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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Gladiators. A Tale of Rome and Judaea by
+G. J. Whyte-Melville
+
+
+
+This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+other parts of the world 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
+http://www.gutenberg.org/license. If you are not located in the United
+States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you are located
+before using this ebook.
+
+
+
+Title: The Gladiators. A Tale of Rome and Judaea
+
+Author: G. J. Whyte-Melville
+
+Release Date: December 30, 2014 [Ebook #47822]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GLADIATORS. A TALE OF ROME AND JUDAEA***
+
+
+
+
+
+    _Of this Edition of Whyte-Melville's Works One Thousand and Fifty
+    Copies only have been printed by Morrison and Gibb Limited,
+    Edinburgh, who have distributed the type_
+
+
+
+
+
+                              THE WORKS OF
+
+                          G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE
+
+
+                                EDITED BY
+                       SIR HERBERT MAXWELL, BART.
+
+                               VOLUME XXII.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE GLADIATORS
+
+                         [Illustration: Monogram]
+
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: 'The Briton watching his opportunity seized the bit in
+  his powerful grasp.']
+
+
+
+
+
+                             THE GLADIATORS
+
+                        A TALE OF ROME AND JUDAEA
+
+
+                                   BY
+
+                           G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE
+
+
+WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY HARRINGTON BIRD
+
+
+LONDON
+W. THACKER & CO., 2 CREED LANE, E.C.
+CALCUTTA: THACKER, SPINK & CO.
+1901
+
+_All rights reserved_
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 CONTENTS
+
+
+         EROS
+ CHAP.                                      PAGE
+    I.   THE IVORY GATE                        1
+   II.   THE MARBLE PORCH                      6
+  III.   HERMES                               15
+   IV.   APHRODITE                            20
+    V.   ROME                                 28
+   VI.   THE WORSHIP OF ISIS                  36
+  VII.   TRUTH                                46
+ VIII.   THE JEW                              55
+   IX.   THE ROMAN                            61
+    X.   A TRIBUNE OF THE LEGIONS             71
+   XI.   STOLEN WATERS                        81
+  XII.   MYRRHINA                             86
+ XIII.   NOLENS--VOLENS                        95
+  XIV.   CAESAR                               100
+   XV.   RED FALERNIAN                       108
+  XVI.   THE TRAINING-SCHOOL                 117
+ XVII.   A VEILED HEART                      125
+XVIII.   WINGED WORDS                        135
+  XIX.   THE ARENA                           144
+   XX.   THE TRIDENT AND THE NET             155
+
+         ANTEROS
+ CHAP.                                      PAGE
+    I.   THE LISTENING SLAVE                 163
+   II.   ATTACK AND DEFENCE                  172
+  III.   "FURENS QUID FOEMINA"                179
+   IV.   THE LOVING CUP                      186
+    V.   SURGIT AMARI                        194
+   VI.   DEAD LEAVES                         200
+  VII.   "HABET!"                            209
+ VIII.   TOO LATE                            214
+   IX.   THE LURE                            221
+    X.   FROM SCYLLA TO CHARYBDIS            229
+   XI.   THE RULES OF THE FAMILY             238
+  XII.   A MASTER OF FENCE                   245
+ XIII.   THE ESQUILINE                       252
+  XIV.   THE CHURCH                          260
+   XV.   REDIVIVUS                           269
+  XVI.   "MORITURI"                          280
+ XVII.   THE GERMAN GUARD                    286
+XVIII.   THE BUSINESS OF CAESAR               293
+  XIX.   AT BAY                              300
+   XX.   THE FAIR HAVEN                      307
+
+         MOIRA
+ CHAP.                                      PAGE
+    I.   A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF      311
+   II.   THE LION OF JUDAH                   321
+  III.   THE WISDOM OF THE SERPENT           330
+   IV.   THE MASTERS OF THE WORLD            338
+    V.   GLAD TIDINGS                        345
+   VI.   WINE ON THE LEES                    352
+  VII.   THE ATTAINDER                       360
+ VIII.   THE SANHEDRIM                       368
+   IX.   THE PAVED HALL                      376
+    X.   A ZEALOT OF THE ZEALOTS             384
+   XI.   THE DOOMED CITY                     392
+  XII.   DESOLATION                          398
+ XIII.   THE LEGION OF THE LOST              406
+  XIV.   FAITH                               416
+   XV.   FANATICISM                          423
+  XVI.   DAWN                                427
+ XVII.   THE FIRST STONE                     435
+XVIII.   THE COST OF CONQUEST                440
+  XIX.   THE GATHERING OF THE EAGLES         446
+   XX.   THE VICTORY                         453
+
+
+
+
+
+                          LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+                                                                    PAGE
+"THE BRITON, WATCHING HIS OPPORTUNITY, SEIZED THE BIT IN   _Coloured
+HIS POWERFUL GRASP"                                        Frontispiece_
+"'HAVE AT HIM! GOOD DOGS!'"                                            2
+"LICINIUS HOLDS THE BRITISH MAIDEN TO HIS BREAST"                     63
+"WITH A SHORT LABOURING TROT HE MOVES ACROSS THE ARENA"              150
+"'YOU ARE SAFE,' SHE SAID"                                           197
+"SHE WAS ACCOSTED BY A DARK SALLOW OLD WOMAN"                        221
+"HER EYES GREW DIM, HER SENSES SEEMED FAILING"                       255
+"'THEIR POINTS ARE POISONED,' HE SHOUTED"                            304
+"SHE WALKED BOLDLY UP TO HIM"                                        407
+"SANK DOWN HELPLESS ON THE PAVEMENT AT HIS FEET"                     439
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                              THE GLADIATORS
+
+                              THE GLADIATORS
+
+
+
+
+
+                                  *EROS*
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER I
+
+                              THE IVORY GATE
+
+
+                               [Initial D]
+
+Dark and stern, in their weird beauty, lower the sad brows of the Queen of
+Hell. Dear to her are the pomp and power, the shadowy vastness, and the
+terrible splendour of the nether world. Dear to her the pride of her
+unbending consort; and doubly dear the wide imperial sway, that rules the
+immortal destinies of souls. But dearer far than these--dearer than
+flashing crown and fiery sceptre, and throne of blazing gold--are the
+memories that glimmer bright as sunbeams athwart those vistas of gloomy
+grandeur, and seem to fan her weary spirit like a fresh breeze from the
+realms of upper earth. She has not forgotten, she never can forget, the
+dewy flowers, the blooming fragrance of lavish Sicily, nor the sparkling
+sea, and the summer haze, and the golden harvests that wave and whisper in
+the garden and granary of the world. Then a sad smile steals over the
+haughty face; the stern beauty softens in the gleam, and, for a while, the
+daughter of Ceres is a laughing girl once more.
+
+So the Ivory Gate swings back, and gentle doves come forth on snowy wings,
+flying upwards through the gloom, to bear balm and consolation to the
+weary and the wounded and the lost. Now this was the dream the birds of
+Peace brought with them, to soothe the broken spirit of a sleeping slave.
+
+The old boar has turned to bay at last. Long and severe has been the
+chase; through many an echoing woodland, down many a sunny glade, by copse
+and dingle, rock and cave, through splashing stream, and deep, dank,
+quivering morass, the large rough hounds have tracked him, unerring and
+pitiless, till they have set him up here, against the trunk of the old
+oak-tree, and he has turned--a true British denizen of the waste--to sell
+his life dearly, and fight unconquered to the last. His small eye glows
+like a burning coal; the stiff bristles are up along his huge black body,
+flecked with white froth that he churns and throws about him, as he offers
+those curved and ripping tusks, now to one, now to another of his
+crowding, baying, leaping foes.
+
+"Have at him! Good dogs!" shouts the hunter, running in with a short,
+broad-bladed boar-spear in his hand. Breathless is he, and wearied with
+the long miles of tangled forests he has traversed; but his heart is glad
+within him, and his blood tingles with a strange wild thrill of triumph
+known only to the votaries of the chase.
+
+  [Illustration: "Have at him good dogs"]
+
+Gelert is down, torn and mangled from flank to dewlap; Luath has the wild
+swine by the throat; and a foot of gleaming steel, driven home by a young,
+powerful arm, has entered behind the neck and pierces downwards to the
+very brisket. The shaft of the spear snaps short across, as the thick
+unwieldy body turns slowly over, and the boar shivers out his life on the
+smooth sward, soft and green as velvet, that exists nowhere but in
+Britain.
+
+The dream changes. The boar has disappeared, and the woodland gives place
+to a fair and smiling plain. Vast herds of shaggy red cattle are browsing
+contentedly, with their wide-horned heads to the breeze; flocks of sheep
+dot the green undulating pastures, that stretch away towards the sea. A
+gull turns its white wing against the clear blue sky; there is a hum of
+insects in the air, mingled with the barking of dogs, the lowing of kine,
+the laughter of women, and other sounds of peace, abundance, and content.
+A child is playing round its mother's knee--a child with frank bold brow
+and golden curls, and large blue fearless eyes, sturdy of limb, quick of
+gesture, fond, imperious, and wilful. The mother, a tall woman, with a
+beautiful but mournful face, is gazing steadfastly at the sea, and seems
+unconscious of her boy's caresses, who is fondling and kissing the white
+hand he holds in both his own. Her large shapely figure is draped in snowy
+robes that trail upon the ground, and massive ornaments of gold encircle
+arms and ankles. At intervals she looks fondly down upon the child; but
+ever her face resumes its wistful expression, as she fixes her eyes again
+upon the sea. There is nothing of actual sorrow in that steadfast
+gaze--still less of impatience, or anger, or discontent. Memory is the
+prevailing sentiment portrayed--memory, tender, absorbing, irresistible,
+without a ray of hope, but without a shadow of self-reproach. There is a
+statue of Mnemosyne at one of the entrances to the Forum that carries on
+its marble brow the same crushing weight of thought; that wears on its
+delicate features, graven into the saddest of beauty by the Athenian's
+chisel, just such a weary and despondent look. Where can the British child
+have seen those tasteful spoils of Greece that deck her imperial mistress?
+And yet he thinks of that statue as he looks up in his mother's face. But
+the fair tall woman shivers and draws her robe closer about her, and
+taking the child in her arms, nestles his head against her bosom and
+covers him over with her draperies, for the wind blows moist and chill,
+the summer air is white with driving mist, huge shapeless forms loom
+through the haze, and the busy sounds of life and laughter have subsided
+into the stillness of a vast and dreary plain.
+
+The child and its mother have disappeared, but a tall, strong youth, just
+entering upon manhood, with the same blue eyes and fearless brow, is
+present in their stead. He is armed for the first time with the weapons of
+a warrior. He has seen blows struck in anger now, and fronted the legions
+as they advanced, and waged his fearless unskilful valour against the
+courage, and the tactics, and the discipline of Rome. So he is invested
+with sword, and helm, and target, and takes his place, not without boyish
+pride, amongst the young warriors who encircle the hallowed spot where the
+Druids celebrate their solemn and mysterious rites.
+
+The mist comes thicker still, driving over the plain in waves of vapour,
+that impart a ghostly air of motion to the stones that tower erect around
+the mystic circle. Grey, moss-grown, and unhewn, hand of man seems never
+to have desecrated those mighty blocks of granite, standing there,
+changeless and awful, like types of eternity. Dim and indistinct are they
+as the worship they guard. Hard and stern as the pitiless faith of
+sacrifice, vengeance, and oblation, inculcated at their base. A wild low
+chant comes wailing on the breeze, and through the gathering mist a long
+line of white-robed priests winds slowly into the circle. Stern and gloomy
+are they of aspect, lofty of stature, and large of limb, with long grey
+beards and tresses waving in the wind. Each wears a crown of oak-leaves
+round his head; each grasps a wand covered with ivy in his hand. The youth
+cannot resist an exclamation of surprise. There is desecration in his
+thought, there is profanity in his words. Louder and louder swells the
+chant. Closer and closer still contracts the circle. The white-robed
+priests are hemming him in to the very centre of the mystic ring, and see!
+the sacrificial knife is already bared and whetted, and flourished in the
+air by a long brawny arm. The young warrior strives to fly. Horror! his
+feet refuse to stir, his hands cleave powerless to his sides. He seems
+turning to stone. A vague fear paralyses him that he too will become one
+of those granite masses to stand there motionless during eternity. His
+heart stops beating within him, and the transformation seems about to be
+completed, when lo! a warlike peal of trumpets breaks the spell, and he
+shakes his spear aloft and leaps gladly from the earth, exulting in the
+sense of life and motion once more.
+
+Again the dream changes. Frenzied priest and Druidical stone have vanished
+like the mist that encircled them. It is a beautiful balmy night in June.
+The woods are black and silver in the moonlight. Not a breath of air stirs
+the topmost twigs of the lofty elm cut clear and distinct against the sky.
+Not a ripple blurs the surface of the lake, spread out and gleaming like a
+sheet of polished steel. The bittern calls at intervals from the adjacent
+marsh, and the nightingale carols in the copse. All is peaceful and
+beautiful, and suggestive of enjoyment or repose. Yet here, lying close
+amongst the foxglove and the fern, long lines of white-robed warriors are
+waiting but the signal for assault. And yonder, where the earthwork rises
+dark and level against the sky, paces to and fro a high-crested sentinel,
+watching over the safety of the eagles, with the calm and ceaseless
+vigilance of that discipline which has made the legionaries masters of the
+world.
+
+Once more the trumpets peal; the only sound to be heard in that array of
+tents, drawn up with such order and precision, behind the works, except
+the footfall of the Roman guard, firm and regular, as it relieves the
+previous watch. In a short space that duty will be performed; and then, if
+ever, must the attack be made with any probability of success. Youth is
+impatient of delay--the young warrior's pulse beats audibly, and he feels
+the edge of his blade and the point of his short-handled javelin, with an
+intensity of longing that is absolutely painful. At length the word is
+passed from rank to rank. Like the crest of a sea-wave breaking into foam,
+rises that wavering line of white, rolling its length out in the
+moonlight, as man after man springs erect at the touch of his comrade; and
+then a roar of voices, a rush of feet, and the wave dashes up and breaks
+against the steady solid resistance of the embankment. But discipline is
+not to be caught thus napping. Ere the echo of their trumpets has died out
+among the distant hills, the legionaries stand to their arms throughout
+the camp. Already the rampart gleams and bristles with shield and helmet,
+javelin, sword, and spear. Already the eagle is awake and defiant;
+unruffled, indeed, in plumage, but with beak and talons bare and whetted
+for defence. The tall centurions marshal their men in line even and
+regular, as though about to defile by the throne of Caesar, rather than to
+repel the attack of a wild barbarian foe. The tribunes, with their golden
+crests, take up their appointed posts in the four corners of the camp;
+while the praetor himself gives his orders calm and unmoved from the
+centre.
+
+Over the roar of the swarming Britons sounds the clear trumpet-note
+pealing out its directions, concise and intelligible as a living voice,
+and heard by the combatants far and wide, inspiring courage and
+confidence, and order in the confusion. Brandishing their long swords, the
+white-clad warriors of Britain rush tumultuously to the attack. Already,
+they have filled the ditch and scaled the earthwork; but once and again
+they recoil from the steady front and rigid discipline of the invader,
+while the short stabbing sword of the Roman soldier, covered as he is by
+his ample shield, does fearful execution at close quarters. But still
+fresh assailants pour in, and the camp is carried and overrun. The young
+warrior rushes exulting to and fro, and the enemy falls in heaps before
+him. Such moments are worth whole years of peaceful life. He has reached
+the praetorium. He is close beneath the eagles, and he leaps wildly at them
+to bring them off in triumph as trophies of his victory. But a grim
+centurion strikes him to the earth. Wounded, faint, and bleeding, he is
+carried away by his comrades, the shaft of the Roman standard in his hand.
+They bear him to a war-chariot, they lash the wild galloping steeds, the
+roll of the wheels thunders in his ears as they dash tumultuously across
+the plain, and then ... the gentle mission is fulfilled, the doves fly
+down again to Proserpine, and the young, joyous, triumphant warrior of
+Britain wakes up a Roman slave.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER II
+
+                             THE MARBLE PORCH
+
+
+It was the sound of a chariot, truly enough, that roused the dreamer from
+his slumbers; but how different the scene on which his drowsy eyes
+unclosed, from that which fancy had conjured up in the shadowy realms of
+sleep!
+
+A beautiful portico, supported on slender columns of smooth white marble,
+protected him from the rays of the morning sun, already pouring down with
+the intensity of Italian heat. Garlands of leaves and flowers, cool and
+fresh in their contrast with the snowy surface of these dainty pillars,
+were wreathed around their stems, and twined amongst the delicate carving
+of their Corinthian capitals. Large stone vases, urn-shaped and massive,
+stood in long array at stated intervals, bearing the orange-tree, the
+myrtle, and other dark-green flowering shrubs, which formed a fair
+perspective of retirement and repose. Shapely statues filled the niches in
+the wall, or stood out more prominently in the vacant spaces of the
+colonnade. Here cowered a marble Venus, in the shamefaced consciousness of
+unequalled beauty; there stood forth a bright Apollo, exulting in the
+perfection of godlike symmetry and grace. Rome could not finger the chisel
+like her instructress Greece, the mother of the Arts, but the hand that
+firmly grasps the sword need never want for anything skill produces, or
+genius creates, or gold can buy; so it is no marvel that the masterpieces
+and treasures of the nations she subdued found their way to the Imperial
+City, mistress of the world. Even where the sleeper lay reclined upon a
+couch of curiously-carved wood from the forests that clothe Mount
+Hymettus, an owl so beautifully chiseled that its very breast-plumage
+seemed to ruffle in the breeze, looked down upon him from a niche where it
+had been placed at a cost that might have bought a dozen such human
+chattels as himself; for it had been brought from Athens as the most
+successful effort of a sculptor, who had devoted it to the honour of
+Minerva in his zeal. Refinement, luxury, nay, profusion, reigned paramount
+even here outside the sumptuous dwelling of a Roman lady: and the very
+ground in her porch over which she was borne, for she seldom touched it
+with her feet, was fresh swept and sanded as often as it had been
+disturbed by the tread of her litter-bearers, or the wheels of her
+chariot.
+
+Many a time was this ceremony performed in the twenty-four hours; for
+Valeria was a woman of noble rank, great possessions, and the highest
+fashion. Not a vanity of her sex, not a folly was there of her class, in
+which she scrupled to indulge; and then, as now, ladies were prone to rush
+into extremes, and frivolity, when it took the garb of a female, assumed
+preposterous dimensions, and a thirst for amusement, incompatible with
+reason or self-control.
+
+There is always a certain hush, and, as it were, a pompous stillness,
+about the houses of the great, even long after inferior mortals are astir
+in pursuit of their pleasure or their business. To-day was Valeria's
+birthday, and as such was duly observed by the hanging of garlands on the
+pillars of her porch; but after the completion of this graceful ceremony,
+silence seemed to have sunk once more upon the household, and the slave
+whose dream we have recorded, coming into her gates with an offering from
+his lord, and finding no domestics in the way, had sat him down to wait in
+the grateful shade, and, overcome with heat, might have slept on till noon
+had he not been roused by the grinding chariot-wheels, which mingled so
+confusedly with his dream.
+
+It was no plebeian vehicle that now rolled into the colonnade, driven at a
+furious pace, and stopping so abruptly as to create considerable confusion
+and insubordination amongst the noble animals that drew it. The car,
+mounted on two wheels, was constructed of a highly-polished wood, cut from
+the wild fig-tree, elaborately inlaid with ivory and gold; the very spokes
+and felloes of the wheels were carved in patterns of vine-leaves and
+flowers, whilst the extremities of the pole, the axle, and the yoke, were
+wrought into exquisite representations of the wolf's head, an animal, from
+historical reasons, ever dear to the fancy of the Roman. There was but one
+person besides the driver in the carriage, and so light a draught might
+indeed command any rate of speed, when whirled along by four such horses
+as now plunged and reared and bit each other's crests in the portico of
+Valeria's mansion. These were of a milky white, with dark muzzles, and a
+bluish tinge under the coat, denoting its soft texture, and the Eastern
+origin of the animals. Somewhat thick of neck and shoulders, with
+semicircular jowl, it was the broad and tapering head, the small quivering
+ear, the wide red nostril, that demonstrated the purity of their blood,
+and argued extraordinary powers of speed and endurance; while their short,
+round backs, prominent muscles, flat legs, and dainty feet, promised an
+amount of strength and activity only to be attained by the production of
+perfect symmetry. These beautiful animals were harnessed four abreast--the
+inner pair, somewhat in the fashion of our modern curricle, being yoked to
+the pole, of which the very fastening-pins were steel overlaid with gold,
+whilst the outer horses, drawing only from a trace attached respectively
+on the inner side of each to the axle of the chariot, were free to wheel
+their quarters outwards in every direction, and kick to their heart's
+content--a liberty of which, in the present instance, they seemed well
+disposed to avail themselves.
+
+The slave started to his feet as the nearest horse winced and swerved
+aside from his unexpected figure, snorting the while in mingled wantonness
+and fear. The axle grazed his tunic while it passed, and the driver,
+irritated at his horses' unsteadiness, or perhaps in the mere insolence of
+a great man's favourite, struck at him heavily with his whip as he went
+by. The Briton's blood boiled at the indignity; but his sinewy arm was up
+like lightning to parry the blow, and as the lash curled round his wrist
+he drew the weapon quickly from the driver's hand, and would have returned
+the insult with interest, had he not been deterred from his purpose by the
+youthful, effeminate appearance of the aggressor.
+
+"I cannot strike a girl!" exclaimed the slave contemptuously, throwing the
+whip at the same time into the floor of the chariot, where it lit at the
+feet of the other occupant, a sumptuously-dressed nobleman, who enjoyed
+the discomfiture of his charioteer, with the loud frank glee of a master
+jeering a dependant.
+
+"Well said, my hero!" laughed the patrician, adding in good-humoured,
+though haughty tones, "Not that I would give much for the chance of man or
+woman in a grasp like yours. By Jupiter! you've got the arms and shoulders
+of Antaeus! Who owns you, my good fellow? and what do you here?"
+
+"Nay, I would strike him again to some purpose if I were on the ground
+with him," interrupted the charioteer, a handsome, petulant youth of some
+sixteen summers, whose long flowing curls and rich scarlet mantle denoted
+a pampered and favourite slave. "Gently, Scipio! So-ho, Jugurtha! The
+horses will fret for an hour now they have been scared by his ugly face."
+
+"Better let him alone, Automedon!" observed his master, again shaking his
+sides at the obvious discomfiture portrayed on the flushed face of his
+favourite. "Through your life keep clear of a man when he shuts his mouth
+like that, as you would of an ox with a wisp of hay on his horn. You silly
+boy! why he would swallow such a slender frame as yours at a gulp: and
+nobody but a fool ever strikes at a man unless he knows he can reach him,
+ay, and punish him too, without hurting his own knuckles in return! But
+what do you here, good fellow?" he repeated, addressing himself once more
+to the slave, who stood erect, scanning his questioner with a fearless,
+though respectful eye.
+
+"My master is your friend," was the outspoken answer. "You supped with him
+only the night before last. But a man need not be in the household of
+Licinius, not have spent his best years at Rome, to know the face of
+Julius Placidus, the tribune."
+
+A smile of gratified vanity stole over the patrician's countenance while
+he listened; a smile that had the effect of imparting to its lineaments an
+expression at once mocking, crafty, and malicious. In repose, and such was
+its usual condition, the face was almost handsome, perfect in its
+regularity, and of a fixed, sedate composure which bordered on vacuity,
+but when disturbed, as it sometimes, though rarely, was, by a passing
+emotion, the smile that passed over it like a lurid gleam, became truly
+diabolical.
+
+The slave was right. Amongst all the notorious personages who crowded and
+jostled each other in the streets of Rome at that stormy period, none was
+better known, none more courted, flattered, honoured, hated, and
+mistrusted, than the occupant of the gilded chariot. It was no time for
+men to wear their hearts in their hands--it was no time to make an
+additional enemy, or to lose a possible friend. Since the death of
+Tiberius, emperor had succeeded emperor with alarming rapidity. Nero had
+indeed died by his own hand, to avoid the just retribution of unexampled
+vices and crimes; but the poisoned mushroom had carried off his
+predecessor, and the old man who succeeded him fell by the weapons of the
+very guards he had enlisted to protect his grey head from violence. Since
+then another suicide had indued Vitellius with the purple; but the throne
+of the Caesars was fast becoming synonymous with a scaffold, and the sword
+of Damocles quivered more menacingly, and on a slenderer hair than ever,
+over the diadem.
+
+When great political convulsions agitate a State, already seething with
+general vice and luxury, the moral scum seems, by a law of nature, to
+float invariably to the surface--the characters most destitute of
+principle, the readiest to obey the instincts of self-aggrandisement and
+expediency, achieve a kind of spurious fame, a doubtful and temporary
+success. Under the rule of Nero, perhaps, there was but one path to Court
+favour, and that lay in the disgraceful attempt to vie with this emperor's
+brutalities and crimes. The palace of Caesar was then indeed a sink of foul
+iniquity and utter degradation. The sycophant who could most readily
+reduce himself to the level of a beast in gross sensuality, while he
+boasted a demon's refinement of cruelty, and morbid depravity of heart,
+became the first favourite for the time with his imperial master. To be
+fat, slothful, weak, gluttonous, and effeminate, while the brow was
+crowned with roses, and the brain was drenched with wine, and the hands
+were steeped in blood--this it was to be a friend and counsellor of Caesar.
+Men waited and wondered in stupefied awe when they marked the monster
+reeling from a debauch to some fresh feast of horrors, some ingenious
+exhibition of the complicated tortures that may be inflicted on a human
+being, some devilish experiment of all the body can bear, ere the soul
+takes wing from its ghastly, mutilated tenement, and this not on one, but
+a thousand victims. They waited and wondered what the gods were about,
+that divine vengeance should slumber through such provocations as these.
+
+But retribution overtook him at last. The heart which a slaughtered
+mother's spectre could not soften, which remorse for a pregnant wife's
+fate, kicked to death by a brutal lord, failed to wring, quailed at the
+approach of a few exasperated soldiers; and the tyrant who had so often
+smiled to see blood flow like water in the amphitheatre, died by his own
+hand--died as he had lived, a coward and a murderer to the last.
+
+Since then, the Court was a sphere in which any bold unscrupulous man
+might be pretty sure of attaining success. The present emperor was a good-
+humoured glutton, one whose faculties, originally vigorous, had been
+warped and deadened by excess, just as his body had become bloated, his
+eye dimmed, his strength palsied, and his courage destroyed by the same
+course. The scheming statesman, the pliant courtier, the successful
+soldier had but one passion now, one only object for the exercise of his
+energies, both of mind and body--to eat enormously, to drink to excess, to
+study every art by which fresh appetite could be stimulated when gorged to
+repletion--and then--to eat and drink again.
+
+With such a patron, any man who united to a tendency for the pleasures of
+the table, a strong brain, a cool head, and an aptitude for business,
+might be sure of considerable influence. The Emperor thoroughly
+appreciated one who would take trouble off his hands, while at the same
+time he encouraged his master, by precept and example, in his swinish
+propensities. It was no slight service to Vitellius, to rise from a
+debauch and give those necessary orders in an unforeseen emergency which
+Caesar's sodden brain was powerless to originate or to understand.
+
+Ere Placidus had been a month about the Court, he had insinuated himself
+thoroughly into the good graces of the Emperor. This man's had been a
+strange and stirring history. Born of patrician rank, he had used his
+family influence to advance him in the military service, and already,
+whilst still in the flower of youth, had attained the grade of tribune in
+Vespasian's army, then occupying Judaea under that distinguished general.
+Although no man yielded so willingly, or gave himself up so entirely to
+the indolent enjoyments of Asiatic life, Placidus possessed many of the
+qualities which are esteemed essential to the character of a soldier.
+Personal bravery, or we should rather say, insensibility to danger, was
+one of his peculiar advantages. Perhaps this is a quality inseparable from
+such an organisation as his, in which, while the system seems to contain a
+wealth of energy and vitality, the nerves are extremely callous to
+irritation, and completely under control. The tribune never came out in
+more favourable colours than when everyone about him was in a state of
+alarm and confusion. On one occasion, at the siege of Jotapata, where the
+Jews were defending themselves with the desperate energy of their race,
+Placidus won golden opinions from Vespasian by the cool dexterity with
+which he saved from destruction a whole company of soldiers and their
+centurion, under the very eye of his general.
+
+A maniple, or, in the military language of to-day, a wing of the cohort
+led by Placidus was advancing to the attack, and the first centurion, with
+the company under his command, was already beneath the wall, bristling as
+it was with defenders, who hurled down on their assailants darts,
+javelins, huge stones, every description of weapon or missile, including
+molten lead and boiling oil. Under cover of a movable pent-house, which
+protected them, the head of the column had advanced their battering-ram to
+the very wall, and were swinging the huge engine back, by the ropes and
+pulleys which governed it, for an increased impulse of destruction, when
+the Jews, who had been watching their opportunity, succeeded in balancing
+an enormous mass of granite immediately above the pent-house and the
+materials of offence, animate and inanimate, which it contained. A Jewish
+warrior clad in shining armour had taken a lever in his hand, and was in
+the act of applying that instrument to the impending tottering mass; in
+another instant it must have crashed down upon their heads, and buried the
+whole band beneath its weight. At his appointed station by the eagle, the
+tribune was watching the movements of his men with his usual air of
+sleepy, indolent approval. And even in this critical moment his eye never
+brightened, his colour never deepened a shade. The voice was calm, low,
+and perfectly modulated in which he bade the trumpeter at his right hand
+sound the recall; nor, though its business-like rapidity could scarce have
+been exceeded by the most practised archer, was the movement the least
+hurried with which he snatched the bow from a dead Parthian auxiliary at
+his feet and fitted an arrow to its string. In the twinkling of an eye,
+while the granite vibrated on the very parapet, that arrow was quivering
+between the joints of the warrior's harness who held the lever, and he had
+fallen with his head over the wall in the throes of death. Before another
+of the defenders could take his place the assaulting party had retired,
+bringing along with them, in their cool and rigid discipline, the
+battering-ram and wooden covering which protected it, while the tribune
+quietly observed, as he replaced the bow into the fallen Parthian's hand,
+"A company saved is a hundred men gained. A dead barbarian is exactly
+worth my tallest centurion, and the smartest troop I have in the maniple!"
+
+Vespasian was not the man to forget such an instance of cool promptitude,
+and Julius Placidus was marked out for promotion from that day forth. But
+with its courage, the tribune possessed the cunning of the tiger, not
+without something also of that fierce animal's outward beauty, and much of
+its watchful, pitiless, and untiring nature. A brave soldier should have
+considered it a degradation, under any circumstances, to play a double
+part; but with Placidus every step was esteemed honourable so long as it
+was on the ascent. The successful winner had no scruple in deceiving all
+about him at Rome, by the eagerness with which he assumed the character of
+a mere man of pleasure, while he lost no opportunity the while of
+ingratiating himself with the many desperate spirits who were to be found
+in the Imperial City, ready and willing to assist in any enterprise which
+should tend to anarchy and confusion. While he rushed into every
+extravagance and pleasure of that luxurious Court--while he vied with Caesar
+himself in his profusion, and surpassed him in his orgies--he suffered no
+symptoms to escape him of a higher ambition than that of excellence in
+trifling--of deeper projects than those which affected the winecup, the
+pageant, and the passing follies of the hour. Yet all the while, within
+that dainty reveller's brain, schemes were forming and thoughts burning
+that should have withered the very roses on his brow. It might have been
+the strain of Greek blood which filtered through his veins, that tempered
+his Roman courage and endurance with the pliancy essential to conspiracy
+and intrigue--a strain that was apparent in his sculptured regularity of
+features, and general symmetry of form. His character has already been
+compared to the tiger's, and his movements had all the pliant ease and
+stealthy freedom of that graceful animal. His stature was little above the
+average of his countrymen, but his frame was cast in that mould of exact
+proportion which promises the extreme of strength combined with agility
+and endurance. Had he been caught like Milo, he would have writhed himself
+out of the trap, with the sinuous persistency of a snake. There was
+something snake-like, too, in his small glittering eye, and the clear
+smoothness of his skin. With all its brightness no woman worthy of the
+name but would have winced with womanly instincts of aversion and
+repugnance from his glance. With all its beauty no child would have looked
+up frankly and confidingly in his face. Men turned, indeed, to scan him
+approvingly as he passed; but the brave owned no sympathy with that smooth
+set brow, that crafty and malicious smile, while the timid or the
+superstitious shuddered and shrank away, averting their own gaze from what
+they felt to be the influence of the evil eye. Yet, in his snowy tunic
+bleached to dazzling white, in his collar of linked gold, his jewelled
+belt, his embroidered sandals, and the ample folds of his deep violet
+mantle, nearly approaching purple, Julius Placidus was no unworthy
+representative of his time and his order, no mean specimen of the wealth,
+and foppery, and extravagance of Rome.
+
+Such was the man who now stood up in his gilded chariot at Valeria's door,
+masking with his usual expression of careless indolence, the real
+impatience he felt for tidings of its mistress.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER III
+
+                                  HERMES
+
+
+It was customary with the more refined aristocracy of Rome, during the
+first century of the Empire, to pay great respect to Mercury, the god of
+invention and intrigue. Not that the qualities generally attributed to
+that power were calculated to inspire admiration or esteem, but simply
+because he had acquired a fortuitous popularity at a period when the
+graceful Pantheism of the nation was regulated by general opinion, and
+when a deity went in and out of fashion like a dress. At Valeria's porch,
+in common with many other great houses, stood an exquisite statue of the
+god, representing him as a youth, of athletic and symmetrical proportions,
+poised on a winged foot in the act of running, with the broad-leaf hat on
+his head, and the snake-turned rod in his hand. The countenance of the
+statue was expressive of intellect and vivacity, while the form was
+wrought into the highest ideal of activity and strength. It was placed on
+a square pedestal of marble immediately opposite the door; and behind this
+pedestal, the slave retired in some confusion when a train of maidens
+appeared from within, to answer the summons of Julius Placidus in his
+chariot.
+
+The tribune did not think it necessary to alight, but producing from the
+bosom of his tunic a jewelled casket, leaned one hand on the shoulder of
+Automedon, while with the other he proffered his gift to a damsel who
+seemed the chief among her fellows, and whose manners partook largely of
+the flippancy of the waiting-maid.
+
+"Commend me to your mistress," said Placidus, at the same time throwing a
+gold chain round her neck on her own account, and bending carelessly down
+to take a receipt for the same, in the shape of a caress; "bid her every
+good omen from the most faithful of her servants, and ask her at what hour
+I may hope to be received on this her birthday, which the trifle you carry
+to her from me will prove I have not forgotten."
+
+The waiting-maid tried hard to raise a blush, but with all her efforts the
+rich Southern colour would not deepen on her cheek; so she thought better
+of it, and looked him full in the face with her bold black eyes, while she
+replied: "You have forgotten surely, my lord, that this is the feast of
+Isis, and no lady that _is_ a lady, at least here in Rome, can have
+leisure to-day for anything but the sacred mysteries of the goddess."
+
+Placidus laughed outright; and it was strange how his laugh scared those
+who watched it. Automedon fairly turned pale, and even the waiting-maid
+seemed disconcerted for a moment.
+
+"I have heard of these mysteries," said he, "my pretty Myrrhina, and who
+has not? The Roman ladies keep them somewhat jealously to themselves; and
+by all accounts it is well for our sex that they do so. Nevertheless there
+are yet some hours of sunlight to pass before the chaste rites of Egypt
+can possibly begin. Will not Valeria see me in the interval?"
+
+A very quick ear might have detected the least possible tremor in the
+tribune's voice as he spoke the last sentence; it was not lost upon
+Myrrhina, for she showed all the white teeth in her large well-formed
+mouth, while she enumerated with immense volubility those different
+pursuits which filled up the day of a fashionable Roman lady.
+
+"Impossible!" burst out the damsel. "She has not a moment to spare from
+now till sunset. There's her dinner,(1) and her fencing-lesson, and her
+bath, and her dressing, and the sculptor coming for her hand, and the
+painter for her face, and the new Greek sandals to be fitted to her feet.
+Then she has sent for Philogemon, the augur, to cast her horoscope, and
+for Galanthis, who is cleverer than ever Locusta was, and has twice the
+practice, to prepare a philtre. Maybe it is for _you_, my lord," added the
+girl roguishly. "I hear the ladies are all using them just now."
+
+The evil smile crossed the tribune's face once more; perhaps he too had
+been indebted to the potions of Galanthis, for purposes of love or hate,
+and he did not care to be reminded of them.
+
+"Nay," said he meaningly, "there is no need for that. Valeria can do more
+with one glance of her bright eyes, than all the potions and poisons of
+Galanthis put together. Say, Myrrhina--you are in my interest--does she look
+more favourably of late?"
+
+"How can I tell, my lord?" answered the girl, with an arch expression of
+amusement and defiance in her face. "My mistress is but a woman after all,
+and they say women are more easily mastered by the strong hand, than lured
+by the honey lip. She is not to be won by a smooth tongue and a beardless
+face, I know, for I heard her say so to Paris myself, in the very spot
+where we are now standing. Juno! but the player slunk away somewhat
+crestfallen, I can tell you, when she called him 'a mere girl in her
+brother's clothes' at the best. No; the man who wins my mistress will be a
+man all over, I'll answer for it! So far, she is like the rest of us for
+that matter."
+
+And Myrrhina sighed, thinking, it may be, of some sunburnt youth the
+while, whose rough but not unwelcome wooing had assailed her in her early
+girlhood, ere she came to Rome; far away yonder amongst the blushing
+vines, in the bright Campanian hills.
+
+"Say you so?" observed the tribune, obviously flattered by the implied
+compliment; for he was proud in his secret heart of his bodily strength.
+"Nay, there was a fellow standing here when I drove up, who would make an
+easy conquest of you, Myrrhina, if, like your Sabine grandams, you must be
+borne off to be wed, on your lover's shoulders. By the body of Hercules!
+he would tuck you up under his arm as easily as you carry that casket,
+which you seem so afraid to let out of your hand. Ay, there he is! lurking
+behind Hermes. Stand forth, my good fellow! What! you are not afraid of
+Automedon, are you, and the crack of that young reprobate's whip?"
+
+While he spoke, the slave stepped forward from his lurking-place behind
+the statue, where the quick eye of Placidus had detected him, and
+presented to Myrrhina with a respectful gesture the offering of his lord
+to her mistress--a filigree basket of frosted silver, filled with a few
+choice fruits and flowers--
+
+"From Caius Licinius, greeting," said he, "in honour of Valeria's natal
+day. The flowers are scarce yet dry from the spray that brawling Anio
+flings upon its banks; the fruits were glowing in yesterday's sun, on the
+brightest slopes of Tibur. My master offers the freshest and fairest of
+his fruits and flowers to his kinswoman, who is fresher and fairer than
+them all."
+
+He delivered his message, which he had obviously learned by rote, in
+sufficiently pure and fluent Latin, scarcely tinged with the accent of a
+barbarian, and bowing low as he placed the basket in Myrrhina's hand, drew
+himself up to his noble height, and looked proudly, almost defiantly, at
+the tribune.
+
+The girl started and turned pale--it seemed as if the statue of Hermes had
+descended from its pedestal to do her homage. He stood there, that
+glorious specimen of manhood, in his majestic strength and symmetry, in
+the glow of his youth, and health, and beauty, like an impersonation of
+the god. Myrrhina, in common with many of her sex, was easily fascinated
+by external advantages, and she laughed nervously, while she accepted with
+shaking hands the handsome slave's offering to his master's kinswoman.
+
+"Will you not enter?" said she, the colour mantling once more, and this
+time without an effort, in her burning cheeks. "It is not the custom to
+depart from Valeria's house without breaking bread and drinking wine."
+
+But the slave excused himself, abruptly, almost rudely, losing, be sure,
+by his refusal, none of the ground he had already gained in Myrrhina's
+good graces. It chafed him to remain even at the porch. The atmosphere of
+luxury that pervaded it, seemed to weigh upon his senses, and oppress his
+breath. Moreover, the insult he had sustained from Automedon, yet rankled
+in his heart. How he wished the boy-charioteer was nearer his match in
+size and strength! He would have hurled him from the chariot where he
+stood, turning his curls so insolently round his dainty fingers--hurled him
+to earth beyond his horses' heads, and taught him the strength of a
+Briton's arm and the squeeze of a Briton's gripe. "Ay! and his master
+after him!" thought the slave, for already he experienced towards Placidus
+that unaccountable instinct of aversion which seems to warn men of a
+future foe, and which, to give him his due, the tribune was not unused to
+awaken in a brave and honest breast.
+
+Placidus, however, scanned him once more, as he strode away, with the
+critical gaze of a judge of human animals. It was this man's peculiarity
+to look on all he met as possible tools, that might come into use for
+various purposes at a future and indefinite time. If he observed more than
+usual courage in a soldier, superior acuteness in a freedman, nay, even
+uncommon beauty in a woman, he bethought himself that although he might
+have no immediate use for these qualities, occasions often arose on which
+he could turn them to his profit, and he noted, and made sure of, their
+amount accordingly. In the present instance, although somewhat surprised
+that he had never before remarked the slave's stalwart proportions in the
+household of Licinius, whose affection for the Briton had excused him from
+all menial offices, and consequent contact with visitors, he determined
+not to lose sight of one so formed by nature to excel in the gymnasium or
+the amphitheatre, while there crept into his heart a cruel cold-blooded
+feeling of satisfaction at the possibility of witnessing so muscular and
+shapely a figure in the contortions of a mortal struggle, or the throes of
+a painful death.
+
+Besides, there was envy, too, at the bottom--envy in the proud patrician's
+breast, leaning so negligently on the cushions of his gilded chariot, with
+all his advantages of rank, reputation, wealth, and influence--envy of the
+noble bearing, the personal comeliness, and the free manly step of the
+slave.
+
+"Had he struck thee, Automedon," said his master, unable to resist
+taunting the petted youth who held the reins; "had he but laid a finger on
+thee, thou hadst never spoken again, and I had been rid of the noisiest
+and most useless of my household. Gently with that outside horse; dost see
+how he chafes upon the rein? Gently, boy, I say! and drive me back into
+the Forum."
+
+As he settled himself among the cushions and rolled swiftly away, Myrrhina
+came forth into the porch once more. She seemed, however, scarcely to
+notice the departing chariot, but looked dreamily about her, and then re-
+entered the house with a shake of the head, a smile, and something that
+was almost a sigh.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IV
+
+                                APHRODITE
+
+
+A negro boy, the ugliest of his kind, and probably all the more prized for
+that reason, was shifting uneasily from knee to knee, in an attitude of
+constraint that showed how long and tiresome he felt his office, and how
+wearied he was of Valeria's own apartment. Such a child, for the urchin
+seemed of the tenderest age, might be initiated without impropriety into
+the mysteries of a lady's toilet; and, indeed, the office it was his duty
+to undertake, formed the most indispensable part of the whole performance.
+With a skill and steadiness beyond his years, though with a rueful face,
+he was propping up an enormous mirror, in which his mistress might
+contemplate the whole galaxy of her charms--a mirror formed of one broad
+plate of silver, burnished to the brightness and lucidity of glass, set in
+an oval frame of richly chased gold, wrought into fantastic patterns and
+studded with emeralds, rubies, and other precious stones. Not a speck was
+to be discerned on the polish of its dazzling surface; and, indeed, the
+time of one maiden was devoted to the task alone of preserving it from the
+lightest breath that might dim its brightness, and cloud the reflection of
+the stately form that now sat before it, undergoing, at the hands of her
+attendants, the pleasing tortures of an elaborate toilet.
+
+The reflection was that of a large handsome woman in the very prime and
+noontide of her beauty--a woman whose every movement and gesture bespoke
+physical organisation of a vigorous nature and perfect health. While the
+strong white neck gave grace and dignity to her carriage--while the deep
+bosom and somewhat massive shoulders partook more of Juno's majestic frame
+than Hebe's pliant youth--while the full sweep and outline of her figure
+denoted maturity and completeness in every part--the long round limbs, the
+shapely hands and feet, might have belonged to Diana, so perfect was their
+symmetry; the warm flush that tinted them, the voluptuous ease of her
+attitude, the gentle languor of her whole bearing, would have done no
+discredit to the goddess, hanging over the mountain-tops in the golden
+summer nights to look down upon Endymion, and bathe her sleeping favourite
+in floods of light and love.
+
+Too fastidious a critic might have objected to Valeria's form that it
+expressed more of physical strength than is compatible with perfect
+womanly beauty, that the muscles were developed overmuch, and the whole
+frame, despite its flowing outlines, partook somewhat of a man's
+organisation, and a man's redundant strength. The same fault might have
+been found in a less degree with her countenance. There was a little too
+much resolution in the small aquiline nose, something of manly audacity
+and energy in the large well-formed mouth, with its broad white teeth that
+the fullest and reddest of lips could not conceal--a shade of masculine
+sternness on the low wide brow, smooth and white, but somewhat prominent,
+and scarcely softened by the arch of the marked eyebrows, or the dark
+sweep of the lashes that fringed the long laughing eyes.
+
+And yet it was a face that a man, and still more a boy, could hardly have
+looked on without misgivings that he might too soon learn to long for its
+glances, its smiles, its approval, and its love. There was such a glow of
+health on the soft transparent skin, such a freshness and vitality in the
+colour of those blooming cheeks, such a sparkle in the grey eyes, that
+flashed so meaningly when she smiled, that gleamed so clear and bright and
+cold when the features resumed their natural expression, grave, scornful,
+almost stern in their repose; and then such womanly softness in the masses
+of rich nut-brown hair that showered down neck and shoulders, to form a
+framework for this lovely, dangerous, and too alluring picture. Even the
+little negro, wearied as he was, peeped at intervals from the back of the
+mirror he upheld, fawning like a dog for some sign of approval from his
+haughty, careless mistress. At length she bade him keep still, with a
+half-scornful smile at his antics; and the sharp white teeth gleamed from
+ear to ear of the dusky little face, as it grinned with pleasure, while
+the boy settled himself once more in an attitude of patience and steady
+submission.
+
+Nor was Valeria's apartment unworthy of the noble beauty who devoted it to
+the mysterious rites of dress and decoration. Everything that luxury could
+imagine for bodily ease, everything that science had as yet discovered for
+the preservation or the production of feminine attractions, was there to
+be found in its handsomest and costliest form. In one recess, shrouded by
+transparent curtains of the softest pink, was the bath that could be
+heated at will to any temperature, and the marble steps of which that
+shapely form was accustomed to descend twice and thrice a day. In another
+stood the ivory couch with its quilted crimson silks and ornamental
+pillars of solid gold, in which Valeria slept, and dreamed such dreams as
+hover round the rest of those whose life is luxury, and whose business is
+a ceaseless career of pleasure. On a table of cedar-wood, fashioned like a
+palm-leaf opening out from a pedestal that terminated in a single claw of
+grotesque shape, stood her silver night-lamp, exhaling odours of perfumed
+oil, and near it lay the waxen tablets, on which she made her memorandums,
+or composed her love-letters, and from which, as from an unfinished task,
+the sharp-pointed steel pencil had rolled away upon the shining floor.
+Through the whole court--for court it might be called, with its many
+entrances and recesses, its cool and shady nooks, its lofty ceiling and
+its tesselated pavement--choice vases, jewelled cups, burnished chalices,
+and exquisite little statues, were scattered in systematic irregularity
+and graceful profusion. Even the very water in the bath flowed through the
+mouth of a marble Cupid; and two more winged urchins wrought in bronze,
+supported a stand on which was set a formidable array of perfumes,
+essences, cosmetics, and such material for offensive and defensive
+warfare.
+
+The walls, too, of this seductive arsenal, were delicately tinted of a
+light rose-colour, that should throw the most becoming shade over its
+inmates, relieved at intervals by oval wreaths wrought out in bas-relief,
+enclosing diverse mythological subjects, in which the figure of Venus,
+goddess of love and laughter, predominated. Round the cornices stretched a
+frieze representing, also in relief, the fabulous contests of the Amazons
+with every description of monster, amongst which the most conspicuous foe
+was the well-known gryphon, or griffin, an abnormal quadruped, with the
+head and neck of a bird of prey. It was curious to trace in the female
+warriors thus delineated, something of the imperious beauty, the vigorous
+symmetry, and the dauntless bearing that distinguished Valeria herself,
+though their energetic and spirited attitudes afforded, at the same time,
+a marked contrast to the pleasing languor that seemed to pervade every
+movement of that luxurious lady reclining before her mirror, and
+submitting indolently to the attentions of her maid-servants.
+
+These were five in number, and constituted the principal slaves of her
+household; the most important among them seemed to be a tall matronly
+woman, considerably older than her comrades, who filled the responsible
+office of housekeeper in the establishment--a dignity which did not,
+however, exempt her from insult, and even blows, when she failed to
+satisfy the caprices of a somewhat exacting mistress; the others, comely
+laughing girls, with the sparkling eyes and white teeth of their
+countrywomen, seemed principally occupied with the various matters that
+constituted their lady's toilet--a daily penance, in which, notwithstanding
+the rigour of its discipline, and the severities that were sure to follow
+the most trifling act of negligence, they took an inexplicable and
+essentially feminine delight.
+
+Of these it was obvious that Myrrhina was the first in place as in favour.
+She it was who brought her mistress the warm towels for her bath; who was
+ready with her slippers when she emerged; who handed every article of
+clothing as it was required; whose taste was invariably consulted, and
+whose decision was considered final, on such important points as the
+position of a jewel, the studied negligence of a curl, or the exact
+adjustment of a fold.
+
+This girl possessed, with an Italian exterior, the pliant cunning and
+plausible fluency of the Greek. Born a slave on one of Valeria's estates
+in the country, she had been reared a mere peasant, on a simple country
+diet, and amidst healthful country occupations, till a freak of her
+mistress brought her to Rome. With a woman's versatility--with a woman's
+quickness in adapting herself to a strange phase of life and a total
+change of circumstances--the country girl had not been a year in her new
+situation, ere she became the acutest and cleverest waiting-maid in the
+capital, with what benefit to her own morals and character, it is needless
+to inquire. Who so quick as Myrrhina to prepare the unguents, the
+perfumes, or the cosmetics that repaired the injuries of climate, and
+effaced the marks of dissipation? Who so delicate a sempstress; who had
+such taste in colours; who could convey a note or a message with half such
+precision, simplicity, and tact? In short, who was ever so ready, in an
+emergency, with brush, crisping-iron, needle, hand, eye, or tongue?
+Intrigue was her native element. To lie on her mistress's behalf, seemed
+as natural as on her own. He who would advance in Valeria's goodwill, must
+begin by bribing her maid; and many a Roman gallant had ere this
+discovered that even that royal road to success was as tedious as it was
+costly, and might lead eventually to discomfiture and disgrace.
+
+As she took the pouncet-box from one of the girls, and proceeded to
+sprinkle gold-dust in Valeria's hair, Myrrhina's eye was caught by the
+gift of Placidus, lying neglected at her feet, the casket open, the jewels
+scattered on the floor. Such as it was, the waiting-maid owned a
+conscience. It warned her that she had not as yet worked out the value of
+the costly chain thrown round her neck by the tribune. Showering the gold-
+dust liberally about her lady's head, Myrrhina felt her way cautiously to
+the delicate theme.
+
+"There's a new fashion coming in for headgear when the weather gets
+cooler," said she. "It's truth I tell you, madam, for I heard it direct
+from Selina, who was told by the Empress's first tirewoman, though even
+Caesar himself cannot think Galeria looks well, with that yellow mop stuck
+all over her head. But it's to be the fashion, nevertheless, and right
+sorry I am to hear it; nor am I the only one for that matter."
+
+"Why so?" asked Valeria languidly; "is it more troublesome than the
+present?"
+
+Myrrhina had done with the gold-dust now, and, holding the comb in her
+mouth, was throwing a rich brown curl across her wrist, while she laid a
+plat carefully beneath it. Notwithstanding the impediment between her
+lips, however, she was able to reply with great volubility.
+
+"The trouble counts for nothing, madam, when a lady has got such hair as
+yours. It's a pleasure to run your hands through it, let alone dressing
+and crisping it, and plaiting it up into a crown that's fit for a queen.
+But this new fashion will make us all alike, whether we're as bald as old
+Lyce, or wear our curls down to our ankles, like Neaera. Still, to hide
+such hair as _yours_;--as my lord said, only this morning"--
+
+"What lord? this morning!" interrupted Valeria, a dawn of interest waking
+on her handsome features; "not Licinius, my noble kinsman? His approval is
+indeed worth having."
+
+"Better worth than his gifts," answered Myrrhina pertly; pointing to the
+filigree basket which occupied a place of honour on the toilet-table.
+"Such a birthday present I never saw! A few late roses and a bunch or two
+of figs to the richest lady in Rome! To be sure, he sent a messenger with
+them, who might have come direct from Jove, and the properest man I ever
+set eyes on."
+
+And Myrrhina moved to one side, that her lady might not observe the blush
+that rose, even to her shameless brow, as she recalled the impression made
+on her by the handsome slave. Valeria liked to hear of proper men; she
+woke up a little out of her languor, and flung the hair back from her
+face.
+
+"Go on," said she, as Myrrhina hesitated, half eager and half loth to
+pursue the pleasing topic.
+
+But the waiting-maid felt the chain round her neck, and acknowledged in
+her heart the equivalent it demanded.
+
+"It was the tribune, madam," said she, "who spoke about your hair--Julius
+Placidus, who values every curl you wear, more than a whole mine of gold.
+Ah! there's not a lord in Rome has such a taste in dress. Only to see him
+this morning, with his violet mantle and his jewels sparkling in the sun,
+with the handsomest chariot and the four whitest horses in the town. Well!
+if I was a lady, and wooed by such a man as that"--
+
+"_Man_ call you him?" interrupted her mistress, with a scornful smile.
+"Nay, when these curled, perfumed, close-shaven things are called men,
+'tis time for us women to bestir ourselves, lest strength and courage die
+out in Rome altogether. And you, too, Myrrhina, who know Licinius and
+Hippias, and saw with your own eyes two hundred gladiators in the circus
+only yesterday, you ought to be a better judge. Man, forsooth! Why, you
+will be calling smooth-faced Paris a man next!"
+
+Here maid and mistress burst out laughing, for thereby hung a tale of
+which Valeria was not a little proud. This Paris, a young Egyptian, of
+beautiful but effeminate appearance, had lately come to Italy to figure
+with no small success on the Roman stage. His delicate features, his
+symmetrical shape, and the girlish graces of his pantomimic gestures, had
+made sad havoc in the hearts of the Roman ladies, at all times too
+susceptible to histrionic charms. He lost nothing, either, of public
+attention, by bearing the name of Nero's ill-fated favourite, and embarked
+at once, unhesitatingly, on the same brilliant and dangerous career. But
+although it was the fashion to be in love with Paris, Valeria alone never
+yielded to the mode, but treated him with all the placid indifference she
+felt for attractions that found no favour in her sight. Stung by such
+neglect, the petted actor paid devoted court to the woman who despised
+him, and succeeded, after much importunity, in prevailing on her to accord
+him an interview in her own house. Of this he had the bad taste to make no
+small boast in anticipation; and Myrrhina, who found out most things, lost
+no time in informing her mistress that her condescension was already as
+much misrepresented as it was misplaced. The two laid their plans
+accordingly; and when Paris, attired in the utmost splendour, arrived
+panting to the promised interview, he found himself seized by some half-
+dozen hideous old negresses, who smothered him with caresses, stripped him
+from head to foot, forced him into the bath, and persisted in treating him
+as if he were a delicate young lady, but with a quiet violence the while,
+that it was useless to resist. The same swarthy tirewomen then dressed him
+in female garments; and despite of threats, struggles, outcries, and
+entreaties, placed him in Valeria's litter, and so carried him home to his
+own door. The ready wit of the play-actor put upon his metamorphosis the
+construction least favourable to the character of its originator; but he
+vowed a summary vengeance, we may be sure, nevertheless.
+
+"I think Paris knows what you think of him only too well," resumed
+Myrrhina; "not but that he has a fair face of his own, and a lovely shape
+for dancing, though, to be sure, Placidus is a finer figure of a man. Oh!
+if you could have seen him this morning, madam, when he lay back so
+graceful in his chariot, and chid that pert lad of his for striking with
+his whip at the tall slave, who to be sure vanished like a flash of
+lightning, you would have said there wasn't such another patrician in the
+whole city of Rome!"
+
+"Enough of Placidus!" interrupted her mistress impatiently; "the subject
+wearies me. What of this tall slave, Myrrhina, who seems to have attracted
+your attention? Did he look like one of the barbarians my kinsman Licinius
+cries up so mightily? Is he handsome enough to step with my Liburnians,
+think you, under the day-litter?"
+
+The waiting-maid's eyes sparkled as she thought how pleasant it would be
+to have him in the same household as herself; and any little restraint she
+might have experienced in running over the personal advantages that had
+captivated her fancy disappeared before this agreeable prospect.
+
+"Handsome enough, madam!" she exclaimed, removing the comb from her mouth,
+dropping her lady's hair, and flourishing her hands with true Italian
+emphasis and rapidity,--"handsome enough! why he would make the Liburnians
+look like bald-headed vultures beside a golden eagle! Barbarian, like
+enough, he may be, Cimbrian, Frisian, Ansibarian, or what not, for I
+caught the foreign accent tripping on his tongue, and we have few men in
+Rome of stature equal to his. A neck like a tower of marble; arms and
+shoulders like the statue of Hercules yonder in the vestibule; a face, ay,
+twice as beautiful as Pericles on your medallion, with the golden curls
+clustering round a forehead as white as milk and eyes"--
+
+Here Myrrhina stopped, a little at a loss for a simile, and a good deal
+out of breath besides.
+
+"Go on," said Valeria, who had been listening in an attitude of languid
+attention, her eyes half closed, her lips parted, and the colour deepening
+on her cheek. "What were his eyes like, Myrrhina?"
+
+"Well, they were like the blue sky of Campania in the vintage; they were
+like the stones round the boss of your state-mantle; they were like the
+sea at noonday from the long walls of Ostia. And yet they flashed into
+sparks of fire when he looked at poor little Automedon. I wonder the boy
+wasn't frightened! I am sure I should have been; only nothing frightens
+those impudent young charioteers."
+
+"Was he my kinsman's slave; are you sure, Myrrhina?" said her mistress, in
+an accent of studied unconcern, and never moving a finger from her
+listless and comfortable attitude.
+
+"No doubt of it, madam," replied the waiting-maid; and would probably have
+continued to enlarge on the congenial subject, had she not been
+interrupted by the entrance of one of the damsels who had been summoned
+from the apartment, and returned to announce that Hippias, the retired
+gladiator, was in waiting--"Would Valeria take her fencing-lesson?"
+
+But Valeria declined at once, and sat on before her mirror, without even
+raising her eyes to the tempting picture it displayed. Whatever was the
+subject of her thoughts, it must have been very engrossing, she seemed so
+loth to be disturbed.
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER V
+
+                                   ROME
+
+
+                               [Initial M]
+
+Meanwhile the British slave, unconscious that he was already the object of
+Valeria's interest and Myrrhina's admiration, was threading his way
+through the crowded streets that adjoined the Forum, enjoying that vague
+sense of amusement with which a man surveys a scene of bustle and
+confusion that does not affect his immediate concerns. Thanks to the
+favour of his master, his time was nearly at his own disposal, and he had
+ample leisure to observe the busiest scene in the known world, and to
+compare it, perhaps, with the peace and simplicity of those early days,
+which seemed now like the memories of a dream, so completely had they
+passed away. The business of the Forum was over: the markets were
+disgorging their mingled stream of purveyors, purchasers, and idle
+lookers-on. The whole population of Rome was hurrying home to dinner, and
+a motley crowd it was. The citizens themselves, the Plebeians, properly so
+called, scarcely formed one half of the swarming assemblage. Slaves
+innumerable hurried to and fro, to speed the business or the pleasure of
+their lords; slaves of every colour and of every nation, from the
+Scandinavian giant, with blue eyes and waving yellow locks, to the sturdy
+Ethiopian, thick-lipped, and woolly-haired, the swarthy child of Africa,
+whose inheritance has been servitude from the earliest ages until now.
+Many a Roman born was there, too, amongst the servile crowd, aping the
+appearance and manner of a citizen, but who shrank from a master's frown
+at home, and who, despite the acquirement of wealth, and even the
+attainment of power, must die a bondsman as he had lived.
+
+Not the least characteristic feature of the state of society under the
+Empire was the troop of freedmen that everywhere accompanied the person,
+and swelled the retinue of each powerful patrician. These manumitted
+slaves were usually bound by the ties of interest as much as gratitude to
+the former master, who had now become their patron. Dependent on him in
+many cases for their daily food, doled out to them in rations at his door,
+they were necessarily little emancipated from his authority by their
+lately acquired freedom. While the relation of patron and client was
+productive of crying evils in the Imperial City, while the former threw
+the shield of his powerful protection over the crimes of the latter, and
+the client in return became the willing pander to his patron's vices, it
+was the freedman who, more than all others, rendered himself a willing
+tool to his patrician employer, who yielded unhesitatingly time,
+affections, probity, and honour itself, to the caprices of his lord. They
+swarmed about the Forum now, running hither and thither with the
+obsequious haste of the parasite, bent on errands which in too many cases
+would scarce have borne the light of day.
+
+Besides these, a vast number of foreigners, wearing the costumes of their
+different countries, hindered the course of traffic as they stood gaping,
+stupefied by the confusing scene on which they gazed. The Gaul, with his
+short, close-fitting garment; the Parthian, with his conical sheepskin
+cap; the Mede, with his loose silken trousers; the Jew, barefoot and robed
+in black; the stately Spaniard, the fawning Egyptian, and amongst them
+all, winding his way wherever the crowd was closest, with perfect ease and
+self-possession, the smooth and supple Greek. When some great man passed
+through the midst, borne aloft in his litter, or leaning on the shoulder
+of a favourite slave, and freedmen and clients made a passage for him with
+threat, and push, and blow, the latter would invariably miss the Greek to
+light on the pate of a humble mechanic, or the shoulders of a sturdy
+barbarian, while the descendant of Leonidas or Alcibiades would reply in
+whining sing-song tones to the verbal abuse, with some biting retort,
+which was sure to turn the laughter of the crowd on the aggressor.
+
+If Rome had once overrun and conquered the dominions of her elder sister
+in civilisation, the invasion seemed now to be all the other way. With the
+turn of the tide had come such an overflow of Greek manners, Greek
+customs, Greek morals, and Greek artifice, that the Imperial City was
+already losing its natural characteristics; and the very language was so
+interlarded with the vocabulary of the conquered, that it was fast
+becoming less Latin than Greek. The Roman ladies, especially, delighted in
+those euphonious syllables, which clothed Athenian eloquence in such
+melodious rhythm; and their choicest terms of endearment in the language
+of love, were invariably whispered in Greek.
+
+That supple nation, too, adapting itself to the degradation of slavery and
+the indulgence of ease, as it had risen in nobler times to the exigencies
+of liberty and the efforts demanded by war, had usurped the greater
+portion of art, science, and even power, in Rome. The most talented
+painters and sculptors were Greeks. The most enterprising contractors and
+engineers were Greeks. Rhetoric and elocution could only be learned in a
+Greek school, and mathematics, unless studied with Greek letters, must be
+esteemed confused and useless; the fashionable invalid who objected to
+consult a Greek physician deserved to die; and there was but one
+astrologer in Rome who could cast a patrician horoscope. Of course he was
+a Greek. In the lower walks of criminal industry; in the many iniquitous
+professions called into existence by the luxury of a great city, the
+Greeks drove a thriving and almost an exclusive trade. Whoever was in most
+repute, as an evil counsellor, a low buffoon, a money-lender, pimp,
+pander, or parasite, whatever might be his other qualifications, was sure
+to be a Greek. And many a scrutinising glance was cast by professors of
+this successful nation at the Briton's manly form as he strode through the
+crowd, making his way quietly but surely from sheer weight and strength.
+They followed him with covetous eyes, as they speculated on the various
+purposes to which so much good manhood might be applied. They appraised
+him, so to speak, and took an inventory of his thews and sinews, his
+limbs, his stature, and his good looks; but they refrained from accosting
+him with importunate questions or insolent proposals, for there was a bold
+confident air about him, that bespoke the stout heart and the ready hand.
+The stamp of freedom had not yet faded from his brow, and he looked like
+one who was accustomed to take his own part in a crowd.
+
+Suddenly a stoppage in the traffic arrested the moving stream, which
+swelled in continually to a struggling, eager, vociferating mass. A dray,
+containing huge blocks of marble, and drawn by several files of oxen, had
+become entangled with the chariot of a passing patrician, and another
+great man's litter being checked by the obstruction, much confusion and
+bad language was the result. Amused with the turmoil, and in no hurry to
+get home, the British slave stood looking over the heads of the populace
+at the irritated and gesticulating antagonists, when a smart blow on the
+shoulder caused him to wheel suddenly round, prepared to return the injury
+with interest. At the same instant a powerful hand dragged him back by the
+tunic, and a grasp was laid on him, from which he could not shake himself
+free, while a rough good-humoured voice whispered in his ear--
+
+"Softly, lad, softly! Keep hands off Caesar's lictors an' thou be'st not
+mad in good earnest. These gentry give more than they take, I can promise
+thee!"
+
+The speaker was a broad powerful man of middle size, with the chest of a
+Hercules; he held the Briton firmly pinioned in his arms while he spoke,
+and it was well that he did so, for the lictors were indeed forcing a
+passage for the Emperor himself, who was proceeding on foot, and as far as
+was practicable _incog._, to inspect the fish-market.
+
+Vitellius shuffled along with the lagging step of an infirm and bloated
+old man. His face was pale and flabby, his eye dim, though sparkling at
+intervals with some little remnant of the ready wit and pliant humour that
+had made him the favourite of three emperors ere he himself attained the
+purple. Supported by two freedmen, preceded and followed only by a file of
+lictors, and attended by three or four slaves, Caesar was taking his short
+walk in hopes of acquiring some little appetite for dinner: what locality
+so favourable for the furtherance of this object as the fish-market, where
+the imperial glutton could feast his eyes, if nothing else, on the
+choicest dainties of the deep? He was so seldom seen abroad in Rome, that
+the Briton could not forbear following him with his glance, while his new
+friend, relaxing his hold with great caution, whispered once more in his
+ear--
+
+"Ay, look well at him, man, and give Jove thanks thou art not an emperor.
+There's a shape for the purple! There's a head to carry a diadem! Well,
+well, for all he's so white and flabby now, like a Lucrine turbot, he
+could drive a chariot once, and hold his own at sword and buckler with the
+best of them. They say he can drink as well as ever still. Not that he was
+a match for Nero in his best days, even at that game. Ay, ay, they may
+talk as they will: we've never had an emperor like _him_ before nor since.
+Wine, women, shows, sacrifices, wild-beast fights;--a legion of men all
+engaged in the circus at once! Such a friend as he was to _our_ trade."
+
+"And that trade?" inquired the Briton good-humouredly enough, now his
+hands were free: "I think I can guess it without asking too many
+questions."
+
+"No need to guess," replied the other. "I'm not ashamed of my trade, nor
+of my name neither. Maybe you have heard of Hirpinus, the gladiator?
+Tuscan born, free Roman citizen, and willing to match himself with any man
+of his weight, on foot or on horseback, blindfold or half-armed, in or out
+of a war-chariot, with two swords, sword and buckler, or sword or spear.
+Any weapon, and every weapon, always excepting the net and the noose.
+Those I can't bear talking about--to my mind they are not fair fighting.
+But what need I tell _you_ all about it?" he added, running his eye over
+the slave's powerful frame. "I must surely have seen you before. You look
+as if you belonged to the Family(2) yourself!"
+
+The slave smiled, not insensible to the compliment.
+
+"'Tis a manlier way of getting bread than most of the employments I see
+practised in Rome," was his reply, though he spoke more to himself than
+his companion. "A man might die a worse death than in the amphitheatre,"
+he added meditatively.
+
+"A worse death!" echoed Hirpinus. "He could scarce die a better! Think of
+the rows of heads one upon another piled up like apples to the very
+awnings. Think of the patricians and senators wagering their collars and
+bracelets, and their sesterces in millions, on the strength of your arm,
+and the point of your blade. Think of your own vigour and manhood, trained
+till you feel as strong as an elephant, and as lithe as a panther, with an
+honest wooden buckler on your arm, and two feet of pliant steel in your
+hand, as you defile by Caesar and bid him 'Good-morrow, from those who have
+come here to die!' Think of the tough bout with your antagonist, foot to
+foot, hand to hand, eye to eye, feeling his blade with your own (why a
+swordsman, lad, can fence as well in the dark as the daylight!), foiling
+his passes, drawing his attack, learning his feints, watching your
+opportunity; when you catch it at last, in you dash like a wild-cat, and
+the guard of your sword rings sharp and true against his breastbone, as he
+goes over backwards on the sand!"
+
+"And if _he_ gets the opportunity first?" asked the slave, interested in
+spite of himself at the enthusiasm which carried him irresistibly along
+with it. "If your guard is an inch too high, your return a thought too
+slow? If you go backwards on the sand, with the hilt at your breastbone,
+and the two feet of steel in your bosom? How does it feel then?"
+
+"Faith, lad, you must cross the Styx to have that question fairly
+answered," replied the other. "I have had no such experience yet. When it
+comes I shall know how to meet it. But this talking makes a man thirsty,
+and the sun is hot enough to bake a negro here. Come with me, lad! I know
+a shady nook, where we can pierce a skin of wine, and afterwards play a
+game at quoits, or have a bout of wrestling, to while away the afternoon."
+
+The slave was nothing loth. Besides the debt of gratitude he owed for
+preservation from a serious danger, there was something in his new
+friend's rough, good-humoured, and athletic manhood that won on the
+Briton's favour. Hirpinus, with even more than their fierce courage, had
+less than the usual brutality of his class, and possessed besides a sort
+of quaint and careless good-humour, by no means rare among the athletes of
+every time, which found its way at once to the natural sympathies of the
+slave. They started off accordingly, on the most amicable terms, in search
+of that refreshment which a few hours' exposure to an Italian sun rendered
+very desirable; but the crowd had not yet cleared off, and their progress
+was necessarily somewhat slow, notwithstanding that the throng of
+passengers gave way readily enough before two such stalwart and athletic
+forms.
+
+Hirpinus thought it incumbent on him to take the Briton, as it were, under
+his protection, and to point out to him the different objects of interest,
+and the important personages, to be seen at that hour in the streets of
+the capital, totally irrespective of the fact that his pupil was as well
+instructed on these points as himself. But the gladiator dearly loved a
+listener, and, truth to tell, was extremely diffuse in his narratives when
+he had got one to his mind. These generally turned on his own physical
+prowess, and his deadly exploits in the amphitheatre, which he was by no
+means disposed to underrate. There are some really brave men who are also
+boasters, and Hirpinus was one of them.
+
+He was in the midst of a long dissertation on the beauties of an encounter
+fought out between naked combatants, armed only with the sword, and was
+explaining at great length a certain fatal thrust outside his antagonist's
+guard, and over his elbow, which he affirmed to be his own invention, and
+irresistible by any party yet discovered, when the slave felt his gown
+plucked by a female hand, and turning sharply round was somewhat
+disconcerted to find himself face to face with Valeria's waiting-maid.
+
+"You are wanted," said she unceremoniously, and with an imperious gesture.
+"You are to come to my lady this instant. Make haste, man; she cannot
+brook waiting."
+
+Myrrhina pointed while she spoke to where a closed litter borne aloft by
+four tall Liburnian slaves, had stopped the traffic, and already become
+the nucleus of a crowd. A white hand peeped through its curtains, as the
+slave approached, surprised and somewhat abashed at this unexpected
+appeal. Hirpinus looked on with grave approval the while. Arriving close
+beneath the litter, of which the curtain was now open, the slave paused
+and made a graceful obeisance; then, drawing himself up proudly, stood
+erect before it, looking unconsciously his best, in the pride of his youth
+and beauty. Valeria's cheek was paler than usual, and her attitude more
+languid, but her grey eyes sparkled, and a smile played round her mouth as
+she addressed him.
+
+"Myrrhina tells me that you are the man who brought a basket of flowers to
+my house this morning from Licinius. Why did you not wait to carry back my
+salutations to my kinsman?"
+
+The colour mounted to the slave's brow as he thought of Automedon's
+insolence, but he only replied humbly, "Had I known it was your wish,
+lady, I had been standing in your porch till now."
+
+She marked his rising colour, and attributed it to the effect of her own
+dazzling beauty.
+
+"Myrrhina knew you at once in the crowd," said she graciously; "and indeed
+yours is a face and figure not easily mistaken in Rome. I should recognise
+you myself anywhere now."
+
+She paused, expecting a suitable reply, but the slave, albeit not
+insensible to the compliment, only blushed again and was silent. Valeria,
+meanwhile, whose motives in summoning him to her litter had been in the
+first instance of simple curiosity to see the stalwart barbarian who had
+so excited Myrrhina's admiration, and whom that sharp-sighted damsel had
+recognised in an instant amongst the populace, now found herself pleased
+and interested by the quiet demeanour and noble bearing of this foreign
+slave. She had always been susceptible to manly beauty, and here she
+beheld it in its noblest type. She was rapacious of admiration in all
+quarters; and here she could not but flatter herself she gathered an
+undoubted tribute to the power of her charms. She owned all a woman's
+interest in anything that had a spice of mystery or romance, and a woman's
+unfailing instinct in discovering high birth and gentle breeding under
+every disguise; and here she found a delightful puzzle in the manner and
+appearance of her kinsman's messenger, whose position seemed so at
+variance with his looks. She had never in her life laid the slightest
+restraint on her thoughts, and but little on her actions--she had never
+left a purpose unfulfilled, nor a wish ungratified--but a strange and new
+feeling, at which even her courageous nature quailed, seemed springing up
+in her heart while she gazed with half-closed eyes at the Briton, and
+hesitated to confess, even to herself, that she had never seen such a man
+as this in her life before. It was in a softened tone that she again
+addressed him, moving on her couch to show an ivory shoulder and a rounded
+arm to the best advantage.
+
+"You are a confidential servant of my kinsman's? You are attached to his
+person, and always to be found in his household?" she asked, more with a
+view of detaining him than for any fixed purpose.
+
+"I would give my life for Licinius!" was the prompt and spirited reply.
+
+"But you are gentle born," she resumed, with increasing interest; "how
+came you in your present dress, your present station? Licinius has never
+mentioned you to me. I do not even know your name. What is it?"
+
+"Esca," answered the slave proudly, and looking the while anything but a
+slave.
+
+"Esca!" she repeated, dwelling on the syllables, with a slow soft cadence;
+"Esca! 'Tis none of our Latin names; but that I might have known already.
+Who and what are you?"
+
+There was something of defiance in the melancholy tone with which he
+answered--
+
+"A prince in my own country, and a chief of ten thousand. A barbarian and
+a slave in Rome."
+
+She gave him her hand to kiss, with a gesture of pity that was almost a
+caress, and then, as though ashamed of her own condescension, bade the
+Liburnians angrily to "go on."
+
+Esca looked long and wistfully after the litter as it disappeared; but
+Hirpinus, clapping him on the back with his heavy hand, burst into a
+hearty laugh while he declared--
+
+"'Tis a clear case, comrade. 'Came, saw, and conquered,' as the great
+soldier said. I have known it a hundred times, but always to men of muscle
+like thee and me. By Castor and Pollux! lad, thou art in luck. Ay, ay,
+'tis always so. She takes thee for a gladiator, and they'll look at
+nothing but a gladiator now. Come on, brother; we'll drink a cup to every
+letter of her name!"
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VI
+
+                           THE WORSHIP OF ISIS
+
+
+It was the cool and calming hour of sunset. Esca was strolling quietly
+homewards after the pursuits of the day. He had emptied a wineskin with
+Hirpinus; and, resisting that worthy's entreaties to mark so auspicious a
+meeting by a debauch, had accompanied him to the gymnasium, where the
+Briton's magnificent strength and prowess raised him higher than ever in
+the opinion of the experienced athlete. Untiring as were the trained
+muscles of the professional, he found himself unable to cope with the
+barbarian in such exercises as demanded chiefly untaught physical power
+and length of limb. In running, leaping, and wrestling, Esca was more than
+a match for the gladiator. In hurling the quoit, and fencing with wooden
+foils, the latter's constant practice gave him the advantage, and when he
+fastened round his wrists and hands the leathern thong or _cestus_, used
+for the same purpose as our modern boxing-glove, and proposed a round or
+two of that manly exercise to conclude with, he little doubted that his
+own science and experience would afford him an easy victory. The result,
+however, was far different from his expectations. His antagonist's powers
+were especially adapted to this particular kind of contest; his length of
+limb, his quickness of eye, hand, and foot, his youthful elasticity of
+muscle, and his unfailing wind, rendered him an invincible combatant, and
+it was with something like pique that Hirpinus was compelled to confess as
+much to himself.
+
+At the end of the first round he was satisfied of his mistake in
+underrating so formidable an opponent. Ere the second was half through, he
+had exhausted all the resources of his own skill without gaining the
+slightest advantage over his antagonist; and with the conclusion of a
+third, he flung away the _cestus_ in well-feigned disgust at the heat of
+the weather, and proposed one more skin of wine before parting, to drink
+success to the profession, and speedy employment for the gladiators at the
+approaching games in the amphitheatre.
+
+"Join us, man!" said Hirpinus, dropping something of the patronising air
+he had before affected. "Thou wert born to be a swordsman. Hippias would
+teach thee in a week to hold thine own against the best fencers in Rome. I
+myself will look to thy food, thy training, and thy private practice. Thou
+wouldst gain thy liberty easily, after a few victories. Think it over,
+man! and when thou hast decided, come to the fencing-school yonder, and
+ask for old Hirpinus. The steel may have a speck of rust on it, but it's
+tough and true still; so fare thee well, lad. I count to hear from thee
+again before long!"
+
+The gladiator accordingly rolled off with more than his usual assumption
+of manly independence, attributable to the measure of rough Sabine wine of
+which he had drunk his full share, whilst the Briton walked quietly away
+in the direction of his home, enjoying the cool breeze that fanned his
+brow, and following out a train of vague and complicated reflections,
+originating in the advice of his late companion.
+
+The crimson glow of a summer evening had faded into the serene beauty of a
+summer night. Stars were flashing out, one by one, with mellow lustre, not
+glimmering faintly, as in our northern climate, but hanging like silver
+lamps, in the infinity of the sky. The busy turmoil of the streets had
+subsided to a low and drowsy hum; the few chance passengers who still
+paced them, went softly and at leisure, as though enjoying the soothing
+influence of the hour. Even here, in the great city, everything seemed to
+breathe of peace, and contentment, and repose. Esca walked slowly on, lost
+in meditation.
+
+Suddenly, the clash of cymbals and the sound of voices struck upon his
+ear. A wild and fitful melody, rising and falling with strange thrilling
+cadence, was borne upon the breeze. Even while he stopped to listen, it
+swelled into a full harmonious chorus, and he recognised the chant of the
+worshippers of Isis, returning from the unholy celebration of her rites.
+Soon the glare of torches heralded its approach, and the tumultuous
+procession wound round the corner of the street with all the strange
+grotesque ceremonies of their order. Clashing their cymbals, dashing their
+torches together till the sparks flew up in showers, tossing their bare
+arms aloft with frantic gestures, the smooth-faced priests, having girt
+their linen garments tightly round their loins, were dancing to and fro
+before the image of the goddess with bacchanalian energy. Some were
+bareheaded, some crowned with garlands of the lotus-leaf, and some wore
+masks representing the heads of dogs and other animals; but all, though
+leaping wildly here and there, danced in the same step, all used the same
+mysterious gestures of which the meaning was only known to the initiated.
+The figure of the goddess herself was borne aloft on the shoulders of two
+sturdy priests, fat, oily, smooth, and sensual, with the odious look of
+their kind. It represented a stately woman crowned with the lotus, holding
+a four-barred lyre in her hand. Gold and silver tinsel was freely
+scattered over her flowing garments, and jewels of considerable value, the
+gifts of unusually fervent devotees, might be observed upon her bosom and
+around her neck and arms. Behind her were carried the different symbols by
+which her qualities were supposed to be typified; amongst these an image
+of the sacred cow, wrought in frosted silver with horns and hoofs of gold,
+showed the most conspicuous, borne aloft as it was by an acolyte in the
+wildest stage of inebriety, and wavering, with the uncertain movements of
+its bearer, over the heads of the throng. In the van moved the priests,
+bloated eunuchs clad in white; behind these came the sacred images carried
+by younger votaries, who, aspiring to the sacerdotal office, and already
+prepared for its functions, devoted themselves assiduously in the meantime
+to the orgies with which it was their custom to celebrate the worship of
+their deity. Maddened with wine, bare-limbed and with dishevelled locks,
+they danced frantically to and fro, darting at intervals from their ranks,
+and compelling the passengers whom they met to turn behind them, and help
+to swell the rear of the procession. This was formed of a motley crew.
+Rich and poor, old and young, the proud patrician and the squalid slave,
+were mingled together in turbulent confusion; it was difficult to
+distinguish those who formed a part of the original pageant from the
+idlers who had attached themselves to it, and, having caught the
+contagious excitement, vociferated as loudly, and leaped about as wildly,
+as the initiated themselves. Amongst these might be seen some of the
+fairest and proudest faces in Rome. Noble matrons reared in luxury, under
+the very busts of those illustrious ancestors who had been counsellors of
+kings, defenders of the commonwealth, senators of the empire, thought it
+no shame to be seen reeling about the public streets, unveiled and flushed
+with wine, in the company of the most notorious and profligate of their
+sex. A multitude of torches shed their glare on the upturned faces of the
+throng, and on one that looked, with its scornful lips and defiant brow,
+to have no business there.
+
+Amongst the wildest of these revellers, Valeria's haughty head moved on,
+towering above the companions, with whom she seemed to have nothing in
+common, save a fierce determination to set modesty and propriety at
+defiance. Esca caught her glance as she swept by. She blushed crimson, he
+observed even in the torchlight, and seemed for an instant to shrink
+behind the portly form of a priest who marched at her side; but,
+immediately recovering herself, moved on with a gradually paling cheek,
+and a haughtier step than before.
+
+He had little leisure, however, to observe the scornful beauty, whose
+charms, to tell the truth, had made no slight impression on his
+imagination; for a disturbance at its head, which had now passed him some
+distance, had stopped the progress of the whole procession, and no small
+confusion was the result. The torch-bearers were hurrying to the front.
+The silver cow had fallen and been replaced in an upright position more
+than once. The goddess herself had nearly shared the same fate. The sacred
+chant had ceased, and instead a hundred tongues were vociferating at once,
+some in anger, some in expostulation, some in maudlin ribaldry and mirth.
+"Let her go!" cried one. "Hold her fast!" shouted another. "Bring her
+along with you!" reasoned a drunken acolyte. "If she be worthy she will
+conform to the worship of the goddess. If she be unworthy she shall
+experience the divine wrath of Isis!" "Mind what you are about,"
+interposed a more cautious votary. "She is a Roman maiden," said one.
+"She's a barbarian!" shrieked another. "A Mede!" "A Spaniard!" "A
+Persian!" "A Jewess! A Jewess!"
+
+In the meantime the unfortunate cause of all this turmoil, a young girl
+closely veiled and dressed in black, was struggling in the arms of a large
+unwieldy eunuch, who had seized her as a hawk pounces on a pigeon, and
+despite her agonised entreaties, for the poor thing was in mortal fear,
+held her ruthlessly in his grasp. She had been surrounded by the lawless
+band, ere she was aware, as she glided quietly round the street corner, on
+her homeward way, had shrunk up against the wall in the desperate hope
+that she might remain unobserved or unmolested, and found herself, as was
+to be expected, an immediate object of insult to the dissolute and
+licentious crew. Though her dress was torn and her arms bruised from the
+unmanly violence to which she was subjected, with true feminine modesty
+she kept her veil closely drawn round her face, and resisted every effort
+for its removal, with a firm strength of which those slender wrists seemed
+hardly capable. As the eunuch grasped her with drunken violence, bending
+his huge body and bloated face over the shrinking figure of the girl, she
+could not suppress one piercing shriek for help, though, even while it
+left her lips, she felt how futile it must be, and how utterly hopeless
+was her situation. It was echoed by a hundred voices in tones of mockery
+and derision.
+
+Little did Spado, for such was the eunuch's name, little did Spado think
+how near was the aid for which his victim called; how sudden would be the
+reprisals that should astonish himself with their prompt and complete
+redress, reminding him of what he had long forgotten, the strength of a
+man's blow, and the weight of a man's arm. At the first sound of the
+girl's voice, Esca had forced his way through the crowd to her assistance.
+In three strides he had come up with her assailant, and laid his heavy
+grasp on Spado's fat shoulder, while he bade him in low determined accents
+to release his prey. The eunuch smiled insolently, and replied with a
+brutal jest.
+
+Valeria, interested in spite of herself, could not resist an impulse to
+press forward and see what was going on. Long afterwards she delighted to
+recall the scene she now beheld with far more of exultation and excitement
+than alarm. It had, indeed, especial attraction for an imagination like
+hers. Standing out in the red glare of the torches, like the bronze statue
+of some demigod starting into life, towered the tall figure of Esca,
+defiance in his attitude, anger on his brow, and resistless strength in
+the quivering outline of each sculptured limb. Within arm's length of him,
+the obese, ungraceful shape of Spado, with his broad fat face, expressive
+chiefly of gluttony and sensual enjoyment, but wearing now an ugly look of
+malice and apprehension. Starting back from his odious embrace to the
+utmost length of her outstretched arms, the veiled form of the frightened
+girl, her head turned from the eunuch, her hands pressed against his
+chest, every line of her figure denoting the extreme of horror, and
+aversion, and disgust. Round the three, a shifting mass of grinning faces,
+and tossing arms, and wild bacchanalian gestures; the whole rendered more
+grotesque and unnatural by the lurid, flickering light. With an
+unaccountable fascination Valeria watched for the result.
+
+"Let her go!" repeated Esca, in the distinct accents with which a man
+speaks who is about to strike, tightening at the same time a gripe which
+went into the eunuch's soft flesh like iron.
+
+Spado howled in mingled rage and fear, but released the girl nevertheless,
+who cowered instinctively close to her protector.
+
+"Help!" shouted the eunuch, looking round for assistance from his
+comrades. "Help! I say. Will ye see the priest mishandled and the goddess
+reviled? Down with him! down with him, comrades, and keep him down!"
+
+There is little doubt that had Esca's head once touched the ground it had
+never risen again, for the priests were crowding about him with wild yells
+and savage eyes, and the fierce revelry of a while ago was fast warming
+into a thirst for blood. Valeria thrust her way into the circle, though
+she never feared for the Briton--not for an instant.
+
+It was getting dangerous, though, to remain any longer amongst this
+frantic crew. Esca wound one arm round the girl's waist and opposed the
+other shoulder to the throng. Spado, encouraged by his comrades, struck
+wildly at the Briton, and made a furious effort to recover his prey. Esca
+drew himself together like a panther about to spring, then his long sinewy
+arm flew out with the force and impulse of a catapult, and the eunuch,
+reeling backwards, fell heavily to the ground, with a gash upon his cheek
+like the wound inflicted by a sword.
+
+"_Euge!_" exclaimed Valeria, in a thrill of admiration and delight. "Well
+struck, by Hercules! Ah! these barbarians have at least the free use of
+their limbs. Why, the priest went down like a white ox at the Mucian Gate.
+Is he much hurt, think ye? Will he rise again?"
+
+The last sentence was addressed to the throng who now crowded round the
+prostrate Spado, and was but the result of that pity which is never quite
+dormant in a woman's breast. The fallen eunuch seemed indeed in no hurry
+to get upon his legs again. He rolled about in hideous discomfiture, and
+gave vent to his feelings in loud and pitiful moans and lamentations.
+
+After such an example of the Briton's prowess, none of her other votaries
+seemed to think it incumbent on them to vindicate the majesty of the
+goddess by further interference with the maiden and her protector.
+Supporting and almost carrying her drooping form, Esca hurried her away
+with swift firm strides, pausing and looking back at intervals, as though
+loth to leave his work half finished, and by no means unwilling to renew
+the contest. The last Valeria saw of him was the turn of his noble head
+bending down with a courteous and protecting gesture, to console and
+reassure his frightened charge. All her womanly instincts revolted at that
+moment from the odious throng with whom she was involved. She could have
+found it in her heart to envy that obscure and unknown girl hurrying away
+yonder through the darkening streets on the arm of her powerful
+protector--could have wished herself a peasant or a slave, with some one
+being in the world to look up to, and to love.
+
+Valeria's life had been that of a spoiled child from the day she left her
+cradle--that gilded cradle over which the nurses had repeated their
+customary Roman blessing with an emphasis that in her case seemed to be
+prophetic--
+
+  "May monarchs woo thee, darling! to their bed,
+  And roses blossom where thy footsteps tread!"
+
+The metaphorical flowers of wealth, prosperity, and admiration, did indeed
+seem to spring up beneath her feet, and her stately beauty would have done
+no discredit to an imperial bride; but it must have been something more
+than outward pomp and show--something nobler than the purple and the
+diadem--that could have won its way to Valeria's heart.
+
+She was habituated to the beautiful, the costly, the refined, till she had
+learned to consider such qualities as the mere essentials of life. It
+seemed to her a simple matter of course that houses should be noble, and
+chariots luxurious, and horses swift, and men brave. The _nil admirari_
+was the maxim of the class in which she lived; and whilst their standard
+was thus placed at the superlative, that which came up to it received no
+credit for excellence, that which fell short was treated with disapproval
+and contempt. Valeria's life had been one constant round of pleasure and
+amusement; yet she was not happy, not even contented. Day by day she felt
+the want of some fresh interest, some fresh excitement; and it was this
+craving probably, more than innate depravity, which drove her, in common
+with many of her companions, into such disgraceful scenes as were enacted
+at the worship of Juno, Isis, and the other gods and goddesses of
+mythology.
+
+Lovers, it is needless to say, Valeria had won in plenty. Each new face
+possessed for her but the attraction of its novelty. The favourite of the
+hour had small cause to plume himself on his position. For the first week
+he interested her curiosity, for the second he pleased her fancy, after
+which, if he was wise, he took his leave gracefully, ere he was bidden to
+do so with a frankness that admitted of no misconception. Perhaps the only
+person in the world whom she respected was her kinsman Licinius; and this,
+none the less, that she possessed no kind of influence over his feelings
+or his opinions; that she well knew he viewed her proceedings often with
+disapprobation, and entertained for her character a kindly pity not far
+removed from contempt. Even Julius Placidus, who was the most persevering,
+as he was the craftiest, of her adorers, had made no impression on her
+heart. She appreciated his intellect, she was amused with his
+conversation, she approved of his deep schemes, his lavish extravagance,
+his unprincipled recklessness; but she never thought of him for an instant
+after he was out of her sight, and there was something in the cold-blooded
+ferocity of his character from which, even in his presence, she
+unconsciously recoiled. Perhaps she admired the person of Hippias, her
+fencing-master, a retired gladiator, who combined handsome regularity of
+features with a certain worn and warlike air, not without its charm, more
+than that of any man whom she had yet seen, and with all her pride and her
+cold exterior, Valeria was a woman to be captivated by the eye; but
+Hippias, from his professional reputation, was the darling of half the
+matrons in Rome, and it may be that she only followed the example of her
+friends, with whom, at this period of the Empire, it was considered a
+proof of the highest fashion, and the best taste, to be in love with a
+gladiator.
+
+Strong in her passions, as in her physical organisation, the former were
+only bridled by an unbending pride, and an intensity of will more than
+masculine in its resolution. As under that smooth skin the muscles of the
+round white arm were firm and hard like marble, so beneath that fair and
+tranquil bosom there beat a heart that for good or evil could dare,
+endure, and defy the worst. Valeria was a woman whom none but a very bold
+or very ignorant suitor would have taken to his breast; yet it may be that
+the right man could have tamed, and made her gentle and patient as the
+dove. And now something seemed to tell her that the void in her heart was
+filled at last. Esca's manly beauty had made a strong impression on her
+senses; the anomaly of his position had captivated her imagination; there
+was something very attractive in the mystery that surrounded him; there
+was even a wild thrill of pleasure in the shame of loving a slave. Then,
+when he stood forth, the champion of that poor helpless girl, brave,
+handsome, and victorious, the charm was complete; and Valeria's eyes
+followed him as he disappeared with a longing loving look, that had never
+glistened in them in her life before.
+
+The Briton hurried away with his arm round the drooping figure of his
+companion, and for a time forbore to speak a word even of encouragement or
+consolation. At first the reaction of her feelings turned her sick and
+faint, then a burst of weeping came to her relief; ere long the tears were
+flowing silently; and the girl, who indeed showed no lack of courage, had
+recovered herself sufficiently to look up in her protector's face, and
+pour out her thanks with a quiet earnestness that showed they came direct
+from the heart.
+
+"I can trust you," she said, in a voice of peculiar sweetness, though her
+Latin, like his own, was touched with a slightly foreign accent. "I can
+read a brave man's face--none better. We have not far to go now. You will
+take me safe home?"
+
+"I will guard you to your very door," said he, in tones of the deepest
+respect. "But you need fear nothing now; the drunken priests and their
+mysterious deity are far enough off by this time. 'Tis a noble worship,
+truly, for such a city as this--the mistress of the world!"
+
+"False gods! false gods!" replied the girl, very earnestly. "Oh! how can
+men be so blind, so degraded?" Here she stopped suddenly, and clung closer
+to her companion's arm, drawing her veil tighter round her face the while.
+Her quick ear had caught the sound of hurrying footsteps, and she dreaded
+pursuit.
+
+"'Tis nothing," said Esca, encouraging her; "the most we have to dread now
+is some drunken freedman or client reeling home from his patron's supper-
+table. They are a weakly race, these Roman citizens," he added good-
+humouredly; "I think I can promise to stave them off if they come not more
+than a dozen at a time."
+
+The cheerful tone reassured her no less than the strong arm to which she
+clung. It was delightful to feel so safe after the fright she had
+undergone. The footsteps were indeed those of a few dissolute idlers
+loitering home after a debauch. They had hastened forward on espying a
+female figure; but there was something in the air of her protector that
+forbade a near approach, and they shrank to the other side of the way
+rather than come in contact with so powerful an opponent. The girl felt
+proud of her escort, and safer every minute. By this time she had guided
+him into a dark and narrow street, at the end of which the Tiber might be
+seen gleaming under the starlit sky. She stopped at a mean-looking door,
+let into a dead-wall, and applying her hand to a secret spring, it opened
+noiselessly to her touch. Then she turned to face her companion, and said
+frankly, "I have not thanked you half enough. Will you not enter our poor
+dwelling, and share with us a morsel of food and a cup of wine, ere you
+depart upon your way?"
+
+Esca was neither hungry nor thirsty, yet he bowed his head, and followed
+her into the house.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VII
+
+                                  TRUTH
+
+
+The dwelling in which the Briton now found himself presented a strange
+contrast of simplicity and splendour, of wealth and frugality, of obscure
+poverty and costly refinement. The wall was bare and weather-stained; but
+a silver lamp, burning perfumed oil, was fixed against its surface on a
+bracket of common deal. Though the stone floor was damp and broken, it was
+partially covered by a soft thick carpet of brilliant colours, while
+shawls from the richest looms of Asia hung over the mutilated wooden seats
+and the crazy couch, which appeared to be the congenial furniture of the
+apartment. Esca could not but remark on the same inconsistency throughout
+all the minor details of the household. A measure of rich wine from the
+Lebanon was cooling in a pitcher of coarse earthenware, a draught of fair
+water sparkled in a cup of gold. A bundle of Eastern javelins, inlaid with
+ivory and of beautiful finish and workmanship, kept guard, as it were,
+over a plain two-edged sword devoid of ornament, and with a handle frayed
+and worn as though from constant use, that looked like a weapon born for
+work not show, some rough soldier's rude but trusty friend. The room of
+which Esca thus caught a hasty glance as he passed through, opened on an
+inner apartment, which seemed to have been originally equally bare and
+dilapidated, but of which the furniture was even more rich and
+incongruous. It was flooded by a soft warm light, shed from a lamp burning
+some rare Syrian oil, that was scarcely to be procured for money in Rome.
+It dazzled Esca's eyes as he followed the girl through the outer apartment
+into this retreat, and it was a few seconds ere he recovered his sight
+sufficiently to take note of the objects that surrounded him.
+
+A venerable man with bald head and long silvery beard was sitting at the
+table when they entered, reading from a roll of parchment filled to the
+very margin with characters in the Syriac language, then generally spoken
+over the whole of Asia Minor, and sufficiently familiar at Rome. So
+immersed was he in his studies, that he did not seem to notice her
+arrival, till the girl rushed up to him, and, without unveiling, threw
+herself into his arms with many expressions of endearment and delight at
+her own return. The language in which she spoke was unknown to the Briton;
+but he gathered from her gestures, and the agitation which again overcame
+her for an instant, that she was relating her own troubles, and the part
+he had himself borne in the adventures of the night. Presently she turned,
+and drew him forward, while she said in Latin, with a little sob of
+agitation between every sentence--
+
+"Behold my preserver--the youth who came in like a lion to save me from
+those wicked men! Thank him in my father's name, and yours, and all my
+kindred and all my tribe. Bid him welcome to the best our house affords.
+It is not every day a daughter of Judah meets with an arm and a heart like
+his, when she falls into the grasp of the heathen and the oppressor!"
+
+The old man stretched his hand to Esca with cordiality and goodwill; as he
+did so, the Briton could not but observe how kindly was the smile that
+mantled over his serene and gentle face.
+
+"My brother will be home ere long," said he, "and will himself thank you
+for preserving his daughter from insult and worse. Meantime Calchas bids
+you heartily welcome to Eleazar's house. Mariamne," he added, turning to
+the girl, "prepare us a morsel of food that we may eat. It is not the
+custom of our nation to send a stranger fasting from the door."
+
+The girl departed on her hospitable mission, and Esca, making light of his
+prowess, and of the danger incurred, gave his own version of the night's
+occurrence, to which Calchas listened with grave interest and approval.
+When he had concluded, the old man pointed to the scroll he had been
+reading, which now lay rolled up on the table at his hand.
+
+"The time will come," said he, "when the words that are written here shall
+be in the mouths of all men on the surface of the known earth. Then shall
+there be no more strife, nor oppression, nor suffering, nor sorrow. Then
+shall men love each other like brothers, and live only in kindliness and
+goodwill. The day may seem far distant, and the means may seem poor and
+inadequate now, yet so it is written here, and so will it be at last."
+
+"You think that Rome will extend her dominions farther and farther? That
+she will conquer all known nations, as she has conquered us? That she
+means to be in fact what she proudly styles herself, the Mistress of the
+World? In truth, the eagle's wings are wide and strong. His beak is very
+sharp, and where his talons have once fastened themselves, they never
+again let go their hold!"
+
+Calchas smiled and shook his head.
+
+"The dove will prevail against the eagle, as love is a stronger power than
+hate. But it is not of Rome I speak as the future influence that shall
+establish the great good on earth. The legions are indeed well trained,
+and brave even to the death; but I know of soldiers in a better service
+than Caesar's, whose warfare is harder, whose watches are longer, whose
+adversaries are more numerous, but whose triumph is more certain, and more
+glorious at the last."
+
+Esca looked as if he understood him not. The Briton's thoughts were
+wandering back to the tramp of columns and the clash of steel, and the
+gallant stand made against the invader by the white-robed warriors with
+their long swords, amongst whom he had been one of the boldest and the
+best.
+
+"It is hard to strive against Rome," said he, with a glowing cheek and
+sparkling eye. "Yet I cannot but think, if we had never been provoked to
+an attack, if we had kept steadily on the defensive, if we had moved
+inland as he approached, harassing and cutting him off whenever we saw an
+opportunity, but never suffering him to make one for himself--trusting more
+to our woods and rivers, and less to our own right hands--we might have
+tamed the eagle and clipped his wings, and beat him back across the sea at
+last. But what have I to do with such matters now?" he added, while his
+whole countenance fell in bitter humiliation. "I, a poor barbarian
+captive, and a slave here in Rome!"
+
+Calchas studied his face with a keen scrutinising glance, then he laid his
+hand on the young man's shoulder, and said inquiringly--
+
+"There is not a grey hair in your clustering locks, nor a wrinkle on your
+brow, yet you have known sorrow?"
+
+"Who has not?" replied the other cheerfully; "and yet I never thought to
+have come to this."
+
+"You are a slave, and you would be free?" asked Calchas, slowly and
+impressively.
+
+"I am a slave," repeated the Briton, "and I shall be free. But not till
+death."
+
+"And after death?" proceeded the old man, in the same gentle inquiring
+tone.
