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diff --git a/26153-0.txt b/26153-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e8330b7 --- /dev/null +++ b/26153-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4792 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Last of the Legions and Other Tales of +Long Ago, by Arthur Conan Doyle + +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: The Last of the Legions and Other Tales of Long Ago + +Author: Arthur Conan Doyle + +Release Date: July 31, 2008 [EBook #26153] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST OF THE LEGIONS *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Stephen Blundell +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + THE LAST OF THE LEGIONS + _and Other Tales of Long Ago_ + + A. CONAN DOYLE + + + + + By SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE + + +_Novels and Stories_ + + DANGER! _And Other Stories_ + THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW + HIS LAST BOW + _Some Later Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes_ + THE BLACK DOCTOR + _And Other Tales of Terror and Mystery_ + THE MAN FROM ARCHANGEL + _And Other Tales of Adventure_ + THE CROXLEY MASTER + _And Other Tales of the Ring and Camp_ + THE GREAT KEINPLATZ EXPERIMENT + _And Other Tales of Twilight and the Unseen_ + THE LAST OF THE LEGIONS + _And Other Tales of Long Ago_ + THE DEALINGS OF CAPTAIN SHARKEY + _And Other Tales of Pirates_ + +_On the Life Hereafter_ + + THE NEW REVELATION + THE VITAL MESSAGE + THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES + THE CASE FOR SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY + THE WANDERINGS OF A SPIRITUALIST + OUR AMERICAN ADVENTURE + +_A History of the Great War_ + + THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN IN FRANCE AND FLANDERS--Six Vols. + +_Poems_ + + THE GUARDS CAME THROUGH + + + NEW YORK + GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY + + + + + THE LAST + OF THE LEGIONS + _and Other Tales of Long Ago_ + + + BY + A. CONAN DOYLE + + + NEW YORK + GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1905, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911, + 1913, 1914, 1918, 1919, 1922 + BY A. CONAN DOYLE + + COPYRIGHT, 1910, + BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + + COPYRIGHT, 1911, + BY ASSOCIATED SUNDAY MAGAZINES, INC. + + COPYRIGHT, 1908, + BY THE MCCLURE COMPANY + + COPYRIGHT, 1900, 1902, + BY THE S. S. MCCLURE COMPANY + + + [Device] + + THE LAST OF THE LEGIONS AND OTHER TALES + OF LONG AGO + + ----Q---- + + PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + I THE LAST OF THE LEGIONS 9 + + II THE LAST GALLEY 22 + + III THROUGH THE VEIL 37 + + IV THE COMING OF THE HUNS 47 + + V THE CONTEST 68 + + VI THE FIRST CARGO 83 + + VII AN ICONOCLAST 98 + + VIII GIANT MAXIMIN 112 + + IX THE RED STAR 141 + + X THE SILVER MIRROR 158 + + XI THE HOME-COMING 177 + + XII A POINT OF CONTACT 202 + + XIII THE CENTURION 215 + + + + +THE LAST OF THE LEGIONS + + + + + THE LAST OF THE LEGIONS + _and Other Tales of Long Ago_ + + + + +I + +THE LAST OF THE LEGIONS + + +Pontus, the Roman viceroy, sat in the atrium of his palatial villa by +the Thames, and he looked with perplexity at the scroll of papyrus which +he had just unrolled. Before him stood the messenger who had brought it, +a swarthy little Italian, whose black eyes were glazed with want of +sleep, and his olive features darker still from dust and sweat. The +viceroy was looking fixedly at him, yet he saw him not, so full was his +mind of this sudden and most unexpected order. To him it seemed as if +the solid earth had given way beneath his feet. His life and the work of +his life had come to irremediable ruin. + +"Very good," he said at last in a hard dry voice, "you can go." + +The man saluted and staggered out of the hall. A yellow-haired British +major-domo came forward for orders. + +"Is the General there?" + +"He is waiting, your excellency." + +"Then show him in, and leave us together." + +A few minutes later Licinius Crassus, the head of the British military +establishment, had joined his chief. He was a large, bearded man in a +white civilian toga, hemmed with the Patrician purple. His rough, bold +features, burned and seamed and lined with the long African wars, were +shadowed with anxiety as he looked with questioning eyes at the drawn, +haggard face of the viceroy. + +"I fear, your excellency, that you have had bad news from Rome." + +"The worst, Crassus. It is all over with Britain. It is a question +whether even Gaul will be held." + +"Saint Albus save us! Are the orders precise?" + +"Here they are, with the Emperor's own seal." + +"But why? I had heard a rumour, but it had seemed too incredible." + +"So had I only last week, and had the fellow scourged for having spread +it. But here it is as clear as words can make it: 'Bring every man of +the Legions by forced marches to the help of the Empire. Leave not a +cohort in Britain.' These are my orders." + +"But the cause?" + +"They will let the limbs wither so that the heart be stronger. The old +German hive is about to swarm once more. There are fresh crowds of +Barbarians from Dacia and Scythia. Every sword is needed to hold the +Alpine passes. They cannot let three legions lie idle in Britain." + +The soldier shrugged his shoulders. + +"When the legions go no Roman would feel that his life was safe here. +For all that we have done, it is none the less the truth that it is no +country of ours, and that we hold it as we won it by the sword." + +"Yes, every man, woman, and child of Latin blood must come with us to +Gaul. The galleys are already waiting at Portus Dubris. Get the orders +out, Crassus, at once. As the Valerian legion falls back from the Wall +of Hadrian it can take the northern colonists with it. The Jovians can +bring in the people from the west, and the Batavians can escort the +easterns if they will muster at Camboricum. You will see to it." He sank +his face for a moment in his hands. "It is a fearsome thing," said he, +"to tear up the roots of so goodly a tree." + +"To make more space for such a crop of weeds," said the soldier +bitterly. "My God, what will be the end of these poor Britons! From +ocean to ocean there is not a tribe which will not be at the throat of +its neighbour when the last Roman Lictor has turned his back. With these +hot-headed Silures it is hard enough now to keep the swords in their +sheaths." + +"The kennel might fight as they choose among themselves until the best +hound won," said the Roman Governor. "At least the victor would keep the +arts and the religion which we have brought them, and Britain would be +one land. No, it is the bear from the north and the wolves from oversea, +the painted savage from beyond the walls and the Saxon pirate from over +the water, who will succeed to our rule. Where we saved, they will +slay; where we built, they will burn; where we planted, they will +ravage. But the die is cast, Crassus. You will carry out the orders." + +"I will send out the messengers within an hour. This very morning there +has come news that the Barbarians are through the old gap in the wall, +and their outriders as far south as Vinovia." + +The Governor shrugged his shoulders. + +"These things concern us no longer," said he. Then a bitter smile broke +upon his aquiline clean-shaven face. "Whom think you that I see in +audience this morning?" + +"Nay, I know not." + +"Caradoc and Regnus, and Celticus the Icenian, who, like so many of the +richer Britons, have been educated at Rome, and who would lay before me +their plans as to the ruling of this country." + +"And what is their plan?" + +"That they themselves should do it." + +The Roman soldier laughed. "Well, they will have their will," said he, +as he saluted and turned upon his heel. "Farewell, your excellency. +There are hard days coming for you and for me." + +An hour later the British deputation was ushered into the presence of +the Governor. They were good, steadfast men, men who with a whole heart, +and at some risk to themselves, had taken up their country's cause, so +far as they could see it. At the same time they well knew that under the +mild and beneficent rule of Rome it was only when they passed from words +to deeds that their backs or their necks would be in danger. They stood +now, earnest and a little abashed, before the throne of the viceroy. +Celticus was a swarthy, black-bearded little Iberian. Caradoc and Regnus +were tall middle-aged men of the fair flaxen British type. All three +were dressed in the draped yellow toga after the Latin fashion, instead +of in the bracæ and tunic which distinguished their more insular +fellow-countrymen. + +"Well?" asked the Governor. + +"We are here," said Celticus boldly, "as the spokesmen of a great number +of our fellow-countrymen, for the purpose of sending our petition +through you to the Emperor and to the Roman Senate, that we may urge +upon them the policy of allowing us to govern this country after our +own ancient fashion." He paused, as if awaiting some outburst as an +answer to his own temerity; but the Governor merely nodded his head as a +sign that he should proceed. "We had laws of our own before ever Cæsar +set foot in Britain, which have served their purpose since first our +forefathers came from the land of Ham. We are not a child among the +nations, but our history goes back in our own traditions further even +than that of Rome, and we are galled by this yoke which you have laid +upon us." + +"Are not our laws just?" asked the Governor. + +"The code of Cæsar is just, but it is always the code of Cæsar. Our own +laws were made for our own uses and our own circumstances, and we would +fain have them again." + +"You speak Roman as if you had been bred in the Forum; you wear a Roman +toga; your hair is filleted in Roman fashion--are not these the gifts of +Rome?" + +"We would take all the learning and all the arts that Rome or Greece +could give, but we would still be Britain, and ruled by Britons." + +The viceroy smiled. "By the rood of Saint Helena," said he, "had you +spoken thus to some of my heathen ancestors, there would have been an +end to your politics. That you have dared to stand before my face and +say as much is a proof for ever of the gentleness of our rule. But I +would reason with you for a moment upon this your request. You know well +that this land has never been one kingdom, but was always under many +chiefs and many tribes, who have made war upon each other. Would you in +very truth have it so again?" + +"Those were in the evil pagan days, the days of the Druid and the +oak-grove, your excellency. But now we are held together by a gospel of +peace." + +The viceroy shook his head. "If all the world were of the same way of +thinking, then it would be easier," said he. "It may be that this +blessed doctrine of peace will be little help to you when you are face +to face with strong men who still worship the god of war. What would you +do against the Picts of the north?" + +"Your excellency knows that many of the bravest legionaries are of +British blood. These are our defence." + +"But discipline, man, the power to command, the knowledge of war, the +strength to act--it is in these things that you would fail. Too long +have you leaned upon the crutch." + +"The times may be hard, but when we have gone through them, Britain will +be herself again." + +"Nay, she will be under a different and a harsher master," said the +Roman. "Already the pirates swarm upon the eastern coast. Were it not +for our Roman Count of the Saxon shore they would land to-morrow. I see +the day when Britain may, indeed, be one; but that will be because you +and your fellows are either dead or are driven into the mountains of the +west. All goes into the melting pot, and if a better Albion should come +forth from it, it will be after ages of strife, and neither you nor your +people will have part or lot in it." + +Regnus, the tall young Celt, smiled. "With the help of God and our own +right arms we should hope for a better end," said he. "Give us but the +chance, and we will bear the brunt." + +"You are as men that are lost," said the viceroy sadly. "I see this +broad land, with its gardens and orchards, its fair villas and its +walled towns, its bridges and its roads, all the work of Rome. Surely it +will pass even as a dream, and these three hundred years of settled +order will leave no trace behind. For learn that it will indeed be as +you wish, and that this very day the orders have come to me that the +legions are to go." + +The three Britons looked at each other in amazement. Their first impulse +was towards a wild exultation, but reflection and doubt followed close +upon its heels. + +"This is indeed wondrous news," said Celticus. "This is a day of days to +the motherland. When do the legions go, your excellency, and what troops +will remain behind for our protection?" + +"The legions go at once," said the viceroy. "You will doubtless rejoice +to hear that within a month there will be no Roman soldier in the +island, nor, indeed, a Roman of any sort, age, or sex, if I can take +them with me." + +The faces of the Britons were shadowed, and Caradoc, a grave and +thoughtful man, spoke for the first time. + +"But this is over sudden, your excellency," said he. "There is much +truth in what you have said about the pirates. From my villa near the +fort of Anderida I saw eighty of their galleys only last week, and I +know well that they would be on us like ravens on a dying ox. For many +years to come it would not be possible for us to hold them off." + +The viceroy shrugged his shoulders. "It is your affair now," said he. +"Rome must look to herself." + +The last traces of joy had passed from the faces of the Britons. +Suddenly the future had started up clearly before them, and they quailed +at the prospect. + +"There is a rumour in the market-place," said Celticus, "that the +northern Barbarians are through the gap in the wall. Who is to stop +their progress?" + +"You and your fellows," said the Roman. + +Clearer still grew the future, and there was terror in the eyes of the +spokesmen as they faced it. + +"But, your excellency, if the legions should go at once, we should have +the wild Scots at York, and the Northmen in the Thames within the month. +We can build ourselves up under your shield, and in a few years it would +be easier for us; but not now, your excellency, not now." + +"Tut, man; for years you have been clamouring in our ears and raising +the people. Now you have got what you asked. What more would you have? +Within the month you will be as free as were your ancestors before Cæsar +set foot upon your shore." + +"For God's sake, your excellency, put our words out of your head. The +matter had not been well considered. We will send to Rome. We will ride +post-haste ourselves. We will fall at the Emperor's feet. We will kneel +before the Senate and beg that the legions remain." + +The Roman proconsul rose from his chair and motioned that the audience +was at an end. + +"You will do what you please," said he. "I and my men are for Italy." + + * * * * * + +And even as he said, so was it, for before the spring had ripened into +summer, the troops were clanking down the via Aurelia on their way to +the Ligurian passes, whilst every road in Gaul was dotted with the carts +and the waggons which bore the Brito-Roman refugees on their weary +journey to their distant country. But ere another summer had passed +Celticus was dead, for he was flayed alive by the pirates and his skin +nailed upon the door of a church near Caistor. Regnus, too, was dead, +for he was tied to a tree and shot with arrows when the painted men came +to the sacking of Isca. Caradoc only was alive, but he was a slave to +Elda the red Caledonian and his wife was mistress to Mordred the wild +chief of the western Cymri. From the ruined wall in the north to Vectis +in the south blood and ruin and ashes covered the fair land of Britain. +And after many days it came out fairer than ever, but, even as the Roman +had said, neither the Britons nor any men of their blood came into the +heritage of that which had been their own. + + + + +II + +THE LAST GALLEY + + + "Mutato nomine, de te, Britannia, fabula narratur." + +It was a spring morning, one hundred and forty-six years before the +coming of Christ. The North African coast, with its broad hem of golden +sand, its green belt of feathery palm trees, and its background of +barren, red-scarped hills, shimmered like a dream country in the opal +light. Save for a narrow edge of snow-white surf, the Mediterranean lay +blue and serene as far as the eye could reach. In all its vast expanse +there was no break but for a single galley, which was slowly making its +way from the direction of Sicily and heading for the distant harbour of +Carthage. + +Seen from afar it was a stately and beautiful vessel, deep red in +colour, double-banked with scarlet oars, its broad, flapping sail +stained with Tyrian purple, its bulwarks gleaming with brass work. A +brazen, three-pronged ram projected in front, and a high golden figure +of Baal, the God of the Phœnicians, children of Canaan, shone upon the +after-deck. From the single high mast above the huge sail streamed the +tiger-striped flag of Carthage. So, like some stately scarlet bird, with +golden beak and wings of purple, she swam upon the face of the waters--a +thing of might and of beauty as seen from the distant shore. + +But approach and look at her now! What are these dark streaks which foul +her white decks and dapple her brazen shields? Why do the long red oars +move out of time, irregular, convulsive? Why are some missing from the +staring portholes, some snapped with jagged, yellow edges, some trailing +inert against the sides? Why are two prongs of the brazen ram twisted +and broken? See, even the high image of Baal is battered and disfigured! +By every sign this ship has passed through some grievous trial, some day +of terror, which has left its heavy marks upon her. + +And now stand upon the deck itself, and see more closely the men who man +her! There are two decks forward and aft, while in the open waist are +the double banks of seats, above and below, where the rowers, two to an +oar, tug and bend at their endless task. Down the centre is a narrow +platform, along which pace a line of warders, lash in hand, who cut +cruelly at the slave who pauses, be it only for an instant, to sweep the +sweat from his dripping brow. But these slaves--look at them! Some are +captured Romans, some Sicilians, many black Libyans, but all are in the +last exhaustion, their weary eyelids drooped over their eyes, their lips +thick with black crusts, and pink with bloody froth, their arms and +backs moving mechanically to the hoarse chant of the overseer. Their +bodies of all tints from ivory to jet, are stripped to the waist, and +every glistening back shows the angry stripes of the warders. But it is +not from these that the blood comes which reddens the seats and tints +the salt water washing beneath their manacled feet. Great gaping wounds, +the marks of sword slash and spear stab, show crimson upon their naked +chests and shoulders, while many lie huddled and senseless athwart the +benches, careless for ever of the whips which still hiss above them. Now +we can understand those empty portholes and those trailing oars. + +Nor were the crew in better case than their slaves. The decks were +littered with wounded and dying men. It was but a remnant who still +remained upon their feet. The most lay exhausted upon the fore-deck, +while a few of the more zealous were mending their shattered armour, +restringing their bows, or cleaning the deck from the marks of combat. +Upon a raised platform at the base of the mast stood the sailing-master +who conned the ship, his eyes fixed upon the distant point of Megara +which screened the eastern side of the Bay of Carthage. On the +after-deck were gathered a number of officers, silent and brooding, +glancing from time to time at two of their own class who stood apart +deep in conversation. The one, tall, dark, and wiry, with pure, Semitic +features, and the limbs of a giant, was Magro, the famous Carthaginian +captain, whose name was still a terror on every shore, from Gaul to the +Euxine. The other, a white-bearded, swarthy man, with indomitable +courage and energy stamped upon every eager line of his keen, aquiline +face, was Gisco the politician, a man of the highest Punic blood, a +Suffete of the purple robe, and the leader of that party in the state +which had watched and striven amid the selfishness and slothfulness of +his fellow-countrymen to rouse the public spirit and waken the public +conscience to the ever-increasing danger from Rome. As they talked, the +two men glanced continually, with earnest anxious faces, towards the +northern skyline. + +"It is certain," said the older man, with gloom in his voice and +bearing, "none have escaped save ourselves." + +"I did not leave the press of the battle whilst I saw one ship which I +could succour," Magro answered. "As it was, we came away, as you saw, +like a wolf which has a hound hanging on to either haunch. The Roman +dogs can show the wolf-bites which prove it. Had any other galley won +clear, they would surely be with us by now, since they have no place of +safety save Carthage." + +The younger warrior glanced keenly ahead to the distant point which +marked his native city. Already the low, leafy hill could be seen, +dotted with the white villas of the wealthy Phœnician merchants. Above +them, a gleaming dot against the pale blue morning sky, shone the brazen +roof of the citadel of Byrsa, which capped the sloping town. + +"Already they can see us from the watch-towers," he remarked. "Even from +afar they may know the galley of Black Magro. But which of all of them +will guess that we alone remain of all that goodly fleet which sailed +out with blare of trumpet and roll of drum but one short month ago?" + +The patrician smiled bitterly. "If it were not for our great ancestors +and for our beloved country, the Queen of the Waters," said he, "I could +find it in my heart to be glad at this destruction which has come upon +this vain and feeble generation. You have spent your life upon the seas, +Magro. You do not know how it has been with us on the land. But I have +seen this canker grow upon us which now leads us to our death. I and +others have gone down into the market-place to plead with the people, +and been pelted with mud for our pains. Many a time have I pointed to +Rome, and said, 'Behold these people, who bear arms themselves, each man +for his own duty and pride. How can you who hide behind mercenaries hope +to stand against them?'--a hundred times I have said it." + +"And had they no answer?" asked the Rover. + +"Rome was far off and they could not see it, so to them it was nothing," +the old man answered. "Some thought of trade, and some of votes, and +some of profits from the State, but none would see that the State +itself, the mother of all things, was sinking to her end. So might the +bees debate who should have wax or honey when the torch was blazing +which would bring to ashes the hive and all therein. 'Are we not rulers +of the sea?' 'Was not Hannibal a great man?' Such were their cries, +living ever in the past and blind to the future. Before that sun sets +there will be tearing of hair and rending of garments; but what will +that now avail us?" + +"It is some sad comfort," said Magro, "to know that what Rome holds she +cannot keep." + +"Why say you that? When we go down, she is supreme in all the world." + +"For a time, and only for a time," Magro answered gravely. "Yet you will +smile, perchance, when I tell you how it is that I know it. There was a +wise woman who lived in that part of the Tin Islands which juts forth +into the sea, and from her lips I have heard many things, but not one +which has not come aright. Of the fall of our own country, and even of +this battle, from which we now return, she told me clearly. There is +much strange lore amongst these savage peoples in the west of the land +of Tin." + +"What said she of Rome?" + +"That she also would fall, even as we, weakened by her riches and her +factions." + +Gisco rubbed his hands. "That at least makes our own fall less bitter," +said he. "But since we have fallen, and Rome will fall, who in turn may +hope to be Queen of the Waters?" + +"That also I asked her," said Magro, "and gave her my Tyrian belt with +the golden buckle as a guerdon for her answer. But, indeed, it was too +high payment for the tale she told, which must be false if all else she +said was true. She would have it that in coming days it was her own +land, this fog-girt isle where painted savages can scarce row a wicker +coracle from point to point, which shall at last take the trident which +Carthage and Rome have dropped." + +The smile which flickered upon the old Patrician's keen features died +away suddenly, and his fingers closed upon his companion's wrist. The +other had set rigid, his head advanced, his hawk eyes upon the northern +skyline. Its straight, blue horizon was broken by two low black dots. + +"Galleys!" whispered Gisco. + +The whole crew had seen them. They clustered along the starboard +bulwarks, pointing and chattering. For a moment the gloom of defeat was +lifted, and a buzz of joy ran from group to group at the thought that +they were not alone--that some one had escaped the great carnage as well +as themselves. + +"By the spirit of Baal," said Black Magro, "I could not have believed +that any could have fought clear from such a welter. Could it be young +Hamilcar in the _Africa_, or is it Beneva in the Blue Syrian ship? We +three with others may form a squadron and make head against them yet. If +we hold our course, they will join us ere we round the harbour mole." + +Slowly the injured galley toiled on her way, and more swiftly the two +new-comers swept down from the north. Only a few miles off lay the green +point and the white houses which flanked the great African city. +Already, upon the headland, could be seen a dark group of waiting +townsmen. Gisco and Magro were still watching with puckered gaze the +approaching galleys, when the brown Libyan boatswain, with flashing +teeth and gleaming eyes, rushed upon the poop, his long thin arm +stabbing to the north. + +"Romans!" he cried. "Romans!" + +A hush had fallen over the great vessel. Only the wash of the water and +the measured rattle and beat of the oars broke in upon the silence. + +"By the horns of God's altar, I believe the fellow is right!" cried old +Gisco. "See how they swoop upon us like falcons. They are full-manned +and full-oared." + +"Plain wood, unpainted," said Magro. "See how it gleams yellow where the +sun strikes it." + +"And yonder thing beneath the mast. Is it not the cursed bridge they use +for boarding?" + +"So they grudge us even one," said Magro with a bitter laugh. "Not even +one galley shall return to the old sea-mother. Well, for my part, I +would as soon have it so. I am of a mind to stop the oars and await +them." + +"It is a man's thought," answered old Gisco; "but the city will need us +in the days to come. What shall it profit us to make the Roman victory +complete? Nay, Magro, let the slaves row as they never rowed before, not +for our own safety, but for the profit of the State." + +So the great red ship laboured and lurched onwards, like a weary panting +stag which seeks shelter from his pursuers, while ever swifter and ever +nearer sped the two lean fierce galleys from the north. Already the +morning sun shone upon the lines of low Roman helmets above the +bulwarks, and glistened on the silver wave where each sharp prow shot +through the still blue water. Every moment the ships drew nearer, and +the long thin scream of the Roman trumpets grew louder upon the ear. + + * * * * * + +Upon the high bluff of Megara there stood a great concourse of the +people of Carthage who had hurried forth from the city upon the news +that the galleys were in sight. They stood now, rich and poor, effete +and plebeian, white Phœnician and dark Kabyle, gazing with breathless +interest at the spectacle before them. Some hundreds of feet beneath +them the Punic galley had drawn so close that with their naked eyes +they could see those stains of battle which told their dismal tale. The +Romans, too, were heading in such a way that it was before their very +faces that their ship was about to be cut off; and yet of all this +multitude not one could raise a hand in its defence. Some wept in +impotent grief, some cursed with flashing eyes and knotted fists, some +on their knees held up appealing hands to Baal; but neither prayer, +tears, nor curses could undo the past nor mend the present. That broken, +crawling galley meant that their fleet was gone. Those two fierce +darting ships meant that the hands of Rome were already at their throat. +Behind them would come others and others, the innumerable trained hosts +of the great Republic, long mistress of the land, now dominant also upon +the waters. In a month, two months, three at the most, their armies +would be there, and what could all the untrained multitudes of Carthage +do to stop them? + +"Nay!" cried one, more hopeful than the rest, "at least we are brave men +with arms in our hands." + +"Fool!" said another, "is it not such talk which has brought us to our +ruin? What is the brave man untrained to the brave man trained? When +you stand before the sweep and rush of a Roman legion you may learn the +difference." + +"Then let us