
+gods forbid!" he added with mock fervour.
+
+"Then dost deserve that I force thee down to thy knees," retorted
+Hortensius, not yet mollified, "to make public acknowledgment of Dea
+Flavia's beauty, her talents and her virtues, and public confession of
+thine own unworthiness in allowing her hallowed name to pass thy
+wine-sodden lips."
+
+Escanes uttered a cry of rage; in a moment these two--friends and boon
+companions--appeared as bitter enemies. Hortensius Martius, the perfumed
+exquisite, was now like an angry cockbird on the defence, whilst
+Escanes, taller and stronger than he, was clenching his fists, trying to
+keep up that outward semblance of patrician decorum which the dignity of
+his caste demanded in the presence of the plebs.
+
+Who knows how long this same semblance would have been kept up on this
+occasion? for Hortensius Martius, obviously a slave to Dea Flavia's
+beauty, was ready to do battle for the glorification of his idol, whilst
+Escanes, smarting under the clumsy insult, had much ado to keep his rage
+within bounds.
+
+"If you cut one another's throats now," interposed the praefect curtly,
+"'twill be in the presence of Dea Flavia herself."
+
+Even whilst he spoke a litter gorgeously carved and gilded, draped in
+rose pink and gold, was seen slowly winding its way from the rear of the
+basilica and along the Vicus Tuscus, towards the Forum. In a moment all
+eyes were turned in its direction; the two young men either forgot their
+quarrel or were ashamed to prolong it in the presence of its cause.
+
+Now the litter turned into the open. It was borne by eight gigantic
+Ethiopians whose mighty shoulders were bare to the sun, and all round
+and behind it a crowd of slaves, of clients, of sycophants followed in
+its trail, men running beside the litter, women shouting, children
+waving sprays of flowers and fans of feathers and palm leaves, whilst
+the air was filled with cries from innumerable throats:
+
+"Augusta! Augusta! Room for Dea Flavia Augusta."
+
+The retinue of Dea Flavia of the imperial house of the Caesars was the
+most numerous in Rome.
+
+At word of command no doubt the bearers put the litter down quite close
+to the rostrum even whilst four young girls stepped forward and drew the
+silken curtains aside.
+
+Dea Flavia was resting against the cushions; her tiny feet in shoes of
+gilded leather were stretched out on a coverlet of purple silk richly
+wrought with gold and silver threads. Her elbow was buried in the fleecy
+down of the cushions; her head rested against her hand.
+
+Dea Flavia, imperial daughter of Rome, what tongue of poet could
+describe thy beauty? what hand of artist paint its elusiveness?
+
+Have not the writers of the time told us all there was to tell? and
+exhausted language in their panegyrics: the fair hair like rippling
+gold, the eyes now blue, now green, always grey and mysterious, the
+delicate hands, the voluptuous throat, those tiny ears ever filled with
+flattery?
+
+But methinks that the carping critic was right when he deemed that the
+beauty of her face was marred by the scornful glance of the eyes and the
+ever rigid lines of the mouth. There was those who had dared aver that
+Dea Flavia's snow-white neck had been more beautiful if it had known how
+to bend, and that the glory of her eyes would be enhanced a thousandfold
+when once they learned how to weep.
+
+This, however, was only the opinion of very few, of those in fact who
+never had received the slightest favour from Dea Flavia; those on whom
+she smiled--with that proud, cold smile of hers--fell an over-ready
+victim to her charm. And she had smiled more than once on Hortensius
+Martius, and he, poor fool! had quickly lost his head.
+
+Now that she was present he soon forgot his quarrel; neither Escanes nor
+the rest of the world existed since Dea Flavia was nigh. He pushed his
+way through her crowd of courtiers and was the first to reach her litter
+even as she put her dainty feet to the ground.
+
+Escanes too and Caius Nepos, and Philippus Decius and the other young
+men there, forgot the excitement of the aborted quarrel and pressed
+forward to pay their respects to Dea Flavia.
+
+The aspect of her court was changed in a moment. Her lictors chased the
+importunate crowd away, making room for the masters of Rome who desired
+speech with their mistress. The rough and sombre garments of the slaves
+showed in the background now, and all round the litter tunics and
+mantles of fleecy wool gorgeously embroidered in crimson and gold, or
+stripes of purple, crowded in eager medley.
+
+All at once too the immediate neighbourhood of the rostrum was deserted,
+the human chattels forgotten in the anxious desire to catch sight of the
+great lady whom the Caesar himself had styled Augusta--thus exalting her
+above all women in Rome. Her boundless wealth and lavish expenditure, as
+well as her beauty and acknowledged virtue, had been the talk of the
+city ever since the death of her father, Octavius Claudius of the House
+of Augusta Caesar, had placed her under the immediate tutelage of the
+Caesar and left her--young and beautiful as she was--in possession of one
+of the largest fortunes in the Empire. No wonder then that whenever her
+rose-draped litter was perceived in the streets of Rome a crowd of
+idlers and of sycophants pressed around it, curious to see the queen of
+society and anxious to catch her ear.
+
+This same instant of momentary excitement became that of renewed hope
+for an anxious mother's heart. Menecreta, with the keenness of her
+ardent desire, had at once grasped her opportunity. Hun Rhavas
+fortunately glanced down in her direction. He too no doubt saw the
+possibilities of this moment of general confusion. The five aurei
+promised him by Menecreta sharpened his resourceful wits. He signalled
+to one of the lictors below--an accomplice too, I imagine, in this
+transaction--and whilst a chorus of obsequious greetings round Dea
+Flavia's litter filled the noonday air like the hum of bees, a
+pale-faced, delicate-looking girl was quickly pushed up on to the
+platform.
+
+Hun Rhavas very perfunctorily declaimed her age and status.
+
+"Of no known skill," he said, mumbling his words and talking very
+rapidly, "since my lord's grace the late censor had made no use of her.
+Shall we say ten aurei for the girl? she might be made to learn a
+trade."
+
+As the auctioneer started on his peroration those among the crowd who
+were here for business, and not for idle gaping, turned back towards the
+catasta. But the little maid who stood there so still, her hair entirely
+hidden by the ungainly hat, her head bent and her eyes downcast, did not
+seem very attractive; the lack of guarantee as to her skill and merits
+represented by the hat and the absence of the tablet round her neck
+caused the buyers to stand aloof.
+
+As if conscious of this, a deep blush suffused the girl's cheeks. Not
+that she was ashamed of her position or of her exposure before the
+public gaze, for to this ordeal her whole upbringing had tended. Born in
+slavery, she had always envisaged this possibility, and her present
+position caused her in itself neither pain nor humiliation.
+
+She knew that her mother was there in the crowd, ready for this
+opportunity; that the present state of discomfort, the past life of
+wretchedness would now inevitably be followed by a brighter future:
+reunion with her mother, a life of freedom, mayhap of happiness,
+marriage right out of the state of bondage, children born free!
+
+No! it was not the gaping crowd that mattered, the exposure on the
+public platform, the many pairs of indifferent eyes fixed none too
+kindly upon her: it was that hat upon her head which brought forth in
+her such a sense of shame that the hot blood rushed to her cheeks; that,
+and the absence of the tablet round her neck, and Hun Rhavas'
+disparaging words about her person.
+
+Others there had been earlier in the day--her former companions in
+Arminius' household--on whom the auctioneer had lavished torrents of
+eloquent praise, whom for the first bidding he had appraised at forty or
+even fifty aurei, the public being over willing to pay higher sums than
+those.
+
+Whilst here she stood shamed before them all, with no guarantee as to
+her skill and talents, though she knew something about the art of
+healing by rubbing unguents into the skin, could ply her needle and
+dress a lady's hair. Nor was a word said about her beauty, though her
+eyes were blue and her neck slender and white; and her hair, which was
+of a pretty shade of gold, could not even be seen under that hideous,
+unbecoming hat.
+
+"Ten aurei shall we say?" said Hun Rhavas with remarkable want of
+enthusiasm; "kind sirs, is there no one ready to say fifteen? The girl
+might be taught to sew or to trim a lady's nails. She may be unskilled
+now but she might learn--providing that her health be good," he added
+with studied indifference.
+
+The latter phrase proved a cunning one. The few likely buyers who had
+been attracted to the catasta by the youthful appearance of the
+girl--hoping to find willingness, even if skill were wanting--now
+quickly drew away.
+
+Of a truth there was no guarantee as to her health and a sick slave was
+a burden and a nuisance.
+
+"Ten aurei then," said Hun Rhavas raising the hammer, whilst with hungry
+eyes the mother watched his every movement.
+
+A few more seconds of this agonising suspense! Oh! ye gods, how this
+waiting hurts! She pressed her hands against her side where a terrible
+pain turned her nearly giddy.
+
+Only a second or two whilst the hammer was poised in mid air and Hun
+Rhavas' furtive glance darted on the praefect to see if he were still
+indifferent! Menecreta prayed with all her humble might to the proud
+gods enthroned upon the hill! she prayed that this cycle of agony might
+end at last for she could not endure it longer. She prayed that that
+cruel hammer might descend and her child be delivered over to her at
+last.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+"Hope deferred maketh the heart sick."--PROVERBS XIII. 12.
+
+
+Alas, the Roman gods are the gods of the patricians! They take so little
+heed of the sorrows and the trials of poor freedmen and slaves!
+
+"Who ordered the hat to be put on this girl's head?" suddenly interposed
+the harsh voice of the praefect.
+
+He had not moved away from the rostrum all the while that the throng of
+obsequious sycophants and idle lovesick youths had crowded round Dea
+Flavia. Now he spoke over his shoulder at Hun Rhavas, who had no
+thought, whilst his comfortable little plot was succeeding so well, that
+the praefect was paying heed.
+
+"She hath no guarantee, as my lord's grace himself hath knowledge," said
+the African with anxious humility.
+
+"Nay! thou liest as to my knowledge of it," said Taurus Antinor. "Where
+is the list of goods compiled by the censor?"
+
+Three pairs of willing hands were ready with the parchment rolls which
+the praefect had commanded; one was lucky enough to place them in his
+hands.
+
+"What is the girl's name?" he asked as his deep-set eyes, under their
+perpetual frown, ran down the minute writing on the parchment roll.
+
+"Nola, the daughter of Menecreta, my lord," said one of the scribes.
+
+"I do not see the name of Nola, daughter of Menecreta, amongst those
+whom the State doth not guarantee for skill, health or condition,"
+rejoined the praefect quietly, and his rough voice, scarcely raised
+above its ordinary pitch, seemed to ring a death-knell in poor
+Menecreta's heart.
+
+"Nola, the daughter of Menecreta," he continued, once more referring to
+the parchment in his hand, "is here described as sixteen years of age,
+of sound health and robust constitution, despite the spareness of her
+body. The censor who compiled this list states that she has a fair
+knowledge of the use of unguents and of herbs, that she can use a needle
+and plait a lady's hair. Thou didst know all this, Hun Rhavas, for the
+duplicate list is before thee even now."
+
+"My lord's grace," murmured Hun Rhavas, his voice quivering now, his
+limbs shaking with the fear in him, "I did not know--I----"
+
+"Thou didst endeavour to defraud the State for purposes of thine own,"
+interposed the praefect calmly. "Here! thou!" he added, beckoning to one
+of his lictors, "take this man to the Regia and hand him over to the
+chief warder."
+
+"My lord's grace----" cried Hun Rhavas.
+
+"Silence! To-morrow thou'lt appear before me in the basilica. Bring thy
+witnesses then if thou hast any to speak in thy defence. To-morrow thou
+canst plead before me any circumstance which might mitigate thy fault
+and stay my lips from condemning thee to that severe chastisement which
+crimes against the State deserve. In the meanwhile hold thy peace. I'll
+not hear another word."
+
+But it was not in the negro's blood to submit to immediate punishment
+now and certain chastisement in the future without vigorous
+protestations and the generous use of his powerful lungs. The praefect's
+sentences in the tribunal where he administered justice were not
+characterised by leniency; the galleys, the stone-quarries, aye! even
+the cross were all within the bounds of possibility, whilst the scourge
+was an absolute certainty.
+
+Hun Rhavas set up a succession of howls which echoed from temple to
+temple, from one end of the Forum to the other.
+
+The frown on the praefect's forehead became even more marked than
+before. He had seen the young idlers--who, but a moment ago, were
+fawning round Dea Flavia's litter--turning eagerly back towards the
+rostrum, where Hun Rhavas' cries and moans had suggested the likelihood
+of one of those spectacles of wanton and purposeless cruelty in which
+their perverted senses found such constant delight.
+
+But this spectacle Taurus Antinor was not like to give them. All he
+wanted was the quick restoration of peace and order. The fraudulent
+auctioneer was naught in his sight but a breaker of the law. As such he
+was deserving of such punishment as the law decreed and no more. But his
+howls just now were the means of rousing in the hearts of the crowd that
+most despicable of all passions to which the Roman--the master of
+civilisation--was a prey--the love of seeing some creature, man or
+beast, in pain, a passion which brought the Roman citizen down to the
+level of the brute: therefore Taurus Antinor wished above all to silence
+Hun Rhavas.
+
+"One more sound from thy throat and I'll have thee scourged now and
+branded ere thy trial," he said.
+
+The threat was sufficient. The negro, feeling that in submission lay his
+chief hope of mercy on the morrow, allowed himself to be led away
+quietly whilst the young patricians--cheated of an anticipated
+pleasure--protested audibly.
+
+"And thou, Cheiron," continued the praefect, addressing a fair-skinned
+slave up on the rostrum who had been assistant hitherto in the auction,
+"do thou take the place vacated by Hun Rhavas."
+
+He gave a few quick words of command to the lictors.
+
+"Take the hat from off that girl's head," he said, "and put the
+inscribed tablet round her neck. Then she can be set up for sale as the
+State hath decreed."
+
+As if moved by clockwork one of the lictors approached the girl and
+removed the unbecoming hat from her head, releasing a living stream of
+gold which, as it rippled over the girl's shoulders, roused a quick cry
+of admiration in the crowd.
+
+In a moment Menecreta realised that her last hope must yield to the
+inevitable now. Even whilst her accomplice, Hun Rhavas, received the
+full brunt of the praefect's wrath she had scarcely dared to breathe,
+scarcely felt that she lived in this agony of fear. Her child still
+stood there on the platform, disfigured by the ugly headgear, obviously
+most unattractive to the crowd; nor did the awful possibility at first
+present itself to her mind that all her schemes for obtaining possession
+of her daughter could come to naught. It was so awful, so impossible of
+conception that the child should here, to-day, pass out of the mother's
+life for ever and without hope of redemption; that she should become the
+property of a total stranger who might for ever refuse to part from her
+again--an agriculturist, mayhap, who lived far off in Ethuria or
+Macedon--and that she, the mother, could never, never, hope to see her
+daughter again--that was a thought which was so horrible that its very
+horror seemed to render its realisation impossible.
+
+But now the praefect, with that harsh, pitiless voice of his, was
+actually ordering the girl to be sold in the usual way, with all her
+merits exhibited to the likely purchaser: her golden hair--a perfect
+glory--to tempt the artistic eye, her skill recounted in fulsomeness,
+her cleverness with the needle, her knowledge of healing herbs.
+
+The mother suddenly felt that every one in that cruel gaping crowd must
+be pining to possess such a treasure, that the combined wealth of every
+citizen of Rome would be lavished in this endeavour to obtain the great
+prize. The praefect himself, mayhap, would bid for her, or the
+imperator's agents!--alas! everything seemed possible to the anxious,
+the ridiculous, the sublime heart of the doting mother, and when that
+living mass of golden ripples glimmered in the noonday sun,
+Menecreta--forgetting her timidity, her fears, her weakness--pushed her
+way through the crowd with all the strength of her despair, and with a
+cry of agonised entreaty, threw herself at the feet of the praefect of
+Rome.
+
+"My lord's grace, have mercy! have pity! I entreat thee! In the name of
+the gods, of thy mother, of thy child if thou hast one, have pity on me!
+have pity! have pity!"
+
+The lictors had sprung forward in a moment and tried to seize the woman
+who had dared to push her way to the praefect's closely guarded
+presence, and was crouching there, her arms encircling his thighs, her
+face pressed close against his knees. One of the men raised his flail
+and brought it down with cruel strength on her thinly covered shoulders,
+but she did not heed the blow, mayhap she never felt it.
+
+"Who ordered thee to strike?" said Taurus Antinor sternly to the lictor
+who already had the flail raised for the second time.
+
+"The woman doth molest my lord's grace," protested the man.
+
+"Have I said so?"
+
+"No, my lord--but I thought to do my duty----"
+
+"That thought will cost thee ten such lashes with the rods as thou didst
+deal this woman. By Jupiter!" he added roughly, whilst for the first
+time a look of ferocity as that of an angry beast lit up the
+impassiveness of his deep-set eyes, "if this turmoil continues I'll
+have every slave here flogged till he bleed. Is the business of the
+State to be hindered by the howlings of this miserable rabble? Get thee
+gone, woman," he cried finally, looking down on prostrate Menecreta,
+"get thee gone ere my lictors do thee further harm."
+
+But she, with the obstinacy of a great sorrow, clung to his knees and
+would not move.
+
+"My lord's grace, have pity--'tis my child; an thou takest her from me
+thou'lt part those whom the gods themselves have united--'tis my child,
+my lord! hast no children of thine own?"
+
+"What dost prate about?" he asked, still speaking roughly for he was
+wroth with her and hated to see the gaping crowd of young, empty-headed
+fools congregating round him and this persistent suppliant hanging round
+his shins. "Thy child? who's thy child? And what hath thy child to do
+with me?"
+
+"She is but a babe, my lord," said Menecreta with timid, tender voice;
+"her age only sixteen. A hand-maiden she was to Arminius Quirinius, who
+gave the miserable mother her freedom but kept the daughter so that he
+might win good money by and by through the selling of the child. My
+lord's grace, I have toiled for six years that in the end I might buy my
+daughter's freedom. Fifty aurei did Arminius Quirinius demand as her
+price and I worked my fingers to the bone so that in time I might save
+that money. But Arminius Quirinius is dead and I have only twenty aurei.
+With the hat of disgrace on her head the child could have been knocked
+down to me--but now! now! look at her, my lord, how beautiful she is!
+and I have only twenty aurei!"
+
+Taurus Antinor had listened quite patiently to Menecreta's tale. His
+sun-tanned face clearly showed how hard he was trying to gather up the
+tangled threads of her scrappy narrative. Nor did the lictors this time
+try to interfere with the woman. The praefect apparently was in no easy
+temper to-day, and when ill-humour seized him rods and flails were kept
+busy.
+
+"And why didst not petition me before?" he asked, after a while, when
+Menecreta paused in order to draw breath.
+
+And his face looked so fierce, his voice sounded so rough, no wonder the
+poor woman trembled as she whispered through her tears:
+
+"I did not dare, my lord--I did not dare."
+
+"Yet thou didst dare openly to outrage the law!"
+
+"I wanted my child."
+
+"And how many aurei didst promise to Hun Rhavas for helping thee to
+defraud the State?"
+
+"Only five, my lord," she murmured.
+
+"Then," he said sternly, "not only didst thou conspire to cheat the
+State for whose benefit the sale of the late censor's goods was ordered
+by imperial decree, but thou didst bribe another--a slave of the
+treasury--to aid and abet thee in this fraud."
+
+Menecreta's grasp round the praefect's knees did not relax and he made
+no movement to free himself, but her head fell sideways against her
+shoulder whilst her lips murmured in tones of utter despair:
+
+"I wanted my child."
+
+"For thy delinquencies," resumed the praefect, seemingly not heeding the
+pathetic appeal, "thou shalt appear before my tribunal on the morrow
+like unto Hun Rhavas thine accomplice, and thou shalt then be punished
+no less than thou deservest. But this is no place for the delivery of my
+judgment upon thee, and the sale must proceed as the law directs; thy
+daughter must stand upon the catasta, thou canst renew thy bid of
+twenty aurei for her, and," he added with unmistakable significance, as
+throwing his head back his imperious glance swept over the assembled
+crowd, "as there will be no higher bid for Nola, daughter of Menecreta,
+she will become thy property as by law decreed."
+
+The true meaning of this last sentence was quite unmistakable. The crowd
+who had gathered round the rostrum to watch, gaping, the moving
+incident, looked on the praefect and understood no one was to bid for
+Nola, the daughter of Menecreta. Taurus Antinor, surnamed Anglicanus,
+had spoken and it would not be to anyone's advantage to quarrel with his
+arbitrary pronouncement for the sake of any slave girl, however
+desirable she might be. It was not pleasant to encounter the wrath of
+the praefect of Rome nor safe to rouse his enmity.
+
+So the crowd acquiesced silently, not only because it feared the
+praefect, but also because Menecreta's sorrow, the call of the
+despairing mother, the sad tragedy of this little domestic episode had
+not left untouched the hearts of these Roman citizens. In matters of
+sentiment they were not cruel and they held family ties in great esteem;
+both these factors went far towards causing any would-be purchaser to
+obey Taurus Antinor's commands and to retire at once from the bidding.
+
+As for Menecreta, it seemed to her as if the heavens had opened before
+her delighted gaze. From the depths of despair she had suddenly been
+dragged forth into the blinding daylight of hope. She could scarcely
+believe that her ears had heard rightly the words of the praefect.
+
+Still clinging to his knees she raised her head to him; her eyes still
+dimmed with tears looked strangely wondering up at his face whilst her
+lips murmured faintly:
+
+"Art thou a god, that thou shouldst act like this?"
+
+But obviously the small stock of patience possessed by the praefect was
+now exhausted, for he pushed the woman roughly away from him.
+
+"A truce on thy ravings now, woman. The midday hour is almost on us. I
+have no further time to waste on thine affairs. Put the girl up on the
+catasta," he added, speaking in his usual harsh, curt way, "and take
+this woman's arms from round my shins."
+
+And it was characteristic of him that this time he did not interfere
+with his lictors when they handled the woman with their accustomed
+roughness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+"Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after
+many days."--ECCLESIASTES XI. 1.
+
+
+The fair-skinned Cheiron up on the rostrum now took over the duties of
+the disgraced Hun Rhavas.
+
+The interlude had caused the crowd to linger on despite the approach of
+noonday, an hour always devoted, almost sacred, to rest. But now that
+decorum was once more restored and the work of the sale could be
+proceeded with in the methodical manner approved by the praefect,
+interest began to flag.
+
+The crowd seemed inclined to wait just a brief while longer in order to
+see Nola put up on the catasta and to hear the bid of twenty aurei made
+for her by her mother--a bid which, at the praefect's commands, was to
+be final and undisputed. Just to see the hammer come clashing down as an
+epilogue to the palpitating drama was perhaps worth waiting for. The
+human goods still left for sale after that would have to be held over
+for a more favourable opportunity.
+
+The praefect was preparing to leave.
+
+Up on the platform Nola, the daughter of Menecreta, smiled at the world
+through a few lingering tears. She was very happy now that her golden
+hair was allowed to stream down her shoulders, and that it was only
+because the praefect had so ordered it that the low price of twenty
+aurei would be accepted for her.
+
+"Nola, daughter of Menecreta," shouted Cheiron, the new auctioneer,
+"aged sixteen years, skilled in the art of healing, and the knowledge of
+unguents and herbs. Her health is good, her teeth perfect, and her eyes
+keen for threading the finest needle. Shall we say fifteen aurei for the
+girl?"
+
+He recited his peroration quickly and perfunctorily, like one repeating
+a lesson, learned from the praefect.
+
+"I'll give twenty," rang out Menecreta's voice, clearly and loudly. She,
+too, had learned her lesson, and learned it well, whilst gratitude and
+an infinity of joy gave her strength to overcome her natural timidity.
+
+"Twenty aurei! twenty aurei! will no one bid more for Nola, the daughter
+of Menecreta," shouted the auctioneer, hammer in hand, ready to bring it
+down since no more bidding would be allowed for this piece of goods.
+"Twenty aurei! no one bids more--no one--no----"
+
+"I'll give thirty aurei!"
+
+It was a pure, young voice that spoke, the voice of a young girl, mellow
+and soft-toned as those of a pigeon when it cooes to its mate; but firm
+withal, direct and clear, the voice of one accustomed to command and
+even more accustomed to be obeyed.
+
+The sound rang from temple to temple right across the Forum, and was
+followed by silence--the dead silence which falls upon a multitude when
+every heart stops beating and every breath is indrawn.
+
+Cheiron paused, hammer in hand, his lips parted for the very words which
+he was about to utter, his round open eyes wandering irresolutely from
+the praefect's face to that of the speaker with the melodious voice.
+
+And on the hot noonday air there trembled a long sigh of pain, like the
+breaking of a human heart.
+
+But the same voice, soft and low, was heard again:
+
+"The girl pleases me! What say you, my lord Escanes, is not that hair
+worthy to be immortalised by a painter's hand?"
+
+And preceded by her lictors, who made a way for her through the crowd,
+Dea Flavia advanced even to the foot of the catasta. And as she
+advanced, those who were near retreated to a respectful distance, making
+a circle round her and leaving her isolated, with her tall Ethiopian
+slaves behind her holding broad leaves of palm above her head to shield
+her from the sun. Thus was the gold of her hair left in shadow, and the
+white skin of her face appeared soft and cool, but the sun played with
+the shimmering folds of her white silk tunic and glinted against the
+gems on her fingers.
+
+Tall, imperious and majestic, Dea Flavia--unconscious alike of the
+deference of the crowd and the timorous astonishment of the
+slaves--looked up at Cheiron, the auctioneer, and resumed with a touch
+of impatience in her rich young voice:
+
+"I said that I would bid thirty aurei for this girl!"
+
+Less than a minute had elapsed since Dea Flavia's sudden appearance on
+the scene. Taurus Antinor had as yet made no movement or given any sign
+to Cheiron as to what he should do; but those who watched him with
+anxious interest could see the dark frown on his brow grow darker still
+and darker, until his whole face seemed almost distorted with an
+expression of passionate wrath.
+
+Menecreta, paralysed by this sudden and final shattering of her every
+hope, uttered moan after moan of pain, and as the pitiful sounds reached
+the praefect's ears, a smothered oath escaped his tightly clenched
+teeth. Like some gigantic beast roused from noonday sleep, he
+straightened his massive frame and seemed suddenly to shake himself
+free from that state of torpor into which Dea Flavia's unexpected
+appearance had at first thrown him. He too, advanced to the foot of the
+catasta and there faced the imperious beauty, whom the whole city had,
+for the past two years, tacitly agreed to obey in all things.
+
+"The State," he said, speaking at least as haughtily as Dea Flavia
+herself, "hath agreed to accept the sum of twenty aurei for this slave.
+'Tis too late now to make further bids for her."
+
+But a pair of large blue eyes, cold as the waters of the Tiber and like
+unto them mysterious and elusive, were turned fully on the speaker.
+
+"Too late didst thou say, oh Taurus Antinor?" said Dea Flavia raising
+her pencilled eyebrows with a slight expression of scorn, "nay! I had
+not seen the hammer descend! The girl until then is not sold, and open
+to the highest bidder. Or am I wrong, O praefect, in thus interpreting
+the laws of Rome?"
+
+"This is an exceptional case, Augusta," he retorted curtly.
+
+"Then wilt thou expound to me that law which deals with such exceptional
+cases?" she rejoined with the same ill-concealed tone of gentle irony.
+"I had never heard of it; so I pray thee enlighten mine ignorance. Of a
+truth thou must know the law, since thou didst swear before the altar of
+the gods to uphold it with all thy might."
+
+"'Tis not a case of law, Augusta, but one of pity."
+
+The praefect, feeling no doubt the weakness of any argument which aimed
+at coercing this daughter of the Caesars, prompted too by his innate
+respect of the law which he administered, thought it best to retreat
+from his position of haughty arrogance and to make an appeal, since
+obviously he could not command. Dea Flavia was quick to note this
+change of attitude, and her delicate lips parted in a contemptuous
+smile.
+
+"Dost administer pity as well as law, O Taurus Antinor?" she asked
+coldly.
+
+Then, as if further argument from him were of no interest to her, she
+once more turned to the auctioneer, and said with marked impatience:
+
+"I have bid thirty aurei for this girl; art set there slave, to gape at
+the praefect, or to do thy duty to the State that employs thee? Is there
+a higher bid for the maid? She pleaseth me, and I'll give sixty or an
+hundred for her. This is a public auction as by law directed. I appeal
+to thee, oh Taurus Antinor, to give orders to thy slaves, ere I appeal
+to my kinsman, the Emperor, for the restoration of a due administration
+of the law."
+
+Those who had cause to know and to fear the praefect's varying moods,
+were ready to shrink away now from the threatening darkness of his
+glance. He seemed indeed like some tawny wild beast, chained and
+scorned, whom a child was teasing from a point of vantage just beyond
+the reach of his powerful jaws.
+
+She was so well within her rights and he so absolutely in the wrong as
+far as the law was concerned, that he knew at once that he must
+inevitably give way. If Dea Flavia chose to desire a slave she could
+satisfy the caprice, since no man's fortune could hold out against her
+own. This too did the praefect know. He himself was passing rich and
+would gladly have paid a large sum now, that he might prove the victor
+in this unequal contest but Dea Flavia had the law and boundless wealth
+on her side. Taurus Antinor had only his personal authority which had
+coerced the crowd, but was of no avail against this beautiful woman who
+defied him openly before the plebs and before his slaves.
+
+"Have no fear, O Dea Flavia," he said, trying to speak calmly, but his
+voice trembling with the mighty effort at control, "justice hath never
+yet suffered at my hands. I told thee that 'tis not a case of law here
+but one of mercy. This girl's mother has toiled for years to save enough
+money with which to buy the freedom of her child. She hath twenty aurei
+to command, and the girl is not worth much more than that. The State
+would have been satisfied, for my own purse would have made up the
+deficiency. I had bought the girl myself and given her to the mother,
+but the poor wretch was so proud and happy to buy her child's freedom
+herself, that I allowed her to make the bid. That is this slave-girl's
+story, Augusta! Thou seest that the law will not suffer, neither shall
+the State be defrauded. What thou art prepared to give for the girl that
+will I make good in the coffers of the State. Art satisfied, I hope!
+Thou art a woman, and canst mayhap better understand than I did at first
+when Menecreta threw herself at my knees."
+
+His rugged voice softened considerably whilst he spoke, and those who
+were watching him so anxiously saw the ugly dark frown gradually lighten
+on his brow. No wonder! since he was just a man face to face with an
+exceptionally beautiful woman, to whose pity he was endeavouring to make
+appeal. At all times an easy and a pleasant task, it must have been
+doubly so now when the object of mercy was so deserving. Taurus Antinor
+looked straight into the lovely face before him, marvelling when those
+exquisite blue eyes would soften with their first look of pity. But they
+remained serene and mysterious, neither avoiding his gaze nor responding
+to its appeal. The delicately chiselled lips retained their slight curve
+of scorn.
+
+He gave a sign to Menecreta, and she approached, tottering like one who
+is drunken with wine, or who has received a heavy blow on the head. She
+stood before Dea Flavia, with head trembling like poplar leaves and
+great hollow eyes fixed in meaningless vacancy upon the great patrician
+lady.
+
+"This is Menecreta, O Dea Flavia," concluded the praefect; "wilt allow
+her to plead her own cause?"
+
+Without replying directly to him, Dea Flavia turned for the first time
+to the slave-girl on the platform.
+
+"Is this thy mother?" she asked.
+
+"Yes!" murmured the girl.
+
+"Hast a wish that she should buy thy freedom?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"That thou shouldst go with her to the hovel which is her home, the only
+home that thou wouldst ever know? Hast a wish to become the slave of
+that old woman, whose mind hath already gone wandering among the
+shadows, and whose body will very shortly go in search of her mind? Hast
+a wish to spend the rest of thy days scrubbing floors and stewing onions
+in an iron pot? Or is thy wish to dwell in the marble halls of Dea
+Flavia's house, where the air is filled with the perfume of roses and
+violets and tame songbirds make their nests in the oleander bushes?
+Wouldst like to recline on soft downy cushions, allowing thy golden hair
+to fall over thy shoulders the while I, mallet or chisel in hand, would
+make thy face immortal by carving it in marble? The praefect saith thine
+is a case for pity, then do I have pity upon thee, and give thee the
+choice of what thy life shall be. Squalor and misery as thy mother's
+slave, or joy, music, and flowers as mine."
+
+Her voice, ever low and musical, had taken on notes of tenderness and of
+languor. The tears of pity which the praefect had vainly tried to
+conjure up gathered now in her eyes as her whole mood seemed to melt in
+the fire of her own eloquence.
+
+Nola hung her head, overwhelmed with shame. She was very young and the
+great lady very kind and gentle. Her own simple heart, still filled with
+the selfish desires of extreme youth, cried out for that same life of
+ease and luxury which the beautiful lady depicted in such tempting
+colours before her, whilst it shrank instinctively from the poverty, the
+hard floors, the stewing-pots which awaited her in that squalid hut on
+the Aventine where her mother dwelt.
+
+She hung her head and made no reply, whilst from the group of the young
+and idle sycophants who had hung on Dea Flavia's honeyed words just as
+they had done round her litter a while ago, came murmurs of extravagant
+adulation and well-chosen words in praise of her exquisite diction, her
+marvellous pity, her every talent and virtue thus freely displayed.
+
+Even the crowd stared open-mouthed and agape at this wonderful spectacle
+of so great a lady stooping to parley with a slave.
+
+The praefect alone remained seemingly unmoved; but the expression of
+hidden wrath had once more crept into his eyes, making them look dark
+and fierce and glowing with savage impotence; and his gaze had remained
+fixed on the radiantly beautiful woman who stood there before him in all
+the glory of her high descent, her patrician bearing, the exquisite
+charm of her personality, seductive in its haughty aloofness, voluptuous
+even in its disdainful calm.
+
+Neither did Menecreta fall a victim to Dea Flavia's melodious voice. She
+had listened from a respectful distance, and with the humble deference
+born of years of bondage, to the honeyed words with which the great
+lady deigned to cajole a girl-slave: but when Dea Flavia had finished
+speaking and the chorus of admiration had died down around her, the
+freedwoman, with steps which she vainly tried to render firm, approached
+to the foot of the catasta and stood between the great lady and her own
+child.
+
+She placed one trembling, toil-worn hand on Nola's shoulder and said
+gently:
+
+"Nola, thou hast heard what my lady's grace hath deigned to speak. A
+humble life but yet a free one awaits thee in thy mother's home on the
+Aventine; a life of luxurious slavery doth my lady's grace offer thee.
+She deigns to say that thou alone shalt choose thy way in life. Thou
+wast born a slave, Nola, and shouldst know how to obey. Obey my lady
+then. Choose thy future, Nola. The humble and free one which I, thy
+mother, have earned for thee, or the golden cage in which this proud
+lady would deign to keep her latest whim in bondage!"
+
+Her voice, which at first had been almost steady, died down at the end
+in a pitiful quiver. It was the last agony of her hopes, the real
+parting from her child, for even whilst Menecreta's throat was choked
+with sobs, Nola hung her head and great heavy tears dropped from her
+eyes upon her clasped hands. The child was crying and the mother
+understood.
+
+She no longer moaned with pain now. The pain was gone; only dull despair
+remained. Her heart had hungered for the one glad cry of joy: "Mother,
+I'll come to thee!" It was left starving even through her daughter's
+tears.
+
+But those who watched this unwonted scene could not guess what Dea
+Flavia felt, for her eyes were veiled by her long lashes, and the mouth
+expressed neither triumph nor pity. Menecreta now once more tried to
+steady her quivering voice; she straightened her weary back and said
+quite calmly:
+
+"My lady's grace has spoken, and the great lords here assembled have
+uttered words of praise for an exquisite act of pity. My lady's grace
+hath spoken and hath told the poor slave, Nola, to choose her own life.
+But I, the humble freedwoman, will speak in my turn to thee, O Dea
+Flavia of the imperial house of immortal Caesar, and looking into thine
+eyes I tell thee that thy pity is but falsehood and thine eloquence
+naught but cruelty. By thy words thou didst take my child from me as
+effectually as if thou already hadst bought and paid for her. Look at
+the child now! She hangs her head and dares not look on me, her mother.
+Oh! thou didst well choose thy words, oh daughter of imperial Caesar, for
+thy honeyed words were like the nectar which hid the poison that hath
+filtrated into my daughter's heart. Thou hast said it right--her life
+with me had been one of toil and mayhap of misery, but she would have
+been content, for she had never dreamed of another life. But now she has
+heard thee speak of marble halls, of music and of flowers, of a life of
+ease and of vanity, and never again would that child be happy in her
+mother's arms. Be content, O Augusta! the girl is thine since thy
+caprice hath willed it so. Even though she chose her mother now, I would
+not have her, for I know that she would be unhappy in that lonely hut on
+the Aventine; and though I have seen much sorrow and endured much
+misery, there is none greater to bear than the sight of a child's
+sorrow. Take her, Dea Flavia! thine eloquence has triumphed over a
+mother's broken heart."
+
+Strangely enough, and to the astonishment of all those present, Dea
+Flavia had listened patiently and silently whilst the woman spoke, and
+now she said quite gently:
+
+"Nay! thou dost wrong thine own child, Menecreta; see how lovingly she
+turns to thee!"
+
+"Only because in her shallow little heart there has come the first
+twinge of remorse," replied the woman sadly. "Soon, in the lap of that
+luxury which thou dost offer her, she will have forgotten the mother's
+arms in which she weeps to-day."
+
+"That's enough," suddenly interposed the praefect harshly. "Menecreta,
+take thy child; take her, I say. Dea Flavia hath relinquished her to
+thee. Be not a fool and take the child away!"
+
+But with a gesture of savage pride the freedwoman tore herself away from
+Nola.
+
+"No!" she said firmly, "I'll not take her. That proud lady here hath
+stolen the soul of my child; her body, inert and sad, I'll not have the
+while her heart longs to be away from me. I'll not have her, I say! let
+the daughter of Caesar account to the gods above for her tempting words,
+her honeyed speech and her lies."
+
+"Silence, woman!" ordered Dea Flavia sternly.
+
+"Lies, I tell thee, lies," continued the woman who had lost all sense of
+fear in the depth of her misery; "the life of luxury thou dost promise
+this child--how long will it last? thy caprice for her--when will it
+tire? Silence? nay! I'll not be silent," she continued wildly in defiant
+answer to angry murmurs from the crowd. "Thou daughter of a house of
+tyrants, tyrant thyself! a slave to thy paltry whims, crushing beneath
+thy sandalled feet the hearts of the poor and the cries of the
+oppressed! Shame on thee! shame on thee, I say!"
+
+"By the great Mother," said Dea Flavia coldly, "will no one here rid me
+of this screaming vixen?"
+
+But even before she had spoken, the angry murmurs around had swollen to
+loud protestations. Before the praefect's lictors could intervene the
+crowd had pushed forward; the men rushed and surrounded the impious
+creature who had dared to raise her voice against one of the divinities
+of Rome: Augusta the goddess.
+
+One of Dea Flavia's gigantic Ethiopians had seized Menecreta by the
+shoulder, another pulled her head back by the hair and struck her
+roughly on the mouth, but she, with the strength of the vanquished,
+brought down to her knees, frenzied with despair, continued her agonised
+cry:
+
+"A curse upon thee, Dea Flavia, a curse spoken by the dying lips of the
+mother whom thou hast scorned!"
+
+How she contrived momentarily to free herself from the angry crowd of
+lictors and of slaves it were impossible to say; perhaps at this moment
+something in Menecreta's wild ravings had awed their spirit and
+paralysed their hands. Certain it is that for one moment the freedwoman
+managed to struggle to her feet and to drag herself along on her knees
+until her hands clutched convulsively the embroidered tunic of Dea
+Flavia.
+
+"And this is the curse which I pronounce on thee," she murmured in a
+hoarse whisper, which, rising and rising to higher tones, finally ended
+in shrieks which reached to the outermost precincts of the Forum. "Dea
+Flavia, daughter of Octavius Claudius thou art accursed. May thine every
+deed of mercy be turned to sorrow and to humiliation, thine every act of
+pity prove a curse to him who receives it, until thou on thy knees, art
+left to sue for pity to a heart that knoweth it not and findest a deaf
+ear turned to thy cry. Hear me, ye gods--hear me!... Magna Mater, hear
+me!... Mother of the stars--hear me!"
+
+Superstition, deeply rooted in every Roman heart, held the crowd
+enthralled even whilst Menecreta's trembling voice echoed against the
+marble walls of the temples of the gods whom she invoked. No one
+attempted to stop her. Dea Flavia's slaves dared not lay a hand on her.
+It seemed as if Magna Mater herself, the great Mother, had thrown an
+invisible mantle over the humble freedwoman, shielding her with god-like
+power.
+
+"Menecreta, raise thyself and come away," said a harsh voice in tones of
+command. The praefect had at last with the vigorous help of his lictors
+managed to push his way through the crowd. It was he now who attempted
+to raise the woman from her knees. He sharply bade his own men to
+silence the woman and to take her away.
+
+Dea Flavia had remained silent and still. She had not attempted to
+interrupt the frenzied woman who called this awful curse upon her; only
+once, when Menecreta invoked the gods, did a shudder pass through the
+delicate body, and her heavy lids fell over her blue eyes, as if they
+were trying to shut out some awful vision which the woman's ravings had
+conjured up.
+
+Then in a sudden her mood seemed to change, her serenity returned, and
+when the praefect interposed she put out a restraining hand, warning the
+lictors not to approach.
+
+She bent to Menecreta and called her by name, her mellow voice vibrating
+with tender tones like the chords of the harp that are touched by a
+master hand, and her blue eyes, veiled with tears, looked down with
+infinite tenderness on the prostrate figure at her feet.
+
+"Menecreta," she said gently, "thy sorrow hath made thee harsh. The
+gods, believe me, still hold much happiness in store for thee and for
+thy daughter. See how they refuse to register thy curse which had been
+impious were it not the dictate of thy poor frenzied mind. See,
+Menecreta, how thou didst misjudge me; what I did, I did because I
+wished to test thy love for thy child. I wished to test its true
+selflessness. But now I am satisfied and Nola need no longer choose, for
+she shall have the luxury for which her young heart doth pine, but she
+shall never by me be deprived of her mother's love."
+
+Even while she spoke, Menecreta struggled to her knees. Her wide-open
+eyes, over which a mysterious veil seemed to be slowly descending, were
+fixed on the radiant vision above her. But comprehension had not yet
+reached her mind. Her spirit had not yet been dragged from the hell of
+despair to this glorious sight of heaven.
+
+"Menecreta," continued the gentle voice, "thou shalt come to my house. A
+free woman, thou shalt be my friend and thy daughter shall be thy happy
+bondswoman. I'll give thee a little home in which thou shalt dwell with
+her and draw thy last breath in her arms; there shall be a garden there
+which she will plant with roses. Thy days and hers will be one
+continuous joy. Come to me now, Menecreta! Take thy daughter by the hand
+and come and dwell with her in the little house which my slaves shall
+prepare for thee."
+
+Her face now was almost on a level with that of Menecreta, whose hollow
+eyes gazed upwards with a look of ecstatic wonder.
+
+"Who art thou?" murmured the freedwoman; "there is a film over my
+eyes--I cannot see--art thou a goddess?"
+
+"Nay!" replied Dea Flavia gently, "only a lonely maiden who has no
+friends e'en in the midst of all her riches. A lonely maid whom thou
+didst try to curse, asking the gods that her every act of mercy be
+turned to bitter sorrow. See, she takes thee to her heart and gives
+thee back thy daughter, a home and happiness."
+
+"My daughter?" murmured Menecreta.
+
+"She shall dwell with thee in the house which shall be thine."
+
+"A home?" and the trembling voice grew weaker, the hollow eyes more dim.
+
+"Aye! in the midst of a garden, with roses and violets all around."
+
+"And happiness?" sighed Menecreta.
+
+And her head fell back against Dea Flavia's arm; her eyes, now veiled by
+the film of death gazed, sightless, up at the dome of blue.
+
+"Menecreta!" cried Dea Flavia, horror-stricken as she felt the feeble
+body stiffening against her with the approaching rigidity of death.
+
+"Mother!" echoed Nola, striving to smother her terror as she threw
+herself on her knees.
+
+"The woman is dead," said the praefect quietly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and
+the last."--REVELATIONS XXII. 13.
+
+
+And after that silence and peace.
+
+Silence save for the moanings of the child Nola, who in a passionate
+outburst of grief had thrown herself on the body of her mother.
+
+Dea Flavia stood there still and calm, her young face scarce less white
+than the clinging folds of her tunic, her unfathomable eyes fixed upon
+the pathetic group at her feet: the weeping girl and the dead woman.
+
+She seemed almost dazed--like one who does not understand and a quaint
+puzzled frown appeared upon the whiteness of her brow.
+
+Once she raised her eyes to the praefect and encountered his
+gaze--strangely contemptuous and wrathful--fixed upon her own, and anon
+she shuddered when a pitiable moan from Nola echoed from end to end
+along the marble walls around.
+
+And the crowd of idlers began slowly to disperse. In groups of twos and
+threes they went, their sandalled feet making a soft rustling noise
+against the flagstones of the Forum, and their cloaks of thin woollen
+stuff floating out behind them as they walked.
+
+The young patricians were the first to go. The scene had ceased to be
+amusing and Dea Flavia was not like to bestow another smile. They
+thought it best to retire to their luxurious homes, for they vaguely
+resented the majesty of death which clung round the dead freedwoman and
+the young living slave. They hoped to forget in the course of the
+noonday sleep, and the subsequent delights of the table, the painful
+events which had so unpleasantly stirred their shallow hearts.
+
+Dea Flavia paid no heed to them as they murmured words of leave-taking
+in her ear. 'Tis doubtful if she saw one of them or cared if they went
+or stayed.
+
+At an order from the praefect the auction sale was abruptly suspended.
+The lictors drove the herds of human cattle together preparatory to
+taking them to their quarters on the slopes of the Aventine where they
+would remain until the morrow; whilst the scribes and auctioneers made
+haste to scramble down from the heights of the rostrum, the heat of the
+day having rendered that elevated position well-nigh unbearable. Only
+Dea Flavia's retinue lingered in the Forum. Standing at a respectful
+distance they surrounded the gorgeously draped litter, waiting, silently
+and timorous, the further pleasure of their mistress; and behind Dea
+Flavia her two Ethiopian slaves, stolidly holding the palm leaves to
+shield her head against the blazing sun which so mercilessly seared
+their own naked shoulders.
+
+"Grant me leave to escort thee to thy litter, Augusta!" murmured a timid
+voice.
+
+It was young Hortensius Martius who spoke. He had approached the catasta
+and now stood timid, and a suppliant, beside Dea Flavia, with his curly
+head bare to the scorching sun and his back bent in slave-like
+deference. But the young girl seemed not to hear him and even after he
+had twice repeated his request she turned to him with uncomprehending
+eyes.
+
+"I would not leave thee, Dea," he said, "until I saw thee safely among
+thy slaves and thy clients."
+
+Then at last did she speak. But her voice sounded toneless and dull, as
+of one who speaks in a dream.
+
+"I thank thee, good Hortensius," she said, "but my slaves are close at
+hand and I would prefer to be left alone."
+
+To insist further would have been churlish. Hortensius Martius, well
+versed in every phase of decorum, bowed his head in obedience and
+retired to his litter. But he told his slaves not to bear him away from
+the Forum altogether but to place the litter down under the arcades of
+the tabernae, and then to stand round it so that it could not be seen,
+whilst he himself could still keep watch over the movements of Dea
+Flavia.
+
+But she in the meanwhile remained in the same inert position, standing
+listlessly beside the body of Menecreta, her face expressing puzzlement
+rather than horror, as if within her soul she was trying to reconcile
+the events of the last few moments with her previous conceptions of what
+the tenor of her life should be.
+
+The curse of Menecreta had found sudden and awful fulfilment, and Dea
+Flavia remained vaguely wondering whether the gods had been asleep on
+this hot late summer's day and forgotten to shield their favoured
+daughter against the buffetings of fate. A freedwoman had roused
+superstitious fear in the heart of a daughter of the Caesars! Surely
+there must be something very wrong in the administration of the affairs
+of this world. Nay, more! for the freedwoman, unconscious of her own
+impiety, had triumphed in the end; her death--majestic and sublime in
+its suddenness--had set the seal upon her malediction.
+
+And Dea Flavia marvelled that the dead woman remained so calm, her eyes
+so still, when--if indeed Jupiter had been aroused by the monstrous
+sacrilege--she must now be facing the terrors of his judgments.
+
+And Taurus Antinor watched her in silence whilst she stood thus,
+unconscious of his gaze, a perfect picture of exquisite womanhood set in
+a frame of marble temples and colonnades, a dome of turquoise above her
+head, the palm leaves above her throwing a dense blue shadow on her
+golden hair and the white tunic on her shoulders.
+
+He had heard much of Dea Flavia--the daughter of Claudius Octavius and
+now the ward of the Emperor Caligula--since his return from Syria a year
+ago, and he had oft seen her gilded and rose-draped litter gliding along
+the Sacra Via or the Via Appia, surrounded with its numberless retinue:
+but he had never seen her so close as this, nor had he heard her speak.
+
+She was a mere child and still under the tutelage of her despotic father
+when he--Taurus Antinor--tired of the enervating influences of decadent
+Rome, had obtained leave from the Emperor Tiberius to go to Syria as its
+governor. The imperator was glad enough to let him go. Taurus Antinor,
+named Anglicanus, was more popular with the army and the plebs than any
+autocratic ruler could wish.
+
+He went to Syria and remained there half a dozen years. The jealousy of
+one emperor had sent him thither and 'twas the jealousy of another that
+called him back to Rome. Syria had liked its governor over well, and
+Caius Julius Caesar Caligula would not brook rivalry in the allegiance
+owed to himself alone by his subjects--even by those who dwelt in the
+remotest provinces of the Empire.
+
+But on his return to Rome the powerful personality of Taurus Antinor
+soon imposed itself upon the fierce and maniacal despot.
+Caligula--though he must in reality have hated the Anglicanus as much
+and more than he hated all men--gave grudging admiration to his
+independence of spirit and to his fearless tongue. In the midst of an
+entourage composed of lying sycophants and of treacherous minions, the
+Caesar seemed to feel in the presence of the stranger a sense of security
+and of trust. Some writers have averred that Caligula looked on Taurus
+Antinor as a kind of personal fetish who kept the wrath of the gods
+averted from his imperial head. Be that as it may, there is no doubt
+that tyrant exerted his utmost power to keep Taurus near his person,
+showering upon him those honours and titles of which he would have been
+equally ready to deprive him had the stranger at any time run counter to
+his will. Anon, when the Caesar thought it incumbent upon his dignity to
+start on a military expedition, he forced Antinor to accept the
+praefecture of the city in order to keep him permanently settled in
+Rome.
+
+The Anglicanus accepted the power--which was almost supreme in the
+absence of the Caesar. He even gave the oath demanded of him by the
+Emperor that he would remain at his post until the termination of the
+proposed military expedition, but it was easy to see that the dignities
+for which others would have fought and striven to their uttermost were
+not really to the liking of Taurus Antinor.
+
+Avowedly wilful of temper, he had since his return from Syria become
+even more silent, more self-centred than before. Many called him morose
+and voted him either treacherous or secretly ambitious; others averred
+that he was either very arrogant or frankly dull. Certain it is that he
+held himself very much aloof from the society of his kind and
+persistently refused to mix with the young elegants of the day either in
+their circles or their baths, their private parties or public
+entertainments.
+
+Thus it was that the praefect found himself to-day for the first time
+in the near presence of Dea Flavia, the acknowledged queen of that same
+society which he declined to frequent, and as he grudgingly admitted to
+himself that she was beautiful beyond what men had said of her, he
+remembered all the tales which he had heard of her callous pride, her
+cold dignity, and of that cruel disdain with which she rejected all
+homage and broke the hearts of those whom her beauty had brought to her
+feet.
+
+For the moment, however, she struck him as more pathetic than fearsome;
+she looked lonely just now like a stately lily blooming alone in a
+deserted garden. He was wroth with her for what she had done to
+Menecreta and for her childish caprice and opposition to his will, but
+at the same time he who so seldom felt pity for those whom a just
+punishment had overtaken, was sorry for this young girl, for in her case
+retribution had been severe and out of all proportion to her fault.
+
+Therefore he approached her almost with deference and forced his rough
+voice to gentleness, as he said to her:
+
+"The hour is late, O Dea Flavia. I myself must leave the Forum now. I
+would wish to see thee safe amongst thy women."
+
+She turned her blue eyes upon him. His voice had roused her from her
+meditations and recalled her to that sense of proud dignity with which
+she loved to surround herself as with invisible walls. She must have
+seen the pity in his eyes for he did not try to hide it, but it seemed
+to anger her as coming from this man who--to her mind--was the primary
+cause of her present trouble. She looked for a moment or two on him as
+if trying to recollect his very existence, and no importunate slave
+could ever encounter such complete disdain as fell on the praefect at
+this moment from Dea Flavia's glance.
+
+"I will return to my palace at the hour which pleaseth me most, O
+praefectus," she said coldly, "and when the child Nola, being more
+composed, is ready to accompany me."
+
+"Nay!" he rejoined in his accustomed rough way, "the slave Nola is
+naught to thee now. She will be looked after as the State directs."
+
+"The slave is mine," she retorted curtly. "She shall come with me."
+
+And even as she spoke she drew herself up to her full height, more like,
+he thought, than ever to a stately lily now. The crown of gold upon her
+head caught a glint from the noonday sun, and the folds of her white
+tunic fell straight and rigid from her shoulders down to her feet.
+
+It seemed strange to him that one so young, so exquisitely pure, should
+thus be left all alone to face the hard moments of life; her very
+disdain for him, her wilfulness, seemed to him pathetic, for they showed
+her simple ignorance of the many cruelties which life must of necessity
+have in store for her.
+
+As for yielding to her present mood, he had no thought of it. It was
+caprice originally which had caused her to defy his will and to break
+old Menecreta's heart. She had invoked strict adherence to the law for
+the sole purpose of indulging this caprice. Now he was tempted also to
+stand upon the law and to defy her tyrannical will, even at the cost of
+his own inclinations in the matter.
+
+He would not trust her with the child Nola now. He had other plans for
+the orphan girl, rendered lonely and desolate through a great lady's
+whim, and he would have felt degradation in the thought that Dea Flavia
+should impose her will on him in this.
+
+He knew her power of course. She was a near kinswoman of the Emperor,
+and the child of his adoption; she was all-powerful with the Caesar as
+with all men through the might of his personality as much as through
+that of her wealth.
+
+But he had no thought of yielding nor any thought of fear. It seemed as
+if in the heat-laden atmosphere two mighty wills had suddenly clashed
+one against the other, brandishing ghostly steels. His will against
+hers! The might of manhood and of strength against the word of a
+beautiful woman. Nor was the contest unequal. If he could crush her with
+a touch of his hand, she could destroy him with one word in the Caesar's
+ear. She had as her ally the full unbridled might of the House of Caesar,
+while against her there was only this stranger, a descendant of a
+freedwoman from a strange land. For the nonce his influence was great
+over the mind of the quasi-madman who sat on the Empire's throne, but
+any moment, any event, the whisper of an enemy, the word of a woman,
+might put an end to his power.
+
+All this Dea Flavia knew, and knowing it found pleasure in toying with
+his wrath. Armed with the triple weapon of her beauty, her purity and
+her power, she taunted him with his impotence and smiled with scornful
+pity upon the weakness of his manhood.
+
+Even now she turned to Nola and said with gentle firmness:
+
+"Get up, girl, and come with me."
+
+But at her words the last vestige of deference fled from the praefect's
+manner; pity now would have been weak folly. Had he yielded he would
+have despised himself even as this proud girl now affected to scorn him.
+
+He interposed his massive figure between Dea Flavia and the slave and
+said loudly:
+
+"By thy leave, Nola, the daughter of Menecreta, is the property of the
+State and 'tis I will decide whither she goeth now."
+
+"Until to-morrow only, Taurus Antinor," she rejoined coldly, "for
+to-morrow she must be in the slave market again, when my agents will bid
+for and buy her according to my will."
+
+"Nay! she shall not be put up for sale to-morrow."
+
+"By whose authority, O praefectus?"
+
+"By mine. The State hath given me leave to purchase privately a number
+of slaves from the late censor's household. 'Tis my intention to
+purchase Nola thus."
+
+"Thou hast no right," she said, still speaking with outward calm, though
+her whole soul rebelled against the arrogance of this man who dared to
+thwart her will, to gainsay her word, and set up his dictates against
+hers, "thou hast no right thus to take the law in thine own hands."
+
+"Nay! as to that," he replied with equal calm, "I'll answer for mine own
+actions. But the slave Nola shall not pass into thy hands, Augusta! Thou
+hast wrought quite enough mischief as it is; be content and go thy way.
+Leave the child in peace."
+
+In these days of unbridled passions and unfettered tyranny, a man who
+spoke thus to a daughter of the Caesars spoke at peril of his life. Both
+Dea Flavia and Taurus Antinor knew this when they faced one another eye
+to eye, their very souls in rebellion one against the other--his own
+turbulent and fierce, with the hot blood from a remote land coursing in
+his veins, blinding him to his own advantage, to his own future, to
+everything save to his feeling of independence at all cost from the
+oppression of this family of tyrants; her own almost serene in its
+consciousness of limitless power.
+
+For the moment her sense of dignity prevailed. Whatever she might do in
+the future, she was comparatively helpless now. The praefect in the
+discharge of his functions--second only to the Caesar--was all-powerful
+where he stood.
+
+Taurus Antinor was still the praefect of Rome, still a member of the
+Senate and favourite of Caligula. He had her at a disadvantage now, just
+as she had held him a while ago when she forced on the public sale of
+the girl Nola. Therefore, though with a look she would have crushed the
+insolent, and her delicate hands were clenched into fists that would
+have chastised him then and there if they had the strength, she returned
+his look of fierce defiance with her usual one of calm.
+
+"Thou hast spoken, Taurus Antinor," she said coldly, "and in deference
+to the law which thou dost represent I bow to thy commands. Art thou
+content?" she added, seeing that he made no reply.
+
+"Content?" he asked, puzzled at her meaning.
+
+"Aye!" she said; "I asked thee if thou wert content. Thou hast
+humiliated a daughter of Caesar, a humiliation which she is not like to
+forget."
+
+"I crave thy pardon if I have transgressed beyond the limits of my
+duty."
+
+"Thy duty? Nay, Taurus Antinor, a man's duties are as varied as a
+woman's moods, and he is wisest who knows how to adapt the one to the
+other. 'Tis not good, remember, to run counter to Dea Flavia's will.
+'Tis much that thou must have forgotten, O praefect, ere thou didst set
+thy so-called duty above the fulfilment of my wish."
+
+"Nay, gracious lady," he said simply, "I had forgotten nothing. Not even
+that Archelaus Menas, the sculptor, died for having angered thee; nor
+that Julius Campanius perished in exile and young Decretas in fetters,
+because of thine enmity. Thou seest that--though somewhat of a stranger
+in Rome--I know much of its secret history, and though mine eyes had
+until now never beheld thy loveliness, yet had mine ears heard much of
+thy power."
+
+"Yet at its first encounter thou didst defy it."
+
+"I have no mother to mourn o'er my death like young Decretas," he said
+curtly, "nor yet a wife to make into a sorrowing widow like the sculptor
+Menas."
+
+If it was his desire to break through the barrier of well-nigh insolent
+calm which she seemed to have set round her dainty person, then he
+succeeded over well, for she winced at his words like one who has
+received a blow and her eyes, dark with anger, narrowed until they
+became mere slits fringed by her golden lashes.
+
+"But thou hast a life, Taurus Antinor," she said, "and life is a
+precious possession."
+
+He shrugged his massive shoulders, and a curious smile played round his
+lips.
+
+"And thou canst order that precious possession to be taken from me," he
+said lightly. "Is that what thou wouldst say?"
+
+"That and more, for thou hast other precious treasures more precious,
+mayhap, than life; so guard them well, O Taurus Antinor!"
+
+"Nay, gracious lady," he rejoined, still smiling, "I have but one soul
+as I have one life, and that too is in the hands of God."
+
+"Of which god?" she asked quaintly.
+
+He did not reply but pointed upwards at the vivid dome of blue against
+which the white of Phrygian marbles glittered in the sun.
+
+"Of Him Whose Empire is mightier than that of Rome."
+
+She looked on him in astonishment. Apparently she did not understand
+him, nor did he try to explain, but it seemed to her as if his whole
+appearance had changed suddenly, and her thoughts flew back to that
+which she had witnessed a year ago when she was in Ostia and she had
+seen a raging tempest become suddenly stilled. "There is no mightier
+empire than that of Rome," she said proudly, "and methinks thou art a
+traitor, oh Taurus Antinor, else thou wouldst not speak of any emperor
+save of Caesar, my kinsman."
+
+"I spoke not of an emperor, gracious lady," he said simply.
+
+"But thy thoughts were of one whose empire was mightier than that of
+Rome."
+
+"My thoughts," he said, "were of a Man Whom I saw whilst travelling
+through Judaea a few years ago. He was poor and dwelt among the fishermen
+of Galilee. They stood around Him and listened whilst He talked; when He
+walked they followed Him, for a halo of glory was upon Him and the words
+which He spoke were such that once heard they could never be forgotten."
+
+"Didst thou too hear those marvellous words, O Taurus Antinor?" she
+asked.
+
+"Only twice," he replied, "did I hear the words which He spoke. I
+mingled with the crowd, and once when His eyes fell upon me, it seemed
+to me as if all the secrets of life and death were suddenly revealed to
+me. His eyes fell upon me.... I was one of a multitude ... but from that
+moment I knew that life on this earth would never be precious to me
+again--since the most precious gift man hath is his immortality."
+
+"Thou speakest of strange matters, O praefect," she rejoined, "and
+meseems there's treason in what thou sayest. Who is this man, whose
+very look hath made a slave of thee?"
+
+"A slave to His will thou sayest truly, O daughter of Caesar! Could I
+hear His command I would follow Him through life and to death. At times
+even now meseems that I can hear His voice and see His eyes ... thou
+hast never seen such eyes, Augusta--fixed upon my very soul. I saw them
+just now, right across the Forum, when the wretched freedwoman clung
+shrieking round my shins. They looked at me and _asked_ me to be
+merciful; they did not command, they begged ... _asking_ for the pity
+that lay dormant in my soul. And now I know that if those same eyes
+looked at me again and asked for every drop of my blood, if they asked
+me to bear death, torture, or even shame, I would become as thou truly
+sayest--a slave."
+
+Once or twice whilst he spoke she had tried to interrupt him, but every
+time the words she would have spoken had died upon her lips. He looked
+so strange--this praefect of Rome--whose judgments everyone feared,
+whose strict adherence to duty the young elegants of the day were ever
+fond of deriding. He looked very strange now and spoke such strange
+words--words that she resented bitterly, for they sounded like treason
+to the House of Caesar of which she was so coldly proud.
+
+To her Caesar was as a god, and she as his kinswoman had been brought up
+to worship in him not the man--that might be vile--but the supreme power
+in the Empire which he represented. She did not pause to think if he
+were base, tyrannical, a half-crazy despot without mind or heart or
+sensibilities. She knew what was said about him, she had even seen at
+times things from which she recoiled in unspeakable horror; but her
+soul, still pure and still proud, was able to dissociate the abstract
+idea of the holy and mighty Caesar from its present hideous embodiment.
+And this same holy reverence for Caesar she looked for in all those who
+she deemed were worthy to stand--not as his equals, for only the gods
+were that--but nigh to his holy person--his own kinsmen first, then his
+Senate, his magistrates, and his patricians, and above all this
+man--almost a stranger--whom the Caesar had deigned to honour with his
+confidence.