+
+"After death," answered the other, "I shall be free as the elements I have
+been taught to worship, and into which they tell me I shall be resolved.
+What need I know or care more than that in death there will be neither
+pleasure nor pain?"
+
+"And is not life with all its changes too sweet to lose on such terms as
+these?" asked the older man. "Are you content to believe that, like one
+walking through a quicksand, the footsteps you leave are filled up and
+obliterated behind you as you pass on? Can you bear to think that
+yesterday is indeed banished and gone for ever? That a to-morrow must come
+of black and endless night? Death should be really terrible if this is
+your conviction and your creed!"
+
+"Death is never terrible to a brave man," answered Esca. "A Briton need
+not be taught how to die sword in hand."
+
+"You think you are brave," said Calchas, looking wistfully on the other's
+rising colour and kindling eyes. "Ah! you have not seen my comrades die,
+or you would know that something better than courage is required for the
+service to which we belong. What think ye of weak women, tender shrinking
+maidens, worn with fatigue, emaciated with hunger, fainting with heat and
+thirst, brought out to be devoured by beasts, or to suffer long and
+agonising tortures, yet smiling the while in quiet calm contentment, as
+seeing the home to which they are hastening, the triumph but a few short
+hours off? What think ye of the captains under whom I served, who here at
+Rome, in the face of Caesar and his power, vindicated the honour of their
+Lord and died without a murmur for His cause? I was with Peter, I tell
+you, Peter the Galilean, of whom men talk to this day, of whom men shall
+never cease to talk in after ages, when he opposed to Simon's magic arts
+his simple faith in the Master whom he served, and I saw the magician
+hurled like a stricken vulture to the ground. I was present when the
+fiercest and the wickedest of the Caesars, returning from the expedition to
+Greece, wherein his buffooneries had earned the contempt even of that
+subtle nation of flatterers, sentenced him to death upon the cross for
+that he had dared to oppose Nero's vices, and to tell Nero the truth. I
+heard him petition that he might be crucified with his head downward, as
+not worthy to suffer in the same posture as his Lord--and I can see him
+now, the pale face, the noble head, the dark keen eye, the slender sinewy
+form, and, above all, the self-sustaining confidence, the triumphant
+daring of the man as he walked fearlessly to death. I was with Paul, the
+noble Pharisee, the naturalised Roman citizen, when he, alone amongst a
+crowd of passengers and a century of soldiers, quailed not to look on the
+black waves raging round our broken ship, and bade us all be of good
+cheer, for that every soul, to the number of two hundred and seventy-five,
+should come safe to shore. I remember how trustfully we looked on that low
+spare form, that grave and gracious face with its kindly eyes, its bushy
+brows and thick beard sprinkled here and there with grey. It was the soul,
+we knew, that sustained and strengthened the weakly body of the man. The
+very barbarians where we landed acknowledged its influence, and would fain
+have worshipped him for a god. Nero might well fear that quiet, humble,
+trusting, yet energetic nature; and where the imperial monster feared, as
+where he admired, loved, hated, envied, or despised, the sentiment must be
+quenched in blood."
+
+"And did he too fall a victim?" inquired Esca, whose interest,
+notwithstanding occasional glances at the door through which Mariamne had
+gone out, seemed thoroughly awakened by the old man's narrative.
+
+"They might not crucify him," answered Calchas, "for he was of noble
+lineage and a Roman citizen born; but they took him from amongst us, and
+they let him languish in a prison, till they released him at last and
+brought him out to be beheaded. Ay, Rome was a fearful sight that day; the
+foot was scorched as it trod the ashes of the devastated city, the eye
+smarted in the lurid smoke that hung like a pall upon the heavy air and
+would not pass away. Palaces were crumbling in ruins, the shrivelled
+spoils of an empire were blackening around, the dead were lying in the
+choked-up highways half-festering, half-consumed--orphan children were
+wandering about starved and shivering, with sallow faces and large shining
+eyes, or, worse still, playing thoughtlessly, unconscious of their doom.
+They said the Christians had set fire to the city, and many an innocent
+victim suffered for this foul and groundless slander. The Christians,
+forsooth! oppressed, persecuted, reviled; whose only desire was to live in
+brotherhood with all men, whose very creed is peace and goodwill on earth.
+I counted twenty of them, men, women, and children, neighbours with whom I
+had held kindly fellowship, friends with whom I had broken bread, lying
+stiff and cold in the Flaminian Way on the morning Paul was led out to
+die. But there was peace on the dead faces, and the rigid hands were
+clasped in prayer; and though the lacerated emaciated body, the mere
+shell, was grovelling there in the dust, the spirit had gone home to God
+who made it, to the other world of which you have not so much as heard,
+yet which you too must some day visit, to remain for ever. Do you
+understand me? not for ages, but _for ever_--without end!"
+
+"Where is it?" asked Esca, on whom the idea of a spiritual existence,
+innate from its very organisation in every intelligent being, did not now
+dawn for the first time. "Is it here, or there? below, or above? in the
+stars, or the elements? I know the world in which I live; I can see it,
+can hear it, can feel it; but that other world, where is it?"
+
+"Where is it?" repeated Calchas. "Where are the dearest wishes of your
+heart, the noblest thoughts of your mind? Where are your loves, your
+hopes, your affections, above all, your memories? Where is the whole
+better part of your nature? your remorse for evil, your aspirations after
+good, your speculations on the future, your convictions of the reality of
+the past? Where these are, there is that other world. You cannot see it,
+you cannot hear it, yet you _know_ that it must be. Is any man's happiness
+complete? is any man's misery when it reaches him so overwhelming as it
+seemed at a distance? And why is it not? Because something tells him that
+the present life is but a small segment in the complete circle of a soul's
+existence. And the circle, you have not lived in Rome without learning, is
+the symbol of infinity."
+
+Esca pondered and was silent. There are convictions which men hold
+unconsciously, and to which they are so accustomed that their attention
+can only be directed to them from without, just as they wear their skins
+and scarcely know it, till the familiar covering has been lacerated by
+injury or disease. At last he looked up with a brightening countenance,
+and exclaimed, "In that world, surely, all men will be free!"
+
+"All men will be equal," replied Calchas, "but no mortal or immortal ever
+can be free. Suppose a being totally divested of all necessity for effort,
+all responsibility to his fellows or himself, all participation in the
+great scheme of which government is the essential condition in its every
+part, and you suppose one whose own feelings would be an intolerable
+burden, whose own wishes would be an unendurable torture. Man is made to
+bear a yoke; but the Captain whom I serve has told me that His yoke is
+easy and His burden is light. How easy and how light, I experience every
+moment of my life."
+
+"And yet you said but now that death and degradation were the lot of those
+who bore arms by your side in the ranks," observed the Briton, still
+intently regarding his companion.
+
+A ray of triumphant courage and exultation flashed up into the old man's
+face. For an instant Esca recognised the fierce daring of a nature
+essentially bold, reckless, and defiant; but it faded as it came, and was
+succeeded by an expression of meek, chastened humility, whilst he replied--
+
+"Death welcome and long looked-for! Degradation that confers the highest
+honours in this world and the next!--at least to those who are held worthy
+of the great glory of martyrdom. Oh! that I might be esteemed one of that
+noble band! But my work will be laid to my hand, and it is enough for me
+to be the lowest of the low in the service of my Master."
+
+"And that master? Tell me of that master," exclaimed Esca, whose interest
+was excited, as his feelings were roused, by converse with one who seemed
+so thoroughly impressed with the truth of what he spoke, who was at once
+so earnest, so gentle, and so brave. The old man bowed his head with
+unspeakable reverence, but in his face shone the deep and fervent joy of
+one who looks back with intense love and gratitude to the great epoch of
+his existence.
+
+"I saw Him once," said he, "on the shore of the Sea of Galilee--I that
+speak to you now saw Him with my own eyes--there were little children at
+His feet. But we will talk of this again, for you are weary and exhausted.
+Meat and drink are even now prepared for you. It is good to refresh the
+body if the mind is to be vigorous and discerning. You have done for us
+to-night the act of a true friend. You will henceforth be always welcome
+in Eleazar's house."
+
+While he spoke, the girl whom Esca had rescued so opportunely entered the
+apartment, bearing in some food on a coarse and common trencher, with a
+wineskin, of which she poured the contents into a jewelled cup, and
+presented it to her preserver with an embarrassed but very graceful
+gesture, and a soft shy smile.
+
+Mariamne had unveiled; and, if Esca's expectations during their homeward
+walk had been raised by her gentle feminine manners, and the sweet tones
+of her voice, they were not now disappointed with what he saw. The dark
+eyes that looked up so timidly into his own, were full and lustrous as
+those of a deer. They had, moreover, the mournful pleading expression
+peculiar to that animal, and, through all their softness and intelligence,
+betrayed the watchful anxiety of one whose life is passed in constant
+vicissitudes and occasional danger. The girl's face was habitually pale,
+though the warm blood mantled in her cheek as she drooped beneath Esca's
+gaze of honest admiration, and her regular features were sharpened, a
+little more than was natural to them, by daily care and apprehension. This
+was especially apparent in the delicate aquiline of the nose, and a slight
+prominency of the cheek-bones. It was a face that in prosperity would have
+been rich and sparkling as a jewel, that in adversity preserved its charms
+from the rare and chastened beauty in which it was modelled. Her dress
+betrayed the same incongruity that was so remarkable in the furniture of
+her home. Like her veil it was black, and of a coarse and common material,
+but where it was looped up, the folds were fastened by one single gem of
+considerable value; and two or three links of a heavy gold chain were
+visible round her white and well-turned neck.
+
+Moving through the room, busied with the arrangements of the meal which
+she must herself have prepared, Esca could not but observe the pliant
+grace of her form, enhanced by a certain modest dignity, very different
+from the vivacious gestures of the Roman maidens to whom he was
+accustomed, and especially pleasing to the eye of the Briton.
+
+Calchas seemed to love the girl as a daughter; and his kind face grew
+kinder and gentler still, while he followed her about in her different
+movements, with eyes of the deepest and fondest affection.
+
+Esca could not but observe that the board was laid for three persons, and
+that by one of the wooden platters stood a drinking-cup of great beauty
+and value. Mariamne's glance followed his as it rested on the spare place.
+"For my father," said she gently, in answer to the inquiry she read on his
+face. "He is later than usual to-night, and, I fear--I fear; my father is
+so bold, so prompt to draw steel when he is angered. To-night he has left
+his sword at home; and I know not whether to be most frightened or
+reassured at his being alone in this wicked town, unarmed."
+
+"He is in God's hand, my child," said Calchas reverently. "But I should
+not fear for Eleazar," he added, with a proud and martial air, "were he
+surrounded by a score of such as we see prowling nightly in the streets of
+Rome, though they were armed to the teeth, and he with only a shepherd's
+staff to keep his head."
+
+"Is he, then, so redoubtable a warrior?" asked Esca, on whom good manhood
+seldom failed to produce a favourable impression. While he spoke he looked
+from one to the other with increasing curiosity and interest.
+
+"You shall judge for yourself," answered Calchas, "for it cannot now be
+long ere he return. Nevertheless, the man who could leap down from the
+walls of a beleaguered city, as my brother did, naked and unarmed; who
+could break the head off a Roman battering-ram by main force, and render
+that engine useless; who could reach the wall again with his prize,
+covered with wounds, having fought his way through a whole maniple of
+Roman soldiers, and could ask but for a draught of water, ere he donned
+his armour, and took his place once more upon the rampart, is not likely
+to fear aught that can befall him from a few idlers in a common street-
+broil. Nevertheless, as I said before, you shall judge for yourself."
+
+"And here he is!" exclaimed Mariamne, while the outer door shut to, and a
+man's step was heard advancing through the adjoining apartment, with a
+firm and measured footfall.
+
+She had been pale enough all night in the eyes of Esca, who was watching
+her intently; but he thought now she seemed to turn a shade paler than
+before.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VIII
+
+                                 THE JEW
+
+
+The man who entered the apartment with the air of one to whom every nook
+and corner was familiar, must have been fully three-score years of age,
+yet his dark eye still glittered with the fire of youth, his thick curling
+beard and hair were but slightly sprinkled with grey, and the muscles of
+his square powerful frame seemed but to have acquired solidity and
+consistency with age. His appearance was that of a warrior, toughened,
+and, as it were, forged into iron, by years of strife, hardship, and
+unremitting toil.
+
+If something in the line of his aquiline features resembled Calchas, no
+two faces could have been more different in their character and expression
+than those of Eleazar and his brother. The latter was all gentleness,
+kindliness, and peace; on the former, fiery passions, deep schemes,
+continual peril, and contention, had set their indelible marks. The one
+was that of the spectator, who is seated securely on the cliff, and marks
+the seething waters below with interest, indeed, and sympathy, but with
+feelings neither of agitation nor alarm; the other was the strong swimmer,
+breasting the waves fiercely, and battling with their might, striving for
+his life inch by inch, and stroke by stroke, conscious of his peril,
+confident in his strength, and never despairing for an instant of the
+result. At times, indeed, the influence of opposite feelings, softening
+the one and kindling the other, would bring out the family likeness clear
+and apparent upon each; but in repose no two faces could be more
+dissimilar, no two types of character more utterly at variance, than those
+of the Christian and the Jew.
+
+As Eleazar's warlike figure came into the light, Esca could not but remark
+with what a glance of mistrust his quick eye took in the presence of a
+stranger, how the strong fingers closed instinctively round the staff he
+was in the act of laying down, and the whole form seemed to gather itself
+in an instant as though ready for the promptest measures of resistance or
+attack. Such trifling gestures spoke volumes of the character and habits
+of the man.
+
+Nevertheless Calchas rapidly explained to his brother the cause of this
+addition to their supper-party; and Mariamne, who seemed in considerable
+awe of her father, busied herself in placing food and wine before him,
+with even more alacrity than she had shown when serving their guest.
+
+The Jew thanked his new friend for the kindness he had rendered his
+daughter, with a few brief cordial words, as one brave man expresses his
+gratitude to another, then fell to on the meat and drink provided, with a
+voracity that argued well for his physical powers, and denoted a strong
+constitution and a long fast. As he took breath after a deep draught of
+wine in which, though he pledged him not, he challenged his guest to join,
+Calchas asked his brother how he had sped in the affairs that kept him
+from home all day.
+
+"Ill," answered the other, shooting from under his thick eyebrows a
+penetrating glance at the Briton. "Ill and slowly, yet not so ill but that
+something has been gained, another step taken in the direction at which I
+aim. Yet I have been to-day in high places, have seen those bloated
+gluttons and drunkards who are the ministers of Caesar's will, have spoken
+with that spotted panther, Vespasian's scheming agent forsooth! who thinks
+he hath the cunning, as he can doubtless boast of the treachery and the
+gaudy colours, of the beast of prey. Let him take care! Weaker hands than
+mine have ere this strangled a fiercer animal for the worth of his shining
+skin. Let him beware! Eleazar-Ben-Manahem is a match, and more than a
+match, for Julius Placidus the tribune!"
+
+Esca glanced quickly at the speaker, as his ear caught the familiar name.
+The look was not lost upon his host.
+
+"You know him?" said he, with a fierce smile that showed the strong white
+teeth gleaming through his bushy beard. "Then you know as cool and well-
+taught a soldier as ever buckled on a sword. I wish I had a few like him
+to officer the Sicarii(3) at home. But you know, also, a man who would not
+scruple to slay his own father for the worth of the clasp that fastens his
+gown. I have seen him in the field, and I have seen him in the council. He
+is bold, skilful, and he can be treacherous in both! Where met you him
+last?" he added, with a searching glance at Esca, while at the same time
+he desired Mariamne to fill the stranger's cup and his own.
+
+The latter proceeding engrossed the Briton's whole attention. It was with
+the utmost carelessness that he replied to the question, by relating his
+interview, that very morning, with the tribune at Valeria's door. He
+scarcely marked how precisely the father noted down the name in his
+tablets, for the daughter's white arm was reaching over his shoulder, so
+close that it almost touched his cheek.
+
+It was indeed well worth Eleazar's while to obtain information, from
+whatever source, of any influence that might affect those in authority
+with whom he was in daily contact at Rome. His position was one which
+called for courage, tact, skill, and even cunning, to a great extent.
+Charged by the Supreme Council at Jerusalem, then in the last stage of
+perplexity and sorely beset by Vespasian and his legions, with a private
+mission to Vitellius, who much mistrusted the successful general, he
+represented the hopes and fears, the temporal and political prosperity,
+nay, the very existence of the Chosen People. Nor to all appearance could
+a better instrument have been selected for the purpose. Eleazar, though a
+bigoted and fanatical Jew of the strictest sect, was a man of keen and
+powerful intellect, whose obstinacy was open to no conviction, whose
+perseverance was to be deterred by no obstacle. A distinguished and
+fearless soldier, he possessed the confidence of the large and fighting
+portion of the nation, who looked on Roman supremacy with abhorrence, and
+who clung dearly to the notion of earthly dominion, wrested from the
+heathen with the sword. His rigid observance of its fasts, its duties, and
+its ceremonials, had gained him the affections of the priesthood, and the
+more enthusiastic followers of that religion in which outward forms were
+so strictly enjoined and so faithfully observed; while a certain fierce,
+defiant, and unbending demeanour towards all classes of men, had won for
+him a character of frankness which did him good service in the schemes of
+intrigue and dissimulation with which he was continually engaged.
+
+Yet perhaps the man was honest too, as far as his own convictions went. He
+esteemed all means lawful for the furtherance of a lawful object. He was
+one of those who deem it the most contemptible of weakness to shrink from
+doing evil that good may come. Like Jephthah he would have sacrificed his
+daughter unflinchingly in performance of a vow; nay, had Mariamne stood
+between him and the attainment of his ambition, or even the accomplishment
+of his revenge, he would have walked ruthlessly over the body of his
+child. Versed in the traditions of his family and the history of his
+nation, he was steeped to the lips in that pride of pedigree which was so
+essential a feature of the Jewish character: he was convinced that the
+eventual destiny of his people was to lord it over the whole earth. He
+possessed more than his share of that haughty self-sufficiency which bade
+the Pharisee hold aloof from those of lower pretensions and humbler
+demeanour than himself; while he had all the fierce courage and energy of
+the Lion of Judah, so terrible when roused, so difficult to be appeased
+when victorious. In his secret heart he anticipated the time when
+Jerusalem should again become a sovereign city, when the Roman eagles
+should be scared away from Syria, and a hierarchy established once more as
+the government of the people chosen by Heaven. That he should be a second
+Judas Maccabaeus, a chief commander of the armies of the faithful in the
+new order of things, was an ambition naturally enough entertained by the
+bold and skilful soldier; but, to do Eleazar justice, individual
+aggrandisement had but little share in his schemes, and personal interest
+never crossed those visions for the future, on which his dark and
+dangerous enthusiasm so loved to dwell.
+
+It was a delicate matter to intrigue with Vitellius in Rome against the
+very general who held supreme authority, at least ostensibly, from the
+Emperor. It was playing a hazardous game, to receive power and
+instructions from the Council at Jerusalem, and to use or suppress them
+according to the bearer's own political views and future intentions.
+
+It was no easy task to hold his own against such men as Placidus, in the
+contest of _finesse_, subtlety, and double-dealing; yet the Jew entered
+upon his perilous career with a strenuous energy, a cool calculating
+audacity, that was engraved in the very character of the man.
+
+Another draught of the rich Lebanon wine served to improve their
+acquaintance, and Eleazar, with considerable tact, drew from the Briton
+all the information he could obtain as to the habits and movements of his
+antagonist the tribune, while he seemed but to be carrying on the
+courteous conversation of a host with his guest. Esca's answers,
+notwithstanding that thoughts and eyes wandered frequently towards
+Mariamne, were frank and open like his disposition. He, too, entertained
+no very cordial liking for Placidus, and experienced towards the tribune
+that unconscious antipathy which the honest man so often feels for the
+knave.
+
+Calchas, meanwhile, had returned to the perusal of his scroll, on which
+his brother cast occasional glances of unfeigned contempt, notwithstanding
+that the reader was the person whom he most loved and respected on earth.
+Mariamne, moving about the apartment, looked covertly on the fair face and
+stately form of her preserver, approving much of what she saw; once their
+eyes met, and the Jewess blushed to her temples for very shame. So the
+time passed quickly; the night stole on, the Lebanon was nearly finished,
+and Esca rose to bid his entertainers farewell.
+
+"You have done me a rare service," said Eleazar, feeling in his breast
+while he spoke, and producing, from under his coarse garment, a jewel of
+considerable value, "a service neither thanks nor guerdon can requite;
+yet, I pray you, keep this trinket in remembrance of the Jew and the Jew's
+daughter, who come of a people that forgive not an injury, and forget not
+a benefit."
+
+The colour mounted to Esca's forehead, and an expression of pain, almost
+of anger, came into his face, while he replied--
+
+"I have done nothing to merit either thanks or reward. It is no such
+matter to put a fat eunuch on his back, or to defend an unprotected woman
+in a town like this. Take back your jewel, I pray you. Any other man would
+have done as much."
+
+"It is not every man who could have interposed so effectually," replied
+Eleazar, with a glance of hearty approval at the thews and sinews of his
+friend, replacing the jewel meanwhile in his vestment, without the least
+sign of displeasure at its being declined. He would have bestowed it
+freely, no doubt, but if Esca did not want it, it would serve some other
+purpose: precious stones and gold would always fetch their value at Rome.
+"At least you will let me give you a safe-conduct home," he added; "the
+night is far advanced, and I should be loth that you should suffer wrong
+for your interposition in our behalf."
+
+Esca burst out laughing now. In the pride of his strength, it seemed so
+impossible that he should require protection or assistance from anyone. He
+squared his large shoulders and drew himself to his full height.
+
+"I should wish no better pastime," said he, "than a bout with a dozen of
+them! I, too, was brought up a warrior, in a land you have never heard of,
+many a long mile from Rome; a land fairer far than this, of green valleys
+and wooded hills, and noble rivers winding calmly towards the sea; a land
+where the oaks are lofty and the flowers are sweet, where the men are
+strong and the women fair. I have followed the chase afoot from sunrise to
+sunset through many a summer's day. I have fronted the invader, sword in
+hand, ever since my arm was long enough to draw blade from sheath, or I
+had not been here now. You too are a soldier, I see it in your eye--you can
+believe that my limbs grow stiff, my spirits droop for lack of martial
+exercise. In faith, it seems to me that even a vulgar broil in the street
+makes my blood dance in my veins once more!"
+
+Mariamne was listening with parted lips and shining eyes. She drank in all
+he said of his distant home with its woodland scenery, its forest trees,
+its fragrant flowers, and, above all, its lovely women. She felt so kindly
+towards this bold young stranger, exiled from kin and country, she
+attributed her interest to pity and gratitude, nor could she help
+wondering to find these sentiments so strong.
+
+Calchas looked up from his studies.
+
+"Fare thee well!" said he. "Take an old man's warning, and strike not
+unless it be in self-defence. Mark well the turning from the main street
+to the Tiber, so shalt thou find thy way to our poor home again."
+
+Esca promised faithfully to return, and fully intended to redeem his
+promise.
+
+"Another cup of wine," said Eleazar, emptying the leathern bottle into a
+golden vessel; "the sun of Italy cannot ripen such a vintage as this."
+
+But the rich produce of the Lebanon was all too cloying for the healthy
+palate and the thirst of youth. Esca prayed for a draught of fair water,
+and Mariamne brought him the pitcher and gave him to drink with her own
+hand. For the second time to-night their eyes met, and although they were
+instantly averted, the Briton felt that he was drinking from a cup more
+intoxicating than all the wine-presses of Syria could produce--a cup that
+made him unconscious of the past as of the future, and only too keenly
+sensible of the present by its joy. He forgot that he was a barbarian, he
+forgot that he was a slave.
+
+He forgot everything but Mariamne and her dark imploring trustful eyes.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IX
+
+                                THE ROMAN
+
+
+                               [Initial I]
+
+It is time to give some account of Esca's anomalous position in the
+capital of the world--to explain how the young British noble (for that was
+indeed the rank he held in his own country) found himself a slave in the
+streets of Rome. In order to do so it is necessary to take a glimpse at
+the interior of a patrician's house about the hour of supper; perhaps also
+to intrude upon the reflections of its owner, as he paces up and down the
+colonnade in the cool air of sunset, absorbed in his own thoughts, and
+deep in the memories of the past.
+
+His mansion is of stately proportion, and large size, but all its
+ornaments and accessories are chastened by a severe simplicity of taste.
+An observer might identify the man by the very nature of the objects that
+surround him. In his vestibule the columns are of the Ionic order, and
+their elaborate capitals have been wrought into the utmost degree of
+finish which that style will allow. In the smaller entrance-hall or lobby,
+which leads to the principal apartments, and which is guarded by an image
+of a dog, let into the pavement in mosaic, there are no florid sculptures
+nor carvings, nor any attempt at decoration beyond the actual beauty of
+the stonework and the scrupulous care with which it is kept clean. The
+doors themselves are of bronze, so well burnished as to need no mixture of
+gold or silver inlaid to enhance its brightness; whilst in the principal
+hall itself, the room in which friends are welcomed, clients received, and
+business transacted, the walls, instead of frescoes and such gaudy
+ornaments, are simply overlaid with entablatures of white and polished
+marble. The dome is very lofty, rising majestically towards the circular
+opening at the top, through which the sky is visible; and round the
+fountain or cistern immediately below this are ranged four colossal
+statues, representing the elements. These, with the busts of a long line
+of illustrious ancestors, are the only efforts of the sculptor's art
+throughout the apartment. A large banqueting-hall, somewhat more
+luxuriously furnished, opens from one side of the central room, and as
+much as can be seen of it displays considerable attention to convenience
+and personal comfort. Frescoes, representing scenes of military life,
+adorn the walls, and at one end stands a trophy, composed of deadly
+weapons and defensive armour, arranged so as to form a glittering and
+conspicuous ornament. Large flagons and chalices of burnished gold, some
+of them adorned with valuable jewels, are ranged upon a sideboard; but it
+is evident that no guests are expected to-night, for near the couch
+against the wall has been drawn a small table, laid for one person only,
+with a clean napkin, and a cup and platter of plain silver thereon. That
+person is none other than the master of the house, bodily pacing up and
+down his own colonnade in Rome, mentally gazing on a fair expanse of wood
+and vale and shining river, drinking in the cool breezes, the fragrant
+odours, and the wild luxuriant beauty of distant Britain.
+
+Five-and-twenty years! and yet it seems but yesterday. The brow wrinkles,
+the hair turns grey, strength wastes, energy fails, the brain gets torpid,
+and the senses dull, but the heart never grows old. Business, ambition,
+pleasure, dangers, duties, difficulties, and successes have filled that
+quarter of a century, and passed away like a dream; but the touch of a
+hand, the memory of a face, have outlived them all. Caius Lucius Licinius,
+Roman patrician, general, praetor, consul, and procurator of the Empire, is
+the young commander of a legion once more, with the world before him, and
+the woman he loves by his side. This is what he sees now, as he has seen
+it so often in his dreams by night, and his waking visions by day.
+
+An old oak-tree, a mossy sward soft and level as velvet, delicate fern
+bending and whispering in the summer breeze, fleecy clouds drifting across
+the blue sky, and a graceful form, in its white robes, coming shyly up the
+glade, with faltering step, and sidelong glance, and timid gesture, to
+keep her tryst with her Roman lover. She is in his arms now. The rich
+brown curls are scattered over his breastplate, and the blue eyes are
+looking up into his own, liquid with the love-light that thrills to a
+man's heart but from one pair of eyes in a lifetime. She is, indeed, no
+contemptible prize, in the glory of her beauty and the pride of her
+blooming womanhood. With the rounded form, the noble features, and the
+dazzling colour of her nation, she possesses the courage and constancy of
+a highborn race, and a witchery half imperious, half playful, peculiarly
+her own. There are women who find their way to the core of a man's heart,
+who pervade it all, and saturate it, so to speak, with their influence.
+
+  "Quo semel est imbuta recens, servabit odorem(4)
+  Testa diu"----
+
+The vessel that has once held this rich and rare liquid is ever after
+impregnated with its fragrance, and even when it has been spilt every
+drop, and a fresh infusion poured in, the new wine smacks strangely and
+wildly of the old. She is one of them; he knows it too well.
+
+They should have nothing in common, these two, the British chieftain's
+daughter and the Roman conqueror. But there is a truce between the
+nations; a truce in which the elements of discord are nevertheless
+smouldering, ready to blaze out afresh at the first opportunity, and they
+have seen each other accidentally, and been thrown together by
+circumstances, till curiosity has become interest, and interest grown into
+liking, and liking ripened into love. The British maiden might not be won
+lightly, and many a tear she wept in secret, and sore she strove against
+her own heart; but when it conquered her at last she gave it, as such
+women will, wholly and unreservedly. She would have lived for him, died
+for him, followed him to the end of the world. And Licinius worshipped her
+as a man worships the one woman who is the destiny of his life. Most men
+have at some time or other experienced this folly, infatuation, madness,
+call it what you will. They are not likely to forget it. Possibly--alas!
+probably--the bud they then watched opening has never expanded into bloom,
+at least for _them_. The worm may have destroyed it, or the cold wind cut
+it to the earth, or another's hand may have borne it away in triumph to
+gladden another's breast; but there is something in the May mornings that
+reminds them of the sweet flower still, and they wander round the fairest
+gardens of earth rather drearily to-day, because of the memory that has
+never faded, and the blank where _she_ is not.
+
+  [Illustration: 'Licinius holds the British maiden to his breast']
+
+Licinius holds the British maiden to his breast, and they discourse of
+their own happiness and revel in the sunny hour, and plan schemes for the
+future--schemes in which each is to the other all in all, and dream not
+that when to-day is past for them there will be no to-morrow. The woman,
+indeed, heaves a gentle sigh at intervals, as though in the midst of her
+happiness some foreboding warned her of the brooding tempest; but the man
+is hopeful, buoyant, and impetuous, playful in his tenderness, and joyous
+in his own triumphant love. They parted that evening more reluctantly than
+usual. They lingered round the oak, they found excuse after excuse for
+another loving word, another fond caress. When at last they went their
+several ways, how often Licinius turned to look after the receding form
+that carried with it all his hope and all his happiness! Little did he
+think how, and when, and where, he would see Guenebra again.
+
+Ten years went heavily by. The commander of a legion was the chief of an
+army now. Licinius had served Rome in Gaul, in Spain, in Syria. Men said
+he bore a charmed life; and, indeed, while his counsels showed the
+forethought, the caution, and the patience of a skilful officer, his
+personal conduct was remarkable for a reckless disregard of danger, which
+would have been esteemed foolhardy in the meanest soldier. It was
+observed, too, that a deep and abiding melancholy had taken possession of
+the once light-hearted patrician. He only seemed to brighten up into his
+former self under the pressure of imminent danger, in the confusion of a
+repulse, or the excitement of a charge. At other times he was silent,
+depressed, preoccupied; never morose, for his kindly heart was open to the
+griefs of others, and the legionaries knew that their daring general was
+the friend of all who were in sorrow or distress. But the men talked him
+over, too, by their watch-fires; they marvelled, those honest old
+campaigners, how one who was so ready in the field could be so sparing of
+the winecup; how the leader who could stoop to fill his helmet from the
+running stream under a storm of javelins, and drink composedly with a jest
+and a smile, should be so backward in the revel, should show such a
+disinclination to those material pleasures which they esteemed the keenest
+joys of life.
+
+One old centurion, who had followed his fortunes from the Thames to the
+Euphrates, from the confines of Pannonia to the Pillars of Hercules,
+averred that he had never seen his chief discomfited but once, and that
+was on the day when he had been accorded a triumph for his services in the
+streets of Rome. The veteran used to swear he never could forget the
+dejected look upon those brows, encircled with their laurel garland, nor
+the weary listlessness of that figure, to which all eyes were directed in
+its gilded chariot; the object of admiration to the whole city, and, for
+that day, scarcely second even to Caesar himself. It was a goodly triumph,
+no doubt; the spoils were rich, the car was lofty, the people shouted, and
+the victims fell. But what was glory without Guenebra? and the hero's eye
+could not rest in peace on one of all those gazing thousands, for lack of
+the loving face framed in its rich brown hair.
+
+On the very night Licinius and Guenebra parted, a long-meditated rising
+had broken out among the islanders--conquered, but not subdued. Nothing but
+the cool courage of its young commander, and the immovable discipline of
+the legionaries, saved the Roman camp. Ere morning, Guenebra had been
+forced away by her tribe many miles from the scene of action; the Britons,
+too, retired into their strongholds, those natural fastnesses impregnable
+by regular troops. The whole country was once more in a state of open
+warfare. Prompt and decisive measures were taken; Publius Ostorius, the
+Roman general, in execution of a manoeuvre by which he preserved his line
+of operation, despatched Licinius and his legion to a different part of
+the island, and with all his exertions and all his influence, the young
+officer could never obtain tidings of Guenebra again. It was after this
+event that the change came over Licinius which was so commented on by the
+soldiers under his command.
+
+Ten years of brilliant and successful services had elapsed when he
+returned to Britain. Nero had but lately succeeded to the purple, nor had
+he then degenerated into the monster of iniquity which he afterwards
+became. Until sapped by his ungovernable passions, the Emperor's
+administrative abilities were of no mean order; and he selected Licinius
+for the important post assigned to him, as being a consummate soldier, and
+experienced in the country with which he had to deal. The latter accepted
+the appointment with alacrity; through all change of time and fortune, he
+had never forgotten his British love. Under the burning skies of Syria, by
+the frozen shores of the Danube, at home or abroad, in peace or war,
+Guenebra's face was ever present to him, fond and trustful as when they
+last parted under the old oak-tree. He longed but to see it once more. And
+so he did. Thus--
+
+A partial insurrection had been quelled beyond the Trent. The Roman
+vanguard had surprised the Britons, and forced them to fly in great
+confusion, leaving their baggage, their valuables, in some cases even
+their arms, behind. When Licinius came up with the main body of his
+forces, he found, indeed, no prisoners taken, for everything animate had
+fled, but a goodly amount of spoil, over which Roman discipline had placed
+a strong guard. One of his tribunes approached him with a list of the
+captured articles; and when his general had perused it, the officer
+hesitated as though there was still some further report to make. At last
+he spoke out--
+
+"There is a hut left standing within the lines of the enemy. I would not
+order it to be destroyed till I had provided for the burial of a dead body
+that lies beneath its shelter."
+
+Licinius was counting the arms taken.
+
+"A dead body!" said he carelessly; "is it an officer of rank?"
+
+"'Tis a woman's corpse," answered the tribune; "a fair and stately woman,
+apparently the wife of some prince or chieftain at the least."
+
+For Guenebra's sake, every woman, much more every British woman, was an
+object of respect and interest to Licinius.
+
+"Lead on," said he. "I will give directions when I have seen it;" and the
+general followed his officer to the place already indicated.
+
+It was but a rude hut made of a few planks and branches hastily thrown
+together. It seemed to have been erected at a moment's notice, probably to
+shelter an inmate in the last stage of dissolution. Through a wide rent in
+the roof the summer sun streamed in brilliantly, throwing a sheet of light
+on the dead face below. The prostrate form was swathed in its white robe,
+the bridal garment of the destroyer. A band of white encircled the head
+and chin, and the brown hair was parted modestly on the smooth forehead
+calm and womanly as of old. It was Guenebra's face that lay there so
+strangely still. Guenebra's face, how like and yet how changed! As he
+stooped over it, and looked on the closed eyes beneath their arching
+brows, the fair and noble features chiseled by the hand of death--the sweet
+lips wreathed even now with a chastened loving smile--he could not but mark
+that there were lines of thought upon the forehead, streaks of silver in
+the hair, the result it might be of regrets, and memories, and sorrows,
+and care for _him_.
+
+Then the warm tears gushed up into the soldier's eyes, the pressure on his
+heart and brain seemed to be relieved. As when the spear is drawn out of a
+wound and the red stream spouts freely forth, the previous agony was
+succeeded by a dull hopeless resignation, that in comparison seemed almost
+akin to peace. He pressed his lips hard upon the cold dead forehead, and
+turned away--a man for whom from henceforth there was neither good to
+covet, nor evil to be feared.
+
+And thus it was that here, on earth, Licinius looked once more upon his
+love.
+
+Fresh victories crowned his arms in Britain--a fresh triumph awaited his
+return to Rome; but still as of old with Licinius, the glory seemed to
+count for nothing, the service seemed to be all-in-all. Only, now, the
+restless, eager look had left his face. He was always calm and unmoved,
+even in the uncertainty of conflict or the triumph of success. Still
+kindly in his actions, his outward demeanour was very stern and cold. He
+kept aloof from the intrigues, as from the pleasures, of the Court; but
+was ever ready to serve Rome with his sword, and on many occasions by his
+coolness and conduct redeemed the errors and incapacity of his colleagues
+or predecessors. Fortune smiled upon the man who was insensible to her
+frowns. Honours poured in on the soldier who seemed so careless of their
+attainment; and Caius Lucius Licinius was perhaps the object of more
+respect and less envy than any other person of his rank in Rome.
+
+It fell out that shortly before the death of Nero, the general, in
+traversing the slave-market on the way from the Forum, felt his sleeve
+plucked by a notorious dealer in human wares, named Gargilianus, who
+begged him earnestly to come and examine a fresh importation of captives
+lately arrived from Britain. To mention their country was at once to
+excite the interest of Licinius, who readily acceded to the request, and
+spoke a few kind words in their native language to the unhappy barbarians
+as he passed through their ranks. His attention was, however, especially
+arrested by the appearance of one of the conquered, a fine young man of
+great strength and stature, who seemed to feel painfully the indignity of
+his position, placed as he was on a huge stone block, whereon his own
+towering height rendered him a conspicuous object in the throng. He had
+been severely wounded, too, in several places, as was apparent from the
+scars scarce yet healed over. Indeed, had it not been so, he would never
+probably have been here. There was something in his face, and the
+expression of his large blue eyes, that roused a painful thrill in the
+Roman general's breast. He felt a strange and undefinable attraction
+towards the captive, for which he could not account, and, pausing in his
+walk, scanned him with a wistful searching gaze, which was not lost on the
+practised perceptions of the dealer.
+
+"He should have been shown in private," whispered Gargilianus, with an
+important and mysterious air. "Indeed, my man was just taking him away,
+when I saw you coming, my honoured patron, and I called to him to stop.
+Ay! you may examine him all over--tall, young, and healthy. Sound, wind and
+limb, and stronger than any gladiator in the amphitheatre. They are men of
+iron, these barbarians, that's the truth, and he has only just come over.
+There! look for yourself, noble general; you will see the chalk-marks(5)
+on his feet."
+
+"But he is badly wounded," observed Licinius, beginning to scan him, as
+the other instinctively felt, with the eye of a purchaser.
+
+"That is nothing!" exclaimed Gargilianus. "Mere scratches, skin deep, and
+healed over now. You will not be able to run your nail against them in a
+week. Eyesores, I grant you, to-day, otherwise I would ask two thousand
+sesterces at least for him. These islanders are cheap at any price."
+
+"I will give you a thousand," said Licinius quietly.
+
+"Impossible!" burst out the dealer, with a quiver of his fingers, that
+expressed a most emphatic negative. "I should lose money by him, generous
+patron! What! A man must live. Caesar would give more for him to die in the
+circus. Look at his muscles! He would stand up for a good five minutes
+against the tiger!"
+
+This last consideration was probably not without its influence. After a
+little more haggling, the British captive became the property of Licinius
+at the cost of fifteen hundred sesterces;(6) and Esca found the most
+indulgent and the kindest-hearted master in Rome.
+
+We must return to that master, pacing thoughtfully up and down the
+colonnade, in the cool and pleasant evening air.
+
+It is, perhaps, one of the most consoling and merciful dispensations of
+Providence that the human mind is so constituted as to dwell on past
+pleasures, rather than past pain. The sorrow that is done with, returns
+indeed at intervals vividly and bitterly enough; but every fresh
+recurrence is less cruel than the last, and we can look back to our
+sufferings at length with a calm and chastened humility which is the first
+step towards resignation and eventual peace. But the memory of a great
+happiness seems so interwoven with the imperishable part of our being,
+that it loses none of its reality by the lapse of time, none of its
+brightness from the effect of distance. Anger, sorrow, hatred,
+contentions, fleet away like a dream; but the smile that gladdened us long
+ago, has passed into the very sunlight of noonday; the whisper that
+softened our sternest moods, steals with the breeze of evening to our
+heart, gently and tenderly as of yore, and we know, we feel, that while
+crime, and misery, and remorse, are the temporary afflictions of humanity,
+pardon, and hope, and love are its inheritance for evermore.
+
+Licinius, pacing his long shadowy colonnade, dwells not on the anxieties,
+and the separation, and the sorrows of years; on the loss of his dearest
+treasure and its possession by another; not even on the calm dead face
+bound with its linen band. No; he is back in Britain once more with his
+living love, in the green glade where the bending ferns are whispering
+under the old oak-tree.
+
+A step in the hall rouses him from his meditations, and a kind grave smile
+steals over the general's face at the approach of his favourite slave.
+
+The Roman patrician looks what he is--a war-worn veteran, bronzed and
+hardened by the influence of many campaigns in many climates. He is not
+yet past the prime of his bodily vigour, and there is a severe beauty
+about his noble features, and beard and hair already touched with grey,
+that possesses considerable attraction still. Valeria, no mean judge,
+asserts that he is, and always will be, a handsome man, but that he does
+not know it. She respects him much, likes him a good deal, and he is the
+only person on earth for whose good opinion she has the slightest value.
+In truth, though she would not confess it even to herself, she is a little
+afraid of her good-hearted, brave, and thoughtful kinsman.
+
+A man who has reached mature age without forming family ties is always to
+a certain extent in a false position. No amount of public interest will
+stop up the little chinks and corners, so to speak, which are intended by
+Nature to contain the petty cares and pleasures and vexations of domestic
+life. Without the constant association--the daily friction--of wife and
+children, a cynical disposition becomes selfish and morose; a kind one,
+melancholy and forlorn. Licinius feels a blank in his existence, which
+nothing he has yet found serves to fill; and he often wonders in himself
+why the barbarian slave should be almost the only creature in Rome for
+whom he entertains a feeling of interest and regard.
+
+As he takes his place on the couch by the supper-table, Esca gives him to
+drink; and the patrician cannot help thinking the while, how he would like
+to have such a son, tall and handsome, with so warlike an air; a son whom
+he could instruct in all the intricacies of his glorious profession, whose
+mind he could educate, whose genius he could foster, and whose happiness
+he could watch over and ensure. They converse freely enough during the
+general's temperate meal--an egg, a morsel of kid, a few grapes, and a
+flask of common Sabine wine. Esca tells his master the encounter of the
+previous evening, and the friendship he had made in consequence, after
+nightfall. Licinius laughs at his account of the skirmish, and the
+eunuch's discomfiture.
+
+"Nevertheless," says he, "I trust he did not recognise you. It can have
+been none other than Spado, whom you treated so unceremoniously; and Spado
+is just now a prime favourite with Caesar. I might find it difficult to
+protect you if he knew where to find you, for charms and philtres are
+deadlier weapons in such hands as his, than sword and spear in yours and
+mine. Did he take note of your person, think you, Esca, ere he went down?"
+
+"I can hardly believe it," answered Esca. "The evening was dark, and the
+confusion great. Moreover, I fled with the poor girl they had surrounded,
+the very instant I could snatch her out of the throng."
+
+"And you saw these Jews in their home, you say?" pursued Licinius gravely.
+"I have heard much of that people, and, indeed, served against them in
+Syria. Are they not morose, cruel, bloodthirsty? Slayers of men, devourers
+of children? Have they not fearful orgies in which they feast upon human
+flesh? And one day in the week that they devote to solitude and silence,
+and schemes of hatred against all mankind? Are you sure that your
+entertainers belonged to this detestable nation?"
+
+"Christians and Jews," replied Esca, who had caught the sound of the
+former title in the course of his conversation with Calchas.
+
+"Are they not the same?" returned Licinius, and to this question the
+barbarian was unable to furnish a reply.
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER X
+
+                         A TRIBUNE OF THE LEGIONS
+
+
+Under the porch of one of the most luxurious houses in Rome, two men
+jostled in the dubious light of early morning. Exclamations of impatience
+were succeeded by a mutual recognition, and a hearty laugh, as Damasippus
+and Oarses, freedmen and staunch clients of Julius Placidus, recognised
+each other's eagerness to pay court to their joint patron. They had risen
+from their beds while it was yet dark, and hurried hither in order to be
+the first to salute the tribune at his morning levee. Yet they found the
+great hall filling already with a bustling crowd of friends, retainers,
+clients, and dependants. Damasippus was a short, square, beetle-browed
+man, with a villainous leer; Oarses, a pale, sedate, and somewhat precise
+personage. But with this marked difference of exterior, an expression of
+unscrupulous and thorough-paced knavery was common to both. Said
+Damasippus to Oarses, with a shrug of affected disgust--
+
+"It may be hours yet ere he will see us! Look at this wretched crowd of
+parasites and flatterers! They will follow the patron to his bath! They
+will besiege him in his very bed! Oh, my friend! Rome is no longer the
+place for an honest man."
+
+To which Oarses replied, in subdued and humble tones--
+
+"The flies gather round the honey, though it is only for what they can
+get. But the sincerest gratitude and affection draw you and me, my dear
+companion, to the side of the illustrious tribune."
+
+"You speak truth," returned Damasippus. "It is sad to see how few clients
+are uninfluenced by mean and sordid thoughts. An honest man is becoming as
+rare at Rome as at Athens. It was not so in the days of the republic--in
+the golden age--in the good old times!"
+
+"Oh for the good old times!" exclaimed Oarses, still in the same low and
+unmoved voice.
+
+"Oh for the good old times!" echoed Damasippus; and the two knaves, with
+their arms on each other's shoulders, fell to pacing the extremity of the
+hall, and exchanging spiteful remarks on the concourse with which it was
+filled.
+
+The tribune's house was the most perfect of its kind in the whole city.
+Standing apart and surrounded by a wall and garden of its own, it combined
+the luxurious splendour of a palace with the comfort and seclusion of a
+private residence. Everything of ornament that was most costly and
+gorgeous, had been procured by Placidus to decorate his mansion.
+Everything of art that was most conspicuous and effective hung on his
+walls, stood in picturesque groups about his apartments, or lay scattered
+in rich profusion on his floor. The hangings that veiled his own sleeping-
+room from the public eye, were of embroidered crimson silk, woven in the
+looms of Asia, and probably taken by the strong hand of the successful
+soldier as spoils of war. The very pavement of the hall was of the richest
+mosaic, traced in fanciful patterns and inlaid with gold. As the morning
+drew on, it was trodden by a multitude of feet. No one of his rank held so
+numerous a levee as Julius Placidus. In the concourse that thronged it
+now, might be seen men of all countries, classes, characters, professions,
+and denominations. Unlike Licinius, who, indeed, owed his influence solely
+to the firm consistency and unbending rectitude of his character, the
+tribune let no opportunity pass of binding an additional partisan to his
+cause by the ties of self-interest and expectation. They were crowding in
+now through the wide open doors; and while the spacious hall was nearly
+filled, the approach to it, and the street itself outside, were choked
+with applicants, who had one and all, directly or indirectly, something to
+get, or ask, or hope for, from the tribune. Here, an artist brought his
+picture carefully draped in the remains of an old garment; yet not so
+entirely concealed but that a varnished corner might be visible, and the
+painter, nothing loth, might be prevailed on by earnest solicitations to
+reveal, bit by bit, all the beauties of his production. There, a sculptor
+was diligently preserving the outlines of his model, wrapped in its wet
+cloth, from collision with the bystanders, and assuming credit for the
+mysterious beauties of a work, which, perhaps, if uncovered, would have
+grievously disappointed the eyes that scanned it so curiously. In one
+corner stood a jeweller, holding in his hand a gorgeous collar of pearls
+and rubies, prepared by the patrician's orders, and testifying at once to
+the ingenuity of the tradesman, and the munificence of his employer. In
+another, waited a common-looking slave, with a downcast eye and a bloated
+unwholesome face; who, nevertheless, assumed an important air that seemed
+to say he was sure of an early audience, as, indeed, was more than
+probable in consideration of his tidings, a message from venal beauty to
+the admirer who paid his welcome tribute in gold. Parasites and flatterers
+elbowed their way insolently in the midst, as though they had a right to
+be there, whilst honest men, brown with toil, and sighing wistfully for
+the fresh breezes of Tibur or Praeneste, kept aloof, abashed and shrinking,
+though they had but come to ask for their due. Nearest the hangings that
+concealed the bedroom, stood a dirty slave, bespattered with the filth of
+the fish-market, and exhaling an odour of garlic that cleared for him an
+ample breathing-space even in a Roman crowd; but the knave knew the value
+of his intelligence, and how it would obtain him favour in the tribune's
+eyes. No less important a communication than this, that a mullet had been
+taken the night before of nearly six pounds weight, and that so lavish a
+patron as Placidus should have the first offer to purchase at a thousand
+sesterces(7) a pound. He waited with his eyes intently fastened on the
+curtains, and took no notice of the jabber and confusion that pervaded the
+hall.
+
+Presently the crowd gave way a little, ebbing backward on either side, and
+forming a lane as it were for three men, who were regarded as they passed
+with glances of great awe and admiration. There was no mistaking the deep
+chest and broad shoulders of one of these, even apart from the loud frank
+voice in which Hirpinus the gladiator was wont to convey his observations,
+without much respect for persons. He was accompanied, on the present
+occasion, by two individuals, obviously of the same profession as
+himself--Hippias the fencing-master, and Euchenor the boxer. All three
+conversed and laughed boisterously. It was obvious that even at that early
+hour they had not broken their fast without a generous draught of wine.
+
+"Talk not to me," said Hirpinus, rolling his strong shoulders, and
+observing with great complacency the attention he excited--"talk not to me:
+I have seen them all--Dacians, Gauls, Cimbrians, Ethiopians, every
+barbarian that ever put on a breastplate. By Hercules, they were fools to
+this lad. Why, the big yellow-haired German, whom Caesar gave us for the
+lion last summer, would not have stood up to him for a quarter of an hour.
+He was taller, maybe, a little, but he hadn't the shape, man--he hadn't the
+shape! You'll hardly call _me_ a kid that hasn't put his horns out, will
+ye? Well, he gave me so much to do with the _cestus_, that I wouldn't have
+taken it off for a flagon of cheap wine, I tell ye. What think ye of
+_that_, my little Greek? You don't call it so bad for a beginner, I hope?"
+
+He turned to Euchenor as he spoke, a beautifully-made young man, of
+extraordinary strength and symmetry, with the regular chiseled features of
+his country, and as evil an expression as ever lowered on a fair face. The
+Greek pondered awhile before he answered. Then he made the apposite
+inquiry--
+
+"Were you sober, Hirpinus, when you stood up to him? or had you sucked
+down a skinful of wine, before you took your bellyful of boxing?"
+
+The other burst into a loud laugh.
+
+"Drunk or sober," said he, "you know the stuff I am made of, just as well
+as I know your weight to an ounce, and your reach to an inch. Ay, and your
+mettle too, my lad! though it don't take a six-foot rod to get to the
+bottom of _that_. Harkye, this Briton of mine would _eat_ such a man as
+you, body and bones and all, just as I would eat a thrush, and be ready
+for another directly, without so much as washing his mouth out."
+
+A very sinister scowl passed across Euchenor's face, who did not quite
+relish this low valuation of his prowess, and, above all, his courage; but
+he was a professional boxer, and, as such, necessarily possessed thorough
+command of temper, so he only glanced a little scornfully over the other's
+frame, which was getting somewhat into flesh, and observed--
+
+"There will be money to be made out of him then in the arena, if he falls
+into good hands, and is properly trained."
+
+Hitherto, the fencing-master had joined but carelessly in the
+conversation, and, indeed, scarcely seemed aware of its purport; but the
+concluding sentence arrested his attention, and turning upon Hirpinus
+rather angrily, and with the air of one accustomed to command, he said
+abruptly--
+
+"Why did you not bring him to me at once? If you have let him slip through
+those great fingers of yours, it will be the worst job you have been
+concerned in for many a day. Have a care, Hirpinus! Better men than you
+have been under the net ere now, and the great games are not so far off.
+It needs but a word from me to send you into the arena to-morrow, a fair
+prey for a clumsy trident and a fathom or two of twine. You know that as
+well as I do."
+
+Hippias spoke truth. A retired gladiator, celebrated for his deadly
+swordsmanship and the number of his victories, he had been long ago
+invested by Nero with the wooden foil, which represented a free discharge
+and immunity from future services in the amphitheatre. Habituated,
+however, to the excitement of the fatal sport, and rejoicing in that
+spurious fame which so distinguished men of his class at Rome, he had set
+up a school for the express purpose of training swordsmen for the arena;
+and had won such favour, under two successive emperors, by the proficiency
+to which he brought his pupils, and his talent for arranging the deadly
+pageants in which they figured, that he had gradually become an
+incontrovertible authority on such matters, and the principal manager of
+the games in the amphitheatre. Of his reputation for gallantry, and the
+strange fascination such men possessed for the Roman ladies, we have
+already spoken; but if his smiles were courted amongst the fair spectators
+of their contests, his word was law with the gladiators themselves. He it
+was who paired the combatants, supplied them with weapons, adjusted their
+disputes, and, in most cases, held the balance on which their very lives
+depended. A threat from Hippias was more dreaded by these ruffians than
+the home-thrust of spear and sword.
+
+Now, Hirpinus, although a fearless and skilful fighter, had his assailable
+point. On one occasion, when he had entered the circus as a _secutor_,
+that is to say, a combatant armed with sword and helmet, against the
+_retiarius_, who bore nothing but a trident and net, he had the misfortune
+to find himself involved in the meshes of the latter, and at the mercy of
+his antagonistic. The Roman crowd, though fickle in its approval, and
+uncertain in its antipathies, spared him in consideration of the gallant
+fight he had made; but Hirpinus never forgot his sensations at that
+moment. Bold and fierce as he was, it completely _cowed_ him; and the
+boisterous, boastful prize-fighter would turn pale at the mention of a
+trident and a net. There was something ludicrous in the manner in which he
+now quailed before Hippias, eyeing him with the same sort of imploring
+glance that a dog casts at his master, and obviously persuaded of the
+speedy fulfilment of his threat.
+
+"Patience, patron!" he growled apologetically. "I know where the lad is to
+be found. I can lay my hand on him at any time. I can bring him with me to
+the school. Why I talked myself well-nigh hoarse, and stayed out the
+drinking of two flagons of sour Sabine to boot, while I canvassed him to
+become one of _us_ and join the Family forthwith. Why, you don't think,
+patron, I would be so thick-witted as to let him go without finding out
+where he lives? He is either a freedman, or a slave of"--
+
+"Hush, fool!" interrupted Hippias angrily, observing that Damasippus and
+Oarses were hovering near, and listening intently for a piece of
+intelligence which he had resolved should be conveyed by himself, and none
+other, to the tribune's ear. "There is no occasion to publish it by the
+crier. Hadst thou but brains, man, in any sort of proportion to those
+great muscles of thine, I could tell thee why, with some hope of being
+understood. Enough! lose not sight of the lad; and, above all, keep thy
+tongue within thy teeth!"
+
+The big gladiator nodded a sulky affirmative, puzzled, but obedient; and
+the two freedmen, with many courteous bows and gestures, accosted the
+champions with all the humility and deference to which such public
+characters were entitled.
+
+"They say there will be two hundred pairs of swordsmen, matched at the
+same moment," observed Damasippus, in allusion to the coming games; "and
+not a plate of steel allowed in the circus, save sword and helmet. But of
+course, my Hippias, you know best if this is true."
+
+"And three new lions from Libya, loose at once," added Oarses, "with a
+scene representing shepherds surprised over their watch-fires; real rocks,
+I have been told, and a stream of running water in the amphitheatre, with
+a thicket of live shrubs, from which the beasts are to emerge. Your taste,
+illustrious Hippias, the people say, is perfect. It has obviously been
+consulted here."
+
+Hippias smiled mysteriously, and a little scornfully.
+
+"There _is_ a lion from Libya," said he; "I can tell you thus much. I,
+myself, saw him fed only yesterday at sunset."
+
+"Is he large? is he strong? is he fierce?" questioned the two almost in a
+breath. "When did he come? is he quite full-grown? will they keep him
+without flesh? Of course the shepherds are not to be armed? Will they be
+condemned criminals, or only paid gladiators? Not that it matters much, if
+the lion is a pretty good one. We had a tiger, you know, last year, that
+killed five Ethiopian slaves, though they all set on him at once."
+
+"But they were unarmed," interrupted Euchenor, whose cheek had turned a
+shade paler during the discussion. "Give me the proper weapons, and I fear
+no beast that walks the earth."
+
+"Unarmed, of course!" repeated Damasippus, "and so was the tiger. A more
+beautiful creature was never seen. Do you not remember, Oarses, how he
+waved his long tail and stroked his face with his paws, like a kitten
+before it begins to play? And then, when he made his spring, the first
+black was rolled up like a ball? I was in the fifth row, my friends, yet I
+heard his bones crack, distinctly, even there."
+
+"He was a great loss, that tiger," observed Oarses, more sadly than usual;
+"they should never have pitted him against a tusked elephant. The moment I
+saw the ivory, I knew how the fight must end, and I wagered against the
+smaller animal directly. I would have lost my sesterces, I think,
+willingly, for it to have won; but the beautiful beast never had a
+chance."
+
+"It was the weight that did it, patrons--the weight," observed Hirpinus.
+"Man or beast, I will explain to you that weight must always"--
+
+But here the gladiator's dissertation was broken off by the movement of
+the crimson hangings, and the appearance of Placidus emerging on his levee
+of expectants, bright and handsome, ready dressed for the day.
+
+The tribune owned one advantage at least, which is of no small service to
+a man who embarks on a career demanding constant energy and watchfulness;
+he possessed that good digestion which is proverbially held to accompany
+an elastic conscience and a hard heart. Though supper the previous evening
+had been a luxurious and protracted meal--though the winecup had passed
+round very often, and the guests with singing brains had shown themselves
+in their own characters to their cool-headed and designing host--the
+latter, refreshed by a night's rest, now appeared with the glow of health
+on his cheek, and its lustre in his eye. As he looked about him on the
+throng of clients and dependants, his snow-white gown fastened and looped
+up with gold, his mantle adorned with a broad violet hem, his hair and
+beard carefully perfumed and arranged, a murmur of applause went round the
+circle which, perhaps, for once was really sincere, and even the rough
+gladiators could not withhold their approbation from a figure that was at
+once so richly attired, so manly, and so refined.
+
+"Hail, my friends!" said the tribune, pausing in the entrance, and looking
+graciously around him on the crowd.
+
+"Hail, patron!" answered a multitude of voices, in every key, from the
+subdued and polished treble of Oarses to the deep hoarse voice of the
+gladiators.
+
+Placidus moved from one to the other, with an easy though dignified
+cordiality of manner which he well knew how to assume when disposed to
+cultivate the favour of his inferiors. Clear-headed and discerning, in a
+wonderfully short space of time he had despatched the various matters
+which constituted the business of his morning levee. He had admired the
+model, declined the painting, ordered the statue, bought the jewels,
+answered the fair suppliant's message, and secured the mullet by sending
+to the market for it at once. The honest countrymen, too, he dismissed
+sufficiently well pleased, considering they had received nothing more
+substantial than smiles; and he now turned leisurely to Hippias, as if
+life had no duty so engrossing as the pursuit of pleasure, and asked him
+eagerly after the training of his gladiators, and the prospects of the
+amphitheatre.
+
+Hippias knew his own value; he conversed with the patrician as an equal;
+but Hirpinus and Euchenor, appreciating the worth of a rich patron, gazed
+on Placidus with intense respect and admiration. The latter, especially,
+watched the tribune with his bright cunning eye, as if prepared to plant a
+blow on the first unguarded place.
+
+"But your swordsmen are all too well known," urged the patrician on the
+fencing-master. "Here is old Hirpinus covers his whole body with two feet
+of steel as if it were a complete suit of armour, and never takes his
+point off his adversary's heart the while. The others are nearly as wary;
+if they encounter ordinary fencers they are sure to conquer; if we match
+them against each other and the people would see blood drawn, they must
+fight blindfolded,(8) and it becomes a matter of mere chance. No, what we
+want is a new man--one whom we can train without his being discovered, and
+bring out as an unknown competitor to try for the Emperor's prize. What
+say you, Hippias? 'Tis the only chance for a winning game now."
+
+"I have heard of such a one," answered Hippias. "I think I can lay my hand
+on an untried blade, that a few weeks' training will polish up into the
+keenest weapon we have sharpened yet; at least, so Hirpinus informs me.
+What say'st thou, old Trojan? Tell the patron how thou camest to light on
+thy match at last."
+
+Thus adjured, the veteran gladiator related at considerable length,
+interrupted by many exclamations of wonder from Damasippus and Oarses, his
+chance meeting with Esca in the Forum, and subsequent trial of strength
+and skill at the gymnasium. Somewhat verbose, as we have seen, when he
+could secure an audience, Hirpinus waxed eloquent on so congenial a theme
+as the beauty and stature of his new friend. "As strong as an ox, patron,"
+said he, "and as lithe as a panther! Hand, and foot, and eye, all keeping
+time together like a dancing girl's. The spring of a wild-cat, and the
+light footfall of a deer. Then he would look so well in the arena, with
+his fair young face, set on his towering neck, like that of the son of
+Peleus. Indeed, if he should be vanquished, the women would save him every
+time. Why, one of the fairest and the noblest ladies in Rome stopped her
+litter in the crowded street while we walked together, and bade him come
+and speak to her from sheer goodwill. In faith, he was as tall, and twice
+as handsome, as the very Liburnians who carried her on their shoulders."
+
+The tribune was laughing heartily at the athlete's eloquence; but
+Damasippus, who never took his eyes off his patron's face, thought the
+evil laugh was more malicious than usual at the mention of the Liburnians,
+and there was a false ring in the mirthful tones with which he asked for
+more information as to this young Apollo, and the dame on whom his
+appearance seemed to have made such an impression.
+
+"I know most of the great ladies pretty well by sight," answered the
+honest swordsman. "Faith, a man does not easily forget the faces he sees
+turned on him in the arena, when he has his point at his adversary's
+throat, and they bid him drive it merrily home, and never spare. But of
+all the faces I see under the awning, there's not one looks down so calm
+and beautiful on a death-struggle as that of the noble Valeria."
+
+"Like the moon on the torrent of Anio," observed Damasippus.
+
+"Like the stars on the stormy Egean," echoed Oarses.
+
+"Like nothing but herself," continued Hirpinus, who esteemed his own
+judgment incontrovertible on all matters relating to physical beauty,
+whether male or female. "The handsomest face and the finest form in Rome.
+It was not likely I could be mistaken, though I only caught a glimpse of
+her neck and arm for a moment, as she drew back the curtains of her
+litter, like"--and here Hirpinus paused for a simile, concluding with
+infinite relish,--"like a blade half drawn, and returned with a clash into
+the sheath."
+
+Again Damasippus thought he perceived a quiver on his patron's face. Again
+there was something jarring in the tribune's voice, as he said to Hippias--
+
+"We must not let this new Achilles escape us! See to it, Hippias. Who
+knows? He may make a worthy successor, even for thee, thou artist in
+slaughter, when he has worked his way up, step by step, and victory by
+victory, to the topmost branch of the tree."
+
+Hippias laughed good-humouredly, turning at the same time his right thumb
+outward, and pointing with it to the roof. It was the gesture with which
+the Roman crowd in the amphitheatre refused quarter to the combatant who
+was down.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XI
+
+                              STOLEN WATERS
+
+
+The broken column of one of the buildings destroyed in the great fire of
+Rome, and not yet restored, was glowing crimson in the setting sun.
+Beneath its base, the Tiber was gliding gently on towards the sea. There
+was a subdued hum even in the streets of the Imperial City that denoted
+how the burden and heat of the day were now past; and the languor of the
+hour seemed to pervade even those who were compelled to toil on in the
+struggle for bread, and who could only in imagination abandon themselves
+to repose. On a fragment of the ruin sat Esca, gazing intently on the
+water as it stole by. To all appearance his listless and dreamy mood was
+unconscious of surrounding objects, yet his attitude was that of one
+prepared to start into action at a moment's notice; and though his arms
+were folded and his head bent down, his ear was watching eagerly to catch
+the faintest sound.
+
+It is a patience-wearing process, that same waiting for a woman; and under
+the most favourable circumstances is productive of much irritation,
+disappointment, and disgust. In the first place a man is invariably too
+soon, and this knowingly and as it were with _malice prepense_. Taking
+time thus by the forelock, delays his flight considerably, and indeed
+reduces his pace to the slowest possible crawl; so that when the appointed
+moment does arrive, it seems to the watcher that it has been past a
+considerable period, and that his vigil should be already over, when in
+reality it is only just begun. Then, as the minutes steal on, come the
+different misgivings and suspicions which only arise on such occasions,
+and which in his right senses the self-torturer would be incapable of
+harbouring. Circumstances which, when the appointment was made, seemed
+expressly adapted to further his designs, now change to insurmountable
+difficulties, or take their place as links in a chain of deception which
+he persuades himself has been forged with unheard-of duplicity, expressly
+for his discomfiture. He thinks badly of everyone, worst of all of her,
+whose unpardonable fault is that she is now some fifty seconds late. Then
+comes a revulsion of feeling, and his heart leaps to his mouth, for
+yonder, emerging on the long perspective, is a female figure obviously
+advancing this way. The expected object is tall, slim, pliant, and walks
+with the firm free step of a deer on the heather. The advancing shape is
+short, fat, awkward, and waddles in its gait; nevertheless, it is not till
+it has reached within arm's length that he will allow himself to be
+convinced of his disappointment. If its ears are pretty quick, the
+unoffending figure may well be shocked at the deep and startling
+execration which its presence calls forth. Then begins another phase of
+despondency, humiliation, and bitter self-contempt, through all which
+pleasant changes of feeling the old feverish longing remains as strong as
+ever. At last she comes round the corner in good earnest, with the well-
+known smile in her eyes, the well-known greeting on her lips, and he
+forgets in an instant, as if they had never been, his anxiety, his anger,
+his reproaches, all but the presence that brings light to his life and
+gladness to his heart once more.
+
+Esca rose impatiently at intervals, walked a few paces to and fro, sat
+down again, and threw small fragments of the ruin into the water.
+Presently a figure, draped in black and closely veiled, moved down to the
+river's side near where the Briton sat, and began filling a pitcher from
+the stream. It could hardly have passed the column without seeing him, yet
+did it seem unconscious of his presence; and who could tell how the heart
+might be beating within the bosom, or the cheek blushing behind the veil?
+That veil was lifted, however, with an exclamation of surprise, when Esca
+stooped over her to take the pitcher from her hand, and Mariamne's cheek
+turned paler now than it had been even on the memorable night when he
+rescued her from the grasp of Spado and his fellow-bacchanals. He, too,
+murmured some vague words of astonishment at finding her here. If they
+were honest, for whom could he have been waiting so impatiently? and it is
+possible, besides, Mariamne might have been a little disappointed had she
+been allowed to fill her pitcher from the Tiber for herself.
+
+The Jewess had been thinking about him a good deal more than she intended,
+a good deal more than she knew, for the last two days. It is strange how
+very insensibly such thoughts gain growth and strength without care or
+culture. There are plants we prune and water every day which never reach
+more than a sickly and stunted vitality after all, and there are others
+that we trample down, cut over, tear up by the very roots, which
+nevertheless attain such vigour and luxuriance that our walls are covered
+by their tendrils, and our dwellings pervaded by their fragrance.
+
+Mariamne was no bigoted daughter of Judah, for whom the stranger was an
+outcast because a heathen. Her constant intercourse with Calchas had
+taught her nobler truths than she had derived from the traditions of her
+fathers. And with all her pride of race and national predilections, she
+had imbibed those principles of charity and toleration which formed the
+groundwork of a new religion, destined to shed its light upon all the
+nations of the earth.
+
+It was not precisely as a brother, though, that Mariamne had yet brought
+herself to regard the handsome British slave. They were soon conversing
+happily together. The embarrassment of meeting had disappeared with the
+first affectation of surprise. It was not long before he told her how
+tired he had been of watching by the broken column at the riverside.
+
+"How could you know I should come here?" asked the girl with a look of
+infinite simplicity and candour, though she must have remembered all the
+time, that she had not scrupled to hint at the daily practice in course of
+conversation with Calchas, on the night when Esca brought her safely home.
+
+"I hoped it," he replied, with a smile. "I have been a hunter, you know,
+and have learned that the shyest and wildest of animals seek the waterside
+at sunset. I was here yesterday, and waited two long hours in vain."
+
+She glanced quickly at him, but withdrew her eyes immediately, while the
+blood mounted to her pale face.
+
+"Did you expect to see me?" she asked in a trembling voice; "and I never
+left the house the whole of yesterday! Oh, how I wish I had known it!"
+
+Then she stopped in painful embarrassment, as having said too much. He
+appeared not to notice her confusion. He seemed to have some confession to
+make on his own part--something he hardly dared to tell her, yet which his
+honest nature could not consent should be withheld. At last he said with
+an effort--
+
+"You know what I am! My time is not my own, my very limbs belong to
+another. It matters not that the master is kind, good, and considerate.
+Mariamne, I am a slave!"
+
+"I know it," she answered, very gently, with a loving pity beaming in her
+dark eyes. "My kinsman Calchas told me as much after you went away."
+
+He drew a long breath as if relieved.
+
+"And yet you wished to see me again?" he asked, while a gleam of happiness
+brightened his face.
+
+"Why not?" she replied, with a kind smile. "Though that hand is a slave's,
+it struck my enemy down with the force of a hundred warriors; though that
+arm is a slave's, it bore me home with the care and tenderness of a woman.
+Ah! tell me not of slavery when the limbs are strong, and the heart is
+brave and pure. Though the body be chained with iron fetters, what matter
+so long as the spirit is free? Esca, you do not believe I think the worse
+of you because you are a heathen and a slave?"
+
+Her voice was very soft and low while she spoke his name. No voice had
+ever sounded so sweetly in his ears before. A new, strange sense of
+happiness seemed to pervade his whole being, yet he had never felt his
+situation so galling and unendurable as now.
+
+"I would not have you think the worse of me," he answered eagerly, "upon
+any account. Listen, Mariamne. I was taken captive in war and brought here
+with a hundred others to Rome. We were set up like cattle in the slave-
+market. Like cattle also we were purchased, one by one, by those who
+esteemed themselves practised judges of such human wares. I was bought by
+Caius Lucius Licinius at the price of a yoke of oxen, or a couple of
+chariot-horses. Bought and sold like a beast of the field, and driven home
+to my new master!"
+
+He spoke with a scorn all the more bitter from having been repressed so
+long. Yet he kept back and smothered the indignation rising within him.
+This was the first ear that had ever been open to his wrongs, and the
+temptation was strong to pour them freely forth to so interested and
+partial a listener. To do him justice, he refrained from the indulgence.
+He had been taught from childhood that it was weak and womanish to
+complain; and the man had not forgotten the lessons of the boy.
+
+Her gentle voice again interposed in soothing and consoling accents.
+
+"But he is kind," she said, "kind and considerate--you told me so yourself.
+I could not bear to think him otherwise. Indeed, Esca, it would make me
+very unhappy to know that you"--
+
+Here she broke off suddenly, and snatched up the pitcher he had been
+filling for her with such haste as to spill half its contents over his
+dress and her own.
+
+"There is someone watching us! Farewell!" she whispered in a breathless,
+frightened voice, and hurried away, turning her head once, however, to
+cast a glance over her shoulder, and then hastened home faster than
+before. Esca looked after her while she continued in sight, either
+unconscious of their vicinity, or at all events not noticing a pair of
+bold black eyes that were fixed upon him with an expression of arch and
+ludicrous surprise. He turned angrily, however, upon the intruder, when
+the black eyes had gazed their fill, and their owner burst out into a
+loud, merry, and mocking laugh.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XII
+
+                                 MYRRHINA
+
+
+Myrrhina's voice was at all times pitched in a high key; her accents were
+very distinct and shrill, admirably adapted for the expression of derision
+or the conveyance of sarcastic remarks.
+
+"So I have run you into a corner at last," she said, "and a pretty hunt
+you have given me. 'Tis to draw water, of course, that you come down to
+the Tiber-side, just at sunset; and you met her quite by accident, I
+daresay, that slip of a girl in her wisp of black clothes, who flitted
+away just now like a ghost going back again to Proserpine. Ah! you gape
+like a calf when they put the garland on him for sacrifice, and the poor
+thing munches the very flower-buds that deck him for destruction. Well,
+you at least are reserved for a nobler altar, and a worthier fate than to
+give your last gasp to a sorceress in the suburbs. Jupiter! how you stare,
+and how handsome you look, you great, strong barbarian, when you are
+thoroughly surprised!"
+
+She put her face so close up to his, to laugh at him, that the gesture
+almost amounted to a caress. Myrrhina had no slight inclination to make
+love to the stalwart Briton on her own account, pending the conclusion of
+certain negotiations she felt bound to carry out on her mistress's. These
+were the result of a conversation held that morning while the maid was as
+usual combing out her lady's long and beautiful hair.
+
+Valeria's sleep had been broken and restless. She tossed and turned upon
+her pillow, and put back the hair from her fevered cheeks and throbbing
+temples in vain. It was weary work to lie gazing with eyes wide open at
+the flickering shadows cast by the night-lamp on the opposite wall. It was
+still less productive of sleep to shut them tight and abandon herself to
+the vision thus created, which stood out in life-like colours and refused
+to be dispelled. Do what she would to forget him, and conjure up some
+other object, there was the young barbarian, towering like a demigod over
+the mean effeminate throng; there were the waving linen garments, and the
+reeling symbols, and the tossing hands, and the scowling faces of the
+priests of Isis; there was the dark-clad girl with her graceful pliant
+form; and there, yes, always there, in his maddening beauty, was the tall
+brave figure, gathering itself in act to strike. She could not analyse her
+feelings; she believed herself bewitched. Valeria had not reached the
+prime of her womanhood, without having sounded, as she thought, every
+chord of feeling, tasted of every cup that promised gratification or
+excitement. She had been flattered by brave, courted by handsome, and
+admired by clever men. Some she fancied, some she liked, some she laughed
+at, and some she told herself she loved. But this was a new sensation
+altogether. This intense and passionate longing she had never felt before.
+But for its novelty it would have been absolutely painful. A timid girl
+might have been frightened at it; but Valeria was no timid girl. She was a
+woman, on the contrary, who, with all the eagerness and impetuosity of her
+sex, possessed the tenacity of purpose and the resolution of a man.
+Obviously, as she could not conquer the sentiment, it was her nature to
+indulge it.
+
+"I have a message to Licinius," said she, turning at the same time from
+the mirror, and suffering her long brown hair to fall over her face like a
+veil; "a message that I do not care to write, lest it should be seen by
+other eyes. Tell me, Myrrhina, how can I best convey it to my kinsman?"
+
+The waiting-maid was far too astute to suggest the obvious arrangement of
+a private interview, than which nothing could have been easier, or to
+offer her own services, as an emissary who had already proved herself
+trustworthy in many a well-conducted intrigue; for Myrrhina knew her
+business too well to hesitate in playing into the hands of her mistress.
+So she assumed a look of perplexity and deep reflection while, finger on
+forehead, as the result of profound thought, she made the following reply--
+
+"It would be safest, madam, would it not, to trust the matter to some
+confidential slave?"
+
+Valeria's heart was beating fast, and the fair cheek was pale again now,
+while she answered, with studied carelessness--
+
+"Perhaps it would, if I could think of one. You know his household,
+Myrrhina. Can I safely confide in any of them?"
+
+"Those barbarians are generally faithful," observed the maid, with the
+most unconscious air. "I know Licinius has a British slave in whom he
+places considerable trust. You have seen him yourself, madam."
+
+"Have I?" answered Valeria, moving restlessly into a more comfortable
+attitude. "Should I know him again? What is he like?"
+
+The blood had once more mounted to her forehead, beneath the long hair.
+Myrrhina, who was behind her, saw the crimson mantling even on her neck.
+She was a slave, and a waiting-maid, but she was also a woman, and she
+could not resist the temptation; so she answered maliciously--
+
+"He is a big awkward-looking youth, of lofty stature, madam, and with
+light curly hair. Stupid doubtless, and as trusty, probably, as he is
+thick-witted."
+
+It is not safe to jest with a tigress unless you are outside the bars of
+her cage. Valeria made a quick impatient movement that warned the speaker
+she had gone too far. The latter was not wanting in readiness of resource.
+
+"I could bring him here, madam," she added demurely, "within six hours."
+
+Her lady smiled pleasantly enough.
+
+"This evening, Myrrhina," she said; "I shall scarcely be ready before. By
+the way, I am tired of those plain gold bracelets. Take them away, and
+don't let me see them again. This evening, you said. I suppose I had
+better leave it entirely to you."
+
+Both maid and mistress knew what this meant well. It implied full powers
+and handsome remuneration on one side, successful manoeuvring and judicious
+blindness on the other. Valeria disposed herself for a long day's
+dreaming: stretched indeed in bodily repose, but agitating her mind with
+all the harassing alternations of anticipation, and hope, and doubt, and
+fear--not without a considerable leavening of triumph, and a slight tinge
+of shame: while Myrrhina set herself energetically to work on the task she
+had undertaken; which, indeed, appeared to possess its difficulties, when
+she had ascertained at the first place she sought, namely, the house of
+Licinius, that Esca was abroad, and no one knew in what direction he was
+likely to be found.
+
+A woman's wit, however, usually derives fresh stimulus from opposition.
+Myrrhina was not without a large circle of acquaintances; and amongst
+others owned a staunch friend, and occasional admirer, in the person of
+Hirpinus, the gladiator. That worthy took a sufficient interest in the
+athletic Briton to observe his movements, and was aware that Esca had
+spent some two or three hours by the Tiber-side on the previous evening--a
+fact which he imparted to Myrrhina, on cross-examination by the latter,
+readily enough, professing at the same time his own inability to account
+for it, inasmuch as there was neither wineshop nor quoit-ground in the
+vicinity. Not so his intriguing little questioner. "A man does not wait
+two or three hours in one spot," thought Myrrhina, "for anything but a
+woman. Also, the woman, if she comes at all, is never so far behind her
+time. The probability then is, that she disappointed him; and the
+conclusion, that he will be there again about sunset the following day."
+
+Thus arguing, she resolved to attend at the trysting-place, and make a
+third in the interview, whether welcome or not; killing the intervening
+time, which might otherwise have hung heavily on her hands, by a series of
+experiments on the susceptibility of Hirpinus--an amusing pastime, but
+wanting in excitement from its harmlessness; for the gladiator had arrived
+at that period of life when outward charms, at least, are esteemed at
+their real value, and a woman must possess something more than a merry eye
+and a saucy lip if she would hope to rival the attraction of an easy couch
+and a flagon of old wine. Nevertheless, she laughed, and jested, and
+ogled, keeping her hand in, as it were, for practice against worthier
+occasions, till it was time to depart on her errand, when she made her
+escape from her sluggish admirer, with an excuse as false and as plausible
+as the smile on her lip.
+
+Hirpinus looked after her as she flitted away, laughed, shook his head,
+and strode heavily off to the wineshop, with an arch expression of
+amusement on his brave, good-humoured, and somewhat stupid face. Myrrhina,
+drawing a veil about her head and shoulders so as effectually to conceal
+her features, proceeded to thread her way through the labyrinth of
+impoverished streets that led to the riverside, as if familiar with their
+intricacies. When she reached her destination at last, she easily hid
+herself in a convenient lurking-place, from which she took care not to
+emerge till she had learned all she wished to know about Esca and his
+companion.
+
+"What do you want with me?" asked the Briton, a little disturbed by this
+saucy apparition, and not much pleased with the waiting-maid's familiar
+and malicious air.
+
+"I am unwelcome, doubtless," answered the girl, with another peal of
+laughter; "nevertheless you must come with me whether you will or no. We
+Roman maidens take no denial, young man; we are not like your tall, pale,
+frozen women of the north."
+
+Subscribing readily to this opinion, Esca felt indignant at the same time
+to be so completely taken possession of. "I have no leisure," said he, "to
+attend upon your fancies. I must homeward; it is already nearly supper
+time."
+
+"And you are a slave, I know," retorted Myrrhina with a gesture of supreme
+and provoking contempt. "_A slave!_ You, with your strength, and stature,
+and courage, cannot call an hour of this fine cool evening your own."
+
+"I know it," said he, bowing his head to conceal the flush of indignation
+that had risen to his brow. "I know it. A slave must clean his master's
+platter, and fill his cup to drink."
+
+She could see that her thrust had pierced home; but with all her
+predilections for his handsome person, she cared not how she wounded the
+manly heart within.
+
+"And being a slave," she resumed, "you may be loaded and goaded like a
+mule! You may be kicked and beaten like a dog! You cannot even resent it
+with hoofs and fangs as the dumb animal does when his treatment is harsher
+than he deserves! You are a _man_, you know, though a barbarian! You must
+cringe, and whine, and bite your lips, and be patient!"
+
+Every syllable from that sharp tongue seemed to sting him like a wasp: his
+whole frame quivered with anger at her taunts; but he scorned to show it,
+and putting a strong constraint upon his feelings, he only asked quietly--
+
+"What would you with me? It was not to tell me this that you watched and
+tracked me here."
+
+Myrrhina thought she had now brought the metal to a sufficiently high
+temperature for fusion. She proceeded to mould it accordingly.
+
+"I tracked you here," she said, "because I wanted you. I wanted you,
+because it is in my power to render you a great service. Listen, Esca; you
+must come with me. It is not every man in Rome would require so much
+persuasion to follow the steps of a pretty girl."
+
+She looked very arch and tempting while she spoke, but her attractions
+were sadly wasted on the preoccupied Briton; and if she expected to win
+from him any overt act of admiration or encouragement, she was wofully
+disappointed.
+
+"I cannot follow yours," said he; "my way lies in another direction. You
+have yourself reminded me that I am not my own master."
+
+"That is the very reason," she exclaimed, clapping her hands exultingly.
+"I can show you the way to freedom. No one else can help you but Myrrhina;
+and if you attend to her directions you can obtain your liberty without
+delay."
+
+"And why should _you_ be disposed to confer on me such a benefit?" he
+asked, with instinctive caution, for the impulsive nature that jumps so
+hastily to conclusions, and walks open-eyed into a trap, is rarely born
+north of the Alps. "I am a barbarian, a stranger, almost an enemy. What
+have you and I in common?"
+
+"Perhaps I have fallen in love with you myself," she laughed out; "perhaps
+you may be able to serve me in return. Come, you are as cold as the icy
+climate in which you were bred. You shall take your choice of the two
+reasons; only waste no more time, but gird yourself and follow me."
+
+Though it had never been dormant, the desire for liberty had, within the
+last two days, acquired a painful intensity in Esca's breast. He had not
+indeed yet confessed to himself that he cherished an ardent attachment for
+Mariamne; but he was conscious that her society possessed for him an
+undefinable attraction, and that without her neither liberty nor anything
+else would be worth having. This new sensation made his position more
+galling than it had ever been before. He could not ignore the fact, that
+it was absurd for one whose existence was not his own, to devote that
+existence to another; and the degradation of slavery, which his lord's
+kindness had veiled from him as much as possible while in his household,
+now appeared in all its naked deformity. He felt that no effort would be
+too desperate, no sacrifice too costly, to make for liberty; and that he
+would readily risk life itself, and lose it, to be free, if only for a
+week.
+
+"You have seen my mistress," resumed Myrrhina, as they hurried on through
+the now darkening streets; "the fairest lady and the most powerful in
+Rome; a near kinswoman, too, of your master. It needs but a word from her
+to make of you what she pleases. But she is wilful, you must know, and
+imperious, and cannot bear to be contradicted. Few women can."
+
+Esca had yet to learn this peculiarity of the sex; but he heard Myrrhina
+mention her mistress with vague misgivings, and forebodings of evil far
+different from the unmixed feelings of interest such a communication would
+have called forth a while ago.
+
+"Did she send for me expressly?" he asked, with some anxiety of tone. "And
+how did you know where to find me in such a town as this?"
+
+"I know a great many things," replied the laughing damsel; "but I do not
+choose everyone to be as wise as myself. I will answer both your
+questions, though, if you will answer one of mine in return. Valeria did
+not mention you by name, and yet I think there is no other man in Rome
+would serve her turn but yourself; and I knew that I should find you by
+Tiber-side, because you cannot keep a goose from the water, nor a fool
+from his fate. Will you answer my question as frankly? Do you love the
+dark pale girl that fled away so hastily when I discovered you together?"
+
+This was exactly what he had been asking himself the whole evening, with
+no very conclusive result; it was not likely, therefore, that Myrrhina
+should elicit a satisfactory reply. The Briton coloured a little,
+hesitated, and gave an evasive answer.
+
+"Like tends to like," said he. "What is there in common between two
+strangers, from the two farthest extremities of the empire?"
+
+Myrrhina clapped her hands in triumph.
+
+"Like tends to like, say you?" she exclaimed exultingly. "You will tell
+another tale ere an hour be past. Hush! be silent now, and step softly;
+but follow close behind me. It is very dark in here, under the trees."
+
+Thus cautioning him, she led Esca through a narrow door out of the by-
+street, into which they had diverged, and stepped briskly on, with a
+confidence born of local knowledge that he imitated with difficulty. They
+were now in a thickly planted shrubbery which effectually excluded the
+rays of a rising moon, and in which it was scarce possible to distinguish
+even Myrrhina's white dress. Presently they emerged upon a smooth and
+level lawn, shut in by a black group of cedars, through the lower branches
+of which peeped the crescent moon that had not long left the horizon, and
+turning the corner of a colonnade, under a ghostly-looking statue,
+traversed another door, which opened softly to Myrrhina's touch, and
+admitted them into a long carpeted passage, with a lamp at the farther
+end.
+
+"Stay here while I fetch a light," whispered the damsel; and, gliding away
+for that purpose, returned presently to conduct Esca through a large dark
+hall into another passage; where she stopped abruptly, and lifting some
+silken hangings, that served for the door of an apartment, simply
+observed, "You will find food and wine there," and pushed him in.
+
+Floods of soft and mellow light dazzled his eyes at first; but he soon
+realised the luxurious beauty of the retreat into which he had been
+forced. It was obvious that all the resources of wealth had been applied
+to its decoration with a lavish hand, guided by a woman's sensibility and
+a woman's taste. The walls were painted in frescoes of the richest
+colouring, and represented the most alluring scenes. Here the three
+jealous goddesses flashed upon bewildered Paris, in all the lustre of
+their immortal charms. A living envy sat on Juno's brow; a living scorn
+was stamped on Minerva's pale, proud face; and the living smile that won
+her the golden apple, shone in Aphrodite's winning eyes. There glowed
+imperial Circe in her magic splendour; and the very victims of her spell
+seemed yet to crave, with fiery glances and with thirsty lips, for one
+more draught from the tempting, luscious, and degrading cup. A shapely
+Endymion lay stretched in dreams of love. A frightened Leda shrank while
+she caressed. Here fair Adonis bled to death, ripped by the monster in the
+forest glade; there, where the broad-leaved lilies lay sleeping on the
+shady pool, bent fond Narcissus, to look and long his life away; an infant
+Bacchus rolled amongst the grapes, in bronze; a little Cupid mourned his
+broken bow, in marble. Around the cornices a circle of nymphs and satyrs,
+in bas-relief, danced hand-in-hand--wild woodland creatures, exulting in
+all the luxuriance of beauty, all the redundancy of strength; and yonder,
+just where the lamp cast its softest light on her attractions, stood the
+likeness of Valeria herself, depicted by the cunning painter in a loose
+flowing robe that enhanced, without concealing, the stately proportions of
+her figure, and in an attitude essentially her own--an attitude expressive
+of dormant passion, lulled by the languid insolence of power, and tinged
+with an imperious coquetry that she had found to be the most alluring of
+her charms.
+
+It was bad enough to sit in that voluptuous room, under that mellow light,
+drinking the daintiest produce of Falernian vineyards, and gazing on such
+an image as Valeria's--an image of one who, beyond all women, was
+calculated to madden a heated brain, whose beauty could scarcely fail to
+captivate the outward senses, and take the heart by storm. It was bad
+enough to press the very couch of which the cushions still retained the
+print of her form--to see the shawl thrown across it, and trailing on the
+floor as though but now flung off--to touch the open bracelet hastily
+unclasped, yet warm from its contact with her arm. All this was bad
+enough, but worse was still to come.
+
+Esca was in the act of setting down the goblet he had drained, and his eye
+was resting with an expression of admiration, not to be mistaken, on the
+picture opposite, when the rustling of the hangings caused him to turn his
+head. There was no more attraction now in bounding nymph or brilliant
+enchantress; haughty Juno, wise Minerva, and laughing Venus with her
+sparkling girdle, had passed into the shade. Valeria's likeness was no
+longer the masterpiece of the apartment, for there in the doorway appeared
+the figure of Valeria herself. Esca sprang to his feet, and thus they
+stood, that noble pair, confronting each other in the radiant light. The
+hostess and her guest--the lady and the slave--the assailant and the
+assailed.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIII
+
+                              NOLENS--VOLENS
+
+
+                               [Initial V]
+
+Valeria trembled in every limb; yet should she have remained the calmer of
+the two, inasmuch as hers could scarcely have been the agitation of
+surprise. Such a step, indeed, as that on which she now ventured, had not
+been taken without much hesitation and many changes of mind.
+
+No woman, we believe, ever becomes utterly unsexed; and the process by
+which even the boldest lose their instinctive modesty, is gradual in the
+extreme. The power, too, of self-persuasion, which is so finely developed
+in the whole human race, loses none of its efficacy in the reasonings of
+the less logical and more impulsive half. People do not usually plunge
+headlong into vice. The shades are almost imperceptible by which the love
+of admiration deepens into vanity, and vanity into imprudence, and
+imprudence, especially if thwarted by advice and encouraged by
+opportunity, into crime. Nevertheless, the stone that has once been set in
+motion, is pretty sure to reach the bottom of the hill at last; and "I
+might" grows to "I will," and "I will," ere long, becomes "I must."
+Valeria's first thought had only been to look again upon an exterior that
+pleased her eye; then she argued that having sent for her kinsman's slave,
+there could be no harm in speaking to him--indeed, it would seem strange if
+she did not; and under any circumstances, of course there was no occasion
+that her colloquy should be overheard by all the maidens of her
+establishment, or even by Myrrhina, who, trusty as she might be, had a
+tongue of surpassing activity, and a love of gossip not to be controlled.
+
+She ignored, naturally enough, that any unusual interest in the Briton
+should have caused her thus to summon him into her own private and
+peculiar retreat; thus to surround him with all that was dazzling to the
+eye, and alluring to the senses; thus to appear before him in the full
+glow of her personal beauty, set off by all the accessories of dress,
+jewels, lights, flowers, and perfumes, that she could command. If she sent
+for him, it was but natural that he should find her encircled by the usual
+advantages of her station. It was no fault of hers, that these were
+gorgeous, picturesque, and overpowering. He might as well blame the old
+Falernian for its seduction of the palate, and its confusion of the brain.
+Let him take care of himself! she would see him, speak to him, smile on
+him, perhaps, and be _guided by circumstances_. A wise resolution this
+last in all cases, and by no means difficult to keep when the
+circumstances are under our own control.
+
+Valeria, womanlike, was the first to speak, though she scarcely knew what
+to say. With a very becoming air of hesitation she kept clasping and
+unclasping a bracelet, the fellow of the one on the couch. She was
+doubtless conscious that her round white arm looked rounder and whiter in
+the process.
+
+"I have sent for you," she began, "because I am informed I can rely
+implicitly on your truth and secrecy. You are one, they tell me, who is
+incapable of betraying a trust. Is it not so?"
+
+It is needless to say that Esca was already somewhat bewildered with the
+events of the evening, and in a mood not to be surprised at anything.
+Nevertheless, he could only bow his head in acknowledgment of this tribute
+to his honesty, and murmur a few indistinct syllables of assent. She
+seemed to gain confidence now the ice was broken, and went on more
+fluently.
+
+"I have a secret to confide--a secret that none but yourself must know.
+Honour, reputation, the fame of a noble family, depend on its never being
+divulged. And yet I am going to impart this secret to you. Am I not rash,
+foolish, and impulsive, thus to place myself in the power of one whom I
+know so little? What must you think of me? What _do_ you think of me?"
+
+The latter question, propounded with a deepening colour and a glance that
+conveyed volumes, was somewhat difficult to answer. He might have said,
+"Think of you? Why, that you are the most alluring mermaiden who ever
+tempted a mariner to shipwreck on the rocks!" But what he did say was
+this--
+
+"I have never feared man, nor deceived woman yet. I am not going to begin
+now."
+
+She was a little disappointed at the coldness of his answer; yet her
+critical eye could not but approve the proud attitude he assumed, the
+stern look that came over his face, while he spoke. She edged a little
+nearer him and went on in a softened tone.
+
+"A woman is always somewhat lonely and helpless, whatever may be her
+station, and oh! how liable we are to be deceived, and how we weep and
+wring our hands in vain when it is so! But I knew _you_ from the first. I
+can read characters at a glance. Do you remember when I called you to my
+litter in the street while you were walking with Hirpinus, the gladiator?"
+
+Again that warm crimson in the cheek--again that speaking flash from those
+dangerous eyes. Esca's head was beginning to turn, and his heart to beat
+with a strange sensation of excitement and surprise.
+
+"I am not likely to forget it," said he, with a sort of proud humility.
+"It was such an honour as is seldom paid to one in my station."
+
+She smiled on him more kindly than ever.
+
+"I looked for you again," she murmured, "and saw you not. I wanted one in
+whom I could confide. I have no counsellor, no champion, no friend. I said
+what has become of him? who else will do my bidding, and keep my secret?
+Then Myrrhina told me that you would be here to-night."
+
+She seemed to have something more to say that would not out. She looked at
+the Briton with expectant, almost imploring eyes; but Esca was young and
+frank and simple, so he waited for her to go on, and Valeria, discouraged
+and intimidated for the first time, proceeded in a colder and more
+becoming tone.
+
+"The packet with which I intrust you must be delivered by yourself into
+the hands of Licinius. Not another creature must set eyes on it. No one
+must know that you have received it from me, nor, indeed, that you have
+been here to-night. If necessary you must guard it with your life! Can I
+depend upon you?"
+
+He was beginning to feel that he could not depend upon himself much
+longer. The lights, the perfumes, the locality, the seductive beauty near
+him, so lovely and so kind, were making wild work with his senses and his
+reason. Nevertheless, the whole position seemed so strange, so impossible,
+that he could hardly believe he was awake. There was plenty of pride in
+his character, but no leavening of vanity; and, like many another gentle
+and inexperienced nature, he shrank from offending a woman's delicacy,
+with a repugnance that in some cases is exceedingly puzzling and provoking
+to the woman herself. So he put a strong constraint upon his feelings, and
+undertook the delivery of the missive with incredible simplicity and
+composure. The statue of Hermes at the door could not have looked colder
+and more impenetrable. She was a little at a loss. She must detain him at
+all hazards, for she felt that when once gone he would be gone for ever.
+She determined to lead him into conversation; and she chose the topic
+which, originating, perhaps, in the instinctive jealousy of a woman, was
+of all others the most subversive of her plans.
+
+"I saw you once again," she said, "but it was in the hurry and confusion
+of that sudden broil. It was no fault of mine that the priests committed
+so gross an outrage on the poor thing you rescued. I would have helped you
+myself had you required assistance, but you carried her off as an eagle
+takes a kid. What became of the girl?"
+
+The question was accompanied by a sharp inquisitive glance, and a forced
+smile of very perceptible annoyance wreathed her lip when she perceived
+Esca's embarrassed manner and reddening brow; but she had unwittingly
+called up the Briton's good genius, and for all women on earth, save one,
+he was a man of marble once more.
+
+"I placed her in safety with her father," he replied; adding, with an
+assumption of deep humility, "Will you please to give me your commands and
+let me depart?"
+
+Valeria was so totally unused to opposition in any of her whims or
+caprices that she could scarcely believe this obvious indifference was
+real. She persuaded herself that the Briton was so overpowered by her
+condescension, as to be only afraid of trespassing too far on such
+unexpected kindness, and she resolved that it should be no fault of hers
+if he were not quickly undeceived. She sank upon the couch in her most
+bewitching attitude, and, looking fondly up in his face, bade him fetch
+her tablets from the writing-stand. "For," said she, "I have not yet even
+prepared my communication to Licinius. Shall you be very weary of me, if I
+keep you my prisoner so long?"
+
+Was it accident or design that entangled those rosy fingers with Esca's,
+as she took the tablets from his hand? Was it accident or design that
+shook the hair off her face, and loosed the rich brown clusters to fall
+across her glowing neck and bosom? It was surely strange that when she
+bent over the tablets her cheek turned pale, and her hand shook so that
+she could not form a letter on the yielding wax. She beckoned him nearer
+and bent her head towards him till the drooping curls trailed across his
+arm.
+
+"I cannot write," said she, in trembling accents. "Something seems to
+oppress me--I am faint--I can scarcely breathe--Myrrhina shall give you the
+missive to-morrow. In the meantime, we are alone. Esca, you will not
+betray me. I can depend upon you. You are my slave, is it not so? This
+shall be your manacle!"
+
+While she yet spoke, she took the bracelet from her arm and tried to clasp
+it round his wrist; but the glittering fetter was too narrow for the
+large-boned Briton, and she could not make it meet. Pressing it hard with
+both hands, she looked up in his face and laughed.
+
+One responsive glance, the faintest shadow of yielding on those impassible
+features, and she would have told him all. But it came not. He shook the
+bracelet from his arm; and while he did so, she recovered herself, with
+the instantaneous self-command women seem to gather from an emergency.
+
+"It was but to try your honesty!" she said, very haughtily, and rising to
+her feet. "A man who is not to be tempted, even by gold, can be safely
+trusted in such an affair as mine. You may go now," she added, with the
+slightest bend of her head. "To-morrow, if I require you, I shall take
+care that you hear from me through Myrrhina."
+
+She looked after him as he disappeared under the silken hangings of the
+portal, her face quivered, her bosom heaved, and she clenched both hands
+till the round white arms grew hard as marble. Then she bit her lip once,
+savagely, and so seemed to regain her accustomed composure, and the usual
+dignity of her bearing. Nevertheless, when the despised bracelet caught
+her eye, lying neglected on the couch, she dashed it fiercely down, and
+stamped upon it, and crushed and ground the jewel beneath her heel against
+the floor.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XIV
+
+                                  CAESAR
+
+
+When a woman feels herself scorned, her first impulse seems to be revenge
+at any price. Some morbid sentiment, which the other sex can hardly
+fathom, usually prompts her in such cases to select for her instrument the
+man whom in her heart she loathes and despises, whose society is an
+insult, and whose attentions are a disgrace. Thus lowering herself in her
+own esteem, she knows that she inflicts a poisoned wound on the offender.
+
+With all Valeria's self-command, her feelings had nearly got the better of
+her before Esca left the house. Had it been so, she would never have
+forgiven herself. But she managed to restrain them, and preserved an
+outward composure even while Myrrhina prepared her for repose. That damsel
+was much puzzled by the upshot of her manoeuvres. From a method of her own,
+which long practice rendered familiar, she had made herself acquainted
+with all that occurred between her mistress and the handsome slave. Why
+their interview should have had no more definite result, she was at a loss
+to conceive. Altogether, Myrrhina was inclined to think that Esca had been
+so captivated by her own charms, as to be insensible to those of Valeria.
+This flattering supposition opened up a perspective of hazard, intrigue,
+and cross-purposes, that it was delicious to contemplate. The maid retired
+to her couch exulting. The mistress writhed in an agony of wounded pride
+and shame.
+
+Morning, however, brought its unfailing accession of clear-sightedness and
+practical resolve. There are hours of the night in which we can abandon
+ourselves to love, hatred, despair, or sorrow with a helplessness that
+possesses in it some of the elements of repose; but with dawn reality
+resumes her sway, and the sufferer is indeed to be pitied, who can turn
+away from daylight without an impulse to be up and doing, who wishes only,
+in the lethargy of utter desolation, that it was evening once more.
+
+Valeria was not a woman to pass over the slight she had sustained. Few of
+them but will forgive an injury more readily than an insult. Long before
+she rose she had made up her mind where, and when, and how to strike;
+nothing remained but to select the weapon, and put a keener edge upon the
+steel. Now Valeria had long been aware, that, as far as was compatible
+with his disposition, Julius Placidus was devoted to her service. Indeed,
+he had told her so many a time, with an assumption of off-hand gallantry
+which, perhaps, she estimated at less than its proper value. Nevertheless,
+the compliments she received from the tribune were scarcely so well turned
+as might be expected from a man of his outward polish, refined manners,
+and general bad character. The woman's ear could detect the ring of truth,
+amidst all the jingle that accompanied it; and Valeria felt that the
+tribune loved her as much as it was possible for him to love anything but
+himself. To do her justice, she liked him none the better on that account.