train!" + +"Too late! A full year is needful to turn a man to a soldier. Where will +you--where will your city be within the year? Nay, there is but one +chance for us. If we give up our commerce and our colonies, if we strip +ourselves of all that made us great, then perchance the Roman conqueror +may hold his hand." + +And already the last sea-fight of Carthage was coming swiftly to an end +before them. Under their very eyes the two Roman galleys had shot in, +one on either side of the vessel of Black Magro. They had grappled with +him, and he, desperate in his despair, had cast the crooked flukes of +his anchors over their gunwales, and bound them to him in an iron grip, +whilst with hammer and crowbar he burst great holes in his own +sheathing. The last Punic galley should never be rowed into Ostia, a +sight for the holiday-makers of Rome. She would lie in her own waters. +And the fierce, dark soul of her rover captain glowed as he thought +that not alone should she sink into the depths of the mother sea. + +Too late did the Romans understand the man with whom they had to deal. +Their boarders who had flooded the Punic decks felt the planking sink +and sway beneath them. They rushed to gain their own vessels; but they, +too, were being drawn downwards, held in the dying grip of the great red +galley. Over they went and ever over. Now the deck of Magro's ship is +flush with the water, and the Romans', drawn towards it by the iron +bonds which hold them, are tilted downwards, one bulwark upon the waves, +one reared high in the air. Madly they strain to cast off the death-grip +of the galley. She is under the surface now, and ever swifter, with the +greater weight, the Roman ships heel after her. There is a rending +crash. The wooden side is torn out of one, and mutilated, dismembered, +she rights herself, and lies a helpless thing upon the water. But a last +yellow gleam in the blue water shows where her consort has been dragged +to her end in the iron death-grapple of her foeman. The tiger-striped +flag of Carthage has sunk beneath the swirling surface, never more to +be seen upon the face of the sea. + +For in that year a great cloud hung for seventeen days over the African +coast, a deep black cloud which was the dark shroud of the burning city. +And when the seventeen days were over, Roman ploughs were driven from +end to end of the charred ashes, and salt was scattered there as a sign +that Carthage should be no more. And far off a huddle of naked, starving +folk stood upon the distant mountains, and looked down upon the desolate +plain which had once been the fairest and richest upon earth. And they +understood too late that it is the law of heaven that the world is given +to the hardy and to the self-denying, whilst he who would escape the +duties of manhood will soon be stripped of the pride, the wealth, and +the power, which are the prizes which manhood brings. + + + + +III + +THROUGH THE VEIL + + +He was a great shock-headed, freckle-faced Borderer, the lineal +descendant of a cattle-thieving clan in Liddesdale. In spite of his +ancestry he was as solid and sober a citizen as one would wish to see, a +town councillor of Melrose, an elder of the Church, and the chairman of +the local branch of the Young Men's Christian Association. Brown was his +name--and you saw it printed up as "Brown and Handiside" over the great +grocery stores in the High Street. His wife, Maggie Brown, was an +Armstrong before her marriage, and came from an old farming stock in the +wilds of Teviothead. She was small, swarthy, and dark-eyed, with a +strangely nervous temperament for a Scotch woman. No greater contrast +could be found than the big tawny man and the dark little woman, but +both were of the soil as far back as any memory could extend. + +One day--it was the first anniversary of their wedding--they had driven +over together to see the excavations of the Roman Fort at Newstead. It +was not a particularly picturesque spot. From the northern bank of the +Tweed, just where the river forms a loop, there extends a gentle slope +of arable land. Across it run the trenches of the excavators, with here +and there an exposure of old stonework to show the foundations of the +ancient walls. It had been a huge place, for the camp was fifty acres in +extent, and the fort fifteen. However, it was all made easy for them +since Mr. Brown knew the farmer to whom the land belonged. Under his +guidance they spent a long summer evening inspecting the trenches, the +pits, the ramparts, and all the strange variety of objects which were +waiting to be transported to the Edinburgh Museum of Antiquities. The +buckle of a woman's belt had been dug up that very day, and the farmer +was discoursing upon it when his eyes fell upon Mrs. Brown's face. + +"Your good leddy's tired," said he. "Maybe you'd best rest a wee before +we gang further." + +Brown looked at his wife. She was certainly very pale, and her dark eyes +were bright and wild. + +"What is it, Maggie? I've wearied you. I'm thinkin' it's time we went +back." + +"No, no, John, let us go on. It's wonderful! It's like a dreamland +place. It all seems so close and so near to me. How long were the Romans +here, Mr. Cunningham?" + +"A fair time, mam. If you saw the kitchen midden-pits you would guess it +took a long time to fill them." + +"And why did they leave?" + +"Well, mam, by all accounts they left because they had to. The folk +round could thole them no longer, so they just up and burned the fort +aboot their lugs. You can see the fire marks on the stanes." + +The woman gave a quick little shudder. "A wild night--a fearsome night," +said she. "The sky must have been red that night--and these grey stones, +they may have been red also." + +"Aye, I think they were red," said her husband. "It's a queer thing, +Maggie, and it may be your words that have done it; but I seem to see +that business aboot as clear as ever I saw anything in my life. The +light shone on the water." + +"Aye, the light shone on the water. And the smoke gripped you by the +throat. And all the savages were yelling." + +The old farmer began to laugh. "The leddy will be writin' a story aboot +the old fort," said he. "I've shown many a one ower it, but I never +heard it put so clear afore. Some folk have the gift." + +They had strolled along the edge of the foss, and a pit yawned upon the +right of them. + +"That pit was fourteen foot deep," said the farmer. "What d'ye think we +dug oot from the bottom o't? Weel, it was just the skeleton of a man wi' +a spear by his side. I'm thinkin' he was grippin' it when he died. Now, +how cam' a man wi' a spear doon a hole fourteen foot deep. He wasna' +buried there, for they aye burned their dead. What make ye o' that, +mam?" + +"He sprang doon to get clear of the savages," said the woman. + +"Weel, it's likely enough, and a' the professors from Edinburgh couldna' +gie a better reason. I wish you were aye here, mam, to answer a' oor +deeficulties sae readily. Now, here's the altar that we foond last week. +There's an inscreeption. They tell me it's Latin, and it means that the +men o' this fort give thanks to God for their safety." + +They examined the old worn stone. There was a large deeply-cut "VV" upon +the top of it. + +"What does 'VV' stand for?" asked Brown. + +"Naebody kens," the guide answered. + +"_Valeria Victrix_," said the lady softly. Her face was paler than ever, +her eyes far away, as one who peers down the dim aisles of overarching +centuries. + +"What's that?" asked her husband sharply. + +She started as one who wakes from sleep. "What were we talking about?" +she asked. + +"About this 'VV' upon the stone." + +"No doubt it was just the name of the Legion which put the altar up." + +"Aye, but you gave some special name." + +"Did I? How absurd! How should I ken what the name was?" + +"You said something--'_Victrix_,' I think." + +"I suppose I was guessing. It gives me the queerest feeling, this place, +as if I were not myself, but some one else." + +"Aye, it's an uncanny place," said her husband, looking round with an +expression almost of fear in his bold grey eyes. "I feel it mysel'. I +think we'll just be wishin' you good evenin', Mr. Cunningham, and get +back to Melrose before the dark sets in." + +Neither of them could shake off the strange impression which had been +left upon them by their visit to the excavations. It was as if some +miasma had risen from those damp trenches and passed into their blood. +All the evening they were silent and thoughtful, but such remarks as +they did make showed that the same subject was in the mind of each. +Brown had a restless night, in which he dreamed a strange connected +dream, so vivid that he woke sweating and shivering like a frightened +horse. He tried to convey it all to his wife as they sat together at +breakfast in the morning. + +"It was the clearest thing, Maggie," said he. "Nothing that has ever +come to me in my waking life has been more clear than that. I feel as if +these hands were sticky with blood." + +"Tell me of it--tell me slow," said she. + +"When it began, I was oot on a braeside. I was laying flat on the +ground. It was rough, and there were clumps of heather. All round me was +just darkness, but I could hear the rustle and the breathin' of men. +There seemed a great multitude on every side of me, but I could see no +one. There was a low chink of steel sometimes, and then a number of +voices would whisper 'Hush!' I had a ragged club in my hand, and it had +spikes o' iron near the end of it. My heart was beatin' quickly, and I +felt that a moment of great danger and excitement was at hand. Once I +dropped my club, and again from all round me the voices in the darkness +cried, 'Hush!' I put oot my hand, and it touched the foot of another man +lying in front of me. There was some one at my very elbow on either +side. But they said nothin'. + +"Then we all began to move. The whole braeside seemed to be crawlin' +downwards. There was a river at the bottom and a high-arched wooden +bridge. Beyond the bridge were many lights--torches on a wall. The +creepin' men all flowed towards the bridge. There had been no sound of +any kind, just a velvet stillness. And then there was a cry in the +darkness, the cry of a man who had been stabbed suddenly to the hairt. +That one cry swelled out for a moment, and then the roar of a thoosand +furious voices. I was runnin'. Every one was runnin'. A bright red +light shone out, and the river was a scarlet streak. I could see my +companions now. They were more like devils than men, wild figures clad +in skins, with their hair and beards streamin'. They were all mad with +rage, jumpin' as they ran, their mouths open, their arms wavin', the red +light beatin' on their faces. I ran, too, and yelled out curses like the +rest. Then I heard a great cracklin' of wood, and I knew that the +palisades were doon. There was a loud whistlin' in my ears, and I was +aware that arrows were flyin' past me. I got to the bottom of a dyke, +and I saw a hand stretched doon from above. I took it, and was dragged +to the top. We looked doon, and there were silver men beneath us holdin' +up their spears. Some of our folk sprang on to the spears. Then we +others followed, and we killed the soldiers before they could draw the +spears oot again. They shouted loud in some foreign tongue, but no mercy +was shown them. We went ower them like a wave, and trampled them doon +into the mud, for they were few, and there was no end to our numbers. + +"I found myself among buildings, and one of them was on fire. I saw the +flames spoutin' through the roof. I ran on, and then I was alone among +the buildings. Some one ran across in front o' me. It was a woman. I +caught her by the arm, and I took her chin and turned her face so as the +light of the fire would strike it. Whom think you that it was, Maggie?" + +His wife moistened her dry lips. "It was I," she said. + +He looked at her in surprise. "That's a good guess," said he. "Yes, it +was just you. Not merely like you, you understand. It was you--you +yourself. I saw the same soul in your frightened eyes. You looked white +and bonnie and wonderful in the firelight. I had just one thought in my +head--to get you awa' with me; to keep you all to mysel' in my own home +somewhere beyond the hills. You clawed at my face with your nails. I +heaved you over my shoulder, and I tried to find a way oot of the light +of the burning hoose and back into the darkness. + +"Then came the thing that I mind best of all. You're ill, Maggie. Shall +I stop? My God! you have the very look on your face that you had last +night in my dream. You screamed. He came runnin' in the firelight. His +head was bare; his hair was black and curled; he had a naked sword in +his hand, short and broad, little more than a dagger. He stabbed at me, +but he tripped and fell. I held you with one hand, and with the +other----" + +His wife had sprung to her feet with writhing features. + +"Marcus!" she cried. "My beautiful Marcus! Oh, you brute! you brute! you +brute!" There was a clatter of tea-cups as she fell forward senseless +upon the table. + + * * * * * + +They never talk about that strange isolated incident in their married +life. For an instant the curtain of the past had swung aside, and some +strange glimpse of a forgotten life had come to them. But it closed +down, never to open again. They live their narrow round--he in his shop, +she in her household--and yet new and wider horizons have vaguely formed +themselves around them since that summer evening by the crumbling Roman +fort. + + + + +IV + +THE COMING OF THE HUNS + + +In the middle of the fourth century the state of the Christian religion +was a scandal and a disgrace. Patient, humble, and long-suffering in +adversity, it had become positive, aggressive, and unreasonable with +success. Paganism was not yet dead, but it was rapidly sinking, finding +its most faithful supporters among the conservative aristocrats of the +best families on the one hand, and among those benighted villagers on +the other who gave their name to the expiring creed. Between these two +extremes the great majority of reasonable men had turned from the +conception of many gods to that of one, and had rejected for ever the +beliefs of their forefathers. But with the vices of polytheism, they had +also abandoned its virtues, among which toleration and religious good +humour had been conspicuous. The strenuous earnestness of the Christians +had compelled them to examine and define every point of their own +theology; but as they had no central authority by which such definitions +could be checked, it was not long before a hundred heresies had put +forward their rival views, while the same earnestness of conviction led +the stronger bands of schismatics to endeavour, for conscience sake, to +force their views upon the weaker, and thus to cover the Eastern world +with confusion and strife. + +Alexandria, Antioch, and Constantinople were centres of theological +warfare. The whole north of Africa, too, was rent by the strife of the +Donatists, who upheld their particular schism by iron flails and the +war-cry of "Praise to the Lord!" But minor local controversies sank to +nothing when compared with the huge argument of the Catholic and the +Arian, which rent every village in twain, and divided every household +from the cottage to the palace. The rival doctrines of the Homoousian +and of the Homoiousian, containing metaphysical differences so +attenuated that they could hardly be stated, turned bishop against +bishop and congregation against congregation. The ink of the theologians +and the blood of the fanatics were spilled in floods on either side, +and gentle followers of Christ were horrified to find that their faith +was responsible for such a state of riot and bloodshed as had never yet +disgraced the religious history of the world. Many of the more earnest +among them, shocked and scandalised, slipped away to the Libyan Desert, +or to the solitude of Pontus, there to await in self-denial and prayer +that second coming which was supposed to be at hand. Even in the deserts +they could not escape the echo of the distant strife, and the hermits +themselves scowled fiercely from their dens at passing travellers who +might be contaminated by the doctrines of Athanasius or of Arius. + +Such a hermit was Simon Melas, of whom I write. A Trinitarian and a +Catholic, he was shocked by the excesses of the persecution of the +Arians, which could be only matched by the similar outrages with which +these same Arians in the day of their power avenged their treatment on +their brother Christians. Weary of the whole strife, and convinced that +the end of the world was indeed at hand, he left his home in +Constantinople and travelled as far as the Gothic settlements in Dacia, +beyond the Danube, in search of some spot where he might be free from +the never-ending disputes. Still journeying to the north and east, he +crossed the river which we now call the Dniester, and there, finding a +rocky hill rising from an immense plain, he formed a cell near its +summit, and settled himself down to end his life in self-denial and +meditation. There were fish in the stream, the country teemed with game, +and there was an abundance of wild fruits, so that his spiritual +exercises were not unduly interrupted by the search of sustenance for +his mortal frame. + +In this distant retreat he expected to find absolute solitude, but the +hope was in vain. Within a week of his arrival, in an hour of worldly +curiosity, he explored the edges of the high rocky hill upon which he +lived. Making his way up to a cleft, which was hung with olives and +myrtles, he came upon a cave in the opening of which sat an aged man, +white-bearded, white-haired, and infirm--a hermit like himself. So long +had this stranger been alone that he had almost forgotten the use of his +tongue; but at last, words coming more freely, he was able to convey the +information that his name was Paul of Nicopolis, that he was a Greek +citizen, and that he also had come out into the desert for the saving of +his soul, and to escape from the contamination of heresy. + +"Little I thought, brother Simon," said he, "that I should ever find any +one else who had come so far upon the same holy errand. In all these +years, and they are so many that I have lost count of them, I have never +seen a man, save indeed one or two wandering shepherds far out upon +yonder plain." + +From where they sat, the huge steppe, covered with waving grass and +gleaming with a vivid green in the sun, stretched away as level and as +unbroken as the sea, to the eastern horizon. Simon Melas stared across +it with curiosity. + +"Tell me, brother Paul," said he, "you who have lived here so long--what +lies at the further side of that plain?" + +The old man shook his head. "There is no further side to the plain," +said he. "It is the earth's boundary, and stretches away to eternity. +For all these years I have sat beside it, but never once have I seen +anything come across it. It is manifest that if there had been a +further side there would certainly at some time have come some traveller +from that direction. Over the great river yonder is the Roman post of +Tyras; but that is a long day's journey from here, and they have never +disturbed my meditations." + +"On what do you meditate, brother Paul?" + +"At first I meditated on many sacred mysteries; but now, for twenty +years, I have brooded continually on the nature of the Logos. What is +your view upon that vital matter, brother Simon?" + +"Surely," said the younger man, "there can be no question as to that. +The Logos is assuredly but a name used by St. John to signify the +Deity." + +The old hermit gave a hoarse cry of fury, and his brown, withered face +was convulsed with anger. Seizing the huge cudgel which he kept to beat +off the wolves, he shook it murderously at his companion. + +"Out with you! Out of my cell!" he cried. "Have I lived here so long to +have it polluted by a vile Trinitarian--a follower of the rascal +Athanasius? Wretched idolater, learn once for all, that the Logos is in +truth an emanation from the Deity, and in no sense equal or co-eternal +with Him! Out with you, I say, or I will dash out your brains with my +staff!" + +It was useless to reason with the furious Arian, and Simon withdrew in +sadness and wonder, that at this extreme verge of the known earth the +spirit of religious strife should still break upon the peaceful solitude +of the wilderness. With hanging head and heavy heart he made his way +down the valley, and climbed up once more to his own cell, which lay at +the crown of the hill, with the intention of never again exchanging +visits with his Arian neighbour. + +Here, for a year, dwelt Simon Melas, leading a life of solitude and +prayer. There was no reason why any one should ever come to this +outermost point of human habitation. Once a young Roman officer--Caius +Crassus--rode out a day's journey from Tyras, and climbed the hill to +have speech with the anchorite. He was of an equestrian family, and +still held his belief in the old dispensation. He looked with interest +and surprise, but also with some disgust, at the ascetic arrangements +of that humble abode. + +"Whom do you please by living in such a fashion?" he asked. + +"We show that our spirit is superior to our flesh," Simon answered. "If +we fare badly in this world, we believe that we shall reap an advantage +in the world to come." + +The centurion shrugged his shoulders. "There are philosophers among our +people, Stoics and others, who have the same idea. When I was in the +Herulian Cohort of the Fourth Legion we were quartered in Rome itself, +and I saw much of the Christians, but I could never learn anything from +them which I had not heard from my own father, whom you, in your +arrogance, would call a Pagan. It is true that we talk of numerous gods; +but for many years we have not taken them very seriously. Our thoughts +upon virtue and duty and a noble life are the same as your own." + +Simon Melas shook his head. + +"If you have not the holy books," said he, "then what guide have you to +direct your steps?" + +"If you will read our philosophers, and above all the divine Plato, you +will find that there are other guides who may take you to the same end. +Have you by chance read the book which was written by our Emperor Marcus +Aurelius? Do you not discover there every virtue which man could have, +although he knew nothing of your creed? Have you considered, also, the +words and actions of our late Emperor Julian, with whom I served my +first campaign when he went out against the Persians? Where could you +find a more perfect man than he?" + +"Such talk is unprofitable, and I will have no more of it," said Simon +sternly. "Take heed while there is time, and embrace the true faith; for +the end of the world is at hand, and when it comes there will be no +mercy for those who have shut their eyes to the light." So saying, he +turned back once more to his praying-stool and to his crucifix, while +the young Roman walked in deep thought down the hill, and mounting his +horse, rode off to his distant post. Simon watched him until his brazen +helmet was but a bead of light on the western edge of the great plain; +for this was the first human face that he had seen in all this long +year, and there were times when his heart yearned for the voices and the +faces of his kind. + +So another year passed, and save for the change of weather and the slow +change of the seasons, one day was as another. Every morning when Simon +opened his eyes, he saw the same grey line ripening into red in the +furthest east, until the bright rim pushed itself above that far-off +horizon across which no living creature had ever been known to come. +Slowly the sun swept across the huge arch of the heavens, and as the +shadows shifted from the black rocks which jutted upward from above his +cell, so did the hermit regulate his terms of prayer and meditation. +There was nothing on earth to draw his eye, or to distract his mind, for +the grassy plain below was as void from month to month as the heaven +above. So the long hours passed, until the red rim slipped down on the +further side, and the day ended in the same pearl-grey shimmer with +which it had begun. Once two ravens circled for some days round the +lonely hill, and once a white fish-eagle came from the Dniester and +screamed above the hermit's head. Sometimes red dots were seen on the +green plain where the antelopes grazed, and often a wolf howled in the +darkness from the base of the rocks. Such was the uneventful life of +Simon Melas the anchorite, until there came the day of wrath. + +It was in the late spring of the year 375 that Simon came out from his +cell, his gourd in his hand, to draw water from the spring. Darkness had +closed in, the sun had set, but one last glimmer of rosy light rested +upon a rocky peak, which jutted forth from the hill, on the further side +from the hermit's dwelling. As Simon came forth from under his ledge, +the gourd dropped from his hand, and he stood gazing in amazement. + +On the opposite peak a man was standing, his outline black in the fading +light. He was a strange, almost a deformed figure, short-statured, +round-backed, with a large head, no neck, and a long rod jutting out +from between his shoulders. He stood with his face advanced, and his +body bent, peering very intently over the plain to the westward. In a +moment he was gone, and the lonely black peak showed up hard and naked +against the faint eastern glimmer. Then the night closed down, and all +was black once more. + +Simon Melas stood long in bewilderment, wondering who this stranger +could be. He had heard, as had every Christian, of those evil spirits +which were wont to haunt the hermits in the Thebaid and on the skirts of +the Ethiopian waste. The strange shape of this solitary creature, its +dark outline and prowling, intent attitude, suggestive rather of a +fierce, rapacious beast than of a man, all helped him to believe that he +had at last encountered one of those wanderers from the pit, of whose +existence, in those days of robust faith, he had no more doubt than of +his own. Much of the night he spent in prayer, his eyes glancing +continually at the low arch of his cell door, with its curtain of deep +purple wrought with stars. At any instant some crouching monster, some +horned abomination, might peer in upon him, and he clung with frenzied +appeal to his crucifix, as his human weakness quailed at the thought. +But at last his fatigue overcame his fears, and falling upon his couch +of dried grass, he slept until the bright daylight brought him to his +senses. + +It was later than was his wont, and the sun was far above the horizon. +As he came forth from his cell, he looked across at the peak of rock, +but it stood there bare and silent. Already it seemed to him that that +strange dark figure which had startled him so was some dream, some +vision of the twilight. His gourd lay where it had fallen, and he picked +it up with the intention of going to the spring. But suddenly he was +aware of something new. The whole air was throbbing with sound. From all +sides it came, rumbling, indefinite, an inarticulate mutter, low, but +thick and strong, rising, falling, reverberating among the rocks, dying +away into vague whispers, but always there. He looked round at the blue, +cloudless sky in bewilderment. Then he scrambled up the rocky pinnacle +above him, and sheltering himself in its shadow, he stared out over the +plain. In his wildest dream he had never imagined such a sight. + +The whole vast expanse was covered with horsemen, hundreds and thousands +and tens of thousands, all riding slowly and in silence, out of the +unknown east. It was the multitudinous beat of their horses' hoofs +which caused that low throbbing in his ears. Some were so close to him +as he looked down upon them that he could see clearly their thin, wiry +horses, and the strange humped figures of their swarthy riders, sitting +forward on the withers, shapeless bundles, their short legs hanging +stirrupless, their bodies balanced as firmly as though they were part of +the beast. In those nearest he could see the bow and the quiver, the +long spear and the short sword, with the coiled lasso behind the rider, +which told that this was no helpless horde of wanderers, but a +formidable army upon the march. His eyes passed on from them and swept +further and further, but still to the very horizon, which quivered with +movement, there was no end to this monstrous cavalry. Already the +vanguard was far past the island of rock upon which he dwelt, and he +could now understand that in front of this vanguard were single scouts +who guided the course of the army, and that it was one of these whom he +had seen the evening before. + +All day, held spell-bound by this wonderful sight, the hermit crouched +in the shadow of the rocks, and all day the sea of horsemen rolled +onward over the plain beneath. Simon had seen the swarming quays of +Alexandria, he had watched the mob which blocked the hippodrome of +Constantinople, yet never had he imagined such a multitude as now +defiled beneath his eyes, coming from that eastern skyline which had +been the end of his world. Sometimes the dense streams of horsemen were +broken by droves of brood-mares and foals, driven along by mounted +guards; sometimes there were herds of cattle; sometimes there were lines +of waggons with skin canopies above them; but then once more, after +every break, came the horsemen, the horsemen, the