+
+And yet this same stranger spoke calmly of another, of a man whom he
+would obey as a slave in all things, whom he would follow even to death;
+a man whose might he proclaimed above that of Caesar himself.
+
+"But who is this man?" she exclaimed at last, almost involuntarily.
+
+"A poor Man from Galilee," he replied.
+
+"What is he called?"
+
+"Out there they called Him Jesus of Nazareth."
+
+"And where is he now?"
+
+"He died upon the cross, in Jerusalem, seven years ago."
+
+"Upon the cross?" she exclaimed; "what had he done?"
+
+"He had dwelt among the poor and brought them contentment and peace; He
+had lived amongst men and taught them love and charity. So the Roman
+proconsul ordered Him to be crucified, and those whom He had rendered
+happy rejoiced over His death."
+
+"Methinks that I did hear something of this. I was a child then but
+already I took much interest in the affairs of State, and my father
+spoke oft freely in my presence. I remember his talking of a demagogue
+over in Judaea who claimed to be the King of the Jews and who was
+punished for treason and sedition. But I also heard that he did but
+little mischief, since only a troop of ignorant fisher-folk followed and
+listened to him."
+
+"Ignorant fisher-folk thou saidst it truly, O Dea Flavia, yet I have it
+in my mind that anon the knee of every patrician--aye! of every
+Caesar--shall bend before the mighty throne of that Man from Galilee."
+
+"And thus didst learn thy lesson of treason, O praefect," she retorted;
+"demagogues and traitors from Judaea have sown the seeds of treachery in
+thy mind, and whilst thou dost receive with both hands the gifts of the
+Caesar my kinsman, thou dost set up another above him and dost homage to
+him in thy heart."
+
+"Aye! in my heart, gracious lady; for I am even more ignorant than those
+fishermen from Galilee who heard every word spoken by Jesus of Nazareth.
+I heard Him but twice in my life and once only did His eyes rest upon
+me, and they enchained my heart to His service, though I know but little
+yet of what He would have me do."
+
+"No doubt he would have thee turn traitor to thine Emperor and to
+acclaim him--the demagogue--as imperator before the Senate and the army.
+He----"
+
+"I told thee that He was dead," he interposed simply.
+
+"And that his words had made thee rebellious to Caesar and insolent to
+me."
+
+"Thine humble servant, O Augusta," he rejoined, smiling in spite of
+himself, for now she was just like an angry child. "Wilt but command and
+see how I will obey."
+
+"The girl Nola!" she said haughtily.
+
+"In that alone I must deny thee."
+
+"Then tie my shoe, it hath come undone."
+
+The tone with which she said this was so arrogant and so harsh that even
+her slaves behind her turned frightened eyes on the praefect who was
+known to be so proud, and on whom the curt command must have had the
+effect of a sudden whip-lash on the face.
+
+She had spoken as if to the humblest of her menials, finding pleasure in
+putting this insult on the man who had dared to thwart and irritate her;
+but she had not spoken deliberately; it had been an impulse, an
+irresistible desire to see him down on his knees, in a position only fit
+for slaves.
+
+Directly the words had left her mouth, she already regretted them, for
+his refusal now would have been doubly humiliating for herself, and her
+good sense had told her already that no patrician--least of all Taurus
+Antinor--would submit quietly to public insult and ridicule even from
+her.
+
+The quick, more gentle word was already on her lips, the look of mute
+apology was struggling to her eyes, when to her astonishment the
+praefect, without a word, was down on his knees before her.
+
+"Nay!" she said, "I did but jest."
+
+"The honour," he said quietly, "is too great, O daughter of Caesar, that
+I should forego it now."
+
+His powerful shoulders were bent almost to the level of the ground, and
+she looked down on him, more puzzled than ever at this stranger whose
+every action seemed different from those of his fellow-men. She put her
+little foot slightly forward, and as he tied the string of her shoe she
+saw how slender was his hand, firm yet tapering down to the elegant
+finger-tips; the hand of a patrician even though he hailed from the
+barbaric North.
+
+Suddenly she smiled. But this he did not see for he was still intent
+upon the shoe, but she felt that those slender hands of his were
+singularly clumsy. And she smiled because she had recollected how like
+his fellowmen he really was, how he evidently forgot his wrath and sank
+his pride for the pleasure of kneeling at her feet.
+
+To this homage she was well accustomed. Many there were in Rome who at
+this moment would gladly have changed places with the praefect. More
+than one great patrician had craved the honour of tying her shoe, more
+than one patrician hand had trembled whilst performing this service.
+
+And Dea Flavia smiled because already she guessed--or thought that she
+guessed--what would follow the tying of her shoe--a humble kiss upon her
+foot, the natural homage of a man to her beauty and to her power.
+
+The daughter of Caesar smiled because the spirit of child-like
+waywardness was in her, and she thought that she would like the
+slave-like homage from this man whom her wrath and threats had left
+impassive but whom her beauty had at last brought down to his knees; and
+thus smiling she waited patiently, content that he should be clumsy,
+glad that in the distance, under the arcade of the tabernae, she had
+spied Hortensius Martius watching with wrathful eyes every movement of
+the praefect. She wondered if the young exquisite had heard the wordy
+warfare between herself and the proud man who now knelt quite awkwardly
+at her feet, and she guessed that what Hortensius had seen and heard,
+that he would retail at full length to his friends in the course of the
+banquet given by Caius Nepos to-morrow night.
+
+For the moment she felt almost sorry for the giant brought down to his
+knees; the kiss which she so confidently anticipated would of a truth
+complete his surrender, since she had resolved to make him kiss the dust
+by suddenly withdrawing her foot from under his lips, and then to laugh
+at him, and to allow her slaves to laugh and jeer at him as he lay
+sprawling in the dust, his huge arms lying crosswise on the flagstones
+before her.
+
+The spirit of mischief was in her, the love to tease a helpless giant;
+so for the nonce anger almost died out within her and her eyes looked
+clear and blue as triumph and joy danced within their depths.
+
+But now Taurus Antinor had finished tying her shoe. He did not stoop
+further nor did he embrace the dust; but he straightened his broad
+shoulders and raised himself from his knees without rendering that
+homage which was expected of him.
+
+"Hast further commands for thy servant, O daughter of Caesar?" he asked
+calmly.
+
+"None," she replied curtly.
+
+And calling her slaves to her she entered her litter, and drew its
+curtains closely round her so that she should no longer be offended by
+his sight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+"The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God."--PSALM XIV. 1.
+
+
+And late that day when Dea Flavia was preparing for rest she dismissed
+her tire-women, keeping only her young slaves around her, and then
+ordered Licinia to attend on her this night.
+
+Licinia was highly privileged in the house of Dea Flavia. She had nursed
+the daughter of proud Claudius Octavius at her breast, and between the
+wizened old woman and the fresh young girl there existed perfect
+friendship and the confidence born of years. Dea's first tooth was in
+Licinia's keeping and so was the first lock of hair cut from Dea's head.
+Licinia had been the confidante of Dea's first childish sorrow and was
+the first to hear the tales of the young girl's social triumphs.
+
+No one but Licinia was allowed to handle Dea's hair. It was her
+shrivelled fingers that plaited every night the living stream of gold
+into innumerable little plaits, so that the ripple in it might continue
+to live again on the morrow. It was Licinia who rubbed Dea's exquisite
+limbs with unguents after the bath, and she who trimmed the rose-tinted
+nails into their perfect, pointed shape.
+
+To-night Dea Flavia was lying on a couch covered with crimson silk. Her
+elbows were buried in a cushion stuffed with eiderdown, her chin rested
+in her two hands and her eyes were fixed on a mirror of polished bronze
+held up by one of her younger slaves.
+
+Licinia, stooping over the reclining body of her mistress, was gently
+rubbing the white shoulders and spine with sweet-scented oil.
+
+"And didst see it all, Licinia?" asked Dea Flavia, as with a lazy
+stretch of her graceful arms she suddenly swung herself round on to her
+back and looked straight up at the wrinkled old face bending tenderly
+over her.
+
+"Aye, my precious," replied Licinia eagerly, "everything did I see; for
+thou didst draw the curtains of thy litter together so quickly, I had no
+time to take my place by thy side. I meant to follow immediately, and
+was only waiting there for a moment or two until the crowd of thy
+retinue had dispersed along the various streets. Then it was that I
+spied my lord Hortensius, and something in the expression of his face
+made me pause then and there to see if there was aught amiss."
+
+"And was aught amiss with my lord Hortensius?" asked Dea Flavia with
+studied indifference.
+
+"He looked wrathful as a tiger in the arena when the guards come and
+snatch his prey from him. There was a frown on his face darker than that
+which usually sits on Taurus Antinor's brow."
+
+"He was angered?"
+
+"Aye! at the praefect," rejoined Licinia. "He strode forward from under
+the arcades directly after the crowd of thy slaves had disappeared, and
+the Forum was all deserted save for Taurus Antinor standing there as if
+he had been carved in marble and in bronze and rooted there to the spot.
+My lord Hortensius came close up to the praefect and greeted him curtly.
+I dared no longer move away lest I should be seen, so I hid in the deep
+shadow behind the rostrum, and I heard Taurus Antinor's response to my
+lord Hortensius."
+
+"Yes! yes!" said Dea Flavia impatiently, "of course they greeted one
+another ere they came to blows. But 'tis of the blows I would like to
+hear, and what my lord Hortensius said to the praefect."
+
+"He spoke to him of thee, my child, and taunted him with having angered
+thee," said Licinia. "The praefect is so proud and so impatient, I
+marvelled then he did not hit my lord Hortensius in the face at once. He
+looked so huge, I bethought me of a giant, and his head looked dark like
+the bronze head of Jupiter, for his face had flushed a deep and angry
+crimson, whilst his mighty fists were clenched as if ready to strike."
+
+"What caused him to strike, then?"
+
+"My lord Hortensius called him a stranger, and this the praefect did not
+seem to resent. 'There are other lands than Rome,' he said, 'and one of
+these gave my ancestors birth. Proud am I of my distant land, and proud
+now to be a patrician of Rome.' Then did my lord Hortensius break into
+loud laughter, which to mine ears sounded mirthless and forced. He
+raised his hand and pointed a finger at the praefect and shouted, still
+laughing: 'Thou a patrician of Rome? thou a tyrant's minion! slave and
+son of slave! Nay! if the patriciate of Rome had its will with thee, it
+would have thee publicly whipped and branded like the arrogant menial
+that thou art!' This and more did my lord Hortensius say," continued
+Licinia, whose voice now had sunk to an awed whisper at the recollection
+of the sacrilege; "I hardly dared to breathe for I could see the
+praefect's face, and could think of naught save the wrath of Jupiter,
+when on a sultry evening the thunder clouds are gathering in the wake of
+the setting sun."
+
+But Dea Flavia's interest in the narrative seemed suddenly to have
+flagged. She stretched her arms, yawned ostentatiously, and with the
+movement of a fretful child she threw herself once more flat upon the
+couch, with her elbows in the cushions and her face buried in her hands.
+
+With some impatience she snatched the mirror from the young slave's
+hand, and then she put it on the pillow and looked straight down into
+it, whilst her hair fell like golden curtains down each side of her
+face.
+
+"Go on, Licinia," she said with curt indifference.
+
+"There is but little more to tell," said the old woman, who with stolid
+placidness had resumed her former occupation, and once more rubbed the
+white shoulders with the sweet-smelling unguent; "nor could I tell thee
+how it all happened. A sort of tempestuous whirlwind seemed to sweep
+before my eyes, and the next thing that I saw clearly was an enormous
+figure clad in a gorgeous tunic, and standing high, high above me on the
+very top of the marble rostrum beside the bronze figure of the god. It
+was the praefect. From where I stood, palsied with fear, I could see his
+face, dark now as the very thunders of Jupiter, his hair around his head
+gleamed like copper in the sun; but what caused my very blood to freeze
+and the marrow to stiffen in my bones, was to see his two mighty arms
+high above his head holding the body of my lord Hortensius. He looked up
+there like some god-like giant about to hurl an enemy down from the
+mountains of Olympus. The rostrum stands a terrific height above the
+pavement of the Forum; the marble balustrades, the outstanding
+gradients, the carvings along its sides, all stood between that inert
+body held up aloft by those gigantic arms and the flagstones below where
+Death, hideous and yawning, seemed to be waiting for its prey. And still
+the praefect did not move, and I could see the muscles of his arms
+swollen like cords and the sinews of his hands almost cracking beneath
+the weight of my lord Hortensius' body."
+
+Licinia paused and passed a wrinkled hand over her moist forehead. She
+was trembling even now at the recollection of what she had seen. The
+beautiful figure lying stretched out upon the couch had not moved in a
+single one of its graceful lines. The tiny head beneath its crown of
+gold was bent down upon the mirror.
+
+"Couldst see my lord Hortensius' face?" came in the same cold tones of
+indifference from behind the veil of wavy hair.
+
+"No!" said Licinia. "I thank the gods that I could not. One cry for
+mercy did he utter, one cry of horror when first he felt himself
+uplifted and looked down into the awful face of Death which awaited him
+below. Then mayhap he lost consciousness for I heard not a sound, and
+the whole city lay still in the hush of the noonday sleep. Less than one
+minute had intervened since first I saw that avenging figure outlined
+against the blue curtain of the sky: less than one minute even whilst my
+heart had ceased to beat. And then did a cry of horror escape my lips,
+and the praefect looked down into my face. Nor did he move as yet, but
+slowly meseemed as if the ruddy glow died from out his cheeks and brow,
+and after a while the tension on the mighty arms relaxed, and slowly
+were they lowered from above his head. He no longer was looking at me
+now, for his eyes were fixed upon the distant sky, as if they saw there
+something that called with irresistible power. And upon the heat-laden
+air there trembled a long sigh as of infinite longing. Then the praefect
+gathered my lord Hortensius' inanimate body in his arms as a mother
+would her own child, and with slow and steady steps he descended the
+gradients of the rostrum. At its foot he caught sight of me, and called
+me to him: 'My lord hath only fainted,' he said to me; 'do thou chafe
+his hands and soothe his forehead, whilst I send his slaves to him.' He
+laid the precious burden down in the cool shadow, taking off his own
+cloak and making of it a pillow for my lord Hortensius' head. Then he
+went from me, and as he went I could hear him murmur: 'In Thy service,
+oh Man of Galilee.'"
+
+Even as these last words still trembled on Licinia's lips there came a
+sharp cry of rage, followed by one of terror, as with quick and almost
+savage movement Dea Flavia picked up the heavy mirror of bronze and
+hurled it across the chamber. It fell with a loud crash against the
+delicate mosaic of the floor, but as it swung through the air its sharp
+metal edge hit a young slave girl on the shoulder; a few drops of blood
+trickled down her breast and she began to whimper in her fright.
+
+It had all happened so suddenly that no one--least of all Licinia--could
+guess what it was that had so angered my lady. Dea Flavia had raised
+herself to a sitting posture, and thrown her hair back, away from her
+face which looked flushed and wrathful, whilst two sharp furrows
+appeared between her brows.
+
+The women were silent, feeling awed and not a little frightened; the
+girl, whose shoulder was now bleeding profusely, continued her
+whimpering.
+
+"Get up, girl," said Licinia roughly, "and staunch thy scratch
+elsewhere, away from my lady's sight. Hark at the baggage! One would
+think she is really hurt. Get thee gone, I say, ere I give thee better
+cause for whining."
+
+But in a moment Dea Flavia was on her feet. With a quick cry of pity she
+ran to her slave, kneeled beside her and with a fine white cloth
+herself tried to staunch the wound.
+
+"Art hurt?" she said gently, "art hurt, child? I did not wish to hurt
+thee. Stop thy weeping--and I'll give thee that amber locket which thou
+dost covet so. Stop thy weeping, I say! Is it my white rabbit thou dost
+hanker after--thou shalt have it for thine own--or--or--the woollen
+tunic with the embroidered bands--or--or--Stop whining, girl," she added
+impatiently, seeing that the girl, more frightened than hurt, was
+sobbing louder than before. "Licinia, make her stop--she angers me with
+all this whining--stop, I tell thee. Oh, Licinia, where is thy whip? I
+vow I'll have the girl whipped if she do not stop."
+
+But Licinia, accustomed to her mistress's quick changing moods, had in
+her turn knelt beside the girl and was busy now with deft hands in
+staunching the blood and tying up the wound. This done she dragged the
+child up roughly, though not unkindly, from the ground.
+
+"Get thee gone and lie down on thy bed," she said; "shame on thee for
+making such a to-do. My lady had no wish to hurt thee, and thou hast
+upset her with all this senseless weeping. Get thee gone now ere I do
+give thee that whipping which thou dost well deserve."
+
+She contrived to push the girl out of the chamber and ordered two others
+to follow and look after her; then once more she turned to her mistress,
+ready to tender fond apologies since what she had said had so angered
+her beloved.
+
+Dea Flavia had thrown herself on the couch on her back; her arms were
+folded behind her head, her fair hair lay in heavy masses on the
+embroidered coverlet. She was staring straight up at the ceiling, her
+blue eyes wide open, and a puzzled frown across her brow.
+
+"My precious one," murmured Licinia.
+
+But Dea Flavia apparently did not hear. It seemed as if she were
+grappling in her mind with some worrying puzzle, the solution of which
+lay hidden up there behind that brilliant bit of blue sky which
+glimmered through the square opening in the roof.
+
+"My precious one," reiterated the old woman appealingly, "tell me,
+Dea--was it aught that I said which angered thee?"
+
+Dea Flavia turned large wondering eyes to her old nurse.
+
+"Licinia," she said slowly.
+
+"Yes, my goddess."
+
+"If a man saith that there is one greater, mightier than Caesar ... he is
+a traitor, is he not?"
+
+"A black and villainous traitor, Augusta," said Licinia, whose voice at
+the mere suggestion had become hoarse with awe.
+
+"And what in Rome is the punishment for such traitors, Licinia?" asked
+the young girl, still speaking slowly and measuredly.
+
+"Death, my child," replied the old woman.
+
+"Only death?" insisted Dea, whilst the puzzled look in her eyes became
+more marked, and the frown between her brows more deep.
+
+"I do not understand thee, my precious one," said Licinia whose turn it
+was now to be deeply puzzled; "what greater punishment could there be
+for a traitor than that of death?"
+
+"They torture slaves for lesser offences than that."
+
+"Aye! and for sedition there is always the cross."
+
+"The cross!" she murmured.
+
+"Yes! Dost remember seven years ago in Judaea? There was a man who raised
+sedition among the Jews, and called himself their king--setting himself
+above Caesar and above the might of Caesar.... They crucified him. Dost
+remember?"
+
+"I have heard of him," she said curtly. "What was his name?"
+
+"Nay! I have forgot. Methinks that he came from Galilee. They did
+crucify him because of sedition, and because he set himself to be above
+Caesar."
+
+"And above the House of Caesar?"
+
+"Aye! above the House of Caesar too."
+
+"And they crucified him?"
+
+"Aye! like a common thief. 'Twas right and just since he rebelled
+against Caesar."
+
+"And yet, Licinia, there are those in Rome who do him service even now."
+
+"The gods forbid!" exclaimed Licinia in horror. "And how could that be?"
+she added with a shrug of the shoulders, "seeing that he died such a
+shameful death."
+
+"I marvel on that also," said the young girl, whose wide-open blue eyes
+once more assumed their strangely puzzled expression.
+
+"Nay! I'll not believe it," rejoined the old woman hotly. "Do that man
+service? A common traitor who died upon the cross. Who did stuff thine
+ears, my goddess, with such foolish tales?"
+
+"No one told me foolish tales, Licinia. But this I do know, that there
+are some in Rome who set that Galilean above the majesty of Caesar, and
+in his name do defy Caesar's might."
+
+"They are madmen then," said the slave curtly.
+
+"Or traitors," added Dea Flavia.
+
+"Thou sayest it; they are traitors and rebels, and never fear, they'll
+be punished ... sooner or later, they will be punished.... Defy the
+might of Caesar?... Great gods above! the impious wretches! thou wert
+right, my princess! Death alone were too merciful for them.... The
+scourge first ... and then the cross ... that will teach them the might
+of thy house, oh daughter of Caesar.... I would have no mercy with
+them.... Throw them to the beasts, say I!... brand them ... scourge them
+... wring their heart's blood until they cry for death...!"
+
+The old pagan looked evil and cruel in her fury of loyalty to that house
+which begat her beloved Dea. Her eyes glistened as those of a cat
+waiting to fall upon its prey; her wrinkled hands looked like claws that
+were ready to tear the very flesh and sinew from the traitor's breast.
+Her voice, always hoarse and trembling, had risen to a savage shriek
+which died away as in a passionate outburst of love she threw herself
+down on the floor beside the couch, and taking Dea's tiny feet between
+her hands, she covered them with kisses and with tears.
+
+But Dea Flavia once more lay back on the coverlet of crimson silk and
+her blue eyes once more were fixed upwards to the sky. Above her the
+glint of blue was now suffused with tones of pink merging into mauve;
+somewhere out west the sun was slowly sinking into rest. Tiny golden
+clouds flitted swiftly across that patch of sky on which Dea Flavia
+gazed so intently.
+
+"Come kiss me, Licinia," she said slowly after a while. "I'll to rest
+now. To-morrow I shall see my kinsman the Caesar again, after a year's
+absence from him. I desire to be very beautiful to-morrow, Licinia, for
+mayhap I'll to the games with him. That new tunic worked with purple and
+gold. I'll wear that and my new shoes of antelope skin. In my hair the
+circlet of turquoise and pearls ... dost think it'll become me,
+Licinia?"
+
+"Thou wilt be more beautiful, my precious one, than man's eyes can
+conveniently endure," said Licinia, whose whole face became radiant with
+the joy of her perfect love for the girl.
+
+"Ah! thou hast soothed my heart and mind, Licinia. I feel that I shall
+sleep well to-night."
+
+She allowed the old woman to lead her gently to her bedchamber, where
+within the narrow alcove she lay all that night tossing upon the silken
+mattress that was stuffed with eiderdown. Sleep would not come to her,
+and hour after hour she lay there, her eyes fixed into the darkness on
+which, at times, her fevered fancy traced a glowing cross.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+"The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is
+of the Lord."--PROVERBS XVI. 33.
+
+
+And even thus did the mighty Empire hurry headlong to its fall; with
+shouts of joy and cries of exultation, with triumphal processions, with
+music, with games and with flowers.
+
+The Caesar had returned from Germany and Gaul having played his part of
+mountebank upon the arena of the world. Eaten up with senseless and
+cynical vanity, Caius Julius Caesar Caligula desired to be the Caesar of
+his army as he was princeps and imperator, high pontiff and supreme
+dictator of the Empire. But as there was no war to conduct, no rebellion
+to subdue, he had invented a war and harassed some barbarians who had no
+thought save that of peace.
+
+He stage-managed conspiracies and midnight attacks, drilling his own
+soldiers into acting the parts of malcontents, of escaped prisoners, of
+bloodthirsty barbarians, the while he himself--as chief actor in the
+play--vanquished the mock foes and took from them mock spoils of war.
+
+Then he upbraided Rome for her inertia whilst he, the Emperor,
+confronted dangers and endured hardships for her sake. His letters, full
+of glowing accounts of his supposed prowess, of the ferocity of the
+enemy, of the fruits of victory snatched at the cost of innumerable
+sacrifices were solemnly read to the assembled senators in the temple of
+Mars, and to a vast concourse of people gathered in the Forum.
+
+They listened to these letters with awe and reverence proud of the
+valour of their Caesar, rejoicing in the continued glory of the mightiest
+Empire of the world--their own Empire which they, the masters of the
+earth and of the sea, had made under the guidance of rulers such as he
+who even now was returning laurel-laden and victory-crowned from
+Germany.
+
+And the triumphal procession was begun. First came the galley in which
+Caligula was said to have crossed the ocean for the purpose of subduing
+some rebel British princes, but in which he in verity had spent some
+pleasant days fishing in the bay. It was brought back to Rome in solemn
+state by land, right across the country of the Allemanni and carried the
+whole of the way by sixteen stalwart barbarians--supposed prisoners of
+war.
+
+The galley was received with imperial honours as if it had been a human
+creature--the very person of the Caesar. In the presence of a huge and
+enthusiastic crowd it was taken to the temple of Mars, where the
+pontiffs, attired in their festal robes, dedicated it with solemn ritual
+to the god of war and finally deposited it in a specially constructed
+cradle fashioned of citrus wood with elaborate carvings and touches of
+gilding thereon; the whole resting upon a pedestal of African marble.
+
+Upon the next day a procession of Gauls entered the city carrying
+helmets which were filled with sea-shells. The men wore their hair long
+and unkempt, they were naked save for a goatskin tied across the torso
+with a hempen rope and their shins were encircled with leather bands.
+The helmets were said to have belonged to those of Caesar's soldiers who
+had lost their lives in the expedition against the Germans, and the
+sea-shells were a special tribute from the ocean to the gods of the
+Capitol. By the Caesar's orders the helmets were to be the objects of
+semi-divine honours in memory of the illustrious dead.
+
+Thus the tragi-comedy went on day after day. The plebs enjoying the
+pageants because they did not know that they were being fooled, and the
+patricians looking on because they did not care.
+
+
+And now the imperial mountebank was coming home himself, having ordered
+his triumph as he had stage-managed his deeds of valour. Triumphal
+arches and street decorations, flowers and processions, he had ordained
+everything just as he wished it to be. From the statue of every god in
+the temples of the Capitol and of the Forum the bronze head had been
+knocked off by his orders, and a likeness of his own head placed in
+substitution. His intention was to receive divine homage, and this the
+plebs--who had been promised a succession of holidays, with races,
+games, and combats--was over-ready to grant him.
+
+The vestibule connecting his palace with the temple of Castor had been
+completed in his absence, and he wished to pass surreptitiously from his
+own apartments to the very niche of the idol which was in full view of
+the Forum and there to show himself to the people, even whilst a
+sacrifice was offered to him as to a god.
+
+To all this senseless display of egregious vanity the obsequiousness of
+the senators and the careless frivolity of the plebs easily lent itself;
+nor did anyone demur at the decree which came from the absent hero, that
+he should in future be styled: "The Father of the Armies! the Greatest
+and best of Caesars."
+
+All thought of dignity was dead in these descendants of the great people
+who had made the Empire; they had long ago sold their birthright of
+valour and of honour for the pottage of luxury and the favours of a
+tyrannical madman. What cared they if after they had feasted and shouted
+themselves hoarse in praise of a deified brute, the ruins of Rome came
+crashing down over their graves? What cared they if in far-off barbaric
+lands the Goths and Huns were already whetting their steel.
+
+Only a few among the more dignified senators, a few among the more sober
+praetorian tribunes, revolted in their heart at this insane exhibition
+of egoism, these perpetual outrages on common sense and dignity; but
+they were few and their influence small, and they were really too
+indolent, too comfortable in their luxurious homes to do aught but
+accept what they deemed inevitable.
+
+The only men in Rome who cared were the ambitious and the self-seekers,
+and they cared not because of Rome, not because of the glory of the
+Empire, or the welfare of the land, but because they saw in the very
+excess of the tyrant's misrule the best chance for their own supremacy
+and power.
+
+Foremost amongst these was Caius Nepos, the praetorian praefect,
+all-powerful in the absence of the Caesar, well liked by the army, so
+'twas said. Some influential friends clung around him and also some
+malcontents, those who are ever on the spot when destruction is to be
+accomplished, ever ready to overthrow any government which does not
+happen to further their ambitions.
+
+Most of these men were assembled this night beneath the gilded roof of
+Caius Nepos' house. He had gathered all his friends round him, had
+feasted them with good viands and costly wines, with roasted peacocks
+from Gaul and mullets come straight from the sea; he had amused them
+with oriental dancers and Egyptian acrobats, and when they had eaten and
+drunk their fill he bade them good night and sent them home, laden with
+gifts. But his intimates remained behind; pretending to leave with the
+others, they lingered on in the atrium, chatting of indifferent topics
+amongst themselves, until all had gone whose presence would not be
+wanted in the conclave that was to take place.
+
+There were now some forty of them in number, rich patricians all of
+them, their ages ranging from that of young Escanes who was just twenty
+years old to that of Marcus Ancyrus, the elder, who had turned sixty.
+Their combined wealth mayhap would have purchased every inhabited house
+in the entire civilised world or every slave who was ever put up in the
+market. Marcus Ancyrus, they say, could have pulled down every temple in
+the Forum and rebuilt it at his own cost, and Philippus Decius who was
+there had recently spent the sum of fifty million sesterces upon the
+building and equipment of his new villa at Herculaneum.
+
+Young Hortensius Martius was there, too, he who was said to own more
+slaves than anyone else in Rome, and Augustus Philario of the household
+of Caesar, who had once declared that he would give one hundred thousand
+aurei for a secret poison that would defy detection.
+
+"Why is not Taurus Antinor here this evening?" asked Marcus Ancyrus when
+this little group of privileged guests once more turned back toward the
+triclinium.
+
+"I think that he will be here anon," replied the host. "I have sent him
+word that I desired speech with him on business of the State and that I
+craved the honour of his company."
+
+They all assembled at the head of the now deserted tables. The few
+slaves who had remained at the bidding of their master had re-draped
+the couches and re-set the crystal goblets of wine and the gold dishes
+with fresh fruit. The long narrow hall looked strangely mournful now
+that the noisy guests had departed, and the sweet-scented oil in the
+lamps had begun to burn low.
+
+The table, laden with empty jars, with broken goblets, and remnants of
+fruits and cakes, looked uninviting and even weird in its aspect of
+departed cheer. The couches beneath their tumbled draperies of richly
+dyed silk looked bedraggled and forlorn, whilst the stains of wine upon
+the fine white cloths looked like widening streams of blood. Under the
+shadows of elaborate carvings in the marble of the walls ghost-like
+shadows flickered and danced as the smoke from the oil lamp wound its
+spiral curves upwards to the gilded ceiling above. And in the great
+vases of priceless murra roses and lilies and white tuberoses, the
+spoils of costly glasshouses, were slowly drooping in the heavy
+atmosphere. The whole room, despite its rich hangings and gilded
+pillars, wore a curious air of desolation and of gloom; mayhap Caius
+Nepos himself was conscious of this, for as he followed his guests from
+out the atrium he gave three loud claps with his hands, and a troupe of
+young girls came in carrying bunches of fresh flowers and some newly
+filled lamps.
+
+These they placed at the head of the table, there, where the couches
+surrounding it were draped with crimson silk, and soft downy cushions,
+well shaken up, once more called to rest and good cheer.
+
+"I pray you all take your places," said the host pleasantly, "and let us
+resume our supper."
+
+He gave a sign to a swarthy-looking slave, who, clad all in white, was
+presiding at a gorgeous buffet carved of solid citrus-wood
+which--despite the fact that supper had just been served to two hundred
+guests--was once more groaning under the weight of mammoth dishes filled
+with the most complicated products of culinary art.
+
+The slave, at his master's sign, touched a silver gong, and half a dozen
+henchmen in linen tunics brought in the steaming dishes fresh from the
+kitchens. The carver set to and attacked with long sharp knife the
+gigantic capons which one of the bearers had placed before him. He
+carved with quickness and dexterity, placing well-chosen morsels on the
+plates of massive gold which young waiting-maids then carried to the
+guests.
+
+"Wilt dismiss thy slaves before we talk?" asked Marcus Ancyrus, the
+veteran in this small crowd. He himself had been silent for the past ten
+minutes, doing full justice to this second relay of Caius Nepos'
+hospitality.
+
+The waiting-maids were going the round now with gilt basins and cloths
+of fine white linen for the cleansing and drying of fingers between the
+courses; others, in the meanwhile, filled the crystal goblets with red
+or white wine as the guests desired.
+
+"We can talk now," said the host; "these slaves will not heed us. They,"
+he added, nodding in the direction of the carver and his half-dozen
+henchmen, "are all deaf as well as mute, so we need have no fear of
+them."
+
+"What treasures," ejaculated young Escanes with wondering eyes fixed
+upon his lucky host; "where didst get them, Caius Nepos? By the gods, I
+would I could get an army of deaf-mute slaves."
+
+"They are not easy to get," rejoined the other, "but I was mightily
+lucky in my find. I was at Cirta in Numidia at a time when the dusky
+chief there--one named Hazim Rhan--had made a haul of six malcontents
+who I understood had conspired against his authority. It seems that
+these rebels had a leader who had succeeded in escaping to his desert
+fastness, and whom Hazim Rhan greatly desired to capture. To gain this
+object he commanded the six prisoners to betray their leader; this they
+refused to do, whereupon the dusky prince ordered their ears to be cut
+off and threatened them that unless they spoke on the morrow, their
+tongues would be cut off the next day. And if after that they still
+remained obdurate, their heads would go the way of their tongues and
+ears."
+
+Exclamations of horror greeted this gruesome tale, the relevancy of
+which no one had as yet perceived. But Caius Nepos, having pledged his
+friends in a draught of Sicilian wine, resumed:
+
+"I, as an idle traveller from Rome had been received by the dusky
+chieftain with marked deference, and I was greatly interested in the
+fate of the six men who proved so loyal to their leader. So I waited
+three days, and when their tongues and ears had been cut off and their
+heads were finally threatened, I offered to buy them for a sum
+sufficiently large to tempt the cupidity of Hazim Rhan. And thus I had
+in my possession six men whose sense of loyalty had been splendidly
+proved and whose discretion henceforth would necessarily be absolute."
+
+This time a chorus of praise greeted the conclusion of the tale. The
+cynical calm with which it had been told and the ferocious selfishness
+which it revealed seemed in no way repellent to Caius Nepos' guests. A
+few pairs of indifferent eyes were levelled at the slaves and that was
+all. And then Philippus Decius remarked coolly:
+
+"So much for thy carvers and henchmen, O Caius Nepos, but thy
+waiting-maids?--are they deaf and dumb too?"
+
+"No," replied the host, "but they come from foreign lands and do not
+understand our tongue."
+
+"Then you all think that the next few days will be propitious for our
+schemes?" here broke in young Escanes who seemed the most eager amongst
+them all.
+
+"Aye!" said Caius Nepos, "with a little good luck even to-morrow might
+prove the best day. The Caesar is half frenzied now, gorged with his
+triumph, the mockery of which he does not seem to understand. He is more
+like a raving madman than ever, much more feeble in mind and body than
+before this insensate expedition to Germany."
+
+"I suppose that there is no doubt as to the truth of the tales which are
+current about the expedition," quoth Marcus Ancyrus, whose years
+rendered him more cautious than the others.
+
+"No doubt whatever," rejoined the host, "and some of the tales fall far
+short of the truth. There never was a real blow struck during the whole
+time that madman was away. He travelled from place to place in his
+litter borne by eight men, and sent his soldiers ahead of him with
+sprays and buckets of water that they should lay the dust along the road
+on which he would travel. At Trevirorum on the banks of the Rhine, he
+caused two hundred of his picked guard to dress up as barbarians and to
+make feint to attack the camp at midnight. This they did with necessary
+shoutings and clashings of steel against steel. Then did the greatest
+and best of Caesars sally forth in full battle array followed by a few of
+his most trusted men, and in the darkness there was heard more shouting
+and more clashings of steel until Caligula returned in triumph at
+sunrise to his camp. He had passed hempen ropes round the necks of the
+mock barbarians, and ever after had them dragged in the wake of his
+litter, even as if they were prisoners of war. No doubt he had paid them
+well for acting such a farce."
+
+"But was the army blind to all this folly?"
+
+"The Caesar only kept some five hundred picked men round him in his camp.
+These he bribed into acquiescence of all his mad pranks. The rest of the
+legions were some distance away all the time. They believed all that
+they were told; mayhap they thought it wisest to believe."
+
+"I know that in Belgica, on the shores of the ocean----" began Augustus
+Philario after a while.
+
+But he was not allowed to proceed. Shouts of derision broke in upon the
+tale, followed by expressions of rage.
+
+"What is the good of retailing further follies," said Caius Nepos at
+last; "we all know that a madman, a vain, besotted fool wields now the
+sceptre of Julius Caesar and of great Augustus. The numbers of his
+misdeeds are like the grains of sand on the seashore, his orgies have
+shamed our generation, his debauches are a disgrace upon the fame of
+Rome. Patricians awake! The day hath come, the hour is close at hand.
+To-morrow, mayhap, at the public games ... a tumult amongst the people
+... it should be easy to rouse that ... then a well-edged dagger ... and
+the Empire is rid of the most hideous and loathsome tyrant that ever
+brutalised a nation and shamed an empire."
+
+Even as he spoke, and despite the deaf-mute slaves and the foreign
+girls, he lowered his voice until it sank to the merest whisper.
+Reclining upon the couches with elbows buried in silken cushions the
+others all stretched forward now, until two score of heads met in one
+continued circle, forehead to forehead and ear to ear, whilst in the
+midst of them an oil lamp flickered low and lit up at fitful intervals
+the sober, callous faces with the hard mouths and cruel, steely eyes.
+
+The slaves--those who had lost ears and tongue and those who spoke no
+language save their own foreign one--had retreated to the far corners of
+the room, up against the columns of Phrygian marble or the hangings of
+Tyrian tapestries; their great uncomprehending eyes were fixed on that
+compact group at the head of the table, where round the bowls of roses
+and of lilies and the goblets of wine, the future of the Empire of Rome
+was even now being discussed.
+
+"The tumult can be easily provoked," said one of the guests presently--a
+young man whose black hair and dark eyes bespoke his Oriental blood.
+"The Caesar is certain to provoke it himself by some insane act of
+tyrannical folly. Ye must all remember how, two years ago, during the
+Megalesian games he ordered the women of his retinue to descend into the
+arena and to engage the gladiators in combat. At this outrage the
+discontent among the people nearly broke out into open revolt. It was
+thou, Caius Nepos, who checked the tumult then."
+
+"The hour was not ripe," said the latter, "and we were not allied. It
+will be different to-morrow."
+
+"How will it be to-morrow?"
+
+"When the tumult is at its highest, he who has the surest hand shall
+strike the Caesar down. I, in the meanwhile----"
+
+"Then thou, Caius Nepos, art not certain of the sureness of thy hand?"
+interposed Hortensius Martius who hitherto had taken no active part in
+the discussion.
+
+He lay on a couch at some distance from his host and had declined every
+morsel offered to him by the waiting-maids; but he had drunk over
+freely, and his good-looking young face looked flushed and dark beneath
+its wealth of curls. Unlike his usual self he was ill-humoured and
+almost morose to-night, and there was a dark, glowering look in his eyes
+as from time to time he cast furtive glances towards the door.
+
+"Nay, good Hortensius," said the host loftily, "mine will be the greater
+part. The praetorian guard know and trust me. It will be my duty when
+the Caesar is attacked to keep them from rushing to his aid. The army is
+apt to forget a tyrant's crime, and to think of him only as a leader to
+be obeyed. But when the guard hear my voice, they will understand and
+will be true to me."
+
+"'Tis I will strike," now broke in young Escanes, with all the
+enthusiasm of his years. The ardour of leadership glowed upon his face,
+and he seemed to challenge this small assembly to dispute his right to
+the foremost place in the great event of the morrow.
+
+But his challenge was not taken up; no one else seemed eager to dispute
+his wish. Somewhat sobered, he resumed more calmly:
+
+"The Caesar hath much affection for me. I oft sat beside him in the
+Circus or at the games last year. The Augustas too like to have me
+beside them, to talk pleasing gossip in their ears. 'Twill be easiest
+for me, at a signal given, to strike with my dagger in the Caesar's
+throat."
+
+"Thine shall be that glory, O Escanes, since thou dost will it so," said
+Caius Nepos, not without a touch of irony. "Directly the deed is done,
+the praetorian guard shall raise the cry: 'The Caesar is dead!'"
+
+"And it should at once be followed by another," said Marcus Ancyrus, the
+elder, "by 'Hail to thee, O mighty Caesar!'"
+
+"'Tis thou shouldst raise that cry, O Caius Nepos," said Hortensius with
+a sarcastic curl of his lip.
+
+"Oh! as to that----" began the other with some hesitation.
+
+"Aye! as to that," said Escanes hotly, "if I slay the tyrant to-morrow
+with mine own hand, then must I know at least for whom I do the deed."
+
+There was silence after that. Everyone seemed absorbed in his own
+thoughts. Dreamy eyes gazed abstractedly in crystal goblets, as if
+vainly trying to trace in its crimson depths the outline of an imperial
+sceptre. At last Caius Nepos spoke:
+
+"Let us be rid of the tyrant first. The army then will soon elect its
+new chief."
+
+"And is it on the support of the army, O praefect! that thou dost base
+thine own hopes of supreme power?" asked Hortensius, whose ill-humour
+seemed to grow on him more and more.
+
+"Nay!" retorted Caius Nepos, "I did not know that by so doing I was
+dashing thine!"
+
+"Silence," admonished Marcus Ancyrus, the elder. "Are we children or
+slaves that we should wrangle thus? Have we met here in order to rid the
+Empire of an abominable and bloodthirsty tyrant, or are we mere vulgar
+conspirators pursuing our own ends? There was no thought in our host's
+mind of supreme power, O Hortensius! nor in thine, I'll vow. As for me,
+I care nought for the imperium," he added naively, "it is difficult to
+content everyone, and a permanent consulship under our chosen Caesar were
+more to my liking. Bring forth thy tablets, O Caius Nepos, and we'll put
+the matter to the vote. There are not many of the House of Caesar fit to
+succeed the present madman, and our choice there will be limited."
+
+"There is but Claudius, the brother of Germanicus," interposed the host
+curtly.
+
+"Germanicus' brother to succeed Germanicus' son," said another with a
+contemptuous shrug of the shoulders.
+
+"And he is as crazy as his nephew," added Caius Nepos.
+
+He had not assembled his friends here to-night, he had not feasted them
+and loaded them with gifts with a view to passing the imperium merely
+from one head to another. He was fairly sure of the support of the
+praetorian guard, whose praefect he was, and had counted on the
+adherence of these malcontents, who he hoped would look to him for
+future favours whilst raising him to supreme dignity.
+
+He liked not this talk of the family of Caesar which took the attention
+of his closest adherents away from his own claim.
+
+"The entire House of Caesar," he said, "is rotten to the core. There is
+not one member of it fit to rule."
+
+"But of a truth," said prudent Ancyrus, "they have the foremost claim."
+
+"Then if that be the case," broke in young Hortensius Martius suddenly,
+"let us turn to the one member of the House of Caesar who is noble and
+pure, exalted above all."
+
+"There is none such," said Caius Nepos hotly.
+
+"Aye! there is one," retorted the younger man.
+
+"His name?" came loudly from every side.
+
+"I spoke of a woman."
+
+"A woman!"
+
+And shouts of derisive laughter broke from every lip. Only Marcus
+Ancyrus remained grave and thoughtful, and now he said:
+
+"Dost perchance speak of Dea Flavia Augusta?"
+
+"Even of her," replied Hortensius.
+
+Involuntarily at the name, the voice of the older man had assumed a
+respectful tone, and all around the vulgar sneers and bitter mockery had
+died away as if by magic contact with something hallowed and pure.
+
+Even Caius Nepos thought it wise to subdue his tone of contempt, and
+merely said curtly:
+
+"A goddess of a truth, but a woman cannot lead an army or rule an
+empire."
+
+"No," rejoined Hortensius Martius, "but a wise and virtuous woman can
+rule wisely and virtuously over the man whom she will choose for mate."
+
+There was silence for a moment or two, whilst young Hortensius' glowing
+eyes swept questioningly over the assembly. Everyone there knew of his
+passion for the Augusta, a passion, in truth, shared by many of those
+who had the privilege of knowing her intimately, and strangely enough
+though the proposal had so much daring in it, it met with but little
+opposition.
+
+"Wouldst thou then suggest, O Hortensius Martius," quoth Marcus Ancyrus,
+the elder, after a slight pause, "that the Augusta's husband be made
+Emperor of Rome?"
+
+"Why not?" retorted the other simply.
+
+"It is not a bad notion," mused young Escanes, who thought himself high
+in the favour of Dea Flavia.
+
+"An admirable one," assented Ancyrus, "for we must remember that Dea
+Flavia Augusta is of the true blood of the Caesars--the blood of the
+great Augustus--and there is none better. Since she, as a woman, cannot
+rule men or lead an army, what more fitting than that her lord, whoever
+he might be, should receive the imperium through her hands?"
+
+"He might prove to be a more miserable creature than the Caligula
+himself," suggested Philario, who was too ill-favoured to have hopes of
+winning the proud and imperious beauty for himself.
+
+"Nay! that were impossible," asserted Hortensius hotly; "the man whom
+Dea Flavia will favour will be a brave man else he would not dare to woo
+her; he will be honourable and noble else he could never win her."
+
+"Methinks that thou art right, O Hortensius," added Ancyrus, who had
+taken upon himself the role of a wise and prudent counsellor, "and
+moreover he will be rich by virtue of the wealth which the Augusta will
+have as her marriage portion; her money, merged with the State funds,
+would be of vast benefit to the land."
+
+"And on his death his son and hers--a direct descendant of great
+Augustus--would be the only fitting heir," concluded another.
+
+"Meseems," now said Ancyrus decisively, "that we would solve a grave
+difficulty by accepting the suggestion made by Hortensius Martius. The
+imperium--as is only just--would remain in the family of the great
+Augustus. We should have a brave, noble and rich Caesar whose virtuous
+and beautiful wife would wield beneficial influence over him, and for
+the present we should all be working for unselfish ends; not one of us
+here present can say for a certainty whom the Augusta will choose for
+mate. Directly the tyrant is swept out of the way, we, who have brought
+about the great end, will ask her to make her choice. Thus our aims will
+have been pure and selfless; each one of us here will have risked all
+for the sake of an unknown. What say you friends? Shall we pledge our
+loyalty to the man whom not one of us here can name this day--a man
+mayhap still unknown to us: the future lord of Dea Flavia Augusta of the
+House of Caesar?"
+
+The peroration seemed greatly to the liking of the assembled company:
+the thought that they would all be working with pure and selfless
+motives flattered these men's egregious vanity; vaguely every one of
+them hoped that all the others would believe in his unselfish aims, even
+whilst everyone meant to work solely for his own ends. Hortensius
+Martius' proposal pleased because it opened out such magnificent
+possibilities: the imperium itself, which had seemed infinitely remote
+from so many, now appeared within reach of all.
+
+Anyone who was young, well-favoured, and of patrician birth might aspire
+to the hand of the Augusta, and not one of those who possessed at least
+two of those qualifications doubted his own ability to win.
+
+Raising himself to a more upright position, Marcus Ancyrus the elder,
+goblet in hand, looked round for approval on all the guests.
+
+The murmur of acquiescence was well-nigh general, and many there were
+who held their goblets to the waiting-maids in order to have them filled
+and then drained them to the last dregs. But there were a few
+dissentient voices, chiefly among the less-favoured who, like Philario,
+could hardly dare approach a beautiful woman with thoughts of wooing
+her.
+
+Caius Nepos had not taken up the pledge, nor had he taken any part in
+the discussion since Dea Flavia's name first passed the lips of young
+Hortensius. Indeed, as the latter seemed to lose his ill-humour and
+become flushed and excited with the approval of his friends, so did the
+host gradually become more and more morose and silent.
+
+Clearly the proposal to leave the matter of the choice of a Caesar in the
+hands of a woman was not to his liking. Though good-looking and still in
+the prime of life he had never found favour with women, and Dea Flavia
+had often shown open contempt for him, and for the selfish ambition
+which moved his every action, and which he was at no pains to conceal.
+
+It was easy to see, by the glowering look on his face, that the meeting
+this night had not turned out as he had wished.
+
+"We cannot decide this matter otherwise than by vote," said one of the
+guests when the murmurs of approval and those of dissent had equally
+died down.
+
+"Thou art right, O friend," assented Ancyrus, "and I pray thee, Caius
+Nepos, order thy slaves to bring us the tablets, and let each man record
+his vote according to his will."
+
+Caius Nepos could find no objection to this, even though the question of
+voting was in no way to his liking. He had a vague hope, mayhap, that by
+gaining time he might succeed in sowing seeds of discord amongst those
+who had been so ready to accede to the new proposal; any moment even
+now--a chance word spoken, a trifling incident, an incipient quarrel
+might sway these men and bring them back to their allegiance to himself.
+He had been so sure of their support; the banquet this night had been
+destined to set the seal to their fealty and to cement their friendship:
+it was more than exasperating that the suggestion of a young fool should
+have caused them to swerve from their promised adherence.
+
+For the moment however, he could not help but acquiesce outwardly in the
+wish of the majority. After an imperceptible moment of hesitation, he
+called to one of his deaf-mute slaves and made him understand by signs
+that he wanted forty wax tablets prepared and brought hither with forty
+stylets wherewith to write. Then he cheerily bade his guests once more
+to eat and drink and to make merry.
+
+And it was characteristic of these strange products of a decadent age,
+that in the midst of grave discussions wherein their own lives and their
+future aggrandisement were at stake, these men were quite ready to
+respond to their host's invitation and momentarily to forget their own
+ambitious schemes in the enjoyment of epicurean delights.
+
+Wine and fruit were once more handed round; both were excellent, and
+during a brief interval mighty issues were set aside and conversation
+became more general and more free. The pageant of games and combats
+which was to last for over thirty days in honour of the deification of
+Caligula and his safe return from Germany became the subject of eager
+talk. There had been rumours of a remarkable load of African lions
+arrived in the Tiber a day or two ago, which were to make a gorgeous
+spectacle in the arena pitted against some tigers from Numidia. There
+was also talk of a novelty in the shape of crocodiles who were said to
+fight with great cunning and power against a pack of hyenas from the
+desert.
+
+Then there would be the chariot races and gladiatorial combats; heavy
+betting on these events had been in progress for some time all over the
+city among the wealthy patricians as well as among the impoverished
+plebs; the respective merits of the blues, the greens, the reds, and the
+yellows were the subject of heated discussions, and Caius Nepos was glad
+to note that more than a suspicion of antagonism was aroused between his
+guests in the defence of their respective choice.
+
+He only took a very cursory part in the discussion, putting in a word
+here and there where contradiction or approval might further inflame
+overheated tempers.
+
+And he ordered his slaves to pour the wine with a free hand, and himself
+was ready to pledge every one of his guests over and over again for as
+long as they were ready to drink.
+
+Inside the room the heat had become excessive, the evening air only
+entered through narrow windows, and the gentle breeze did no more than
+fan the flames of the oil lamps or make the petals of dying roses
+tremble and fall. The noise grew louder and louder as the fumes of heady
+wines obscured the brains of these makers of future empires. Slaves were
+called for loudly to undo the tunics and to help cast off all but the
+necessary garments.
+
+Every face round the table now was flushed and moist; every forehead
+streaming with perspiration. Escanes, goblet in hand, was singing a
+ribald song, the chorus of which was taken up by the group of young men
+nearest to him. The older ones were making insane bets and driving
+preposterous bargains over horses and slaves.
+
+By the time that the slaves had returned with the tablets the praetorian
+praefect had cause to be satisfied with the temper of his guests. Coarse
+jests and drunken oaths were heard more often than whispered serious
+talk, the names of popular gladiators seemed of more account than those
+of future Caesars. Arguments were loud and violent; every mouth
+slobbered, every lip trembled and every eye glowed with unnatural
+brightness: curls were dishevelled and laurel crowns awry; the silken
+draperies on the couches had become tattered rags and the cushions were
+scattered all about the floor; debris of crystal vases littered the
+table and bunches of dying flowers were tossed about by unsteady hands.
+
+Given a little more time, a few more draughts of Sicilian wine, and all
+thoughts of voting for a future Caesar would be beyond the mental power
+of these degenerates, and drunken quarrels would turn to violent enmity.
+This Caius Nepos had in mind when he took the tablets from the slaves,
+and threw them down with affected carelessness on the table before him.
+
+"We cannot vote," he said loudly, "whilst Taurus Antinor is not here."
+
+His words were even more potent than he had hoped; all that he had
+wanted was further delay, and most of his guests nodded approval with
+drunken solemnity and then called for more wine. But Hortensius Martius
+who, though he had drunk as heavily as the others, had not joined in the
+ribald songs or the senseless orgy of shouts and of laughter, now jumped
+up with a violent oath.
+
+"What hath Taurus Antinor to do with us?" he shouted at the top of his
+voice, "or we with Taurus Antinor? Ye do not intend, I trust, to raise a
+freedman to the imperium and place the sceptre of Caesar in the hands of
+a descendant of slaves!"
+
+He was trembling with such unbridled fury, his eyes glowed with the lust
+of such deadly hate that instinctively the ribald songs and immoderate
+laughter were hushed, and eyes, veiled with the film of intoxication
+were turned wonderingly upon him.
+
+But Caius Nepos was smiling blandly: the ire of Hortensius pleased him
+even though he did not understand its cause.
+
+"Nay, as to that," he said, "are we not all descended from slaves?
+Taurus Antinor hath the ear of the plebs. Doth suggest, O Hortensius,
+that he also hath the ear of Dea Flavia Augusta?"
+
+He had shot this arrow into the air, little guessing how hard and truly
+it would hit.
+
+Hortensius was making vigorous efforts to curb his temper, biting his
+lips until tiny drops of blood slowly trickled down his chin. But he
+felt that the mocking eyes of his host were upon him, and had just a
+sufficiency of reason left in him to see through the machinations of
+Caius Nepos. He would not hold himself up to ridicule now before those
+who should prove his strong supporters in the future; his proposal had
+not yet been put to the vote, and he did not mean to alienate his
+adherents by an insane show of maniacal rage.
+
+"Of that," he said in response to his host's taunt, and in a voice
+quivering with the mighty effort of control, "of that there is but
+little fear. The Augusta is too proud to look with favour on a stranger;
+as for me, I would sooner ask Escanes to plunge his dagger in my throat
+than I would serve the Empire under the Caesarship of Taurus Antinor."
+
+"Thou canst record thy vote as thou thinkest best," said Caius Nepos
+with calm urbanity. And those who were sufficiently sober nodded
+approval with solemn gravity.
+
+"Nay," here interposed Marcus Ancyrus with stern reproof, "before we
+begin to vote let us be agreed on one point: let us be prepared to swear
+by the gods that we will adhere truly and loyally to the choice of the
+majority--and if, as meseems is likely, we agree that the unknown future
+husband of Dea Flavia Augusta become the ruler of us all, then must we
+swear to proclaim him the Caesar with one accord, else doth our voting
+become a mere farce. Friends, before ye vote, are you ready to take this
+oath?"
+
+"Aye! aye!" came from almost every mouth round the table. But they
+nodded like automatons, with heavy heads that rolled on bowed shoulders
+and blurred eyes half-hidden behind closing lids.
+
+"I'll not swear allegiance to Taurus Antinor," persisted Hortensius
+obstinately.
+
+"Dost think it likely that the Augusta favours him?" asked the host
+ironically.
+
+"No--but----"
+
+"Then what hast thou to fear?"
+
+"As for me," interposed young Escanes in a thick voice broken by
+hiccoughs, "I am ready to swear as Marcus Ancyrus directs. If we are not
+satisfied with the new Caesar, whoever he may be, my dagger will not rust
+in the meanwhile; I can easily whet it again."
+
+Even as these last cynical words left the young man's lips there came
+from outside the noise of much shouting and shuffling of naked feet, and
+anon the sound of a voice, loud and harsh, asking for leave to speak
+with the praetorian praefect. Caius Nepos paused, tablets in hand.
+Strangely enough the voice, though well-known, seemed to have a sobering
+effect on all these ebullient tempers. Marcus Ancyrus, who was the most
+calm among them all, threw a quick glance of inquiry on his host, one or
+two furtive glances were exchanged, a look that was half-ashamed crept
+into some of the faces, and there were hurried, whispered calls to the
+slaves to bring the bags of ice.
+
+Quickly the tunics were re-adjusted and an attempt made at
+re-establishing some semblance of decorum round the table. Caius Nepos
+was giving hastily whispered directions to the waiting-maids.
+
+"Pull that coverlet straight, quick!" he ordered, "and those cushions,
+pick them off the ground ... that broken vase, set it aside.... There!
+try and hide that wine stain with a fresh cloth."
+
+And all the while rapid, eager questions flew from mouth to mouth.
+
+"Wilt tell him at once, O Caius Nepos?"
+
+"Or wilt ply him with wine first?"
+
+"'Twere safer."
+
+"Nay! nay!" said Escanes, whose wrists and ankles were being bathed,
+"that would take too long. Taurus Antinor hath a strong head, and I, for
+one, could not keep sober another half-hour."
+
+"Dost know if he is at one with us?" was the query that came from every
+side.
+
+Hortensius Martius alone had remained silent. He did not call either for
+water or for ice. It was his hatred that had sobered him, making the
+lines of his face set and hard, causing the flush to die from his cheeks
+and leaving them ashy pale.
+
+"Dost know if he is at one with us?" reiterated Augustus Philario
+impatiently.
+
+He had ordered a slave to hold lumps of ice to his forehead, whilst
+Philippus Decius--lying next to him--was having perfume rubbed into the
+back of his neck.
+
+"We must look stern and deliberate," said Ancyrus. "Dost know, O Caius
+Nepos, if he is at one with us?"
+
+"We must enlist him," rejoined the latter hurriedly; "he holds the
+plebs, and without his help our position might become difficult. A word
+from him to the crowd and the new Caesar is assured of peace within the
+city."
+
+"Then do thou tell him what has been decided," said one of the others
+who was busy smoothing his tangled hair.
+
+"No, no!" whispered cautious Ancyrus, the elder, "have a care ... thou,
+Caius Nepos, must probe him ere thou speakest."
+
+"Tell him naught of Escanes' dagger," added another hurriedly.
+
+"Speak of abdication," said the older man, "of anything that comes in
+thy mind. Some men there are who----"
+
+But he had no time to explain his meaning further, for the next moment
+Taurus Antinor stepped into the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+"There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets."--PROVERBS
+XXVI. 13.
+
+
+He had exchanged his embroidered tunic for a gorgeous synthesis of
+crimson embroidered with gold, which set off to perfection the somewhat
+barbaric splendour of his personality, and as he stood there massive and
+erect, beneath the gilded beams of Caius Nepos' dining-hall, with the
+slaves at his feet undoing the strings of his shoes, he looked every
+inch the ruler for whom all these men here were blindly and senselessly
+seeking.
+
+His deep-set eyes beneath that stern frown had swept quickly over the
+assembly as he entered, and though now comparative order had been
+restored and a semblance of calm reigned around the table, Taurus
+Antinor did not fail to note the flushed faces and glowing eyes, the
+broken goblets, and stained and tattered cloths which gave ugly evidence
+of the riotous orgy that had gone before.
+
+But though forty pairs of eyes were fixed upon his face, none could
+boast that they had perceived any change in its somewhat severe
+impassiveness as he now advanced towards his host.
+
+"Greeting to thee, O Caius Nepos!" he said. "I crave thy pardon for my
+late coming, but I had other duties to which to attend."
+
+"Duties?" said Caius Nepos lightly; "nay, Taurus Antinor, there are just
+now duties so high and sacred that others must of necessity stand aside
+for these! But of this more anon. Wilt rest now and partake of wine?"
+
+"I thank thee, good Caius," replied the praefect, "but I have supped,
+and only came at thy bidding, because thou didst say that affairs of
+State would claim our attention this night."
+
+To all those present he gave courteous if not very hearty greeting. Then
+did his glance encounter that of Hortensius Martius who alone had said
+no word or made a movement to welcome him.
+
+There was a vacant place beside young Hortensius, and Taurus Antinor
+took it, but he did not lie along the cushions as the others did but
+half sat, half leaned on the couch, and turning to the young man said
+simply:
+
+"I give thee greeting, O Hortensius! I had no thought of meeting thee
+here."
+
+"I told thee yesterday that I would be present," said the other curtly.
+
+"I remember now and am proud and honoured to sit by thy side; wilt
+pledge me in a goblet of wine?"
+
+He had forced his rough voice to tones of gentleness. Hortensius Martius
+raised his glowering eyes with some curiosity on his face.
+
+But a day and a night had elapsed since his life had lain wholly at the
+mercy of this powerful giant whom he had insulted, and who had been on
+the point of punishing that insult with death.
+
+Young Hortensius, held aloft in the mighty grip of the praefect twenty
+feet above the flagstones of the Forum, seeing a hideous death waiting
+for him below, did not even now realise how it came to pass that--when
+he recovered from the swoon into which horror and fear had thrown
+him--he found himself being tended by an old woman, and anon delivered
+safe and sound into the keeping of his slaves; he had entered his litter
+and been borne to his home still marvelling, but of the praefect of
+Rome he had not since then seen a trace.
+
+He had questioned his slaves who swore that from the arcades of the
+tabernae, where they had been waiting, they had seen nothing of what
+went on around the rostra. Hortensius knew that they lied, they must
+have seen something of the quarrel; they must have seen him being
+carried like a recalcitrant child up to the top of the highest rostrum,
+and threatened with awful punishment by the very man whom he had
+affected to despise. They must also have seen the praefect relenting,
+carrying him down again, content apparently with the fright which he had
+given him.
+
+His slaves must have been witnesses to his humiliation, and now were
+afraid to tell him what they had seen; and for the first time in his
+life Hortensius Martius felt a wave of cruelty pass over him, in an
+insensate desire to make the slaves speak under pressure of torture.
+
+At the time he was ashamed to seem too eager and had forborne to
+question further. But he allowed his humiliation to breed the
+quick-growing weed of hate. When first the name of Taurus Antinor was
+mentioned he realised how that weed had grown apace, and now that he sat
+beside him, and felt the inquisitive eyes of his host fixed with
+ill-concealed mockery upon him, he knew in his innermost heart that
+after this day there would no longer be room in the city of Rome for
+himself as well as for this man who had vanquished and humiliated him.
+
+For the moment, however, he did not care to proclaim before all these
+men the hatred which he felt for Taurus Antinor. Thoughts of supreme
+grandeur were coursing through his brain. He knew that no one stood so
+high in Dea Flavia's graces as he himself had done this year past, and
+that no one was so like to win her for wife, since she had in her own
+proud and aloof way already accepted his respectful wooing.
+
+Therefore, putting a rein upon his jealousy and upon his unruly tongue,
+he took up a goblet and responded to the pledge of the man whom he
+hated. But whilst Antinor drained the crystal cup to the dregs young
+Hortensius scarcely wetted his lips, and pretending to drink deeply, he
+kept his eyes fixed upon the praefect of Rome.
+
+It seemed to him as if he had never really seen him before, so sharp are
+the eyes of hate that they see much that is usually hidden to those of
+indifference. Young Hortensius, over the edge of his goblet, embraced
+with a steady glance the whole person of his enemy--the massive frame,
+the strong limbs, the hands and feet slender and strong. He looked
+straight into those deep-set eyes over which a perpetual frown always
+cast a shadow, and saw that they were of an intense shade of blue and
+with a strange look in them of kindliness and of peace, which belied the
+stern fierceness of the face and the wilful obstinacy of the massive
+jaw.
+
+But now Caius Nepos began to speak. Taking the advice of Marcus Ancyrus
+the elder, he spoke vaguely, trying to probe the thoughts that lay
+hidden behind the Anglicanus' furrowed brow. He had received advice, he
+said that the Caesar was tired of government and wished to spend some
+quiet days in the Palace of Tiberius, on the island of Capraea; all this
+cleverly interwoven with sighs of hope as to what a happier future might
+bring if the Empire were rid--quite peaceably, of course--of the tyranny
+of a semi-brutish despot.