+He was a man whom she must have hated under any circumstances, but perhaps
+she despised him a little less for this one redeeming quality of good
+taste. Here was a weapon, however, keen, and strong, and pliant, placed
+moreover, so to speak, within reach of her hand. She rose and dressed,
+languid, haughty, and composed as usual; but Myrrhina, who knew her,
+remarked a red spot burning on either cheek, and once a shudder, as of
+intense cold, passed over her, though it was a sunny morning in Rome.
+
+Julius Placidus received a letter ere noon that seemed to afford him
+infinite satisfaction. The gilded chariot flashed brighter than ever in
+the sun, the white horses whirled it like lightning through the streets.
+Automedon's curls floated on the breeze, and the boy was even more
+insolent than usual without rebuke. Lolling on his velvet cushions the
+tribune's smile seemed to have lost something of its malice; and though
+the tiger-look was on him still, it was that of the sleek and satisfied
+tiger who has been fed. That look never left him all day, while he
+transacted business in the Forum, while he showed his grace and agility at
+ball in the Fives' Court, while he reposed after his exertions at the
+bath; but it was more apparent still when the hour of supper arrived, and
+he took his place in the banqueting-hall of Caesar, with some of the
+bravest soldiers, the noblest senators, the greatest statesmen, wits,
+gluttons, and profligates in the empire.
+
+A banquet with Vitellius was no light and simple repast. Leagues of sea
+and miles of forest had been swept to furnish the mere groundwork of the
+entertainment. Hardy fishermen had spent their nights on the heaving wave,
+that the giant turbot might flap its snowy flakes on the Emperor's table
+broader than its broad dish of gold. Many a swelling hill, clad in the
+dark oak coppice, had echoed to ringing shout of hunter, and deep-mouthed
+bay of hound, ere the wild boar yielded his grim life by the morass, and
+the dark grisly carcass was drawn off to provide a standing-dish that was
+only meant to gratify the eye. Even the peacock roasted in its feathers
+was too gross a dainty for epicures who studied the art of gastronomy
+under Caesar; and that taste would have been considered rustic in the
+extreme, which could partake of more than the mere fumes and savour of so
+substantial a dish. A thousand nightingales had been trapped and killed,
+indeed, for this one supper, but brains and tongues were all they
+contributed to the banquet, while even the wing of a roasted hare would
+have been considered far too coarse and common food for the imperial
+board.
+
+There were a dozen of guests reaching round the ivory table, and so
+disposed that the head of each was turned towards the giver of the feast.
+Caesar was, indeed, in his glory. A garland of white roses crowned his pale
+and bloated face, enhancing the unhealthiness of its aspect. His features
+had originally been well-formed and delicate, expressive of wit, energy,
+and great versatility of character. Now the eyes were sunken, and the
+vessels beneath them so puffed and swollen as to discolour the skin; the
+jowl, too, had become large and heavy, imparting an air of sensual
+stupidity to the whole countenance, which brightened up, however, at the
+appearance of a favourite dish, or the smack of some rich luscious wine.
+He was busy at present with the eager, guzzling avidity of a pig; and he
+propped his unwieldy body, clad in its loose white gown, on one flabby
+arm, while with the other he fed himself on sharp-biting salads, salted
+herrings, pickled anchovies, and such stimulants as were served in the
+first course of a Roman entertainment, to provoke the hunger that the rest
+of the meal should satisfy. Now and then his eye wandered for an instant
+through the long shining vistas of the hall, amongst its marble pillars,
+its crimson hangings, its vases crowned with blushing fruit and flowers,
+its sideboards blazing with chalices, and flagons, and plates of burnished
+gold, as though he expected and winced from a blow; but the restless
+glance was sure to return to the table, and quench itself once more in the
+satisfaction of his favourite employment.
+
+Next to the Emperor was placed Paris, the graceful pantomimist, whose
+girlish face was already flushed with wine, and who turned his dark
+laughing eyes from one to another of the guests with the good-humoured
+insolence of incipient intoxication. The young actor's dress was
+extravagant in the extreme, and he wore a collar of pearls, the gift of an
+empress, that would have purchased a province. He was talking volubly to a
+fat, coarse-featured man, his neighbour, who answered him at intervals
+with a grunt of acquiescence, but in whose twinkling eye lurked a world of
+wit and sarcasm, and from whose thick sensual lips, engrossed as they were
+with the business of the moment, would drop ever and anon some pungent
+jest, that was sure to be repeated to-morrow at every supper-table in
+Rome. Montanus was a crafty statesman and a practised diplomatist, whose
+society was sought for at the Court, whose opinions carried weight in the
+Senate; but the old voluptuary had long discovered that there was no
+safety under the Empire for those who took a leading part in the council,
+but that certain distinction awaited proficiency at the banquet--so he
+devoted his powerful intellect to the study of gastronomy and the
+fabrication of witty sayings; nor did he ever permit the outward
+expression of his countenance to betray a consciousness of the good things
+that went into and came out of his mouth.
+
+Beyond him again reclined Licinius; his manly face and noble bearing
+presenting a vivid contrast to those who surrounded him, and who treated
+him, one and all, including Caesar himself, with marked deference and
+respect. The old soldier, however, appeared somewhat weary, and out of his
+element. He loathed these long entertainments, so opposed to his own
+simple habits; and regarded the company in his secret heart with a good-
+humoured, yet very decided, contempt. So he sat through the banquet as he
+would have kept watch on an outpost. It was tedious, it was disagreeable.
+There was nothing to be gained by it; but it was duty, and it must be
+done.
+
+Far different, in the frank joyous expression he knew so well how to put
+on, was the mien of Julius Placidus, as he replied to a brief, indistinct
+question from the Emperor (murmured with his mouth full), by a sally that
+set everyone near him laughing, and even raised a smile on the pale face
+of Vitellius himself. It was the tribune's cue to make his society
+universally popular--to be all things to all men, especially to win the
+confidence of his imperial host. There is an art in social success, no
+less than in any other triumph of natural ability. The rein must never be
+completely loosed, the bow never stretched to its full compass. Latent
+power ready to be called forth, is the secret of all grace; and while the
+observed does well, it must be apparent to the observer that he could do
+better if he chose. Also, to be really popular, a man, though a good deal
+liked, should be a little feared. Julius Placidus excelled in the retort
+courteous, which he could deliver without the slightest hesitation or
+change of countenance; and a nickname or a sarcasm once inflicted by the
+ready-witted tribune clung afterwards to its object like a burr. Then he
+possessed besides the invaluable qualification of a discriminating taste
+in seasonings, the result of a healthy palate, refined, but not destroyed
+by the culture bestowed on it; and could drink every man of them, except
+Montanus, under the table, without his stomach or his brain being affected
+by the debauch.
+
+Our acquaintance Spado was also of the party. Generally a buffoon of no
+mean calibre, and one whose special talent lay in such coarse and
+practical jests as served to amuse Vitellius when his intellects had
+become too torpid to appreciate the nicer delicacies of wit, the eunuch
+was to-night peculiarly dull and silent. He reclined, with his head
+resting on his hand, and seemed to conceal as much as he could of his
+face, one side of which was swollen and discoloured as from a blow. His
+fat unwieldy form looked more disgusting than usual in its sumptuous
+dress, fastened and looped up at every fold with clasps of emeralds and
+pearls; and though he ate slowly and with difficulty, he seemed determined
+to lose none of the gratifications of the meal.
+
+There were a few more guests--one or two senators--who, with the caution,
+but not the genius of Montanus, were conspicuous for nothing but their
+fulsome adulation of the Emperor. A tall sullen-looking man, commander of
+the Praetorian Guard, who never laid aside the golden breastplate in which
+he was encased, and who seemed only anxious for the conclusion of the
+entertainment. Three or four unknown and undistinguished persons, called
+in Roman society by the expressive term "Shades," whose social position,
+and, indeed, whose very existence, depended on the patrons they followed.
+Amongst these were two freedmen of the Emperor, pale anxious-looking
+beings, with haggard eyes and careworn faces. It was their especial duty
+to guard against poison, by tasting of every dish served to their
+employer. It might be supposed that, as in previous reigns, one such
+functionary would have been enough; but the great variety of dainties in
+which the enormous appetite of Vitellius enabled him to indulge, rendered
+it impossible for any one stomach to keep pace with him throughout the
+whole of a meal, and these devoted champions took it by turns to guard
+their master with their lives. Keen appetites and jovial looks were not to
+be expected from men engaged on such a duty.
+
+The first course, though long protracted, came to an end at last. Its
+greatest delicacy, consisting of dormice sprinkled with poppy-seed and
+honey, had completely disappeared. The tables were cleared by a band of
+Asiatic youths, richly habited, who entered to the sounds of wild Eastern
+music, and bore off the fragments that remained. As they emerged at one
+door, a troop of handsome fair-haired maidens--barbarian captives--simply
+clad in white muslin, and garlanded with flowers, entered at another,
+carrying the golden dishes and vessels that contained the second course.
+In the meantime, hanging curtains parted slowly from before a recess in
+the middle of the hall, and disclosed three Syrian dancing-girls, grouped
+like a picture, in different attitudes of voluptuous grace. Shaded lamps
+were so disposed as to throw a rosy light upon their limbs and faces;
+while soft thin vapours curled about them, rising from braziers burning
+perfumed incense at their feet. Simultaneously they clashed their cymbals,
+and bounded wildly out upon the floor. Then began a measure of alternate
+languor and activity, now swelling into frantic bacchanalian gestures, now
+sinking into tender lassitude or picturesque repose. The warm blood glowed
+in the dark faces of these daughters of the sun, the black eyes flashed
+under their long eyelashes, and their white teeth showed like pearls
+between the rich red lips; while the beautifully turned limbs, and the
+flexible, undulating forms, writhed themselves into attitudes suggestive
+of imperious conquest, coy reluctance, or yielding love.
+
+The dance was soon over; wilder and faster flitted the glancing feet, and
+tossed the shapely hands, encircled with bracelets and anklets of tiny
+silver bells. When the measure was whirling at its speediest, the three
+stopped short, and at once, as if struck into stone, formed a group of
+rare fantastic beauty at the very feet of Caesar's guests; who one and all
+broke into a murmur of unfeigned applause. As, touching their mouths and
+foreheads with their hands in Eastern obeisance, they retired, Placidus
+flung after them a collar of pearls, to be picked up by her who was
+apparently the leader of the three. One of the Emperor's freedmen seemed
+about to follow his example, for he buried his hand in his bosom, but
+either changed his mind or else found nothing there, since he drew it
+forth again empty; while Vitellius himself, plucking a bracelet from his
+arm, threw it after the retreating dancers, remarking that it was intended
+as a bribe to go away, for they only distracted attention from matters of
+real importance, now that the second course had come in; to which Montanus
+gave his cordial approval, fixing his eyes at the same time on the breast
+of a flamingo in which the skilful carver had just inserted the point of
+his long knife.
+
+It would be endless to go into the details of such a banquet as that which
+was placed before the guests of Caesar. Wild boar, pasties, goats, every
+kind of shellfish, thrushes, beccaficoes, vegetables of all descriptions,
+and poultry, were removed to make way for the pheasant, the guinea-hen,
+the turkey, the capon, venison, ducks, woodcocks, and turtledoves.
+Everything that could creep, or fly, or swim, and could boast a delicate
+flavour when cooked, was pressed into the service of the Emperor; and when
+appetite was appeased and could do no more, the strongest condiments and
+other remedies were used to stimulate fresh hunger and consume a fresh
+supply of superfluous dainties. But the great business of the evening was
+not yet half finished. Excess of eating was indeed the object; but it was
+to excess of drinking that the gluttons of that period looked as the
+especial relief of every entertainment, since the hope of each seemed to
+be, that when thoroughly flooded, and, so to speak, washed out with wine,
+he might begin eating again. The Roman was no drunkard like the barbarian,
+for the sake of that wild excitement of the brain which is purchased by
+intoxication. No, he ate to repletion that he might drink with
+gratification. He drank to excess that he might eat again.
+
+Another train of slaves now cleared the table. These were Nubian eunuchs,
+clad in white turbans and scarlet tunics, embroidered with seed pearls and
+gold. They brought in the dessert--choice fruits heaped upon vases of the
+rarest porcelain, sweetmeats in baskets of silver filigree, Syrian dates
+borne by miniature golden camels of exquisite workmanship--masses of
+flowers in the centre, and perfumes burning at the corners of the table.
+Behind each couch containing its three guests stood a sable cup-bearer,
+deaf and dumb, whose only business it was to fill for his especial charge.
+These mutes were procured at vast expense from every corner of the empire;
+but Caesar especially prided himself on their similarity in face and
+figure. To-day he would be served by Germans, to-morrow by Gauls, the next
+by Ethiopians, and so on; nor, though deprived of the organs of speech and
+hearing, were these ministers of Bacchus unobservant of what took place
+amongst the votaries on whom they waited; and it was said that the mutes
+in the palace heard more confidences, and told more secrets, than all the
+old women in Rome put together.
+
+And now, taking his cue from the Emperor, each man loosened the belt of
+his tunic, shifted the garland of flowers off his brows, disposed himself
+in an easier attitude on his couch, and proffered his cup to be filled by
+the attendant. The great business of eating was for the present concluded,
+and deep drinking about to commence. When marvelling, however, at the
+quantity of wine consumed by the Romans in their entertainments, we must
+remember that it was the pure and unadulterated juice of the grape, that
+it was in general freely mixed with water, and that they thus imbibed but
+a very small portion of alcohol, which is in reality the destructive
+quality of all stimulants, to the welfare of the stomach and the brain.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XV
+
+                              RED FALERNIAN
+
+
+Caesar's eye, though dim and sunken, flashed up for a moment with a spark
+of enthusiasm.
+
+"The beccaficoes," said he, "were a thought over-seasoned, but the capon's
+liver stewed in milk was perfection. Varus, see that it is served again at
+the imperial table within the week."
+
+The freedman took out his tablets and made a note of the royal commands
+with a somewhat unsteady hand, while Vitellius, draining his cup to the
+dregs, smacked his lips, and let his great chin sink on his breast once
+more.
+
+The other guests conversed freely. Licinius and one of the senators were
+involved in an argument on military matters, with which the man of peace
+seemed almost as conversant as the man of war, and on which he laid down
+the law with far more confidence. Placidus was describing certain
+incidents of the campaign in Judaea, with an air of unassuming modesty and
+a deference to the opinions of others, which won him no little favour from
+those who sat near and listened, throwing in, every now and then, a chance
+expression or trifling anecdote, derogatory, by implication, to
+Vespasian's military skill, and eulogistic of Vitellius; for this reason
+doubly sweet in the ears of him at whose board the tribune sat. Montanus,
+whose cup was filled and emptied with startling rapidity, looked about him
+for a subject on which to vent some of the sarcasm with which he was
+charged, and found it in the woebegone appearance of Spado, who, despite
+the influence of food and wine, seemed unusually depressed and ill at
+ease. The eunuch on ordinary occasions was a prince of boon-companions,
+skilled in all the niceties of gastronomy, versed in the laws of drinking,
+overflowing with mirth and jollity, an adroit flatterer where flattery was
+acceptable, and a joyous buffoon who could give and take with equal
+readiness and good-humour, when banter was the order of the day. Now, less
+thirsty than usual, the feast seemed to have no enlivening effect on his
+disposition. He was silent, preoccupied, and, to all appearance, intent
+only on concealing his bruised cheek from the observation of those about
+him. He had never been struck in anger, never even stood face to face with
+a man before, and it had cowed him. The soft self-indulgent voluptuary
+could neither forget nor overcome his feelings of combined wrath, dismay,
+and shame. Montanus turned round and emptied a brimming goblet to his
+health.
+
+"You are cheerless to-night, man!" quoth the senator; "you drink not,
+neither do you speak. What, has the red Falernian lost its flavour? or has
+some Canidia bewitched you with her evil eye? You used to be a prince of
+boon-companions, Spado, thirsty as a camel in the Libyan desert, insatiate
+as the sand on which he travels, and now your eye is dull, your face
+dejected, and your cup stands untasted, unnoticed, though bubbling to the
+brim. By the spear of Bacchus, 'tis not the fault of the liquor!" and
+Montanus emptied his own goblet with the air of a man who thoroughly
+appreciated the vintage he extolled.
+
+Vitellius looked up for an instant, roused by the congenial theme.
+
+"There is nothing the matter with the wine," said Caesar. "Fill round."
+
+The imperial hint was not to be disregarded, and Spado, with a forced
+smile, put his goblet to his lips and drained it to the last drop. In
+doing so the discoloration of his face was very apparent; and the guests,
+who had now arrived at that stage of conviviality where candour takes the
+place of politeness, proceeded to make their remarks without reserve.
+
+"You have painted too thick," said one of the freedmen, alluding to an
+effeminacy of the times which the male sex were not ashamed to practise.
+
+"You have taken off the paste and the skin with it," continued the other,
+whose own mistress was in the daily habit of spreading a kind of poultice
+over her whole countenance, and who might therefore be a good judge of the
+process and its results.
+
+"You have been in the wars!" sneered one guest. "Or the amphitheatre!"
+echoed another. "'Tis a love-token from Chloe!" laughed a third. "Or a
+remembrance from Lydia!" added a fourth. "Nay," interposed Montanus, "our
+friend is too experienced a campaigner to come off second-best with a foe
+of that description. There must have been a warm encounter to leave such
+traces as those. She must have been a very Amazon, Spado, that could maul
+thee thus."
+
+The eunuch looked from one to another of his tormentors with rather an
+evil smile. He well knew, however, that any appearance of annoyance would
+add tenfold to the ridicule which he must make up his mind to undergo, and
+that the best way for a man to turn a jest, even when to his own
+disadvantage, is to join in it himself; so he glanced at the Emperor, took
+a long draught of red Falernian, and assumed a face of quaint and good-
+humoured self-commiseration.
+
+"Talk not to me of Amazons," said he, whereat there was a general laugh.
+"Tell me not of Chloes, and Lydias, and Lalages, and the rest. What's a
+Helen of Troy compared to a flask of this red Falernian? Why good wine
+gets better the longer you keep it, while woman loses her flavour year by
+year. 'Faith, if you only wait till she is old enough, she becomes very
+sour vinegar indeed. Even in the first flush of her beauty, I doubt
+whether any of you in your hearts think she is worth the trouble of
+catching. Still, you know, a man likes to look at a pretty face. Mine had
+not otherwise been so disfigured now. I had an adventure on that score but
+two nights ago. Would Caesar like to hear it?"
+
+Caesar gave a nod and a grunt that signified acquiescence. Thus encouraged,
+Spado went on--
+
+"It was the feast of Isis. I was coming from the worship of the goddess,
+and the celebration of those sacred rites, which may not be disclosed to
+the vulgar and the profane--mysteries too holy to be mentioned, save to
+pure and virgin ears." Here the countenance of Montanus assumed an
+expression that made even Caesar smile, and caused the rest to laugh
+outright. "The procession was returning filled with inspiration from the
+goddess. The acolytes leaping and dancing in the van, the priests marching
+majestically under her symbols, and some of the noblest matrons in Rome
+bringing up the rear. The noblest and the fairest," repeated Spado,
+glancing round him complacently. "I name no names; but you all know that
+ours is not a vulgar worship, nor an illiberal creed."
+
+Here Placidus stirred somewhat uneasily on his couch, and buried his face
+in his cup.
+
+"The Roman people have ever paid the highest honours to our Egyptian
+goddess," proceeded the eunuch; "we lack the support of the plebeian no
+more than the worship of the patrician. Thus we flourish and drain
+draughts of plenty from the silver udders of our sacred cow. Well, they
+made way for us in the streets, both men and women--all but one slender
+girl dressed in black, who, coming quickly round a corner, found herself
+in the midst of us, and seemed too frightened to move. In another minute
+she would have been trampled to death by the crowd, when I seized hold of
+her in order to draw her into a place of safety while they passed."
+
+"Or to see what sort of a face she hid under her black hood?" interrupted
+Montanus.
+
+"Not so," replied the narrator, though obviously gratified by the
+impeachment. "Such follies I leave to senators, and statesmen, and
+soldiers. My object was simply to afford her my protection. I had better
+have plucked a nettle with my naked hand. The girl screamed and struggled
+as if she had never looked in a man's face before."
+
+"She was frightened at your beard," said one of the freedmen, looking at
+Spado's smooth fat face. The latter winced, but affected not to hear.
+"Coax a frightened woman," said he, "and frighten an angry one. I flatter
+myself I know how to deal with them all. The girl would have been quiet
+enough had I been let alone; when just as she began to look kindly in my
+face, up comes an enormous barbarian, a hideous giant with waving yellow
+hair, and tries to snatch the maiden by main force from my grasp. I am a
+strong man, as you may perhaps have observed, my friends, and a fierce one
+when my blood is up. I showed fight. I struck him to the earth. He rose
+again with redoubled fury, and taking me at a disadvantage while I was
+protecting the girl, inflicted this injury on my face. I was stunned for
+an instant, and he seized that opportunity to make his escape. Well for
+him that he did so. Let him keep out of the way if he be wise. Should he
+cross my path again, he had better be in Euchenor's hands than mine; I
+will show him no mercy;" and Spado quaffed off his wine and squared his
+fat shoulders with the air of a gladiator.
+
+"And what became of the girl?" asked Paris, who had hitherto listened to
+the recital with utter indifference.
+
+"She was carried off by the barbarian," replied Spado. "Poor thing! I
+believe sorely against her will. Nevertheless, she was borne off by the
+Briton."
+
+"A Briton!" exclaimed Licinius, whose intense contempt for Spado had
+hitherto kept him silent, and who had already heard the truth of the story
+from his slave.
+
+"A Briton," repeated the eunuch. "It was impossible he could be otherwise
+from his size and ferocity. The Gaul, you see, is bigger than the Roman.
+The German than the Gaul. The Briton, by the same argument, must be bigger
+than the German; and this hideous giant must consequently have been one of
+those savage islanders. I take my logic from the Greeks."
+
+"But not your boxing, it seems," observed Montanus, "We must have Euchenor
+to give you some lessons, if you run your head into these street brawls
+whenever you come across a woman with a veil."
+
+"Nay," answered the eunuch, "he took me at a disadvantage; nevertheless he
+was a large and powerful athlete--there is no denying it."
+
+"They are the finest men we have in the empire," said Licinius, thinking
+in his heart that the women were the fairest too.
+
+"Their oysters are better than ours," observed Caesar, with an air of
+profound and impartial judgment.
+
+"I grant the oysters, but I deny the men," said Placidus, reflecting that
+his patriotism would be acceptable to his audience. "The Roman is the
+natural conqueror of the world. They cannot stand against our countrymen
+in the arena." The guests all joined in a cordial assent. Had it not been
+so, perhaps Licinius would have scarce thought it worth while to continue
+the argument. Now, though half ashamed of his warmth, he took up the
+matter with energy.
+
+"There is a Briton in my house at this moment," said he, "who is a
+stronger and finer man than you will produce in Rome."
+
+"You mean that long-legged lad with the mop of light hair?" said Placidus
+contemptuously. "I have seen him. I call him a boy, not a man."
+
+Licinius felt somewhat irritated. He did not particularly like his
+company; and between two such opposite natures as his own and the
+tribune's there existed a certain hidden repugnance, which was sure sooner
+or later to break forth. He answered angrily--
+
+"I will match him against any one you can produce to run, leap, wrestle,
+throw the quoit, and swim."
+
+"Those are a boy's accomplishments," retorted the other coolly. "What I
+maintain is this, that, whether from want of courage or skill or both,
+these islanders are of no use with the steel. I would wish no better sport
+than to fight him myself in the arena, with the permission of Caesar"--and
+the tribune bowed gracefully to his imperial host, who looked from one to
+the other of the disputants, without the slightest apparent interest in
+their discussion.
+
+At this period of the Empire, when, although manners had become utterly
+dissolute, something was still left of the old audacity that had made the
+Roman a conqueror wherever he planted his foot, it was by no means unusual
+for men of patrician rank to appear in their own proper persons, a
+spectacle for the vulgar, in the amphitheatre. It was, perhaps, not
+unnatural that a desire for imitation should at last be aroused by the
+excessive fondness for these games of bloodshed, which pervaded all
+classes of the community. We have nothing in modern times that can at all
+convey to us the passion of the Roman citizen for the amusements of his
+circus. They were as necessary to his existence as daily bread. _Panem et
+Circenses_ had passed into a familiar proverb. He would leave his home,
+neglect his business, forfeit his bath, to sit for hours on the benches of
+the amphitheatre, exposed to heat and crowding, and every sort of
+inconvenience, and would bring his food with him rather than run the risk
+of losing his place. And all this to see trained gladiators shedding each
+other's blood, wild beasts tearing foreign captives limb from limb, and
+imitation battles which differed in no respect from real, save that the
+wounded were not spared, and the slaughter consequently far greater in
+proportion to the number of combatants engaged. If a statesman wished to
+court popularity, if an emperor desired to blot out a whole page of
+enormities and crimes, he had but to give the people one of these free
+entertainments of blood--the more victims the better--and they were ready to
+approve of any measure, and to pardon any atrocity.
+
+Ere long some fierce spirits panted to take part in the sports they so
+loved to contemplate; and the disgraceful exhibition ceased to be confined
+to hireling gladiators or condemned slaves. Knights and patricians entered
+the arena, to contend for the praises of the vulgar; and the noblest blood
+in Rome was shed for the gratification of plebeian spectators, who,
+sitting at ease munching cakes and sausages, could contemplate with placid
+interest the death-agonies of the Cornelii or the Gracchi.
+
+Julius Placidus, like many other fashionable youths of the period, prided
+himself on his skill in the deadly exercises of the circus. He had
+appeared before the Roman public at different times, armed with all the
+various weapons of the gladiator; but the exercise in which he considered
+himself most perfect was that of the trident and the net. The contest
+between the _retiarius_ and the _secutor_ was always a favourite spectacle
+with the public. The former carried an ample casting-net upon his
+shoulders, a three-pronged spear in his hand; beyond this he was totally
+unarmed either for attack or defence. The latter with a short sword,
+vizored helmet, and oblong shield, would at first sight appear to have
+fought at great advantage over his opponent. Nevertheless the arts of the
+_retiarius_ in entangling his adversary had arrived at such perfection
+that he was constantly the conqueror. Once down, and involved in the fatal
+meshes, there was no escape for the swordsman; and from some whimsical
+reason the populace seldom granted him quarter when vanquished. Great
+activity and speed of foot were the principal qualities required by the
+_retiarius_, for if he failed in his cast he was compelled to fly from his
+adversary while preparing his net for a fresh attempt, and if overtaken
+his fate was sealed. Placidus possessed extraordinary personal activity.
+His eye was very correct, and his throw generally deadly. It may be, too,
+that there was something pleasing to the natural cruelty of his
+disposition in the contemplation of an antagonist writhing and helpless on
+the sand. It was his delight to figure in the arena with the deadly net
+laid in careful festoons upon his shoulder, and the long barbed trident
+quivering in his grasp, Licinius fell into the snare, if snare it was,
+readily enough.
+
+"I would wager a province on Esca," said he, "against anyone but a trained
+gladiator; and I think he could hold his own with the best of _them_,
+after a month's practice."
+
+"Then you accept my challenge?" exclaimed Placidus, with a studied
+carelessness of manner that dissembled an eagerness he could scarcely
+control.
+
+"Let us hear the terms over a fresh flask of Falernian," observed the
+Emperor, glad of such a stimulant with his wine.
+
+"I ask for no weapons but the trident and the net," said Placidus, looking
+fixedly at Licinius. "Esca, if you so call him, may be armed as usual with
+sword and helmet."
+
+"And shield," interrupted the other; too old a soldier, even in the
+excitement of the moment, to throw a chance away.
+
+Placidus affected to demur.
+
+"Well," said he, after a few moments' hesitation, "'tis but a young
+swordsman, and a barbarian; I give you the shield in."
+
+A vision crossed the brain of Licinius, that already made him repent of
+his rashness. He saw the fine form writhing in those pitiless meshes, like
+a beast taken in the toils. He saw the frank blue eyes, looking upward,
+brave and kindly even in their despair. He saw the unsparing arm raised to
+strike, and the bright curling locks dabbled all in blood. But then he
+remembered the Briton's extraordinary strength and activity, his natural
+courage and warlike education--he was irritated, too, by the insolent
+malice that gleamed in the tribune's eyes; and he persuaded himself that
+nothing but renown and triumph could accrue to his favourite from such a
+contest.
+
+"Be it so," said he; "_retiarius_ and _secutor_. You will have no child's
+play, I can tell you; and now for the terms of the wager. I stake no man's
+life against a morsel of tinsel or a few polished pebbles, I warn you at
+once."
+
+He glanced while he spoke, somewhat contemptuously, over the costly
+ornaments that decorated the tribune's dress. The latter laughed good-
+humouredly.
+
+"A dozen slaves would scarce fetch the value of my sleeve-clasps. At
+least, a dozen of these islanders, whom you may capture by scores every
+time a legion moves its camp. Listen, I will wager two of my white horses
+against your picture of Daphne, or the bust of Euphrosyne that stands in
+your bath-room. Nay, I will give you more advantage still. I will stake
+the whole team, and the chariot into the bargain, against the British
+slave himself!"
+
+Again had the other been watching him narrowly; he must have perceived a
+strange suppressed eagerness on the tribune's face, but he was preoccupied
+and annoyed; he had gone too far to retract, and a murmur from the
+listening guests denoted their opinion of the generosity displayed in this
+last proposal. When a man has placed himself in a false position, his
+efforts at extrication generally plunge him deeper than before. Quick as
+lightning, Licinius bethought him that the present bargain might probably
+save Esca's life, in the unlikely event of his being conquered, so he
+closed with it unhesitatingly, though he regretted doing so a moment
+afterwards.
+
+The match was accordingly made upon the following terms: That Esca should
+enter the amphitheatre during the approaching games of Ceres, armed with
+sword, shield, and helmet, to oppose Placidus, whose only weapons were to
+be the trident and the net. That in the event of the latter being worsted,
+his four white horses and gilded chariot should become the property of
+Licinius; but that if he obtained the victory, and the populace permitted
+him to spare the vanquished, then his late antagonist should become his
+slave; and how enviable would be that position could only be known to the
+tribune himself and one other person from whom he had that day received
+kinder looks and smiles than she had ever before granted to an unwelcome
+suitor.
+
+The business of drinking, which had been somewhat interrupted by these
+complicated discussions, was now resumed with greater energy than before;
+Placidus emptying his goblet with the triumphant air of one who has
+successfully accomplished a difficult task; Licinius like a man who seeks
+to drown anxiety and self-reproach in wine. The Emperor quaffed and
+quaffed again with his habitual greediness; and the remainder of the
+guests acted studiously in imitation of the Emperor.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XVI
+
+                           THE TRAINING-SCHOOL
+
+
+But Licinius had an ordeal to go through on the following day, which was
+especially painful to the kind heart of the Roman general. When the terms
+of the combat were explained to the person chiefly interested, that young
+warrior eagerly accepted the challenge as affording an opportunity for
+indulgence in those feats of arms which early education had rendered so
+pleasing to his martial disposition. He could vanquish two such men as the
+tribune, he thought, at any exercise and with any weapons; but his face
+sank when he learned the penalty of failure, and a shudder passed through
+his whole frame at the bare possibility of becoming a slave to anyone but
+his present master. It nerved him, however, all the more in his resolution
+to conquer; and when Licinius, reproaching himself bitterly the while,
+promised him his liberty in the event of victory, Esca's heart beat fast
+with joy and hope and exultation once more.
+
+A thousand vague possibilities danced through his brain; a thousand wild
+and visionary schemes, of which Mariamne formed the centre figure. Life
+that had seemed so dull but one short week ago, now shone again in the
+rosy light with which youth--and youth alone--can tinge the long perspective
+of the future. Alas for Licinius! he marked the glowing cheek and the
+kindling eye with a sensation of despondency weighing at his heart.
+Nevertheless the lot was cast, the offer was accepted. It was too late for
+looking back. Nothing remained but to strain every nerve to win.
+
+In all bodily contests, in all mental labours, in everything which human
+nature attempts, systematic and continuous training is the essential
+element of success. The palm, as Horace says, can only flourish where the
+dust is plentiful; and he who would attain a triumph either as an athlete
+or a scholar, must cultivate his natural abilities with the utmost
+attention, and the most rigid self-denial, ere he enters for the prize. It
+is curious, too, how the mind, like the body, acquires vigour and
+elasticity by graduated exertion. The task that was an impossibility
+yesterday, is but a penance to-day, and will become a pleasure to-morrow.
+Let us follow Esca into the training-school, where his muscles are to be
+toughened, and his skill perfected for the deadly exercises of the arena.
+
+It is a large square building, something like a modern riding-house,
+lighted and ventilated at the top, and is laid down three inches deep in
+sand, an arrangement which increases, indeed, the labour of all pedestrian
+exertion, but renders a fall comparatively harmless, and accustoms the
+pupil, moreover, to the yielding surface on which hereafter he will have
+to struggle for his life. Quoits, dumb-bells, ponderous weights, and
+massive clubs are scattered in the corners, or propped against the walls
+of the edifice, and a horizontal leaping-bar, placed at the height of a
+man's breast, denotes that activity is not neglected in the acquisition of
+strength. Beside these insignia of peaceful gymnastics, the _cestus_ hangs
+conspicuous, and racks are placed at intervals supporting the deadly
+weapons and defensive armour with which the gladiator plies his formidable
+trade. There are also pointless spears, and blunted swords for practice,
+and a wooden figure, hacked and hewed out of all similitude to an enemy,
+on which the cuts and thrusts most in request have been dealt over and
+over again with increasing skill and severity.
+
+At one end of the building paces the master to and fro; now glancing with
+wary eye at the movements of his pupils; now pausing to adjust some
+implement of instruction; now encouraging or chiding with a gesture; and
+anon catching up, as though in sheer absence of mind, one of the idle
+weapons, and whirling it round his head with a flourish that displays all
+the power and skill of the practised professional. Hippias, the retired
+gladiator, is a man of middle age, and of somewhat lofty stature, rendered
+more commanding by its lengthy proportions, and the peculiar setting on of
+the head. Constant exercise, pushed, indeed, to the verge of toil, and
+continued for many years, has toughened each shapely limb into the
+hardness and consistency of wire, and has rendered his large frame lean
+and sinewy, like a greyhound's. All his gestures have the graceful pliant
+ease which results from muscular strength, and his very walk--light,
+smooth, and noiseless--is like that of a panther traversing the floor of
+its cage. His swarthy complexion has been deeply tanned by exposure to
+heat and toil, but the blood courses healthfully beneath, and imparts a
+warm mellow tint to the skin. The fleshless face, in spite of a worn eager
+look, and a dash of grey in the hair and beard, is not without a wild
+defiant beauty of its own; and though its expression is somewhat dissolute
+and reckless, there is a bold keen flash in the eye, and the man is
+obviously enterprising, courageous, and steel to the backbone.
+
+The Roman ladies, with that depravity of taste which marks a general
+deterioration of manners and morality, delighted at this period to choose
+their favourites from the ranks of the amphitheatre. There was a rage for
+warlike exercises, Amazonian dresses, imitations of the deadly sports,
+played out with considerable skill and ferocity, nay, for the very persons
+of the gladiators themselves. It was no wonder then, that the handsome
+fencing-master, with his reputation for strength and courage, should have
+been a marked man with the proud capricious matrons of the Imperial City.
+The favour of each, too, was doubtless his best recommendation to the good
+graces of the rest; and Hippias might have sunned himself in the smiles of
+the noblest ladies in Rome.
+
+He made but little account, however, of his good fortune. The peaches
+fallen on the ground are doubtless the ripest, yet they never seem so
+tempting as those which sun themselves against the wall, a hand's-breadth
+above our reach. Nor can a man pay implicit obedience to more than one
+dominion (at a time); and unless the yoke be _very_ heavy, it is scarce
+worth while to carry it at all. Hippias was neither dazzled nor flattered
+by the bright eyes that looked so kindly into his war-worn face. He loved
+a flask of wine nearly as well as a woman's beauty--two feet of pliant
+steel and a leathern buckler far better than either; nevertheless, amongst
+all the dainty dames of his acquaintance, he was least disposed to
+undervalue Valeria's notice, the more so, that she rarely condescended to
+bestow it on him; and he took more pains with her fencing lessons, than
+those of any other female pupil, and stayed longer in her house than in
+that of any lady in Rome. He approved of her strength, her resolution, her
+quickness, above all her cold manner and her pride, besides admiring her
+personal charms exceedingly, in his own practical way. There is a gleam of
+interest, almost of tenderness in his eyes, as he pauses every now and
+then in his walk, and reads a line or two from a scroll he carries in his
+hand, which Myrrhina brought him not an hour ago.
+
+The scroll is from Valeria. She has heard of Esca's peril--nay, she has
+herself brought it on his head; and who knows the price it cost her
+haughty wilful heart? Yet in all her bitter anger, vexation, shame, she
+cannot bear to think of the noble Briton down on the sand, writhing and
+helpless at the mercy of his enemy. It is the weapon now she hates, and
+not the victim. It would give her intense pleasure, she feels, to see
+Placidus humbled, defeated, slain. Such is the sense of justice in a
+woman's breast; such are the advantages gained by submission at any
+sacrifice to do her bidding. We need not pity the tribune, however, in his
+dealings with either sex; he is well able to take care of himself.
+
+Valeria accordingly sat her down and wrote a few friendly lines to the
+fencing-master, who had always stood high in her favour, and whose frank
+bold nature she felt she could trust. Womanlike, she thought it necessary
+to fabricate an excuse for her interest in the Briton, by affirming that
+she had staked heavily on his success in the coming contest. She adjured
+Hippias to spare no pains in counsel or instruction, and bade him come to
+see her without delay, and report the progress of his pupil. He raised his
+eyes from the scroll, and watched the said pupil holding his own gallantly
+at sword and buckler with Lutorius.
+
+"One, two--Disengage the blade! A feint at the head, a cut at the legs, and
+come in over the shield with a lunge! Good! but scarce quick enough. Try
+that again--the elbow turned outwards, the wrist a little higher. So--once
+more. Now, look at me. Thus."
+
+The combatants paused for breath, Hippias seized a wooden foil, and,
+beckoning to Hirpinus, engaged him in the required position, for Esca's
+especial benefit. Trained and wary, the old gladiator knew every feint and
+parry in the game. Yet had those blades been steel, Hirpinus would have
+been gasping his life out, at the master's feet, ere the close of their
+second encounter. Hippias never shifted his ground, never seemed to exert
+himself much, yet the quickest eye in Rome was puzzled to follow the
+movements of his point, the readiest hand to intercept it where it fell.
+Again he pitted Esca and Lutorius in the mimic strife, and stood with
+well-pleased countenance to watch the result. The Briton had, indeed, lost
+no time in beginning a course of instruction which he hoped was to ensure
+him victory and its reward--his much desired freedom. That morning Hirpinus
+had brought him to the school; and the veteran gladiator watched, with an
+interest that was almost touching, the preparations which were to fit his
+young friend for a career that at best must end ere long in a violent
+death. Hippias was delighted with the stature and strength of his new
+pupil. He had matched him at once with Lutorius, a wiry Gaul, who was
+supposed to be the most scientific swordsman of "the Family," and smiled
+to observe how completely, with an occasional hint from himself, the
+Briton was a match for his antagonist, who had expected an easy victory,
+and was even more disgusted than surprised. As the encounter was
+prolonged, and the combatants, warming to their work, advanced, retreated,
+struck, lunged and parried; now traversing warily at full distance--now
+dashing boldly in to close, the other gladiators gathered round, excited
+to unusual interest by the excellence of the play, and the dexterity of
+the barbarian.
+
+"He is the best we've seen here for a lustre at least," exclaimed Rufus, a
+gigantic champion from Northern Italy, proud of his stature, proud of his
+swordsmanship, but above all, proud that he was a Roman citizen, though a
+gladiator; "those thrusts come home like lightning, and when he misses his
+parry, see, he jumps away like a wild-cat. Faith, Manlius, if they match
+him against thee at the games, thou wilt have a handful. I would stake my
+rights as a Roman citizen on him, toga and all, barbarian though he be.
+What, man! he would have thee down and disarmed in a couple of passes!"
+
+Manlius seemed to think so too, though he was loth to confess it. He
+turned the subject by vowing that Lutorius must be masking his play, and
+not fighting his best, or he never could be thus worsted by a novice.
+
+"Masking his play!" exclaimed Hirpinus indignantly, "let him unmask, then,
+as soon as he will! I tell thee this lad of mine hath not his match in the
+empire. I shall see him champion of the amphitheatre, and first swordsman
+in Rome, ere they give me the wooden foil with the silver guard,(9) and
+lay old Hirpinus on the shelf. I shall be satisfied to retire then, for I
+shall leave some good manhood to take my place."
+
+"Well crowed!" replied Manlius, not quite pleased at the value placed on
+his own prowess in comparison. "To hear thee, a man would say there never
+was but one gladiator in Rome, and that this young mastiff must pull us
+all down by the throat, because he fences like thyself, wild and wide, and
+by main strength."
+
+"It is no swordsmanship to run in like a bull and take more than you
+give," observed Euchenor, listening with his arms folded, and an
+expression of supreme contempt on his handsome features.
+
+"Nevertheless his blows fall thick and fast, like a hailstorm, and
+Lutorius shifts his ground every time the young one makes the attack,"
+argued honest Rufus, who had not a grain of either fear or jealousy in his
+disposition; and who considered his profession as a mere trade by which he
+could obtain a livelihood for wife and children in the meantime, and a
+remote chance of independence with a vineyard of his own beyond the
+Apennines, should he escape a violent death in the amphitheatre at last.
+
+"He thrusts too often overhand," observed Manlius, "and his guard is
+always open for the wrist."
+
+"He is a strong fencer, but he has no style," added Euchenor; and the
+boxer looked around him with the air of a man who closes a controversy by
+an unanswerable argument.
+
+Hirpinus was boiling over with indignation; but his eloquence was by no
+means in proportion to his corporeal gifts, and he could not readily find
+words to express his dissent and his disdain. Banter, too, and a coarse,
+good-humoured sort of wrangling, was the usual form by which difference of
+opinion found expression in the training-school. Quarrelling, amongst men
+whose very trade it was to fight to the death, seemed simply absurd; and
+to come to blows except in public and for money, a mere childish waste of
+time. Indeed, with all their contempt for death, and their extraordinary
+courage when pitted against each other to amuse the populace, these
+gladiators, perhaps from the very nature of their profession, seem to have
+been unsuited for any sustained efforts of energy and endurance. When
+banded together under the eagles, they were often so undisciplined in
+camp, as by no means to be relied on before an enemy. Perhaps there was
+something of bravado in the flourish with which they entered the circus,
+and hailed Caesar with their greetings from _those about to die_!(10)
+Moreover, they had to fight in a corner, and with the impossibility of
+escape. Courage is of many different kinds. Men are brave from various
+motives--from ambition, from emulation, from the habit of confronting
+danger; some from a naturally chivalrous disposition, backed by strong
+physical nerves. The last alone are to be trusted in an emergency; and a
+really courageous man faces an unexpected and unaccustomed peril, if not
+with confidence, at least with an unflinching determination to do his
+best.
+
+Hirpinus turned upon Euchenor, for whom he had no great liking at any
+time.
+
+"You talk of your science," said he, "and your Greek skill, against which
+even our Roman thews and sinews are of no avail. Dare you stand up to this
+barbarian with the _cestus_ on? Only to exchange half a dozen friendly
+buffets, you know, in sheer sport."
+
+But Euchenor excused himself with great disdain. Like many another
+successful professor, he owed no inconsiderable share of his fame to his
+own assumption of superiority, and the judgment with which, when
+practicable, he matched himself against inferior performers. Champions who
+exist on their reputation, such as it is, are not to peril it lightly
+against the first tyro that comes, who has everything to gain and nothing
+to lose by an encounter with the celebrity; whereas the celebrity derives
+no additional laurels from a triumph, and a defeat tends to take the very
+bread out of his mouth. Euchenor said as much; but Hirpinus was not
+satisfied, till the subtle Greek, who had learned the terms of the match
+in which Esca was engaged, observed carelessly, that all the time the
+Briton had to spare should be devoted to practice in the part he was about
+to play before the Emperor. The suggestion took effect upon Hirpinus at
+once. He sprang across the school to where the master had resumed his
+walk. The old gladiator positively turned pale while he entreated Hippias
+to instruct his pupil in all the scientific devices by which those deadly
+meshes could be foiled.
+
+"Nothing but art can save him," said he, in imploring accents, which
+seemed almost ludicrous from one of his Herculean exterior. "Courage and
+strength, ay, and the activity of a wild-cat, are all paralysed when that
+accursed twine is round your limbs. I know it! I have felt it! I was down
+under the net myself once. If a man is to die, he should die _like_ a man,
+not like a thrush caught in a springe. He must learn, Hippias, he must
+practise day by day, and hour by hour; he must study every movement of the
+caster. Pit him against Manlius, he is the best netsman in the Family. If
+he learns to foil _him_, he will take the conceit out of Placidus readily
+enough. I tell you I shall not be easy till I see him with his foot on the
+gay tribune's breast!"
+
+"Patience, man," replied Hippias, "thou fearest but one thing in the
+world, and that is a fathom of twine. Thinkest thou all others are scared
+at the same bugbear? Mind thine own training,--thou art yet too lusty by
+half to go into the circus,--and leave this young barbarian to me."
+
+The master kept up his influence amongst these lawless pupils, partly by a
+reserved demeanour and a silent tongue, partly by never suffering his
+authority to be disputed for a moment. To have said as much as he now did
+was tantamount to a confession of interest in the Briton's success; and
+Hirpinus resumed his own labours with a lightened heart, whilst Esca, in
+all the delightful flush of youth and health, and muscular strength
+developing itself by scientific practice, plied his antagonist with
+redoubled vigour, and enjoyed his pastime to the utmost.
+
+It was like taking an old friend by the hand to grasp a sword once more.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVII
+
+                              A VEILED HEART
+
+
+                               [Initial F]
+
+For three whole days Mariamne had not set eyes on the Briton, so she felt
+listless and dispirited. Not that she acknowledged, even to herself, the
+necessity of Esca's presence, nor that she was indeed aware how much it
+had influenced her thoughts and actions ever since she had known him--a
+period that seemed now of indefinite length. She found herself perpetually
+recalling the origin and growth of their acquaintance; she dwelt with a
+strange pleasure on the gross insult offered her by Spado, which scarce
+seemed an agreeable subject of contemplation; nor, be sure, did she forget
+its prompt and satisfactory redress. She remembered every step of her
+subsequent walk home, and every syllable of their conversation in that
+hasty and agitated progress; nay, every look and gesture of her
+companion's and of her own. It pleased her to think of the favourable
+impression made on her father and his brother by their guest; and the
+earthen pitcher, from which she gave the latter to drink, assumed a new
+and unaccountable value in her eyes. Also she strolled to Tiber-side,
+whenever she had a spare half-hour, and sat her down under the shadow of a
+broken column, with a strange persistency, and a vague expectation of
+something, she knew not what. For the first day this dreamy imaginative
+existence was delightful. Then came a feeling of want; a consciousness
+that there was a void, which it would be a great happiness to fill. Soon
+this grew to a thirst--a craving for a repetition of those hours which had
+glided by so sweetly and so fast. At rare intervals arose the startling
+thought, "suppose she should never see him again," and her heart stopped
+beating, and her cheek paled with the bare possibility; yet was there
+something not wholly painful in a consciousness of the sorrow such a
+privation would create.
+
+Though young, Mariamne was no foolish and inexperienced girl. Her life had
+been calculated to elicit and bring to perfection some of woman's loftiest
+qualities. She had early learned the nobility of self-sacrifice, the
+necessity of self-reliance and self-denial. Like the generality of her
+nation she possessed considerable pride of race; suppressed, indeed, and
+kept down by the exigencies in which the Jews had so often found
+themselves, but none the weaker nor the less cherished on that account.
+Notwithstanding his many chastisements and reverses,--from his pilgrimage
+through the wilderness to his different captivities by the great Oriental
+powers, and final subjection under Rome,--the Jew never forgot that he
+sprang from a stem more especially planted by the hand of the Almighty;
+that he could trace his lineage back, unbroken and unstained, to those who
+held converse with Moses under the shadow of Mount Sinai; nay, to the
+Patriarch himself, who held his authority direct from Heaven, and who was
+thought worthy to entertain angels at his tent door on the plains of
+Mamre. Such a conviction imparted a secret pride to every one of his
+descendants. Man, woman, and child, were persuaded that to them belonged
+of right the dominion of the earth.
+
+It may be supposed that one of Eleazar's disposition was not likely to
+bring up his family in any humble notions of their privileges and their
+importance. Mariamne had been early taught to consider her nationality as
+the first and dearest of her advantages; and, womanlike, she clung to it
+all the closer that her people had been forced to submit to the Roman
+yoke. Habits of patience, of reflection and endurance, had been engendered
+by the everyday life of the Jewish maiden, witnessing her father's
+continued impatience of the existing state of things, and his energetic,
+though secret, efforts to change the destinies of his countrymen; whilst
+all that such an education might have created of hard, cunning, and
+unfeminine in his daughter's mind, the society and counsels of Calchas
+were eminently qualified to counteract. Losing no opportunity of sowing
+the good seed; of teaching, both by precept and example, the lessons he
+had learned from those who had them direct from the Fountain-head; it was
+impossible to remain long uninfluenced by the constant kindliness and
+gentle bearing of one who understood Christianity to signify, not only
+faith, and purity, and devotion even to the death, but also that peace and
+goodwill amongst men, which its first teachers inculcated as its
+fundamental principle and essential element. Calchas, indeed, lacked not
+the fiery energy and the tameless instincts of his race. His nature,
+perhaps, was originally fierce and warlike as his brother's, but it had
+been subdued, softened, exalted by his religion; and, while his heart was
+pitiful and kindly, nothing remained of the warrior but his loyalty, his
+courage, and his zeal.
+
+Cherishing a true attachment for that brother, it was doubtless a cause of
+daily sorrow to observe how totally Eleazar's principles and conduct were
+opposed to the meek and holy precepts of the new faith. It seemed to human
+reasoning impossible to convert the Jew from his grand and simple creed,
+to modify or to explain it, to add to it, or to take away from it, in the
+slightest degree to alter his belief in that direct thearchy, to which he
+was bound by the ties of gratitude, of tradition, of national isolation
+and characteristic pride of race. A religion which accepts the first great
+principles of truth, the omnipotence and eternity of the Deity, the
+immortality of souls, and the rewards and punishments of a life to come,
+stands already upon a solid basis from which it has little inclination to
+be removed; and in all ages, the Jew, as in a somewhat less degree the
+Mahometan, has been most unwilling to add to his own stern tenets the mild
+and loving doctrines of our revealed religion. Eleazar's was a character
+to which the outward and tangible ceremonials of his worship were
+essentially acceptable. To him the law, in its severest and most literal
+sense, was the only true guide for political measures as for private
+conduct; and where its burdens were multiplied or its severities enhanced
+by tradition, he upheld the latter gladly and inflexibly. To offer the
+sacrifices ordained by Divine command; to exact and rigidly fulfil the
+minutest points of observance which the priests enjoined; to keep the
+Sabbath inviolate by word and deed; also, when opportunity offered, to
+smite the heathen hip-and-thigh with the edge of the sword; these were the
+points of faith and practice on which Eleazar took his stand, and from
+which no consideration of affection, no temptation of ambition, no
+exigency of the times, would have induced him to waver one hair's-breadth.
+The fiercest soldier, the wildest barbarian, the most frivolous and
+dissolute patrician of the Imperial Court, would have been a more
+promising convert than such a man as this. Yet did not Calchas despair:
+well he knew that there is a season of seed-time and a season of harvest,
+that the soil once choked with weeds, or sown with tares, may thereafter
+produce a good crop; that waters have been known to flow freely from the
+bare rock, and that nothing is impossible under heaven. So he loved his
+brother and prayed for him, and took that brother's daughter to his heart
+as though she had been his own child.
+
+It must have required no small patience, no small amount of self-control
+and humility, to engraft in Mariamne the good fruit, which her father held
+in such hatred and disdain. These, too, were difficulties with which the
+early Christians had to contend, and of which we now make small account.
+We read of their privations, their persecutions, their imprisonments, and
+their martyrdoms, with a thrill of mingled horror and indignation--we pity
+and admire, we even glorify them as the heroic leaders of that forlorn
+hope which was destined to head the armies of the only true conqueror, but
+we never consider the daily and harassing warfare in which they must have
+been engaged, the domestic dissensions, the insults of equals, the
+alienation of friends; above all, the cold looks and estranged affections
+of those whom they loved best on earth; whom they must give up here, and
+whom, with the new light that had broken in on them, they could scarce
+hope to see hereafter. So-called heroic deeds are not always deserving of
+that superiority which they claim over mortal weakness, when emblazoned on
+the glowing page of history. Many a man is capable, so to speak, of
+winding himself up for one great effort, even though it be to perish on
+the scaffold or the breach; but day after day, and year after year, to
+wage unceasing war against our nearest and dearest, our own comforts, our
+own prosperity, nay, our own weaknesses and inclinations, requires the aid
+of a sustaining power that is neither without nor within, nor anywhere
+below on earth, but must reach the suppliant directly and continuously
+from above.
+
+Nevertheless the example of a true Christian, in the real acceptation of
+the word, is never without its effect on those who live under its constant
+influence. Even Eleazar loved and respected his brother more than anything
+on earth, save his ambition and his creed; while Mariamne, whose trusting
+and gentle disposition rendered her a willing recipient of those truths
+which Calchas lost no opportunity of imparting, gradually, and almost
+insensibly, imbibed the opinions and the belief of one whose everyday
+practice was so pure, so elevated, and so kindly; to whom, moreover, she
+was accustomed to look as her counsellor in difficulty, and her refuge in
+distress.
+
+It was Calchas, then, whose studies she interrupted as he sat with the
+scroll before him, that was seldom out of his hand, perusing those Syriac
+characters again and again, as a mariner consults his chart, never weary
+of storing information for his future course, and verifying the progress
+he has already made. It was to Calchas she had determined to apply for
+comfort because Esca came not, and for assistance to see him again--not
+that she admitted, even to herself, that this was her intention or her
+wish. Nevertheless, she hovered about the old man's seat, more caressingly
+than usual, and finding his attention still riveted on his employment, she
+laid one hand lightly on his shoulder, and with the other parted the thin
+grey hair that strayed across his forehead. He looked up with a pleasant
+smile.
+
+"What is it, little one?" said he, with the endearing diminutive he had
+used in addressing her from her childhood. "You seem unusually busy with
+your household affairs to-day. Is this room to be decorated for a guest?
+My brother makes no acquaintances here in Rome; and we have given no
+stranger so much as a mouthful of food since we arrived, save that goodly
+barbarian you brought home with you the other evening. Is he coming again
+to-night?"
+
+A bright blush swept over her face, yet when it faded, Calchas could not
+but remark that she was paler than her wont; and her manner, usually so
+gentle and composed, was now restless, anxious, and ill at ease.
+
+"Nay," she replied, "what should I know of the barbarian's movements? It
+was but a chance meeting that led him to our quiet dwelling in the first
+instance; and save by the merest accident we are never likely to see him
+more."
+
+She turned away while she spoke, trying to steady her voice and give it a
+tone of cold indifference, but failing utterly in the attempt.
+
+"There is no such power as chance," said Calchas, looking her keenly in
+the face.
+
+"I know it," replied Mariamne, smiling sadly; "and I know, too, that
+whatever befalls us is for the best. Yet some things are hard to bear,
+nevertheless. Not that I have aught to complain of," she added, shrinking
+instinctively from the very topic she wanted to bring on, "save my
+constant anxiety for my father in these tumultuous times."
+
+"He is in God's hand," said Calchas, "who will bring him safe through all
+his perils, though they seem now to environ him as the breakers boil round
+a stranded galley, when the wild Adriatic is leaping and dashing for its
+prey. Take comfort, little one; I cannot bear to see your step so listless
+and your cheek so pale."
+
+"How can they be otherwise?" returned the girl, not very candidly. "It is
+a weary lot to be a soldier's daughter. I could even find it in my heart
+to wish we had never left Judaea; never come to Rome."
+
+He tried his best to soothe and comfort her--his best such as it was, for
+the good old man knew but little of a woman's heart--its wild hopes, its
+indefinite aims, its wayward feelings, and its inexplicable tendency to
+self-torture. He thought in his simplicity the real grievance was that
+which she avowed, and he strove to remove it in his own kind hopeful way.
+
+"My child," said he, "the evils that are raging in Italy, the horrors that
+we hear of every day, cannot but make Eleazar's position more important
+and less hazardous, as they increase the difficulties of the imperial
+councils. It is, indeed, no child's play to bridle such a nation as ours
+with one hand, and to grasp at the imperial diadem with the other. It
+takes a bold heart to draw the sword against Judah, and a long arm to
+buffet Caesar across the seas. Vespasian will have little leisure to
+persecute our race; and the Emperor, sore beset as he is, will surely lend
+a favourable ear to my brother's proposals for peace. Even now the legions
+are declaring, far and wide, against Vitellius; and civil war, the most
+dreadful of all scourges, is desolating the provinces and entering Italy
+herself. It was but yesterday that news reached Rome of the revolt of the
+whole fleet at Ravenna--and ere this Cremona has perhaps fallen into the
+power of Antonius, that soldier-orator, with the iron arm and the silver
+tongue. Well we know, for we have been told by One whose words shall never
+be forgotten, that a house divided against itself cannot stand; and is
+this a time, think you, my child, for the worn-out sensualist who wears
+the purple here, to make conditions with such a man as your father? It is
+all in God's hand, as I never cease to insist; yet I cannot but feel that
+a better day must at last be dawning upon Judaea, that her enemies will be
+confounded, her armies victorious, and her chiefs--but what have we to do
+with the sword?" he broke off abruptly, while his kindling eye and
+animated gestures bore witness to the ardent spirit that would flash out
+here and there even now. "Our weapon is the Cross, our warfare is not of
+this world, our triumph is in our humility, and when most we are brought
+low, then are we most exalted. Oh, that the time were come, as come it
+surely will, when Caesar shall be content to take only that which is
+Caesar's, and men shall be gathered under one banner, and in one
+brotherhood, from all corners of the world!"
+
+It was no exaggerated account Calchas thus gave of the dilemma in which
+the empire was placed at this juncture. Vespasian, with great political
+talents, with coolness, patience, and audacity, was playing a game against
+which the besotted brains of Vitellius were powerless to compete. The
+former, adored by the army, who saw in him a successful general, an
+intrepid soldier, and a man of simple virtuous habits, contrasting nobly
+with the luxurious gluttony and sensuality of his rival, lost none of his
+influence by the moderation he displayed, and the modesty, real or
+affected, with which he declined the purple. Not afraid to wait till
+advantage ripened into opportunity, he could seize it when the time came
+with a bold and tenacious grasp, could turn it deftly to his own profit
+and guide those circumstances of which he seemed to be the mere puppet,
+with a master-hand. Though at a distance from the scene of warfare, and to
+all appearance little more than an unwilling observer of the disturbances
+carried on in his name, he directed as it were from behind a curtain the
+operations of his generals, and pulled the strings that set in motion his
+numerous partisans with a clear head, a delicate touch, and that tenacity
+of purpose which is the essential element of success. Vitellius, on the
+other hand, whose natural abilities had been weakened, nay destroyed, by
+an unceasing course of sensual gratification, wavered in council and
+hesitated in action; now determined to abdicate the diadem and retire into
+obscurity; anon persuaded to fight for dominion to the death; and ever
+paralysing the energies of his warmest partisans by the distrust he
+entertained for honest advisers, and the reliance he placed on the
+counsels of those traitors who surrounded him.
+
+The empire was, perhaps, at this period in a more disheartening position
+than even under the ferocious sway of Nero. Monster as the latter was, he
+at least held the reins with a firm hand; and tyranny, however oppressive,
+is doubtless one degree better than anarchy and confusion. Now, the mighty
+fabric, of which Romulus laid the first stone and Augustus completed the
+pinnacle--the work of seven centuries, to which every generation had added
+its labours and its enterprise, till it embraced the confines of the known
+world--was beginning perceptibly to sink and crumble from its own enormous
+size and weight. The legions (and it must never be forgotten that the
+dominion of Rome was essentially that of the sword) were now recruited
+from natives of her distant colonies. The Syrian and the Ethiop guarded
+the eagles as well as the tall turbulent sons of Germany, and the ever-
+changing, ever-faithless Gaul. Armies thus gathered under one standard
+from such various climates could have but little in common save a certain
+professional ferocity, and an ardent liking for plunder, no less than pay.
+Mercenaries have in all ages been easily bought by the one and seduced by
+the other. Each legion gradually came to consider itself a separate and
+independent power, to be sold to the highest bidder. Perhaps the fairest
+vision of all was a march upon Rome, and a ten hours' sack of the city
+they were sworn to defend. A great and good man, backed by the glory of
+name, race, and illustrious actions, could alone have ruled such
+discordant elements, and united these conflicting interests for the common
+good; but fate ordained that the weak, worn-out, besotted Vitellius should
+be seated on the throne of the Caesars, and that the cool, unflinching, and
+far-seeing Vespasian should be watching with sleepless eye and ready hand
+to snatch the diadem from his bewildered predecessor, and place it firmly
+on his own head.
+
+While the destinies of the world were thus trembling in the balance, while
+her own nation was fighting for its very existence, and the storm
+gathering all around, obviously to burst in its greatest fury on the
+Imperial City, the care that weighed heaviest at Mariamne's heart was that
+she had that day noticed a barbarian slave walk into the training-school
+of a Roman gladiator.
+
+"Is it true, then," asked the girl, "that civil war is indeed raging here,
+as we have seen it at home? That we shall have an enemy ere long at the
+very gates of the city?"
+
+"Too true, my child," replied Calchas; "and the Roman people seem, as
+usual, to make light of the emergency, to eat, drink, buy, sell, and feast
+their eyes on bloodshed in the circus, as though their idolatrous temple,
+where Janus overlooks the usurers and money-changers of the city, were
+shut up once for all, never to be opened again."
+
+She turned pale and shuddered at the mention of the circus.
+
+"Are they making no preparations?" she asked timidly. "Did I not hear my
+father say they were collecting the gladiators, and--and--some of the nobles
+had enrolled their German and British slaves, and were arming them against
+an attack?"
+
+"It may be so," answered Calchas; "but a slave can scarcely be expected to
+fight very stoutly for a cause which only serves to rivet his chains. As
+for the gladiators, those tigers in human form, it were surely better for
+them to perish in open warfare, than to tear one another to pieces in the
+arena, like the very beasts against which I have seen them pitted. Yet
+these, too, have souls to be saved."
+
+"Surely have they," exclaimed Mariamne, with kindling eyes, "and none to
+help them; none to show them so much as a glimpse of the true light. These
+men go out to die as the citizen goes to his business or his bath; and who
+is answerable to man for their blood? who is answerable to God for their
+souls?"
+
+His eye brightened while she spoke, and he raised his head like a soldier
+who hears the trumpet summoning him to the front.
+
+"If I have a well in my court," said he, "and a man fall down and die of
+thirst at my gate, who is answerable? Surely I am guilty of my brother's
+blood, that I never so much as reached him the pitcher to drink. Shall
+these men go down daily to death, and shall I not stretch out a finger
+lest they perish everlastingly? Mariamne, it seems there is a task set to
+my hand, and I must accomplish it."
+
+She was far from wishing to hinder him. Actuated as human nature too often
+is by mixed motives, she could yet respond, in her womanly generosity of
+heart, to that noble self-sacrifice which was so distinguishing a
+characteristic of the new religion; and could appreciate the devotion of
+Calchas, while she hoped through his intervention to obtain some
+alleviation of her anxiety on Esca's behalf. She had caught a glimpse of
+the slave's figure that very day as it entered the portals of the
+training-school; and this rapid glance had not served to quiet her
+misgivings on his account.
+
+If Calchas should now think it right to interest himself about a class of
+men the most reckless and desperate of the whole Roman population, it was
+probable that he would at the same time learn something of Esca's
+movements; perhaps be able to dissuade him from joining the fierce band in
+which she now feared he was about to be enrolled. "It may be that he has
+some wild hope of thus obtaining his liberty," thought the girl; and her
+heart throbbed while she reflected that it was for her sake liberty had
+now become so dear to the barbarian. "It may be that he has extorted some
+vague promise from his lord, and, in his pride of strength and courage, he
+never dreams of danger or defeat; but oh! if he should come to harm for my
+sake, what will become of me? I would rather die a thousand times than
+that his white skin should be disfigured with a scratch!"
+
+"They are practising for their deadly pastime in the next street," said
+she; "I can hear the blows as I go down to draw water. Blows dealt, as it
+were, in sport; what must they be in earnest?"
+
+"There is no time to be lost," said Calchas. "The games of Ceres are to be
+soon celebrated, and the Roman crowd will think it but a poor show if some
+hundreds of gladiators are not slaughtered at the least. Child, I will
+visit these men to-morrow; they will revile me, but after a time they will
+listen. If I can even gain over one, be he the lowest and most degraded of
+the band, it will be a triumph greater than a thousand victories; a gain
+infinitely more precious than all the treasures of Rome."
+
+"To-morrow may be too late," she returned, moving across the room at the
+same time so as to hide her face. "The school is full to-day. I--I think I
+saw that barbarian who was here lately go into it an hour or two ago."
+
+"The Briton!" exclaimed Calchas, starting from his seat. "Why did you not
+tell me so before? Quick, girl, fetch me my gown and sandals. I will go
+there without delay."
+
+She helped him, nothing loth. In a few minutes Calchas was ready to go
+forth, and as she watched him from the door, and saw him turn the corner
+of the street, Mariamne clasped her hands and muttered a thanksgiving for
+the success of her well-meant artifice; while the old man strode boldly to
+his destination, confident in the integrity of his purpose, and rejoicing
+in the breastplate of proof which covers a good heart bound on a pious
+mission. "It is no business of mine," was a maxim unknown to the early
+Christian. Fresh in his memory was the parable of the Good Samaritan; and
+it never occurred to him that, like the Pharisee, he might pass by on the
+other side. The world is some centuries older, yet is that tale of the
+friendless wounded wayfarer less suggestive now than it was then?
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVIII
+
+                               WINGED WORDS
+
+
+The gladiators were pausing from their toil. Brawny chests heaved and
+panted, deep voices laughed and swore with returning breath; strong arms
+looked heavier and stronger as the athlete rested his wide hands upon his
+hips, and not unconsciously brought his huge muscles into full relief in
+the attitude. Esca and his late antagonist were wiping the sweat from
+their brows, and looking at one another with wistful eyes, as if by no
+means loth to renew the contest, so equally had the last bout been waged.
+Hirpinus laid down the weighty clubs he had been wielding, with a grunt of
+relief. No unpractised arm could have lifted those cumbrous instruments
+from the ground, yet they were but as reeds in the hands of the gladiator;
+nevertheless, he lamented piteously the tendency of his mighty frame to
+increasing bulk, which rendered such heavy and uninteresting work
+necessary to fit him for the arena.
+
+"By the body of Hercules!" complained the giant, "I would I were but such
+a half-starved ape as thou, my Lutorius! See what the master calls
+training for a man of some solidity, and thank the gods that an hour's
+girls'-play with sword and buckler is enough to keep that slender waist of
+thine within the compass of a knight's finger-ring."
+
+"Girls'-play, call you it?" answered Lutorius. "In faith 'tis a game that
+would put thy fat carcass on the sand, from sheer want of breath, in a
+quarter of the time. No more girls'-play for us, my lads, till after the
+feast of Ceres. The school will be thinner then, or I am mistaken. How
+many pairs are promised by the Consul for this coming bout? I heard the
+crier tell us in the street, but I have forgotten."
+
+"One hundred at least, for sword and buckler alone. And twenty of them out
+of the Family!" answered Euchenor readily, and with a malicious smile. His
+profession as a boxer freed him from any fatal apprehensions; but he took
+none the less pleasure in recalling to his comrades the more deadly nature
+of their encounters. Rufus alone looked grave; perhaps he was thinking of
+his wife and children while he listened; perhaps that humble cottage in
+the Apennines seemed farther off than ever, and the more desirable on that
+account. The others smiled grimly, and a wolfish expression gleamed for an
+instant from their eyes--all but Esca, whose glowing young face displayed
+only courage, excitement, and hope.
+
+"Bird of ill-omen!" said Hippias sternly. "What do you know of the clash
+of steel? Keep to your own boys'-play, and do not meddle with the game
+that draws blood at every stroke. I think I am master here!"
+
+Euchenor would have answered sullenly, but a knock at the door arrested
+his attention. As it swung open, to the surprise of all, and of none more
+than Esca, Calchas stood before them.
+
+"_Salve!_" said the old man kindly, as he looked around, his venerable
+head and calm dignified bearing contrasting nobly with the brute strength
+and coarser faces of the gladiators. "_Salve!_" he repeated, smiling at
+the astonishment his appearance seemed to call forth.
+
+Hippias was not lacking in a certain rough courtesy of the camp. He
+advanced to the new-comer, bade him welcome as a stranger, and inquired
+the cause of his visit; "for," said he, "judging by your looks, O my
+father! it can scarcely be a mission connected either with me or my
+disciples here, whose trade, you may observe, is war."
+
+"I too am a soldier," answered Calchas quietly, looking the astonished
+fencing-master full in the face. The gladiators had by this time gathered
+round; like schoolboys at play they were ripe for mischief, and, like
+schoolboys, it needed but the merest trifle to urge them into any extreme,
+either of good or evil.
+
+"A soldier!" exclaimed Euchenor, "then you fear not steel!"--at the same
+moment he snatched a short two-edged sword from the wall, and delivered a
+thrust with it full at the old man's breast. Calchas moved not a muscle;
+his colour neither rose nor fell; his eyelash never quivered as he looked
+steadily at the Greek, who probably only intended a brutal jest, and cared
+but little how dangerous might be its result. The point had reached the
+folds of the visitor's gown, when Rufus dashed it aside with his hand,
+while Hippias dealt the offender a buffet, which sent him reeling to the
+opposite wall.
+
+"What now?" exclaimed the professor, in a tone with which a man rates a
+disobedient hound. "What now? Am I not master here?"
+
+The others looked on approvingly. The jest was well suited to their
+habits. They were amused at the discomfiture of the Greek, and pleased
+with the coolness shown by an old man of such unwarlike exterior. Esca,
+however, strode up to his friend's side, and glared about him in a manner
+that boded no good to the originator of any more such aggressions, either
+in sport or earnest.
+
+"Thou hast hurt the youth," remarked Calchas, in as unmoved a tone as
+would have become the fiercest gladiator of the school. "Thou hast hurt
+him, and he was but in jest after all. In truth, Hippias, I have not seen
+so goodly a buffet dealt since I came to Rome. That arm of thine can
+strike to some purpose, and thy pupils are, like their master, brave, and
+strong, and skilful. I have heard of the legion called Invincible, surely
+I have found it here. My sons, are you not the Invincibles?"
+
+He spoke so quietly they knew not whether he was jesting with them; but
+the flattering title tickled their ears pleasantly enough, and the
+gladiators crowded round him, with shouts of encouragement and mirth.
+
+"Invincibles!" they laughed. "Invincibles! Well said, old man! yes, we are
+the Invincibles. Who can stand against the Family? Hast come to join us?
+We shall have plenty of space in the ranks ere another moon be old."
+
+"Give him a sword, one of you!" exclaimed Rufus; "let us see what he can
+do with Lutorius. The Gaul has had a bellyful already; press him, old man,
+and he must go down!"
+
+"Nay, let him have a bout with the wooden foils," laughed Hirpinus. "He is
+but young and tender. He would sicken at the sight of blood."
+
+"Or a cast with the net and trident," continued Manlius.
+
+"Or a round with the _cestus_," observed Euchenor; adding with a sneer, "I
+myself am ready to exchange a buffet or two with him, for sheer goodwill."
+
+"Hold! my new comrades," interposed Esca, with rising colour. "In my
+country we are taught to venerate grey hairs. If ye are so keen for
+_cestus_, lance, and sword-play, here am I, untried and inexperienced,
+willing to stand against the best of you, from now till sundown."
+
+The gladiators gathered round the last speaker somewhat angrily; the
+challenge was indeed a bold one in such company, and a contest begun in
+play amongst those turbulent spirits, might end, not improbably, in too
+fatal earnest; but Hippias cut the matter short by commanding silence, in
+loud imperious tones, and, turning to the new-comer, bade him state at
+once the business that had brought him there and have done with it.
+
+"I came here," said the old man, looking round with a glance of mingled
+pity and admiration; "I came here to see, with my own eyes, the band of
+Invincibles. I have already told you that I too am a soldier, whose duty
+it is to go down, if need be, daily unto death."
+
+There was something so quiet and earnest in the speaker's manner, such an
+absence of self-consciousness or apprehension, a sincerity and goodwill so
+frank and evident, that the rude fierce men whom he addressed could not
+but give him their attention. There was all the interest of novelty in
+beholding one whose appearance and habits were so at variance with their
+own, thus throwing himself fearlessly on their forbearance, and trusting,
+as it were, to that higher nature, which, dormant though it might be, each
+man felt to exist within himself. Even Hippias acknowledged the influence
+of his visitor's confidence, and answered graciously enough--
+
+"If you are a soldier, I need not tell you that we are but on the drill-
+ground here. You will see my band to better advantage when they defile by
+Caesar at the games of Ceres."
+
+Calchas looked inquiringly round.
+
+"And the chorus," said he, "that I have heard ring out in such a warlike
+tone, as your ranks marched past the imperial chair; are you perfect in
+it, my friends? Do you practise the chant as you do your sword-play and
+your wrestling?"
+
+He had fixed their attention now. Half-interested, half-amused at his
+strange persistency, they looked laughingly at each other, and their deep
+voices burst out into the wild and thrilling cadence of their fatal dirge--
+
+_Ave, Caesar! Morituri te salutant!_
+
+As the last notes died away, silence pervaded the school; to the rudest
+and most reckless, there was something suggestive in the sounds they knew
+too well would be the last music they should hear on earth. Calchas turned
+suddenly upon Hippias.
+
+"And the wages Caesar gives your men?" said he; "since he buys them body
+and bones, they must be very costly. How many thousand sesterces doth he
+pay for each?"
+
+A brutal laugh echoed round him at the question.
+
+"Sesterces!" answered Hippias. "Nay; Caesar's generosity provides
+handsomely for the training and nourishment of his swordsmen."
+
+"True enough!" added Rufus, at which there was another laugh. "He finds us
+in meat, and drink, and burial!"
+
+"No more?" said Calchas. "Yet I have been told that in Rome everything
+fetches its price; but little did I think such men as these could be
+bought for less money than a Syrian dancing-girl, or a senator's white
+horses. So you are willing to toil day after day, harder than the peasant
+on the hillside, or the oarsman in the galley, to live simply,
+temperately, ay, virtuously, for months together, and then to face certain
+death, often in its ghastliest form, for the wages a Roman citizen gives
+his meanest slave--a morsel of meat and a draught of wine! If you conquer
+in the struggle, a branch of palm may be added to a handful of silver, and
+you deem your reward is more than enough. Truly, I am old and feeble,
+these hands are little worth to strike or parry, yet would I grudge to
+sell this worn-out body of mine at so mean a price."
+
+"You told us you were a soldier," observed Rufus, on whom the argument of
+relative value seemed to make no slight impression.
+
+"So I am," replied Calchas; "but not at such a low rate of pay as yours.
+My duties are not heavy. I am not forced to toil all day, nor to watch all
+night. My head aches with no weighty helmet; breastplate and greaves of
+steel do not gall my body nor cumber my limbs. I have neither trench to
+dig, nor mound to raise, nor eagles to guard. I need not stand, like you,
+against my comrade and my friend, with my point at his throat, and slay
+the man who has been to me even as a brother, lest he slay me. Yet, though
+my labours be so easy, and my service be so deficient and inadequate, all
+the gold and jewels you have seen glistening in a triumph, all the
+treasures of Caesar and of Rome, would not equal the reward I hope to
+earn."
+
+The gladiators looked from one to the other with glances of astonishment
+and curiosity. This was a subject that spoke to their personal interest,
+and roused their feelings accordingly.
+
+"Are there vacancies in your ranks, comrade?" asked Hirpinus, using the
+military form of speech habitually affected by his profession. "Will you
+enrol a man of muscle like myself, who has been looking all his life for a
+service in which there is little to do and plenty to get? Take my word for
+it, you will not long want for recruits."
+
+"There is room for all, and to spare," answered Calchas, raising his voice
+till it rung through every corner of the building. "My Captain will enlist
+you freely, and without reserve. Only you come to Him and range yourselves
+under His banner, and stand by Him for a few short watches, a week, a
+month, a decade or two of years at the most, and He will stand by you when
+Caesar and his legions are scattered to the four winds of heaven; ay, and
+long after that, for ages and ages rolling on in a circle that has no end!
+Will you come, brave hearts? I have authority to receive you, man by man."
+
+"Where is your Captain?" asked Hirpinus. "He must needs have a large
+following. Is he here in Rome? Can we see him ere we take the oaths and
+raise the standard? Comrades!" he added, looking round, "this old man
+speaks as though he were in earnest. Nay, he would scarcely dare to laugh
+in our very beards!"
+
+"You might have seen Him," answered Calchas, "not forty years ago, as I
+myself did, on the sunny plains of Syria. You will not see Him now, till a
+pinch of dust has been sprinkled on your brow, and the death-penny put
+into your mouth. Then, when you have crossed the dark river, He will be
+waiting for you on the other side."
+
+The gladiators looked at one another. "What means he?" said they. "Is he
+mad?" "Is he an augur?" "Doth he deal in magic?" Rufus reared his tall
+head above the throng. "Would you have us believe in what we cannot see?"
+was the apposite question of that practical swordsman. The old man drew
+his mantle round his shoulders with the air of one who prepares for
+argument. All he wanted was a fair hearing.
+
+"Which is the nobler gift," he asked, "a strong body, or a gallant heart?
+Ye have fought many times, most of you, in the arena. Answer me
+truly--which is the conqueror, courage or strength?"
+
+"Courage," they exclaimed, with one voice; all except Euchenor, who
+muttered something about skill and good fortune being preferable to
+either.
+
+"And yet you cannot see it," resumed Calchas. "Will you therefore argue
+that it cannot exist? Is there one of you here that doth not feel a
+something wanting to complete his daily existence? Why do you long for the
+smiles of women, and the bubble of the winecup? Why can you not rest when
+the training of to-day is over, for thinking of the labours of to-morrow?
+Why are you always anxious, always anticipating, always dissatisfied?
+Because a man consists of two parts, the body and the spirit; because his
+life is made up of two phases, the present and the future. Your bodies
+belong to Caesar, let him have them to do with them what he likes, to-day,
+to-morrow, at the games of Ceres, at the feast of Neptune, what matter?
+But the spirit, the man within you, is your own. He it is who doth not
+wince when the javelin pierces to the quick, or the wild beast rends to
+the marrow. He it is who quails not when the level sweep of sand seems to
+rock beneath him, and heave up against his face; when the white garments
+and eager faces of the crowd spin round him faster and faster as they fade
+upon his darkening eye. He is the better man of the two, and he will live
+for ever. Shall you not provide for _him_? What is your present? Much
+trouble, many hours of toil. A foot or two of steel in the hand, and a
+dash at a comrade's throat, then a back-fall below the equestrian benches,
+and so the future begins. Do you think there is nothing better there than
+old Charon's ferry-boat, and the pale misty banks of the uncertain river?
+I know the way to a golden land far brighter and fairer than the fabled
+islands of the West. There is a high wall round it, and the gate is low
+and narrow; but the key stands in the lock, and you need no death-penny to
+purchase entrance for the poorest of you. Go to the door in rags, with no
+other possession but the hope and trust that you may crawl in upon your
+knees, and it opens ere you have knocked."
+
+Something in each man's heart told him, as he listened, that if he could
+but believe this, the conviction was worth more than all the treasures of
+the empire put together. Liable as were these gladiators to stand in the
+jaws of death at a day's notice, there was something inexpressibly
+elevating in the idea that the supreme moment which the most careless of
+them could not but sometimes picture to himself, was the mere passage to a
+nobler state of existence. The words of a man who is telling what he
+himself implicitly believes to be the truth, carry with them no small
+amount of persuasion; and when Calchas paused, the swordsmen looked
+doubtingly at him with eyes in which incredulity and admiration were
+strangely mingled; not without a certain wistful gleam of hope. Hippias,
+indeed, whose tastes inclined him to materialism, and his reflections to
+utter disbelief in everything save the temper of a blade, seemed disposed
+to cut the matter short, as being a waste of valuable time; but the
+anxiety of his pupils, and especially of Esca, to hear more of the glowing
+promises held out, induced him to fold his arms and listen, with a smile
+of conscious superiority, not devoid of contempt.
+
+"And the Captain who leads us?" asked the Gaul, after a whisper and a push
+from Hirpinus. "What of him? Your promises are fair enough, I grant you,
+but I would fain know with whom I serve."
+
+Not one of them but noted the gleam on the old man's face, as he replied--
+
+"The Captain went up to death with a patient, calm, and kindly face, for
+you, and you, and you, and me--for those who had never seen Him; for those
+who mistrusted Him; for those who failed Him, and turned back from Him at
+His need. Nay, for those who tortured and slew Him, and whom He forgave
+with the free full forgiveness of a God!--ay, of a God! Which of your gods
+has done as much for you? When did one of them leave their Mount Olympus,
+save for some human need, or some human mission of bloodshed and crime?
+Where is the king who would give up an earthly throne, and go voluntarily
+to a shameful death for the sake of his people? You are men, my
+friends--brave, resolute, hearty men; what would you have in him whom you
+serve? courage, patience, mercy, goodwill to all? What think ye of Him who
+left the rulership of the whole universe, and went so willingly to die,
+that He might buy you to be His own here and hereafter? Come and range
+yourselves under His standard. I will tell you of Him day by day. There is
+no jealousy amongst His soldiers. The service is easy; He has told us so
+Himself; and neither mine nor any mortal tongue can calculate the reward."
+
+"Enough of this!" interrupted Hippias, noting the eager looks and excited
+gestures of the swordsmen; interpreting, as he did, the words of Calchas
+in their literal sense, and fearing lest he might, indeed, lose the
+services of the daring band, on whose blood it was his trade to live.
+"Enough of this, old man! We have heard you patiently, and now begone! My
+gladiators have enlisted under Caesar, and they will not desert their
+standard for any inducement you can offer. I know not why I have listened
+to you so long; but trespass not further on my forbearance. This building
+is no Athenian school of rhetoric; and the only arguments acknowledged by
+Hippias, are those which may be parried with two foot of steel.
+Nevertheless, go in peace, old man, and fare you well."
+
+So Calchas went out from amongst these fierce and turbulent spirits,
+unharmed and well satisfied. He had sown a handful of the good seed, and
+knew that somewhere it would take root. More than one of the gladiators
+was already pondering on his words; and the young Briton, with his ardent
+nature, his kind heart, and his predisposition in favour of Mariamne's
+kinsman, had resolved that he would hear more of these new doctrines,
+which seemed to dawn upon him like light from another world.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XIX
+
+                                THE ARENA
+
+
+A hundred thousand tongues, whispering and murmuring with Italian
+volubility, send up a busy hum like that of an enormous beehive into the
+sunny air. The Flavian amphitheatre, Vespasian's gigantic concession to
+the odious tastes of his people, has not yet been constructed; and Rome
+must crowd and jostle in the great circus, if she would behold that
+slaughter of beasts, and those mortal combats of men, in which she now
+takes far more delight than in the innocent trials of speed and skill for
+which the enclosure was originally designed. That her luxurious citizens
+are dissatisfied even with this roomy edifice, is sufficiently obvious
+from the many complaints that accompany the struggling and pushing of
+those who are anxious to obtain a good place. To-day's bill-of-fare is
+indeed tempting to the morbid appetites of high and low. A rhinoceros and
+tiger are to be pitted against each other; and it is hoped that,
+notwithstanding many recent failures in such combats, these two beasts may
+be savage enough to afford the desired sport. Several pairs of gladiators,
+at least, are to fight to the death, besides those on whom the populace
+may show mercy, or from whom they may withhold it at will. In addition to
+all this, it has been whispered that one well-known patrician intends to
+exhibit his prowess on the deadly stage. Much curiosity is expressed, and
+many a wager has been already laid, on his name, his skill, the nature of
+his conflict, and the chances of his success. Though the circus be large
+enough to contain the population of a thriving city, no wonder that it is
+to-day full to the very brim. As usual in such assemblages, the hours of
+waiting are lightened by eating and drinking, by jests, practical and
+otherwise, by remarks, complimentary, sarcastic, or derisive, on the
+several notabilities who enter at short intervals, and take their places
+with no small stir and assumption of importance. The nobility and
+distinguished characters of this dissolute age are better known than
+respected by their plebeian fellow-citizens.
+
+There is, however, one exception. Though Valeria's Liburnians lay
+themselves open to no small amount of insolence, by the emphatic manner in
+which they make way for their mistress, as she proceeds with her usual
+haughty bearing to her place near the patrician benches--an insolence of
+which some of the more pointed missiles do not spare the scornful beauty
+herself--it is no sooner observed that she is accompanied by her kinsman,
+Licinius, than a change comes over the demeanour even of those who feel
+themselves most aggrieved, by being elbowed out of their places, and
+pushed violently against their neighbours, while admiring glances and a
+respectful silence denote the esteem in which the Roman general is held by
+high and low.
+
+It wants a few minutes yet of noon. The southern sun, though his intensity
+is modified by canvas awnings stretched over the spectators wherever it is
+possible to afford them shade, lights and warms up every nook and cranny
+of the amphitheatre; gleams in the raven hair of the Campanian matron, and
+the black eyes of the astonished urchin in her arms; flashes off the
+golden bosses that stud the white garments on the equestrian benches;
+bleaches the level sweep of sand so soon to bear the prints of mortal
+struggle, and flooding the lofty throne where Caesar sits in state, deepens
+the broad crimson hem that skirts his imperial garment, and sheds a
+deathlike hue over the pale bloated face, which betrays even now no sign
+of interest, or animation, or delight. Vitellius attends these brutal
+exhibitions with the same immobility that characterises his demeanour in
+almost all the avocations of life. The same listlessness, the same weary
+vacancy of expression, pervades his countenance here, as in the senate or
+the council. His eye never glistens but at the appearance of a favourite
+dish; and the emperor of the world can only be said to _live_ once in the
+twenty-four hours, when seated at the banquet.
+
+Insensibility seems, however, in all ages to be an affectation of the
+higher classes; and here, while the plebeians wrangle, and laugh, and
+chatter, and gesticulate, the patricians are apparently bent on proving
+that amusement is for them a simple impossibility, and suffering or
+slaughter matters of the most profound indifference. And on common
+occasions who so impassible, so cold, so unmoved by all that takes place
+around her, as the haughty Valeria? but to-day there is an unusual gleam
+in the grey eyes, a quiver of the lip, a fixed red spot on either cheek;
+adding new charms to her beauty, not lost upon the observers who surround
+her.
+
+Quoth Damasippus to Oarses (for the congenial rogues stand, as usual,
+shoulder to shoulder)--
+
+"I would not that the patron saw her now. I never knew her look so fair as
+this. Locusta must have left her the secret of her love philtres."
+
+"Oh, innocent!" replies the other. "Knowest thou not that the patron
+fights to-day? Seest thou her restless hands, and that fixed smile, like
+the mask of an old Greek player? She loves him; trust me, therefore, she
+has lost her power, were she subtle as Arachne. Dost not know the patron?
+To do him justice, he never prizes the stakes when he has won the game."
+
+And the two fall to discussing the dinner they have brought with them, and
+think they are perfectly familiar with the intricacies of a woman's
+feelings. Meantime Valeria seems to cling to Licinius as though there were
+some spell in her kinsman's presence to calm that beating heart of which
+she is but now beginning to learn the wayward and indomitable nature. For
+the twentieth time she asks: "Is he prepared at all points? Does he know
+every feint of the deadly game? Are his health and strength as perfect as
+training can make them? And oh, my kinsman! is he confident in himself?
+Does he feel sure that he will win?"
+
+To which questions, Licinius, though wondering at the interest she betrays
+in such a matter, answers as before--
+
+"All that skill, and science, and Hippias can do, has been done. He has
+the advantage in strength, speed, and height. Above all, he has the
+courage of his nation. As they get fiercer they get cooler, and they are
+never so formidable as when you deem them vanquished. I could not sit here
+if I thought he would be worsted."
+
+Then Valeria took comfort for a while, but soon she moved restlessly on
+her cushions.
+
+"How I wish they would begin!" said she; yet every moment of delay seemed
+at the same time to be a respite of priceless value, even while it added
+to the torture of suspense.
+
+Many hearts were beating in that crowd with love, hope, fear, and anxiety;
+but perhaps none so wildly as those of two women, separated but by a few
+paces, and whose eyes some indefinable attraction seemed to draw
+irresistibly towards each other. While Valeria, in common with many ladies
+of distinction, had encroached upon the space originally allotted to the
+vestal virgins, and established, by constant attendance in the
+amphitheatre, a prescriptive right to a cushioned seat for herself and her
+friends, women of lower rank were compelled to station themselves in an
+upper gallery allotted to them, or to mingle on sufferance with the crowd
+in the lower tier of places, where the presence of a male companion was
+indispensable for protection from annoyance, and even insult.
+Nevertheless, within speaking distance of the haughty Roman lady stood
+Mariamne, accompanied by Calchas, trembling with fear and excitement in
+every limb, yet turning her large dark eyes upon Valeria, with an
+expression of curiosity and interest that could only have been aroused by
+an instinctive consciousness of feelings common to both. The latter, too,
+seemed fascinated by the gaze of the Jewish maiden, now bending on her a
+haughty and inquiring glance, anon turning away with a gesture of affected
+disdain; but never unobservant, for many seconds together, of the dark
+pale beauty and her venerable companion.
+
+When she was at last fairly wedged in amongst the crowd, Mariamne could
+hardly explain to herself how she came there. It had been with great
+difficulty that she persuaded Calchas to accompany her; and, indeed,
+nothing but his interest in Esca, and the hope that he might, even here,
+find some means of doing good, would have tempted the old man into such a
+scene. It was with many a burning blush and painful thrill that she
+confessed to herself, she must go mad with anxiety were she absent from
+the death-struggle to be waged by the man whom she now knew she loved so
+dearly; and it was with a wild defiant recklessness that she resolved if
+aught of evil should befall him to give herself up thenceforth to despair.
+She felt as if she was in a dream; the sea of faces, the jabber of
+tongues, the strange novelty of the spectacle, confused and wearied her;
+yet through it all Valeria's eye seemed to look down on her with an
+ominous boding of ill; and when, with an effort, she forced her senses
+back into self-consciousness, she felt so lonely, so frightened, and so
+unhappy, that she wished she had never come.
+
+And now, with peal of trumpets and clash of cymbals, a burst of wild
+martial music rises above the hum and murmur of the seething crowd. Under
+a spacious archway, supported by marble pillars, wide folding-doors are
+flung open, and two by two, with stately step and slow, march in the
+gladiators, armed with the different weapons of their deadly trade. Four
+hundred men are they, in all the pride of perfect strength and symmetry,
+and high training, and practised skill. With head erect and haughty
+bearing, they defile once round the arena, as though to give the
+spectators an opportunity of closely scanning their appearance, and halt
+with military precision to range themselves in line under Caesar's throne.
+For a moment there is a pause and hush of expectation over the multitude,
+while the devoted champions stand motionless as statues in the full glow
+of noon; then bursting suddenly into action, they brandish their gleaming
+weapons over their heads, and higher, fuller, fiercer, rises the terrible
+chant that seems to combine the shout of triumph with the wail of
+suffering, and to bid a long and hopeless farewell to upper earth, even in
+the very recklessness and defiance of its despair--
+
+"Ave, Caesar! Morituri te salutant!"
+
+Then they wheel out once more, and range themselves on either side of the
+arena; all but a chosen band who occupy the central place of honour, and
+of whom every second man at least is doomed to die. These are the picked
+pupils of Hippias; the quickest eyes and the readiest hands in the Family;
+therefore it is that they have been selected to fight by pairs to the
+death, and that it is understood no clemency will be extended to them from
+the populace.
+
+With quickened breath and eager looks, Valeria and Mariamne scan their
+ranks in search of a well-known figure: both feel it to be a questionable
+relief that he is not there; but the Roman lady tears the edge of her
+mantle to the seam, and the Jewish girl offers an incoherent prayer in her
+heart, for she knows not what.
+
+Esca's part is not yet to be performed, and he is still in the background,
+preparing himself carefully for the struggle. The rest of the Family,
+however, muster in force. Tall Rufus stalks to his appointed station with
+a calm business-like air that bodes no good to his adversary, whoever he
+may be. He has fought too often not to feel confident in, his own
+invincible prowess; and when compelled to despatch a fallen foe, he will
+do it with sincere regret, but none the less dexterously and effectually
+for that. Hirpinus, too, assumes his usual air of jovial hilarity. There
+is a smile on his broad good-humoured face; and though, notwithstanding
+the severity of his preparation, his huge muscles are still a trifle too
+full and lusty, he will be a formidable antagonist for any fighter whose
+proportions are less than those of a Hercules. As the crowd pass the
+different combatants in review, none, with the exception perhaps of Rufus,
+have more backers than their old favourite. Lutorius, too, notwithstanding
+his Gallic origin, which places him but one remove, as it were, from a
+barbarian, finds no slight favour with those who pride themselves on their
+experience in such matters. His great activity and endurance, combined
+with thorough knowledge of his weapon, have made him the victor in many a
+public contest. As Damasippus observes to his friend, "Lutorius can always
+tire out an adversary and despatch him at leisure;" to which Oarses
+replies, "If he be pitted to-day against Manlius, I will wager thee a
+thousand sesterces blood is not drawn in the first three assaults."
+
+The pairs had already been decided by lot; but amongst the score of
+combatants who were to fight to the death, these formidable champions were
+the most celebrated, and as such the especial favourites of the populace.
+Certain individuals in the crowd, who were sufficiently familiar with the
+gladiators to exchange a word of greeting, and to call them by their
+names, derived, in consequence, no small increase of importance amongst
+the bystanders. The swordsmen, although now ranged in order round the
+arena, are destined, for a time at least, to remain inactive. The sports
+are to commence with a combat between a lately imported rhinoceros, and a
+Libyan tiger, already familiarly known to the public, as having destroyed
+two or three Christian victims and a negro slave. It is only in the event
+of these animals being unwilling to fight, or becoming dangerous to the
+spectators, that Hippias will call in the assistance of his pupils for
+their destruction. In the meantime, they have an excellent view of the
+conflict, though perhaps it might be seen in greater comfort from the
+farther and safer side of the barrier.
+
+Vitellius, with a feeble inclination of his head, signs to begin, and a
+portable wooden building which has been wheeled into the lists, creating
+no little curiosity, is now taken to pieces by a few strokes of the
+hammer. As the slaves carry away the dismembered boards, with the rapidity
+of men in terror of their lives, a huge, unwieldy beast stands disclosed,
+and the rhinoceros of which they have been talking for the last week
+bursts on the delighted eyes of the Roman public. These are perhaps a
+little disappointed at first, for the animal seems peaceably, not to say
+indolently, disposed. Taking no notice of the shouts which greet his
+appearance, he digs his horned muzzle into the sand in search of food, as
+though secure in the overlapping plates of armour that sway loosely on his
+enormous body, with every movement of his huge ungainly limbs. So intent
+are the spectators on this rare monster, that their attention is only
+directed to the farther end of the arena by the restlessness which the
+rhinoceros at length exhibits. He stamps angrily with his broad flat feet,
+his short pointed tail is furiously agitated, and the gladiators who are
+near him observe that his little eye is glowing like a coal. A long, low,
+dark object lies coiled up under the barrier as though seeking shelter,
+nor is it till the second glance that Valeria, whose interest, in common
+with that of the multitude, is fearfully excited, can make out the
+fawning, cruel head, the glaring eyes, and the striped sinewy form of the
+Libyan tiger.
+
+In vain the people wait for him to commence the attack. Although he is
+sufficiently hungry, having been kept for more than a day without food, it
+is not his nature to carry on an open warfare. Damasippus and Oarses jeer
+him loudly as he skulks under the barrier; and Calchas cannot forbear
+whispering to Mariamne, that "a curse has been on the monster since he
+tore the brethren limb from limb, in that very place, for the glory of the
+true faith." The rhinoceros, however, seems disposed to take the
+initiative; with a short labouring trot he moves across the arena, leaving
+such deep footprints behind him, as sufficiently attest his enormous bulk
+and weight. There is a flash like real fire from the tiger's eyes,
+hitherto only sullen and watchful--his waving tail describes a semicircle
+in the sand--and he coils himself more closely together, with a deep low
+growl; even now he is not disposed to fight save at an advantage.
+
+  [Illustration: 'with a short labouring trot he moves across the arena.']
+
+A hundred thousand pairs of eyes, straining eagerly on the combatants,
+could scarce detect the exact moment at which that spring was made. All
+they can now discern is the broad mailed back of the rhinoceros swaying to
+and fro, as he kneels upon his enemy, and the grating of the tiger's claws
+against the huge beast's impenetrable armour can be heard in the farthest
+corner of the gallery that surrounds the amphitheatre. The leap was made
+as the rhinoceros turned his side for an instant towards his adversary;
+but with a quickness marvellous in a beast of such prodigious size, he
+moved his head round in time to receive it on the massive horn that armed
+his nose, driving the blunt instrument, from sheer muscular strength,
+right through the body of the tiger, and finishing his work by falling on
+him with his knees, and pressing his life out under that enormous weight.
+Then he rose unhurt, and blew the sand out of his nostrils, and left, as
+it seemed, unwillingly, the flattened, crushed, and mangled carcass,
+turning back to it once and again, with a horrible, yet ludicrous,
+pertinacity, ere he suffered the Ethiopians who attended him to lure him
+out of the amphitheatre with a bundle or two of green vegetable food.
+
+The people shouted and applauded loudly. Blood had been drawn, and their
+appetite was sharpened for slaughter. It was with open undisguised
+satisfaction that they counted the pairs of gladiators, and looked forward
+to the next act of the entertainment.
+
+Again the trumpets sound, and the swordsmen range themselves in opposite
+bodies, all armed alike with a deep concave buckler, and a short,
+stabbing, two-edged blade; but distinguished by the colour of their
+scarves. Wagers are rapidly made on the green and the red; so skilfully
+has the experienced Hippias selected and matched the combatants, that the
+oldest patrons of the sport confess themselves at a loss which to choose.
+
+The bands advance against each other, three deep, in imitation of the real
+soldiers of the empire. At the first crash of collision, when steel begins
+to clink, as thrust and blow and parry are exchanged by these practised
+warriors, the approbation of the spectators rises to enthusiasm; but men's
+voices are hushed, and they hold their breath when the strife begins to
+waver to and fro, and the ranks open out and disengage themselves, and
+blood is to be seen in patches on those athletic frames, and a few are
+already down, lying motionless where they fell. The green is giving way,
+but their third rank has been economised, and its combatants are as yet
+fresh and untouched; these now advance to fill the gaps made among their
+comrades, and the fortunes of the day seem equalised once more.
+
+And now the arena becomes a ghastly and forbidding sight; they die hard,
+these men, whose very trade is slaughter; but mortal agony cannot always
+suppress a groan, and it is pitiful to see some prostrate giant,
+supporting himself painfully on his hands, with drooping head and fast-
+closing eye fixed on the ground, while the life-stream is pouring from his
+chest into the thirsty sand. It is real sad earnest, this representation
+of war, and resembles the battle-field in all save that no prisoners are
+taken and quarter is but rarely given. Occasionally, indeed, some
+vanquished champion, of more than common beauty, or who has displayed more
+than common address and courage, so wins on the favour of the spectators,
+that they sign for his life to be spared. Hands are turned outwards, with
+the thumb pointing to the earth, and the victor sheathes his sword, and
+retires with his worsted antagonist from the contest; but more generally
+the fallen man's signal for mercy is neglected; ere the shout "A hit!" has
+died upon his ears, his despairing eye marks the thumbs of his judges
+pointing upwards, and he disposes himself to welcome the steel with a calm
+courage, worthy of a better cause.