hundreds and the +thousands and the tens of thousands, slowly, ceaselessly, silently +drifting from the east to the west. The long day passed, the light +waned, and the shadows fell, but still the great broad stream was +flowing by. + +But the night brought a new and even stranger sight. Simon had marked +bundles of faggots upon the backs of many of the led horses, and now he +saw their use. All over the great plain, red pin-points gleamed through +the darkness, which grew and brightened into flickering columns of +flame. So far as he could see both to east and west the fires extended, +until they were but points of light in the furthest distance. White +stars shone in the vast heavens above, red ones in the great plain +below. And from every side rose the low, confused murmur of voices, with +the lowing of oxen and the neighing of horses. + +Simon had been a soldier and a man of affairs before ever he forsook the +world, and the meaning of all that he had seen was clear to him. History +told him how the Roman world had ever been assailed by fresh swarms of +Barbarians, coming from the outer darkness, and that the eastern Empire +had already, in its fifty years of existence since Constantine had moved +the capital of the world to the shores of the Bosphorus, been tormented +in the same way. Gepidæ and Heruli, Ostrogoths and Sarmatians, he was +familiar with them all. What the advanced sentinel of Europe had seen +from this lonely outlying hill, was a fresh swarm breaking in upon the +Empire, distinguished only from the others by its enormous, incredible +size and by the strange aspect of the warriors who composed it. He alone +of all civilised men knew of the approach of this dreadful shadow, +sweeping like a heavy storm cloud from the unknown depths of the east. +He thought of the little Roman posts along the Dniester, of the ruined +Dacian wall of Trajan behind them, and then of the scattered, +defenceless villages which lay with no thought of danger over all the +open country which stretched down to the Danube. Could he but give them +the alarm! Was it not, perhaps, for that very end that God had guided +him to the wilderness? + +Then suddenly he remembered his Arian neighbour, who dwelt in the cave +beneath him. Once or twice during the last year he had caught a glimpse +of his tall, bent figure hobbling round to examine the traps which he +laid for quails and partridges. On one occasion they had met at the +brook; but the old theologian waved him away as if he were a leper. What +did he think now of this strange happening? Surely their differences +might be forgotten at such a moment. He stole down the side of the hill, +and made his way to his fellow-hermit's cave. + +But there was a terrible silence as he approached it. His heart sank at +that deadly stillness in the little valley. No glimmer of light came +from the cleft in the rocks. He entered and called, but no answer came +back. Then, with flint, steel, and the dry grass which he used for +tinder, he struck a spark, and blew it into a blaze. The old hermit, his +white hair dabbled with crimson, lay sprawling across the floor. The +broken crucifix, with which his head had been beaten in, lay in +splinters across him. Simon had dropped on his knees beside him, +straightening his contorted limbs, and muttering the office for the +dead, when the thud of a horse's hoofs was heard ascending the little +valley which led to the hermit's cell. The dry grass had burned down, +and Simon crouched trembling in the darkness, pattering prayers to the +Virgin that his strength might be upheld. + +It may have been that the new-comer had seen the gleam of the light, or +it may have been that he had heard from his comrades of the old man whom +they had murdered, and that his curiosity had led him to the spot. He +stopped his horse outside the cave, and Simon, lurking in the shadows +within, had a fair view of him in the moonlight. He slipped from his +saddle, fastened the bridle to a root, and then stood peering through +the opening of the cell. He was a very short, thick man, with a dark +face, which was gashed with three cuts upon either side. His small eyes +were sunk deep in his head, showing like black holes in the heavy, flat, +hairless face. His legs were short and very bandy, so that he waddled +uncouthly as he walked. + +Simon crouched in the darkest angle, and he gripped in his hand that +same knotted cudgel which the dead theologian had once raised against +him. As that hideous stooping head advanced into the darkness of the +cell, he brought the staff down upon it with all the strength of his +right arm, and then, as the stricken savage fell forward upon his face, +he struck madly again and again, until the shapeless figure lay limp and +still. One roof covered the first slain of Europe and of Asia. + +Simon's veins were throbbing and quivering with the unwonted joy of +action. All the energy stored up in those years of repose came in a +flood at this moment of need. Standing in the darkness of the cell, he +saw, as in a map of fire, the outlines of the great Barbaric host, the +line of the river, the position of the settlements, the means by which +they might be warned. Silently he waited in the shadow until the moon +had sunk. Then he flung himself upon the dead man's horse, guided it +down the gorge, and set forth at a gallop across the plain. + +There were fires on every side of him, but he kept clear of the rings of +light. Round each he could see, as he passed, the circle of sleeping +warriors, with the long lines of picketed horses. Mile after mile and +league after league stretched that huge encampment. And then, at last, +he had reached the open plain which led to the river, and the fires of +the invaders were but a dull smoulder against the black eastern sky. +Ever faster and faster he sped across the steppe, like a single +fluttered leaf which whirls before the storm. Even as the dawn whitened +the sky behind him, it gleamed also upon the broad river in front, and +he flogged his weary horse through the shallows, until he plunged into +its full yellow tide. + + * * * * * + +So it was that, as the young Roman centurion--Caius Crassus--made his +morning round in the fort of Tyras he saw a single horseman, who rode +towards him from the river. Weary and spent, drenched with water and +caked with dirt and sweat, both horse and man were at the last stage of +their endurance. With amazement the Roman watched their progress, and +recognised in the ragged, swaying figure, with flying hair and staring +eyes, the hermit of the eastern desert. He ran to meet him, and caught +him in his arms as he reeled from the saddle. + +"What is it, then?" he asked. "What is your news?" + +But the hermit could only point at the rising sun. "To arms!" he +croaked. "To arms! The day of wrath is come!" And as he looked, the +Roman saw--far across the river--a great dark shadow, which moved slowly +over the distant plain. + + + + +V + +THE CONTEST + + +In the year of our Lord 66, the Emperor Nero, being at that time in the +twenty-ninth year of his life and the thirteenth of his reign, set sail +for Greece with the strangest company and the most singular design that +any monarch has ever entertained. With ten galleys he went forth from +Puteoli, carrying with him great stores of painted scenery and +theatrical properties, together with a number of knights and senators, +whom he feared to leave behind him at Rome, and who were all marked for +death in the course of his wanderings. In his train he took Natus, his +singing coach; Cluvius, a man with a monstrous voice, who should bawl +out his titles; and a thousand trained youths who had learned to applaud +in unison whenever their master sang or played in public. So deftly had +they been taught that each had his own rôle to play. Some did no more +than give forth a low deep hum of speechless appreciation. Some clapped +with enthusiasm. Some, rising from approbation into absolute frenzy, +shrieked, stamped, and beat sticks upon the benches. Some--and they were +the most effective--had learned from an Alexandrian a long droning +musical note which they all uttered together, so that it boomed over the +assembly. With the aid of these mercenary admirers, Nero had every hope, +in spite of his indifferent voice and clumsy execution, to return to +Rome, bearing with him the chaplets for song offered for free +competition by the Greek cities. As his great gilded galley with two +tiers of oars passed down the Mediterranean, the Emperor sat in his +cabin all day, his teacher by his side, rehearsing from morning to night +those compositions which he had selected, whilst every few hours a +Nubian slave massaged the Imperial throat with oil and balsam, that it +might be ready for the great ordeal which lay before it in the land of +poetry and song. His food, his drink, and his exercise were prescribed +for him as for an athlete who trains for a contest, and the twanging of +his lyre, with the strident notes of his voice, resounded continually +from the Imperial quarters. + +Now it chanced that there lived in those days a Grecian goatherd named +Policles, who tended and partly owned a great flock which grazed upon +the long flanks of the hills near Herœa, which is five miles north of +the river Alpheus, and no great distance from the famous Olympia. This +person was noted over all the country-side as a man of strange gifts and +singular character. He was a poet who had twice been crowned for his +verses, and he was a musician to whom the use and sound of an instrument +were so natural that one would more easily meet him without his staff +than his harp. Even in his lonely vigils on the winter hills he would +bear it always slung over his shoulder, and would pass the long hours by +its aid, so that it had come to be part of his very self. He was +beautiful also, swarthy and eager, with a head like Adonis, and in +strength there was no one who could compete with him. But all was ruined +by his disposition, which was so masterful that he would brook no +opposition nor contradiction. For this reason he was continually at +enmity with all his neighbours, and in his fits of temper he would +spend months at a time in his stone hut among the mountains, hearing +nothing from the world, and living only for his music and his goats. + +One spring morning, in the year of 67, Policles, with the aid of his boy +Dorus, had driven his goats over to a new pasturage which overlooked +from afar the town of Olympia. Gazing down upon it from the mountain, +the shepherd was surprised to see that a portion of the famous +amphitheatre had been roofed in, as though some performance was being +enacted. Living far from the world and from all news, Policles could not +imagine what was afoot, for he was well aware that the Grecian games +were not due for two years to come. Surely some poetic or musical +contest must be proceeding of which he had heard nothing. If so, there +would perhaps be some chance of his gaining the votes of the judges; and +in any case he loved to hear the compositions and admire the execution +of the great minstrels who assembled on such an occasion. Calling to +Dorus, therefore, he left the goats to his charge, and strode swiftly +away, his harp upon his back, to see what was going forward in the +town. + +When Policles came into the suburbs, he found them deserted; but he was +still more surprised when he reached the main street to see no single +human being in the place. He hastened his steps, therefore, and as he +approached the theatre he was conscious of a low sustained hum which +announced the concourse of a huge assembly. Never in all his dreams had +he imagined any musical competition upon so vast a scale as this. There +were some soldiers clustering outside the door; but Policles pushed his +way swiftly through them, and found himself upon the outskirts of the +multitude who filled the great space formed by roofing over a portion of +the national stadium. Looking around him, Policles saw a great number of +his neighbours, whom he knew by sight, tightly packed upon the benches, +all with their eyes fixed upon the stage. He also observed that there +were soldiers round the walls, and that a considerable part of the hall +was filled by a body of youths of foreign aspect, with white gowns and +long hair. All this he perceived; but what it meant he could not +imagine. He bent over to a neighbour to ask him, but a soldier prodded +him at once with the butt end of his spear, and commanded him fiercely +to hold his peace. The man whom he had addressed, thinking that Policles +had demanded a seat, pressed closer to his neighbour, and so the +shepherd found himself sitting at the end of the bench which was nearest +to the door. Thence he concentrated himself upon the stage, on which +Metas, a well-known minstrel from Corinth and an old friend of Policles, +was singing and playing without much encouragement from the audience. To +Policles it seemed that Metas was having less than his due, so he +applauded loudly, but he was surprised to observe that the soldiers +frowned at him, and that all his neighbours regarded him with some +surprise. Being a man of strong and obstinate character, he was the more +inclined to persevere in his clapping when he perceived that the general +sentiment was against him. + +But what followed filled the shepherd poet with absolute amazement. When +Metas of Corinth had made his bow and withdrawn to half-hearted and +perfunctory applause, there appeared upon the stage, amid the wildest +enthusiasm upon the part of the audience, a most extraordinary figure. +He was a short fat man, neither old nor young, with a bull neck and a +round, heavy face, which hung in creases in front like the dewlap of an +ox. He was absurdly clad in a short blue tunic, braced at the waist with +a golden belt. His neck and part of his chest were exposed, and his +short, fat legs were bare from the buskins below to the middle of his +thighs, which was as far as his tunic extended. In his hair were two +golden wings, and the same upon his heels, after the fashion of the god +Mercury. Behind him walked a negro bearing a harp, and beside him a +richly dressed officer who bore rolls of music. This strange creature +took the harp from the hands of the attendant, and advanced to the front +of the stage, whence he bowed and smiled to the cheering audience. "This +is some foppish singer from Athens," thought Policles to himself, but at +the same time he understood that only a great master of song could +receive such a reception from a Greek audience. This was evidently some +wonderful performer whose reputation had preceded him. Policles settled +down, therefore, and prepared to give his soul up to the music. + +The blue-clad player struck several chords upon his lyre, and then +burst suddenly out into the "Ode of Niobe." Policles sat straight up on +his bench and gazed at the stage in amazement. The tune demanded a rapid +transition from a low note to a high, and had been purposely chosen for +this reason. The low note was a grunting, a rumble, the deep discordant +growling of an ill-conditioned dog. Then suddenly the singer threw up +his face, straightened his tubby figure, rose upon his tiptoes, and with +wagging head and scarlet cheeks emitted such a howl as the same dog +might have given had his growl been checked by a kick from his master. +All the while the lyre twanged and thrummed, sometimes in front of and +sometimes behind the voice of the singer. But what amazed Policles most +of all was the effect of this performance upon the audience. Every Greek +was a trained critic, and as unsparing in his hisses as he was lavish in +his applause. Many a singer far better than this absurd fop had been +driven amid execration and abuse from the platform. But now, as the man +stopped and wiped the abundant sweat from his fat face, the whole +assembly burst into a delirium of appreciation. The shepherd held his +hands to his bursting head, and felt that his reason must be leaving +him. It was surely a dreadful musical nightmare, and he would wake soon +and laugh at the remembrance. But no; the figures were real, the faces +were those of his neighbours, the cheers which resounded in his ears +were indeed from an audience which filled the theatre of Olympia. The +whole chorus was in full blast, the hummers humming, the shouters +bellowing, the tappers hard at work upon the benches, while every now +and then came a musical cyclone of "Incomparable! Divine!" from the +trained phalanx who intoned their applause, their united voices sweeping +over the tumult as the drone of the wind dominates the roar of the sea. +It was madness--insufferable madness! If this were allowed to pass, +there was an end of all musical justice in Greece. Policles' conscience +would not permit him to be still. Standing upon his bench with waving +hands and up-raised voice, he protested with all the strength of his +lungs against the mad judgment of the audience. + +At first, amid the tumult, his action was hardly noticed. His voice was +drowned in the universal roar which broke out afresh at each bow and +smirk from the fatuous musician. But gradually the folk round Policles +ceased clapping, and stared at him in astonishment. The silence grew in +ever widening circles, until the whole great assembly sat mute, staring +at this wild and magnificent creature who was storming at them from his +perch near the door. + +"Fools!" he cried. "What are you clapping at? What are you cheering? Is +this what you call music? Is this cat-calling to earn an Olympian prize? +The fellow has not a note in his voice. You are either deaf or mad, and +I for one cry shame upon you for your folly." + +Soldiers ran to pull him down, and the whole audience was in confusion, +some of the bolder cheering the sentiments of the shepherd, and others +crying that he should be cast out of the building. Meanwhile the +successful singer, having handed his lyre to his negro attendant, was +enquiring from those around him on the stage as to the cause of the +uproar. Finally a herald with an enormously powerful voice stepped +forward to the front, and proclaimed that if the foolish person at the +back of the hall, who appeared to differ from the opinion of the rest +of the audience, would come forward upon the platform, he might, if he +dared, exhibit his own powers, and see if he could outdo the admirable +and wonderful exhibition which they had just had the privilege of +hearing. + +Policles sprang readily to his feet at the challenge, and the great +company making way for him to pass, he found himself a minute later +standing in his unkempt garb, with his frayed and weather-beaten harp in +his hand, before the expectant crowd. He stood for a moment tightening a +string here and slackening another there until his chords rang true. +Then, amid a murmur of laughter and jeers from the Roman benches +immediately before him, he began to sing. + +He had prepared no composition, but he had trained himself to improvise, +singing out of his heart for the joy of the music. He told of the land +of Elis, beloved of Jupiter, in which they were gathered that day, of +the great bare mountain slopes, of the swift shadows of the clouds, of +the winding blue river, of the keen air of the uplands, of the chill of +the evenings, and the beauties of earth and sky. It was all simple and +childlike, but it went to the hearts of the Olympians, for it spoke of +the land which they knew and loved. Yet when he at last dropped his +hand, few of them dared to applaud, and their feeble voices were drowned +by a storm of hisses and groans from his opponents. He shrank back in +horror from so unusual a reception, and in an instant his blue-clad +rival was in his place. If he had sung badly before, his performance now +was inconceivable. His screams, his grunts, his discords, and harsh +jarring cacophonies were an outrage to the very name of music. And yet +every time that he paused for breath or to wipe his streaming forehead a +fresh thunder of applause came rolling back from the audience. Policles +sank his face in his hands and prayed that he might not be insane. Then, +when the dreadful performance ceased, and the uproar of admiration +showed that the crown was certainly awarded to this impostor, a horror +of the audience, a hatred of this race of fools, and a craving for the +peace and silence of the pastures mastered every feeling in his mind. He +dashed through the mass of people waiting at the wings, and emerged in +the open air. His old rival and friend Metas of Corinth was waiting +there with an anxious face. + +"Quick, Policles, quick!" he cried. "My pony is tethered behind yonder +grove. A grey he is, with red trappings. Get you gone as hard as hoof +will bear you, for if you are taken you will have no easy death." + +"No easy death! What mean you, Metas? Who is the fellow?" + +"Great Jupiter! did you not know? Where have you lived? It is Nero the +Emperor! Never would he pardon what you have said about his voice. +Quick, man, quick, or the guards will be at your heels!" + + * * * * * + +An hour later the shepherd was well on his way to his mountain home, and +about the same time the Emperor, having received the Chaplet of Olympia +for the incomparable excellence of his performance, was making enquiries +with a frowning brow as to who the insolent person might be who had +dared to utter such contemptuous criticisms. + +"Bring him to me here this instant," said he, "and let Marcus with his +knife and branding-iron be in attendance." + +"If it please you, great Cæsar," said Arsenius Platus, the officer of +attendance, "the man cannot be found, and there are some very strange +rumours flying about." + +"Rumours!" cried the angry Nero. "What do you mean, Arsenius? I tell you +that the fellow was an ignorant upstart with the bearing of a boor and +the voice of a peacock. I tell you also that there are a good many who +are as guilty as he among the people, for I heard them with my own ears +raise cheers for him when he had sung his ridiculous ode. I have half a +mind to burn their town about their ears so that they may remember my +visit." + +"It is not to be wondered at if he won their votes, Cæsar," said the +soldier, "for from what I hear it would have been no disgrace had you, +even you, been conquered in this contest." + +"I conquered! You are mad, Arsenius. What do you mean?" + +"None know him, great Cæsar! He came from the mountains, and he +disappeared into the mountains. You marked the wildness and strange +beauty of his face. It is whispered that for once the great god Pan has +condescended to measure himself against a mortal." + +The cloud cleared from Nero's brow. "Of course, Arsenius! You are right! +No man would have dared to brave me so. What a story for Rome! Let the +messenger leave this very night, Arsenius, to tell them how their +Emperor has upheld their honour in Olympia this day." + + + + +VI + +THE FIRST CARGO + + + "Ex ovo omnia" + +When you left Britain with your legion, my dear Crassus, I promised that +I would write to you from time to time when a messenger chanced to be +going to Rome, and keep you informed as to anything of interest which +might occur in this country. Personally, I am very glad that I remained +behind when the troops and so many of our citizens left, for though the +living is rough and the climate is infernal, still by dint of the three +voyages which I have made for amber to the Baltic, and the excellent +prices which I obtained for it here, I shall soon be in a position to +retire, and to spend my old age under my own fig tree, or even perhaps +to buy a small villa at Baiae or Posuoli, where I could get a good +sun-bath after the continued fogs of this accursed island. I picture +myself on a little farm, and I read the Georgics as a preparation; but +when I hear the rain falling and the wind howling, Italy seems very far +away. + +In my previous letter I let you know how things were going in this +country. The poor folk, who had given up all soldiering during the +centuries that we guarded them, are now perfectly helpless before these +Picts and Scots, tattooed Barbarians from the north, who overrun the +whole country and do exactly what they please. So long as they kept to +the north, the people in the south, who are the most numerous, and also +the most civilised of the Britons, took no heed of them; but now the +rascals have come as far as London, and the lazy folk in these parts +have had to wake up. Vortigern, the king, is useless for anything but +drink or women, so he sent across to the Baltic to get over some of the +North Germans, in the hope that they would come and help him. It is bad +enough to have a bear in your house, but it does not seem to me to mend +matters if you call in a pack of ferocious wolves as well. However, +nothing better could be devised, so an invitation was sent and very +promptly accepted. And it is here that your humble friend appears upon +the scene. In the course of my amber trading I had learned the Saxon +speech, and so I was sent down in all haste to the Kentish shore that I +might be there when our new allies came. I arrived there on the very day +when their first vessel appeared, and it is of my adventures that I wish +to tell you. It is perfectly clear to me that the landing of these +warlike Germans in England will prove to be an event of historical +importance, and so your inquisitive mind will not feel wearied if I +treat the matter in some detail. + +It was, then, upon the day of Mercury, immediately following the Feast +of Our Blessed Lord's Ascension, that I found myself upon the south bank +of the river Thames, at the point where it opens into a wide estuary. +There is an island there named Thanet, which was the spot chosen for the +landfall of our visitors. Sure enough, I had no sooner ridden up than +there was a great red ship, the first as it seems of three, coming in +under full sail. The white horse, which is the ensign of these rovers, +was hanging from her topmast, and she appeared to be crowded with men. +The sun was shining brightly, and the great scarlet ship, with +snow-white sails and a line of gleaming shields slung over her side, +made as fair a picture on that blue expanse as one would wish to see. + +I pushed off at once in a boat, because it had been arranged that none +of the Saxons should land until the king had come down to speak with +their leaders. Presently I was under the ship, which had a gilded dragon +in the bows, and a tier of oars along either side. As I looked up, there +was a row of helmeted heads looking down at me, and among them I saw, to +my great surprise and pleasure, that of Eric the Swart, with whom I do +business at Venta every year. He greeted me heartily when I reached the +deck, and became at once my guide, friend, and counsellor. This helped +me greatly with these Barbarians, for it is their nature that they are +very cold and aloof unless one of their own number can vouch for you, +after which they are very hearty and hospitable. Try as they will, they +find it hard, however, to avoid a certain suggestion of condescension, +and in the baser sort, of contempt, when they are dealing with a +foreigner. + +It was a great stroke of luck meeting Eric, for he was able to give me +some idea of how things stood before I was shown into the presence of +Kenna, the leader of this particular ship. The crew, as I learned from +him, was entirely made up of three tribes or families--those of Kenna, +of Lanc, and of Hasta. Each of these tribes gets its name by putting the +letters "ing" after the name of the chief, so that the people on board +would describe themselves as Kennings, Lancings, and Hastings. I +observed in the Baltic that the villages were named after the family who +lived in them, each keeping to itself, so that I have no doubt that if +these fellows get a footing on shore, we shall see settlements with +names like these rising up among the British towns. + +The greater part of the men were sturdy fellows with red, yellow, or +brown hair, mostly the latter. To my surprise, I saw several women among +them. Eric, in answer to my question, explained that they always take +their women with them so far as they can, and that instead of finding +them an encumbrance as our Roman dames would be, they look upon them as +helpmates and advisers. Of course, I remembered afterwards that our +excellent and accurate Tacitus has remarked upon this characteristic of +the Germans. All laws in the tribes are decided by votes, and a vote +has not yet been given to the women, but many are in favour of it, and +it is thought that woman and man may soon have the same power in the +State, though many of the women themselves are opposed to such an +innovation. I observed to Eric that it was fortunate there were several +women on board, as they could keep each other company; but he answered +that the wives of chiefs had no desire to know the wives of the inferior +officers, and that both of them combined against the more common women, +so that any companionship was out of the question. He pointed as he +spoke to Editha, the wife of Kenna, a red-faced, elderly woman, who +walked among the others, her chin in the air, taking no more notice than +if they did not exist. + +Whilst I was talking to my friend Eric, a sudden altercation broke out +upon the deck, and a great number of the men paused in their work, and +flocked towards the spot with faces which showed that they were deeply +interested in the matter. Eric and I pushed our way among the others, +for I was very anxious to