+
+Then, as Taurus Antinor made no comment on his peroration, he recalled
+in impassioned language all that Rome had witnessed in the past three
+years of depravity, of turpitude, of senseless and maniacal orgies and
+of bestial cruelty, all perpetrated by the one man to whom blind Fate
+had given supreme power.
+
+"And to whom, alas!" said Taurus Antinor in calm response to the glowing
+speech, "we have all of us here sworn loyalty and obedience."
+
+There was silence after this. Despite the lingering fumes of wine that
+obscured the brain, everyone felt that with these few words the praefect
+of Rome had already given an answer, and that nothing that could be said
+after this would have the power of making him alter his decision. But
+Marcus Ancyrus, conscious of his own powers of diplomacy, took up the
+thread of his host's peroration.
+
+"Aye! but we should be obeying him," he said simply, "if we accept his
+abdication."
+
+"There is no disloyalty," asserted Escanes, "in rejoicing at such an
+issue, if the Caesar himself doth will it so."
+
+"None," admitted the praefect; "but there would be grave difficulty in
+choosing a successor."
+
+"To this," said the host, "we have given grave consideration."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"And have come to a decision which we all think would best serve the
+welfare of the State."
+
+"May I hear this decision?"
+
+"It means just this, O praefect! that since the sceptre of Caesar must,
+if possible, remain in the House of Caesar, and since no man of that
+House is worthy to wield it, we would ask the Augusta Dea Flavia to take
+to herself a lord and husband, on whom, by virtue of his marriage, the
+imperium would rest for his life, and after his death fall on the direct
+descendant of great Augustus himself."
+
+Taurus Antinor had not made a sign whilst Caius Nepos thus briefly put
+before him the main outline of the daring project, and Hortensius
+Martius, who was watching him closely, could not detect the slightest
+change in the earnest face even when Dea Flavia's name was spoken. Now,
+when Nepos paused as if waiting for comment, Antinor said gravely:
+
+"Ye must pardon me, but I am a stranger to the social life in Rome. Will
+you tell me who this man is whom the Augusta will so highly favour?"
+
+"Nay, as to that," said Caius Nepos, "we none of us know it as yet! Dea
+Flavia has smiled on many, but up to now hath made no choice."
+
+"Then 'tis to an unknown man ye would all pledge your loyalty?"
+
+"Unknown, yet vaguely guessed at, O praefect," here broke in Escanes,
+with his usual breezy cheerfulness; "we all feel that Dea Flavia's
+choice can but fall on an honourable man."
+
+"Thou speakest truly," rejoined Taurus Antinor earnestly; "but I fear me
+that for the present your schemes are too vague. The Augusta hath made
+no choice of a husband as yet, and the Caesar is still your chosen lord."
+
+"A brutish madman, who----"
+
+"You chose him----"
+
+"Since then he hath become a besotted despot."
+
+"Still your Emperor--to whom you owe your dignities, your power, your
+rank----"
+
+"Thou dost defend him warmly, O praefect of Rome," suddenly interposed
+Hortensius Martius who had followed every phase of the discussion with
+heated brow and eyes alert and glowing. "Thou art ready to continue this
+life of submission to a maniacal tyrant, to a semi-bestial
+mountebank----"
+
+"The life which I lead is of mine own making," rejoined Taurus Antinor
+proudly; "the life ye lead is the one ye have chosen."
+
+And with significant glance his dark eyes took in every detail of the
+disordered room--the littered table, the luxurious couches, the
+numberless empty dishes and broken goblets as well as the flushed faces
+and the trembling hands, and involuntarily, perhaps, a look of harsh
+contempt spread over his face.
+
+Hortensius caught the look and winced under it; the words that had
+accompanied it had struck him as with a lash, and further whipped up his
+already violent rage.
+
+"And," he retorted with an evil sneer, "to the Caesar thou wilt render
+homage even in his most degraded orgies, and wilt lick the dust from off
+his shoes when he hath kicked thee in the mouth."
+
+Slowly Taurus Antinor turned to him, and Hortensius Martius appeared
+just then so like a naughty child, that the look of harshness died out
+of the praefect's eyes, and a smile almost of amusement, certainly of
+indulgence, lit up for a moment the habitual sternness of his face.
+
+"Loyalty to Caesar," he said simply, "doth not mean obsequiousness, as
+all Roman patricians should know, oh Hortensius!"
+
+"Aye! but meseems," rejoined the young man, whose voice had become
+harsher and more loud as that of Taurus Antinor became more subdued and
+low, "meseems that at the cost of thy manhood thou at least art prepared
+to render unto Caesar----"
+
+But even as these words escaped his lips the praefect, with a quick
+peremptory gesture, placed one slim, strong hand on Hortensius' wrist.
+
+It seemed as if in a moment--and because of those words--a strange
+power had gone forth from the soul within right down to the tips of the
+slender fingers that closed on those of the younger man with a grip of
+steel.
+
+He had raised himself wholly upright on the couch, his massive figure,
+in the gorgeous crimson tunic, standing out clear and trenchant against
+the shadowy whiteness of the marble walls behind him. His head, with the
+ruddy mass of hair on which the flickering lamps threw brilliant, golden
+lights, was thrown back, and the eyes, deep, intent, and glowing with
+unrevealed ardour, looked straight out before him into the shadows.
+
+"Render unto Caesar," he said slowly, "the things which are Caesar's, and
+unto God the things that are God's."
+
+His voice was low and unmodulated, as of one who repeats something that
+he has heard before, whilst the eyes suddenly shone as if with a
+fleeting memory of an exquisite vision.
+
+The action, the words, were but momentary, but for that brief moment the
+angry retort was checked on Hortensius' lips, even as were the sneers
+and the bibulous scowls on the faces of those around. Taurus Antinor,
+towering above them all, and imbued with a strange dignity, seemed to be
+gazing into a space beyond the walls of the gorgeous dining-hall; into a
+space hidden from their understanding but peopled with the sweet memory
+of a sacred past. And even as he gazed a strange spell fell over these
+voluptuaries; a spell which they were unable to withstand. Whilst it
+lasted every ribald word was stilled and every drunken oath lulled to
+silence. The very air seemed hushed and only from a bunch of dying roses
+the withered petals were heard to fall one by one.
+
+Then the grasp on Hortensius' wrist relaxed, the dark head was lowered,
+the falling lids once more hid the mysterious radiance of the eyes. The
+spell was broken as Taurus Antinor resumed quietly:
+
+"The Caesar," he said, "hath not yet abdicated; he is still our chosen
+ruler and Emperor. To speak of his successor now savours of treachery
+and----"
+
+"And what thou sayest stinks of treachery," broke in Hortensius Martius
+with redoubled wrath, and shaking himself free from the brief spell of
+superstitious awe which Antinor's words and Antinor's grip on his arm
+had momentarily cast over him. "Hast come here, O praefect, but to spy
+on us, to probe our souls and use them for thine own selfish ends?"
+
+"Silence, Hortensius!" admonished Ancyrus, the elder.
+
+"Nay, I'll not be silent!" retorted the young man, who seemed at last to
+have lost all control over his jealous passion. His eyes, in which
+gleamed the fire of intense hate, swept from the face of his enemy to
+that of his friends whom they challenged. His voice had become raucous
+and hoarse and his tongue refused him service, making his words sound
+inarticulate.
+
+"Do ye not see," he shouted, turning his flushed face toward the others,
+"do you not see how you are being fooled? The praefect stands high in
+the Caesar's favour, he has the Caesar's ear----"
+
+"Silence!" broke in in peremptory accents the voice of Caius Nepos, the
+host.
+
+"Silence!" cried some of the younger men.
+
+"No! No! I'll shout! I'll shout!" persisted Hortensius with the crazy
+obstinacy of one whose mind is obscured with liquor and with passion,
+"I'll shout until you understand. Fools, I tell ye! Fools are ye all!
+You tell this man of your schemes, of your plans! He listens blandly to
+you!... You fools! you fools! Not to have suspected ere this that his
+so-called loyalty to Caesar masks his treachery to us!"
+
+He was kneeling now upon his couch, and with clenched hands was pounding
+against the cushions like an angry child. The tumult became general;
+everyone was shouting. Those who were nearest to this raving young
+maniac were trying to seize him, but he waved his arms about like the
+wings of a night bird, and anon he seized a goblet of heavy solid metal
+and struck out with it to the right and left of him, so that none dared
+come nigh.
+
+But the praefect stood quietly beside him, with arms held very tightly
+across his mighty chest, his dark eyes fixed upon the raving figure on
+the couch. No one had ventured to approach him, for the feeling of
+superstitious awe which he had aroused in them a while ago had not
+wholly died down, and now there was such a look of contempt and of wrath
+in his face that instinctively the most sober drew away from him, and
+those whose minds were obscured with wine looked upon him in ever
+growing terror.
+
+Suddenly Hortensius, brandishing the heavy goblet, raised it high above
+his head, and with a drunken and desperate gesture he flung it in the
+direction of the praefect, but his hand had trembled and his arm was
+unsteady. The goblet missed the head of Taurus Antinor and fell crashing
+along the marble-topped table, bringing a quantity of crystal down with
+it in its fall.
+
+A few drops of the wine from the goblet had fallen on Taurus Antinor's
+tunic, and from the parched throat of young Hortensius there rose a
+hoarse and immoderate laugh and a string of violent oaths. But even
+before these had fully escaped his lips he saw the praefect's dark face
+quite close to his own, and felt a grip as of a double vice of steel
+fastening on both his shoulders.
+
+He knew the grip and had felt it before; no claw of desert beast was
+firmer or more unrelenting. Young Hortensius felt his whole body give
+way, his very bones crack beneath that mighty grip. His head, overheated
+with wine, fell back against the cushions of his couch, and he felt as
+if the last breath in him was leaving his enfeebled body.
+
+"Thou art a fool indeed, Hortensius," murmured a harsh voice close to
+his ear; "a fool to provoke a man beyond the power of his control."
+
+Then as at a word from the host, the other men--those who were steady on
+their feet--tried to interpose, Taurus Antinor turned his face to them.
+
+"Have no fear," he said quite calmly, "for this man. He shall come to no
+harm. Twice hath he insulted me and twice have I held his life in my
+hands."
+
+Then, as Hortensius uttered an involuntary cry of rage or of pain,
+Taurus Antinor spoke once more to him:
+
+"Thy life is in my hands yet will I not kill thee, even though I could
+do it with just the tightening of my fingers round thy throat. But
+provoke me not a third time, O Hortensius, for I have in my possession a
+heavy-thonged whip, and this would I use on thee even as I order it to
+be used on the miscreant thieves that are brought to my tribunal. So
+cross not my path again, dost understand? I am but a man and have not an
+inexhaustible stock of patience."
+
+Whilst he spoke he still held young Hortensius down pinioned amongst the
+cushions. No one interfered, for it had dawned on every blurred mind
+there that here lay a deeper cause for quarrel than mere political
+conflict. Hortensius, though vanquished now, had been like a madman; his
+unprovoked insults had come from a heart overburdened with jealousy and
+with hate. Now when the praefect relaxed his grip upon him, he lay for
+a while quite still, and anon Caius Nepos beckoned to his slaves, and
+they it was who ministered to him, bathing his forehead with water and
+holding lumps of ice to the palms of his hands.
+
+Taurus Antinor had straightened out his tall figure. For a moment he
+looked down with bitter scorn on the prostrate figure of his vanquished
+foe. The awed silence which his strange words of a while ago had imposed
+upon the others, still hung upon them all. They stood about in groups,
+whispering below their breath, and the slaves were huddled up one
+against the other in the distant corners of the room. An air of mystery
+still hung over the magnificent triclinium, its convivial board, its
+abandoned couches, over the vases of murra and crystal and the fast
+dying roses. It seemed as if some personality--great, majestic,
+divine--had passed through the marble hall and that the sound of sacred
+feet still echoed softly along its walls.
+
+It almost seemed as if there clung a radiance in that shadowy corner
+where the eyes of an enthusiast had sought and found the memory of the
+Divine Teacher; and that in the fume-laden air there lingered the odour
+of the sacrifice offered by a rough, untutored heart to the Man Who had
+spoken unforgettable words seven years ago in Galilee.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+"That the world through Him might be saved."--ST. JOHN III. 17.
+
+
+Taurus Antinor had bidden farewell to his host, and to the other guests
+and then departed.
+
+Not another word had been spoken on the subject of the Caesar or of his
+probable successor. The conspirators, somewhat sobered, had allowed the
+praefect to go without attempting further effort to gain him to their
+cause. They had had their answer. Though many of them did not quite
+understand the full depth of its meaning, yet were they satisfied that
+it was final. They bade him farewell quietly and without enmity; somehow
+the thought of their murderous plan had momentarily fled from their
+mind, and the quarrel between Hortensius Martius and the praefect of
+Rome seemed to have been the most important event of the day.
+
+Taurus Antinor emerged alone from the peristyle of Caius Nepos' house.
+An army of slaves belonging to the various guests were hanging about the
+vestibule, talking and laughing amongst themselves and feasting on the
+debris from the patricians' table, brought out to them by servitors from
+within; some forty litters encumbered the floor, but Antinor, paying no
+heed to these, passed through the crowd of jabbering men and women and
+made his way across to the steps which led upwards to the street.
+
+The day was done, had been done long ago; already the canopy of the
+stars was stretched over the sleeping city, and far away to the east,
+beyond the gilded roof of Augustus' palace, the waning moon, radiant and
+serene, outlined the carvings on every temple with a thin band of gold
+and put patches of luminous sapphires and emeralds on the bronze figures
+that crowned the Capitol.
+
+Taurus Antinor paused awhile, enjoying the restfulness of the night;
+from his broad chest came a long-drawn breath of voluptuous delight at
+the exquisite sweetness of the air. How far away now seemed that long,
+luxurious room, with its stained cloths and crumpled cushions, with the
+low tables groaning under the debris of past repasts and the rows of
+couches luring to sensuous repose. For the moment even the wranglings of
+Caius Nepos' guests seemed remote, their selfish aims and their lying
+tongues. Here, beneath the stars, there was stillness and peace.
+
+A gentle breeze from over the distant hills blew on the dreamer's
+forehead and eased the wild throbbings of his temples; from somewhere
+near tiny petals of heliotrope, chased by the breeze, brought
+sweet-scented powder to his nostrils.
+
+He looked around him, gazing with wondering eyes on the mighty city
+sleeping upon her seven hills, on the gorgeous palaces of Tiberius and
+Caligula and the squalid huts far away on the Aventine Hill, on the
+mighty temples with their roofs of gold and the yawning arena down
+below, desolate and silent now, but where on the morrow men and beasts
+would tear one another to pieces to make holiday for the masters of the
+world.
+
+And even as his restless eyes swept over the surrounding landscape, they
+turned to where, in the shadow of the stately palaces of Tiberius and of
+Augustus, lay the house of Dea Flavia. Its gilded portals threw back
+with brilliant intensity the weird and elusive light of the waning
+moon, and high above, upon the balustrade of the roof, gigantic bronze
+groups of quaint and misshapen beasts looked ghoul-like against the
+canopy of the sky.
+
+All within the massive walls was dark and still; near to the vestibule a
+couple of ancient cypresses made a natural arch overhead, and in the
+tender branches of a group of acacias close by, the evening breeze
+sighed with gentle, melancholy murmurings amongst the leaves.
+
+Instinctively Taurus Antinor turned to walk a few steps toward the
+house, and soon reached a spot from whence his gaze could command the
+colonnaded vestibule, with its mosaic pavement sunk a few steps below
+the level of the street. Somewhere near him, though he could not see it,
+a bosquet of heliotrope and white lilies sent an intoxicating fragrance
+into the air.
+
+From far away--where the marshes stretched their limitless expanse
+toward the sea--came the melancholy cry of a bittern, calling to his
+absent mate.
+
+A vague longing surged in the strong man's heart; he stretched out his
+arms up to the dark, starlit canopy above, and a sigh, half impatient,
+wholly melancholy, escaped his half-closed lips.
+
+His eyes tried to pierce the marble walls behind which there
+bloomed--stately and proud--a beautiful white lily.
+
+Wholly against his will, the man's thoughts flew back to that midday
+hour in the Forum, when Dea Flavia had stood before him in all the
+exquisite glory of her youth and her loveliness, with that wilful curl
+round her chiselled lips and the delicate brows drawn together in a
+frown of child-like obstinacy. How beautiful she was and how strangely
+pathetic had been her isolation in the midst of so much grandeur.
+
+Even now he thought of her--asleep possibly somewhere in this gorgeous
+palace--all alone, despite the thousands of slaves around her;
+friendless, despite the might of the House of Caesar of which she was so
+proud.
+
+Through one of the tiny windows there peeped a flickering light. Taurus
+Antinor marvelled if that were her sleeping-room and, closing his eyes,
+pictured her there, resting on embroidered coverlets and cushions, her
+fair hair falling in waves around her face at rest; and he wondered
+whether in sleep a dewy tear had perchance put a priceless diamond on
+her golden lashes.
+
+Bitter thoughts of the men whom he had just quitted surged back in his
+heart; they wished to make of this young girl a tool for the fashioning
+of their own ambitious schemes.
+
+"The Augusta shall choose one of us for mate, and him we shall ask to
+hold the sceptre of Caesar."
+
+One of them for mate! One of those sensuous self-seekers who would use
+her as a stepping-stone, and, having obtained supreme power through her
+dainty hands, would cast her aside as a useless tool and break her heart
+ere she realised even that she had one.
+
+And from the thoughts of the beautiful girl his mind flew back as if
+instinctively to that strange phase of his life--those unforgettable
+days in Judaea which had seemed like unto the turning point of his whole
+existence. He recalled every moment of that memorable day when he had
+stood among a multitude on the barren wastes of Galilee and, wrapped in
+a dark cloak, had listened in solitary silence to words and teachings
+such as he had never dreamed of before.
+
+"If only I could have understood Thee better then," he murmured; "if
+more of Thy precious words had fallen on mine ear.... I might have told
+her then something of what Thou didst say ... I could have found the
+words to make her understand.... But now I am ignorant and forlorn....
+Oh, Man of Galilee! Thou didst die so soon ... and left so many of us
+groping in the darkness.... Thou Son of God, come back to me, if only in
+a dream ... show me the way, the truth, the light; show me the star
+which they say guided the shepherds to Thy cradle ... give me Thy cross,
+and let me walk once more on Golgotha to Thee."
+
+And even as these words of passionate longing escaped half audibly from
+his lips his eyes wandered round the seven hills of Rome, and suddenly
+the highest peak beyond the Forum appeared to him transfigured in the
+night. Memory with a swift hand drew aside the veil of the present and
+in a vision showed him a picture of the past. The marble temples of
+pagan gods disappeared, the hill became bleak and precipitous and dark;
+great stillness reigned around, save where from afar there came at times
+the distant roll of thunder. The sky was overcast, great banks of cloud,
+the colour of lead, with blood-red lights within their massive bosoms,
+swept storm-tossed across the firmament.
+
+Then from the valley below there came, vaguely remote at first, then
+rising louder and louder, a sound as when a mighty torrent rushes
+onwards in its course; and as Taurus Antinor gazed now on that
+dream-hill, memory showed him, surging like a tempestuous sea, thousands
+upon thousands of human heads, all tending upwards to the summit of the
+hill.
+
+They came--the great multitude--they came, and still they came; and like
+gigantic breakers on a smooth shore, waves of human beings scattered
+themselves and dispersed upon that hill.
+
+And amongst them all, isolated, walking with bent back and thorn-crowned
+head well-nigh bowed to the dust, came a Man bearing a Cross.
+
+Taurus Antinor saw Him even now as he had seen Him then, with blood and
+sweat dripping from His brow, the pale, patient face serene and set, the
+eyes half closed in agony still glowing with unutterable love and with
+the perfect peace of complete sacrifice.
+
+And among the sea of faces that gazed on that solitary figure Taurus
+Antinor had recognised himself.
+
+He saw himself as he was then, a rough voluptuary, a thoughtless,
+sentient beast who up to that time had lived a life of emptiness and of
+mockery, eating and drinking and sleeping and waking again day after
+day, year after year. And he saw himself as he was on that day, he one
+of thousands and thousands of lookers-on gazing on the three hours'
+agony of a just Man upon the Cross.
+
+He remembered every minute of those three hours, which the hill of
+imperial Rome now pictured back to him as in a dream. He had stood there
+a mere unit amongst the crowd, wrapped in a dark cloak, unrecognised and
+unknown, but with every nerve strained to catch the words that fell from
+those dying lips. He had heard the cry of bitterness: "Lord! Lord! why
+hast Thou forsaken Me?" and that of infinite love and of supreme pardon:
+"Oh God, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
+
+And above and around the sky grew darker and the air more still, and
+round that dying figure alone there shone a radiance unseen by most; for
+had they seen it as Taurus Antinor saw it then, then surely would they
+have known, would they have understood.
+
+And at the foot of that Cross women and men stood weeping, and
+thoughtless soldiers hurled insults on their dying Lord. The lips that
+had only uttered words of perfect charity thirsted for a drop of water,
+and a sponge filled with gall was pressed mockingly to them.
+
+But the arms were still extended wider and wider, so it seemed, as if in
+their almighty love they would embrace all that surging humanity; all
+those that suffered, those that hoped as well as those that doubted,
+those who mocked Him and those who adored.
+
+Taurus Antinor's very manhood had cried out to him then to fight the
+multitude single-handed, to shake the power of Rome and defy the will of
+the people, and to rush up to that one Cross, towering above the others,
+to pick out with firm fingers every cruel nail, to wrap the sacred body
+in soft, soothing cloths, and to kiss every wound until it closed in
+health.
+
+Even now, after all these years, the rough soldier's cheeks were burning
+with the shame of impotence.
+
+To look on that sacrifice and be unable to stop it. To look on such a
+death and to continue to live on, still blind, still ununderstanding,
+even though the Teacher Who had come to explain had sighed ere he died:
+"It is finished!" And yet Taurus Antinor, now looking back upon his own
+past self, knew that at the time, despite the horror, the pity and the
+sorrow, there was also in his heart a sense of happiness and even a
+vague feeling of triumph.
+
+What he saw there--with eyes that comprehended not--_that_ he knew _was_
+because _it must be_; because it had been preordained and done by One
+Whose will was mightier than death. Though with aching heart and seared
+eyes he had watched every minute of the supreme agony, yet something
+within him, even then, had told him that every minute of that agony was
+a sacrifice that would not be in vain. And whilst in weakness he groaned
+with the pathos of it all, yet did his heart thrill with strange
+exultation, and from that Cross--even when all was silent--there rang in
+his ear the last words of perfect fulfilment of a perfect sacrifice:
+
+"It is finished!"
+
+And even as the words rang once again in Taurus Antinor's ears, the
+awful darkness of that momentous hour fell upon the dream-hill far away.
+Golgotha, with its three towering crosses vanished from before the
+visionary's gaze. Once more there rose before him the marble temples of
+pagan Rome that crowned the Capitol--the gorgeous idols covered in gold,
+these gods of mockery before whom the mightiest Empire in the world was
+satisfied to bow the knee.
+
+And that same sweet, sad longing rose in the dreamer's heart.
+
+"Could I but have heard Thee speak more often!... Could I but have
+touched Thy hands, methinks that I would have understood.... But now ...
+now all is still dark before me ... and the way is so difficult."
+
+And even as the sigh died upon his lips there came from behind him the
+sound of prolonged and hoarse laughter, followed by snatches of a
+drinking song and loud calls for slaves and litters.
+
+Caius Nepos' guests were leaving the hospitable house at last. Drunk
+with wine, smothered in flowers, replete with every epicurean delight
+they were going home now, having, mayhap, forgotten that they had
+plotted to murder Caesar and to raise themselves to power at all costs,
+even if that cost was to be a sea of blood or the ruins of Rome.
+
+The song and laughter soon died away in the distance. Taurus Antinor had
+distinguished the voice of Hortensius Martius and that of Ancyrus, the
+elder. The sigh of sadness turned to one of bitterness, his arms dropped
+by his side, and a cry of harsh contempt escaped his parched? throat.
+
+"Oh, Man of Galilee," he murmured, "didst die for such as these?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+"Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will
+give you rest."--ST. MATTHEW XI. 28.
+
+
+A timid voice roused Taurus Antinor from his dream:
+
+"My gracious lord, thy litter is here!"
+
+He started as a man suddenly wakened from sleep, and once or twice his
+eyes closed and opened again ere they rested finally on the broad back
+bent in a curve before him.
+
+"Methought my gracious lord was waiting," continued the speaker in the
+same timid voice, "and mayhap did not see the litter among the shadows."
+
+"I fear me I was dreaming, my good Folces," said the praefect with a
+sigh, "for truly I did know that thou wast here. Is the girl Nola with
+thee?"
+
+"Aye, gracious lord. She waits on thy pleasure, and thy bearers----"
+
+"Nay, did I not tell thee that I would have no bearers?"
+
+"The way is long, gracious lord----"
+
+"I told thee that I would walk."
+
+"But my lord----"
+
+"Silence now," he said with some of his habitual impatience; "send my
+litter and bearers home; bring me the mantle I required, and do thou and
+Nola follow me."
+
+Reluctantly the old man obeyed.
+
+"My gracious lord will be footsore--the way is long and ill-paved----"
+he muttered, half audibly, even as he made his way to the rear of the
+bosquet of lilies where a group of slaves stood waiting desultorily.
+
+Anon he returned carrying a mantle of dark woollen stuff, and Taurus
+Antinor, having wrapped himself in this, slowly turned to walk down the
+hill.
+
+Leaving the imperial palaces behind him, he went rapidly along the
+silent and deserted street. It wound its tortuous way at first on the
+crest of the hill, skirting the majestic temple of Magna Mater with its
+elevated portico and noble steps that lost themselves in the shadows of
+labyrinthine colonnades.
+
+The street itself--narrow and unpaved--was in places rendered almost
+impassable by the piles of constructor's materials and rubbish that
+encumbered it at every step--debris or future requisites of the gigantic
+and numberless building operations which the mad Emperor pursued with
+that feverish energy and maniacal restlessness that characterised his
+every action. Palaces here and temples there, a bridge over the Forum, a
+new circus, new baths, the constant pulling down of one edifice to make
+room for the construction of another: all this work--commenced and still
+unfinished--had changed the whole aspect of the great city, turning it
+into a wilderness of enormous beams and huge blocks of uncut marble and
+stone that littered its every way.
+
+But Taurus Antinor paid no heed to the roughness and inaccessibility of
+the road. Unlike the rich patricians of the time he hated the drowsy
+indolence of progress in a litter, and after the fatigues of a
+nerve-racking day, the difficulties of ill-paved roads were in harmony
+with his present mood.
+
+Assuring himself that old Folces and the girl Nola were close at his
+heels, he stepped briskly along the now precipitous incline of the hill.
+The rapid movement did him good. The air came to him from across the
+gardens of the palaces, sweetly scented by late lilies and clumps of
+dying roses.
+
+Soon he had left the great circus behind him too, and now he started
+climbing again, for his way led him upwards on the slope of the Aventine
+Hill. The silence here seemed more absolute than among the dwellings of
+the rich, for there, at times, a night watchman would emerge from a
+cross-road and give challenge to the belated passer-by, whilst a certain
+bustle of suspended animation always reigned around the palace of the
+Emperor even during the hours of sleep; some of his slaves and guard
+were always kept awake, ready to minister to any fancy or caprice that
+might seize the mad Caesar in the middle of the night.
+
+But here where there were no palaces to guard, no insane ruler to
+protect, no one came to question the purpose of the benighted wanderers,
+nor did sudden outbursts of laughter or good cheer pierce the mud walls
+of the humble abodes that lay scattered on the slope of the hill.
+
+The waning moon had hidden her light behind a heavy bank of clouds, a
+dull greyness pervaded the whole landscape, causing it to look weird and
+forlorn in the gloom. The few trees dotted about here and there looked
+starved and gaunt on the barren hill-side, with great skeleton-like arms
+that waved mournfully in the breeze; the ground uneven and
+parched--after the summer's drought--rose and sank in fantastic mounds
+and shapes like tiny fortresses of ghosts or ghouls; the street itself
+soon became merged in the general surroundings, only a tiny footway,
+scarcely discernible in the gathering darkness, wound upwards to the
+summit of the hill.
+
+From time to time a solid block of what appeared only as impenetrable
+blackness loomed up from out the shadows, with all the grandeur of
+exaggerated size which the darkness of the night so generously lends.
+Soon it would reveal itself as a small mud-covered box, with four bare
+walls and a narrow doorway facing toward the south. Herein lived and
+suffered a family of human beings--freedmen and women without the stigma
+of slavery, but with all the misery of destitution and often of complete
+starvation.
+
+Here and there the little house would be surrounded by a vestibule--a
+mere projection from the roof supported on a few rough beams--but never
+a garden, scarcely a tree to cast a cooling shade on hot summer
+afternoons, or clump of lilies or mimosa to sweeten the air that came
+dank and fetid from over the marshes beyond the hill.
+
+Not a sound now disturbed the stillness of the night save when a bat
+fluttered overhead, or when furtive footsteps--on unavowable errand
+bent--glided softly off the beaten track and quickly died away among the
+shadows.
+
+The praefect walked on, heedless of his surroundings. The mood that had
+been on him ever since he left Caius Nepos' house still caused his mind
+to wander restlessly in the illimitable regions of perplexity and doubt.
+He scarcely looked where he was going, for he kept his eyes fixed upon
+the starlit canopy above him and upon the crest of the hill which lost
+itself in the darkness overhead.
+
+Suddenly, out of the gloom, two pairs of hands emerged, and without
+warning fastened themselves on the praefect's throat: thin, claw-like
+hands they were, and above them gaunt arms, mere bones covered with
+wrinkled flesh that proclaimed starvation and misery.
+
+The old slave from the rear uttered a cry of terror; Nola clung to him
+paralysed with fear. The slopes of the Aventine were noted for the gangs
+of malefactors that infested them, and defying the power of the
+aediles, rendered them unsafe for wayfarers even in the light of day.
+
+Taurus Antinor, instantly brought back from the land of dreams, had no
+great difficulty in freeing himself from the claw-like grasp. With a
+quick gesture of his own powerful hands, he had in a moment succeeded in
+dragging the gaunt fingers from off his throat, and, holding the thin
+wrists with a firm grip, he gave them a sudden sharp twist, which
+elicited two cries of pain and brought two pairs of knees in hard
+contact with the ground.
+
+It had all occurred in the space of a few seconds, and now a bundle of
+soiled rags seemed to be lying huddled up under the praefect's foot, and
+he looked like some powerful desert beast that has placed a massive paw
+on a pair of puny rats.
+
+The thin arms wriggled like worms in his mighty grasp.
+
+"Pity, my lord! Pity!" came in hoarse murmurs from the bundle of rags
+under his foot.
+
+"Pity? Of that have I in plenty," he replied gruffly. "But methinks
+'twas not pity ye sought by trying to strangle me."
+
+"Pity, my lord, my children are starving...."
+
+"Pity, my lord, I have not tasted food to-day----"
+
+"Pity, my lord!" retorted the praefect with a grim laugh, and mimicking
+the wretched man's words, "I would have murdered you had I had the
+power."
+
+Then he relaxed his grip, and with his foot pushed the bundle of dirt
+further away from him. He groped in his wallet and drew out some silver
+coins. These he threw, one by one, into the midst of the shapeless rags,
+and he stooped forward, striving in the darkness to see something of the
+faces that were wilfully hidden from him, something of the mouths that
+had uttered the pitiable groans.
+
+Vaguely he discerned the outline of cadaverous cheeks, of sunken
+temples, of furtive eyes veiled by thin lids; he saw the glances half of
+fear, wholly of doubt, that were thrown on the silver coins, heard the
+muttered oaths, the incipient quarrel over the distribution of the
+unexpected hoard.
+
+Then did the strange perplexities which had assailed him throughout this
+night find expression in bitter words. He threw down a few more coins
+and said slowly:
+
+"These are for pity's sake, and in the name of One Whom mayhap ye will
+know one day. He died that ye should live! Bear that in mind and ponder
+on it. Mayhap ye will find the solution to that riddle. That such as you
+should live in eternity, therefore did He die.... When ye have
+understood this and can explain the value of your lives as compared with
+His, come and tell it to the praefect of Rome and he will shower on you
+wealth beyond your dreams."
+
+Then, without waiting to hear protestations, or heeding the ironical
+laughter that came from the bewildered night-prowlers, he turned on his
+heels and resumed his interrupted walk along the slope of the hill.
+
+
+The footpath--scarce more than a beaten track--soon disappeared
+altogether. Presently Taurus Antinor paused and called to Folces to come
+up to him.
+
+"Methinks we must be near the house," he said.
+
+"Aye, gracious lord," replied the man, "just on thy right, some two
+hundred steps from here. The way is very dark, wilt permit me to walk by
+thy side?"
+
+"Walk by my side an thou wilt. Thou canst direct me more easily; but as
+to the darkness I can see through it well."
+
+"But my gracious lord did not see those evil malefactors that set upon
+him."
+
+"No, Folces, I was dreaming as I walked. They came upon me unawares."
+
+"And my gracious lord allowed them to go. They were notorious
+miscreants."
+
+"They were the embodiment of a strange riddle, good Folces. They helped
+to puzzle me--and Heaven knows that I was puzzled enough ere I saw those
+miserable wretches. Mayhap some day I'll understand the riddle which
+their abject persons did represent. But now tell me, is this the house?"
+
+The wanderers had struck to their right and walked on some two hundred
+paces. Now they paused beside one of those square mud-walled boxes, of
+which they could only discern the narrow door made of unplaned wood, and
+through the chinks of which a faint light glimmered weirdly. Two or
+three steps fashioned in the earth itself led down toward the threshold.
+Taurus Antinor descended these and knocked boldly on the door.
+
+It was opened from within, and under the rough lintel there appeared the
+figure of a man of short stature, clad in a long grey tunic. His head,
+which he held forward in an attempt to peer through the darkness, looked
+almost unnaturally large, owing to the mass of loose greyish hair that
+fell away from his forehead like a mane, and the long beard that
+straggled down upon his breast.
+
+"May we enter, friend?" asked Taurus Antinor.
+
+At the sound of the voice the man drew aside, and through the narrow
+doorway was now revealed the interior of the house--a straight, square
+room, with a few wooden seats disposed about, and at the top end an
+oblong table covered with a snow-white cloth. An aperture in the wall
+appeared to lead to an inner chamber, which must indeed have been of
+diminutive size, for the central room seemed to occupy almost the whole
+of the interior of the house. Suspended by an iron chain from the
+ceiling above there hung a small lamp in which flickered a tiny flame
+fed by some sweet-smelling oil. It threw but little light around and
+left deep and curious shadows in the angles of the room.
+
+From out these, as the praefect entered, there emerged the figure of an
+old woman, with smooth grey hair half-hidden beneath a kerchief of
+strange oriental design, and straight dark robe, foreign in cut and
+appearance to those usually seen in the streets of Rome.
+
+The massive figure of Taurus Antinor seemed almost to fill the entire
+room, but he stood to one side now disclosing the old slave and the girl
+Nola.
+
+"This," he said, addressing the woman, "is the child of whom I spoke to
+thee. She is friendless and motherless, but she is free, and I have
+brought her so that thou mayest teach her all thou knowest."
+
+In the meanwhile the man with the leonine head had closed the door on
+the little party. He came forward eagerly, and raising himself on the
+tips of his toes, he put his hands on Antinor's shoulder, and with
+gentle pressure forced him to stoop. Then he kissed him on either cheek.
+
+"Greeting to thee, dear friend," he said cheerily. "Thou hast done well
+to bring the girl. My mother and I will take great care of her."
+
+"And ye will teach her your religion," said Taurus Antinor earnestly;
+"because of that did I bring her. She is young and will be teachable.
+She'll understand as a child will, that which hardened hearts are unable
+to grasp."
+
+"Nay, friend," said the man simply, "there is not a great deal to
+teach, nor a great deal to understand. Love and faith, that is
+sufficient ... and, as our dear Lord did tell us, love is the greatest
+of all."
+
+For the moment the praefect made no reply. The man had helped him to
+cast off his heavy mantle, and he stood now in all the splendour of
+barbaric pomp, a strangely incongruous figure in this tiny bare room,
+both to his surroundings and to his gentle host and hostess with their
+humble garb and simple, timid ways.
+
+She--the woman--had drawn Nola with kindly gesture to her. The child was
+crying softly, for she was half-frightened at the strangeness of the
+place, and also she was tired after her long walk up and down the rough
+road. The woman, with subtle feminine comprehension, soon realised this,
+and also understood that the girl, reared in slavery, felt awed in the
+presence of so great a lord. So, putting a kindly arm round the slender
+form of the child, she led her gently out of the main room to the tiny
+cubicle beyond, where she could rest.
+
+The three men were now left alone. Folces, squatting in a dark corner,
+kept his eyes fixed upon his master. He took no interest in what went on
+around him; he cared nothing about the strangeness of the surroundings,
+his master was lord and praefect of Rome, and could visit those whom he
+list. But Folces, like a true watch-dog, remained on the alert, silent
+and ever suspicious, keeping an eye on his master, remaining obedient
+and silent until told to speak.
+
+The man, in the meanwhile, had asked the praefect to sit.
+
+"Wilt rest a while, O friend," he said, "whilst I make ready for
+supper."
+
+But Antinor would not sit down. In his habitual way he leaned against
+the wall, watching with those earnest eyes of his every movement of his
+host, as the latter first passed a loving hand over the white cloth on
+the table and then smoothed out every crease on its satiny surface. Anon
+he disappeared for a moment in the dark angle of the room, where a rough
+wooden chest stood propped against the wall. From this he now took out a
+loaf of fine wheaten bread, also a jar containing wine and some plain
+earthenware goblets. These things he set upon the table, his big leonine
+head bent to his simple task, his small grey eyes wandering across from
+time to time in kindliness on his friend.
+
+Intuition--born of intense sympathy--had already told him that something
+was amiss with the praefect. He knew every line of the rugged face which
+many deemed so fierce and callous, but in which he had so often seen the
+light of an all-embracing charity.
+
+When Taurus Antinor used to visit his friend in the olden days he was
+wont to shed from him that mantle of rebellious pride with which, during
+the exercise of his duties in Rome, he always hid his real personality.
+People said of the praefect that he was sullen and morose, merciless in
+his judgments in the tribunal where he presided. They said that he was
+ambitious and intriguing, and that he had gained and held the Caesar's
+ear for purposes of his own advancement. But the man and woman who had
+come recently on the Aventine and who called the praefect of Rome their
+friend, knew that his rough exterior hid a heart brimming over with
+pity, and that his aloofness came from a mind absorbed in thoughts of
+God.
+
+But to-day the praefect seemed different. The look of joy with which he
+had greeted his friends had quickly faded away, leaving the face
+darkened with some hidden care; and as the man watched him across the
+narrow room, he seemed to see in the strong face something that almost
+looked like remorse.
+
+Therefore, whilst accomplishing the task which he loved so well, he
+quietly watched his friend and resolved that he should not recross the
+threshold of this house without having unburdened his soul.
+
+"Friend," he now said abruptly, "I have a curious whim to-night. Wilt
+indulge it?"
+
+"If it be in my power," responded the praefect, rousing himself from his
+reverie.
+
+A look of deep affection softened for the moment the hard look on his
+face, as his deep-set eyes rested on the quaint figure of the man with
+the leonine head.
+
+"What is thy whim?" he asked.
+
+"Over in Judaea we were so little alone," rejoined the latter, "and then
+we had such earnest things to talk about, that I have never heard from
+thy lips how it came to pass that thou didst hear our dear Lord preach
+in Galilee."
+
+"Yet I did tell thee," said the praefect, "when first thou didst ask my
+confidence."
+
+"Then 'tis my whim to hear thee tell me again," rejoined the man simply.
+"All that pertains to our dear Lord doth lie so close to my heart, and
+'tis long now since I have spoken of Him to one who hath seen and heard
+Him. 'Tis great joy to me to hear of every impression which He made on
+the heart of those whose life was gladdened by a sight of His face."
+
+"Whose life was gladdened by a sight of His face!" repeated Taurus
+Antinor gently. "Aye! there dost speak the truth, O friend! for my life
+too was gladdened by a sight of His face. I was travelling through
+Judaea, on my way to Syria, and the Caesar had desired me to visit the
+proconsul. Thus did I halt in Jerusalem one day. Having done the
+Emperor's bidding, I had time to kill ere I started further on my
+journey. So I bethought me that I would like to see something of the Man
+from Nazareth of Whom I had heard speak."
+
+"And God prompted thee, friend, to go and hear Him."
+
+"God, sayest thou?" rejoined the praefect slowly. "Aye! mayhap thou'rt
+right. 'Twas God then that sent me. Disguised in humble raiment I went
+forth one day and made my way to the desert lands of Galilee."
+
+"And didst see Him there?"
+
+"I saw Him sitting on a low mound of earth with the canopy of blue above
+His head, and all around Him a multitude that hung entranced upon His
+lips. He spoke to them of the Kingdom of Heaven--a Kingdom of whose
+existence, alas! I had never dreamed. But His words did wring my heart,
+and the majesty of His presence has ever since been before mine eyes.
+To-day it all came back to me, the gentle face, the perfect mouth
+framing exquisite words. Above Him a curtain of azure, and far away, the
+illimitable stretch of horizon merging into the water beyond. The very
+air was still and listening to His words; from under jagged boulders
+tiny lizards peeped out, and on the branches of starved, gaunt trees the
+birds had stopped to rest. Then it was that panther-like, sleek
+sleuth-hounds hovered round Him, trying to entangle Him in His talk.
+They made their way close to Him, and with honeyed words and deft
+insinuations, spoke of allegiance and of the tribute due to Caesar. I
+stood not far off and could hear what they said. My very heart seemed to
+still its beating, for did not their questions embrace the whole riddle
+of mine own life. God and Caesar! I, the servant of Caesar--the recipient
+of rich gifts from his hands--should I forswear the Caesar and follow
+Jesus of Nazareth?"
+
+"And didst hear what He answered, friend?"
+
+"Aye! I heard it. And to-day when traitors spoke, it seemed as if the
+Divine Presence stood close to me amongst the shadows. Once more I saw
+the bleak and arid land, the skeleton arms of the trees, the blue
+firmament above my head, I saw the multitude of simple folk around Him
+and the leer in the eyes of the tempters. And above the din of drunken
+revelries to-night I heard again the voice that bade me then to render
+unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that
+are God's."
+
+The other sighed, a sigh of glad content.
+
+"I thank thee, friend, for telling me this. 'Tis a joy to hear thee
+speak of Him. It is so long since we talked of this matter. And--tell me
+yet again--thou wast in Jerusalem when He died?"
+
+"I stood on Golgotha," said the praefect slowly, "on that day before the
+Jewish Passover, seven years ago. Once again wrapped in a dark cloak,
+one among a multitude, I gazed with eyes that I felt could never look on
+anything else again. I saw the patient face smeared with blood, the
+God-like head crowned with thorns, the eyes--still brimming over with
+love--slowly closing in agony. Overhead the heavens murmured, vivid
+flashes of lightning rent the canopy of the sky, and men around me
+mocked and jeered, whilst the Divine Soul fled upwards back to God. At
+that moment, O friend! I seemed to lose mine own identity. I--even I
+alone--became the whole multitude. I was no longer just mine own self,
+but I was all of us who looked, who heard and saw and did not yet
+understand.... A multitude was looking through my eyes ... a multitude
+heard through mine ears ... I was the crowd of poor, of helpless
+slaves, and I was the whole of the patriciate of Rome. I was barbarian
+and Italian, I was British and Roman, all in one ... and my voice was
+the voice of the entire world, as suddenly I cried out to Him: 'Do not
+die now and leave us desolate!'"
+
+His harsh voice broke down in a great sob that came from out the depths
+of an overburdened heart. He took a few steps forward and slowly dropped
+on his knees right against the table, his clasped hands resting on the
+cloth, his forehead buried in his hands.
+
+The man had listened to him silently and patiently with, in his heart,
+that subtle understanding for another's sorrow, which his own mission
+had instilled into him. And thus understanding he went up to that end of
+the table where knelt the rich and mighty praefect of Rome, the friend
+of Caesar, all-powerful in the land, with burning head buried in his
+hands, and eyes from which despite his will hot tears gushed up that
+would not be suppressed.
+
+He placed a kindly hand on the bowed shoulder of his friend.
+
+"Wilt tell me what troubles thee?" he said gently.
+
+Taurus Antinor passed his hand across his forehead as if to chase away
+the brain-searing thoughts. He raised himself from his knees and
+gratefully pressed the hand that had recalled him to himself.
+
+"Nay, friend," he said, "I'll not do that. Thy friendship is too
+precious a guerdon that I should jeopardise it by showing thee the
+blackness of my soul."
+
+"Dost talk at random," said the other firmly; "my friendship doth not
+come and go like fleeting sunshine on a winter's day. I gave it thee on
+that self-same unforgettable day when I saw thee standing alone upon the
+hill after the crowd had departed and we who loved Him were lifting Him
+down from His Cross."
+
+"Thou didst take pity then on my loneliness."
+
+"I saw in thee one who had faith," said the man simply. "I grasped thy
+hand in friendship then, not knowing who thou wast. When I knew, then
+did I follow thee to Rome, for I needed thy help. My Master sent me
+here. I do His work that He did enjoin on all His disciples. Thy
+protection and friendship, O mighty praefect of Rome, hath been an
+infinite help to me. Thy kindness and charity hath saved from want the
+many humble followers of Christ who have been forced to give up all for
+His sake. Therefore whatever doth burden thy soul now, I pray thee share
+it with me, so that I might bear it with thee and mayhap ease thy load."
+
+"May God bless thee for these words."
+
+"And thy burden, friend?"
+
+"Ask not to share it--'tis one of treachery."
+
+"Of treachery?... Whose treachery?..."
+
+"Mine."
+
+"Thine?... I'll not believe it.... Thou a traitor ... against Caesar?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Against whom, then?"
+
+"Against Him Whose death I witnessed seven years ago."
+
+"Then I'll not believe it. And 'tis sacrilege thus to jest."
+
+"Jest?" said Taurus Antinor, with a laugh that rang unnatural and
+hoarse. "Jest! when for a day and a night my soul hath been on the rack
+and mocking demons have jeered at my torments? Jest! When----?"
+
+He broke off abruptly and looked down with an earnest gaze on the
+upturned face of his friend.
+
+"If thou wouldst tell me more it would ease thy heart," said the man
+simply.
+
+For a moment or two the praefect was silent. His hand rested on his
+friend's shoulder, and his eyes, with their deep furrow between the
+brows, were fixed on the kind face that invited confidence.
+
+"For seven years," he said abruptly, but speaking very slowly, "whilst I
+served the Caesar, every one of my waking thoughts and many of my dreams
+tended to that day in Jerusalem and the three hours' agony which I had
+witnessed on Golgotha. Yesterday did a woman cross my path--and now I
+have thoughts only of her."
+
+"Who is this woman?" asked the other.
+
+"She is of the House of Caesar, pure and chaste as the lilies in my
+garden at Ostia, proud and unapproachable as the stars ... her heart is
+a closed book wherein man hath never read ... but since her eyes have
+mocked me with their smile, my heart is enchained to her service and I
+see naught but her loveliness."
+
+"Look upwards, man; a glowing Cross will blind thine eyes to all save to
+itself."
+
+"Have I not looked," said the praefect, with a sharp, quick sigh, "until
+mine eyes have ached with trying to see that which once was so clear.
+But now, between me and that sacred memory that methought had been
+branded into my very soul, there always rises the vision of a girl, tall
+and slender as the lilies, clad all in white as they. She stands between
+me and memory, and mine eyes grow weary and dim trying to see beyond
+that vision, recalling to my mind the picture of that Cross, the
+thorn-crowned head, the pierced hands and feet. She stands between me
+and memory, and with laughing eyes defies me not to see her, and I look
+and look, and the vision of the Cross grows more faint, and she stands
+there serene and white and silent, with blue eyes smiling on my
+treachery and scornful voice upraised, denying God and Christ. She is of
+the House of Caesar and she is ignorant, and she laughs at my belief and
+scorns all thought of God, and I do find it in my treacherous heart to
+pity her and pitying her to kneel at her feet. And all the while a
+thousand demons shout mockingly unto mine ear: 'Thou art a traitor--a
+traitor to thy God--for were she to beckon, 'tis to her that thou
+wouldst go, forgetting all--thine immortal soul, thy crucified God...?'
+And thus do devils mock me, and my soul grows darker and darker and
+greater and greater grows the mystery, for my heart, broken, miserably
+doubting and weak, cries out not with resignation, not in patience, but
+in a spirit of angry rebellion: 'God, my God! why hast thou forsaken
+me?'"
+
+He raised his arms up to heaven as if in a last desperate appeal; but
+now he did not kneel--he stood beside his friend shamed and yet proud,
+and the look in his eyes was that of one who sees a vision that is
+exquisitely beautiful and dear. The other saw the look, and with the
+kind indulgence taught by a sublime teacher, he found it in his heart to
+pity and to love. Once more he placed his thin, wrinkled hand on the
+praefect's shoulder, and his small eyes beamed with perfect faith and
+trust as he said gently:
+
+"Do not try and probe any mystery just now, O friend, the day has been
+long and thou art weary and sad. Come and sit beside me here at table;
+my mother will join us and the girl Nola too, and the man who is thy
+slave, if thou wilt so allow it. Together we'll think of that day in
+Judaea seven years ago, and we'll break bread and drink wine,
+and--without trying to understand anything--we'll do it all together in
+memory of Him!"
+
+For a moment Taurus Antinor was silent. In the strong face every line
+told of the great storm within the innermost heart.
+
+And slowly the man beside him repeated the most exquisite words that
+have ever been spoken to a troubled soul.
+
+"Come unto Me all ye that travail and are heavy laden and I will refresh
+you."
+
+Taurus Antinor's head fell upon his breast. He closed his eyes, for not
+even his friend should see that they were wet with tears. But even
+whilst the heartstrings were torn by the ruthless hand of passion, it
+seemed as if--when the man had finished speaking--the magic words had
+already left upon the soul their impress of infinite peace.
+
+And without another word, he went slowly forward and took his place at
+the table.
+
+At a call from the man, the old woman entered softly, her woollen shoes
+making no sound upon the wooden floor. She had Nola by the hand who
+seemed comforted and rested. The praefect beckoned to Folces, who
+silently obeyed and came forward to the table.
+
+Then the five of them sat down and quietly partook of supper, sitting
+side by side, the disciple from Judaea and his mother, the two slaves and
+the praefect of Rome. The Christians sat beside the pagans, the mighty
+lord beside his slave, and they broke bread and drank wine, all in
+memory of Him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+"Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy
+coming."--ISAIAH XIV. 9.
+
+
+I pray you follow me now to an inner chamber in the palace of the mighty
+Caesar. A square room with walls of marble inlaid with precious stones,
+and with hangings of crimson silk to exclude the searching light of day.
+The air heavy with the fumes of burning incense that wound in spiral
+curves upwards to the domed roof, and escaped--ethereal and
+elusive--through the tiny openings practised therein, the seats of
+gilded wood with downy cushions that seemed to melt at a touch, and in a
+recess a monumental bed of solid and priceless citrus, carved by the
+hand of a Greek sculptor, with curtains of purple silk wrought all over
+with stars.
+
+In vases of delicate murra huge bunches of blood-red roses hung their
+drooping heads, and beneath the feet carpets of heavy silk hid the
+exquisite beauty of mosaics of lapis-lazuli and chrysoprase.
+
+And in the midst of all this stately gorgeousness a creature--hardly
+human--raging round like a thwarted beast.
+
+Caius Julius Caesar Caligula was in one of his maddest moods; his hollow
+eyes glowed with unnatural fire, his scanty, light-coloured hair stood
+up around his head like the bristly mane of a hyena. Up and down the
+room he stamped with heavy feet; his robe, weighted with precious
+stones, striking out around him as he trod the smooth surface of silken
+carpets or the slippery mosaic of the floor. His thin arms and ankles
+were covered with numerous bracelets and on his feet were shoes studded
+with diamonds.
+
+At first sight it would indeed have been difficult to say if it was a
+man or a woman who was thus pacing this magnificent cage, with wild
+gestures of the arms and hoarse cries that seemed to proceed from no
+human throat. The face, white and puffy, might have been of either sex,
+and the flowing garment and wealth of jewellery suggested a woman rather
+than a man.
+
+The Caesar was crazy with rage, and all round the room slaves and
+attendants cowered, terrified. In his hand he had a short whip with five
+thongs of solid, knotted leather, at the end of each of which was an
+iron hook. From these five hooks a few drops of blood were trickling
+down his white silk tunic. At intervals, at the slightest noise or sound
+from the cowering slaves, he struck out savagely with the whip, and the
+thongs with their sharp hooks would descend whizzing on some naked
+shoulder and tear out a piece of flesh and start the flow of a fresh
+stream of blood.
+
+Then the madman would break out into a diabolical fit of laughter, and
+strike out with his whip again and again all around him, wildly and
+indiscriminately, until his garments and his face were spattered all
+over with blood, and to right and left of him shrieking figures fell
+fainting to the ground.
+
+The Caesar was crazy with rage, and he who had thus angered him reclined
+on a couch, out of the reach of the shrieking demon, and his thin lips
+were curled in a smile of satisfaction. It was Caius Nepos who was here
+that he might betray those of his accomplices who had swerved from their
+allegiance to himself, and behind him--well hidden by the draperies of
+the couch--cowered Hun Rhavas, the dusky slave of the treasury, he who
+yesterday had appeared before the tribunal of the praefect of Rome for
+conspiracy to defraud the State in connection with the sale of the
+slave-girl Nola.
+
+The law in such matters was severe. It demanded that a delinquent
+against the State--if he be a slave--shall lose his right hand, or his
+tongue, or his ears; that he should moreover forfeit his entire
+hard-saved belongings to the treasury and lose all chance of ever
+obtaining his freedom. But the praefect had been lenient, and though he
+could not dismiss the offender, he mitigated his punishment.
+
+Hun Rhavas was publicly scourged and branded, but he lost neither ears,
+tongue, nor hand, nor was he deprived of the peculium with which
+ultimately he hoped to purchase his own freedom and that of his
+children. Yet such was the African's nature, such the result of the
+training which slavery in the imperial entourage had drilled into him,
+that Hun Rhavas forgot the clemency and only remembered the punishment.
+
+With bleeding back and mind saturated with hate, he sought audience of
+the Emperor, and obtained it half an hour after Caius Nepos, the
+praetorian praefect, had himself been introduced in the presence of
+Caligula. The story which Hun Rhavas--the paid spy--brought to the ear
+of Caesar, was but a confirmation of what Caius Nepos had to tell.
+
+A conspiracy was on foot to murder the father of the armies, the
+greatest and best of Caesars. The flower of the Roman patriciate was
+wallowing in this monstrous treachery. Hortensius Martius was in it up
+to the neck, so was Marcus Ancyrus, the elder, and Philippus Decius and
+Philario, of the imperial household.
+
+Hun Rhavas had seen them consorting together and whispering among
+themselves the day of the sale of the late censor's slaves. He was able
+to state positively that the praefect of Rome was at one with the band
+of traitors.
+
+This last fact had brought the frenzied Caesar to the verge of death. He
+nearly choked with the violence of his rage. He had believed in the
+honesty of Taurus Antinor: had even looked on him as a lucky fetish.
+This man's treachery was more infuriating than that of a thousand
+others. In the madness of his wrath he would have killed Hun Rhavas with
+his own hands had not the latter succeeded in hiding himself out of the
+raving maniac's reach.
+
+Had he dared, Caligula would have tortured Caius Nepos until he too gave
+him evidence against Taurus Antinor; but on this point the praetorian
+praefect was guarded. He had not yet made up his mind whether friendship
+or enmity with the praefect of Rome would be to his own advantage. All
+that he wanted at this moment was to be rid of those who had opposed him
+last night for the sake of their own schemes. Therefore in measured
+words he only spoke of the whisperings which he had overheard in the
+vestibule of his own house, between a certain band headed by Hortensius
+Martius and Marcus Ancyrus, the elder.
+
+"During the Circensian games, O Caesar," he explained, "they hope to
+raise a tumult amongst the people ... and whilst the attention of thy
+faithful guard is drawn away from thy sacred person, one of the
+miscreants is to plunge a dagger in thy throat----"
+
+Here he was forced to silence by a cry like that of a slaughtered ox,
+which shook the marble pillars of the hall. Caligula had thrown himself
+upon the bed and was writhing there like a mad beast, biting the
+coverlets, beating with clenched fists against the woodwork, while foam
+dripped from the corners of his mouth.
+
+"Tell me more--tell me----" he bellowed at last, during an interval
+between two of these maniacal spasms.
+
+The slaves all round the room were trembling with fear; Hun Rhavas,
+huddled under the couch, was shaking like a leaf.
+
+But Caius Nepos, calm and dignified, waited in silence until the
+paroxysm had abated, then he quietly went on with his tale.
+
+"There is but little else to tell, O Caesar. I came to warn thee ... for
+'tis easy for thee to wear a shirt of mail to cover thy throat and
+breast against the dagger of assassins. But the conspirators hushed
+their talk in my presence. I tried to hear more and played the spy in
+thy service, but my heart was burdened with loyalty for thee, so I came
+thus early to put thee on thy guard."
+
+The Caesar had once more resumed his restless walk up and down the room.
+He was biting his fists, trying to restrain himself from striking the
+noble informer as brutally as he did his slaves, for he loathed the
+bearer of evil tidings almost as much as the secret traitors. He
+suffered from an overwhelming fury of hatred and from an unquenchable
+thirst for blood.
+
+But three years ago the people and patricians had acclaimed him with
+shouts and rejoicings; they had feasted in his honour, proclaimed his
+godhead and his power, and now they were plotting to murder him! The
+madman threw out his arms in a passionate longing for revenge.
+
+"They would kill me," he cried hoarsely, "kill me!" ... And a demoniacal
+laugh broke from his swollen throat. He tore the garments from off his
+chest and buried his nails in his own flesh, whilst roar upon roar of
+his mad laughter woke the echoes of his stately palace.
+
+Then suddenly the paroxysm died completely down. An unnatural calm
+succeeded the violent outbursts of rage. Caligula, with a corner of his
+silken robe, wiped the perspiration from his streaming face. He threw
+himself on a seat, and resting both elbows on his knees and his chin in
+his hands, he stared contemplatively before him.
+
+Of a truth this calm seemed even more awe-inspiring than the snarls and
+cries of a while ago. Caius Nepos' sallow cheeks became still more ashen
+in colour as he cast a quick glance round the room, feeling perhaps for
+the first time to-day how completely he was at the mercy of a raving
+lunatic if the latter should turn against him. But the Caesar sat there
+for some time, ruminating, with great hollow eyes fixed on one spot on
+the ground and gusts of stertorous breathing escaped from his chest.
+
+After a while he spoke:
+
+"Thou didst not tell me yet, O kind friend!" he said dully, "what the
+traitors mean to do once they have murdered their Caesar. Whom would they
+set up as his successor? They cannot all be emperors of Rome. For whose
+sake then do they intend to commit this damnable treachery?"
+
+"Nay, great Caesar!" replied Caius Nepos drily, "methinks they all have a
+desire to become Emperor of Rome, and this being impossible, there was a
+vast deal of wrangling in my vestibule last night. I caught the purport
+of several words, and----"
+
+"And of several names?" asked Caligula in the same even voice.
+
+"I heard one name spoken in particular, O Caesar."
+
+"Tell me."
+
+"That of the Augusta, thy kinswoman," said Caius Nepos, after a slight
+moment of hesitation.
+
+"Of Dea Flavia?"
+
+"Even hers."
+
+"But she is a woman, and cannot lead an army," said the Emperor, whose
+voice sounded hollow and distant, as if it came from out the depths of a
+grave.
+
+"Nor was that suggested, O Caesar."
+
+"What then?"
+
+"The conspirators, methinks, have agreed amongst themselves that the
+future husband of Dea Flavia Augusta--whoever he might be--should be the
+successor of the murdered Caesar."
+
+"Whoever he might be," repeated the Emperor, mechanically echoing the
+other's words.
+
+"Aye! The Augusta, I understand, favours no one as yet."
+
+"She hath made no choice ... to thy knowledge?"
+
+"No, no ... her choice was to be made after ... afterwards."
+
+"Her choice to be made by her--or by them?"
+
+"That I know not, great Caesar. The Augusta, I feel sure, was not a
+consenting party to the treachery. The traitors would use her for their
+own ends."
+
+After this there was silence for a while. Caligula still sat staring
+with wide-open eyes before him, whilst the slaves held their breath,
+staring fascinated on that terrible whip, lying momentarily forgotten.
+
+Caius Nepos, pale as a withered maple leaf, was from time to time
+moistening his dry lips with his tongue.
+
+The minutes sped on. Who shall say what fiendish thoughts were coursing
+through the mad tyrant's brain?
+
+At last he rose, and resumed his walk up and down the room. But no
+longer did he rave now, no longer did he strike about him like one
+bereft of reason. His face, though flushed and streaming with
+perspiration, was set and calm; his footsteps across the carpets were
+measured and firm. He had cast his whip aside and his hands were
+clenched behind his back, and on his brow there had appeared a deep
+furrow, the sign of concentrated thought.
+
+Then at last he paused in his walk and stood in the centre of the room
+facing the informer.
+
+"I thank thee, good Caius Nepos," he said, "for thy loyalty to me.
+To-morrow, mayhap, I shall think of a reward in accordance with thy
+service, but for the nonce I would wish to be alone. I have much to
+think of. The present crisis demands of me those qualities of courage
+and of statesmanship for which the citizens of Rome already know me.
+To-morrow I go to the opening of the games in the Circus. Mayhap there
+will be a tumult amongst the people, and mayhap a damnable traitor will
+make an attempt against the sacred life of one who is god and Caesar and
+emperor all in one. If all this occurs, and I find that thou didst not
+lie, then will I give thee such reward as even thou dost not at present
+dream of. But if between now and to-morrow I find that thou didst lie,
+that thou didst try to gain my favour and didst rouse my wrath only for
+the gaining of thine own ends, that thou didst slander Roman patricians
+with a view to removing thine own personal enemies, then will I devise
+for thee such punishment that on thy knees wilt beg of death to release
+thee from torment. And thou didst know, O Caius Nepos, that in the
+inventing of torture thy Caesar has the genius of a god."
+
+His voice had become perfectly steady and natural in its tones; all his
+restless, jerky movements had ceased. Outwardly he seemed to be
+completely master of himself. But of a truth the aspect of the madman
+now was more terrible than before. His sallow cheeks were the colour of
+lead, his pale eyes had narrowed down till they were mere slits through
+which gleams of deadly hate shot mercilessly on the informer.
+
+Caius Nepos had great difficulty in keeping up an appearance of dignity.
+It was obviously in his interest to show neither confusion nor fear just
+now. Nothing but calm demeanour and a proud show of loyalty would ensure
+his personal safety at this moment. The praetorian praefect knew enough
+of the imperial despot to appreciate the danger of this outwardly quiet
+mood, which hid the utter callousness of demoniacal cruelty.
+
+Therefore, in response to the horrible threat, Caius Nepos merely bent
+his head as if in humble submission to the will of one who was as a god.
+He felt his teeth chattering against one another, his limbs trembling,
+his blood frozen within him, and with it all he had the additional
+horror of knowing that the brutish tyrant was looking him through and
+through, that he saw the fear in him and was gloating on it with
+delight.
+
+It was with a feeling of inexpressible relief that he at last understood
+that he was being dismissed. Steadying his limbs as best he could, he
+rose from his couch and made obeisance before the Caesar. Then almost
+mechanically and like one in a dream, but holding himself erect and
+composed, he walked backwards out of the room.