+
+The reserve, consisting of ten pairs of picked gladiators, has not yet
+been engaged. The green and the red have fought with nearly equal success;
+but when the trumpet has sounded a halt, and the dead have been dragged
+away by grappling-hooks, leaving long tracks of crimson in their wake, a
+careful enumeration of the survivors gives the victory by one to the
+latter colour. Hippias, coming forward in a suit of burnished armour,
+declares as much, and is greeted with a round of applause. In all her
+preoccupation, Valeria cannot refrain from a glance of approval at the
+handsome fencing-master; and Mariamne, who feels that Esca's life hangs on
+the man's skill and honesty, gazes at him with mingled awe and horror, as
+on some being of another world. But the populace have little inclination
+to waste the precious moments in cheering Hippias, or in calculating loss
+and gain. Fresh wagers are, indeed, made on the matches about to take
+place; but the prevailing feeling over that numerous assemblage is one of
+morbid excitement and anticipation. The ten pairs of men now marching so
+proudly into the centre of the lists, are pledged to fight to the death.
+
+It would be a disgusting task to detail the scene of bloodshed; to dwell
+on the fierce courage wasted, and the brutal useless slaughter perpetrated
+in those Roman shambles; yet, sickening as was the sight, so inured were
+the people to such exhibitions, so completely imbued with a taste for the
+horrible, and so careless of human life, that scarcely an eye was turned
+away, scarcely a cheek grew paler, when a disabling gash was received, or
+a mortal blow driven home; and mothers with babies in their arms would bid
+the child turn its head to watch the death-pang on the pale stern face of
+some prostrate gladiator.
+
+Licinius had looked upon carnage in many forms, yet a sad, grave
+disapproval sat on the general's noble features. Once, after a glance at
+his kinswoman's eager face, he turned from her with a gesture of anger and
+disgust; but Valeria was too intent upon the scene enacted within a few
+short paces to spare attention for anything besides, except, perhaps, the
+vague foreboding of evil that was gnawing at her heart, and to which such
+a moment of suspense as the present afforded a temporary relief.
+
+Rufus and Manlius had been pitted against each other by lot. The taller
+frame and greater strength of the former were supposed to be balanced by
+the latter's exquisite skill. Collars and bracelets were freely offered at
+even value amongst the senators and equestrians on each. While the other
+pairs were waging their strife with varying success in different parts of
+the amphitheatre, these had found themselves struggling near the barrier
+close under the seat occupied by Valeria. She could hear distinctly their
+hard-drawn breath; could read on each man's face the stern set expression
+of one who has no hope save in victory; for whom defeat is inevitable and
+instant death. No wonder she sat, so still and spell-bound, with her pale
+lips parted and her cold hands clenched.
+
+The blood was pouring from more than one gash on the giant's naked body,
+yet Rufus seemed to have lost neither coolness nor strength. He continued
+to ply his adversary with blow on blow, pressing him, and following him
+up, till he drove him nearly against the barrier. It was obvious that
+Manlius, though still unwounded, was overmatched and overpowered. At
+length Valeria drew in her breath with a gasp, as if in pain. It seemed as
+if she, the spectator, winced from that fatal thrust, which was accepted
+so calmly by the gladiator whom it pierced. Rufus could scarcely believe
+he had succeeded in foiling his adversary's defence, and driving it deftly
+home, so unmoved was the familiar face looking over its shield into his
+own--so steady and skilful was the return which instantaneously succeeded
+his attack. But that face was growing paler and paler with every
+pulsation. Valeria, gazing with wild fixed eyes, saw it wreathed in a
+strange sad smile, and Manlius reeled and fell where he stood, breaking
+his sword as he went down, and burying it beneath his body in the sand.
+The other strode over him in act to strike. A natural impulse of habit or
+self-preservation bade the fallen man half raise his arm, with the gesture
+by which a gladiator was accustomed to implore the clemency of the
+populace, but he recollected himself, and let it drop proudly by his side.
+Then he looked kindly up in his victor's face.
+
+"Through the heart, comrade," said he quietly, "for old friendship's
+sake;" and he never winced nor quailed when the giant drove the blow home
+with all the strength that he could muster.
+
+They had fed at the same board, and drunk from the same winecup for years;
+and this was all he had it in his power to bestow upon his friend. The
+people applauded loudly, but Valeria, who had heard the dead man's last
+appeal, felt her eyes fill with tears; and Mariamne, who had raised her
+head to look, at this unlucky moment, buried it once more in her kinsman's
+cloak, sick and trembling, ready to faint with pity, and dismay, and fear.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XX
+
+                         THE TRIDENT AND THE NET
+
+
+But a shout was ringing through the amphitheatre that roused the Jewish
+maiden effectually to the business of the day. It had begun in some far-
+off corner, with a mere whispered muttering, and had been taken up by
+spectator after spectator, till it swelled into a wild and deafening roar.
+"A Patrician! a Patrician!" vociferated the crowd, thirsting fiercely for
+fresh excitement, and palled with the vulgar carnage, yearning to see the
+red blood flow from some scion of an illustrious house. The tumult soon
+reached such a height as to compel the attention of Vitellius, who
+summoned Hippias to his chair, and whispered a few sentences in his ear.
+This somewhat calmed the excitement; and while the fencing-master's
+exertions cleared the arena of the dead and wounded, with whom it was
+encumbered, a general stir might have been observed throughout the
+assemblage, while each individual changed his position, and disposed
+himself more comfortably for sight-seeing, as is the custom of a crowd
+when anything of especial interest is about to take place. Ere long
+Damasippus and Oarses were observed to applaud loudly; and their example
+being followed by thousands of imitators, the clapping of hands, the
+stamping of feet, the cheers, and other vociferations rose with redoubled
+vigour, while Julius Placidus stepped gracefully into the centre of the
+arena, and made his obeisance to the crowd with his usual easy and
+somewhat insolent bearing.
+
+The tribune's appearance was well calculated to excite the admiration of
+the spectators, no mean judges of the human form, accustomed as they were
+to scan and criticise it in its highest state of perfection. His graceful
+figure was naked and unarmed, save for a white linen tunic reaching to the
+knee, and although he wore rings of gold round his ankles, his feet were
+bare to ensure the necessary speed and activity demanded by his mode of
+attack. His long dark locks, carefully curled and perfumed for the
+occasion, and bound by a single golden fillet, floated carelessly over his
+neck, while his left shoulder was tastefully draped, as it were, by the
+folds of the dangling net, sprinkled and weighted with small leaden beads,
+and so disposed as to be whirled away at once without entanglement or
+delay upon its deadly errand. His right hand grasped the trident, a three-
+pronged lance, some seven feet in length, capable of inflicting a fatal
+wound; and the flourish with which he made it quiver round his head
+displayed a practised arm and a perfect knowledge of the offensive weapon.
+
+To the shouts which greeted him--"Placidus! Placidus!" "Hail to the
+tribune!" "Well done the patrician order!" and other such demonstrations
+of welcome--he replied by bowing repeatedly, especially directing his
+courtesies to that portion of the amphitheatre in which Valeria was
+placed. With all his acuteness, little did the tribune guess how hateful
+he was at this moment to the very woman on whose behalf he was pledged to
+engage in mortal strife--little did he dream how earnest were her vows for
+his speedy humiliation and defeat. Valeria, sitting there with the red
+spots burning a deeper crimson in her cheeks, and her noble features set
+in a mask of stone, would have asked nothing better than to have leapt
+down from her seat, snatched up sword and buckler, of which she well knew
+the use, and done battle with him, then and there to the death.
+
+The tribune now walked proudly round the arena, nodding familiarly to his
+friends, a proceeding which called forth raptures of applause from
+Damasippus, Oarses, and other of his clients and freedmen. He halted under
+the chair of Caesar, and saluted the Emperor with marked deference; then,
+taking up a conspicuous position in the centre, and leaning on his
+trident, seemed to await the arrival of his antagonist. He was not kept
+long in suspense. With his eyes riveted on Valeria, he observed the fixed
+colour of her cheeks gradually suffusing face, neck, and bosom, to leave
+her as pale as marble when it faded, and turning round he beheld his
+enemy, marshalled into the lists by Hippias and Hirpinus--the latter, who
+had slain his man, thus finding himself at liberty to afford counsel and
+countenance to his young friend. The shouts which greeted the new-comer
+were neither so long nor so lasting as those that did honour to the
+tribune; nevertheless, if the interest excited by each were to be
+calculated by intensity rather than amount, the slave's suffrages would
+have far exceeded those of his adversary.
+
+Mariamne's whole heart was in her eyes as she welcomed the glance of
+recognition he directed exclusively to her; and Valeria, turning from one
+to the other, felt a bitter pang shoot to her very marrow, as she
+instinctively acknowledged the existence of a rival. Even at that moment
+of hideous suspense, a host of maddening feelings rushed through the Roman
+lady's brain. Many a sunburnt peasant woman, jostled and bewildered in the
+crowd, envied that sumptuous dame with her place apart, her stately
+beauty, her rich apparel, and her blazing jewels; but the peasant woman
+would have rued the exchange had she been forced to take, with these
+advantages, the passions that were laying waste Valeria's heart. Wounded
+pride, slighted love, doubt, fear, vacillation, and remorse, are none the
+more endurable for being clothed in costly raiment, and trapped out with
+gems and gold. While Mariamne, in her singleness of heart, had but one
+great and deadly fear--that he should fail--Valeria found room for a
+thousand anxieties and misgivings, of conflicting tendencies, and chafed
+under a distressing consciousness that she could not satisfy herself what
+it was she most dreaded or desired.
+
+Unprejudiced and uninterested spectators, however, had but one opinion as
+to the chances of the Briton's success. If anything could have added to
+the enthusiasm called forth by the appearance of Placidus, it was the
+patrician's selection of so formidable an antagonist. Esca, making his
+obeisance to Caesar, in the pride of his powerful form, and the bloom of
+his youth and beauty, armed, moreover, with helmet, shield, and sword,
+which he carried with the ease of one habituated to their use, appeared as
+invincible a champion as could have been chosen from the whole Roman
+Empire. Even Hirpinus, albeit a man experienced in the uncertainties of
+such contests, and cautious, if not in giving, at least in backing his
+opinion, whispered to Hippias that the patrician looked like a mere child
+by the side of their pupil, and offered to wager a flagon of the best
+Falernian "that he was carried out of the arena feet foremost within five
+minutes after the first attack, if he missed his throw!" To which the
+fencing-master, true to his habits of reticence and assumed superiority,
+vouchsafed no reply save a contemptuous smile.
+
+The adversaries took up their ground with exceeding caution. No advantage
+of sun or wind was allowed to either, and having been placed by Hippias at
+a distance of ten yards apart in the middle of the arena, neither moved a
+limb for several seconds, as they stood intently watching each other,
+themselves the centre on which all eyes were fixed. It was remarked that
+while Esca's open brow bore only a look of calm resolute attention, there
+was an evil smile of malice stamped, as it were, upon the tribune's
+face--the one seemed an apt representation of Courage and Strength--the
+other of Hatred and Skill.
+
+"He carries the front of a conqueror," whispered Licinius to his
+kinswoman, regarding his slave with looks of anxious approval. "Trust me,
+Valeria, we shall win the day. Esca will gain his freedom; the gilded
+chariot and the white horses shall bring him and me to your door to-morrow
+morning, and that gaudy tribune will have had a lesson, that I for one
+shall not be sorry to have been the means of bestowing on him."
+
+A bright smile lighted up Valeria's face, but she looked from the speaker
+to a dark-haired girl in the crowd below, and the expression of her
+countenance changed till it grew as forbidding as the tribune's, while she
+replied with a careless laugh----
+
+"I care not who wins now, Licinius, since they are both in the lists. To
+tell the truth, I did but fear the courage of this Titan of yours might
+fail him at the last moment, and the match would not be fought out after
+all. Hippias tells me the tribune is the best netsman he ever trained."
+
+He looked at her with a vague surprise; but following the direction of his
+kinswoman's eyes, he could not but remark the obvious distress and
+agitation of the cloaked figure on which they were bent. Mariamne, when
+she saw the Briton fairly placed, front to front with his adversary, had
+neither strength nor courage for more. Leaning against Calchas, the poor
+girl hid her face in her hands and wept as if her heart would break.
+
+Myrrhina, who no more than her mistress could have borne to be absent from
+such a spectacle, had forced her way into the crowd, accompanied by a few
+of Valeria's favourite slaves. Standing within three paces of the Jewess,
+that voluble damsel expatiated loudly on the appearance of the combatants,
+and her careless jests and sarcasms cut Mariamne to the quick. It was
+painful to hear her lover's personal qualities canvassed as though he were
+some handsome beast of prey, and his chance of life and death balanced
+with heartless nicety by the flippant tongue of a waiting-maid; but there
+was yet a deeper sting in store for her even than this. Myrrhina, having
+got an audience, was nothing loth to profit by their attention.
+
+"I'm sure," said she, "whichever way the match goes I don't know what my
+mistress will do. As for the tribune, he would get out of his chariot any
+day on the bare stones to kiss the very ground she walks on; and yet, if
+he dare so much as to leave a scratch upon that handsome youth's skin, he
+need never come to our doors again. Why, time after time have I hunted
+that boy all over the city to bring him home with me. And it's no light
+matter for a slave and a barbarian to have won the favour of the proudest
+lady in Rome. See how he looks up at her now, before they begin!"
+
+The light words wounded very sore; and Mariamne raised her head for one
+glance at the Briton, half in fond appeal, half to protest, as it were,
+against the slander she had heard. What she saw, however, left no room in
+her loving heart for any feeling save intense horror and suspense.
+
+With his eye fixed on his adversary, Esca was advancing, inch by inch,
+like a tiger about to spring. Covering the lower part of his face and most
+of his body with his buckler, and holding his short two-edged sword with
+bended arm and threatening point, he crouched to at least a foot lower
+than his natural stature, and seemed to have every muscle and sinew
+braced, to dash in like lightning when the opportunity offered. A false
+movement, he well knew, would be fatal, and the difficulty was to come to
+close quarters, as, directly he was within a certain distance, the deadly
+cast was sure to be made. Placidus, on the other hand, stood perfectly
+motionless. His eye was unusually accurate, and he could trust his
+practised arm to whirl the net abroad at the exact moment when its sweep
+would be irresistible. So he remained in the same collected attitude, his
+trident shifted into the left hand, his right foot advanced, his right arm
+wrapped in the gathered folds of the net which hung across his body, and
+covered the whole of his left side and shoulder. Once he tried a scornful
+gibe and smile to draw his enemy from his guard, but in vain; and though
+Esca, in return, made a feint with the same object, the former's attitude
+remained immovable, and the latter's snake-like advance continued with
+increasing caution and vigilance.
+
+An inch beyond the fatal distance, Esca halted once more. For several
+seconds the combatants thus stood at bay, and the hundred thousand
+spectators crowded into that spacious amphitheatre held their breath, and
+watched them like one man.
+
+At length the Briton made a false attack, prepared to spring back
+immediately and foil the netsman's throw, but the wily tribune was not to
+be deceived, and the only result was that, without appearing to shift his
+ground, he moved an arm's length nearer his adversary. Then the Briton
+dashed in, and this time in fierce earnest. Foot, hand, and eye, all
+together, and so rapidly, that the tribune's throw flew harmless over his
+assailant's head, Placidus only avoiding his deadly thrust by the cat-like
+activity with which he leaped aside; then, turning round, he scoured
+across the arena for life, gathering his net for a fresh cast as he flew.
+"Coward!" hissed Valeria, between her set teeth; while Mariamne breathed
+once more--nay, her bosom panted, and her eye sparkled with something like
+triumph at the approaching climax.
+
+She was premature, however, in her satisfaction, and Valeria's disdain was
+also undeserved. Though apparently flying for his life, Placidus was as
+cool and brave at that moment as when he entered the arena. Ear and eye
+were alike on the watch for the slightest false movement on the part of
+his pursuer; and ere he had half crossed the lists, his net was gathered
+up, and folded with deadly precision once more.
+
+The tribune especially prided himself on his speed of foot. It was on this
+quality that he chiefly depended for safety in a contest which at first
+sight appeared so unequal. He argued from the great strength of his
+adversary, that the latter would not be so pre-eminent in activity as
+himself; but he omitted to calculate the effects of a youth spent in the
+daily labours of the chase amongst the woods and mountains of Britain.
+Those following feet had many a time run down the wild goat over its
+native rocks. Faster and faster fly the combatants, to the intense delight
+of the crowd, who specially affect this kind of combat for the pastime it
+thus affords. Speedy as is the tribune, his foe draws nearer and nearer,
+and now, close to where Mariamne stands with Calchas, he is within a
+stride of his antagonist. His arm is up to strike! when a woman's shriek
+rings through the amphitheatre, startling Vitellius on his throne, and the
+sword flies aimlessly from the Briton's grasp as he falls forward on his
+face, and the impetus rolls him over and over in the sand.
+
+There is no chance for him now. He is scarcely down ere the net whirls
+round him, and he is fatally and helplessly entangled in its folds.
+Mariamne gazes stupefied on the prostrate form, with stony face and a
+fixed unmeaning stare. Valeria springs to her feet in a sudden impulse,
+forgetting for the moment where she is.
+
+Placidus, striding over his fallen enemy with his trident raised, and the
+old sneering smile deepening and hardening on his face, observed the cause
+of his downfall, and inwardly congratulated himself on the lucky chance
+which had alone prevented their positions being reversed. The blood was
+streaming from a wound in Esca's foot. It will be remembered that where
+Manlius fell, his sword was buried under him in the sand. On removing his
+dead body the weapon escaped observation, and the Briton, treading in hot
+haste on the very spot where it lay concealed, had not only been severely
+lacerated, but tripped up and brought to the ground by the snare.
+
+All this flashed through the conqueror's mind, as he stood erect, prepared
+to deal a blow that should close all accounts, and looked up to Valeria
+for the fatal sign.
+
+Maddened with rage and jealousy; sick, bewildered, and scarcely conscious
+of her actions, the Roman lady was about to give it, when Licinius seized
+her arms and held them down by force. Then, with a numerous party of
+friends and clients, he made a strong demonstration in favour of mercy.
+The speed of foot, too, displayed by the vanquished, and the obvious cause
+of his discomfiture, acted favourably on the majority of spectators. Such
+an array of hands turned outwards and pointing to the earth met the
+tribune's eye, that he could not but forbear his cruel purpose, so he gave
+his weapon to one of the attendants who had now entered the arena, took
+his cloak from the hands of another, and, with a graceful bow to the
+spectators, turned scornfully away from his fallen foe.
+
+Esca, expecting nothing less than immediate death, had his eyes fixed on
+the drooping figure of Mariamne; but the poor girl had seen nothing since
+his fall. Her last moment of consciousness showed her a cloud of dust, a
+confused mass of twine, and an ominous figure with arm raised in act to
+strike; then barriers and arena, and eager faces and white garments, and
+the whole amphitheatre, pillars, sand, and sky, reeled ere they faded into
+darkness; sense and sight failed her at the same moment, and she fainted
+helplessly in her kinsman's arms.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                *ANTEROS*
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER I
+
+                           THE LISTENING SLAVE
+
+
+                               [Initial W]
+
+Wounded, vanquished, transferred from his kind master, and farther from
+liberty than ever, Esca's was now indeed a pitiable lot. The tribune,
+entitled by the very terms of his wager to the life and person of his
+antagonist, was not the man to forego this advantage by any act of
+uncalled-for generosity. In the Briton he believed he now possessed a tool
+to use with effect, in furtherance of a work which the seductive image of
+Valeria rendered every day more engrossing; an auxiliary by whose aid he
+might eventually stand first in the good graces of the only woman who had
+ever obtained a mastery over his unyielding disposition and selfish heart.
+None the more on this account did he cherish the captive, nor alleviate
+his condition as a slave. From the effects of his injury, Esca could not
+be put to any harder kinds of labour, but in all menial offices, however
+degrading, he was compelled to take his share. Different, indeed, was his
+condition here from what it had been in the service of the high-minded
+Licinius, and bitterly did he feel the exchange.
+
+Submitting to sarcasm, insult, continued ill-treatment, and annoyance, the
+noble barbarian would have failed under the trial, had it not been for a
+few well-remembered words, on the truth of which Calchas had so often
+insisted, and in which (for when were human thoughts without an earthly
+leavening?) Mariamne seemed to cherish an implicit belief. Those words
+breathed hope and consolation under the very worst misfortunes that life
+could offer; and Esca suffered on, very silent, and tolerably patient,
+although, perhaps, there was a fiercer fire smouldering in his breast than
+would have been approved by his venerable monitor--a fire that only waited
+occasion to blaze out all the more dangerously for being thus forcibly
+suppressed.
+
+With a malicious pleasure, natural to his disposition, Placidus compelled
+the Briton to perform several domestic offices which brought him about his
+person. It flattered the tribune's vanity to have continually before his
+eyes the athletic frame he was so proud to have overcome; and it pleased
+him that his friends, guests, and clients should be thus led to converse
+upon his late encounter, which had created no small gossip in the
+fashionable world of Rome. It happened, then, that Esca, while preparing
+his master's bath, was startled to hear the name that was never long out
+of his own thoughts spoken in accents of caution and secrecy by the
+tribune himself, who was in the adjoining apartment, holding close
+consultation with Hippias the fencing-master and the two freedmen,
+Damasippus and Oarses. All were obviously interested in the subject under
+discussion, and, believing themselves safe from eaves-droppers, spoke
+energetically, though in tones somewhat lower than their wont.
+
+He started, and the blood ebbed painfully from his heart. "Mariamne!" yes,
+the word was again repeated, and while Oarses said something in a whisper,
+he could clearly distinguish the tribune's low mocking laugh. It was plain
+they were unaware of his presence; and, indeed, it was at an earlier hour
+than usual that he had made ready the unguents, perfumes, strigil, and
+other appliances indispensable to the luxurious ablutions of a Roman
+patrician. The bathroom was inside the favourite apartment of Placidus,
+where he was now holding counsel, and could only be entered through the
+latter, from which it was separated by a heavy velvet curtain. Esca,
+surrounded by the materials of the toilet, had been sitting for a longer
+time than he knew, lost in thought, until aroused by the mention of
+Mariamne's name. Thus it was that the four others believed the bathroom
+empty, and their conversation unheard.
+
+Anxious and excited, the Briton scarcely dared to draw his breath, but
+crept cautiously behind the folds of the heavy curtain, and listened
+attentively. The tribune was walking to and fro with the restless motions
+and stealthy gait of a tiger in its cage. Hippias, seated at his ease upon
+a couch, was examining the device of a breastplate, with his usual air of
+good-humoured superiority; and Damasippus, appealing with admiring looks
+to Oarses, who responded in kind, seemed to endorse, as it were, with a
+dependant's mute approval, the opinions and observations of his patron.
+
+"Two-thirds of the legions have already come over," said Placidus, rapidly
+enumerating the forces on which Vespasian's party could count. "In Spain,
+in Gaul, in Britain, the soldiers have declared openly against Vitellius.
+The surrender of Cremona can no longer be concealed from the meanest
+populace. Alexandria, the granary of the empire, has fallen into the hands
+of Vespasian. Those dusky knaves, thy countrymen, Oarses, will see us
+starve, ere they send us supplies under the present dynasty; and think ye
+our greasy plebeians here will endure the girdle of famine, thus drawn
+tighter, day by day, round their luxurious paunches? The fleet at Misenum
+was secured long ago, but the news that Caesar could not count upon a
+single galley in blue water only reached the capital to-day. Then the old
+Praetorians are ripe for mischief; you may trust them never to forget nor
+to forgive the disgrace of last year, when the chosen band was broke,
+dismissed, and, worst of all, deprived of rations and pay; I tell thee,
+Hippias, those angry veterans are ready to take the town without
+assistance, and put old and young to the sword. Fail! it is impossible we
+can fail; the new party outnumbers the old by ten to one!"
+
+"You have told off a formidable list," replied Hippias quietly; "I cannot
+see that you are in need of any further help from me or mine."
+
+Placidus shot a sharp questioning glance at the fencing-master, and
+resumed--
+
+"Half the numbers that have given in their adhesion to Vespasian would
+serve to put my chariot-boy on the throne; Automedon's long curls might be
+bound by a diadem to-morrow, were he the favourite of the hour, so far as
+Rome is concerned. You know what the masses are, my Hippias, for it is
+your trade to pander to their tastes, and rouse their enthusiasm. It is
+true that the great general is, at this moment, virtually ruler of the
+empire, but a pebble might turn the tide in the capital. I would not trust
+Vespasian's own son, young and dissipated as he is, could he but make a
+snatch at the reins with any hope of holding them firmly when once within
+his grasp. Titus Flavius Domitian might be emperor to-morrow, if he would
+be satisfied to wear the purple but for a week, and then make room for
+someone else. Nay, the people are fickle enough to be capable of turning
+round at any moment, and retaining our present admirable ruler on the
+throne. Rome must be coerced, my Hippias; the barbers, and cobblers, and
+water-carriers must be kept down and intimidated; if need be, we must cut
+a few garlic-breathing throats. It may be necessary to remove Caesar
+himself, lest the reactionary feeling should burst out again, and we
+should find ourselves left with nothing for our pains, but the choice of a
+cup of poison, a gasp in a halter, or three inches of steel. We _must_
+succeed this time, for not a man need hope for pardon if Caesar is
+thoroughly frightened. Hippias, there must be no half-measures now!"
+
+"Well said!" exclaimed the freedmen in a breath, with very pale faces,
+nevertheless, and an enthusiasm obviously somewhat against the grain.
+
+Hippias looked quietly up from the breastplate resting on his lap.
+
+"There will be shows," said he, "and blood flowing like water in the
+circus, whoever wears the purple. While Rome stands, the gladiator need
+never want for bread."
+
+"Now you speak like a man of sense," replied the tribune, in the same
+tone; "for after all, the whole matter resolves itself into a mere
+question of money. The shows are tolerably lucrative, at least to their
+contriver, but it takes many a festival ere the sesterces count by tens of
+thousands; and Hippias loves luxury and wine, and women too--nay, deny it
+not, my comely hero; and if the Family and their trainer could be hired at
+a fair price, for an hour's work or so, why they need never enter the
+arena again, save as spectators; nay, poorer men than their chief might be
+have sat in the equestrian rows, ere now."
+
+"You want to hire my chickens and myself for a forlorn hope," retorted
+Hippias impatiently. "Better say so at once, and be plain with me."
+
+"It is even so," resumed Placidus, with an assumption of extreme candour.
+"For real work I have few I can depend upon but the old Praetorians; and
+though they stick at nothing, there are hardly enough of them for my
+purpose. With a chosen two hundred of thine, my dealer in heroes, I could
+command Rome for twenty-four hours; and when Placidus soars into the sky,
+he carries Hippias on his wings. Speak out; thy terms are high, but such a
+game as ours is not played for a handful of pebbles or a few brass
+farthings. What is the price, man by man?"
+
+"You would require two hundred of them," observed the other reflectively.
+"Five thousand sesterces(11) a man, and his freedom, which would come to
+nearly as much more."
+
+"The killed not to count, of course," bargained the tribune.
+
+"Of course not," repeated Hippias. "Listen, most illustrious; I will take
+all chances, and supply the best men I have, for eight thousand a-head.
+Two hundred swordsmen who would take Pluto by the beard without a scruple,
+if I only lifted my hand. Lads who can hold their own against thrice their
+number of any legion that was ever drilled. They are ready at two hours'
+notice."
+
+He was speaking truth, for Hippias was honest enough in his own particular
+line. Amongst the thousands who owed their professional standing, and the
+very bread they ate, to the celebrated fencing-master, it was no hard task
+to select a company of dare-devils, such as he described, who would desire
+no better sport than to see their native city in flames, with the streets
+knee-deep in blood and wine, while they put men, women, and children
+indiscriminately to the sword. The tribune's eye brightened, as he thought
+of the fierce work he could accomplish with such tools as these ready to
+his hand.
+
+"Keep them for me, from to-day," he answered, looking round the apartment,
+as though to assure himself that he was only heard by those in his
+confidence. "My plan cannot but succeed if we only observe common secrecy
+and caution. Ten picked men, and thyself, my Hippias, I bid to sup with me
+here, the rest of the band shall be distributed by twenties amongst the
+different streets opening on the palace, preserving their communication
+thus: one man at a time must continually pass from each post to the next,
+until every twenty has been changed. This secures us from treachery, and
+will keep our cut-throats on the alert. At a given signal, all are to
+converge on the middle garden-gate, which will be found open. Then they
+may lead the old Praetorians to the attack, and take the palace itself by
+assault, in defiance of any resistance, however desperate, that can be
+made. The German guard are stubborn dogs, and must be put to the sword
+directly the outer hall is gained. I would not have them burn down the
+palace if they can help it; but when they have done _my_ work, they are
+welcome to all they can carry out of it on their backs, and you may tell
+them so."
+
+Hippias noted in his own mind this additional incentive with considerable
+satisfaction. After a moment's pause, he looked fixedly in the tribune's
+face, and inquired--
+
+"How would you wish your guests armed for the supper-party? Shall we bring
+our knives with us, kind host?"
+
+Placidus flushed a dark red, and then grew pale. He averted his eyes from
+Hippias, while he answered--
+
+"There are few weapons so true as the short two-edged sword. There will be
+work for our brave little party inside the palace, of which we must make
+no bungling. Is it such a grave matter, my Hippias, to slay a fat old
+man?" he added inquiringly.
+
+The other's face assumed an expression of intense disgust.
+
+"Nay," said he, "I will have no murder done in cold blood. As much
+fighting as you please, in the way of business, but we are no hired
+assassins, my men and I. To put one Caesar off the throne, and another on,
+is a pretty night's amusement enough, and I have no objection to it; but
+to take an old man out of his bed, even though he be an emperor, and slay
+him as you slay a fat sheep, I'll none of it. Send for a butcher, tribune;
+this is no trade of ours!"
+
+Placidus bit his lip, and seemed to think profoundly for a moment, then
+his brow cleared, and he resumed with a light laugh.
+
+"Far be it from me to offend a gladiator's scruples. I know the morals of
+the Family, and respect their prejudices. Half the money shall be in your
+hands within an hour; the rest shall be paid when the job is done. I think
+we understand each other well enough. Is it a bargain, Hippias? Can I
+depend upon you?"
+
+The fencing-master was not yet satisfied.
+
+"About the guests," he asked sternly; "how are we to pay for our supper?"
+
+Placidus clapped him on the shoulder, with a jovial laugh.
+
+"I will be frank with thee," said he, "old comrade. Why should there be
+secrets between thee and me? We go from my supper-table to the palace. We
+enter with the storming-party. I know the private apartments of the
+Emperor. I can lead our little band direct to the royal presence. Here we
+will rally round Vitellius, and take his sacred person into our charge.
+Hippias, I will make it ten thousand sesterces a man, for each of the ten,
+and thou shalt name thine own price for thine own services. But the
+Emperor must not escape. Dost thou understand me now?"
+
+"I like it not," replied the other; "but the price is fair enough, and my
+men must live. I would it could be so arranged that some resistance might
+be made in the palace; you slay a man so much easier with his helmet on
+and his sword in his hand!"
+
+"Pooh! prejudice!" laughed the tribune. "Professional fancies that spring
+from thy coarse material trade. Blood leaves no more stain than wine. You
+and I have spilt enough of both in our time. What matter, a throat cut or
+a cracked flagon of Falernian? Dash a pitcher of water over a marble floor
+like this, and you wash away the signs of both at once. Said I not well,
+Damasippus? Why, what ails thee, man? Thy face has turned as white as thy
+gown!"
+
+Damasippus, indeed, whose eyes were fixed upon the floor to which his
+patron had just alluded, presented, at this juncture, an appearance of
+intense terror and amazement. The freedman's mouth was open, his cheeks
+were deadly pale, and his very hair seemed to bristle with dismay.
+Pointing a shaking finger to the slabs of marble at his feet, he could
+only stammer out in broken accents: "May the gods avert the omen!" over
+and over again.
+
+The others, following the direction of his gaze, were no less astonished
+to see a narrow stream of crimson winding over the smooth white floor, as
+though the very stones protested against the tribune's reckless and
+inhuman sentiments. For an instant all stood motionless, then Placidus,
+leaping at the velvet curtain, tore it fiercely open, and discovered the
+cause of the phenomenon.
+
+Listening attentively for some further mention of the name that had roused
+his whole being, not a syllable of the foregoing conversation had been
+lost upon Esca, who, kneeling on one knee, with his wounded foot bent
+under him, and his ear applied close to the heavy folds of the curtain,
+had never moved a hair's-breadth from his attitude of fixed and absorbing
+attention. In this constrained position, the wound in his foot, which was
+not yet healed over, had opened afresh, and though he was himself
+unconscious of all but the cruel and treacherous scheme he overheard, it
+bled so freely that a dark stream stole gradually beneath the curtains,
+and crept gently along the marble to the very feet of the horror-stricken
+Damasippus.
+
+Esca sprang to his full height; in that moment his blood curdled, as it
+had done when he was down upon the sand, with his enemy's eye glaring on
+him through the cruel net. He knew the tribune, and he felt there was no
+hope. The latter laughed loud and long. It was his way of covering all
+disagreeable emotions, but it boded no good to the object of his mirth.
+When Esca heard that laugh he looked anxiously about him as though to seek
+a weapon. What was the use? He stood wounded and defenceless in the power
+of four reckless men, of whom two were armed.
+
+"Hold him!" exclaimed Placidus to his freedmen, drawing at the same time a
+short two-edged sword from its sheath. "It is unfortunate for the
+barbarian that he has learned our language. The necessity is disagreeable,
+but there is only one way of ensuring silence. My bath, too, is prepared,
+so I can spare him for to-day, and my freedmen will see that his place is
+supplied by to-morrow. Hold him, cowards! I say; do you fear that he will
+bite you?"
+
+Neither Damasippus nor Oarses, however, seemed much inclined to grapple
+with the stalwart Briton. Wounded and outnumbered as he was, without a
+chance of rescue or escape, there was yet a defiant carriage of the head,
+a fierce glare in the eye, that warned the freedmen to keep hands off him
+as long as they could. They looked at each other irresolutely, and shrank
+from the patron's glance. That moment's hesitation saved him. Hippias, who
+regarded every six feet of manhood with a brave heart inside it as his own
+peculiar property, had besides a kindly feeling for his old pupil. He put
+his muscular frame between the master and the slave.
+
+"Give him a day or two, tribune," said he carelessly. "I can find a better
+use for him than to cut his throat here on this clean white floor, and an
+equally safe one in the end, you may be sure."
+
+"Impossible, fool!" answered Placidus angrily. "He has heard enough to
+destroy every hair on the head of each of us. He must never leave this
+room alive!"
+
+"Only twenty-four hours," pleaded the fencing-master, who well knew how
+much at that time in Rome a day might bring forth. "Put him in ward as
+close as you will, but let him live till to-morrow. Hippias asks it as a
+favour to himself, and you may not like to be refused by him, when it is
+_your_ turn. What if I should say 'No' in the private apartments of the
+palace? Come, let us make a compromise."
+
+The tribune reflected for a moment. Then striking his right hand into that
+of Hippias--
+
+"Agreed," said he. "Twenty-four hours' grace on one side, and the sharpest
+blade in Rome at my disposal on the other. Ho! Damasippus, call some of my
+people in. Bid them put the new collar on the slave, and chain him to the
+middle pillar in the inner court."
+
+The order was punctually obeyed, and Esca found himself a helpless
+prisoner, burdened with a secret that might save the empire, and with
+maddening apprehensions on behalf of Mariamne tearing at his heart.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER II
+
+                            ATTACK AND DEFENCE
+
+
+Such beauty as the Jewess's, although she seldom went abroad, and led as
+sequestered a life as was compatible with the domestic duties she had to
+perform, could not pass unnoticed in a place like Rome. Notwithstanding
+the utter contempt in which her nation was held by its proud conquerors,
+she had been observed going to market in the morning for the few
+necessaries of her household, or filling her pitcher from the Tiber at
+sunset; and amongst other evil eyes that had rested on her fair young face
+were those of Damasippus, freedman to Julius Placidus the tribune. He had
+lost no time in reporting to his patron the jewel he had discovered, so to
+speak, in its humble setting; for, like the jackal, Damasippus never dared
+to hunt for himself, and followed after evil, not for its own sake, but
+for the lust of gold.
+
+His patron, too, though he had only seen the girl once, and then closely
+veiled, was so inflamed by the description of her charms, on which the
+client dwelt at great length, that he resolved to possess himself of her,
+in the sheer insolence of a great man's whim, promising the freedman that
+after the lion was served he should have the jackal's reward. It was in
+consequence of this agreement that a plot was laid of which Esca overheard
+but half a dozen syllables, and yet enough to render him very uneasy when
+he reflected on the recklessness and cruelty of him with whom it
+originated, and the slavish obedience with which it was sure to be carried
+out. It would have broken the spirit of a brave man to be chained to a
+pillar, fasting and wounded, with only twenty-four hours to live; and a
+keen suspicion that the woman he loved was even then all unconsciously
+walking into the toils, added a pang to bodily suffering which might have
+turned the stoutest heart to water, but Esca never lost hope altogether.
+Something he could not analyse seemed to give him comfort and support, nor
+was he aware that the blind vague trust he was beginning to entertain in
+some power above and beyond himself, yet on which he felt he could
+implicitly rely, was the first glimmer of the true faith dawning on his
+soul.
+
+Perhaps the slave in his chain, under sentence of death, bore a lighter
+heart than his luxurious master, washed, perfumed, and tricked out in all
+the glitter of dress and ornament, rolling in his gilded chariot to do
+homage to the woman who had really mastered his selfish heart. Automedon,
+whose eyes were of the sharpest, remarked that his lord was nervous and
+restless, that his cheek paled, and his lip shook more and more as they
+proceeded on their well-known way, and that when they neared the portals
+of Valeria's house the tribune's hand trembled so that he could scarcely
+fasten the brooch upon his shoulder. How white against the crimson mantle,
+dyed twice and thrice till it had deepened almost into purple, looked
+those uncertain fingers, quivering about the clasp of gold!
+
+However reckless, unprincipled, and cunning a man may be, he is inevitably
+disarmed by the woman he really loves. This is even the case when his
+affection is returned; but when he has fallen into the hands of one who,
+disliking him personally, has resolved to make him her tool, his situation
+is pitiable indeed. These hopeless passions, too, have in all ages been of
+the fiercest and the most enduring. Ill-usage on the one side or the other
+has not produced the effect that might be expected, and the figurative
+shirt of Nessus, instead of being torn off in shreds and cast away, has
+been far oftener hugged closer and closer to the skin, burning and
+blistering into the very marrow. It generally happens, too, that the
+suitor, whose whole existence seems to hang upon his success, blunders
+into the course that leads him in a direction exactly contrary to his
+goal. He is pretty sure to say and do the wrong thing at the wrong time.
+He offers his attentions with a pertinacity that wearies and offends, or
+withdraws them with a precipitation so transparent as to compel remark.
+When he should be firm, he is plaintive; when he is expected to be
+cheerful, he turns sulky. To enhance his own value he becomes boastful to
+the extreme verge, and sometimes beyond it, of the truth; or in order to
+prove his devotion, he makes himself ridiculous, and thereby deals the
+final and suicidal blow, if such indeed be necessary, that is to shatter
+like glass the fabric of his hopes.
+
+The tribune knew women thoroughly. He could plead no lack of experience,
+for ignorance of that intricate and puzzling labyrinth, a woman's heart.
+He had, indeed, broken more than one in the process of examination, and
+yet the boy Automedon, sitting by his side in the chariot, with the wind
+lifting his golden curls, would hardly have been guilty of so many false
+movements, such mistakes both of tactics and strategy, as disgraced his
+lord's conduct of the unequal warfare he waged with Valeria. Yet this
+engrossing affection, stained and selfish as it was, constituted perhaps
+the one redeeming quality of the tribune's character; afforded the only
+incentive by which his better and manlier feelings could be aroused.
+
+Possibly Valeria expected him. Women have strange instincts on such
+matters, which seldom deceive. She was dressed with the utmost
+magnificence, as though conscious that simplicity could have no charms for
+Placidus, and sat in a splendour nearly regal, keeping Myrrhina and the
+rest of her maidens within call. Lovers are acute observers; as he walked
+up the cool spacious court to greet her, he saw that she was gentler, and
+more languid than her wont; she looked wearied and unhappy, as though she,
+too, acknowledged the sorrows and the weaknesses of her sex. Lover-like,
+he thought this unusual shade of softness became her well.
+
+For days she had been fighting with her own heart, and she had suffered as
+such undisciplined natures must. The strife had left its traces on her
+pale proud face, and she felt a vague unacknowledged yearning for repose.
+The wild-bird had beat her wings and ruffled her plumage till she was
+tired, and a skilful fowler would have taken advantage of the reaction to
+lure her into his net. Perhaps she had been thinking what happiness it
+must be to have one in the world in whom she could confide, on whom she
+could rely; one loyal manly nature on which to rest her woman's heart,
+with all its caprices, and weaknesses, and capacity for love; perhaps she
+may have been even touched by the tribune's unshaken devotion to herself,
+by the constancy which could withstand the allurements of vice, and even
+the distractions of political intrigue; perhaps to-day she disliked him
+less than on any former occasion, though it could hardly have been for
+_his_ sake that her eye was heavy, and her bosom heaved. If so, whatever
+favour he had unconsciously gained, was as unconsciously destroyed by his
+own hand. He approached her with an air of assumed confidence, that masked
+only too well the agitation of his real feelings.
+
+"Fair Valeria," said he, "I have obeyed your commands, and I come like a
+faithful servant to claim my reward."
+
+Now a woman's commands are not always intended to be literally obeyed.
+Under any circumstances she seldom likes to be reminded of them; and as
+for _claiming_ anything from Valeria, why the very word roused all the
+rebellion that was dormant in her nature. At that instant rose on her
+mind's eye the scene in the amphitheatre, the level sand, the tossing sea
+of faces, the hoarse roar of the crowd, the strong white limbs and the
+yellow locks lying helpless beneath a dark vindictive face, and a glitter
+of uplifted steel. How she hated the conqueror then! How she hated him
+now! She was clasping a bracelet carelessly on her arm, the fair round arm
+he admired so much, and that never looked so fair and round as in this
+gesture. It was part of his torture to make herself as attractive as she
+could. Her cold eyes chilled him at once.
+
+"I had forgotten all about it," said she. "I am obliged to you for
+reminding me that I am in your debt."
+
+Though somewhat hurt, he answered courteously, "There can be no debt from
+a mistress to her slave. You know, Valeria, that all of mine, even to my
+life, is at your disposal."
+
+"Well?" she asked, with a provoking persistency of misapprehension.
+
+He began to lose his head; he, ordinarily so calm, and cunning, and self-
+reliant.
+
+"You bade me enter on a difficult and dangerous undertaking. It was
+perhaps a lady's caprice, the merest possible whim. But you expressed a
+wish, and I never rested till I had accomplished it."
+
+"You mean about that wretched slave?" said she, and the colour rose
+faintly to her cheek. "But you never killed him after all."
+
+How little he knew her! This, then, he thought, was the cause of her
+coldness, of her displeasure. Esca had in some way incurred her ill-will,
+and she was angry with the conqueror who had spared him so foolishly when
+in his power. What a heart must this be of hers that could only quench its
+resentment in blood! Yet he loved her none the less. How the fair round
+arm, and the stately head, and the turn of the white shoulder maddened him
+with a longing that was almost akin to rage. He caught her hand, and
+pressed it fervently to his lips.
+
+"How can I please you?" he exclaimed, and his voice trembled with the only
+_real_ emotion he perhaps had ever felt. "Oh! Valeria, you know that I
+love the very ground you tread on."
+
+She bade Myrrhina bring her some embroidery on which the girl was busied,
+and thus effectually checked any further outpouring of sentiments which
+are not conveniently expressed within earshot of a third person. The
+waiting-maid took her seat at her mistress's elbow, her black eyes dancing
+in malicious mirth.
+
+"Is that all you have to tell me?" resumed Valeria, with a smile in which
+coquetry, indifference, and conscious power were admirably blended. "Words
+are but empty air. My favour is reserved for those who win it by deeds."
+
+"He shall die! I pledge you my word he shall die!" exclaimed the tribune,
+still misunderstanding the beautiful enigma on which he had set his heart.
+"I have but spared him till I should know your pleasure, and now his fate
+is sealed. Ere this time to-morrow he will have crossed the Styx, and
+Valeria will repay me with one of her brightest smiles."
+
+A shudder she could not suppress swept over the smooth white skin, but she
+suffered no trace of emotion to appear upon her countenance. She had a
+game to play now, and it must be played steadily and craftily to ensure
+success. She bade Myrrhina fetch wine and fruit to place before her guest,
+and while the waiting-maid crossed the hall on her errand, she suffered
+the tribune to take her hand once more--nay, even returned its caressing
+clasp, with an almost imperceptible pressure. He was intoxicated with his
+success, he felt he was winning at last; and the jewelled cup that
+Myrrhina brought him, as he thought all too soon, remained for a while
+suspended in his hand, while he uttered fervent protestations of love,
+which were received with an equanimity that ought to have convinced him
+they were hopelessly wasted on his idol.
+
+"You profess much," said she, "but it costs men little to promise. We have
+but one faithful lover in the empire, and he is enslaved by a barbarian
+princess and another man's wife. Would _you_ have turned back from all the
+pleasures of Rome, to fight one more campaign against those dreadful Jews,
+for the sake of Berenice's sunburnt face?"
+
+"Titus had consulted the oracle of Venus," replied the tribune, with a
+meaning smile; "and doubtless the goddess had promised him a double
+victory. Valeria, you know there is nothing a man will not dare to win the
+woman he loves."
+
+"Could you be as true?" she asked, throwing all the sweetness of her
+mellow voice, all the power of her winning eyes, into the question.
+
+"Try me," answered he, and for one moment the man's nature was changed,
+and he felt capable of devotion, self-sacrifice, fidelity, all that
+constitutes the heroism of love. The next, nature reasserted her sway, and
+he was counting the cost.
+
+"I have a fancy for your barbarian," said Valeria carelessly, after a
+pause. "Myrrhina loves him, and--and if you will give him to me I will take
+him into my household."
+
+Placidus shot a piercing glance at the waiting-maid, and that well-tutored
+damsel cast down her eyes and tried to blush. There was something, too, in
+Valeria's manner that did not satisfy him, and yet he was willing to
+believe more than he hoped, and nearly all he wished.
+
+"I seldom _ask_ for anything," resumed Valeria, raising her head with a
+proud petulant gesture of which she knew the full effect. "It is far
+easier for me to grant a favour than to implore one. And yet, I know not
+why, but I do not feel it painful to beg anything to-day from you!"
+
+A soft smile broke over the haughty face while she spoke, and she raised
+her eyes and looked full into his for an instant, ere she lowered them to
+toy with the bracelet once more. It was the deadliest thrust she had in
+all her cunning of fence, the antagonist could seldom parry or withstand
+it; would it foil him in their present encounter? He loved her as much as
+such a nature can love, but the question was one of life and death, and it
+was no time for child's play now, as Esca was in possession of a secret
+that might annihilate his lord in an hour. The tribune was not a man to
+sacrifice his very existence for a woman, even though that woman was
+Valeria. He hesitated, and she, marking his hesitation, turned pale, and
+shook with rage.
+
+"You refuse me!" said she, in accents that trembled either with suppressed
+fury or lacerated feelings. "You refuse me. _You_, the only man living for
+whom I would have so lowered myself. The only man I ever stooped to
+entreat. Oh! it is too much, too much."
+
+She bowed her head in her hands, and as the wealth of brown hair showered
+over her white shoulders, they heaved as if she wept. Myrrhina looked
+reproachfully at the tribune, and muttered, "Oh! if he knew, if he only
+_knew_!"
+
+In his dealings with the other sex Placidus had always been of opinion
+that it is better to untie a knot than to cut it.
+
+"Fair Valeria," said he, "ask me anything but this. I am pledged to slay
+this man within twenty-four hours; will not that content you?"
+
+The exigency of the situation, the danger of him for whom she had
+conceived so wild and foolish a passion, sharpened her powers of
+deception, and made her reckless of her own feelings, her own degradation.
+Shaking the hair back from her temples, beautiful in her disorder and her
+tears, she looked with wet eyes in the tribune's face, while she replied--
+
+"Do you think I care for the barbarian? What difference can it make to
+Valeria if such as this Briton were slain by hecatombs? It is for
+Myrrhina's sake I grieve; and more, far more than this, to think that you
+can refuse me anything in the whole world!"
+
+Duplicity was no new effort for the tribune. He had often, ere now,
+betaken himself to this mode of defence when driven to his last ward. He
+raised her hands respectfully to his lips.
+
+"Be it as you will," said he; "I make him over to you to do with him what
+you please. Esca is your property, beautiful Valeria, from this hour."
+
+A dark thought had flitted through his brain, that it would be no such
+difficult matter to destroy an inconvenient witness, and retain the favour
+of an exacting mistress at the same time. It was but a grain or two of
+poison in the slave's last meal, and he might depart in peace, a doomed
+man, to Valeria's mansion. He would take the chance of his silence for the
+few hours that intervened, and after all, the ravings of one whose brow
+was already stamped with death would arouse little suspicion. Afterwards
+it would be easy to pacify Valeria, and shift the blame on some over-
+zealous freedman, or officious client. He did not calculate on the haste
+with which women jump to conclusions. Valeria clapped her hands with
+unusual glee. "Quick! Myrrhina," said she, "my tablets to the tribune. He
+shall write the order here, and my people can go for the slave and bring
+him back, before Placidus departs."
+
+"Nay," interposed the latter in some confusion, "it is indispensable that
+I go home at once. I have already lingered here too long. Farewell,
+Valeria. Ere the sun goes down you shall see that Placidus is proud and
+happy to obey your lightest whim."
+
+With these words, he made a low obeisance, and, ere his hostess could stop
+him, had traversed the outer hall, and mounted in his chariot. Valeria
+seemed half stupefied by this sudden departure, but ere the rolls of his
+wheels had died away, a light gleamed in her eyes, and summoning the
+little negro, who had lain unnoticed and coiled up within call during the
+interview, she bade him run out and see which direction the chariot took,
+then she stared wildly in Myrrhina's face, and burst into a strange, half-
+choking laugh.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER III
+
+                           "FURENS QUID FOEMINA"
+
+
+"The chariot has turned into the Flaminian Way," said the urchin, running
+breathlessly back to his mistress. "Oh! so fast! so fast!" and he clapped
+his little black hands with the indescribable delight all children take in
+rapidity of movement.
+
+"The Flaminian Way!" repeated Valeria. "He must go round by the Great Gate
+and the Triumphal Arches to get home. Myrrhina, if we make haste, we shall
+yet be in time."
+
+In less than ten minutes the two women had crossed the wide pleasure-
+grounds which skirted Valeria's mansion, and had let themselves out by a
+pass-key into the street. So complete, however, was their transformation
+that the most intimate friend would have failed to recognise in these
+shrouded, hurrying figures, the fashionable Roman lady and her attendant.
+A wig of curling yellow hair covered Valeria's nut-brown tresses, and the
+lower part of her face was concealed by a mask, whilst Myrrhina, closely-
+veiled and wrapped in a dark-coloured mantle, stained and threadbare with
+many a winter's storm, looked like some honest child of poverty, bound on
+one of the humble errands of daily plebeian life. As they tripped rapidly
+along a narrow and little frequented street,--one of the many inconvenient
+thoroughfares which Nero's great fire had spared, and which still
+intersected the magnificence of the Imperial City,--they had to pass a
+miserable-looking house, with a low shabby doorway, which was yet secured
+by strong fastenings of bolts and bars, as though its tenant had
+sufficient motives for affecting privacy and retirement. The women looked
+meaningly at each other while they approached it, for the dwelling of
+Petosiris the Egyptian was too well known to all who led a life of
+pleasure or intrigue in Rome. He it was who provided potions, love
+philtres, charms of every description, and whom the superstitious of all
+classes, no trifling majority, young and old, rich and poor, male and
+female, consulted in matters of interest and affection; the supplanting of
+a rival, the acquisition of a heart, and the removal of those who stood in
+the way either of a fortune or a conquest. It is needless to observe that
+the Egyptian's wealth increased rapidly; and that humbler visitors had to
+turn from his door disappointed, day after day, waiting the leisure of the
+celebrated magician.
+
+But if Valeria hurried breathlessly through the dirty and ill-conditioned
+street, she stopped transfixed when she reached its farthest extremity,
+and beheld the tribune's chariot, standing empty in the shade, as though
+waiting for its master. The white horses beguiled their period of inaction
+in the heat, by stamping, snorting, and tossing their heads, while
+Automedon, now nodding drowsily, now staring vacantly about him, scarcely
+noticed the figures of the two women, so well were they disguised.
+
+"What can he be doing there?" whispered Valeria anxiously; and Myrrhina
+replied in the same cautious tones, "If Placidus be trafficking for
+philtres with the Egyptian, take my word for it, madam, there will be less
+of love than murder in the draught!"
+
+Then they hurried on faster than before, as if life and death hung upon
+the rapidity of their footsteps.
+
+Far back, up a narrow staircase, in a dark and secluded chamber, sat
+Petosiris, surrounded by the implements of his art. Enormous as his wealth
+was supposed to be, he suffered no symptoms of it to appear, either in his
+dwelling or his apparel. The walls of his chamber were bare and weather-
+stained, totally devoid of ornament, save for a mystic figure traced here
+and there on their surface, while the floor was scorched, and the ceiling
+blackened, with the burning liquids that had fallen on the one, and the
+heavy aromatic vapours that clung about the other. The magician's own
+robe, though once of costly materials, and surrounded with a broad border,
+on which cabalistic signs and numerals were worked in golden thread, now
+sadly frayed, was worn to the last degree of tenuity, and his linen head-
+dress, wound in a multiplicity of folds, till it rose into a peak some two
+feet high, was yellow with dirt and neglect. Under this grotesque covering
+peered forth a pair of shrewd black eyes, set in a grave emaciated face.
+They denoted cunning, audacity, and that restless vigilance which argued
+some deficiency or warping of the brain, a tendency, however remote, to
+insanity, from which, with all their mental powers, these impostors are
+seldom free. There was nothing else remarkable about the man. He had the
+deep yellow tint with the supple figure and peculiar nostril of the
+Egyptian, and when he rose in compliment to his visitor, his low stature
+afforded a quaint contrast to his trailing robes and real dignity of
+bearing.
+
+The tribune--for he it was whose entrance disturbed the calculations on
+which the magician was engaged--accosted the latter with an air of abrupt
+and almost contemptuous familiarity. It was evident that Placidus was a
+good customer, one who bought largely while he paid freely; and Petosiris,
+throwing aside all assumption of mystery or preoccupation, laughed
+pleasantly as he returned the greeting. Yet was there something jarring in
+his laugh, something startling in his abrupt transition to the profoundest
+gravity; and though his small glittering eyes betrayed a schoolboy's love
+of mischief, gleams shot from them at intervals which expressed a
+diabolical malice, and love of evil for evil's sake.
+
+"Despatch, my man of science!" said the tribune, scarcely noticing the
+obeisance and expressions of regard lavished on him by his host. "As usual
+I have little time to spare, and less inclination to enter into
+particulars. Give me what I want--you have it here in abundance--and let me
+begone out of this atmosphere, which is enough to stifle the lungs of an
+honest man!"
+
+"My lord! my illustrious patron! my worthiest friend!" replied the other,
+with evident enjoyment of his customer's impatience, "you have but to
+command, you know it well, and I obey. Have I not served you faithfully in
+all my dealings? Was not the horoscope right to a minute? Did not the
+charm protect from evil? and the love philtre ensure success? Have I ever
+failed, my noble employer? Speak, mighty tribune; thy slave listens to
+obey."
+
+"Words! words!" replied the other impatiently. "You know what I require.
+Produce it, there is the price!"
+
+At the same time he threw a bag of gold on the floor, the weight of which
+inferred that secrecy must constitute no small portion of the bargain it
+was to purchase. Though he affected utter unconsciousness, the Egyptian's
+eyes flashed at the welcome chink of the metal against the boards; none
+the more, however, would he abstain from tantalising the donor by assuming
+a misapprehension of his meaning.
+
+"The hour," said he, "is not propitious for casting a horoscope. Evil
+planets are in the ascendant, and the influence of the good genius is
+counteracted by antagonistic spells. Thus much I can tell you, noble
+tribune, they are of barbarian origin. Come again an hour later to-morrow,
+and I will do your bidding."
+
+"Fool!" exclaimed Placidus impatiently, at the same time raising his foot
+as though to spurn the magician like a dog. "Does a man give half a
+helmetful of gold for a few syllables of jargon scrawled on a bit of
+scorched parchment? You keep but one sort of wares that fetch a price like
+this. Let me have the strongest of them."
+
+Neither the gesture, nor the insult it implied, was lost on the Egyptian.
+Yet he preserved a calm and imperturbable demeanour, while he continued
+his irritating inquiries.
+
+"A philtre, noble patron? A love philtre? They are indeed worth any amount
+of gold. Maid or matron, vestal virgin or Athenian courtesan, three drops
+of that clear tasteless fluid, and she is your own!"
+
+The tribune's evil smile was deepening round his mouth--it was not safe to
+jest with him any further; he stooped over the magician and whispered two
+words in his ear; the latter looked up with an expression in which
+curiosity, horror, and a perverted kind of admiration, were strangely
+blended. Then his eyes twinkled once more with the schoolboy's mirth and
+malice, while he ransacked a massive ebony cabinet, and drew forth a tiny
+phial from its secret drawer. Wrapping this in a thin scroll, on which was
+written the word _Cave_ (beware!) to denote the fatal nature of its
+contents, he hurried it into the tribune's hands, hid away the bag of
+gold, and in a voice trembling with emotion, bade his visitor begone, an
+injunction which Placidus obeyed with his usual easy carelessness of
+demeanour, stepping daintily into his chariot, as though his errand had
+been of the most benevolent and harmless kind.
+
+In the meantime, Valeria, accompanied by her attendant, had reached the
+tribune's house, which she entered with a bold front indeed, but with
+shaking limbs. Despite her undaunted nature, all the fears and weaknesses
+of her sex were aroused by the task she had set herself to fulfil, and her
+woman's instinct told her that, whatever might be her motives, the
+crossing of this notorious threshold was an act she would bitterly repent
+at some future time. Myrrhina entertained no such misgivings; she looked
+on the whole proceeding as an opportunity to display her own talents for
+intrigue, and make herself, if possible, more necessary than ever to the
+mistress with whose secrets she was so dangerously familiar.
+
+In the outer hall were lounging a few slaves and freedmen, who welcomed
+the entrance of the two women with considerably less respect than one of
+them at least was accustomed to consider her due. Damasippus, indeed, with
+a coarse jest, strove to snatch away the mask that concealed the lower
+part of Valeria's face, but she released herself from his hold so
+energetically as to send him reeling back half a dozen paces, not a little
+discomfited by the unexpected strength of that shapely white arm. Then
+drawing herself to her full height, and throwing her disguise upon the
+floor, she confronted the astonished freedman in her own person, and bade
+him stand out of her way.
+
+"I am Valeria!" said she, "and here by your master's invitation, slave!
+for what are you better than a mere slave after all? If I were to hint at
+your insolence, he would have you tied to that doorpost, in despite of
+your citizenship, and scourged to death, like a disobedient hound. Pick up
+those things," she added loftily, "and show me, some of you, to the
+private apartment of your lord. Myrrhina, you may remain outside, but
+within call."
+
+Completely cowed by her demeanour, and no whit relishing the tone in which
+she threatened him, Damasippus did as he was commanded; while a couple of
+slaves, who had remained till now in the background, ushered the visitor
+into another apartment, where they left her with many obsequious
+assurances that their lord was expected home every moment.
+
+Every moment! Then there was no time to lose. How her heart beat, and what
+a strange instinct it was that made her feel she was in the vicinity of
+the man she loved! As yet she had formed no plan, she had made no
+determination, she only knew he was in danger, he was to die, and come
+what might, at any risk, at any sacrifice, her place was by his side.
+Imminent as was the peril, critical as was the moment, through all the
+tumult of her feelings, she was conscious of a vague wild happiness to be
+near him; and as she walked up and down the polished floor, counting its
+tesselated squares mechanically, in her strong mental excitement, she
+pressed both hands hard against her bosom, as though to keep the heart
+within from beating so fiercely, and to collect all its energies by sheer
+strength and force of will.
+
+Thus pacing to and fro, running over in her mind every possible and
+impossible scheme for the discovery and release of the slave, whose very
+prison she had yet to search out, her quick ear caught the dull and
+distant clank of a chain. The sound reached her from an opposite direction
+to that of the principal entrance; and as all Roman houses were
+constructed on nearly the same plan, Valeria had no fear of losing her way
+among the roomy halls and long corridors of her admirer's mansion. She
+held her breath as she hurried on, fortunately without meeting a human
+being, for the household slaves of both sexes had disposed themselves in
+shady nooks and corners to sleep away the sultriest hours of the day; nor
+did she stop till she reached a heavy crimson curtain, screening an inner
+court, paved and walled by slabs of white stone that refracted the sun's
+rays with painful intensity. Here she stood still and listened, while her
+very lips grew white with emotion, then she drew the curtain, and looked
+into the court.
+
+He had dragged himself as far as his chain would permit, to get the
+benefit of some two feet of shade close under the stifling wall. A water-
+jar, long since emptied, stood on the floor beside him, accompanied by a
+crust of black mouldy bread. A heavy iron collar, which defied alike
+strength and ingenuity, was round his throat, while the massive links that
+connected it with an iron staple let into the pavement would have held an
+elephant. It was obvious the prisoner could neither stand nor even sit
+upright without constraint; and the white skin of his neck and shoulders
+was already galled and blistered in his efforts to obtain relief by
+occasional change of posture. Without the key of the heavy padlock that
+fastened chain and collar, Vulcan himself could scarcely have released the
+Briton; and Valeria's heart sank within her as she gazed helplessly round,
+and thought of what little avail were her own delicate fingers for such a
+task. There seemed no nearer prospect of help even now that she had
+reached him; and she clenched her hand with anger while she reflected how
+he must have suffered from heat, and thirst, and physical pain, besides
+the sense of his degradation and the certainty of his doom.
+
+Nevertheless, extended there upon the hard glowing stones, Esca was
+sleeping as sound and peacefully as an infant. His head was pillowed on
+one massive arm, half hidden in the clustering yellow locks that showered
+across it, and his large shoulders rose and fell regularly with the
+measured breathing of a deep and dreamless slumber. She stole nearer
+softly, as afraid to wake him, and for a moment came upon Valeria's face
+something of the deep and holy tenderness with which a mother looks upon a
+child. Yet light as was that dainty footstep it disturbed, without
+actually rousing, the watchful instincts of the sleeper. He stirred and
+turned his face upwards with a movement of impatience, while she, hanging
+over him and drinking in the beauty that had made such wild work with her
+tranquillity, as if her life had neither hope nor fear beyond the ecstasy
+of the moment, gazed on his fair features and his closed eyes, till she
+forgot time and place and hazard, the emergency of the occasion, and the
+errand on which she had herself come. Deeper and deeper sank into her
+being the dangerous influence of the hour and the situation. The summer
+sky above, the hot dreamy solitude around, and there, down at her
+feet--nay, so near, that, while she bent over him, his warm breath stirred
+the very hair upon her brow--the only face of man that had ever thrilled
+her heart, sleeping so calmly close to her own, and now made doubly dear
+by all it had suffered, all it was fated to undergo. Lower and lower,
+nearer and nearer, bent her dainty head to meet the slave's; and as he
+stirred once more in his sleep, and a quiet smile stole over his
+unconscious countenance, her lips clung to his in one long, loving, and
+impassioned kiss.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IV
+
+                              THE LOVING CUP
+
+
+As he opened his dreamy eyes she started to her feet, for voices now broke
+in on the silence that had hitherto reigned throughout the household, and
+the tread of slaves bustling to and fro announced the return of their
+lord, a master who brooked no neglect, as well they knew, from those who
+were in his service. She had scarcely risen from her posture of soothing
+and devoted affection; scarcely had time to shake the long hair off her
+face, when Julius Placidus entered the court and stood before her with
+that inscrutable expression of countenance which most she hated, and which
+left her in complete ignorance as to whether or not he had been in time to
+witness the caresses she had lavished on the captive. And now Valeria
+vindicated the woman's nature of which, with all her faults, she partook
+so largely. At this critical moment her courage and presence of mind rose
+with the occasion; and though, womanlike, she had recourse to
+dissimulation, that refuge of the weak, there was something on her brow
+that argued, if need were, she would not shrink from the last desperate
+resources of the strong. Turning to the tribune with the quiet dignity and
+the playful smile that she knew became her so well, she pointed to the
+recumbent figure of the Briton, and said gently--
+
+"You gave him to me, and I am here to fetch him. Why is it that of late I
+value your lightest gift so much? Placidus, what must you think of me, to
+have come unbidden to your house?"
+
+Then she cast down her eyes and drooped her stately head, as though ready
+to sink in an agony of love and shame. Deceiver, intriguer, as he had been
+ever since the down was on his chin, he was no match for her. He shot,
+indeed, one sharp inquisitive glance at Esca, but the slave's bewildered
+gaze reassured him. The latter, worn out with trouble and privation, was
+only half awake, and almost imagined himself in a dream. Then the
+tribune's looks softened as they rested on his mistress; and, although
+there was a gleam of malicious triumph on his brow, the hard unmeaning
+expression left his face, which brightened with more of kindness and
+cordiality than was its wont.
+
+"It is no longer house of mine," said he, "but of yours, beautiful
+Valeria! Here you are ever welcome, and here you will remain, will you
+not, with him who loves you better than all the world besides?"
+
+Even while he spoke she had run over in her mind the exigencies and
+difficulties of her position. In that instant of time she could think of
+Esca's danger--of the necessity that she should herself be present to save
+him from the fate with which, for some special reason that she was also
+determined to find out, he was obviously threatened--of the tribune's
+infamous character, and her own fair fame; for Cornelia might not have
+left such a house as that with her reputation unscathed, and Valeria could
+far less afford to tamper with so fragile and shadowy a possession than
+the severe mother of the Gracchi. Yet her brow was unclouded, and there
+was nothing but frank good-humour in her tone while she replied--
+
+"Nay, Placidus. You know that even we of the patrician order cannot do
+always as we would. Surely I have risked enough already; because--because I
+fancied you left me in anger, and I could not bear the thought even for an
+hour. I will but ask you for a cup of wine and begone. Myrrhina
+accompanied me here, and we can return, unknown and unsuspected, as we
+came."
+
+He wished nothing better. A cup of wine, a sumptuous feast spread on the
+moment, garlands of flowers, heavy perfumes loading the sultry air; soft
+music stealing on the senses gently as the faint breeze that whispered
+through the drowsy shade. All the voluptuous accessories so adapted to a
+pleading tongue and so dangerous to a willing ear. He had never known them
+fail; it should not be the fault of master or household if they proved
+useless now.
+
+He took Valeria respectfully by the hand, and led her to the large
+banqueting-hall with as much deference as though she had been Caesar's
+wife. None knew better than the tribune how scrupulously all the honours
+of war must be paid to a fortress about to capitulate. As he bent before
+her, the phial he had purchased from Petosiris peeped forth in the bosom
+of his tunic, and her quick eye did not fail to detect it. In an instant
+she turned back as though stumbling on the skirt of her robe, and in the
+action made a rapid sign to Esca by raising her hand to her mouth,
+accompanied by a warning shake of the head and a glance from her eloquent
+eyes, that she trusted he would understand as forbidding him to taste
+either food or drink till her return. Once more, whilst she made this
+covert signal, the set and passionless look came over the tribune's face.
+Cunning, cautious as she might think herself, his snake-like eye had seen
+enough. At that moment Placidus had resolved Esca should die within the
+hour. Then those two walked gracefully into the adjoining hall, and seated
+themselves at the banquet with a scrupulous courtesy and strict observance
+of the outward forms of good breeding; while the slaves who waited
+believed that the whole proceeding was but one of their lord's usual
+affairs of gallantry, and that the noble pair before them loved each other
+well.
+
+The tribune, like the rest of his sex, was no large eater when making
+love; and an appetite that could accompany Vitellius through the most
+elaborate banquets of the gluttonous Caesar was satisfied with a handful of
+dates and a bunch or two of grapes in the presence of Valeria. She, too,
+in her anxiety and agitation, felt as if every morsel would choke her; but
+she pledged her host willingly in a goblet of red Falernian, with a vague
+idea that every moment she could keep his attention employed was of
+priceless value, clingingly almost hopelessly to the chance of obtaining
+by some means the possession of the fatal phial before it was too late.
+
+He was in high spirits,--voluble, witty, eloquent, sarcastic, but devoted
+to her. In the moment, as he hoped, of his triumph he could afford to
+show, or rather to affect, more of delicacy and generosity than she had
+believed him to possess, and she loathed and hated him all the more. Once,
+when, after enunciating a sentiment of the warmest regard and attachment,
+she caught the expression of his eyes as they looked into her own, she
+glanced wildly round the room, and clenched her hand with rage to observe
+that the walls were bare of weapons. He was no stately, high-spirited
+Agamemnon, this supple intriguer, yet had there been sword, axe, or dagger
+within reach of that white arm, she would have asked nothing better than
+to enact the part of Clytemnestra. How she wished to be a man for the
+moment--ay, and a strong one! She felt she could have strangled him there,
+hateful and smiling on the couch! Oh! for Esca's thews and sinews! Esca--so
+fair, and brave, and honest! Her brain swam when she thought of him
+chained, like a beast, within ten paces of her. An effort must be made to
+save him at any risk and at any sacrifice.
+
+Placidus talked gaily on, broaching in turn those topics of luxury,
+dissipation, and even vice, which constituted the everyday life of the
+patrician order at Rome, and she forced herself to reply with an affected
+levity and indifference that nearly drove her mad. Caesar's banquets;
+Galeria's yellow head-gear, and the bad taste in which her jewels were
+set, so inexcusable in an emperor's wife; the war in Judaea; the last
+chariot race; and the rival merits of the Red and Green factions, were
+canvassed and dismissed with a light word and a happy jest. Such subjects
+inevitably led to a discussion on the arena and its combatants, the
+magnificence of the late exhibition, and the tribune's own prowess in the
+deadly game. Placidus turned suddenly, as if recollecting himself, called
+for a slave, whispered an order in his ear, and bade him begone. The man
+hastened from the room, leaving lover and mistress once more alone.
+
+The presence of mind and self-command on which she prided herself now
+completely deserted Valeria. In an agony of alarm for Esca, she jumped at
+once to the conclusion that his doom was gone forth. The tribune, turning
+to her with some choice phrase, half-jest, half-compliment, was startled
+to observe her face colourless to the very lips, while her large eyes
+shone with a fierce, unnatural light. Uttering a low stifled cry, like
+that of some wild animal in its death-pang, she fell at his feet, clasping
+him round the knees, and gasped out--
+
+"Spare him! spare him! Placidus--beloved Placidus! spare him--for _my_
+sake!"
+
+Her host, whose whole mind at that moment was occupied with thoughts very
+foreign to bloodshed, and whose whispered mandate had reference to nothing
+more deadly than orders for a strain of unexpected music, gazed in
+astonishment at the proud woman thus humbled before him to the dust. He
+had, indeed, intended to despatch Esca quietly by poison before nightfall,
+and so get rid at once of an inconvenient witness and a possible rival;
+but for the present he had dismissed the slave completely from his mind.
+If, an hour ago, he had allowed himself to harbour such a wild fancy, as
+that a mere barbarian should have captivated the woman on whom he had set
+his affections, her voluntary acceptance of his hospitality and her
+cordial demeanour since, had dispelled so foolish and unjust a suspicion,
+which he wondered he could have entertained even for a moment. Now,
+however, a chill seemed to curdle the blood about his heart. Very quietly
+he raised her from the floor; but, though he was not conscious of it, his
+grasp left a mark upon her wrist. Very distinct and steady were the tones
+in which he soothed her, asking courteously--
+
+"Whom do you wish me to spare? What is it, Valeria? Surely you are not
+still dwelling on that barbarian slave? What is he, to come between you
+and me? It is too late--too late!"
+
+"Never! never!" she gasped out, seizing his hand in both her own, and
+folding it to her breast. "It is no time now for concealment; no time for
+choice phrases, and mock reserve, and false shame! I love him, Placidus! I
+love him!--do you hear? Grant me but his life, and ask me for everything I
+have in return!"
+
+She looked beautiful as she knelt before him once more, so dishevelled and
+disordered, with upturned face and streaming hair. It seemed to the
+tribune as though a knife had been driven home to his heart; but he
+collected all his energies for a revenge commensurate to the hurt, as he
+threw himself indolently on the couch, a worse man by a whole age of
+malice than he had risen from it a few seconds before.
+
+"Why did you not tell me sooner?" said he, in accents of the calmest
+courtesy and self-command. "Fair Valeria! not more bargains are driven
+every day in the Forum than in the courts of Love! You offer liberal
+terms. It seems to me we have nothing left to do but to settle the
+remainder of the agreement."
+
+What a price was she paying for her interference! Not a woman in Rome
+could have felt more deeply the degradation she was accepting, the insult
+to which she was submitting; and through it all she was miserably
+conscious of a false move in the game she had the temerity to play against
+this formidable adversary. Still she had resolved that she would shrink
+from no humiliation to save Esca, and she blushed blood-red with anger and
+shame as she rose from her knees, hid her face in her hands, while she
+summoned her woman's wit and her woman's powers of endurance to help her
+in the emergency.
+
+He, too, had bethought him of an appropriate revenge. The tribune never
+forgave; for such an offence as the present it was his nature to seek
+reprisals, exceeding, in their subtle cruelty, the injury they were to
+atone. There is no venom so deadly as a bad man's love turned to gall. It
+would be fine sport, thought Placidus, to make her slay this yellow-haired
+darling of hers with her own hand. The triumph would be complete, when he
+had outwitted her at every point, and could sneer politely over the dead
+body of the man, and the passionate reproaches of the woman. The first
+step to so tempting a consummation was, of course, to put her off her
+guard, and for this it would be necessary to assume some natural
+displeasure and pique; too open a brow would surely arouse suspicions, so
+he spoke angrily, in the harsh excited tones of a generous man who has
+been wronged.
+
+"I have been deceived," said he, striking his hand against the board;
+"deceived, duped, scorned, and by you, Valeria, from whom I did not
+deserve it. Shame on the woman who could thus wring an honest heart for
+the mere triumph of her vanity! And yet," he added, with an admirable
+appearance of wounded feeling in his lowered voice and relenting accents,
+"I can forgive, because I would not others should suffer as I do now. Yes,
+Valeria's wishes are still laws to me; I _will_ spare him for your sake,
+and you shall bear the news to him yourself. But he must be half dead ere
+this, of thirst and exhaustion; take him a cup of wine with your own fair
+hands, and tell him he will be a free man before sunset!"
+
+While he spoke, he turned from her to a sideboard, on which stood a tall
+jar of Falernian, flanked by a pair of silver goblets. She had sunk from
+the couch beside him, and was resting her head upon the table; but she
+looked up quickly for a moment, and saw his back reflected in the
+burnished surface of a gold vase that stood before her. By the motion of
+his shoulders she was aware that he had taken something from his bosom
+while he filled the wine. The whole danger of the situation flashed upon
+her at once; she felt intuitively that one of the cups was poisoned; she
+could risk her life to find out which. Her tears were dried, her nerves
+were strung, as if by magic; like a different being she rose to her feet
+now, pale and beautiful, but perfectly calm and composed.
+
+"You do love me, Placidus," said she, raising one of the goblets from the
+salver on which they stood. "Such truth as yours might win any woman. I
+pledge you, to show that we are friends again at least, if nothing more!"
+
+She was in the act of putting it to her lips, when he interposed, somewhat
+hurriedly, and with a voice not so steady as usual--
+
+"One moment!" he exclaimed, taking it from her hand, and setting it down
+again in its place, "we have not made our terms yet; the treaty must be
+signed and sealed; a libation must be poured to the gods. It is a strong
+rough wine, that Falernian: I have some Coan here you would like better.
+You see I have not forgotten your tastes."
+
+He laughed nervously, and his lip twitched; she knew now that it was the
+right-hand goblet which held the poison. Both were equally full, and they
+stood close together on the salver.
+
+"And this man could not slay me after all," was the thought that for a
+moment softened her heart, and bade her acknowledge some shadow of
+compunction for her admirer. Bad as he was, she could not help reflecting
+that to her influence he owed the only real feeling his life had ever
+known, and it made her waver, but not for long. Soon the image of Esca,
+chained and prostrate, passed before her, and the remembrance of her
+odious bargain goaded her into the bitterest hatred once more.
+
+She placed her hand in the tribune's with the abandonment of a woman who
+really loves, she turned her eyes on his with the swimming glance of which
+she had not miscalculated the power.
+
+"Forgive me," she murmured. "I have never valued you, never known you till
+now. I was heartless, unfeeling, mad; but I have learned a lesson to-day
+that neither of us will ever forget. No, we will never quarrel again!"
+
+He clasped her in his arms, he took her to his heart, his brain reeled,
+his senses failed him, that bewitching beauty seemed to pervade his being,
+to surround him with its fragrance like some intoxicating vapour; and
+whilst his frame thrilled, and his lips murmured out broken words of
+fondness, the white hand thrown so confidingly across his shoulder had
+shifted the position of the goblets, and the heart that beat so wildly
+against his own had doomed him remorselessly to die.
+
+She extricated herself from his embrace, she put her hair back from her
+brow; love is blind, indeed, or it must have struck him that instead of
+blushing with conscious fondness, her cheek was as white and cold as
+marble, though she kept her eyes cast down as if they dared not meet his
+own.
+
+"Pledge me," said she, in a tone of the utmost softness, and forcing a
+playful smile that remained, carved as it were, in fixed lines round her
+mouth; "drink to me in token of forgiveness; it will be the sweetest
+draught I have ever tasted when your lips have kissed the cup."
+
+He reached his hand out gaily to the salver. Her heart stood still in the
+agony of her suspense, lest he should mark the change she had made so
+warily; but the goblets were exactly alike, and he seized the nearest
+without hesitation, and half-emptied it ere he set it down. Laughing, he
+was in the act of handing to her what remained, when his eye grew dull,
+his jaw dropped, and, stammering some broken syllables, he sank back
+senseless upon the couch.
+
+She would have almost given Esca's life now to undo the deed. But it was
+no time for repentance or indecision; keeping her eyes off the white
+vacant face, which yet seemed ever before her, she felt resolutely in the
+bosom of the tribune's tunic for the precious key, and having found it,
+walked steadily to the door and listened. It was well she did so, for a
+slave's step was heard rapidly approaching, and she had but time to
+return, on tiptoe, and take her place upon the couch ere the domestic
+entered; disposing of the tribune's powerless head upon her lap as though
+he had sunk to sleep in her embrace. The slave discreetly retired, but
+short as was its duration, the torture of those few seconds was hardly
+inadequate to the guilt that had preceded them. Then she hurried through
+the well-known passages, and reached the court in which Esca was confined.
+Not a word of explanation, not a syllable of fondness escaped her lips as
+she calmly liberated the man for whom she had risked so much.
+Mechanically, and like a sleep-walker, she unlocked the collar round his
+neck, signing to him at the same time, for she seemed incapable of speech,
+to rise and follow her. He obeyed, scarce knowing what he did, astonished
+at the apparition of his deliverer, and almost scared by her ghastly looks
+and strange imperious gestures. Thus they threaded, without interruption,
+the passages of the house, and emerged from the private entrance into the
+now silent and deserted street. Then came the reaction; Valeria could bear
+up no longer, and trembling all over while she clung to Esca, but for
+whose arm she must have fallen, she burst into a passion of sobs upon his
+breast.
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER V
+
+                               SURGIT AMARI
+
+
+                               [Initial S]
+
+She had known but few moments of happiness, that proud unbending woman, in
+the course of her artificial life. Now, though remorse was gnawing at her
+heart, there was such a wild delight in the Briton's presence, such
+ecstasy in the consciousness of having saved him, though at the price of a
+hateful crime, that the pleasure kept down and stifled the pain. It was a
+new sensation to cling to that stalwart form and acknowledge him for her
+lord whom others deemed a mere barbarian and a slave. It was intense joy
+to think that she had penetrated his noble character; that she had given
+him her love unasked, when such a gift could alone have saved him from
+destruction; and that she had grudged no price at which to ransom him for
+herself. It was the first time in Valeria's whole existence that she had
+vindicated her woman's birthright of merging her own existence in
+another's, and for the moment this engrossing consciousness completely
+altered the whole character and training of the patrician lady. Myrrhina,
+walking discreetly some ten paces behind, could hardly believe in the
+identity of that drooping form, faltering in step, and timid in gesture,
+with her imperious and wilful mistress. This vigilant damsel, who was
+never flurried nor surprised, had effected her escape from the domestics
+of the tribune's household, at the moment her practised ear caught the
+light footstep of Valeria making its way to the door; and although she
+scarcely expected to see the latter pacing home with the captive at her
+side, as oblivious of her waiting-maid's existence, as of everything else
+in the world, she was quite satisfied to observe that this preoccupation
+was the result of interest in her companion. So long as an intrigue was on
+foot, it mattered little to Myrrhina who might be its originators or its
+victims.
+
+They had not proceeded far before Esca stopped, waking up like a man from
+a dream.
+
+"I owe you my life," he said, in his calm voice and foreign accent, that
+made such music to her ear. "How shall I ever repay you, noble lady? I
+have nothing to give but the strength of my right arm, and of what service
+can such as I be to such as you?"
+
+She blushed deeply, and cast down her eyes.
+
+"We are not safe yet," she answered. "We will talk of this when we get
+home."
+
+He looked before him down the stately street, with its majestic porticoes,
+its towering palaces, and its rows of lofty pillars, stretching on in
+grand perspective till they met the dusky crimson of the evening sky; and
+perhaps he was thinking of a free upland, and blue hills, and laughing
+sunshine glittering on the mere and trembling in the green wood far away
+at home, for he only answered by repeating her last word with a sigh, and
+adding: "There is none for me; a wanderer, an outcast, and a degraded
+man."
+
+She seemed to check the outburst that was rising to her lips, and she kept
+her eyes off his face, while she whispered--
+
+"I have determined to save you. Do you not know that there is nothing you
+can ask me which I will not grant?"
+
+He raised her hand to his lips, but the gesture partook more of the
+dependant's homage than the lover's rapture. She felt instinctively that
+it was a tribute of gratitude and loyalty, not an impassioned caress. For
+the second time, something seemed to warn her she had better have left
+that day's work undone. Then she began to talk rapidly of the dangers they
+might undergo from pursuit, of the necessity for immediate flight to her
+house, and close concealment when there; wandering wildly on from one
+subject to another, and apparently but half-conscious of anything she
+said. At last he asked her eagerly, even sternly--
+
+"And the tribune? What of him? How could you release me from his power? I
+tell you, I had the life of Placidus in my hand, as completely as if I had
+been standing over him in the amphitheatre with my foot on his neck. Would
+any price have purchased me from him, with all I knew?"
+
+The crimson rose to her brow as she answered hurriedly, "No price! Believe
+me, no price that man could offer, or woman either! Esca, do not think
+worse of me than I deserve!"
+
+"Then why am I here?" he continued, with a softened look; "I would like
+well to discover the secret by which Valeria can charm such a man as
+Placidus to her will."
+
+She was very pale now.
+
+"The tribune will claim you no more," said she; "I have settled that
+account for ever."
+
+He did not understand her, yet he dropped the hand he held and walked on a
+little farther from her side. She felt her punishment had already
+commenced, and when she spoke again it was in hard cold accents quite
+unlike her own.
+
+"He crossed my path, Esca, and he met the fate of all who are rash enough
+to oppose Valeria. What motives of pity, or love, or honour, would avail
+with Placidus? When did he ever swerve a hair's-breadth from his goal for
+any consideration but self? I knew him, ah! too well. There was but one
+invincible argument for the tribune, and I used it. I slew him--slew him
+there, upon his couch; but it was to save you!"
+
+Perhaps he felt he was ungrateful. Perhaps he tried to think that he, at
+least, had no right to judge her harshly; that such devotion for his sake
+should have made him look with indulgent eye, even on so foul a crime as
+murder; but he could not control the repugnance and horror that now rose
+in him for this beautiful, reckless, and unscrupulous woman: but while he
+strove to conceal his feelings, and to mask them with an air of deference
+and gratitude, she knew by the instinct of love all that was passing in
+his breast, and suffered, as those only can suffer, who have thrown
+honour, virtue, conscience, everything to the winds, to purchase but the
+conviction that their shameful sacrifice has been in vain. She determined
+to put a period to the tortures she was enduring. Ere this, they had
+reached the street, from which opened the private entrance into her own
+grounds. Myrrhina, though within sight, still kept discreetly in the rear.
+This was the situation, this was the moment that Valeria had pictured to
+herself in many a rapturous day-dream, that seemed too impossibly happy
+ever to come to pass. To have ransomed him from some great danger at some
+equivalent price; to have led him off with her in triumph; those two
+pacing by themselves through the deserted streets at the witching sunset
+hour; to have brought him home her own, her very own, to this identical
+gate exactly in this manner; to have none between them, none to watch
+them, except faithful Myrrhina, and to see before her a long future of
+uninterrupted sunshine, this it had been ecstasy to dream of--and now it
+had come, and brought with it a dull sickening sensation that was worse
+than pain. She had a brave rebellious nature, in keeping with the haughty
+head and stately form hereditary in her line. No scion of that noble old
+house would shrink or quiver under mental, any more than under bodily,
+torture. Among the ancestral busts that graced her cornices, was that of
+one who endured with a calm set face to watch his own hand shrivelled up
+and crackling in the glowing coals. His descendants, male and female,
+partook of that unflinching character; and not Mutius Scaevola himself,
+erect and stern before the Tuscan king, had more of the desperate tenacity
+which sets fate itself at defiance, than lurked under the soft white skin,
+and the ready smile, and the voluptuous beauty of proud Valeria.
+
+She looked prouder and fairer than ever now, as she stopped at her own
+gate and confronted the Briton.
+
+  [Illustration: 'You are safe she said']
+
+"You are safe," she said, and what it cost her to say it none knew but
+herself. "You are free besides, and at liberty to go where you will."
+
+The rapture with which he kissed her hand while she spoke, the gleam of
+delight that lit up his whole face, the intense gratitude with which he
+bowed himself to the ground before her, smote like repeated strokes of a
+dagger to her heart. She continued in accents of well-acted indifference,
+though a less preoccupied observer might have marked the quivering eyelid
+and dilated nostril--
+
+"You may have friends whom you long to see--friends who have been anxious
+about your safety. Though it seems," she added, ironically, "they have
+taken but little pains to set you out of danger."
+
+Esca was always frank and honest; this was, perhaps, the charm that,
+combined with his yellow locks and broad shoulders, so endeared him to the
+Roman lady. She was unaccustomed to these qualities in the men she usually
+met.
+
+"I have no friends," he answered, rather sadly; "none in the whole of this
+great city, except perhaps yourself, noble lady, who care whether I am
+alive or dead. Yet I have one mission, for the power of performing which
+this very night I thank you far more than for saving my life. To-morrow,
+it would be too late."
+
+The tone was less that of a question than an assertion, in which she
+forced out the words--
+
+"It concerns that dark-eyed girl! Esca, do not fear to tell me the truth."
+
+A faint red stole over the young man's brow. They were standing together
+within the garden-wall on the smooth lawn that sloped towards the house.
+The black cedars cut clear and distinct against the pure serene opal of
+the fading sky. A star or two were dimly visible, and not a breath stirred
+the silent foliage of the holm-oaks, folded as it were in sleep, or the
+drooping flowers, drowsy with the very weight of fragrance they exhaled.
+It was the time and place for a confession of love. What a mockery it
+seemed to Valeria to stand there and watch his rising colour, and listen
+to the faltering voice in which he betrayed his secret!
+
+"I must save her, noble lady," said he; "I must save her this very night,
+whatever else be left undone. Be he dead or alive, she shall not enter the
+tribune's house, whilst I can strike a blow or grasp an enemy by the
+throat. Lady, you have earned my eternal gratitude, my eternal service;
+give me but this one night, and I return to-morrow to be the humblest and
+most willing of your slaves for ever after."
+
+"And see her no more?" asked Valeria, with a choking throat and a strong
+tendency to burst into tears.
+
+"And see her no more," repeated Esca, sadly and resignedly.
+
+There was no mistaking the tone of manly, unselfish, and utterly hopeless
+love. Valeria passed her hand across her face, and tried more than once to
+speak. At last she muttered in a hoarse hard voice--
+
+"You love her then very dearly?"
+
+He raised his head proudly, and a smile came on his lips, a light into his
+blue eyes. She remembered how he had looked so in the arena, when he gave
+his salute before the imperial chair. She remembered, too, a pair of dark
+eyes and a pale face that followed his every movement.
+
+"So dearly," was his answer, "that can I but rescue her I will gladly
+bargain to give her up and never even look on her again. How can I think
+of myself when the question is of her happiness and her safety?"
+
+Valeria with all her faults was a woman. She had indeed dreamed of an
+affection such as this, an affection purified from the dross and alloy
+that combine to form so much of what men call love. She might not be
+capable of feeling it, but, womanlike, she could admire and appreciate the
+nobility of its aspirations, and the ideal standard to which it stretched.
+Womanlike, too, she was not to be outdone in generosity, and Esca's
+proposal of returning to her household, and submitting to her will
+directly he had accomplished his errand, disarmed her completely. She was
+not accustomed to analyse her feelings, or to check the reckless impulse
+which always bade her act on the spur of the moment. She did not stop to
+consider to-morrow's repentance, nor the grudging regrets which would goad
+her when the excitement of her self-denial had died out, and the blank
+that had hitherto rendered existence so dreary would be even less
+tolerable than before. If a shadowy misgiving that she would repent her
+concession hereafter passed for a moment across her mind, she hastened to
+repress it, ere it should warp her better intentions; and she could urge
+him to leave her now, with all the more importunity, that she dared not
+trust her heart to waver for an instant in the sacrifice.
+
+"You are alone," said she, calming herself with a great effort, and
+speaking very quick. "Alone in this great city, but you are loyal and
+brave. Such men are rare here and are worth a legion. Still, you must have
+gold in your bosom and steel at your belt, if you would succeed. You shall
+take both from me, and you will tell the dark-eyed girl that it was
+Valeria who saved her and you."
+
+His blue eyes turned upon her with looks of the deepest, the most fervent
+gratitude, and again the wild love surged up in her heart, and threatened
+to swamp every consideration but its own irresistible longing. His answer,
+however, sent it ebbing coldly back again.
+
+"We shall be ever grateful; oh! that either of us could prove it! We shall
+not forget Valeria."
+
+Myrrhina thought her mistress had never looked so queenly, as when she
+called her up at this juncture, and bade her fetch a purse of gold from
+her own cabinet, and one of the swords that hung in the vestibule, and
+deliver them to Esca. Then, very erect and pale, Valeria walked towards
+the house, apparently insensible to his thanks and protestations, but
+turned round ere she had reached the threshold, and gave him her hand to
+kiss. Myrrhina returning from her errand, saw the face that was bent over
+him as he stooped in act of homage, and even that hollow-hearted girl was
+touched by its wild, tender, and mournful expression, but ere he could
+look up, it was cold and passionless as marble once more. Then she
+disappeared slowly through the porch, and Myrrhina with all her daring had
+not the courage to follow her into the privacy of her own chamber.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VI
+
+                               DEAD LEAVES
+
+
+The stars shone brilliantly down on the roofs of the great city--roofs that
+covered in how various a multitude of hopes, fears, wishes, crimes, joys,
+study, debaucheries, toil, and repose. What enormities were veiled by a
+tile some half an inch thick! What contrasts separated by a partition of a
+deal plank, and a crevice stopped with mortar! Here, a poor worn son of
+toil, working with bleared eyes and hollow cheeks to complete the pittance
+that a whole day's labour was insufficient to attain; there, a sleek
+pampered slave, snoring greasily on his pallet, drenched with pilfered
+wine, and gorged with the fat leavings of his master's meal. On this side
+the street, a whole family penned helplessly together in a stifling
+garret; on that, a spacious palace, with marble floors, and airy halls,
+and lofty corridors, devoted to the occasional convenience and the
+shameful pleasures of one man--a patrician in rank, a senator in office;
+yet, notwithstanding, a profligate, a coward, a traitor, and a debauchee.
+Could those roofs have been taken off; could those chambers have been
+bared to the million eyes of night that seemed to be watching her so
+intently, what a mass of corruption would Imperial Rome have laid bare!
+There were plague-spots under her purple, festering and spreading and
+eating into the very marrow of the mistress of the world. Up six storeys,
+under the slanting roof, in a miserable garret, a scene was being enacted,
+bad as it was, far below the nightly average of vice and treachery in
+Rome.
+
+Dismissed from their patron's house when he had no further need of their
+attendance, and, so to speak, off duty for the day, Damasippus and Oarses
+had betaken themselves to their home in order to prepare for the exploits
+of the night. That home was of the cheapest and most wretched among the
+many cheap and wretched lodgings to be found in the overgrown yet crowded
+city. Four bare walls bulging and blistered with the heat, supported the
+naked rafters on which rested the tiles, yet glowing from an afternoon
+sun. A wooden bedstead, rickety and creaking, with a coarse pallet,
+through the rents of which the straw peeped and rustled, occupied one
+corner, and a broken jar of common earthenware, but of a sightly design
+copied from the Greek, half-full of tepid water, stood in another. These
+constituted the only furniture of the apartment, except a few irregular
+shelves filled with unguents, cosmetics, and the inevitable pumice-stone,
+by which the fashionable Roman studied to eradicate every superfluous hair
+from his unmanly cheek and limbs. A broken Chiron, in common plaster, yet
+showing marks of undoubted genius where the shoulders and hoofs of the
+Centaur had escaped mutilation, kept guard over these treasures, and
+filled a place that in the pious days of the old Republic, however humble
+the dwelling, would have been occupied by the Lares and Penates of the
+hearth. A mouldy crust of bread, slipped from the lid of an open trunk
+full of clothing, lay on the floor, and a wine-jar emptied to the dregs
+stood by its side. The two inhabitants, however, of this squalid apartment
+betrayed in their persons none of the misery in keeping with their
+dwelling-place. They were tolerably well fed, because their meals were
+usually furnished at their patron's expense; they contrived to be well
+dressed, because a decent and even wealthy appearance was creditable to
+their patron's generosity, and indispensable to many of the duties he
+called upon them to perform--dirty work indeed, but only to be done,
+nevertheless, with clean clothes and an assured countenance; so that the
+exterior both of Damasippus and Oarses would have offered no discredit to
+the ante-room of Caesar himself. But they were men of pleasure as the word
+is understood in great cities--men who lived solely for the sensual
+indulgences of the body; and it was their nature to spend their gains,
+chiefly ill-gotten, in those debasing luxuries which an insatiable demand
+enabled Rome to supply to her public at the lowest possible cost, to sun
+themselves, as it were, in the glare of that gaudy vice which walks abroad
+in the streets, and then creep back into their loathsome hole, like
+reptiles as they were.
+
+Damasippus, whose plump well-rounded form and clear colour afforded a
+remarkable contrast to the lithe shape and sallow tint of Oarses, was the
+first to speak. He had been watching the Egyptian intently, while the
+latter went through the painful and elaborate ceremonies of a protracted
+toilet, rasping his chin with pumice-stone, smoothing and greasing his
+dark locks with a preparation of lard and perfumed oil, and finally
+drawing a needle charged with lampblack carefully and painfully through
+his closed eyelids, in order to lengthen the line of the eye, and give it
+that soft languishing expression so prized by Orientals of either sex.
+Damasippus, waxing impatient, then, at the evident satisfaction with which
+his friend pursued the task of adornment, broke out irritably--
+
+"And of course it is to be the old story again! As usual, mine the
+trouble, and, by Hercules! no small share of the danger, now that the town
+is swarming with soldiers, all discontented and ill-paid. While yours, the
+credit, and very likely the reward, and nothing to do but to whine out a
+few coaxing syllables, and make yourself as like an old woman as you can.
+No difficult task either," he added, with a half-sarcastic, half-good-
+humoured laugh.
+
+The other lingered before a few inches of cracked mirror, which seemed to
+rivet his attention, and put the finishing touches to either eyelid with
+infinite care, ere he replied--
+
+"Every tool to its own work; and every man to his special trade. The
+wooden-headed mallet to drive home the sharp wedge. The brute force of
+Damasippus to support the fine skill of Oarses."
+
+"And the sword of a Roman," retorted the other, who, like many untried
+men, was somewhat boastful of his mettle, "to hew a path for the
+needlework of an Egyptian. Well, at least the needle is in appropriate
+hands. By all the fountains of Caria thou hast the true feminine leer in
+thine eye, the very swing of thy draperies seems to say, 'Follow me, but
+not too near.' The clasp of Salmacis herself could not have effected a
+more perfect transformation. Oarses, thou lookest an ugly old woman to the
+life!"
+
+In truth the Egyptian's disguise was now nearly complete. The dark locks,
+smoothed and flattened, were laid in modest bands about his head; the
+matronly stole, or gown, gathered at the breast by a broad girdle, and
+fastened with a handsome clasp high on the shoulder, descended in long
+sweeping lines to his feet, where it was ornamented by a broad and
+elaborate flounce of embroidery. Over the whole was disposed in graceful
+folds a large square shawl of the finest texture, dark-coloured but woven
+through with glistening golden threads, and further set off by a wide
+golden fringe. It formed a veil and cloak in one, and might easily be
+arranged to conceal the figure as well as the face of the wearer. Oarses
+was not a little proud of the dainty feminine grace with which he wore the
+head-gear, and as he tripped to and fro across the narrow floor of his
+garret, it would have taken a sharper eye than that of keen Damasippus
+himself to detect the disguise of his wily confederate.
+
+"A woman, my friend," he replied, somewhat testily, "but not such an ugly
+one, after all; as thou wilt find to thy cost when we betake ourselves to
+the streets. I look to thee, my Damasippus," he added maliciously, "to
+protect thy fair companion from annoyance and insult."
+
+Damasippus was a coward, and he knew it, so he answered stoutly--
+
+"Let them come, let them come! a dozen at a time if they will. What! a
+good blade and a light helmet is enough for me, though you put me at half-
+sword with a whole maniple of gladiators! The patron knows what manhood
+is, none better. Why should he have selected Damasippus for this
+enterprise, but that he judges my arm is iron, and my heart is oak?"
+
+"And thy forehead brass," added the Egyptian, scarcely concealing a
+contemptuous smile.
+
+"And my forehead brass," repeated the other, obviously gratified by the
+compliment. "Nay, friend, the shrinking heart, and the failing arm, and
+the womanly bearing, are no disgrace, perhaps, to a man born by the tepid
+Nile; but we who drink from the Tiber here (and very foul it is)--we of the
+blood of Romulus, the she-wolf's litter, and the war-god's line--are never
+so happy as when our feet are reeling in the press of battle, our hearts
+leaping to the clash of shields, and our ears deafened by the shout of
+victory. Hark! what is that?"
+
+The boaster's face turned very pale, and he hastily unbuckled the sword he
+had been girding on while he spoke; for a wild, ominous cry came sweeping
+over the roofs of the adjoining houses, rising and falling, as it seemed,
+with the sway of deadly strife, and boding, in its fierce fluctuations, to
+some a cruel triumph, to others a merciless defeat.
+
+Oarses heard it too. His dark face scarce looked like a woman's now, with
+its gleam of malicious glee and exulting cunning.
+
+"The old Praetorians are up," said he quietly. "I have been expecting this
+for a week. Brave soldier, there will be a fill of fighting for thee this
+night in the streets; and goodly spoils, too, for the ready hand, and love
+and wine, and all the rest of it, without the outlay of a farthing."
+
+"But it will not be safe to be seen in arms now," gasped Damasippus,
+sitting down on the tester-bed, with a white flabby face, and a general
+appearance of being totally unstrung. "Besides," he added, with a
+ludicrous attempt at reasserting his dignity, "a brave Roman should not
+engage in civil war."
+
+Oarses reflected for a moment, undisturbed by a second shout, that made
+his frightened companion tremble in every limb; then he smoothed his
+brows, and spoke in soothing and persuasive tones.
+
+"Dost thou not see, my friend, how all is in favour of our undertaking?
+Had the city been quiet, we might have aroused attention, and a dozen
+chance passengers half as brave as thyself might have foiled us at the
+very moment of success. Now, the streets will be clear of small parties,
+and it is easy for us to avoid a large body before it approaches. One act
+of violence amongst the hundreds sure to be committed to-night, will never
+again be heard of. The three or four resolute slaves under thine orders,
+will be taken to belong to one or other of the fighting factions, and thus
+even the patron's spotless character will escape without a blemish.