see as much as I could of the ways and +manners of these Barbarians. A quarrel had broken out about a child, a +little blue-eyed fellow with curly yellow hair, who appeared to be +greatly amused by the hubbub of which he was the cause. On one side of +him stood a white-bearded old man, of very majestic aspect, who +signified by his gestures that he claimed the lad for himself, while on +the other was a thin, earnest, anxious person, who strongly objected to +the boy being taken from him. Eric whispered in my ear that the old man +was the tribal high priest, who was the official sacrificer to their +great god Woden, whilst the other was a man who took somewhat different +views, not upon Woden, but upon the means by which he should be +worshipped. The majority of the crew were on the side of the old priest; +but a certain number, who liked greater liberty of worship, and to +invent their own prayers instead of always repeating the official ones, +followed the lead of the younger man. The difference was too deep and +too old to be healed among the grown men, but each had a great desire to +impress his view upon the children. This was the reason why these two +were now so furious with each other, and the argument between them ran +so high that several of their followers on either side had drawn the +short saxes, or knives from which their name of Saxon is derived, when a +burly, red-headed man pushed his way through the throng, and in a voice +of thunder brought the controversy to an end. + +"You priests, who argue about the things which no man can know, are more +trouble aboard this ship than all the dangers of the sea," he cried. +"Can you not be content with worshipping Woden, over which we are all +agreed, and not make so much of those small points upon which we may +differ. If there is all this fuss about the teaching of the children, +then I shall forbid either of you to teach them, and they must be +content with as much as they can learn from their mothers." + +The two angry teachers walked away with discontented faces; and +Kenna--for it was he who spoke--ordered that a whistle should be +sounded, and that the crew should assemble. I was pleased with the free +bearing of these people, for though this was their greatest chief, they +showed none of the exaggerated respect which soldiers of a legion might +show to the Prætor, but met him on a respectful equality, which showed +how highly they rated their own manhood. + +From our Roman standard, his remarks to his men would seem very wanting +in eloquence, for there were no graces nor metaphors to be found in +them, and yet they were short, strong and to the point. At any rate it +was very clear that they were to the minds of his hearers. He began by +reminding them that they had left their own country because the land was +all taken up, and that there was no use returning there, since there was +no place where they could dwell as free and independent men. This island +of Britain was but sparsely inhabited, and there was a chance that every +one of them would be able to found a home of his own. + +"You, Whitta," he said, addressing some of them by name, "you will found +a Whitting hame, and you, Bucka, we shall see you in a Bucking hame, +where your children and your children's children will bless you for the +broad acres which your valour will have gained for them." There was no +word of glory or of honour in his speech, but he said that he was aware +that they would do their duty, on which they all struck their swords +upon their shields so that the Britons on the beach could hear the +clang. Then, his eyes falling upon me, he asked me whether I was the +messenger from Vortigern, and on my answering, he bid me follow him into +his cabin, where Lanc and Hasta, the other chiefs, were waiting for a +council. + +Picture me, then, my dear Crassus, in a very low-roofed cabin, with +these three huge Barbarians seated round me. Each was clad in some sort +of saffron tunic, with a chain-mail shirt over it, and a helmet with the +horns of oxen on the sides, laid upon the table before him. Like most of +the Saxon chiefs, their beards were shaved, but they wore their hair +long and their huge light-coloured moustaches drooped down on to their +shoulders. They are gentle, slow, and somewhat heavy in their bearing, +but I can well fancy that their fury is the more terrible when it does +arise. + +Their minds seem to be of a very practical and positive nature, for they +at once began to ask me a series of question upon the numbers of the +Britons, the resources of the kingdom, the conditions of its trade, and +other such subjects. They then set to work arguing over the information +which I had given, and became so absorbed in their own contention that I +believe there were times when they forgot my presence. Everything, after +due discussion, was decided between them by the vote, the one who found +himself in the minority always submitting, though sometimes with a very +bad grace. Indeed, on one occasion Lanc, who usually differed from the +others, threatened to refer the matter to the general vote of the whole +crew. There was a constant conflict in the point of view; for whereas +Kenna and Hasta were anxious to extend the Saxon power, and to make it +greater in the eyes of the world, Lanc was of opinion that they should +give less thought to conquest and more to the comfort and advancement of +their followers. At the same time it seemed to me that really Lanc was +the most combative of the three; so much so that, even in time of peace, +he could not forego this contest with his own brethren. Neither of the +others seemed very fond of him, for they were each, as was easy to see, +proud of their chieftainship, and anxious to use their authority, +referring continually to those noble ancestors from whom it was +derived; while Lanc though he was equally well born, took the view of +the common men upon every occasion, claiming that the interests of the +many were superior to the privileges of the few. In a word, Crassus, if +you could imagine a free-booting Gracchus on one side, and two piratical +Patricians upon the other, you would understand the effect which my +companions produced upon me. + +There was one peculiarity which I observed in their conversation which +soothed me very much. I am fond of these Britons, among whom I have +spent so much of my life, and I wish them well. It was very pleasing, +therefore, to notice that these men insisted upon it in their +conversation that the whole object of their visit was the good of the +Islanders. Any prospect of advantage to themselves was pushed into the +background. I was not clear that these professions could be made to +agree with the speech in which Kenna had promised a hundred hides of +land to every man on the ship; but on my making this remark, the three +chiefs seemed very surprised and hurt by my suspicions, and explained +very plausibly that, as the Britons needed them as a guard, they could +not aid them better than by settling on the soil, and so being +continually at hand in order to help them. In time, they said, they +hoped to raise and train the natives to such a point that they would be +able to look after themselves. Lanc spoke with some degree of eloquence +upon the nobleness of the mission which they had undertaken, and the +others clattered their cups of mead (a jar of that unpleasant drink was +on the table) in token of their agreement. + +I observed also how much interested, and how very earnest and intolerant +these Barbarians were in the matter of religion. Of Christianity they +knew nothing, so that although they were aware that the Britons were +Christians, they had not a notion of what their creed really was. Yet +without examination they started by taking it for granted that their own +worship of Woden was absolutely right, and that therefore this other +creed must be absolutely wrong. "This vile religion," "This sad +superstition," and "This grievous error" were among the phrases which +they used towards it. Instead of expressing pity for any one who had +been misinformed upon so serious a question, their feelings were those +of anger, and they declared most earnestly that they would spare no +pains to set the matter right, fingering the hilts of their long +broadswords as they did so. + +Well, my dear Crassus, you will have had enough of me and of my Saxons. +I have given you a short sketch of these people and their ways. Since I +began this letter, I have visited the two other ships which have come +in, and as I find the same characteristics among the people on board +them, I cannot doubt that they lie deeply in the race. For the rest, +they are brave, hardy, and very pertinacious in all that they undertake; +whereas the Britons, though a great deal more spirited, have not the +same steadiness of purpose, their quicker imaginations suggesting always +some other course, and their more fiery passions being succeeded by +reaction. When I looked from the deck of the first Saxon ship, and saw +the swaying excited multitude of Britons on the beach, contrasting them +with the intent, silent men who stood beside me, it seemed to me more +than ever dangerous to call in such allies. So strongly did I feel it +that I turned to Kenna, who was also looking towards the beach. + +"You will own this island before you have finished," said I. + +His eyes sparkled as he gazed. "Perhaps," he cried; and then suddenly +correcting himself and thinking that he had said too much, he added-- + +"A temporary occupation--nothing more." + + + + +VII + +AN ICONOCLAST + + +It was daybreak of a March morning in the year of Christ 92. Outside the +long Semita Alta was already thronged with people, with buyers and +sellers, callers and strollers, for the Romans were so early-rising a +people that many a Patrician preferred to see his clients at six in the +morning. Such was the good republican tradition, still upheld by the +more conservative; but with more modern habits of luxury, a night of +pleasure and banqueting was no uncommon thing. Thus one, who had learned +the new and yet adhered to the old, might find his hours overlap, and +without so much as a pretence of sleep come straight from his night of +debauch into his day of business, turning with heavy wits and an aching +head to that round of formal duties which consumed the life of a Roman +gentleman. + +So it was with Emilius Flaccus that March morning. He and his fellow +senator, Caius Balbus, had passed the night in one of those gloomy +drinking bouts to which the Emperor Domitian summoned his chosen friends +at the high palace on the Palatine. Now, having reached the portals of +the house of Flaccus, they stood together under the pomegranate-fringed +portico which fronted the peristyle and, confident in each other's tried +discretion, made up by the freedom of their criticism for the long +self-suppression of that melancholy feast. + +"If he would but feed his guests," said Balbus, a little red-faced, +choleric nobleman with yellow-shot angry eyes. "What had we? Upon my +life, I have forgotten. Plovers' eggs, a mess of fish, some bird or +other, and then his eternal apples." + +"Of which," said Flaccus, "he ate only the apples. Do him the justice to +confess that he takes even less than he gives. At least they cannot say +of him as of Vitellius, that his teeth beggared the empire." + +"No, nor his thirst either, great as it is. That fiery Sabine wine of +his could be had for a few sesterces the amphora. It is the common drink +of the carters at every wine-house on the country roads. I longed for a +glass of my own rich Falernian or the mellow Coan that was bottled in +the year that Titus took Jerusalem. Is it even now too late? Could we +not wash this rasping stuff from our palates?" + +"Nay, better come in with me now and take a bitter draught ere you go +upon your way. My Greek physician Stephanos has a rare prescription for +a morning head. What! Your clients await you? Well, I will see you later +at the Senate house." + +The Patrician had entered his atrium, bright with rare flowers, and +melodious with strange singing birds. At the jaws of the hall, true to +his morning duties, stood Lebs, the little Nubian slave, with snow-white +tunic and turban, a salver of glasses in one hand, whilst in the other +he held a flask of thin lemon-tinted liquid. The master of the house +filled up a bitter aromatic bumper, and was about to drink it off when +his hand was arrested by a sudden perception that something was much +amiss in his household. It was to be read all around him--in the +frightened eyes of the black boy, in the agitated face of the keeper of +the atrium, in the gloom and silence of the little knot of ordinarii, +the procurator or major-domo at their head, who had assembled to greet +their master. Stephanos the physician, Cleios the Alexandrine reader, +Promus the steward each turned his head away to avoid his master's +questioning gaze. + +"What in the name of Pluto is the matter with you all?" cried the amazed +senator, whose night of potations had left him in no mood for patience. +"Why do you stand moping there? Stephanos, Vacculus, is anything amiss? +Here, Promus, you are the head of my household. What is it, then? Why do +you turn your eyes away from me?" + +The burly steward, whose fat face was haggard and mottled with anxiety, +laid his hand upon the sleeve of the domestic beside him. + +"Sergius is responsible for the atrium, my lord. It is for him to tell +you the terrible thing that has befallen in your absence." + +"Nay, it was Datus who did it. Bring him in, and let him explain it +himself," said Sergius in a sulky voice. + +The patience of the Patrician was at an end. "Speak this instant, you +rascal!" he shouted angrily. "Another minute, and I will have you +dragged to the ergastulum, where, with your feet in the stocks and the +gyves round your wrists, you may learn quicker obedience. Speak, I say, +and without delay." + +"It is the Venus," the man stammered; "the Greek Venus of Praxiteles." + +The senator gave a cry of apprehension and rushed to the corner of the +atrium, where a little shrine, curtained off by silken drapery, held the +precious statue, the greatest art treasure of his collection--perhaps of +the whole world. He tore the hangings aside and stood in speechless +anger before the outraged goddess. The red, perfumed lamp which always +burned before her had been spilled and broken; her altar fire had been +quenched, her chaplet had been dashed aside. But worst of +all--insufferable sacrilege!--her own beautiful nude body of glistening +Pentelic marble, as white and fair as when the inspired Greek had hewed +it out five hundred years before, had been most brutally mishandled. +Three fingers of the gracious outstretched hand had been struck off, and +lay upon the pedestal beside her. Above her delicate breast a dark mark +showed, where a blow had disfigured the marble. Emilius Flaccus, the +most delicate and judicious connoisseur in Rome, stood gasping and +croaking, his hand to his throat, as he gazed at his disfigured +masterpiece. Then he turned upon his slaves, his fury in his convulsed +face; but, to his amazement, they were not looking at him, but had all +turned in attitudes of deep respect towards the opening of the +peristyle. As he faced round and saw who had just entered his house, his +own rage fell away from him in an instant, and his manner became as +humble as that of his servants. + +The new-comer was a man forty-three years of age, clean shaven, with a +massive head, large engorged eyes, a small clear-cut nose, and the full +bull neck which was the especial mark of his breed. He had entered +through the peristyle with a swaggering, rolling gait, as one who walks +upon his own ground, and now he stood, his hands upon his hips, looking +round him at the bowing slaves, and finally at their master, with a +half-humorous expression upon his flushed and brutal face. + +"Why, Emilius," said he, "I had understood that your household was the +best-ordered in Rome. What is amiss with you this morning?" + +"Nothing could be amiss with us now that Cæsar has deigned to come under +my roof," said the courtier. "This is indeed a most glad surprise which +you have prepared for me." + +"It was an afterthought," said Domitian. "When you and the others had +left me, I was in no mood for sleep, and so it came into my mind that I +would have a breath of morning air by coming down to you, and seeing +this Grecian Venus of yours, about which you discoursed so eloquently +between the cups. But, indeed, by your appearance and that of your +servants, I should judge that my visit was an ill-timed one." + +"Nay, dear master; say not so. But, indeed, it is truth that I was in +trouble at the moment of your welcome entrance, and this trouble was, as +the Fates have willed it, brought forth by that very statue in which you +have been graciously pleased to show your interest. There it stands, and +you can see for yourself how rudely it has been mishandled." + +"By Pluto and all the nether gods, if it were mine some of you should +feed the lampreys," said the Emperor, looking round with his fierce +eyes at the shrinking slaves. "You were always overmerciful, Emilius. It +is the common talk that your catenæ are rusted for want of use. But +surely this is beyond all bounds. Let me see how you handle the matter. +Whom do you hold responsible?" + +"The slave Sergius is responsible, since it is his place to tend the +atrium," said Flaccus. "Stand forward, Sergius. What have you to say?" + +The trembling slave advanced to his master. "If it please you, sir, the +mischief has been done by Datus the Christian." + +"Datus! Who is he?" + +"The matulator, the scavenger, my lord. I did not know that he belonged +to these horrible people, or I should not have admitted him. He came +with his broom to brush out the litter of the birds. His eyes fell upon +the Venus, and in an instant he had rushed upon her and struck her two +blows with his wooden besom. Then we fell upon him and dragged him away. +But alas! alas! it was too late, for already the wretch had dashed off +the fingers of the goddess." + +The Emperor smiled grimly, while the Patrician's thin face grew pale +with anger. + +"Where is the fellow?" he asked. + +"In the ergastulum, your honour, with the furca on his neck." + +"Bring him hither and summon the household." + +A few minutes later the whole back of the atrium was thronged by the +motley crowd who ministered to the household needs of a great Roman +nobleman. There was the arcarius, or account keeper, with his stylum +behind his ear; the sleek prægustator, who sampled all foods, so as to +stand between his master and poison, and beside him his predecessor, now +a half-witted idiot through the interception twenty years before of a +datura draught from Canidia; the cellar-man, summoned from amongst his +amphoræ; the cook, with his basting-ladle in his hand; the pompous +nomenclator, who ushered the guests; the cubicularius, who saw to their +accommodation; the silentiarius, who kept order in the house; the +structor, who set forth the tables; the carptor, who carved the food; +the cinerarius, who lit the fires--these and many more, half-curious, +half-terrified, came to the judging of Datus. Behind them a chattering, +giggling swarm of Lalages, Marias, Cerusas, and Amaryllides, from the +laundries and the spinning-rooms, stood upon their tiptoes, and extended +their pretty wondering faces over the shoulders of the men. Through this +crowd came two stout varlets leading the culprit between them. He was a +small, dark, rough-headed man, with an unkempt beard and wild eyes which +shone brightly with strong inward emotion. His hands were bound behind +him, and over his neck was the heavy wooden collar or furca which was +placed upon refractory slaves. A smear of blood across his cheek showed +that he had not come uninjured from the preceding scuffle. + +"Are you Datus the scavenger?" asked the Patrician. + +The man drew himself up proudly. "Yes," said he, "I am Datus." + +"Did you do this injury to my statue?" + +"Yes, I did." + +There was an uncompromising boldness in the man's reply which compelled +respect. The wrath of his master became tinged with interest. + +"Why did you do this?" he asked. + +"Because it was my duty." + +"Why, then, was it your duty to destroy your master's property?" + +"Because I am a Christian." His eyes blazed suddenly out of his dark +face. "Because there is no God but the one eternal, and all else are +sticks and stones. What has this naked harlot to do with Him to whom the +great firmament is but a garment and the earth a footstool? It was in +His service that I have broken your statue." + +Domitian looked with a smile at the Patrician. "You will make nothing of +him," said he. "They speak even so when they stand before the lions in +the arena. As to argument, not all the philosophers of Rome can break +them down. Before my very face they refuse to sacrifice in my honour. +Never were such impossible people to deal with. I should take a short +way with him if I were you." + +"What would Cæsar advise?" + +"There are the games this afternoon. I am showing the new +hunting-leopard which King Juba has sent from Numidia. This slave may +give us some sport when he finds the hungry beast sniffing at his +heels." + +The Patrician considered for a moment. He had always been a father to +his servants. It was hateful to him to think of any injury befalling +them. Perhaps even now, if this strange fanatic would show his sorrow +for what he had done, it might be possible to spare him. At least it was +worth trying. + +"Your offence deserves death," he said. "What reasons can you give why +it should not befall you, since you have injured this statue, which is +worth your own price a hundred times over?" + +The slave looked steadfastly at his master. "I do not fear death," he +said. "My sister Candida died in the arena, and I am ready to do the +same. It is true that I have injured your statue, but I am able to find +you something of far greater value in exchange. I will give you the +truth and the gospel in exchange for your broken idol." + +The Emperor laughed. "You will do nothing with him, Emilius," he said. +"I know his breed of old. He is ready to die; he says so himself. Why +save him, then?" + +But the Patrician still hesitated. He would make a last effort. + +"Throw off his bonds," he said to the guards. "Now take the furca off +his neck. So! Now, Datus, I have released you to show you that I trust +you. I have no wish to do you any hurt if you will but acknowledge your +error, and so set a better example to my household here assembled." + +"How, then, shall I acknowledge my error?" the slave asked. + +"Bow your head before the goddess, and entreat her forgiveness for the +violence you have done her. Then perhaps you may gain my pardon as +well." + +"Put me, then, before her," said the Christian. + +Emilius Flaccus looked triumphantly at Domitian. By kindness and tact he +was effecting that which the Emperor had failed to do by violence. Datus +walked in front of the mutilated Venus. Then with a sudden spring he +tore the baton out of the hand of one of his guardians, leaped upon the +pedestal, and showered his blows upon the lovely marble woman. With a +crack and a dull thud her right arm dropped to the ground. Another +fierce blow and the left had followed. Flaccus danced and screamed with +horror, while his servants dragged the raving iconoclast from his +impassive victim. Domitian's brutal laughter echoed through the hall. + +"Well, friend, what think you now?" he cried. "Are you wiser than your +Emperor? Can you indeed tame your Christian with kindness?" + +Emilius Flaccus wiped the sweat from his brow. "He is yours, great +Cæsar. Do with him as you will." + +"Let him be at the gladiators' entrance of the circus an hour before the +games begin," said the Emperor. "Now, Emilius, the night has been a +merry one. My Ligurian galley waits by the river quay. Come, cool your +head with a spin to Ostia ere the business of State calls you to the +Senate." + + + + +VIII + +GIANT MAXIMIN + + +I: THE COMING OF GIANT MAXIMIN + +Many are the strange vicissitudes of history. Greatness has often sunk +to the dust, and has tempered itself to its new surrounding. Smallness +has risen aloft, has flourished for a time, and then has sunk once more. +Rich monarchs have become poor monks, brave conquerors have lost their +manhood, eunuchs and women have overthrown armies and kingdoms. Surely +there is no situation which the mind of man could invent which has not +taken shape and been played out upon the world stage. But of all the +strange careers and of all the wondrous happenings, stranger than +Charles in his monastery, or Justin on his throne, there stands the case +of Giant Maximin, what he attained, and how he attained it. Let me tell +the sober facts of history, tinged only by that colouring to which the +more austere historians could not condescend. It is a record as well as +a story. + + * * * * * + +In the heart of Thrace some ten miles north of the Rhodope mountains, +there is a valley which is named Harpessus, after the stream which runs +down it. Through this valley lies the main road from the east to the +west, and along the road, returning from an expedition against the +Alani, there marched, upon the fifth day of the month of June in the +year 210, a small but compact Roman army. It consisted of three +legions--the Jovian, the Cappadocian, and the men of Hercules. Ten turmæ +of Gallic cavalry led the van, whilst the rear was covered by a regiment +of Batavian Horse Guards, the immediate attendants of the Emperor +Septimius Severus, who had conducted the campaign in person. The +peasants who lined the low hills which fringed the valley looked with +indifference upon the long files of dusty, heavily-burdened infantry, +but they broke into murmurs of delight at the gold-faced cuirasses and +high brazen horse-hair helmets of the guardsmen, applauding their +stalwart figures, their martial bearing, and the stately black chargers +which they rode. A soldier might know that it was the little weary men +with their short swords, their heavy pikes over their shoulders, and +their square shields slung upon their backs, who were the real terror of +the enemies of the Empire, but to the eyes of the wondering Thracians it +was this troop of glittering Apollos who bore Rome's victory upon their +banners, and upheld the throne of the purple-togaed prince who rode +before them. + +Among the scattered groups of peasants who looked on from a respectful +distance at this military pageant, there were two men who attracted much +attention from those who stood immediately around them. The one was +commonplace enough--a little grey-headed man, with uncouth dress and a +frame which was bent and warped by a long life of arduous toil, +goat-driving and wood-chopping, among the mountains. It was the +appearance of his youthful companion which had drawn the amazed +observation of the bystanders. In stature he was such a giant as is seen +but once or twice in each generation of mankind. Eight feet and two +inches was his measure from his sandalled sole to the topmost curls of +his tangled hair. Yet for all his mighty stature there was nothing heavy +or clumsy in the man. His huge shoulders bore no redundant flesh, and +his figure was straight and hard and supple as a young pine tree. A +frayed suit of brown leather clung close to his giant body, and a cloak +of undressed sheep-skin was slung from his shoulder. His bold blue eyes, +shock of yellow hair and fair skin showed that he was of Gothic or +northern blood, and the amazed expression upon his broad frank face as +he stared at the passing troops told of a simple and uneventful life in +some back valley of the Macedonian mountains. + +"I fear your mother was right when she advised that we keep you at +home," said the old man anxiously. "Tree-cutting and wood-carrying will +seem but dull work after such a sight as this." + +"When I see mother next it will be to put a golden torque round her +neck," said the young giant. "And you, daddy; I will fill your leather +pouch with gold pieces before I have done." + +The old man looked at his son with startled eyes. "You would not leave +us, Theckla! What could we do without you?" + +"My place is down among yonder men," said the young man. "I was not born +to drive goats and carry logs, but to sell this manhood of mine in the +best market. There is my market in the Emperor's own Guard. Say nothing, +daddy, for my mind is set, and if you weep now it will be to laugh +hereafter. I will to great Rome with the soldiers." + + * * * * * + +The daily march of the heavily laden Roman legionary was fixed at twenty +miles; but on this afternoon, though only half the distance had been +accomplished, the silver trumpets blared out their welcome news that a +camp was to be formed. As the men broke their ranks, the reason of their +light march was announced by the decurions. It was the birthday of Geta, +the younger son of the Emperor, and in his honour there would be games +and a double ration of wine. But the iron discipline of the Roman army +required that under all circumstances certain duties should be +performed, and foremost among them that the camp should be made secure. +Laying down their arms in the order of their ranks, the soldiers seized +their spades and axes, and worked rapidly and joyously until sloping +vallum and gaping fossa girdled them round, and gave them safe refuge +against a night attack. Then in