+
+The silken curtains weighted with gold fell together with a swishing
+sound behind him. And even as they did so a loud and prolonged roar of
+laughter, like that of a hundred demons let loose, echoed throughout the
+length and breadth of marble halls. Caius Nepos took to his heels and
+fled like one possessed, with hands pressed to his ears, trying to shut
+out the awful sounds that pursued him all down the corridors: the
+shrieks of pain, the whizzing of whipcord through the air, and, rising
+above all these, that awful laugh which must have found its origin in
+hell.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+"Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?"--ST. JOHN I. 46.
+
+
+Dea Flavia was standing beside a tall stool, on the top of which--on a
+level with her hands--was a shapeless mass of clay. Her fingers buried
+themselves in the soft substance or ran along the surface, as the
+exigencies of her task demanded.
+
+Now and then she paused in her work, drew back a step or two from the
+stool, and with head bent on one side surveyed her work with an anxious
+frown.
+
+Some few paces from her, at the further end of the room, a young girl
+sat on an elevated platform, with shoulders bare and head straight and
+rigid, the model for the proposed statue. Dea Flavia, in a simple
+garment of soft white stuff falling straight from her shoulders, looked
+peculiarly young and girlish at this moment, when she was free from all
+the pomp and paraphernalia of attendants that usually surrounded her
+wherever she went.
+
+The room in which she indulged her artistic fancy was large and bare,
+with stuccoed walls on which she herself had thrown quaint and fantastic
+pictures of goddesses and of beasts, and groups of charioteers and
+gladiators, drawn with a skilful hand. The room derived its light solely
+from above, where, through a wide opening in the ceiling, came a peep of
+cloud-covered sky. There was little or no furniture about, and the floor
+of iridescent mosaic was innocent of carpet. Only in the corners
+against the wall stood tall pots of earthenware filled with flowers,
+with a profusion of late summer lilies and roses and with great branches
+of leaves on which the coming autumn had already planted its first kiss
+that turns green to gold.
+
+"Hold thy head up, girl, a little higher," said Dea Flavia impatiently;
+"thou sittest there like a hideous misshapen bunch of nothing-at-all.
+Dost think I've paid a high price for thee that thou shouldst go to
+sleep all day upon that trestle?"
+
+And the girl, roused from semi-somnolence, would pull herself together
+with a little jerk, would straighten her shoulders and lift her chin,
+whilst a quickly smothered sigh of weariness would escape her lips.
+
+The air was heavy both within and without, with the presage of a coming
+storm. It had been terribly hot the last few days. The weather-wise--for
+there were many such at this time in Rome--had prophesied that Jupiter
+would send his thunders roaring before very long, and the feeling of
+thunder in the air caused the model to feel very sleepy, and on the
+forehead of Dea Flavia beads of perspiration would appear at the roots
+of tiny fair curls.
+
+She was working with a will but with strange, fretful movements, like
+one whose mind seems absent from the present task. Short sighs of
+impatience escaped her parted lips at intervals and a frown appeared and
+disappeared fitfully between her brows.
+
+"Chin up, girl ... shoulders straight!" came in curt admonitions once or
+twice to the drowsy model.
+
+Whereupon from the furthest corner of the room Licinia would emerge, rod
+in hand, to emphasise the necessity of keeping awake when a beloved
+mistress so desired it.
+
+"Let her be, Licinia," said Dea Flavia with angry impatience when for
+the fifth time now the model fell in a huddled heap, with nose almost
+touching her knees, and heavy lids falling over sleepy eyes. "It's no
+use ... there is something in the air to-day. I cannot work.... Phew!...
+methinks I feel the approach of thunder."
+
+She threw down her modelling tools with a fretful gesture and then
+nervily began to destroy her morning's work, patting the clay aimlessly
+here and there until once more it became a shapeless mass.
+
+"That lazy baggage hath spoilt thy pleasure," said Licinia gruffly; "but
+I'll teach her----"
+
+"No, no, good Licinia!" interposed the young girl with a weary smile.
+"Teach her nothing to-day.... The air is too heavy for serious lessons.
+Send her away and bring me water for my hands."
+
+Then as Licinia--muttering various dark threats--drove the frightened
+girl before her, Dea Flavia breathed a sigh of relief. Her hands were
+covered with clay, so she stood quite still waiting for the reappearance
+of Licinia with the water; and all the while the frown on her face grew
+darker and the look of trouble in her eyes more pronounced.
+
+Soon the old woman returned with a basin full of water in her hands and
+a white cloth over her arm. With her wonted loving care she washed Dea's
+hands between her own and dried them on the towel. Dea allowed her to
+perform this kindly office for her, standing quite still and gazing
+absently out into vacancy.
+
+"What can I do now for thee, my precious?" asked Licinia anxiously.
+
+"Nothing, Licinia, nothing," replied Dea with a sigh. "Just leave me in
+peace.... I have a desire for solitude and silence."
+
+It was the old woman's turn to sigh now, for she did not like this
+unwonted mood of her beloved. Dea Flavia, when in the privacy of her own
+house, was always gay and cheerful as a bird, prattling of all sorts of
+things, telling amusing anecdotes to her old nurse and playing
+light-heartedly with her young slaves, whenever she was not occupied
+with her artistic work. This frown upon the smooth, white brow was very
+unusual, and the fretful, impatient gestures were as unwonted as was
+that dreamy, absent gaze which spoke of anxious, troubled thoughts.
+
+Dea Flavia herself could not understand her own mood. She could not have
+confided in the faithful old woman, even had she been so minded, for
+truly she would not have known what to confide.
+
+Her thoughts worried her. They were so insistent, dwelling obstinately
+on one moment which had flitted by yesterday--the moment when she stood
+facing the praefect of Rome, and looking into his deep, dark eyes, which
+then and there had reminded her of a stormy sea suddenly lulled to rest.
+It seemed as if nothing now or ever hereafter would chase from her mind
+the memory of his look and of his rugged voice, softened to infinite
+gentleness as he said: "I told thee that He died upon the Cross."
+
+She could hear that voice now, even as at this moment from afar a
+muffled sound of thunder went echoing over the hills, and, strive as she
+might, wherever she looked her eyes were haunted by the vision which he
+had conjured up of a man with arms outstretched upon a cross, whose
+might was yet greater than that of Rome.
+
+At the time she had been greatly angered. The praefect had spoken
+traitorous words, and she had hated him--she hated him still--for that
+allegiance which he seemed to have given to another. Then, with a quick,
+elusive trick, memory showed her the massive shoulders bent humbly at
+her feet, tying the strings of her shoe--a simple homage due to the
+daughter of Caesar--and the sharp pang of wrath once more shot through
+her heart with the remembrance that he had not deigned to press his lips
+against her foot.
+
+The man's face and figure haunted her for it was the face and the figure
+of one whom she had learnt to hate. Yes! She hated him for his treason
+to Caesar, for his allegiance to that rebel from Galilee; she hated every
+word which he had spoken in that arrogant, masterful way of his, when he
+smiled upon her threats and calmly spoke of immortality. She hated the
+voice which perpetually rang in her ear, the voice with which he spoke
+of his own soul being in the keeping of God--of One Whose Empire is
+mightier than that of Rome.
+
+Yet vaguely still--for she was but a girl--the woman in her was stirred;
+the power and desire which exists in every woman's soul to conquer that
+which seems furthest from her reach. She hated the man, and yet within
+her inmost heart there had sprung the desire to curb and possess his; to
+disturb the perfect serenity that dwelt in his deep-set eyes, to kindle
+in them a passion which would make of that proud spirit a mere slave to
+her will.
+
+There was in her just now nothing but the pagan desire to rule, and to
+break a heart if need be, if she could not otherwise subdue it.
+
+Memory had fanned her wrath. She saw him now as she had seen him
+yesterday, arrogantly thwarting her will, his bitter tongue lashing her
+with irony; and now, as yesterday, the blush of humiliation burned her
+cheeks, and her pride and dignity rose up in passionate revolt against
+the one man who had ever defied her and who had proudly proclaimed his
+allegiance to a man who was not the Caesar.
+
+That allegiance belonged to Caesar and to his might alone; beyond that
+there was the House of Caesar, and failing that, nothing but rebellious
+treachery. And the troubled look grew deeper in Dea Flavia's face, and
+now she buried her hot cheeks in her hands, for the humiliation which
+she had endured yesterday from one man seemed to shame her even now.
+
+"I'll break thy will," she murmured, whilst angry tears rose, burning,
+to her eyes. "I'll shame thy manhood and never rest until I see thee
+crawling--an abject slave--at the feet of Caesar, who shall kick thee in
+the face. Caesar and the House of Caesar brook no rivalry in the heart of
+a Roman patrician."
+
+Her hands dropped from before her face. She threw back her head, and
+looked straight before her into the darkest corner of the room.
+
+"Jesus of Nazareth, he called thee!" she said slowly and as if speaking
+to an invisible presence. "And he said at thy call he would give up the
+world, and suffer death and torture and shame for thee!... Then so be
+it! And I do defy thee, O man of Galilee! even I, Dea Flavia Augusta, of
+the imperial House of Caesar! For that man whom I hate and despise, for
+that man who has defied and shamed me, for that man whose heart and
+allegiance thou hast filched from Caesar, for him will I do thee battle
+... and that heart will I conquer; and it shall be Caesar's and
+mine--mine--for I will break it and crush it first and then wrest it
+from thee!"
+
+And even as she spoke, from far away over the hills and beyond the
+Campania the thunder rolled dully in response.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+"Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice
+like him."--JOB XL. 9.
+
+
+A few moments later Licinia came running back into the room.
+
+"Augusta!" she exclaimed excitedly even before she had crossed the
+threshold. "Augusta! quick! the Caesar!"
+
+Dea Flavia started, for she had indeed been suddenly awakened from a
+dream. Slowly, and with eyes still vague and thoughtful, she turned to
+her slave.
+
+"The Caesar?" she repeated, whilst a puzzled frown appeared between her
+brows and the young blood faded from her cheeks. "The Caesar?"
+
+"Aye," said the old woman hurriedly. "He is in the atrium even now,
+having just arrived, and his slaves fill the vestibule. He desires
+speech with thee."
+
+"He does not often come at this hour," said Dea Flavia, whose face had
+become very white and set at mention of a name which indeed had the
+power of rousing terror in every heart just now. "Doth he seem angered?"
+she asked under her breath.
+
+"No, no," said Licinia reassuringly, "how could he be angered against
+thee, my pet lamb? But come quickly, dear, to thy robing room; what
+dress wilt put on to greet the Caesar in?"
+
+"Nay, nay," she said with a tremulous little laugh, "we'll not keep my
+kinsman waiting. That indeed might anger him. He has been in this room
+before and hath liked to watch me at my work. Let him come now, an he
+wills."
+
+Licinia would have protested for she loved to deck her darling out in
+all the finery that, to her mind, rendered the Augusta more beautiful
+than a goddess, but there was no time to say anything for even now the
+Caesar's voice was heard at the further end of the atrium.
+
+"Do not disturb your mistress. I'll to her myself. Nay! I'll not be
+announced. 'Tis an informal cousinly visit I am paying her this
+morning."
+
+"He seemeth in good humour," whispered Dea Flavia, whose little hands
+were trembling as they made pretence once more of taking up the
+modelling tools. Licinia hurriedly tried to smooth down the golden hair
+which had become unruly during the course of the morning, but in her
+haste only succeeded in completely disarranging it and it fell in wavy
+masses down the young girl's shoulders, all but one plait which remained
+fixed over her brow like a wide band of gold.
+
+Dea uttered an exclamation of horror and made a quick gesture, trying to
+capture the recalcitrant curls, even at the very moment that the Emperor
+Caligula entered the room.
+
+He paused on the threshold and her arms dropped down to her side. Her
+golden hair fell all round her as she bent her knees making obeisance to
+the Caesar. There was nothing regal about her now, nothing imperious or
+proud; she looked just like a child caught unawares at play.
+
+Blushing with confusion she advanced toward her kinsman, and with head
+bent received his kiss upon her pure forehead. Nor did she shrink at
+this loathsome contact which would have filled almost any other woman's
+heart with horror. To her this man was not really human--he was the
+Caesar--a supernatural being blessed by the gods, and endowed by them
+with supreme majesty and power.
+
+"Dismiss thy slaves," he said curtly, "I would have speech with thee."
+
+He had well schooled his turbulent temper to calmness. After Caius
+Nepos' departure and a final outburst of unbridled violence, he had
+plunged into a cold bath and given himself over for half an hour to the
+ministrations of his slaves. Then, cool and refreshed--at any rate
+outwardly--he had dressed himself in simple robes, and passing right
+through the halls of the Palace of Tiberius which adjoined his own, he
+had reached the precincts of Dea Flavia's house, which in its turn
+abutted on that built by Germanicus.
+
+At any other time but the present one--when his frenzied mind was wholly
+given over to thoughts of the terrible treachery against his own
+person--he would have been conscious of Dea Flavia's exquisite beauty,
+as she stood before him, humble with the proud humility of one who has
+everything to give and nothing to receive; chaste with that pure
+ignorance which refuses to know what it cannot condone, and withal a
+perfect woman, imbued with a fascination which no man had ever been able
+to resist, for it was the fascination of youthful loveliness combined
+with the stately aloofness of conscious power.
+
+At any other time but this, the unscrupulous voluptuary would have gazed
+on his beautiful kinswoman with eyes that would have shamed her with
+their undisguised admiration, and mayhap his look and actions would have
+placed a severe test on her loyalty and on her respect for him.
+
+But to-day Caligula only saw in her the tool whom conspirators meant to
+use for their treacherous ends, her loveliness paled in his eyes before
+the awful suspicion which he had of her guilt, and whilst she stood
+quietly awaiting his pleasure, he marvelled how much she knew of the
+traitors' plans and whether her white fingers would effectually thrust
+the dagger into an assassin's hand.
+
+She had dismissed her slaves at his bidding--all unconscious as she was
+of any danger that might threaten her through him. He waited for a while
+in silence, then he said abruptly:
+
+"Dea Flavia, what is thine age?"
+
+She looked up at him, smiling and puzzled.
+
+"Some twenty years, great Caesar," she replied, "but of a truth I had not
+kept count."
+
+"Twenty years?" he retorted, "then 'tis high time that I chose a husband
+for thee."
+
+This time she looked up at him boldly, and although in her glance there
+was all the respect due to the immortal Caesar, yet was there no show of
+humility in her attitude as she threw back the heavy masses of her hair
+and drew up her slender figure to its full stately height.
+
+"Was it to tell me this," she asked simply, "that the greatest of Caesars
+sought his servant's house to-day?"
+
+"In part," he rejoined curtly, "and I would hear thine answer."
+
+"My lord has not deigned to ask a question?"
+
+"Art prepared to accept the husband whom I, thine Emperor will choose
+for thee?"
+
+"In all things do I give thee honour and reverence, O Caesar," she
+replied, "but----"
+
+"But what?"
+
+"But I had no thought of marriage."
+
+"No thought of marriage!" he retorted roughly as, unable to sit still,
+harassed by rage and doubt, he once more started on that restless walk
+of his up and down the room.
+
+She watched him with great wondering eyes. That something serious lay
+behind his questionings was of course obvious. He had not paid her this
+matutinal visit for the sole purpose of passing the time of day; and she
+did not like this strange mood of his nor his reference to a topic over
+which he had not worried her hitherto.
+
+In truth the thought of marriage had never entered her head, even though
+Licinia--with constant garrulousness--had oft made covert allusions to
+that coming time. She knew--for it had been instilled into her from
+every side ever since her father had left her under the tutelage of the
+Caesar--that she must eventually obey him, if one day he desired that she
+should marry.
+
+A young patrician girl would never dream of rebellion against the power
+of a father or a guardian, and when that guardian was the Caesar himself
+and the girl was of the imperial house, the very thought of disobedience
+savoured of sacrilege.
+
+But hitherto that question had loomed ahead in Dea Flavia's dreams of
+the future only as very shadowy and vague. She had never given a single
+thought to any of the young men who paid her homage, and their efforts
+at winning her favours had only caused her to smile.
+
+She had felt herself to be unconquerable, even unattainable, and
+Caligula, before this mad frenzy had fully seized hold of him, had--in
+his own brutish way--indulged her in this, allowing her to lead her own
+life and secretly laughing at the machinations that went on around him
+to obtain the most coveted matrimonial prize in Rome.
+
+Now suddenly this happy state of things was to come to an end; her
+freedom, on which she looked as her most precious possession, was to be
+taken roughly from her. One of the men whom she had despised, one of
+that set of libertines, of idle voluptuaries who had dangled round her
+skirts whilst casting covetous eyes upon her fortune, was to become her
+master, her supreme lord, and she--a slave to his desires and to his
+passions.
+
+Strangely enough the thought of it just now was peculiarly horrible to
+her--the thought of what the Caesar's wish might mean--the inevitableness
+of it all nauseated her until she felt sick and faint, and the walls of
+the room began to swing round her so that she had to steady herself on
+her feet with a mighty effort of will, lest she should fall.
+
+She knew the Caesar well enough to realise that if he had absolutely set
+his mind on her marriage nothing would make him swerve from the thought.
+If he once desired a thing he would never rest night or day until his
+wish had been fulfilled.
+
+Men and women of Rome knew that. Patricians and plebs, senators and
+slaves, had died horrible deaths because the Caesar had demanded and they
+had merely thought to disobey.
+
+Therefore it was with wide-open, terror-filled eyes that she watched
+that tyrannical master in his restless walk up and down the room.
+
+Outside greater darkness had gathered, heavy clouds obscured the light,
+and the gorgeous figure of the Caesar now and then vanished into the dark
+angles of the room, reappearing a moment later like some threatening
+ghoul that comes and goes, blown by the wind which foretells the coming
+storm.
+
+After a while Caligula paused in his walk and stood close beside her,
+looking as straight as he could into her pale face.
+
+"No thought of marriage?" he repeated, with one of his mirthless laughs,
+"no thought, mayhap, of the husband whom I would choose for thee? No
+doubt there is even now lurking somewhere in this palace a young gallant
+who alone has the right to aspire to Dea Flavia's grace."
+
+"My lord is pleased to jest," she said coolly, "and knows as well as I
+do that no patrician can boast of a single favour obtained from me."
+
+"Then 'tis on a slave thou hast chosen to smile," he said roughly.
+
+Then as she did not deign to make reply to this insult, he continued:
+
+"Come! Art mute that thou dost not speak when Caesar commands?"
+
+"What does my lord wish me to say?"
+
+"Hast a lover, girl?"
+
+"No, my lord."
+
+"Thou liest."
+
+"Did I deceive my lord in this, then had I not the courage to look
+boldly in the Caesar's face."
+
+"Bah!" he said with a snarl, "I mistrust that maidenly reserve which men
+call pride, and I, clever coquetry. The women of Rome have realised,
+fortunately by now, that they are the slaves of their masters, to be
+bought and sold as he directs. The wife must learn that she is the slave
+of her husband, the daughter that she belongs to the father; the women
+of the House of Caesar that they belong to me."
+
+"It is a hard lesson my lord would teach to one half of his subjects."
+
+"It is," he said with brutal cynicism, "but I like teaching it. I hope
+to live long enough--nay! I mean to live long enough--to establish a
+marriage market in Rome, where the lords of the earth can buy what women
+they want openly, for so many sesterces, as they can their cattle and
+their pigs."
+
+She recoiled from the man a little at these words and a blush of shame
+slowly rose to her cheek. But she retorted calmly:
+
+"The gods do speak through Caesar's mouth and he frames the laws even as
+they wish."
+
+Her words flattered his egregious vanity which had even as great, if not
+a greater, hold upon him than his tyrannical temper. He knew that to
+this proud girl he was as a god, and that her respect for his Caesarship
+made her blind to every one of his faults, but this additional simple
+testimony from her pure lips caused him to relent towards her, and quite
+instinctively made him curb the violent grossness of his tongue.
+
+"Thou speakest truly, O Dea Flavia," he said complacently. "The gods
+will, when the time comes, speak through my mouth and make known their
+will through my dictates even as they have done hitherto--even as they
+do at this moment when I tell thee that I desire to see thee married."
+
+"My lord hath spoken," she said calmly.
+
+"Do not think, O Dea Flavia," he continued, carried away by his own
+eloquence, "that I desire aught but thy happiness. If I decide to give
+thee for wife to a man, it shall only be to one who is worthy of thee in
+every respect. Thou shalt help me to choose him ... for I have not yet
+made my choice ... he shall testify before thee as to his nobility and
+his bravery.... An thou dost assure me that thou hast not yet bestowed
+thy regard on any man----"
+
+He paused midway in his phrase with indrawn breath, waiting for her
+reply. She gave it firmly and without hesitation.
+
+"I have cast my eyes on no man, my lord, and have no desire to marry."
+
+"Wouldst consecrate thy virginity to Vesta then?" he asked with a sneer.
+
+"Rather that," she replied, "if my lord would so deign to command."
+
+"Tush!" he broke in impatiently. "Herein thou dost offend the gods and
+me! 'Tis impious to waste thy beauty in barren singleness; the gods hate
+the solitary maid unless she be ill-favoured and unpleasing to every
+man. Thou of the House of Caesar hast a mission to fulfil and canst not
+fulfil it thus in isolation, fashioning clay figures that have no life
+which they can consecrate to Caesar. But have no fear, for I, thy lord,
+do watch over thy future--the man whom I will choose for thee will be
+worthy of thy smiles."
+
+He drew up his misshapen figure to its full height and beamed at the
+young girl with an expression of paternal benignness. He was delighted
+with himself, delighted with his own oratory. He was such a born
+mountebank that he could even act the part of kindness and benevolence,
+and he acted it at this moment so realistically that the ignorant,
+confiding girl was taken in by his tricks.
+
+She saw the gracious smile and was too inexperienced, too devoted, to
+see the hideous leer that he was at pains to conceal.
+
+"The choice will be difficult, gracious lord," she said, feeling
+somewhat reassured, "and will take some time to make."
+
+"Therefore will I trust to inspiration," he rejoined blandly.
+
+"The gods no doubt will speak when the time comes."
+
+"Aye! They will thunder forth their decree at midday to-morrow," said
+Caligula, with well-assumed majesty.
+
+"To-morrow, O my lord?"
+
+"Thou hast said it. I have a fancy to make known my decree in this
+matter during the games at the Circus to-morrow. So put on thy richest
+gown, O Dea Flavia Augusta," he added with a sneer, "so as to appear
+pleasing in thy future husband's sight."
+
+"My gracious lord is pleased to jest," she said, all her fears returning
+to her in a moment with an overwhelming rush that made her sick with
+horror.
+
+"Jest!" he retorted with a snarl, showing his yellow teeth like a hyena
+on the prowl, "nay! I never was so earnest in my life. Is not the future
+of my beloved ward of supreme importance to me?"
+
+"Nay, then, good my lord," she pleaded earnestly, her young voice
+trembling, her blue eyes fixed appealingly on the callous wretch, "I do
+beg of thy mightiness to give me time ... to think ... to ..."
+
+"I have done all the thinking," he broke in roughly, "thou hast but to
+obey."
+
+"Indeed, indeed," she entreated, "I have no wish to disobey ... but my
+gracious lord ... do I pray thee deign to consider ..."
+
+"Silence, wench!" he shouted, with a violent oath, for what he deemed
+her resistance was exasperating his fury and reawakened all his former
+suspicions of her guilt. "Cease thy senseless whining.... I, thine
+Emperor, have spoken. Let that suffice. Who art thou that I should
+parley with thee? To-morrow thou'lt go to the Circus. Dost hear? And
+until then remain on thy knees praying to the gods to pardon thy
+rebellion against Caesar."
+
+And with an air which he strove to render majestic he turned on his heel
+and prepared to go. But in a moment she was down on her knees, her hands
+clutching his robe. She would not let him go, not now, not yet, whilst
+she had not exhausted every prayer, every argument, that would soften
+his heart towards her.
+
+"My gracious lord," she pleaded, whilst her trembling voice was almost
+choked with sobs, "for pity's sake do hear me! I am not rebellious, nor
+disobedient to thy will! I am only a humble maid who holds all her
+happiness from thee! My gracious lord thou art great, and thou art
+mighty, thou art kind and just. Have mercy on me, for my whole heart is
+brimming over with loyalty for thee! I am free, and am happy in my
+freedom; the men who fawn round me, coveting my fortune, fill me with
+disgust. I could not honour one of them, my lord! I could not give one
+of them my love. Thou who art so great, must know how I feel. I implore
+thee leave me my freedom, the most precious boon which I possess, and my
+lips will sing a paean of praise to thee for as long as I live."
+
+But Caligula was not the man whom a woman's entreaties would turn from
+his purpose, more especially when that purpose was his own
+self-interest. This wretch had no heart within him, no sensibility, not
+one single feeling of pity or of loyalty.
+
+His instinct must have told him that Dea Flavia was loyal to the core,
+loyal to the Caesar and to his House, but so blinded was he by rage and
+humiliation and by the terror of assassination, that he saw in the
+earnest, simple pleadings of a young girl and devoted partisan nothing
+but the obstinate resistance of a would-be traitor.
+
+The more did Dea plead, the more did he become convinced that already
+her choice of a husband was made, and that that husband was destined to
+wrench the sceptre of Caesar from him and to mount Caesar's throne over
+his murdered body. With a brutal gesture he pushed the young girl from
+him.
+
+"Silence!" he shouted, as soon as choking rage enabled him to speak.
+"Silence, I say! ere I strike thee into eternal dumbness. What I have
+said, I've said. Dost hear me? To-morrow, at the Circus, I will name thy
+husband, and then and there thou shalt accept him, whoever he may be. I
+have a reason for wishing this--a reason of State far beyond the
+comprehension of a mere fool. To-morrow thou shalt accept the man of my
+choice as thy future lord. That is my will. Look to it, O daughter of
+Caesar, that thou dost obey. Caesar hath spoken."
+
+"Caesar hath spoken," she pleaded, "but my gracious lord will relent."
+
+"Dost know me, girl?" he retorted, as, bending down to her, he seized
+her wrists in his and brought his flushed face all distorted by fury,
+close to her own. "Dost know me? For if so hast ever seen me relent once
+I have set my will? Look into my eyes now! Look, I say!" he shouted
+hoarsely, giving her wrists and arms a brutal wrench. "Do they look as
+if they meant to relent? Is there anything in my face to lead thee to
+hope that thou wouldst have thy treacherous way with me?"
+
+He held her wrists so cruelly that she could have screamed with the
+pain, but she bit her lip to still the cry.
+
+Daylight now was yielding to the oncoming storm. Dense shadows hung all
+round the room, making the objects in it seem weird and ghost-like in
+the gloom. Sudden gusts of wind swept angrily round, causing the
+withered leaves and dying flowers in the vases to murmur with unearthly
+sounds, as of the sighing of disembodied souls. Only through the
+aperture above a streak of greyish light struck full upon the Caesar, as,
+with glowing eyes and cruel grasp, he compelled her to look on him.
+
+For a moment she closed her eyes after she had looked, for never before
+had she seen anything so hideous and so evil. His misshapen head looked
+unnaturally large as it seemed to loom out at her from out the gathering
+darkness, his hair stood up sparse and harsh all round his forehead. His
+eyes were protruding and shot through with blood; his lips were dry and
+cracked, his cheeks of a dull crimson and heavy sweat was pouring down
+his face.
+
+When she turned away from him in horror, he broke into that wild laugh
+of his which had in it the very sounds of hell.
+
+"Well!" he said with a leer, "hast seen my face? Art still prepared to
+disobey?"
+
+"No, my lord," she said slowly, and fixing her eyes fully upon his now,
+"but I am prepared to die."
+
+"To die? What senseless talk is this?"
+
+"Not senseless, my good lord. Even the gods do allow us poor mortals to
+find refuge from sorrow in death."
+
+"So!" he said slowly, still gripping her wrists and peering into her
+face till his scorching breath made her feel sick and faint. "That is
+the way thou wouldst defy the will of Caesar? Death, sayest thou?...
+Death and disobedience--rather than submission to the wish of him who
+has god-like power on earth. Death!" and he laughed loudly even whilst
+from afar there came, faint and threatening, the nearer presage of the
+coming storm. "What death? A pleasing, dreamless sleep brought on by
+drugs? A soothing draught that lulls even as it kills--or hadst
+perchance thought of the arena?... of the tiger that roars?... or the
+lictor's flail that drives?... hadst thought ... hadst thought ..."
+
+He was foaming at the mouth, his rage was choking him; he had only just
+enough strength left in him to tear at the neck of his tunic, for the
+next moment he would have fallen, felled like an ox by the power of his
+own fury. But as soon as he had released Dea Flavia's wrists and she
+felt herself free to move, she rose from her knees, and with quick,
+almost mechanical gesture, she rearranged her disordered robe and shook
+back the heavy masses of her hair. Then she stood quite still, with arms
+hanging by her side, her head quite erect and her eyes fixed upon that
+raving monster. When she saw that he had at last regained some semblance
+of reason she said quite calmly:
+
+"My gracious lord will work his way with his slave, and deal her what
+death he desires."
+
+"What!" he murmured incoherently, "what didst thou say?"
+
+"'Tis death I choose, my lord," she said simply, "rather than a husband
+who was not of mine own seeking."
+
+For a moment then she did look death straight and calmly in the face,
+for it was death that looked on her through those blood-shot eyes. He
+had thrust his lower jaw forward, his teeth, large and yellow, looked
+like the fangs of a wolf; stertorous breathing escaped his nostrils, and
+his distorted fingers were working convulsively, like the claws of a
+beast when it sees its prey.
+
+Caligula would have strangled her then and there without compunction and
+without remorse. She had defied him and thwarted him even more
+completely than she knew herself; and there was no death so cruel that
+he would not gladly have inflicted upon her then.
+
+"Dost dare to defy me...!" he murmured hoarsely, "hast heard what I
+threatened ..."
+
+She put out her hand, quietly interrupting him.
+
+"I heard the threat, my lord ... and have no fear," she said.
+
+"No fear of death?"
+
+"None, gracious lord. There is no yoke so heavy as a bond unhallowed.
+No death so cruel as the breaking of a heart."
+
+There was dead silence in the room now; only from a far distant rolls of
+ceaseless thunder sent their angry echo through the oppressive air.
+Caligula was staring at the girl as he would on some unearthly shape.
+Gasping he had fallen back a few steps, the convulsive twitching of his
+fingers ceased, his mouth closed with a snap, and great yellow patches
+appeared upon his purple cheeks.
+
+Then he slowly passed his hand across his streaming forehead, his
+breathing became slower and more quiet, the heavy lids fell over the
+protruding eyes.
+
+Caius Julius Caesar Caligula was no fool. His perceptions, in fact,
+became remarkably acute where his own interests were at stake, and he
+had the power of curbing that demoniacal temper of his, even in its
+maddest moment, if self-advantage suddenly demanded it.
+
+He had formed a plan in his head for the trapping of the unknown man who
+was to mount the throne of Caesar over the murdered body of his Emperor.
+Before dealing with the whole band of traitors he wished to know who it
+was that meant to reap the greatest benefit by the dastardly conspiracy.
+There was one man alive in Rome at the present moment who thought to
+become the successor of Caligula; that one man would be bold enough to
+woo and win Dea Flavia for wife.
+
+Caligula's one coherent thought ever since Caius Nepos had betrayed the
+conspiracy to him, was the desire to know who that man was likely to be.
+That was the man he most hated--the unknown man. Him he desired to
+punish in a manner that would make all the others endure agonies of
+horror ere they in turn met their doom. But his identity was still a
+mystery. To discover it, the Caesar had need of the help of this girl
+who stood there so calmly before him, defying his power and his threats.
+He looked on her and understanding slowly came to him ... understanding
+of the woman with whom he had to deal. It dawned upon him in the midst
+of his tumultuous frenzy that here he had encountered a will that he
+could never bend to his own--an irresistible force had come in contact
+with an unbending one. One of the two must yield, and Caligula, staring
+at the young girl who seemed so fragile that a touch of the hand must
+break her, knew that it was not she who would ever give in.
+
+His well-matured plan he would not give up. He had thought it all out
+whilst he refreshed himself in his bath after Caius Nepos' visit, and it
+was not likely that any woman could, by her obstinate action, move
+Caligula from his resolve. But obviously he must alter his tactics if he
+desired Dea Flavia's help. He could gain nothing by her death save
+momentary satisfaction, and the matter was too important to allow
+momentary satisfaction to interfere with the delights of future complete
+revenge.
+
+Therefore he forced himself to some semblance of calm. He was a perfect
+mountebank, a consummate actor, and now he called to his aid his full
+powers of deception. Cunning should win the day since rage and coercion
+had failed.
+
+Slowly his face lost every vestige of anger and sorrowful serenity crept
+into his eyes. Tottering like one who feels unmanned, he sought the
+support of a chair and fell sitting into it, with his elbows on his
+knees and his head buried in his hands.
+
+"Woe is me!" he moaned, "woe to the House of Caesar when its fairest
+daughter turns traitor against her kin!"
+
+"I! a traitor, good my lord!" she rejoined quietly. "There is no
+treachery in my desire to serve Caesar in single maidenhood, or to offer
+thee my life rather than my freedom."
+
+"There is black treachery," he said with tremulous voice like one in
+deep sorrow, "in refusing to obey the Caesar."
+
+"In this alone----"
+
+But it was his turn now to interrupt her with a quick raising of the
+hand.
+
+"Aye! That is what the waverer says: 'Good my lord, I'll obey in all
+save in what doth not please me!' Dea Flavia Augusta, I had thought thee
+above such monstrous selfishness."
+
+"Selfishness, my lord?"
+
+"Aye! Art thou not of the House of Caesar? Art thou not my kinswoman?
+Dost thou not receive at my hands honour, position, everything that
+places thee above the common herd of humanity? Were I not the Caesar,
+where wouldst thou be? Not in this palace surely, not the virtual queen
+of Rome, but, mayhap, a handmaid to another Caesar's wife, an attendant
+on his daughter.... Thou dost seem to have forgot all this, Augusta."
+
+"Nay, gracious lord, I have forgot nothing! Your goodness to me----"
+
+"And yet wouldst deliver me over into the hands of mine enemies," he
+said with increased dolefulness, "and not raise a finger to save me."
+
+"I would give my life for the Caesar," she interposed firmly, "and this
+the Caesar knows."
+
+"Wouldst not even take a husband, when by so doing thou wouldst save the
+Caesar from death."
+
+"My gracious lord speaks in riddles ... I do not understand."
+
+"Didst not understand, girl, that I but wished to test thy loyalty to
+me? Thou--like so many alas!--dost so oft prate of unbounded attachment
+to Caesar. To-day, for the first time, did I put that attachment to the
+test, and lo! it hath failed me."
+
+"Try me, my lord," she said, "and I'll not fail thee. But give me thy
+trust as well as thy commands."
+
+She advanced close to where he sat, apparently a broken-down, sorrowful
+man, stricken with grief. The mighty Caesar now was far more powerful
+than he had been a while ago when he raged and stormed and threatened,
+for he had appealed to the strongest feeling within her--he had appealed
+to her loyalty.
+
+Slowly she sank once more on her knees, not in entreaty now, not with
+thoughts of self, but in the humble subjection of herself to the needs
+of him whom the gods had anointed. She sank upon her knees, and with
+that simple action she offered her happiness on the altar of her loyalty
+to him and to her house.
+
+Gone was the look of defiance from her eyes, the pride had vanished and
+all the joy of life; no thought was left in the young mind now save an
+overwhelming sense of loyalty, no feeling lingered in the heart save the
+desire for self-sacrifice.
+
+The Caesar had commanded and since she could not disobey she was ready to
+die; memory had in a swift flash called up before her the vision of a
+man who, rather than yield to her caprice, had smiled at the thought of
+death. And she, too, had almost smiled, for suddenly she had understood
+how small a thing was life when slavery became its price.
+
+But now all that had changed. The Caesar pleaded and made appeal to her
+loyalty. Her refusal to obey him was no longer pride, it was
+disloyalty--almost sacrilege. The Caesar called to her! It was as if the
+gods had spoken, and she fell on her knees, ready to obey.
+
+The consummate actor was clever enough to hide the triumph that lit up
+his eyes when he saw her thus kneeling, and understood that she was
+prepared to yield.
+
+He stretched out a paternal hand, and with weary sadness stroked her
+golden hair.
+
+"Trust me, gracious lord," she reiterated, "my life is thine, do with it
+what thou wilt."
+
+"Traitors are at work, Dea Flavia, to murder the Caesar," he said gently.
+
+"Ye gods!" she murmured, horrified.
+
+"Aye! wouldst think mayhap that the gods will interfere? They will? I
+tell thee that they will! but they have need of thee, Augusta! I, thy
+Caesar, thy god do have need of thee!"
+
+With both hands now he took her own in his, not roughly, but with
+infinite tenderness, and cunningly contrived that two hot tears should
+fall upon her fingers.
+
+"My gracious lord!" she whispered, "my life is at thy service."
+
+"Accept the husband whom I propose for thee ... and my life will be
+safe.... Refuse to obey me in this and to-morrow the blood of Caesar will
+be upon thy head...."
+
+"My lord...."
+
+"Wilt obey me, Augusta?"
+
+"My gracious lord ... I do not understand," she pleaded; "have pity on
+my ignorance ... trust me but a little further...."
+
+"I cannot tell thee more," he said with a sigh of patient weariness,
+"but this I do tell thee, that my life and with it the future of our
+House--of the Empire--now lie in thy hands. The abominable traitors
+would make a tool even of thee. 'The husband of Dea Flavia Augusta,'
+they say, 'shall succeed the murdered Caesar!'"
+
+She uttered a cry of horror.
+
+"Their names," she murmured, "tell me their names."
+
+"I know but a few."
+
+"Which are they?"
+
+"They speak of Hortensius Martius."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"And of young Escanes ... also of Philario, my servant."
+
+"Ye gods," she exclaimed, "let your judgments fall upon them."
+
+"And of Taurus Antinor--the praefect of Rome," added the Caesar, and a
+savage snarl escaped his lips even when he spoke the name.
+
+"Taurus Antinor!" she exclaimed.
+
+Then half-audibly she murmured to herself, repeating the Caesar's words:
+
+"They would make a tool of thee!"
+
+She had fallen back, squatting on her heels, her hands clasped before
+her and her head sunk upon her bosom, bowed with shame and with horror.
+Her name had been bandied about by traitors, her person been bought and
+sold as the price of the blackest sacrilege that had ever disgraced the
+patriciate of Rome.
+
+"And thou, Taurus Antinor," she whispered inaudibly, "art the blackest
+traitor amongst them all."
+
+There was no need now for the Caesar to make further appeal to her
+loyalty. She was loyal to him--body and soul--loyal to him and to her
+House, ready to sacrifice her pride, her freedom if need be at a word
+from the Caesar, since he had said that by her action on the morrow she
+could help him fight the treacherous infamy.
+
+Caligula could well be satisfied with his success; nor did he try to
+press his advantage further. All that he had wanted was the assurance
+that she would not thwart him when he put into execution the plan which
+he had conceived. The man-trap which he had set would not now fail
+through Dea's obstinacy.
+
+He thought that the time had come for ending the interview. He desired
+that her receptive mind should retain a solemn impression of his majesty
+and of his power. A charlatan to the last, he now rose to his feet and
+with outstretched arm pointed upwards to the small glimpse of
+leaden-covered sky.
+
+"Jove's thunders still speak from afar," he said with slow emphasis,
+"but to-morrow they will crash over Rome and over the traitors within
+her walls. The air will be filled with moanings and with gnashing of
+teeth; the Tiber will run red with blood, for the murdered Caesar will
+mayhap be crying vengeance upon the assassins. Wilt save the Caesar, O
+Dea Flavia? Wilt save Rome and the Empire from a deadly crime and the
+devastating vengeance of the outraged gods?"
+
+He towered above her like some inspired prophet, with arms stretched out
+towards the fast approaching storm, and eyes uplifted to the
+thunderbolts of Jove.
+
+"I await thine answer," he said, "O daughter of the Caesars."
+
+"My answer has been given, gracious lord," she murmured, "have I not
+said that my life was at thy service?"
+
+"Thou'lt obey?"
+
+"Command, O Caesar!"
+
+"To-morrow at the Circus ... dost understand?... I have a plan ... and
+thou must obey ... blindly ... dost understand?" he reiterated
+hoarsely.
+
+"I understand, my lord."
+
+"I'll name thy future husband to the public ... to the plebs ... to all
+... and thou'lt accept him--before them all--without demur...."
+
+"As my lord commands."
+
+"This thou dost swear?"
+
+"This do I swear."
+
+"Then," said the mountebank with mock reverence as he placed his
+hand--blood-stained with the blood of countless innocent victims of his
+tyranny--upon the bowed head of the loyal girl, "receive the blessing of
+Jupiter the victorious, of Juno the holy goddess, and of Magna Mater the
+great Mother, for thou art worthy to be of the House of Caesar."
+
+But even as the last of these impious words had left his lips, the long
+awaited storm broke out in sudden fury; a vivid flash of lightning rent
+the sky from end to end and lit up momentarily every corner of the room,
+the kneeling figure of Dea Flavia, the misshapen figure of the imperial
+monster, the fading flowers in the vases. Then a mighty clap of thunder
+shook the very foundations of Dea Flavia's palace.
+
+Caligula uttered a wild shriek of terror, and, calling loudly for his
+slaves, he fled incontinently from the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+"As he that bindeth a stone in a sling, so is he that giveth
+honour to a fool."--PROVERBS XXVI. 8.
+
+
+From the hour of midnight the streets and ways leading to the great
+Amphitheatre were alive with people, all tending toward the same goal:
+men and women in holiday clothes and little children running beside
+them. The men were heavily loaded with baskets of rush or bags of rough
+linen containing provisions, for many hours would be spent up there
+waiting for amusement, whilst the body would grow faint if food were not
+forthcoming.
+
+So the men carried the provisions which the women had prepared the day
+before--eggs and cooked fish and such fruit as was cheap this season.
+And everybody was running, for though the Amphitheatre was vast and
+could hold--so 'twas said--over two hundred thousand people, yet
+considerably more than two hundred thousand people desired to be present
+at the opening of the games.
+
+They were to last thirty-one days and spectacles would be varied and
+exciting. But the great day would be the opening day, the one on which
+everybody desired to be inside the Amphitheatre if possible and not
+outside.
+
+Therefore an early start had to be made. But this nobody minded, as what
+is the want of a little sleep compared with the likelihood of missing
+the finest sight that had been witnessed in the city for years?
+
+The Caesar, of course, would be present. He would solemnly declare the
+games to be open. There were free gifts from him to the people: a
+thank-offering to the gods for his safe return from that arduous
+expedition in Germany; and he would show himself to his people, receive
+their acclamations and give them as much show and gaiety, music and
+combats, as they cared to see.
+
+So they went in their thousands and their tens of thousands, starting in
+the middle of the night so as to be there when the great gates were
+opened, and they would be allowed to pour into the vast enclosure, and
+find as good seats for themselves and their families as they could.
+
+And when at dawn, the great copper gates did slowly swing open, creaking
+upon their massive hinges, it was as if the flood-gates of a mighty sea
+had been suddenly let loose. In they poured, thousands upon thousands of
+them, scrambling, pushing and jumping, scurrying and hurrying, falling
+and tumbling, as they pressed onwards through the wide doors and then
+dispersed in the vastness of the gigantic arena, like ants that scamper
+away to their heaps.
+
+Like so many pygmies they looked now, fussy and excited, perspiring
+profusely despite the cool breeze of this early dawn.
+
+Give them half an hour and they'll all settle down, sitting row upon
+row, tier upon tier of panting, expectant humanity. After much
+bousculading the strong ones have got to the front rows, the weaker ones
+up aloft in the rear. But all can see well into the arena, and there are
+those who think that you get a better view if you sit more aloft;
+certain it is that you get purer air and something of the shadow of the
+encircling walls.
+
+There is no sign of cloud or storm to-day. Jove's thunders spent
+themselves during the morning hours of yesterday when clap upon clap,
+awe-inspiring and deafening, made every superstitious heart quake with
+terror at this possible augury of some coming disaster. To-day the sky
+is clear and--soon after dawn--of that iridescent crystalline blue that
+lures the eye into myriads and myriads of atoms, the creations of the
+heat-laden ether that stretches away--far away to the infinite distance
+beyond.
+
+The beauty of the late summer's day was accepted as a matter of course:
+as part and parcel of the holidays and festivals ordered by the Caesar.
+These too were the people's just dues: emperors had to justify their
+existence by entertaining their people. Grumblings at their luxury and
+extravagances were only withheld because of other luxuries and
+extravagances perpetrated for the amusement of the people.
+
+And from early dawn there was plenty to see. Even though you did not
+watch the citron-coloured sky overhead as it slowly changed its
+diaphanous draperies for others that were rose, then crimson, and then
+gold, finally casting off these two, and showing its blue magnificence
+unadorned. There were the soldiers on guard at the doors, their yellow
+helmets shining in the sun, their naked legs bronzed below their tunics.
+There were the late-comers to watch, those who had not cared for a
+midnight vigil and were arriving late, like lazy ants creeping to their
+heaps, finding all places occupied, running hither and thither in search
+of an empty place.
+
+Then, on the north side there were the tribunals of the senators, the
+patricians, and the knights, with--in the centre--gorgeous with purple
+draperies and standards--that which the Caesar would occupy. Rich stuffs
+covered with gold embroideries fell over the edge of these tribunes and
+fluttered lazily in the morning breeze; chairs and cushions were
+disposed there, and it was interesting to make vague guesses as to who
+would occupy them.
+
+The Emperor's tribune was decorated with flowers: huge bunches of lilies
+in pots of earthenware and crimson roses trailed in festoons overhead.
+There was no doubt that the Augusta Dea Flavia would be present then,
+lilies were her favourite flowers, they were always to be seen wherever
+she appeared.
+
+The tribunes of the rich were so disposed that the sun would never shed
+an unpleasant glare into them, and over that part of the Amphitheatre an
+awning of white and purple striped stuff threw a pleasing and restful
+shadow.
+
+Soon after the second hour the spectacle began. Processions of men and
+beasts who would take part in the combats and the shows. The Numidian
+lions--in heavy iron cages, drawn by eight pack horses--were snarling as
+they were dragged along, lean and hungry-looking, with bloodshot eyes
+that threatened, and dribbling jaws waiting to devour. The pack of
+hyenas from the desert, a novelty not yet witnessed at the games, the
+crocodiles from the Nile and the wolves from the Thracian forests.
+
+It was amusing to hear the snarl of the lions and to think of them as
+they would appear anon pitted one against the other, or engaged in
+deadly combat against the crocodiles. But still more exciting would it
+be when the prisoners of war, lately captured in Germany, would have to
+try their heavy fists against the masters of the desert.
+
+The procession of the beasts had lasted close upon an hour. The public
+waxed impatient. Beasts were well enough, but their prey was what the
+people desired to see. Women clamoured as loudly as the men. Children
+stood up upon the benches to catch sight of the prisoners, the
+malefactors, the rebellious slaves who would furnish the sport later on.
+
+Presently they began to arrive and were greeted with loud
+acclamations--trembling, miserable bundles of humanity with hideous
+death staring at them all round, the pungent odour of wild beasts
+stinking of death, the glowering eyes of an excited populace testifying
+that no mercy would be shown.
+
+The slaves mostly looked the prey of abject terror, backboneless, and
+with the cold sweat already pouring from their huddled-up bodies; they
+were men caught in the act of murder or of theft, confirmed malefactors
+most of them, now condemned to the arena to expiate their crimes and
+afford a holiday for the people.
+
+Some of the most hardened criminals had been dressed up to look like the
+German rebels whom the Emperor was supposed lately to have vanquished,
+with tow-coloured wigs and coverings of goatskin around their torso:
+they were marched round the gigantic arena, with clanging chains on
+their wrists and ankles.
+
+The public was delighted at their appearance. It confirmed the prowess
+of the Caesar, for the men had been selected for this special exhibition
+because of their height or the breadth of their shoulders. Everyone was
+curious to see them, and howls of execration greeted them as they
+passed. It was felt that they deserved far more severe punishment than
+was meted to ordinary criminals. They had rebelled against the might of
+Caesar, and in a manner had made attempt against his sacred life.
+
+But the most interesting part of this early morning show was undoubtedly
+the black panther whom the native prince of Numidia had sent as a
+tribute to the imperator. Wild rumours as to its cunning and its
+ferocity had been in circulation for some time, but no one had ever seen
+it; it had been kept closely guarded and heavily chained in the gardens
+of the Caesar's palace, and since its arrival from the desert was said to
+have grown to fabulous size and strength.
+
+Its inclusion in the spectacle of to-day had come as an exciting
+surprise, for it was known that the Caesar thought a great deal of the
+beast, going out daily to watch it through its iron bars, and delighting
+in its ferocity and cruel rapaciousness. He had caused a special house
+to be built for it in a secluded portion of his garden, with a
+swimming-bath carved out of a solid block of African marble. Its feeding
+trough was made of gold, and capons and pea-hens were specially fattened
+for its delectation.
+
+Many were the tales current about the Caesar's fondness for the creature
+and his pleasure in seeing it fed with live animals, which he would
+himself throw into the cage. It was even said he had fed the brute with
+human flesh, the flesh of slaves who had disobeyed or merely offended
+him: one of his chief amusements being to force one of these unfortunate
+wretches to thrust an arm into the cage, and then to watch the panther
+as it scrunched the human bones, and licked the human blood whilst cries
+of unspeakable horror and agony rent the air with their hideous sounds.
+
+And now--in order to delight his people--the greatest and best of Caesars
+would grant them the spectacle of his most precious pet. Loud clapping
+of hands and thunderous shouts of applause greeted the entrance of the
+magnificent cage which was drawn out into the arena by sixteen negro
+slaves. The bars of the cage were gilded, and it was surmounted by the
+imperial standard and the insignia of imperial rank. Its pedestal was of
+carved wood and mounted on massive wheels of steel. In the front were
+four heavy chains of steel, and to these the sixteen negroes were
+harnessed. They were naked save for a loin-cloth of scarlet cloth, and
+on their heads were fillets of shining metal, each adorned with five
+long ostrich feathers which had been dipped in brilliant scarlet dye.
+
+The weight of the cage, with its solid pedestal and heavy iron bars,
+must have been terrific, for the sixteen powerful Africans strained on
+the chains as they walked, burying their feet in the sand of the arena,
+their backs bent, the muscles of their shoulders and arms standing out
+like living cords. In a corner of the cage cowered the powerful
+creature, its broad, snake-like head thrust forward, its tiny golden
+eyes fixed before it, a curious snarl--like a grin--now and then
+contorted the immobility of its powerful jaws. The sinewy tail beat a
+restless tattoo on the floor of the cage.
+
+Now and then when a jerk on the uneven ground disturbed it from its
+ominous quietude, the brute would jump up suddenly--quick as the
+lightning flash--and bound right across the cage, striking out with its
+huge black paw to where one of the rearmost negro's back appeared
+temptingly near.
+
+The cunning precision with which that paw hit out exactly between two
+iron bars highly pleased the public, and once when the mighty claws did
+reach a back and tore it open from the shoulder to the waist, a wild
+shout of delight, echoed and re-echoed by thousands upon thousands of
+throats, shook the very walls of the gigantic Amphitheatre. Children
+screamed with pleasure, the women applauded rapturously, the men shouted
+"Habet! habet!" He has it! The unfortunate slave, who, giddy with the
+loss of blood, rolled inanimate beneath the wheels of the cage.
+
+It was at this moment, when the excited populace went nearly wild with
+delight, that a loud fanfare of brass trumpets announced the approach of
+the Caesar.
+
+He entered his tribune preceded by an escort of his praetorian guard
+with flying standards. At sight of him the huge audience rose to its
+feet like one man and cheered him to the echoes, cheered him with just
+the same shouts as those with which, a few moments ago, it had
+acclaimed the ferocious prowess of the panther, cheered him with the
+same shouts with which it would have hailed his death, his
+assassination, the proclamation of his successor.
+
+He was clad in a tunic of purple silk, wrought with the sun, moon and
+stars in threads of gold and silver, and on his chest was the
+breastplate of Augustus, which he had had dug up out of the vault where
+the great Emperor lay buried. On his head was a diadem of jewels in
+shape like the rays of the sun standing out all round his misshapen
+head, and in his hands he carried a gold thunderbolt, emblem of Jove,
+and a trident emblem of Neptune.
+
+He was surrounded by his own guard, by a company of knights and a group
+of senators and patricians, and immediately behind him walked his wife,
+Caesonia, and his uncle, Claudius, the brother of Germanicus.
+
+He came to the front of the tribune, allowing the populace a full view
+of his grotesque person, and listening with obvious satisfaction to the
+applause and the cheers that still rose in ceaseless echoes upwards to
+the sky.
+
+He did not hear the ironical laughter, nor yet the mocking comments on
+his appearance, which was more that of a caricature than of a sentient
+man. He was satisfied that all eyes were turned on himself and on the
+majestic pomp which surrounded him. The standard-bearers were ordered to
+wave the flags so that a cloud of purple and gold seemed to be wafted
+all round his head, and he ordered the Augustas to group themselves
+around him.
+
+The people watched this pageant as they had done the earlier spectacles.
+It was all a part of the show stage-managed for their amusement. They
+were interested to see the Augustas, and those who knew mentioned the
+various names to their less fortunate neighbours.
+
+"Caesonia standeth next her lord. She gave him a love potion once, so
+'tis said, because his passion for her was quickly on the wane. And 'tis
+that love potion which hath made him crazy."
+
+"And there are the Caesar's sisters, Drusilla and Livilla. Drusilla is
+very beautiful."
+
+"And there is Julia, the daughter of Drusus. She had been willing to
+step into Caesonia's shoes."
+
+"But Dea Flavia, daughter of Claudius Octavius, is the most beautiful
+amongst them all!"
+
+"Hail to Dea Flavia Augusta!" came from more than one enthusiastic
+throat.
+
+She was clad all in white, with strings of pearls round her neck and a
+fillet of diamonds in her golden hair. Her face was very pale and her
+lips never smiled. In her hands she held three tall sprays of lilies
+scarce whiter than the smooth surface of her brow.
+
+Everyone noticed that the Caesar specially commanded her to sit on his
+left, Caesonia being on his right, and that the Augustas all frowned with
+dissatisfaction at this signal honour paid to Dea Flavia.
+
+Anon Caius Nepos, the praetorian praefect, came to the front of the
+tribune, and in stentorian voice commanded everyone to kneel. All those
+in the tribune did kneel immediately, the guard holding the standards,
+the senators and the knights. The Augustas all knelt too, and the
+patricians in the tribunes to right and left. Some of the people knelt,
+but not by any means all, and Caius Nepos had to repeat his command
+three or four times, and to threaten the immediate dispersal of the
+audience and the clearing of the Amphitheatre before everyone at last
+obeyed.
+
+Caligula alone remained standing, and not far from him the praefect of
+Rome leaning against the partition wall.
+
+The Caesar then blessed his people, and at the word of Caius Nepos--the
+praetorian praefect--cries of "Hail Caesar! Hail, O God! Hail the Father
+of the Armies! the greatest and best of Caesars!" broke out on every
+side.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+"Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit
+of the beast that goeth downward to the earth."--ECCLESIASTES
+III. 21.
+
+
+Caius Julius Caesar Caligula was in excellent spirits, smiling and
+nodding to those around him and to his people all the time. His face
+certainly looked sallow and his eyes were bloodshot, but this may have
+been due to ill-health, for without doubt his temper was of the best.
+Only once had he frowned, when, looking behind him, he saw that the
+praefect of Rome had remained standing when everyone knelt to acclaim
+the Caesar.
+
+But even then the frown was quickly dissipated and he spoke quite
+pleasantly to the praefect later on. The Augustas grouped around him
+were continually laughing as he turned to them from time to time with a
+witty sally, or probably with what was more in keeping with his
+character--a coarse jest. And he watched the spectacle attentively from
+end to end. Firstly the play in verse on the subject of the judgment of
+Paris, a perversion of the legend favoured by the Greeks--a travesty
+wherein Paris--renamed Parisia--was a woman, and three gods were in
+rivalry for the golden apple, the emblem of her favours. Then the naval
+spectacle over the flooded arena, with ships and galleys executing
+complex manoeuvres on waters rendered turbulent by cleverly contrived
+artificial means; then the wrestling and scenes of hunting with wolves
+and boars specially brought from the Thracian forests for the occasion.
+
+He watched the Numidian lions tearing one another to pieces, he exulted
+with the audience over the fight between a pack of hyenas and some
+crocodiles from the Nile. He encouraged the gladiators in their fights,
+and joined in the excitement that grew and grew with every item of a
+programme which had been skilfully arranged so that it began with simple
+and peaceful shows, and gradually became more bloodthirsty and more
+fierce.
+
+It seemed as if a cunning mind, alert to the temper of the people, had
+contrived the entertainment so that with every stage of the proceedings
+something of the lustful love of cruelty, inherent in every Roman
+citizen, would be gradually aroused. The hunting scenes were a prelude
+to the combat between the lions, and these again were the forerunners of
+a more bloody bout between the hyenas and the crocodiles.
+
+At last blood had begun to flow. The audience sniffed its sickening
+odour with a thrill of nostril and brain, and tongues and lips became
+parched with the fever of desire for more.
+
+The other items--the play, the naval pageant, the scenes of hunting and
+combat of beasts amongst themselves--these were only the prologue. The
+real spectacle was at last to commence. For this the Romans
+thirsted--patricians and plebs alike, rich and poor, man, woman and
+child. These shows were their very life; they constituted the essence of
+their entire being; for these they rose at midnight and stood waiting,
+hour upon hour, that they might be near enough to smell the blood when
+it reddened the sand of the arena, and to see the last throe of agony on
+the face of those who fell in combat.
+
+"Habet! Habet! Habet!"
+
+The cry became more insistent and more hoarse. See the men and women
+leaning over the edge of the tribunes, their eyes wide open, their hands
+outstretched with thumb pointing relentlessly the way of death.
+
+"Habet! Habet!" shrieked the women when a prostrate figure lay writhing
+on the ground, and the victor with head erect demanded the final
+verdict.
+
+And up in the imperial tribune the Caesar jested and laughed, the
+standards waved above his head, the striped awning threw a cool blue
+shadow over his gorgeous robes and the jewel-crowned heads of the
+Augustas.
+
+The rest of the gigantic arena was a blaze of riotous colour now, with
+the mid-morning's sun darting its rays almost perpendicularly on the
+south side of the huge oval place. A sea of heads gold and brown, ruddy
+and black oscillating in unison to right or left like waters driven by
+the tide, as the combatants down below shifted their ground across the
+floor of the arena--fans of coloured feathers swinging, mantles caught
+by a passing breeze, every grain of sand on the floor of the arena a
+minute mirror radiating the light, everything glowed with an intensity
+of colour rendered all the more vivid by contrast with the dense shadows
+thrown against the marble walls.
+
+On the south side every shade of russet and brown and green showed in
+the mantles and the tunics of the plebs, and seemed flecked with vivid
+gold under the light of the sun, whilst in the tribunes of the rich on
+the opposite side cool tones of amethyst and chrysoprase were veiled in
+tender azure by the shadow from the awning above. And at either end, to
+east and west the massive copper portals, like gigantic ruddy mirrors
+threw back these tones of gold and blue as if through a veil of
+sunset-kissed clouds.
+
+Above, the sky of a vivid blue, translucent and iridescent with a myriad
+flecks of turquoise and rose and emerald that found their reflections
+in the marble walls of the arena or the shining helmets of the
+legionaries guarding the imperial tribune; and over the whole scene an
+impalpable veil of gold, made of tiny, unseen atoms that danced in the
+heat, and merged into an exquisite glowing harmony the russets and the
+purples, the emeralds and rubies and the trenchant notes of sardonyx and
+indigo that cut across the orgy of colour like a deep, gaping wound.
+
+And through it all that sense of thrilling expectancy, so keen that it
+almost seemed palpable.
+
+It vibrated in the air making every cheek glow with a crimson fire and
+kindling a light in every eye. It seemed to set every golden atom
+dancing, it was felt through every breath drawn by two hundred thousand
+throats.
+
+Over the Emperor's head the striped awning flapped weirdly in the
+breeze, with strange insistent sound like the knocking of a ghostly hand
+upon the doors of hell.
+
+Not a few miserable wretches whom the summary justice of the Caesar's own
+tribunal had condemned to death were exposed to a band of
+swordsmen--executioners really, since the fight was quite unequal. Huge
+African giants with short naked swords pursuing a few emaciated wretches
+who ran howling round the arena, jumping improvised hurdles, rounding
+obstacles or crawling under cover, running, running with that
+unreasoning instinct of self-preservation which drives even before the
+certainty of death.
+
+A hunting scene this, of novel diversion.
+
+No one cared whether the victims were really guilty of crime, no one
+cared if they had been equitably tried and been justly condemned, all
+that the public cared about was that the spectacle was new and amusing.
+The African giants were well-trained for their part, playing with the
+miserable victims like a feline doth with its prey, allowing them to
+escape, now and then, to see safety close at hand, to make a wild dash
+for what looked like freedom, and then suddenly bounding on them with
+that short wide sword that cried death as it descended.
+
+Rapturous applause greeted this show, and loud immoderate laughter
+hailed the fruitless efforts of the hunted, their falls over the
+obstacles, their look of horror, and the contortions of their meagre
+bodies when they were caught at last.
+
+"Habet! Habet! Habet!" everyone shouted when one of the unfortunate
+wretches brought to bay tried to turn on his pursuer, and to pit two
+feeble arms against the relentless grip of well-trained giants, and
+against the death-dealing sword.
+
+"Habet! Habet! Habet!"
+
+"He has it!" they screamed. He has the hideous death, the gaping wound
+in the still panting chest. He has the final agony which helps to make a
+holiday for the great citizens of the world.
+
+Now at last the sand of the arena has turned red with blood, the sickly
+odour mounts to every nostril; shrieks become more wild, like those of
+thousands of demons let loose. Anticipation and desire has been brought
+to its wildest pitch, and Caligula has every cause to be satisfied.
+
+Cries of "The lions! the lions! Slaves to the lions!" resounded from
+every side. Thousands of feet beat a tattoo on the floor, and from
+behind the great copper gates a mighty roar filled the heat-laden air
+with its awesome echo.
+
+
+In his gilded cage supported by carved pillars and drawn by eight
+Ethiopian slaves, the favourite of Caligula was slowly wheeled into the
+arena.
+
+A huge sigh rose from every breast. The tumult was hushed; dead silence
+fell upon the vast concourse of people suddenly turned to stone, alive
+only by two hundred thousand pairs of eyes fixed upon the cage and its
+occupant.
+
+The black panther--with its sleek black coat on which the midday sun
+threw tiny blotches of tawny lights--was cowering in a corner of its
+cage; its snake-like head, with the broad flat brow and wide curved
+jaws, was drawn back between its shoulders, its small golden eyes,
+gleaming like yellow topaz, were half closed in wary somnolence.
+
+Slowly the cage was wheeled round by the panting negro slaves, and then
+it was brought to a standstill against the copper gates at the eastern
+end of the arena.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+"Be thou faithful unto death."--REVELATIONS II. 10.
+
+
+Up in the gorgeously draped tribune, beneath the striped awning, the
+Emperor Caligula watched the arrival of his pet panther with a grin of
+delight upon his face. He rubbed his hands together in obvious glee, and
+anon pointed out the beauty of the ferocious creature to the Augusta Dea
+Flavia, who coldly nodded in response.
+
+She had sat beside the Caesar all through the long, weary morning, giving
+but few signs of life. Many there were who thought that, overcome with
+drowsiness owing to the heat, she had fallen asleep with her head buried
+in the fragrant depths of the lilies which she held.