+Besides, in such a turmoil as we are like to have by sundown, a woman
+might scream her heart out, and nobody would think of noticing her. On
+with that sword again, my hero, and let us go softly down into the
+street."
+
+"But if the old Praetorians succeed," urged the other, evincing a great
+disinclination for the adventure, "what will become of Caesar? and with
+Caesar's fall down goes the patron too, and then who is to bear us harmless
+from the effects of our expedition to-night?"
+
+"Oh! thick-witted Ajax!" answered the Egyptian, laughing; "bold and strong
+in action as the lion; but in council innocent as the lamb. Knowest thou
+the tribune so little as to think he will be on the losing side? If there
+is tumult in Rome, and revolt, and the city boils and seethes like a huge
+flesh-pot casting up its choicest morsels to the surface, dost thou
+suppose that Placidus is not stirring the fire underneath? I tell thee
+that, come what may of Caesar to-night, to-morrow will behold the tribune
+more popular and more powerful than ever; and I for one will beware of
+disobeying his behests."
+
+The last argument was not without its effect. Damasippus, though much
+against the grain, was persuaded that of two perils he had better choose
+the lesser; and it speaks well for the ascendency gained by Placidus over
+his followers, that the cleverer and more daring knave should have obeyed
+him unhesitatingly from self-interest, the ruffian and the coward from
+fear. Damasippus, then, girding on his sword once more, and assuming as
+warlike a port as was compatible with his sinking heart, marched down into
+the street to accompany his disguised companion on their nefarious
+undertaking, with many personal fears and misgivings for the result.
+
+How different, save in its disquietude, was the noble nature at the same
+moment seeking repose and finding none, within half a bow-shot of the
+garret in which these two knaves were plotting. Despite his blameless
+life, despite his distinguished career, Caius L. Licinius sat and brooded,
+lonely and sorrowful, in his stately home. In that noble palace, long
+ranges of galleries and chambers were filled with objects of art and
+taste, beautiful, and costly, and refined. If a yard of the wall had
+looked bare, it would have been adorned forthwith by some trophy of
+barbaric arms taken in warfare. If a corner had seemed empty, it would
+have been at once filled with an exquisite group of marble, wrought into
+still life by some Greek artist's chisel. Not a recess in that pile of
+building, but spoke of comfort, complete in every respect, and the only
+empty chamber in the whole was its owner's heart. Nay, more than empty,
+for it was haunted by the ghost of a beloved memory, and the happiness
+that was never to come again.
+
+Cold and dreary is the air of that mysterious tenement where we buried our
+treasures long ago. Cold and dreary, like the atmosphere of the tomb, but
+a perfume hangs about it still, because love, being divine, is therefore
+eternal; and though the turf be laid damp and heavy over the beloved head,
+our tears fall like the blessed rain from heaven, and water the very
+barrenness of the grave, till at length, through weary patience and humble
+resignation, the flowers of hope begin to spring, and faith tells us they
+shall bloom hereafter, in another and a better world.
+
+Licinius was very lonely, and at a time of life when, perhaps, loneliness
+is most oppressive to the mind. Youth has so much to anticipate, is so
+full of hope, is so sanguine, so daring, that its own dreams are
+sufficient for its sustenance; but in middle age, men have already found
+out that the mirage is but sand and sunshine after all; they look forward,
+indeed, still, yet only from habit, and because the excitement that was
+once such intoxicating rapture, is now but a necessary stimulant. If they
+have no ties of family, no affections to take them out of themselves, they
+become pompous triflers, or despondent recluses, according as their
+temperaments lead them to inordinate self-importance or excessive
+humility. Not so when the quiver is full, and the hearth is merry with the
+patter of little feet, and the ring of childish laughter. There is a charm
+to dispel all the evil, and call up all the good, even of the worst man's
+nature, in the soft white brow, pure from the stamp of sin and care, in
+the bold bright eyes that look up so trustingly to his own. There is a
+sense of protection and responsibility, that few natures are so depraved
+as to repudiate, in the household relationship which acknowledges and
+obeys the father as its head; and there is no man so callous or so
+reckless, but he would wish to appear nobler and better than he is in the
+eyes of his child. Licinius had none of these incentives to virtue; but
+the lofty nature and the loving heart that could worship a memory, and
+feel that it was a reality still, had kept him pure from vice. He had
+never of late attached himself much to anything, till Esca became an
+inmate of his household; but since he had been in habits of daily
+intercourse with the Briton, a feeling of content and well-being, he would
+have found it difficult to analyse, had gradually crept over him. Perhaps
+he would have remained unconscious of his slave's influence, had it not
+been for the blank occasioned by his departure. He missed him sadly now,
+and wondered why, at every moment of the day, he found himself thinking of
+the pleasant familiar face and frank cordial smile.
+
+So much alone, he had acquired grave habits of reflection, even of that
+self-examination which is so beneficial an exercise when impartially
+performed, but which men so rarely practise without a self-deception that
+obviates all its good effects. This evening he was in a more thoughtful
+mood than common; this evening, more than ever, it seemed to him that his
+was an aimless, fruitless life; that he had let the material pleasures of
+existence slip through his fingers, and taken nothing in exchange. Of what
+availed his toils, his enterprise, his love of country, his self-denial,
+his endurance of hardship and privation? What was he the better now, that
+he had marched, and watched, and bled, and preserved whole colonies for
+the empire; and sat glorious, crowned with laurels in the triumphal car?
+He looked round on his stately walls, and the trophies that adorned them,
+thinking the while that even such a home as this might be purchased too
+dear at the expense of a lifetime. Gold and marble, corridors and columns,
+ivory couches and Tyrian carpets, were these equivalents for youth's toil
+and manhood's care, and at last a desolate old age? What was this ambition
+that led men so irresistibly up the steepest paths, by the brink of such
+fatal precipices? Had he ever experienced its temptations? He scarcely
+knew; he could not realise them now. Had Guenebra lived, indeed, and had
+she been his own, he might have prized honour and renown, and a name that
+was on all men's lips, for her dear sake. To see the kind eyes brighten;
+to call up a smile into the beloved face, that would surely have been
+reward enough, and that would never be. Then he fell to thinking of the
+bright days when they were all in all to each other, when the very sky
+seemed fairer, while he watched for her white dress under the oak-tree.
+Was he not perfectly happy then? Would he not at least have been perfectly
+happy could he have called her, as he hoped to do, his own? Honesty
+answered, No. At the very best there was a vague longing, a something
+wanting, a sense of insufficiency, of insecurity, and even discontent. If
+it was so then, how had it been since? Passing over the sharp sudden
+stroke, so numbing his senses at the time that a long interval had to
+elapse ere he awoke to its full agony--passing over the subsequent days of
+yearning, and nights of vain regret, the desolation that laid waste a
+heart which would bear fruit no more, he reviewed the long years in which
+he had striven to make duty and the love of country fill the void, and was
+forced to confess that here, too, all was barren. There was a something
+ever wanting, even to complete the dull torpor of that resignation which
+philosophy inculcated, and common sense enjoined. What was it? Licinius
+could not answer his own question, though he felt that it must have some
+solution, at which man's destiny intended him to arrive.
+
+All the Roman knew, all he could realise, was that the spring was gone
+long ago, with her buds of promise, and her laughing morning skies; that
+the glory of summer had passed away, with its lustrous beauty and its
+burnished plains, and its deep dark foliage quivering in the heat; that
+the blast of autumn had strewn the cold earth now with faded flowers and
+withered leaves, and all the wreck of all the hopes that blossomed so
+tenderly, and bloomed so bright and fair. The heaven was cold and grey,
+and between him and heaven the bare branches waved and nodded, mocking,
+pointing with spectral fingers to the dull cheerless sky. Could he but
+have believed, could he but have vaguely imaged to himself that there
+would come another spring; that belief, that vague imagining, had been to
+Licinius the one inestimable treasure for which he would have bartered all
+else in the world.
+
+In vain he sought, and looked about him for something on which to lean;
+for something out of, and superior to himself, inspiring him with that
+sense of being protected, for which humanity feels so keen, yet so
+indefinite, a desire. What is the bravest and wisest of mankind, but a
+child in the dark, groping for the parental hand that shall guide its
+uncertain steps? Where was he to find the ideal that he could honestly
+worship, on the superiority of which he could heartily depend? The
+mythology of Rome, degraded as it had become, was not yet stripped of all
+the graceful attributes it owed to its Hellenic origin. That which was
+Greek, might indeed be evil, yet it could scarce fail to be fair; but what
+rational man could ground his faith on the theocracy of Olympus, or
+contemplate with any feeling save disgust that material Pantheism, in
+which the lowest even of human vices was exalted into a divinity? As well
+become a worshipper of Isis at once, and prostitute, to the utter
+degradation of the body, all the noblest and fairest imagery of the mind.
+No, the deities that Homer sang were fit subjects for the march of those
+Greek hexameters, sonorous and majestic as the roll of the AEgean sea; fit
+types of sensuous perfection, to be wrought by the Greek chisel, from out
+the veined blocks of smooth, white Parian stone; but for man, intellectual
+man, to bow down before the crafty Hermes, or the thick-witted god of
+forges, or the ambrosial front of father Jove himself, the least ideal of
+all, was a simple absurdity, that could scarce impose upon a woman or a
+child.
+
+Licinius had served in the East, and he bethought him now of a nation
+against whom he had stood in arms, brave fierce soldiers, men instinct
+with public virtue and patriotism; whose rites, different from those of
+all other races, were observed with scrupulous fidelity and self-denial.
+This people, he had heard, worshipped a God of whom there was no material
+type, whose being was omnipresent and spiritual, on whom they implicitly
+depended when all else failed, and trusting in whom they never feared to
+die. But they admitted none to partake with them in their advantages, and
+their faith seemed to inculcate hatred of the stranger no less than
+dissensions and strife amongst themselves.
+
+"Is there nothing, alas! but duty, stern cold duty, to fill this void?"
+thought Licinius. "Be it so, then; my sword shall be once more at the
+service of my country, and I will die in my harness like a Roman and a
+soldier at the last!"
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VII
+
+                                 "HABET!"
+
+
+Hippias, the fencing-master, had completed his preparations for the night.
+With a certain military instinct, as necessary to his profession as to
+that of the legitimate soldier, he could rely upon his own dispositions,
+when they were once made, with perfect confidence, and a total absence of
+anxiety for the result. Like all men habituated to constant strife, he was
+never so completely in his element as when surrounded by perils, only to
+be warded off by cool, vigilant courage; and though he may have had
+moments in which he longed for the softer joys of affection and repose, it
+needed but the clang of a buckler, or the gleam of a sword, to rouse him
+into his fiercer self once more.
+
+It had been his habit to attend Valeria, for the purpose of instructing
+her in swordsmanship, by an hour's practice on certain appointed days.
+Everything connected with the amphitheatre possessed at this period such a
+morbid fascination for all classes of the Roman people, that even ladies
+of rank esteemed it a desirable accomplishment to understand the use of
+the sword; and it is said that on more than one occasion women of noble
+birth had been known to take part in the deadly games themselves. These,
+however, were rare instances of such complete defiance of all modesty and
+even natural feeling; but to thrust, and shout, and stamp, in the conflict
+of mimic warfare, was simply esteemed the regular exercise and the healthy
+excitement of every patrician dame who aspired to a fashionable
+reputation. Such sudorifics, accompanied by excessive use of the bath and
+a free indulgence in slaking the thirst, arising from so severe a course
+of treatment, must have been highly detrimental to female beauty; but even
+this consideration was postponed to the absorbing claims of fashion, and
+then, as now, a woman was content and pleased to disfigure herself by any
+process, however painful and inconvenient, providing other women did the
+same.
+
+It is possible, too, that the manly symmetry of form, the tough thews and
+sinews of their instructors, were not without effect on pupils, whose
+hearts softened in proportion as their muscles became hard, and whose
+whole habits and education tended to interest them in the person and
+profession of the gladiator. Be this as it may, the fencing-masters of
+Rome had but little time left on their hands, and, of these, Hippias was
+doubtless the most sought after by the fair. It was his custom to neglect
+nothing, however trifling, connected with his calling. No details were too
+small to be attended to by one whose daily profession taught him that life
+and victory might depend on the mere quiver of an eyelid, the accidental
+slip of a buckle; and, besides, he took a strange pride in his deadly
+trade, and especially in the methodical regularity with which he carried
+it out. Though bound to-night for the desperate enterprise which should
+make or mar him; though confident that, in either event, he would to-
+morrow be far beyond the necessities of a gladiator, it was part of his
+character to play out his part thoroughly to-day. Valeria would expect
+him, as usual, before the bathing-hour on the following morning. It was
+but decent he should leave a message at her house that he might be
+detained. The very wording of his excuse brought to his mind the
+possibilities of the next few hours--the many chances of failure in the
+enterprise, failure which, to him at least, the leader of desperate men,
+was synonymous with certain death.
+
+To-day, for the first time, as he turned his steps towards her mansion, a
+soft, half-sorrowful, yet not unpleasing sensation stole into his heart as
+the image of its mistress rose before him in all the pride of her stately
+beauty. He had often admired the regularity of her haughty features--had
+scanned, in his own critical way, with unqualified approval the lines of
+her noble figure, and the symmetry of her firm, well-turned limbs; had
+even longed to touch that wealth of silken hair when it shook loose in her
+exertions, and yet--a strange sensation for such a man--had flinched and
+felt oppressed when, placing her once in a position of defence, a tress of
+it had fallen across his hand. Now, it seemed to him that he would give
+much to live those few moments over again; that he would like to see her
+once more, if, indeed, as was probable, it would be for the last time;
+that there was no other woman to be compared with her in Rome; and that,
+with all her glowing beauty and all her physical attractions, her pride
+was her greatest charm.
+
+He was a desperate man, about to play a desperate game for life. Such
+thoughts in such a heart and at such a time quicken with fearful rapidity
+into evil. Admiration, untempered by the holier leavening of that
+affection which can only exist in the breast that has kept itself pure,
+soon grows to cruelty and selfishness. The love of beauty, poisoned by the
+love of strife, seethes into a fierce passionate longing, less that of the
+lover for his mistress than of the tiger for its prey. Valeria was a proud
+woman, the proudest and the fairest in Rome. He drew his breath hard as he
+thought what a wild triumph it would be to bend that stately neck, and
+humble that pride to his very feet. Methodical and soldierlike, he had
+seen to everything with his own eyes. The plot was laid, the conspirators
+were armed and instructed, there was yet an hour or two to spare before
+the appointed gathering at the tribune's house, and that time he resolved
+should be devoted to Valeria; at least, he would feast his eyes once more
+on that glorious beauty, of which he now seemed to acknowledge the full
+power. He would see her, would bid her farewell. She had always welcomed
+him cordially and kindly; perhaps she would be sorry to lose him
+altogether. He smiled a very evil smile, though his heart beat faster than
+it had done since he was a boy, as he halted under the statue of Hermes in
+her porch.
+
+And Valeria was sitting in her chamber, with her head buried in her hands,
+and her long brown hair sweeping like a mantle to her feet. All the
+feelings that could most goad and madden a woman were tearing at her
+heart. She dared not--for the sake of tottering reason she dared not--think
+of the tribune's white face and dropping jaw, and limbs strewed helpless
+on the couch. She suffered the vision, indeed, to weigh upon her like some
+oppressive nightmare; but she abstained, with an effort of which she was
+yet fully conscious, from analysing its meaning or recalling its details,
+above all, from considering its origin and its effect. No! the image of
+Esca still filled her brain and her heart. Esca in the amphitheatre; Esca
+chained and sleeping on the hard hot pavement; Esca walking by her side
+through the shady streets; and Esca turning away with his noble figure and
+his manly step, exulting in the liberty that set him free from _her_!
+
+Then came a rush of those softer feelings, that were required to render
+her torture unbearable: the sting of what might have been; the picture of
+herself (she could see herself in her mind's eye--beautiful and
+fascinating, in all the advantages of dress and jewels) leaning on that
+strong arm, and the kind brave face looking down into hers with the
+protective air that became it so well. To give him all; to tell him all
+she had risked, all she had done for his sake, and to hear his loving
+accents in reply! She almost fancied in her dream that this had actually
+come to pass, so vividly did her heart imagine to itself its dearest
+longings. Then she saw another figure in the place that ought to be her
+own--another face into which he was looking as he had never looked in hers.
+It was the dark-eyed girl's! The dark-eyed girl, who had been her rival
+throughout! Would she have done as much for him with her pale face and her
+frightened, shrinking ways? And now, ere this, he had reached her home,
+was whispering in her ear, with his arm round her waist. Perhaps he was
+boasting of the conquest he had made over the haughty Roman lady, and
+telling her that he had scorned Valeria for her dear sake. Then all that
+was evil in her nature gained the ascendant, and with the bitter
+recklessness that has ruined so many an undisciplined heart, she said to
+herself--"There is no reality but evil. Life is an illusion, and hope a
+lie. It matters little what becomes of me now!"
+
+When Myrrhina entered she found her lady busied in rearranging the folds
+of her robe and her disordered tresses. It was no part of Valeria's
+character to show by her outward bearing what was passing in her mind, and
+least of all would she have permitted her attendant to guess at the
+humiliation she had undergone. The waiting-maid, indeed, was a little
+puzzled; but she had gained so much knowledge, both by observation and
+experience, of the strange effects produced by over-excitement on her sex,
+that she never suffered herself to be surprised at a feminine vagary of
+any description. Now, though she wondered why Esca was gone, and why her
+mistress was so reserved and haughty, she refrained discreetly from
+question or remark, contenting herself with a silent offer of her
+services, and arranging the brown hair into a plaited coronet on Valeria's
+brows, without betraying by her manner that she was conscious anything
+unusual had taken place.
+
+After a few moments' silence, her mistress's voice was sufficiently
+steadied for her to speak.
+
+"I did not send for you," said she. "What do you want here?"
+
+Myrrhina's hands were busied with the long silken tresses, and she held a
+comb between her teeth. Nevertheless, she answered volubly.
+
+"I would not have disturbed you, madam, this warm, sultry evening--and I
+rebuked the porter soundly for letting him in; only as he said, to be
+sure, he never was denied before, and I thought, perhaps, you would not be
+displeased to see him, if it was only for a few minutes, and he seemed so
+anxious and hurried--and, indeed, he never has much time to spare, so I
+bade him wait in the inner hall while I came to let you know."
+
+Hoping even against hope! She knew it was impossible, yet her heart leapt
+as she thought--"Oh! if it were only Esca who had turned back!"
+
+"I will see him," said she quietly, prolonging the illusion by purposely
+avoiding to ask who this untimely visitor might be.
+
+In another minute Hippias stood before her--Hippias, the fencing-master, a
+man in whose dangerous career she had always taken a vague interest; whose
+personal prowess she admired, and whose reputation, such as it was,
+possessed for her a wild fascination of its own. He was reckless, too,
+from the very nature of his profession; and she, in her present mood, more
+reckless, more desperate than any gladiator of them all. It would have
+done her good to stand, with naked steel, against some fierce wild beast
+or deadly foe. There was nothing, she felt, that she could not dare to-
+day. Nerve and brain wound up to the highest pitch of excitement--heart and
+feelings crushed, and wounded, and sore. When the reaction came, it would
+necessarily be fatal; when the tide ebbed, it would leave a wearied,
+helpless sufferer on the shore.
+
+Such was the frame of mind in which Valeria received the gladiator;
+outwardly impassive--for her colour did not even deepen, nor her breath
+come quicker at his unexpected appearance--inwardly vexed by a conflict of
+tumultuous feelings, and longing for any change--any anodyne that could
+deaden or alleviate her pain. How could she but respond to his manly,
+respectful farewell? How could she but listen to the few burning words in
+which he spoke of long-suppressed and hopeless adoration, or pretend not
+to be interested in the desperate enterprise which he hinted might prevent
+his ever looking on her fair face again. He soothed her self-love; he
+roused her curiosity; he set her pride on its broken pedestal again, and
+propped it with a strong, yet gentle hand; and so the two thunder-clouds
+drew nearer still and nearer, ere they met, to be destroyed and riven by
+the lightning their own contact had engendered.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VIII
+
+                                TOO LATE!
+
+
+Esca, treading on air, hastened from Valeria's house with the common
+selfishness of love, ignoring all the pain and disappointment he had left
+behind him. The young blood coursed merrily through his veins, and, in
+spite of his anxiety, he exulted in the sense of being at liberty once
+more. He was alive, doubtless, to the generosity and devotion of the woman
+who had set him free, nor was he so blind as to be unaware of the
+affection that had driven her to such desperate measures for his sake; and
+in the first glow of a gratitude, that had in it no vestige of tenderer
+feelings, he had resolved, when his mission was accomplished and Mariamne
+placed in safety, he would return and throw himself at the Roman lady's
+feet once more. But the farther he left her stately porch behind, the
+weaker became this generous resolution, and ere long he had little
+difficulty in persuading himself that his first duty was to the Jewess,
+and that in his future actions he must be guided by circumstances, or, in
+other words, follow the bent of his own inclinations. Meanwhile, in spite
+of his wounded foot, he sped on towards the Tiber as fast as, in years
+gone by, he had followed the lean wolf, or the foam-flecked boar, over the
+green hills of Britain. The sun had not been down an hour when he entered
+the well-known street that was now enchanted ground; yet, while he looked
+up into the darkening sky, his heart turned sick within him at the thought
+that he might be too late, after all.
+
+The garden-door was open, as she must have left it. She was not,
+therefore, in the house. He might find her at the riverside, and have the
+happiness of a few minutes alone with her, ere he brought her back and
+placed her, for the second time, in safety within her father's walls. The
+more prudent course, he confessed to himself at the time, would have been
+to alarm Eleazar, and put him on the defensive at once; but he had been so
+long without seeing Mariamne, the peril in which she was placed had so
+endeared her to him, and his own near approach to death had stamped her
+image so vividly on his heart, that he could not resist the temptation of
+seeking her at the water-side, and telling her, unwatched by other ears or
+eyes, all he had felt and endured since they last parted, and how, for
+both their sakes, they must never part again.
+
+Full of such thoughts, he ran down to the water's edge, and sought the
+broken column where she was accustomed to descend and fill her pitcher
+from the stream. In vain his eager eye watched for the dark-clad figure
+and the dear pale face. Once in the deepening twilight his heart leapt as
+he thought he saw her crouching low beneath the bank, and sank again to
+find he had been deceived by a fallen slab of stone. Then he turned for
+one more searching look ere he departed, and his glance rested on a
+pitcher, broken into a dozen fragments, at his feet. He did not know that
+it was Mariamne's. How should he, when a thousand pitchers carried by a
+thousand women to the Tiber every evening were precisely alike? Yet his
+blood ran cold through his veins and his fears hurried him back, almost
+insensibly, to Eleazar's door, which he burst open without going through
+the ceremony of knocking.
+
+Her father and his brother were in the house. The former leapt to his feet
+and snatched a javelin from the wall ere he recognised his visitor. The
+latter, less prone to do battle at a moment's notice, laid his hand on
+Eleazar's arm, and calmly said--
+
+"It is the friend who is always welcome, and whom we have expected day by
+day in vain."
+
+Everything looked so much as usual that for a moment Esca felt almost
+reassured. It was possible Mariamne might be even now busied with
+household affairs, safe in the inner chamber. A lover's bashfulness
+brought the blood to his cheeks, as he reflected if it were so it would be
+difficult to account for his unceremonious entrance; but the recollection
+of her danger soon stifled all such trivial considerations, and he
+confronted her father impetuously, and asked him, almost in a threatening
+tone--
+
+"Where is Mariamne?"
+
+Eleazar looked first simply astonished, then somewhat offended. He
+answered, however, with more command of temper than was his wont.
+
+"My daughter has but now left the house with her pitcher. She will be home
+again almost immediately; but what is this to thee?"
+
+"What is it to me?" repeated Esca in a voice of thunder, catching hold of
+his questioner's arm at the same time with an iron grasp for which the
+fierce old Jew liked him none the worse--"What is it to thee, to him, to
+all of us? I tell thee, old man, whilst we are drivelling here, they are
+bearing her off into captivity ten thousand times worse than death! I
+heard the plot--I heard it with my own ears, lying chained like a dog on
+the hard stones. The wicked tribune was to make her his own this very
+night, and though he has met his reward, the villains that do his bidding
+have got her in their power ere this. The pure--the loved--the
+beautiful--Mariamne--Mariamne!"
+
+He hid his face in his hands, and his strong frame shook with agony from
+head to heel.
+
+It was the turn of Calchas now to start to his feet, and look about him as
+if in search of a weapon. His first impulse was resistance to oppression,
+even by the strong hand. With Eleazar, on the contrary, the instincts of
+the soldier predominated, and the very magnitude of the emergency seemed
+to endow him with preternatural coolness and composure. He knit his thick
+brows indeed, and there was a smothered glare in his eye that boded no
+good to an enemy when the time for an outbreak should arrive, but his
+voice was low and distinct, as in a few sharp eager questions he gathered
+the outline of the plot that was to rob him of his daughter. Then he
+thought for a few seconds ere he spoke.
+
+"The men that were to take her? What were they like? I would fain know
+them if I came across them."
+
+His white teeth gleamed like a wild beast's with a smile ominous of his
+intentions on their behalf.
+
+"Damasippus and Oarses," replied the Briton. "The former stout, sleek,
+heavy, and beetle-browed. The latter pale, dark, and thin. An Egyptian
+with an Egyptian's false face, and more than an Egyptian's cruelty and
+cunning."
+
+"Where live they?" asked the Jew, buckling at the same time a formidable
+two-edged sword to his side.
+
+"In the Flaminian Way," replied the other. "High up in some garret where
+we should never find them. But they will not take her there. She is by
+this time at the other end of the city in the tribune's house." And again
+he groaned in anguish of spirit at the thought.
+
+"And that house?" asked Eleazar, still busied with his warlike
+preparations. "How is it defended? I know its outside well, and an easy
+entrance from the wall to the inner court; but what resistance shall we
+encounter within? what force can the tribune's people raise at a moment's
+outcry?"
+
+"Alas!" answered Esca. "To-night of all nights, the house of Placidus is
+garrisoned like a fortress. A chosen band of gladiators are to sup with
+the tribune, and afterwards to take possession of the palace and drag
+Caesar from the throne. When they find the banquet prepared for them, I
+know them too well to think they will separate without partaking of it,
+even though their host be lying dead on the festal couch. She will become
+the prey of men like Hippias, Lutorius, and Euchenor. But if we cannot
+rescue her, at least we may die in the attempt."
+
+Even in his anxiety for his daughter, such news as this could not but
+startle the emissary of the Jewish nation. In an instant's time he had run
+over its importance, as it regarded his own mission and the probable
+influence on the destinies of his country. Should the conspiracy succeed,
+Vitellius might already be numbered with the dead, and instead of that
+easy self-indulgent glutton, over whom he had already obtained
+considerable influence, he would have to do with the bold, sagacious, far-
+seeing general, the remorseless enemy of his nation, whom neither he nor
+any of his countrymen had ever succeeded in deceiving by stratagem or
+worsting by force of arms. When the purple descended on Vespasian the doom
+of Jerusalem was sealed. Nevertheless, Eleazar concentrated his mind on
+the present emergency. In a few words he laid out his plan for the rescue
+of his daughter.
+
+"The freedmen's garret must be our first point of attack," said he. "The
+tribune would scarce have ordered them to bring their prize to his house
+to-night, where there would be so many to dispute it with him, and where
+dissension would be fatal to his great enterprise. Calchas and I will
+proceed immediately to the dwelling of this Damasippus and his fellow-
+villain. Your directions will enable us to find it. You, Esca, speed off
+at once to the tribune's house. You will soon learn whether she has been
+brought there. If so, come to us without delay in the Flaminian Way. I am
+not entirely without friends even here, and I will call on two or three of
+my people to help as I go along. Young man, you are bold and true. We will
+have her out of the tribune's house if we pull the walls down with our
+naked hands; and let me but come within reach of the villains who take
+shelter there"--here his face darkened and his frame quivered in a paroxysm
+of suppressed fury--"may my father's tomb be dishonoured, and the name of
+my mother defiled, if I dip not my hands to the very elbows in their
+hearts' blood!"
+
+To be told he was brave and true by her father added fuel to Esca's
+enthusiasm. It was indeed much for Eleazar to confess on behalf of a
+stranger and a heathen, but the fierce old warrior's heart warmed to a
+kindred nature that seemed incapable of selfish fear, and he approved
+hugely, moreover, of the implicit attention with which the Briton listened
+to his directions, and his readiness for instantaneous action, however
+desperate. Calchas, too, clasped the young man warmly by the hand.
+
+"We are but three," said he, "three against a host. Yet I have no fear. I
+trust in One who never failed His servants yet. One to whom emperors and
+legions are as a handful of dust before the wind, or a few dried thorns on
+the beacon-fire. And so do you, my son, so do you, though you know it not.
+But the time shall come when His very benefits shall compel you to confess
+your Master, and when in sheer gratitude you shall enrol yourself amongst
+those who serve Him faithfully even unto death."
+
+Many a time during that eventful and anxious night had Esca occasion to
+remember the old man's solemn words. Its horrors, its catastrophes, its
+alternations of hope and fear, might have driven one mad, who had nothing
+to depend upon but his own unaided strength and resolution. Few great
+actions have been performed, few tasks exacting the noble heroism of
+endurance fulfilled successfully, without extraneous aid, without the help
+of some leading principle out of, and superior to, the man. Honour,
+patriotism, love, loyalty, all have supported their votaries through
+superhuman exertions and difficulties that seemed insurmountable, teaching
+them to despise dangers and hardships with a courage sterner than mortals
+are expected to possess; but none of these can impart that confidence
+which is born of faith in the believer's breast;--that confidence which
+enables him to take good and evil with an equal mind, to look back on the
+past without a sigh, forward on the future without a fear; and though the
+present may be all a turmoil of peril, uncertainty, and confusion, to
+stand calmly in the midst, doing the best he can with a stout heart and an
+unruffled brow, while he leaves the result fearlessly and trustfully in
+the hand of God.
+
+Eleazar and Calchas were already equipped for the pursuit. The one armed
+to the teeth, and looking indeed a formidable enemy; the other mild and
+hopeful as usual, venerable with his white hair and beard, and carrying
+but a simple staff for his weapon. In grave silence, but with a grasp of
+the hand more emphatic than any spoken words, the three parted on their
+search; Esca threading his way at once through the narrow and devious
+streets that led towards the tribune's house--that house which he had left
+so gladly but a few short hours ago when, rescued by Valeria, he bade her
+farewell, exulting in the liberty that enabled him to seek Mariamne's side
+once more. He soon reached the hated dwelling. All there seemed quiet as
+the grave. From other quarters of the city indeed there came, now and
+again, the roar of distant voices which rose and fell at intervals as the
+tide of tumult ebbed and flowed, but, preoccupied as he was, Esca took
+little heed of these ominous sounds, for they bore him no intelligence of
+Mariamne. All was silent in the porch, all was silent in the vestibule and
+outer hall, but as he ventured across its marble pavement, he heard the
+bustle of preparation, and the din of flagons within.
+
+It was at the risk of liberty and life, that he crept noiselessly forward,
+and peeped into the banqueting-hall, which was already partially lighted
+up for the feast. Shrinking behind a column, he observed the slaves, many
+of whom he knew well by sight, laying covers, burnishing vases, and
+otherwise making ready for a sumptuous entertainment. He listened for a
+few moments, hoping to gather from their conversation some news of the
+Jewess and her captors. All at once he started and trembled violently.
+Bold as he was, in common with his northern countrymen a vein of
+superstition ran through his nature, and though he feared nothing tangible
+or corporeal, he held in considerable dread all that touched upon the
+confines of the spiritual and the unknown. There within ten paces of him,
+ghastly pale, with dark circles round his eyes, and clad in white, stood
+the figure of the tribune, pointing, as it seemed to him, with shadowy
+hand at the different couches, and giving directions in a low sepulchral
+voice for the order of the banquet.
+
+"Not yet!" he heard the apparition exclaim in tones of languid, fretful
+impatience. "Not come yet! the idle loiterers! Well, she must preside
+there at the supper-table and take her place at once as mistress here. Ho!
+slaves! bring more flowers! Fill the tall golden cup with Falernian and
+set it next to mine!"
+
+Well did Esca know to whom these directions must refer. Though his blood
+had been chilled for an instant by this reappearance, as he believed it,
+of his enemy from the grave, he soon collected his scattered energies and
+summoned his courage back, with the hateful conviction that, alive or
+dead, the tribune was resolved to possess himself of Mariamne. And this he
+vowed to prevent, ay, though he should slay his dark-eyed love with his
+own hand.
+
+It was obvious now that Damasippus and Oarses would bring the captive
+straight to their patron's house, that Eleazar and Calchas had gone upon a
+fool's errand to the freedmen's garret in the Flaminian Way. What would he
+have given to be cheered by the wise counsels of the one, and backed by
+the strong arm of the other! Would there be time for him to slip from here
+unobserved, and to summon them to his aid? Three desperate men might cut
+their way through all the slaves that Placidus could muster, and if they
+had any chance of success at all it must be before the arrival of the
+gladiators. But then she was obviously expected every minute. She might
+arrive--horrible thought!--while he was gone for help, and once in the
+tribune's power it would be too late. In his despair the words of Calchas
+recurred forcibly to his mind. "We are but three," said the old man,
+"three against a host, yet I have no fear." And Esca resolved that though
+he was but one, he too would have no fear, but would trust implicitly in
+the award of eternal justice, which would surely interfere to prevent this
+unholy sacrifice.
+
+Feeling that his sword was loose in its sheath and ready to his hand,
+holding his breath, and nerving himself for the desperate effort he might
+be called upon at any moment to make, the Briton stole softly back through
+the vestibule, and concealed himself behind a marble group in the darkest
+corner of the porch. Here, with the dogged courage of his race, he made up
+his mind that he would await the arrival of Mariamne, and rescue her at
+all hazards, against any odds, or die with her in the attempt.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IX
+
+                                 THE LURE
+
+
+                               [Initial L]
+
+Like other great cities, the poorer quarters of Rome were densely crowded.
+The patricians, and indeed all the wealthier class, affected rural tastes
+even in the midst of the capital, and much space was devoted to the
+gardens and pleasure-grounds which surrounded their dwellings. The humbler
+inhabitants were consequently driven to herd together in great numbers,
+with little regard to health or convenience, and the streets leading to
+and adjoining the Tiber were perhaps the most thickly populated of all.
+That in which Eleazar's house stood, was seldom empty of passengers at any
+hour of the twenty-four, and least of all about sunset when the women
+thronged out of their dwellings to draw water for the household
+consumption of the following day. Oarses was well aware of this, and
+therefore it was that the cunning Egyptian had protested against an
+abduction of the Jewish maiden by open force from her father's door.
+
+"Leave it to me," said this finished villain, in discussing their infamous
+project with his patron. "I know a lure to wile such birds as these off
+the bough into my open hand. Stratagem first, force afterwards. There is
+no need to waken the tongues of all the women in the quarter. It was the
+cackling of a goose, my patron, that foiled the attack on the Capitol."
+
+  [Illustration: 'she was accosted by a dark sallow old woman']
+
+Mariamne, anxious and sad, was carrying her pitcher listlessly down to the
+Tiber and letting her thoughts wander far from her occupation, into a few
+sweet memories, and a thousand dreary apprehensions, when she was accosted
+by a dark sallow old woman, whose speech and manners, as well as her
+dress, betrayed an Eastern origin. The stranger asked some trifling
+questions about her way, and prayed for a draught of cold water when the
+pitcher should be filled. Mariamne, whose heart unconsciously warmed to
+the homely Syriac, entered freely into conversation with one of her own
+sex, and whose language denoted, moreover, that she was familiar with her
+nation. Willingly she drew her a measure from the stream, which the other
+quaffed with the moderation of one whose thirst is habitually quenched
+with wine rather than water.
+
+"It is somewhat muddy, I fear," said the girl kindly, reverting in her own
+mind to the sparkling fountains of her native land, and yet acknowledging
+how she loved this turbid stream better than them all. "If you will come
+back with me to my father's house I can offer you a draught of wine and a
+morsel of bread to cheer you on your way."
+
+The other, though with no great avidity, took a second pull at the
+pitcher.
+
+"Nay," said she, "my daughter, I will not tax your hospitality so far. Nor
+have I need. There is lore enough left under these faded locks of mine, to
+turn the foulest cesspool in Rome as clear as crystal. Ay, to change this
+tasteless draught to wine of Lebanon, and the pitcher that contains it to
+a vase of gold."
+
+Mariamne shrank from her with a gesture of dismay. Believing implicitly in
+their power, her religion forbade her to hold any intercourse with those
+who professed the black art. The other marked her repugnance.
+
+"My child," she continued, in soothing tones, "be not afraid of the old
+woman's secret gifts. Mine is but a harmless knowledge, gained by study of
+the ancient Chaldaean scrolls, such as your own wise king possessed of old.
+It is but white magic, such as your high-priest himself would not scruple
+to employ. Fear not, I say--I, who have pored over those mystic characters
+till mine eyes grew dim, can read your sweet pale face as plain as the
+brazen tablets in the Forum, and I can see in it sorrow, and care, and
+anxiety for him you love."
+
+Mariamne started. It was true enough, but how could the wise woman have
+found it out? The girl looked wistfully at her companion, and the latter,
+satisfied she was on the right track, proceeded to answer that questioning
+glance.
+
+"Yes," she said, "you think he is in danger or in grief. You wonder why
+you do not see him oftener. Sometimes you fear he may be false. What would
+you not give, my poor child, to look on the golden locks, and the white
+brow, now, at this very moment? And I can show them to you if you will.
+The old woman is not ungrateful even for a draught of the Tiber's muddy
+stream."
+
+The blood mounted to Mariamne's brow, but the light kindled at the same
+time in her eyes, and the soft gleam swept over her face that comes into
+every human countenance when the heart vibrates with an allusion to its
+treasure as though the silver cord thrilled to the touch of an angel's
+wing. It was no clumsy guess of the wise woman, to infer that this dark-
+eyed damsel cherished some fair-haired lover.
+
+"What mean you?" asked the girl eagerly. "How can you show him to me? What
+do you know of him? Is he safe? Is he happy?"
+
+The wise woman smiled. Here was a bird flying blindfold into the net. Take
+her by her affections, and there would be little difficulty in the
+capture.
+
+"He is in danger," she replied. "But you could save him if you only knew
+how. He might be happy too, if he would. But with another!"
+
+To do Mariamne justice she heard only the first sentence.
+
+"In danger!" she repeated, "and I could save him! Oh, tell me where he is,
+and what I can do for his sake!"
+
+The wise woman pulled a small mirror from her bosom.
+
+"I cannot tell you," she answered, "but I can show him to you in this.
+Only not here, where the shadow of a passer-by might destroy the charm.
+Let us turn aside to that vacant space by the broken column, and you shall
+look without interruption on the face you love."
+
+It was but a short way off, though the ruins which surrounded it made the
+place lonely and secluded; had it been twice the distance, however,
+Mariamne would have accompanied her new acquaintance without hesitation in
+her eagerness for tidings of Esca's fate. As she neared the broken column,
+so endeared to her by associations, she could not repress a faint sigh,
+which was not lost on her companion.
+
+"It was here you met him before," whispered the wise woman. "It is here
+you shall see his face again."
+
+This was scarcely a random shaft, for it required little penetration to
+discover that Mariamne had some tender associations connected with a spot
+thus adapted for the meeting of a pair of lovers; nevertheless the
+apparent familiarity with her previous actions was sufficient to convince
+the Jewess of her companion's supernatural knowledge, and though it roused
+alarm, it excited curiosity in a still greater degree.
+
+"Take the mirror in your hand," whispered the wise woman, when they had
+reached the column, casting, at the same time, a searching glance around.
+"Shut your eyes whilst I speak the charm that calls him, three times over,
+and then look steadily on its surface till I have counted a hundred."
+
+Mariamne obeyed these directions implicitly. Standing in the vacant space
+with the mirror in her hand, she shut her eyes and listened intently to
+the solemn tones of the wise woman chanting in a low monotonous voice some
+unintelligible stanzas, while from the deep shadow behind the broken
+column, there stole out the portly figure of Damasippus, and, at the same
+moment, half a dozen strong well-armed slaves rose from the different
+hiding-places in which they lay concealed amongst the ruins. Ere the
+incantation had been twice repeated, Damasippus threw a shawl over the
+girl's head, muffling her so completely, while he caught her in his strong
+arms, that an outcry was impossible. The others snatched her up ere she
+could make a movement, and bore her swiftly off to a chariot with four
+white horses waiting in the next street, whilst the wise woman, following
+at a rapid pace, and disencumbering herself of her female attire as she
+sped along, disclosed the cunning features and the thin wiry form of
+Oarses the Egyptian. Coming up with Damasippus, who was panting behind the
+slaves and their burden, he laughed a low noiseless laugh.
+
+"My plan was the best," said he, "after all. What fools these women are, O
+my friend! Is there any other creature that can be taken with a bait so
+simple? Three inches of mirror and the ghost of an absent face!"
+
+But Damasippus had not breath to reply. Hurrying onward, he was chiefly
+anxious to dispose of his prize in the chariot without interruption; and
+when he reached it he mounted by her side, and bidding Oarses and the
+slaves follow as near as was practicable, he drove off at great speed in
+the direction of the tribune's house.
+
+But this was an eventful night in Rome, and although for that reason well
+adapted to a deed of violence, its tumult and confusion exacted great
+caution from those who wished to proceed without interruption along the
+streets. The shouts that had disturbed the two freedmen in their garret
+whilst preparing the enterprise they had since so successfully carried
+out, gave no false warning of the coming storm. That storm had burst, and
+was now raging in its fury throughout a wide portion of the city. Like all
+such outbreaks it gathered force and violence in many quarters at once,
+and from many sources unconnected with its original cause.
+
+Rome was the theatre that night of a furious civil war, consequent on the
+intrigues of various parties which had now grown to a head. The old
+Praetorian guard had been broken up by Vitellius, and dismissed without any
+of the honours and gratuities to which they considered themselves
+entitled, in order to make way for another body of troops on whose
+fidelity the Emperor believed he could rely, and who were now called, in
+contradistinction to their predecessors, the New Praetorians. Two such
+conflicting interests carried in them the elements of the direst hatred
+and strife. The original body-guard hoping to be restored by Vespasian,
+should he attain the purple, had everything to gain by a change of
+dynasty, and were easily won over by the partisans of that successful
+general to any enterprise, however desperate, which would place him on the
+throne. Trusting to this powerful aid, these partisans, of whom Julius
+Placidus, the tribune, though he had wormed himself into the confidence of
+Vitellius, was one of the most active and unscrupulous, were ready enough
+to raise the standard of revolt and had no fear for the result. The train
+was laid, and to-night it had been decided that the match should be
+applied. In regular order of battle, in three ranks with spears advanced
+and eagles in the centre, the Old Praetorians marched at sundown to attack
+the camp of their successors. It was a bloody and obstinate contest. The
+new body-guard, proud of their promotion, and loyal to the hand that had
+bought them, defended themselves to the death. Again and again was the
+camp almost carried. Again and again were the assailants obstinately
+repulsed. It was only when slain, man by man, falling in their ranks as
+they stood, with all their wounds _in front_, that a victory was
+obtained--a victory which so crippled the conquerors as to render them but
+inefficient auxiliaries in the other conflicts of that eventful night. But
+this was only one of the many pitched battles, so to speak, of which Rome
+was the unhappy theatre. The Capitol after an obstinate defence had been
+taken by the partisans of the present Emperor and burned to the ground.
+
+This stronghold having been previously seized and occupied by Sabinus, who
+declared himself Governor of Rome in the name of Vespasian, and who even
+received in state several of the principal nobility and a deputation from
+the harassed and vacillating senate, had been alternately the object of
+attack and defence to either party. Its possession seemed to confer a
+spurious sovereignty over the whole city, and it was held as obstinately
+as it was vigorously and desperately attacked.
+
+An hour or two before sunset, an undisciplined body of soldiers, armed
+only with their swords, and formidable chiefly from the wild fury with
+which they seemed inspired, marched through the Forum and ascended the
+Capitoline Hill. The assailants having no engines of war either for
+protection or offence, suffered severely from the missiles showered upon
+them by the besieged, till the thought struck them of throwing flaming
+torches into the place from the roofs of the houses which surrounded it,
+and which, erected in time of peace, had been suffered to overtop the
+Roman citadel. In vain, after the flames had consumed the gate, did they
+endeavour to force an entrance; for Sabinus, with the unscrupulous
+resource of a Roman soldier, had blocked the way by a hundred prostrate
+statues of gods and men, pulled down from the sacred pedestals on which
+they had stood for ages; but the contiguous houses catching fire, and all
+the woodwork of the Capitol being old and dry, the flames soon spread, and
+in a few hours the stronghold of Roman pride and Roman history was
+levelled with the ground. Callous to the memories around him, forgetful of
+the Tarquins, and the Scipios, and the many hallowed names that shed their
+lustre on this monument of his country's greatness, Sabinus lost his
+presence of mind in proportion as the necessity for preserving it became
+more urgent. He was no longer able to control his troops, and the latter,
+panic-stricken with the entrance of their enemies, disbanded, and betook
+themselves to flight. The majority, including one woman of noble birth,
+were put ruthlessly to the sword, but a few, resembling their assailants,
+as they did, in arms, appearance, and language, were fortunate enough to
+catch the password by which they recognised each other, and so escaped.
+
+In another quarter of the mighty city, a large body of troops who had
+hoisted the standard of Vespasian, and had already suffered one repulse
+which rather excited their animosity than quelled their ardour, were
+advancing in good order, and, according to sound warlike tactics, in three
+divisions. The gardens of Sallust, laid out by that elegant and
+intellectual sensualist, with a view to pursuits far removed from strife
+and bloodshed, were the scene of an obstinate combat, in which, however,
+one of these columns succeeded in establishing itself within the walls;
+and now the struggle that had heretofore been carried on in its outskirts,
+penetrated to the heart of the Roman capital. The citizens beheld war
+brought into their very homes and hearths--the familiar street slippery
+with blood--the wounded soldier reeling on the doorsill, where the children
+were wont to play--the dead man's limbs strewed helpless by the fountain,
+where the girls assembled with shrill laughing voices on the calm summer
+evenings,--and worse than all, instead of the kindly grasp of friends and
+fellow-countrymen, the brother's hand clutching at the brother's throat.
+
+Such horrors, however, did but more demoralise a population already
+steeped to the very lips in cruelty, vice, and foul iniquity. Trained to
+bloodshed by the ghastly entertainments of the amphitheatre, the Roman
+citizen gloated on no spectacle with so keen a pleasure as on the throes
+of a fellow-creature in the agony of violent death. The populace seemed
+now to consider the contest waged at their doors as a goodly show got up
+for their especial amusement. Loud shouts encouraged the combatants as
+either party swayed and wavered in the mortal press, and _Euge!_--_Bene!_
+were cried as loudly for their encouragement, as if they had been paid
+gladiators, earning their awful livelihood on the sand. Nay, worse, when
+some wounded soldier dragged himself into a house for safety, instead of
+succour, he was received with yells of reprobation, and thrust out into
+the street that he might be despatched by his conquerors according to the
+merciless regulations of the amphitheatre.
+
+Nor was man the only demon on the scene. Unsexed women with bare bosoms,
+wild eyes, streaming hair, and white feet stained with blood, flew to and
+fro amongst the soldiers, stimulating them to fresh atrocities with wine
+and caresses and odious ribald mirth. It was a festival of Death and Sin.
+She had wreathed her fair arms around the spectral king, and crowned his
+fleshless brows with her gaudy garlands, and wrapped him in her mantle of
+flame, and pressed the blood-red goblet to his lips, maddening him with
+her shrieks of wild, mocking laughter, the while their mutual feet
+trampled out the lives and souls of their victims on the stones of Rome.
+
+Through a town in such a state of turmoil and confusion, Damasippus took
+upon himself to conduct in safety the prize he had succeeded in capturing,
+not, it must be confessed, without many hearty regrets that he had ever
+embarked in the undertaking. Devoutly did he now wish that he could shift
+the whole business on to the shoulders of Oarses; but of late he had been
+concerned to observe in the patron's manner a certain sense of his own
+inutility as compared with the astute Egyptian; and if the latter were now
+permitted to conclude, as he had undoubtedly inaugurated, the adventure,
+Placidus might be satisfied that there was little use in entertaining two
+rogues to do the work of one. He knew his patron well enough to be aware
+of the effect such a conviction would have on his own prospects. The
+tribune would no more scruple to bid him go starve or hang, than he would
+to pull out a superfluous hair from his beard. Therefore, at all risks,
+thought Damasippus, he must be the man to bring Mariamne into his lord's
+house. It was a difficult and a dangerous task. There was only room for
+himself and one stout slave besides the charioteer and the prisoner. The
+latter had struggled violently, and required to be held down by main
+force, nor in muffling her screams was it easy to observe the happy medium
+between silence and suffocation. Also, it was indispensable, in the
+present lawless state of affairs, to avoid observation; and the spectacle
+of a handsomely gilded chariot with a female figure in it, held down and
+closely veiled, the whole drawn by four beautiful white horses, was not
+calculated to traverse the streets of a crowded city without remark.
+Oarses, indeed, had suggested a litter, but this had been overruled by his
+comrade on the score of speed, and now the state of the streets made speed
+impossible. To be sure this enabled the escort to keep up with him, and
+Damasippus, who was no fighter at heart, derived some comfort from their
+presence. The darkness, however, which should have favoured him, was
+dispelled by the numerous conflagrations in various parts of the city; and
+when the chariot was stopped and forced to turn into a by-street to avoid
+a crowd rushing towards the blazing Capitol, Damasippus felt his heart
+sink within him in an access of terror, such as even he had never felt
+before.
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER X
+
+                         FROM SCYLLA TO CHARYBDIS
+
+
+Up one street, down another, avoiding the main thoroughfares, now rendered
+impassable by the tumult, his anxious freedmen threaded their way with
+difficulty in the direction of the tribune's house. Mariamne seemed either
+to have fainted, or to have resigned herself to her fate, for she had
+ceased to struggle, and cowered down on the floor of the chariot, silent
+and motionless. Damasippus trusted his difficulties were nearly over, and
+resolved never again to be concerned in such an enterprise. Already he
+imagined himself safe in his patron's porch, claiming the reward of his
+dexterity, when he was once more arrested by a stoppage which promised a
+hazardous and protracted delay.
+
+Winding its slow length along, in all the pomp and dignity affected by the
+maiden order, a procession of Vestals crossed in front of the white
+horses, and not a man in Rome but would have trembled with superstitious
+awe at the bare notion of breaking in on the solemn march of these sacred
+virgins, dedicated to the service of a goddess, whose peculiar attributes
+were mystery, antiquity, and remorseless vengeance for offence. Dressed in
+their long white garments, simple and severe, with no relief save a narrow
+purple border round the veil, they swept on in slow majestic column, like
+a vision from the other world, led by a stately priestess, pale and calm,
+of lofty stature and majestic bearing. They believed that to them was
+confided the welfare of the State, the safety of the city; nay, that with
+the mysterious symbols in their temple, they guarded the very existence of
+the nation; therefore on all public occasions of strife or disorder, the
+Vestal Virgins were accustomed to show themselves confidently in the
+streets, and use their influence for the restoration of peace. Nor had
+they need to fear either injury or insult. To touch the person of a
+Vestal, even to obstruct the litter in which she was carried, was
+punishable with death, and public opinion in such a case was even more
+exacting than the law. Immunities and privileges of many kinds were
+granted to the order by different enactments. When the Vestal went abroad,
+she was preceded and followed by the lictors of the State; and if she met
+a criminal under sentence of death, honestly by accident, during her
+progress, he was pardoned and set free for her sake, on the spot.
+
+It may be that Mariamne had some vague recollection of this custom, for no
+sooner were the horses stopped to let the procession pass, than she
+uttered a loud shriek, which brought it to a halt at once, and caused her
+own guards to gather round the chariot and prepare for resistance, Oarses
+wisely keeping aloof, and Damasippus, while he strove to wear a bold
+front, quaking in every limb. At a signal from the superior priestess, the
+long white line stood still, while her lictors seized the horses, and
+surrounded the chariot. Already a crowd of curious bystanders was
+gathering, and the glare of the burning Capitol shed its light even here,
+on their dark, eager faces, contrasting strangely with the veiled figures
+that occupied the middle of the street, cold and motionless as marble.
+
+Two lictors seized on Damasippus, each by a shoulder, and brought him
+unceremoniously to within a few paces of the priestess. Here he dropped
+upon his knees, and began wringing his hands in ludicrous dismay, whilst
+the populace, gathering round, laughed and jeered at him, only refraining
+from violence on account of the Vestal's presence.
+
+"She is a slave, our slave, bought with our own money in the market,
+sacred virgin. I can swear it. I can prove it. Here is the man who paid
+for her. O accursed Oarses, hast thou left me in the lurch at last?"
+
+The wily Egyptian now came up, composed and sedate, with the air of a man
+confident in the justice of his cause. Mariamne, meanwhile, could but
+strive to release herself in vain. So effectually had she been bound and
+muffled, that she could scarcely move, and was unable to articulate. She
+struggled on, nevertheless, in the wild hope of succour, writhing her
+whole body to set her lips free from the bandages that stifled them. With
+the quiet dignity which was an especial attribute of her office, the
+priestess pointed to the chariot containing the prisoner, and from beneath
+her veil, in clear, low tones, while the bystanders listened with
+respectful awe, came the question--
+
+"What crime has she committed?"
+
+"No crime, sacred virgin, no crime whatsoever," replied the wily Oarses,
+well knowing that the privilege of pardon, which the Vestals loved to
+exercise, was less likely to be exerted for a refractory bondswoman than a
+condemned criminal. "She is but a runaway slave, a mere dancing-girl. How
+shall I tell it in your august presence? I bought her scarce a week ago,
+as my friend here knows, and can swear. Canst thou not, Damasippus, worthy
+citizen? I gave but two thousand sesterces, nevertheless it was a large
+sum for me, who am a poor man; and I borrowed the half of it from my
+friend here. I bought her in the open market, and I took her home with me
+to my wife and children, that she might beat flax and card wool, and so
+gain an honest livelihood--an honest livelihood, sacred virgin; and that is
+why she ran away from me; so I informed the aedile, and I sought her
+diligently, and to-day I found her with her cheeks painted, and her bosom
+gilt, in her old haunts, drunk with wine. Then I bound her, and placed her
+in a litter, and the litter breaking down, for I am poor, sacred virgin,
+and of humble birth, though a Roman citizen--the litter, I say, breaking
+down, and my patron's chariot passing by, I placed her within it, that I
+might take her home, for she is insensible still. All this I swear, and
+here is my friend who will swear it too. Damasippus, wilt thou not?"
+
+The latter worthy had indeed been accompanying every syllable of his
+confederate's statement with those eager Italian gestures which signify so
+much of argument and expostulation. These were not without effect on the
+bystanders, predisposed as such generally are to believe the worst, and
+prone to be influenced by the last speaker, especially when supported by
+testimony, however unworthy of reliance. They crowded in as near as their
+awe of the priestess would allow, and angry looks were shot at the poor,
+dark figure lying helpless in the chariot.
+
+Under the Vestal's long white veil, there might have been a gleam of pity
+or a flash of scorn on the unseen face, according as she felt a kindly
+sympathy or womanly indignation for the sins of an erring sister. But
+whatever was her private opinion, with a priestess of her order, such an
+appeal as that of Oarses could have but one result. The pale slender hand
+made a gesture of contempt and impatience. The tall ghostly figure moved
+on with a prouder, sterner step, and the procession swept by, carrying
+away with it the last fragile hope of succour that had comforted
+Mariamne's heart. Like a poor hunted hind caught in a net, when the sharp
+muzzle of the deerhound touches her flank, the Jewess made one convulsive
+effort that loosened the shawl about her mouth. In her agony, the beloved
+name flew instinctively to her lips, and hopelessly, unconsciously, she
+called out, "Esca! Esca!" in loud piercing tones of terror and despair.
+
+The Vestals had indeed passed by, and the chariot was again set in motion,
+but the Briton's name seemed to act as a talisman on the crowd, for no
+sooner had she pronounced it, than the bystanders were seen to give way on
+each side to the pressure of a huge pair of shoulders, surmounted by the
+fearless, honest face of Hirpinus the gladiator. That professional, in
+common with a few chosen comrades, had found the last few hours hang
+exceedingly heavy on his hands. Bound by oath to keep sober, and, what was
+perhaps even a more galling restriction, to abstain from fighting, this
+little party had seen themselves deprived at once of their two principal
+resources, the favourite occupations which gave a zest to their existence.
+But the saying that there is "Honour among thieves" dates farther back
+than the institution of an amphitheatre; and as soon as the gladiator had
+made his bargain, he considered himself, body and soul, the property of
+his purchaser. So, when Hippias gave his final orders, insisting on the
+appearance of his myrmidons at a given place and a given time, fresh,
+sober, and without a scratch, he had no fear but that they would be
+punctually and honestly obeyed.
+
+Accordingly, Hirpinus, Rufus, Lutorius, and a few of the surest blades in
+the Family, had been whiling away their leisure with a stroll through the
+principal streets of Rome, and had met with not a few incidents peculiarly
+pleasing to men of their profession. They had been good enough to express
+their approval of the soldierlike manner in which the gardens of Sallust
+were attacked and carried; they had also marked, with a certain grim
+satisfaction, the assault on the Capitol, though they complained that when
+it was fired the thick volumes of smoke that swept downwards from its
+walls obstructed their view of the fighting, which was to them the chief
+attraction of the entertainment, and which they criticised with many
+instructive and professional remarks; it was difficult, doubtless, to
+abstain from taking part in any of these skirmishes, more particularly as
+each man was armed with the short, two-edged Roman sword; but, as they
+reminded one another, it was only a temporary abstinence, and for a very
+short period, since, from all they could gather, before midnight they
+might be up to their necks in wine, and over their ankles in blood. Now,
+supper-time was approaching, and the athletes were getting fierce, hungry,
+and weary of inaction. They had stood still to watch the procession of
+Vestals pass by, and even these wild, unscrupulous men had refrained from
+word or gesture that could be construed into disrespect for the maiden
+order; but they had shown little interest in the cause of stoppage, and
+scarce condescended to notice a discussion that arose from so mean a
+subject as a runaway slave. Suddenly, however, to the amazement of his
+comrades and the discomfiture of the bystanders, Hirpinus burst hastily
+through the crowd, unceremoniously thrusting aside those who stood in his
+way, and lifting one inquisitive little barber clean off his legs, to hurl
+him like a plaything into a knot of chattering citizens, much to their
+indignation and the poor man's own physical detriment. Hands were
+clenched, indeed, and brows bent, as the strong square form forged through
+the press, like some bluff galley through the surf, but _Cave! cave!_ was
+whispered by the more cautious, and in such dread was a gladiator held by
+his peaceful fellow-citizens, that the boldest preferred submission under
+insult to a quarrel with a man whose very trade was strife. The chariot
+was already in motion, when a strong hand forced the two centre horses
+back upon their haunches, and the bold, frank voice of Hirpinus was heard
+above the trampling hoofs and general confusion.
+
+"Easy, my little fellow, for a moment," said he to the indignant
+Automedon. "I heard a comrade's name spoken just now, from within that
+gilded shell of thine. Halt! I tell thee, lad, and keep that whip quiet,
+lest I brain thee with my open hand!"
+
+Automedon, little relishing the business from the beginning, pulled his
+horses together, and looked very much disposed to cry. Damasippus,
+however, confident in the support of his companion, and the presence of
+half a dozen armed slaves, stepped boldly forward, and bade the gladiator
+"make way there" in a high, authoritative voice. Hirpinus recognised the
+freedman at once, and laughed loud and long.
+
+"What now?" said he, "my old convive and boon-companion. By Pollux! I knew
+thee not in thy warlike array of steel. In faith, a garland of roses
+becomes that red nose of thine better than the bosses of a helmet, and the
+stem of a goblet would fit thy hand more deftly than the haft of that
+gaudy sword. What stolen goods are these, old parasite? I'll wager now
+that the jackal is but taking home a lump of carrion to the lion's den."
+
+"Stay me not, good friend," replied the other, with importance. "It is
+even as you say, and I am about the business of your employer and mine,
+Julius Placidus the tribune."
+
+Hirpinus, in high good-humour, would have bade him pass on, but Mariamne,
+whose mouth was now released, gathered her exhausted energies for a last
+appeal.
+
+"You are his comrade! you said so even now. Save me, save me, for Esca's
+sake!"
+
+Again at that name the gladiator's eye glistened. He loved the young
+Briton like a son--he who had so little to love in the world. He had
+brought him out, as he boasted twenty times a day. He had made a man--more,
+a swords-man--of him. Now he had lost sight of him, and, as far as his
+nature permitted, had been anxious and unhappy ever since. If a dog had
+belonged to Esca, he would have dashed in to rescue it from danger at any
+risk.
+
+"Stand back, fool!" he shouted to Damasippus, as the latter interposed his
+person between the gladiator and the chariot. "Have a care, I tell thee! I
+want the woman out into the street. What! you will, will
+you?--One--two.--Take it then, idiot! Here! comrades, close in, and keep off
+this accursed crowd!"
+
+Damasippus, confident in the numbers of his escort, and believing, too,
+that his adversary was alone, had, indeed, drawn his sword, and called up
+the slaves to his assistance, when the gladiator moved towards the chariot
+containing his charge. To dash the blade from his unaccustomed grasp, to
+deal him a straight, swift, crushing blow, that sent him down senseless on
+the pavement, and then, drawing his own weapon, to turn upon the shrinking
+escort a point that seemed to threaten all at once, was for Hirpinus a
+mere matter of professional business, so simple as to be almost a
+relaxation. His comrades, laughing boisterously, made a ring round the
+combatants. The slaves hesitated, gave ground, turned and fled; Hirpinus
+dragged the helpless form of Mariamne from the chariot, and Oarses, who
+had remained in the background till now, leaped nimbly in, to assume the
+vacant place, and, whispering Automedon, went off at a gallop.
+
+The poor girl, terrified by the danger she had escaped, and scarcely
+reassured by the mode of her rescue, or the appearance of her deliverers,
+clung, half-fainting, to the person of her supporter, and the old
+swordsman, with a delicacy almost ludicrous in one of his rough exterior,
+soothed her with such terms of encouragement as he could summon at the
+moment: now like a nurse hushing a child off to sleep, anon like a
+charioteer quieting a frightened or fretful horse.
+
+In the meantime, the crowd, gathering confidence from the sheathed swords
+and obvious good-humour of the gladiators, pressed round with many rude
+gestures and insulting remarks, regardless of the fallen man, who, on
+recovering his senses, wisely remained for a while where he was, and
+chiefly bent on examining the features of the cloaked and hooded prize,
+that had created this pretty little skirmish for their diversion. Such
+unmannerly curiosity soon aroused the indignation of Hirpinus.
+
+"Keep them off, comrades!" said he angrily; "these miserable citizens.
+Keep them off, I say! Have they never seen a veiled woman before, that
+they gape and stare, and pass their rancid jests, as they do on you and me
+when we are down on our backs for their amusement in the arena? Let her
+have air, my lads, and she will soon come to. Pollux! She looks like the
+lily thy wife was watering at home, when we stopped there this morning,
+Rufus, for a draught of the five-year-old wine, and a gambol with those
+bright-haired kids of thine."
+
+The tall champion to whom this remark was addressed, and who had that very
+morning, in company with his friend, bidden a farewell, that might be
+eternal, to wife and children, as indeed it was nothing unusual for him to
+do, softened doubtless by the remembrance, now exerted himself strenuously
+to give the fainting woman room. Without the use of any but nature's
+weapons, and from sheer weight, strength, and resolution, the gladiators
+soon cleared an ample space in the middle of the street for their comrade
+and his charge; nor did they seem at all indisposed to a task which
+afforded opportunities of evincing their own physical superiority, and the
+supreme contempt in which they held the mass of their fellow-citizens.
+Perhaps it was pleasant to feel how completely they could domineer over
+the crowd by the use of those very qualities which made their dying
+struggles a spectacle for the vulgar; perhaps they enjoyed the repayment
+in advance of some of the ribaldry and insult that would too surely
+accompany their end. At anyrate they shouldered the mob back with
+unnecessary violence, drove their spiked sandals into the feet of such as
+came under their tread, and scrupled not to strike with open hand or
+clenched fist any adventurous citizen who was fool enough to put himself
+forward for appeal or resistance. These, too, seemed terror-stricken by
+this handful of resolute men. Accustomed to look on them from a safe
+distance in the amphitheatre, like the wild beasts with whom they often
+saw them fight, they were nearly as unwilling to beard the one as the
+other; and to come into collision with a gladiator in the street, was like
+meeting a tiger on the wrong side of his bars. So Hirpinus had plenty of
+room to undo the girl's bands, and remove the stifling folds that muffled
+her head and throat.
+
+"Where am I?" she murmured, as she began to breathe more freely, looking
+round bewildered and confused. "You are Esca's friend. Surely I heard you
+say so. You will take care of me, then, for Esca's sake."
+
+Instinctively she addressed herself to Hirpinus, instinctively she seemed
+to appeal to him for protection and encouragement. The veil had been taken
+from her head, and the beauty of the sweet pale face was not lost on the
+surrounding gladiators. Old Hirpinus looked at her with a comical
+expression, in which admiration and pity were blended with astonishment
+and a proud sense of personal appropriation in the defenceless girl who
+seemed utterly dependent on him. He had never seen anything so beautiful
+in his life. He had never known the happiness of a home; never had wife
+nor child: but at that moment his heart warmed to her as a father's to a
+daughter.
+
+"Where are you," he repeated, "pretty flower? You are within a hundred
+paces of the Flaminian Way. How came you here? Ay, that is more than I can
+tell you. Yonder knave lying there.--What? he is gone, is he? Ay! I could
+not hit hard enough at a man with whom I have emptied so many skins of
+Sabine.--Well, Damasippus brought thee here, he best knows why, in his
+master's gaudy chariot. I heard thee speak, my pretty one, and who loves
+Esca, loves me, and I love him, or her, or whoever it may be. So I knocked
+him over, that fat freedman, and took thee from the chariot, and pulled
+off these wraps that were stifling thee, and indeed I think it was about
+time."
+
+He had raised her while he spoke, and supported her on his strong arm,
+walking slowly on, while the gladiators, closing round them, moved
+steadily along the street, followed, though at a safe distance, by much
+verbal insult and abuse. At intervals, two or three of the rear-guard
+would turn and confront the mob, who immediately gave back and were
+silent. Thus the party proceeded on its way, more, it would seem, with the
+view of leaving the crowd than of reaching any definite place of shelter.
+
+"Where are we going? and who are those who guard us?" whispered Mariamne,
+clinging close to her protector. "You will take care of me, will you not?"
+she added, in a confiding tone.
+
+"They are my comrades," he answered soothingly; "and old Hirpinus will
+guard you, pretty one, like the apple of his eye. We will take you
+straight home, or wherever you wish to go, and not one of these will
+molest you while I am by--never fear!"
+
+Just then, Euchenor, who was one of the band, and had overheard this
+reassuring sentence, clapped the old swordsman on the shoulder.
+
+"You seem to forget our compact," said he, with his evil, mocking laugh.
+
+The face of Hirpinus fell, and his brow lowered, for he remembered then
+that Mariamne was not much better off here than in the captivity from
+which he had rescued her.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XI
+
+                         THE RULES OF THE FAMILY
+
+
+The Jewess had indeed but escaped one danger to fall into another. Bold
+and lawless as were these professional swordsmen, they acknowledged
+certain rules of their own, which they were never known to infringe. When
+a band of gladiators had been mustered, and told off for a particular
+service, it was their custom to bind themselves by oath, as forming one
+body, unanimous and indivisible, until that service was completed. They
+swore to stand by each other to the death, to obey their chief implicitly,
+and to take orders from him alone--to make common cause with their fellows,
+in defiance of all personal feelings of interest or danger, even to the
+cheerful sacrifice of life itself; and to consider all booty of arms,
+gold, jewels, captives, or otherwise, however obtained, as the property of
+the band; subject to its disposal, according to the established code of
+their profession. Therefore it was that Hirpinus felt his heart sink at
+Euchenor's malicious observation. Therefore it was that though he strove
+to put on an appearance of good-humour and confidence, a perceptible
+tremor shook his voice while he replied--
+
+"I found her first. I dragged her from the chariot. I put that foolish
+citizen on his back to make sport for you all. I am the oldest swordsman
+in the band. I think you might leave her to me!"
+
+Euchenor's eye was on the frightened girl, and, meeting its glance, she
+shrank yet closer to her protector, while the Greek observed, with a
+sneer--
+
+"You had better make a new set of rules for us then, since you seem
+inclined to break through the old. Comrades, I appeal to you; doth not the
+booty belong to us all, share and share alike?"
+
+The others were crowding in now, having reached a narrower street, and
+left the populace behind.
+
+"Of course, of course!" was re-echoed on all sides; "who doubts it? who
+disputes it?"
+
+"What would you have, man?" exclaimed Hirpinus, waxing wroth. "You cannot
+cut a captive into twenty pieces and give every man a portion! I tell you,
+she is mine. Let her alone!"
+
+"You cannot cut a wineskin into twenty pieces, nor need you," replied the
+Greek; "but you pass it round amongst your comrades, till every man's
+thirst be slaked. 'Faith, after that, you may keep the empty skin for your
+own share, if you like!"
+
+He spoke in a cold derisive tone, and although Mariamne could not
+understand half he said, garnished as his speech was with the cant terms
+of his calling, she gathered enough of its import to be terrified at the
+prospect before her. Old Hirpinus lost patience at last.
+
+"Will you take her from me?" he burst out, knitting his bushy brows, and
+putting his face close to the Greek's. "Stand up then like a man and try!"
+
+Euchenor turned very pale. It was no part of his scheme to provoke his
+robust old comrade to a personal encounter; and, indeed, the pugilist was
+a coward at heart, owing his reputation chiefly to the skill with which he
+had always matched himself against those whom he was sure to conquer. Now
+he fell back a step or two from his glaring adversary, and appealed once
+more to their companions. These gathered round, speaking all at once,
+Hirpinus turning from one to the other, and ever shielding his charge with
+his body, as an animal shields its young. He was determined to save the
+girl, because he understood dimly that she belonged in some way to Esca,
+and the loyal old swordsman would not have hesitated one moment in
+flinging his life down, then and there, to purchase her safety.
+
+"Hold, comrades!" shouted he, in a stentorian voice that made itself heard
+above the din. "Will ye bay me altogether like a pack of Molossian wolf-
+hounds? Hounds, forsooth! nay, the Molossians are true-bred, and there is
+one cur amongst us here at least, to my knowledge. Rather, like a knot of
+jabbering old women in a market-place! Talk of rules! Of course we abide
+by our rules, ay, and stick to our oath. Rufus, old friend, we have stood
+with our swords at each other's throats for hours together, many a time
+during the last ten years, and never had an angry word or an unkindly
+thought. Thou wilt not fail me now? Thou wilt not see old Hirpinus
+wronged?"
+
+The champion thus appealed to by such tender associations, thrust his tall
+person forward in the throng. Slow of speech, calm, calculating, and
+reflective, Rufus was held an oracle of good sense amongst his fellow-
+swordsmen.
+
+"You are both wrong," said he sententiously. "The girl belongs to neither
+of you. If this had happened yesterday, Hirpinus would have had a right to
+carry her where he chose. But we have taken the oath since then, old
+comrade, and she is the joint property of the band by all our laws."
+
+"I said so!" exclaimed Euchenor triumphantly. "The prize belongs to us
+all. Every man his turn. The apple seems fair and ripe enough. Mine shall
+be the hand to pare its rind."
+
+As he spoke, he pulled aside the veil which Mariamne had modestly drawn
+once more about her head, and the girl, flushing scarlet at the insult,
+stamped passionately with her foot, and then, as if acknowledging her
+helplessness, burst into tears, and hid her face in her hands. Hirpinus
+caught the aggressor by the shoulder, and sent him reeling back amongst
+the rest. His beard bristled with anger, and the foam stood on his lip
+like some old boar at bay.
+
+"Hands off!" roared the veteran. "Rules or no rules, another such jest as
+that and I drive a foot of steel through the jester's brisket! What!
+Rufus, I came not into the Family yesterday. I was eating raw flesh and
+lentil porridge when most of these were sucking their mothers' milk. I
+tell thee, man, the old law was this: When gladiators disputed on any
+subject whatever--pay, plunder, or precedence--they were to take short
+swords, throw away their shields, and fight it out by pairs, till they
+were agreed. Stand round, comrades! Put the little Greek up at half-sword
+distance; clear a space of seven feet square, not an inch more, and I'll
+show you how we used to settle these matters when Nero wore the purple!"
+
+"Nay, nay!" interposed Mariamne, wringing her hands in an agony of terror
+and dismay. "Shed not blood on my account. I am a poor, helpless girl. I
+have done no one any harm. Let me go, for pity's sake! Let me go!"
+
+But to this solution of the difficulty objections were offered on all
+sides. Rufus indeed, and one or two of the older swordsmen, moved by the
+youth and tears of the captive, would willingly have permitted her to
+escape; but Euchenor, Lutorius, and the rest, objected violently to the
+loss of so beautiful a prize. Rufus, too, when appealed to, though he
+would fain have supported his old comrade, was obliged to confess that
+justice, according to gladiator's law, was on Euchenor's side. Even the
+proposal to fight for her possession by pairs, popular as it was likely to
+be in such a company, was rendered inadmissible by the terms of the late
+oath. The band, indeed, when purchased as they had been by Hippias for a
+special duty to be performed that night, had become pledged, according to
+custom, not only to the usual brotherhood and community of interests, but
+also to refrain from baring steel upon any pretence or provocation either
+amongst themselves or against a common foe, until ordered to do so by
+their employer. Hirpinus, though he chafed and swore vehemently, and kept
+Mariamne close under his wing through it all, was obliged to acknowledge
+the force of his comrade's arguments; and the puzzled athlete racked his
+unaccustomed brains till his head ached to find some means of escape for
+the girl he had resolved to save. In the meantime, delay was dangerous.
+These men were not used to hesitate or refrain, and already the hour was
+approaching at which they were to muster for their night's work, whatever
+it might be, in the tribune's house. The old swordsman felt he must
+dissemble, were it but to gain time; so he smoothed his brows, and, much
+against the grain, assumed an appearance of good-humour and satisfaction.
+
+"Be it as you will," said he; "old Hirpinus is the last man to turn round
+upon his comrades, or to break the laws of the Family, for the sake of a
+cream-coloured face and a wisp of black hair. I will abide by the decision
+of Hippias. We shall find him at the tribune's house, and it is time we
+were there now. Forward, my lads! Nay, hands off! I tell thee once more,
+Euchenor, till we have brought her to the master's she belongs to me."
+
+Euchenor grumbled, but was compelled to submit; for the other's influence
+amongst the gladiators was far greater than his own. And the little party,
+with Mariamne in the centre, still clinging fast to Hirpinus, moved on in
+the direction of the tribune's house.
+
+Esca, crouching in his place of concealment, silent and wary, as he had
+ofttimes crouched long ago, when watching for the dun deer on the
+hillside, was aware of the tramp of disciplined men approaching the porch
+in which he lay in ambush. Every faculty was keenly, painfully on the
+stretch. Once, at the sound of wheels, he had started from his lair, ready
+to make one desperate attempt for the rescue of his love; but greatly to
+his consternation, the gilded chariot returned empty, save of Automedon,
+looking much scared and bewildered. The wily Oarses, indeed, having made
+his escape from the gladiators, had betaken himself to his lodging, and
+there determined to remain, either till his patron's wrath should be
+exhausted, or till the events which he foresaw the night would bring forth
+should have diverted it into another channel. So Automedon went home in
+fear and trembling by himself. As the Briton revolved matters in his mind,
+he knew not whether to be most alarmed or reassured by this unforeseen
+contingency. Though the chariot had returned without Mariamne, the
+freedmen and armed slaves were still absent. Could they have missed their
+prey, and were they still searching for her? or had they carried her
+elsewhere?--to the freedmen's garret, perhaps, there to remain concealed
+till the night was further advanced. Yet the words of Placidus, or of his
+ghost, which he had overheard, seemed to infer that the Jewess was
+expected every minute. Every minute indeed! and those racking minutes
+seemed to stretch themselves to hours. With the natural impatience of
+inaction, which accompanies uncertainty, he had almost made up his mind to
+return in search of Eleazar, when the steady footfall of the approaching
+party arrested his attention.
+
+There was a bright moon shining above, and the open space into which the
+gladiators advanced was clear as day. With a keen feeling of confidence he
+recognised the square frame of Hirpinus, and then, as he caught sight of
+the dark-robed figure at the swordsman's side, for one exulting moment,
+doubt, fear, anxiety, all were merged in the delight of seeing Mariamne
+once more. With the bound of a wild deer, he was in the midst of them,
+clasping her in his arms, and the girl sobbing on his breast felt safe and
+happy, because she was with him. Hirpinus gave a shout that startled the
+slaves laying the tables in the inner hall.
+
+"Safe, my lad!" he exclaimed, "and in a whole skin. Sound and hearty, and
+fit to join us in to-night's work. Better late than never. Swear him,
+comrades! swear him on the spot! Send in for a morsel of bread and a pinch
+of salt. Here, Rufus, cross thy blade with mine! Thou art in the nick of
+time, lad, to take thy share with the rest, of peril, and pleasure, and
+profit to boot!"
+
+This speech he eked out with many winks and signs to his young friend, for
+Hirpinus, guessing how matters stood between the pair, could think of no
+better plan by which Esca should at least claim a share in the prey they
+had so recently acquired. His artifice was, however, lost upon the Briton,
+who seemed wholly occupied with Mariamne, and to whom the girl was
+whispering her fears and distresses, and entreaties that he would save her
+from the band. The young man drew her to his side.
+
+"Give way," said he haughtily, as Euchenor and Lutorius closed in upon
+him. "She has made her choice, she goes with me. I take her home to her
+father's house."
+
+The others set up a shout of derision.
+
+"Hear him!" they cried. "It is the praetor who speaks! It is the voice of
+Caesar himself! Yes, yes, go in peace, if thou wilt. We have had enough and
+to spare of your yellow-haired barbarians, but the girl remains with us."
+
+She was not trembling now. She was past all fear in such a crisis as this.
+Erect and defiant she stood beside her champion--pale indeed as the dead,
+but with eyes in which flashed the courage of despair. His lips were white
+with the effort of self-command as he strove to keep cool and to use fair
+words.
+
+"I am one of yourselves," said he. "You will not turn against me all at
+once. Let me but take the maiden home, and I will come back and join you,
+true as the blade to the haft."
+
+"Ay, let them go!" put in Hirpinus. "He speaks fairly, and these
+barbarians never fail their word!"
+
+"No, no," interposed Euchenor. "He has nothing to do with us. Why, he was
+beaten in the open circus by a mere patrician. Besides, he is not engaged
+for to-night. He has no interest in the job. Who is he, this barbarian,
+that we should give up to him the fairest prize we are like to take in the
+whole business?"
+
+"Will you fight for her?" thundered Esca, hitching his swordbelt to the
+front.
+
+Euchenor shrank back amongst his comrades. "Our oath forbids me," said he;
+and the others, though they could not refrain from jeering at the
+unwilling Greek, confirmed his decision.
+
+Esca's mind was made up.
+
+"Pass your hands under my girdle," he whispered to Mariamne. "Hold fast,
+and we shall break through!"
+
+His sword was out like lightning, and he dashed amongst the gladiators,
+but he had to do with men thoroughly skilled in arms and trained to every
+kind of personal contest. A dozen blades were gleaming in the moonlight as
+ready as his own. A dozen points were threatening him, backed by fearless
+hearts, and strong supple practised hands. He was at bay; a desperate man
+penned in by a circle of steel. He glanced fiercely round, defiant yet
+bewildered, then down at the pale face at his breast, and his heart sank
+within him. He was at his wits' end. She looked up--loving, resolute, and
+courageous.
+
+"Dear one," she said softly, "let me rather die by your hand. See, I do
+not fear. Strike! You only have the right, for I am yours!"
+
+Even then a faint blush came into her cheek, while the pale hands busied
+themselves with her dress to bare her bosom for the blow. He turned his
+point upon her, and she smiled up in his face. Old Hirpinus dashed the
+tears from his shaggy eyelashes.
+
+"Hold! hold!" said he, in a broken voice; "not till I am down and out of
+the game for one! Enough of this!" he added in an altered tone, and with a
+ludicrous assumption of his usual careless manner. "Here comes the
+master--no more wrangling, lads! we will refer the matter to him!"
+
+While he spoke, Hippias entered the open space in front of the tribune's
+house, and the gladiators gathered eagerly around him, Euchenor alone
+remaining somewhat in the background.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XII
+
+                            A MASTER OF FENCE
+
+
+Hippias knew well how to maintain discipline amongst his followers. While
+he interested himself keenly in their training and personal welfare, he
+permitted no approach to familiarity, and above all never suffered a
+syllable of discussion on a command, or a moment's hesitation in its
+fulfilment. He came now to put himself at their head for the carrying out
+of a hazardous and important enterprise. The consciousness of coming
+danger, especially when it is of a kind with which habit has rendered him
+familiar, and which practice has taught him to baffle by his own skill and
+courage, has a good moral effect on a brave man's character. It cheers his
+spirits, it exalts his imagination, it sharpens his intellects, and, above
+all, it softens his heart. Hippias felt that to-night he would need all
+the qualities he most prized to carry him safely through his task--that
+while failure must be inevitable destruction, success would open out to
+him a career of which the ultimate goal might be a procuratorship or even
+a kingdom. How quickly past, present, and possible future, flitted through
+his brain! It was not so long since his first victory in the amphitheatre!
+He remembered, as if it were but yesterday, the canvas awnings, the blue
+sky, and the confused mass of faces, framing that dazzling sweep of sand,
+all of which his sight took in at once, though his eyes were fixed on
+those of the watchful Gaul, whom he disarmed in a couple of passes, and
+slew without the slightest remorse. He could feel again, even now, the hot
+breath of the Libyan tiger, as he fell beneath it, choked with sand and
+covered by his buckler, stabbing desperately at that sinewy chest in which
+the life seemed to lie so deep. The tiger's claws had left their marks
+upon his brawny shoulder, but he had risen from the contest victorious,
+and Red and Green through the whole crowded building, from the senators'
+cushions to the slaves' six inches of standing-room, cheered him to a man.
+After this triumph, who such a favourite with the Roman people as handsome
+Hippias? Again, he was the centre of all observation, as, confessedly the
+head of his profession, he set in order Nero's cruel shows, and catered
+with profuse splendour for the tastes of Imperial Rome. Yes, he had
+reached the pinnacle of a gladiator's fame, and from that elevation a
+prospect opened itself that he had scarcely even dreamed of till now. A
+handful of determined men, a torch or two for every score of blades, a
+palace in flames, a night of blood (he only hoped and longed that there
+might be resistance enough to distinguish strife from murder), another
+dynasty, a grateful patron, and a brave man's services worthily
+acknowledged and repaid. Then the future would indeed smile in gorgeous
+hues. Which of Rome's dominions in the East would most fully satisfy the
+thirst for royal luxury that he now experienced for the first time? In
+which of his manlier qualities was he so inferior to the Jew, that Hippias
+the gladiator should make a lowlier monarch than Herod the Great? and men
+had not done talking of that warlike king, even now!--his wisdom, his
+cruelty, his courage, his splendour, and his crimes. A Roman province was
+but another name for an independent government. Hippias saw himself
+enthroned in the blaze of majesty under a glowing Eastern sky. Life
+offering all it had to give of pomp and pageantry and rich material
+enjoyment. Slaves, horses, jewels, banquets, dark-eyed women, silken
+eunuchs, and gaudy guards with burnished helmets and flashing shields of
+gold. Nothing wanting, not even one with whom to share the glittering
+vision. Valeria would be his. Valeria was born to be a queen. It would,
+indeed, be a triumph to offer the half of a throne to the woman who had
+hitherto condescended by listening to his suit. There was a leavening of
+generosity in Hippias that caused him to reflect with intense pleasure on
+the far deeper homage he would pay her after so romantic a consummation of
+his hopes. He felt as if he could almost love her then, with the love he
+had experienced in his boyhood--that boyhood which seemed now to have been
+another's rather than his own. He had put it away long since, and it had
+not come back to him for years till to-day; but gratified vanity, the
+pleasure which most hearts experience in grasping an object that has been
+dangling out of reach, beyond all, the power exerted by a woman, over one
+who has been accustomed to consider himself either above or below such
+pleasing influences, had softened him strangely, and he hardly felt like
+the same man who made his bargain with the tribune for a certain quantity
+of flesh and blood and mettle, so short a time ago.
+
+It is not to be thought, however, that in his dreams of the future, the
+fencing-master neglected the means by which that future was to be
+attained. He had mustered and prepared his band with more than common
+care; had seen with his own eyes that their arms were bright and sharp and
+fit for work; had placed them at their appointed posts and visited them
+repeatedly, enjoining, above all things, extreme vigilance and sobriety.
+Not one of those men saw beneath his unruffled brow and quiet stern
+demeanour anything unusual in the conduct of their leader; not one could
+have guessed that schemes of ambition far beyond any he had ever cherished
+before, were working in his brain--that a strange, soft, kindly feeling was
+nestling at his heart. He stood in the moonlight amongst his followers,
+calm, abrupt, severe as usual; and when Hirpinus looked into his stern set
+face, the hopes of the old gladiator fell as did his countenance, but
+Mariamne perceived at once with a woman's eye something that taught her an
+appeal to his pity on this occasion would not be made in vain.
+
+With habitual caution, his first proceeding was to count the band ere he
+took note of the two figures in their centre. Then he cast a scrutinising
+glance at their arms to satisfy himself all were ready for immediate
+action. After that he turned with a displeased air to Hirpinus, and asked--
+
+"What doth the woman amongst us? You heard my orders this morning? Who
+brought her here?"
+
+Half a dozen voices were raised at once to answer the master's question;
+only he to whom it was especially addressed kept silence, knowing the
+nature with which he had to do. Hippias raised but his sheathed sword and
+the clamour ceased. Not a maniple in all Rome's well-drilled legions
+seemed in better discipline than this handful of desperate men. Then he
+turned to Esca, still speaking in short incisive tones.
+
+"Briton!" said he, "you are not one of us to-night. Go your ways in
+peace!"
+
+"Well said!" shouted the gladiators. "He is no comrade of ours! He hath no
+share in our spoil!"
+
+But Hippias only wished to save the Briton from the perils of the coming
+night, and this from some vague feeling he could hardly explain to
+himself, that Valeria was interested in the stalwart barbarian. It was not
+in the fencing-master's nature to entertain sentiments of jealousy upon
+uncertain grounds. And he was just fond enough of Valeria to value anyone
+she liked for her sake. Moreover Esca knew their plans. He would alarm the
+palace, and there would be a fight. He wished nothing better.
+
+Esca was about to make his appeal, but Mariamne interposed.
+
+"Where he goeth I will go," said she, almost in the words of her own
+sacred writings. "I have to-night lost father, and home, and people. This
+is the second time he hath saved me from captivity worse than death. Part
+us not now, I beseech thee, part us not!"
+
+Hippias looked kindly on the sweet face with its large imploring eager
+eyes.
+
+"You love him," said he, "foolish girl. Begone then, and take him with
+you."
+
+But again a fierce murmur rose amongst the gladiators. Not even the
+master's authority was sufficient to carry out such a breach of all laws
+and customs as this. Euchenor, ever prone to wrangle, stepped forward from
+the background, where he had remained so as to appear an impartial and
+uninterested observer.
+
+"The oath!" exclaimed the Greek. "The oath--we swore it when the sun was
+up--shall we break it ere the moon goes down? She is ours, Hippias, by all
+the laws of the Family, and we will not give her up."
+
+"Silence!" thundered the master, with a look that made Euchenor shrink
+back once more. "Who asked for your vote? Hirpinus, Rufus, once again, how
+came this woman here?"
+
+"She was bound hand and foot in a chariot," answered the former, ignoring,
+however, with less than his usual frankness, to whom that chariot
+belonged. "She was carried away by force. I protected her from ill-usage,"
+he added stoutly, "as I would protect her again."
+
+The girl gave him a grateful look, which sank into the old swordsman's
+heart. Esca, too, muttered warm broken words of thanks, while the band
+assented to the truth of this statement.
+
+"Even so!" they exclaimed. "Hirpinus speaks well. That is why she belongs
+to us, and we claim every man his share."
+
+Hippias was too experienced a commander not to know that there are times
+when it is necessary to yield with a good grace, and to use artifice if
+force will not avail. It is thus the skilful rider rules his steed, and
+the judicious wife her husband--the governing power in either case inducing
+the governed to believe that it obeys entirely of its own free will. He
+smiled, therefore, pleasantly on his followers, and addressed them in
+careless good-humoured tones.
+
+"She belongs to us all without doubt," said he, "and, by the sandals of
+Aphrodite, she is so fair that I shall put in my claim with the rest!
+Nevertheless there is no time to be wasted now, for the sake of the
+brightest eyes that ever flashed beneath a veil. Put her aside for a few
+hours or so. You, Hirpinus, as you captured her, shall take care that she
+does not escape. For the Briton, we may as well keep him safe too--we may
+find a use for those long arms of his when to-night's business is
+accomplished. In the meantime, fall in, my heroes, and make ready for your
+work. Supper first (and it's laid even now) with the noblest patrician and
+the deepest drinker in Rome, Julius Placidus the tribune!"
+
+_Euge!_ exclaimed the gladiators in a breath, forgetful at the moment of
+their recent dissatisfaction, and eager to hear more of the night's
+enterprise, about which they entertained the wildest and most various
+anticipations; nothing loth, besides, to share the orgies of a man whose
+table was celebrated for its luxuries amongst all classes in Rome. Hippias
+looked round on their well-pleased faces, and continued--
+
+"Then what say you, my children, to a walk through the palace gardens? We
+will take our swords, by Hercules, for the German guards are stubborn
+dogs, and best convinced by the argument each of us carries at his belt.
+It may be dark, too, ere we get there, for the moon is early to-night, and
+we have no need to stir till we have tasted the tribune's wine, so we must
+not forget a few torches to light us on our way. There are a score at
+least lying ready in the corner of that porch. So we will join our
+comrades in a fair midnight frolic under Caesar's roof. Caesar's, forsooth!
+my children, there will be a smouldering palace and another Caesar by to-
+morrow!"
+
+_Euge!_ exclaimed the gladiators once more. "Hail, Caesar! Long live
+Caesar!" they repeated with shouts of fierce mocking laughter.
+
+"It is well," remarked Rufus sagaciously, when silence was restored. "The
+pay is good and the work no heavier than an ordinary praetor's show. But I
+remember a fiercer lion than common, that Nero turned loose upon us once
+in the arena, and we called him Caesar amongst ourselves, because he was
+dangerous to meddle with. If the old man's purple is to be rent, we should
+have something over the regular pay. They have not lasted long of late;
+but still, Hippias, 'tis somewhat out of the usual business. We don't
+change an emperor every night, even now."
+
+"True enough," answered the master good-humouredly. "And you have never
+been within the walls of a palace in your life. Something beyond your pay,
+said you? Why, man, the pay is but a pretext, a mere matter of form. Once
+in Caesar's chambers, a large-fisted fellow like Rufus here, may carry away
+a king's ransom in either hand. Then think of the old wine! Fifty-year-old
+Caecuban, in six-quart cups of solid gold, and welcome to take the goblet
+away with you, besides, if you care to be encumbered with it. Shawls from
+Persia, lying about for mere coverings to the couches. Mother-of-pearl and
+ivory gleaming in every corner. Jewels scattered in heaps upon the floor.
+Only get the work done first, and every man here shall help himself
+unquestioned, and walk home with whatever pleases him best."
+
+It was not often Hippias treated his followers to so long a speech, or
+one, in their estimation, so much to the purpose. They marked their
+approval with vehement and repeated shouts. They ceased to think of Esca,
+and forgot all about Mariamne and their late dissatisfaction; nay, they
+seemed now but to be impatient of every subject unconnected with their
+enterprise, and to grudge every minute that delayed them from their
+promised spoil. At a signal from Hippias and his intimation that supper
+was ready, and their host awaiting them, they rushed tumultuously through
+the porch, leaving behind them Mariamne and Esca, guarded only by old
+Hirpinus and Euchenor, the latter appearing alone to be unmoved by the
+glowing prospects of plunder held out, and obstinately standing on his
+rights, determined not to lose sight of the captured girl, the more so
+that she was now overlooked by the rest of his comrades.
+
+This man, though deficient in the dashing physical daring which is so
+popular a quality amongst those of his profession, possessed,
+nevertheless, a dogged tenacity of purpose, totally unqualified by any
+moral scruples or feelings of shame, which rendered him formidable as an
+antagonist, and generally successful in any villany he attempted. As in
+the combats he waged with or without the heavy lacerating _cestus_, his
+object was to tire out his adversary by protracted and scientific defence,
+taking as little punishment as possible, and never hazarding a blow save
+when it could not be returned, so in everything he undertook, it was his
+study to reach the goal by unrelaxing vigilance, and unremitting recourse
+to the means which experience and common sense pointed out for its
+attainment. Slinking behind the broad back of Hirpinus, he concealed
+himself in the darkest corner of the porch, and watched the result of
+Mariamne's appeal to the fencing-master.
+
+Hippias pushed the gladiators on before him, with boisterous good-humour
+and considerable violence; as they crowded through the narrow entrance, he
+remained behind for a moment, and whispered to Esca--
+
+"You will take the girl home, comrade. Can I trust you?"
+
+"Trust me!" was all the Briton answered, but the tone in which he spoke,
+and the glance he exchanged with Mariamne, might have satisfied a more
+exacting inquirer than the captain of gladiators.
+
+"Fare thee well, lad," said Hirpinus, "and thee, too, my pretty flower. I
+would go with you myself, but it is a long way from here to Tiber-side,
+and I must not be missing to-night, come what may."
+
+"Begone, both of you!" added Hippias hurriedly. "Had it not been for the
+plunder, I should scarce have found my lambs so reasonable to-night; were
+you to fall in with them again, the Vestals themselves could not save you.
+Begone, and farewell."
+
+They obeyed and hastened off, while the fencing-master, with a well-
+pleased smile, clapped Hirpinus on the shoulder, and accompanied him into
+the house.
+
+"Old comrade," said he, "we will drink a measure of the tribune's Caecuban
+to-night, come what may. To-morrow we shall either be on our backs gaping
+for the death-fee, or pressing our lips to nothing meaner than a chalice
+of burnished gold. Who knows? Who cares?"
+
+"Not I for one," replied Hirpinus; "but I am strangely thirsty in the
+meantime, and the tribune's wine, they tell me, is the best in Rome."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIII
+
+                              THE ESQUILINE
+
+
+                               [Initial W]
+
+With attentive ears, and faculties keenly on the stretch, Euchenor,
+lurking in the corner of the porch, listened to the foregoing
+conversation. When he gathered that Tiber-side was the direction the
+fugitives meant to take, his quick Greek intellect formed its plan of
+operation at once.
+
+There was a post of his comrades, consisting of some of the gladiators
+purchased by Placidus, and placed there a few hours since by the orders of
+Hippias, in the direct road for that locality. He would follow the pair,
+noiseless and unsuspected, for he had no mind to provoke an encounter with
+the Briton till within reach of assistance, then give the alarm, seize the
+wayfarers, and appeal to the club-law they all held sacred, for his
+rights. Esca would be sure to defend the girl with his life, but he would
+be overpowered by numbers, and it would be strange if he could not be
+quieted for ever in the struggle. There would still be time enough,
+thought Euchenor, after his victory to join his comrades at the tribune's
+table, leaving the girl to the tender mercies of the band. He could make
+some excuse for his absence to satisfy his companions, heated as they
+would by that time be with wine. Indeed, for his own part, he had no great
+fancy for the night's adventure, promising as it did more hard knocks than
+he cared to exchange in a fight with the German guard, fierce blue-eyed
+giants, who would give and take no quarter. He did not wish, indeed, to
+lose his share of the plunder, for no one was more alive to the advantages
+of a full purse, but he trusted to his own dexterity for securing this,
+without running unnecessary risk. Meanwhile, it was his method to attend
+to one thing at a time; he waited impatiently, therefore, till Hippias
+entered the house, and left him at liberty to emerge from his hiding-
+place.
+
+No sooner was the master's back turned than the Greek sped into the
+street, glancing eagerly down its long vista, lying white in the
+moonlight, for the two dark figures he sought. Agile and noiseless as a
+panther, he skulked swiftly along under the shadow of the houses, till he
+reached the corner which a passenger would turn who was bound for Tiber-
+side. Here he made sure that he must sight his prey; but no, amongst the
+few wayfarers who dotted this less solitary district he looked in vain for
+Esca's towering shoulders or the shrinking figure of the Jewess. In vain,
+like a hound, he quested to and fro, now casting forward upon a vague
+speculation, now trying back with untiring perseverance and determination.
+Like a hound, too, whose game has foiled him, he was obliged to slink home
+at length, ashamed and baffled, to the porch of the tribune's house,
+inventing as he went a plausible excuse to host and comrades for his tardy
+appearance at the banquet. He had passed, nevertheless, within twenty
+paces of those he hunted, but he knew it not.
+
+With the first rapture of intense joy for their escape, it was in the
+nature of Mariamne that her predominant feeling should be one of gratitude
+to Heaven for thus preserving both herself and him whose life was dearer
+to her than her own. In common with her nation, she believed in the
+constant and immediate interposition of the Almighty in favour of His
+servants; and the new faith, which was rapidly gaining ground in her
+heart, had tempered the awe in which His worshipper regards the Deity,
+with the implicit trust, and love, and confidence, entertained for its
+father by a child. Such feelings can but find an outlet in thanksgiving
+and prayer. Before Mariamne had gone ten paces from the tribune's house,
+she stopped short, looked up in Esca's face, and said: "Let us kneel
+together, and thank God for our deliverance."
+
+"Not here at least!" exclaimed the Briton, whose nerves, good as they
+were, had been somewhat unstrung by the vicissitudes of the night, and the
+apprehensions that had racked him for his beloved companion. "They may
+return at any moment. You are not safe even now. If you are so exhausted
+you cannot go on (for she was leaning heavily on his arm, and her head
+drooped), I will carry you in my arms from here to your father's house. My
+love, I would carry you through the world."
+
+She smiled sweetly on him, though her face was very pale. "Let us turn in
+at this ruined gateway," said she; "a few moments' rest will restore me;
+and, Esca, I must give thanks to the God of Israel, who has saved both
+thee and me."
+
+They were near a crumbling archway, with a broken iron gate that had
+fallen in. It was on the opposite side of the street to the tribune's
+house; and as they passed beneath its mouldering span, they saw that it
+formed an entrance into one of those wildernesses, which, after the great
+fire of Nero, existed here and there, not only in the suburbs, but at the
+very heart of Rome. They were, in truth, in that desolate waste which had
+once been the famous Esquiline Gardens, originally a burial-ground, and
+granted by Augustus to his favourite, the illustrious Maecenas, to plant
+and decorate according to his prolific fancy and unimpeachable taste. That
+learned nobleman had taken advantage of his emperor's liberality to build
+here a stately palace, which had not, however, escaped the great fire, and
+to lay out extensive pleasure-grounds, which had been devastated by the
+same calamity. Little, indeed, now remained, save the trees that had
+originally shadowed the Roman's grave in the days of the old Republic. The
+"unwelcome cypresses" so touchingly described in his most reflective ode,
+by him whose genius Maecenas fostered, and whose gratitude paid his
+princely patron back by rendering him immortal.
+
+Many a time had Horace lounged in these pleasant shades, musing with
+quaint and varied fancies, half pathetic, half grotesque, on the business
+and the pleasures, the sunshine and the shadows, the aim and the end, of
+that to him inexplicable problem, a man's short life. Here, too, perhaps,
+he speculated on the mythology, to the beauty of which his poetic
+imagination was so keenly alive, while his strong common sense and
+somewhat material character must have been so utterly incredulous of its
+truth. Nay, on this very spot did he not ridicule certain superstitions of
+his countrymen, with a coarseness that is only redeemed by its wit? and
+preserve, in pungent sarcasm, for coming ages, the memory of an indecent
+statue on the Esquiline, as he has preserved in sweet and glowing lines
+the glades of cool Praeneste, or the terraced vineyards basking in the
+glare and glitter of noonday on Tibur's sunny slopes? Here, perhaps, many
+a time may have been seen the stout sleek form, so round and well-cared
+for, with its clean white gown, and dainty shining head, crowned with a
+garland of festive roses, and not wanting, be sure, a festive goblet in
+its hand. Here may the poet have sat out many a joyous hour in the shade,
+with mirth, and song, and frequent sips of old Falernian, and a vague
+dreary fancy the while ever present, though unacknowledged--like a death's-
+head at the banquet--that feast, and jest, and song could not last for
+ever, but that the time must come at length, when the empty jar would not
+be filled again, when the faded roses could be bound together no longer in
+a chaplet for the unconscious brows, and the string of the lyre, once
+snapped, must be silent henceforward for evermore. The very waterfall that
+had soothed its master to his noonday slumber in the drowsy shade, was now
+dried up, and in the cavity above, a heap of dusty rubbish alone remained,
+where erst the cool translucent surface shone, fair and smooth as glass.