noisy, laughing, gesticulating crowds +they gathered in their thousands round the grassy arena where the sports +were to be held. A long green hill-side sloped down to a level plain, +and on this gentle incline the army lay watching the strife of the +chosen athletes who contended before them. They stretched themselves in +the glare of the sunshine, their heavy tunics thrown off, and their +naked limbs sprawling, wine-cups and baskets of fruit and cakes circling +amongst them, enjoying rest and peace as only those can to whom it comes +so rarely. + +The five-mile race was over, and had been won as usual by Decurion +Brennus, the crack long-distance champion of the Herculians. Amid the +yells of the Jovians, Capellus of the corps had carried off both the +long and the high jump. Big Brebix the Gaul had out-thrown the long +guardsman Serenus with the fifty pound stone. Now, as the sun sank +towards the western ridge, and turned the Harpessus to a riband of +gold, they had come to the final of the wrestling, where the pliant +Greek, whose name is lost in the nickname of "Python," was tried out +against the bull-necked Lictor of the military police, a hairy Hercules, +whose heavy hand had in the way of duty oppressed many of the +spectators. + +As the two men, stripped save for their loincloths, approached the +wrestling-ring, cheers and counter-cheers burst from their adherents, +some favouring the Lictor for his Roman blood, some the Greek from their +own private grudge. And then, of a sudden, the cheering died, heads were +turned towards the slope away from the arena, men stood up and peered +and pointed, until finally, in a strange hush, the whole great assembly +had forgotten the athletes, and were watching a single man walking +swiftly towards them down the green curve of the hill. This huge +solitary figure, with the oaken club in his hand, the shaggy fleece +flapping from his great shoulders, and the setting sun gleaming upon a +halo of golden hair, might have been the tutelary god of the fierce and +barren mountains from which he had issued. Even the Emperor rose from +his chair and gazed with open-eyed amazement at the extraordinary being +who approached them. + +The man, whom we already know as Theckla the Thracian, paid no heed to +the attention which he had aroused, but strode onwards, stepping as +lightly as a deer, until he reached the fringe of the soldiers. Amid +their open ranks he picked his way, sprang over the ropes which guarded +the arena, and advanced towards the Emperor, until a spear at his breast +warned him that he must go no nearer. Then he sunk upon his right knee +and called out some words in the Gothic speech. + +"Great Jupiter! Whoever saw such a body of a man!" cried the Emperor. +"What says he? What is amiss with the fellow? Whence comes he, and what +is his name?" + +An interpreter translated the Barbarian's answer. "He says, great Cæsar, +that he is of good blood, and sprung by a Gothic father from a woman of +the Alani. He says that his name is Theckla, and that he would fain +carry a sword in Cæsar's service." + +The Emperor smiled. "Some post could surely be found for such a man, +were it but as janitor at the Palatine Palace," said he to one of the +Prefects. "I would fain see him walk even as he is through the forum. He +would turn the heads of half the women in Rome. Talk to him, Crassus. +You know his speech." + +The Roman officer turned to the giant. "Cæsar says that you are to come +with him, and he will make you the servant at his door." + +The Barbarian rose, and his fair cheeks flushed with resentment. + +"I will serve Cæsar as a soldier," said he, "but I will be house-servant +to no man--not even to him. If Cæsar would see what manner of man I am, +let him put one of his guardsmen up against me." + +"By the shade of Milo this is a bold fellow!" cried the Emperor. "How +say you, Crassus? Shall he make good his words?" + +"By your leave, Cæsar," said the blunt soldier, "good swordsmen are too +rare in these days that we should let them slay each other for sport. +Perhaps if the Barbarian would wrestle a fall----" + +"Excellent!" cried the Emperor. "Here is the Python, and here Varus the +Lictor, each stripped for the bout. Have a look at them, Barbarian, and +see which you would choose. What does he say? He would take them both? +Nay then he is either the king of wrestlers or the king of boasters, and +we shall soon see which. Let him have his way, and he has himself to +thank if he comes out with a broken neck." + +There was some laughter when the peasant tossed his sheep-skin mantle to +the ground and, without troubling to remove his leathern tunic, advanced +towards the two wrestlers; but it became uproarious when with a quick +spring he seized the Greek under one arm and the Roman under the other, +holding them as in a vice. Then with a terrific effort he tore them both +from the ground, carried them writhing and kicking round the arena, and +finally walking up to the Emperor's throne, threw his two athletes down +in front of him. Then, bowing to Cæsar, the huge Barbarian withdrew, and +laid his great bulk down among the ranks of the applauding soldiers, +whence he watched with stolid unconcern the conclusion of the sports. + +It was still daylight, when the last event had been decided, and the +soldiers returned to the camp. The Emperor Severus had ordered his +horse, and in the company of Crassus, his favourite prefect, rode down +the winding pathway which skirts the Harpessus, chatting over the future +dispersal of the army. They had ridden for some miles when Severus, +glancing behind him, was surprised to see a huge figure which trotted +lightly along at the very heels of his horse. + +"Surely this is Mercury as well as Hercules that we have found among the +Thracian mountains," said he with a smile. "Let us see how soon our +Syrian horses can out-distance him." + +The two Romans broke into a gallop, and did not draw rein until a good +mile had been covered at the full pace of their splendid chargers. Then +they turned and looked back; but there, some distance off, still running +with a lightness and a spring which spoke of iron muscles and +inexhaustible endurance, came the great Barbarian. The Roman Emperor +waited until the athlete had come up to them. + +"Why do you follow me?" he asked. + +"It is my hope, Cæsar, that I may always follow you." His flushed face +as he spoke was almost level with that of the mounted Roman. + +"By the god of war, I do not know where in all the world I could find +such a servant!" cried the Emperor. "You shall be my own body-guard, +the one nearest to me of all." + +The giant fell upon his knee. "My life and strength are yours," he said. +"I ask no more than to spend them for Cæsar." + +Crassus had interpreted this short dialogue. He now turned to the +Emperor. + +"If he is indeed to be always at your call, Cæsar, it would be well to +give the poor Barbarian some name which your lips can frame. Theckla is +as uncouth and craggy a word as one of his native rocks." + +The Emperor pondered for a moment. "If I am to have the naming of him," +said he, "then surely I shall call him Maximus, for there is not such a +giant upon earth." + +"Hark you," said the Prefect. "The Emperor has deigned to give you a +Roman name, since you have come into his service. Henceforth you are no +longer Theckla, but you are Maximus. Can you say it after me?" + +"Maximin," repeated the Barbarian, trying to catch the Roman word. + +The Emperor laughed at the mincing accent. "Yes, yes, Maximin let it be. +To all the world you are Maximin, the body-guard of Severus. When we +have reached Rome, we will soon see that your dress shall correspond +with your office. Meanwhile march with the guard until you have my +further orders." + + * * * * * + +So it came about that as the Roman army resumed its march next day, and +left behind it the fair valley of the Harpessus, a huge recruit, clad in +brown leather, with a rude sheep-skin floating from his shoulders, +marched beside the Imperial troop. But far away in the wooden farmhouse +of a distant Macedonian valley two old country folk wept salt tears, and +prayed to the gods for the safety of their boy who had turned his face +to Rome. + + +II: THE RISE OF GIANT MAXIMIN + +Exactly twenty-five years had passed since the day that Theckla the huge +Thracian peasant had turned into Maximin the Roman guardsman. They had +not been good years for Rome. Gone for ever were the great Imperial days +of the Hadrians and the Trajans. Gone also the golden age of the two +Antonines, when the highest were for once the most worthy and most +wise. It had been an epoch of weak and cruel men. Severus, the swarthy +African, a stark grim man had died in far away York, after fighting all +the winter with the Caledonian Highlanders--a race who have ever since +worn the martial garb of the Romans. His son, known only by his +slighting nickname of Caracalla, had reigned during six years of insane +lust and cruelty, before the knife of an angry soldier avenged the +dignity of the Roman name. The nonentity Macrinus had filled the +dangerous throne for a single year before he also met a bloody end, and +made room for the most grotesque of all monarchs, the unspeakable +Heliogabalus with his foul mind and his painted face. He in turn was cut +to pieces by the soldiers; and Severus Alexander, a gentle youth, scarce +seventeen years of age, had been thrust into his place. For thirteen +years now he had ruled, striving with some success to put some virtue +and stability into the rotting Empire, but raising many fierce enemies +as he did so--enemies whom he had not the strength nor the wit to hold +in check. + +And Giant Maximin--what of him? He had carried his eight feet of manhood +through the lowlands of Scotland and the passes of the Grampians. He +had seen Severus pass away, and had soldiered with his son. He had +fought in Armenia, in Dacia, and in Germany. They had made him a +centurion upon the field when with his hands he plucked out one by one +the stockades of a northern village, and so cleared a path for the +stormers. His strength had been the jest and the admiration of the +soldiers. Legends about him had spread through the army, and were the +common gossip round the camp fires--of his duel with the German axe-man +on the Island of the Rhine, and of the blow with his fist that broke the +leg of a Scythian's horse. Gradually he had won his way upwards, until +now, after quarter of a century's service, he was tribune of the fourth +legion and superintendent of recruits for the whole army. The young +soldier who had come under the glare of Maximin's eyes, or had been +lifted up with one huge hand while he was cuffed by the other, had his +first lesson from him in the discipline of the service. + +It was nightfall in the camp of the fourth legion upon the Gallic shore +of the Rhine. Across the moonlit water, amid the thick forests which +stretched away to the dim horizon, lay the wild untamed German tribes. +Down on the river bank the light gleamed upon the helmets of the Roman +sentinels who kept guard along the river. Far away a red point rose and +fell in the darkness--a watch-fire of the enemy upon the further shore. + +Outside his tent, beside some smouldering logs, Giant Maximin was +seated, a dozen of his officers around him. He had changed much since +the day when we first met him in the Valley of the Harpessus. His huge +frame was as erect as ever, and there was no sign of diminution of his +strength. But he had aged none the less. The yellow tangle of hair was +gone, worn down by the ever-pressing helmet. The fresh young face was +drawn and hardened, with austere lines wrought by trouble and privation. +The nose was more hawk-like, the eyes more cunning, the expression more +cynical and more sinister. In his youth, a child would have run to his +arms. Now it would shrink screaming from his gaze. That was what +twenty-five years with the eagles had done for Theckla the Thracian +peasant. + +He was listening now--for he was a man of few words--to the chatter of +his centurions. One of them, Balbus the Sicilian, had been to the main +camp at Mainz, only four miles away, and had seen the Emperor Alexander +arrive that very day from Rome. The rest were eager at the news, for it +was a time of unrest, and the rumour of great changes was in the air. + +"How many had he with him?" asked Labienus, a black-browed veteran from +the south of Gaul. "I'll wager a month's pay that he was not so trustful +as to come alone among his faithful legions." + +"He had no great force," replied Balbus. "Ten or twelve cohorts of the +Prætorians and a handful of horse." + +"Then indeed his head is in the lion's mouth," cried Sulpicius, a +hot-headed youth from the African Pentapolis. "How was he received?" + +"Coldly enough. There was scarce a shout as he came down the line." + +"They are ripe for mischief," said Labienus. "And who can wonder, when +it is we soldiers who uphold the Empire upon our spears, while the lazy +citizens at Rome reap all of our sowing. Why cannot a soldier have what +the soldier gains? So long as they throw us our denarius a day, they +think that they have done with us." + +"Aye," croaked a grumbling old greybeard. "Our limbs, our blood, our +lives--what do they care so long as the Barbarians are held off, and +they are left in peace to their feastings and their circus? Free bread, +free wine, free games--everything for the loafer at Rome. For us the +frontier guard and a soldier's fare." + +Maximin gave a deep laugh. "Old Plancus talks like that," said he; "but +we know that for all the world he would not change his steel plate for a +citizen's gown. You've earned the kennel, old hound, if you wish it. Go +and gnaw your bone and growl in peace." + +"Nay, I am too old for change. I will follow the eagle till I die. And +yet I had rather die in serving a soldier master than a long-gowned +Syrian who comes of a stock where the women are men and the men are +women." + +There was a laugh from the circle of soldiers, for sedition and mutiny +were rife in the camp, and even the old centurion's outbreak could not +draw a protest. Maximin raised his great mastiff head and looked at +Balbus. + +"Was any name in the mouths of the soldiers?" he asked in a meaning +voice. + +There was a hush for the answer. The sigh of the wind among the pines +and the low lapping of the river swelled out louder in the silence. +Balbus looked hard at his commander. + +"Two names were whispered from rank to rank," said he. "One was Ascenius +Pollio, the General. The other was----" + +The fiery Sulpicius sprang to his feet waving a glowing brand above his +head. + +"Maximinus!" he yelled. "Imperator Maximinus Augustus!" + +Who could tell how it came about? No one had thought of it an hour +before. And now it sprang in an instant to full accomplishment. The +shout of the frenzied young African had scarcely rung through the +darkness when from the tents, from the watch-fires, from the sentries, +the answer came pealing back: "Ave Maximinus! Ave Maximinus Augustus!" +From all sides men came rushing, half-clad, wild-eyed, their eyes +staring, their mouths agape, flaming wisps of straw or flaring torches +above their heads. The giant was caught up by scores of hands, and sat +enthroned upon the bull-necks of the legionaries. "To the camp!" they +yelled. "To the camp! Hail! Hail to the soldier Cæsar!" + +That same night Severus Alexander, the young Syrian Emperor, walked +outside his Prætorian camp, accompanied by his friend Licinius Probus, +the Captain of the Guard. They were talking gravely of the gloomy faces +and seditious bearing of the soldiers. A great foreboding of evil +weighed heavily upon the Emperor's heart, and it was reflected upon the +stern bearded face of his companion. + +"I like it not," said he. "It is my counsel, Cæsar, that with the first +light of morning we make our way south once more." + +"But surely," the Emperor answered, "I could not for shame turn my back +upon the danger. What have they against me? How have I harmed them that +they should forget their vows and rise upon me?" + +"They are like children who ask always for something new. You heard the +murmur as you rode along the ranks. Nay, Cæsar, fly to-morrow, and your +Prætorians will see that you are not pursued. There may be some loyal +cohorts among the legions, and if we join forces----" + +A distant shout broke in upon their conversation--a low continued roar, +like the swelling tumult of a sweeping wave. Far down the road upon +which they stood there twinkled many moving lights, tossing and sinking +as they rapidly advanced, whilst the hoarse tumultuous bellowing broke +into articulate words, the same tremendous words, a thousand-fold +repeated. Licinius seized the Emperor by the wrist and dragged him under +the cover of some bushes. + +"Be still, Cæsar! For your life be still!" he whispered. "One word and +we are lost!" + +Crouching in the darkness, they saw that wild procession pass, the +rushing, screaming figures, the tossing arms, the bearded, distorted +faces, now scarlet and now grey, as the brandished torches waxed or +waned. They heard the rush of many feet, the clamour of hoarse voices, +the clang of metal upon metal. And then suddenly, above them all, they +saw a vision of a monstrous man, a huge bowed back, a savage face, grim +hawk eyes, that looked out over the swaying shields. It was seen for an +instant in a smoke-fringed circle of fire, and then it had swept on into +the night. + +"Who is he?" stammered the Emperor, clutching at his guardsman's sleeve. +"They call him Cæsar." + +"It is surely Maximin the Thracian peasant." In the darkness the +Prætorian officer looked with strange eyes at his master. + +"It is all over, Cæsar. Let us fly together to your tent." + +But even as they went a second shout had broken forth tenfold louder +than the first. If the one had been the roar of the oncoming wave, the +other was the full turmoil of the tempest. Twenty thousand voices from +the camp had broken into one wild shout which echoed through the night, +until the distant Germans round their watch-fires listened in wonder and +alarm. + +"Ave!" cried the voices. "Ave Maximinus Augustus!" + +High upon their bucklers stood the giant, and looked round him at the +great floor of up-turned faces below. His own savage soul was stirred by +the clamour, but only his gleaming eyes spoke of the fire within. He +waved his hand to the shouting soldiers as the huntsman waves to the +leaping pack. They passed him up a coronet of oak leaves, and clashed +their swords in homage as he placed it on his head. And then there came +a swirl in the crowd before him, a little space was cleared, and there +knelt an officer in the Prætorian garb, blood upon his face, blood upon +his bared forearm, blood upon his naked sword. Licinius too had gone +with the tide. + +"Hail, Cæsar, hail!" he cried, as he bowed his head before the giant. "I +come from Alexander. He will trouble you no more." + + +III: THE FALL OF GIANT MAXIMIN + +For three years the soldier Emperor had been upon the throne. His palace +had been his tent, and his people had been the legionaries. With them he +was supreme; away from them he was nothing. He had gone with them from +one frontier to the other. He had fought against Dacians, Sarmatians, +and once again against the Germans. But Rome knew nothing of him, and +all her turbulence rose against a master who cared so little for her or +her opinion that he never deigned to set foot within her walls. There +were cabals and conspiracies against the absent Cæsar. Then his heavy +hand fell upon them, and they were cuffed, even as the young soldiers +had been who passed under his discipline. He knew nothing, and cared as +much for consuls, senates, and civil laws. His own will and the power of +the sword were the only forces which he could understand. Of commerce +and the arts he was as ignorant as when he left his Thracian home. The +whole vast Empire was to him a huge machine for producing the money by +which the legions were to be rewarded. Should he fail to get that money, +his fellow soldiers would bear him a grudge. To watch their interests +they had raised him upon their shields that night. If city funds had to +be plundered or temples desecrated, still the money must be got. Such +was the point of view of Giant Maximin. + +But there came resistance, and all the fierce energy of the man, all the +hardness which had given him the leadership of hard men, sprang forth to +quell it. From his youth he had lived amidst slaughter. Life and death +were cheap things to him. He struck savagely at all who stood up to +him, and when they hit back, he struck more savagely still. His giant +shadow lay black across the Empire from Britain to Syria. A strange +subtle vindictiveness became also apparent in him. Omnipotence ripened +every fault and swelled it into crime. In the old days he had been +rebuked for his roughness. Now a sullen, dangerous anger rose against +those who had rebuked him. He sat by the hour with his craggy chin +between his hands, and his elbows resting on his knees, while he +recalled all the misadventures, all the vexations of his early youth, +when Roman wits had shot their little satires upon his bulk and his +ignorance. He could not write, but his son Verus placed the names upon +his tablets, and they were sent to the Governor of Rome. Men who had +long forgotten their offence were called suddenly to make most bloody +reparation. + +A rebellion broke out in Africa, but was quelled by his lieutenant. But +the mere rumour of it set Rome in a turmoil. The Senate found something +of its ancient spirit. So did the Italian people. They would not be for +ever bullied by the legions. As Maximin approached from the frontier, +with the sack of rebellious Rome in his mind, he was faced with every +sign of a national resistance. The country-side was deserted, the farms +abandoned, the fields cleared of crops and cattle. Before him lay the +walled town of Aquileia. He flung himself fiercely upon it, but was met +by as fierce a resistance. The walls could not be forced, and yet there +was no food in the country round for his legions. The men were starving +and dissatisfied. What did it matter to them who was Emperor? Maximin +was no better than themselves. Why should they call down the curse of +the whole Empire upon their heads by upholding him? He saw their sullen +faces and their averted eyes, and he knew that the end had come. + +That night he sat with his son Verus in his tent, and he spoke softly +and gently as the youth had never heard him speak before. He had spoken +thus in old days with Paullina, the boy's mother; but she had been dead +these many years, and all that was soft and gentle in the big man had +passed away with her. Now her spirit seemed very near him, and his own +was tempered by its presence. + +"I would have you go back to the Thracian mountains," he said. "I have +tried both, boy, and I can tell you that there is no pleasure which +power can bring which can equal the breath of the wind and the smell of +the kine upon a summer morning. Against you they have no quarrel. Why +should they mishandle you? Keep far from Rome and the Romans. Old +Eudoxus has money, and to spare. He awaits you with two horses outside +the camp. Make for the valley of the Harpessus, lad. It was thence that +your father came, and there you will find his kin. Buy and stock a +homestead, and keep yourself far from the paths of greatness and of +danger. God keep you, Verus, and send you safe to Thrace." + +When his son had kissed his hand and had left him, the Emperor drew his +robe around him and sat long in thought. In his slow brain he revolved +the past--his early peaceful days, his years with Severus, his memories +of Britain, his long campaigns, his strivings and battlings, all leading +to that mad night by the Rhine. His fellow soldiers had loved him then. +And now he had read death in their eyes. How had he failed them? Others +he might have wronged, but they at least had no complaint against him. +If he had his time again, he would think less of them and more of his +people, he would try to win love instead of fear, he would live for +peace and not for war. If he had his time again! But there were +shuffling steps, furtive whispers, and the low rattle of arms outside +his tent. A bearded face looked in at him, a swarthy African face that +he knew well. He laughed, and baring his arm, he took his sword from the +table beside him. + +"It is you, Sulpicius," said he. "You have not come to cry 'Ave +Imperator Maximin!' as once by the camp fire. You are tired of me, and +by the gods I am tired of you, and glad to be at the end of it. Come and +have done with it, for I am minded to see how many of you I can take +with me when I go." + +They clustered at the door of the tent, peeping over each other's +shoulders, and none wishing to be the first to close with that laughing, +mocking giant. But something was pushed forward upon a spear point, and +as he saw it, Maximin groaned and his sword sank to the earth. + +"You might have spared the boy," he sobbed. "He would not have hurt +you. Have done with it then, for I will gladly follow him." + +So they closed upon him and cut and stabbed and thrust, until his knees +gave way beneath him and he dropped upon the floor. + +"The tyrant is dead!" they cried. "The tyrant is dead," and from all the +camp beneath them and from the walls of the beleaguered city the joyous +cry came echoing back, "He is dead, Maximin is dead!" + + * * * * * + +I sit in my study, and upon the table before me lies a denarius of +Maximin, as fresh as when the triumvir of the Temple of Juno Moneta sent +it from the mint. Around it are recorded his resounding +titles--Imperator Maximinus, Pontifex Maximus, Tribunitia potestate, and +the rest. In the centre is the impress of a great craggy head, a massive +jaw, a rude fighting face, a contracted forehead. For all the pompous +roll of titles it is a peasant's face, and I see him not as the Emperor +of Rome, but as the great Thracian boor who strode down the hill-side on +that far-distant summer day when first the eagles beckoned him to Rome. + + + + +IX + +THE RED STAR + + +The house of Theodosius, the famous eastern merchant, was in the best +part of Constantinople at the Sea Point which is near the church of +Saint Demetrius. Here he would entertain in so princely a fashion that +even the Emperor Maurice had been known to come privately from the +neighbouring Bucoleon palace in order to join in the revelry. On the +night in question, however, which was the fourth of November in the year +of our Lord 630, his numerous guests had retired early, and there +remained only two intimates, both of them successful merchants like +himself, who sat with him over their wine on the marble verandah of his +house, whence on the one side they could see the lights of the shipping +in the Sea of Marmora, and on the other the beacons which marked out the +course of the Bosphorus. Immediately at their feet lay a narrow strait +of water, with the low, dark loom of the Asiatic hills beyond. A thin +haze hid the heavens, but away to the south a single great red star +burned sullenly in the darkness. + +The night was cool, the light was soothing, and the three men talked +freely, letting their minds drift back into the earlier days when they +had staked their capital, and often their lives, on the ventures which +had built up their present fortunes. The host spoke of his long journeys +in North Africa, the land of the Moors; how he had travelled, keeping +the blue sea ever upon his right, until he had passed the ruins of +Carthage, and so on and ever on until a great tidal ocean beat upon a +yellow strand before him, while on the right he could see the high rock +across the waves which marked the Pillars of Hercules. His talk was of +dark-skinned bearded men, of lions, and of monstrous serpents. Then +Demetrius, the Cilician, an austere man of sixty, told how he also had +built up his mighty wealth. He spoke of a journey over the Danube and +through the country of the fierce Huns, until he and his friends had +found themselves in the mighty forest of Germany, on the shores of the +great river which is called the Elbe. His stories were of huge men, +sluggish of mind, but murderous in their cups, of sudden midnight broils +and nocturnal flights, of villages buried in dense woods, of bloody +heathen sacrifices, and of the bears and wolves who haunted the forest +paths. So the two elder men capped each other's stories and awoke each +other's memories, while Manuel Ducas, the young merchant of gold and +ostrich feathers, whose name was already known all over the Levant, sat +in silence and listened to their talk. At last, however, they called +upon him also for an anecdote, and leaning his cheek upon his elbow, +with his eyes fixed upon the great red star which burned in the south, +the younger man began to speak. + +"It is the sight of that star which brings a story into my mind," said +he. "I do not know its name. Old Lascaris the astronomer would tell me +if I asked, but I have no desire to know. Yet at this time of the year I +always look out for it, and I never fail to see it burning in the same +place. But it seems to me that it is redder and larger than it was. + +"It was some ten years ago that I made an expedition into Abyssinia, +where I traded to such good effect that I set forth on my return with +more than a hundred camel-loads of skins, ivory, gold, spices, and other +African