+
+Certain it is that throughout the spectacle she had kept her eyes
+closed, and when death-cries filled the air with their terrible echo,
+she had once or twice put her small hands to her ears.
+
+Whenever she had done that the Caesar had laughed, and apparently made
+jest of her with the other Augustas who, in their turn, appeared greatly
+amused.
+
+The spectacle indeed had been somewhat tame, and but for the human chase
+of a while ago, would have been intolerably dull. There was surely
+nothing in the death of a few miserable slaves to upset the nerves of a
+Roman princess. As for the gladiators! well! they were trained and well
+paid to die.
+
+Not far from the Caesar's person, and leaning against the wall of the
+tribune in his wonted attitude, the praefect of Rome had also stood
+silently by. The Emperor had ordered his presence, nor could the
+praefect of the city be absent when the sacred person of the Caesar was
+abroad amongst his people.
+
+But no one could say whether the Anglicanus had seen or heard anything
+of what went on around him. His eyes of a truth were wide open, but they
+did not gaze down upon the arena; they were hidden by that dark frown
+upon his brow, and no one could guess whereon was his ardent gaze so
+resolutely fixed, no one could guess that from where he stood Taurus
+Antinor could perceive the outline of a delicate profile, with the
+softly rounded cheek, and a tiny shell-like ear half hidden by the filmy
+veil of curls.
+
+He could see the lids with their fringe of golden lashes fall wearily
+over the eyes, he could trace the shudder of horror which shook the
+slender figure from time to time.
+
+Once the lilies dropped from Dea Flavia's hand, and the soft swishing
+sound which they made in falling caused her to wake as from a reverie.
+She looked all round her with wide-open eyes, and her glance suddenly
+encountered those of the praefect of Rome. It seemed to him that her
+very soul was in her eyes then, a soul which at that moment appeared
+full of horror at all that she had seen.
+
+But as quickly as she had thus involuntarily revealed her soul, so did
+she conceal it again beneath her favoured veil of unbendable pride. She
+frowned on him as if angered that he should have surprised a secret, and
+almost it seemed then that she flashed on him a look of hatred and
+contempt.
+
+After that she turned away, and with her foot kicked away the fallen
+lilies. She sat now leaning forward, motionless and still, with her
+elbows buried in an embroidered cushion before her and her chin resting
+on her hands.
+
+Oh! if he only could, how gladly would he have seized her even now and
+carried her away from this nauseating scene of bloodshed and cruelty. He
+crossed his arms over his powerful chest till every muscle seemed to
+crack with the effort of self-control. His very soul longed to take her
+away, his sinews ached with the desire to seize her and to bear her in
+his arms away, away beyond the cruel encircling walls of Rome, away from
+her marble palaces and temple-crowned hills, away over the marshes of
+the Campania and the belt of the blue sea beyond to that far-off land of
+Galilee where he himself had found happiness and peace.
+
+The Caesar had commanded his presence here to-day, and he had come
+because the Caesar had commanded. To the last he would render unto Caesar
+that which was Caesar's. But he had stood by with eyes that only saw a
+golden head crowned with diamonds, a delicate oval cheek coloured like a
+peach and tiny fleecy curls that fluttered softly in the breeze.
+
+There was no longer any sorrow in his heart, no longer any remorse or
+thought of treachery. The man in the little hut on the Aventine had
+shown him the way how to lay down his burden of weakness and of sin.
+
+He knew that he loved Dea Flavia with all the ardour of an untamed heart
+that has never before tasted the sweetness of love. He knew that he
+loved her with all the passion of a soul that at last hath found a mate.
+But now he knew also that in this love there was no thought of treachery
+to Him in Whose service he was prepared to lay down his life. He knew
+that never again would the exquisite vision of this fair young pagan
+stand between him and the Cross, but rather that she would point to
+him--ignorantly and unconsciously--the way up to Golgotha.
+
+For renunciation awaited him--that also did he know. A few more days in
+the service of the Caesar, and his promise to remain in Rome would no
+longer bind him, since Caligula had returned from abroad.
+
+The rest of his life was at the bidding of Him Who mutely from the Cross
+had demanded his allegiance: a lonely hut somewhere on the Campania, or
+further if God demanded it, a life of strenuous effort to win souls for
+Christ, and the renunciation of all that had made life easy and pleasant
+hitherto. God alone knew how easy that would have been to him
+forty-eight hours ago. Taurus Antinor hated and despised the life of
+Rome, the tyranny of a demented Caesar, the indolence of the daily
+routine, the ever-recurrent spectacles of hideous, inhuman cruelty.
+Until that midday hour in the Forum four days ago, he had viewed his new
+prospective life with a sense of infinite relief.
+
+But now renunciation meant something more. Detachment from Rome and all
+its pomps, its glories, and its cruelties meant also detachment from the
+presence of Dea Flavia. It meant the tearing out of his very
+heartstrings which had found root at a woman's feet. It meant the
+drawing of an impenetrable veil between life itself and all that
+henceforth could alone make life dear.
+
+He had dreamed a dream, the exquisite beauty of which had wrought havoc
+in his innermost soul, but the awakening had come before the glorious
+dream had found its complete birth. Jesus of Nazareth had called to him
+from the Cross, but even as He called, the pierced, sacred hand had
+pointed to the broad path strewn with gold and roses, filled with the
+fragrance of lilies and thrilled with the song of mating birds: and the
+dying voice had gently murmured: "Choose!"
+
+The soldier had chosen and was ready to go. But renunciation was not to
+be the easy turning away from a road that was none too dear--it was to
+be a sacrifice!--the taking up of the cross and the slow, weary mounting
+up, up to Calvary, with aching back and sweating brow and the dreary
+tragedy of utter loneliness.
+
+It meant the giving up of every delight of manhood, of happiness in a
+woman's smile, of rapture in a woman's kiss. It meant the giving up of
+every joy in seeing her pass before him, of hearing the swish of her
+skirts on the pavement of the city; it meant the giving up of all hope
+ever to win her, of all thought of a future home, the patter of
+children's feet, the rocking of a tiny cradle. It meant the sacrifice of
+every thought of happiness and of every desire of body and of soul.
+
+It meant the nailing of a heart to the foot of a cross.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+"So I gave them up unto their own heart's lust: and they walked
+in their own counsels."--PSALMS LXXXI. 12.
+
+
+In the meanwhile the stage-hands, the smiths and carpenters had been
+busily at work, setting the scene for the coming drama.
+
+Huge gnarled tree-trunks were dragged into the arena, and so disposed as
+to afford shelter either for man or beast. By a mechanical device a
+stream of water some six foot wide was made to wind its course along the
+sands, and groups of tall reeds and other aquatic plants were skilfully
+arranged beside the banks of this improvised stream.
+
+Soon the whole aspect of the arena was thus transformed into an open
+piece of country with trees here and there, and tufts of grass, mounds
+and monticules, with a stream and a reed-covered shore. The whole
+beautifully arranged and with due regard for realism.
+
+The people watched, highly pleased; now that the Emperor's pet panther
+had appeared they were satisfied that a spectacle such as they loved was
+about to be unfolded before them.
+
+But soon the workmen were engaged on other work, the purport of which
+could not at first be guessed. To understand it at all a vivid picture
+of the huge arena must appear before the mind.
+
+Down below there was the artificial landscape, the trees, the stream,
+the sand and grass, and all around the massive marble walls rose to a
+height of some twelve feet to the lowest tier of the tribunes, beyond
+which sat row upon row in precipitous gradients two hundred thousand
+spectators.
+
+At about four feet from the ground a narrow ledge--formed by the
+elaborate carving in the solid marble--ran right along the walls, and
+between this ledge and the top of the wall there was a low colonnaded
+arcade with deep niches set between the fluted columns.
+
+From these niches the workmen now suspended short ladders of twisted
+crimson silk, of sufficient strength to bear the weight of a man. They
+affixed these to heavy steel rings imbedded in the bases of the columns,
+and when the ladders were in position, they hung down low enough, that a
+man--standing on the ledge below--could just contrive to seize the ends
+and to swing himself aloft, up into the niche.
+
+The public watched these preparations with breathless interest, for soon
+their objects became evident. It was clear that those who were to be
+exposed to an encounter with the panther would be given a fair chance of
+escape. It was to be an even fight between man and beast.
+
+A man hotly pursued by the brute could--if he were sufficiently
+agile--leap upon the narrow ledge, seize the rope-ladder and climb up it
+until he reached the safe haven of the niche, and could draw the ladder
+in after him. And fear of death doth lend a man wondrous agility.
+
+It looked in fact as if the coming struggle were all to be in favour of
+the man and not of the beast, for the smooth surface of the walls and
+the narrow ledge above the carvings could not afford foothold to an
+enraged four-footed creature with sharp claws that would glance off the
+polished marble.
+
+The public--realising this--waxed impatient. The novel spectacle did
+not, after all, promise to be to its liking. The panther would make but
+a sorry show if it was not given a helpless victim or two to devour.
+
+Murmurs of dissatisfaction rose from every side as the work proceeded,
+and anon when all round the walls of the arena, the twelve ladders of
+safety were firmly fixed, seeming mutely to deride the excitement of the
+people, the murmur broke into angry cries.
+
+But Caligula did not seem to heed either the murmur or those loud
+expressions of discontent which, at other times, would probably have
+maddened him with rage. He had watched the preparations with eager
+interest and had himself once or twice shouted directions to the
+workmen.
+
+Now, when everything appeared complete, he turned to the tribune which
+was next to his own, and his small bloodshot eyes wandered over the
+assembly of patricians, of knights and of senators who were seated
+there.
+
+He called my lord Hortensius Martius to him and appeared to be pointing
+out to him the advantages of the rope-ladders with obvious pride in the
+ingenuity of the device. Young Escanes too was bidden to admire the
+contrivance, which--it soon became evident--was the invention of the
+Caesar himself.
+
+The public--still feeling dissatisfied--watched desultorily for a while
+the doings in the imperial tribune. Then general interest was once more
+aroused, when the workmen--slaves and legionaries--having finished their
+preparations, hurried helter-skelter out of the arena.
+
+The sliding doors of the panther's cage were being slowly drawn away.
+
+For a few seconds the powerful brute remained wary, silent and cowering,
+then with one mighty, savage snarl it bounded into the arena.
+
+Supple, graceful and splendid it walked round in solemn majesty, its
+flat head kept low to the ground, its sinuous body curving and winding
+as it walked, like that of a snake.
+
+The public watched it, fascinated by the perfect grace of its movements
+and by the cruel ferocity of its tiny eyes.
+
+Now at the eastern end of the Amphitheatre a small iron gate slowly
+swung upon its hinges, and in the dark recess beyond it a couple of men
+appeared. For a moment they stood there immovable, a closely huddled
+mass, shoulder to shoulder, with round open eyes dilated with fear and a
+cry of nameless terror still hovering unuttered on their lips.
+
+They were hugely built men, with massive torso and legs bare, and
+tow-coloured hair brought straight up to the crown of the head and
+knotted there with a black band.
+
+There was much shouting from the recess whence they had emerged, and
+anon some vigorous prodding and pushing from behind. But they dug their
+bare feet into the sand, refusing to move; arm against arm they made of
+themselves a wall which fear of death kept rigid and horror made
+unbreakable.
+
+The public greeted them with mock applause. In them they had quickly
+recognised the German barbarians whom the Caesar had brought back from
+his last expedition as prisoners of war; in truth they were hardened
+malefactors who had been offered a chance of life in exchange for the
+pitiable masquerade. But this the public did not know. To the two
+hundred thousand holiday-makers, craning their necks to see the
+miserable wretches, they were but the living proofs of the Caesar's
+prowess in the field. With ironical cheers they were bidden to advance,
+even whilst at no great distance from them the black panther sitting on
+its haunches was surveying them with lazy curiosity, licking its mighty
+jaws.
+
+Then the public grew impatient, and from the recess behind the two men
+persuasion became more vigorous. Through the darkness behind the gates
+there appeared the red glow of a brazier, there was a quick hissing
+sound, an awful double howl of pain and the smell of burnt flesh filled
+the air. The next moment the two men fell scrambling forward into the
+arena, and the iron gate closed behind them with a thud.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+"Thou art become guilty in the blood that thou hast
+shed."--EZEKIEL XXII. 4.
+
+
+The hunter and the hunted! the lithe supple sinewy creature crawling
+with belly almost touching the ground and stealthy steps that made no
+sound on the sand of the arena.
+
+Wary and silent the black beast crawled, now hiding amidst the scrubby
+grass, now bounding over trees and stream as if playing with herself,
+with her own desire for a taste of human blood.
+
+At first terror had kept the two men rooted to the spot, paralysed, and
+with feet deeply imbedded in the sand. Only their eyes seemed alive,
+roaming along the wall, all round to where on either side the silken
+ladders made vivid crimson streaks on the white smoothness of the
+marble.
+
+The panther waiting, watched them till they moved. The public,
+entranced, scarcely dared to draw breath.
+
+Then came a sudden cry from thousands of throats; the two men, as if
+driven by a sudden sense of approaching death, had made a quick
+desperate rush, one to the right the other to the left, towards the
+crimson silk which meant safety to them.
+
+But the panther was on guard and quicker twice than they. It seemed as
+if the brute had divined exactly where lay escape for its prey. It was
+guarding both sides of the arena at once, bounding from left to right,
+and back from right to left with giant leaps, soundless and swift.
+
+The men paused again, because it seemed that when they were still, the
+panther too lay still and watched.
+
+There was another lull, and from the imperial tribune above Dea Flavia
+watched the horrible spectacle, and Taurus Antinor drank into his soul
+the beauty of her eyes as they watched--fascinated--every movement of
+the sleek black panther, and of those fair-skinned giants trying to
+escape from death; she watched the stealthy approach of the beast toward
+its prey; she watched, motionless and still, the while great beads of
+perspiration matted the fair curls on her brow.
+
+And to the man who loved her, and who saw her thus watching the horrible
+spectacle which must have made her feel sick and faint, to him it seemed
+as if in her mind the hideous sight meant something more than just the
+brutal display of cruelty which was a familiar one enough in Rome.
+
+It seemed as if to her some hidden meaning lay in this teasing of a
+ferocious brute, and in this apparent clemency in allowing the victims a
+chance of escape, for every now and then she turned as if involuntarily
+toward the Caesar, and a quick glance of understanding seemed to pass
+between her and that inhuman monster.
+
+Taurus Antinor, with his gaze fixed upon her every movement, wondered
+what all that could mean.
+
+After a quarter of an hour of tense excitement, of alternate cries of
+horror and screams of delight, the two men had, by dint of cunning and
+agility, succeeded in evading the panther. They were safe within the
+protecting niches; the panther down below was roaring with baffled rage,
+and the public clapped and cheered vociferously.
+
+Two more men were thrust into the arena, dressed in the same way as the
+others, pushed forward like the others to the accompaniment of a
+brazier's glow and the smell of burnt flesh.
+
+The panther, more wary this time, did not allow both men to escape. Yet
+they had made a clever dash for safety; one of them was already swinging
+himself aloft, but the other had missed his footing once, when he jumped
+upon the ledge; he regained it and seized the swinging end of the
+ladder, but the panther, with a bound, had reached him and caught his
+foot in its jaws.
+
+That hideous noise--the scrunching of a human bone--was drowned in
+tumultuous applause as the miserable wretch with the maimed and bleeding
+leg, but with that almighty instinct for life at any cost, toiled
+mangled and bleeding up that ladder less crimson than the trail which he
+left in his wake.
+
+Dea Flavia's head fell forward on the cushion. But she fought against
+the swoon. The ironical laughter of the Augustas round her quickly
+brought her to herself.
+
+"The heat is overpowering," she said calmly in reply to a coarse comment
+from the Caesar.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+"His blood shall be on our head, if any hand be upon
+him."--JOSHUA II. 19.
+
+
+The heat was intense! The glare from the tribunes opposite seemed to
+sear the eyes, and from below there rose to the nostrils that awful
+sickening stench of human blood.
+
+The public, frantic with excitement, was clapping and cheering;
+thousands of necks were craned to get a better view into the floor of
+the arena, thousands of fans were fluttering, children were laughing and
+women chattered incessantly, like a pack of monkeys.
+
+And down below the baffled panther sent roar upon roar of rage into the
+seething cauldron of a thousand sounds.
+
+The creature had been cheated to the last; a score of victims had been
+pushed into his lair to tempt him. He had stalked them in play at first,
+then more earnestly, finally with a mad desire for blood. But always his
+prey escaped him, invisible hands showed the means of escape; the
+crimson ladders seemed to multiply their numbers until all round the
+walls they showed innumerable paths to safety.
+
+The panther seemed to know that those streaks of crimson were his mute
+enemies. He made several ineffectual dashes for them, but always his
+claws slid against the marble, and he fell back into the sand, snarling
+with rage.
+
+Once or twice his prey was more attainable. He caught a foot, a leg, a
+hand; thrice he brought a huge, panting body to the ground, but even
+then he was cheated of his victory. Long iron grapnels, wielded by
+unseen hands, dragged the mangled limbs and torn bodies roughly from his
+clutch, leaving behind them trails of torn flesh and streams of blood,
+which only helped to exasperate the beast by their insufficiency.
+
+And now the panther was like a black, snake-like fury, blind with rage
+and unsatisfied lust, with tail lashing like a whipcord and yellow eyes
+that gleamed like tiny suns. His jaws were red and dripping, his claws
+had been torn by the same grapnels that had snatched his prey from him.
+
+He had ceased to roar, but snarl upon snarl escaped his panting throat.
+The public delighted in him. They loved to see the ferocious brute
+maddened by these tortures, beside which the agony of Tantalus was but
+the misery of a child.
+
+Then Caligula rose to his feet and his heralds blew loud blasts upon
+their trumpets. In a moment silence fell on the entire arena; the
+pandemonium of shouts and laughter and shrieks of agony was hushed as if
+by the magic of an almighty power.
+
+The Emperor was standing and desired speech, and all at once silence
+descended upon this vast concourse of people. Everyone rose, since the
+Caesar was standing; all heads were turned towards the tribune, all eyes
+fixed upon the misshapen figure with its halo of gold round the
+grotesque head, and the metal thunderbolts held aloft in the hand.
+
+The only sound that was not stilled at the Caesar's bidding was--down
+below--the snarl of the angry panther.
+
+"Citizens of Rome," began Caligula, as soon as he could make himself
+heard, "patricians of Rome! soldiers! senators! all my people! I--even
+I--your Caesar, your Emperor, your god, do give you greeting! I have
+sought to please you and to make you happy on this my first day amongst
+you all."
+
+Here he was interrupted by vociferous cheering. Next to shows and
+spectacles, to games and theatres, there was nothing that the people of
+Rome loved better than to hear impassioned speeches thundered at them
+either from the rostra in the Forum, or from any convenient spot whence
+the voice of a good speaker would rouse a sense of excitement or elation
+in their hearts. Demagogues and agitators, rhetoricians and poets were
+all sure of a hearing, if only they were sufficiently inspired and
+sufficiently eloquent. But it was not often that the Caesar himself would
+pour forth imperial oratory into the delighted ears of his people, and a
+fervent speech from the Emperor at this moment, when excitement and
+exhilaration were at fever-pitch, was a pleasure which no one had
+foreseen but which filled everyone with delight.
+
+"Glad am I," continued Caligula, when the excitement had calmed down
+momentarily, "that my efforts to please you have met with success."
+
+"They have! They have!" yelled the enthusiastic crowd.
+
+"The gods have indeed rewarded me--not beyond my deserts, for that were
+impossible--but in a just measure, by giving me the love of my people."
+
+"Hail Caesar! Hail the greatest and best of Caesars!" came in deafening
+echoes from every side of the immense Amphitheatre.
+
+"I thank you all! Your loyalty to-day has greatly cheered me. I--as your
+supreme lord and god--will shower my blessings upon you. As a god I am
+immortal; always I will watch over you, sitting at the right hand of
+Jupiter Victor, my father, from all times. But in my earthly shape I
+may not be with you always. There may come a time when god-like duties
+call me to Olympus. Then must a wise and just ruler take my place at the
+head of this great Empire."
+
+"No! no! Hail to thee Caesar! Immortal Caesar!" cried the people, and
+Caligula, stricken with vanity as if with plague, was deaf to the
+ironical cheers that accompanied these cries.
+
+"Immortal am I," he said, whilst his bloodshot eyes travelled restlessly
+over the sea of faces spread out before him. "Immortal, yet destined to
+leave you one day. When that day comes, there will be weeping in the
+city and moanings throughout the Empire, but the wise and just ruler who
+will follow in my wake will--while not able to console you for my
+loss--continue the good works which I have commenced. Citizens of Rome,
+patricians, soldiers, all listen to what I say."
+
+His face now looked purple with excitement, his hoarse voice shook as it
+escaped his throat, and his hair, thin and lanky, seemed to stand upon
+end all round his large, bulging forehead.
+
+A gentle breeze had caught the folds of his purple tunic, and it
+fluttered all round him with a curious swishing noise, like the sighing
+of creatures in pain.
+
+The hand that held Jove's thunderbolt trembled visibly, and the
+perspiration was streaming down his face. There was not a man or woman
+present there at this moment who did not look upon him as an abject and
+hideous monster, there was no one there who did not loathe and despise
+him! And yet everyone listened, and not one voice was raised in derision
+at his senseless oratory.
+
+Only the panther snarled, and its tail beat against the ground with a
+dull, monotonous sound.
+
+And Dea Flavia, standing beside the monster, white as the lilies which
+now lay withered at her feet, listened to every word that he said,
+whilst Taurus Antinor gazed on her and saw again in her eyes that look
+of anticipation and of understanding, as of one who knows what is to
+come.
+
+"Citizens of Rome," resumed the imperial mountebank after an impressive
+pause, "I have spent days and nights in communion with the gods,
+thinking of your welfare--of your welfare when I no longer will be
+amongst you all. And this is what I and the gods have decided. Listen to
+me, for the gods speak to you through my mouth--I, even I, your Caesar
+and your god, do speak.
+
+"There dwells amongst us all one whose divinity is almost equal to mine
+own--one who by her beauty and her grace hath found favour with the gods
+and with me. She is of the House of Caesar, and hath name Dea Flavia; and
+I, the Caesar, have called her Augusta, and set her up above all other
+women in Rome. She comes from the House of great Augustus himself, and
+it is a descendant of the great Augustus who alone will be worthy to
+wield the sceptre of Caesar when it hath fallen from my grasp. Therefore
+this have I decided. The son of Dea Flavia shall in time to come follow
+in my footsteps, and make you happy and prosperous even as I have done;
+and because of this my decision must I give Dea Flavia as wife unto a
+man who is worthy of her. Many there are who have aspired to her hand,
+but all of them have I hitherto rejected, because not one of them had
+given proof of his courage or of his strength. Citizens of Rome,
+patricians, and soldiers all! What we must look for in your future ruler
+is valour in the face of death, coolness and intrepidity in the sight of
+danger. These qualities, which grace your present Caesar, must be
+transmitted to his successor through Dea Flavia, the divine, and by a
+father who has given signal proof of his virtues. I have enjoined the
+Augusta Dea Flavia to bestow her hand on him who above all is worthy to
+be her lord. To this has she consented and to-day will she make her
+choice, and herewith do I call on you patricians who aspire to her hand
+to enter the lists in her honour. Give a proof of your valour, of your
+intrepidity, of your courage! Show that you are as valiant as the lion,
+as wary as the snake. Descend into the arena now, unarmed save for the
+hands which the gods have given you, and thus engage that unconquered
+monster in single combat! An even chance of life is given you! And
+I--even I your Caesar--will give unto the victor the hand of the Augusta
+Dea Flavia in marriage!"
+
+Even before his last words had echoed along the marble walls, deafening
+cries and cheers rent the air. Men shouted, women screamed and waved
+their fans, mantles were torn from every shoulder and swung overhead
+like flags.
+
+"Hail to Caesar! Hail to the best and greatest of Caesars! Hail to the
+Augusta! Dea Flavia, hail!"
+
+The shouts were incessant, even whilst Caligula, delighted with his
+oratory, exultant over the success of his plan, stood there trembling in
+every limb, with moist, purple face turned from right to left to receive
+the acclamations of his people. His tiny eyes blinked with the glare
+that struck fully at them from opposite, his throat was parched with
+screaming, his tongue seemed to cleave to the roof of his mouth.
+
+Excitement was overmastering him; the effort to appear outwardly sane
+and calm was too severe a tax upon his raging temper. The heat, too, no
+doubt turned him giddy, for suddenly, even whilst the cries of "Hail!"
+buzzed in his ears, he threw up his arms and tottered backwards, rigid
+as a log, whilst drops of foam gathered at the corners of his mouth.
+
+It was Taurus Antinor who received the swooning Caesar in his strong
+arms. Everyone else around was too excited to move. The Augustas,
+inwardly consumed with jealousy, were striving to keep up an appearance
+of dignity in the face of the insult which they deemed had been put upon
+them by this semi-deification of their kinswoman.
+
+Dea Flavia, pale and silent, stood facing the people, with eyes that
+seemed to look on something unearthly far away. Her white robes,
+shimmering with precious stones, fell round her like a shroud, her lips
+were parted as with a cry that had died even before it had found birth
+in her throat. The public thought that she looked proud, and acclaimed
+her because of this strange aloofness which seemed to envelop her whole
+person. She did not look of this world at all. Even the eyes appeared
+sightless and dead.
+
+When the Caesar fell back, half fainting, she seemed to wake from her
+dream, a shudder went right through her as her eyes slowly turned from
+their vacant gaze to the prostrate figure of this inhuman monster, lying
+stricken like a felled brute, in the arms of the praefect of Rome.
+
+Once again, and for the third time to-day, her eyes met those of Taurus
+Antinor, but this time it seemed to him that within their still
+mysterious depths he read something akin to an appeal.
+
+As on that day in the Forum, intense pity--which had given birth to
+love--filled his heart for this beautiful young girl who seemed so
+lonely in the midst of all this pomp.
+
+The purity of her soul appeared to him undimmed, even though he knew now
+that she had expected this awful thing all along, and that she was no
+stranger to this monstrous barter of her person for the attainment of a
+crazy Emperor's whim, or to make holiday for the rabble of Rome. In his
+sight her pride remained unshaken; only her loyalty and allegiance had
+been given to the Caesar in the same way as his own had been. She, in her
+simple, womanly way, was rendering unto Caesar that which was Caesar's,
+and Taurus Antinor, whilst tenderly pitying her, felt that he had never
+loved her as fondly as he did now.
+
+The curse of the dying freedwoman was indeed bearing fruit. Dea's
+favours, her loyalty, were turning to bitter malediction for the
+recipients. More than one man to-day, mayhap, would die an horrible
+death in the hope of winning her grace. And Taurus Antinor, in the
+silent depths of his soul, prayed unto God that the woman he loved
+should never--as Menecreta had foretold--be driven to beg for mercy from
+a heart that knew it not and find a pitiless ear turned to her prayers.
+
+
+Caligula had quickly shaken himself free from the arms that held him.
+The fainting fit which had threatened him passed away as swiftly as it
+had come. His lust of hate and revenge was so keen at this moment that
+it conquered all his physical weakness. When he realised that it was
+Taurus Antinor who was supporting him, he contrived to smile benignly
+and placidly upon him.
+
+"I am well! I am well!" he reiterated cheerfully. "Did my voice carry
+all over the Amphitheatre? Did everyone hear what I said?"
+
+"Everyone heard thy voice, O Caesar!" said Taurus Antinor slowly, "and
+see the aspirant for the Augusta's hand has prepared to do battle for
+her sake!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+"But truly as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is
+but a step between me and death."--I SAMUEL XX. 3.
+
+
+When the Caesar had finished speaking, and he fell swooning back in the
+arms of the praefect of Rome, the conspirators remained quite still,
+staring at one another, dumbfounded.
+
+Could any man at that moment have divined the secrets of the heart and
+looked into the thoughts of all these men, what a medley of terror and
+of lust, of rage and of jealousy, would have been unfolded before his
+eyes.
+
+The plotters were like men who, falling to with axe and pick to demolish
+a building, had seen that same building collapse beneath their feet.
+They had sat quietly by all the day watching the events, content that
+these would shape themselves in accordance with their will. Young
+Escanes from time to time fingered the poniard which he had hidden under
+his tunic, Hortensius Martius gave free rein to his ardent admiration of
+Dea Flavia, Ancyrus, the elder, kept watch over every phase of the
+temper of the audience--its apathy, its excitement, its murmurs of
+dissatisfaction and cries of enthusiasm.
+
+Only Caius Nepos, white to the lips, sat in terror lest the courage of
+the conspirators whom he had betrayed should fail them at the eleventh
+hour, and he--branded as a false informer--be left to encounter the fury
+of an almighty Caesar, who had never been known to relent.
+
+The speech of Caligula had of a truth struck strangely upon his
+hearers. The men who had been willing to wait upon chance for the
+success of their plot, now found that Chance had waited upon them. The
+thought of treachery did not at first enter their minds. The freaks of
+the crazy Emperor were as numerous and as varied as the grains of sand
+in the arena. That he should offer the hand of his kinswoman as a prize
+to a victor in the arena, was not inconsistent with his perpetual desire
+for new sensations, his lust of tyrannical power and his open contempt
+for all his fellow-men.
+
+His allusions to his probable successor had seemed futile and of no
+account, and they all felt that they had wallowed so deeply in the mire
+of conspiracy together, that it could not have served the purpose of any
+one of them to betray the others.
+
+The first moment of stupefaction had quickly passed away, and even
+before the Caesar had recovered consciousness Hortensius Martius had
+risen to his feet. There had been no hesitation in him from the first.
+Whilst the others pondered--vaguely frightened at this turn given by
+Chance to her wheel--he was ready to stake his life for the possession
+of Dea Flavia and of the imperium. His passion for the beautiful woman
+would have led him into far wilder extravagances and into far graver
+dangers than an encounter in a public arena with a wild beast, and the
+momentary degradation of offering his patrician person as a spectacle
+for the plebs.
+
+And because of this sudden decision, taken boldly whilst others wavered,
+he became tacitly the leader of the gang of plotters. When he jumped to
+his feet, ready to descend into the arena, he seemed to challenge them
+to keep their oath of allegiance to him, who would succeed in winning
+Dea Flavia for wife.
+
+Hortensius Martius had proved himself to be a true opportunist, for he
+had seized his opportunity just at the right moment when the others
+hesitated. Thus are leaders made--one bold movement whilst others sit
+still, one step forward whilst the others wait.
+
+"Thy chance, O Hortensius Martius," whispered Marcus Ancyrus, the elder,
+close to the young man's ear. "Escanes and the rest of us will be ready
+when the time comes, mayhap before thou dost return to us from below."
+
+Escanes' hand beneath his tunic closed upon the dagger. Stronger and
+taller than Hortensius, he had not the sudden initiative of the brain.
+He was one of those men who would always be second to a bolder, a more
+resourceful leader.
+
+Forty pairs of eyes encouraged Hortensius Martius as he rose. In their
+minds they had already crowned him with laurels. For the moment they had
+accepted him as their future Emperor and were prepared to acclaim him as
+Caesar when Escanes had done his work.
+
+It was at this moment that Caligula recovered from his swoon. His lust
+of revenge and of hate brought him back to reality. He had planned to
+make the arch-traitor betray himself, and now, when he caught sight of
+Hortensius Martius preparing to descend into the arena, a cry as of some
+prowling, savage beast rose and died in his throat.
+
+He was sufficiently cunning to control himself, sufficiently of an actor
+to play his part without betraying his thoughts. Though he would gladly
+have strangled Hortensius then and there with his own hands, he called
+the young man to him with kindly benevolence and placed a fatherly hand
+upon his shoulder.
+
+"Thou, O Hortensius Martius?" he said, in well-feigned astonishment.
+
+"Even I, O Caesar!" replied Hortensius calmly.
+
+"For love of the Augusta thou wouldst risk thy life?"
+
+"To prove my valour, gracious lord, since thou didst desire it."
+
+"On thy knees then, O my son!" rejoined the mountebank solemnly, "and
+receive the blessing of the gods."
+
+The public watched this little scene with palpitating interest. The
+Caesar looked magnificent in his fantastic robes, and beside him Dea
+Flavia--like a goddess in her white tunic--was beautiful to behold.
+
+The Caesar laid three fingers on the young man's head, and turned his
+bloodshot eyes up to the vault of heaven. Then Hortensius Martius rose
+from his knees and went up to the Augusta Dea Flavia, and knelt down
+before her. She took no heed of him whatever. She did not look upon his
+bowed head as he stooped very low and kissed the hem of her gown; some
+who watched the scene very closely declared afterwards that she snatched
+her robe away from his hands.
+
+And from the arena down below was heard again the snarl of the thwarted
+beast.
+
+
+From the Emperor's tribune, to right and left, wide marble steps led
+down to the floor of the arena. At the bottom of these steps huge iron
+gates, wrought with gold and studded with nails, guarded them against
+access from below. Two legionaries were stationed at these gates.
+
+When Hortensius Martius appeared at the top of the steps the audience
+screamed with delight and cheered him to the echoes.
+
+He was indeed a figure like to please the most hardened spectator. Not
+over tall, and slight of build, he looked elegant and graceful in his
+short white tunic, with the deep purple bands that proclaimed his
+patrician rank.
+
+A young exquisite, with well-groomed hands and hair delicately perfumed
+and curled, the tense expression of his face gave him nevertheless an
+air of determination and of strength. He had taken off his cloak and was
+winding it round his left arm, otherwise, of course, he was unarmed as
+the Emperor had directed.
+
+The women blew him kisses across the width of the arena, and some of the
+more enthusiastic--or the younger--ones pelted him with roses as he came
+down the steps.
+
+And down below the panther, as if scenting this new prey, sent a roar of
+expectation into the vibrating air.
+
+Caligula smiled with hideous complacency as he looked down on the
+descending figure of the young man, and when the people cheered, and the
+shower of roses fell in a blood-red mass at Hortensius' feet, the Caesar
+snarled even as the panther had done, showing a row of yellow teeth,
+like fangs.
+
+At last Hortensius Martius had reached the foot of the steps. The
+massive iron gates stood alone between him and the black panther, which
+cowered some twenty feet away behind a low monticule covered with tufts
+of grass, its tiny eyes of topaz fixed upon the oncoming prey.
+
+Hortensius gave the order for the opening of the gates. They swung upon
+their hinges and he passed out through them. And they fell to behind him
+with a mighty clang.
+
+Thunderous applause greeted him when he set his foot upon the sands of
+the arena. The panther did not move. It had even ceased to snarl, but
+its sinewy tail beat a dull tattoo upon the ground.
+
+Then over the whole arena there rose a curious sound, like the sighing
+of two hundred thousand souls, an indrawing of the breath in two hundred
+thousand throats. Hortensius Martius looked up, for the sigh had
+sounded very strangely in his ear, and it had been followed by a still
+stranger silence, as if two hundred thousand hearts had momentarily
+ceased to beat.
+
+And as he looked he understood the sigh, and also the death-like silence
+that followed.
+
+He saw that from the niches all round the arena the safety ladders of
+crimson silk had all been taken away.
+
+And up in the imperial tribune the mighty Caesar laughed loudly and
+long.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life
+for his friends."--ST. JOHN XV. 13.
+
+
+No doubt that for that first tense moment all thought of treachery, of
+the conspiracy, of the imperium and even of Dea Flavia, was absent from
+the young man's mind.
+
+It must have come upon him suddenly then and there that his life was now
+in almost hopeless jeopardy. He was unarmed, and all around him the
+smooth marble walls of the arena rose, polished and straight, to a
+height of at least twelve feet, to the row of niches which alone might
+afford him shelter. From the bases of the fluted columns the iron rings
+to which the silken ladders had previously been attached, now hung at an
+unattainable height: the narrow ledge--four feet from the ground--had
+ceased to be a stepping-stone to safety.
+
+All this, of course, came to him in a flash, as does to a dying man,
+they say, the varied pictures of his life. Hortensius Martius, in that
+one flash, realised that he was a doomed man, that he had been trapped
+into this death-trap, and that nothing now but a miracle stood between
+him and a hideous death.
+
+Men up above in the tribunes held their breath; some women began to
+whimper with excitement. But the man and the panther stood for a moment
+eye to eye. No longer the hunted and the hunter, but the hungry beast of
+the desert and his certain prey. The baffled creature, tantalised with
+the blood of his other victims, was ready to satiate its lust at last.
+
+There was a moment of absolute silence, while two tiny golden eyes,
+measured the distance for a leap.
+
+The young man now, with the cunning born of a mad instinct for life, was
+waiting with bent knees, body slightly leaning forward and eyes fixed
+upon the brute. He had unwound the cloak from round his arm and held it
+in front of him like a shield. The man and the beast watched one another
+thus for a few seconds, and to many those few seconds seemed like an
+eternity.
+
+Then with a snarl the panther bounded forward. The man held his ground
+for the space of one second, and as the brute landed within an arm's
+length of him, quick as lightning he threw his cloak right in its face.
+Then he began to run. The panther, entangled in the folds of the cloak,
+savage and snarling, was tearing it to pieces, but Hortensius ran and
+ran, driven by the blind sense of self-preservation. He ran and ran the
+whole length of the arena, skirted the oval at the eastern end, and
+still continued to run, with elbows firmly held to his hips and with
+swift winged steps that made no sound in the sand.
+
+But already the creature, realising that again it was being cheated,
+started in pursuit. With leaps and bounds that seemed erratic and
+purposeless, it gradually diminished the distance between itself and the
+running man. Once it alighted on the outstanding branch of a gnarled
+tree, then from thence it took shelter in a clump of shrubs, then across
+the stream, swimming to the opposite shore; for the running man had
+rounded the oval and was now swiftly coming this way. Here in the tall
+grass it paused--cowering--once more on the watch.
+
+And Hortensius, while he ran so blindly along, had failed to notice
+where his enemy lay hiding.
+
+"In the grass!" shouted a dozen voices.
+
+"There!"
+
+"On ahead!"
+
+"Further on!"
+
+"No! no! Not there! Not there!"
+
+There was little exquisiteness left in the young man now. It was but a
+few moments since he had stepped smiling into the arena, kicking aside
+the rose-leaves which enthusiastic hands had thrown in his path. It was
+but some minutes since he had begun to run, and now the perspiration was
+pouring from his body, his face was as grey as the sand of the arena,
+the fear of death had raised the death-sweat on his brow.
+
+His breath came and went hot and panting through his nostrils, his eyes,
+dilated with terror, were vainly searching for the cowering enemy.
+
+Once more he turned to run. The panther seemed to be playing with him. A
+dozen times it could have reached him, a dozen times it bounded to one
+side, giving his prey another chance to run, another short respite for
+the agony of despair.
+
+Men, women and children screamed with excitement. No longer did they
+cheer the handsome young patrician, no longer did they throw roses at
+his feet. They shouted to him to run because they knew that running was
+no use. They urged the panther to leap because they fanned its rage with
+their screams.
+
+"Habet! Habet!" they shouted with every bound of the ferocious creature.
+
+"Habet! Habet!" now that Hortensius at last paused in his run.
+
+He stood quite still for a veil had descended over his eyes. The whole
+arena began to spin and to dance before him, the marble columns were
+twisted awry, thousands upon thousands of distorted faces grinned
+hideously upon him. Over the trees and the grass and the stream there
+was a film of red, the colour of blood, and through this film--which
+grew thicker and thicker as he gazed--he saw nothing but just opposite
+to him, across the width of the arena, towering high above everything
+around, the tall figure of Dea Flavia with her white dress falling
+straight from the shoulders, her fair hair crowned with diamonds, her
+face white as her gown and her lips parted as if uttering a cry of
+horror.
+
+The next moment that cry--it was a woman's cry--did rend the air from,
+end to end of the gigantic enclosure, and the cry was echoed and
+re-echoed by thousands and thousands of throats, as the panther, taking
+steady aim, leaped straight for the man.
+
+The noise became deafening: men, women, children, everyone screamed, and
+right through this whirling orgy of sound a voice was shouting, strong
+and mighty as that of Jupiter when he sends his decrees thundering forth
+into the air.
+
+"By his throat, Hortensius! By his throat, and I'll at him whilst he
+pants!"
+
+Hortensius put out his hands with a last instinctive sense of
+self-preservation. The mighty voice rang in his ear, it reverberated
+through the hot noonday air, and clanged against the copper gates as if
+a powerful arm had smitten them with the axe of Jove.
+
+The man saw the beast's leap, felt the hot breath in his face, felt the
+two yellow eyes gleaming on him like burning suns, and his ears buzzed
+with the din of thousands of shrieks; then he suddenly felt himself
+uplifted, whilst an agonised roar from the throat of a wounded beast
+overfilled the seething cauldron of sound.
+
+The praefect of Rome was standing in the arena now, and in his strong
+arms lifted high above his head he held the swooning man, whilst some
+few paces away the panther was lying prone, with blood streaming from
+its quivering jaws.
+
+
+It had all happened so suddenly that no one afterwards could say how it
+occurred. But there were those who retained a vision of the whole thing
+and afterwards shared their impressions with others.
+
+Everyone recollected when my lord Hortensius first entered the arena and
+the iron gates closed in behind him, that a general feeling of horror
+fell upon the entire public when it realised that all means of safety,
+all chance of escape had been removed with those silken ladders, and
+that the young patrician had in truth been left at the mercy of a
+powerful brute, goaded to madness through baffled desire for blood.
+
+At that same moment the praefect of Rome disappeared from the imperial
+tribune, and the terrible scene between the hunting beast and the hunted
+man had begun.
+
+Time for the man to run round the arena! Time for the brute to stalk and
+play with its prey! Time, it seems, for the praefect of Rome to make his
+way from the imperial tribune to the east end of the arena, where was
+stationed the city guard of which he had full control!
+
+A few precious seconds in making the soldiers understand what he wanted,
+a few more seconds to command them to obey for they stood as a phalanx
+against the gate, thinking the praefect mad in desiring to enter the
+arena--a few more seconds and Taurus Antinor was at last in the arena,
+shouting to the hunted man to have at the brute with his hands.
+
+But Hortensius was weak from exhaustion brought on by a life of luxury
+and idleness and by the excitement of the last two days. He put out two
+feeble hands, and the panther was already on the leap.
+
+And by that time Taurus Antinor was between him and the brute. With a
+blow of his hard fists--fashioned in far off Northern lands--and with
+the strength that is given to the barbarians of that sea-washed shore,
+he had drawn blood from the creature's jaw and sent it rolling back on
+its haunches, momentarily dazed.
+
+Only momentarily, however, whilst two hundred thousand throats yelled in
+unison:
+
+"Habet! Habet! Habet!"
+
+A precious moment that! With a maddened beast, a swooning man and no
+arms save a pair of fists, hard as iron, made with a hand slender and
+supple like the finest tempered steel.
+
+And while the panther fell back roaring, and before it could prepare for
+a new spring, Taurus Antinor had seized the swooning man. It was his
+turn to run now, for he had but a few seconds in which to save the life
+of his bitterest foe.
+
+Straight to the walls of the arena did he run, and his voice was heard
+speaking loudly and commandingly:
+
+"The arcade, man! Rouse thyself! The arcade! The rings in the columns!
+Quick!"
+
+It needed the strength of a bullock to accomplish the deed: that, or the
+strength which comes from unbendable human will. The man, only
+half-conscious, returned to his senses by the force of that same will.
+The instinct of life was strongest in the end, and when Taurus Antinor
+leapt upon the ledge and hoisted Hortensius' body high up above his
+head, the young man, with the final effort borne of hope and built upon
+despair, reached up and caught one of the massive rings imbedded in the
+bases of the fluted columns.
+
+For a few seconds he remained suspended, his body swinging against the
+marble wall, whilst the public cheered with an enthusiasm that knew no
+bounds. From below the praefect helped to push the feeble body up, then
+another jerk, a pull upwards, a push, and Hortensius Martius had found
+safety in one of the niches of the arcade.
+
+"Hail to the praefect of Rome! Hail!" came in a continuous, thunderous
+roar from every corner of the arena, even as with a sudden bound the
+black panther had sprung upon Taurus Antinor, and, catching him
+unawares, had felled him to the ground.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+"Well done, thou good and faithful servant."--ST. MATTHEW XXV. 21.
+
+
+A tumult amongst the people?
+
+Aye! it was here now fully aroused. The praefect of Rome was popular
+with the plebs. His action in the arena had called forth unbounded
+enthusiasm. When he fell rolling into the sand, with the black panther
+snarling above him, his steel-like grip warding for the moment the
+brute's jaws from off his throat, the people broke out into regular
+frenzy.
+
+"The praefect! the praefect!" they shouted.
+
+Men climbed down along the gradients leaping over other men, determined
+to jump down twelve feet into the arena in order to rescue the praefect
+from the jaws of the ferocious beast.
+
+But above in the imperial tribune the Caesar sat snarling like the
+panther and rubbing his hands with glee. His trap had been
+over-successful, one by one the arch-traitors fell headlong into it.
+First Hortensius Martius, that young fool! What mattered if he had
+escaped from a ravenous panther? The claws of a vengeful Caesar were
+sharper far than those of any beast of the desert.
+
+And now Taurus Antinor! the praefect of Rome! the man of silence and of
+integrity! the idol of the people, the scorner of Caesar's godhead. Vague
+rumour had reached Caligula of the praefect's strange sayings, his
+refusal to enter the temples and to sacrifice to the gods. People said
+that the Anglicanus worshipped one who claimed to be greater than Caesar
+and all the deities of Rome.
+
+Well, so be it! There he lay now in the dust, a huddled mass of man and
+beast, the sand of the arena reddened with his blood. Caligula screamed
+like the rest of his people, but his cry was:
+
+"Habet! Habet! Habet!" And in a frenzy of rage and hate his thumb
+pointed downwards, downwards, as if it were a dagger which he could
+plunge into the Anglicanus' throat.
+
+But the city guard were the first to break their bounds. Even whilst the
+imperial madman exulted and shrieked forth his murderous "Habet!" they
+had rushed to the rescue of their praefect.
+
+The powerful grasp on the panther's throat was on the point of relaxing;
+the brute was digging its claws in the shoulders of the fallen man, and
+he, feeling faint with loss of blood, looked upon death as it stared
+down at him from the beast's golden eyes, and all that he was conscious
+of was the feeling that death was good.
+
+When the city guard rushed to his rescue, and by dint of numbers and
+strength of steel tore the ferocious creature from the body of its prey,
+Taurus Antinor lay a while half conscious. He heard the cry of the
+people round him, he felt a shower of sweet-scented petals fall upon him
+from above, he heard the last dying roar of the panther and a scream of
+rage from the imperial tribune.
+
+Then the din became deafening: the trampling of feet, the rushing hither
+and thither, the cries, the imprecations, and from beneath the tribunes
+in their distant prisons, the roar of caged beasts like the far-off
+rumbling of thunder.
+
+
+Taurus Antinor raised himself on his knees. Both his shoulders had been
+lacerated by the panther; he was bleeding from several wounds about the
+legs and arms, and his whole body felt bruised and stiff.
+
+But he struggled to his feet, and now, leaning against a large tree
+trunk which had formed part of the setting of the scene, he tried to
+take in every detail of what was going on around him. There was, of
+course, a great deal of shouting and a general stampede in the tribunes
+of the plebs. In the midst of this shouting, which buzzed incessantly
+like the war of a great cataract, two cries resounded very distinctly
+above all the others.
+
+Thousands of people were shouting:
+
+"Hail to the praefect! Hail to the god of valour and of strength! Hail!
+Taurus Antinor, hail!"
+
+Whilst others cried more dully, yet equally distinctly:
+
+"Death to the tyrant! Death to the madman! Death to Caesar! Death!"
+
+That he himself was for the moment the object of enthusiasm of this
+irresponsible crowd, he could not doubt for an instant. That this same
+irresponsible enthusiasm was leading the crowd to treachery and
+rebellion was equally certain.
+
+The city guard egged on by the people had forced open the heavy iron
+gates through which Hortensius Martius had passed a while ago, and which
+led up the marble steps straight to the imperial tribune.
+
+Taurus Antinor looking up now saw the Caesar standing pale and trembling,
+surrounded by his standard bearers, whose attitude seemed strangely
+irresolute. The Augustas were clinging together in obvious terror, their
+heads were pressed close to one another, and the jewels in their hair
+formed a curious shimmering mass of diamonds and rubies which caught the
+rays of the sun and threw back blinding sparks of prismatic colours.
+Dea Flavia was not near them. She was standing alone up against the
+dividing wall of the tribune, and leaning back against it, with eyes
+closed, and hand pressed against her heart.
+
+All this did Taurus Antinor see, and also that Hortensius Martius, still
+deathly pale and trembling in every limb, had succeeded in making his
+way from the arcade where he had found safety, back to the patricians'
+tribune amongst his friends.
+
+He was standing now in the midst of a compact group composed of those
+men who had been present two days ago at the banquet in Caius Nepos'
+house. They stood close to one another whispering eagerly amongst
+themselves. Hortensius Martius was obviously their chief centre of
+interest, and young Escanes held his hand concealed within the folds of
+his tunic.
+
+And Taurus Antinor no longer paused to think. He had forgotten his
+lacerated shoulder and his bleeding limbs; even the horrors of the past
+quarter of an hour had faded from his mind. All that he saw was that
+murder and treachery were walking hand in hand, and that the murder of
+the insane Caesar now would mean the death of thousands of innocent
+victims later on, that it would mean civil strife, and uncountable
+misery. And all that he heard was the voice of Him Who had bidden him to
+render unto Caesar that which was Caesar's, namely his allegiance, his
+fealty, his life.
+
+The city guard loved him and knew his voice. He had no trouble in
+inducing the men to let him pass through their ranks and to mount the
+steps before them which led to the imperial tribune. They let him pass
+perhaps because they thought that their praefect would wish to take his
+revenge with his own hands. The gods themselves would have placed a
+poisoned dagger in the hand of him who had been so ruthlessly exposed to
+a most horrible death.
+
+And as Taurus Antinor's massive figure was seen to mount the steps, the
+audience broke into cheers.
+
+"Hail Taurus Antinor! the god of valour and of strength!"
+
+Whilst more ominous than before came that other cry: "Death to the
+tyrant! Death to the Caesar! Death!"
+
+And whilst the city guard followed closely on the footsteps of their
+praefect, and men among the crowd prepared for the inevitable fight
+which they foresaw, the women and those who were feeble and pacific
+waved fans and cloaks about and threw dead roses across the arena, till
+the whole place seemed like a great pageant of many-coloured flags, over
+which the midday sun had thrown its veil of gold.
+
+When Taurus Antinor reached the topmost step Caligula caught sight of
+him, and the intensity of his rage was such that his cheeks turned livid
+and blotchy and hoarse inarticulate sounds escaped his panting throat.
+
+Even at this same moment the group composed of Escanes and the others
+seemed to sway in a mass toward the tribune of the Caesar. They appeared
+to be consulting Hortensius Martius who had nodded encouragingly. Young
+Escanes was in the very centre of the group now, his hand was still
+hidden in the folds of his tunic and the look in his face told Taurus
+Antinor all that there was to fear.
+
+At his feet as he stepped into the tribune lay his own cloak which he
+had discarded when first his instinct had prompted him to run to
+Hortensius' aid. Now he picked it up. It was of dark-coloured stuff,
+unadorned with the usual insignia of dignity and rank. With it in his
+hand he ran quickly toward the Caesar.
+
+Caligula saw him coming towards him, his yellow teeth were chattering in
+his mouth, he stood there palsied with fear, a prey to a deadly feeling
+of hate and to one of abject terror.
+
+Even as Taurus Antinor, with a quick gesture, threw his own cloak round
+the shoulders of the Caesar and whispered hurriedly:
+
+"Let your praetorian guard escort you quickly to your palace, gracious
+lord--your life is in danger from the people, and...."
+
+"In danger at thy hands, thou infamous traitor," broke in Caligula with
+a maniacal yell of rage; "take this then, in remembrance of the Caesar
+whom thou hast betrayed!"
+
+And quick as lightning the madman drew a short poniard from beneath his
+robe, and, uttering a final snarl of satisfied hate and revenge, he
+plunged the dagger in Taurus Antinor's breast.
+
+Then he snatched the cloak from him, and, wrapping it quickly over his
+head and shoulders, he called wildly to his guard and fled incontinently
+from the spot.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+"The sorrows of death compassed me."--PSALM XVIII. 4.
+
+
+Dea Flavia lay upon her bed, with wide-open eyes fixed into vacancy
+above her.
+
+Afternoon and evening had gone by since that awful moment when the whole
+fell purpose of the Caesar's plan was revealed to her, and she saw
+Hortensius Martius standing unarmed and doomed in the arena, face to
+face with a raging, wild beast. Afternoon and evening had vanished into
+the past since she saw Taurus Antinor, with Hortensius' body held high
+over his head, saving one life whilst offering up his own, since she
+heard that deafening cry of horror uttered by two hundred thousand
+throats when the panther sprung upon him unawares and felled him to the
+ground, whilst his blood reddened the sand of the arena.
+
+Afternoon and evening had swooned in the arms of eternity since she saw
+the terror-stricken Caesar treacherously stab the man who had rushed
+forward to save him.
+
+After that last agonising moment she remembered nothing more until she
+found herself in her own house, lying on her bed, with Licinia's
+anxious, wrinkled face bending over her.
+
+"What hath happened, Licinia?" she had asked feebly as soon as
+consciousness had returned.
+
+"We brought thee home safely, my precious treasure," replied the old
+woman fervently, "all praise be unto the gods who watched over their
+beloved."
+
+"But how did it happen?" queried Dea with some impatience. "Tell me all
+that happened, Licinia," she reiterated with earnest insistence, as she
+raised herself on her elbow and fixed her large blue eyes, in which
+burned a feverish light, upon the face of her slave.
+
+"Yes! yes! I'll tell thee all I know," rejoined the woman soothingly.
+"Thy slaves were close at hand in the vestibule of the imperial tribune,
+and thy litter was down below with the bearers, in case thou shouldst
+require it. But I had stood on the threshold of the tribune for some
+time watching thee, for thy sweet face had been pale as death all the
+morning, and I feared that the heat would be too much for thee. Thus I
+saw much of what went on. I saw the traitor advance toward the Caesar,
+trying to smother him with a cloak. I saw the Caesar--whom may the gods
+protect--stab the traitor in the breast, and then leave the Amphitheatre
+hurriedly, followed by a few among his faithful guard. But my thoughts
+then were only of thee. I could see thy lovely face white as the maple
+leaf, and thou wast leaning against the wall as if ready to swoon. The
+traitor whom the Caesar had justly punished lay bleeding from many wounds
+close to thy foot. The next moment I had thee in my arms, having caught
+thee when thy dear body swayed forward and would have fallen even upon
+the breast of the dead traitor."
+
+"The traitor?" murmured Dea Flavia then.
+
+"Aye! the praefect of Rome," said Licinia, with a vicious oath. "He had
+incited the rabble against the Caesar, and--may his dead body be defiled
+for the sacrilege!--he was causing the populace to acclaim him as their
+Emperor, even whilst he raised his murderous hand against him who is the
+equal of the gods!"
+
+"He was striving to save Caesar, Licinia, and not to murder him," said
+Dea Flavia earnestly.
+
+"To save the Caesar? Nay! nay! my precious, the praefect of Rome tried to
+murder Caesar by smothering him with a cloak."
+
+"It is false I tell thee!"
+
+"False? Nay, dear heart, I saw it all, and thou wast beside thyself and
+knew not rightly what happened. Even a minute later thou laidst in my
+arms like a dead white swan, and I pushed my way through the soldiers,
+and past the other Augustas who cowered in the tribune, screaming and
+wringing their hands. Two of thy slaves were luckily close at hand.
+Together we carried thee down to thy litter and bore thee safely home
+for which to-morrow I will offer special sacrifice to Minerva who
+protected thee."
+
+"And what happened after we were gone?"
+
+"Alas! I know not. They say that the populace became more and more
+unruly: there were shouts for the praefect of Rome, who fortunately lay
+dead on the floor of the tribune, and there were even some sacrilegious
+miscreants who called for death upon the Caesar."
+
+"Do they say," queried Dea Flavia, speaking slowly and low, "that the
+praefect of Rome is dead?"
+
+"If he be not dead now," retorted Licinia viciously, for her loyalty to
+the Caesar was bound up with her love for Dea Flavia, and treachery to
+Caesar meant treachery to her beloved, "If he be not dead now, he shall
+still suffer for his treason: and if he be dead his body shall be
+defiled."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"Aye! a traitor must suffer even in death. His body shall be given to
+the dogs, his blood to the carrion...."
+
+"Silence, Licinia!" broke in Dea Flavia sternly, "fill not mine ears
+with thy hideous talk. Every word thou dost utter is impiety and
+sacrilege, and I would smite thee for them had I but the strength.
+
+"But I am so tired," she added after a slight pause, with a weary little
+sigh, even whilst Licinia, subdued and frightened, stood silently by: "I
+would like to sleep."
+
+"Then sleep, my goddess," said the old woman, "I'll watch over thee."
+
+"No! no! I could not sleep if I were watched," rejoined Dea Flavia with
+the fretfulness of a tired child. "I would rather be alone."
+
+"But thou'lt have bad dreams."
+
+"Order Blanca to lie across the threshold. I can then send her to fetch
+thee, if I have need of thee."
+
+"I would rather lie across thy threshold myself," muttered the old
+woman.
+
+"Good Licinia, do as I tell thee," said Dea, now with marked impatience.
+"And--stay--" she added as Licinia still grumbling prepared reluctantly
+to obey--"I pray thee find out for me all that is going on in the city.
+Mayhap Tertius will know what has happened--or Piso.... Go seek them,
+Licinia, and find out all that there is to know, so that thou canst tell
+me everything anon, when I wake."
+
+She lay back on her bed with closed eyes whilst Licinia kissed her hands
+and feet, re-arranged the embroidered coverlet and the downy cushions,
+and after a while shuffled out of the room.
+
+There was nothing that the old woman loved better than a gossip with
+Tertius, who was the comptroller of the Augusta's household, or with
+Piso, who was the overseer of her slaves: and even her fond desire to
+watch beside her mistress yielded to the delight of holding long and
+interesting parley with these worthies.
+
+So it was with considerable alacrity that--having deputed the young
+girl, Blanca, to watch over her mistress--she made her way through the
+atrium, and thence across the vast peristyle to the quarters of the
+slaves.
+
+Tertius--the comptroller--had, it appears, sallied forth into the
+streets, despite the lateness of the hour, in the hope of gleaning some
+information as to what was going on in the city. Even in this secluded
+portion of the Palatine, where stood the house of Dea Flavia under the
+shelter of the surrounding palaces, weird sounds of human cries and of
+the clashing of steel was penetrating with ominous persistency.
+
+Piso--the overseer--who had remained at home, as he did not feel
+sufficiently valiant to face once again the disturbance outside, told
+Licinia all that he had witnessed before he finally found safe haven at
+home.
+
+It seemed that the tumult in the Amphitheatre had not ceased with the
+flight of the Emperor, rather that it had grown in intensity when the
+populace saw the praefect of Rome fall backwards, stabbed by the Caesar,
+and the latter disappear hurriedly, followed by a few from among the
+praetorian guard.
+
+There was no doubt that the temper of the populace had been over-excited
+by the cruel scenes of a while ago; lust of blood and of tyranny had
+been fanned to fever-pitch through those very spectacles which the Caesar
+himself had provided for the people, with a view to satisfying his own
+ferocious desires of hate and of revenge.
+
+Now that same fever-heated temper was turning against him, who had
+fanned it for his own ends.
+
+Caligula had made good his escape, satisfied that his dagger had done
+its work upon the arch-traitor. He had fled through the private entrance
+of his tribune, and his guard had rallied round him. But a company of
+legionaries--some five or six hundred strong--was still in the place,
+as well as his knights and all his friends, and against these did the
+wrath of the rabble turn.
+
+The lawless and the rough soon had it all their own way, and the
+peaceable citizen who would have liked to get wife and children safely
+out of the crowd found it well-nigh impossible to make his way through
+the throng.
+
+After a few moments the disturbance became general; there was a great
+deal of shouting and presently missiles began to fly about. The rabble
+attacked the legionaries and a sanguinary conflict ensued. The former
+was in overwhelming number and succeeded in breaking the rank of the
+soldiers, and in putting them momentarily to rout.
+
+After this there was a general stampede down and along the gradients of
+the Amphitheatre, during which hundreds of persons--including women and
+children--were crushed to death. The scene of confusion seems to have
+baffled description. Piso, who had succeeded in making his way home in
+the midst of it all, had even now to wipe his brow, which was streaming
+with perspiration at the recollection of the horrors which he had
+witnessed.
+
+Whilst he proceeded with his narrative, Tertius had returned with
+further news. And these, of a truth, were very alarming. The lower
+slopes of the Palatine, as well as the Forum and the surrounding
+streets, were now in the hands of the mob. The few legions who were in
+the city had been cut off from the Palatine, and though they were making
+vigorous efforts to break through the close ranks of the crowd, they
+had, up to this hour, been wholly unsuccessful, owing no doubt to the
+paucity of their numbers, since the bulk of the army was not yet home
+from that insensate and mock expedition into Germany.
+
+The whole of the troops in and around the city, including the town and
+praetorian guard, was on this day computed at less than one thousand,
+and the mob--so Tertius averred--was over one hundred thousand strong.
+
+The law-abiding citizens had locked themselves up in the fastnesses of
+their homes, and the Caesar--so it was believed--was inside his palace
+with a small detachment of his guard around him, one hundred strong, who
+already had had to repel numerous attacks delivered by the more forward
+amongst the rabble.
+
+Tertius had not been able to get far beyond the precincts of the house,
+for fear had driven him back. The shouts which came from the streets
+below and from the Forum were ominous and threatening.
+
+"Death to the Caesar! Death to the tyrant!" could be distinctly heard
+above the din of stampeding feet, and a low and constant murmur that
+sounded like distant thunder.
+
+There was no doubt that the Caesar's life was in grave danger, seeing
+that only a handful of men stood between him and the fury of an excited
+populace; and these men were without a leader, for the praetorian
+praefect had been cut off from them, even as he tried to push his way
+through the crowd earlier in the day.
+
+Thus, therefore, did this harbinger of evil news resume the situation.
+Caligula was in his palace, surrounded by the slaves of his household
+and guarded by a few soldiers against a raging mob--an hundred thousand
+or more strong--who had formed a ring around the Palatine, and was
+clamouring for the Caesar's death. The legionaries, under the command of
+faithful Centurions, were cut off from the Palatine and from their Caesar
+by the mob whose solid ranks they had hitherto been unable to break. The
+Augustas and their slaves were also safe within their palaces.
+
+But what Tertius did not know, and was therefore unable to impart to his
+eager listeners was that the party of conspirators, with Hortensius
+Martius as their acknowledged leader, were taking advantage of the
+disturbance to place themselves at the head of the mob, hoping that the
+cry of "Death to Caligula!" would soon be followed by one of "Hail to
+the Caesar! the new Caesar, Hortensius Martius! Hail!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+"Watchman, what of the night?"--ISAIAH XXI. 11.
+
+
+And far away beyond the noise and tumult which ranged around the foot of
+the Palatine, the honey-coloured moon illumined with her weird and
+ghostly light the vast arena of the gigantic Amphitheatre, where a
+company of the town guard, under the command of an aedile, were busy
+collecting the dead.