+Weeds were growing rank and tall, where once the myrtle quivered and the
+roses bloomed. Where Chloe gambolled and where Lydia sang, the raven
+croaked and fluttered, and the night-owl screamed. Instead of velvet turf
+and trim exotic shrubs, and shapely statues framed in bowers of green, the
+nettle spread its festering carpet, and the dock put out its pointed leaf;
+and here and there a tombstone showed its slab of marble, smooth and grim,
+like a bone that has been laid bare. All was ruin or decay--a few short
+years had done the work of ages; and whether they waked or whether they
+slept, poet and patron had gone hence, never to return.
+
+  [Illustration: 'Her eyes grew dim, her senses seemed failing']
+
+Under the branches of a spectral holm-oak, blackened, withered, and
+destroyed by fire, Mariamne paused, and clung with both hands to her
+companion's arm. Bravely had the girl borne up for hours against terrible
+mental anxiety, as well as actual bodily pain, but with relief and
+comparative safety came the reaction. Her eyes grew dim, her senses seemed
+failing, and her limbs trembled so that she was unable to proceed. He hung
+over her in positive fear. The pale face looked so deathlike that his bold
+heart quailed, as the possibility presented itself of life without her.
+Propped in his strong grasp she soon recovered, and he told her as much,
+in a few frank simple words.
+
+"And yet it must come at last," said she gently. "What is the short span
+of a man's life, Esca, for such love as ours? Even had we everything we
+can wish, all the world can give, there would be a sting in each moment of
+happiness at the thought that it must end so soon."
+
+"Happiness!" repeated Esca. "What is it? Why is there so little of it on
+earth? _My_ happiness is to be with you; and see, I win it but for an hour
+at a time, at a cost to yourself I cannot bear to think of."
+
+She looked lovingly in his face.
+
+"Do you suppose _I_ would count the cost?" said she. "Ever since the night
+you took me from those fearful revellers, and brought me so gently and so
+courteously to my father's house, I--I have never forgotten what I owe
+you."
+
+He raised her hand to his lips, with the action of an inferior doing
+homage. Alone with the woman he loved, the very depth and generosity of
+his young affection made him look on her as something sacred and apart She
+hesitated, for she had yet more to say, which maiden shame repressed, lest
+it should disclose her feelings too openly; but she loved him well: she
+could not keep silence on so vital a subject, and after a pause, she took
+courage and asked--
+
+"Esca, could you bear to think we were never to meet again?"
+
+"I would rather die at once!" he exclaimed fervently.
+
+She shook her head, and smiled rather sadly.
+
+"But _after_ death," she insisted; "after death do you believe you will
+see me no more?"
+
+He looked blank and confused. The same question had been present almost
+unconsciously in his mind, but had never taken so definite a shape before.
+
+"You would make me a coward, Mariamne," said he; "when I think of you, I
+almost fear to die."
+
+They were standing under the holm-oak, where the moonlight streamed down
+clear and cold through the bare branches. It shone on a slab of marble,
+half defaced, half overgrown with moss. Nevertheless, on that surface was
+distinctly carved the horse's head with which the Roman loved to decorate
+the stone that marked his last resting-place.
+
+"Do you know what that means?" said she, pointing to this quaint and yet
+suggestive symbol. "Even the proud Roman feels that death and departure
+are the same,--that he is going on a journey he knows not where, but one
+from which he never shall return. It is a journey we must all take, none
+can tell how soon; for you and me the horse may be harnessed this very
+night. But I know where I am going, Esca. If you had slain me an hour ago
+with your sword, I should have been there even now."
+
+"And I?" he exclaimed. "Should I have been with you? for I would have died
+amongst the gladiators as I have seen a wolf die in my own country,
+overmatched by hounds. Mariamne, you would not have left me for ever? What
+would have become of me?"
+
+Again she shook her head with the same pitiful plaintive smile.
+
+"You do not know the way," said she. "You have no guide to take you by the
+hand; you would be lost in the darkness; and I--I should see you no more.
+Oh! Esca, I can teach you, I can show it you. Let us travel it together,
+and, come what may, we need never part again!"
+
+Then the girl knelt down under that dead tree, with the moonbeams shining
+on her pale face, and her lips moved in whispered thanksgiving for the
+late escape, and prayer for him who now stood by her side, and who watched
+her with wistful looks, as a child watches a piece of mechanism of which
+he sees plainly the effect, while he strives in vain to comprehend the
+cause. It seemed to Esca that the woman he loved must have found the
+talisman that all his youth he had felt a vague consciousness he
+wanted--something beyond manly courage, or burning patriotism, or the
+dogged obstinacy that fortifies itself by defying the worst. Moreover, the
+course of his past life, above all, the trials he had lately undergone,
+could not but have prepared the ground for the reception of that good seed
+which brings forth such good fruit,--could not but have shown him the
+necessity for a strength superior to the bravest endurance of mere
+humanity, for a hope that was fixed beyond the grave. A few minutes she
+remained on her knees, praying fervently for herself,--for him. He felt
+that it was so, and while his eyes were riveted on the dear face, so pure
+and peaceful, turned upward to the sky, he knew that his own being was
+elevated by her holy influence, that the earthly affection of a lover for
+his mistress, was in his breast refined by the adoration of a worshipper
+for a saint.
+
+Then she rose, and taking him by the arm, walked leisurely on her way,
+discoursing, as she went, on certain truths which she had learnt from
+Calchas, and which she believed with the faith of those who have been
+taught by one, himself an eye-witness of the wonders he relates. There
+were no dogmas in those early days of the Christian Church to distract the
+minds of its votaries from the simple tenets of their creed. The grain of
+mustard-seed had not yet shot up into that goodly tree which has since
+borne so many branches, and the pruning-knife, hereafter to lop away so
+many redundant heresies, was not as yet unsheathed. The Christian of the
+first century held to a very simple exposition of his faith as handed down
+to him from his Divine Master. Trust and love were the fundamental rules
+of his order. Trust that in the extremity of mortal agony could penetrate
+beyond the gates of death, and brighten the martyr's face with a ray of
+splendour "like the face of an angel." Love that embraced all things,
+downward from the Creator to the lowest of the created, that opened its
+heart freely and ungrudgingly to each, the sinner, the prodigal, and the
+traveller who fell among thieves. Other faiths, indeed, and other motives
+have fortified men to march proudly to the stake, to bear without wincing
+tortures that forced the sickening spectator to turn shuddering away. A
+heathen or a Jew could front the lion's sullen scowl, or the grin and
+glare of the cruel tiger, in the amphitheatre, with the dignified
+composure that brave men borrow from despair; could behold unmoved the
+straight-cut furrow in the sand that marked the arena of his sufferings,
+soon to run crimson with his blood. Even athwart the dun smoke, amidst the
+leaping yellow flames, pale faces have been seen to move, majestic and
+serene as spectres, with no sustaining power beyond that of a lofty
+courage, the offspring of education and of pride. But it was the Christian
+alone who could submit to the vilest degradations and the fiercest
+sufferings with a humble and even cheerful thankfulness; who could drink
+from the bitter cup and accept the draught without a murmur, save of
+regret for his own unworthiness; nay, who could forgive and bless the very
+tyranny that extorted, the very hand that ministered to, the tortures he
+endured.
+
+In its early days, fresh from the fountain-head, the Christian's was,
+indeed, essentially and emphatically, a religion of love. To feed the
+hungry, to clothe the naked, to stretch a hand to the fallen, to think no
+evil, to judge not, nor to condemn, in short, to love "the brother whom he
+_had_ seen," were the direct commands of that Great Example who had so
+recently been here on earth. His first disciples strove, hard as fallible
+humanity can, to imitate Him, and in so striving, failed not to attain a
+certain peaceful composure and contentment of mind, that no other code of
+morality, no other system of philosophy, had ever yet produced. Perhaps
+this was the quality that, in his dealings with his victim, the Roman
+executioner found most mysterious and inexplicable. Fortitude, resolution,
+defiance, these he could understand: but the childlike simplicity that
+accepted good and evil with equal confidence; that was thankful and
+cheerful under both, and that entertained neither care for to-day nor
+anxiety for to-morrow, was a moral elevation, at which, with all their
+pretensions, his own countrymen had never yet been able to arrive. Neither
+Stoic nor Epicurean, Sophist nor Philosopher, could look upon life, and
+death also, with the calm assurance of these unlearned men, leaning on a
+hand the Roman could not see, convinced of an immortality the Roman was
+unable to conceive.
+
+With this happy conviction beaming in her face, Mariamne inculcated on
+Esca the tenets of her noble faith; explaining, not logically, indeed, but
+with woman's persuasive reasonings of the heart, how fair was the prospect
+thus open to him, how glorious the reward, which, though mortal eye could
+not behold it, mortal hand could not take away. Promises of future
+happiness are none the less glowing that they fall on a man's ear from the
+lips he loves. Conviction goes the straighter to his heart when it
+pervades another's that beats in unison with his own. Under that moonlit
+sky, reddened in the horizon with the glare of a distant quarter of the
+city already set on fire by the insurgents; in that dreary waste of the
+Esquiline, with its blasted trees, its shrieking night-birds, and its
+scattered grave-stones, the Briton imbibed the first principles of
+Christianity from the daughter of Judah, whom he loved; and the girl's
+face beamed with a holy tenderness more than mortal, while she showed the
+way of everlasting happiness, and life, and light, to him whose soul was
+dearer to her than her own.
+
+And meanwhile around them on all sides, murder, rapine, and violence were
+stalking abroad unchecked. Riotous parties of Vespasian's supporters met,
+here and there, detached companies of Caesar's broken legions; and when
+such collisions took place, the combatants fought madly, as it would seem
+from mere wanton love of bloodshed, to the death; whichever conquered,
+neither spared the dissolute citizens, who indeed, when safe out of reach,
+from roofs or windows encouraged the strife heartily with word and
+gesture. Sparks fell in showers through the streets of Rome, and blood and
+wine ran in streams along the pavement; nor were the deserted gardens of
+the Esquiline undisturbed by the tumult and devastation that pervaded the
+rest of the unhappy city.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XIV
+
+                                THE CHURCH
+
+
+When they sought to leave their place of refuge, Esca and Mariamne found
+themselves hemmed in and drawn back by the continued tumult that was
+raging through the surrounding quarters. On all sides were heard the
+shouts of victory, the shrieks of despair, and the mad riot of drunken
+mirth. Occasionally, flying parties of pursuers or pursued swept through
+the very outskirts of the gardens themselves, compelling the Briton and
+his charge to plunge deeper into its gloomy solitudes for concealment.
+
+At length they reached a place of comparative safety, under a knot of dark
+cypresses that had escaped the general conflagration, and here they paused
+to take breath and listen, Mariamne becoming every moment more composed
+and tranquil, while Esca, with a beating heart, calculated the many
+chances that must still be risked ere they could reach her home beyond the
+Tiber, and he could place the daughter in safety under her father's roof
+once more. It was very dark where they were, for the cypresses grew thick
+and black between them and the sky. The place had probably in former times
+been a favourite resort in the noonday heat. There were the remains of a
+grotto or summer-house not yet wholly destroyed, and the fragments of a
+wide stone basin, from which a fountain had once shot its sparkling drops
+into the summer air. Several alleys, too, cut in the young plantations,
+had apparently converged at this spot; and although these were much
+overgrown and neglected, one still formed, so to speak, a broad white
+street of turf, hemmed in by walls of quivering foliage, dark and massive,
+but sprinkled here and there with points of silver in the moonlight.
+
+Mariamne crept closer to her companion's side.
+
+"I feel so safe and so happy with you," said she caressingly. "We seem to
+have changed places. You are the one who is now anxious and--no, not
+frightened--but ill at ease. Esca! what is it?" she asked with a start, as,
+looking fondly up in his face, she caught its expression of actual terror
+and dismay.
+
+His blue eyes were fixed like stone. With parted lips and rigid features,
+his whole being seemed concentrated into the one effort of seeing, and
+backed by the dark shadows of the cypress, his face, usually so frank and
+fearless, was paler even than her own. Following with her eyes the
+direction of his glance, she, too, was something more than startled at
+what she saw. Two black figures, clad in long and trailing garments, moved
+slowly into sight, and crossed the sheet of moonlight which flooded the
+wide avenue, with solemn step and slow. These again were followed by two
+in white, looking none the less ghostly that their outlines were so
+indistinctly defined, the head and feet being alone visible, and the rest
+of the figure wrapped, as it were, in mist. Then came two more in black,
+and thus in alternate pairs the unearthly procession glided by; only, ere
+the half of it had passed, a something, not unlike the human form, draped
+in a white robe, seemed to float horizontally, at a cubit's height, above
+the line. A low and wailing chant, too, rose and fell fitfully on the
+listeners' ears. It was the "Kyrie Eleison," the humble plaintive dirge in
+which the Christian mourned, not without hope, for his dead.
+
+Fear was no familiar sentiment in Esca's breast. It could not remain there
+long. He drew himself up, and the colour rushed back redly to his brow.
+
+"They are spirits!" said he; "spirits of the wood, on whose domains we
+have trespassed. Good or evil, we will resist them to the last. They will
+sacrifice us to their vengeance if we show the least signs of fear."
+
+She was proud of his courage even then--the courage that could defy, though
+it had not been able to shake off, the superstitions of his northern
+birthplace. It was sweet, too, to think that from her lips he must learn
+what was truth, both of this world and of the next.
+
+"They are no spirits!" she answered. "They are Christians burying their
+dead. Esca, we shall be safe with them, and they will show us how to leave
+this place unobserved."
+
+"Christians?" he replied doubtfully; "and we, too, are Christians, are we
+not? I would they were armed, though," he added reflectively. "With twenty
+good swordsmen, I would engage to take you unmolested from one end of Rome
+to the other; but these, I fear, are only priests. Priests! and the
+legions are loose even now all over the city!"
+
+He was but a young disciple, thought his loving teacher, and many a defeat
+must be experienced, many a rebuff sustained, ere dependence on his own
+courage is rooted out of a brave man's heart, to be replaced by that
+nobler fortitude which relies solely on the will of Heaven. Yet a brave
+man is no bad material out of which to form a good one.
+
+They left their hiding-place, and hastened down the alley after the
+departing Christians. In a secluded place, where the remaining trees grew
+thickest and most luxuriant--where the noontide ray had least power to
+penetrate, the procession had halted. The grave was already being dug. As
+spadeful after spadeful of loose earth fell with a dull grating sound on
+the sward, or trickled back into the cavity, the dirge wailed on, now
+lowered and repressed like the stifled sob of one who weeps in secret, now
+rising into notes of chastened triumph, that were almost akin to joy. And
+here, where Maecenas, and his poets and his parasites, had met, with
+garland and goblet, to while away the summer's day in frivolous
+disputations, arguing on the endless topics of here and hereafter, life
+and death, body and soul; groping blindly and in vain throughout the
+labyrinth for a clue--sneering at Pythagoras, refuting Plato, and maligning
+Socrates--the body of the dead Christian was laid humbly and trustfully in
+the earth, and already the departed spirit had learned the efficacy of
+those truths it had imbibed through scorn and suffering in its
+lifetime--truths that the heathen sages would have given goblets and
+garlands, and riches and empire, and all the world besides, but to know
+and believe in that supreme moment, when all around the dying fades and
+fails as though it had never been, and there is but one reality from which
+is no escape.
+
+The Jewess and her champion waited a few paces off while the spade threw
+its last handfuls to the surface. Then the Christians gathered solemnly
+and silently round the open grave, and the corpse was lowered gently into
+its resting-place, and the faces that watched it sink, and stop, and
+waver, and sink again out of sight, even like the life of the departed,
+beamed with a holy triumph, for they knew that with this wayfarer, at
+least, the journey was over and the home attained. Two mourners, somewhat
+conspicuous from the rest, stood at either end of the grave. The one was a
+woman, still in the meridian of her beauty; the other a strong warlike
+man, scarcely of middle age. The woman's face was turned to heaven, rapt,
+as it seemed in an ecstasy of prayer. She was not thinking of the poor
+remains, the empty shell, consigned beneath her feet to its kindred dust;
+but with the eye of faith she watched the spirit in its upward flight, and
+for her the heavens were opened, and her child was even now disappearing
+through the golden gate. But on the man's contracted features might be
+read the pain of him who is too weak to bear, and yet too strong to weep.
+His eye followed with sad wistful glances clod after clod, as they fell in
+to cover up the loved and lost. When the earth was flattened down above
+her head, and not till then, he seemed to look inquiringly at the vacant
+space amongst the bystanders, and to know that she was gone. He clenched
+his strong hands tight, and raised his eyes at last. "It is hard to bear,"
+he muttered; "it is very hard to say, 'Thy will be done.'" Then he thought
+of the empty place at home, and hid his face and wept.
+
+A young girl, on the verge of womanhood, had been called away--called
+suddenly away--the pride and the flower and the darling of her father's
+house. He was a good man and a brave, and a believer, yet every time his
+child's face rose up before him, with its bright hair and its loving eyes,
+something smote him, sharp and cold, like the thrust of a knife.
+
+When the grave was finally closed, the Christians gathered round it in
+prayer. Mariamne, taking Esca by the hand, came silently among them, and
+joined in their devotions. It was a strange and solemn sight to the
+barbarian. A circle of cloaked figures kneeling round an empty space, to
+worship an unseen power. On either hand a wilderness of ruin and
+devastation in the heart of a great city; above, an angry glare on the
+midnight sky, and the shouts of maddened combatants rising and falling on
+the breeze. By his side, the woman he loved so dearly, and whom he had
+thought he should never look on again. He knelt with the others, to offer
+his tribute from a grateful heart. Their prayers were short and fervent,
+nor did they omit the form their Master had given them expressly for their
+use. When they rose to their feet, one figure stood forth amongst the
+rest, and signed for silence with uplifted hand. This man was obviously a
+Roman by birth, and spoke his language with the ease, but at the same time
+with the accent and phrases of the lowest plebeian class. He seemed a
+handicraftsman by trade, and his palm, when he raised it impressively to
+bespeak attention, was hardened and scarred with toil. Low of stature,
+mean in appearance, coarsely clothed, with bare head and feet, there was
+little in his exterior to command interest or respect; but his frame,
+square and strongly built, seemed capable of sustaining a vast amount of
+toil or hardship, while his face, notwithstanding its plain features,
+denoted repressed enthusiasm, earnest purpose, and honest singleness of
+heart. He was indeed one of the pioneers of a religion, destined hereafter
+to cover the surface of the earth. Such were the men who went forth in
+their master's name, without scrip or sandals, or change of raiment, to
+overrun and conquer the world--who took no thought what they should say
+when brought before the kings, and governors, and great ones of the earth,
+trusting only in the sanctity of their mission, and the inspiration under
+which they spoke. Having little learning, they could refute the wisest
+philosophers. Having neither rank nor lineage, they could beard the
+Proconsul on his judgment-seat or the Caesar on his throne. Homely and
+ignorant, they feared not to wander far and wide through strange
+countries, and hostile nations, spreading the good tidings with a simple
+ungrudging faith that forced men to believe. Weak by nature it may be, and
+timid by education, they descended into the arena to meet their martyrdom
+from the hungry lion, with a quiet fortitude such as neither soldier nor
+gladiator had courage to display. It was a moral their Master never ceased
+to inculcate, that His was a message sent not to the noble, and the
+prosperous, and the distinguished, for these, if they wished to find Him,
+might make their own opportunities to seek Him out; but to the poor and
+lowly, the humble and forlorn, especially to those who were in distress
+and sorrow, who, having none to help them here, might rely all the more
+implicitly on His protection, who is emphatically the friend of the
+friendless.
+
+Therefore, the men who did His work seem to have been chosen principally
+from the humbler classes of society, from such as could speak to the
+multitude in homely phrases and with familiar imagery; whose authority the
+most careless and unthinking might perceive originated in no aid of
+extraneous circumstances, but came directly from above.
+
+As the speaker warmed to his subject, Esca could not but observe the
+change that came over the bearing and appearance of his outward man. At
+first the eye was dull, the speech hesitating, the manner diffident.
+Gradually a light seemed to steal over his whole countenance, his form
+towered erect as though it had actually increased in stature, his words
+flowed freely in a torrent of glowing and appropriate language, his action
+became dignified, and the whole man clothed himself, as it were, in the
+majesty of the subject on which he spoke.
+
+That subject was indeed simple enough, sad, it may be, from an earthly
+point of view, and yet how comforting to the mourners gathered round him
+beside the new-made grave! At first he contented himself with a short and
+earnest tribute, clothed in the plainest form of speech, to the worth and
+endearing qualities of that young girl whom they had just laid in the
+earth. "She was precious to us all," said he, "yet words like these seem
+but a mockery to some present here, for whom she was the hope and the joy,
+and the very light of an earthly home. Grieve, I say, and weep, and wring
+your hands, for such is man's weak nature, and He who took our nature upon
+Him sympathises with our sorrows, and, like the good physician, pities
+while He heals. To-day your wounds are fresh, your hearts are full, your
+eyes are blind with tears, you cannot see the truth. To-morrow you will
+wonder why you mourn so bitterly; to-morrow you will say, 'It is well; we
+are labouring in the sun, she is resting in the shade; we are hungry and
+thirsty in a barren land, she is eating the bread and drinking the waters
+of life, in the garden of Paradise; we are weary and footsore, wayfarers
+still upon the road, but she has reached her home.'
+
+"Yea, now at this very hour, standing here where the earth has just closed
+over the young face, tender and delicate even in death, would you have her
+back to you if you could? Those who have considered but the troubles that
+surround us now, and to whom there is no hereafter, who call themselves
+philosophers, and whose wisdom is as the wisdom of a blind man walking on
+the brink of a precipice, have themselves said 'whom the gods love die
+young'; and will you grudge that your beloved one should have been called
+out of the vineyard, to take her wages and go to her rest, before the
+burden and heat of the day? Think what her end might have been. Think that
+you might have offered her up to bear witness to the truth, tied to a
+stake in the foul arena, face to face with the crouching wild beast
+gathered for his spring. Ay! and worse even than this might have befallen
+the child, whom you remember, as it were but yesterday, nestling to her
+mother's bosom, or clinging round her father's knees! 'The Christians to
+the panther, and the maidens to the pandar!'(12) You have heard the brutal
+shouts and shuddered with fear and anger while you heard. And you would
+have offered her, as Abraham offered Isaac, beating your breasts, and
+holding your breath for very agony the while. But is it not better thus?
+She has earned the day's wages, labouring but for an hour at sunrise; she
+has escaped the cross, and yet has won the crown!
+
+"But you who hear me, envy not this young maiden, though she be now
+arrived where all so long to go. Rather be proud and happy, that your
+Master cannot spare you, that He has yet work for you to do. To every
+man's hand is set his appointed task, and every man shall find strength
+given him to fulfil it when the time arrives. Some of you will bear
+witness before Caesar, and for such the scourges are already knotted and
+the cross is reared; but to these I need scarcely speak of loyalty, for to
+them the very suffering brings with it its own fortitude, and they are
+indeed blessed who are esteemed worthy of the glory of martyrdom! Some
+must go forth to preach the gospel in wild and distant lands; and well I
+know that neither toil, nor hardship, nor peril, will cause them to waver
+an hair's-breadth from their path, yet have they difficulties to meet, and
+foes to contend with, that they know not of. Let them beware of pride and
+self-sufficiency, lest, in raising the altar, they make the sacrifice of
+more account than the spirit in which it is offered; lest in building the
+church they take note of every stone in the edifice, and lose sight of the
+purpose for which it was reared. But ye cannot all be martyrs, nor
+preachers, nor prophets, nor chief-priests, yet every one of you, even the
+weakest and the lowest here present--woman, child, slave, or barbarian--is
+none the less a soldier and a servant of the cross! Every one has his duty
+to do, his watch to keep, his enemy to conquer. It is not much that is
+required of you--little indeed in comparison with all you have received--but
+that little must be given without reserve, and with the whole heart. Has
+any one of you left a duty unfulfilled? when he departs from hence let him
+go home and accomplish it. Has any one an enemy? let him be reconciled.
+Has he done his brother a wrong? let him make amends. Has he sustained an
+injury? let him forgive it. Even as you have laid in the grave the
+perishable body of the departed, so lay down here every earthly weakness,
+every unholy wish, and every evil thought. Nay, as these chief mourners
+have to-night parted and weaned themselves from that which they loved best
+on earth, so must you tear out and cast away from you the truest and
+dearest affections that stand between you and your service, ay, even
+though you rend them from the very inner chambers of your heart. And then,
+with constant effort and never-ceasing prayer, striving, step by step, and
+winning, inch by inch, now slipping back it may be where the path is
+treacherous, and the hill is steep, to rise from your knees, humbled and
+therefore stronger, gaining more than you have lost, you shall arrive at
+last, where there is no strife, and no failing, where she for whom you
+weep to-night is even now in glory, where He whom you follow has already
+prepared a place for you, and where you who have loved and trusted, shall
+be happy for evermore!"
+
+Ceasing, he spread his hands abroad, and implored a blessing on those who
+heard him, after which the Christians breaking up their circle, gathered
+round the bereaved parents with a few quiet words and gestures of
+sympathy, such as those offer who have themselves experienced the sorrows
+they are fain to assuage.
+
+"I am in safety here," whispered Mariamne to the Briton, as she pointed
+out a dark figure, with white flowing locks, whom he now recognised as
+Calchas. In another moment she was in the old man's arms, who raised his
+eyes to heaven, and thanked God with heartfelt gratitude for her
+deliverance.
+
+"Your father and I," said he, "have sought you with fearful anxiety, and
+even now he is raising some of his countrymen to storm the tribune's
+house, and take you from it with the strong hand. Mariamne, you hardly
+know how much your father loves his child. And I too was disturbed for
+your safety, but I trusted--trusted in that Heaven which never fails the
+innocent. Nevertheless, I sought for aid among my brethren, and they have
+raised, even the poorest of them, such a sum as would have tempted the
+praetor to interfere, even against a man like Placidus. I did but remain
+with them to say a prayer while they buried their dead. But now you are
+safe, and you will come back with me to your father's house, and one of
+these whom I can trust shall go to tell him at the place where his friends
+were to assemble; and Esca, thy preserver for the second time, who is to
+me as a son, shall accompany us home--though we shall not need a guard, for
+thy father's friends, tried warriors every man, and armed, will meet us
+ere we leave the wilderness for the streets."
+
+It was a strong temptation to the Briton, but the words he had so lately
+heard had sunk deep into his heart. He, too, would fain cast in his lot
+amongst these earnest men. He, too, he thought, had a task to perform--a
+cherished happiness to forego. With a timely warning, it might be in his
+power to save the Emperor's life, and his very eagerness to accompany
+Mariamne but impressed him the more with the conviction that it was his
+duty to leave her, now she was in comparative safety, and hasten on his
+errand of mercy. Calchas, too, insisted strongly on this view, and though
+Mariamne was silent, and even pleaded with her eyes against the risk, he
+turned stoutly from their influence, and ere she was clasped in her
+father's arms, the new Christian was already half-way between the
+Esquiline and the palace of Caesar.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XV
+
+                                REDIVIVUS
+
+
+Many had been the debauch at which, himself its chief originator and
+promoter, the tribune had assisted; nor had he escaped the penalties that
+Nature exacts even from the healthiest constitutions, when her laws are
+habitually outraged in the high-tide of revelry and mirth; but never,
+after his longest sittings with the Emperor, had he experienced anything
+to compare with the utter prostration of mind and body in which he came to
+himself, waking from the deathlike sleep that followed his pledge to
+Valeria. With returning consciousness came a sense of painful giddiness,
+which, as the velvet cushions of the couch rose and heaved beneath his
+sight, confused him utterly as to where he was, or how he got there; then,
+sitting up with an effort that seemed to roll a ball of lead across his
+brain, he was aware that every vein throbbed at fever-heat, that his hands
+were numbed and swollen, that his mouth was parched, his lips cracked, and
+that he had a racking headache--the latter symptom was sufficiently
+familiar to be reassuring; he sprang to his feet, regardless of the pang
+so sudden a movement shot through his frame, then seizing a goblet from
+the table, filled it to the brim with Falernian, and in defiance of the
+nausea with which its very fragrance overpowered him, emptied it to the
+dregs. The effect, as he expected, was instantaneous; it enabled him to
+stand erect, and, passing his hand across his brow, by a strong effort of
+the will, he forced himself to connect and comprehend the events that had
+led to this horrible and bewildering trance. By degrees, one after
+another, like links in a chain, he traced the doings of the day, beginning
+a long way back, somewhere about noon, till the immediate past, so to
+speak, came more and more tangibly within his grasp. It was with a thrill
+of triumphant pleasure that he remembered Valeria's visit, and his own arm
+winding round her handsome form on that very couch. Where was she now? He
+looked about him vacantly, almost expecting to find her in the room; as he
+did so, his eye lighted on the two goblets, one of them half-emptied,
+still standing on their salver.
+
+To say that Placidus had a conscience would be simply a perversion of
+terms; for that monitor, never very troublesome, had since his manhood
+been so stifled and silenced as to have become a mere negative quality,
+yet in his present unhinged state, a shudder of horror did come over him,
+as he recalled the visit to Petosiris, and the poison with which he had
+resolved to ensure the silence of his slave. But ere that shudder passed
+away, the dark secret Esca knew, the plot from which it was now too late
+to draw back, the desperate adventure that every hour brought nearer, and
+that must be attempted to-night--all these considerations came flooding in
+on his memory at once, and for a moment he felt paralysed by the height of
+the precipice on the brink of which he stood. With the emergency, however,
+as was always the case in the tribune's character, came the energy
+required to encounter it. "At least," he muttered, steadying himself by
+the table with one hand, "the cup is nearly empty; the drug cannot but
+have done its work. First, I must make sure of the carrion, and then it
+will be time enough to find Valeria." Had he suffered less in body, he
+would have laughed his own low malicious laugh, to think how deftly he had
+outwitted the woman he professed to love. The laugh, however, died away in
+a grin that betrayed more pain than mirth; and the tribune, with
+chattering teeth and shaking frame, and wavering uncertain steps, betook
+himself to the outer court to make sure with his own eyes that the
+stalwart frame of him whom he feared was stiff and cold in death.
+
+His first feeling would have been one of acute apprehension, had not anger
+so completely mastered that sensation, when he perceived the slave's chain
+and collar lying coiled on the pavement. Obviously, Esca had escaped; and
+was gone, moreover, with his late master's life completely in his power;
+but Placidus possessed a keen intellect and one familiar with sudden
+combinations; it flashed upon him at once, that he had been outwitted by
+Valeria, and the two had fled together.
+
+The sting was very sharp, but it roused and sobered him. Pacing swiftly
+back through the corridors, and stopping for a few minutes to immerse his
+head and face in cold water, he returned to the banqueting-hall, and
+eagerly scrutinised with look and smell, and, notwithstanding all that had
+happened, even with a sparing taste, the cup from which he had last drunk.
+The opiate, however, had been so skilfully prepared that nothing
+suspicious could be detected in the flavour of the wine; nevertheless,
+reflecting on all the circumstances with a clearer head, as the strength
+of his constitution gradually asserted itself, he arrived at the true
+conclusion, and was satisfied that Valeria had changed the cups while his
+attention was distracted by her charms; that he had purchased a poison he
+never doubted for a moment, nor suspected that Petosiris could have dared,
+from sheer love of trickery, to substitute an opiate for the deadlier
+draught; but he exulted to think that his powerful organisation must have
+resisted its effects, and that he who had so often narrowly escaped death
+in the field must indeed bear a charmed life. If a suspicion haunted him
+that the venom might still be lurking in his system, to do its work more
+completely after a short respite, the vague horror of such a thought did
+but goad him to make use of the intervening time all the more ardently for
+business and pleasure, not forgetting the sacred duty of revenge. _Dum
+vivimus vivamus!_ was the tribune's motto, and if he had been granted but
+one hour to live, he would have divided that hour systematically, between
+the delights of love, wine, and mischief.
+
+Rapidly, though coolly, he reviewed his position, as though he had been
+commanding a cohort hemmed in by the Jewish army. To-night would make or
+mar him. The gladiators would be here within an hour. Esca must, ere this,
+have reached the palace and given the alarm. Why had a centurion of Caesar
+not yet arrived with a sufficient guard to arrest him in his own house?
+They might be expected at any moment. Should he fly while there was yet
+time? What! and lose the brilliant future so nearly within his reach?
+No--he would weather this as he had weathered other storms, by skilful and
+judicious steering. A man who has no scruples need never be deficient in
+resource. To leave his house now, would be a tacit admission of guilt. To
+be found alone, undefended, unsuspicious, a strong presumption of
+innocence. He would at least have sufficient interest to be taken into the
+presence of Caesar. There, what so easy as to accuse the slave of
+treachery, to persuade the Emperor the barbarian had but hatched a plot
+against his master's life; to make the good-humoured old glutton laugh
+with an account of the drugged goblet, and finish the night by a debauch
+with his imperial host?
+
+Then, he must be guided by the preparations for defence which he observed
+in the palace. If they were weak, he must find some means of communicating
+with Hippias, and the attack would be facilitated by his own presence
+inside. If, on the contrary, there was an obvious intention of firm
+resistance, the conspirators must be warned to postpone their enterprise.
+If worst came to the worst, he could always save his own head by informing
+against his confederates, and so handing over Hippias and the gladiators
+to death.
+
+Some slight compunction visited him at the thought of such an alternative,
+but he soon stifled it with the arguments of his characteristic
+philosophy. Should he be found, indeed, presiding at a supper-party
+composed of these desperate men, they might defend the gate whilst he fled
+directly to Caesar, and sacrificed them at once. Under any circumstances,
+he argued, he had bought them, and had a right to make use of them.
+
+In the meantime, Mariamne would be here directly. She ought to have been
+here long ago. Whatever the future threatened, an hour, half an hour, a
+quarter, should be devoted to her society, and after that, come what
+might, at least he would not have been foiled in every event of the day.
+It was when he had arrived at this conclusion, that Esca from his hiding-
+place saw the figure of the tribune, pale, wan, and ghostly, giving
+directions for the preparation of the supper-table.
+
+The evening stole on, the sun-dial no longer showed the hour, and the
+slave whose duty it was to keep count of time by the water-clock(13) then
+in vogue, announced that the first watch of the night was already
+advanced. He was followed by Automedon, who came into the presence of his
+master, with hanging head and sheepish looks, sadly mistrusting how far
+his own favour would bear him harmless in the delivery of the tidings he
+had to impart. It was always a perilous duty to inform Placidus of the
+failure of any of his schemes. He listened, indeed, with a calm demeanour
+and an unmoved countenance, but sooner or later he surely contrived to
+visit on the unfortunate messenger the annoyance he himself experienced
+from the message.
+
+The tribune's face brightened as the boy came into the hall; with
+characteristic duplicity, however, he veiled even from his charioteer the
+impatience in which he had waited his return.
+
+"Have you brought the horses in cool?" said he, with an affectation of
+extreme indifference.
+
+Automedon looked greatly relieved.
+
+"Quite cool," he answered, "most illustrious! and Oarses came part of the
+way home, but he got down near the Sacred Gate, and I had no one with me
+in the chariot the whole length of the Flaminian Way; and the slaves will
+be back presently; and Damasippus--Oh! my lord, do not be
+angry!--Damasippus--I fear I have left him dead in the street."
+
+Here the lad's courage failed him completely; he had indeed been
+thoroughly frightened by the events of the night; and making a piteous
+face, he twined his fingers in his long curls and wept aloud.
+
+"What, fool!" thundered the tribune, his brow turning black with rage.
+"You have not brought her after all! Silly child," he added, controlling
+himself with a strong effort. "Where is the--the passenger--I charged
+Damasippus to bring here with him to-night?"
+
+"I will tell you the truth," exclaimed the boy, flinging himself down on
+his knees, and snatching at the hem of his master's garment. "By the
+Temple of Vesta, I will tell you the truth. I drove from here across
+Tiber, and I waited in the shadow by Tiber-side; and Jugurtha wouldn't
+stand still, and presently Damasippus brought a--a passenger in his arms,
+and put it into the chariot, and bade me go on fast; and we went on at a
+gallop till we tried to cross the Appian Way, and then we had to turn
+aside, for the houses were burning and the people fighting in the street,
+and Scipio was frightened and pulled, and Jugurtha wouldn't face the
+crowd, and I drove on to cross a little farther down, but we were stopped
+again by the Vestals, and I couldn't drive through _them_! So we halted to
+let them pass, and then a fierce terrible giant caught the horses and
+stopped them once more, and a thousand soldiers, nay, a legion at least,
+surrounded the chariot, and they killed Damasippus, and they tore the
+passenger out, and killed it too, and Scipio kicked, and I was frightened,
+and drove home as fast as I could--and indeed it wasn't my fault!"
+
+Automedon's fears had magnified both the number of the assailants and the
+dangers undergone. He had not recognised the gladiators, and was
+altogether in too confused a state, as the tribune perceived at a glance,
+to afford his master any more coherent information than the foregoing.
+Placidus bit his lip in baffled anger, for he could not see his way;
+nevertheless the boy-charioteer was a favourite, and he would not visit
+the failure of the enterprise on him.
+
+"I am glad the horses are safe," said he good-humouredly. "Go, get some
+supper and a cup of wine. I will send for you again presently."
+
+Automedon, agreeably surprised, glanced up at his master's face ere he
+departed, and observed that, although deadly pale, it had assumed the
+fixed resolute expression his dependants knew so well.
+
+Placidus had indeed occasion to summon all the presence of mind on which
+he prided himself, for even while he spoke, his quick ear caught the tramp
+of feet, and the familiar clink of steel. The blood gathered round his
+heart as he contemplated the possibility that a maniple of Caesar's guards
+might even now be occupying the court. It was with a sigh of intense
+relief that, instead of the centurion's eagle crest, he recognised the
+tall form of Rufus, accompanied by his comrades, advancing respectfully,
+and even with awkward diffidence, through the outer hall. The tribune
+could assume--none better--any character it suited him to play at a moment's
+notice; nevertheless there was a ring of real cordiality in his greeting,
+for the visitors were more welcome than they guessed.
+
+"Hail! Rufus, Lutorius, Eumolpus!" he shouted boisterously. "Gallant
+swordsmen and deep drinkers all! What! old Hirpinus, do I not see thy
+broad shoulders yonder in the rear? and Hippias too, the king of the
+arena! Welcome, every man of you! Even now the feast is spread, and the
+Chian cooling yonder amongst the flowers. Once again, a hearty welcome to
+you all!"
+
+The gladiators, still somewhat abashed by the unaccustomed splendour which
+met their eyes on every side, responded with less than their usual
+confidence to their entertainer. Rufus nudged Lutorius to reply in polite
+language, and the Gaul, in a fit of unusual modesty, passed the signal on
+to Eumolpus of Ravenna--a beetle-browed, bow-legged warrior, with huge
+muscles and a heavy, sullen face. This champion looked helplessly about
+him and seemed inclined to turn tail and fly, when, to his great relief,
+Hippias advanced from the rear of his comrades, and created a diversion in
+his favour, of which he availed himself by slinking incontinently into the
+background. Placidus clapped his hands, an Asiatic fashion affected by the
+more luxurious Romans; and two or three slaves appeared in obedience to
+the summons. The gladiators looked on in awe at the sumptuous dresses and
+personal beauty of these domestics.
+
+"Hand round wine here amongst my friends. I will but say three words to
+your captain, and we will go to supper forthwith."
+
+So speaking, the tribune led Hippias apart, having resolved that in the
+present critical state of affairs it would be better to take him entirely
+into his confidence, and trust to the scrupulous notions of fidelity to
+their bargains, which such men entertained, for the result.
+
+"There is no time to lose," observed he anxiously, when he had led Hippias
+apart from his followers. "Something has occurred which was out of all our
+calculations. Can they overhear us, think ye?"
+
+The fencing-master glanced carelessly at his band. "Whilst they are at
+_that_ game," said he, "they would not hear the assembly sounding from all
+four quarters of the camp. Never fear, illustrious! it will keep them busy
+till supper time."
+
+The band had broken up into pairs, and were hard at work with their
+favourite pastime, old as the Alban hills, and handed down to the Roman
+Empire from the dynasty of the Pharaohs. It consisted in gambling for
+small coins at the following trial of skill:--the players sat or stood,
+face to face; each held the left hand erect, on which he marked the
+progress of his game. With the right he shot out any one or more of his
+four fingers and thumb, or all together, with immense rapidity, guessing
+aloud at the same time the sum-total of the fingers thus brandished by
+himself and his adversary, who was employed in the same manner. Whoever
+guessed right won a point, which was immediately marked on the left, held
+immovable at shoulder-height for the purpose, and when five of these had
+been won the game began again. Nothing could be more simple, nothing
+apparently less interesting, and yet it seemed to engross the attention of
+the gladiators to the exclusion of all other subjects, even the prospect
+of supper and the flavour of the Falernian.(14)
+
+"They are children now," said Placidus contemptuously. "They will be men
+presently, and tigers to-night. Hippias, the slave has escaped. We must
+attack the palace forthwith."
+
+"I know it," replied the other quietly. "But the Germans are relieving
+guard at this hour. My own people are hardly ready, and it is not dark
+enough yet."
+
+"You know it," repeated Placidus, even more irritated than astonished by
+his companion's coolness, "you _know_ it, and yet you have not hastened
+your preparations? Do you know, too, that this yellow-haired barbarian has
+got your head, and mine, and all the empty skulls of our intelligent
+friends who are amusing themselves yonder, under his belt? Do you know
+that Caesar, true to his swinish propensities, will turn like a hunted
+boar, when he suspects the least shadow of danger? Do you know that not
+one of us may live to eat the very supper waiting for us in the next room?
+What are you made of, man, that you can thus look me so coolly in the face
+with the sword at both our throats?"
+
+"I can keep my own throat with my hand," replied the other, totally
+unmoved by his host's agitation. "And I am certainly not accustomed to
+fear danger before it comes. But that the barbarian has escaped I saw with
+my own eyes, for I left him ten minutes since within a hundred paces of
+your own gate."
+
+The tribune's eyebrows went up in unfeigned surprise.
+
+"Then he has not reached the palace!" he exclaimed, speaking rather to
+himself than his informant.
+
+"Not reached the palace certainly," replied the latter calmly, "since I
+tell you I saw him here. And in very good company too," he added with a
+smile.
+
+The tribune's astonishment had for once deprived him of his self-command.
+
+"With Valeria?" he asked unguardedly; and directly he had spoken, a vague
+suspicion made him wish that he had held his tongue.
+
+The fencing-master started and knit his brows. His head was more erect and
+his voice sterner when he answered--
+
+"I have seen the lady Valeria too, within the last hour. She had no slaves
+with her beyond her usual attendants."
+
+Anger, curiosity, uncertainty, jealousy, a hundred conflicting emotions
+were rankling at the tribune's heart. What had this handsome gladiator to
+do at Valeria's house? and was it possible that she did not care for the
+slave after all? Then what could have been her object throughout? He
+marked too the alteration in manner betrayed by Hippias at the mention of
+this fair and flighty dame; nor did it seem improbable under all the
+circumstances that he entertained a kindly feeling, if nothing more, for
+his pupil. Judging men and women by his own evil nature, and knowing well
+the favour with which their female admirers regarded these votaries of the
+sword, the tribune did not hesitate to put its true construction on such
+kindly feelings, and their probable result. From that moment he hated
+Hippias--hated him all the more that in the tumult and confusion of the
+coming night he might find an opportunity of gratifying his hatred by the
+destruction of the gladiator. Many a bold leader has been struck down from
+behind by the very followers he was encouraging; and who would ask how a
+conspirator met his death, in the attack on a palace and the murder of an
+emperor? Even while the thought crossed his mind he took the other by the
+hand, and laughed frankly in his face.
+
+"Thou art at home in the private apartments of every lady in Rome, I
+believe, my warlike Apollo," said he. "But, indeed, it is no question now
+of such trifling; the business of to-night must be determined on--ay, and
+disposed of--without delay. If my slave had reached the palace our whole
+plan must have been altered. I wish, as you did come across him, you had
+treated him to that deadly thrust of yours under the short-ribs, and
+brought him in here dead or alive."
+
+"He will not trouble us," observed the other coolly. "Take my word for it,
+tribune, he is disposed of for the present."
+
+"What mean you?" asked Placidus, a devilish joy lighting up his sallow
+face. "Did you bribe him to secrecy then and there with the metal you are
+accustomed to lavish so freely? Gold will buy silence for a time, but
+steel ensures it for ever."
+
+"Nay, tribune," answered Hippias, with a frank laugh. "We have been
+fencing too long in the dark. I will tell you the whole truth. This young
+giant of yours is safe enough for the present. I saw him depart with a
+pale-faced girl, in a black hood, whom he promised to take care of as far
+as Tiber-side. Depend upon it, he will think of nothing else to-night. For
+all his broad shoulders the down is yet upon his chin. And a man's beard
+must be grey before he leaves such a fair young lass as that to knock his
+head against a wall, even though it be the wall of a palace. No, no,
+tribune, he is safe enough, I tell you, for the next twelve hours, at
+least!"
+
+"A pale-faced girl?" repeated Placidus, still harping on Valeria. "What
+and who was she? Did you know her? did you speak to her?"
+
+"My people had some wild tale," replied the fencing-master, "about a
+chariot with white horses, that had been upset in the street, and a girl
+all gagged and muffled, whom they pulled out of it, and for whom, of
+course, they quarrelled amongst themselves. In faith, had it not been for
+to-night's business and the oath, you might have seen some sweet practice
+in your own porch, for I have two or three here that can make as close and
+even work with a sword as a tailor does with his needle. They said
+something about her being a Jewess. Very likely she may be, for they swam
+across Tiber since we have lost Nero. And the lad might as well be a Jew
+as a Briton for that matter. Are you satisfied now, tribune? By the belly
+of Bacchus, I must wash my mouth out with Falernian! All this talking
+makes a man as thirsty as a camel."
+
+Satisfied! and after what he had just learnt! Chariot! White horses!
+Jewess! There could be no doubt of it. These gladiators must have
+blundered on her, thought the tribune, and slain my freedman, and rescued
+her from my people, and handed her over to the man whom most I hate and
+fear on earth. Satisfied! Perhaps I shall be better satisfied when I have
+captured her, and humbled Valeria, and put you out of the way, my gallant
+cut-throat, and seen the slave scourged to death at my own doorpost! Then,
+and not till then, shall I be able to drink my wine without a heartburn,
+and lay my head on the pillow with some chance of sleep. In the meantime,
+to-night's work must be done. To-night's work, that puts Vespasian
+virtually on the throne (for this boy(15) of his shall only keep the
+cushion warm till his father takes his seat), that makes Placidus the
+first man in the empire. Nay, that might even open a path to the purple
+itself. The general is well advanced in years; already somewhat broken and
+worn with his campaigns. Titus, indeed, is the darling of the legions, but
+all the heart black-browed Berenice has left him, is wrapped up in war. He
+loves it, I verily believe--the daring fool!--for the mere braying of
+trumpets, and the clash of steel. Not a centurion exposes himself half so
+freely, nor so often. Well, a Zealot's javelin, or a stone from the
+ramparts of some nameless town in Judaea, may dispose of him at any time.
+Then there is but Domitian--a clever youth indeed, and an unscrupulous. So
+much the worse for him! A mushroom is not the only dish that may be fatal
+to an emperor, and if the knot be so secure as to baffle all dexterity,
+why, it must be cut with steel. Ay, the Macedonian knew well how the great
+game should be played. Satisfied! Like him, I shall never be satisfied
+while there is anything more to win! These being the tribune's thoughts,
+it is needless to say that he assumed a manner of the utmost frankness and
+carelessness.
+
+"Thirsty!" he repeated, in a loud voice, clapping Hippias on the shoulder.
+"Thirsty--I could empty an aqueduct! Welcome again, and heartily, my heroes
+all! See, the supper waits. Let us go in and drink out the old Falernian!"
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XVI
+
+                                "MORITURI"
+
+
+Knowing well with whom he was to deal, Placidus had ordered a repast to be
+prepared for his guests on a scale of magnificence unusual even in his
+luxurious dwelling. It was advisable, not only to impose on these rude
+natures with unaccustomed pomp and parade, but also to excite their
+cupidity by the display of gold and jewels while their fiercer passions
+were inflamed with wine. The more reckless and desperate they could be
+rendered, the more fit would they be for his purpose. There were the
+tools, sharp and ready for use, but he thought they would admit of a yet
+finer edge, and prepared to put it on accordingly. Therefore, he had
+ordered the supper to be laid in an inner apartment, reserved for
+occasions of especial state, and in which it was whispered that Vitellius
+himself had more than once partaken of his subject's hospitality; nay, had
+even expressed gratification with his entertainment; and which, while
+blazing with as much of ornament and decoration as could be crowded into a
+supper-room, was of such moderate dimensions as to bring all the costly
+objects it contained within notice of the guests. The tesselated pavement
+was of the richest and gaudiest squares, laid together as smooth and
+bright as glass. The walls were of polished citron-wood, heavily gilded
+round the skirting and edges, while the panels were covered in the florid
+and gradually deteriorating taste of the period, with paintings, brilliant
+in colour, and beautiful in execution. These represented mythological
+subjects not of the purest nature, but fauns, nymphs, and satyrs were to
+be found in the majority, while Bacchus himself was more than once
+repeated in all the glory of his swaying paunch; his garland of vine-
+leaves, his ivy-covered wand, and surrounding clusters of rich, ripe,
+purple grapes. To fill the niches between these panels, the goat--an animal
+always associated in the Roman mind with wine, perhaps because he drinks
+no water--was imitated in precious metals, and in every attitude. Here they
+butted, there they browsed, in another corner a pair of them frisked and
+gambolled in living kid-like glee, while yonder, horned and bearded, a
+venerable sage in silver gazed upon the guests with a wise Arcadian
+simplicity that was almost ludicrous. The tables, which were removed with
+every change of dishes, were of cedar, supported on grotesque claws of
+bronze, heavily gilt; the couches, framed of ivory and gold, were draped
+in various coloured shawls of the softest Asiatic texture, and strewed
+with cushions of so rich a crimson as to border nearly on imperial purple.
+No dish was of a meaner metal than gold, and the drinking-cups, in which
+Falernian blushed, or Chian sparkled, were studded with rubies, emeralds,
+pearls, and other precious stones. The sharp nail of a gladiator might at
+any moment have picked out, unobserved, that which would have purchased
+his freedom and his life, but the men were honest, as they understood the
+term, and the gems were as safe here, and indeed a good deal safer, than
+they would have been in the temple of Vesta, or of the Capitoline Jove
+himself. In a recess at one end of the apartment, reared like an altar
+upon three wide low carpeted steps, from each of which censers exhaled
+aromatic odours, stood the sideboard of polished walnut, carved in
+exquisite imitation of birds, insects, reptiles, flowers, and fruit. This
+was covered by a snowy cloth, and on it glittered, richly chased and
+burnished, the tribune's store of golden cups and vases, which men quoted
+at every supper-table in Rome.
+
+Lutorius, reclining opposite this blaze of magnificence, shaded his eyes
+with his hand.
+
+"What is it, my bold Gaul?" asked his host, raising himself on his elbow
+to pledge him, and signing to a slave to fill the swordsman's cup. "Hast
+thou got thy guard up already to save thy face?"
+
+"They dazzle me, most illustrious!" answered the ready Gaul. "I had rather
+blink at the sunrise flashing on the blue waters from Ostia. I did not
+think there had been so much gold in Rome."
+
+"He has not seen the palace yet," said Placidus, laughing, as he emptied
+his cup and turned to the other guests. "Some of us will indeed be dazzled
+to-night, if I mistake not. What think ye, my friends, must be the plates
+and drinking-vessels where the very shields and helmets of the guards are
+solid gold? Meantime, let us wash our eyes with Falernian, lest we mistake
+our way and intrude on the privacy of Caesar in the dark."
+
+So appropriate a sentiment met with universal approval. The gladiators
+laughed loudly, and proffered their cups to be filled. There was no
+question now of secrecy or disguise; there was even no further affectation
+of ignoring the purpose for which they had met, or the probable result of
+the night's enterprise. Eumolpus, indeed, and one or two more of the
+thicker-witted, satisfied to know that the present moment brought a
+magnificent reception and an abundance of good cheer, were willing to
+remain in uncertainty about the future, resolving simply to obey the
+orders of their captain, and to ask no questions; but even these could not
+help learning by degrees that they had before them no work of ordinary
+bloodshed, but that they were involved in a conspiracy which was to
+determine the empire of the world. It did not destroy their appetite,
+though it may have increased their thirst.
+
+In proportion as the wine flowed faster the guests lost their diffidence
+and found their tongues. Their host exerted himself to win golden opinions
+from all, and entered with ready tact into the characteristics and
+peculiarities of each.
+
+"Eumolpus!" said he, as a slave entered bearing an enormous turbot on a
+yet larger dish, "fear not to encounter him. He is a worthy foe, and a
+countryman of thine own. He left Ravenna but yesterday. In truth, that
+fair-built town sends us the widest turbots and the broadest shoulders in
+the empire. Taste him, man, with a cup of Chian, and say if the trainer's
+rations have spoiled thy palate for native food."
+
+Half-brutalised as he was by nature and education, the gladiator had still
+a kindly feeling for his birthplace. Even now a memory of his boyhood
+would sometimes steal across him like a dream. The stretch of sand, the
+breezy Adriatic, the waves dashing against the harbour-walls, and a vision
+of curly-headed, black-eyed children, of whom he was one, tumbling and
+playing on the shore. He felt more human when he thought of such things.
+While the tribune spoke he rose in his own esteem; for his host treated
+him like a man rather than a beast; and those few careless words gained a
+champion for Placidus who was ready to follow him to the death.
+
+So was it with the rest. To Rufus he enlarged on the happiness of a
+country life, and the liberty--none the less dear for being
+imaginary--enjoyed by a Roman citizen, who, within easy distance of the
+capital, could sit beneath his own porch to watch the sunset crimsoning
+the Apennines, and tread into home-made wine the grapes of his own
+vineyard. He talked of pruning the elms and training the vines, of
+shearing sheep and goading oxen, as though he had been a rustic all his
+life, seasoning such glowing descriptions, to suit his listener's palate,
+with the charms even of winter in the snow amongst the hills--the boar
+driven through the leafless copse, the wild-fowl lured from the half-
+frozen lake, the snug and homely roof, the crackling fire, and the
+children playing on the hearth.
+
+"'Tis but another night-watch," said he cordially, "and it will be my turn
+to sup with thee in thy mountain-home. Half a dozen such strokes as I have
+seen thee deal in mere sport, my hero! and thou wilt never need to meddle
+with steel again, save in the form of a ploughshare or a hunting-spear. By
+the fillet of Ceres! my friends, there is a golden harvest to-night, only
+waiting for the sickle!"
+
+And Rufus, for whom a few acres of Italian soil, and liberty to cultivate
+them in peace, with his wife and children, comprised all of happiness that
+life could give, contemplated the prospect thus offered with an
+imagination heated by wine, and a determination, truly formidable in a man
+of his quiet, dogged resolution, if hard fighting was to count for
+anything, not to fail in at least deserving his reward.
+
+"Hirpinus!" exclaimed the host, turning to the veteran, who was a sworn
+lover of good cheer, and had already consumed supper enough for two
+ordinary men, washed down by proportionate draughts of wine, "thy
+favourite morsel is even now leaving the spit. Pledge me in Falernian ere
+it comes. Nay, spoil it not with honey, which I hold to be a mistake
+unworthy of a gladiator. We will pour a libation to Diana down our
+throats, in her capacity of huntress only, my friend; I care not for the
+goddess in any other. Ho! slaves! bring here some wild boars!"
+
+As he spoke the domestics reappeared, in pairs, carrying between them as
+many wild boars, roasted whole, as there were guests. One of these huge
+dishes was set aside for each man, and the carvers proceeded to their
+duty, unmoved by the ejaculations of amazement that broke from the
+gladiators at such prodigal magnificence.
+
+Their attention was, however, somewhat distracted at this stage of the
+feast by the entrance of Euchenor, who slunk to the place reserved for him
+with a shade of sullen disappointment lowering on his brow. The host,
+however, had resolved that nothing should occur to mar the success of his
+entertainment, so refrained from asking any questions as to his absence,
+and motioned him courteously to a couch, with as frank a greeting as
+though he had been aware of its cause. He suspected treachery
+notwithstanding, none the less that Euchenor hastened to explain his tardy
+arrival. "He had heard a tumult in the neighbourhood," he said, "whilst
+the guests were entering the house, and had visited the nearest post of
+his comrades to ascertain that they had not been attacked. It was some
+distance to the palace-gardens, and he could not avoid missing the earlier
+stages of the banquet."
+
+"You must make up for lost time," observed Placidus, signing to the slaves
+to heap the new-comer's plate and fill his cup to the brim. "The later,
+the warmer welcome; the earlier, the better cheer;" and whilst he spoke
+the friendly words he was resolving that the Greek should be placed in
+front that whole night, under his immediate supervision. At the slightest
+symptom of treachery or wavering he would slay him with his own hand.
+
+And now the gigantic hunger of these champions seemed to be appeased at
+last. Dish had succeeded dish in endless variety, and they had applied
+themselves to each as it came with an undiminished energy that astonished
+the domestics accustomed to the palled appetites of jaded men of pleasure
+like their lord. Even the latter--though he tried hard, for he especially
+prided himself on his capacity of eating and drinking--found it impossible
+to keep pace with his guests. Their great bodily powers, indeed, increased
+by severe and habitual training, enabled them to consume vast quantities
+of food, without experiencing those sensations of lassitude and repletion
+which overcome weaker frames. It seemed as though most of what they ate
+went at once to supply the waste created by years of toil, and as soon as
+swallowed, fed the muscles instead of burdening the stomach. It was
+equally so with wine. Such men can drink draught after draught, and
+partake freely in the questionable pleasures of intoxication, whilst they
+pay none of its penalties. A breath of fresh air, a few minutes' exercise,
+and their brains are cool, their eyes clear, their whole system
+strengthened for the time, and stimulated, rather than stupefied, by their
+excess.
+
+The gladiators lay back on their couches in extreme bodily content. The
+cups were still quickly filled and emptied, but more in compliance with
+the customs of conviviality than the demands of thirst. They were all
+talking at once, and every man saw both present and future through the
+rosy medium of the wine he had imbibed.
+
+There were two, however, of the party who had not suffered their real
+inmost attention to stray for an instant from the actual business of the
+night, who calculated the time exactly as it passed--who watched the men
+through the succeeding phases of satisfaction, good-humour, conviviality,
+and recklessness, stopping just short of inebriety, and seized the very
+moment at which the iron was hot enough to strike. The same thought was in
+the brain of each, when their eyes met; the same words were springing to
+their lips, but Hippias spoke first.
+
+"No more wine to-night, tribune, if work is to be done! The circus is
+full; the arena swept; the show paid for. When the praetor takes his seat
+we are ready to begin."
+
+Placidus glanced significantly in his face, and rose, holding a brimming
+goblet in his hand. The suddenness of the movement arrested immediate
+attention. The men were all silent, and looking towards their host.
+
+"Good friends!" said he. "Trusty swordsmen! Welcome guests! Listen to me.
+To-night we burn the palace--we overthrow the empire--we hurl Caesar from his
+throne. All this you know, but there is something more you do not know.
+One has escaped who is acquainted with the plot. In an hour it may be too
+late. We are fast friends; we are in the same galley--the land is not a
+bowshot off. But the wind is rising--the water rushing in beneath her keel.
+Will you bend your backs forthwith and row the galley safe home with me?"
+
+The project was a favourite one, the metaphor suited to their tastes. As
+the tribune paused, acclamations greeted him on all sides, and "We will!
+We will!" "Through storm and sunshine!" "Against wind and weather!" sprang
+from many an eager lip. It was obvious the men were ready for anything.
+"One libation to Pluto!" added the host, emptying his cup, and the guests
+leaping to their feet followed his example with a mad cheer. Then they
+formed in pairs, as they were accustomed in the amphitheatre, and Euchenor
+with a malicious laugh exclaimed--_Morituri te salutant_.
+
+It was enough! The ominous words were caught up and repeated in wild
+defiance and derision, boding small scruples of mercy or remorse. Twice
+they marched round the supper-room to the burden of that ghastly chant,
+and when shaking off the fumes of wine they snatched eagerly at their
+arms, Placidus put himself at their head with a triumphant conviction
+that, come what might, they would not fail him in his last desperate throw
+for the great game.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVII
+
+                             THE GERMAN GUARD
+
+
+                               [Initial A]
+
+All was in confusion at the palace of the Caesars. The civil war that had
+now been raging for several hours in the capital, the tumults that
+pervaded every quarter of the city, had roused the alarm, and to a certain
+extent the vigilance of such troops as still owned allegiance to
+Vitellius. But late events had much slackened the discipline for which
+Roman soldiers were so famous, and that could be but a spurious loyalty
+which depended on amount of pay and opportunities for plunder, which was
+accustomed moreover to see the diadem transferred from one successful
+general to another at a few months' interval. Perhaps his German guards
+were the only soldiers of Vitellius on whom he could place any reliance;
+but even these had been reduced to a mere handful by slaughter and
+desertion, while the few who remained, though unimpeachable in their
+fidelity, were wanting in every quality that constitutes military
+efficiency, except the physical strength and desperate courage they
+brought with them from the north.
+
+They were, however, the Emperor's last hope. They occupied palace-gardens
+to-night, feeding their bivouac-fires with branches from its stately
+cedars, or uprooting its exotic shrubs to hurl them crackling in the
+blaze. The Roman citizens looking on their gigantic forms moving to and
+fro in the glare, shuddered and whispered, and pointed them out to each
+other as being half men, half demons, while a passing soldier would raise
+his eagle crest more proudly, relating how those were the foes over whom
+the legions had triumphed, and would turn forthwith into a wineshop to
+celebrate his prowess at the expense of some admiring citizen in the
+crowd.
+
+One of these German mercenaries may be taken as a sample of the rest. He
+was standing sentry over a narrow wicket that afforded entrance to the
+palace-gardens, and was the first obstacle encountered by Esca, after the
+latter had hastened from the Esquiline to give intelligence of the design
+against Caesar's life. Leaning on his spear, with his tall frame and large
+muscles thrown into strong relief by the light of the bivouac-fire behind
+him, he brought to the Briton's mind many a stirring memory of his own
+warlike boyhood, when by the side of just such champions, armed in such a
+manner, he had struggled, though in vain, against the discipline and the
+strategy of the invader. Scarcely older than himself, the sentry possessed
+the comely features and the bright colouring of youth, with a depth of
+chest and squareness of shoulder that denoted all the power of mature
+manhood. He seemed indeed a formidable antagonist for any single foe, and
+able to keep at bay half a score of the finest men who stood in the front
+rank of the legions. He was clad in a long white garment of linen,
+reaching below the knee, and fastened at the neck by a single clasp of
+gold; his shield and helmet too, although this was no state occasion, but
+one on which he would probably be massacred before morning, were of the
+same metal, his spear-head and sword of the finest-tempered steel. The
+latter, especially, was a formidable weapon. Considerably longer than the
+Roman's, which was only used for the thrust at close quarters, it could
+deal sweeping blows that would cleave a headpiece or lop a limb, and
+managed lightly as a riding-wand by the German's powerful arm, would hew
+fearful gaps in the ranks of an enemy, if their line wavered, or their
+order was in any degree destroyed.
+
+Notwithstanding the warlike nature of his arms and bearing, the sentry's
+face was fair and smooth as a woman's; the flaxen down was scarcely
+springing on his chin, and the golden locks escaped beneath his helmet,
+and clustered in curls upon his neck. His light blue eye, too, had a mild
+and rather vacant expression as it roved carelessly around; but the Romans
+had long ago learned that those light blue eyes could kindle into sparks
+of fire when steel was crossed, could glare with invincible hatred and
+defiance even when fixed in death.
+
+Esca's heart warmed to the barbarian guardsman with a feeling of sympathy
+and kindred. The latter sentiment may have suggested the plan by which he
+obtained entrance to the palace, for the difficulty of so doing had
+presented itself to him in brighter colours every moment as he approached.
+Pausing, therefore, at a few paces from the sentry, who levelled his spear
+and challenged when he heard footsteps, the Briton unbuckled his sword and
+cast it down between them, to indicate that he claimed protection and had
+no intention of offence. The other muttered some unintelligible words in
+his own language. It was obvious that he knew no Latin and that their
+conversation must be carried on by signs. This, however, rather smoothed
+than enhanced the difficulty; and it was a relief to Esca that the first
+impulse of the German had not been to alarm his comrades and resort to
+violence. The latter seemed to entertain no apprehension from any single
+individual, whether friend or foe, and looked, moreover, with favourable
+eyes on Esca's appearance, which bore a certain family likeness to that of
+his own countrymen. He suffered him therefore to approach his post,
+questioning him by signs, to which the Briton replied in the same manner,
+perfectly ignorant of their meaning, but with a fervent hope that the
+result of these mysterious gestures might be his admission within the
+wall.
+
+Under such circumstances the two were not likely to arrive at a clear
+understanding. After a while the German looked completely puzzled, and
+passed the word in his own language to a comrade within hearing,
+apparently for assistance. Esca heard the sound repeated in more than one
+voice, till it died away under the trees; there was obviously a strong
+chain of sentries round Caesar's palace. In the meantime the German would
+not permit Esca to approach within spear's-length of his post, though he
+kept him back good-humouredly with the butt-end of that weapon, nor would
+he suffer him to pick his sword up and gird it round his waist
+again--making nevertheless, all the while, signs of cordiality and
+friendship; but though Esca responded to these with equal warmth, he was
+no nearer the inside than at first.
+
+Presently the heavy tramp of armed men smote his ear, and a centurion,
+accompanied by half a dozen soldiers, approached the wicket. These bore a
+strong resemblance, both in form and features, to the sentry who had
+summoned them; but their officer spoke Latin, and Esca, who had gained a
+little time to mature his plan, answered the German centurion's questions
+without hesitation.
+
+"I belong to your own division," said he, "though I come from farther
+north than your troop, and speak a different dialect. We were disbanded
+but yesterday, by a written order from Caesar. It has turned out to be a
+forgery. We have been scattered through half the wineshops in Rome, and a
+herald came round and found me drinking, and bade me return to my duty
+without delay. He said we were to muster somewhere hereabouts, that we
+should find a post at the palace, and could join it till our own officers
+came back. I am but a barbarian, I know little of Rome, but this is the
+palace, is it not? and you are a centurion of the German guard?"
+
+He drew himself up as he spoke with military respect, and the officer had
+no hesitation in believing his tale, the more so that certain of Caesar's
+troops had lately been disbanded at a time when their services seemed to
+be most in requisition. Taking charge of Esca's weapon, he spoke a few
+words in his own language to the sentry, and then addressed the Briton.
+
+"You may come to the main-guard," said he. "I should not mind a few more
+of the same maniple. We are likely to want all we can get to-night."
+
+As he conducted him through the gardens, he asked several questions
+concerning the strength of the opposing party, the state of the town, and
+the general feeling of the citizens towards Vitellius, all which Esca
+parried to the best of his abilities, hazarding a guess where he could,
+and accounting for his ignorance where he could not, on the plea that he
+had spent his whole time since his dismissal in the wineshops--an excuse
+which the centurion's knowledge of the tastes and habits of his division
+caused him to accept without suspicion of its truth.
+
+Arrived at the watch-fire, Esca's military experience, slight as it had
+been, was enough to apprise him of the imminent dangers that threatened
+the palace in the event of an attack. The huge Germans lounged and lay
+about in the glare of the burning logs, as though feast, and song, and
+revelry were the objects for which they were mustered. Wine was flowing
+freely in large flagons, commensurate to the noble thirst of these
+Scandinavian warriors; and even the sentries leaving their posts at
+intervals, as caprice or indolence prompted, strode up to the watch-fire,
+laughed a loud laugh, drained a full beaker, and walked quietly back
+again, none the worse, to their beat. All hailed a new comrade with the
+utmost glee, as a further incentive to drink; and although Esca was
+pleased to find that none but their centurion was familiar with Latin, and
+that he was consequently free from much inconvenient cross-examination, it
+was obvious that there was no intention of letting him depart without
+pledging them in deep draughts of the rough and potent Sabine wine.
+
+With youth, health, and a fixed resolve to keep his wits about him, the
+Briton managed to perform this part of a soldier's duty to the
+satisfaction of his entertainers. The moments seemed very long, but whilst
+the Germans were singing, drinking, and making their remarks upon him in
+their own language, he had time to think of his plans. To have declared at
+once that he knew of a plot against Caesar, and to call upon the centurion
+to obtain his admittance to the person of the Emperor, would, he was well
+aware, only defeat his own object, by throwing suspicion on himself as a
+probable assassin and confederate of the conspirators. To put the officer
+on the alert, would cause him, perhaps, to double his sentries, and to
+stop the allowance of wine in course of consumption; but Esca saw plainly
+that no resistance from within the palace could be made to the large force
+his late master would bring to bear upon it. The only chance for the
+Emperor was to escape. If he could himself reach his presence, and warn
+him personally, he thought he could prevail upon him to fly. This was the
+difficulty. A monarch in his palace is not visible to everyone who may
+wish to see him, even when his own safety is concerned; but Esca had
+already gained the interior of the gardens, and that success encouraged
+him to proceed.
+
+The Germans, though believing themselves more vigilant than usual (to such
+a low state the boasted discipline of Caesar's body-guard had fallen), were
+confused and careless under the influence of wine, and their attention to
+the new-comer was soon distracted by a fresh chorus and a fresh flagon.
+Esca, under pretence that he required repose, managed to withdraw himself
+from the glare of the firelight, and borrowing a cloak from a ruddy
+comrade with a stentorian voice, lay down in the shadow of an arbutus, and
+affected profound repose. By degrees, coiling himself along the sward like
+a snake, he slipped out of sight, leaving his cloak so arranged as to
+resemble a sleeping form, and sped off in the direction of the palace, to
+which he was guided by numerous distant lights.
+
+Some alarm had evidently preceded him even here. Crowds of slaves, both
+male and female, chiefly Greeks and Asiatics, were pouring from its
+egresses and hurrying through the gardens in obvious dismay. The Briton
+could not but remark that none were empty-handed, and the value of their
+burdens denoted that those who now fled had no intention ever to return.
+They took little notice of him when they passed, save that a few of the
+more timid, glancing at his stalwart figure, turned aside and ran the
+swifter; while others, perceiving that he was unarmed, for he had left his
+sword with the Germans, shot at him some contemptuous gesture or ribald
+jest, which they thought the barbarian would not understand in time to
+resent.
+
+Thus he reached the spacious front of the palace, and here, indeed, the
+trumpets were sounding, and the German guard forming, evidently for
+resistance to an attack. There was no mistaking the expression of the
+men's faces, nor the clang of their heavy weapons. Though they filled the
+main court, however, a stream of fugitives still poured from the side-
+doors, and through one of these, the Briton determined he would find no
+difficulty in effecting an entrance. Glancing at the fine men getting
+under arms with such business-like rapidity, he thought how even that
+handful might make such a defence as would give Caesar time to escape,
+either at the back of the palace, or, if that were invested, disguised as
+one of the slaves who were still hurrying off in motley crowds; and
+notwithstanding his new-born feelings, he could not help, from old
+association, wishing that he might strike a blow by the side of these
+stalwart guardsmen, even for such a cause as theirs.
+
+Observing a door opening on a terrace which had been left completely
+undefended, Esca entered the palace unopposed, and roamed through hall
+after hall without meeting a living creature. Much of value had already
+been cleared away, but enough remained to have excited the cupidity of the
+richest subject in Rome. Shawls, arms, jewels, vases, statues, caskets,
+and drinking-cups were scattered about in a waste of magnificent
+confusion, while in many instances rapacious ignorance had carried off
+that which was comparatively the dross, and left the more precious
+articles behind. Esca had never even dreamed of such gorgeous luxury as he
+now beheld. For a few minutes his mind was no less stupefied than his eye
+was dazzled, and he almost forgot his object in sheer wonder and
+admiration; but there was no time to be lost, and he looked about in vain
+for some clue to guide him through this glittering wilderness to the
+presence of the Emperor.
+
+The rooms seemed endless, opening one into another, and each more splendid
+than the last. At length he heard the sound of voices, and darting eagerly
+forward, found himself in the midst of half a dozen persons clad in robes
+of state, with garlands on their heads, reclining round the fragments of a
+feast, a flagon or two of wine, and a golden cornucopia of fruit and
+flowers. As he entered, these started to their feet, exclaiming, "They are
+upon us!" and huddled together in a corner, like a flock of sheep when
+terrified by a dog. Observing, however, that the Briton was alone and
+unarmed, they seemed to take courage, and a fat figure thrusting itself
+forward, exclaimed in one breath, "He is not to be disturbed! Caesar is
+busy. Are the Germans firm?"
+
+His voice shook and his whole frame quivered with fear, nevertheless Esca
+recognised the speaker. It was his old antagonist Spado, a favourite
+eunuch of the household, in dire terror for his life, yet showing the one
+redeeming quality of fidelity to the hand that fed him. His comrades kept
+behind him, taking their cue from his conduct as the bellwether of the
+flock, yet trusting fervently his wisdom would counsel immediate flight.
+
+"I know you," said Esca hurriedly. "I struck you that night in anger. It
+is all over now. I have come to save your lives, all of you, and to rescue
+Caesar."
+
+"How?" said Spado, ignoring his previous injuries in the alarm of the
+hour. "You can save us? You can rescue Caesar? Then it _is_ true. The
+tumult is grown to a rebellion! The Germans are driven in, and the game is
+lost!"
+
+The others caught up their mantles, girded themselves, and prepared for
+instant flight.
+
+"The guard can hold the palace for half an hour yet," replied Esca coolly.
+"But the Emperor must escape. Julius Placidus will be here forthwith, at
+the head of two hundred gladiators, and the tribune means to murder his
+master as surely as you stand trembling there."
+
+Ere he had done speaking, he was left alone in the room with Spado. The
+tribune's character was correctly appreciated, even by the eunuchs of the
+palace, and they stayed to hear no more; but Spado only looked blankly in
+the Briton's face, wringing his fat hands, and answered to the other's
+urgent appeals, "His orders were explicit. Caesar is busy. He must not be
+disturbed. He said so himself. Caesar is busy!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVIII
+
+                          THE BUSINESS OF CAESAR
+
+
+Thrusting Spado aside without ceremony, and disregarding the eunuch's
+expostulations in obedience to the orders he had received, Esca burst
+through a narrow door, tore down a velvet curtain, and found himself in
+the private apartment of the Emperor. Caesar's business was at that moment
+scarcely of an urgency to weigh against the consideration of Caesar's life.
+Vitellius was reclining on a couch, his dress disordered and ungirt, a
+garland of roses at his feet, his heavy face, of which the swollen
+features had lost all their early comeliness, expressing nothing but
+sullen torpid calm; his eye fixed on vacancy, his weak nerveless hands
+crossed in front of his unwieldy person, and his whole attitude that of
+one who had little to occupy his attention, save his own personal
+indulgence and comfort. Yet for all this, the mind was busy within that
+bloated form. There are moments in existence, when the past comes back to
+us day by day, and incident by incident, shining out in colours vivid and
+lifelike as the present. On the eve of an important crisis, during the
+crisis itself if we are not permitted to take an active part in it but
+compelled to remain passive, the mere sport of its contingencies, for the
+few minutes that succeed a complete demolition of the fabric we have been
+building all our lives, we become possessed of this faculty, and seem, in
+a strange dream-like sense, to live our time over again.
+
+For the last few days, even Vitellius had awoke to the conviction that his
+diadem was in danger, for the last few hours he had seen cause to tremble
+for his life; nevertheless, none of the usual habits of the palace had
+been altered; and even when Primus, the successful general of his
+dangerous rival, Vespasian, occupied the suburbs, his reverses did but
+elicit from the Emperor a call for more wine and a heartless jest. To-day
+he must have seen clearly that all was lost, yet the supper to which he
+sat down with half a dozen favourite eunuchs, was no less elaborate than
+usual, the wine flowed as freely, the Emperor ate as enormously, and when
+he could eat no more, retired to pass his customary half-hour in perfect
+silence and repose, nor suffered the important process of digestion to be
+disturbed by the fact that his very gates must ere midnight be in
+possession of the enemy.
+
+Nevertheless, as if in warning of what was to come, the pageant of his
+life seemed to move past his half-closed eyes; and who shall say how vain
+and empty such a pageant may have appeared even to the besotted glutton,
+who, though he had the address to catch the diadem of the Caesars, when it
+was thrown to him by chance, knew but too well that he had no power to
+retain it on his head when wrested by the grasp of force. Though feeble
+and worn out, he was not old, far short of threescore years, yet what a
+life of change and turmoil and vicissitudes his had been! Proconsul of
+Africa, favourite of four emperors, it must have been a certain
+versatility of talent that enabled him to rule such an important province
+with tolerable credit, and yet retain the good graces of successive
+tyrants, resembling each other in nothing save incessant caprice. An
+informer with Tiberius; a pander to the crimes, and a proselyte to the
+divinity of mad Caligula; a screen for Messalina's vices, and an easy
+adviser to her easy and timid lord; lastly, everything in turn with
+Nero--chariot-driver, singer, parasite, buffoon, and in all these various
+parts, preserving the one unfailing characteristic of a consummate and
+systematic debauchee. It seemed but yesterday that he had thrown the dice
+with Claudius, staking land and villas as freely as jewels and gold,
+losing heavily to his imperial master; and, though he had to borrow the
+money at high usury, quick-witted enough to perceive the noble reversion
+he had thus a chance of purchasing. It seemed but yesterday that he flew
+round the dusky circus, grazing the goal with practised skill, and, by a
+happy dexterity, suffering Caligula to win the race so narrowly, as to
+enchance the pleasure of imperial triumph. It seemed but yesterday that he
+sang with Nero, and flattered the monster by comparing him with the
+sirens, whose voices charmed mariners to their destruction.
+
+And now was it all over? Must he indeed give up the imperial purple and
+the throne of blazing gold?--the luxurious banquets and the luscious wines?
+He shuddered and sickened while he thought of a crust of brown bread and a
+pitcher of water. Nay, worse than this, was he sure his life was safe? He
+had seen death often--what Roman had not? But at his best, in the field,
+clad in corselet and headpiece, and covered with a buckler, he had thought
+him an ugly and unwelcome visitor. Even at Bedriacum, when he told his
+generals as he rode over the slain, putrefying on the ground, that "a dead
+enemy smelt sweet, and the sweeter for being a citizen," he remembered now
+that his gorge had risen while he spoke. He remembered, too, the German
+body-guard that had accompanied him, and the faithful courage with which
+his German levies fought. There were a few of them in the palace yet. It
+gave him confidence to recollect this. For a moment the soldier-spirit
+kindled up within, and he felt as though he could put himself at the head
+of those blue-eyed giants, lead them into the very centre of the enemy,
+and die there like a man. He rose to his feet, and snatched at one of the
+weapons hanging for ornament against the wall, but the weak limbs failed,
+the pampered body asserted itself, and he sank back helpless on the couch.
+
+It was at this moment that Esca burst so unceremoniously into the
+Emperor's presence.
+
+Vitellius did not rise again, less alarmed, perhaps, than astonished. The
+Briton threw himself upon his knees, and touched the broad crimson binding
+of the imperial gown.
+
+"There is not a moment to lose!" said he. "They are forcing the gates. The
+guard has been driven back. It is too late for resistance; but Caesar may
+yet escape if he will trust himself to me."
+
+Vitellius looked about him, bewildered. At that moment a shout was heard
+from the palace-gardens, accompanied by a rush of many feet, and the
+ominous clash of steel. Esca knew that the assailants were gladiators. If
+they came in with their blood up, they would give no quarter.
+
+"Caesar must disguise himself," he insisted earnestly. "The slaves have
+been leaving the palace in hundreds. If the Emperor would put on a coarse
+garment and come with me, I can show him the way to safety; and Placidus,
+hastening to this apartment, will find it empty."
+
+With all his sensual vices, there was yet something left of the old Roman
+spirit in Vitellius, which sparkled out in an emergency. After the first
+sudden surprise of Esca's entrance, he became cooler every moment. At the
+mention of the tribune's name he seemed to reflect.
+
+"Who are you?" said he, after a pause; "and how came you here?"
+
+Short as had been his reign he had acquired the tone of royalty; and could
+even assume a certain dignity, notwithstanding the urgency of his present
+distress. In a few words Esca explained to him his danger, and his
+enemies.
+
+"Placidus," repeated the Emperor thoughtfully, and as if more concerned
+than surprised; "then there is no chance of the design failing; no hope of
+mercy when it has succeeded. Good friend! I will take your advice. I will
+trust you, and go with you, where you will. If I am an Emperor to-morrow,
+you will be the greatest man in Rome."
+
+Hitherto he had been leaning indolently back on the couch. Now he seemed
+to rouse himself for action, and stripped the crimson-bordered gown from
+his shoulders, the signet-ring from his hand.
+
+"They will make a gallant defence," said he, "but if I know Julius
+Placidus, he will outnumber them ten to one. Nevertheless they may hold
+him at bay with their long swords till we get clear of the palace. The
+gardens are dark and spacious; we can hide there for a time, and take an
+opportunity of reaching my wife's house on Mount Aventine; Galeria will
+not betray me, and they will never think of looking for me there."
+
+Speaking thus coolly and deliberately, but more to himself than his
+companion, Caesar, divested of all marks of splendour in his dress and
+ornaments, stripped to a plain linen garment, turning up his sleeves and
+girding himself the while, like a slave busied in some household work
+requiring activity and despatch, suffered the Briton to lead him into the
+next apartment, where, deserted by his comrades, and sorely perplexed
+between a vague sense of duty and a strong inclination to run away, Spado
+was pacing to and fro in a ludicrous state of perturbation and dismay.
+Already the noise of fighting was plainly distinguished in the outer
+court. The gladiators, commanded by Hippias and guided by the treacherous
+tribune, had overpowered the main body of the Germans who occupied the
+imperial gardens, and were now engaged with the remnant of these faithful
+barbarians at the very doors of the palace.
+
+The latter, though outnumbered, fought with the desperate courage of their
+race. The Roman soldier in his cool methodical discipline, was sometimes
+puzzled to account for that frantic energy, which acknowledged no
+superiority either of position or numbers, which seemed to gather a
+fresher and more stubborn courage from defeat; and even the gladiators,
+men whose very livelihood was slaughter, and whose weapons were never out
+of their hands, found themselves no match for these large savage warriors
+in the struggle of a hand-to-hand combat, recoiled more than once in
+baffled rage and astonishment from the long swords, and the blue eyes, and
+the tall forms that seemed to tower and dilate in the fierce revelry of
+battle.
+
+The military skill of Placidus, exercised before many a Jewish rampart,
+and on many a Syrian plain, had worsted the main body of the Germans by
+taking them in flank. Favoured by the darkness of the shrubberies, he had
+contrived to throw a hundred practised swordsmen unexpectedly on their
+most defenceless point. Surprised and outnumbered, they retreated
+nevertheless in good order, though sadly diminished, upon their comrades
+at the gate. Here the remaining handful made a desperate stand, and here
+Placidus, wiping his bloody sword upon his tunic, whispered to Hippias--
+
+"We must put Hirpinus and the supper-party in front! If we can but carry
+the gate, there are a score of entrances into the palace. Remember! we
+give no quarter, and we recognise no one."
+
+Whilst the chosen band who had left the tribune's table were held in check
+by the guard, there was a moment's respite, during which Caesar might
+possibly escape. Esca, rapidly calculating the difficulties in his own
+mind, had resolved to hurry him through the most secluded part of the
+gardens into the streets, and so running the chance of recognition which
+in the darkness of night, and under the coarse garb of a household slave,
+was but a remote contingency, to convey him by a circuitous route to
+Galeria's house, of which he knew the situation, and where he might be
+concealed for a time without danger of detection. The great obstacle was
+to get him out of the palace without being seen. The private door by which
+he had himself entered, he knew must be defended, or the assailants would
+have taken advantage of it ere this, and he dared not risk recognition, to
+say nothing of the chances of war, by endeavouring to escape through the
+midst of the conflict at the main gate. He appealed to Spado for
+assistance.
+
+"There is a terrace at the back here," stammered the eunuch; "if Caesar can
+reach it, a pathway leads directly down to the summer-house in the
+thickest part of the gardens; thence he can go between the fish-ponds
+straight to the wicket that opens on the Appian Way."
+
+"Idiot!" exclaimed the Emperor angrily, "how am I to reach the terrace?
+There is no door, and the window must be a man's height at least from the
+ground."
+
+"It is your only chance of life, illustrious!" observed Esca impatiently.
+"Guide us to the window, friend," he added, turning to Spado, who looked
+from one to the other in helpless astonishment, "and tear that shawl from
+the couch; we may want it for a rope to let the Emperor down."
+
+A fresh shout from the combatants at the gate, while it completely
+paralysed the eunuch, seemed to determine Vitellius. He moved resolutely
+forward, followed by his two companions, Spado whispering to the Briton,
+"You are a brave young man. We will all escape together, I--I will stand by
+you to the last!"
+
+They needed but to cross a passage and traverse another room. Caesar peered
+over the window-sill into the darkness below, and drew back.
+
+"It is a long way down," said he. "What if I were to break a limb?"
+
+Esca produced the shawl he had brought with him from the adjoining
+apartment, and offered to place it under his arms and round his body.
+
+"Shall I go first?" said Spado. "It is not five cubits from the ground."
+
+But the Emperor thought of his brother Lucius and the cohorts at
+Terracina. Could he but gain the camp there he would be safe, nay more, he
+could make head against his rival; he would return to Rome with a
+victorious army; he would retrieve the diadem and the purple, and the
+suppers at the palace once more.
+
+"Stay where you are!" he commanded Spado, who was looking with an eager
+eye at the window. "I will risk it. One draught of Falernian, and I will
+risk it and be gone."
+
+He turned back towards the banqueting-room, and while he did so another
+shout warned him that the gate was carried, and the palace in possession
+of the conspirators.
+
+Esca followed the Emperor, vainly imploring him to fly. Spado, taking one
+more look from the window ere he risked his bones, heard the ring of
+armour and the tramp of feet coming round the corner of the palace, on the
+very terrace he desired to reach. White and trembling, he tore the garland
+from his head and gnawed its roses with his teeth in the inpotence of his
+despair. He knew the last chance was gone now, and they must die.
+
+The Emperor returned to the room where he had supped; seized a flagon of
+Falernian, filled himself a large goblet which he half-emptied at a
+draught, and set it down on the board with a deep sigh of satisfaction.
+The courtyard had been taken at last, and the palace surrounded.
+Resistance was hopeless, and escape impossible. The Germans were still
+fighting, indeed, within the rooms, disputing inch by inch the glittering
+corridors, and the carved doorways, and the shining polished floors, now
+more slippery than ever with blood. Pictures and statues seemed to look
+down in calm amazement at thrust and blow and death-grapple, and all the
+reeling confusion of mortal strife. But the noise came nearer and nearer;
+the Germans, falling man by man, were rapidly giving ground. Esca knew the
+game was lost at last, and he turned to his companions in peril with a
+grave and clouded brow.
+
+"There is nothing for it left," said he, "but to die like men. Yet if
+there be any corner in which Caesar can hide," he added, with something of
+contempt in his tone, "I will gain him five minutes more of life, if this
+glittering toy holds together so long."
+
+Then he snatched from the wall an Asiatic javelin, all lacquered and
+ornamented with gold, cast one look at the others, as if to bid them
+farewell, and hurried from the room. Spado, a mass of shaking flesh, and
+tumbled garments and festive ornaments strangely out of keeping with his
+attitude, cowered down against the wall, hiding his face in his hands; but
+Vitellius, with something akin even to gratification on his countenance,
+returned to the half-emptied cup, and raising it to his lips, deliberately
+finished his Falernian.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XIX
+
+                                  AT BAY
+
+
+It was not in Esca's nature to be within hearing of shrewd blows and yet
+abstain from taking part in the fray. His recent sentiments had indeed
+undergone a change that would produce timely fruit; and neither the words
+of the preacher in the Esquiline, nor the example of Calchas, nor the
+sweet influence of Mariamne, had been without their effect. But it was
+engrained in his very character to love the stir and tumult of a fight.
+From a boy his blood leaped and tingled at the clash of steel. His was the
+courage which is scarcely exercised in the tide of personal conflict, and
+must be proved rather in endurance than in action--so naturally does it
+force itself to the front when men are dealing blow for blow. His youth,
+too, had been spent in warfare, and in that most ennobling of all warfare
+which defends home from the aggression of an invader. He had long ago
+learned to love danger for its own sake, and now he experienced besides a
+morbid desire to have his hand on the tribune's throat, so he felt the
+point and tried the shaft of his javelin with a thrill of savage joy,
+while, guided by the sounds of combat he hurried along the corridor to
+join the remnant of the faithful German guard. Not a score of them were
+left, and of these scarce one but bled from some grievous wound. Their
+white garments were stained with crimson, their gaudy golden armour was
+hacked and dinted, their strength was nearly spent, and every hope of
+safety gone; but their courage was still unquenched, and as man after man
+went down, the survivors closed in and fought on, striking desperately
+with their faces to the foe. The tribune and his chosen band, supported by
+a numerous body of inferior gladiators, were pressing them sore. Placidus,
+an expert swordsman, and in no way wanting physical courage, was
+conspicuous in the front. Hippias alone seemed to vie with the tribune in
+reckless daring, though Hirpinus, Eumolpus, Lutorius, and the others, were
+all earning their wages with scrupulous fidelity, and bearing themselves
+according to custom, as if fighting were the one business of their lives.
+
+When Esca reached the scene of conflict the tribune had just closed with a
+gigantic adversary. For a minute they reeled in the death-grapple, then
+parted as suddenly as they met, the German falling backward with a groan,
+the tribune's blade as he brandished it aloft dripping with blood to the
+very hilt.
+
+"_Euge!_" shouted Hippias, who was at his side, parrying at the same
+moment, with consummate address, a sweeping sword-cut dealt at him from
+the dead man's comrade. "That was prettily done, tribune, and like an
+artist!"
+
+Esca, catching sight of his enemy's hated face, dashed in with the bound
+of a tiger, and taking him unawares, delivered at him so fierce and rapid
+a thrust as would have settled accounts between them, had Placidus
+possessed no other means of defence than his own skilful swordsmanship;
+but the fencing-master, whose eye seemed to take in all the combatants at
+once, cut through the curved shaft of the Briton's weapon with one turn of
+his short sword, and its head fell harmless on the floor. His hand was up
+for a deadly thrust when Esca found himself felled to the ground by some
+powerful fist, while a ponderous form holding him down with its whole
+weight, made it impossible for him to rise.
+
+"Keep quiet, lad," whispered a friendly voice in his ear; "I was forced to
+strike hard to get thee down in time. Faith! the master gives short
+warning with his thrusts. Here thou'rt safe, and here I'll take care thou
+shalt remain till the tide has rolled over us, and I can pass thee out
+unseen. Keep quiet! I tell thee, lest I have to strike thee senseless for
+thine own good."
+
+In vain the Briton struggled to regain his feet; Hirpinus kept him down by
+main force. No sooner had the gladiator caught sight of his friend, than
+he resolved to save him from the fate which too surely threatened all who
+were found in the palace, and with characteristic promptitude, used the
+only means at his disposal for the fulfilment of his object. A moment's
+reflection satisfied Esca of his old comrade's good faith. Life is sweet,
+and with the hope of its preservation came back the thought of Mariamne.
+He lay still for a few minutes, and by that time the tide of fight had
+rolled on, and they were left alone. Hirpinus rose first with a jovial
+laugh.
+
+"Why, you went down, man," said he, "like an ox at an altar. I would have
+held my hand a little--in faith I would--had there been time. Well, I must
+help thee up, I suppose, seeing that I put thee down. Take my advice, lad,
+get outside as quick as thou canst. Keep the first turning to the right of
+the great gate, stick to the darkest part of the gardens, and run for thy
+life!"
+
+So speaking, the gladiator helped Esca to his feet, and pointed down the
+corridor where the way was now clear. The Briton would have made one more
+effort to save the Emperor, but Hirpinus interposed his burly form, and
+finding his friend so refractory, half-led, half-pushed him to the door of
+the palace. Here he bade him farewell, looking wistfully out into the
+night, as though he would fain accompany him.
+
+"I have little taste for the job here, and that's the truth," said he, in
+the tone of a man who has been unfairly deprived of some expected
+pleasure. "The Germans made a pretty good stand for a time, but I thought
+there were more of them, and that the fight would have lasted twice as
+long. Good luck go with thee, lad; I shall perhaps never see thee again.
+Well, well, it can't be helped. I have been bought and paid for, and must
+go back to my work."
+
+So, while Esca, hopeless of doing any more good, went his way into the
+gardens, Hirpinus re-entered the palace to follow his comrades, and assist
+in the search for the Emperor. He was somewhat surprised to hear loud
+shouts of laughter echoing from the end of the corridor. Hastening on to
+learn the cause of such strangely-timed mirth, he came upon Rufus lying
+across the prostrate body of a German, and trying hard to stanch the blood
+that welled from a fatal gash inflicted by his dead enemy, ere he went
+down. Hirpinus raised his friend's head, and knew it was all over.
+
+"I have got it," said Rufus, in a faint voice; "my foot slipped and the
+clumsy barbarian lunged in over my guard. Farewell, old comrade! Bid the
+wife keep heart. There is a home for her at Picenum, and--the boys--keep
+them out of the Family. When you close with these Germans--disengage--at
+half distance, and turn your wrist down with the--old--thrust, so as to"--
+
+Weaker and weaker came the gladiator's last syllables, his head sank, his
+jaw dropped, and Hirpinus, turning for a farewell look at the comrade with
+whom he had trained, and toiled, and drank, and fought, for half a score
+of years, dashed his hand angrily to his shaggy eyelashes, for he saw him
+through a mist of tears.
+
+Another shout of laughter, louder still and nearer, roused him to action.
+Turning into the room whence it proceeded, he came upon a scene of combat,
+nearly as ludicrous as the last was pitiful. Surrounded by a circle of
+gladiators, roaring out their applause and holding their sides with mirth,
+two most unwilling adversaries were pitted against each other. They
+seemed, indeed, very loth to come to close quarters, and stood face to
+face with excessive watchfulness and caution.
+
+In searching for the Emperor, Placidus and his myrmidons had scoured
+several apartments without success. Finding the palace thus unoccupied,
+and now in their own hands, the men had commenced loading themselves with
+valuables, and prepared to decamp with their plunder, each to his home, as
+having fulfilled their engagement, and earned their reward. But the
+tribune well knew that if Vitellius survived the night, his own head would
+be no longer safe on his shoulders, and that it was indispensable to find
+the Emperor at all hazards; so gathering a handful of gladiators round
+him, persuading some and threatening others, he instituted a strict search
+in one apartment after another, leaving no hole nor corner untried,
+persuaded that Caesar must be still inside the palace, and consequently
+within his grasp. He entertained, nevertheless, a lurking mistrust of
+treachery roused by the late appearance of Euchenor at supper, which was
+rather strengthened than destroyed by the Greek's unwillingness to engage
+in personal combat with the Germans. Whilst he was able to do so, the
+tribune had kept a wary eye upon the pugilist, and had indeed prevented
+him more than once from slipping out of the conflict altogether. Now that
+the Germans were finally disposed of, and the palace in his power, he kept
+the Greek close at hand with less difficulty, jeering him, half in jest
+and half in earnest, on the great care he had taken of his own person in
+the fray. Thus, with Euchenor at his side, followed by Hippias, and some
+half-dozen gladiators, the tribune entered the room in which the Emperor
+had supped, and from which a door, concealed by a heavy curtain, led into
+a dark recess originally intended for a bath. At the foot of this curtain,
+half-lying, half-sitting, grovelled an obese unwieldy figure, clad in
+white, which moaned and shook and rocked itself to and fro, in a paroxysm
+of abject fear. The tribune leapt forward with a gleam of diabolical
+triumph in his eyes. The next instant his face fell, as the figure,
+looking up, presented the scared features of the bewildered Spado. But
+even in his wrath and disappointment Placidus could indulge himself with a
+brutal jest.
+
+"Euchenor," said he, "thou hast hardly been well blooded to-night. Drive
+thy sword through this carrion, and draw it out of our way."
+
+The Greek was only averse to cruelty when it involved personal danger. He
+rushed in willingly enough, his blade up, and his eyes glaring like a
+tiger's; but the action roused whatever was left of manhood in the victim,
+and Spado sprang to his feet with the desperate courage of one who has no
+escape left. Close at his hand lay a Parthian bow, one of the many
+curiosities in arms that were scattered about the room, together with a
+sandal-wood quiver of puny painted arrows.
+
+"Their points are poisoned," he shouted; "and a touch is death!"
+
+  [Illustration: "'Their points are poisoned', he shouted"]
+
+Then he drew the bow to its full compass, and glared about him like some
+hunted beast brought to bay. Euchenor, checked in his spring, stood rigid
+as if turned to stone. His beautiful form indeed, motionless in that
+lifelike attitude, would have been a fit study for one of his own
+country's sculptors; but the surrounding gladiators, influenced only by
+the ludicrous points of the situation, laughed till their sides shook, at
+the two cowards thus confronting each other.
+
+"To him, Euchenor!" said they, with the voice and action by which a man
+encourages his dog at its prey. "To him, lad! Here's old Hirpinus come to
+back thee. He always voted thee a cur. Show him some of thy mettle now!"
+
+Goaded by their taunts, Euchenor made a rapid feint, and crouched for
+another dash. Terrified and confused, the eunuch let the bowstring escape
+from his nerveless fingers, and the light gaudy arrow, grazing the Greek's
+arm and scarcely drawing blood, fell, as it seemed, harmless to the floor
+between his feet. Again there was a loud shout of derision, for Euchenor,
+dropping his weapon, applied this trifling scratch to his mouth; ere the
+laugh subsided, however, the Greek's face contracted and turned pale. With
+a wild yell he sprang bolt upright, raising his arms above his head, and
+fell forward on his breast, dead.
+
+The gladiators leaping in, passed half a dozen swords through the eunuch's
+body, almost ere their comrade touched the floor. Then Lutorius and
+Eumolpus tearing down the curtain disappeared in the dark recess behind.
+There was an exclamation of surprise, a cry for mercy, a scuffling of
+feet, the fall of some heavy piece of furniture, and the two emerged
+again, dragging between them, pale and gasping, a bloated and infirm old
+man.
+
+"Caesar is fled!" said he, looking wildly round. "You seek Caesar?" then
+perceiving the dark smile on the tribune's face, and abandoning all hope
+of disguise, he folded his arms with a certain dignity that his coarse
+garments and disordered state could not wholly neutralise, and added--
+
+"I am Caesar! Strike! since there is no mercy and no escape!"
+
+The tribune paused an instant and pondered. Already the dawn was stealing
+through the palace, and the dead upturned face of Spado looked grey and
+ghastly in the pale cold light. Master of the situation, he did but
+deliberate whether he should slay Caesar with his own hand, thus bidding
+high for the gratitude of his successor, or whether, by delivering him
+over to an infuriated soldiery, who would surely massacre him on the spot,
+he should make his death appear an act of popular justice, in the
+furtherance of which he was himself a mere dutiful instrument. A few
+moments' reflection on the character of Vespasian, decided him to pursue
+the latter course. He turned to the gladiators, and bade them secure their
+prisoner.
+
+Loud shouts and the tramp of many thousand armed feet announced that the
+disaffected legions were converging on the palace, and had already filled
+its courtyard with masses of disciplined men, ranged under their eagles in
+all the imposing precision and the glittering pomp of war. The increasing
+daylight showed their serried files, extending far beyond the gate, over
+the spacious gardens of the palace, and the cold morning breeze unfurled a
+banner here and there, on which were already emblazoned the initials of
+the new emperor, "Titus Flavius Vespasian Caesar." As Vitellius with his
+hands bound, led between two gladiators, passed out of the gate which at
+midnight had been his own, one of these gaudy devices glittered in the
+rising sun before his eyes. Then his whole frame seemed to collapse, and
+his head sank upon his breast, for he knew that the bitterness of death
+had indeed come at last.