produce. I brought them to the sea-coast at Arsinoe, and carried +them up the Arabian Gulf in five of the small boats of the country. +Finally, I landed near Saba, which is a starting-point for caravans, +and, having assembled my camels and hired a guard of forty men from the +wandering Arabs, I set forth for Macoraba. From this point, which is the +sacred city of the idolaters of those parts, one can always join the +large caravans which go north twice a year to Jerusalem and the +sea-coast of Syria. + +"Our route was a long and weary one. On our left hand was the Arabian +Gulf, lying like a pool of molten metal under the glare of day, but +changing to blood-red as the sun sank each evening behind the distant +African coast. On our right was a monstrous desert which extends, so far +as I know, across the whole of Arabia and away to the distant kingdom of +the Persians. For many days we saw no sign of life save our own long, +straggling line of laden camels with their tattered, swarthy guardians. +In these deserts the soft sand deadens the footfall of the animals, so +that their silent progress day after day through a scene which never +changes, and which is itself noiseless, becomes at last like a strange +dream. Often as I rode behind my caravan, and gazed at the grotesque +figures which bore my wares in front of me, I found it hard to believe +that it was indeed reality, and that it was I, I, Manuel Ducas, who +lived near the Theodosian Gate of Constantinople, and shouted for the +Green at the hippodrome every Sunday afternoon, who was there in so +strange a land and with such singular comrades. + +"Now and then, far out at sea, we caught sight of the white triangular +sails of the boats which these people use, but as they are all pirates, +we were very glad to be safely upon shore. Once or twice, too, by the +water's edge we saw dwarfish creatures--one could scarcely say if they +were men or monkeys--who burrow for homes among the seaweed, drink the +pools of brackish water, and eat what they can catch. These are the +fish-eaters, the Ichthyophagi, of whom old Herodotus talks--surely the +lowest of all the human race. Our Arabs shrank from them with horror, +for it is well known that, should you die in the desert, these little +people will settle on you like carrion crows, and leave not a bone +unpicked. They gibbered and croaked and waved their skinny arms at us as +we passed, knowing well that they could swim far out to sea if we +attempted to pursue them; for it is said that even the sharks turn with +disgust from their foul bodies. + +"We had travelled in this way for ten days, camping every evening at the +vile wells which offered a small quantity of abominable water. It was +our habit to rise very early and to travel very late, but to halt during +the intolerable heat of the afternoon, when, for want of trees, we would +crouch in the shadow of a sandhill, or, if that were wanting, behind our +own camels and merchandise, in order to escape from the insufferable +glare of the sun. On the seventh day we were near the point where one +leaves the coast in order to strike inland to Macoraba. We had concluded +our midday halt, and were just starting once more, the sun still being +so hot that we could hardly bear it, when, looking up, I saw a +remarkable sight. Standing on a hillock to our right there was a man +about forty feet high, holding in his hand a spear which was the size +of the mast of a large ship. You look surprised, my friends, and you can +therefore imagine my feelings when I saw such a sight. But my reason +soon told me that the object in front of me was really a wandering Arab, +whose form had been enormously magnified by the strange distorting +effects which the hot air of the desert is able to cause. + +"However, the actual apparition caused more alarm to my companions than +the imagined one had to me, for with a howl of dismay they shrank +together into a frightened group, all pointing and gesticulating as they +gazed at the distant figure. I then observed that the man was not alone, +but that from all the sandhills a line of turbaned heads was gazing down +upon us. The chief of the escort came running to me, and informed me of +the cause of their terror, which was that they recognised, by some +peculiarity in their headgear, that these men belonged to the tribe of +the Dilwas, the most ferocious and unscrupulous of the Bedouin, who had +evidently laid an ambuscade for us at this point with the intention of +seizing our caravan. When I thought of all my efforts in Abyssinia, of +the length of my journey and of the dangers and fatigues which I had +endured, I could not bear to think of this total disaster coming upon me +at the last instant and robbing me not only of my profits, but also of +my original outlay. It was evident, however, that the robbers were too +numerous for us to attempt to defend ourselves, and that we should be +very fortunate if we escaped with our lives. Sitting upon a packet, +therefore, I commended my soul to our blessed Saint Helena, while I +watched with despairing eyes the stealthy and menacing approach of the +Arab robbers. + +"It may have been our own good fortune, or it may have been the handsome +offering of beeswax candles--four to the pound--which I had mentally +vowed to the Blessed Helena, but at that instant I heard a great outcry +of joy from among my own followers. Standing up on the packet that I +might have a better view, I was overjoyed to see a long caravan--five +hundred camels at least--with a numerous armed guard, coming along the +route from Macoraba. It is, I need not tell you, the custom of all +caravans to combine their forces against the robbers of the desert, and +with the aid of these new-comers we had become the stronger party. The +marauders recognised it at once, for they vanished as if their native +sands had swallowed them. Running up to the summit of a sandhill, I was +just able to catch a glimpse of a dust-cloud whirling away across the +yellow plain, with the long necks of their camels, the flutter of their +loose garments, and the gleam of their spears breaking out from the +heart of it. So vanished the marauders. + +"Presently I found, however, that I had only exchanged one danger for +another. At first I had hoped that this new caravan might belong to some +Roman citizen, or at least to some Syrian Christian, but I found that it +was entirely Arab. The trading Arabs who are settled in the numerous +towns of Arabia are, of course, very much more peaceable than the +Bedouin of the wilderness, those sons of Ishmael of whom we read in Holy +Writ. But the Arab blood is covetous and lawless, so that when I saw +several hundred of them formed in a semi-circle round our camels, +looking with greedy eyes at my boxes of precious metals and my packets +of ostrich feathers, I feared the worst. + +"The leader of the new caravan was a man of dignified bearing and +remarkable appearance. His age I would judge to be about forty. He had +aquiline features, a noble black beard, and eyes so luminous, so +searching, and so intense that I cannot remember in all my wanderings to +have seen any which could be compared with them. To my thanks and +salutations he returned a formal bow, and stood stroking his beard and +looking in silence at the wealth which had suddenly fallen into his +power. A murmur from his followers showed the eagerness with which they +awaited the order to fall upon the plunder, and a young ruffian, who +seemed to be on intimate terms with the leader, came to his elbow and +put the desires of his companions into words. + +"'Surely, oh Reverend One,' said he, 'these people and their treasure +have been delivered into our hands. When we return with it to the holy +place, who of all the Koraish will fail to see the finger of God which +has led us?' + +"But the leader shook his head. 'Nay, Ali, it may not be,' he answered. +'This man is, as I judge, a citizen of Rome, and we may not treat him as +though he were an idolater.' + +"'But he is an unbeliever,' cried the youth, fingering a great knife +which hung in his belt. 'Were I to be the judge, he would lose not only +his merchandise, but his life also, if he did not accept the faith.' + +"The older man smiled and shook his head. 'Nay, Ali; you are too +hot-headed,' said he, 'seeing that there are not as yet three hundred +faithful in the world, our hands would indeed be full if we were to take +the lives and property of all who are not with us. Forget not, dear lad, +that charity and honesty are the very nose-ring and halter of the true +faith.' + +"'Among the faithful,' said the ferocious youth. + +"'Nay, towards every one. It is the law of Allah. And yet'--here his +countenance darkened, and his eyes shone with a most sinister +light--'the day may soon come when the hour of grace is past, and woe, +then, to those who have not hearkened! Then shall the sword of Allah be +drawn, and it shall not be sheathed until the harvest is reaped. First +it shall strike the idolaters on the day when my own people and kinsmen, +the unbelieving Koraish, shall be scattered, and the three hundred and +sixty idols of the Caaba thrust out upon the dung-heaps of the town. +Then shall the Caaba be the home and temple of one God only who brooks +no rival on earth or in heaven.' + +"The man's followers had gathered round him, their spears in their +hands, their ardent eyes fixed upon his face, and their dark features +convulsed with such fanatic enthusiasm as showed the hold which he had +upon their love and respect. + +"'We shall be patient,' said he; 'but some time next year, the year +after, the day may come when the great angel Gabriel shall bear me the +message that the time of words has gone by, and that the hour of the +sword has come. We are few and weak, but if it is His will, who can +stand against us? Are you of Jewish faith, stranger?' he asked. + +"I answered that I was not. + +"'The better for you,' he answered, with the same furious anger in his +swarthy face. 'First shall the idolaters fall, and then the Jews, in +that they have not known those very prophets whom they had themselves +foretold. Then last will come the turn of the Christians, who follow +indeed a true Prophet, greater than Moses or Abraham, but who have +sinned in that they have confounded a creature with the Creator. To each +in turn--idolater, Jew, and Christian--the day of reckoning will come.' + +"The ragamuffins behind him all shook their spears as he spoke. There +was no doubt about their earnestness, but when I looked at their +tattered dresses and simple arms, I could not help smiling to think of +their ambitious threats, and to picture what their fate would be upon +the day of battle before the battle-axes of our Imperial Guards, or the +spears of the heavy cavalry of the Armenian Themes. However, I need not +say that I was discreet enough to keep my thoughts to myself, as I had +no desire to be the first martyr in this fresh attack upon our blessed +faith. + +"It was now evening, and it was decided that the two caravans should +camp together--an arrangement which was the more welcome as we were by +no means sure that we had seen the last of the marauders. I had invited +the leader of the Arabs to have supper with me, and after a long +exercise of prayer with his followers, he came to join me, but my +attempt at hospitality was thrown away, for he would not touch the +excellent wine which I had unpacked for him, nor would he eat any of my +dainties, contenting himself with stale bread, dried dates, and water. +After this meal we sat alone by the smouldering fire, the magnificent +arch of the heavens above us of that deep, rich blue with those +gleaming, clear-cut stars which can only be seen in that dry desert air. +Our camp lay before us, and no sound reached our ears save the dull +murmur of the voices of our companions and the occasional shrill cry of +a jackal among the sandhills around us. Face to face I sat with this +strange man, the glow of the fire beating upon his eager and imperious +features and reflecting from his passionate eyes. It was the strangest +vigil, and one which will never pass from my recollection. I have spoken +with many wise and famous men upon my travels, but never with one who +left the impression of this one. + +"And yet much of his talk was unintelligible to me, though, as you are +aware, I speak Arabian like an Arab. It rose and fell in the strangest +way. Sometimes it was the babble of a child, sometimes the incoherent +raving of a fanatic, sometimes the lofty dreams of a prophet and +philosopher. There were times when his stories of demons, of miracles, +of dreams, and of omens, were such as an old woman might tell to please +the children of an evening. There were others when, as he talked with +shining face of his converse with angels, of the intentions of the +Creator, and the end of the universe, I felt as if I were in the company +of some one more than mortal, some one who was indeed the direct +messenger of the Most High. + +"There were good reasons why he should treat me with such confidence. He +saw in me a messenger to Constantinople and to the Roman Empire. Even as +Saint Paul had brought Christianity to Europe, so he hoped that I might +carry his doctrines to my native city. Alas! be the doctrines what they +may, I fear that I am not the stuff of which Pauls are made. Yet he +strove with all his heart during that long Arabian night to bring me +over to his belief. He had with him a holy book, written, as he said, +from the dictation of an angel, which he carried in tablets of bone in +the nose-bag of a camel. Some chapters of this he read me; but, though +the precepts were usually good, the language seemed wild and fanciful. +There were times when I could scarce keep my countenance as I listened +to him. He planned out his future movements, and indeed, as he spoke, it +was hard to remember that he was only the wandering leader of an Arab +caravan, and not one of the great ones of the earth. + +"'When God has given me sufficient power, which will be within a few +years,' said he, 'I will unite all Arabia under my banner. Then I will +spread my doctrine over Syria and Egypt. When this has been done, I will +turn to Persia, and give them the choice of the true faith or the sword. +Having taken Persia, it will be easy then to overrun Asia Minor, and so +to make our way to Constantinople.' + +"I bit my lip to keep from laughing. 'And how long will it be before +your victorious troops have reached the Bosphorus?' I asked. + +"'Such things are in the hands of God, whose servants we are,' said he. +'It may be that I shall myself have passed away before these things are +accomplished, but before the days of our children are completed, all +that I have now told you will come to pass. Look at that star,' he +added, pointing to a beautiful clear planet above our heads. 'That is +the symbol of Christ. See how serene and peaceful it shines, like His +own teaching and the memory of His life. Now,' he added, turning his +outstretched hand to a dusky red star upon the horizon--the very one on +which we are gazing now--'that is my star, which tells of wrath, of war, +of a scourge upon sinners. And yet both are indeed stars, and each does +as Allah may ordain.' + +"Well, that was the experience which was called to my mind by the sight +of this star to-night. Red and angry, it still broods over the south, +even as I saw it that night in the desert. Somewhere down yonder that +man is working and striving. He may be stabbed by some brother fanatic +or slain in a tribal skirmish. If so, that is the end. But if he lives, +there was that in his eyes and in his presence which tells me that +Mahomet the son of Abdallah--for that was his name--will testify in some +noteworthy fashion to the faith that is in him." + + + + +X + +THE SILVER MIRROR + + +_Jan. 3._--This affair of White and Wotherspoon's accounts proves to be +a gigantic task. There are twenty thick ledgers to be examined and +checked. Who would be a junior partner? However, it is the first big bit +of business which has been left entirely in my hands. I must justify it. +But it has to be finished so that the lawyers may have the result in +time for the trial. Johnson said this morning that I should have to get +the last figure out before the twentieth of the month. Good Lord! Well, +have at it, and if human brain and nerve can stand the strain, I'll win +out at the other side. It means office-work from ten to five, and then a +second sitting from about eight to one in the morning. There's drama in +an accountant's life. When I find myself in the still early hours, while +all the world sleeps, hunting through column after column for those +missing figures which will turn a respected alderman into a felon, I +understand that it is not such a prosaic profession after all. + +On Monday I came on the first trace of defalcation. No heavy game hunter +ever got a finer thrill when first he caught sight of the trail of his +quarry. But I look at the twenty ledgers and think of the jungle through +which I have to follow him before I get my kill. Hard work--but rare +sport, too, in a way! I saw the fat fellow once at a City dinner, his +red face glowing above a white napkin. He looked at the little pale man +at the end of the table. He would have been pale too if he could have +seen the task that would be mine. + +_Jan. 6._--What perfect nonsense it is for doctors to prescribe rest +when rest is out of the question! Asses! They might as well shout to a +man who has a pack of wolves at his heels that what he wants is absolute +quiet. My figures must be out by a certain date; unless they are so, I +shall lose the chance of my lifetime, so how on earth am I to rest? I'll +take a week or so after the trial. + +Perhaps I was myself a fool to go to the doctor at all. But I get +nervous and highly-strung when I sit alone at my work at night. It's +not a pain--only a sort of fullness of the head with an occasional mist +over the eyes. I thought perhaps some bromide, or chloral, or something +of the kind might do me good. But stop work? It's absurd to ask such a +thing. It's like a long distance race. You feel queer at first and your +heart thumps and your lungs pant, but if you have only the pluck to keep +on, you get your second wind. I'll stick to my work and wait for my +second wind. If it never comes--all the same, I'll stick to my work. Two +ledgers are done, and I am well on in the third. The rascal has covered +his tracks well, but I pick them up for all that. + +_Jan. 9._--I had not meant to go to the doctor again. And yet I have had +to. "Straining my nerves, risking a complete breakdown, even endangering +my sanity." That's a nice sentence to have fired off at one. Well, I'll +stand the strain and I'll take the risk, and so long as I can sit in my +chair and move a pen I'll follow the old sinner's slot. + +By the way, I may as well set down here the queer experience which drove +me this second time to the doctor. I'll keep an exact record of my +symptoms and sensations, because they are interesting in themselves--"a +curious psycho-physiological study," says the doctor--and also because I +am perfectly certain that when I am through with them they will all seem +blurred and unreal, like some queer dream betwixt sleeping and waking. +So now, while they are fresh, I will just make a note of them, if only +as a change of thought after the endless figures. + +There's an old silver-framed mirror in my room. It was given me by a +friend who had a taste for antiquities, and he, as I happen to know, +picked it up at a sale and had no notion where it came from. It's a +large thing--three feet across and two feet high--and it leans at the +back of a side-table on my left as I write. The frame is flat, about +three inches across, and very old; far too old for hall-marks or other +methods of determining its age. The glass part projects, with a bevelled +edge, and has the magnificent reflecting power which is only, as it +seems to me, to be found in very old mirrors. There's a feeling of +perspective when you look into it such as no modern glass can ever give. + +The mirror is so situated that as I sit at the table I can usually see +nothing in it but the reflection of the red window curtains. But a queer +thing happened last night. I had been working for some hours, very much +against the grain, with continual bouts of that mistiness of which I had +complained. Again and again I had to stop and clear my eyes. Well, on +one of these occasions I chanced to look at the mirror. It had the +oddest appearance. The red curtains which should have been reflected in +it were no longer there, but the glass seemed to be clouded and steamy, +not on the surface, which glittered like steel, but deep down in the +very grain of it. This opacity, when I stared hard at it, appeared to +slowly rotate this way and that, until it was a thick white cloud +swirling in heavy wreaths. So real and solid was it, and so reasonable +was I, that I remember turning, with the idea that the curtains were on +fire. But everything was deadly still in the room--no sound save the +ticking of the clock, no movement save the slow gyration of that strange +woolly cloud deep in the heart of the old mirror. + +Then, as I looked, the mist, or smoke, or cloud, or whatever one may +call it, seemed to coalesce and solidify at two points quite close +together, and I was aware, with a thrill of interest rather than of +fear, that these were two eyes looking out into the room. A vague +outline of a head I could see--a woman's by the hair, but this was very +shadowy. Only the eyes were quite distinct; such eyes--dark, luminous, +filled with some passionate emotion, fury or horror, I could not say +which. Never have I seen eyes which were so full of intense, vivid life. +They were not fixed upon me, but stared out into the room. Then as I sat +erect, passed my hand over my brow, and made a strong conscious effort +to pull myself together, the dim head faded in the general opacity, the +mirror slowly cleared, and there were the red curtains once again. + +A sceptic would say, no doubt, that I had dropped asleep over my +figures, and that my experience was a dream. As a matter of fact, I was +never more vividly awake in my life. I was able to argue about it even +as I looked at it, and to tell myself that it was a subjective +impression--a chimera of the nerves--begotten by worry and insomnia. But +why this particular shape? And who is the woman, and what is the +dreadful emotion which I read in those wonderful brown eyes? They come +between me and my work. For the first time I have done less than the +daily tally which I had marked out. Perhaps that is why I have had no +abnormal sensations to-night. To-morrow I must wake up, come what may. + +_Jan. 11._--All well, and good progress with my work. I wind the net, +coil after coil, round that bulky body. But the last smile may remain +with him if my own nerves break over it. The mirror would seem to be a +sort of barometer which marks my brain pressure. Each night I have +observed that it had clouded before I reached the end of my task. + +Dr. Sinclair (who is, it seems, a bit of a psychologist) was so +interested in my account that he came round this evening to have a look +at the mirror. I had observed that something was scribbled in crabbed +old characters upon the metal work at the back. He examined this with a +lens, but could make nothing of it. "Sanc. X. Pal." was his final +reading of it, but that did not bring us any further. He advised me to +put it away into another room, but, after all, whatever I may see in it +is, by his own account, only a symptom. It is in the cause that the +danger lies. The twenty ledgers--not the silver mirror--should be packed +away if I could only do it. I'm at the eighth now, so I progress. + +_Jan. 13._--Perhaps it would have been wiser after all if I had packed +away the mirror. I had an extraordinary experience with it last night. +And yet I find it so interesting, so fascinating, that even now I will +keep it in its place. What on earth is the meaning of it all? + +I suppose it was about one in the morning, and I was closing my books +preparatory to staggering off to bed, when I saw her there in front of +me. The stage of mistiness and development must have passed unobserved, +and there she was in all her beauty and passion and distress, as +clear-cut as if she were really in the flesh before me. The figure was +small, but very distinct--so much so that every feature, and every +detail of dress, are stamped in my memory. She is seated on the extreme +left of the mirror. A sort of shadowy figure crouches down beside her--I +can dimly discern that it is a man--and then behind them is cloud, in +which I see figures--figures which move. It is not a mere picture upon +which I look. It is a scene in life, an actual episode. She crouches and +quivers. The man beside her cowers down. The vague figures make abrupt +movements and gestures. All my fears were swallowed up in my interest. +It was maddening to see so much and not to see more. + +But I can at least describe the woman to the smallest point. She is very +beautiful and quite young--not more than five-and-twenty, I should +judge. Her hair is of a very rich brown, with a warm chestnut shade +fining into gold at the edges. A little flat-pointed cap comes to an +angle in front and is made of lace edged with pearls. The forehead is +high, too high perhaps for perfect beauty; but one would not have it +otherwise, as it gives a touch of power and strength to what would +otherwise be a softly feminine face. The brows are most delicately +curved over heavy eyelids, and then come those wonderful eyes--so large, +so dark, so full of overmastering emotion, of rage and horror, +contending with a pride of self-control which holds her from sheer +frenzy! The cheeks are pale, the lips white with agony, the chin and +throat most exquisitely rounded. The figure sits and leans forward in +the chair, straining and rigid, cataleptic with horror. The dress is +black velvet, a jewel gleams like a flame in the breast, and a golden +crucifix smoulders in the shadow of a fold. This is the lady whose image +still lives in the old silver mirror. What dire deed could it be which +has left its impress there, so that now, in another age, if the spirit +of a man be but worn down to it, he may be conscious of its presence? + +One other detail: On the left side of the skirt of the black dress was, +as I thought at first, a shapeless bunch of white ribbon. Then, as I +looked more intently or as the vision defined itself more clearly, I +perceived what it was. It was the hand of a man, clenched and knotted in +agony, which held on with a convulsive grasp to the fold of the dress. +The rest of the crouching figure was a mere vague outline, but that +strenuous hand shone clear on the dark background, with a sinister +suggestion of tragedy in its frantic clutch. The man is +frightened--horribly frightened. That I can clearly discern. What has +terrified him so? Why does he grip the woman's dress? The answer lies +amongst those moving figures in the background. They have brought +danger both to him and to her. The interest of the thing fascinated me. +I thought no more of its relation to my own nerves. I stared and stared +as if in a theatre. But I could get no further. The mist thinned. There +were tumultuous movements in which all the figures were vaguely +concerned. Then the mirror was clear once more. + +The doctor says I must drop work for a day, and I can afford to do so, +for I have made good progress lately. It is quite evident that the +visions depend entirely upon my own nervous state, for I sat in front of +the mirror for an hour to-night, with no result whatever. My soothing +day has chased them away. I wonder whether I shall ever penetrate what +they all mean? I examined the mirror this evening under a good light, +and besides the mysterious inscription "Sanc. X. Pal.," I was able to +discern some signs of heraldic marks, very faintly visible upon the +silver. They must be very ancient, as they are almost obliterated. So +far as I could make out, they were three spear-heads, two above and one +below. I will show them to the doctor when he calls to-morrow. + +_Jan. 14._--Feel perfectly well again, and I intend that nothing else +shall stop me until my task is finished. The doctor was shown the marks +on the mirror and agreed that they were armorial bearings. He is deeply +interested in all that I have told him, and cross-questioned me closely +on the details. It amuses me to notice how he is torn in two by +conflicting desires--the one that his patient should lose his symptoms, +the other that the medium--for so he regards me--should solve this +mystery of the past. He advised continued rest, but did not oppose me +too violently when I declared that such a thing was out of the question +until the ten remaining ledgers have been checked. + +_Jan. 17._--For three nights I have had no experiences--my day of rest +has borne fruit. Only a quarter of my task is left, but I must make a +forced march, for the lawyers are clamouring for their material. I will +give them enough and to spare. I have him fast on a hundred counts. When +they realise what a slippery, cunning rascal he is, I should gain some +credit from the case. False trading accounts, false balance-sheets, +dividends drawn from capital, losses written down as profits, +suppression of working expenses, manipulation of petty cash--it is a +fine record! + +_Jan. 18._--Headaches, nervous