+
+A narrow streak of those same ghostly rays found its way through the
+folds of the curtains which spanned the window of Dea Flavia's room. It
+peeped in boldly, stirring up myriads of impalpable atoms and whipping
+them into a living line of silver. It wandered further, and finding a
+golden head that tossed restlessly upon a silk-covered pillow, it
+alighted on it, making the white face appear ghostlier still, and the
+wide eyes to shine like stars.
+
+A timid step shuffled across the floor.
+
+"Blanca, is it thou?" whispered Dea Flavia, as quickly she raised
+herself up, squatting now upon the bed, with one hand pressed against
+the pillow and the other to her breast.
+
+"Aye, mistress, it is I!" came in whispered response.
+
+"Well? Have they returned?"
+
+"Aye! gracious lady. Half an hour ago."
+
+"Did they find him?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Is he...?"
+
+There was a pause, whilst from afar came that strange low sound of
+thousands of men murmuring, which is so akin to the booming of the waves
+upon a rocky shore.
+
+"The praefect of Rome was in a swoon when they found him in the imperial
+tribune," said the young slave-girl, still speaking under her breath.
+"Nolus and Dion carried him to the litter, and once or twice he groaned
+whilst they carried him."
+
+A gentle breeze wafted the curtains into the room; the rays of the
+waning moon fell full upon the huddled figure on the bed, with the
+stream of gold falling each side of the set, pale face, and the large
+blue eyes now strangely veiled with tears.
+
+"Where is ... where is the praefect now?" asked Dea Flavia.
+
+"In the room out of thy studio, gracious mistress, as thou didst direct.
+Dion did prepare a couch for him there, and hath laid him down."
+
+"And the physician?"
+
+"The physician hath seen him. He saith that the praefect is weak with
+loss of blood. His shoulders, arms and legs have been torn by the
+panther's claws, but these wounds are not deep."
+
+"And ... and the dagger thrust?"
+
+"The physician saith that the dagger must have glanced off the bone. I
+did not quite understand what he said, and Dion explained it badly."
+
+"He did not say that there was poison in the dagger?"
+
+"I think not, gracious lady; for the physician said that the praefect
+would soon be well if he were carefully tended. He is very weak with
+loss of blood."
+
+"Did Nolus and Dion find it difficult to approach the praefect's body?"
+
+"They had to parley with the aedile who was in command, and to give him
+all the money which my gracious mistress did entrust to them for that
+purpose."
+
+"After which the aedile made no demur ... and asked no questions?"
+
+"The aedile took the money, gracious lady, and Dion said that he asked
+no further questions, but allowed the praefect to be borne away."
+
+"That is well," said Dea Flavia, after a brief moment of silence, whilst
+the girl stood awaiting her further pleasure. "Thou, Blanca, hath served
+me faithfully, so have Nolus and Dion, my slaves. Ye have earned your
+reward, and though I am grieved to part from good servants like you, yet
+will I fulfil my promise, even as I have given it to you. From this
+hour, thou, Blanca, art a freewoman, and Nolus thy brother, and Dion,
+thy future husband, are freemen, and the sum of six hundred aurei shall
+be given unto you to-morrow--two hundred unto each--and may you live
+long and prosper and be happy, for you have served me well."
+
+Blanca fell upon her knees and kissed the coverlet on which reposed her
+mistress; but Dea Flavia did not seem to see her. She was squatting on
+her heels, with body and head erect, and slowly now, like the rosy kiss
+of dawn upon the snow-clad hills of Etruria, a faint crimson glow spread
+over her pale cheeks.
+
+Blanca waited irresolute, not liking to leave her mistress before she
+could be assured that sleep had descended at last on those weary lids.
+The hour was very late, close upon midnight, and yet the city was not
+asleep. That constant murmur--like unto the breaking of angry
+waves--still sent its sinister echo through the still night air, and
+even in the house of Dea Flavia it seemed that hundreds of eyes were
+still open, fear having chased sleep away. There was a sound--like the
+buzzing of bees--that came from the slaves' quarters beyond the
+peristyle, and from the studio, which lay the other side of the atrium,
+came the sound of muffled footsteps gliding over the mosaic of the
+floor.
+
+"Go to bed now, child," said Dea Flavia at last, "thou hast earned thy
+rest ... and ... stay! Tell Dion and Nolus to remain in the studio, and
+there to spend the night. They must be ready to go to the praefect if he
+calls.... Go!"
+
+Then as the girl made ready to obey, the Augusta put out her hand to
+detain her.
+
+"Wait! Hast seen Licinia?"
+
+"No, gracious lady."
+
+"She is not hovering somewhere near my room?... or in the atrium?"
+
+"No, gracious lady."
+
+"And the night-watchers?"
+
+"They are in the vestibule, gracious lady."
+
+"And all my women?"
+
+"They are all in bed and asleep."
+
+"That is well. Thou canst go."
+
+Blanca's naked little feet made no sound as she crossed the room, and
+went out by the door which led to the sleeping-chamber of the Augusta's
+women.
+
+Dea Flavia waited for a while, straining her ears to catch every sound
+which came from this portion of her palace.
+
+Her sleeping-chamber, together with all those on this floor gave
+directly on the atrium, which formed a large irregular square in the
+centre of this portion of the house. The north side of it was taken up
+with the Augusta's apartments and those of her women, the south side
+with the reception rooms and with the studio and its attendant
+vestibules, whilst the main vestibule of the house and the first
+peristyle gave on either end.
+
+From the main vestibule came the subdued hum of voices, and throughout
+the house there was that feeling of wakefulness so different to the
+usual placid hush of night.
+
+Dea Flavia held her breath whilst she listened attentively. In the
+vestibule it was the night watchmen who were talking, discussing, no
+doubt, the many events of the day: and that sound--like the buzzing of
+bees--showed that the women were awake and gossiping, and that up in the
+slaves' quarters tongues were still wagging, despite Blanca's assurance
+and the overseer's sharp discipline. But on the other side of the
+atrium, where were the reception halls and the studio, everything was
+still.
+
+The young girl threw herself back upon her bed. Sleep refused to visit
+her this night; the thin streak of silvery moon, which persistently
+peeped in through the curtain, flicked the tiny atoms in the air until
+they assumed quaint, minute shapes of their own, like unto crawling
+panthers and grotesque creatures crowned with a golden halo, and
+brandishing a mock thunderbolt in one hand and a dagger in the other.
+Then suddenly all these shapes would vanish, smothered beneath a cloak,
+and Dea Flavia, still wide awake, would feel drops of moisture at the
+roots of her hair, and her whole body, as if sinking into a black abyss,
+where monsters yelled and wild beasts roared and huge, black, snake-like
+creatures tore the flesh off human bones.
+
+The hours of the night sped on, borne on the weighted feet of anguish
+and of horror. Gradually, one by one, the sounds in and about the house
+died away; the slaves in their quarters must have turned over on their
+rough pallets and gone to sleep, the women close by had done gossiping,
+only from the vestibule came the slow measured tread of the watchmen
+guarding the Augusta's house, and from far away that ceaseless, rumbling
+noise which meant that discontent was awake and astir.
+
+Once more Dea Flavia sat up, unable to lie still. Her golden hair was
+matted against her temples and in her breast her heart was beating
+furiously. The waning moon had long since now sunk behind the western
+clouds, a gentle breeze stirred the curtains with a soft, sighing noise
+as of some human creature in pain. In the far corner of the room, in a
+tiny lamp of gold, a tiny wick threw a feeble light around.
+
+Dea Flavia put her feet to the ground. The heat in the room was
+oppressive; no doubt it was that which had caused her restlessness, and
+the dampness of her brow. She shuddered now when her bare feet touched
+the smooth coldness of the mosaic floor, but she stood up resolutely,
+and anon crossed over to the door which gave on the atrium.
+
+For a few seconds she listened. Everything was still. Then very gently
+she pushed open the door.
+
+On the marble table, in the centre of the atrium, another light
+glimmered in a jewelled lamp; but the atrium was vast and the diminutive
+light did not reach its far corners. The gentle trickle of water along
+the gutters in the floor made queer, ghost-like sounds, and in the great
+pots of lilies all round currents of air sent weird moanings in the
+night.
+
+Dea Flavia, like an ethereal figure clad all in white, and with waves of
+golden hair shimmering over the whiteness of her gown, glided softly
+across the atrium.
+
+A tiny vestibule led into the studio, she crossed it, guided by her
+knowledge of the place, for the light in the atrium did not penetrate to
+this recess. Her bare feet made no noise as she glided along the floor,
+her hand pushed the door open without raising a sound.
+
+Now she was in the studio. The place in which she did the work that she
+loved, the place in which day after day she loved to sit and to idle
+away the hours. In an angle of the room, stretched out upon the bare
+floor, Dion and Nolus were lying, their even breathing showing that they
+slept. On the right was another door, which led to an inner chamber,
+where she oft used to retire for rest from her work. It was a private
+sanctum which none dared enter save with special permission from
+herself. Blanca kept it swept and free from dust, and Licinia tidied it
+only when she was so allowed.
+
+Dea Flavia went across the studio and pushed open the door. It was
+masked by a curtain, and this too she pulled aside, slowly and nervously
+like some small animal that is timid and yet venturesome. She knew every
+corner of the place of course, and the very creaking of the hinges and
+gentle swish of the curtain was a familiar sound to her ear.
+
+Nevertheless she was almost frightened to advance, for the big dark
+shadow right across the stuccoed wall awed her by its mysterious
+blackness. It was caused by a large object in the centre of the room, a
+couch covered with coverlets of soft, white woollen stuffs, on which the
+night-light burning fitfully threw patches of ruddy lights.
+
+Dea Flavia had paused on the threshold, with one hand behind her still
+clinging to the curtain, the other pressed hard on her bosom, trying to
+still the wild beatings which went on hammering inside her just below
+her breasts. She thought that she either must be dreaming now, or being
+awake, must have been dreaming before.
+
+Once or twice she closed and then reopened her eyes, thinking that
+perhaps the flickering night-light was playing her drowsy senses some
+elusive trick. For surely Blanca had told her that Dion and Nolus had
+laid the praefect of Rome on an improvised couch in the chamber beside
+the studio, and that the praefect was helpless and weak with pain and
+loss of blood.
+
+The improvised couch was certainly in its place, the light of the lamp
+danced upon pillow and coverlet, but no one was lying there, even though
+the pillow still bore the impress of the head which had rested on it.
+
+The silence was oppressive, for through the thick walls and heavy
+curtains of the Augusta's favourite room there penetrated no sound from
+without, and she herself stood so still, so still by the door, that she
+was sure the beatings of her heart must be heard through that awful
+stillness.
+
+Suddenly she started, and her fingers closed more convulsively than
+before on the curtain behind her. Imperceptible as the sound of a
+swallow on the wing, there came a long-drawn sigh to her ear. Her brow
+contracted, her eyes narrowed in a great effort to peer past the light
+into the darkness.
+
+On the further side of the couch now and masked by its shadow, she saw
+something that was immovable and yet seemed pulsating with life.
+Gradually as she peered, that something detached itself from the
+surrounding gloom. She saw a bowed head with wealth of tawny hair which
+gleamed like copper against the white coverlet, two hands white as the
+pillow beside which they rested, whiter still by contrast with the
+copper of the hair against them; she saw a pair of broad shoulders, and
+a powerful body and limbs that lost themselves in the darkness beyond
+the couch.
+
+The face was hidden and the body was quite still. It would have seemed
+like that of the dead but for that long sigh, which, intangible though
+it was, had broken the silence of the night.
+
+Dea Flavia could not now have moved, even if she would. Her small bare
+feet seemed glued to the cold mosaic of the floor, her hand seemed
+fastened with clamps of steel to the curtain which it clutched.
+
+She had never seen a man thus kneeling alone in the stillness and in the
+gloom. Why should a man kneel thus? and to whom?
+
+Yet she would not have disturbed him, not for all the world. She never
+dreamed that he would be awake; she had thought of him lying--as Blanca
+said--exhausted from loss of blood.
+
+She had only meant to look on him for a moment, to look into his face as
+he slept, to try and read in its wonted harsh lines the secrets of his
+soul.
+
+He had rushed to the Caesar trying to protect him, when thousands on
+thousands of throats were acclaiming his name as future lord of Rome.
+Why?
+
+He had rushed into the arena and risked his life to save a man who two
+days ago had insulted him, who--at best--was nothing to him. Why?
+
+These questions she had meant to ask him when he was sleeping: now she
+could not ask them from that bowed head, nor yet from those clasped
+hands. And yet, somehow, it seemed that something of the man's soul was
+revealed to her at this moment, though she could not as yet fathom the
+meaning of this strange answer to her questions.
+
+Her eyes had become quite accustomed to the darkness beyond the light.
+She could see clearly the powerful figure on bended knees, the wide
+shoulders with the bandages disposed over them by the physician for the
+healing of those horrible wounds, and the fingers linked together in a
+manner which she had never seen before. And now the hands stirred ever
+so slightly, the light caught the fingers more directly, and Dea Flavia
+saw that--clasped between them--there was a small wooden cross.
+
+And she knew now--all in a moment--that the answer to her questions lay
+there before her, not in the man's face, for that she could not see, but
+in his clasped hands and in the cross which they held. She knew that it
+was because of it--or rather because of that which had gone before, and
+of which that little cross was the tangible memory--that he had been
+ready to give his life for an enemy, and to give up all ambition and all
+pride for the sake of his allegiance to Caesar!
+
+A sigh must have escaped her lips, or merely just the indrawing of her
+breath; certain it is that something caused the kneeling man to stir. He
+raised his head very slowly, and then looked up straight across the
+light--to her.
+
+For one second he remained quite still, on his knees and with that white
+vision before him, ghost-like and silent, against the crimson background
+of the curtain. Then softly, as a sigh, one word escaped his lips:
+
+"Dea!"
+
+He rose to his feet but already she had fled, noiselessly as she had
+come, but swiftly across the studio and the atrium and back to her room,
+but even while she fled it seemed to her that on the silent night air
+there still trembled the sound of a voice, vibrating with longing and
+with passion, mournful as a sigh, appealing as the call of a bird to its
+mate:
+
+"Dea!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+"There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked."--ISAIAH
+XLVIII. 22.
+
+
+When after a few hours of light and troubled sleep Dea Flavia woke to
+partial consciousness, it seemed to her as if Phoebus Apollo had been
+driving his chariot through a sea of blood; for through the folds of the
+curtains over the windows she caught a glimpse of the sky, and it was of
+vivid crimson.
+
+The heat was oppressive, and as the young girl tossed with ever
+increasing restlessness on the pillows, beads of moisture rose on her
+forehead and matted the fair curls against her temples.
+
+She felt too tired to get up, even though she vaguely marvelled how
+wonderful must be the dawn, since its reflection was of such lurid
+colour. She lay back drowsy and with nerves tingling; she closed her
+eyes for they ached and burned intolerably.
+
+Gradually to her half-aroused consciousness sounds too began to
+penetrate. It seemed to her that the usual stately quietude of her house
+was gravely disturbed this morning, shuffling footsteps could be heard
+moving across the atrium, voices--scarce subdued--were whispering
+audibly, and the shouts of the overseers echoed from across the
+peristyle, and through it all a dull, monotonous sound, distant as yet
+and faint, came at long intervals, the sound of Jove's thunder over the
+Campania far away.
+
+Dea Flavia listened more intently, and one by one through the veil which
+kindly sleep had drawn over her memory, the events of the past day and
+night knocked at the portals of her brain.
+
+She remembered everything now, and with this sudden onrush of memory of
+the past, came fuller consciousness of the present.
+
+Through the hum of varied noises which filled her own house, she
+distinguished presently more strange, more ominous sounds that came from
+afar, like the thunders of Jove, and like them sounded weird and
+threatening in her ear; hoarse cries and shouts which seemed like
+peremptory commands, and groans that rose above the muffled din with
+calls of terror and of pain.
+
+In a moment Dea Flavia had put her feet to the ground. She ran to the
+window, drew back the curtains and peered into the narrow street which,
+at this point, separated her house from the rear of the Palace of
+Tiberius.
+
+A dull grey light enveloped the city in its mantle of gloom, and it was
+not the torch of Phoebus which had spread the rosy gleam of dawn over
+the sky! As Dea Flavia looked, she saw a canopy of dull crimson over her
+head, and from beyond the Palace of Tiberius there rose at intervals
+heavy banks of purple smoke.
+
+Dea Flavia stood there for one moment at the window, paralysed with the
+dread of what she saw and of what she guessed, and even as a cry of
+horror died within her throat, Licinia, with grey hair flying loosely
+round her pale face, and hands held out before her with an agonised
+gesture of fear, came running into the room.
+
+"The miscreants! the miscreants!" she shouted as she threw herself down
+on to the floor before her young mistress and squatted there on her
+heels, wringing her hands and uttering moans of terror. "They have set
+fire to the palace! They are on us, my beloved! Save thyself! Save thy
+house! Oh ye gods! protect us all!"
+
+The awesome news which Licinia thus blurted out was but a confirmation
+of what Dea had already feared. Every drop of blood within her seemed to
+turn to ice, horror gripped her heart, the oncoming catastrophe appeared
+suddenly before her, vivid, swift and inevitable. But she contrived to
+steady her voice and to appear outwardly calm as she said:
+
+"I do not understand thee, Licinia, speak more clearly. What is it that
+hath happened?"
+
+"The rabble are invading the Palatine," said Licinia, to the
+accompaniment of many groans. "They are on us I tell thee."
+
+"On us!" retorted Dea Flavia scornfully. "Tush, woman! they'll not heed
+us.... But the Caesar ... Hast news of the Caesar?"
+
+"No! no! my beloved, I have no news. I only know what the watchmen say."
+
+"What do they say?"
+
+"That the rabble is invading the hill. The miscreants have forced their
+way into the Forum. They have surrounded the palace of the Caesar and set
+fire within its precincts."
+
+"Ye gods!..." exclaimed Dea Flavia.
+
+"Dost hear their shouts? the villains! the villains! Dost hear Jove's
+thunder, my beloved? His vengeance is nigh! May his curse descend on the
+villains and on their children."
+
+"Silence, woman!" commanded the Augusta peremptorily. "Get me a
+robe--quickly--no, no! not that one," she added, as Licinia, with
+trembling hands had snatched up the gorgeous jewel-studded gown which
+Dea Flavia had worn the day before, "a dark robe--haste, I tell thee! go
+thou fetch it and send Blanca quickly to me."
+
+Moaning and trembling, the woman endeavoured to obey and to make as
+much speed as her limbs, paralysed with terror, would allow her. She
+called to Blanca, who together with the Augusta's tire-women had her
+quarters close at hand, and the young girl hastened to her mistress's
+room whilst Licinia went in search of a dark-coloured robe.
+
+"The praefect?" whispered Dea Flavia quickly, as soon as she felt
+assured that she was quite alone with her slave. "Hast seen Dion or
+Nolus?"
+
+"My brother spoke to me in the atrium just now, gracious mistress,"
+replied Blanca, who seemed scarce less excited than her mistress, "he
+and Dion heard a thud in the night, which roused them from a brief sleep
+which they had snatched, for they were very tired ... their long hunt in
+the Amphitheatre...."
+
+"Yes! yes! go on! I know that they slept ... and they heard a thud ...
+what was it?"
+
+"They ran to the resting-chamber, gracious lady, and found the praefect
+of Rome lying senseless on the floor."
+
+"Great Mother!... and what did they do?"
+
+"They lifted him as best they could; for the praefect is over tall and
+mightily powerful. But they succeeded in laying him back on to the
+couch, and Dion ran to rouse the physician."
+
+"And now?"
+
+"The physician hath given the praefect a drug to make him sleep, for it
+seems that fever was upon him with the pain of his wounds and he talked
+incoherently like one bereft of reason."
+
+"Hush!..." interrupted Dea Flavia hurriedly, "not before Licinia."
+
+Even as she spoke the old woman returned, carrying a robe of dove grey
+cloth, the darkest one that she could find. She had collected the
+tire-women round her, and they flocked in her wake like frightened sheep
+that have been driven into a pen. Licinia herself was evidently the prey
+of abject terror, for her teeth were chattering, and all the while that
+she helped her mistress to make a hasty toilet, she uttered low moans as
+if she were in pain.
+
+"The traitors! the miscreants!" she murmured at intervals.
+
+But Dea Flavia paid no heed to her. Her women had brought her fresh
+water, perfumes and fine cloths, and she was hastily bathing her face
+and hands. Then, she slipped on the dull-coloured robe and Licinia's
+trembling fingers fastened a girdle round her waist.
+
+And all the while, from far away, came the dull sound of Jove's thunders
+hurled by his wrath, and above it as a constant din, like the roaring of
+a tempestuous sea, the hoarse cries which--borne upon the wings of the
+oncoming storm--seemed to gain distinctness as their echo reached this
+distant house.
+
+"Dost hear the cries, Blanca?" asked Dea Flavia, as the young slave,
+leaning out of the narrow window tried to peer out into the street.
+
+"I hear them, gracious lady," replied the girl in an awed whisper.
+
+"And canst distinguish any words?"
+
+"Aye, one word, gracious lady ... Hark!"
+
+And that word sent its dismal echo even to Dea Flavia's ear.
+
+"Death!"
+
+Then Blanca uttered a terrified scream and quickly drew away from the
+window; from beyond the Palace of Tiberius, there where the new Palace
+of Caligula reared its gigantic marble pillars above the temples below,
+a huge column of flames had shot upwards to the sky. And a cry, louder
+than before and more distinct, came clearly from afar.
+
+"Death to the Caesar! Death!"
+
+"Ye gods protect him," murmured Dea Flavia fervently.
+
+"They'll murder him! they'll murder him!" shouted Licinia at the top of
+her trembling voice.
+
+She had fallen on her knees and the other women squatted round her like
+a huddled-up mass of terror-stricken humanity, with hair undone and
+pale, quivering lips and staring eyes dilated with fear.
+
+But Dea Flavia, now that she was dressed, took no further notice of
+them; she left them there on the floor, moaning and whimpering, and
+hurried out into the atrium. Here too the sense of terror filled the
+air. Beyond the colonnaded arcade in the corridors and the peristyle
+could be seen groups of slaves--men and women--squatting together with
+head meeting head in eager gossip, or clinging to one another in a state
+of abject cowardice.
+
+Here too, through the open vestibule, the sounds from the streets came
+louder and more clear. That awful cry of "Death" echoed with appalling
+distinctness, and to Dea Flavia's strained senses it seemed as if they
+were mingled with others, more awesome mayhap, but equally ominous of
+"The praefect of Rome! Where is the praefect of Rome! Hail! Taurus
+Antinor! Hail."
+
+The noise grew louder and louder, and from where she stood now--it
+seemed to her that she could trace in her mind the progress of the
+rebels, as they spread themselves from the foot of the Palatine and from
+the Forum, upwards to the heights until they had the palace of the Caesar
+completely surrounded.
+
+It was from there that weird cries of terror came incessantly, and in
+imagination Dea saw an army of cowardly, panic-stricken slaves, huddled
+together as her own women had been, with palsied limbs and chattering
+teeth, whilst a handful of faithful men of the praetorian guard were
+alone left to protect the sacred person of the Caesar.
+
+Above her, through the apertures in the tiled roof, she could see the
+sky aglow with lurid crimson, and the smell of burning wood and of
+charred stuffs filled her nostrils with their pungent odour.
+
+"Death to the Caesar! Death!" The cry seemed almost at her door. Only the
+Palace of Tiberius, with its great empty halls and basilicas stood
+between her and the rallying-point of the rebels.
+
+She called loudly for Tertius--her comptroller--and he came running
+along from the slaves' quarters with an army of howling men and women at
+his heels.
+
+"What news, Tertius?" she demanded. "Hast heard?"
+
+"They have surrounded the Caesar's palace," said Tertius excitedly, "and
+demand his presence."
+
+"Oh! the sacrilege!..." she exclaimed, "and what doth the Caesar?"
+
+"He will not appear, and his guards charge the mob as they advance
+upwards from the Forum. They have invaded the temple of Castor, and
+already some are swarming in the vestibules of the palace. The guard are
+behind the colonnades and were holding the crowd at bay with fair
+success until...."
+
+"Until?" she asked.
+
+"Until some of the rebels skirting the palace, set fire to the slaves'
+quarters in the rear. The flames are spreading. The Caesar will be forced
+to face the people, an he doth not mean to be buried beneath the
+crumbling walls of his palace!"
+
+"The miscreants have set fire to the palace of the Caesars?" she
+exclaimed.
+
+"Alas!" replied the man, "they will force the Caesar to show himself to
+them. And they loudly demand the praefect of Rome."
+
+"The praefect of Rome?"
+
+"Aye, gracious lady. The people had thought that the Caesar killed him;
+some strove, it seems, to recover his body in the imperial tribune,
+where he was seen to fall. But the body had disappeared, and the rumour
+hath gained ground that the Caesar had it thrown to his dogs."
+
+"It's not true," she cried out involuntarily.
+
+"No, gracious lady. Men of sense do know that it is not true. But an
+infuriated mob hath no sense. It is like an overgrown child, with
+thousands of irresponsible limbs. It is tossed hither and thither,
+swayed by the wind of a chance word. But it were as well, mayhap, if it
+were true."
+
+"Silence, Tertius, how canst say such a thing."
+
+"I think of the Caesar, gracious lady," rejoined the man simply, "and of
+thee. If the mob found the praefect of Rome now alive or dead, then
+surely would they murder the Caesar and make of the praefect their
+Emperor if he lived, their god if he were dead."
+
+And as if to confirm the man's words, the morning breeze wafted through
+the air the prolonged and insistent cry:
+
+"Taurus Antinor! Hail!"
+
+With a curt word, Dea dismissed her comptroller, and he went, followed
+by his train of shrieking men and women.
+
+She remained a while silent and alone in the atrium, while the moanings
+of the slaves and Tertius' rough admonitions to them died away in the
+distance.
+
+"If the mob found the praefect of Rome now alive or dead," she murmured,
+"then surely would they murder the Caesar and make of the praefect their
+Emperor if he lived, their god if he were dead!"
+
+Dea Flavia cast a quick glance all round her. The atrium itself was
+deserted, even though from every side beyond its colonnaded arcade came
+the sound of many voices and those persistent, cowardly groanings which
+set the young girl's nerves tingling and caused her heart to sink within
+her, with the presage of impending doom.
+
+Only in the vestibule the watchmen sat alert and prepared to guard the
+Augusta's house; they were gossiping among themselves and seemed the
+only men in the place who were not wholly panic-stricken.
+
+The hum of their voices sounded quite reassuring in the midst of the
+senseless groans of terror which came from the women's quarters near the
+Augusta's rooms, as well as from the men in the more remote parts of the
+house.
+
+After that brief moment of hesitation Dea went resolutely toward the
+studio. She crossed its small vestibule and pushed open the door.
+
+Dion was sitting there on guard as the Augusta had commanded. He rose
+when she entered.
+
+"The praefect?" she asked hurriedly.
+
+"He sleeps," replied the man.
+
+"Art sure?"
+
+"I peeped in but a few moments ago. His eyes are closed. I think that he
+sleeps."
+
+"I would wish to make sure," she said curtly.
+
+Too well-trained, or mayhap too indifferent to show surprise at so
+strange a desire on the part of the great and gracious Augusta, Dion
+stood aside respectfully to allow her to pass, then he followed her to
+the door of the inner room and held aside the heavy curtain, whilst she
+put her hand upon the latch.
+
+"Dion," she said, turning back to him, "yesterday I gave thee thy
+freedom, since thou didst serve me well."
+
+"Aye, gracious lady," replied the man as he bent the knee in submissive
+respect, "and I would kiss thy feet for this, thy graciousness."
+
+"When the city is once more at peace, we'll before the quaestor, and
+thou and Nolus and Blanca shall all be declared free. But to-day thou
+art still my slave and must obey me in all things."
+
+"As thou dost command, gracious lady."
+
+"Then, 'tis silence that I do enjoin on thee, Dion," she said earnestly,
+"silence as to the praefect's presence in my house, until I bid thee
+speak: on pain of death, Dion, for thou art still my slave."
+
+"I understand, gracious lady."
+
+"Then wait for me now and on peril of thy life allow no one to enter."
+
+But scarce had these words crossed her lips than there rose from the
+atrium behind her a series of weird sounds, cries, and imprecations,
+calls for the Augusta and curses on her slaves, as from one who is
+bereft of reason and screams in his madness.
+
+"The Caesar!" she murmured, as white to the lips now, she stood rigid by
+the door whilst her hand fell from the latch.
+
+"Augusta! Augusta!" came the hoarse cries from the atrium, and the
+hideous, familiar sound of leather thongs whistling through the air
+reached her straining senses.
+
+She put a finger to her lips, with a quick peremptory gesture to Dion,
+then she recrossed the studio with a firm step and the curtains of the
+inner door fell back behind her with a swish.
+
+The next moment she was standing in the atrium facing Caligula, the
+Caesar.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the
+morning!"--ISAIAH XIV. 12.
+
+
+He had a score or so of his guard with him and they remained at some
+little distance, in a compact group, with their short, bronze-hilted
+swords naked in their hands.
+
+Caligula was livid. He had donned a dark woollen robe and his head was
+uncovered. His knees, arms and hands were shaking and his mouth opened
+and closed as if he were gasping for breath. His eyes were bloodshot and
+staring out of his head like those of a man who is being strangled.
+
+"Gracious Caesar!" exclaimed Dea Flavia as soon as she was before him,
+and with the instinct born of long usage, she bent the knee before him.
+
+"They have trapped me," he murmured inarticulately whilst weird choking
+sounds escaped his throat. "They have trapped me, hast heard?"
+
+"Alas!"
+
+"The miscreants! the sacrilegious miscreants! the hideous monsters! the
+villainous reptiles! Aye! punishment will overtake them; they shall rue
+this day! All Rome shall rue this day: her streets shall flow with blood
+and I'll invent such tortures for every man as will turn the firmament
+red with horror ... I'll...."
+
+His mouth was twitching convulsively and his hands clutched
+spasmodically at his throat. Dea Flavia had risen to her feet, she stood
+before this raging madman erect and calm, with eyes downcast, for the
+sight of him filled her with loathing.
+
+Suddenly he ceased in his ravings; a loud crash as of crumbling walls
+had rent the air, followed by shrieks and loud hissing sounds and that
+perpetual cry, awesome in its weird monotony:
+
+"Death to the Caesar! Death!"
+
+Caligula's face was contorted with terror, his cheeks were grey like
+those of the dead. He made a quick movement forward and suddenly
+clutched Dea's wrist.
+
+"Dost hear them?" he said in a hoarse whisper.
+
+And she nodded in response.
+
+"They want to kill me ... they have set fire to my house ... I escaped
+through the crypta.... But they were hard on my heels...."
+
+And as if to confirm his words, the cries of "Death!" again rose in the
+air; the tramping of feet, the angry murmurs became more loud and
+appeared to be filling the street close by and tending toward the very
+door of Dea Flavia's house.
+
+"Ah, monsters! miserable monsters!" shouted the Caesar, crazy with fear,
+"to-morrow will come the awful reprisals ... to-morrow ..."
+
+"To-day," broke in Dea Flavia coldly, "the Caesar is in danger of his
+life."
+
+"They'll kill me," he cried, whilst once more trembling--akin to
+palsy--seized his limbs. "They'll kill me, Augusta ... hide me, hide me
+ere they come."
+
+And he fell on his knees, grovelling on the floor like a fawning beast,
+with quivering hands clutching the young girl's robe, his forehead
+beating the ground at her feet.
+
+"Hide me, Augusta," he murmured through his groans, "hide me!... Do not
+let them kill me."
+
+She drew back in horror and disgust, closing her eyes lest she should
+see this degradation of the Caesarship, this breaking down of her highest
+ideals.
+
+But two days ago this same abject creature had stood beside her,
+demanding from her obedience and loyalty which she was fully prepared to
+accord to him. He had called on her fealty in the very name of that
+Caesarship which she worshipped and which he was now degrading and
+lowering to the dust.
+
+Then as now Jove's thunders from afar had proclaimed the wrath of the
+gods. Then as now Jove thundered his warnings to that man not to defile
+the majesty of the Caesars. But two days ago she had still believed in
+and acknowledged that majesty, she had bent her will, curbed her
+inclinations, smothered her every girlish inspiration, her every womanly
+instinct to the dictates of that power which came straight from the
+hands of the gods; now she felt actual physical nausea at the sight of
+this pitiable coward, who--wallowing in his own cruelty--had not even
+the unreasoning pluck of a brute defending its life.
+
+Involuntarily her thoughts flew back to the man who was lying helpless
+in her house. She saw him in her mind as she had seen him yesterday,
+bounding into the arena to save another's life: strong and
+determined--measuring and accepting every risk, looking neither to right
+nor left whilst he carried his self-imposed burden to safety, and then
+falling without a groan, felled to the ground by the claws of the
+panther.
+
+And outside the cries had become quite distinct.
+
+"Death to the Caesar! Hail Taurus Antinor! Hail!"
+
+The people, in their fury and their exultation, had condemned one man
+and exalted another. Truly the gods themselves had guided them in their
+choice. And now it seemed as if the final choice rested with her: as if
+in some distant shrine, mysterious oracles had spoken and told her that
+the future of Rome lay in her hands.
+
+And involuntarily she looked down on her hands and saw that they were
+tiny and weak, and yet one of them would within the next few seconds
+point the way to Destiny, show her whither she should go, carrying on
+her giant shoulders the whole empire of the world.
+
+At her feet a cowardly and inhuman creature grovelled, abjectly praying
+for a life which by its continuance could only bring more sorrow, more
+horrors and more misery to thousands upon thousands of human beings
+dependent on this half-crazy monster.
+
+Behind her, beyond two walls there lay a man amongst men, for whom the
+people clamoured, whose very presence betokened strength and whose every
+glance diffused peace. A man born to rule a people and to guide the
+destinies of an empire, and whose life of simple integrity had yesterday
+been crowned by an act of sublime sacrifice.
+
+And the choice rested with her.
+
+Her ears were buzzing with the hoarse cries from without: the cry of
+"Death!" mingling with that of "Hail!"--the name of Caesar blended with
+that of the praefect of Rome; and through it all, drowning them by their
+hideous sound, the groans and shrieks of a bloodthirsty tyrant, brought
+down to the dust by his own cruelties, and even now thirsting for more.
+
+The choice did rest with her.
+
+She had but to run a few steps to the vestibule and there to call loudly
+to the populace that even now was invading the slope of the hill toward
+her house. She had but to rush to her door and to shout boldly:
+
+"The Caesar is here, and the praefect of Rome is nigh!"
+
+And the twenty men who were waiting with naked swords would be as naught
+before the onslaught of the people.
+
+She looked round her helpless and dazed whilst the fawning creature on
+the ground embraced her ankles and kissed her feet, and repeated with
+frantic persistence:
+
+"Save me, Augusta ... save me ... do not let them kill me.... I have
+been good to thee.... I am thy guardian--thy Caesar ... save me...."
+
+"Save thee?" she repeated mechanically, "how can I?"
+
+"Hide me somewhere--where they cannot find me"--he murmured, half
+raising himself from the ground. "Thou wouldst not give up thy Caesar to
+the fury of the populace ... thou wouldst not soil thy hands with the
+blood of thy kinsman..."
+
+Now he was embracing her knees and his hideous, distorted face was
+looking up appealingly at her.
+
+"Thou wouldst not soil thy hands with the blood of thy kinsman...."
+
+Even as these words escaped his flaccid lips a roll of thunder louder
+than any previous one came echoing from behind the Aventine Hill. Dea
+Flavia shuddered. Was it Jove's warning, or already Jove's curse, the
+curse of the gods on her for the treachery of her thoughts?
+
+"Thou wouldst not soil thy hands with the blood of thy kinsman...." he
+repeated pitiably.
+
+"No! no!" she said hurriedly. "Not that.... I'll help thee!... What can
+I do?"
+
+"Let me hide in thy house...."
+
+"Where?"
+
+He pointed to the studio.
+
+"There!" he said.
+
+"No! no!" she exclaimed, and instinctively her arms were held out, as if
+she would protect a sacred shrine.
+
+"Thy workroom is private," he urged in tones of abject entreaty; "no one
+would venture there ... only thy women slaves ever cross its
+threshold.... I should be quite safe in the inner room ... thy women
+would not betray me ... thou hast some that are mute ... they could
+attend on me there, and no one would know of my presence until this
+outrage hath subsided.... In a few hours mayhap the praetorian guard
+will succeed in forcing a passage through the raging mob ... my legions
+too are on their way from Germany ... they will be here soon ... they
+were only four days' march behind me and my convoy ... they are but a
+couple of days' march now from the city gates ... I could stay in there
+... in thy private room ... with a few men to protect me ... and thy
+women to attend on me ... no one else would know...."
+
+He talked volubly, at times incoherently, with hoarse voice and quaking
+lips. She tried with all her might to free herself from his convulsive
+clutch--but he clung to her like a dying man would cling to the last
+breath of life--like a drowning man would cling to the raft on which he
+might find safety.
+
+"In there----" he entreated.
+
+"No--no----"
+
+"I should be safe and nobody would know."
+
+And now he raised himself to his feet, and swaying like a drunken man he
+turned toward the studio, calling to his guard to follow him. But she
+was still between him and that door, between this raving, bloodthirsty
+maniac and a helpless man who was lying wounded and in a drugged sleep
+on a bed of sickness.
+
+The oracle had not yet finished speaking. The last word still hung in
+the air. Her choice had not yet been made: but at this moment when
+Caligula and his guard turned toward the studio door, she knew that it
+would not be long in the making. Never should that demented tyrant cross
+the threshold of her studio and wreak his hatred and revenge upon the
+fallen hero. Rather than that should happen she would call to the
+people, and hand over the Caesar--her kinsman--to an infuriated mob.
+Better that than to deliver a wounded man into the claws of a raging
+brute.
+
+Then mayhap the blood of her kinsman would stain her hands for ever;
+then, too, no doubt would come horror, remorse and the malediction of
+the gods. Then so be it. That would she take upon herself. What must be
+suffered, that she would suffer: the torments of remorse would be
+infinitesimal compared with the awful sacrilege which the Caesar's hand
+would perpetrate, were he allowed access to the praefect of Rome.
+
+And even as the resolve became firmly implanted in her heart, she found
+herself murmuring softly words which she had heard in the Forum a very
+few days ago.
+
+"I have but one soul and that is in the hand of God!"
+
+Something of the serenity which had then shone from the man's face now
+entered into her heart. Horror and excitement fell away from her like a
+useless mantle. She felt herself absolutely calm and unswerving in her
+determination.
+
+Therefore she did not make a rush for the studio door, she did not with
+dramatic gesture interpose her body between it and the Caesar: she merely
+put her hand out and let it rest upon his arm.
+
+"I should be safe in there--and nobody would know...." he murmured.
+
+"My slaves would know," she said coldly, "and would betray thee."
+
+"I only fear the men and they need not know," he said eagerly, even
+though at her words he had paused and turned back towards her.
+
+"Many of them have seen and heard thee."
+
+"Tell them I have escaped to the Palace of Augustus, through the
+crypta."
+
+"They would not believe it--they would know it was not true."
+
+"Canst thou not trust thy slaves?" he snarled.
+
+"Couldst thou trust thine?" she retorted.
+
+"I can change robes with one of my guard," he urged, "and he could then
+pretend to be the Caesar escaping through the crypta to the House of
+Augustus."
+
+"'Twere safest not to make pretence," she rejoined coolly; "rather let
+the Caesar do what he suggests."
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"The Palace of Augustus would be the safest stronghold for the Caesar
+until the arrival of the legions. It would be safer than the house of
+his servant, for prying eyes may have seen him enter it, and
+ears--sharpened by hate--may have heard his cries."
+
+"Then am I lost!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Not if my gracious lord will take counsel of his servant. The
+underground way is clear and safe. The Palace of Augustus would afford
+ample shelter. Twenty men well armed will watch over the Caesar and the
+house of Dea Flavia will furnish the necessary food."
+
+Caligula hesitated a moment, his shifty eyes wandered restlessly over
+the face of the young girl.
+
+"Thou'lt not betray me?" he murmured.
+
+"I could betray thee now an I would," she said simply. "The mob is at my
+gate. One call from me and the Caesar is in the hands of those who desire
+his death."
+
+"Hush! hush!" he said, once more clutching her wrist and gazing
+fearfully around him, "speak not of this, Dea! The very words might call
+down the decree of the gods.... I'll trust thee," he added, bringing his
+livid face close to her own and speaking with a fever of maddened fury,
+"but if thou shouldst fail me...."
+
+"No need of threats, great Caesar," she said, calmly disengaging her
+wrist from his grasp and stepping back from him, "if I failed thee
+to-day neither I nor thou would be alive on the morrow."
+
+The truth of what she said must have struck his dulled mind, for the
+look of savage ferocity quickly died from his face, leaving it once more
+pale with abject fear. He must have realised that his own unreasoning
+cowardice had placed him entirely in this girl's hands, and that having
+feared to meet his people a few hours ago, he had cut off from beneath
+his own feet the bulwark of dignity and of unapproachable sanctity on
+which he should have stood.
+
+"I'll to the House of Augustus," he said more quietly, "while the rabble
+vent their rage upon my palace and search for their Caesar that they
+might murder him, I'll remain there in peace. Do thou send thy most
+trusted slave into the streets, and let him endeavour to reach the
+praetorian guard who are holding their ground behind the crowd of
+rebels. They might effect a flank movement, which, if unexpected, might
+put the miscreants to rout sooner than we anticipate. Hast a slave whom
+thou canst trust thus far?"
+
+"I have two freedmen," she replied, "free since yesternight, who would
+give their life for me."
+
+"Let them do it then," he retorted cynically. "And do thou lead the way
+to the triclinium. I am anhungered, and a halt at thy table will throw
+dust in the eyes of thy slaves. I can reach the crypta from there
+without being seen again."
+
+"As the Caesar commands," she said calmly, "but there is little time to
+be lost."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+"Nothing is secret, which shall not be made manifest."--ST. LUKE
+VIII. 17.
+
+
+Caligula himself led the way to the triclinium and Dea Flavia followed
+him.
+
+He threw himself upon a couch and she, with her own hands, served him
+with wine and fruit. He refused to eat but drank freely of the wine,
+whilst she stood beside him calmly waiting until he should be ready to
+go.
+
+Seeing Blanca cross the atrium, she had called to her and ordered her to
+serve the soldiers. The men were grateful for they were exhausted. They
+had not tasted food since the day before, and had been on the watch
+round the Caesar's person all night.
+
+The underground passage which runs beneath the declivity between the two
+points of the Palatine, and by tortuous ways under the temple of Jupiter
+Victor on its highest summit, did connect the house which Dea Flavia now
+occupied with the Palace of Augusta. The latter, since the death of the
+great imperator, had been used entirely as a hall of justice: a few
+scribes alone inhabited the rearmost portion of the huge edifice.
+
+The passage itself abutted in Dea Flavia's house on one of the small
+rooms that lay round the triclinium. There were several such passages
+connecting the various palaces on the Palatine, but their existence was
+not revealed to the army of slaves, only a few responsible ones knew
+that they were there. In this instance the Caesar could, from the
+triclinium, reach this road to safety without again crossing the atrium
+and encountering the prying eyes of hundreds of cowardly slaves.
+
+He had no thought of thanking Dea Flavia for what she did for him, but
+having drunk his fill, he rose from the couch and made ready to go.
+
+She escorted him to the door of the passage and gave brief instructions
+to the men how to proceed. She had lighted a small lamp which would
+guide the Caesar and his escort on their way. From the door, a flight of
+precipitous steps led down into the darkness. Caligula was the first to
+descend and his soldiers followed him; the one who held the lamp keeping
+close to the Caesar's person.
+
+Dea Flavia stood at the door until the footsteps of the men ceased to
+send their echo back to her along the vaulted passage. Then, with a sigh
+of relief, she closed the door on them and hastily fled from the room.
+
+Her one desire now was to shut out, as completely as possible from her
+mental vision the picture of her shattered ideal, the degradation of
+that majesty which she had honoured all her life. So imbued was she with
+that sense of honour and of reverence for the Caesarship, that she would
+not dwell in thought on that awful sight of the Caesar grovelling in
+abject terror at her feet. She wished to forget it--to forget him--the
+man who, in her eyes, was already no longer the Caesar, for the Caesar was
+a god, and like unto a god in glory and in dignity--whilst Caligula, her
+kinsman, had sunk lower than the beasts.
+
+Almost involuntarily she had turned back toward the studio. A while ago
+she had wished to look on the praefect of Rome as he lay in a drugged
+sleep, desiring to assure herself that all was well with him; then the
+advent of the Caesar had interrupted her. Over an hour had gone by since
+then and the whole aspect of the world had changed.
+
+The Caesar was a fugitive and a coward, and the people who had the upper
+hand were prepared to acclaim the hero of their choice.
+
+The atrium now was gloomy and deserted. The slaves--gathered together in
+their remote quarters--shunned the vastness and the enforced silence of
+the reception halls; they preferred to huddle together in close groups
+in corners, distant from the noise of the street.
+
+Dea Flavia stood quietly listening. Still from afar came the insistent
+cries of "Death!" and of "Vengeance!" Still overhead that lurid light
+and smoke-laden atmosphere. But now those same cries seemed almost
+drowned by a sound more persistent if less ominous: the sound of heavy
+pattering rain on leaden roofs and into the marble basin of the
+impluvium, whilst the roll of Jove's thunders appeared to be more nigh.
+
+It was obvious that the storm which had been threatening all the morning
+from over the Campania, had burst over the great city at last. It was
+Jove's turn now to make a noise with his thunder, to utter cries and
+howls of vengeance and of death through the medium of his storm, and to
+drown the fury of men in the whirl of his own.
+
+Now a vivid flash of lightning rent the leaden sky overhead and searched
+the dark corners of the atrium. Dea Flavia uttered an involuntary little
+cry of terror, and hid her face in her hands.
+
+A high wind howled among the trees outside the house; Dea could hear the
+tiny branches cracking under the whip-lash of the blast, breaking away
+from the parent stem and sending an eddy of dry dead leaves whirling
+wildly along the narrow streets and into the open portals of the
+vestibule. She could hear the fall of the torrential rain, and the
+flames, which sacrilegious hands had kindled, dying away with
+long-drawn-out hissing moans of pain. She could hear the wind in its
+rage lashing those flames back into life again, and could see through
+the opening overhead the huge volumes of black smoke chased across the
+sky.
+
+Smoke and flames were fighting an uneven battle against the persistent,
+heavy rain. The wind was their ally, but he was gusty and fitful: now
+and then helping them with all his might, fanning their activity and
+renewing their strength, but after a violent outburst he would lie down
+and rest, gathering strength mayhap, but giving the falling rain its
+opportunity.
+
+The rain had no need of rest; it fell, and fell, and fell, steadily and
+torrentially, searching the weaker flames, killing them out one by one.
+
+To Dea Flavia's straining senses it seemed clear that in this storm the
+number of rebels had greatly diminished; none, no doubt, but the most
+enthusiastic remained to face the discomforts of drenched skin and bone
+chilled to the marrow. No doubt too the gale blowing the flames and
+smoke hither and thither on the exposed slopes of the Palatine, had
+rendered a stand in the open unmaintainable.
+
+All this of course was mere conjecture, but the young girl, worn out
+mentally and physically with the nerve strain of the past
+four-and-twenty hours was grateful for the momentary sense of peace. The
+steady fall of the rain acted soothingly upon her senses; her wearied
+thoughts flew aimlessly hither and thither on the wings of her
+imagination.
+
+Only the storm frightened her because she was not sure if it were an
+expression of Jove's wrath, or whether his mighty hand had only
+scattered the infuriated populace so that she--Dea Flavia--could weigh
+the destinies of Rome in peace.
+
+She thought of going quietly back to her room, to think a while in the
+solitude; the danger being less imminent gave her leisure to ponder and
+to weigh in the balance her allegiance to Caesar, and that other nameless
+sense within her which she did not yet understand, but which invariably
+drew her wandering thoughts back, and then back again to the man who lay
+in a drugged sleep under her roof.
+
+He slept, and throughout the great city the people called on him: "Hail
+Taurus Antinor! Hail!"
+
+She sighed and involuntary tears gathered in her eyes: but the sigh was
+not one of sadness, rather was it one of longing for something
+intangible and exquisite, and this longing was so sweet and withal so
+mysterious, that instinctively she turned away from the magnificent
+reception hall toward her own room, with a wild desire to be alone and
+nurse that longing into an all-compelling desire.
+
+It was at this moment that five or six men--all wrapped in dark woollen
+cloaks--entered the atrium from the vestibule, and catching sight of the
+Augusta, called to her loudly with greetings of respectful homage.
+
+She paused, angered at the intrusion; peace and solitude seemed indeed
+denied to her to-day; but recognising the praetorian praefect as the
+foremost of her visitors, she could not--owing to his high rank--dismiss
+him from her presence.
+
+Caius Nepos had already bent the knee before her. He looked flushed and
+agitated as did most of the others, only my lord Hortensius Martius who
+was in the background, looked pale and wan from the terrible exposure of
+yesterday.
+
+She did not think to wonder how these men had entered her house, how
+they had found their way to her presence, past her janitors, and without
+the usual formalities and ceremonies of introduction which her high rank
+demanded. She knew that her slaves were demoralised, that men who had
+been friends of the Caesar were now fugitives, and vaguely thought that
+the praetorian praefect and his friends had found their way into her
+house as into a likely haven of refuge, and would, the next moment, be
+kneeling at her feet begging for protection and shelter, just as their
+lord and Caesar had done on this selfsame spot half an hour ago.
+
+"Your pleasure, my lords?" she asked.
+
+"To speak with thee privately, O Augusta!" said Caius Nepos, sinking his
+voice to a whisper. "My friends and I have tried all the morning to
+forge our way through the mob and to reach thine ear. But the praetorian
+guard, faithful to me, was unable to make headway. Then did we think of
+covering ourselves with dark cloaks and of following the crowd, as if we
+were one with it, until it led us to the precincts of thy house. The
+storm as it broke overhead was our faithful ally; the crowd has sought
+refuge against it under the arcades of the Forum, and the slopes of the
+Palatine are comparatively free."
+
+"Yet, do ye want shelter and protection from me?" asked Dea Flavia.
+
+She had no liking for these men, all of whom she knew. Caius Nepos,
+selfish and callous; Ancyrus, the elder, avaricious and self-seeking;
+young Escanes whom she knew to be unscrupulous; Philippus Decius whose
+ostentation and lavishness she despised. She vaguely wondered why my
+lord Hortensius Martius was among them.
+
+"Nay, gracious lady!" said Caius Nepos suavely, "'tis not thy protection
+which we crave, save for a few moments whilst we lay at thy feet our
+desires for the welfare of Rome."
+
+"The welfare of Rome?" she queried vaguely. "I do not understand ye!
+What hath your coming hither to do with the welfare of Rome?"
+
+"Allow us to make the meaning clear to thee, O Augusta. But not here,
+where prying eyes might be on the watch or unwelcome ears be prepared to
+listen. Grant us but a brief audience in strict privacy ... the
+destinies of Rome are in thy hands."
+
+She made no immediate reply, but, as was habitual with her, she tried to
+read with searching eyes all that went on behind the obsequious masks
+wherewith these men sought to hide their innermost thoughts from her.
+
+And as she peered into their smooth, humble faces, all at once she knew
+why they had come. She knew it even before they put their proposals into
+words; she knew why the praetorian praefect was so servile, and why my
+lord Hortensius Martius, despite his obvious weakness, wore an air of
+triumph.
+
+They had come to betray the Caesar and to place the destinies of Rome in
+her hands. It was strange indeed that this mealy-mouthed sycophant
+should be using those very words which had stood before her eyes like
+letters of fire, searing her brain ever since she had stood here--half
+an hour ago--with the grovelling Caesar at her feet.
+
+The whirl of thoughts which rushed to her brain now made her giddy.
+Instinctively now, as she had done then, she looked down on her
+hands--those hands which were to guide the destinies of Rome--and her
+heart had a curious twinge of pain, almost of fear, for she realised
+more fully than before how small and delicate they were.
+
+"Time walks closely on the heels of destiny, O Augusta!" urged Marcus
+Ancyrus, the elder, in his gently insinuating voice; "for the nonce Jove
+has damped the wrath of the people of Rome, but that wrath is only
+dormant, it will break out afresh. The storm in the heavens will pass
+by, but the tempest caused by a raging mob will reawaken with double
+fury. In thy hands, Augusta, in thy hands!..."
+
+She knew that all these men wanted was to use her as a tool--a puppet to
+dance to their piping. She knew that anon they would be as ready to
+betray her as they were betraying their Caesar now. Yesternight had they
+come to her with their proposals she would have rejected them with
+unqualified scorn; but since yesternight she had seen the Caesar abject,
+cowardly, degraded, dragging his bespattered majesty across the floor of
+this house; she had measured him--not by what he represented, but by
+what he was, and she had taken his measure ... and that of another ...
+and the Caesar was lower than the brutes--and that other was greater than
+men.
+
+A silent voice, a whisper which mayhap was an inspiration, caused her to
+look toward the studio.
+
+"In there, my lords," she said, pointing to the door, "we shall be safe
+from watchful eyes and ears, and I will listen to what you have to say."
+
+She chose not to see the look of triumph which flashed from six pairs of
+eyes, but calmly led the way toward the studio.
+
+Caius Nepos and the others followed her without a word. Dion and Nolus
+rose as she entered, and she dismissed them, whilst ordering them to
+wait her pleasure outside the door. The two men--brought up in the
+school of slavery, were too well drilled to marvel at the gracious
+lady's many moods; they did not even cast one look in the direction of
+the inner room where they knew that the praefect of Rome still lay in a
+drugged sleep.
+
+As soon as they were gone Dea Flavia turned again to Caius Nepos and to
+his friends.
+
+"I pray you sit," she said simply.
+
+She herself sat on a high chair with circular back carved of citrus
+wood, but Caius Nepos and the others preferred to stand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+"For the children of this world are in their generation wiser
+than the children of light."--ST. LUKE XVI. 8.
+
+
+Caius Nepos was the spokesman of the party. His high rank and great
+influence with the guard under his command gave him certain privileges
+which his friends were always willing to give him. They did not know of
+his treachery to them; nothing, indeed, had occurred to make them guess
+that the man who, in a sense, had been the leader and organiser of their
+party, had betrayed them all to the Caesar in the hopes of greater gains,
+once he knew that his adherents had no thought of offering him the
+imperium.
+
+The events of yesterday had changed the whole trend of Caius Nepos'
+ambitions. The people in its present temper was not like to accept him
+as the Caesar, even if he could persuade the praetorian guard to acclaim
+him as such.
+
+His one desire being his own advancement and his own interests, he had
+already realised that these were best served by adherence to Dea
+Flavia's fortunes, since the Caesar himself, whilst still in the fulness
+of his power had named her and her descendants as his successors for all
+times. Caius Nepos, quick to seize his chance, and seeing the party of
+patrician malcontents aimless without a leader, had grasped his
+opportunity and constituted himself once more their organiser.
+
+Now whilst the others grouped themselves at a respectful distance round
+the Augusta, he stood quite close to her, with back bent and his face in
+shadow.
+
+"Augusta," he began, "meseems that in thy heart thou hast already
+guessed the purpose of our coming. The hour is rife and we do but wait
+thy command. We are at one in this: the praetorian guard will follow my
+dictates, the patriciate of Rome will bow the knee to thee. Augusta, the
+hour is rife! a raging madman, a cruel mountebank and abject coward has
+this day forfeited all rights to sit on the throne of Augustus, thine
+immortal kinsman. Augusta, art prepared to deliver Rome finally from
+under the heel of a tyrant, and thyself to place the sceptre of Augustus
+in the hands of one who were worthy of the prize?"
+
+"I, my lord?" she asked coldly, for Caius Nepos had paused in his
+oratory, "I? How can I--a woman--decide on this great point? 'Tis for
+the legions to proclaim their Caesar...."
+
+"The legions," he broke in quietly, "will follow in the wake of the
+praetorian guard, and the praetorian guard will listen to my voice. They
+believe that the Caesar is dead; they will soon believe that the will of
+Rome lies in this, that the final choice of his successor shall rest
+with thee."
+
+Then as she made no reply but sat quite still and thoughtful, her small
+hand shielding her face so that it was in shadow, her elbow resting on
+the delicately carved wood of the chair, Caius Nepos drew a step or two
+nearer: he bent his long back nearly double and sank his voice to an
+insinuating whisper.
+
+"It was the Caesar himself, O Augusta," he whispered, "who yesterday,
+before all the people, made an oath and declared that thy future lord
+and master should succeed to the imperium, so that the descendants of
+immortal Augustus should in time become the rulers of Rome."
+
+"But the Caesar is not dead," she said simply.
+
+"He is dead to the people, dead to his guard, dead to Rome!" asserted
+the praefect solemnly. "Yesterday the dagger of Escanes was ready to do
+the supreme act of retributory justice, and to rid the world of a
+maniacal tyrant and Rome of a cruel oppressor; to-day the act was
+virtually done by the madman himself when he fled in abject terror from
+before the face of his people."
+
+And--as if in direct confirmation of Caius Nepos' solemn words, there
+came from far away, rising momentarily above the roar of the tempest,
+that ever-persistent monotonous cry:
+
+"Death to the Caesar! Death!" even whilst Jove's thunder overhead gave
+forth its majestic echo.
+
+Dea Flavia no longer hid her face in her hand. She sat serene and
+dignified, upright and pure as a lily, allowing her thoughts to be
+expressed in her blue eyes, letting these ambitious self-seekers see
+that she was not deceived by their pretence at loyalty and patriotism.
+They gathered closer round her, and she looked now truly a queen,
+dignified and serene, her head crowned by the glory of her golden
+hair--towering above their stooping forms.
+
+There was a look of contempt in her eyes which they did not choose to
+see. They were having their will with her; they had fired her ambition
+and roused her enthusiasm, and that was all that these intriguers asked
+of this girl, of whom they but desired to make a tool for the carving of
+their own selfish ends.
+
+Vaguely the older men wondered on whom the Augusta's choice had fallen,
+whilst my lord Hortensius Martius felt the hot blood rush to his cheeks
+at the hopes that had once more risen in his heart.
+
+But now Ancyrus, the elder, began to speak and his voice was mellow and
+gentle.
+
+"The people have spoken plainly, O Augusta," he said; "wilt set thy
+will against the might of the people of Rome? Hath not Jove spoken
+clearly too? Think on the events of the past two days! The Caesar's
+pronouncement in the Circus, the tumult amongst the people when my lord
+Hortensius Martius courted certain death in order to win thy favours,
+the rage of the populace against the Caesar!... think on it all! Did not
+Jove direct all this?"
+
+"Aye! but meseems that he did!" she murmured, as her eyes fastened
+themselves on the heavy door that led to the inner room, "but since then
+hath he not directed the people to acclaim the Caesar of their choice?"
+
+Caius Nepos shrugged his shoulders and Hortensius Martius broke in
+hotly.
+
+"The rabble clamours for the praefect of Rome! but the praefect is
+dead...."
+
+"Aye! I remember, my lord," she said quietly, "there is a rumour that he
+died soon after he had saved thy life."
+
+Then as Hortensius Martius, feeling the sting of the rebuke, bit his
+under lip to check an angry retort, Ancyrus, the elder, rejoined
+suavely, trying to pour the oil of his honeyed words on the troubled
+water of the younger man's wrath.
+
+"The praefect is dead, O Augusta, and the people will soon forget him.
+Rome deifies thee because of thy great kinsman. Having forgotten the
+hero of their choice they will readily turn to thee whom they love. They
+will accept from thy hands the Caesar whom thou wilt choose."
+
+My lord Hortensius after that first feeling of anger had soon recovered
+his serenity. He tried to put an expression of sad reproach into the
+glance which he fixed on the Augusta. Perhaps she had not meant to
+rebuke him and was already sorry that she had wounded him. He would have
+liked to put into his glance all that he felt in his heart for her; deep
+down within him, below the overlaying crust of his ambition, there was
+real love for the beautiful girl who had it in her power to bestow on
+him all the gifts for which he craved.
+
+He firmly believed that the Augusta reciprocated his love. She had
+always received his admiration more patiently than that of others, she
+had more than once listened quietly to the protestations of his love.
+Yesterday he had risked his life to win her hand: she, a proud Roman
+lady, was not like to forget his valour. When from the arena he had
+caught sight of her face, it was terror-stricken and deathly pale; she
+had feared for him then, of that he was quite sure.
+
+The horrible death which he had faced had given him the first claim to
+her favours in the sight of his friends. They had rallied willingly
+round him and had tacitly recognised him as their leader. Now it seemed
+as if Jove himself, with the help of his thunders, had ranged himself on
+his side.
+
+He saw the glow of enthusiasm rise to Dea Flavia's face, suffusing her
+eyes, her lips, her throat. He believed that that glow had been partly
+kindled by his glance, and was too much blinded by his own ambition and
+his own desires to note that the young girl's averted gaze was
+persistently fixed upon the door of the inner room.
+
+Dea Flavia, of a truth, had little thought of my lord Hortensius
+Martius, of his ambition or of his love; she could not tear her eyes
+away from the spot beyond the stuccoed walls where lay a man--helpless
+now--but a man whose every deed proclaimed him the born ruler of men.
+
+Then, as those around her were silent, hanging expectant upon her lips,
+she forced her thoughts back to them and to all that they had said.
+
+"What would ye have me do, my lords?" she murmured.
+
+"Make thy choice, O Augusta!" urged Caius Nepos eagerly. "Choose thy
+lord and master from among those who are ready to acclaim thy choice as
+final. The praetorian guard is prepared I tell thee. The mad Caesar
+yesterday paved the way for our success. Choose thy husband, Augusta,
+and the praetorian guard will forthwith proclaim him as the greatest and
+best of Caesars, princeps, imperator, the father of his armies. The
+people will go wild with joy and will deify thee and thy lord."
+
+"But the Caesar ... my kinsman...?"
+
+"He will end his days in contentment and in peace," said Ancyrus, the
+elder, dryly, "in a villa on the island of Capraea. No harm shall come to
+him. We here present do pledge thee our oath."
+
+"But I must have time to think," she said earnestly; "'tis no small
+matter ye ask of me, my lords. I am but a woman and still young in
+years, and ye ask me to weigh the destinies of this mighty Empire in the
+balance of mine own desires."
+
+"We would not ask it of thee, O Augusta! were thou an ordinary mortal,"
+said Hortensius Martius, speaking with passionate warmth, "but thou art
+a goddess; the blood of great Augustus doth deify thee."
+
+"A goddess? I?" she retorted coldly; "nay! I am but a lonely woman who
+hath need of counsel to guide her in this supreme moment of her life."
+
+"Are we not here to guide thee?" came in dulcet tones from Ancyrus, the
+elder; "we, thy faithful servants, thy obedient slaves? Have we not
+spoken and counselled thee?"
+
+"Aye! you have spoken, my lords, and I have read the thoughts that lie
+behind your words. 'Tis not loyalty to dead Augustus that alone led your
+footsteps to my door."
+
+"Our love for thee," interposed Hortensius Martius softly.
+
+"And your own aims that you would follow, your own ambitions that you
+would feed."
+
+Then as hot words of protest rose to the lips of most, she put up her
+hand and added with quiet dignity:
+
+"Nay, my lords, 'tis but human to be ambitious, and Rome herself is
+great because she is ambitious. But I, for myself alone, have no
+ambition. The proud title which ye would offer me holds no allurement to
+my tastes. But if the gods will so guide my choice that a just and brave
+man shall bear the sceptre of imperial Augustus, then will I thank them
+on my knees that I was made a medium for their will."