+
+But it was no part of the tribune's scheme that his victim's lineaments
+should escape observation. He put his own sword beneath the Emperor's
+chin, and forced him to hold his head up while the soldiers hooted and
+reviled, and ridiculed their former lord.
+
+"Let them see thy face," said the tribune brutally. "Even now thou art
+still the most notorious man in Rome."
+
+Obese in person, lame in gait, pale, bloated, dishevelled, and a captive,
+there was yet a certain dignity about the fallen emperor, while he drew
+himself up, and thus answered his enemy--
+
+"Thou hast eaten of my bread and drunk from my cup. I have loaded thee
+with riches and honours. Yesterday I was thine emperor and thy host. To-
+day I am thy captive and thy victim. But here, in the jaws of death, I
+tell thee that not to have my life and mine empire back again, would I
+change places with Julius Placidus the tribune!"
+
+They were the last words he ever spoke, for while they paraded him along
+the Sacred Way, the legions gathered in and struck him down, and hewed him
+in pieces, casting the fragments of his body into the stream of Father
+Tiber, stealing calm and noiseless by the walls of Rome. And though the
+faithful Galeria collected them for decent interment, few cared to mourn
+the memory of Vitellius the glutton; for the good and temperate Vespasian
+reigned in his stead.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XX
+
+                              THE FAIR HAVEN
+
+
+In a land-locked bay sheltered by wooded hills, under a calm cloudless
+sky, and motionless as some sleeping seabird, a galley lay at anchor on
+the glistening surface of the Mediterranean. Far out at sea, against a
+clear horizon the breeze just stirred the waters to a purer deeper blue,
+but here, behind the sharp black point, that shot boldly from the shore,
+long sheets of light, unshadowed by a single ripple traversed the bay,
+basking warm and still in the glaring sunshine. The very gulls that
+usually flit so restless to and fro, had folded their wings for an
+interval of repose, and the hush of the hot southern noon lay drowsily on
+the burnished surface of the deep.
+
+The galley had obviously encountered her share of wind and weather. Spars
+were broken and tackle strained. Her large square sail, rent and patched,
+was under process of repair; heaped up, neglected for the present, and
+half unfurled upon the deck, while the double-banked seats of her rowers
+were unoccupied, and the long oars shipped idly in her sides. Like the
+seabird she resembled, and whose destiny she shared, it seemed as though
+she also had folded her wings, and gone peacefully to sleep.
+
+Two figures were on the deck of the galley, drinking in the beauty that
+surrounded them, with the avidity of youth, and health, and love. They
+thought not of the dangers they had so narrowly escaped--of the perils by
+sea and perils by land that were in store for them yet, of the sorrows
+they must undergo, the difficulties they must encounter, the frail thread
+on which their present happiness depended. It was enough for them that
+they were gazing on the loveliness of one of the fairest isles in the
+AEgean, and that they were together.
+
+Surely there is a Fair Haven in the voyage of each of us, to which we
+reach perhaps once in a lifetime, where we pause and furl the sail and
+ship the oar, not that we are weary indeed, nor unseaworthy, but that we
+cannot resist, even the strongest and bravest of us, the longing of poor
+humanity for rest. Such seasons as these come to remind us of our noble
+destiny, and our inherent unworthiness--of our capacity for happiness, and
+our failure in attaining it--of the sordid casket, and the priceless jewel
+we are sure that it contains. At such seasons shall we not rejoice and
+revel in the happiness they bring? Shall we not bathe in the glorious
+sunshine, and snatch at the glowing fruit, and empty the golden cup, ay to
+the very dregs? What though there be a cloud behind the hill, a bitter
+morsel at the fruit's core, a drop of wormwood in the sparkling draught?--a
+consciousness of insecurity, a foresight of sorrow, a craving for the
+infinite and the eternal, which goads and guides us at once on the upward
+way? Would we be without it if we could? We cannot be more than human; we
+would not willingly be less. Is not failure the teacher of humility? Is
+not humility the first step to wisdom? Where is least of self-dependence,
+there is surely most of faith; and are not pain and sorrow the title-deeds
+of our inheritance hereafter?
+
+It is a false moral, it is a morbid and unreal sentiment, beautifully as
+it is expressed, which teaches us that "a sorrow's crown of sorrows, is
+remembering happier things." All true happiness is of spiritual origin.
+When we have been brushed, though never so lightly by the angel's wing, we
+cannot afterwards entirely divest ourselves of the fragrance breathed by
+that celestial presence. Even in those blissful moments, something warned
+us they would pass away; now that they have faded here, something assures
+us that they will come again, hereafter. Hope is the birthright of
+immortality. Without winter there would be no spring. In decay is the very
+germ of life, and while suffering is transitory, mercy is infinite, and
+joy eternal.
+
+The sailors were taking their noonday rest below, to escape the heat.
+Eleazar, the Jew, sat at the stern of the vessel, deep in meditation,
+pondering on his country's resources and his nation's wrongs--the
+dissensions that paralysed the Lion of Judah, and the formidable qualities
+of the princely hunter who was bringing him warily and gradually to bay.
+It would be hard enough to resist Titus with both hands free, how hopeless
+a task when one neutralised the efforts of the other! Eleazar's outward
+eye, indeed, took in the groves of olives, and the dazzling porches, the
+jagged rocks and the glancing water; but his spirit was gazing the while
+upon a very different scene. He saw his tumultuous countrymen armed with
+sword and spear, brave, impetuous, full of the headlong courage which made
+their race irresistible for attack, but lacking the cool methodical
+discipline, the stern habitual self-reliance so indispensable for a
+wearing and protracted defence; and he saw also the long even lines under
+the eagles, the impregnable array of the legions; their fortified camp,
+their mechanical discipline, their exact manoeuvres, and the calm confident
+strength that was converging day by day for the downfall and destruction
+of his people. Then he moved restlessly, like a man impatient of actual
+fetters about his limbs, for he would fain be amongst them again, with his
+armour on and his spear in his hand. Calchas, too, was on board the
+anchored galley. He looked on the fair scene around as those look who see
+good in everything. And then his eye wandered from the glowing land, and
+the cloudless heaven, and the sparkling sea, to the stately form of Esca,
+and Mariamne with her gentle loving face, ere it sought his task again,
+the perusal of his treasured Syriac scroll; for the old man, who took his
+share of all the labours and hardships incidental to a sea-voyage, spent
+in sacred study many of the hours devoted by others to rest; his lips
+moved in prayer, and he called down a blessing on the head of the
+proselyte he had gained over, and the kinsman he loved.
+
+After the success of the tribune's plot, and the escape of Esca from the
+imperial palace, Rome was no longer a place in which the Briton might
+remain in safety. Julius Placidus, although, from the prominent part taken
+by Domitian in public affairs, he had not attained such power as he
+anticipated, was yet sufficiently formidable to be a fatal enemy, and it
+was obvious that the only chance of life was immediately to leave the
+neighbourhood of so implacable an adversary. The murder, too, of
+Vitellius, and the accession of Vespasian, rendered Eleazar's further stay
+at Rome unnecessary, and even impolitic, while the services rendered to
+Mariamne by her champion and lover, had given him a claim to the
+protection of the Jewish household, and the intimacy of its members. On
+condition of his conforming to certain fasts and observances, Eleazar
+therefore willingly gave Esca the shelter of his roof, concealed him
+whilst he himself made preparations for a hasty departure, and suffered
+him to accompany the other two members that constituted his family, on
+their voyage home to Jerusalem. After many storms and casualties, half of
+that voyage was completed, and the attachment between Esca and Mariamne
+which sprang up so unexpectedly at the corner of a street in Rome, had now
+grown to the engrossing and abiding affection which lasts for life,
+perhaps for eternity. Floating in that fair haven, with the glow of love
+enhancing the beauty of an earthly paradise, they quaffed at the cup of
+happiness without remorse or misgiving, thankful for the present and
+trusting for the future. As shipwreck had threatened them but yesterday,
+as to-morrow they might again be destined to weather stormy skies, and
+ride through raging seas, so, although they had suffered great dangers and
+hardships in life, greater were yet probably in store. Nevertheless, to-
+day all was calm and sunshine, contentment, security, and repose. They
+took it as it came, and standing together on the galley's deck, the beauty
+of those two young creatures seemed god-like, in the halo of their great
+joy.
+
+"We shall never be parted here," whispered Esca, while they stooped over
+the bulwark, and his hand stealing to his companion's, pressed it in a
+gentle timid clasp.
+
+With her large loving eyes full of tears, she leaned towards him, nearer,
+nearer, till her cheek touched his shoulder, and, pointing upward, she
+answered in the low earnest tones that acknowledge neither doubt nor fear:
+"Esca, we shall never be parted hereafter."
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 *MOIRA*
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER I
+
+                      A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF
+
+
+                               [Initial T]
+
+The Feast of the Passover was at hand; the feast that was wont to call the
+children of Israel out of all parts of Syria to worship in the Holy City;
+the feast that had celebrated their deliverance from the relentless grasp
+of Pharaoh: that was ordained to mark the fulfilment of prophecy in the
+downfall of the chosen people, and their national extinction under the
+imperial might of Rome. Nevertheless, even this, the last Passover held in
+that Temple of which Solomon was the founder, and in the destruction of
+which, notwithstanding its sacred character, not one stone was permitted
+to remain upon another, had collected vast multitudes of the descendants
+of Abraham from all parts of Judaea, Samaria, Galilee, Perea, and other
+regions, to increase the sufferings of famine, and enhance the horrors of
+a siege. True to the character of their religion, rigidly observant of
+outward ceremonies, and admitting no exemptions from the requirements of
+the law, they swarmed in thousands and tens of thousands to their devoted
+city, round which even now Titus was drawing closer and closer the iron
+band of blockade, over which the Roman eagles were hovering, ere they
+swooped down irresistible on their prey.
+
+There was the hush of coming destruction in the very stillness of the
+Syrian noon, as it glowed on the white carved pinnacles of the temple, and
+flashed from its golden roof. There was a menace in the tall black
+cypresses, pointing as it were with warning gesture towards the sky. There
+was a loathsome reality of carnage about the frequent vulture, poised on
+his wide wings over every open space, or flapping heavily away with loaded
+gorge and dripping beak, from his hideous meal. Jerusalem lay like some
+royal lady in her death-pang; the fair face changed and livid in its
+ghastly beauty, the queenly brow warped beneath its diadem, and the wasted
+limbs quivering with agony under their robe of scarlet and gold.
+
+Inside the walls, splendour and misery, unholy mirth and abject despair,
+the pomp of war and the pressure of starvation, were mingled in frightful
+contrast. Beneath the shadow of princely edifices dead bodies lay unburied
+and uncared-for in the streets. Wherever was a foot or two of shelter from
+the sun, there some poor wretch seemed to have dragged himself to die.
+Marble pillars, lofty porches, white terraces, and luxuriant gardens
+denoted the wealth of the city, and the pride of its inhabitants; yet
+squalid figures crawling about, bent low towards the ground, sought
+eagerly here and there for every substance that could be converted into
+nourishment, and the absence of all offal and refuse on the pavement
+denoted the sad scarcity even of such loathsome food.
+
+The city of Jerusalem, built upon two opposite hills, of which the plan of
+the streets running from top to bottom in each, and separated only by a
+narrow valley, exactly corresponded, was admirably adapted to purposes of
+defence. The higher hill, on which was situated the upper town and the
+holy Temple, might, from the very nature of its position, be considered
+impregnable; and even the lower offered on its outside so steep and
+precipitous an ascent as to be almost inaccessible by regular troops. In
+addition to its natural strength, the city was further defended by walls
+of enormous height and solidity, protected by large square towers, each
+capable of containing a formidable garrison, and supplied with reservoirs
+of water and all other necessaries of war. Herod the Great, who,
+notwithstanding his vices, his crimes, and his occasional fits of passion
+amounting to madness, possessed the qualities both of a statesman and a
+soldier, had not neglected the means at his disposal for the security of
+his capital. He had himself superintended the raising of one of these
+walls at great care and expense, and had added to it three lofty towers,
+which he named after his friend, his brother, and his ill-fated wife.(16)
+These were constructed of huge blocks of marble, fitted to each other with
+such nicety, and afterwards wrought out by the workman's hand with such
+skill, that the whole edifice appeared to be cut from one gigantic mass of
+stone. In the days, too, of that magnificent monarch, these towers were
+nothing less than palaces within, containing guest-chambers, banqueting-
+rooms, porticoes, nay, even fountains, gardens, and cisterns, with great
+store of precious stones, gold and silver vessels, and all the barbaric
+wealth of Judaea's fierce and powerful king. Defended by Herod, even a
+Roman army might have turned away discomfited from before Jerusalem.
+
+Agrippa, too, the first of that name, who was afterwards stricken with a
+loathsome disease, and "eaten of worms," like a mere mortal, while he
+affected the attributes of a god, commenced a system of fortification to
+surround the city, which would have laughed to scorn the efforts of an
+enemy; but the Jewish monarch was too dependent on his imperial master at
+Rome to brave his suspicion by proceeding with it; and although a wall of
+magnificent design was begun, and even raised to a considerable height, it
+was never finished in the stupendous proportions originally intended. The
+Jews, indeed, after the death of its founder, strengthened it
+considerably, and completed it for purposes of defence, but not to the
+extent by which Agrippa proposed to render the town impregnable.
+
+And even had Jerusalem been entered and invested by an enemy, the Temple,
+which was also the citadel of the place, had yet to be taken. This
+magnificent building, the very stronghold of the wealth and devotion of
+Judaea, the very symbol of that nationality which was still so prized by
+the posterity of Jacob, was situated on the summit of the higher hill,
+from which it looked down and commanded both the upper and lower cities.
+On three sides it was artificially fortified with extreme caution, while
+on the fourth, it was so precipitous as to defy even the chances of a
+surprise. To possess the Temple was to hold the whole town as it were in
+hand; nor was its position less a matter of importance to the assailed
+than its splendour rendered it an object of cupidity to the assailants.
+Every ornament of architecture was lavished upon its cloisters, its
+pillars, its porticoes, and its walls. Its outward gates even, according
+to their respective positions, were brass, silver, and gold; its beams
+were of cedar, and other choice woods inlaid with the precious metal,
+which was also thickly spread over doorposts, candlesticks,
+cornices--everything that would admit of such costly decoration. The
+fifteen steps that led from the Court of the Women to the great Corinthian
+gate, with its double doors of forty cubits high, were worth as many
+talents of gold as they numbered.(17)
+
+To those who entered far enough to behold what was termed the Inner
+Temple, a sight was presented which dazzled eyes accustomed to the
+splendour of the greatest monarchs on earth. Its whole front was covered
+with plates of beaten gold; vines bearing clusters of grapes the size of a
+man's finger, all of solid gold, were twined about and around its gates,
+of which the spikes were pointed sharp, that birds might not pollute them
+by perching there. Within were golden doors of fifty-five cubits in
+height; and before this entrance hung the celebrated veil of the Temple.
+It consisted of a curtain embroidered with blue, fine linen, scarlet and
+purple, signifying by mystical interpretation, a figure of the universe,
+wherein the flax typified earth; the blue, air; the scarlet, fire; and the
+purple, water. Within this sumptuous shrine were contained the
+candlestick, the table of shew-bread, and the altar of incense: the seven
+lamps of the first denoting the seven planets of heaven; the twelve loaves
+on the second representing the circle of the zodiac and the year; while
+the thirteen sweet-smelling spices on the third, reminded men of the Great
+Giver of all good things in the whole world. In the inmost part, again, of
+this Inner Temple was that sacred space, into which mortal eye might not
+look, nor mortal step enter. Secluded, awful, invisible, divested of all
+material object, it typified forcibly to the Jew the nature of that
+spiritual worship which was taught him through Abraham and the Patriarchs,
+direct from heaven.
+
+All men, however, of all creeds and nations, might gaze upon the outward
+front of the Temple, and judge by the magnificence of the covering the
+costly splendour of the shrine it contained. While a dome of pure white
+marble rose above it like a mountain of snow, the front itself of the
+Temple was overlaid with massive plates of gold, so that when it flashed
+in the sunrise men could no more look upon it than on the god of day
+himself. Far off in his camp, watching the beleaguered city, how often may
+the Roman soldier have pondered in covetous admiration, speculating on the
+strength of its defenders and the value of his prey!
+
+The Temple of Jerusalem then was celebrated through all the known earth
+for its size, its splendour, and its untold wealth. The town, strong in
+its natural position and its artificial defences, garrisoned, moreover, by
+a fierce and warlike people, whose impetuous valour could be gauged by no
+calculations of military experience, was justly esteemed so impregnable a
+fortress, as might mock the attack of a Roman army even under such a
+leader as the son of Vespasian. Had it been assailed by none other than
+the enemy outside the walls, the Holy Place need never have been
+desecrated and despoiled by the legions, the baffled eagles would have
+been driven westward, balked of their glorious prey. But here was a "house
+divided against itself." The dissension within the walls was far more
+terrible than the foe without. Blood flowed faster in the streets than on
+the ramparts. Many causes originating in his past history, had combined to
+shake the loyalty and undermine the nationality of the Jew. Perhaps, for
+the wisest purposes, it seems ordained that true religion should be
+especially prone to schism. Humanity, however high its aspirations, cannot
+be wholly refined from its earthly dross; and those who are the most in
+earnest are sometimes the most captious and unforgiving. While worship for
+his Maker appears to be a natural instinct of man, it needed a teacher
+direct from heaven to inculcate forbearance and brotherly love. The Jews
+were sufficiently ill-disposed to those of their own faith, who differed
+with them on unimportant points of doctrine, or minute observance of
+outward ceremonies; but where the heresy extended to fundamental tenets of
+their creed, they seemed to have hated each other honestly, rancorously,
+and mercilessly, as only brethren can.
+
+Now for many generations they have been divided into three principal
+sects, differing widely in belief, principle, and practice. These were
+distinguished by the names of Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. The
+first, as is well known, were rigid observers of the traditional law,
+handed down to them from their fathers, attaching fully as much importance
+to its letter as to its spirit. With a vague belief in what is understood
+by the term predestination, they yet allowed to mankind the choice between
+good and evil, confounding, perhaps, the foreknowledge of the Creator with
+the freewill of the creature, and believed in the immortality of souls,
+and the doctrine of eternal punishment. Their failings seem to have been
+inordinate religious pride, and undue exaltation of outward forms to the
+neglect of that which they symbolised; a grasping ambition of priestly
+power, and an utter want of charity for those who differed in opinion with
+themselves.
+
+The Sadducees, though professing belief in the Deity, argued an entire
+absence of influence from above on the conduct of the human race. Limiting
+the dispensation of reward and punishment to this world, they esteemed it
+a matter of choice with mankind to earn the one or incur the other; and as
+they utterly ignored the life to come, were content to enjoy temporal
+blessings, and to deprecate physical evil alone. Though wanting a certain
+genial philosophy on which the heathen prided himself, the Sadducee, both
+in principles and practice, seems closely to have resembled the Epicurean
+of ancient Greece and Rome.
+
+But there was also a third sect which numbered many votaries throughout
+Judaea, in whose tenets we discover several points of similarity with our
+own, and whose ranks, it is not unfair to suppose, furnished numbers of
+the early converts to Christianity. These were the Essenes, a persuasion
+that rejected pleasure as a positive evil, and with whom a community of
+goods was the prevailing and fundamental rule of the order. These men,
+while they affected celibacy, chose out the children of others to provide
+for and educate. While they neither bought nor sold, they never wanted the
+necessaries of life, for each gave and received ungrudgingly, according to
+his own and his neighbour's need. While they despised riches, they
+practised a strict economy, appointing stewards to care for and dispense
+that common patrimony which was raised by the joint subscription of all.
+Scattered over the whole country, in every city they were sure of finding
+a home, and none took on a journey either money, food, or raiment, because
+he was provided by his brethren with all he required wherever he stopped
+to rest. Their piety, too, was exemplary. Before sunrise not a word was
+spoken referring to earthly concerns, but public prayer was offered,
+imploring the blessing of light day by day before it came. Then they
+dispersed to their different handicrafts, by which they earned wages for
+the general purse. Meeting together once more, they bathed in cold water
+and sat down in white garments to their temperate meal, in which a
+sufficiency and no more was provided for each person, and again separated
+to labour till the evening, when they assembled for supper in the same
+manner before going to rest.
+
+The vows taken by all who were admitted into their society, and that only
+after a two years' probation, sufficiently indicated the purity and
+benevolence of their code. These swore to observe piety towards God, and
+justice towards men; to do no one an injury, either voluntarily or by
+command of others; to avoid the evil, and to aid the good; to obey legal
+authority as coming from above; to love truth, and openly reprove a lie;
+to keep the hands clean from theft, and the heart from unfair gain;
+neither to conceal anything from their own sect, nor to discover their
+secrets to others, but to guard them with life; also to impart these
+doctrines to a proselyte literally and exactly as each had received them
+himself. If one of the order committed any grievous sin, he was cast out
+of their society for a time; a sentence which implied starvation, as he
+had previously sworn never to eat save in the presence of his brethren.
+When in the last stage of exhaustion he was received again, as having
+suffered a punishment commensurate with his crime, and which, by the
+maceration of the body, should purify and save the soul.
+
+With such tenets and such training, the Essenes were conspicuous for their
+confidence in danger, their endurance of privation, and their contempt for
+death. The flesh they despised as the mere corruptible covering of the
+spirit, that imperishable essence, of which the aspiration was ever
+upwards, and which, when released from prison, in obedience to the
+dictates of its very nature, flew direct to heaven. Undoubtedly such
+doctrines as these, scattered here and there throughout the land,
+partially redeemed the Jewish character from the fierce unnatural stage of
+fanaticism, to which it had arrived at the period of the Christian
+era--afforded, it may be, a leavening which preserved the whole people from
+utter reprobation; and helped, perhaps, to smooth the way for those
+pioneers, who carried the good tidings first heard beneath the star of
+Bethlehem, westward through the world.
+
+But at the period when Jerusalem lay beleaguered by Titus and his legions,
+three political parties raged within her walls, to whose furious
+fanaticism her three religious sects could offer no comparison. The first
+and most moderate of these, though men who scrupled not to enforce their
+opinions with violence, had considerable influence with the great bulk of
+the populace, and were, indeed, more than either of the others, free from
+selfish motives, and sincere in their desire for the common good. They
+affected a great concern for the safety and credit of their religion,
+making no small outcry at the fact that certain stones and timber,
+provided formerly by Agrippa for the decoration of the Temple, had been
+desecrated by being applied to the repair of the defences and the
+construction of engines of war. They observed, also, how the rivalry of
+faction, in which, nevertheless, they took a prominent part, devastated
+the city more than any efforts of the enemy; and they did not scruple to
+paralyse the energies of the besieged, by averring that the military rule
+of the Romans, wise and temperate, though despotic, was preferable to the
+alternations of tyranny and anarchy under which they lived.
+
+This numerous party was especially displeasing to Eleazar, whose restless
+force of character and fanatical courage were impatient of any attempt at
+capitulation, who was determined on resistance to the death, and the utter
+destruction of the Holy City rather than its surrender. He was now living
+in the element of storm and strife, which seemed most congenial to his
+nature. No longer a foreign intriguer, disguised in poor attire, and
+hiding his head in a back street of Rome, the Jew seemed to put on fresh
+valour every day with his breastplate, and walked abroad in the streets or
+directed operations from the ramparts; a mark for friend and foe, in his
+splendid armour, with the port of a warrior, a patriarch and a king. He
+was avowedly at the head of a numerous section of the seditious, who had
+adopted the title of Zealots; and who, affecting the warmest enthusiasm in
+the cause of patriotism and religion, were utterly unscrupulous as to the
+means by which they furthered their own objects and aggrandisement. Their
+practice was indeed much opposed to the principles they professed, and to
+that zeal for religion from which they took their name. They had not
+scrupled to cast lots for the priesthood, and to confer the highest and
+holiest office of the nation on an illiterate rustic, whose only claim to
+the sacerdotal dignity consisted in his relationship with one of the
+pontifical tribes. Oppression, insult, and rapine inflicted on their
+countrymen, had rendered the very name of Zealot hateful to the mass of
+the people; but they numbered in their ranks many desperate and determined
+men, skilled in the use of arms, and ready to perpetrate any act of
+violence on friend or foe. In the hands of a bold unscrupulous leader,
+they were sharp and efficient weapons. As such Eleazar considered them,
+keeping them under his own control and fit for immediate use.
+
+The third of these factions, which was also perhaps the most numerous,
+excited the apprehensions of the more peaceably disposed no less than the
+hatred of the last-mentioned party who had put Eleazar at their head. It
+was led by a man distinguished alike for consummate duplicity and reckless
+daring--John of Gischala, so called from a small town in Judaea, the
+inhabitants of which he had influenced to hold out against the Romans, and
+whence he had himself escaped by a stratagem, redounding as much to the
+clemency of Titus as to his own dishonour.
+
+Gischala being inhabited by a rural and unwarlike population, unprovided
+besides with defences against regular troops, would have fallen an easy
+prey to the prince with his handful of horsemen, had it not been for that
+disposition to clemency which Titus, in common with other great warriors,
+seems to have indulged when occasion offered. Knowing that if the place
+were carried by storm it would be impossible to restrain his soldiers from
+putting the inhabitants to the sword, he rode in person within earshot of
+the wall, and exhorted the defenders to open their gates and trust to his
+forbearance, a proposal to which John, who with his adherents completely
+overmastered and dominated the population, took upon himself to reply. He
+reminded the Roman commander that it was the Sabbath, a day on which not
+only was it unlawful for the Jews to undertake any matters of war, policy,
+or business, but even to treat of such, and therefore they could not so
+much as entertain the present proposals of peace; but that if the Romans
+would give them four-and-twenty hours' respite, during which period they
+could surround the city with their camp, so that none could escape from
+it, the keys of the gate should be given up to him on the following day,
+when he might enter in triumph and take possession of the place. Titus
+withdrew accordingly, probably for want of forage, to a village at some
+distance, and John with his followers, accompanied by a multitude of women
+and children, whom he afterwards abandoned, made his escape in the night
+and fled to Jerusalem.
+
+After such a breach of faith, he could expect nothing from the clemency of
+the Roman general; so that John of Gischala, like many others of the
+besieged, might be said to fight with a rope round his neck.
+
+Within the city there had now been a fierce struggle for power between the
+Zealots under Eleazar, and the reckless party called by different
+opprobrious terms, of which "Robbers" was the mildest, who followed the
+fortunes of John. The peaceful section, unable to make head against these
+two, looked anxiously for the entrance of the eagles, many indeed of the
+wealthier deserting when practicable to the camp of the enemy. Meanwhile
+the Romans pushed the siege vigorously. Their army now consisted of
+Vespasian's choicest legions, commanded by his son in person. Their
+engines of war were numerous and powerful. Skilful, scientific, exact in
+discipline, and unimpeachable in courage, they were gradually but surely
+converging, in all their strength, for one conclusive effort on the
+devoted city. Already the second wall had been taken, retaken in a
+desperate struggle by the besieged, and once more stormed and carried by
+the legions. Famine, too, with her cruel hand, was withering the strongest
+arms and chilling the bravest hearts in the city. It was time to forget
+self-interest, faction, fanaticism, everything but the nationality of
+Judaea, and the enemy at the gate.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER II
+
+                            THE LION OF JUDAH
+
+
+Eleazar had resolved to obtain supreme command. In a crisis like the
+present, no divided authority could be expected to offer a successful
+resistance. John of Gischala must be ruined by any means and at any
+sacrifice. His unscrupulous rival, regardless of honour, truth, every
+consideration but the rescue of his country, laid his plans accordingly.
+With a plausible pretence of being reconciled, and thus amalgamating two
+formidable armies for the common good, he proposed to hold a conference
+with John in the Outer Court of the Temple, where, in presence of the
+elders and chief men of the city, they should arrange their past
+differences and enter into a compact of alliance for the future. The Great
+Council of the nation, ostensibly the rulers of public affairs, and
+influenced alternately by the two antagonists, were to be present. Eleazar
+thought it would go hard, but that, with his own persuasive powers and
+public services, he should gain some signal advantage over his adversary
+ere they separated.
+
+He appeared, accordingly, at the place of conference, splendidly armed
+indeed in his own person, but accompanied by a small retinue of adherents
+all attired in long peaceful robes, as though inviting the confidence of
+his enemy. Observant eyes, it is true, and attentive ears, caught the
+occasional clank and glitter of steel under these innocent linen mantles,
+and the friends, if few in number, were of tried valour and fidelity,
+while a mob of warlike men outside, who had gathered ostensibly to look
+idly on, belonged obviously to the party of the Zealots. Nevertheless,
+Eleazar had so contrived matters that, while he guarded against surprise,
+he should appear before the Council as a suppliant imploring justice
+rather than a leader dictating terms. He took up his position,
+accordingly, at the lower end of the court, and after a deep obeisance to
+the assembled elders, stood, as it were, in the background, assuming an
+air of humility somewhat at variance with his noble and warlike exterior.
+
+His rival, on the contrary, whose followers completely blocked up the
+entrance from the Temple, through which he had thought it becoming to
+arrive, strode into the midst with a proud and insolent bearing, scarcely
+deigning to acknowledge the salutations he received, and glancing from
+time to time back amongst his adherents, with scornful smiles, that seemed
+to express a fierce contempt for the whole proceeding. He was a man who,
+though scarcely past his youth, wore in his face the traces of his vicious
+and disorderly career. His features were flushed and swollen with
+intemperance; and the deep lines about his mouth, only half concealed by
+the long moustache and beard, denoted the existence of violent passions,
+indulged habitually to excess. His large stature and powerful frame set
+off the magnificence of his dress and armour, nor was his eye without a
+flash of daring and defiance that boded evil to an enemy; but his bearing,
+bold as it was, smacked rather of the outlaw than the soldier, and his
+rude, abrupt gestures contrasted disadvantageously with the cool self-
+possession of his rival. The latter, asking permission, as it were, of the
+Senate by another respectful obeisance, walked frankly into the middle of
+the court to meet his foe. John changed colour visibly, and his hand stole
+to the dagger at his belt. He seemed to expect the treachery of which he
+felt himself capable; but Eleazar, halting a full pace off, looked him
+steadily in the face, and held out his right hand in token of amity and
+reconciliation. A murmur of approval ran through the Senate, which
+increased John's uncertainty how to act; but after a moment's hesitation,
+unwillingly and with a bad grace, he gave his own in return.
+
+Eleazar's action, though apparently so frank and spontaneous, was the
+result of calculation. He had now made the impression he desired on the
+Senate, and secured the favourable hearing which he believed was alone
+necessary for his triumph.
+
+"We have been enemies," said he, releasing the other's hand and turning to
+the assembly, while his full voice rang through the whole court, and every
+syllable reached the listeners outside. "We have been fair and open
+enemies, in the belief that each was opposed to the interests of his
+country; but the privations we have now undergone in the same cause, the
+perils we have confronted side by side on the same ramparts, must have
+convinced us that however we may differ in our political tenets, nay, in
+our religious practices, we are equally sincere in a determination to shed
+our last drop of blood in the defence of the Holy City from the pollution
+of the heathen. This is no time for any consideration but one--Jerusalem is
+invested, the Temple is threatened, and the enemy at the gate. I give up
+all claim to authority, save as a leader of armed men. I yield precedence
+in rank, in council, in everything but danger. I devote my sword and my
+life to the salvation of Judaea! Who is on my side?"
+
+Loud acclamations followed this generous avowal; and it was obvious that
+Eleazar's influence was more than ever in the ascendant. It was no time
+for John to stem the torrent of popular feeling, and he wisely floated
+with the stream. Putting a strong control upon his wrath, he expressed to
+the Senate in a few hesitating words, his consent to act in unison with
+his rival, under their orders as Supreme Council of the nation; a
+concession which elicited groans and murmurs from his own partisans, many
+of whom forced their way with insolent threats and angry gestures into the
+court. Eleazar did not suffer the opportunity to escape without a fresh
+effort for the downfall of his adversary.
+
+"There are men," said he, pointing to the disaffected, and raising his
+voice in full clear tones, "who had better have swelled the ranks of the
+enemy than stood side by side with Judah on the ramparts of Agrippa's
+wall. They may be brave in battle, but it is with a fierce undisciplined
+courage more dangerous to friend than foe. Their very leader, bold and
+skilful soldier as he is, cannot restrain such mutineers even in the
+august presence of the Council. Their excesses are laid to his charge; and
+a worthy and patriotic commander becomes the scapegoat of a few ruffians
+whose crimes he is powerless to prevent. John of Gischala, we have this
+day exchanged the right hand of fellowship. We are friends, nay, we are
+brothers-in-arms once more. I call upon thee, as a brother, to dismiss
+these robbers, these paid cut-throats, whom our very enemies stigmatise as
+'Sicarii,' and to cast in thy lot with thine own people, and with thy
+father's house!"
+
+John shot an eager glance from his rival to his followers. The latter were
+bending angry brows upon the speaker, and seemed sufficiently discontented
+with their own leader that he should listen tamely to such a proposal.
+Swords, too, were drawn by those in the rear, and brandished fiercely over
+the heads of the seething mass. For an instant the thought crossed his
+mind, that he had force enough to put the opposing assemblage, Senate and
+all, to the sword; but his quick practised glance taught him at the same
+time, that Eleazar's party gathered quietly towards their chief, with a
+confidence unusual in men really without arms, and a methodical precision
+that denoted previous arrangement; also that certain signals passed from
+them to the crowd, and that the court was filling rapidly from the
+multitude without. He determined then to dissemble for a time, and turned
+to the Senate with a far more deferential air than he had yet assumed.
+
+"I appeal to the elders of Judah," said he, repressing at the same time by
+a gesture the turbulence of his followers--"I am content to abide by the
+decision of the National Council. Is to-day a fitting season for the
+reduction of our armament? Shall I choose the present occasion to disband
+a body of disciplined soldiers, and turn a host of outraged and revengeful
+men loose into the city with swords in their hands? Have we not already
+enough idle mouths to feed, or can we spare a single javelin from the
+walls? My _brother_"--he laid great stress upon the word, and gripped the
+haft of his dagger under his mantle while he spoke it--"My brother gives
+strange counsel, but I am willing to believe it sincere. I too, though the
+words drop not like honey from my beard as from his, have a right to be
+heard. Did I not leave Gischala and my father's vineyard for a prey to the
+enemy? Did I not fool the whole Roman army, and mock Titus to his face,
+that I might join in the defence of Jerusalem? and shall I be schooled
+like an infant, or impeached for a traitor to-day? Judge me by the result.
+I was on the walls this morning; I saw not my brother there. The enemy
+were preparing for an assault. The engine they call Victory had been moved
+yet nearer by a hundred cubits. While we prate here the eagles are
+advancing. To the walls! To the walls, I say! Every man who calls himself
+a Jew; be he Priest or Levite, Pharisee or Sadducee, Zealot or Essene. Let
+us see whether John and his Sicarii are not as forward in the ranks of the
+enemy as this _brother_ of mine, Eleazar, and the bravest he can bring!"
+
+Thus speaking, and regardless of the presence in which he stood, John drew
+his sword and placed himself at the head of his adherents, who with loud
+shouts demanded to be led instantly to the ramparts. The enthusiasm spread
+like wildfire, and even communicated itself to the Council. Eleazar's own
+friends caught the contagion, and the whole mass poured out of the Temple,
+and, forming into bands in the streets, hurried tumultuously to the walls.
+
+What John had stated to the Council was indeed true. The Romans, who had
+previously demolished the outer wall and a considerable portion of the
+suburbs, had now for the second time obtained possession of the second
+wall, and of the high flanking tower called Antonia, which John, to do him
+justice, had defended with great gallantry after he had retaken it once
+from the assailants. It was from this point of vantage that an attack was
+now organised by the flower of the Roman army, having for its object the
+overthrow of her last defences and complete reduction of the city. When
+Eleazar and his rival appeared with their respective bands they proved a
+welcome reinforcement to the defenders, who, despite of their stubborn
+resistance, were hardly pressed by the enemy.
+
+Every able-bodied Jew was a soldier on occasion. Troops thus composed are
+invariably more formidable in attack than defence. They have usually
+undaunted courage and a blind headlong valour that sometimes defies the
+calculations of military science or experience; but they are also
+susceptible of panic under reverses, and lack the cohesion and solidity
+which is only found in those who make warfare the profession of a
+lifetime. The Jew armed with spear and sword, uttering wild cries as he
+leaped to the assault, was nearly irresistible; but once repulsed, his
+final discomfiture was imminent. The Roman, on the contrary, never
+suffered himself to be drawn out of his ranks by unforeseen successes, and
+preserved the same methodical order in the advance as the retreat. He was
+not, therefore, to be lured into an ambush however well disguised; and
+even when outnumbered by a superior force, could retire without defeat.
+
+The constitution of the legion, too, was especially adapted to enhance the
+self-reliance of well-drilled troops. Every Roman legion was a small army
+in itself, containing its proportion of infantry, cavalry, engines of war,
+and means for conveyance of baggage. A legion finding itself never so
+unexpectedly detached from the main body, was at no loss for those
+necessaries without which an army melts away like snow in the sunshine,
+and was capable of independent action, in any country and under any
+circumstances. Each man too had perfect confidence in himself and his
+comrades; and while it was esteemed so high a disgrace to be taken
+prisoner that many soldiers have been known rather to die by their own
+hands than submit to such dishonour, it is not surprising that the
+imperial armies were often found to extricate themselves with credit from
+positions which would have ensured the destruction of any other troops in
+the world.
+
+The internal arrangement, too, of every cohort, a title perhaps answering
+to the modern word regiment, as does the legion to that of division, was
+calculated to promote individual intelligence and energy in the ranks.
+Every soldier not only fought, but fed, slept, marched, and toiled, under
+the immediate eye of his _decurion_ or captain of ten, who again was
+directly responsible for those under his orders to his centurion, or
+captain of a hundred. A certain number of these centuries or companies,
+varying according to circumstances, constituted a maniple, two of which
+made up the cohort. Every legion consisted of ten cohorts, under the
+charge of but six tribunes, who seem to have entered on their onerous
+office in rotation. These were again subservient to the general, who,
+under the different titles of praetor, consul, etc., commanded the whole
+legion. The private soldiers were armed with shield, breastplate, helmet,
+spear, sword, and dagger; but in addition to his weapons every man carried
+a set of intrenching tools, and on occasion two or more strong stakes, for
+the rapid erection of palisades. All were, indeed, robust labourers and
+skilful mechanics, as well as invincible combatants.
+
+The Jews, therefore, though a fierce and warlike nation, had but little
+chance against the conquerors of the world. It was but their
+characteristic self-devotion that enabled them to hold Titus and his
+legions so long in check. Their desperate sallies were occasionally
+crowned with success, and the generous Roman seems to have respected the
+valour and the misfortunes of his foe; but it must have been obvious to so
+skilful a leader, that his reduction of Jerusalem and eventual possession
+of all Judaea was a question only of time.
+
+At an earlier period of the siege the Romans had made a wide and shallow
+cutting capable of sheltering infantry, for the purpose of advancing their
+engines closer to the wall, but from the nature of the soil this work had
+been afterwards discontinued. It now formed a moderately-secure covered-
+way, enabling the besieged to reach within a short distance of the Tower
+of Antonia, the retaking of which was of the last importance--none the less
+that from its summit Titus himself was directing the operations of his
+army. There was a breach in this tower on its inner side, which the Romans
+strove in vain to repair, harassed as they were by showers of darts and
+javelins from the enemy on the wall. More than once, in attempting to make
+it good at night, their materials had been burnt and themselves driven
+back upon their works with great loss, by the valour of the besieged. The
+Tower of Antonia was indeed the key to the possession of the second wall.
+Could it but be retaken, as it had already been, the Jews might find
+themselves once more with two strong lines of defence between the upper
+city and the foe.
+
+When Eleazar and John, at the head of their respective parties, now
+mingled indiscriminately together, reached the summit of the inner wall,
+they witnessed a fierce and desperate struggle in the open space below.
+
+Esca, no longer in the position of a mere household slave, but the friend
+and client of the most influential man in Jerusalem, who had admitted him,
+men said, as a proselyte to his faith, and was about to bestow on him his
+daughter in marriage, had already so distinguished himself by various
+feats of arms in the defence of the city, as to be esteemed one of the
+boldest leaders in the Jewish army. Panting to achieve a high reputation,
+which he sometimes dared to hope might gain him all he wished for on
+earth--the hand of Mariamne--and sharing to a great extent with the besieged
+their veneration for the Temple and abhorrence of a foreign yoke, the
+Briton lost no opportunity of adding a leaf to the laurels he had gained,
+and thrust himself prominently forward in every enterprise demanding an
+unusual amount of strength and courage. His lofty stature and waving
+golden hair, so conspicuous amongst the swarthy warriors who surrounded
+him, were soon well known in the ranks of the Romans, who bestowed on him
+the title of the Yellow Hostage, as inferring from his appearance that he
+must have lately been a stranger in Jerusalem; and many a stout legionary
+closed in more firmly on his comrade, and raised his shield more warily to
+the level of his eyes, when he saw those bright locks waving above the
+press of battle, and the long sword flashing with deadly strokes around
+that fair young head. He was now leading a party of chosen warriors, along
+the covered-way that has been mentioned, to attack the Tower of Antonia.
+For this purpose, the trench had been deepened during the night by the
+Jews themselves, who had for some days meditated a bold stroke of this
+nature; and the chosen band had good reason to believe that their
+movements were unseen and unsuspected by the enemy.
+
+As they deployed into the open space, but a few furlongs from the base of
+the tower, the Jews caught sight of Titus on the summit, his golden armour
+flashing in the sun, and, with a wild yell of triumph, they made one of
+their fierce, rushing, disorderly charges to the attack. They had reached
+within twenty paces of the breach, when swooping round the angle of the
+tower, like a falcon on his prey, came Placidus, at the head of a thousand
+horsemen, dashing forward with lifted shields and levelled spears amongst
+the disorganised mass of the Jews, broken by the very impetus of their own
+advance.
+
+The tribune had but lately joined the Roman army, having been employed in
+the subjugation of a remote province of Judaea--a task for which his
+character made him a peculiarly fit instrument. Enriched by a few months
+of extortion and rapine, he had taken care to rejoin his commander in time
+to share with him the crowning triumphs of the siege. Julius Placidus was
+a consummate soldier. His vigilance had detected the meditated attack, and
+his science was prepared to meet it in the most effectual manner. Titus,
+from the summit of his tower, could not but admire the boldness and
+rapidity with which the tribune dashed from his concealment, and launched
+his cavalry on the astonished foe.
+
+But he had to do with one, who, though his inferior in skill and
+experience, was his equal in that cool hardihood which can accept and
+baffle a surprise. Esca had divided his force into two bodies, so that the
+second might advance in a dense mass to the support of the first, whether
+its disorderly attack should be attended by failure or success. This body,
+though clear of the trench, yet remaining firm in its ranks, now became a
+rallying point for its comrades, and although a vast number of the Jews
+were ridden down and speared by the attacking horsemen, there were enough
+left to form a bristling phalanx, presenting two converging fronts of
+level steel impervious to the enemy. Placidus observed the manoeuvre and
+ground his teeth in despite; but though his brow lowered for one instant,
+the evil smile lit up his face the next, for he espied Esca, detached from
+his band and engaged in rallying its stragglers; nor did he fail to
+recognise at a glance the man he most hated on earth. Urging his horse to
+speed, and even at that moment of gratified fury glancing towards the
+tower to see whether Titus was looking on, he levelled his spear and bore
+down upon the Briton in a desperate and irresistible charge. Esca stepped
+nimbly aside, and receiving the weapon on his buckler, dealt a sweeping
+sword-cut at the tribune's head, which stooping to avoid, the latter
+pulled at his horse's reins so vigorously as to check the animal's career
+and bring it suddenly on its haunches. The Briton, watching his
+opportunity, seized the bit in his powerful grasp, and with the aid of his
+massive weight and strength, rolled man and horse to the ground in a
+crashing fall. The tribune was undermost, and for the moment at the mercy
+of his adversary. Looking upward with a livid face and deep bitter hatred
+glaring in his eye, he did but hiss out "Oh, mine enemy!" from between his
+clenched teeth, and prepared to receive his deathblow; but the hand that
+was raised to strike, fell quietly to Esca's side, and he turned back
+through the press of horsemen, buffeting them from him as a swimmer
+buffets the waves, till he reached his own men. Placidus, rising from the
+ground, shook his clenched fist at the retreating figure; but he never
+knew that he owed his preservation to the first-fruits of that religion
+which had now taken root in the breast of his former slave. When he
+groaned out in his despair "Oh, mine enemy!" the Briton remembered that
+this man had, indeed, shown himself the bitterest and most implacable of
+his foes. It was no mere impulse, but the influence of a deep abiding
+principle that bade him now forgive and spare for the sake of One whose
+lessons he was beginning to learn, and in whose service he had resolved to
+enter. Amongst all the triumphs and the exploits of that day, there was
+none more noble than Esca's, when he lowered his sword and turned away,
+unwilling, indeed, but resolute, from his fallen foe.
+
+The fight raged fiercely still. Eleazar with his Zealots--John of Gischala
+with his Robbers--rushed from the walls to the assistance of their
+countrymen. The Roman force was in its turn outnumbered and surrounded,
+though Placidus, again on horseback, did all in the power of man to make
+head against the mass of his assailants. Titus at length ordered the Tenth
+Legion, called by his own name and constituting the very flower of the
+Roman army, to the rescue of their countrymen. Commanded by Licinius, in
+whose cool and steady valour they had perfect confidence, these soon
+turned the tide of combat, and forced the Jews back to their defences;
+not, however, until their general had recognised in the Yellow Hostage the
+person of his favourite slave, and thought, with a pang, that the fate of
+war would forbid his ever seeing him face to face again, except as a
+captive or a corpse.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER III
+
+                        THE WISDOM OF THE SERPENT
+
+
+Ever since the night which changed the imperial master of Rome, Esca had
+dwelt with Eleazar as if he were a member of the same family and the same
+creed. Though Mariamne, according to the custom of her nation, confined
+herself chiefly to the women's apartments, it was impossible that two who
+loved each other so well as the Jewess and the Briton should reside under
+the same roof without an occasional interview. These usually took place
+when the latter returned to unarm after his military duties; and though
+but a short greeting was interchanged, a hurried inquiry, a few words of
+thanksgiving for his safety, and assurances of her continued affection,
+these moments were prized and looked forward to by both, as being the only
+occasions on which they could enjoy each other's society uninterrupted and
+alone.
+
+After the repulse of the tribune's attack beneath the Tower of Antonia,
+Esca returned in triumph to Eleazar's house. He was escorted to the very
+door by the chief men of the city, and a band of those chosen warriors who
+had witnessed and shared in his exploits. Mariamne, from the gallery which
+surrounded it, saw him enter her father's court at the head of her
+father's friends, heard that father address him before them all in a few
+soldierlike words of thanks and commendation--nay, even observed him lead
+the successful combatant away with him as though for some communication of
+unusual confidence. The girl's heart leaped within her; and vague hopes,
+of which she could not have explained the grounds, took possession of her
+mind. She loved him very dearly: they slept under the same roof, they ate
+at the same board; notwithstanding the perils of warfare to which she was
+now habituated, they met every day: but this was not enough; something was
+wanting still; so she watched him depart with her father, and grudged not
+the loss of her own short interview with its congratulations that she so
+longed to pour into his ear, because the indefinite hopes that dawned on
+her, seemed to promise more happiness than she could bear.
+
+Eleazar took the helmet from his brow, and signed to Esca to do the same.
+Then he filled a measure of wine, and draining the half of it eagerly,
+handed the rest to his companion. For a few minutes he paced up and down
+the room, still wearing his breastplate, and with his sword girded to his
+side, deep in thought, ere turning abruptly to his companion he placed his
+hand on his shoulder, and said--
+
+"You have eaten my bread--you have drunk from my cup. Esca, you are to me
+as a son; will you do my bidding?"
+
+"Even as a son," replied the Briton; to whom such an address seemed at
+once to open the way for the fulfilment of his dearest wishes.
+
+Eleazar ignored the emphasis on the word. It may be that his mind was too
+entirely engrossed with public interests to admit a thought upon private
+affairs; it may be that he considered Esca, like the sword upon his thigh,
+as a strong and serviceable weapon, to be laid aside when no longer wanted
+for conflict; or it may be that his purpose was honest, and that, after
+the salvation of his country, he would have been actuated by the kindlier
+motives of a father and a friend; but in the meantime he had a purpose in
+view, and no considerations of affection or partiality would have led him
+to swerve from it by a hair's-breadth.
+
+"Look around you," said he, "and behold the type of Judaea, and especially
+of Jerusalem, in this very building. See how fair and stately are the
+walls of my house, how rich its ornaments, how costly its hangings and
+decorations. Here are ivory, and sandal-wood, and cedar; webs of divers
+colours; robes of purple, stores of fine linen, vessels of silver, and
+drinking-cups of gold; frankincense and wine are here in plenty, but of
+barley we have scarce a few handfuls; and if the same visitors that my
+father Abraham entertained on the plains of Mamre were at my door to-day,
+where should I find a kid that I might slay it, and set it before them to
+eat? I have everything here in the house, save that alone without which
+everything else is of no avail--the daily bread that gives man strength for
+his daily task. And so is it with my country: we have men, we have
+weapons, we have wealth; but we lack that which alone renders those
+advantages efficient for defence--the constant unshrinking reliance on
+itself and its faith, from which a nation derives its daily resources as
+from its daily bread. There are men here in the city now who would hand
+Jerusalem over to the heathen without striking another blow in her
+defence."
+
+"Shame on them!" answered the other warmly. "Barbarian, stranger as I am,
+I pledge myself to die there, ere a Roman soldier's foot shall pollute the
+threshold of the Temple."
+
+"You are a warrior," answered Eleazar; "you have proved it to-day. As a
+warrior I consult with you on the possibility of our defence. You saw the
+result of the conflict under the Tower of Antonia, and the bravery of the
+Tenth Legion; we cannot resist another such attack till our defences are
+repaired. We must gain time; at all hazards, and at any sacrifice, we must
+gain time."
+
+"In two days the breach might be strengthened," replied the other; "but
+Titus is an experienced soldier; he was watching us to-day from the summit
+of his tower. He will hardly delay the assault beyond to-morrow."
+
+"He must!" answered Eleazar vehemently. "I have my preparations for
+defence, and in less than two days the city shall be again impregnable.
+Listen, Esca; you little know the opposition I have met with, or the
+hatred I have incurred in overcoming it. I have sought means to preserve
+the city from all quarters, and have thus given a handle to my enemies
+that they will not fail to use for my destruction. Have I not taken the
+holy oil from the sacrifice, to pour boiling on the heads of the
+besiegers? and will not John of Gischala and the Robbers fling this
+sacrilege in my teeth when it becomes known? Even at this moment I have
+seized the small quantity of chaff there is yet remaining in the city, to
+fill the sacks with which we may neutralise the iron strokes of that heavy
+battering-ram, which the soldiers themselves call Victory. There is scarce
+a grain of wheat left, and many a hungry stomach must sleep to-night
+without even the miserable meal it had promised itself, for want of this
+poor measure of chaff. Men will curse Eleazar in their prayers. It is
+cruel work,--cruel work. But, no! I will never abandon my post, and the
+seed of Jacob shall eat one another for very hunger in the streets, ere I
+deliver the Holy City into the keeping of the heathen."
+
+Something almost like a tear shone in the eye of this iron-hearted fanatic
+while he spoke, but his resolution was not to be shaken; and he only spoke
+the truth when he avowed that famine, stalking abroad in its most horrible
+form, would be a less hateful sight to him than the crest of a Roman
+soldier within the walls of Jerusalem. His brain had been hard at work on
+his return from the conflict of the day; and he had woven a plan by which
+he hoped to gain such a short respite from attack as would enable him to
+bid defiance to Titus once more. This could only be done, however, with
+the aid of others, and by means of a perfidy that even he could scarcely
+reconcile to himself--that he could not but fear must be repugnant to his
+agent.
+
+The well-known clemency of the Roman commander, and his earnest wish to
+spare, if it were possible, the beautiful and sacred city from
+destruction, had caused him to listen patiently at all times to any
+overtures made by the Jews for the temporary suspension of hostilities.
+Titus seemed not only averse to bloodshed, but also extended his goodwill
+in an extraordinary degree to an enemy whose religion he respected, and
+whose miseries obtained his sincere compassion. On many occasions he had
+delayed his orders for a final and probably irresistible assault, in the
+hope that the city might be surrendered; and that he could hand over to
+his father this beautiful prize, undefaced by the violence inflicted on a
+town taken by storm. The great Roman commander was not only the most
+skilful leader of his day, but a wise and far-sighted politician, as well
+as a humane and generous man. Eleazar knew the character with which he had
+to deal; but he stifled all scruples of honour in the one consideration,
+that his first and only duty was to the cause of Judah; yet in his breast
+were lying dormant the instincts of a brave man, and it was not without
+misgivings of opposition from his listener, that he disclosed to Esca the
+scheme by which he hoped to overreach Titus and gain a few hours' respite
+for the town.
+
+"Two days," said he, resuming his restless walk up and down the
+apartment--"two days is all I ask--all I require. Two days I _must_ have.
+Listen, young man. I have proved you, I can trust you; and yet the safety
+of Judah hangs on your fidelity. Swear, by the God of Israel, that you
+will never reveal the secret I disclose to you this day. It is but known
+to my brother, my daughter, and myself. You are the adopted son of my
+house. Swear!"
+
+"I swear!" replied Esca solemnly; and his hopes grew brighter as he found
+himself thus admitted, as it were, to a place in the family of the woman
+he loved.
+
+Eleazar looked from the casement and through the door, to assure himself
+against listeners; then he filled the Briton's cup once more, and
+proceeded with his confidences.
+
+"Around that dried-up fountain," said he, pointing to the terraces on
+which his stately house was built, "there lie seven slabs of marble, with
+which its basin is paved. If you put the point of your sword under the
+left-hand corner of the centre one, you may move it sufficiently to admit
+your hand. Lift it, and you find a staircase leading to a passage; follow
+that passage, in which a full-grown man can stand upright, and along which
+you may grope your way without fear, and you come to an egress choked up
+with a few faggots and briers. Burst through these, and, lo! you emerge
+beyond the Tower of Antonia, and within fifty paces of the Roman camp.
+Will you risk yourself amongst the enemy for Judah's sake?"
+
+"I have been nearer the Romans than fifty paces," answered Esca proudly.
+"It is no great service you ask; and if they seize upon me as an escaped
+slave, and condemn me to the cross, what then? It is but a soldier's duty
+I am undertaking after all. When shall I depart?"
+
+Eleazar reflected for a moment. The other's unscrupulous, unquestioning
+fidelity touched even his fierce heart to the quick. It would be,
+doubtless, death to the messenger, who, notwithstanding his character of
+herald, would be too surely treated as a mere runaway; but the message
+must be delivered, and who was there but Esca for him to send? He bent his
+brows, and proceeded in a harder tone--
+
+"I have confided to you the secret way, that is known to but three besides
+in Jerusalem. I need keep nothing from you now. You shall bear my written
+proposals to Titus for a truce till the sun has again set twice, on
+certain terms; but those terms it will be safer for the messenger not to
+know. Will you run the risk, and when?"
+
+"This instant, if they are ready," answered the other boldly; but even
+while he spoke, Calchas entered the apartment; and Eleazar, conscious of
+the certain doom to which he was devoting his daughter's preserver and his
+own guest, shrank from his brother's eye, and would have retired to
+prepare his missive without further question.
+
+Fierce and unscrupulous as he was, he could yet feel bitterly for the
+brave, honest nature that walked so unsuspiciously into the trap he laid.
+It was one thing to overreach a hostile general, and another to sacrifice
+a faithful and devoted friend. He had no hesitation in affecting treason
+to Titus, and promising the Romans that, if they would but grant him that
+day and the next, to obtain the supremacy of his own faction and chief
+power within the walls, he would deliver over the city, with the simple
+condition that the Temple should not be demolished, and the lives of the
+inhabitants should be spared. He acknowledged no dishonour in the
+determination, which he concealed in his own breast, to employ that
+interval strenuously in defensive works, and when it had elapsed to break
+faith unhesitatingly with his foe. In the cause of Judah--so thought this
+fanatic, half-soldier, half-priest--it was but a fair stratagem of war, and
+would, as a means of preserving the true faith, meet with the direct
+approval of Heaven. But it seemed hard--very hard--that, to secure these
+advantages, he must devote to certain destruction one who had sat at his
+board and lived under his roof for months; and a pang, of which he did not
+care to trace the origin, smote the father's heart when he thought of
+Mariamne's face, and her question to-morrow, "Where is Esca? and why is he
+not come back?"
+
+He took his brother aside, and told him, shortly, that Esca was going as a
+messenger of peace to the Roman camp. Calchas looked him full in the face,
+and shook his head.
+
+"Brother," said he, "thy ways are tortuous, though thy bearing is warlike
+and bold. Thou trustest too much to the sword of steel and the arm of
+flesh--the might of man's strength, which a mere pebble on the pavement can
+bring headlong to the ground; and the scheming of man's brain, which
+cannot foresee, even for one instant, the trifle that shall baffle and
+confound it in the next. It is better to trust boldly in the right. This
+youth is of our own household: he is more to us than friend and kindred.
+Wouldst thou send him up with his hands bound to the sacrifice? Brother,
+thou shalt not do this great sin!"
+
+"What would you?" said Eleazar impatiently. "Every man to his duty. The
+priest to the offering; the craftsman to his labour; the soldier to the
+wall. He alone knows the secret passage. Whom have I but Esca to send?"
+
+"I am a man of peace," replied Calchas, and over his face stole that ray
+of triumphant confidence which at seasons of danger seemed to brighten it
+like a glory; "who so fitting to carry a message of peace as myself? You
+have said, everyone to his appointed task. I cannot--nay, I _would_ not--put
+a breastplate on my worthless body, and a helmet on my old grey head, and
+brandish spear, or javelin, or deadly weapon in my feeble hands; but do
+you think it is because I fear? Remember, brother, the blood of the sons
+of Manahem runs in my veins as in yours, and I, too, have a right to risk
+every drop of it in the service of my country! Oh! I have sinned! I have
+sinned!" added the old man, with a burst of contrition, after this
+momentary outburst. "What am I to speak such words? I, the humblest and
+least worthy of my master's servants!"
+
+"You shall not go!" exclaimed Eleazar, covering his face with his hands as
+the horrid results of such a mission rose before his eyes. Should the
+Romans keep the herald for a hostage, as most probably they would, until
+the time of surrender had elapsed, what must be his certain fate? Had they
+not already crucified more than one such emissary in face of the walls?
+and could they be expected to show mercy in a case like this? His love for
+his brother had been the one humanising influence of Eleazar's life. It
+tore his heart now with a grief that was something akin to rage, when he
+reflected that even that brother, if requisite, must be sacrificed to the
+cause of Jerusalem.
+
+Esca looked from one to the other, apparently unmoved. To him the whole
+affair seemed simply a matter of duty, in the fulfilment of which he would
+himself certainly run considerable risk, that did not extend to Calchas.
+He was perfectly willing to go; but could not, at the same time, refrain
+from thinking that the latter was the fitter person to undertake such a
+mission at such a time. He could not guess at the perfidy which Eleazar
+meditated, and which brought with it its own punishment in his present
+sufferings for his brother. "I am ready," said he quietly, resting his
+hand on his helmet, as though prepared to depart forthwith.
+
+"You shall not go," repeated Calchas, looking fixedly at his brother the
+while. "I tell thee, Eleazar," he added, with kindling eye and heightened
+tone, "that I will not stand by and see this murder done. As an escaped
+slave, Esca will be condemned to death unheard. It may be that they will
+even subject him to the scourge, and worse. As the bearer of terms for a
+truce, our enemies will treat me as an honoured guest. If thou art
+determined to persevere, I will frustrate thine intention by force. I need
+but whisper to the Sanhedrim that Eleazar is trafficking with those
+outside the walls, and where would be the house of Ben-Manahem? and how
+long would the Zealots own allegiance to their chief? Nay, brother, such
+discord and such measures can never be between thee and me. When have we
+differed in our lives, since we clung together to our mother's knees?
+Prepare thy missive. I will take it to the Roman camp forthwith, and
+return in safety as I went. What have I to fear? Am I not protected by Him
+whom I serve?"
+
+When Eleazar withdrew his hands from his face it was deadly pale, and
+large drops stood upon his forehead. The struggle had been cruel indeed,
+but it was over. "Jerusalem before all," was the principle from which he
+had never been known to swerve, and now he must sacrifice to it that life
+so much dearer than his own.
+
+"Be it as you will," said he, commanding himself with a strong effort;
+"you can only leave the city by our secret passage. The scroll shall be
+ready at midnight. It must be in the hand of Titus by dawn!"
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IV
+
+                         THE MASTERS OF THE WORLD
+
+
+An hour before sunrise Calchas was stopped by one of the sentinels on the
+verge of the Roman camp. He had made his escape from the city, as he
+hoped, without arousing the suspicions of the besieged. The outskirts of
+Jerusalem were, indeed, watched almost as narrowly by its defenders as its
+assailants, for so many of the peaceful inhabitants had already taken
+refuge with the latter, and so many more were waiting their opportunity to
+fly from the horrors within the walls, and trust to the mercy of the
+conquerors without, that a strict guard had been placed by the national
+party on the different gates of the city, and all communication with the
+enemy forbidden and made punishable with death. It was no light risk,
+therefore, that Calchas took upon himself in carrying his brother's
+proposals to the Roman general.
+
+Following the high-crested centurion, who, summoned by the first sentinel
+that had challenged, offered to conduct him at once to the presence of
+Titus; the emissary, man of peace though he was, could not but admire the
+regularity of the encampment in which he found himself, and the discipline
+observed by those who occupied it. The line of tents was arranged with
+mathematical order and precision, forming a complete city of canvas, of
+which the principal street, so to speak, stretching in front of the tents
+occupied by the tribunes and other chief officers, was not less than a
+hundred feet wide. From this great thoroughfare all the others struck off
+at right angles, completing a simple figure, in which communication was
+unimpeded and confusion impossible, whilst an open space of some two
+hundred feet was preserved between the camp and the ramparts that
+encircled the whole. In this interval troops might parade, spoil and
+baggage be stored, or beasts of burden tethered, whilst its width afforded
+comparative security to those within from darts, firebrands, or other
+missiles of offence.
+
+If Calchas had ever dreamed of the possibility that his countrymen would
+be able to make head against the Romans, he abandoned the idea now. As he
+followed his conductor through the long white streets in which the legions
+lay at rest, he could not but observe the efficient state of that army
+which no foe had ever yet been able to resist--he could not fail to be
+struck by the brightness of the arms, piled in exact symmetry before each
+tent; by the ready obedience and cheerful respect paid by the men to their
+officers, and by the abundant supplies of food and water, contrasting
+painfully with the hunger and thirst of the besieged. Line after line he
+traversed in silent wonder, and seemed no nearer the pavilion of the
+general than at first; and he could not conceal from himself that the
+enemy were no less formidable to the Jews in their numerical superiority
+than in discipline, organisation, and all the advantages of war.
+
+His conductor halted at length in front of a large canvas dome, opposite
+to which a strong guard of the Tenth Legion were resting on their arms. At
+a sign from the centurion, two of these advanced like machines, and stood
+motionless one on each side of Calchas. Then the centurion disappeared, to
+return presently with a tribune, who, after a short investigation of the
+emissary, bade him follow, and, lifting a curtain, Calchas found himself
+at once in the presence of the Roman conqueror and his generals. As the
+latter gave way on each side, the hero advanced a step and confronted the
+ambassador from the besieged. Titus, according to custom, was fully armed,
+and with his helmet on his head. The only luxury the hardy soldier allowed
+himself was in the adornment of his weapons, which were richly inlaid with
+gold. Many a time had he nearly paid the penalty of this warlike fancy
+with his life; for, in the thick of battle, who so conspicuous as the bold
+prince in his golden armour? Who such a prize, alive or dead, as the son
+of Vespasian, and heir to the sovereignty of the world? He stood now,
+erect and dignified, a fitting representative of the mighty engine he
+wielded with such skill. His firm and well-knit frame wore its steel
+covering lightly and easily as a linen tunic. His noble features and manly
+bearing bore witness to the generous disposition and the fearless heart
+within; and his gestures denoted that self-reliance and self-respect which
+spring from integrity and conscious power combined. He looked every inch a
+soldier and a prince.
+
+But there was a peculiarity in the countenance of Titus which added a
+nameless charm to his frank and handsome features. With all its manly
+daring, there was yet in the depths of those keen eyes a gleam of womanly
+compassion and tenderness, that emboldened a suppliant and reassured a
+prisoner. There was a softness in the unfrequent smile that could but
+belong to a kindly guileless nature. It was the face of a man capable, not
+only of lofty deeds and daring exploits, but of gentle memories, loving
+thoughts, home affections, generosity, commiseration, and self-sacrifice.
+
+Close behind the general, affording a striking contrast in every respect
+to his chief, stood the least-trusted, but by no means the least
+efficient, of his officers. Almost the first eye that Calchas met when he
+entered the tent was that of Julius Placidus, whose services to Vespasian,
+though never thoroughly understood, had been rewarded by a high command in
+the Roman army. The most right-thinking of Caesars could not neglect the
+man whose energies had helped him to the throne; and Titus, though he saw
+through the character he thoroughly despised, was compelled to do justice
+to the ready courage and soldierlike qualities of the tribune. So Julius
+Placidus found himself placed in a position from which he could play his
+favourite game to advantage, and was still courting ambition as zealously
+as when he intrigued at Rome against Vitellius, and bargained with Hippias
+over a cup of wine for the murder of his emperor.
+
+That retired swordsman, too, was present in the tent; no longer the mere
+trainer of professional gladiators, but commanding a band that had made
+itself a name for daring at which the besieged grew pale, and which the
+Tenth Legion itself could hardly hope to emulate. After the assassination
+of the last Caesar, this host of gladiators had formed themselves into a
+body of mercenaries, with Hippias at their head, and offered their
+services to the new emperor. Under the ominous title of "The Lost Legion,"
+these desperate men had distinguished themselves by entering on all such
+enterprises as promised an amount of danger to which it was hardly thought
+prudent to expose regular troops, and had gained unheard-of credit during
+the siege, which from its nature afforded them many opportunities for the
+display of wild and reckless courage. Their leader was conspicuous, even
+in the general's tent, by the lavish splendour of his arms and
+appointments; but, though his bearing was proud and martial as ever, his
+face had grown haggard and careworn, his beard was thickly sprinkled with
+grey. Hippias had played for the heaviest stakes of life boldly, and had
+won. He seemed to be little better off, and little better satisfied, than
+the losers in the great game.
+
+Near him stood Licinius,--staid, placid, determined; the commander of the
+Tenth Legion; the favoured councillor of Titus; the pride of the whole
+army; having all the experiences, all the advantages, all the triumphs of
+life at his feet. Alas! knowing too well what they were worth. It was a
+crown of parsley men gave the young athlete who conquered in the Isthmian
+Games; and round the unwrinkled brows that parsley was precious as gold.
+Later in life the converse holds too true, and long before the hair turns
+grey, all earthly triumphs are but empty pageantry; all crowns but
+withered parsley at the best.
+
+Titus, standing forward from amongst his officers, glanced with a look of
+pity at the worn hungry face of the messenger. Privation, nay, famine, was
+beginning to do its work even on the wealthiest of the besieged, and
+Calchas could not hide under his calm, dignified bearing, the lassitude
+and depression of physical want.
+
+"The proposal is a fair one," said the prince, turning to his assembled
+captains. "Two days' respite, and a free surrender of the city, with the
+simple condition that the holy places shall be respected, and the lives of
+the inhabitants spared. These Jews may do me the justice to remember that
+my wish throughout the war has ever been to avoid unnecessary bloodshed,
+and had they treated me with more confidence, I would long ago have shown
+them how truly I respected their Temple and their faith. It is not too
+late now. Nevertheless, illustrious friends, I called you not together so
+soon after cock-crow(18) for a council of war, without intending to avail
+myself of your advice. I hold in my hand a proposal from Eleazar, an
+influential patrician, as it appears, in the city, to deliver up the keys
+of the Great Gate, within forty-eight hours, provided I will pledge him my
+word to preserve his Temple from demolition, and his countrymen from
+slaughter; provided also, that the Roman army abstain during that time
+from all offensive measures, whatever preparations for resistance they may
+observe upon the walls. He further states that the city contains a large
+party of desperate men, who are opposed to all terms of capitulation, and
+that he must labour during these two days to coerce some and cajole others
+to his own opinion. It is a fair proposal enough, I repeat. The Tenth
+Legion is the first in seniority as in fame--I call upon its commander for
+his opinion."
+
+Licinius, thus appealed to, earnestly advised that any terms which might
+put an end to the loss of life on both sides, should be entertained from
+motives of policy as well as humanity.
+
+"I speak not," said the general, "for myself or my legion. Our discipline
+is unshaken, our supplies are regular, our men have been inured by long
+campaigning to a Syrian climate and a Syrian sun. We have lost
+comparatively few from hardships or disease. But no commander knows better
+than Titus, how an army in the field melts by the mere influence of time,
+and the difference that a few weeks can make in its efficiency and
+numerical strength is the difference between victory and defeat. Other
+divisions have not been so fortunate as my own. I will put it to the
+leader of the Lost Legion, how many men he could march to-day to the
+assault?"
+
+Hippias stroked his beard gravely, and shook his head.
+
+"Had I been asked the question five days ago," said he frankly, "I could
+have answered a thousand. Had I been asked it yesterday, seven hundred.
+Great prince, at noon, to-day, I must be content to muster five hundred
+swordsmen. Nevertheless," he added, with something of his old abrupt
+manner, "not one of them but claims his privilege of leading the other
+cohorts to the breach!"
+
+It was too true that the influence of climate, acting upon men disposed to
+intemperance in pleasure, added to the severity of their peculiar service,
+had reduced the original number of the gladiators by one half. The
+remnant, however, were still actuated, like their commander, by the fierce
+reckless spirit of the amphitheatre. Titus, looking from one to the other,
+pondered for a few moments in earnest thought, and Placidus, seizing the
+opportunity, broke in with his smooth courteous tones.
+
+"It is not for me," said he, "to differ with such illustrious leaders as
+those who have just spoken. The empire has long acknowledged Licinius as
+one of her bravest commanders; and Hippias the gladiator lives but in his
+natural element of war. Still, my first duty is to Caesar and to Rome.
+Great prince, when a short while ago you bade a noble Jewish captive
+address his countrymen on the wall, what was the result? They knew him to
+be a patrician of their oldest blood, and, I believe, a priest also of
+their own superstitions. They had proved him a skilful general, and I
+myself speak of him without rancour, though he foiled me before Jotapata.
+Till taken prisoner by Vespasian Caesar, he had been their staunchest
+patriot and their boldest leader. When he addressed them, notwithstanding
+the length of his appeal, they had no reason but to believe him sincere.
+And what, I say, was the result? A few hours gained for resistance; a
+fiercer defiance flung at Rome; a more savage cruelty displayed towards
+her troops. I would not trust them, prince. This very proposal may be but
+a stratagem to gain time. The attack of yesterday, covered by my cavalry,
+must have shaken them shrewdly. Probably their stores are exhausted. The
+very phalanx that opposed us so stubbornly looked gaunt and grim as
+wolves. Observe this very emissary from the most powerful man in
+Jerusalem. Is there not famine in his hollow cheeks and sunken eyes? Give
+him to eat. See how his visage brightens at the very name of food! Give
+him to eat, now, in presence of the council of war, and judge by his
+avidity of the privations he has endured behind the walls."
+
+"Hold!" exclaimed Titus indignantly; "hold, tribune, and learn, if you
+have one generous feeling left, to respect misfortune, most of all when
+you behold it in the person of your enemy. This venerable man shall indeed
+be supplied with wine and food; but he shall not be insulted in my camp by
+feeling that his sufferings are gauged as the test of his truth. Licinius,
+my old and trusty counsellor, my very instructor in the art of war, I
+confide him to your care. Take him with you to your tent; see that he
+wants for nothing. I need not remind you to treat an enemy with all the
+kindness and courtesy compatible with the caution of a soldier. But you
+must not lose sight of him for a moment, and you will send him back with
+my answer under a strong guard to the chief gate of Jerusalem. I will have
+no underhand dealings with this unhappy people; though much, I fear, my
+duty to my father and the empire will not permit me to grant them the
+interval of repose that they desire. This is for my consideration. I have
+taken your opinions, for which I thank you. I reserve to myself the option
+of being guided by them. Friends and comrades, you are dismissed. Let this
+man be forthcoming in an hour, to take my answer back to those who sent
+him. _Vale!_"
+
+_Vale!_ repeated each officer, as he bowed and passed out of the tent.
+
+Hippias and Placidus lingered somewhat behind the rest, and halting when
+out of hearing of the sentinel who guarded the eagles planted before the
+commander's quarters, or Praetorium, as it was called, looked in each
+other's faces, and laughed.
+
+"You put it pointedly," said the former, "and took an ugly thrust in
+return. Nevertheless, the assault will be delayed after all, and my poor
+harmless lambs will scarce muster in enough force to be permitted to lead
+the attack."
+
+"Fear not," replied the tribune; "it will take place to-morrow. It would
+suit neither your game nor mine, my Hippias, to make a peaceable entry by
+the Great Gate, march in order of battle to the Temple, and satisfy
+ourselves with a stare at its flashing golden roof. I can hardly stave off
+my creditors. You can scarce pay your men. Had it not been for the
+prospect of sacking the Holy Place, neither of us would have been to-day
+under a heavy breastplate in this scorching sun. And we _shall_ sack it, I
+tell you, never fear."
+
+"You think so?" said the other doubtfully; "and yet the prince spoke very
+sternly, as if he not only differed with you, but disapproved of your
+counsel. I am glad I was not in your place; I should have been tempted to
+answer even the son of Vespasian."
+
+The tribune laughed gaily once more. "Trifles," said he; "I have the hide
+of a rhinoceros when it is but a question of looks and words, however
+stern and biting they may be. Besides, do you not yet know this cub of the
+old lion? The royal beast is always the same; dangerous when his hair is
+rubbed the wrong way. Titus was only angry because his better judgment
+opposed his inclinations, and agreed with me--me to whom he pays the
+compliment of his dislike. I tell you we shall give the assault before two
+days are out, with my cohort swarming on the flanks, and thy Lost Legion,
+my Hippias, maddening to the front. So now for a draught of wine and a
+robe of linen, even though it be under one of these suffocating tents. I
+think when once the siege is over and the place taken, I shall never
+buckle on a breastplate again."
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER V
+
+                               GLAD TIDINGS
+
+
+                               [Initial T]
+
+The eye of Calchas did indeed brighten, and his colour went and came when
+food was placed before him in the Roman general's tent. It was with a
+strong effort that he controlled and stifled the cravings of hunger, never
+so painful as when the body has been brought down by slow degrees to exist
+on the smallest possible quantity of nourishment. It was long since a full
+meal had been spread even on Eleazar's table; and the sufferings from
+famine of the poorer classes in Jerusalem had reached a pitch unheard-of
+in the history of nations. Licinius could not but admire the self-control
+with which his guest partook of his hospitality. The old man was resolved
+not to betray, in his own person, the straits of the besieged. It was a
+staunch and soldierlike sentiment to which the Roman was keenly alive, and
+Licinius turned his back upon his charge, affecting to give long
+directions to some of his centurions from the tent-door, in order to
+afford Calchas the opportunity of satisfying his hunger unobserved.
+
+After a while, the general seated himself inside, courteously desiring his
+guest to do the same. A decurion, with his spearmen, stood at the
+entrance, under the standard where the eagles of the Tenth Legion hovered
+over his shining crest. The sun was blazing fiercely down on the white
+lines of canvas that stretched in long perspective on every side, and
+flashing back at stated intervals from shield, and helm, and breastplate,
+piled in exact array at each tent-door. It was too early in the year for
+the crackling locust; and every trace of life, as of vegetation, had
+disappeared from the parched surface of the soil, burnished and slippery
+with the intense heat. It was an hour of lassitude and repose even in the
+beleaguering camp, and scarce a sound broke the drowsy stillness of noon,
+save the stamp and snort of a tethered steed, or the scream of an ill-
+tempered mule. Scorched without, and stifled within, even the well-
+disciplined legionary loathed his canvas shelter; longing, yearning vainly
+in his day-dreams for the breeze of cool Praeneste, and the shades of
+darkling Tibur, and the north wind blowing through the holm-oaks off the
+crest of the snowy Apennines.
+
+In the general's pavilion the awning had been raised a cubit from the
+ground, to admit what little air there was, so faint as scarce to stir the
+fringe upon his tunic. Against the pole that propped the soldier's home,
+rested a mule's pack-saddle, and a spare breastplate. On the wooden frame
+which served him for a bed, lay the general's tablets, and a sketch of the
+Tower of Antonia. A simple earthenware dish contained the food offered to
+his guest, and, like the coarse clay vessel into which a wineskin had been
+poured, was nearly empty. Licinius sat with his helmet off, but otherwise
+completely armed. Calchas, robed in his long dark mantle, fixed his mild
+eye steadily on his host.
+
+The man of war and the man of peace seemed to have some engrossing
+thought, some all-important interest in common. For a while they conversed
+on light and trivial topics, the discipline of the camp, the fertility of
+Syria, the distance from Rome, and the different regions in which her
+armies fought and conquered. Then Licinius broke through his reserve, and
+spoke out freely to his guest.
+
+"You have a hero," said the Roman, "in your ranks, of whom I would fain
+learn something, loving him as I do like a son. Our men call him the
+Yellow Hostage; and there is not a warrior among all the brave champions
+of Jerusalem whom they regard with such admiration and dread. I myself saw
+him but yesterday save your whole army from destruction beneath the
+walls."
+
+"It is Esca!" exclaimed Calchas. "Esca, once a chief in Britain, and
+afterwards your slave in Rome."
+
+"The same," answered Licinius; "and, though a slave, the noblest and the
+bravest of men. A chief, you say, in Britain. What know you of him? He
+never told me who he was, or whence he came."
+
+"I know him," replied Calchas, "as one who lives with us like a kinsman,
+who takes his share of hardship, and far more than his share of danger, as
+though he were a very chief in Israel--who is to me, indeed, and those
+dearest to me, far more precious than a son. We escaped together from
+Rome--my brother, my brother's child, and this young Briton. Many a night
+on the smooth AEgean has he told me of his infancy, his youth, his manhood,
+the defence his people made against your soldiers, the cruel stratagems by
+which they were foiled and overcome, how nobly he himself had braved the
+legions; and yet how the first lessons he learned in childhood were to
+feel kindly for the invader, how the first accents his mother taught him
+were in the Roman tongue."
+
+"It is strange," observed Licinius, musing deeply, and answering, as it
+seemed, his own thought. "Strange lesson for one of that nation to learn.
+Strange, too, that fate seems to have posted him continually in arms
+against the conqueror."
+
+"They were his mother's lessons," resumed Calchas; "and that mother he has
+not forgotten even to-day. He loves to speak of her as though she could
+see him still. And who shall say she cannot? He loves to tell of her
+stately form, her fond eyes, and her gentle brow, with its lines of
+thought and care. He says she had some deep sorrow in her youth, which her
+child suspected, but of which she never spoke. It taught her to be kind
+and patient with all; it made her none the less loving for her boy. Ay,
+'tis the same tale in every nation and under every sky. The garment has
+not yet been woven in which the black hank of sin and sorrow does not
+cross and recross throughout the whole web. She had her burden to bear,
+and so has Esca, and so hast thou, great Roman commander, one of the
+conquerors of the earth; and so have I, but I know where to lay mine down,
+and rest in peace."
+
+"They are a noble race, these women of Britain," said Licinius, following
+out the thread of his own thoughts with a heavy heart, on which one of
+them had impressed her image so deeply, that while it beat, a memory would
+reign there, as it had reigned already for years, undisturbed by a living
+rival. "And so the boy loves to talk of his childhood, and his lost
+mother--lost," he added bitterly, "surely lost, because so loved!"
+
+"Even so," replied Calchas; "and deep as was the child's grief, it carried
+a sharper sting from the manner of her death. Too young to bear arms, he
+had seen his father hurry away at the head of his tribe to meet the Roman
+legions. His father, a fierce, imperious warrior, of whom he knew but
+little, and whom he would have dreaded rather than loved, had the boy
+dreaded anything on earth. His mother lay on a bed of sickness; and even
+the child felt a nameless fear on her account, that forbade him to leave
+her side. With pain and difficulty they moved her on her litter to a
+fastness in their deep, tangled forests, where the Britons made a last
+stand. Then certain long-bearded priests took him by force from his
+mother's side, and hid him away in a cavern, because he was a chief's son.
+He can recall now the pale face and the loving eyes, turned on him in a
+last look, as he was borne off struggling and fighting like a young wolf-
+cub. From his cavern he heard plainly the shouts of battle and the very
+clash of steel; but he heeded them not, for a vague and sickening dread
+had come over him that he should see his mother no more. It was even so.
+They hurried the child from his refuge by night. They never halted till
+the sun had risen and set again. Then they spoke to him with kind,
+soothing words; but when he turned from them, and called for his mother,
+they told him she was dead. They had not even paid her the last tribute of
+respect. While they closed her eyes, the legions had already forced their
+rude defences; her few attendants fled for their lives, and the high-born
+Guenebra was left in the lonely hut wherein she died, to the mercy of the
+conquerors."
+
+When Calchas ceased speaking, he saw that his listener had turned ghastly
+pale, and that the sweat was standing on his brow. His strong frame, too,
+shook till his armour rattled. He rose and crossed to the tent-door as if
+for air, then turned to his guest, and spoke in a low but steady voice--
+
+"I knew it," said he--"I knew it must be so; this Esca is the son of one
+whom I met in my youth, and why should I be ashamed to confess it? whose
+influence has pervaded my whole life. I am old and grey now. Look at me;
+what have such as I to do with the foolish hopes and fears that quicken
+the young fresh heart, and flush the unwrinkled cheek? But now, to-day, I
+tell thee, warworn and saddened as I am, it seems to me that the cup of
+life has been but offered, and dashed cruelly away ere it had so much as
+cooled my thirsty lips. Why should I have known happiness, only to be
+mocked by its want? What! thou hast a human heart? Thou art a brave man,
+too, though thy robes denote a vocation of peace, else thou hadst not been
+here to-day in the heart of an enemy's camp. Need I tell thee, that when I
+entered that rude hut in the Briton's stronghold, and saw all I loved on
+earth stretched cold and inanimate on her litter at my feet, had I not
+been a soldier of Rome my own good sword had been my consolation, and I
+had fallen by her there, to be laid in the same grave; and now I shall
+never see her more!" He passed his hand across his face, and added, in a
+broken whisper, "Never more! never more!"
+
+"You cannot think so. You cannot believe in such utter desolation,"
+exclaimed Calchas, roused like some old war-horse by the trumpet sound, as
+he saw the task assigned him, and recognised yet another traveller on the
+great road, whom he could guide home.
+
+"Do you think that you or she, or any one of us, were made to suffer, and
+to cause others suffering--to strive and fail, and long and sorrow, for a
+little while, only to drop into the grave at last, like an over-ripe fig
+from its branch, and be forgotten? Do you think that life is to end for
+you, or for me, when the one falls in his armour, at the head of the Tenth
+Legion, pierced by a Jewish javelin, or the other is crucified before the
+walls for a spy, by Titus, or stoned in the gate for a traitor, by his own
+countrymen? And this is the fate which may await us both before to-
+morrow's sun is set. Believe it not, noble Roman! That frame of yours is
+no more Licinius than is the battered breastplate yonder on the ground,
+which you have cast aside because it is no longer proof against sword and
+spear; the man himself leaves his worn-out robe behind, and goes rejoicing
+on his journey--the journey that is to lead him to his home elsewhere."
+
+"And where?" asked the Roman, interested by the earnestness of his guest,
+and the evident conviction with which he spoke. "Is it the home to which,
+as our own poets have said, good AEneas, and Tullus, and Ancus have gone
+before? the home of which some philosophers have dreamed, and at which
+others laugh--a phantom-land, a fleeting pageant, impalpable plains beyond
+a shadowy river? These are but dreams, the idle visions of men of thought.
+What have we, who are the men of action, to do with aught but reality?"
+
+"And what is reality?" replied Calchas. "Is it without or within? Look
+from your own tent-door, noble Roman, and behold the glorious array that
+meets your eye--the even camp, the crested legionaries, the eagles, the
+trophies, and the piles of arms. Beyond, the towers and pinnacles of
+Jerusalem, and the white dome of the Temple with its dazzling roof of
+gold. Far away, the purple hills of Moab looking over the plains of the
+Dead Sea. It is a world of beautiful reality. There cometh a flash from a
+thunder-cloud or an arrow off the wall, and your life is spared, but your
+eyesight is gone: which is the reality now, the light or the darkness? the
+wide expanse of glittering sunshine, or the smarting pain and the black
+night within? So is it with life and death. Titus in his golden armour,
+Vespasian on the throne of the Caesars, that stalwart soldier leaning
+yonder on his spear, or the wasted captive dying for hunger in the
+town--are they beings of the same kind? and why are their shares so unequal
+in the common lot? Because it matters so little what may be the different
+illusions that deceive us now, when all may attain equally to the same
+reality at last."
+
+Licinius pondered for a few minutes ere he replied. Like many another
+thinking heathen, he had often speculated on the great question which
+forces itself at times on every reflective being, "Why are these things
+so?" He, too, had been struck ere now with the obvious discrepancy between
+man's aspirations and his efforts--the unaccountable caprices of fortune,
+the apparent injustice of fate. He had begun life in the bold confidence
+of an energetic character, believing all things possible to the resolute
+strength and courage of manhood. When he failed, he blamed himself with
+something of contempt; when he succeeded, he gathered fresh confidence in
+his own powers and in the truth of his theories. But in the pride of youth
+and happiness, sorrow took him by the hand, and taught him the bitter
+lesson that it is good to learn early rather than late; because, until the
+plough has passed over it, there can be no real fertility, no healthy
+produce on the untilled soil. The deeper they are scored, the heavier is
+the harvest from these furrows of the heart. Licinius, in the prime of
+life, and on the pinnacle of success, became a thoughtful, because a
+lonely and disappointed, man. He saw the complications around him; he
+acknowledged his inability to comprehend them. While others thought him so
+strong and self-reliant, he knew his own weakness and his own need; the
+broken spirit was humble and docile as a child's.
+
+"There must be a _reason_ for everything," he exclaimed at last; "there
+must be a clue in the labyrinth, if a man's hand could only find it. What
+is truth? say our philosophers. Oh, that I did but know!"
+
+Then, in the warlike tent, in the heart of the conquering army, the Jew
+imparted to the Roman that precious wisdom to which all other learning is
+but an entrance and a path. Under the very shadow of the eagles that were
+gathered to devastate his city, the man to whom all vicissitudes were
+alike, to whom all was good, because he knew "what was truth," showed to
+his brother, whose sword was even then sharpened for the destruction of
+his people, that talisman which gave him the mastery over all created
+things: which made him superior to hunger and thirst, pain and sorrow,
+insult, dishonour, and death. It is something, even in this world, to wear
+a suit of impenetrable armour, such as is provided for the weakest and the
+lowest who enter the service that requires so little and that grants so
+much. Licinius listened eagerly, greedily, as a blind man would listen to
+one who taught him how to recover his sight. Gladdening was the certainty
+of a future to one who had hitherto lived so mournfully in the past. Fresh
+and beautiful was the rising edifice of hope to one whose eye was dull
+with looking on the grey ruins of regret. There was comfort for him, there
+was encouragement, there was example. When Calchas told, in simple,
+earnest words, all that he himself had heard and seen of glorious self-
+sacrifice, of infinite compassion, and of priceless ransom, the soldier's
+knee was bent, and his eyes were wet with tears.
+
+By the orders of his commander, Licinius conducted his guest back to the
+Great Gate of Jerusalem with all the customary honours paid to an
+ambassador from a hostile power. He bore the answer of Titus, granting to
+the besieged the respite they desired. Placidus had been so far right that
+the prince's better judgment condemned the ill-timed reprieve; but in
+this, as in many other instances, Titus suffered his clemency to prevail
+over his experience in Jewish duplicity and his anxiety to terminate the
+war.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VI
+
+                             WINE ON THE LEES
+
+
+The commander of the Lost Legion, when he parted with Placidus after the
+council of war, retired moodily to his tent. He, too, was disappointed and
+dissatisfied, wearied with the length of the siege, harassed and uneasy
+about the ravages made by sickness among his men, and anxious moreover as
+to his share of the spoil. Hippias, it is needless to say, was lavish in
+his expenses, and luxurious in his personal habits: like the mercenaries
+he commanded, he looked to the sacking of Jerusalem as a means of paying
+his creditors, and supplying him with money for future excesses. Not a man
+of the Lost Legion but had already calculated the worth of that golden
+roof, to which they looked so longingly, and his own probable portion when
+it was melted into coin. Rumour, too, had not failed to multiply by tens
+the amount of wealth stored in the Temple, and the jewels it contained.
+The besiegers were persuaded that every soldier who should be fortunate
+enough to enter it sword in hand, would be enriched for life; and the
+gladiators were the last men to grudge danger or bloodshed for such an
+object.
+
+But there is a foe who smites an army far more surely than the enemy that
+meets it face to face in the field. Like the angel who breathed on the
+host of the Assyrians in the night, so that when the Jews rose in the
+morning, their adversaries were "all dead men," this foe takes his prey by
+scores as they sleep in their tents, or pace to and fro watching under
+their armour in the sun. His name is Pestilence; and wherever man meets
+man for mutual destruction, he hovers over the opposing multitudes, and
+secures the lion's share of both. Partly from their previous habits,
+partly from their looser discipline, he had been busier amongst the
+gladiators than in any other quarter of the camp. Dwindling day by day in
+numbers and efficiency, Hippias began to fear that they would be unable to
+take the prominent part he had promised them in the assault, and the
+chance of such a disappointment was irritating enough; but when to this
+grievance was added the proposal he had just heard, for the peaceful
+surrender of the city--a proposal which Titus seemed to regard with
+favourable eyes, and which would entail the distribution in equal portions
+of whatever treasure was considered the spoil of the army, so that the
+gladiator and legionary should but share alike--the contingency was nothing
+less than maddening. He had given Titus a true report of his legion in
+council; for Hippias was not a man to take shelter in falsehood, under any
+pressure of necessity, but he repented, nevertheless, of his frankness;
+and, cursing the hour when he embarked for Syria, began to think of Rome
+with regret, and to believe that he was happier and more prosperous in the
+amphitheatre after all. Passing amongst the tents of his men, he was
+distressed to meet old Hirpinus, who reported to him that another score
+had been stricken by the sickness since watch-setting the previous night.
+Every day was of the utmost importance now, and here were two more to be
+wasted in negotiations, even if the assault should be ordered to take
+place after all. The reflection did not serve to soothe him, and Hippias
+entered his own tent with a fevered frame, and a frown of ill-omen on his
+brow.
+
+For a soldier it was indeed a luxurious home; adorned with trophies of
+arms, costly shawls, gold and silver drinking-vessels, and other valuables
+scattered about. There was even a porcelain vase filled with fresh flowers
+standing between two wineskins; and a burnished mirror, with a delicate
+comb resting against its stand, denoted either an extraordinary care for
+his personal appearance in the owner, or a woman's presence behind the
+crimson curtain which served to screen another compartment of the tent.
+Kicking the mirror out of his way, and flinging himself on a couch covered
+with a dressed leopard-skin, Hippias set his heavy headpiece on the
+ground, and called angrily for a cup of wine. At the second summons, the
+curtain was drawn aside, and a woman appeared from behind its folds.
+
+Pale, haughty, and self-possessed, tameless, and defiant, even in her
+degradation, Valeria, though fallen, seemed to rise superior to herself,
+and stood before the man whom she had never loved, and yet to whom, in a
+moment of madness, she had sacrificed her whole existence, with the calm,
+quiet demeanour of a mistress in the presence of her slave. Her beauty had
+not faded--far from it--though changed somewhat in its character, growing
+harder and colder than of old. If less womanly, it was of a deeper and
+loftier kind. The eyes, indeed, had lost the loving, laughing look which
+had once been their greatest charm, but they were keen and dazzling still;
+while the other features, like the shapely figure, had gained a severe and
+majestic dignity in exchange for the flowing outlines and the round
+comeliness of youth. She was dressed sumptuously, and with an affectation
+of Eastern habits that suited her beauty well. Alas! that beauty was her
+only weapon left; and although she had turned it against herself, a true
+woman to the end, she had kept it bright and pointed still.
+
+When Valeria left her home to follow the fortunes of a gladiator, she had
+not even the excuse of blindness for her folly. She knew that she was
+abandoning friends, fortune, position--all the advantages of life for that
+which she did not care to have. She believed herself to be utterly
+desperate, depraved, and unsexed. It was her punishment that she could not
+rid herself of her woman's nature, nor stifle the voice that no woman ever
+_can_ stifle in her heart. For a time, perhaps, the change of scene, the
+voyage, the excitement of the step she had taken, the determination to
+abide by her choice and defy everything, served to deaden her mind to her
+own misery. It was her whim to assume on occasions the arms and
+accoutrements of a gladiator; and it was even said in the Lost Legion,
+that she had fought in their ranks more than once in some of their
+desperate enterprises against the town. It was certain that she never
+appeared abroad in the female dress she wore within her tent: Titus,
+indeed, would have scarcely failed to notice such a flagrant breach of
+camp-discipline; and many a fierce swordsman whispered to his comrade,
+with a thrill of interest, that in a force like theirs she might mingle
+unnoticed in their ranks, and be with them at any time. It was but a
+whisper, though, after all, for they knew their commander too well to
+canvass his conduct openly, or to pry into matters he chose to keep
+secret.
+
+These outbreaks, however, so contrary to all the impulses and instincts of
+a woman's nature, soon palled on the high-born Roman lady; and as the
+siege, with its various fortunes, was protracted from day to day, the yoke
+under which she had voluntarily placed her proud white neck, became too
+galling to endure. She hated the long glistening line of tents; she hated
+the scorching Syrian sky, the flash of armour, the tramp of men, the
+constant trumpet-calls, the eternal guard-mounting, the wearisome and
+monotonous routine of a camp. She hated the hot tent, with its stifling
+atmosphere and its narrow space; above all, she was learning daily to hate
+the man with whom she shared its shelter and its inconveniences.
+
+She handed him the wine he asked for without a word, and standing there in
+her cold scornful beauty, never noticed him by look or gesture. She seemed
+miles away in thought, and utterly unconscious of his presence.
+
+He remembered when it was so different. He remembered how, even when first
+he knew her, his arrival used to call a smile of pleasure to her lips, a
+glance of welcome to her eye. It might be only on the surface, but still
+it was there; and he felt for his own part, that as far as he had ever
+cared for any woman, he had cared for her. It was galling, truly, this
+indifference, this contempt. He was hurt, and his fierce undisciplined
+nature urged him to strike again.
+
+He emptied the cup, and flung it from him with an angry jerk. The golden
+vessel rolled out from under the hangings of the tent; she made no offer
+to pick it up and fetch it back. He glared fiercely into her eyes, and
+they met his own with the steady scornful gaze he almost feared; for that
+cold look chilled him to the very heart. The man was hardened, depraved,
+steeped to the lips in cruelty and crime; but there was a defenceless
+place in him still that she could stab when she liked, for he would have
+loved her if she had let him.
+
+"I am very weary of the siege," said he, stretching his limbs on the couch
+with affected indifference, "weary of the daily drudgery, the endless
+consultations, the scorching climate, above all, this suffocating
+atmosphere, where a man can hardly breathe. Would that I had never seen
+this accursed tent, or aught that it contains!"
+
+"You cannot be more weary of it than I am," she replied, in the same
+contemptuous quiet tone that maddened him.
+
+"Why did you come?" he retorted, with a bitter laugh. "Nobody wanted such
+a delicate dainty lady in a soldier's tent--and certainly nobody ever asked
+you to share it with him!"
+
+She gave a little gasp, as though something touched her to the quick, but
+recovered herself on the instant, and answered calmly and scornfully, "It
+is kindly said, and generously, considering all things. Just what I might
+have expected from a gladiator!"
+
+"There was a time you liked the Family well enough!" he exclaimed angrily;
+and then, softened by his own recollections of that time, added in a
+milder tone, "Valeria, why will you thus quarrel with me? It used not to
+be so when I brought the foils and dumbbells to your portico, and spared
+no pains to make you the deadliest fencer, as you were the fairest, in
+Rome. Those were happy days enough, and so might these be, if you had but
+a grain of common sense. Can you not see, when you and I fall out, who
+must necessarily be the loser? What have you to depend on now but me?"
+
+He should have stopped at his tender recollections. Argument, especially
+if it has any show of reason in it, is to an angry woman but as the
+_bandillero's_ goad to the Iberian bull. Its flutter serves to irritate
+rather than to scare, and the deeper its pointed steel sinks in, the more
+actively indeed does the recipient swerve aside, but returns the more
+rapidly and the more obstinately to the charge. Of all considerations,
+that which most maddened Valeria, and rendered her utterly reckless, was
+that she should be dependent on a gladiator. The cold eyes flashed fire;
+but she would not give him the advantage over her of acknowledging that he
+could put her in a passion, so she restrained herself, though her heart
+was ready to burst. Had she cared for him she might have stabbed him to
+death in such a mood.
+
+"I thank you for reminding me," she answered bitterly. "It is not strange
+that one of the Mutian line should occasionally forget her duty to
+Hippias, the retired prize-fighter. A patrician, perhaps, would have
+brought it more delicately to her remembrance; but I have no right to
+blame the fencing-master for his plebeian birth and bringing up."
+
+"Now, by the body of Hercules, this is too much!" he exclaimed, springing
+erect on the couch, and grinding his teeth with rage. "What! you tax me
+with my birth! You scout me for my want of mincing manners and white
+hands, and syllables that drop like slobbered wine from the close-shaven
+lip! You, the dainty lady, the celebrated beauty, the admired, forsooth,
+of all admirers, whose porch was choked with gilded chariots, whose litter
+was thronged with every curly-headed, white-shouldered, crimson-cloaked,
+young Narcissus in Rome, and yet who sought her chosen lovers in the
+amphitheatre--who scanned with judicious eye the points and the vigour and
+the promise of naked athletes, and could find at last none to serve her
+turn, but war-worn old Hippias, the roughest and the rudest, and the
+worst-favoured, but the strongest, nevertheless, amongst them all!"
+
+The storm was gathering apace, but she still tried hard to keep it down.
+An experienced mariner might have known by the short-coming breath, the
+white cheek, and the dilated nostril, that it was high time to shorten
+sail, and run for shelter before the squall.
+
+"It was indeed a strange taste," she retorted. "None can marvel at it more
+than myself."
+
+"Not so strange as you think," he burst out, somewhat inconsistently. "Do
+not fancy you were the only lady in Rome who was proud to be admired by
+Hippias the gladiator. I tell you I had my choice amongst a hundred maids
+and matrons, nobler born, fairer, ay, and of better repute than yourself!
+any one of whom would have been glad to be here to-day in your place. I
+was a fool for my pains; but I thought you were the fittest to bear the
+toil of campaigning, and the least able to do without me, so I took you,
+more out of pity than of love!"
+
+"Coward!" she hissed between her clenched teeth. "Traitor and fool, too!
+Must you know the truth at last? Must you know what I have spared you this
+long time? what alone has kept me from sinking under the weight of these
+weary days with their hourly degradation? what has been disease and
+remedy, wound and balm, bitterest punishment, and yet dearest consolation?
+Take it then, since have it you will! Can you think that such as I could
+ever love such as you? Can you believe you could be more to Valeria than
+the handle of the blade, the shaft of the javelin, the cord of the bow, by
+which she could inflict a grievous wound in another's bosom? Listen! When
+you wooed me, I was a scorned, an insulted, a desperate woman. I loved one
+who was nobler, handsomer, better. Ay, you pride yourself on your fierce
+courage and your brutal strength. I tell you who was twice as strong, and
+a thousand times as brave as the best of you. I loved him, do you hear? as
+men like you never can be loved--with an utter and entire devotion, that
+asked but to sacrifice itself without hope of a return, and he scorned me,
+not as you would have done, with a rough brutal frankness that had taken
+away half the pain, but so kindly, so delicately, so generously, that even
+while I clung to him, and he turned away from me, I felt he was dearer
+than ever to my heart. Ay, you may sit there and look at me with your eyes
+glaring and your beard bristling like some savage beast of prey; but you
+brought it on yourself, and if you killed me I would not spare you now. I
+had never _looked_ at you but for your hired skill, which you imparted to
+the man I loved. I took you because he scorned me, as I would have taken
+one of my Liburnians, had I thought it would have wounded him deeper, or
+made him hate me more. You are a fencer, I believe--one who prides himself
+on his skill in feints and parries, in giving and taking, in judging
+accurately of the adversary's strength and weakness at a glance. Have I
+foiled you to some purpose? You thought you were the darling of the high-
+born lady, the favourite of her fancy, the minion to whom she could refuse
+nothing, not even her fair fame, and she was using you all the time as a
+mere rod with which to smite a slave! A _slave_, do you hear? Yes, the man
+I preferred, not only to you, but to a host of your betters, the man I
+loved so dearly, and love so madly still, is but your pupil Esca, a
+barbarian, and a slave!"