twitches, mistiness, fullness of the +temples--all the premonitions of trouble, and the trouble came sure +enough. And yet my real sorrow is not so much that the vision should +come as that it should cease before all is revealed. + +But I saw more to-night. The crouching man was as visible as the lady +whose gown he clutched. He is a little swarthy fellow, with a black +pointed beard. He has a loose gown of damask trimmed with fur. The +prevailing tints of his dress are red. What a fright the fellow is in, +to be sure! He cowers and shivers and glares back over his shoulder. +There is a small knife in his other hand, but he is far too tremulous +and cowed to use it. Dimly now I begin to see the figures in the +background. Fierce faces, bearded and dark, shape themselves out of the +mist. There is one terrible creature, a skeleton of a man, with hollow +cheeks and eyes sunk in his head. He also has a knife in his hand. On +the right of the woman stands a tall man, very young, with flaxen hair, +his face sullen and dour. The beautiful woman looks up at him in +appeal. So does the man on the ground. This youth seems to be the +arbiter of their fate. The crouching man draws closer and hides himself +in the woman's skirts. The tall youth bends and tries to drag her away +from him. So much I saw last night before the mirror cleared. Shall I +never know what it leads to and whence it comes? It is not a mere +imagination, of that I am very sure. Somewhere, some time, this scene +has been acted, and this old mirror has reflected it. But when--where? + +_Jan. 20._--My work draws to a close, and it is time. I feel a tenseness +within my brain, a sense of intolerable strain, which warns me that +something must give. I have worked myself to the limit. But to-night +should be the last night. With a supreme effort I should finish the +final ledger and complete the case before I rise from my chair. I will +do it. I will. + +_Feb. 7._--I did. My God, what an experience! I hardly know if I am +strong enough yet to set it down. + +Let me explain in the first instance that I am writing this in Dr. +Sinclair's private hospital some three weeks after the last entry in my +diary. On the night of January 20 my nervous system finally gave way, +and I remembered nothing afterwards until I found myself three days ago +in this home of rest. And I can rest with a good conscience. My work was +done before I went under. My figures are in the solicitors' hands. The +hunt is over. + +And now I must describe that last night. I had sworn to finish my work, +and so intently did I stick to it, though my head was bursting, that I +would never look up until the last column had been added. And yet it was +fine self-restraint, for all the time I knew that wonderful things were +happening in the mirror. Every nerve in my body told me so. If I looked +up there was an end of my work. So I did not look up till all was +finished. Then, when at last with throbbing temples I threw down my pen +and raised my eyes, what a sight was there! + +The mirror in its silver frame was like a stage, brilliantly lit, in +which a drama was in progress. There was no mist now. The oppression of +my nerves had wrought this amazing clarity. Every feature, every +movement, was as clear-cut as in life. To think that I, a tired +accountant, the most prosaic of mankind, with the account-books of a +swindling bankrupt before me, should be chosen of all the human race to +look upon such a scene! + +It was the same scene and the same figures, but the drama had advanced a +stage. The tall young man was holding the woman in his arms. She +strained away from him and looked up at him with loathing in her face. +They had torn the crouching man away from his hold upon the skirt of her +dress. A dozen of them were round him--savage men, bearded men. They +hacked at him with knives. All seemed to strike him together. Their arms +rose and fell. The blood did not flow from him--it squirted. His red +dress was dabbled in it. He threw himself this way and that, purple upon +crimson, like an over-ripe plum. Still they hacked, and still the jets +shot from him. It was horrible--horrible! They dragged him kicking to +the door. The woman looked over her shoulder at him and her mouth gaped. +I heard nothing, but I knew that she was screaming. And then, whether it +was this nerve-racking vision before me, or whether, my task finished, +all the overwork of the past weeks came in one crushing weight upon me, +the room danced round me, the floor seemed to sink away beneath my feet, +and I remembered no more. In the early morning my landlady found me +stretched senseless before the silver mirror, but I knew nothing myself +until three days ago I awoke in the deep peace of the doctor's nursing +home. + +_Feb. 9._--Only to-day have I told Dr. Sinclair my full experience. He +had not allowed me to speak of such matters before. He listened with an +absorbed interest. "You don't identify this with any well-known scene in +history?" he asked, with suspicion in his eyes. I assured him that I +knew nothing of history. "Have you no idea whence that mirror came and +to whom it once belonged?" he continued. "Have you?" I asked, for he +spoke with meaning. "It's incredible," said he, "and yet how else can +one explain it? The scenes which you described before suggested it, but +now it has gone beyond all range of coincidence. I will bring you some +notes in the evening." + +_Later._--He has just left me. Let me set down his words as closely as I +can recall them. He began by laying several musty volumes upon my bed. + +"These you can consult at your leisure," said he. "I have some notes +here which you can confirm. There is not a doubt that what you have seen +is the murder of Rizzio by the Scottish nobles in the presence of Mary, +which occurred in March, 1566. Your description of the woman is +accurate. The high forehead and heavy eyelids combined with great beauty +could hardly apply to two women. The tall young man was her husband, +Darnley. Rizzio, says the chronicle, 'was dressed in a loose +dressing-gown of furred damask, with hose of russet velvet.' With one +hand he clutched Mary's gown, with the other he held a dagger. Your +fierce, hollow-eyed man was Ruthven, who was new-risen from a bed of +sickness. Every detail is exact." + +"But why to me?" I asked, in bewilderment. "Why of all the human race to +me?" + +"Because you were in the fit mental state to receive the impression. +Because you chanced to own the mirror which gave the impression." + +"The mirror! You think, then, that it was Mary's mirror--that it stood +in the room where the deed was done?" + +"I am convinced that it was Mary's mirror. She had been Queen of France. +Her personal property would be stamped with the Royal arms. What you +took to be three spear-heads were really the lilies of France." + +"And the inscription?" + +"'Sanc. X. Pal.' You can expand it into Sanctæ Crucis Palatium. Some one +has made a note upon the mirror as to whence it came. It was the Palace +of the Holy Cross." + +"Holyrood!" I cried. + +"Exactly. Your mirror came from Holyrood. You have had one very singular +experience, and have escaped. I trust that you will never put yourself +into the way of having such another." + + + + +XI + +THE HOME-COMING + + +In the spring of the year 528, a small brig used to run as a passenger +boat between Chalcedon on the Asiatic shore and Constantinople. On the +morning in question, which was that of the feast of Saint George, the +vessel was crowded with excursionists who were bound for the great city +in order to take part in the religious and festive celebrations which +marked the festival of the Megalo-martyr, one of the most choice +occasions in the whole vast hagiology of the Eastern Church. The day was +fine and the breeze light, so that the passengers in their holiday mood +were able to enjoy without a qualm the many objects of interest which +marked the approach to the greatest and most beautiful capital in the +world. + +On the right, as they sped up the narrow strait, there stretched the +Asiatic shore, sprinkled with white villages and with numerous villas +peeping out from the woods which adorned it. In front of them, the +Prince's Islands, rising as green as emeralds out of the deep sapphire +blue of the Sea of Marmora, obscured for the moment the view of the +capital. As the brig rounded these, the great city burst suddenly upon +their sight, and a murmur of admiration and wonder rose from the crowded +deck. Tier above tier it rose, white and glittering, a hundred brazen +roofs and gilded statues gleaming in the sun, with high over all the +magnificent shining cupola of Saint Sophia. Seen against a cloudless +sky, it was the city of a dream--too delicate, too airily lovely for +earth. + +In the prow of the small vessel were two travellers of singular +appearance. The one was a very beautiful boy, ten or twelve years of +age, swarthy, clear-cut, with dark, curling hair and vivacious black +eyes, full of intelligence and of the joy of living. The other was an +elderly man, gaunt-faced and grey-bearded, whose stern features were lit +up by a smile as he observed the excitement and interest with which his +young companion viewed the beautiful distant city and the many vessels +which thronged the narrow strait. + +"See! see!" cried the lad. "Look at the great red ships which sail out +from yonder harbour. Surely, your holiness, they are the greatest of all +ships in the world." + +The old man, who was the abbot of the monastery of Saint Nicephorus in +Antioch, laid his hand upon the boy's shoulder. + +"Be wary, Leon, and speak less loudly, for until we have seen your +mother we should keep ourselves secret. As to the red galleys they are +indeed as large as any, for they are the Imperial ships of war, which +come forth from the harbour of Theodosius. Round yonder green point is +the Golden Horn, where the merchant ships are moored. But now, Leon, if +you follow the line of buildings past the great church, you will see a +long row of pillars fronting the sea. It marks the Palace of the +Cæsars." + +The boy looked at it with fixed attention. "And my mother is there," he +whispered. + +"Yes, Leon, your mother the Empress Theodora and her husband the great +Justinian dwell in yonder palace." + +The boy looked wistfully up into the old man's face. + +"Are you sure, Father Luke, that my mother will indeed be glad to see +me?" + +The abbot turned away his face to avoid those questioning eyes. + +"We cannot tell, Leon. We can only try. If it should prove that there is +no place for you, then there is always a welcome among the brethren of +Saint Nicephorus." + +"Why did you not tell my mother that we were coming, Father Luke? Why +did you not wait until you had her command?" + +"At a distance, Leon, it would be easy to refuse you. An Imperial +messenger would have stopped us. But when she sees you, Leon--your eyes, +so like her own, your face, which carries memories of one whom she +loved--then, if there be a woman's heart within her bosom, she will take +you into it. They say that the Emperor can refuse her nothing. They have +no child of their own. There is a great future before you, Leon. When it +comes, do not forget the poor brethren of Saint Nicephorus, who took you +in when you had no friend in the world." + +The old abbot spoke cheerily, but it was easy to see from his anxious +countenance that the nearer he came to the capital the more doubtful +did his errand appear. What had seemed easy and natural from the quiet +cloisters of Antioch became dubious and dark now that the golden domes +of Constantinople glittered so close at hand. Ten years before, a +wretched woman, whose very name was an offence throughout the eastern +world, where she was as infamous for her dishonour as famous for her +beauty, had come to the monastery gate, and had persuaded the monks to +take charge of her infant son, the child of her shame. There he had been +ever since. But she, Theodora, the harlot, returning to the capital, had +by the strangest turn of fortune's wheel caught the fancy and finally +the enduring love of Justinian the heir to the throne. Then on the death +of his uncle Justin, the young man had become the greatest monarch upon +the earth, and raised Theodora to be not only his wife and Empress, but +to be absolute ruler with powers equal to and independent of his own. +And she, the polluted one, had risen to the dignity, had cut herself +sternly away from all that related to her past life, and had shown signs +already of being a great Queen, stronger and wiser than her husband, +but fierce, vindictive, and unbending, a firm support to her friends, +but a terror to her foes. This was the woman to whom the Abbot Luke of +Antioch was bringing Leon, her forgotten son. If ever her mind strayed +back to the days when, abandoned by her lover Ecebolus, the Governor of +the African Pentapolis, she had made her way on foot through Asia Minor, +and left her infant with the monks, it was only to persuade herself that +the brethren cloistered far from the world would never identify Theodora +the Empress with Theodora the dissolute wanderer, and that the fruits of +her sin would be for ever concealed from her Imperial husband. + +The little brig had now rounded the point of the Acropolis, and the long +blue stretch of the Golden Horn lay before it. The high wall of +Theodosius lined the whole harbour, but a narrow verge of land had been +left between it and the water's edge to serve as a quay. The vessel ran +alongside near the Neorion Gate, and the passengers, after a short +scrutiny from the group of helmeted guards who lounged beside it, were +allowed to pass through into the great city. + +The abbot, who had made several visits to Constantinople upon the +business of his monastery, walked with the assured step of one who knows +his ground; while the boy, alarmed and yet pleased by the rush of +people, the roar and clatter of passing chariots, and the vista of +magnificent buildings, held tightly to the loose gown of his guide, +while staring eagerly about him in every direction. Passing through the +steep and narrow streets which led up from the water, they emerged into +the open space which surrounds the magnificent pile of Saint Sophia, the +great church begun by Constantine, hallowed by Saint Chrysostom, and now +the seat of the Patriarch, and the very centre of the Eastern Church. +Only with many crossings and genuflections did the pious abbot succeed +in passing the revered shrine of his religion, and hurried on to his +difficult task. + +Having passed Saint Sophia, the two travellers crossed the marble-paved +Augusteum, and saw upon their right the gilded gates of the hippodrome +through which a vast crowd of people was pressing, for though the +morning had been devoted to the religious ceremony, the afternoon was +given over to secular festivities. So great was the rush of the +populace that the two strangers had some difficulty in disengaging +themselves from the stream and reaching the huge arch of black marble +which formed the outer gate of the palace. Within they were fiercely +ordered to halt by a gold-crested and magnificent sentinel who laid his +shining spear across their breasts until his superior officer should +give them permission to pass. The abbot had been warned, however, that +all obstacles would give way if he mentioned the name of Basil the +eunuch, who acted as chamberlain of the palace and also as +Parakimomen--a high office which meant that he slept at the door of the +Imperial bed-chamber. The charm worked wonderfully, for at the mention +of that potent name the Protosphathaire, or Head of the Palace Guards, +who chanced to be upon the spot, immediately detached one of his +soldiers with instructions to convoy the two strangers into the presence +of the chamberlain. + +Passing in succession a middle guard and an inner guard, the travellers +came at last into the palace proper, and followed their majestic guide +from chamber to chamber, each more wonderful than the last. Marbles and +gold, velvet and silver, glittering mosaics, wonderful carvings, ivory +screens, curtains of Armenian tissue and of Indian silk, damask from +Arabia, and amber from the Baltic--all these things merged themselves in +the minds of the two simple provincials, until their eyes ached and +their senses reeled before the blaze and the glory of this, the most +magnificent of the dwellings of man. Finally, a pair of curtains, +crusted with, gold, were parted, and their guide handed them over to a +negro eunuch who stood within. A heavy, fat, brown-skinned man, with a +large, flabby, hairless face, was pacing up and down the small +apartment, and he turned upon them as they entered with an abominable +and threatening smile. His loose lips and pendulous cheeks were those of +a gross old woman, but above them there shone a pair of dark malignant +eyes, full of fierce intensity of observation and judgment. + +"You have entered the palace by using my name," he said. "It is one of +my boasts that any of the populace can approach me in this way. But it +is not fortunate for those who take advantage of it without due cause." +Again he smiled a smile which made the frightened boy cling tightly to +the loose serge skirts of the abbot. + +But the ecclesiastic was a man of courage. Undaunted by the sinister +appearance of the great chamberlain, or by the threat which lay in his +words, he laid his hand upon his young companion's shoulder and faced +the eunuch with a confident smile. + +"I have no doubt, your excellency," said he, "that the importance of my +mission has given me the right to enter the palace. The only thing which +troubles me is whether it may not be so important as to forbid me from +broaching it to you, or indeed, to anybody save the Empress Theodora, +since it is she only whom it concerns." + +The eunuch's thick eyebrows bunched together over his vicious eyes. + +"You must make good those words," he said. "If my gracious master--the +ever-glorious Emperor Justinian--does not disdain to take me into his +most intimate confidence in all things, it would be strange if there +were any subject within your knowledge which I might not hear. You are, +as I gather from your garb and bearing, the abbot of some Asiatic +monastery?" + +"You are right, your excellency, I am the Abbot of the Monastery of St. +Nicephorus in Antioch. But I repeat that I am assured that what I have +to say is for the ear of the Empress Theodora only." + +The eunuch was evidently puzzled, and his curiosity aroused by the old +man's persistence. He came nearer, his heavy face thrust forward, his +flabby brown hands, like two sponges, resting upon the table of yellow +jasper before him. + +"Old man," said he, "there is no secret which concerns the Empress which +may not be told to me. But if you refuse to speak, it is certain that +you will never see her. Why should I admit you, unless I know your +errand? How should I know that you are not a Manichean heretic with a +poniard in your bosom, longing for the blood of the mother of the +Church?" + +The abbot hesitated no longer. "If there be a mistake in the matter, +then on your head be it," said he. "Know then that this lad Leon is the +son of Theodora the Empress, left by her in our monastery within a month +of his birth ten years ago. This papyrus which I hand you will show you +that what I say is beyond all question or doubt." + +The eunuch Basil took the paper, but his eyes were fixed upon the boy, +and his features showed a mixture of amazement at the news that he had +received, and of cunning speculation as to how he could turn it to +profit. + +"Indeed, he is the very image of the Empress," he muttered; and then, +with sudden suspicion, "Is it not the chance of this likeness which has +put the scheme into your head, old man?" + +"There is but one way to answer that," said the abbot. "It is to ask the +Empress herself whether what I say is not true, and to give her the glad +tidings that her boy is alive and well." + +The tone of confidence, together with the testimony of the papyrus, and +the boy's beautiful face, removed the last shadow of doubt from the +eunuch's mind. Here was a great fact; but what use could be made of it? +Above all, what advantage could he draw from it? He stood with his fat +chin in his hand, turning it over in his cunning brain. + +"Old man," said he at last, "to how many have you told this secret?" + +"To no one in the whole world," the other answered. "There is Deacon +Bardas at the monastery and myself. No one else knows anything." + +"You are sure of this?" + +"Absolutely certain." + +The eunuch had made up his mind. If he alone of all men in the palace +knew of this event, he would have a powerful hold over his masterful +mistress. He was certain that Justinian the Emperor knew nothing of +this. It would be a shock to him. It might even alienate his affections +from his wife. She might care to take precautions to prevent him from +knowing. And if he, Basil the eunuch, was her confederate in those +precautions, then how very close it must draw him to her. All this +flashed through his mind as he stood, the papyrus in his hand, looking +at the old man and the boy. + +"Stay here," said he. "I will be with you again." With a swift rustle of +his silken robes he swept from the chamber. + +A few minutes had elapsed when a curtain at the end of the room was +pushed aside, and the eunuch, reappearing, held it back, doubling his +unwieldy body into a profound obeisance as he did so. Through the gap +came a small alert woman, clad in golden tissue, with a loose outer +mantle and shoes of the Imperial purple. That colour alone showed that +she could be none other than the Empress; but the dignity of her +carriage, the fierce authority of her magnificent dark eyes, and the +perfect beauty of her haughty face, all proclaimed that it could only be +that of Theodora who, in spite of her lowly origin, was the most +majestic as well as the most maturely lovely of all the women in her +kingdom. Gone now were the buffoon tricks which the daughter of Acacius +the bearward had learned in the amphitheatre; gone too was the light +charm of the wanton, and what was left was the worthy mate of a great +king, the measured dignity of one who was every inch an empress. + +Disregarding the two men, Theodora walked up to the boy, placed her two +white hands upon his shoulders, and looked with a long questioning gaze, +a gaze which began with hard suspicion and ended with tender +recognition, into those large lustrous eyes which were the very +reflection of her own. At first the sensitive lad was chilled by the +cold intent question of the look; but as it softened, his own spirit +responded, until suddenly, with a cry of "Mother! Mother!" he cast +himself into her arms, his hands locked round her neck, his face buried +in her bosom. Carried away by the sudden natural outburst of emotion, +her own arms tightened round the lad's figure, and she strained him for +an instant to her heart. Then, the strength of the Empress gaining +instant command over the temporary weakness of the mother, she pushed +him back from her, and waved that they should leave her to herself. The +slaves in attendance hurried the two visitors from the room. Basil the +eunuch lingered, looking down at his mistress, who had thrown herself +upon a damask couch, her lips white and her bosom heaving with the +tumult of her emotion. She glanced up and met the chancellor's crafty +gaze, her woman's instinct reading the threat that lurked within it. + +"I am in your power," she said. "The Emperor must never know of this." + +"I am your slave," said the eunuch, with his ambiguous smile. "I am an +instrument in your hand. If it is your will that the Emperor should +know nothing, then who is to tell him?" + +"But the monk, the boy. What are we to do?" + +"There is only one way for safety," said the eunuch. + +She looked at him with horrified eyes. His spongy hands were pointing +down to the floor. There was an underground world to this beautiful +palace, a shadow that was ever close to the light, a region of dimly-lit +passages, of shadowed corners, of noiseless, tongueless slaves, of +sudden sharp screams in the darkness. To this the eunuch was pointing. + +A terrible struggle rent her breast. The beautiful boy was hers, flesh +of her flesh, bone of her bone. She knew it beyond all question or +doubt. It was her one child, and her whole heart went out to him. But +Justinian! She knew the Emperor's strange limitations. Her career in the +past was forgotten. He had swept it all aside by special Imperial decree +published throughout the Empire, as if she were new-born through the +power of his will, and her association with his person. But they were +childless, and this sight of one which was not his own would cut him to +the quick. He could dismiss her infamous past from his mind, but if it +took the concrete shape of this beautiful child, then how could he wave +it aside as if it had never been? All her instincts and her intimate +knowledge of the man told her that even her charm and her influence +might fail under such circumstances to save her from ruin. Her divorce +would be as easy to him as her elevation had been. She was balanced upon +a giddy pinnacle, the highest in the world, and yet the higher the +deeper the fall. Everything that earth could give was now at her feet. +Was she to risk the losing of it all--for what? For a weakness which was +unworthy of an Empress, for a foolish new-born spasm of love, for that +which had no existence within her in the morning? How could she be so +foolish as to risk losing such a substance for such a shadow? + +"Leave it to me," said the brown watchful face above her. + +"Must it be--death?" + +"There is no real safety outside. But if your heart is too merciful, +then by the loss of sight and speech----" + +She saw in her mind the white-hot iron approaching those glorious eyes, +and she shuddered at the thought. + +"No, no! Better death than that!" + +"Let it be death then. You are wise, great Empress, for there only is +real safety and assurance of silence." + +"And the monk?" + +"Him also." + +"But the Holy Synod! He is a tonsured priest. What would the Patriarch +do?" + +"Silence his babbling tongue. Then let them do what they will. How are +we of the palace to know that this conspirator, taken with a dagger in +his sleeve, is really what he says?" + +Again she shuddered and shrank down among the cushions. + +"Speak not of it, think not of it," said the eunuch. "Say only that you +leave it in my hands. Nay, then, if you cannot say it, do but nod your +head, and I take it as your signal." + +In that instant there flashed before Theodora's mind a vision of all her +enemies, of all those who envied her rise, of all whose hatred and +contempt would rise into a clamour of delight could they see the +daughter of the bearward hurled down again into that abyss from which +she had been dragged. Her face hardened, her lips tightened, her little +hands clenched in the agony of her thought. + +"Do it!" she said. + +In an instant, with a terrible smile, the messenger of death hurried +from the room. She groaned aloud, and buried herself yet deeper amid the +silken cushions, clutching them frantically with convulsed and twitching +hands. + +The eunuch wasted no time, for this deed, once done, he became--save for +that insignificant monk in Asia Minor, whose fate would soon be +sealed--the only sharer of Theodora's secret, and therefore the only +person who could curb and bend that imperious nature. Hurrying into the +chamber where the visitors were waiting, he gave a sinister signal, only +too well known in those iron days. In an instant the black mutes in +attendance seized the old man and the boy, pushing them swiftly down a +passage and into a meaner portion of the palace, where the heavy smell +of luscious cooking proclaimed the neighbourhood of the kitchens. A side +corridor led to a heavily-barred iron door, and this in turn opened upon +a steep flight of stone steps, feebly illuminated by the glimmer of +wall lamps. At the head and foot stood a mute sentinel like an ebony +statue, and below, along the dusky and forbidding passages from which +the cells opened, a succession of niches in the wall were occupied by a +similar guardian. The unfortunate visitors were dragged brutally down a +number of stone-flagged and dismal corridors until they descended +another long stair which led so deeply into the earth that the damp +feeling in the heavy air and the drip of water all round showed that +they had come down to the level of the sea. Groans and cries, like those +of sick animals, from the various grated doors which they passed showed +how many there were who spent their whole lives in this humid and +poisonous atmosphere. + +At the end of this lowest passage was a door which opened into a single +large vaulted room. It was devoid of furniture, but in the centre was a +large and heavy wooden board clamped with iron. This lay upon a rude +stone parapet, engraved with inscriptions beyond the wit of the eastern +scholars, for this old well dated from a time before the Greeks founded +Byzantium, when men of Chaldea and Phœnicia built with huge unmortared +blocks, far below the level of the town of Constantine. The door was +closed, and the eunuch beckoned to the slaves that they should remove +the slab which covered the well of death. The frightened boy screamed +and clung to the abbot, who, ashy-pale and trembling, was pleading hard +to melt the heart of the