+
+Hortensius Martius, convinced that her eyes had rested on him while she
+spoke, made an effort to disguise the look of triumph that shone from
+out his glance. But young Escanes, in whom all hope had not yet died,
+was under the same impression, as also was my lord Philippus Decius;
+for, in truth, Dea Flavia had looked round on them all marvelling how
+any of them could compare with the man who already, in her heart, was
+the chosen lord of Rome.
+
+"And now, my lords," she said, paying no further heed to the sighs of
+restless desires that rose up round her as she spoke, "I pray you ask no
+more of me. I must think and I must pray. I entreat you not to urge a
+decision on me until I have thought and prayed."
+
+"Time is precious, Augusta," urged Caius Nepos feebly, "and the people
+will not wait."
+
+"The people have fled from before the storm," she rejoined, "and their
+will, remember, my lords, may not be in accordance with yours."
+
+"They call for the praefect of Rome and the praefect is dead. We must
+be ready to acclaim a Caesar who will be equally to their choice."
+
+"Then," she said, "when to-morrow the third hour of the day is called, I
+pray you, my lords, come back to me for mine answer. But I must have
+until to-morrow to ponder and to pray. An you must press me now," she
+added decisively, seeing that protestations were again hanging on their
+lips, "then must my answer be 'No!' to all your demands."
+
+Though in her heart she had already weighed all that she meant to do,
+yet she would not give her decision without speaking first to the man
+who already was the elect of her choice. He was sick now, lying in the
+arms of sleep. In a few hours probably he would be refreshed, and it
+would indeed be a mighty Caesar whom she would proclaim on the morrow
+before the people of Rome.
+
+"The people will not wait till to-morrow, Augusta," urged Ancyrus, the
+elder, "canst tell a raging tempest to pause or a thunderstorm to bide
+thy time? They are quiet for the nonce but in an hour they will again
+invade the imperial hill. Thy house will not be safe."
+
+"Then must ye put a check upon the people as best ye can, my lords; I
+cannot make my choice at this hour," she said determinedly, "if ye
+cannot wait and if ye fear the people, then must you make your plans
+without my help."
+
+They consulted with one another in whispers. The Augusta was obdurate
+and without her they did not care to act. Her personality was alone
+powerful enough at this crisis to satisfy the people, and she alone
+could stand for the success of their intrigues against the people's loud
+demands for the praefect of Rome.
+
+Betwixt two dangers the plotters chose the lesser one. If the populace
+got once more out of hand they would, whilst invading the palaces, find
+the Caesar and no doubt murder him. That act of vengeance once
+accomplished they would probably calm down for a while. They would
+expend their strength in clamouring for the praefect of Rome, but the
+praefect of Rome was certainly dead, else he would have appeared ere
+this. The darkness of the night would perforce put a stop to all
+street-rioting; under its cover the praetorian praefect could easily
+rejoin the guard, and by the third hour of to-morrow, everything would
+be prepared for the proclamation of the newly chosen Caesar.
+
+Not one of these conspirators had any doubt as to who that Caesar would
+be. Chosen from among their ranks, he would be compelled to reward
+richly those who had placed him on the throne.
+
+Dea Flavia waited quietly while these hurried consultations were going
+on. Now that she saw that her wishes had prevailed, she once more became
+gracious and kind.
+
+With a sign of the head and a smile that contained a promise she
+intimated to them that they were dismissed.
+
+"I beg of you, my lords," she said, "to look upon my house as your own
+until the morrow. My slaves will offer you food and drink, and prepare
+you baths to refresh you, and sleeping-chambers for the night. To-morrow
+you will have mine answer. May the gods protect ye until then, my
+lords."
+
+She touched a small gong summoning Dion and Nolus back into her
+presence. To them she entrusted the task of seeing to the needs of these
+great lords and of watching over their comforts.
+
+It would have been churlish and inexpedient after this to insist on
+further conversation. Moreover the presence of the slaves put a check on
+privacy. It was better on the whole to obey. These sybarites too were
+not averse to the thought of a rich table and of merry-making in the
+Augusta's house until the morrow. Her cooks were noted for their skill
+and hers were the richest cellars in Rome.
+
+Caius Nepos, Ancyrus, the elder, and the others all walked out of Dea
+Flavia's presence backwards and with spine bent at an obsequious angle.
+
+Hortensius Martius was the last to leave. He knelt on the floor, and
+taking the edge of her tunic between his fingers he touched it
+reverently with his lips. She looked down on him, not unkindly. Had he
+but known that his greatest claim on her graciousness was that his life
+had been saved by another, he would not have worn that look of triumph
+as he finally followed the others out of the room.
+
+"She hath made her choice, my lord," said Caius Nepos amiably, taking
+the younger man by the arm, "a woman was not like to reject such
+brilliant proposals."
+
+"I will ask for the praefecture of Rome," murmured Ancyrus, the elder,
+complacently.
+
+My lord Hortensius Martius said nothing, but he disengaged his arm from
+his too familiar friend and walked ahead of all the others, squaring his
+shoulders and holding his head erect, as one already marked out to rule
+over the rest of mankind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+"Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way...."--ST. MATTHEW VII. 14.
+
+
+In the studio, upon the throne-like chair of carved citrus wood and
+heavy crimson silk, Dea Flavia sat silent and alone.
+
+The footsteps of the men quickly died away on the marble floors of the
+atrium, their harsh voices and loud laughter only reached this secluded
+spot as a faint, intangible echo.
+
+The patter of the rain from above into the impluvium was soothing in its
+insistent monotony, only from time to time Jove, still angered, sent his
+thunders rolling through the heavy clouds and his lightnings rending the
+lurid sky.
+
+The people of Rome, wrathful against the Caesar, vaguely demanding
+vengeance for wrongs unstated, had not gone to rest. Like the gale a
+while ago they had merely drawn back in their fury, quiescent for a
+while, but losing neither strength nor temerity. Dull cries still
+resounded from afar. "Death to the Caesar!" was still the rallying cry,
+though it came now subdued by distance, and the majestic screens of
+stately temples interposed between it and the towering heights of
+imperial Palatine.
+
+Dea Flavia at first--her musings one wild tangle of hopes, fears and
+joys--did only vaguely listen for each recurrent cry as it came; and
+thus, listening and watching, her ears became doubly sensitive and
+acute, and caught the words more distinctly as they rolled on the
+currents of the wind that blew them upwards from the arcades of the
+Forum.
+
+"Death to the Caesar!" That cry was always clear, and with it came, like
+a complement or a corollary, the name of the praefect of Rome.
+
+"Hail Taurus Antinor Caesar! Hail!"
+
+The cry filled Dea Flavia's veins as with living fire. She longed to run
+out into the streets now, at this moment, with the rain beating about
+her and the storm raging overhead, and to call to the people to come
+into her house, in their thousands and tens of thousands, and here to
+fall down and worship the mighty hero who would rule over them all.
+
+The people clamoured for him, and because of these clamours an almighty
+love for the people of Rome filled the heart of the Augusta. She saw now
+just what the imperium should be, just how supreme power should sit upon
+a man. And she loved the people because the people saw it too. They
+clamoured for the one man who would fulfil every ideal of Caesarship and
+of might.
+
+Valour yesterday, the sublimity of self-sacrifice, had appealed to them
+with irresistible force, even though they did not understand the force
+that had set these great virtues in motion. The hero of yesterday should
+be the chosen of to-day, the god of to-morrow; let the brutish Caesar be
+swept from before his path.
+
+The people clamoured, and did they see the praefect of Rome standing
+virile and powerful before them, they would fall on their knees and
+acclaim him princeps, imperator, greater than great Augustus himself.
+
+And in this very house, but a few steps from where Dea sat musing, were
+the men, the patricians who were ready to accept the decision of the
+people, who were all-powerful to make the legions acknowledge the new
+Caesar, and ready to set the seal of official acceptance to the wild
+desires of the plebs.
+
+The patriciate of Rome had combined with the people to place its
+destinies in Dea Flavia's hands. The Caesar's insane pronouncement in the
+Circus yesterday had confirmed the wishes of the conspirators. All
+envies and jealousies would best be set at rest if the kinswoman of
+great Augustus chose the future Caesar, and secured the inheritance of
+the great Emperor for his descendants later on.
+
+And now there was but her choice to be made, and the imperium would
+descend on the noblest head that had ever worn a crown. Dea Flavia felt
+the hot blood rush to her cheeks at thought that the choice did rest
+with her, that the man who was so proud, so self-absorbed, so
+self-willed but a few days ago in the Forum, would receive supreme gifts
+through her; that he would be the recipient and she, like the goddess
+holding riches, power, honour in her hands; that she would shower them
+on him while he knelt--a suppliant first, then a grateful worshipper--at
+her feet.
+
+Ambitious? He must be ambitious! Ambition was the supreme virtue of the
+Roman patrician! And she had it in her power to satisfy the wildest
+cravings of ambition in the one man above all men whom she felt was
+worthy of the gifts.
+
+Those were the first thoughts that merged themselves into a coherent
+whole in Dea Flavia's head after Caius Nepos and the others had bowed
+themselves from out her presence, and there was her sense of the power
+of giving, that sense so dear to a woman's heart. As to the thought of
+love--of the marriage which this same choice of hers would entail--of
+that greatest gift of all--herself--which by her choice she would
+promise him--that thought did not even begin to enter her head. She was
+so much a girl still--hardly yet a woman--she had thought so little
+hitherto, felt so little, lived so little; a semi-deified Augusta,
+surrounded by obsequious slaves and sycophantic hangers-on, she had
+existed in her proud way, aloof from the bent backs that surrounded
+her--loyal to the Caesar, loyal to herself and to her House--but she had
+not lived.
+
+There had never been a desire within her that had not been gratified or
+that had grown delicious and intense through being thwarted; she had
+never suffered, never hoped, never feared. The world was there as a
+plaything; she had seen masks but never faces, she had never looked into
+a human heart or witnessed human sorrow or joy.
+
+Looking back upon her life, Dea Flavia saw how senseless, how soulless
+it had been. Her soul awakened that day in the Forum when first a real,
+living man was revealed to her; not a puppet, not a mealy-mouthed
+sycophant, not a tortuous self-seeker, just a man with a heart, a will,
+a temperament and strange memories of things seen of which he had told
+her, though he saw that he angered her.
+
+Since then she had begun to live, to realise that men lived, thought and
+felt, that they had other desires but those of pleasing the Caesar or
+winning his good graces. She had seen a man offering his life to save
+another's, she had seen him clinging to a strange symbol which seemed to
+bring peace to his heart.
+
+That man she honoured and on him would rest her choice, and he would be
+exalted above everyone on earth because she believed him to be loyal and
+just, and knew him to be brave. Her own heart--still in its infancy--had
+not realised that her choice would rest on that man, not because of his
+virtues, not because of his courage and his power, but for the simple,
+sublime, womanly reason that he was the man whom she loved.
+
+And as she sat there, musing and still, with her eyes almost
+involuntarily drawn toward the oaken door of the inner room, she saw it
+slowly swinging out upon its hinges, she heard the swishing of the heavy
+curtain behind it, and the next moment she saw the praefect of Rome
+standing on the threshold.
+
+He looked sick and wan, but strangely tall and splendid in the barbaric
+pomp of the gorgeous robe which he had worn yesterday. Dion had cleaned
+it of blood and dust, and it still looked crumpled and stained, but as
+he came forward the purple and gold gleamed against the stuccoed walls
+of the studio, and his tawny hair and sun-tanned face looked dark in the
+subdued light.
+
+She could see plainly through the robe the line of bandages which bound
+his lacerated shoulders, and her heart was filled with pity for all that
+he had suffered, and with pride at thought of all the joys that would
+come to him through her.
+
+As he came nearer to her, he bent the knee.
+
+"I crave leave to kiss thy feet," he said, "for thy graciousness to me."
+
+"Thou art well, O Taurus Antinor?" she asked timidly; "thy wounds...."
+
+"Are healed, O gracious lady," he broke in gently, whilst a smile lit up
+his dark face, "since thy lips did deign to ask after them."
+
+"It was presumptuous of me to bring thee here," she said after a while.
+"I feared that thou wast dead, and the Caesar...."
+
+"Would have defiled my body. Then would I kiss the ground where the hem
+of thy gown did touch it, for thy graciousness hath made it sacred."
+
+"I pray thee rise," she said, "thou art weak."
+
+"May I not kneel?"
+
+"Not to me."
+
+"Not to thee, but before thee, Augusta; before thy beauty and thy
+purity, the exquisite creations of God."
+
+"Of thy God, O Taurus Antinor," she said with a little sigh. "He hath
+naught to do with me."
+
+"He made thee for man's delight, to gladden the heart of those on whom
+thy glance doth rest."
+
+She had ordered him to sit on a pile of cushions which lay not far from
+her chair. Thus was he almost at her feet, and she could look down upon
+his massive shoulders and on his head bent slightly forward as he spoke.
+
+She thought then how like unto a ruler of men he was, how much strength
+and power did his whole person express. She wondered, with a happy
+little feeling of anticipation, how he would take the news which she
+would impart to him, what he would say, how he would look when he knew
+that she was prepared to crown him with the diadem of Augustus, and to
+bestow on him the full gifts of her love.
+
+Time was precious, and the next few moments would satisfy her
+wonderment. She longed to see the fire of ambition light up his earnest
+face: the glow of love smouldering in his eyes would render their glance
+exquisitely sweet.
+
+But for the moment she would have liked to put the more serious issues
+off for a while, she would have liked to sit here for many hours to
+come, with him close by at her feet, her ears pleasantly tickled by his
+gentle words of bold admiration yet profound respect. Had he not said
+that she was made to gladden the heart of those on whom her glance did
+rest? And a sense of sadness had crept into her heart as he thus spoke,
+for memory had conjured up before her mind the miseries which had
+followed in her wake these few days past.
+
+"I have brought naught but misery," she said with a sigh, "to those whom
+I would bless."
+
+"Joy to me, Augusta," he rejoined earnestly, "since the day I first
+beheld thee."
+
+"Menecreta is dead," she whispered; "dost remember?"
+
+"I remember."
+
+She paused a while, then said abruptly:
+
+"And the Caesar is a fugitive."
+
+"Heavens above!" he exclaimed, and the whole expression of his face
+changed suddenly; "a fugitive?... when?... where...?"
+
+"The people are wrathful against him," she said; "they surrounded his
+palace, and even...."
+
+The words died on her lips. The shout of "Death to the Caesar! Death!"
+had come distinctly from afar. He jumped to his feet, and she saw that
+his face now looked careworn and anxious.
+
+"Where is the Caesar?" he asked hurriedly.
+
+"He is a fugitive, I tell thee. The rabble fired his palace to force him
+to come out of it and face them. But he ran away through the secret
+passage which leads through the house of Germanicus to mine."
+
+"He is here then?"
+
+"No! He grovelled at my feet and begged me to hide him ... here ... in
+my private chamber where he thought he would be safe ... but I would not
+let him come for I thought thee helpless in thy bed, and feared that he
+would kill thee."
+
+"Great God!"
+
+"Nay! why shouldst thou call to thy god on behalf of a tyrant and a
+coward," she said excitedly; "thou shouldst have seen that man cowering
+at my feet like a beaten dog. I could have spurned him with my foot, as
+I would a cur."
+
+"The Caesar, Augusta, the Caesar!"
+
+"Aye!" she rejoined firmly, "the Caesar, my kinsman! Were he not that, I
+would have rushed to my door and called to the people, and would have
+handed over unto them that miserable bundle of rags which stood for the
+majesty of Caesar!"
+
+"And I lay a helpless log," he rejoined bitterly, "while the destinies
+of Rome lay in thy hands."
+
+"Aye! The destinies of Rome," she said proudly, whilst a glow of intense
+excitement filled her whole personality, "but not in my hands, O
+praefect, but in thine!"
+
+"In mine?"
+
+She rose and went up to him and placed her white fingers upon his arm.
+
+"Listen!" she said.
+
+She held up her other hand and thus stood beside him with slender neck
+stretched slightly forward, her lips parted, a look of intentness
+expressed in the whole of her exquisite face.
+
+"Dost hear?" she whispered.
+
+Obedient to her will he listened too. The cry of "Death to the Caesar!"
+monotonous and weird, seemed to strike him with horror, for his wan
+cheeks assumed a yet paler hue and his lips murmured words which,
+however, she could not understand. Then suddenly the cry was followed by
+another--indistinct at first, yet gaining in clearness as it rose on the
+waves of the storm from the Forum below.
+
+"The praefect of Rome! Where is the praefect of Rome? Hail Taurus
+Antinor Caesar! Hail!"
+
+"Hark!" she said triumphantly, "dost hear? The people call to thee!
+They are ready to deify thee. They call for thee, dost hear them, O
+praefect?"
+
+But though she turned her eager, questioning gaze on him, though
+excitement and enthusiasm seemed to emanate from her from every pore,
+the look of horror only deepened on his face and the whispered prayer
+did not cease to tremble on his lips.
+
+"Dost hear them?" she reiterated once more.
+
+He was looking on her now, and gradually horror faded from his eyes and
+pallor from his cheeks. A wave of tenderness seemed to pass right over
+his face, making the harsh lines seem marvellously soft.
+
+"I hear thy voice," he murmured, "soft as the breath of spring among the
+leaves of roses."
+
+"The people call for thee."
+
+"And thy hand is on my arm and I feel the magic of thy touch."
+
+She stood there quite close to him, tall and slender like those lilies
+which--ever since he first beheld her--had so sweetly reminded him of
+her. Her simple grey tunic fell in straight folds from her shoulders,
+not a single jewel adorned her hands or neck, only her hair, in heavy
+plaits, made a crown of gold above her brow.
+
+Never had she seemed to him so beautiful as now, for never had she
+seemed so womanly and yet so young. Her soul--rising triumphant from its
+trammels of high rank and artificial living--emerged god-like, opening
+out to the advent of love, welcoming it as it came, enfolding it in its
+own ardour and in its purity. With this man's presence near her, with
+her hand upon his arm, she had suddenly understood. Ambition, power,
+dominion of the world had vanished from her thoughts.
+
+She had found love, knew love, felt its empire and its yoke, and the
+vista which that knowledge opened up before her was more wonderful than
+she could ever have dreamed of before.
+
+Her cheeks were glowing with enthusiasm, her lips were parted and her
+eyes were of a vivid, translucent blue, with the pupils like brilliant
+sardonyx, full of dark and mysterious lights. She was ready to meet love
+with a surfeit of the rich gifts which she had at her command.
+
+"The people call to thee, Taurus Antinor," she reiterated eagerly; "they
+want a man to lead them. They are tired of tyranny, of bloodshed and of
+idleness. They want to live! Therefore they call to thee. Two hundred
+thousand hearts were opened to thee yesterday in the Amphitheatre! Two
+hundred thousand tongues acclaimed thee even as in thine arms thou didst
+hold my lord Hortensius Martius and didst bear him into safety. The
+people have need of thee, and are ready to follow thee whithersoever
+thou wouldst lead them. They are miserable and oppressed, they want
+justice! They are starving and want bread. Their fate is in thy keeping
+for thou wouldst give them justice, and thou wouldst feed the poor and
+clothe the needy. All this morning did I hear the moans of the
+down-trodden, the wretched and the weak, and felt that Rome could only
+find happiness now through thee."
+
+"And the Caesar?" he said. "Where is the Caesar?"
+
+"He hath fled like a coward. Let him be forgotten even whilst the people
+proclaim thee the Caesar and a new era of happiness doth rise over Rome."
+
+Then as he made no reply she continued more hurriedly, more insistently:
+
+"There are those here in my house now who would be the first to acclaim
+thee as the Caesar. The praetorian guard, fired by thy valour yesterday,
+sickened by the cowardice of Caligula, is ready to follow in their wake,
+whilst mine will be the joy of calling unto the whole city of Rome:
+'Citizens, behold your Caesar! He is here!'"
+
+She would not tell him that the imperium should come to him only through
+her hands; a strange reticence seemed to choke these words in her
+throat. Anon he would know. Caius Nepos and the others would tell him,
+but it was so sweet to give so much and--as the giver--to remain
+unknown.
+
+She made a quick movement now, half withdrawing her hand from his arm,
+but his firm grasp closed swiftly over it.
+
+"No, no," he said, "take not thy touch from off my soul lest I sink into
+an abyss of degradation."
+
+He kept her slender fingers rivetted against his arm, and she looked up
+at him a little frightened, for his words sounded strange and there was
+a wild look in his eyes. She remembered suddenly that he was sick and
+that a brief while ago fever had fired his brain. All her womanly
+tenderness surged up at sight of his drawn face.
+
+"Thou art ill!" she said gently.
+
+He fell on his knees, and still holding her hand he rested his forehead
+against the cool white fingers.
+
+"I am dying," he said softly, "for love of thee."
+
+There was silence in the room now whilst she stood quite still, like a
+grey bird in its nest. She was looking down on him and his head was
+bowed upon her hands.
+
+A weird, ruddy light penetrated into the studio from above and the sound
+of the pattering rain awoke a soft, murmuring echo on the white walls.
+The noise of strife and rebellion, though distant, still filled the air
+around, but here, in this room, there was infinite quietude and peace.
+
+Dea Flavia felt supremely happy. Love had come to her in its most
+exquisite plenitude; the man whom she honoured, loved her and she loved
+him. It seemed as if she had slept for thousands and thousands of years
+and had just woke up to see how beautiful was the world.
+
+"Love is not death," she murmured gently. "It is life."
+
+"Death to me," he whispered, "for I have seen thy beauty and felt thee
+near unto my soul. And when I no longer may look upon thee mine eyes
+will become blind with the infinity of their longing, and when I no
+longer can feel thy touch, my heart will become as a stone."
+
+A quick blush rose to her cheeks.
+
+"That time shall never come, Taurus Antinor," she said so softly that
+her words hardly reached his ears. "Have I not told thee that there are
+those in my house who are ready to acclaim thee as the Caesar?... acting
+upon my kinsman's own pronouncement yesterday ... they have come to me
+... to beg me to make the choice which will place the imperium in the
+hands of the man most worthy to wield it.... My choice is made, O
+praefect!... Look into mine eyes, my dear lord, and read what they
+express."
+
+He looked up just as she bade him, and as he did so there fell on him
+from her blue eyes such a look of love, that with a wild cry of
+passionate joy he stretched out his arms and closed them around her.
+
+"Love is not death, dear lord," she murmured, even as the tears gathered
+in her eyes and made them shine like stars.
+
+The moment was too supreme for words. Even the whisper, "I love thee!"
+died upon their lips. He held her close to him, her dear head resting on
+his shoulder, his hand upon her cheek, the perfume of her loveliness
+mounting to his nostrils and making his senses reel with its exquisite
+fragrance.
+
+This one great moment was love's, and it was love's alone. Each had
+forgotten strife, rebellion, ambition, the fugitive Caesar and the
+murmuring people. Each only remembered the other and the perfect flavour
+of that first lingering kiss.
+
+Whatever life held for them hereafter, glory or shame, joy or regret,
+this moment remained unspoiled, perfect in its esctasy, the world but a
+dream, love the only reality.
+
+Overhead the thunder rolled at intervals, dull and distant now, with
+occasional flashes of vivid lightning which lit up Dea's golden hair and
+the round, bare shoulder which emerged above the tunic. Her face was in
+shadow; she lay against his heart like a young bird that has found its
+nest.
+
+Then he awoke from this ecstasy.
+
+"The Caesar?" he said wildly, "where is the Caesar?"
+
+"Near me now, dear Lord," she murmured looking up at him with a smile;
+"my head is on his shoulder and I can hear the beating of his heart."
+
+"The Caesar, Augusta," he said more insistently, and now he held her away
+from him, her two hands still in his and held against his breast, but
+she at an arm's length from him.
+
+"Augusta," he reiterated, "I implore thee! Where is the Caesar?"
+
+"Hid in the Palace of Augustus, whining like a coward for his vanished
+power.... Forget him, my dear lord ... he is not worthy of thy
+thoughts.... Whither art going?" she added suddenly, for with gentle
+force he had disengaged his hands from hers and had turned toward the
+door.
+
+"To the Caesar, dear heart," he said simply; "an he is a fugitive he hath
+need of friends: an he is afraid, he hath need of courage."
+
+"Thou'lt not go to him, dear lord," she exclaimed indignantly, and her
+hands, strong and firm, fastened themselves on his arm. "A coward, I
+tell thee ... a madman ... a tyrant ..."
+
+"The Caesar, Augusta," he retorted; "deign to let me go to him."
+
+"Thou'rt mad, Taurus Antinor! Fever is in thy veins and doth cloud the
+clearness of thy brain.... Hast not heard the people? They vow vengeance
+on him.... 'Tis on thee they call ... thou art their chosen, their
+anointed; the people call to thee. It is thou whom they acclaim."
+
+"To-morrow," he said more gently, "they will have forgotten their
+disloyalty. To-morrow they will have forgotten me ... they will think me
+dead ... dead will I be to them to-morrow."
+
+"Nay! but to-day," she urged, "to-day is thine and mine.... The
+praetorian praefect is here and the others ... the choice rests with me
+and my choice is made.... Rome even now rings from end to end with thy
+name: 'Hail Taurus Antinor Caesar! Hail!' ... Hast no ambition?" she
+cried, for at her words he had remained cold and still.
+
+"None," he replied gently, "but so to help the Caesar, that he may gain
+the love of his people by acts of grace and mercy, and to see the wings
+of peace once more spread over the seven hills of Rome."
+
+With a firm yet exquisitely tender touch he took her clinging hands in
+his, forcing her to release her grip on his arm. On her trembling
+fingers then he pressed a burning, lingering kiss.
+
+"Thou art not going!" she cried.
+
+"To the Caesar, O my soul! He hath need of me! He has mine oath; my
+loyalty is his."
+
+"A madman and a tyrant. If thou goest to him he will kill thee!... his
+guard is with him ... he will kill thee!"
+
+"That is as God wills...!"
+
+"Thy god!" she retorted vehemently, "thy god! Doth he wish to part us?
+Is my love naught that he should wish thee to spurn it...?"
+
+"The value of thy love is infinite," he said earnestly and tenderly as,
+in perfect humility, he bent the knee for one moment before her and
+stooping to the very ground he kissed the tip of her sandal. "'Tis only
+on bended knees that such as I can render sufficient thanks to God and
+to thee for that holy, precious gift."
+
+She bent down to him and said with earnest solemnity:
+
+"Then I entreat thee, good my lord, in the name of that love go not to
+the Caesar now.... An he doth not kill thee ... an thou dost help to
+bring him back to power, he will use that power to part thee from me....
+Do not go from me now, dear lord--for if thou goest I know that it will
+be for ever.... The Caesar hates thee now as much as he loved thee before
+... his hatred is as insensate as his love.... He will kill thee or take
+thee from me.... In either case 'tis death, my good lord...."
+
+"'Twere death to betray the Caesar, O my soul!" he replied, still on his
+knees, his forehead bent low to the ground, "Death, a thousand times
+worse than a dagger's thrust ... a thousand times worse than parting."
+
+His voice was low and vibrant, and as his solemn words died away, they
+struck the murmuring echo that slumbered on the studio walls. And Dea
+Flavia was silent now: silent as he rose to his feet and stood before
+her with head slightly bent, silent, because borne on the subtle wing of
+that same dying echo there came to her the awful sense of unavoidable
+fate. She shuddered as if with cold, that sense of fatality seemed
+ready to spread over her soul like a pall.
+
+It was only the Roman blood in her, the blood of victorious Augustus
+which would not allow her to yield to the spectre ... not just yet ...
+not until the last battle had been fought--the last unconquerable weapon
+drawn.
+
+She waited in silence for a while, nor did she detain him by the
+slightest gesture although he once more made a movement as if to go,
+only her eyes rooted him to the spot even as she said very softly, her
+voice sounding full and mellow like the cooing of a dove.
+
+"My lord, I entreat thee but to grant me one moment longer, for of a
+truth there is much that my mind cannot grasp. Of thy god we will not
+speak. Whoever he be, as thou dost worship him, I will be content to
+worship by thy side. But that will come in the fullness of time. Dost
+love me, my dear lord?"
+
+"With every aspiration of my soul, with every beating of my heart, with
+every fibre of my body do I love thee," he said, and there was such
+intensity of passion in his voice, such a glowing ardour in the glance
+which seemed to envelop and embrace her whole person, that even she--the
+proud Augusta, the woman--exacting through the very magnitude of her
+love--was satisfied.
+
+"Then, dear lord, I entreat thee," she said, "for one brief moment only
+think of naught but of our love. Let me rest in thine arms but that one
+moment longer, and remember the while that with my love, the world
+conquered will lie at thy feet."
+
+She drew closer to him and once more lay against his breast. She was
+tender and clinging now, no longer the Augusta, the unapproachable
+princess but just a woman, loving and submissive, proud to give and
+proud to abdicate.
+
+To him this was the torturing moment. He knew what she desired and what
+weapons she could wield wherewith to subdue his will. The battle he
+fought with himself just then was but a precursor of the fiercer one
+which anon he would have to fight against her. The rending of his soul
+was expressed in every line of his face, which once more now looked
+haggard and harsh; Dea Flavia saw it all. She saw how he suffered,
+whilst with every passing second the inward struggle became more
+difficult and fierce; his breath came and went with feverish rapidity,
+the frown across his brow deepened visibly, and for a while his arms
+were rigid and his fists clenched, even though she clung to him, her
+frail body against his, her head upon his breast.
+
+"Wouldst lose the world and lose me?" she murmured. "The world is at thy
+feet, and I love thee."
+
+A moan escaped him as that of a wounded creature in pain; the rigidity
+of his arms relaxed and wildly now he was pressing her closer to him.
+
+"I love thee," he murmured, "I love thee. The world is well lost to me
+now that I have held thee in mine arms."
+
+"The world, dear lord," she whispered, "is not lost, rather is it won.
+My hand in thine, we'll make that world a happier and brighter one.
+Power is thine ... thou art the Caesar...."
+
+"Hush--sh--sh, idol of my soul! Do not speak of that ... not now ...
+when my arms are round thee and the whole world has vanished from my
+ken. Let me live in my dream just a brief moment longer; let me forget
+all save my love for thee. It hath burned my soul for an eternity
+meseems, for I have only lived since that hour when first I heard thy
+voice ... in the Forum ... dost remember?... when I knelt at thy feet
+and tied the strings of thy shoe."
+
+"I remember!"
+
+"And I loved thee from that hour. I loved thee for thy purity and
+because thou art exquisitely beautiful and I am a man thirsting for
+happiness. But God, who hath need of my soul, hath willed to break my
+heart so that I might remain pure and true to His service. It was so
+filled with thine image that even the glorious vision of His Passion
+became faint and dim. But with infinite pity He hath given thee to me
+just for this one brief, glorious hour that it might feed on the memory
+of thee, even whilst my feet trod the way that leads to the foot of His
+Cross."
+
+"There is but one way, dear lord," she exclaimed, "for thy footsteps to
+tread! Tis the way that leads to mine arms first and thence upwards to
+the temple of Jupiter Victor where stands the throne and rests the
+sceptre of Augustus."
+
+"The way of which I speak, dear heart," he rejoined earnestly, "also
+leads upwards, upwards to Calvary, on the uttermost summit of which
+stands a lonely, broken Cross. The wind and rains and snows of the past
+seven years have worked their will with it.... They tell me that one of
+its branches lies broken on the ground, that its stem is split from end
+to end. But it is there--there still, abandoned now and alone, but to
+eyes that can see, still bearing the imprint of the heavenly body that
+hung thereon for three hours in unspeakable agony so that men might know
+how to live--and might learn how to die."
+
+She said nothing for the moment. Her excitement had not left her, but
+her lips were mute because that which was in her heart was too great,
+too strange for words. She did not understand what he meant; she still
+thought that fever had clouded his brain; anon, she felt sure, sane
+reason would return and with it ambition, which became every man. But
+she did not understand that his love for her transcended all human love
+she ever wot of; it was great and noble and sublime as all that emanated
+from him, and, womanlike, she was content to let other matters shape
+themselves in accordance with the will of the gods.
+
+She looked into the face which in this brief period of time she had
+learnt to love, and tried to read that which to her was still hidden
+behind the earnest brow and the deep-set eyes. In them, indeed, did she
+read exultation, an ardour at least equal to her own, but an ardour for
+an object which she--the proud, exquisite pagan, the daughter of
+Augustus--wholly failed to comprehend. She had shown him the way to the
+imperium, to the diadem of Augustus, the sceptre of the Caesars, yet in
+his eyes, which were unfathomable and blue as the ocean that girt his
+own ancestral home of far away, there glowed neither the fire of
+ambition, nor the desire for supreme power. Only the fire of love for
+her and the serenity of infinite peace.
+
+"Dear lord," she said, "when the sceptre of Augustus is in thine hands
+thou canst wield it at thy pleasure. I know not the way of which thou
+speakest; the mountain of Calvary is unknown to me and thou speakest of
+things that are strange to mine ear.... But the gods have placed it
+within my power to make thee great above all men, the ruler of the
+mightiest Empire in the world, and on my knees do I thank them that they
+have shown me the way whereby I can guide thy footsteps even to the
+throne of Augustus."
+
+"And on my knees do I thank God, O my soul, that thou didst show me the
+way to the foot of His Cross. God himself, dear heart!--oh! thou'lt
+understand some day for thy soul is beautiful and prepared to receive
+just that one breath from Heaven which will show it the way to eternal
+life--God Himself, dear heart, who lived amongst us all a lowly, humble
+life of patience and of toil! God--think on it!--who might have come
+down to us in the fullness of His Majesty, Who might, had He so chosen,
+have wielded the sceptre of the world and worn every crown of every
+empire throughout the ages, but Whom I saw--aye, I, dear heart--saw with
+mine own eyes as He toiled, weary, footsore, anhungered, and athirst,
+that He might comfort the poor and bring radiance into the dwellings of
+the humble. And I who saw Him thus, I who heard His voice of gentleness
+and of peace, I to desire a crown and sceptre, to betray the Caesar and
+to mount a throne!!! Dear heart! dear heart! dost not understand that
+the sceptre would weigh like lead in my hands and the crown bow my head
+down with shame?"
+
+"Then would my whispered words lift the weight from thy brow and my kiss
+dissipate the blush of shame from thy cheeks. Day and night would go by
+in infinite happiness, thy head upon my breast, mine arms encircling thy
+neck. I am ignorant still, yet would I teach thee what love means and
+the sweet lesson learnt from me thou wouldst teach me in return."
+
+"And in mine ear the still, small voice would murmur: 'Thou hast seen
+the living face of thy God, didst break thine oath to Caesar! thou didst
+betray him in his need, even as the Iscariot betrayed his Lord with a
+kiss.'"
+
+"The voice of thy god," she retorted, "is no louder than that of the
+people of Rome, and the people proclaim thee the Caesar and have released
+thee of thine oath."
+
+"The voice of God," he said slowly, "spoke to me across the sandy wastes
+of Galilee and said unto me: 'Render unto Caesar the things that are
+Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's.'"
+
+His softly murmured words died away in the vastness around him. Dea
+Flavia made no response; a terrible ache was in her heart as if a cold,
+dead hand gripped its every string, whilst mocking laughter sounded in
+her ear.
+
+That cruel monster Finality grinned at her from across the room. Love
+was lying bleeding and fettered at the feet of some intangible,
+superhuman spectre which Dea Flavia dreaded because it was the Unknown.
+
+Taurus Antinor's eyes were fixed into vacancy, and she trembled because
+she could not see that which he saw. Was he looking on that very vision
+which he had conjured up, a cross, broken and tempest-tossed, a symbol
+of that power which to him was mightier than the Empire of Rome,
+mightier than the kingdom of her love?
+
+She remembered how, a few days ago, in this self-same room she had in
+thought accosted and defied that Galilean rebel who had died the
+ignominious death; she had defied him, even she, Dea Flavia Augusta of
+the imperial House of Caesar. She had offered him battle for this very
+man whose soul she now would fill with her own.
+
+She had defied the Galilean, vowed that she would conquer this heart and
+filch it from the allegiance it had sworn, vowed that she would make it
+Caesar's first and then her own, that she would break it and crush it
+first and then wrest it from its unknown God.
+
+And now it seemed as if that obscure Galilean rebel had conquered in the
+end. She had brought forth the whole armoury of her love, her beauty,
+her nearness, the ardour of youth and passion which emanated from her
+entire being, and the intangible Unknown had remained the victor, and
+she was left with that awful ache in her heart which was more bitter
+than death.
+
+"Have I thy leave to go, Augusta?" he asked gently at last, "the
+moments are precious. The Caesar hath need of me...."
+
+She woke as from a hideous dream. With a wild gesture of the arms she
+seemed to sweep away from before her those awful spectres that assailed
+her. Then she clung to him with the strength of oncoming despair.
+
+"No--no," she cried, "do not go ... he will kill thee, I say ... do not
+go...."
+
+"I must," he said firmly. "Dear heart, I entreat thee let me go."
+
+"No--no ... think but a moment ... think!... My love?... is it naught to
+thee?... Has my kiss left thee cold?... Do not leave me, dear lord ...
+do not leave me yet ... not just yet ... now that I know what happiness
+can mean. I have been so lonely all my life.... Love hath come to me at
+last ... love and happiness.... I am young--I want both.... Dear lord,
+if thou lovest me canst leave me desolate?..."
+
+"_If_ I love thee!"
+
+There was so much longing in the one brief phrase, such passion and such
+tenderness, that all her hopes revived. One more effort and she felt
+sure that she would conquer. Fever was in her veins now, the walls of
+the studio swam before her eyes; she fell on her knees for she could no
+longer stand, but her arms encircled him, clinging to him with all her
+might. Her face, lifted up to his, was swimming in tears, her golden
+hair escaping from its trammels fell in a glowing mass down her
+shoulders.
+
+"I love thee," she murmured, "canst leave me now, dear lord.... If thou
+goest now 'tis for ever ... think, oh think! just for one moment ... the
+Caesar restored to power will part me from thee ... even if anon in his
+madness he doth not kill thee. If thou goest 'tis for ever.... Think
+on it ... think on it ere thou goest.... My love ... my love, go not
+from me, and leave me desolate.... Dear lord, but think on it--of the
+kisses thou wilt taste from my lips--the ecstasies thou wilt find in my
+arms!... Thine am I--thine my heart that loves thee--my body that
+worships thee--my every thought is thine.... Go not from me ... not just
+now till thou hast felt once more the full savour of my love."
+
+Her arms round his knees, and she was exquisitely beautiful, exquisite
+in her whole-hearted love, her whole-hearted abnegation--she, a proud
+Roman lady kneeling at his feet, her full red lips asking for a kiss.
+
+He stood with his face buried in his hands.
+
+"Oh God! my God!" he murmured, "do not forsake me now!"
+
+The thunder crashed overhead while a human soul fought its desperate
+fight for truth and eternal life. A vivid flash of lightning lit up the
+white-washed walls of the studio, and to the poor fighting soul,
+tortured with temptation, with longing and with passion, there came in
+that swift bright flash a vision of long ago.
+
+The sky lurid and dark, the soil trembling beneath the feet of thousands
+of men and women, and there, far away, outlined against that sky, a
+figure stretched out upon a Cross. The head was bent in agony, the eyes
+half-closed, the lips livid and parted, the body broken with torments
+had the rigidity of death. But the arms were stretched out, straight and
+wide, as if with one last gesture of appeal and of longing, and in this
+storm-laden air there floated tender words, intangible and soft as a
+memory.
+
+"Come unto me, all ye that travail and are heavy laden, and I will
+refresh you."
+
+It was but a vision, swift as the lightning flash that conjured it and
+the words had already died on the stillness of the air.
+
+But the tortured soul had found its anchorage. Taurus Antinor's hands
+fell from before his face.
+
+"In Thy service, O Jesus of Galilee!" he said, and the mighty effort of
+subjection brought the perspiration to his brow and caused his limbs to
+tremble. "I saw Thine agony, Thy sacrifice; it should be so easy to do
+this for Thy sake. Give me the strength to render unto Caesar that which
+is Caesar's, and do Thou take from me all that is Thine."
+
+She heard his words, she saw the look and knew that she had failed.
+
+Back on the cruel wings of remembrance came the words of Menecreta the
+slave.
+
+"May thine every deed of mercy be turned to sorrow and to humiliation,
+thine every act of pity prove a curse to him who receives it, until thou
+on thy knees art left to sue for pity to a heart that knoweth it not,
+and findest a deaf ear turned unto thy cry!"
+
+And the curse of the broken-hearted mother seemed like the tangible
+response to the defiance which she, in her arrogance and her pride, had
+hurled against him who was called Jesus of Nazareth. She would have
+blessed Menecreta and Menecreta was dead; she would have given her life
+for the Caesar and the Caesar was a cowardly fugitive, and now on her
+knees she had sued for pity, and the heart which she had fought for to
+possess had turned from her as if it knew neither mercy nor love, and
+whilst her very soul had cried with longing she had found a deaf ear
+turned to her cry.
+
+That unknown Galilean who died upon the cross had been stronger than her
+love. It was he who was filching it from its allegiance, he who was
+brushing and crushing this heart ere he wrested it finally from her--Dea
+Flavia Augusta of the imperial House of Caesar!
+
+The Galilean had accepted her challenge and he had conquered, and she
+was naught in the heart of the one man she would have given her whole
+life to call her own.
+
+She gave a cry like a wounded bird, she jumped to her feet, and for one
+moment stood up, splendid, wrathful, pagan to the heart.
+
+"Curse thy god," she cried wildly, "curse him, I say, for a jealous,
+cruel god.... Go thy ways, O follower of the Galilean! go thy ways! and
+when lonely and wretched thy footsteps lead thee along that way which
+thou hast deified, then call on him, I say--thou'lt find him silent to
+thy prayer and deaf unto thy woe!"
+
+Her body swayed, an ashen pallor spread over her cheeks, she would have
+fallen backwards like a log had he not caught her in his arms.
+
+Reverently he carried her to the couch and there he laid her down,
+wrapping her grey shroud-like tunic closely round her feet.
+
+He bent over her and kissed her golden hair, each blue-veined lid closed
+in unconsciousness, the perfect lips pallid now and still.
+
+"In the name of Him Who died before mine eyes, take her in Thy keeping,
+O God!" he murmured fervently.
+
+Then without another glance on her, he fled precipitately from the
+room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+"Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be
+able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to
+stand."--EPHESIANS VI. 13.
+
+
+Without looking to right or left he strode across the atrium.
+
+"A cloak quickly," he commanded as Dion and Nolus, obedient and
+expectant of orders, rushed forward at his approach.
+
+From the triclinium on the right came the sound of loud laughter and the
+strains of a bibulous song, voices raised in gaiety and pleasure: Taurus
+Antinor recognised that of Caius Nepos, fluent and mellow, and that of
+my lord Hortensius Martius resonant and clear.
+
+To what their revelries meant he did not give a thought. Dea had told
+him why these men had come to her house. The intrigues hatched two days
+ago over a supper-table were finding their culmination now. The Caesar
+was a fugitive and the people rebellious: the golden opportunity lay
+ready to the hand of these treacherous self-seekers: and Dea Flavia was
+to be their tool, their puppet, until such time as they betrayed her in
+her turn into other hands that paid them higher wage.
+
+Taurus Antinor wrapped the dark cloak which Dion had brought him closely
+around his person. He gave the slaves a mute, peremptory sign of silence
+and then quickly walked past the janitors, through the vestibule and out
+into the open street.
+
+The midday light had yielded to early afternoon. It still was grey and
+lurid, with a leaden mist hanging over the distance and moisture rising
+up from the rain-sodden ground. The worst of the storm had passed from
+over the city, but the thunder still rolled dully at intervals above the
+Campania and great gusts of wind drove the heavy rain into Taurus
+Antinor's face.
+
+It seemed to him, as he walked rapidly down the narrow street in front
+of the Augusta's palace, that the noise from the Forum below had gained
+in volume and in strength. When the raging tempest of rebellion was at
+its height earlier in the day, he had lain in a drugged sleep,
+unconscious of the shouts, the threats, the groans which had resounded
+from palace to palace on the very summit of the Palatine. When he awoke
+these terrifying sounds were already more subdued. The people had been
+driven by the storm-fanned conflagration which they themselves had
+kindled, to seek shelter under the arcades of the tabernae in the Forum
+below. But now, after a couple of hours of enforced inactivity, they
+were ready once more for mischief: in compact groups of a dozen or so
+they were slowly emerging from beneath the shelters, and it only needed
+the amalgamation of these isolated groups for the fire of open
+insurrection to be ablaze again.
+
+Time, therefore, was obviously precious. At any moment now, if the rain
+ceased altogether, the populace--in no way cooled by the
+drenching--would once more storm the hill and would discover the
+fugitive Caesar in his retreat. Already from afar there came to the
+lonely pedestrian's ear the roar of a mighty wave composed of many
+sounds, which, gathering force and fury, was ready to dash itself anew
+upon the imperial hill.
+
+But up here on the summit there still reigned comparative quietude.
+True that as he walked rapidly along Taurus Antinor spied from time to
+time groups of excited, chattering men congregated at street corners or
+under the shelter of a jutting portico; whilst now and then from behind
+the huge piles of builders' materials, which littered this portion of
+the Palatine, darkly swathed figures would emerge at sound of the
+praefect's footsteps on the flagstones, and as quickly vanish again. But
+to these Taurus Antinor paid no heed; they were but the remote echoes of
+the angry storm below.
+
+Soon the majestic pile of Augustus' palace loomed before him on the
+left, with its unending vistas of marble and porphyry colonnades. On the
+right was the temple of Jupiter Victor on the very summit of the hill.
+
+An undefinable instinct led the man's footsteps to that lonely height.
+He skirted the temple and anon stood looking down on the panorama of
+Rome stretched out at his feet: the Palatine sloping downwards in a
+gentle gradient--covered with the dwellings of the rich patricians which
+formed here a network of intricate and narrow streets; below these the
+great Circus redolent of the memories of the past four-and-twenty hours;
+beyond it the Aventine and the winding ribbon of the Tiber now lost in a
+leaden-coloured haze.
+
+The streets from the valley upwards all round the hill were swarming
+with men, who from this distance looked like pygmies, fussy and
+irresponsible, spectral too in the rain-laden mist as they appeared to
+be running hither and thither in compact groups, but with seeming
+aimlessness, whilst shouting, always shouting, that perpetual call for
+vengeance and for death.
+
+The watcher looked down in silence, for that crowd of Pygmies was the
+people of Rome, who at a word from him would proclaim him Caesar and
+master of the world. The immensity of the sky was above him, the far
+horizon partly hidden in gloom, but down there were the people whose
+voice was raised to deify their chosen hero in the intervals of
+demanding the death of a tyrant.
+
+And the people were the lords of Rome just now. Entrenched in the narrow
+streets a crowd--one hundred thousand or more strong--held the imperial
+hill in a solid blockade. Down below, in and around the Circus, steel
+and bronze glittered in the distant vapours. One thousand men of the
+praetorian guard, cut off from the Caesar, had been unable to forge a way
+through the serried ranks of the populace.
+
+Dark masses--that lay immovable and stark in the open space around the
+Circus--spoke mutely of combats that had been fierce and bloody: but the
+people had remained victorious; the people held their ground. One
+hundred thousand fists and staves, a few agricultural and building
+implements had asserted their mastery over one thousand swords and
+shields.
+
+The people were the masters of Rome, and they had chosen their Caesar in
+the hero whom they had already deified.
+
+Taurus Antinor's gaze swept over the vista that lay stretched out before
+him: it pictured the entire political situation of the world-city. With
+treachery lurking on the hill and a determined mob in the valley, the
+murder of the Caesar was but a question of hours.
+
+And after that?
+
+After that the Empire of Rome and the dominion of the world for this man
+who stood here on the watch. He had but to say the word and that Empire
+would be his. He had but to go back now, to find his way with softly
+treading footsteps to the couch where Dea Flavia's exquisite body lay
+stretched out in semi-unconsciousness. He had but to take her once more
+in his arms, to murmur the words of love that--unspoken--seared his lips
+even now; he had but to close his ears to the still small voice that was
+God's, and Rome, the mistress of the world, and Dea Flavia, the peerless
+woman, would be his at the word.
+
+Rome and Dea Flavia! the two priceless guerdons of the earth! They
+called to him now on the wings of the distant storm, from over the hills
+and from across the grey, dull mist that obscured the sky.
+
+The man stretched out his arms with a gesture of passionate longing. How
+easy it were to take all! How impossible it seemed to give up everything
+that made life glorious and sweet.
+
+A voice low and insinuating trembled in the air.
+
+"Take all!" it said, "it is thine for the taking. Thine by the will of
+thousands, thine by the call of one pair of perfect lips ... Rome, the
+unconquered queen ... Dea Flavia holding in her white hands a cup
+brimming over with happiness ... all are thine at the word."
+
+The silent watcher cried out in his loneliness and his agony; he held
+his hands to his ears, for the voice grew more insidious and more real:
+
+"The Empire of the world and Dea Flavia ... and in the balance what?...
+an oath rendered to a tyrannical madman, the scourge and terror of
+mankind ... an oath which reason itself doth repudiate with scorn ...
+even thy God would not exact obedience from thee at such a price...."
+
+His head fell upon his breast and his knees bent to the earth. It was
+all so difficult ... it seemed well-nigh impossible now....
+
+No words escaped his lips; he knelt here silent and alone before the
+face of Rome that but waited to be conquered--before the face of God
+veiled to his gaze, and around him the distant roll of thunder and the
+confused shouts of the people from below.
+
+Christian! this is thine hour! In silence and in tears thou must make
+thy last stand against temptation greater mayhap than suffering manhood
+hath ever had to withstand alone.
+
+Everything in the man cried out to him to yield; his love for Dea and
+his love for Rome, and that pride of manhood in him that calls for power
+over other men. Born and bred in luxury-loving paganism, in the worship
+of might and the deification of the imperium, the Christian had to
+choose between the world and the Master. The battle was fierce and
+cruel. Gone now was the consciousness of strength, the dignity of the
+patrician! Here was but a lonely wretched human creature fighting the
+tempter for his own soul.
+
+He cowered on the ground, the while driving rain beat against the tawny
+masses of his hair, and lashed the proud stiff neck that found it so
+difficult to bend. The tearing wind searched the loosened folds of his
+mantle and the purple silk of his tunic, the emblem of patrician rank.
+His face was buried in his hands, heavy sobs shook his broad shoulders.
+The face of Dea Flavia, exquisitely fair, smiled at him through his
+closed lids, the warm, mellow masses of her hair entwined themselves
+around his tear-stained fingers, her cooing voice called to him with the
+ineffable sweetness of love.
+
+Christian, it is thine hour! and the battle must be fought out in
+anguish and in loneliness, with no one nigh thee to comfort and to
+succour, with no one to see the rending of thy soul or the slow breaking
+of thy love-filled heart.
+
+"When thou art lonely and wretched," Dea Flavia had cried in the agony
+of her wounded love, "call on thy god then and thou wilt find him silent
+unto thy prayer and deaf unto thy woe."
+
+And the cry was wrung out from the depths of the tortured heart: "Oh,
+God, my God, if Thou be willing take this cup from me!" whilst the man
+prayed to his God to take his soul into His keeping ere it became
+perjured and accursed.
+
+But God was silent, because the soul, though racked and tempted, was too
+great for the tasting of an easy victory. God was silent, but He saw the
+tears that fell heavy and hot upon the ground. He was silent, but He
+heard the cries of anguish, the bitter moans of pain.
+
+Christian, this is thine hour! for when thy soul and heart have suffered
+enough, when they have been weighed in the crucible of divine love and
+not been found wanting, then will the peace of God which passeth all
+understanding descend in exquisite comfort upon thee.
+
+Gradually the tears ceased to fall, the sobs to shake the massive frame
+of the kneeling man. His hands dropped from his face and his gaze went
+up to the storm-tossed firmament, there where land and sky merged in the
+grey mists of approaching evening.
+
+And on the horizon, as he gazed, beyond the valley, beyond the Aventine
+and the murmuring Tiber, already wrapped in gloom, a ray of golden light
+had rent the lowering clouds.
+
+It shone serene and bright, illumined from behind limitless depths by
+the slanting rays of a slowly sinking sun. Taurus Antinor rose to his
+feet; he looked and looked upon that light until it tore a wider and
+ever wider gap in the angry clouds, and its golden radiance spread
+right across the horizon far away.
+
+The very mist now seemed aglow; the waters of the Tiber, tossed by the
+gale, throw back brilliant sparks of reflected lights.
+
+From the low-lying marshes among the reeds two birds rose in rapid
+flight and disappeared in that golden haze.
+
+"My God, not mine but Thy will be done!" murmured the lonely man; and
+anguish folded its sable wings and the tortured heart was at peace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+"For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son
+whom He receiveth."--HEBREWS XII. 6.
+
+
+The gorgeous palace of Augustus appeared quite deserted when the
+praefect of Rome finally made his way to the vestibule. He crossed the
+magnificent inner peristylium, the tall, uncut pillars of which, sharply
+defined against the sky, enhanced its majestic grandeur and its air of
+mysterious solemnity.
+
+As a rule these vast halls were peopled with scribes, and though shorn
+of its original imperial splendours the palace of the great Emperor
+presented at times a certain air of animation and of official bustle.
+But now these scribes, no doubt awed by the sound of terror and of
+strife which must have reached even this hallowed spot, had fled into
+the more remote portions of the palace, or mayhap had even joined the
+throngs in the Forum, on the principle that 'tis better to form an unit
+in an angry crowd, rather than to be its butt.
+
+The peristylium itself, despite its mute and lonely magnificence, bore
+traces of the turmoil that reigned throughout the city; there were
+obvious signs that men had lived and worked here but a very little while
+ago, that they had been afraid and then had run away.
+
+The marble floors were stained with mud. The sedate chairs that usually
+lined the walls were pushed aside and left to stand crooked and awry,
+the very mockery of their former dignity. Here and there a roll of
+parchment, an ink-stained pen, a cast-off cloak littered the hall and
+looked curiously provocative and out of place--an insult to the majesty
+of the dead and mighty Caesar, who had caused the stately columns to be
+reared, and the massive walls to raise their pure lines upwards to the
+sky.
+
+But on all this Taurus Antinor did not pause to think. On his right he
+heard sounds which proclaimed the presence of men, and thither did he
+immediately turn his footsteps.
+
+Peering through the long vista of numberless columns, the further ones
+of which were merged together in the dim light, he saw that the score or
+so of the praetorian guard who had escorted the Caesar in his flight were
+assembled at the end of the gigantic hall, some lolling against the
+marble pillars, others lying or squatting on the hard floor, as much at
+their ease as circumstances would allow.
+
+They had not discarded their accoutrements and each man had his sword by
+his side. Not realising that the fury of the mob had been momentarily
+damped by the storm, they remained prepared to defend the Caesar's life
+at any moment with their own.
+
+More than one of them had apparently been wounded in one or other of the
+hand-to-hand combats which they had sustained against the mob earlier in
+the day, for more than one head was wrapped in a rough piece of bandage
+and more than one tunic was stained with blood. All the men looked
+fagged and dirty and for the most part worn out with sleeplessness and
+want of food.
+
+As the praefect's firm tread resounded from end to end of the colonnaded
+hall and woke the slumbering echoes of the deserted palace, weary,
+lack-lustre eyes were turned in his direction, and now when his tall
+figure appeared between two pillars the men recognised him, for his
+head was uncovered.
+
+One or two of them gave a cry of terror since all of them had thought
+that the praefect was dead, and this tall, dark presence, wrapped in a
+long cloak and with tawny hair still dripping from the rain, looked very
+like an apparition from another world.
+
+"The Caesar?" queried the praefect curtly.
+
+Some of the men struggled to their feet. The voice they knew well; it
+was as of old, loud and peremptory and not like to be coming from a
+grave. All did their best to assume a respectful bearing, and one who
+was in command made ready to show the praefect into the Caesar's
+presence.
+
+"I want no escort," said Taurus Antinor in that same commanding voice
+which no one in Rome had ever tried to resist. "Tell me only where I can
+find the Caesar."
+
+"In the lararium, O praefect," replied the soldier without hesitation.
+"He ordered us to remain here."
+
+Without looking to right or left Taurus Antinor walked past the soldiers
+into the gorgeous tablinium beyond, where great Augustus had been wont
+to administer justice. This vast hall was deserted, but from an inner
+room on the left there came to the praefect's ear a curious sound like
+the snarl of an angry feline creature, a sound which he knew could only
+come from one human throat. Without hesitation he turned to whence that
+sound had come. On the right of the huge semi-circular apse, which
+contained the now vacant throne of Augustus, a narrow door led to the
+small temple-like room which had once contained the great Emperor's
+household gods.
+
+A heavy curtain of embroidered silk masked this entrance. Taurus Antinor
+pushed it back and walked in.
+
+The temple derived its light solely from a small opening in the vaulted
+ceiling; that light which came down in a narrow shaft was grey and dull
+and failed to penetrate the dark and mysterious corners of the room.
+
+Taurus Antinor's eyes were narrowed beneath his frowning brows as he
+tried to pierce the gloom that lay beyond that shaft of light. He could
+hear heavy breathing proceeding from there and the muttering of curses,
+and anon he was able to spy a bundle of stained silken clothes that lay
+in a heap and which seemed to shrink and to shrivel, to tremble and to
+cower on the altar steps: a bundle of rags and a gleam of flaccid flesh
+which stood for the majesty of Caesar.
+
+All at once there was a raucous cry and a growl as of an animal enraged,
+and the next second something hot and heavy threw itself with violent
+force against the praefect, even whilst the sharp blade of a dagger
+caught a gleam of reflected light.
+
+But Taurus Antinor--well knowing the man whom he had come to help--was
+fully prepared for the treacherous attack. With a rapid movement he had
+made a shield of his mantle by winding it closely round his arm, and
+holding it before his face. The dagger glanced against the woollen
+material, rendered heavy and sodden with the rain, and Caligula,
+unnerved by the futile effort, staggered back against the altar steps
+while the dagger fell with a sharp sound upon the marble floor.
+
+"Traitor!" came in hoarse gasps from the Caesar's throat. "Hast come to
+murder me!"
+
+"Ho! there! My guard! My guard!"
+
+He was trying to shout, but terror was evidently choking him. He
+struggled to his feet, and still trembling from head to foot, made
+pitiable attempts to work his way round to a place of safety behind the
+altar, whilst keeping his bloodshot eyes fixed upon the praefect.
+
+"Hast come to murder me?" he gasped.
+
+"I came to place my body at thy service, O Caesar," replied Taurus
+Antinor quietly. "I have been sick for nigh on twenty-four hours, else I
+had come to thee before. They told me that thou wast cut off from those
+whose duty it is to guard thy person. An thou wilt grant me leave I'll
+conduct thee to them."
+
+"Aye! thou'rt ready enough to conduct me to my death, thou treacherous
+son of slaves," snarled the Caesar from behind the safe bastion of the
+stone altar. "I have learnt thy treachery, I, even I, who trusted thee.
+Thou didst lie to me and plan my death even whilst I heaped uncounted
+favours upon thee."
+
+"On my soul, O Caesar, thou dost me infinite wrong," rejoined the
+praefect calmly. "But, an it please thee, I am not here to justify
+myself before thee, though God knows I would wish thee to believe me
+true; rather am I here to serve thee, an thou wilt deign to accept my
+help in thy need."
+
+"To accept thy help. Nay! By Jupiter, I would as soon trust myself to
+the snakes that creep under the grasses of the Campania, as I would
+place my life in the keeping of a traitor."
+
+"Had I thought to betray thee, O Caesar," said Taurus Antinor simply, "I
+had not come unarmed and alone. Even the dagger wherewith thou didst
+threaten my life lies at my foot now, ready to my hand for the mere
+picking up of it."
+
+As he spoke he gave the dagger a slight kick with his foot, so that it
+slid clinking and rattling along the smooth floor, until its progress
+was stopped by the corner of the altar steps against which the Caesar
+cowered in abject fear. "My guard is in the next room," said Caligula
+with an evil sneer, "an I call but once and they will kill thee at my
+word."
+
+"That is as thou commandest and as God wills," said Taurus Antinor, "but
+remember ere thou strikest, O Caesar, that with my death thou wilt lose
+the one man who can save thee now."
+
+He spoke quite calmly nor did the tone of deference ever depart from his
+speech. He stood in the dim light which came in a straight shaft down
+through the opening above, his splendid person in full view of the Caesar
+who still crouched in the shadow. The power of his individuality imposed
+itself upon the miserable coward who threatened him. Caligula--tyrant
+and half crazy though he was--had sufficient shrewdness in his tortuous
+brain to recognise the truth of what the praefect had told him. Had this
+man come with evil intent he would not have come alone and unarmed: had
+he wished to gain his own ends, he would have had but to say a word and
+the mob had been ready to wreak its desired vengeance upon the Caesar.
+
+"The people of Rome," resumed Taurus Antinor after a while, seeing that
+Caligula was silent and more inclined to listen to him, "are angered
+against thee. Thou knowest, O Caesar! what the anger of the people
+portends. For the moment a violent storm has driven the malcontents away
+from the vicinity of thy palace. They are congregated under the arcades
+of the Forum and nurse there their thoughts of rancour and of revenge."
+
+"Until such time as my wrath overtakes them," broke in Caligula with one
+of his most evil oaths. "I am not dead yet, and whilst I live I'll not
+forget. Rome shall rue this day in blood and in tears. Vengeance and
+rancour, sayest thou?" and he drew in his breath with a moist, hissing
+sound like the snakes of the Campania of which he spoke just now.
+"Vengeance and rancour will overtake the rebels! _My_ vengeance and _my_
+rancour, beside which all others shall pale! Rome can wait, I say: the
+Caesar is not yet dead."
+
+The words fell choked and thick from his quivering lips, nor did Taurus
+Antinor attempt to interrupt him; but as the Caesar finished speaking,
+exhausted and breathing heavily, there was a moment's silence in the
+room, and through that silence could be heard quite distinctly the call
+of the people from the distance below.
+
+"Death to the Caesar! Death!"
+
+Caligula uttered a loud cry of rage and of fear and struggled to his
+feet. He staggered forward out of the darkness and into the light, his
+trembling arms outstretched, his sparse hair plastered against his moist
+forehead, his eyes, protruding and bloodshot, fixed upon the praefect.
+
+"They'll murder me," he cried, as he almost fell on his knees and only
+saved himself by clinging desperately with both hands to Taurus
+Antinor's outstretched arm. "They'll murder me! Save me, O praefect;
+save me! and I'll heap wealth upon thee--money, honours, power, all that
+thou dost desire! Save me! Do not let them murder me! I will not die....
+I will not! I will not!... Cowards! cowards! I am a defenceless man!...
+I will not die ... I cannot die.... Cowards!"
+
+Taurus Antinor had to brace himself up against the sickening sense of
+almost physical nausea that came over him at sight of this pitiful
+creature, more abject than any cur.
+
+Among the many moments of terrible doubt and still more terrible
+temptation through which he had fought to-day, this was perhaps the most
+intolerable because the worldly man in him cried out against the
+futility of his own sacrifice.
+
+To give up every hope of happiness, every aspiration for the welfare of
+an entire nation for the sake of this miserable coward, whose thoughts
+of self-preservation only alternated with those of maniacal tyranny,
+seemed indeed insensate mockery. Duty could not possibly lie in this.
+This base creature's worthless life surely could not be weighed in the
+balance against the countless others which--despite any promises that
+might be wrung from him now--he would inevitably sacrifice to his own
+lust for blood and for revenge.