ferocious eunuch. + +"Surely, surely, you would not slay the innocent boy!" he cried. "What +has he done? Was it his fault that he came here? I alone--I and Deacon +Bardas--are to blame. Punish us, if some one must indeed be punished. We +are old. It is to-day or to-morrow with us. But he is so young and so +beautiful, with all his life before him. Oh, sir! oh, your excellency, +you would not have the heart to hurt him!" + +He threw himself down and clutched at the eunuch's knees, while the boy +sobbed piteously and cast horror-stricken eyes at the black slaves who +were tearing the wooden slab from the ancient parapet beneath. The only +answer which the chamberlain gave to the frantic pleadings of the abbot +was to take a stone which lay on the coping of the well and toss it in. +It could be heard clattering against the old, damp, mildewed walls, +until it fell with a hollow boom into some far distant subterranean +pool. Then he again motioned with his hands, and the black slaves threw +themselves upon the boy and dragged him away from his guardian. So +shrill was his clamour that no one heard the approach of the Empress. +With a swift rush she had entered the room, and her arms were round her +son. + +"It shall not be! It cannot be!" she cried. "No, no, my darling! my +darling! they shall do you no hurt. I was mad to think of it--mad and +wicked to dream of it. Oh, my sweet boy! to think that your mother might +have had your blood upon her head!" + +The eunuch's brows were gathered together at this failure of his plans, +at this fresh example of feminine caprice. + +"Why kill them, great lady, if it pains your gracious heart?" said he. +"With a knife and a branding-iron they can be disarmed for ever." + +She paid no attention to his words. "Kiss me, Leon!" she cried. "Just +once let me feel my own child's soft lips rest upon mine. Now again! No, +no more, or I shall weaken for what I have still to say and still to +do. Old man, you are very near a natural grave, and I cannot think from +your venerable aspect that words of falsehood would come readily to your +lips. You have indeed kept my secret all these years, have you not?" + +"I have in very truth, great Empress. I swear to you by Saint +Nicephorus, patron of our house, that save old Deacon Bardas, there is +none who knows." + +"Then let your lips still be sealed. If you have kept faith in the past, +I see no reason why you should be a babbler in the future. And you, +Leon"--she bent her wonderful eyes with a strange mixture of sternness +and of love upon the boy, "can I trust you? Will you keep a secret which +could never help you, but would be the ruin and downfall of your +mother?" + +"Oh, mother, I would not hurt you! I swear that I will be silent." + +"Then I trust you both. Such provision will be made for your monastery +and for your own personal comforts as will make you bless the day you +came to my palace. Now you may go. I wish never to see you again. If I +did, you might find me in a softer mood, or in a harder, and the one +would lead to my undoing, the other to yours. But if by whisper or +rumour I have reason to think that you have failed me, then you and your +monks and your monastery will have such an end as will be a lesson for +ever to those who would break faith with their Empress." + +"I will never speak," said the old abbot; "neither will Deacon Bardas; +neither will Leon. For all three I can answer. But there are +others--these slaves, the chancellor. We may be punished for another's +fault." + +"Not so," said the Empress, and her eyes were like flints. "These slaves +are voiceless; nor have they any means to tell those secrets which they +know. As to you, Basil----" She raised her white hand with the same +deadly gesture which he had himself used so short a time before. The +black slaves were on him like hounds on a stag. + +"Oh, my gracious mistress, dear lady, what is this? What is this? You +cannot mean it!" he screamed, in his high, cracked voice. "Oh, what have +I done? Why should I die?" + +"You have turned me against my own. You have goaded me to slay my own +son. You have intended to use my secret against me. I read it in your +eyes from the first. Cruel, murderous villain, taste the fate which you +have yourself given to so many others. This is your doom. I have +spoken." + +The old man and the boy hurried in horror from the vault. As they +glanced back they saw the erect, inflexible, shimmering, gold-clad +figure of the Empress. Beyond they had a glimpse of the green-scummed +lining of the well, and of the great red open mouth of the eunuch, as he +screamed and prayed while every tug of the straining slaves brought him +one step nearer to the brink. With their hands over their ears they +rushed away, but even so they heard that last woman-like shriek, and +then the heavy plunge far down in the dark abysses of the earth. + + + + +XII + +A POINT OF CONTACT + + +A curious train of thought is started when one reflects upon those great +figures who have trod the stage of this earth, and actually played their +parts in the same act, without ever coming face to face, or even knowing +of each other's existence. Baber, the Great Mogul, was, for example, +overrunning India at the very moment when Hernando Cortez was +overrunning Mexico, and yet the two could never have heard of each +other. Or, to take a more supreme example, what could the Emperor +Augustus Cæsar know of a certain Carpenter's shop wherein there worked a +dreamy-eyed boy who was destined to change the whole face of the world? +It may be, however, that sometimes these great contemporary forces did +approach, touch, and separate--each unaware of the true meaning of the +other. So it was in the instance which is now narrated. + +It was evening in the port of Tyre, some eleven hundred years before +the coming of Christ. The city held, at that time, about a quarter of a +million of inhabitants, the majority of whom dwelt upon the mainland, +where the buildings of the wealthy merchants, each in its own tree-girt +garden, extended for seven miles along the coast. The great island, +however, from which the town got its name, lay out some distance from +the shore, and contained within its narrow borders the more famous of +the temples and public buildings. Of these temples the chief was that of +Melmoth, which covered with its long colonnades the greater part of that +side of the island which looked down upon the Sidonian port, so called +because only twenty miles away the older city of Sidon maintained a +constant stream of traffic with its rising offshoot. + +Inns were not yet in vogue, but the poorer traveller found his quarters +with hospitable citizens, while men of distinction were frequently +housed in the annex of the temples, where the servants of the priests +attended to their wants. On that particular evening there stood in the +portico of the temple of Melmoth two remarkable figures who were the +centre of observation for a considerable fringe of Phœnician idlers. One +of these men was clearly by his face and demeanour a great chieftain. +His strongly-marked features were those of a man who had led an +adventurous life, and were suggestive of every virile quality from brave +resolve to desperate execution. His broad, high brow and contemplative +eyes showed that he was a man of wisdom as well as of valour. He was +clad, as became a Greek nobleman of the period, with a pure white linen +tunic, a gold-studded belt supporting a short sword, and a purple cloak. +The lower legs were bare, and the feet covered by sandals of red +leather, while a cap of white cloth was pushed back upon his brown +curls, for the heat of the day was past and the evening breeze most +welcome. + +His companion was a short, thick-set man, bull-necked and swarthy, clad +in some dusky cloth which gave him a sombre appearance relieved only by +the vivid scarlet of his woollen cap. His manner towards his comrade was +one of deference, and yet there was in it also something of that +freshness and frankness which go with common dangers and a common +interest. + +"Be not impatient, sire," he was saying. "Give me two days, or three at +the most, and we shall make as brave a show at the muster as any. But, +indeed, they would smile if they saw us crawl up to Tenedos with ten +missing oars and the mainsail blown into rags." + +The other frowned and stamped his foot with anger. + +"We should have been there now had it not been for this cursed +mischance," said he. "Aeolus played us a pretty trick when he sent such +a blast out of a cloudless sky." + +"Well, sire, two of the Cretan galleys foundered, and Trophimes, the +pilot, swears that one of the Argos ships was in trouble. Pray Zeus that +it was not the galley of Menelaus. We shall not be the last at the +muster." + +"It is well that Troy stands a good ten miles from the sea, for if they +came out at us with a fleet they might have us at a disadvantage. We had +no choice but to come here and refit, yet I shall have no happy hour +until I see the white foam from the lash of our oars once more. Go, +Seleucas, and speed them all you may." + +The officer bowed and departed, while the chieftain stood with his eyes +fixed upon his great dismantled galley over which the riggers and +carpenters were swarming. Further out in the roadstead lay eleven other +smaller galleys, waiting until their wounded flagship should be ready +for them. The sun, as it shone upon them, gleamed upon hundreds of +bronze helmets and breastplates, telling of the warlike nature of the +errand upon which they were engaged. Save for them the port was filled +with bustling merchant ships taking in cargoes or disgorging them upon +the quays. At the very feet of the Greek chieftain three broad barges +were moored, and gangs of labourers with wooden shovels were heaving out +the mussels brought from Dor, destined to supply the famous Tyrian +dye-works which adorn the most noble of all garments. Beside them was a +tin ship from Britain, and the square boxes of that precious metal, so +needful for the making of bronze, were being passed from hand to hand to +the waiting waggons. The Greek found himself smiling at the uncouth +wonder of a Cornishman who had come with his tin, and who was now lost +in amazement as he stared at the long colonnades of the Temple of +Melmoth and the high front of the Shrine of Ashtaroth behind it. Even +as he gazed some of his ship-mates passed their hands through his arms +and led him along the quay to a wine-shop, as being a building much more +within his comprehension. The Greek, still smiling, was turning on his +heels to return to the Temple, when one of the clean-shaven priests of +Baal came towards him. + +"It is rumoured, sire," said he, "that you are on a very distant and +dangerous venture. Indeed, it is well known from the talk of your +soldiers what it is that you have on hand." + +"It is true," said the Greek, "that we have a hard task before us. But +it would have been harder to bide at home and to feel that the honour of +a leader of the Argives had been soiled by this dog from Asia." + +"I hear that all Greece has taken up the quarrel." + +"Yes, there is not a chief from Thessaly to the Malea who has not called +out his men, and there were twelve hundred galleys in the harbour of +Aulis." + +"It is a great host," said the priest. "But have ye any seers or +prophets among ye who can tell what will come to pass?" + +"Yes, we had one such, Calchas his name. He has said that for nine years +we shall strive, and only on the tenth will the victory come." + +"That is but cold comfort," said the priest. "It is, indeed, a great +prize which can be worth ten years of a man's life." + +"I would give," the Greek answered, "not ten years but all my life if I +could but lay proud Ilium in ashes and carry back Helen to her palace on +the hill of Argos." + +"I pray Baal, whose priest I am, that you may have good fortune," said +the Phœnician. "I have heard that these Trojans are stout soldiers, and +that Hector, the son of Priam, is a mighty leader." + +The Greek smiled proudly. + +"They must be stout and well-fed also," said he, "if they can stand the +brunt against the long-haired Argives with such captains as Agamemnon, +the son of Atreus from golden Mycenæ, or Achilles, son of Peleus, with +his myrmidons. But these things are on the knees of the Fates. In the +meantime, my friend, I would fain know who these strange people are who +come down the street, for their chieftain has the air of one who is made +for great deeds." + +A tall man clad in a long white robe, with a golden fillet running +through his flowing auburn hair, was striding down the street with the +free elastic gait of one who has lived an active life in the open. His +face was ruddy and noble, with a short, crisp beard covering a strong, +square jaw. In his clear blue eyes as he looked at the evening sky and +the busy waters beneath him there was something of the exaltation of the +poet, while a youth walking beside him and carrying a harp hinted at the +graces of music. On the other side of him, however, a second squire bore +a brazen shield and a heavy spear, so that his master might never be +caught unawares by his enemies. In his train there came a tumultuous +rabble of dark hawk-like men, armed to the teeth, and peering about with +covetous eyes at the signs of wealth which lay in profusion around them. +They were swarthy as Arabs, and yet they were better clad and better +armed than the wild children of the desert. + +"They are but barbarians," said the priest. "He is a small king from the +mountain parts opposite Philistia, and he comes here because he is +building up the town of Jebus, which he means to be his chief city. It +is only here that he can find the wood, and stone, and craftsmanship +that he desires. The youth with the harp is his son. But I pray you, +chief, if you would know what is before you at Troy, to come now into +the outer hall of the Temple with me, for we have there a famous seer, +the prophetess Alaga who is also the priestess of Ashtaroth. It may be +that she can do for you what she has done for many others, and send you +forth from Tyre in your hollow ships with a better heart than you came." + +To the Greeks, who by oracles, omens, and auguries were for ever prying +into the future, such a suggestion was always welcome. The Greek +followed the priest to the inner sanctuary, where sat the famous +Pythoness--a tall, fair woman of middle age, who sat at a stone table +upon which was an abacus or tray filled with sand. She held a style of +chalcedony, and with this she traced strange lines and curves upon the +smooth surface, her chin leaning upon her other hand and her eyes cast +down. As the chief and the priest approached her she did not look up, +but she quickened the movements of her pencil, so that curve followed +curve in quick succession. Then, still with downcast eyes, she spoke in +a strange, high, sighing voice like wind amid the trees. + +"Who, then, is this who comes to Alaga of Tyre, the handmaiden of great +Ashtaroth? Behold I see an island to the west, and an old man who is the +father, and the great chief, and his wife, and his son who now waits him +at home, being too young for the wars. Is this not true?" + +"Yes, maiden, you have said truth," the Greek answered. + +"I have had many great ones before me, but none greater than you, for +three thousand years from now people will still talk of your bravery and +of your wisdom. They will remember also the faithful wife at home, and +the name of the old man, your father, and of the boy your son--all will +be remembered when the very stones of noble Sidon and royal Tyre are no +more." + +"Nay, say not so, Alaga!" cried the priest. + +"I speak not what I desire but what it is given to me to say. For ten +years you will strive, and then you will win, and victory will bring +rest to others, but only new troubles to you. Ah!" The prophetess +suddenly started in violent surprise, and her hand made ever faster +markings on the sand. + +"What is it that ails you, Alaga?" asked the priest. + +The woman had looked up with wild inquiring eyes. Her gaze was neither +for the priest nor for the chief, but shot past them to the further +door. Looking round the Greek was aware that two new figures had entered +the room. They were the ruddy barbarian whom he had marked in the +street, together with the youth who bore his harp. + +"It is a marvel upon marvels that two such should enter my chamber on +the same day," cried the priestess. "Have I not said that you were the +greatest that ever came, and yet behold here is already one who is +greater. For he and his son--even this youth whom I see before me--will +also be in the minds of all men when lands beyond the Pillars of +Hercules shall have taken the place of Phœnicia and of Greece. Hail to +you, stranger, hail! Pass on to your work for it awaits you, and it is +great beyond words of mine." Rising from her stool the woman dropped her +pencil upon the sand and passed swiftly from the room. + +"It is over," said the priest. "Never have I heard her speak such +words." + +The Greek chief looked with interest at the barbarian. "You speak +Greek?" he asked. + +"Indifferently well," said the other. "Yet I should understand it seeing +that I spent a long year at Ziklag in the land of the Philistines." + +"It would seem," said the Greek, "that the gods have chosen us both to +play a part in the world." + +"Stranger," the barbarian answered, "there is but one God." + +"Say you so? Well, it is a matter to be argued at some better time. But +I would fain have your name and style and what is it you purpose to do, +so that we may perchance hear of each other in the years to come. For my +part I am Odysseus, known also as Ulysses, the King of Ithaca, with the +good Laertes as my father and young Telemachus as my son. For my work, +it is the taking of Troy." + +"And my work," said the barbarian, "is the building of Jebus, which now +we call Jerusalem. Our ways lie separate, but it may come back to your +memory that you have crossed the path of David, second King of the +Hebrews, together with his young son Solomon, who may follow him upon +the throne of Israel." + +So he turned and went forth into the darkened streets where his spearmen +were awaiting him, while the Greek passed down to his boat that he might +see what was still to be done ere he could set forth upon his voyage. + + + + +XIII + +THE CENTURION + + +[_Being the fragment of a letter from Sulpicius Balbus, Legate of the +Tenth Legion, to his uncle, Lucius Piso, in his villa near Baiae, dated +The Kalends of the month of Augustus in the year 824 of Rome._] + +I promised you, my dear uncle, that I would tell you anything of +interest concerning the siege of Jerusalem; but, indeed, these people +whom we imagined to be unwarlike have kept us so busy that there has +been little time for letter-writing. We came to Judæa thinking that a +mere blowing of trumpets and a shout would finish the affair, and +picturing a splendid triumph in the _via sacra_ to follow, with all the +girls in Rome throwing flowers and kisses to us. Well, we may get our +triumph, and possibly the kisses also, but I can assure you that not +even you who have seen such hard service on the Rhine can ever have +experienced a more severe campaign than this has been. We have now won +the town, and to-day their temple is burning, and the smoke sets me +coughing as I sit writing in my tent. But it has been a terrible +business, and I am sure none of us wish to see Judæa again. + +In fighting the Gauls, or the Germans, you are against brave men, +animated by the love of their country. This passion acts more, however, +upon some than others, so that the whole army is not equally inflamed by +it. These Jews, however, besides their love of country, which is very +strong, have a desperate religious fervour, which gives them a fury in +battle such as none of us have ever seen. They throw themselves with a +shriek of joy upon our swords and lances, as if death were all that they +desired. + +If one gets past your guard may Jove protect you, for their knives are +deadly, and if it comes to a hand-to-hand grapple they are as dangerous +as wild beasts, who would claw out your eyes or your throat. You know +that our fellows of the Tenth Legion have been, ever since Cæsar's time, +as rough soldiers as any with the Eagles, but I can assure you that I +have seen them positively cowed by the fury of these fanatics. As a +matter of fact we have had least to bear, for it has been our task from +the beginning to guard the base of the peninsula upon which this +extraordinary town is built. It has steep precipices upon all the other +sides, so that it is only on this one northern base that fugitives could +escape or a rescue come. Meanwhile, the fifth, fifteenth, and the +twelfth or Syrian legions have done the work, together with the +auxiliaries. Poor devils! we have often pitied them, and there have been +times when it was difficult to say whether we were attacking the town or +the town was attacking us. They broke down our tortoises with their +stones, burned our turrets with their fire, and dashed right through our +whole camp to destroy the supplies in the rear. If any man says a Jew is +not a good soldier, you may be sure that he has never been in Judæa. + +However, all this has nothing to do with what I took up my stylus to +tell you. No doubt it is the common gossip of the forum and of the baths +how our army, excellently handled by the princely Titus, carried one +line of wall after the other until we had only the temple before us. +This, however, is--or was, for I see it burning even as I write--a very +strong fortress. Romans have no idea of the magnificence of this place. +The temple of which I speak is a far finer building than any we have in +Rome, and so is the Palace, built by Herod or Agrippa, I really forget +which. This temple is two hundred paces each way, with stones so fitted +that the blade of a knife will not go between, and the soldiers say +there is gold enough within to fill the pockets of the whole army. This +idea puts some fury into the attack, as you can believe, but with these +flames I fear a great deal of the plunder will be lost. + +There was a great fight at the temple, and it was rumoured that it would +be carried by storm to-night, so I went out on to the rising ground +whence one sees the city best. I wonder, uncle, if in your many +campaigns you have ever smelt the smell of a large beleaguered town. The +wind was south to-night, and this terrible smell of death came straight +to our nostrils. There were half a million people there, and every form +of disease, starvation, decomposition, filth and horror, all pent in +within a narrow compass. You know how the lion sheds smell behind the +Circus Maximus, acid and foul. It is like that, but there is a low, +deadly, subtle odour which lies beneath it and makes your very heart +sink within you. Such was the smell which came up from the city +to-night. + +As I stood in the darkness, wrapped in my scarlet chlamys--for the +evenings here are chill--I was suddenly aware that I was not alone. A +tall, silent figure was near me, looking down at the town even as I was. +I could see in the moonlight that he was clad as an officer, and as I +approached him I recognized that it was Longinus, third tribune of my +own legion, and a soldier of great age and experience. He is a strange, +silent man, who is respected by all, but understood by none, for he +keeps his own council and thinks rather than talks. As I approached him +the first flames burst from the temple, a high column of fire, which +cast a glow upon our faces and gleamed upon our armour. In this red +light I saw that the gaunt face of my companion was set like iron. + +"At last!" said he. "At last!" + +He was speaking to himself rather than to me, for he started and seemed +confused when I asked him what he meant. + +"I have long thought that evil would come to the place," said he. "Now +I see that it has come, and so I said 'At last!'" + +"For that matter," I answered, "we have all seen that evil would come to +the place, since it has again and again defied the authority of the +Cæsars." + +He looked keenly at me with a question in his eyes. Then he said: + +"I have heard, sir, that you are one who has a full sympathy in the +matter of the gods, believing that every man should worship according to +his own conscience and belief." + +I answered that I was a Stoic of the school of Seneca, who held that +this world is a small matter and that we should care little for its +fortunes, but develop within ourselves a contempt for all but the +highest. + +He smiled in grim fashion at this. + +"I have heard," said he, "that Seneca died the richest man in all Nero's +Empire, so he made the best of this world in spite of his philosophy." + +"What are your own beliefs?" I asked. "Are you, perhaps, one who has +fathomed the mysteries of Isis, or been admitted to the Society of +Mythra?" + +"Have you ever heard," he asked, "of the Christians?" + +"Yes," said I. "There were some slaves and wandering men in Rome who +called themselves such. They worshipped, so far as I could gather, some +man who died over here in Judæa. He was put to death, I believe, in the +time of Tiberius." + +"That is so," he answered. "It was at the time when Pilate was +procurator--Pontius Pilate, the brother of old Lucius Pilate, who had +Egypt in the time of Augustus. Pilate was of two minds in the matter, +but the mob was as wild and savage as these very men that we have been +contending with. Pilate tried to put them off with a criminal, hoping +that so long as they had blood they would be satisfied. But they chose +the other, and he was not strong enough to withstand them. Ah! it was a +pity--a sad pity!" + +"You seem to know a good deal about it," said I. + +"I was there," said the man simply, and became silent, while we both +looked down at the huge column of flame from the burning temple. As it +flared up we could see the white tents of the army and all the country +round. There was a low hill just outside the city, and my companion +pointed to it. + +"That was where it happened," said he. "I forget the name of the place, +but in those days--it was more than thirty years ago--they put their +criminals to death there. But He was no criminal. It is always His eyes +that I think of--the look in His eyes." + +"What about the eyes, then?" + +"They have haunted me ever since. I see them now. All the sorrow of +earth seemed mirrored in them. Sad, sad, and yet such a deep, tender +pity! One would have said that it was He who needed pity had you seen +His poor battered, disfigured face. But He had no thought for +Himself--it was the great world pity that looked out of His gentle eyes. +There was a noble maniple of the legion there, and not a man among them +who did not wish to charge the howling crowd who were dragging such a +man to His death." + +"What were you doing there?" + +"I was Junior Centurion, with the gold vine-rod fresh on my shoulders. I +was on duty on the hill, and never had a job that I liked less. But +discipline has to be observed, and Pilate had given the order. But I +thought at the time--and I was not the only one--that this man's name +and work would not be forgotten, and that there would be a curse on the +place that had done such a deed. There was an old woman there, His +mother, with her grey hair down her back. I remember how she shrieked +when one of our fellows with his lance put Him out of his pain. And a +few others, women and men, poor and ragged, stood by Him. But, you see, +it has turned out as I thought. Even in Rome, as you have observed, His +followers have appeared." + +"I rather fancy," said I, "that I am speaking to one of them." + +"At least, I have not forgotten," said he. "I have been in the wars ever +since with little time for study. But my pension is overdue, and when I +have changed the sagum for the toga, and the tent for some little farm +up Como way, then I shall look more deeply into these things, if, +perchance, I can find some one to instruct me." + +And so I left him. I only tell you all this because I remember that you +took an interest in the man, Paulus, who was put to death for preaching +this religion. You told me that it had reached Cæsar's palace, and I can +tell you now that it has reached Cæsar's soldiers as well. But apart +from this matter I wish to tell you some of the adventures which we have +had recently in raiding for food among the hills, which stretch as far +south as the river Jordan. The other day ... + +[_Here the fragment is ended._] + + +THE END + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + Dialect spellings remain as printed. Minor typographical errors have + been corrected without note, whilst significant amendments have been + listed below: + + p. 79, 'cacophanies' amended to _cacophonies_; + p. 102, 'Pantelic' amended to _Pentelic_; + p. 113, 'Septimus' amended to _Septimius_; + p. 144, 'Sava' amended to _Saba_; + p. 206, 'wagons' amended to _waggons_. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Last of the Legions and Other +Tales of Long Ago, by Arthur Conan Doyle + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST OF THE LEGIONS *** + +***** This file should be named 26153-0.txt or 26153-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/1/5/26153/ + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Stephen Blundell +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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