+
+The worldly man, the thinking philosopher, the pagan in fact, faced
+these propositions and placed them before the Christian. But the time
+had gone by for mental conflict. The Christian had fought until his
+numbed soul had almost lost the power of suffering; all he knew now was
+that he must not reason, he must neither think nor philosophise. The
+Master whom he had seen with limbs stretched upon a Cross in unspeakable
+agony and humiliation, might also have overturned a Caesar and ruled the
+world from the heights of a throne. He chose to rule it from a place of
+infamy, and when His dying lips proclaimed to that same world the
+supreme finality of its salvation: "It is accomplished!" it was not to
+the sound of triumphal music, with banners flying and the spoils of
+conquest around, it was to the accompaniment of taunts and of derision
+and with body stripped naked before a jeering world.
+
+"I have offered thee my service, O Caesar," said Taurus Antinor with a
+mighty effort at deference and calm. "An thou wilt follow mine advice I
+can shield thee from the wrath of the people until such time as that
+which has occurred to-day, lies buried in the bosom of the past."
+
+"What must I do?... What must I do?" muttered Caligula between his
+chattering teeth. He was clinging to the praefect with both hands, for
+his knees were shaking under him and he would have fallen had he
+attempted to stand up alone. "Save me, praefect.... Save me.... Do not
+let them kill me.... I cannot die.... I will not ... and those cowards
+would murder me...."
+
+"Wilt trust thyself to me, O Caesar?"
+
+"Yes, yes, what must I do?"
+
+"Come forth with me into the streets. Wrapped in dark cloaks the people
+will not recognise us. They would never expect the Caesar to leave his
+palace while his life is in danger, and well disguised thou couldst come
+with me through devious ways to a house I know of on the Aventine where
+thou wouldst be safe."
+
+But at this suggestion that he should leave the security of this lonely
+palace for the open dangers of the streets, Caligula's terrors increased
+tenfold. His teeth chattered more loudly in his head, and his hands on
+the praefect's arm became convulsive in their grasp.
+
+"I dare not go, praefect," he stammered, and it had been pitiable were
+it not abject to see the look of insane terror which he cast around him.
+"I dare not go.... They would kill me if they saw me ... and I don't
+want to die...."
+
+"No one would recognise thee," said Taurus Antinor with ill-restrained
+patience, "dressed as scribes we can mingle with the fringe of the
+crowd. The shades of evening will be on us in an hour and our dark
+mantles will excite no attention. Have no fear, Caesar! no one would
+suspect thee of running in the teeth of danger."
+
+The tone of bitter irony was lost on the dulled perceptions of this
+miserable coward.
+
+"I would not dare," he murmured intermittently, "I would not dare."
+
+"Then do I take my leave of thee, O Caesar," retorted Taurus Antinor
+coldly. "For here alone, with but twenty men to guard thee, I can do
+naught to save thy person from outrage."
+
+"If I were quite sure that I could trust thee...."
+
+"That is for thee to decide. I have offered thee my services ... an
+thou'lt not accept them I crave thy leave to go."
+
+"No, no, do not leave me, praefect," cried Caligula with despair,
+clinging now with all his might to this arm, which every instinct in him
+told him was staunch in his defence. "Do not leave me ... I'll do as
+thou dost advise.... I'll don a slave's garb ... and slip out into the
+street in thy wake ... and ... after that...?"
+
+"Thou'lt find temporary shelter in an humble house on the Aventine.
+There thou canst rest for a few days even while thy legions, distant
+from here but three days' march, I believe, do approach the city."
+
+"Yes, yes! my legions," cried the Caesar in a hoarse whisper. "I had
+nigh forgotten them. They are not far ... if I could but reach
+them...."
+
+A sudden fire of malicious hatred once more lit up the dull misery of
+his face.
+
+"At the head of my legions I can soon show this miserable rabble who is
+the master of Rome."
+
+"At the head of thy legions, O Caesar," retorted Taurus Antinor firmly,
+"and preceded by a proclamation of universal pardon for all the events
+of the past few days, thou wilt make thine entry into Rome amidst the
+rejoicings of thy people."
+
+"Pardon!" hissed Caligula through set teeth. "Never!"
+
+"Yet is a proclamation of universal pardon necessary for thy safety,"
+said Taurus Antinor with solemn earnestness. "As soon as I have placed
+thee under the protection of that sheltering roof on the Aventine, I
+would return to Rome with thy proclamation, and with the news that in
+three days' time thou wouldst enter the city at the head of thy people.
+The people, frightened at first, would imagine that divine interference
+had led thee triumphantly out of danger, thy clemency would allay their
+fears and fire their enthusiasm; they would soon make ready to welcome
+thee with rejoicings. But without thy promise of pardon fear would gain
+the mastery over those who led this rebellion, and fear quickly would
+beget despair. In their terror of thy coming vengeance they might oppose
+thy coming, and such is the temper of the people just now that all the
+strength of thy legions--half-spent in this last expedition--might be
+powerless against it; thy chosen soldiers even might turn against thee."
+
+The Caesar was silent, and even in this dim light it was easy to read on
+his ghastly face the inner workings of his tortuous mind--rage, malice,
+a raging thirst for revenge fought against his own cowardice and the
+steady influence which the praefect's calm and firm attitude was
+exercising over him, much against his will.
+
+"Time is precious, O Caesar," continued Taurus Antinor earnestly; "the
+people will not wait. The shadows of evening will soon be drawing in and
+the storm has not yet wholly passed away. The hour is propitious now, an
+thou wilt accept my service, we can slip away and mingle with the few
+straggling groups of malcontents before the crowd has again rushed the
+hill. An thou wilt not tarry and canst brace thyself up to indifferent
+demeanour in the streets, I swear to thee that thou wilt be under safe
+shelter in an hour."
+
+"If I but dared to trust myself so entirely in thy keeping...."
+
+Taurus Antinor shrugged his broad shoulders with marked contempt for his
+forbearance was threatening to give way.
+
+"Is there anyone else," he asked, "whom thou wouldst rather trust? Name
+him then, O Caesar, and, alive or dead, I'll bring him to thy presence
+within the hour."
+
+But to this the Caesar made no reply. He knew better than anyone could
+tell him that the man whom he had called a traitor, whom he had twice
+tried basely to kill, was the one man in the entire patriciate of Rome
+who would be true to him. Even madmen have such instincts at times.
+Caligula knew that he was doomed, the cries from below could leave no
+doubt in his mind that, isolated as he was, cut off not only from his
+legions but even from his guard, nothing could save him from the fury of
+vengeance which threatened him from his entire people.
+
+A wave of fatality swept over his maniacal sense of terror. He knew and
+felt that if this man was a traitor then indeed could nothing save him;
+and he knew and felt at the same time that while he was under this man's
+protection no great harm could come to him.
+
+Gradually this sense of fatality got the mastery over his cowardice, and
+as Taurus Antinor watched the twitchings of that distorted face, he
+could note that insensibly a resolution to follow his advice had found
+its way in this madman's brain.
+
+"I'll come with thee," said Caligula at last, and now his voice sounded
+more firm, even whilst his hands released their grip on the praefect's
+arm and his short body straightened itself out upon his trembling limbs.
+"I'll come with thee, but may thy flesh wither on thy bones, thy hands
+be palsied and thine eyes become sightless if thou hast a thought of
+betraying thy Caesar."
+
+To this senseless speech Taurus Antinor vouchsafed no reply.
+
+"Then I pray thee," he said quietly, "wait here a while till I find the
+necessary garments for thy disguise and mine, and also pen, ink and
+parchment."
+
+"Pen and ink? For what?"
+
+"Thy proclamation of pardon, Caesar, signed by thy hand...."
+
+"When I am in safety I will see to it," said Caligula with sudden
+blandness, "thou saidst it thyself there is no time to lose."
+
+"There is time to fulfil a promise and time to take what is the most
+important measure for thy safety," rejoined Taurus Antinor.
+
+"Thou dost not trust thy Caesar," said Caligula with a vicious snarl.
+
+"No," was the praefect's curt reply.
+
+It was characteristic of this tyrannical despot that at the praefect's
+rough answer he laughed with obvious satisfaction. At the back of his
+shrewd sense of self-preservation there had come the thought that the
+man who had spoken that unequivocal "No!" had learnt to its fullest the
+lesson of truth. He said nothing for a while, and when his laughter died
+away in a kind of hysterical gasp, he made a gesture expressive of
+indifference and also of submission to the other's wish.
+
+Taurus Antinor turned away from the loathsome presence without another
+word and with a firm step. And Caligula, standing motionless in the
+middle of the room waited quietly for his return.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+"Come, take up the cross, and follow me."--ST. MARK X. 21.
+
+
+Taurus Antinor had some difficulty in finding the clothes that he
+wanted, which would serve as a disguise for the Caesar and himself, and
+he had to explore the huge deserted palace from end to end before he
+came on the block of the slaves' quarters; here in one of the cubicles
+he ultimately discovered a few bundles of garments, which had apparently
+been hastily collected and then forgotten by one of the runaway scribes.
+
+These he found on inspection would suit his purpose admirably. Writing
+tools and desk he had already collected; there were plenty of these
+littering the building in every corner.
+
+Armed with all these necessaries, he made his way back to the lararium
+without again crossing the peristylium where the soldiers were
+assembled.
+
+Sitting on the altar steps, with the desk between his knees and the
+light from the narrow shaft above falling full upon the parchment, he
+wrote out carefully and laboriously the proclamation of pardon which was
+destined on the morrow to assure the people of Rome that all their
+delinquencies against the majesty and the person of their Caesar would by
+him be forgotten.
+
+It was necessary so to word it that not a single loophole should remain
+through which Caligula could ultimately slip and break his word. More
+than one beginning was made and whole lines erased and rewritten before
+the praefect of Rome was satisfied with his work.
+
+The Caesar in the meanwhile was tramping up and down the tiny room like
+his own favourite black panther when it was in a rage. Throwing his
+thick, short body about in a kind of rolling gait, he only paused at
+times for a moment or two in order to hurl a vicious snarl at the
+praefect.
+
+His fingers were twitching convulsively the whole time, with longing no
+doubt to grasp the leather-thonged whip which they were so fond of
+wielding. At intervals he would gnaw his nails down to the quick while
+snorts of bridled fury escaped through his pallid lips.
+
+But Taurus Antinor went on with his work, absolutely heedless of the
+Caesar's rage. When the wording of the proclamation satisfied him, he
+held out the pen for Caligula to sign. He knelt on the floor with one
+knee, holding up against his forehead, as custom demanded on a solemn
+occasion, the desk on which rested the imperial decree. He rendered this
+act of homage simply and loyally, as the outward sign of that sacrifice
+which the Divine Master had demanded of him.
+
+Faithful to his instincts of petty tyranny, the Caesar kept the praefect
+of Rome kneeling before him for close on half an hour; all this while
+volleys of vituperations poured from his mouth against all traitors in
+general, and more especially against the praefect whom he accused of
+selling his services only in order to gain his own ends.
+
+It was only when Taurus Antinor had reminded him for the third time that
+he was placing his life in grave jeopardy with all this delay that he
+ultimately snatched up the pen and put his name to the decree.
+
+After that both the men donned the dark garments of the fugitive scribe.
+With the proclamation of pardon rolled up tightly and hidden within the
+folds of his tunic, Taurus Antinor led the way out of the lararium.
+
+The afternoon light was slowly sinking into the embrace of evening. The
+vast deserted palace, with its rows of monumental columns and statues of
+stone gods looked spectral and mysterious in the fast gathering gloom.
+
+When exploring the building in search of disguises Taurus Antinor had
+taken note of the minor exits which gave on the more isolated portions
+of the imperial gardens; to one of these did he now conduct the Caesar
+and suddenly the outer air struck on the faces of the two men and they
+found themselves in the open, in the waning light of day.
+
+Unbroken now by the solid marble walls which had shut out most of the
+noise from the streets, the shouts that came from the slopes of the hill
+struck more clearly upon the ear. The sound travelling through the
+mist-laden air seemed to come more especially from the northwestern
+front of the palace of Augustus, which here faces that of the late
+Emperor Tiberius, with the new gigantic wing built recently thereunto by
+Caligula.
+
+Here a vast multitude appeared to have congregated. The cries of
+"Death!" seemed ominously loud and near, and through them there was a
+dull murmur as of an angry mob foiled in its lust.
+
+The Caesar uttered a cry of terror and his knees gave under him. He
+cowered on the ground, clutching at the praefect's robe and hiding his
+face in the folds of his mantle.
+
+"They will kill me!" he stammered thickly. "I dare not go, praefect!...
+take me back ... I dare not go!"
+
+Taurus Antinor, none too patient a man at any time, had to clench his
+fists and drive his finger-nails into the palms of his hands, else he
+could have struck this abject, miserable coward. He wrenched his cloak
+out of the Caesar's grasp and with a firm grip pulled him roughly up
+from the ground.
+
+"An thou canst not control thy cowardly fears," he said harshly, "I'll
+leave thee to perish at their hands."
+
+And holding the wretched man tightly by the wrist, he quickly sought
+shelter behind a pile of building material which lay some distance away.
+He hoped that this cringing dastard would not hear that other clamour of
+the people which invariably followed the call for vengeance: "Hail
+Taurus Antinor! Hail!"
+
+Did these words perchance reach Caligula's ears he would no doubt even
+at this eleventh hour have refused to trust himself to the praefect; he
+would rush back into the palace, like a tracked beast that seeks its
+burrow, and all the sorrow and the renunciation of the past twenty-four
+hours would turn to the bitter fruit of uselessness.
+
+Fortunately Caligula's senses were dulled by his own terrors. He heard
+the shouts and the ceaseless din of rebellious strife but the only word
+that he could distinguish was the ominous one of "Death," and whenever
+this word struck upon his confused mind a violent fit of trembling would
+seize him and he would stumble and stagger along like a drunken man.
+
+Taurus Antinor, however, held him tightly by the wrist and thus he half
+led, half dragged him in his wake. The towering masses of building
+materials, huge blocks of stone and of marble, scaffoldings and ladders
+piled up on the open ground which encircled the rear of Caligula's
+palace, afforded him the protection which he had counted on and
+foreseen.
+
+Keeping well within the shadows, he thus gradually worked his way on
+from pile to pile until he reached the brow of the hill. The crowd which
+was swarming up the slopes was just beginning to appear in isolated
+detachments in the roads and streets that led upwards from the Forum.
+Apparently the mob had not forgotten its former purpose to entrap the
+fugitive Caesar and to force him to come out and to face his people.
+
+The dull evening light creeping up from below, the thin drizzle which
+had succeeded the heavy rain and which mingled with the rising vapours
+from the sodden ground, the aimlessness of the onrushing crowd as it
+spread itself in confused masses all round the foremost palaces on the
+hill, all favoured Taurus Antinor's plans. Emerging from behind a
+monumental block of granite, looking in their dark clothes for all the
+world like the scribes who had been seen running about here all the day,
+the two men attracted little or no attention.
+
+Their faces in the gloom could not easily be distinguished, nor did
+anyone in that excited throng imagine for a moment that the Caesar would
+leave the safe shelter of his palace and, dressed in slave's garb,
+affront the multitude who clamoured for his death.
+
+The audacity of this flight carried success along with it. Dragging the
+quaking Caesar after him, Taurus Antinor soon plunged into the very thick
+of the crowd.
+
+The tumult here and the confusion were intense. Men running and
+shouting, women shrieking and children crying, all in a tangled mass of
+noisy humanity. Some of the men brandished sticks, shovels or rakes, any
+instrument they had happened to possess; they shouted loudly for the
+Caesar, demanding his death, urging the more pusillanimous to rush the
+palace and drag the hiding princeps out into the open. Others carried
+tall poles on which they had improvised rude banners made of bits of
+purple-coloured rags: they were proclaiming the new Caesar of their
+choice in voices rendered hoarse with lustiness.
+
+The women clung to their men-folk, their shrill accents mingling with
+the rougher ones. Some of them clutched small children to their breasts,
+others dragged older ones at their skirts, and it was terrible to hear
+the cries of frightened children through the shouts of vengeance and of
+death.
+
+Now as the gloom gathered in a few lighted torches appeared here and
+there, held high above the sea of surrounding heads; they flickered
+feebly in the damp air, throwing fitful lurid lights on the faces close
+by: dark faces, flushed and excited, with sullen eyes and dishevelled
+hair, above which the black smoke from the sizzling resin formed weird
+and shifting haloes.
+
+The crowd carried the fugitives along with it, pressed shoulder to
+shoulder in a living, breathing, panting vice. Damp rising from
+thousands of rain-sodden garments mingled with the mist and with the
+rain and formed a grey, wet, clinging veil over this restless mass,
+kneading it all together into a dark, swaying entity from which rose the
+cries of the children and the hoarse shouts of the men.
+
+Drifting with the throng, Taurus Antinor, still holding his trembling
+companion by the wrist, soon found himself being carried down the long
+flight of steps which leads from the heights crowned by Caligula's
+palace to the Forum below. Without attempting to work against the crowd,
+he presently crossed the Nova Via, and turning sharply on his left he
+found himself behind the basilica whose every arcade and precinct was
+densely packed with men and women and whose marble walls echoed and
+re-echoed with a multitude of sounds.
+
+The crowd!--always the crowd! Always these shouting men, these
+screaming women, these puny crying children! It seemed as if their
+numbers were being fed by invisible masses that came from out the
+darkness which was closing in around. On ahead the height of the
+Aventine hid the horizon line from view, and on its slopes tiny lights
+began to appear that seemed to mock the weary fugitives by their
+distance and their elusiveness.
+
+Taurus Antinor had all along intended to reach the Aventine by a devious
+way. Now the crowd had brought him and his companion to the river bank,
+there where the Tiber winds its sudden curve at the foot of the three
+hills. That curve of the river would have to be followed its whole way
+along the bank, and the slope of the Aventine looked so immeasurably
+far.
+
+But progress had become more easy at last. Taurus Antinor pushed his way
+along now as quickly as he dared. More than one angry glance followed
+the tall, powerful figure as it forged a path for its burden, regardless
+of obstruction; more than one oath was uttered in the wake of those
+broad shoulders that towered above the rest of the crowd.
+
+With a man who was shivering as with ague dragging upon his arm, with
+his body racked with fever and his temples throbbing with pain, the man
+set out with renewed energy upon this final stage of his journey.
+
+In the constant pushing through the crowd the bandages on his shoulder
+had shifted, and he could again feel the claws of the panther tearing at
+his flesh, and the hot breath of the beast scorching his face. The
+sodden garments clung cold and dank to his skin, he felt chilled down to
+the marrow, and yet he felt as if the fire of his body would burn his
+skin on to his bones.
+
+Perhaps the physical misery which he endured numbed the more unendurable
+agony of the soul; certain it is that a kind of torpor gradually
+invaded his brain, leaving within it only the sensation of a terrible
+longing to drop down on the wet ground and to yield to the unconquerable
+desire to stretch out his aching limbs and to lay down his head in the
+last long sleep which would bring eternal rest.
+
+But now the ground had begun to rise, the Aventine stretched out its
+slopes into the arms of darkness and its summit was lost in the gloom
+above. The weary ascent had begun.
+
+Then it was that through the torpor of the man's brain a vision had
+suddenly found its way, searching those memory cells of the mind that
+contained the sacred picture of long ago. A mountain rugged and steep, a
+surging crowd, a Man, weary and with body tormented by ceaseless pain,
+toiling upwards with a heavy burden.
+
+His naked feet made no noise upon the earth, the burden which He bore
+was a heavy Cross.
+
+Above on the summit death awaited Him, ignominy and shame, but He walked
+up in silence and in patience, so that men in long after years, who had
+burdens of sorrow or of misery, should know how to bear them till they
+too reached the summit of their Golgotha, there to find ... not death,
+not humiliation or pain, but eternal life and the serenity of exquisite
+peace.
+
+The Caesar hung like a dead weight on Antinor's left arm, and the right
+one, lacerated by the panther's claws, burned and ached well-nigh
+intolerably. But the glorious memory of long ago now preceded him, the
+Divine Martyr walking on ahead with sacred shoulders bent to the
+sacrifice, and he seemed to hear again the swishing of the tunic,
+stained with blood and the mud of the road; he seemed to hear the shouts
+of the jeering crowd, the rough words of the soldiery, the sobs of
+faithful disciples and women.
+
+And he too plodded on with his burden. The crowd, now far away, seemed
+to mock him for the uselessness of his sacrifice; Dea Flavia's sobs of
+sorely wounded love called to him to turn back.
+
+But memory now would be held back no longer. The picture which it
+conjured up became more distinct and more real, and its gold-lined
+wings, as they fluttered around his head, made a murmur gentle and
+intangible as the flitting of the clouds across the skies of Italia.
+
+The murmur was soft and low, and it reached the aching senses of the
+weary pilgrim like the cooling breath of multitudes of angels in the
+parched wilderness of his sorrow:
+
+"If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his
+cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and
+whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it."
+
+"For Thy sake, oh Jesus of Galilee!" said the man as he toiled up his
+endless Calvary and left behind him with every step, far away in the
+valley below, all that had made the world fair to him and all the
+promises of happiness.
+
+On ahead the Divine Leader had fallen on his knees: the burden of His
+Cross seemed greater than He could bear. Rough hands helped to drag him
+up from the ground and set Him once more on His tedious way. His cheeks
+were wan and pale, blood trickled from the thorn-crowned brow, but there
+was no wavering in the lines of the face though they were distorted with
+pain, no giving in, no drawing back, not though one word from those
+livid lips could have called even now unto God, and ten thousand legions
+of angels would have come down at that word to avenge the outrage and to
+proclaim His godhead.
+
+And in the wake of his Master the Christian plodded on, dragging his
+burden on his arm, the cross which he had to bear. Gradually behind him
+the noise became more and more subdued, then it died down
+altogether--all but a confused and far-away murmur which mingled with
+the sighing of the Tiber.
+
+And the Christian was alone once more--alone with memory.
+
+Taurus Antinor's breath came in short, stertorous gasps, his throat was
+parched and his tongue clove to the roof of his mouth. The slope of the
+hill is precipitous here, and the house--nigh to the summit--seemed to
+recede farther and farther with devilish malignity.
+
+And the sense of silence and of solitude became more absolute, a fitting
+attendant on memory. On and on the two men walked, the Christian and his
+burden; their sandalled feet felt like lead as they sank ankle-deep in
+the mud of the unpaved road.
+
+"Come, take up thy cross and follow me!" and the Christian plodded on in
+the wake of the Divine Presence that beckoned to him upwards from above.
+
+From time to time Caligula's hoarse and querulous voice would break the
+death-like silence.
+
+"Are we not there yet?"
+
+"Not yet. Very soon," the praefect would reply.
+
+"I am a fool to have trusted myself to thee, for of a truth thou leadest
+me to my death."
+
+"Patience, Caesar, yet a little while longer."
+
+"May the gods fell thee to the earth. I would I had a poisoned dagger by
+me to kill thee ere thou dost work thy treacherous will with me. Thou
+son of slaves, may death overtake thee now ..."
+
+"God in heaven grant that it may, O Caesar," said the praefect fervently.
+
+Now at last the houses became more sparse. Only here and there up the
+side of the hill a tiny light glittered feebly. Taurus Antinor's senses
+were only just sufficiently alert to keep in the right direction. The
+house which he wished to reach was not more now than six hundred steps
+away.
+
+The darkness had become almost thick in its intensity, even the houses
+were undistinguishable in the gloom. The two men stumbled as they
+walked, loose stones detached themselves under their feet and their
+heelless sandals slid in the mud. Once the Caesar lost his foothold
+altogether; but for his convulsive hold on the praefect's arm he would
+have measured his length in the mud.
+
+Taurus Antinor felt after the wrench as if this must be the end, as if
+body and brain and soul could not endure a moment longer and live.
+
+A mist akin to the one that enveloped the hill seemed to fall over his
+brain. He no longer walked now, he just tumbled along, blindly stumbling
+at almost every step with that dead, dead weight upon his arm which an
+invisible force compelled him to carry up the precipitous height to the
+place of safety which was so far away.
+
+"What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" asked that heavenly
+murmur on the wings of memory. "For the Son of Man shall come in the
+glory of the Father with His angels; and then He shall reward every man
+according to his work."
+
+With his burden lying like an insentient log on his arm, Taurus Antinor
+fell up at last against the door of the house; his foot had stumbled
+against its corner-stone.
+
+A moment or two later the door was opened from within and the feeble
+light of a tiny lamp was held above him whilst a kindly voice murmured:
+
+"Who goes there?"
+
+"The Caesar is in danger, and a fugitive. He asks shelter and protection
+from thee," murmured Taurus Antinor feebly, "and I would lay down my
+burden in thy house for I am weary and I would find rest."
+
+"Enter friend," said the man simply.
+
+The Caesar, trembling and nerveless, fell forward into the room.
+
+The praefect of Rome lay unconscious upon its threshold but the
+Christian had laid down his cross at the foot of the throne of God.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+"Finally my brethren be strong."--EPHESIANS VI. 10.
+
+
+The younger men were still inclined to rebel. They felt that they were
+in great numbers and that they were strong: they believed--with that
+optimism of excited youth--that their will must prevail in the end. In
+their opinion the Caesar had done nothing to atone for his crime against
+the praefect of Rome, or for his dastardly cringing before the power of
+his people.
+
+But the older men, those who had mayhap more than once witnessed street
+rioting and the bloody reprisals that invariably followed open
+rebellion--they counselled prudence, an acceptance of what had come
+about, since the imperial decree had been fixed to the rostrum of the
+great Augustus, promising pardon for all delinquencies.
+
+And--what would you?--but was not the praefect of Rome dead? The
+consul-major had stated it positively to all those who asked the
+question of him, and he had it on the positive authority of Folces, the
+praefect's most trusted slave. It was the consul-major who, preceded by
+his lictors, had caused the imperial decree to be read out aloud to the
+people of Rome from the topmost steps of the Temple of Mars, and it was
+he who had then ordered the decree to be affixed to the wall of the
+rostrum. The consul-major had received the precious parchment at the
+hands of the special messenger sent by the Caesar himself: that messenger
+was none other than Folces, and he had stated positively that the
+praefect of Rome was dead.
+
+It was useless to demand that a man be proclaimed to the principate if
+that man be dead. True that some of the malcontents--those young men who
+were hot-headed and whose raging tempers were not easily curbed--refused
+to accept the news and loudly demanded the body of the hero so that
+divine honours might be accorded to it, to the lifelong shame of the
+Caesar who had so basely murdered him.
+
+But the praetor urbanus had declared that the body of the praefect could
+not be found, and the rumour had gained ground that it had been defiled
+and thrown to the dogs. A sullen discontent reigned amongst the people
+for this, and it could not be allayed by all the promises of pardon and
+of rejoicings which the imperial proclamation decreed.
+
+There had been some calls too for Dea Flavia. The Caesar had nominated
+his successor to the imperium in the Circus the other day. If the
+Augusta would but make her choice, the people would perhaps be ready to
+accept her lord now as Consort Imperii, with the ultimate hope that a
+just and brave man would succeed to the principate in due course.
+
+But no sound had as yet come from the house of Dea Flavia, and the
+people hung about the Forum in desultory groups, discussing the
+situation. That the gods had intervened in the Caesar's favour no one
+could reasonably doubt. Even whilst the anger of the populace was at its
+height and dense masses had surrounded his palace to which he had been
+known to flee, he had been spirited away out of the city. His
+proclamation had come from Etruria, showing that he was already far from
+his city and on his way to join his legions.
+
+How did he succeed in making a way for himself through the dense masses
+that had thronged the streets for nigh on forty-eight hours, since
+first the tumult broke out in the Circus when the praefect of Rome was
+stabbed?
+
+Had Jupiter sent down his thunders yesterday, his lowering clouds and
+heavy showers of rain, only in order to aid the Caesar in his progress?
+What hand had guided him down the declivities of the Palatine? What arm
+shielded him from the anger of the people?
+
+
+Dea Flavia had heard the news even as soon as the first hour of the day
+had been called. Yesterday, bruised in mind and heart and body, she had
+lain for close on an hour in a dreamless, semi-conscious state. It was
+only when she awoke from that that the knowledge of her misery returned
+to her in full.
+
+She had found love, happiness, pride, all that makes life exquisite and
+fair, only to lose all these treasures even before she had had time to
+grasp them.
+
+Love had been called to life by the look, the touch of one man,
+happiness had come when she saw the love-light in his eyes, born in
+response to hers: pride came with all the rich gifts which she could
+lavish upon him. Now everything was gone, he had taken everything from
+her, even as he gave it; and he took everything in order to offer it as
+a sacrifice to his God.
+
+Now her heart was numbed and her brain tried in vain to conjure up the
+images of yesterday: the happy moments when she had lain against the
+noblest heart in Rome. But the only vision that her dulled senses could
+perceive was that of dying Menecreta speaking that awful curse, or of
+herself--Dea Flavia--gazing with eyes of anger and of pride into vacancy
+wherein her imagination had traced a glowing cross, and uttering words
+of defiance that seemed so futile, so sacrilegious now.
+
+The storm then had obscured the sky, drove the rain in heavy patter
+overhead, the air was dismal and dark: now a brilliant sunshine flooded
+the imperial city with its radiance, the wet marble glistened in the
+dawn and a roseate hue tipped the seven hills of Rome with glory. But in
+Dea Flavia's heart there was sorrow darker than the blackest night,
+sleep forsook her eyelids, and all night long she tossed about
+restlessly on her couch listening to the sounds that came from the city
+in rebellion, counting them out as they died away one by one.
+
+She had gone to her room quite early in the day; her guests she knew
+were being well looked after, and she could not bear to remain in the
+studio whose every corner reminded her of that powerful personality
+which had lately filled it, and whose very walls still echoed with the
+sound of that rough voice, rendered at times so exquisitely tender.
+
+Blanca attended on her and put her to bed for she could not bear to have
+Licinia near her. The old woman's gossip jarred upon her nerves and she
+was physically afraid to hear indifferent lips utter the name of the
+praefect of Rome.
+
+Only the call, "Hail Taurus Antinor Caesar! Hail!" which still came half
+the night through from afar dulled her agony of mind for a few seconds
+when it struck upon her ear. It set her wondering, thus allowing her
+momentarily to forget her misery. Then she would lie, wide-eyed, looking
+upwards and pondering.
+
+Who was this god whom Taurus Antinor worshipped?
+
+Who was he and what had he done? All she knew was that he had died upon
+a cross, the most ignominious death mortal man could suffer, and the
+praefect of Rome, the proud Roman patrician, had been content to obey
+him as a slave.
+
+Who was he and what had he done? On this she pondered half the night
+through, while fever coursed through her veins and her brows were moist
+and aching, her heart palpitating with pain.
+
+The dawn found her wearied and sick. But she rose when Blanca came to
+her in the first hour. She summoned Licinia and all her women and
+ordered them to dress her in one of her richest robes. She looked very
+girlish and very pale when she stood decked out in the embroidered tunic
+which she had chosen; it was of a soft material, clinging to her
+graceful figure in long straight folds, there was some elaborate
+embroidery round the hem, below which her feet peeped out clothed in
+sandals of gilt leather.
+
+When she was dressed she went out into the atrium and then sent word to
+the praetorian praefect and his friends that she was ready to receive
+them.
+
+Some of the news from the busy world outside had already reached her
+ears. Licinia was not like to be chary in imparting to her mistress the
+scraps of gossip which she had collected.
+
+The Caesar was outside the city, he would in due time return to Rome at
+the head of his legions, and in the meanwhile he had by a comprehensive
+and gracious act of clemency pardoned all those who had offended against
+his majesty.
+
+The noble patricians who yesterday had already deposed him, and had
+called on her to name his successor, had been foiled in their ambitious
+schemes by the very man whom she--Dea Flavia--would have set upon the
+throne.
+
+And once more that one all-absorbing puzzle confronted her: who and what
+was this god who had exacted this all-embracing sacrifice?
+
+She wandered somewhat aimlessly through the halls, for the great lords
+were not yet ready to appear before her, and as she crossed the atrium
+and went into the peristylium, looking with somewhat wistful longing
+toward the open portals of the vestibule and the vista of open air and
+sky from whence a breath of pure fresh air struck pleasingly on her
+nostrils, she saw that in spite of the early hour a large number of the
+poorer clients, suppliants at the door of the great Augusta, had already
+assembled there.
+
+Foremost amongst them was an elderly man dressed in the plain garb of a
+slave, and wearing, embroidered on his tunic, the badge that proclaimed
+him in the service of the praefect of Rome.
+
+The man appeared to be very insistent, and to be receiving in
+consequence, somewhat rough treatment from the janitors. Dea Flavia
+turned to one of her own slaves and ordered the man to be brought to her
+presence in her studio where she would receive him.
+
+The man told the janitors that his name was Folces, that he belonged to
+the praefect of Rome and desired speech with the Augusta. He walked in
+very humbly, with back bent nearly double, and when he was shown into
+the studio where the Augusta sat alone he fell on both knees before her.
+
+"Thy name is Folces, I am told," she began graciously, "and thou art of
+the household of the praefect of Rome?"
+
+"I attend upon his person, gracious lady," replied the man.
+
+"And thou hast brought me a message from him?" she asked, even as with
+this hope her heart began to beat violently in her breast.
+
+"Not from him, gracious lady," said Folces humbly, "for the praefect of
+Rome is dead."
+
+"Who told thee that he was dead?" she asked.
+
+"Taurus Antinor named Anglicanus," replied the man simply; "he sent me
+my freedom this night and a message to lay at the feet of Dea Flavia
+Augusta."
+
+"Give me the message," she said.
+
+Still on his knees, Folces fumbled in the folds of his mantle and from
+his breast he drew a roll of parchment which he offered to the Augusta.
+
+"Rise, Folces, and go while I read," she said; "wait outside the door
+till I do summon thee."
+
+She waited until the man had closed the heavy door behind him: she
+wanted to be alone with these last words which he had penned for her.
+Now she untied the string that held the roll together, then she unfolded
+the parchment and read:
+
+     "Idol of my soul, beloved of my heart. Aroused from dreams of
+     thee, my wakening soul takes its last flight to thy feet. This is
+     farewell, my dear, dear heart, even as my hand pens the word the
+     dawn around me turns to the likeness of the night, and it is
+     peopled with all the sorrows that wear out the heartstrings
+     slowly, one by one. The Caesar is safe. Even as I write he starts
+     forth on his way to join his legions. Having left him in charge
+     of those who do not know how to betray, I succeeded in the night
+     in reaching the detachment of the praetorian guard encamped
+     around the Circus: a small company of them returned with me to
+     the lonely house on the Aventine, and from thence at break of day
+     they started with the Caesar toward Etruria, where the legions
+     home from the expedition against the Allemanni were still known to
+     abide. In three or four days, or mayhap five, the Caesar will
+     re-enter his city. His proclamation of pardon is so worded that
+     his keeping of his word is closely bound up both with his honour
+     and with his personal safety. The people therefore have naught to
+     fear from his vengeance: those who have more actively conspired
+     against him, and who would have drawn thee in their selfish
+     schemes, have time before them to put themselves and their
+     belongings out of the immediate reach of the Caesar. Tell them to
+     live in retirement as far from Rome as they can until such time
+     as the events of the past few days have been erased from the
+     tablets of memory.
+
+     "The Caesar is safe, and I, dear heart, do bid thee a last
+     farewell. When I parted from thee yesterday we both knew then
+     that the parting would be for ever; even though thine exquisite
+     hands clung to me and twined themselves round the very fibres of
+     my soul, and thy voice called me back with the ineffable
+     sweetness of thy love, I knew that it would be for ever. The
+     Caesar will never forgive me that I witnessed his abject
+     humiliation. Even at dawn, when he stood surrounded by his
+     praetorian guard, as secure from danger as human agency could
+     make him, a gleam of hatred shone in his eyes whenever he looked
+     on me. He never would give thee to me, dear heart, and would vent
+     his wrath also upon thy dear head. 'Tis better that he too should
+     think me dead, for dead will I be to Rome and to the people among
+     whom my name might yet give cause for strife and for discontent.
+
+     "The Caesar is safe, and I can go my ways in peace. He hath no
+     longer need of me but my Lord hath called and I His servant must
+     take up my cross and follow Him. The priceless gifts which thy
+     pure hands did hold out to me are registered in His book of
+     Heaven, and He never forgets. As for me I were less or more than
+     a man were I to ask thee to forget. I would have thee remember,
+     yet would I think of thee as happy and radiant as the stars
+     wherewith He hath gladdened the darkness of our nights. But think
+     not of me as unhappy. My Lord has called, and I the servant am
+     bound to follow. He laid a burden on me and this burden must I
+     bear even though I may bear with it all the pain that is greater
+     than the pain of the earth, greater than the ceaseless travail of
+     the sea, even though I may bear with it that bitterest of all
+     bitter fruits the labour that is nothing worth. That I know not!
+     Who knoweth, oh God? Truly not I. There was grief in the world,
+     dear heart, even before the stars were made or the sky stretched
+     its blue dome above; and as hour follows hour, day succeeds day
+     and the cycles of years come and go, even so do fresh griefs and
+     greener sorrows spring around us; like each recurrent season they
+     too come and go. Only one thing abideth, dear heart, and that is
+     the will of God, who made happiness and woe, love and pain, sleep
+     and death. And 'tis the will of God that I should lose thee and
+     yet continue to live, even though life to me henceforth will be
+     one long dream of death.
+
+     "Idol of my soul, beloved of my heart, farewell. I go to find
+     comfort from that bitter word on the summit of Golgotha, at the
+     foot of an abandoned, broken Cross. When my soul hath found peace
+     then will it be ready for the service of God.
+
+     "Farewell, my beloved! May God have thee in His keeping, even as
+     thy soul hath already been touched with His grace. Farewell! Mine
+     eyes are dim, my hand trembles, hot tears blur the writing on
+     this parchment. And as I look up through the open doorway to
+     where the limitless horizon lies beyond Rome's seven hills, I see
+     stretched out before me the long vista of years throughout which
+     my heart will be for ever weaving with threads of longing and of
+     sorrow the tether which binds undying memory to thee."
+
+Her hands, which held the roll of parchment, dropped down upon her lap.
+Her eyes too were dim and the hot tears fell from them one by one. A
+sadness that was in no way bitter and yet was immeasurable as death had
+filled her entire being as she read.
+
+Slowly she laid the parchment in the bosom of her tunic, then, like one
+who walks in sleep, she rose and crossed the studio, her hand--white and
+slightly quivering--pushed back the heavy door that masked the inner
+room. Silently it swung upon its hinges, disclosing the sanctum where
+yesterday the stricken hero had lain helpless and sick.
+
+The couch had not been touched since he had lain on it. It still bore
+the imprint of the massive figure as it lay inert in the embrace of
+drugged sleep. The pillow only had been smoothed out as if by a loving
+hand, and as Dea Flavia came nearer to it she saw that a small object
+had been laid there, as if reverently, right in the centre.
+
+The tears in her eyes obscured her vision momentarily, but when they
+fell one by one down her cheeks, she saw a little more clearly, and
+having approached the couch she took up the small object that lay there
+upon the pillow.
+
+It was the wooden cross which she had last seen held between the clasped
+hands of the man whom she loved.
+
+She gazed on the small symbol, and gazed, even though the tears gathered
+thick and fast in her eyes and the image that she saw was scarce
+discernible as it rested in her hand.
+
+How puzzled she had been two nights ago when she stole softly into this
+room and saw him kneeling here beside the couch, clasping this wooden
+symbol between his fingers--intertwined in a gesture of passionate
+prayer. She had been puzzled because his actions of the day before had
+seemed incomprehensible to her: his attitude to my lord Hortensius
+Martius, an enemy whose life he saved at risk of his own, his loyalty
+to the Caesar whom everyone abhorred!
+
+All this had puzzled her then, but how infinitely more profound was that
+puzzle now. A riddle more mysterious than any sage could propound lay
+hidden in the words of the letter which she had just read. The man who
+had penned that letter had poured out his heart in it, and it was not a
+heart that was void of pity or of love. It brimmed over with pity, it
+was bruised with the intensity of love: but, crushed and broken though
+it was, it did not murmur, it only endured.
+
+Dea Flavia looked down upon the small object which to Taurus Antinor had
+been an emblem of that god whom he worshipped and who had been man and
+had died a shameful death.
+
+Who was this god whom Taurus Antinor worshipped? for whose sake and at
+whose bidding he was content to give up all the superheights of ambition
+to which a Roman patrician could aspire? Who was this god? and what had
+he done that a man like Taurus Antinor--a man filled with all a man's
+strength and all a man's heroism, a man worshipped of the people and
+glorified by an entire nation--should thus give up the lordship of Rome
+in order to do him service? that he should give it up, too, without a
+murmur, content to offer this final and absolute sacrifice.
+
+"Think not of me as unhappy. My Lord has called me and I, His servant am
+bound to follow."
+
+Thus had the man written in loneliness and in peace after the sacrifice
+had been accomplished, even after she--the Augusta--had, with
+love-filled heart and generous hands, offered him everything that man
+could desire on this earth. He had written it in loneliness and in
+peace, having given up the world to follow his God.
+
+Who was this god? and what had he done that his power over Taurus
+Antinor's heart was greater than her own?
+
+Yesterday she had cursed him loudly and called him cruel and unjust,
+four days ago she had defied him and now he had conquered. Taurus
+Antinor had obeyed him and she who loved him and whom he loved was left
+desolate.
+
+For this she never doubted: he loved her, that she knew. She was no
+child now! The last four days had made a woman of her: in the past four
+days she had tasted of and witnessed every passion that rends a human
+heart, love, ambition, cruelty, hatred! She had seen them all! seen
+through passion men brought down to a level lower than the beasts, and
+through passion a man become equal to a god. No! she was no longer a
+child, she was a woman now, and there was much that if she did not
+understand she at least could not doubt. The man whom she loved, loved
+her with an intensity at least equal to that which even now made her
+heart throb at the memory of his kiss. He loved her, longed for her,
+would have laid down his life for her even at the moment when he tore
+himself away from her arms. He loved her and longed for her even whilst
+his trembling fingers penned this last impassioned farewell.
+
+He loved her and he loved Rome! But his god called to him and he, the
+proud Roman patrician, the accepted lord of the Augusta and of Rome,
+followed as would a slave.
+
+Slowly she dropped down on her knees just where he too had knelt two
+nights ago, and like unto him she clasped her hands together, scarce
+conscious that the tiny wooden cross still lay between her fingers.
+
+"Thou hast conquered, oh Galilean!" she murmured, whilst great sobs that
+would not be suppressed rose to her throat. "At thy call he left
+everything that makes life beautiful and happy: at thy call he left me
+to mourn, he left the people of Rome who acclaimed him, he left the
+throne of Augustus and the Empire of the world! Everything he left at
+thy call! What hast thou in thy nail-pierced hands to give him in
+return?"
+
+For a while now she was able to give way to her immeasurable sorrow. Her
+head buried in the pillow whereon his head had rested, she sobbed out
+her loving, aching heart in a passionate fit of weeping.
+
+Just like the Christian yesterday up on the heights, so was she--the
+pagan--alone now with her grief. More lonely than he--she had no
+anchorage, and in her ear had never sounded those all-compelling words,
+sublime in their perfect gentleness:
+
+"Come unto Me!"
+
+But who shall tell what divine hand soothed her burning forehead? what
+divine words of comfort were whispered in her ear?
+
+Gradually her tears ceased to flow, the heavy sobs were stilled, her
+aching and bruised body felt numb with the pain in her heart. But
+outwardly she was more calm. She rose from her knees, and hiding the
+small cross in the bosom of her gown, she drew forth the letter and read
+it through once more.
+
+"If only I knew!" she murmured. "If only I could understand!"
+
+After a while she bethought her of the slave Folces, the one human link
+left now between herself and the man whom she loved and who was gone
+from her.
+
+With reverent hands she smoothed out the couch, the pillow which had
+supported his head, the coverlet which had lain over him. She was loth
+to go from this room whose every corner seemed still to hold something
+of his personality and whose every wall seemed to hold an echo of his
+voice.
+
+She would have stayed here for hours longer, talking to that absent
+personality, powerful and mysterious more than ever now, listening to
+the rugged voice which she would never hear again. But there was
+something that she must do ere she gave herself over finally to her
+dreams; there was a duty to accomplish which she knew he would ask of
+her.
+
+Therefore--after a last, long, all-embracing look on the place which
+would for ever be as a sanctuary in her sight--she went back to the
+studio at last, and herself going to the door she called Folces back to
+her.
+
+"The praefect of Rome, good Folces?" she asked as soon as the man had
+entered, "wilt see him again?"
+
+"Taurus Antinor named Anglicanus hath left Rome to-day on his way to
+Syria, O Augusta!" said the man, humbly insisting on the name of his
+master.
+
+"Dost not go with him?"
+
+"He hath commanded me to stay here and to look after his household until
+such time as he doth direct."
+
+"His household?" she said. "I had not thought of that. What is to become
+of his house in Rome, his villa at Ostia and his slaves?"
+
+"The praefect of Rome," said Folces, "made ere he died a testament
+wherein he did command the freedom of all his slaves, and ordered a
+certain sum of money to be set aside which will enable even the humblest
+amongst us all to live decently like freedmen. The house in Rome and the
+villa at Ostia are to be sold, whilst the remainder of Taurus Antinor's
+private fortune is to be administered by his general agents. He said
+that he would see to it later on. I am still his slave; he did not
+confide in me."
+
+"Yet he asked thee to look after his household."
+
+"It will take a little time until the manumissio testamento can take
+effect. In the meanwhile we all are Taurus Antinor's slaves and must
+look after his houses until they have been sold."
+
+"Wilt be happy as a freedman, Folces?"
+
+"Yes, Augusta," replied the man simply, "for then I shall be at liberty
+to follow Taurus Antinor as his servant."
+
+She sat quite silently after this, her tear-stained eyes fixed into
+vacancy. Folces was on his knees waiting to be dismissed. It was some
+little while before she remembered his presence, then in a gentle voice
+she bade him go.
+
+"Shall I take a message back to my master?" he asked humbly. "I could
+find him, I think, if I had a message."
+
+"I have no message," she said; "go, good Folces."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV
+
+"We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our
+duty to do."--ST. LUKE XVII. 10.
+
+
+Half an hour later Dea Flavia Augusta was in the tablinium. She had
+received Caius Nepos, the praetorian praefect, Marcus Ancyrus, the
+elder, my lords Hortensius Martius, Philippus Decius and the others, and
+they, who had heard so many conflicting rumours throughout the morning
+and were beginning to quake with fear, for none of the rumours were
+reassuring, were grouped trembling and expectant around her.
+
+"My lords," she began as soon as she had received their obsequious
+greetings, "I know not if you have heard the news. The Caesar hath
+succeeded in quitting Rome; he is on his way to rejoin his legions and
+nothing can stand in the way of his progress. In a few days from now he
+will make his State re-entry into the city, and the city will resound
+from end to end with rejoicings in his honour."
+
+"We had all heard the news, Augusta," said Caius Nepos who was vainly
+trying to steady his voice and to appear calm and dignified, "and also
+that a proclamation of pardon hath preceded the entry of the Caesar into
+Rome and hath been affixed to the rostrum of the great Augustus by the
+consul-major himself this morning."
+
+"And what do you make of all this, my lords?" she asked.
+
+"That some gods of evil have been at work," muttered young Escanes
+between set teeth, "and spirited the tyrannical madman out of the way
+for the further scourging of his people."
+
+"The spirit, my lords," she interposed quietly, "that led my kinsman to
+safety last night was one which actuated the noblest patrician in Rome
+to do his duty loyally by the Caesar."
+
+"Then curse him for a traitor," muttered Caius Nepos, whose cheeks had
+become white with terror.
+
+"He was no traitor to you, my lords," she retorted hotly, "for he was
+not one of you. He was true to the oath which he had rendered to the
+Caesar; aye, even to the Caesar whom we, my lords, all of us here present
+had been ready to betray."
+
+Then as she saw nothing but sullen faces around her and not a word broke
+the silence that ensued, she continued more calmly:
+
+"Yesterday you came to me, my lords, with proposals of treachery to
+which I, alas, did listen because in my heart I had already chosen one
+man who I felt was worthy to rule over this great Empire. I had made my
+choice and myself offered him the imperium, the throne of Augustus and
+the sceptre of the Caesars.... But he refused it all, my lords, and went
+forth in the night to place himself body and heart at the Caesar's
+service."
+
+"And his name, O Augusta?" queried Ancyrus, the elder.
+
+"He hath name Taurus Antinor and was once praefect of Rome."
+
+"He is dead!" broke in Hortensius Martius hotly.
+
+"He lived long enough, my lord," she retorted, "to show us all our
+duty."
+
+There was silence after that, for many a heart was beating
+spasmodically with fear or with hope. My lord Hortensius Martius sat on
+a low stool, with his elbow on his knee, his chin buried in his hand.
+His eyes, glowing with dull and sullen hatred, searched the face of Dea
+Flavia, trying to read what went on behind the pure, straight brow and
+those liquid blue eyes, deep as the fathomless sea.
+
+"What is to be done?" said Ancyrus, the elder, with a pitiable look of
+perplexity directed at the Augusta.
+
+"To make our submission to the Caesar," she said simply, "those of us at
+least who are not afraid of his wrath. For the others there is still
+time to seek a safe retreat far away from Rome."
+
+"But this is monstrous!" cried Hortensius Martius, suddenly jumping to
+his feet and beginning to pace up and down the room in an outburst of
+impotent wrath. "This is miserable, cowardly, abject! What? Would ye
+allow that stranger, that son of slaves, to thwart your plans by his
+treachery? Are we naughty children that can thus be sent, well-whipped
+and whining to bed? Up, my lords, this is not the end! Caesar is not yet
+in Rome! The people are still dissatisfied. Hark to the noise in the
+Forum below! Does it sound as if the populace was accepting the news
+with rejoicing? Up now, my lords! It is not too late! Acclaim your new
+Caesar; it is not too late, I say. When the legions return with that
+mountebank at their head let them find Dea Flavia Augusta and her lord
+the acknowledged masters of Rome."
+
+He looked flushed, excited and proud, feeling that even at this eleventh
+hour he could carry these men along with him if Dea Flavia put the
+weight of her power on his side. Now he paused in his peroration,
+standing above his fellow-conspirators as if already he were their
+ruler, and looking from one face to the other with eager restless eyes
+that expressed all his enthusiasm and all his hopes.
+
+But the two older men had evidently no stomach for the situation as it
+now was. It had been easy matter enough to murder the Caesar
+treacherously and while his legions were three days' march away. But now
+everything was very different, the issues very doubtful; no doubt that a
+safe retreat away from the city would be by far the wiser course.
+
+Caius Nepos, with vivid recollections of his last interview with the
+Caesar, shook his head with slow determination. Ancyrus, the elder, was
+silent and only the three younger men had followed Hortensius Martius in
+his heated argument.
+
+"What sayest thou, Augusta?" asked Philippus Decius at last, looking
+doubtfully upon the young girl.
+
+"That ye must make your plans without me, my lords," she said coldly.
+"Since, as you say, the praefect of Rome is dead, I can make no choice
+worthy of him who is gone. I choose to return to mine allegiance, my
+loyalty to the Caesar and to my House."
+
+"If the Caesar returns," urged Hortensius Martius, "he will vent some of
+his wrath on thee."
+
+"Then will I suffer for my treachery, my lords," she rejoined proudly,
+"in accordance with my deserts."
+
+"But Augusta ..."
+
+"I pray you, my lord," she interposed haughtily, "do not prolong your
+arguments. My mind is made up. An you value your own safety in the
+future, 'twere wiser to make preparations for a lengthy stay away from
+Rome."
+
+"Hadst thou listened to us yesterday ..." sighed Ancyrus, the elder.
+
+"A heavy crime had lain against us all," she said. "Be thankful, my
+lords, that in the history of Rome when it comes to be written, your
+deed will not have sullied the page that marks to-day. And now, my
+lords, I bid you farewell! You are in no danger if you leave the city
+forthwith. The rejoicings at the entry of the Caesar and the homecoming
+of his legions will last many days, during that time your names will be
+erased from the tablets of my kinsman's memory."
+
+"The gods grant it!" murmured Caius Nepos. "But thou, Augusta, what of
+thee?"
+
+"I, my lords," she said with a gentle smile, the irony of which was lost
+on their self-centred intellects, "I pray you have no thoughts of me. I
+have been placed in the keeping of one who, I am told, is mightier than
+Caesar. There must I be safe; so farewell, my lords; we meet again, I
+hope, in happier and more peaceful times."
+
+She stood up and one by one--for was she not still the Augusta and the
+favourite kinswoman of the Caesar?--they bent the knee before her and
+kissed the hem of her gown. After which act of homage they retired with
+backs bent and walking backwards out of the room.
+
+My lord Hortensius Martius was the last to take his leave. He went down
+on both knees and would have encircled the Augusta with his arms, only
+she drew back quickly a step or two.
+
+"Dea ... in the name of my love for thee ..." he began.
+
+But she interrupted him gently, yet firmly.
+
+"Speak not to me of love, my lord," she said. "'Tis but love's ghost
+that moves to and fro when you speak."
+
+Then as he would have protested, she put up her hand with a gesture of
+finality.
+
+"It is no use, my lord. What love there is in me, that you could never
+have aroused--not even in the past. I entreat you not to insist. Love
+cannot be compelled. It is or is not. Whence it comes we know not;
+mayhap the gods do know ... mayhap there is only one who knows ... and
+he seems to give much, but also to take all.... Therefore mayhap love
+comes from him, and when we are not prepared to give up all for love's
+sake, then doth he withhold the supreme gift and leave our hearts
+barren.... Mayhap! mayhap!" she sighed, "alas! I know not! and you, good
+my lord, do not look so puzzled and so scared. I bid you farewell now.
+I'll not forget you; to remember is so much easier than to love."
+
+He had perforce to accept his dismissal. He felt rebellious against fate
+and would have liked to have forced her will. But as she stood there
+before him, clad all in white, so young and so chaste and yet a woman
+who knew what love was, an awed reverence for her crept into his heart
+and he felt that indeed he would never dare to speak again to her of
+love.
+
+He too kissed the hem of her tunic now, just as the others had done, and
+just as they had done he walked out of her presence backwards with back
+bent and an overwhelming disappointment in his heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+"The peace of God, which passeth all understanding."--PHILIPPIANS
+IV. 7.
+
+
+Three months had gone by since then. Rome had acclaimed the Caesar and
+rejoiced over his homecoming. There were holidays and spectacles,
+chariot races and gladiatorial combats, and the people of Rome forgot
+that it had ever shouted: "Hail Taurus Antinor Caesar! Hail!"
+
+Now the calls were for Caius Julius Caesar Caligula, and those who had
+most loudly shouted for his death, cringed most obsequiously at his
+feet. The very name of the ex-praefect of Rome was already forgotten.
+
+His testament, made, it appears, just before his death, had been
+copiously commented on at first. All his slaves had received their
+freedom together with a sufficient sum to enable one and all to live in
+comfort in the new state of freedom. The rest of the vast property owned
+by the late praefect was being somewhat mysteriously administered, and
+up to this hour no one had been able to gain any definite information
+with regard to its ultimate destination. There were those who averred
+that a great deal of ready money--including the proceeds of the sale of
+the late praefect's house in Rome and of his villa at Ostia--had found
+its way to a section of very poor freedmen who lived on the Aventine and
+who formed a somewhat isolated little colony not viewed altogether
+kindly by the official magistracy of the city.
+
+But all that was mere gossip and did not withstand the test of time.
+After three months people had plenty of other matters to think of and to
+talk about.
+
+There were the festivals and games which had accompanied the re-entry of
+the Caesar into Rome. The city had been beflagged and adorned with
+banners and with garlands. For thirty days did the rejoicings last, and
+brilliant sunshine shone over the golden glories of autumn and kissed
+the foliage of oleanders until they blushed a brilliant crimson, and
+tinged the marble of palaces and temples every morning with rose.
+
+The games in the great Circus went on without intermission for thirty
+days; there were military and naval pageants, combats between the lions
+from Numidia and the new hyenas and crocodiles; there were gladiatorial
+contests and chariot races. Much human blood was shed for the
+delectation of the masters of the world, much skill displayed, much
+prowess vanquished by prowess greater, much valour laid to dust.
+
+But the Caesar's pet black panther did not appear again in the Circus.
+The mighty fist of the dead praefect had mayhap laid the creature low;
+in any case it were not safe to re-awaken dormant memories.
+
+And Caius Julius Caesar Caligula, the father of his armies, the best and
+greatest of Caesars, showed himself at all these pageants more crazed
+than ever; he hardly ever spoke now to the people. 'Twas averred that
+Caesonia, his wife, had given him a potion to cure him of his infatuation
+for Dea Flavia, his kinswoman, whom he had exalted above all the other
+Augustas, and whose absence from Rome and from all festivities had
+rendered him half distracted with wrath.
+
+He would have liked to vent that wrath on Dea, but he could not lay
+hands on her. She had left her palace even before his re-entry into
+Rome, taking none but two of her most trusted slaves with her; the
+others did not know whither she had gone. Some thought that she had gone
+on a journey to a villa which she possessed in Sicilia, others thought
+that she was living a life of retirement in a lonely dwelling on the
+Sabine Hills, preparatory to devoting her virginity to the glory of
+Vesta.
+
+Caius Julius Caesar Caligula prepared to have her sought for throughout
+the length and breadth of his Empire, and would no doubt have succeeded
+in time in this search had not a few months later Chaerea, the
+praetorian tribune, done the work with his hands which the dagger of
+young Escanes had failed to do.
+
+
+The winter had been slow in coming, but it had come at last. An icy wind
+blew from across the sea. Overhead the sky was the colour of lead and
+great banks of clouds chased one another wantonly above the hills that
+tower over Jerusalem.
+
+There was hardly a path up the rugged incline, the rains and winds and
+snows of the past seven years had obliterated the marks which a surging
+crowd had once made in the wake of the sacred feet.
+
+It was close on the ninth hour and the shadows of evening were already
+drawing in very fast. A tall figure dressed in sombre garments walked
+slowly up the hill which is called Calvary.
+
+His head was uncovered and he had no wand wherewith to ease his
+footsteps; the blustering gusts of wind blew the tawny hair over his
+brow.
+
+He held his head erect and his eyes did not watch the places where trod
+his feet. They were fixed on ahead, up toward the summit of the hill,
+there where a Cross stood broken and lonely with wooden arms
+outstretched and the birds of heaven circling all round it.
+
+Every day for seven days now had the pilgrim wandered up the steep
+desolate hill. Every day for seven days he had reached the summit ere
+the ninth hour was called from the city walls. He lived at a small inn
+just inside the third wall, and every day at noon he set out upon his
+pilgrimage and only came home when the darkness of the night lay dense
+upon the valley.
+
+To-day he was more weary than he had ever been before. His feet felt
+like leaden weights that seemed to be dragging him down and ever
+downwards, and the loneliness of the place had its image within his
+heart.
+
+On the summit he fell on his knees and knelt at the foot of the Cross,
+leaning his aching forehead against the cold, dank wood.
+
+"How long, oh my God, how long?" he murmured. "The misery is more than I
+can bear. I am ready to do Thy work, oh God, to speak Thy Word where
+Thou dost bid me go, but take her image, dear Lord, from before mine
+eyes, it stands for ever 'twixt Thy Cross and me. Break my heart, oh
+God, since her image fills it and its every beat is not in Thy name.
+Take the cup from me, dear Lord! It is too bitter and I cannot drink!"
+
+The night drew in around him; the lights in the city below were
+extinguished one by one. The croaking birds on the lonely Cross had
+found a home far away in the gloom.
+
+The pilgrim knelt against the Cross, he could hardly see the objects
+nearest to him, the small prickly shrubs, the rough grass, the loose
+stones that looked so white and spectral in the waning light. He could
+hardly see, for his eyes ached with the dull misery of tears that would
+not fall; but suddenly a sound softer than that made by a night-bird in
+its flight struck upon his ear.
+
+It was like the drawing of a garment upon the rugged ground. One or two
+small stones detached themselves from their bed of wet earth and rolled
+away from under the tread of feet that walked upwards toward the summit.
+
+The pilgrim did not move, and yet he heard the sound. It came nearer to
+him, and nearer, and suddenly he was not alone; something living and
+warm knelt on the stony ground beside him, and gentle fingers that had
+the softness and the coolness of snow were laid upon his burning hands.
+
+"I came as quickly as I could," said a tender voice close to his ear.
+"But it has taken me some time to find thee. Had it not been for Folces
+and his devotion I might mayhap never have found thee. We came to
+Jerusalem yesterday. To-day at noon I saw thee starting forth from out
+the city. I followed thee, but the way was rough.... I feared I should
+never reach the summit ... and yet 'twas here I wished to speak to
+thee."
+
+All this while he had remained numb and silent. He knew even when first
+her hand touched his that God had ended his sorrow and taken his aching
+soul into His keeping at last. But for the moment he thought that sweet
+death had kissed his eyelids and that this was the first taste of
+paradise. Darkness was closing in around them both; he could scarcely
+distinguish her features, but it seemed to him as if glory shone out of
+her eyes, glory so radiant that it illumined the darkness and pierced
+the walls of the night.
+
+"Is it thou?" he murmured. "Oh God! have pity on me! Her image, her
+sweet image, allow it to fade from my mind ere my brain becomes a
+traitor to Thee!"
+
+"'Tis not a vision, dear heart," she whispered softly, "'tis not a
+dream. It is I, Dea Flavia, whom thou didst call the beloved of thy
+heart. I came because I loved thee and because here on this spot I would
+learn from thee the mysteries of thy God."
+
+"Is it thou? And hast thou come to me from heaven?"
+
+"No, dear heart, only from far-off Rome. And I have come to thee, to be
+with thee and to follow thee wherever thou wilt lead me."
+
+"Yet will my wanderings lead me far," he said, "my Lord has called and I
+must go."
+
+"Then will I go with thee," she said.
+
+"To far-off lands, dear heart, to speak the Word of God to those who
+heard it not."
+
+"I will go with thee," she reiterated simply.
+
+"To far-off lands whence I came, a sea-girt land which once was mine
+own. My fathers lived there. I would go back and tell my people of all
+that I saw here on Calvary seven years ago."
+
+"Then thither will I go with thee," she replied, "thy home will be my
+home, thy people my people and thy God shall be my God, for thine am I
+now and always. I am ignorant yet but this I do know, that thy God must
+be the great, the true and only God. None other God but He could have
+put in thy heart the strength of sacrifice which hath brought thee--who
+had Rome at thy feet--a lonely wanderer to the foot of this Cross."
+
+She knelt beside him and he no longer cowered, limitless joy was in his
+heart and immeasurable gratitude.
+
+"For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of the Father with His
+angels, and then He shall reward every man according to his works."
+
+The wings of the wind brought the sacred words to his ears. He kissed
+the rough wooden Cross there where the Divine feet had rested, and Dea
+Flavia pressed her lips on it too, and the peace that passeth all
+understanding descended upon them both.
+
+Overhead the clouds had parted, their silver lining showed clearly
+against the dull blue sky, and in the midst of that rent in the
+firmament, far away in the limitless beyond, a star shone out bright and
+clear.
+
+Then they both rose, and hand in hand they walked slowly down the hill.
+
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors in the original
+edition have been corrected.
+
+In Chapter VIII, a missing comma was added to "'Silence' admonished
+Marcus Ancyrus"; and "unnatural brighteness" was changed to "unnatural
+brightness".
+
+Chapter XXIV was misnumbered as Chapter XXVI.
+
+In Chapter XXIV, "weary little sight" was changed to "weary little
+sigh".
+
+In Chapter XXX, "plit from end to end" was changed to "split from end to
+end"; and "bow my hear down with shame" was changed to "bow my head down
+with shame".
+
+Also, the table of contents has been created for this electronic
+edition. It was not present in the original work.]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of "Unto Caesar", by Baroness Emmuska Orczy
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