+
+Her anger had supported her till now, but with Esca's name came a flood of
+tears, and, thoroughly unstrung, she sat down on the ground and wept
+passionately, covering her face with her hands. He could have almost found
+it in his heart to strike her, but for her defenceless attitude, so
+exasperated was he, so maddened by the torrent of her words. He could
+think of nothing, however, more bitter than to taunt her with her
+helplessness, whilst under his charge.
+
+"Your minion," said he, "is within the walls at this moment. From that
+tent door, you might almost see him on the rampart, if he be not skulking
+from his duty like a slave as he is. Think, proud lady, you who are so
+ready, asked or unasked, for slave or gladiator, you need but walk five
+hundred paces to be in his arms. Surely, if they knew your mission, Roman
+guards and Jewish sentries would lower their spears to you as you passed!
+Enough of this! Remember who and what you are. Above all, remember _where_
+you are, and how you came here. I have forborne too long, my patience is
+exhausted at last. You are in a soldier's tent, and you must learn a
+soldier's duty--unquestioning obedience. Go! pick up that goblet I let fall
+just now. Fill it, and bring it me here, without a word!"
+
+Somewhat to his surprise, she rose at once to do his bidding, leaving the
+tent with a perfectly composed step and air. He might have remarked,
+though, that when she returned with his wine, the red drops fell profusely
+over her white trembling fingers, though she looked in his face as proudly
+and steadily as ever. The hand might, indeed, shake, but the heart was
+fixed and resolute. In the veins of none of her ancestors did the Mutian
+blood, so strong for good and evil, ebb and flow with a fuller, more
+resistless tide, than in hers. Valeria had made up her mind in the space
+of time it took to lift a goblet from the ground.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VII
+
+                              THE ATTAINDER
+
+
+John of Gischala would never have obtained the ascendency he enjoyed in
+Jerusalem, had he not been as well versed in the sinuous arts of intrigue,
+as in the simpler stratagems of war. After confronting his rival in the
+Council, and sustaining in public opinion the worst of the encounter, he
+was more than ever impressed with the necessity of ruining Eleazar at any
+price; therefore, keeping a wary eye upon all the movements of the
+Zealots, he held himself ready at every moment to take advantage of the
+first false step on the part of his adversary.
+
+Eleazar, with the promptitude natural to his character, had commenced a
+repair of the defences, almost before his emissary was admitted to the
+Roman camp, thinking it needless to await the decision of Titus, either
+for or against his proposal. Labouring heart and soul at the works, with
+all the available force he could muster, he left John and his party in
+charge of the Great Gate, and it happened that his rival was present there
+in person, when Calchas was brought back to the city by the Roman guard of
+honour Titus had ordered for his safe-conduct--a compliment his brother
+never expected, and far less desired. Eleazar made sure his messenger
+would be permitted to return the way he came, and that his own
+communications with the enemy would remain a secret from the besieged.
+
+John saw his opportunity, and availed himself of it on the instant. No
+sooner had Calchas placed his foot once more within the town, than his
+head was covered, so that he might not be recognised; and he was carried
+off by a guard of John's adherents, and placed in secure ward, their chief
+adroitly arresting him by a false name, for the information of the
+populace, lest the rumour should reach Eleazar's ears. He knew his rival's
+readiness of resource, and determined to take him by surprise. Then he
+rent his garment, and ran bareheaded through the streets towards the
+Temple, calling with a great voice, "Treason! Treason!" and sending round
+the fragments of his gown amongst the senators, to convoke them in haste
+upon a matter of life and death, in their usual place of deliberation. So
+rapidly did he take his measures that the Outer Court was already filled
+and the Council assembled, ere Eleazar, busied with his labours at the
+wall far off, opposite the Tower of Antonia, knew that they had been
+summoned. Covered with sweat and dust, he obeyed at once the behest of the
+Levite who came breathlessly to require his presence, as an elder of
+Israel; but it was not without foreboding of evil that he observed the
+glances of suspicion and mistrust shot at him by his colleagues when he
+joined them. John of Gischala, with an affectation of extreme fairness,
+had declined to enter upon the business of the State, until this, the
+latest of her councillors, had arrived; but he had taken good care, by
+means of his creatures, to scatter rumours amongst the Senate, and even
+amongst the Zealots themselves, deeply affecting the loyalty of their
+chief.
+
+No sooner had Eleazar, still covered with the signs of his toil, taken his
+accustomed station, than John stood forth in the hall and spoke out in a
+loud, clear voice.
+
+"Before the late troublous times," said he, "and when every man in Judaea
+ate of his own figs from his own fig-tree, and trod out his own grapes in
+his own vineyard; when we digged our wells unmolested, and our women drew
+water unveiled, and drank it peacefully at sundown; when our children
+played about our knees at the door, and ate butter and honey, and cakes
+baked in oil; when the cruse was never empty, and the milk mantled in the
+milking-vessels, and the kid seethed in the pot--yea, in the pleasant time,
+in the days of old, it chanced that I was taking a prey in the mountain by
+the hunter's craft, in the green mountain, even the mountain of Lebanon.
+Then at noon I was wearied and athirst, and I laid me down under a goodly
+cedar and slept, and dreamed a dream. Behold, I will discover to the
+elders my dream and the interpretation thereof.
+
+"Now the cedar under which I lay was a goodly cedar, but in my dream it
+seemed that it reached far into the heavens, and spread its roots abroad
+to the springs of many waters, and sheltered the birds of the air in its
+branches, and comforted the beasts of the field with its shade. Then there
+came a beast out of the mountain--a huge beast with a serpent between its
+eyes and horns upon its jaws--and leaned against the cedar, but the tree
+neither bent nor broke. So there came a great wind against the cedar--a
+mighty wind that rushed and roared through its branches, till it rocked to
+and fro, bending and swaying to the blast--but the storm passed away, and
+the goodly tree stood firm and upright as before. Again the face of heaven
+was darkened, and the thunder roared above, and the lightning leaped from
+the cloud, and smote upon the cedar, and rent off one of its limbs with a
+great and terrible crash; but when the sky cleared once more, the tree was
+a fair tree yet. So I said in my dream, 'Blessed is the cedar among the
+trees of the forest, for destruction shall not prevail against it.'
+
+"Then I looked, and behold, the cedar was already rotting, and its arms
+were withered up, and its head was no longer black, for a little worm, and
+another, and yet another were creeping from within the bark, where they
+had been eating at its heart. Then one drew near bearing fagots on his
+shoulders, and he builded the fagots round the tree, and set a light to
+them, and burned them with fire, and the worms fell out by myriads from
+the tree, and perished in the smoke.
+
+"Then said he unto me, 'John of Gischala, arise! The cedar is the Holy
+City, and the beast is the might of the Roman Empire, and the storm and
+the tempest are the famine and the pestilence, and none of these shall
+prevail against it, save by the aid of the enemies from within. Purge them
+therefore with fire, and smite them with the sword, and crush them, even
+as the worm is crushed beneath thy heel into the earth!'
+
+"And the interpretation of the dream hath remained with me to this day,
+for is it not thus even now when the Roman is at the gate, as it hath ever
+been with the Holy City in the times of old? When the Assyrian came up
+against her, was not his host greater in number than the sands of the
+seashore? But he retired in discomfiture from before her, because she was
+true to herself. Would Nebuzaradan have put his chains on our people's
+neck, and Gedaliah scorned to accept honour from the conqueror, and to pay
+him tribute? When Pompey pitched his camp at Jericho and surrounded the
+Holy City with his legions, did not Aristobulus play the traitor and offer
+to open the gate? and when the soldiers mutinied, and prevented so black a
+treason, did not Hyrcanus, who was afterwards high-priest, assist the
+besiegers from within, and enable them to gain possession of the town? In
+later days, Herod, indeed, who was surnamed the Great, fortified Jerusalem
+like a soldier and a patriot; but even Herod, our warrior king, soiled his
+hands with Roman gold, and bowed his head to the Roman yoke. Will you tell
+me of Agrippa's wall, reared by the namesake and successor of the mighty
+monarch? Why was it never finished? Can you answer me that? I trow ye know
+too well; there was fear of displeasing Caesar, there was the old shameful
+truckling to Rome. This is the leaven that leaveneth all our leaders; this
+is the palsy that withereth all our efforts. Is not the chief who defended
+Jotapata now a guest in the tent of Titus? Is not Agrippa the younger a
+staunch adherent of Vespasian? Is he not a mere procurator of the Empire,
+for the province, forsooth, of Judaea? And shall we learn nothing from our
+history? Nothing from the events of our own times, from the scenes we
+ourselves witness day by day? Must the cedar fall because we fail to
+destroy the worms that are eating at its core? Shall Jerusalem be
+desecrated because we fear to denounce the hand that would deliver her to
+the foe? We have a plague-spot in the nation. We have an enemy in the
+town. We have a traitor in the Council, Eleazar Ben-Manahem! I bid thee
+stand forth!"
+
+There is an instinct of danger which seems to warn the statesman like the
+mariner of coming storms, giving him time to trim his sail, while they are
+yet below the horizon. When the assembled Senate turned their startled
+looks on Eleazar, they beheld a countenance unmoved by the suddenness and
+gravity of the accusation, a bearing that denoted, if not conscious
+innocence, at least a fixed resolution to wear its semblance without a
+shadow of weakness or fear. Pointing to his dusty garments, and the stains
+of toil upon his hands and person, he looked round frankly among the
+elders, rather, as it seemed, appealing to the Senate than answering his
+accuser, in his reply.
+
+"These should be sufficient proofs," said he, "if any were wanting, that
+Eleazar Ben-Manahem hath not been an instant absent from his post. I have
+but to strip the gown from my breast, and I can show yet deeper marks to
+attest my loyalty and patriotism. I have not grudged my own blood, nor the
+blood of my kindred, and of my father's house, to defend the walls of
+Jerusalem. John of Gischala hath dealt with you in parables, but I speak
+to you in the plain language of truth. This right hand of mine is hardened
+with grasping sword and spear against the enemies of Judah; and I would
+cut it off with its own fellow, ere I stretched it forth in amity to the
+Roman or the heathen. Talk not to me of thy worms and thy cedars! John of
+Gischala, man of blood and rapine--speak out thine accusation plainly, that
+I may answer it!"
+
+John was stepping angrily forward, when he was arrested by the voice of a
+venerable long-bearded senator.
+
+"It is not meet," said the sage, "that accuser and accused should bandy
+words in the presence of the Council. John of Gischala, we summon thee to
+lay the matter at once before the Senate, warning thee that an accusation
+without proofs will but recoil upon the head of him who brings it
+forward."
+
+John smiled in grim triumph.
+
+"Elders of Israel," said he, "I accuse Eleazar Ben-Manahem of offering
+terms to the enemy."
+
+Eleazar started, but recovered himself instantaneously. It was war to the
+knife, as well he knew, between him and John. He must not seem to hesitate
+now when his ascendency amongst the people was at such a crisis. He took
+the plunge at once.
+
+"And I reply," he exclaimed indignantly, "that rather than make terms with
+the Roman, I would plunge the sword into my own body."
+
+A murmur of applause ran through the assembly at this spirited
+declaration. The accused had great weight amongst the nobility and the
+national party in Jerusalem, of which the Council chiefly consisted. Could
+Eleazar but persevere in his denial of communication with Titus, he must
+triumph signally over his adversary; and, to do him justice, there was now
+but little personal ambition mingled with his desire for supremacy. He was
+a fanatic, but he was a patriot as well. He believed all things were
+lawful in the cause of Jerusalem, and trusting to the secret way by which
+Calchas had left the city for the Roman camp, and by which he felt assured
+he must have returned, as, thanks to John's precautions, nothing had been
+heard of his arrival at the Great Gate and subsequent arrest, he resolved
+to persevere in his denial, and trust to his personal influence to carry
+things with a high hand.
+
+"There hath been a communication made from his own house, and by one of
+his own family, to the Roman commander," urged John, but with a certain
+air of deference and hesitation, for he perceived the favourable
+impression made on the Council by his adversary, and he was crafty enough
+to know the advantage of reserving his convincing proofs for the last, and
+taking the tide of opinion at the turn.
+
+"I deny it," said Eleazar firmly. "The children of Ben-Manahem have no
+dealings with the heathen!"
+
+"It is one of the seed of Ben-Manahem whom I accuse," replied John, still
+addressing himself to the elders. "I can prove he hath been seen going to
+and fro, between the camp and the city."
+
+"His blood be on his own head!" answered Eleazar solemnly.
+
+He had a vague hope that after all they might but have intercepted some
+poor half-starved wretch whom the pangs of hunger had driven to the enemy.
+John looked back amongst his adherents crowding in the gate that led
+towards the Temple.
+
+"I speak not without proofs," said he; "bring forward the prisoner!"
+
+There was a slight scuffle amongst the throng, and a murmur which subsided
+almost immediately as two young men appeared in the court, leading between
+them a figure, having its hands tied, and a mantle thrown over its head.
+
+"Eleazar Ben-Manahem!" said John, in a loud, clear voice that seemed to
+ring amongst the porticoes and pinnacles of the overhanging Temple, "stand
+forth, and speak the truth! Is not this man thy brother?"
+
+At the same moment, the mantle was drawn from the prisoner's head,
+revealing the mild and placid features of Calchas, who looked round upon
+the Council, neither intimidated nor surprised. The Senate gazed in each
+other's faces with concern and astonishment: John seemed, indeed, in a
+fair way of substantiating his accusation against the man they most
+trusted in all Jerusalem. The accuser continued, with an affectation of
+calm unprejudiced judgment, in a cool and dispassionate voice--
+
+"This man was brought to the Great Gate to-day, under a guard of honour,
+direct from the Roman camp. I happened to be present, and the captain of
+the gate handed him over at once to me. I appeal to the Council whether I
+exceeded my duty in arresting him on the spot, permitting him no
+communication with anyone in the town until I had brought him before them
+in this court. I soon learned that he was the brother of Eleazar, one of
+our most distinguished leaders, to whom more than to any other the defence
+of the city has been entrusted, who knows better than anyone our weakness
+and the extremity of our need. By my orders he was searched, and on his
+person was found a scroll, purporting to be from no less a person than the
+commander of the Tenth Legion, an officer second only in authority to
+Titus himself, and addressed to one Esca, a Gentile, living in the very
+house, and I am informed a member of the very family, of Eleazar Ben-
+Manahem, this elder in Judah, this chief of the Zealots, this member of
+the Senate, this adviser in Council, this man whose right hand is hardened
+with sword and spear, but who would cut it off with his left, rather than
+that it should traffic with the enemy! I demand from the Council an order
+for the arrest of Esca, that he too may be brought before it, and
+confronted with him whose bread he eats. From the mouth of three
+offenders, our wise men may peradventure elicit the truth. If I have erred
+in my zeal let the Senate reprove me. If Eleazar can purge himself from my
+accusation, let him defile my father's grave, and call me liar and villain
+to my very beard!"
+
+The Senate, powerfully affected by John's appeal, and yet unable to
+believe in the treachery of one who had earned their entire confidence,
+seemed at a loss how to act. The conduct of the accused, too, afforded no
+clue whereby to judge of his probable guilt or innocence. His cheek was
+very pale, and once he stepped forward a pace, as if to place himself at
+his brother's side. Then he halted and repeated his former words, "His
+blood be on his own head," in a loud and broken voice, turning away the
+while, and glaring round upon the senators like some fierce animal taken
+in the toils. Calchas, too, kept his eyes fixed on the ground; and more
+than one observer remarked that the brothers studiously abstained from
+looking each other in the face. There was a dead silence for several
+seconds. Then the senator who had before spoken, raised his hand to
+command attention, and thus addressed the Council--
+
+"This is a grave matter, involving as it does not only the life and death
+of a son of Judah, but the honour of one of our noblest houses, and the
+safety, nay, the very existence of the Holy City. A grave matter, and one
+which may not be dealt with, save by the highest tribunal in the nation.
+It must be tried before our Sanhedrim, which will assemble for the purpose
+without delay. Those of us here present who are members of that august
+body, will divest their minds of all they have heard in this place to-day,
+and proceed to a clear and unbiassed judgment of the matters that shall be
+then brought before them. Nothing has been yet proved against Eleazar Ben-
+Manahem, though his brother, and the Gentile who has to answer the same
+accusation, must be kept in secure ward. I move that the Council,
+therefore, be now dissolved, holding itself ready, nevertheless, seeing
+the imminent peril of the times, to reassemble at an hour's notice, for
+the welfare of Judah, and the salvation of the Holy City."
+
+Even while he ceased speaking, and ere the grave senators broke up,
+preparing to depart, a wail was heard outside the court that chilled the
+very heart of each, as it rose and fell like a voice from the other world,
+repeating ever and again, in wild unearthly tones, in solemn warning--
+
+"Woe to Jerusalem! Woe to the Holy City! Sin, and sorrow, and desolation!
+Woe to the Holy City! Woe to Jerusalem!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VIII
+
+                              THE SANHEDRIM
+
+
+The highest tribunal acknowledged by the Jewish law, taking cognisance of
+matters especially affecting the religious and political welfare of the
+nation, essentially impartial in its decisions, and admitting of no appeal
+from its sentence, was that assembly of Seventy, or rather of Seventy-
+three members, which was called the Sanhedrim. This court of justice was
+supposed to express and embody the opinions of the whole nation,
+consisting as it did of a number which subdivided would have given six
+representatives for each tribe, besides a president to rule the
+proceedings of the whole. The latter, who was termed the _Nasi_ or Prince
+of the Sanhedrim, was necessarily of illustrious birth, venerable years,
+and profound experience in all matters connected with the law--not only the
+actual law as laid down by inspiration for the guidance of the Chosen
+People, but also the traditional law, with its infinite variety of
+customs, precedents, and ceremonious observances, which had been added to,
+and as it were overlaid on the other, much to the detriment of that
+simpler code, which came direct from heaven. The members themselves of
+this supreme council were of noble blood. In no nation, perhaps, was the
+pride of birth more cherished than amongst the Jews; and in such an
+assemblage as the Sanhedrim, untainted lineage was the first indispensable
+qualification. The majority, indeed, consisted of priests and Levites; but
+other families of secular distinction who could count their ancestors step
+by step, from generation to generation, through the Great Captivity, and
+all the vicissitudes of their history, back to the magnificence of Solomon
+and the glories of David's warlike reign, had their representatives in
+this solemn conclave.
+
+Not only was nobility a requirement, but also maturity of years, a
+handsome person, and a dignified bearing; nor were mental attainments held
+in less regard than the adventitious advantages of appearance and station.
+Every elder of the Sanhedrim was obliged to study physic, to become an
+adept in the science of divination in all its branches, comprising
+astrology, the casting of nativities and horoscopes, the prediction of
+future events, and those mysteries of White Magic, as it was called, which
+bordered so narrowly on the forbidden limits of the Black Art. He was also
+required to be an excellent linguist; and was indeed supposed to be
+proficient in the seventy languages, believed to comprise all the tongues
+of the habitable earth. No eunuch nor deformed person could aspire to hold
+a place in this august body, no usurer, no Sabbath-breaker, none who were
+in the practice of any unlawful business or overt sin. Those who sat in
+the highest place of the Jewish nation, who ruled her councils and held
+the right of life and death over her children, must be prudent, learned,
+blameless men, decked with the patent of true nobility both in body and
+mind.
+
+The Sanhedrim, in its original constitution, was the only Court which had
+the right of judging capital cases; and this right, involving so grave a
+responsibility, it was careful to preserve during all the calamities of
+the nation, until it fell under the Roman yoke. The Empire, however,
+reserved to itself the power of condemning its criminals to death; but no
+sooner had the Jews broken out once more in open resistance to their
+conquerors, than the Sanhedrim resumed all its former privileges and sat
+again in judgment upon its countrymen.
+
+In a large circular chamber, half within and half without the Temple, this
+awful Court held its deliberations, the members, ranged in order by
+seniority, occupying the outer semicircle, as it was not lawful to sit
+down in the sacred precincts. That chamber was now the theatre of a solemn
+and imposing scene. The hall itself, which, though wide and lofty,
+appeared of yet larger proportions from its circular form, was hung round
+with cloth of a dark crimson colour, that added much to the prevailing
+sentiments of gloom which its appearance called forth. Over its entrance
+was suspended a curtain of the same hue; and the accused who underwent
+examination in this dreaded locality, found themselves encircled by an
+unbroken wall the colour of blood. A black carpet was spread on the floor,
+bordered with a wide yellow margin, on which were written in black Hebrew
+characters certain texts of the law, inculcating punishment rather than
+pardon, inflexible justice rather than a leaning towards mercy and
+forbearance. The heart of the guilty died within him as he looked uneasily
+around; and even the innocent might well quail at these preparations for a
+trial over which an exacting severity was so obviously to hold sway.
+
+The Sanhedrim were accustomed to assemble in an outer chamber, and march
+in grave procession to the court of trial. The crimson curtain, drawn by
+an unseen hand, rolled slowly from the door, and the members, dressed in
+black, came in by pairs and took their places in order. As they entered,
+their names were called over by an official concealed behind the hangings;
+and each man notified his arrival as he passed on to his seat, by the
+solemn answer: "Here! In the presence of the Lord!" Last of all, the
+president made his appearance, and assumed a higher chair, set apart a
+little from the rest. Then the youngest member offered up a short prayer,
+to which the whole assembly responded with a deep and fervent Amen! The
+Court was now considered to be opened, and qualified for the trial of all
+causes that should be brought before it during its sitting.
+
+On the present occasion the junior member was a Levite, nearly threescore
+years of age, of a stately presence, which he had preserved
+notwithstanding the hardships of the siege, and who retained much of his
+youthful comeliness with the flowing beard and grave countenance of
+maturer years. Phineas Ben-Ezra possessed the exterior qualities by which
+men are prone to be influenced, with a ready tongue, a scheming brain, and
+an unscrupulous heart. He was attached to John's faction, and a bitter
+enemy of the Zealots, by whom he had himself been formerly accused of
+treasonable correspondence with Vespasian; an accusation that he refuted
+to his own exultation and the utter confusion of his enemies, but which
+those who had the best means of judging believed to be true nevertheless.
+He took his seat now with an expression of cold triumph on his handsome
+features, and exchanged looks with one or two of the colleagues who seemed
+deepest in his confidence, that the latter knew too well boded
+considerable danger to the accused whom they were about to try.
+
+The Prince of the Sanhedrim, Matthias the son of Boethus, who had already
+filled the office of high-priest, was a stern and conscientious man of the
+old Jewish party, whose opinions indeed were in accordance with those of
+Eleazar, and who entertained, besides, a personal friendship for that
+determined enthusiast, but whose inflexible obstinacy was to be moved by
+no earthly consideration from the narrow path of duty which he believed
+his sacred character compelled him to observe. His great age and austere
+bearing commanded considerable influence among his countrymen, enhanced by
+the high office he had previously filled; nor was he the less esteemed
+that his severe and even morose disposition, while it gained him few
+friends, yielded no confidences and afforded no opportunity for the
+display of those human weaknesses by which a man wins their affections,
+while he loses the command over his fellow-creatures. His face was very
+pale and grave now, as he moved haughtily to the seat reserved for him;
+and his dark flowing robes, decorated, in right of his former priesthood,
+with certain mystic symbols, seemed well-fitted to the character of a
+stern and inflexible judge. The other members of the assembly, though
+varying in form and feature, were distinguished one and all by a family
+likeness, originating probably in similarity of habits and opinions, no
+less than in a common nationality and the sharing of a common danger,
+growing daily to its worst. The dark flashing eye, the deep sallow tint,
+the curving nostril and the waving beard, were no more distinguishing
+marks of any one individual in the assembly, than were his long black gown
+and his expression of severe and inscrutable gravity; but even these
+universal characteristics were not so remarkable as a certain ominous
+shadow that cast its gloom upon the face of each. It was the shadow of
+that foe against whom sword and spear and shield and javelin, bodily
+strength, dauntless courage, and skill in the art of war, were all
+powerless to make head--the foe who was irresistible because he lay at the
+very heart of the fortress. The weary, anxious, longing look of hunger was
+on the faces even of these, the noblest and the most powerful behind the
+wall. They had stores of gold and silver, rich silks, sparkling jewels,
+costly wines within their houses; but there was a want of bread, and gaunt
+uneasy famine had set his seal, if not as deeply at least as surely, upon
+these faces in the Sanhedrim as on that of the meanest soldier, who girded
+his sword-belt tighter to stay his pangs, as he stood pale and wasted in
+his armour on the ramparts, over against the foe.
+
+There was a hush for several seconds after the Prince of the Sanhedrim had
+taken his seat, and the general prayer had been offered up. It was broken
+at length by Matthias, who rose with slow impressive gestures, drew his
+robe around him so as to display the sacred symbols and cabalistic figures
+with which its hem was garnished, and spoke in stern and measured tones--
+
+"Princes of the House of Judah," said he, "elders and nobles, and priests
+and Levites of the nation, we are met once more to-day, in accordance with
+our ancient prerogative, for the sifting of a grave and serious matter. In
+this, the highest Council of our country, we adhere to the same forms that
+have been handed down to us by our fathers from the earliest times, even
+from their sojourn in the wilderness, that have been preserved through the
+Great Captivity of our nation, that may have been prohibited by our
+conquerors, but that we have resumed with that independence which we have
+recently asserted, and which the Ruler to whom alone we owe allegiance
+will assuredly enable us to attain. We will not part with one iota of our
+privileges, and least of all with our jurisdiction in matters involving
+life and death; a jurisdiction as inseparable from our very existence as
+the Tabernacle itself, which we have accompanied through so many
+vicissitudes, and with which we are so closely allied. That inferior
+assemblage from which our chosen body is selected has already considered
+the heavy accusation which has collected us here. They have decided that
+the matter is of too grave a character to be dealt with by their own
+experience--that it involves the condemnation to death of one if not two
+members of the illustrious family of Ben-Manahem--that it may deprive us of
+a leader who claims to be among the staunchest of our patriots, who has
+proved himself the bravest of our defenders. But what then, princes of the
+House of Judah, elders and nobles, and priests and Levites of the nation?
+Shall I spare the pruning-hook, because it is the heaviest branch in my
+vineyard that is rotting from its stem? Shall I not rather lop it off with
+mine own hand, and cast it from me into the consuming fire? If my brother
+be guilty shall I screen him, brother though he be? Shall I not rather
+hand him over to the Avenger, and deliver my own soul? We are all
+assembled in our places, ready to hear attentively, and to try
+impartially, whatsoever accusations may be brought before us. Phineas Ben-
+Ezra, youngest member of the Sanhedrim, I call on thee to count over thy
+colleagues, and proclaim aloud the sum thereof."
+
+In compliance with established usage, Phineas, thus adjured, rose from his
+seat, and walking gravely through the hall, told off its inmates one by
+one, in a loud and solemn voice, then finding the tale to be correct,
+stopped before the high chair of the Nasi, and proclaimed thrice--
+
+"Prince of the Sanhedrim, the mystic number is complete!"
+
+The president addressed him again in the prescribed formula--
+
+"Phineas Ben-Ezra, are we prepared to try each cause according to the
+traditions of our nation, and the strict letter of the law? Do we abide by
+the decisions of wisdom without favour, and justice without mercy?"
+
+Then the whole Sanhedrim repeated as with one voice, "Wisdom without
+favour, and justice without mercy!"
+
+The president now seated himself, and looked once more to Phineas, who, as
+the youngest member present, was entitled to give his opinion first. The
+latter, answering his glance, rose at once and addressed his fellows in a
+tone of diffidence which would have seemed misplaced in one of his
+venerable appearance, had he not been surrounded by men of far greater age
+than himself.
+
+"I am but as a disciple," said he, "at the feet of a master, in presence
+of Matthias the son of Boethus, and my honoured colleagues. Submitting to
+their experience, I do but venture to ask a question, without presuming to
+offer my own opinion on its merits. Supposing that the Sanhedrim should be
+required to try one of its own number, is it lawful that he should remain
+and sit, as it were, in judgment upon himself?"
+
+Eleazar, who was present in his place as a member of the august body, felt
+that this attack was specially directed against his own safety. He knew
+the virulence of the speaker, and his rancorous enmity to the Zealots, and
+recognised the danger to himself of exclusion from the coming
+deliberations. He was in the act of rising in indignant protest against
+such an assumption, when he was forestalled by Matthias, who replied in
+tones of stern displeasure--
+
+"He must indeed be a mere disciple, and it will be long ere he is worthy
+of the name of master in the Sanhedrim, who has yet to learn, that our
+deliberations are uninfluenced by aught we have heard or seen outside the
+chamber--that we recognise in our august office no evidence but the proofs
+that are actually brought before us here. Phineas Ben-Ezra, the Court is
+assembled; admit accusers and accused. Must I tell thee that we are still
+ignorant of the cause we are here to try?"
+
+The decision of the Nasi, which was in accordance with traditional
+observance and established custom, afforded Eleazar a moment's respite, in
+which to resolve on the course he should adopt; but though his mind was
+working busily, he sat perfectly unmoved, and to all outward appearance
+calm and confident; whilst the hangings were again drawn back, and the
+tread of feet announced the approach of accuser and accused. The latter
+were now two in number: for by John's orders a strong guard had already
+proceeded to Eleazar's house, and laid violent hands on Esca, who,
+confident in his own innocence and in the influence of his host,
+accompanied them without apprehension of danger into the presence of the
+awful assembly. The Briton's surprise was, however, great, when he found
+himself confronted with Calchas, of whose arrest, so skilfully had John
+managed it, he was as unconscious as the rest of the besieged. The two
+prisoners were not permitted to communicate with each other; and it was
+only from a warning glance shot at him by his fellow-sufferer, that Esca
+gathered they were both in a situation of extreme peril.
+
+It was not without considerable anxiety that Eleazar remarked, when the
+curtains were drawn back, how a large body of armed men filled the
+adjoining cloister of the Temple: like the guard who watched the
+prisoners, these were partisans of John; and so well aware were the
+Sanhedrim of that fierce soldier's lawless disposition, that they looked
+uneasily from one to the other, with the painful reflection that he was
+quite capable of massacring the whole conclave then and there, and taking
+the supreme government of the city into his own hands.
+
+It was the influence, however, of no deliberative assembly that was feared
+by a man like John of Gischala. Fierce and reckless to the extreme, he
+dreaded only the violence of a character bold and unscrupulous as his own.
+Could he but pull Eleazar from the pinnacle on which he had hitherto
+stood, he apprehended no other rival. The chief of the Zealots was the
+only man who could equal him in craft as well as in courage, whose
+stratagems were as deep, whose strokes were even bolder, than his own. The
+opportunity he had desired so long was come, he believed, at last. In that
+circular chamber, thought John, before that council of stern and cruel
+dotards, he was about to throw the winning cast of his game. It behoved
+him to play it warily, though courageously. If he could enlist the
+majority of the Sanhedrim on his own side, his rival's downfall was
+certain. When he had assumed supreme power in Jerusalem--and he made no
+doubt that would be his next step--it would be time enough to consider
+whether he too might not ensure his own safety, and make terms with Titus
+by delivering up the town to the enemy.
+
+Standing apart from the prisoners, and affecting an air of extreme
+deference to his audience, John addressed the Nasi, in the tones rather of
+an inferior who excused himself for an excess of zeal in the performance
+of his duty, than of an equal denouncing a traitor and demanding justice
+for an offence.
+
+"I leave my case," said he, "in the hands of the Sanhedrim, appealing to
+them whether I have exceeded my authority, or accused any man falsely of a
+crime which I am unable to prove. I only ask for the indulgence due to a
+mere soldier, who is charged with the defence of the city, and is jealous
+of everything that can endanger her safety. From each member here present
+without a single exception, from Matthias the son of Boethus to Phineas
+Ben-Ezra of the family of Nehemiah, I implore a favourable hearing. There
+stands the man whom I secured at noon this day, coming direct from Titus,
+with a written scroll upon his person, of which the superscription was to
+a certain Gentile dwelling in the house of Eleazar, who is also present
+before you, and purporting to be in the writing of that warrior of the
+heathen who commands the Tenth Legion. Was it not my duty to bring such a
+matter at once before the Council? and was it not expedient that the
+Council should refer so grave a question to the Sanhedrim?"
+
+Matthias bent his brows sternly upon the speaker, and thus addressed him--
+
+"Thou art concealing thy thoughts from those to whose favour thou makest
+appeal. John of Gischala, thou art no unpractised soldier to draw a bow at
+a venture, and heed not where the shaft may strike. Speak out thine
+accusation, honestly, boldly, without fear of man, before the assembly, or
+for ever hold thy peace!"
+
+Thus adjured, John of Gischala cast an anxious glance at the surrounding
+faces turned towards him, with varying expressions of expectation, anger,
+encouragement, and mistrust. Then he looked boldly at the president, and
+made his accusation before the Sanhedrim as he had already made it before
+the Council--
+
+"I charge Eleazar Ben-Manahem," said he, "with treason, and I charge these
+two men as his instruments. Let them clear themselves if they can!"
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IX
+
+                              THE PAVED HALL
+
+
+                               [Initial A]
+
+All eyes were now turned on Eleazar, who sat unmoved in his place,
+affecting a composure which he was far from feeling. His mind, indeed, was
+tortured to agony, by the conflict that went on within. Should he stand
+boldly forward and confess that he had sent his own brother into the Roman
+camp, with proposals for surrender? Well he knew that such a confession
+would be tantamount to placing his neck at once under John of Gischala's
+foot. Who amongst his most devoted partisans would have courage to profess
+a belief in his patriotic motives, or allow that he was satisfied with the
+explanation offered for such a flagrant act of treason? The condemnation
+of the Sanhedrim would be the signal for his downfall and his death. When
+he was gone who would be left to save Jerusalem? This was the
+consideration that affected him, far more than any personal apprehensions
+of danger or disgrace. On the other hand, should he altogether renounce
+his brother, and disavow the authority he had given him? It has already
+been said, that as far as he loved any living being, he loved Calchas;
+perhaps had it not been so, he might have shrunk from the disgrace of
+abandoning one who had acted under his own immediate orders, and risked so
+much in obeying them; but in the depths of his fierce heart, something
+whispered that self-sacrifice was essentially akin to duty, and that
+_because_ he loved him, therefore he must offer up his brother, as a man
+offers up a victim at the altar.
+
+Nevertheless, he ran his eye hastily over his seventy-two colleagues, as
+they sat in grave deliberation, and summed up rapidly the score of friends
+and foes. It was nearly balanced, yet he knew there were many who would
+take their opinions from the Nasi; and from that stern old man he could
+expect nothing but the severity of impartial justice. He dared not look at
+Calchas, he dared not cover his face with his hand to gain a brief respite
+from the cold grave eyes that were fixed upon him. It was a bitter moment,
+but he reflected that, in the cause of Jerusalem, shame and suffering and
+sorrow, and even sin, became sacred, and he resolved to sacrifice all,
+even his own flesh and blood, to his ascendency in the town.
+
+He was spared the pain, however, of striking the fatal blow with his own
+hand. Matthias, scrupulous in all matters of justice, had decided that
+until the accusation against him was supported by some direct evidence, no
+member of the Sanhedrim could be placed in the position of a culprit. He
+therefore determined to interrogate the prisoners himself, and ascertain
+whether anything would be elicited of so grave a nature as to cause
+Eleazar's suspension from his present office, and the consequent
+reassembling of the whole Sanhedrim; a delay that in the present critical
+state of matters it was desirable to avoid, the more so that the day was
+already far advanced, and the morrow was the Sabbath. He therefore ordered
+the two prisoners to be placed in the centre of the hall; and, looking
+sternly towards the accused, began his interrogations in the severe
+accents of one who is an avenger rather than a judge.
+
+The mild eye and placid demeanour of Calchas afforded a strong contrast to
+the frowning brows and flashing glances of the Nasi.
+
+"Your name, old man," said the latter abruptly. "Your name, lineage, and
+generation?"
+
+"Calchas the son of Simeon," was the reply, "the son of Manahem, of the
+house of Manahem, and of the tribe of Judah."
+
+"Art thou not the brother of Eleazar Ben-Manahem, who is sitting yonder in
+his place as a member of the Sanhedrim, before whom thou hast to plead?"
+
+Ere he replied, Calchas stole a look at Eleazar, who forced himself to
+return it. There was something in the elder brother's face that caused the
+younger to turn his eyes away, and bend them on the ground. The fierce old
+president, impatient of that momentary delay, broke out angrily--
+
+"Nay, look up, man! no subterfuges will avail thee here. Remember the fate
+of those who dare to lie in the presence of the Sanhedrim!"
+
+Calchas fixed his eye on the president's in mild rebuke.
+
+"I am in a higher presence than thine, Matthias son of Boethus," said he;
+"neither need the children of Manahem be adjured to speak truth before God
+and man!"
+
+"Hast thou heard the accusation brought against thee by John of Gischala?"
+proceeded the Nasi. "Canst thou answer it with an open brow and a clean
+heart?"
+
+"I heard the charge," replied Calchas, "and I am ready to answer it for
+myself, and for him who is in bonds by my side. Have I permission to clear
+myself before the Sanhedrim?"
+
+"Thou wilt have enough to do to slip thine own neck out of the yoke,"
+answered Matthias sternly. "Colleagues," he added, looking round, "ye have
+heard the accuser--will ye now listen to the accused?"
+
+Then Phineas, speaking for the rest, answered: "We will hear him, Nasi,
+without favour, we will judge him without mercy."
+
+Thus encouraged, Calchas shook the white hair from his brow, and entered
+boldly on his defence.
+
+"It is true," said he, "that I have been outside the walls. It is true
+that I have been in the Roman camp, nay, that I have been in the very
+presence of Titus himself. Shall I tell the assembly of the strength of
+Rome, of the discipline of her armies, of the late reinforcement of her
+legions? Shall I tell them that I saw the very auxiliaries eating wheaten
+bread and the flesh of kids and sheep, whilst my countrymen are starving
+behind the walls? Shall I tell them that we are outnumbered by our foes,
+and are ourselves weakened by dissensions, and wasting our strength and
+courage day by day? Shall I tell them that I read on the face of Titus
+confidence in himself and reliance on his army, and, even with a
+conviction that he should prevail, a wish to show pity and clemency to the
+vanquished? All this they already know, all this must make it needless for
+me to enter into any defence beyond a simple statement of my motives. Nay,
+I have gathered intelligence from the Roman camp," he added, now fixing
+his eyes on his brother, to whom he had no other means of imparting the
+answer, which the prince had confided to him through Licinius by word of
+mouth,--"intelligence, the importance of which should well bear me
+harmless, even had I committed a greater offence than escaping from a
+beleaguered town to hold converse with the enemy. Titus," he spoke now in
+a loud clear voice, of which every syllable rang through the
+building--"Titus bade me be assured that his determination was unalterable,
+to grant no further delay, but, surrender or no surrender, to enter
+Jerusalem the day after the Sabbath, and if he encountered resistance, to
+lay waste the Holy City with fire and sword!"
+
+Eleazar started to his feet, but recollected himself, and resumed his seat
+instantaneously. The action might well be interpreted as the mere outbreak
+of a soldier's energy, called, as it were, by the sound of the trumpet to
+the wall. This, then, was what he had gained, a respite, a reprieve of one
+day, and that one day he had purchased at the dear price of his brother's
+life. Yet even now the fierce warrior reflected with a grim delight, how
+judiciously he had used the time accorded him, and how, when the proud
+Roman did make his threatened assault, he would meet with a reception
+worthy of the warlike fame so long enjoyed by the Jewish nation.
+
+The rest of the Sanhedrim seemed scared and stupefied. Every man looked in
+his neighbour's face, and read there only dismay and blank despair. The
+crisis had been long threatening, and now it was at hand. Resistance was
+hopeless, escape impossible, and captivity insupportable. The prevailing
+feeling in the assembly was, nevertheless, one of indignation against the
+bearer of such unwelcome tidings. The Nasi was the first to recover
+himself, yet even he seemed disturbed.
+
+"By whose authority," said he--and every eye was turned on Eleazar while he
+spoke--"by whose authority didst thou dare to enter the camp of the enemy,
+and traffic with the Gentile who encompasseth the Holy City with bow and
+spear?"
+
+The chief of the Zealots knew well that he was the observed of all his
+colleagues, many of whom would triumph at his downfall, whilst even his
+own partisans would detach themselves from it, each to the best of his
+abilities, when his faction ceased to be in the ascendant. He knew, too,
+that on his brother's answer hung not only his life--which indeed he had
+risked too often to rate at a high value--but the stability of the whole
+fabric he had been building for months--the authority by which he hoped to
+save Jerusalem and Judaea, for which he grudged not to peril his immortal
+soul; and knowing all this, he forced his features into a sedate and
+solemn composure. He kept his eye away from the accused indeed, but fixed
+sternly on the president, and sat in his place the only man in the whole
+of that panic-stricken assembly who appeared master of the situation, and
+confident in himself. Calchas paused before he answered, waiting till the
+stir was hushed, and the attention which had been diverted to his brother
+settled once more on his own case. Then he addressed the Nasi in bold
+sonorous accents, his form dilating, his face brightening as he spoke--
+
+"By the authority of Him who came to bring peace on earth--by the authority
+that is as far greater than that of Sanhedrim, or priest, or conqueror, as
+the heavens are higher than the sordid speck of dust on which, but for
+that authority, we should only swarm and grovel and live one little hour,
+like the insects dancing in the sunbeams, to die at the close of day--I am
+a man of peace! Could I bear to see my country wasted by the armed hand,
+and torn by the trampling hoof? I love my neighbour as myself. Could I
+bear to know that his grasp was day by day on his brother's throat? I have
+learned from my Master that all are brethren, besieger and besieged, Roman
+and barbarian, Jew and Gentile, bond and free. Are they at variance, and
+shall I not set them at one? Are their swords at each other's breasts, and
+shall I not step between and bid them be at peace? By whose authority,
+dost thou ask me, Matthias son of Boethus? By His authority who came to
+you, and ye knew Him not. Who preached to you, and ye heeded Him not. Who
+would have saved you in His own good time from the great desolation, and
+ye reviled Him, and judged Him, and put Him to death on yonder hill!"
+
+Even the Prince of the Sanhedrim was staggered at the old man's boldness.
+Like other influential men of his nation, he could not ignore the
+existence of a well-known sect, which had already exchanged its title of
+Nazarenes for that of Christians, the name in which it was hereafter to
+spread itself over the whole earth; but the very mention of these self-
+devoted men was an abomination in his ears, and the last house in which he
+could have expected to find a votary of the cross, was that of Eleazar
+Ben-Manahem, chief of such a party as the Zealots, and grounding his
+influence on his exclusive nationality and strict adhesion to the very
+bigotry of the Jewish law. He looked on Calchas for a space, as if
+scarcely believing his eyes. Then there came over his features, always
+stern and harsh, an expression of pitiless severity, and he addressed his
+colleagues, rather than the accused.
+
+"This is even a graver matter than I had thought for," said he, in a low
+yet distinct voice, that made itself heard in the farthest corner of the
+Court. "Princes of the house of Judah, elders and nobles, and priests and
+Levites of the nation, I am but the instrument of your will, the weapon
+wielded by your collective might. Is it not the duty of mine office that I
+smite and spare not?"
+
+"Smite and spare not!" repeated Phineas; and the whole assembly echoed the
+merciless verdict.
+
+There was not one dissentient, not even Eleazar, sitting gloomy and
+resolved in his place. Then Matthias turned once more to Calchas, and
+said, still in the same suppressed tones--
+
+"Thou speakest in parables, and men may not address the Sanhedrim save in
+the brief language of fact. Art thou then one of those accursed Nazarenes
+who have called themselves Christians of late?"
+
+"I am indeed a Christian," answered Calchas, "and I glory in the name.
+Would that thou, Matthias son of Boethus, and these the elders of Judah,
+were partakers with me in all that name affords."
+
+Then he looked kindly and joyfully in Eleazar's face, for he knew that he
+had saved his brother. The corselet of the latter rattled beneath his long
+black robe with the shiver that ran through his whole frame. The tension
+was taken off his nerves at last, and the relief was great, but it was
+purchased at too dear a price. Now that it was doomed, he felt the value
+of his brother's life. He was totally unmanned, and shifted uneasily in
+his seat, not knowing what to do or say. They seemed to have changed
+places at last--Calchas to have assumed the bold unyielding nature, and
+Eleazar the loving tender heart. He recovered himself, however, before
+long. The ruling passion triumphed once more, as he anticipated the
+discomfiture of his rival, and the speedy renewal of his own ascendency
+amongst his countrymen.
+
+The Prince of the Sanhedrim reflected for a few moments ere he turned his
+severe frown on Esca, and said--
+
+"What doth this Gentile here in the Court of the Sanhedrim? Let him speak
+what he knoweth in this matter, ere he answer his own crime. Thy testimony
+at least may be valid," he added scornfully, "for thou surely art not a
+Christian?"
+
+The Briton raised his head proudly to reply. If there was less of holy
+meekness in his demeanour than in that of Calchas, there was the same bold
+air of triumph, the same obvious defiance of consequences, usually
+displayed by those who sealed their testimony with their blood.
+
+"I _am_ a Christian," said he. "I confess it, and I too, like my teacher
+there, glory in the name! I will not deny the banner under which I serve.
+I will fight under that banner, even to the death."
+
+The Nasi's very beard bristled with indignation; he caught up the skirt of
+his mantle, and tore it asunder to the hem. Then, raising the pieces thus
+rent above his head, he cried out in a loud voice, "It is enough! They
+have spoken blasphemy before the Sanhedrim. There is nothing more but to
+pronounce immediate sentence of death. Phineas Ben-Ezra, bid thy
+colleagues adjourn to the Stone-paved Hall!"
+
+Then the assembly rose in silence, and, marching gravely two by two,
+passed out into an adjoining chamber, which was paved, and roofed, and
+faced with stone. Here alone was it lawful to pass sentence of death on
+those whom the Sanhedrim had condemned; and here, while their judges stood
+round them in a circle, the prisoners with their guard fronting the Nasi
+took their position in the midst. The latter stooping to the ground went
+through the form of collecting a handful of dust and throwing it into the
+air.
+
+"Thus," said he, "your lives are scattered to the winds, and your blood
+recoils on your own heads. You, Calchas the son of Simeon, the son of
+Manahem, of the house of Manahem, and you, Gentile, called Esca on the
+scroll which has been delivered into my hand, shall be kept in secure ward
+till to-morrow be past, seeing that it is the Sabbath, and at morning's
+dawn on the first day of the week ye shall be stoned with stones in the
+Outer Court adjoining the Temple until ye die; and thus shall be done, and
+more also, to those who are found guilty of blasphemy in the presence of
+the Sanhedrim!"
+
+Then turning to Eleazar, who still retained his forced composure
+throughout the hideous scene, he added--
+
+"For thee, Eleazar Ben-Manahem, thy name is still untarnished in the
+nation, and thy place still knows thee amongst thy brethren. The testimony
+of a Nazarene is invalid; and no accusation hath yet been brought against
+thee supported by any witness save these two condemned and accursed men.
+That thou hast no portion, my brother, with blasphemers scarcely needs
+thine own unsupported word in the ears of the Sanhedrim!"
+
+Eleazar, with the same fixed white face, looked wildly round him on the
+assembled elders, turning up the sleeves of his gown the while, and moving
+his hands over each other as though he were washing them.
+
+"Their blood be on their own head," said he. "I renounce them from my
+family and my household--I abjure them, I wash my hands of them--their blood
+be on their own head!"
+
+And while he spoke, the warning voice was heard again outside the Temple,
+causing even the bold heart of the Nasi to thrill with a wild and
+unaccustomed fear--the voice of the wailing prophet crying, "Woe to
+Jerusalem! Woe to the Holy City! Sin and sorrow and desolation! Woe to the
+Holy City! Woe to Jerusalem!"
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER X
+
+                         A ZEALOT OF THE ZEALOTS
+
+
+The man who has resolved that he will shake himself free from those human
+affections and human weaknesses which, like the corporeal necessities of
+hunger and thirst, seem to have been given us for our enjoyment rather
+than our discomfort, will find he undertakes a task too hard for mortal
+courage and for mortal strength. Without those pleasant accessories, like
+water and sunshine, the simple and universal luxuries of mankind,
+existence may indeed drag on, but it can scarcely be called life. The
+Great Dispenser of all knows best. His children are not meant to stand
+alone, independent of each other and of Him. While they help their
+fellows, and trust in His strength, they are strong indeed; but no sooner
+do they lean on the staff themselves have fashioned, than they stumble and
+fall. It wounds the hand that grasps it, and breaks too surely when it is
+most needed at the last.
+
+Eleazar believed, when he quitted the Paved Hall in which the Sanhedrim
+pronounced their sentence, that the bitterest drop was drained in the cup
+he had forced himself to quaff. He had not anticipated the remorseful
+misery that awaited him in his own home--the empty seats, where _they_ were
+not--the tacit reproach of every familiar object--worst of all, the meeting
+with Mariamne, the daughter of his affections, the only child of his
+house. All that dreary Sabbath morning the Zealot sat in his desolate
+home, fearing--yes, he who seemed to fear nothing; to whom the battle-cry
+of shouting thousands on the wall was but as heart-stirring and inspiring
+music--fearing the glance of a girl's dark eye, the tone of her gentle
+voice--and that girl his own daughter. There was no daily sacrifice in the
+Temple now; that last cherished prerogative of the Jewish religion had
+been suspended. His creed forbade him to busy himself in any further
+measures of defence which would involve labour on the Sacred Day. He might
+not work with lever and crowbar at the breach. All that could be done in
+so short a space of time had been done by his directions yesterday. He
+must sit idle in his stately dwelling, brooding darkly over his brother's
+fate, or traverse his marble floor in restless strides, with clenched
+hands, and gnashing teeth, and a wild despair raging at his heart. Yet he
+never yielded nor wavered in his fanatical resolve. Had it all to be done
+once more, he would do the same again.
+
+One memory there was that he could not shake off--a vague and dreary memory
+that sometimes seemed to soothe, and sometimes to madden him. The image of
+Mariamne would come up before his eyes, not as now in her fair and perfect
+womanhood, but as a helpless loving little child, running to him with
+outstretched arms, and round cheeks wet with tears, asking him for the
+precious favourite that had gone with the rest of the flock to one of
+those great sacrifices with which the Jews kept their sacred festivals--the
+kid that was his child's playfellow--that he would have ransomed, had he
+but known it in time, with whole hecatombs of sheep and oxen, ere it
+should have been destroyed. The child had no mother even then; and he
+remembered, with a strange clearness, how he had taken the weeping little
+girl on his knee and soothed her with unaccustomed tenderness, while she
+put her arms round his neck, and laid her soft cheek against his own,
+accepting consolation, and sobbing herself to sleep upon his breast.
+
+After this there seemed to grow up a tacit confidence--a strong though
+unspoken affection--between father and daughter. They seldom exchanged many
+words in a day, sometimes scarcely more than a look. No two human beings
+could be much less alike, or have less in common. There was but this one
+slender link between them, and yet how strong it had been! After a while
+it angered him to find this memory softening, while it oppressed him,
+whether he would or no. He resolved he would see Mariamne at once and face
+the worst. She knew he had avoided her, and held him in too great awe to
+risk giving offence by forcing herself upon him. Ignorant of Esca's
+arrest, the instinctive apprehension of a woman for the man she loves had
+yet caused her to suspect some threatened danger from his prolonged
+absence. She watched her opportunity, therefore, to enter her father's
+presence and gain tidings, if possible, of his brother and the Briton.
+
+The hours sped on, and the fierce Syrian noon was already glaring down
+upon the white porches and dazzling streets of the Holy City. The hush of
+the Sabbath was over all; but it seemed more like the brooding, unnatural
+hush that precedes earthquake or tempest, than the quiet of a day devoted
+to peaceful enjoyment and repose. Her father was accustomed to drink a cup
+of wine at this hour, and Mariamne brought it him, trembling the while to
+learn the certainty of that which she could not yet bear to leave in
+doubt. She entered the room in which he sat with faltering steps, and
+stood before him with a certain graceful timidity that seemed to deprecate
+his resentment. His punishment had begun already. She reminded him of her
+mother, standing there pale and beautiful in her distress.
+
+"Father," she said softly, as he took the cup from her hand and set it
+down untasted, without speaking, "where is our kinsman, Calchas? and--and
+Esca, the Briton? Father! tell me the worst at once. I am your own
+daughter, and I can bear it."
+
+The worst, had she allowed herself to embody her vague fears, would have
+applied to the younger of the absent ones. It would have assumed that he
+was gravely wounded, even dangerously. Not killed--surely not killed! He
+turned his eyes upon her sternly, nay, angrily; but even then he could not
+tell her till he had lifted the cup and drained it every drop. His lip was
+steady now, and his face was harder, gloomier, than before, while he
+spoke--
+
+"Daughter of Ben-Manahem!" said he, "henceforth thou hast no portion with
+him who was thy kinsman but yesterday, neither with him the Gentile within
+my gate, who has eaten of my bread and drunk from my cup, and stood with
+me shoulder to shoulder against the Roman on the wall."
+
+She clasped her hands in agony, and her very lips turned white; but she
+said true--she was his own daughter, and she neither tottered nor gave way.
+In measured tones she repeated her former words.
+
+"Tell me the worst, father. I can bear it."
+
+He found it easier now that he had begun, and he could lash himself into a
+spurious anger as he went on, detailing the events of the previous day;
+the charges brought forward by John of Gischala, the trial before the
+Sanhedrim, his own narrow escape, and the confession of the two culprits,
+owning, nay, glorying in their mortal crime. He fenced himself in with the
+sophistry of an enthusiast and a fanatic. He deluded himself into the
+belief that he had been injured and aggrieved by the apostasy of the
+condemned. He poured forth all the eloquence that might have vindicated
+him before Matthias and his colleagues, had John's accusation been ever
+brought to proof. The girl stood petrified and overpowered with his
+violence: at last he denounced herself, for having listened so eagerly to
+the gentle doctrines of her own father's brother, for having consorted on
+terms of friendship with the stranger whom he had been the first to
+encourage and welcome beneath his roof. Once she made her appeal on Esca's
+behalf, but he silenced her ere she had half completed it.
+
+"Father," she urged, "though a Gentile, he conformed to the usages of our
+people; though a stranger, I have heard yourself declare that not a
+warrior in our ranks struck harder for the Holy City than your guest, the
+brave and loyal Esca!"
+
+He interrupted her with a curse.
+
+"Daughter of Ben-Manahem! in the day in which thou shalt dare again to
+speak that forbidden name, may thine eye wax dim, and thy limbs fail, and
+thy heart grow cold within thy breast--that thou be cut off even then, in
+thy sin--that thou fall like a rotten branch from the tree of thy
+generation--that thou go down into the dust and vanish like water spilt on
+the sand--that thy name perish everlastingly from among the maidens of
+Judah and the daughters of thy father's house!"
+
+Though his fury terrified it did not master her. Some women would have
+fled in dismay from his presence; some would have flung themselves on
+their knees and sought to move him to compassion with prayers and tears.
+Mariamne looked him fixedly in the face with a quiet sorrow in her own
+that touched him to the quick, and maddened him the more.
+
+"Father," she said softly, "I have nothing left to fear in this world.
+Slay me, but do not curse me."
+
+The vision of her childhood, the memory of her mother, the resigned
+sadness of her bearing, and the consciousness of his own injustice,
+conspired to infuriate him.
+
+"Slay thee!" he repeated between his set teeth. "By the bones of
+Manahem--by the head of the high-priest--by the veil of the Temple itself,
+if ever I hear thee utter that accursed name again, I will slay thee with
+mine own hand!"
+
+It was no empty threat to a daughter of her nation. Such instances of
+fanaticism were neither unknown to the sterner sects of the Jews, nor
+regarded with entirely unfavourable eyes by that self-devoted and
+enthusiastic people. The tale of Jephthah's daughter was cherished rather
+as an example of holy and high-minded obedience, than a warning from rash
+and inconsiderate vows. The father was more honoured as a hero than the
+daughter was pitied for a victim. And in later times, one Simon of
+Scythopolis, who had taken up arms against his own countrymen, and
+repented of his treachery, regained a high place in their estimation by
+putting himself to death, having previously slain every member of his
+family with his own hand.(19) It would have only added one more incident,
+causing but little comment, to the horrors of the siege, had the life of
+Mariamne been taken by her own father on his very threshold. She looked at
+him more in surprise than fear, with a hurt reproachful glance that
+pierced him to the heart. "Father!" she exclaimed, "you cannot mean it.
+Unsay those cruel words. Am I not your daughter? Father! father! you used
+to love me, when I was a little girl!"
+
+Then his savage mood gave way, and he took her to him and spoke to her in
+gentle soothing accents, as of old.
+
+"Thou art a daughter of Manahem," said he, "a maiden of Judah. It is not
+fit for thee to consort with the enemies of thy nation and of thy father's
+house. These men have avowed the pernicious doctrines of the Nazarenes,
+who call themselves Christians. Therefore they are become an abomination
+in our sight, and are to be cut off from amongst our people. Mariamne, if
+I can bear unmoved to see my brother perish, surely it is no hard task for
+thee to give up this stranger guest. It is not that my heart is iron to
+the core, though thou seest me ofttimes so stern, even with thee; but the
+men of to-day, who have taken upon themselves the defence of Jerusalem
+from the heathen, must be weaned from human affections and human
+weaknesses, even as the child is weaned from its mother's milk. I tell
+thee, girl, I would not count the lives of all my kindred against one hour
+of the safety of Judah; and Mariamne, though I love thee dearly, ay,
+better far than thou canst know--for whom have I now but thee, my
+daughter?--yet, if I believed that thou, too, couldst turn traitor to thy
+country and thy faith--I speak it not in anger--flesh and blood of mine own
+though thou be, I would bury my sword in thy heart!"
+
+Had Eleazar's looks corresponded with his words, such a threat, in her
+present frame of mind, might have caused Mariamne to avow herself a
+Christian, and brave the worst at once; but there was a weight of care on
+her father's haggard brow, a mournful tenderness in his eyes, that stirred
+the very depths of her being in compassion--that merged all other feelings
+in one of intense pity for the misery of that fierce, resolute, and
+desolate old man. For the moment she scarcely realised Esca's danger in
+her sympathy for the obvious sufferings of one usually so self-reliant and
+unmoved. She came closer to his side, and placed her hand in his without
+speaking. He looked fondly down at her.
+
+"Abide with me for a space," said he; "Mariamne, thou and I are left alone
+in the world."
+
+Then he covered his face with his hands, and remained without speaking,
+wrapped, as it seemed, in gloomy reflections that she dare not disturb. So
+the two sat on through the weary hours of that long hot Sabbath day.
+Whenever she made the slightest movement, he looked up and signed for her
+to remain where she was. Though it was torture, she dared not disobey; and
+while the time slipped on and the shadows lengthened, and the breeze began
+to stir, she knew that every minute, as it passed, brought her lover
+nearer and nearer to a cruel death. Thus much she had learned too surely;
+but with the certainty were aroused all the energies of her indomitable
+race, and she resolved that he should be saved. Many a scheme passed
+through her working brain, as she sat in her father's presence, fearing
+now, above all things, to awake his suspicion of her intentions by word or
+motion, and so make it impossible for her to escape. Of all her plans
+there was but one that seemed feasible; and even that one presented
+difficulties almost insurmountable for a woman.
+
+She knew that he was safe at least till the morrow. No execution could
+take place on the Sabbath; and although the holy day would conclude at
+sundown, it was not the custom of her nation to put their criminals to
+death till after the dawn, so that she had the whole night before her in
+which to act. But, on the other hand, her father would not leave his home
+during the Sabbath, and she would be compelled to remain under his
+observation till the evening. At night, then, she had resolved to make her
+escape, and taking advantage of the private passage, only known to her
+father's family, by which Calchas had reached the Roman camp, to seek
+Titus himself, and offer to conduct his soldiers by that path into the
+city, stipulating as the price of her treachery an immediate assault, and
+the rescue of her kinsman, Calchas, with his fellow-sufferer. Girl as she
+was, it never occurred to her that Titus might refuse to believe in her
+good faith towards himself, and was likely to look upon the whole scheme
+as a design to lead his army into an ambush. The only difficulty that
+presented itself was her own escape from the city. She never doubted but
+that, once in the Roman camp, her tears and entreaties would carry
+everything before them, and, whatever became of herself, her lover would
+be saved.
+
+It was not, however, without a strong conflict of feelings that she came
+to this desperate resolve. The blood that flowed in her veins was loyal
+enough to tingle with shame ever and anon, as she meditated such treachery
+against her nation. Must she, a daughter of Judah, admit the enemy into
+the Holy City? Could the child of Eleazar Ben-Manahem, the boldest warrior
+of her hosts, the staunchest defender of her walls, be the traitor to
+defile Jerusalem with a foreign yoke? She looked at her father sitting
+there, in gloomy meditation, and her heart failed her as she thought of
+his agony of shame, if he lived to learn the truth, of the probability
+that he would never survive to know it, but perish virtually by her hand,
+in an unprepared and desperate resistance. Then she thought of Esca, tied
+to the stake, the howling rabble, the cruel mocking faces, the bare arms
+and the uplifted stones. There was no further doubt after that--no more
+wavering--nothing but the dogged immovable determination that proved whose
+daughter she was.
+
+When the sun had set, Eleazar seemed to shake off the fit of despondency
+that had oppressed him during the day. The Sabbath was now past, and it
+was lawful for him to occupy mind and body in any necessary work. He bade
+Mariamne light a lamp, and fetch him certain pieces of armour that had
+done him good service, and now stood in need of repair. It was a task in
+the skilful fulfilment of which every Jewish warrior prided himself. Men
+of the highest rank would unwillingly commit the renewal of these trusty
+defences to any fingers but their own; and Eleazar entered upon it with
+more of cheerfulness than he had shown for some time. As he secured one
+rivet after another, with the patience and precision required, every
+stroke of the hammer seemed to smite upon his daughter's brain. There she
+was compelled to remain a close prisoner, and the time was gliding away so
+fast! At length, when the night was already far advanced, even Eleazar's
+strong frame began to feel the effects of hunger, agitation, labour, and
+want of rest. He nodded two or three times over his employment, worked on
+with redoubled vigour, nodded again, let his head sink gradually on his
+breast, while the hammer slipped from his relaxing fingers, and he fell
+asleep.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XI
+                             THE DOOMED CITY
+
+
+Mariamne watched her father for a few impatient minutes, that seemed to
+lengthen themselves into hours, till she had made sure by his deep
+respiration that her movements would not wake him. Then she extinguished
+the lamp and stole softly from the room, scarcely breathing till she found
+herself safe out of the house. The door through which she emerged was a
+private egress, opening on the wide terrace that overhung the gardens. Its
+stone balustrades and broad flight of steps were now white and glistening
+in the moonlight, which shone brighter and fairer in those mellow skies
+than doth many a noonday in the misty north. While she paused to draw
+breath, and concentrate every faculty on the task she had undertaken, she
+could not but admire the scene spread out at her very feet. There lay the
+gardens in which she had followed many a childish sport, and dreamed out
+many a maiden's dream, sitting in the shade of those black cypresses, and
+turning her young face to catch the breeze that stirred their whispering
+branches, direct from the hills of Moab, blending in the far distance with
+the summer sky. And lately, too, amid all the horrors and dangers of the
+siege, had she not trod these level lawns with Esca, and wondered how she
+could be so happy while all about her was strife, and desolation, and woe?
+The thought goaded her into action, and she passed rapidly on;
+nevertheless, in that one glance around, the fair and gorgeous picture
+stamped itself for ever on her brain.
+
+Beneath her--here black as ebony, there glistening like sheets of burnished
+steel--lay the clear-cut terraces and level lawns of her father's stately
+home, dotted by tall tapering cypresses pointing to the heavens, and
+guarded by the red stems of many a noble cedar, flinging their twisted
+branches aloft in the midnight sky. Beyond, the spires and domes and
+pinnacles of the Holy City glittered and shone in the mellow light, or
+loomed in the alternate shade, fantastic, gloomy, and indistinct. Massive
+blocks of building, relieved by rows of marble pillars supporting their
+heavy porticoes, denoted the dwellings of her princes and nobles; while
+encircling the whole could be traced the dark level line of her last
+defensive wall, broken by turrets placed at stated intervals, and already
+heightened at the fatal breach opposite the Tower of Antonia, from the
+summit of which glowed one angry spot of fire, a beacon kindled for some
+hostile purpose by the enemy. High above all, like a gigantic champion
+guarding his charge, in burnished armour and robes of snowy white, rose
+the Temple, with its marble dome and roof of beaten gold. It was the
+champion's last watch--it was the last sleep of the fair and holy city.
+Never again would she lie in the moonlight, beautiful, and gracious, and
+undefaced. Doomed, like the Temple in which she trusted, to be utterly
+demolished and destroyed, the plough was already yoked that should score
+its furrows deep into her comeliness; the mighty stones, so hewn and
+carved and fashioned into her pride of strength, were even now vibrating
+to that shock which was about to hurl them down into such utter ruin, that
+not one should be left to rear itself upon the fragments of another!
+
+The moonbeams shone calm and pleasant on the doomed city, as they shone on
+the stunted groves of the Mount of Olives, on the distant crest of the
+hills of Moab, and, far away below these, on the desolate plains that
+skirt the waters of the Dead Sea. They shone down calm and pleasant, as
+though all were in peace and safety, and plenty and repose; yet even now
+the arm of the avenger was up to strike, the eagle's wing was pruned, his
+beak whetted; and Mariamne, standing on the terrace by her father's door,
+could count the Roman watch-fires already established in the heart of the
+Lower City, twinkling at regular distances along the summit of Mount
+Calvary.
+
+The view of the enemy's camp, the thought of Esca's danger, spurred her to
+exertion. She hurried along the terrace, and down into the garden,
+following the path which she knew was to lead her to the marble basin with
+its hidden entrance to the secret passage. Her only thought now was one of
+apprehension that her unassisted strength might be unable to lift the
+slab. Full but of this care, she advanced swiftly and confidently towards
+the disused fountain, to stop within ten paces of it, and almost scream
+aloud in the high state of tension to which her nerves had been strung--so
+startled was she and scared at what she saw. Sitting with its back to her,
+a long lean figure stooped and cowered over the empty basin, waving its
+arms, and rocking its body to and fro with strange unearthly gestures, and
+broken, muttered sentences, varied by gasps and moans. Her nation are not
+superstitious, and Mariamne had too many causes for fear in this world to
+spare much dread for the denizens of another; nevertheless she stood for a
+space almost paralysed with the suddenness of the alarm, and the
+unexpected nature of the apparition, quaking in every limb, and unable
+either to advance or fly.
+
+There are times when the boldest of human minds become peculiarly
+susceptible to supernatural terrors--when the hardest and least
+impressionable persons are little stronger than their nervous and
+susceptible brethren. A little anxiety, a little privation, the omission
+of a meal or two, nay, even the converse of such abstinence in too great
+indulgence of the appetites, bring down the boasted reason of mankind to a
+sad state of weakness and credulity. The young, too, are more subject to
+such fantastic terrors than the old. Children suffer much from fears of
+the supernatural, conceiving in their vivid imaginations forms and
+phantoms and situations, which they can never have previously experienced,
+and of which it is therefore difficult to account for the origin. But all
+classes, and all ages, if they speak truth, must acknowledge, that at one
+time or another, they have felt the blood curdle, the skin creep, the
+breath come quick, and the heart rise with that desperate courage which
+springs from intense fear, at the fancied presence or the dreaded
+proximity of some ghostly object which eludes them after all, leaving a
+vague uncertainty behind it, that neither satisfies their curiosity nor
+ensures them against a second visitation of a similar nature.
+
+Mariamne was in a fit state to become the victim of any such supernatural
+delusion. Her frame was weakened by the want of food; for like the rest of
+the besieged, she had borne her share of the privations that created such
+sufferings in the city for many long weeks before it was finally reduced.
+She had gone through much fatigue of late--the continuous unbroken fatigue
+that wears the spirits even faster than the bodily powers; and above all
+she had been harassed for the last few hours by the torture of inaction in
+a state of protracted suspense. It was no wonder that she should suffer a
+few moments of intense and inexplicable fear.
+
+The figure, still with its back to her, and rocking to and fro, was
+gathering handfuls of dust from the disused basin of the fountain, and
+scattering them with its long lean arms upon its head and shoulders,
+chanting at the same time, in wild, mournful tones, the words "Wash and be
+clean," over and over again. It obviously imagined itself alone, and
+pursued its monotonous task with that dreary earnestness and endless
+repetition so peculiar to the actions of the insane.
+
+After a while, Mariamne, perceiving that she was not observed, summoned
+courage to consider what was best to be done. The secret of the hidden
+passage was one to be preserved inviolate under any circumstances; and to-
+night everything she most prized depended on its not being discovered by
+the besieged. While the figure remained in its present position, she could
+do nothing towards the furtherance of her scheme. And yet the moments were
+very precious, and Esca's life depended on her speed.
+
+There was no doubt, the unfortunate who had thus wandered into her
+father's gardens was a maniac; and those who suffered under this severe
+affliction were held in especial horror among her people. Unlike the
+Eastern nations of to-day, who believe them to be not only under its
+special protection, but even directly inspired by Providence, the Jews
+held that these sufferers were subject to the great principle of evil;
+that malignant spirits actually entered into the body of the insane,
+afflicting, mocking, and torturing their victim, goading it in its
+paroxysms to the exertion of that supernatural strength with which they
+endowed its body, and leaving the latter prostrate, exhausted, and
+helpless when they had satiated their malice upon its agonies. To be
+possessed of a devil was indeed the climax of all mental and corporeal
+misery. The casting out of devils by a mere word or sign, was perhaps the
+most convincing proof of miraculous power that could be offered to a
+people with whom the visitation was as general as it was mysterious and
+incomprehensible.
+
+Mariamne hovered about the fountain, notwithstanding her great fear, as a
+bird hovers about the bush under which a snake lies coiled, but which
+shelters nevertheless her nest and her callow young. Standing there, in
+long dark robes, beneath a flood of moonlight, her face and hands white as
+ivory by the contrast, her eyes dilating, her head bent forward, her whole
+attitude that of painful attention and suspense, she might have been an
+enchantress composing the spell that should turn the writhing figure
+before her into stone, cold and senseless as the marble over which it
+bent. She might have been a fiend, in the form of an angel, directing its
+convulsions, and gloating over its agonies; or she might have been a pure
+and trusting saint, exorcising the evil spirit, and bidding it come out of
+a vexed fellow-creature in that name which fiends and men and angels must
+alike obey.
+
+Presently the night-breeze coming softly over the Roman camp, brought with
+it the mellow notes of a trumpet, proclaiming that the watch was changed,
+and the centurions, each in his quarter, pacing their vigilant rounds. Ere
+it reached Mariamne's ears, the maniac had caught the sound, and sprang to
+his feet, with his head thrown back and his muscles braced for a spring
+like some beast of chase alarmed by the first challenge of the hound.
+Gazing wildly about him, he saw the girl's figure standing clear and
+distinct in the open moonlight, and raising a howl of fearful mirth, he
+leaped his own height from the ground, and made towards her with the
+headlong rush of a madman. Then fear completely overmastered her, and she
+turned and fled for her life. It was no longer a curdling horror that
+weighed down the limbs like lead, and relaxed the nerves like a palsy, but
+the strong and natural instinct of personal safety, that doubled quickness
+of perception for escape and speed of foot in flight.
+
+Between herself and her father's house lay a broad and easy range of
+steps, leading upward to the terrace. Instinctively she dared not trust
+the ascent, but turned downwards over the level lawn into the gardens,
+with the maniac in close pursuit. It was a fearful race. She heard his
+quick-drawn breath, as he panted at her very heels. She could almost fancy
+that she felt it hot upon her neck. Once the dancing shadow of her
+pursuer, in the moonlight, actually reached her own! Then she bounded
+forward again in her agony, and eluded the grasp that had but just missed
+its prey. Thus she reached a low wall, dividing her father's from a
+neighbour's ground; feeling only that she must go straight on, she bounded
+over it, she scarce knew how, and made for an open doorway she saw ahead,
+trusting that it might lead into the street. She heard his yell of triumph
+as he rose with a vigorous leap into the air, the dull stroke of his feet
+as he landed on the turf so close behind her, and the horror of that
+moment was almost beyond endurance. Besides, she felt her strength
+failing, and knew too well that she could not sustain this rate of speed
+for many paces farther; but escape was nearer than she hoped, and reaching
+the door a few yards before the madman, she gained slightly on him as she
+shot through it, and sped on, with weakening limbs and choking breath,
+down the street.
+
+She heard his yell once again, as he caught sight of her, but two human
+figures in front restored her courage, and she rushed on to implore their
+protection from her enemy; yet fear had not so completely mastered her
+self-possession, as to drive her into an obvious physical danger, even to
+escape encounter with a lunatic. Nearing them, and indeed almost within
+arm's-length, she perceived that one was blasted with the awful curse of
+leprosy. The moon shone bright and clear upon the white glistening surface
+of his scarred and mortifying flesh. On his brow, on his neck, in the
+patches of his wasting beard and hair, on his naked arms and chest, nay,
+in the very garment girt around his loins, the plague-spots deepened, and
+widened, and festered, and ate them all away. It would be death to come in
+contact, even with his garments--nay, worse than death, for it would entail
+a separation from the touch of human hand, and the help of human skill.
+
+Yet grovelling there on the bare stones of the street, the leper was
+struggling for a bone with a strong active youth, who had nearly
+overpowered him, and whom famine had driven to subject himself to the
+certainty of a horrible and loathsome fate, rather than endure any longer
+its maddening pangs. There was scarcely a meal of offal on the prize, and
+yet he tore it from the leper whom he had overpowered, and gnawed it with
+a greedy brutish muttering, as a dog mumbles a bone.
+
+Gathering her dress around her to avoid a chance of the fatal contact,
+Mariamne scoured past the ghastly pair, even in her own imminent terror
+and distress feeling her heart bleed for this flagrant example of the
+sufferings endured by her countrymen. The maniac, however, permitted his
+attention to be diverted for a few moments, by the two struggling figures,
+from his pursuit; and Mariamne, turning quickly aside into a narrow
+doorway, cowered down in its darkest corner, and listened with feelings of
+relief and thankfulness to the steps of her pursuer, as, passing this
+unsuspected refuge, he sped in his fruitless chase along the street.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XII
+
+                                DESOLATION
+
+
+Panting like a hunted hind, yet true to the generous blood that flowed in
+her veins, Mariamne recovered her courage even before her strength. No
+sooner was the immediate danger passed, than she cast aside all thoughts
+of personal safety, and only considered how she might still rescue the man
+she loved. Familiar with the street in which she had taken refuge, as with
+every other nook and corner of her native city--for the Jews permitted
+their women far more liberty than did their Eastern neighbours--she
+bethought her of taking a devious round in case she should be followed,
+and then returning by the way she had come, to her father's gardens. It
+was above all things important that Eleazar should not be made aware of
+his daughter's absence; and she calculated, not without reason, that the
+fatigues he had lately gone through, would ensure a few hours at least of
+sound unbroken sleep. The domestics, too, of his household, worn out with
+watching and hunger, were not likely to be aroused before morning; she
+had, therefore, sufficient time before her to put her plan into execution.
+
+She reflected that it was impossible to approach her father's garden
+unnoticed at this hour, save by the way she had taken in her flight. To go
+through his house from the street was not to be thought of, as the
+entrance was probably secured, and she could not gain admittance without
+giving an explanation of her absence, and exciting the observation she
+most wished to avoid. Then she fell to thinking on the paths she had
+followed in her headlong flight, tracing them backward in her mind with
+that clear feminine perception, which so nearly approaches instinct, and
+is so superior to the more logical sagacity of man. She knew she could
+thread them step by step, to the marble basin of the fountain; and once
+again at that spot she felt as if her task would be half accomplished,
+instead of scarce begun. Doubtless the exertion of mind served to calm her
+recent terrors, and to distract attention from the dangers of her present
+situation--alone in a strange house, with the streets full of such horrors
+as those she had lately witnessed, and thronged by armed parties of
+lawless and desperate men.
+
+She had gathered her robes about her, and drawn her veil over her head
+preparatory to emerging from her hiding-place, when she was driven back by
+the sound of footsteps, and the clank of weapons, coming up the street. To
+be seen was to accept the certainty of insult, and to run the risk of ill-
+usage, and perhaps death. She shrank farther back, therefore, into the
+lower part of the house; and becoming more accustomed to the gloom, looked
+anxiously about, to ascertain what further chance she had within for
+concealment or escape.
+
+It was a low irregular building, of which the ground-floor seemed to have
+been used but as a space for passage to and from the upper apartments,
+and, perhaps, before the famine consumed them, as a shelter for beasts of
+burden, and for cattle. Not a particle of their refuse, however, had been
+left on the dry earthen floor; and though a wooden manger was yet
+standing, not a vestige remained of halter or tethering ropes, which had
+been long since eaten in the scarcity of food.(20) A boarded staircase,
+fenced by carved wooden balustrades, led from this court to the upper
+chambers, which were carefully closed; but a glimmer of light proceeding
+from the chinks of an ill-fitting door at its head, denoted that the house
+was not deserted. It was probably inhabited by some of the middle class of
+citizens; a rank of life that had suffered more than the higher, or even
+the lower during the siege--lacking the means of the one, and shrinking
+from the desperate resources of the other.
+
+Mariamne, listening intently to every sound, was aware of a light step
+passing to and fro, within the room, and perceived besides a savoury smell
+as of roasted flesh, which pervaded the whole house. She knew by the quiet
+footfall and the rustle of drapery, that it was a woman whose motions she
+overheard, and for an instant the desire crossed her mind to beg for a
+mouthful of strengthening food, ere she departed on her way--a request she
+had reason to believe would be refused with anger. She blushed as she
+thought how a morsel of bread was now grudged, even at her own father's
+gate; and she remembered the time when scores of poor neighbours thronged
+it every morning for their daily meal; when sheep and oxen were slain and
+roasted at a moment's notice, on the arrival of some chance guest with his
+train of followers.
+
+"It is a judgment!" thought the girl, regarding the afflictions of her
+people in the light of her new faith. "It may be, we must be purified by
+suffering, and so escape the final doom. Woe is me for my kindred and for
+my father's house! What am I, that I should not take my share in the
+sorrows of the rest?"
+
+Then in a pure and holy spirit of self-sacrifice, she turned wearily away,
+resolving rather to seek the enemy weak and fasting, than shift from her
+own shoulders one particle of the burden borne by her wretched fellow-
+citizens; and ere long the time came when she was thankful she had not
+partaken, even in thought, of the food that was then being prepared.
+
+Seeking the street once more, she found, to her dismay, that the armed
+party had halted immediately before the door. She was forced again to
+shrink back into the gloom of the lower court, and wait in fear and
+trembling for the result. These, too, had been arrested before the house
+by the smell of food. Wandering up and down the devoted city, such hungry
+and desperate men scrupled not to take with the strong hand anything of
+which they had need. By gold and silver, and soft raiment, they set now
+but little store--of wine they could procure enough to inflame and madden
+them, but food was the one passionate desire of their senses. Besides his
+own party, John of Gischala had now attached to his faction numbers of the
+Sicarii--a band of paid assassins who had sprung up in the late troubles to
+make a trade of murder--and had also seduced into his ranks such of the
+Zealots as were weary of Eleazar's rigid though fervent patriotism,
+finding the anarchy within the walls produced by the siege more to their
+taste than the disciplined efforts of their chief to resist the enemy. The
+party that now prevented Mariamne's egress consisted of a few fierce
+pitiless spirits from these three factions, united in a common bond of
+recklessness and crime. It was no troop for a maiden to meet by night in
+the house of a lone woman, or on the stones of a deserted street, and the
+girl, trembling at the conversation she was forced to overhear, needed all
+her courage to seize the first opportunity for escape. The clang of their
+arms made her heart leap, as they halted together at the door; but it was
+less suggestive of evil and violence than their words.
+
+"I have it!" exclaimed one, striking his mailed hand against the post,
+with a blow that vibrated through the building. "Not a bloodhound of
+Molossis hath a truer nose than mine, or hunts his game more steadily to
+its lair. I could bury my muzzle, I warrant ye, in the very entrails of my
+prey, had I but the chance. There is food here, comrades, I tell ye,
+cooking on purpose for us. 'Tis strange if we go fasting to the wall to-
+night!"
+
+"Well said, old dog!" laughed another voice. "Small scruple hast thou,
+Sosas, what the prey may be, so long as it hath but the blood in it. Come
+on; up to the highest seat with thee! No doubt we are expected, though the
+doors be closed and we meet with a cold welcome!"
+
+"Welcome!" repeated Sosas; "who talks of welcome? I bid ye all welcome,
+comrades. Take what you please, and call for more. Every man what he likes
+best, be it sheep or lamb, or delicate young kid, or tender sweet-mouthed
+heifer. My guests ye are, and I bid you again walk up and welcome!"
+
+"'Twere strange to find a morsel of food here, too," interposed one of the
+band. "Say, Gyron, is not this the house thou and I have already stripped
+these three times? By the beard of old Matthias, there was but half a
+barley-cake left when we made our last visit!"
+
+"True," replied Gyron, with a brutal laugh, "and the woman held on to it
+like a wild-cat. I was forced to lend her a wipe over the wrist with my
+dagger, ere she let go, and then the she-wolf sucked her own blood from
+the wound, and shrieked out that we would not even leave her _that_. We
+might let her alone this time, I think, and go elsewhere!"
+
+"Go to!" interrupted Sosas. "Thou speakest like one for whom the banquet
+is spread at every street corner. Art turning tender, and delicate even as
+a weaned child, with that grizzled beard on thy chin? Go to! I say. The
+supper is getting cold. Follow me!"
+
+With these words the last speaker entered the house, and proceeded to
+ascend the staircase, followed by his comrades, who pushed and shouldered
+each other through the door with ribald jest and laughter, that made their
+listeners' blood run cold. Mariamne, in her retreat, was thus compelled to
+retire step by step before them to the top of the stairs, dreading every
+moment that their eyes, gradually accustomed to the gloom, which was
+rendered more obscure by the moonlight without, should perceive her
+figure, and their relentless grasp seize upon her too surely for a prey.
+It was well for her that the stairs were very dark, and that her black
+dress offered no contrast in colour to the wall against which she shrank.
+The door of the upper chamber opened outwards, and she hid herself close
+behind it, hoping to escape when her pursuers had entered one by one. To
+her dismay, however, she found that, with more of military caution than
+might have been expected, they had left a scout below to guard against
+surprise. Mariamne heard the unwilling sentinel growling and muttering his
+discontent, as he paced to and fro on the floor beneath.
+
+Through the hinges of the open door, the upper apartment was plainly
+visible, even by the dim light of a solitary lamp that stood on the board,
+and threw its rays over the ghastly banquet there set forth. Sick, faint,
+and trembling with the great horror she beheld, Mariamne could not yet
+turn her eyes away. A gaunt grim woman was crouching at the table, holding
+something with both hands to her mouth, and glaring sidelong at her
+visitors, like a wild beast disturbed over its prey. Her grisly tresses
+were knotted and tangled on her brow; dirt, misery, and hunger were in
+every detail of her dress and person. The long lean arms and hands, with
+their knotted joints and fleshless fingers, like those of a skeleton, the
+sunken face, the sallow tight-drawn skin, through which the cheek-bones
+seemed about to start, the prominent jaw, and shrivelled neck, denoted too
+clearly the tortures she must have undergone in a protracted state of
+famine, bordering day by day upon starvation.
+
+And what was that ghastly morsel hanging from those parched thin lips?
+
+Mariamne could have shrieked aloud with mingled wrath and pity and dismay.
+Often had she seen a baby's tiny fingers pressed and mumbled in a mother's
+mouth, with doting downcast looks and gentle soothing murmurs and muttered
+phrases, fond and foolish, meaningless to others, yet every precious
+syllable a golden link of love between the woman and her child. But now,
+the red light of madness glared in the mother's eye; she was crouching
+fierce and startled, like the wild wolf in its lair, and her teeth were
+gnashing in her accursed hunger over the white and dainty limbs of her
+last-born child. Its little hand was in her mouth when the ruffians
+entered, whose violence and excesses had brought this abomination of
+desolation upon her house. She looked up with scarce a trace of humanity
+left in her blighted face.
+
+"You have food here, mother!" shouted Sosas, rushing in at the head of his
+comrades. "Savoury food, roasted flesh, dainty morsels. What! hast got no
+welcome for thy friends? We have come to sup with thee unbidden, mother,
+for we know of old(21) the house of Hyssop is never ill-provided. Ay,
+Gyron there, watching down below, misled us sadly. His talk was but of
+scanty barley-cakes and grudging welcome, while lo! here is a supper fit
+to set before the high-priest, and the mother gives a good example, though
+she wastes no breath on words of welcome. Come on, comrades, I tell you;
+never wait to wash hands, but out with your knives, and fall to!"
+
+While he spoke, the ruffian stretched his brawny arm across the table, and
+darted his long knife into the smoking dish. Mariamne behind the door, saw
+him start, and shiver, and turn pale. The others looked on, horror-struck,
+with staring eyes fixed upon the board. One, the fiercest and strongest of
+the gang, wiped his brow, and sat down, sick and gasping, on the floor.
+Then the woman laughed out, and her laughter was terrible to hear.
+
+"I did it!" she cried, in loud, triumphant tones. "He was my own child, my
+fair, fat boy. If I had a hundred sons I would slay them all. All, I tell
+you, and set them before you, that you might eat and rejoice, and depart
+full and merry from the lonely woman's house. I slew him at sundown, my
+masters, when the Sabbath was past, and I roasted him with my own hands,
+for we were alone in the house, I and my boy. What! will ye not partake?
+Are you so delicate, ye men of war, that ye cannot eat the food which
+keeps life in a poor, weak woman like me? It is good food, it is wholesome
+food, I tell ye, and I bid you hearty welcome. Eat your fill, my masters;
+spare not, I beseech you. But we will keep a portion for the child. The
+child!" she repeated, like one who speaks in a dream: "he must be hungry
+ere now; it is past his bedtime, my masters, and I have not given him his
+supper yet!"
+
+Then she looked on the dish once more, with a vacant, bewildered stare,
+rocking herself the while, and muttering in strange, unintelligible
+whispers, glancing from time to time stealthily at her guests, and then
+upon the horrid fragment she held, which, as though fain to hide it, she
+turned over and over in her gown. At length she broke out in another wild
+shriek of laughter, and laid her head down upon the table, hiding her face
+in her hands.
+
+Pale and horror-struck, with quiet steps, and heads averted from the
+board, the gang departed one by one. Gyron, who was already wearied of his
+watch, met them on the stairs, to receive a whispered word or two from
+Sosas, with a muttered exclamation of dismay, and a frightful curse. The
+rest, who had seen what their comrade only heard, were speechless still,
+and Mariamne, listening to their clanking, measured tread as it traversed
+the lower court and passed out into the street, heard it die away in the
+distance, unbroken by a single exclamation even of disgust or surprise.
+The boldest of them dared not have stood another moment face to face with
+the hideous thing from which he fled.
+
+Mariamne, too, waited not an instant after she had made sure that they
+were gone. Not even her womanly pity for suffering could overcome her
+feelings of horror at what she had so lately beheld. She seemed stifled
+while she remained under the roof where such a scene had been enacted; and
+while she panted to quit it, was more than ever determined to seek the
+Roman camp, and call in the assistance of the enemy. It was obvious even
+to her, girl as she was, that there was now no hope for Jerusalem within
+the walls. While her father's faction, and that of John, were neutralising
+each other's efforts for the common good--while to the pressure of famine,
+and the necessary evils of a siege, were added the horrors of rapine and
+violence, and daily bloodshed, and all the worst features of civil war--it
+seemed that submission to the fiercest enemy would be a welcome refuge,
+that the rule of the sternest conqueror would be mild and merciful by
+comparison.
+
+She remembered, too, much that Calchas had explained in the sacred
+writings they had studied together, with the assistance of that Syrian
+scroll which proclaimed the good tidings of the new religion, elucidating
+and corroborating the old. She had not forgotten the mystical menaces of
+the prophets, the fiery denunciations of some, the distinct statements of
+others--above all, the loving, merciful warning of the Master himself.
+Surely the doom had gone forth at length. Here, if anywhere, was the
+carcass. Yonder, where she was going, was the gathering of the eagles. Was
+not she in her mission of to-night an instrument in the hands of
+Providence? A means for the fulfilment of prophecy? If she had felt
+patriotic scruples before, they vanished now. If she had shrunk from
+betraying her country, dishonouring her father, and disgracing her blood,
+all such considerations were as nothing now, compared to the hope of
+becoming a divine messenger, that, like the dove with its olive-branch,
+should bring back eventual peace and safety in its return. She had seen
+to-night madness and leprosy stalking abroad in the streets. Within a
+Jewish home she had seen a more awful sight even than these. It was in her
+power, at least, to put an end to such horrors, and she doubted whether
+the task might not have been specially appointed her from heaven; but she
+never asked herself the question if she would have been equally satisfied
+of her celestial mission, had Esca not been lying under the wall of the
+Temple, bound and condemned to die with the light of to-morrow's sun.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIII
+
+                          THE LEGION OF THE LOST
+
+
+                               [Initial N]
+
+Nerving herself with every consideration that could steel a woman's heart,
+Mariamne sought her father's gardens by the way she had already come. They
+were deserted now, and the house, at which she could not forbear taking a
+look that would probably be her last, was still quiet and undisturbed. She
+would fain have seen her father once more, even in his sleep--would fain
+have kissed his unconscious brow, and so taken a fancied pardon for the
+treason she had resolved to commit--but it was too great a risk to run, and
+with a prayer for divine protection and assistance, she bent down to lift
+the slab of marble that concealed the secret way. Having been moved so
+lately in the egress of Calchas, it yielded easily to her strength, and
+she descended, not without considerable misgivings, a damp, winding stair,
+that seemed to lead into the bowels of the earth.
+
+As the stone fell back to its former place, she was enveloped in utter
+darkness; and while she groped her way along the slimy arch that roofed-in
+the long, mysterious tunnel, she could not forbear shuddering with dread
+of what she might encounter, ere she beheld the light of day once more. It
+was horrible to think of the reptiles that might be crawling about her
+feet; of the unknown shapes with which, at any moment, she might come in
+contact; of the chances that might block her in on both sides, and so
+consign her, warm and living, to the grave: worst of all, of the
+possibility that some demoniac, like him from whom she had so recently
+escaped, might have taken up his abode here, in the strange infatuation of
+the possessed, and that she must assuredly become his prey, without the
+possibility of escape.
+
+Such apprehensions made the way tedious indeed; and it was with no slight
+feeling of relief, and no mere formal thanksgiving, that Mariamne caught a
+glimpse of light stealing through the black, oppressive darkness, that
+seemed to take her breath away, and was aware that she had reached the
+other extremity of the passage at last. A few armfuls of brushwood,
+skilfully disposed, concealed its egress. These had been replaced by
+Calchas, in his late visit to the Roman camp, and Mariamne, peering
+through, could see without being seen, while she considered what step she
+should take next.
+
+She was somewhat uneasy, nevertheless, to observe that a Roman sentinel
+was posted within twenty paces; she could hear the clank of his armour
+every time he stirred; she could even trace the burnished plumage of the
+eagle on the crest of his helmet. It was impossible to emerge from her
+hiding-place without passing him; and short as his beat might be, he
+seemed indisposed to avail himself of it by walking to and fro. In the
+bright moonlight there was no chance of slipping by unseen, and she looked
+in vain for a coming cloud on the midnight sky. He would not even turn his
+head away from the city, on which his gaze was fastened; and she watched
+him with a sort of dreary fascination, pondering what was best to be done.
+
+Even in her extremity she could not but remark the grace of his attitude,
+and the beautiful outline of his limbs, as he leaned wearily on his spear.
+His arms and accoutrements, too, betrayed more splendour than seemed
+suitable to a mere private soldier, while his mantle was of rich scarlet,
+looped up and fastened at the shoulder with a clasp of gold. Such details
+she took in mechanically and unconsciously, even as she perceived that, at
+intervals, he raised his hand to his eyes, like one who wipes away
+unbidden tears. Soon she summoned her presence of mind, and watched him
+eagerly, for he stretched his arms towards Jerusalem with a pitiful,
+yearning gesture, and, bowing wearily, leant his crested head upon both
+arms, resting them against the spear.
+
+  [Illustration: 'she walked boldly up to him']
+
+It was her opportunity, and she seized it; but at the first movement she
+made the sentinel's attention was aroused, and she knew she was
+discovered, for he challenged immediately. Even then, Mariamne could not
+but observe that his voice was unsteady, and the spear he levelled
+trembled like an aspen in his grasp. She thought it wisest to make no
+attempt at deception, but walking boldly up to him, implored his safe-
+conduct, and besought him to take her to the tent of the commander at
+once. The sentinel seemed uncertain how to act, and showed, indeed, but
+little of that military promptitude and decision for which the Roman army
+was so distinguished. After a pause, he answered--and the soft tones,
+musical even in their trouble, that rang in Mariamne's ears, were
+unquestionably those of a woman--a woman, too, whose instincts of jealousy
+had recognised her even before she spoke.
+
+"You are the girl I saw in the amphitheatre," she said, laying a white
+hand, which trembled violently, on the arm of the Jewess. "You were
+watching him that day, when he was down in the sand beneath the net. I
+know you, I say! I marked you turned pale when the tribune's arm was up to
+strike. You loved him then. You love him now! Do not deny it, girl! lest I
+drive this spear through your body, or send you to the guard to be treated
+like a spy taken captive in the act. You look pale, too, and wretched,"
+she added, suddenly relenting. "Why are you here? Why have you left him
+behind the walls alone? I would not have deserted you in your need, Esca,
+my lost Esca!"
+
+Mariamne shivered when she heard the beloved name pronounced in such fond
+accents by another's lips. Womanlike, she had not been without suspicions
+from the first, that her lover had gained the affections of some noble
+Roman lady--suspicions which were confirmed by his own admission to
+herself, accompanied by many a sweet assurance of fidelity and devotion;
+but yet it galled her even now, at this moment of supreme peril, to feel
+the old wound thus probed by the very hand that dealt it; and, moreover,
+through all her anxiety and astonishment, rose a bitter and painful
+conviction of the surprising beauty possessed by this shameless woman,
+clad thus inexplicably in the garb of a Roman soldier. Nevertheless, the
+Jewish maiden was true as steel. Like that mother of her nation who so
+readily gave up all claim to her own flesh and blood, to preserve it from
+dismemberment under the award of the wisest and greatest of kings, she
+would have saved her cherished Briton at any sacrifice, even that of her
+own constant and unfathomable love. She knelt down before the sentinel,
+and clasped the scarlet mantle in both hands.
+
+"I will not ask you what or who you are," she said; "I am in your power,
+and at your mercy. I rejoice that it is so. But you will help me, will you
+not? You will use all your beauty and all your influence to save him
+whom--whom we both love?"
+
+She hesitated while she spoke the last sentence. It was as if she gave him
+up voluntarily, when she thus acknowledged another's share. But his very
+life was at stake; and what was her sore heart, her paltry jealousy, to
+stand in the way at such a moment as this? The other looked scornfully
+down on the kneeling girl.
+
+"You, too, seem to have suffered," said the sentinel. "It is true then,
+all I have heard of the desolation and misery within the walls? But boast
+not of your sorrows; think not you alone are to be pitied. There are weary
+heads and aching hearts here in the leaguer, as yonder in the town. Tell
+me the truth, girl! What of Esca? You know him. You come from him even
+now. Where is he, and how fares it with him?"
+
+"Bound in the Outer Court of the Temple!" gasped Mariamne, "and condemned
+to die with the first light of to-morrow's sun!"
+
+His fate seemed more terrible and more certain, now that she had forced
+herself to put it into words. The Roman soldier's face turned deadly pale.
+The golden-crested helmet, laid aside for air, released a shower of rich
+brown curls, that fell over the ivory neck, and the smooth shoulders, and
+the white bosom panting beneath its breastplate. There could be no attempt
+at concealment now. Mariamne was obliged to confess that, even in her male
+attire, the woman whom she so feared, yet whom she must trust implicitly,
+was as beautiful as she seemed to be reckless and unsexed.
+
+They were a lawless and a desperate band, that body of gladiators which
+Hippias had brought with him to the siege of Jerusalem. None of them but
+were deeply stained with blood; most of them were branded with crime; all
+were hopeless of good, fearless and defiant of evil. In many a venturous
+assault, in many a hand-to-hand encounter, fought out with enemies as
+fierce and almost as skilful as themselves, they had earned their ominous
+title; and the very legionaries, though they sneered at their discipline,
+and denied their efficiency in long-protracted warfare, could not but
+admit that to head a column of attack, to run a battering-ram under the
+very ramparts of a citadel, to dash in with a mad cheer over the shattered
+ruins of a breach, or to carry out any other hot and desperate service,
+there were no soldiers in the army like the Legion of the Lost. They had
+dwindled away, indeed, sadly from slaughter and disease; yet there were
+still some five or six hundred left, and this remnant consisted of the
+strongest and staunchest in the band. They still constituted a separate
+legion, nor would it have been judicious to incorporate them with any
+other force, which, indeed, might have been as unwilling to receive them
+as they could be to enrol themselves in its ranks; and they performed the
+same duties, and made it their pride to guard the same posts they had
+formerly watched when thrice their present strength. Under these
+circumstances a fresh draft would have been highly acceptable to the
+Legion of the Lost; and in their daily increasing want of men, even a
+single recruit was not to be despised. Occasionally one of the Syrian
+auxiliaries, or a member of any of the irregular forces attached to the
+Roman army, who had greatly distinguished himself by his daring, was
+admitted into their band, and these additions became less rare as the
+original number decreased day by day.
+
+An appeal to the good-nature of old Hirpinus, backed by a heavy bribe to
+one of his centurions, ensured Valeria's enrolment into this wild,
+disorderly, and dangerous force; nor in their present lax state of
+discipline, with the prospect of an immediate assault, had she much to
+dread from the curiosity of her new comrades. Even in a Roman camp, money
+would purchase wine, and wine would purchase everything else. Valeria had
+donned in earnest the arms she had often before borne for sport. "Hippias
+taught me to use them," she thought, with bitter, morbid exultation; "he
+shall see to-morrow how I have profited by his lessons!" Then she resolved
+to feed her fancy by gazing at the walls of Jerusalem; and she had little
+difficulty in persuading a comrade to whom she brought a jar of strong
+Syrian wine, that he had better suffer her to relieve him for the last
+hour or two of his watch.
+
+The Amazons of old, with a courage we might look for in vain amongst the
+other sex, were accustomed to amputate their right breast that it might
+not hinder the bowstring when they drew the arrow to its head. Did they
+never feel, after the shapely bosom was thus mutilated and defaced, a
+throb of anguish, or a weight of dull dead pain where the flesh was now
+scarred, and hardened, and cicatrised--nay, something worse than pain
+beneath the wound, when they beheld a mother nursing a sucking-child?
+Valeria, too, had resolved, so to speak, that she would cut the very heart
+from out of her breast--that she would never feel as a woman feels again.
+She knew she was miserable, degraded, desperate--she believed she could
+bear it nobly now, because she was turned to stone. Yet, as she leaned on
+her spear in the moonlight, and gazed on the city which contained the
+prize she had so coveted and lost, she was compelled to acknowledge that
+the fibres of that heart she had thought to tear out and cast away,
+retained their feelings still. For all that was come and gone, she loved
+him, oh! so dearly, yet; and the eyes of the lost, maddened, desperate
+woman filled with tears of as deep and unselfish affection as could have
+been shed by Mariamne herself in her pure and stainless youth.
+
+Valeria, as Hippias had learned by painful experience, was resolute for
+good and evil. It was this decision of character, joined to the impulsive
+disposition which springs from an undisciplined life, that had given him
+his prey. But it was this that thwarted all the efforts he made to obtain
+the ascendency over her which generally follows such a link as theirs; and
+it was this, too, that ere long caused her to tear the link asunder
+without a moment's apprehension or remorse. With all his energy and habits
+of command, the gladiator found he could not control the proud Roman lady,
+who in a moment of caprice had bowed her head to the very dust for the
+sake of following him. He could neither intimidate her into obedience, nor
+crush her into despair, though he tried many a haughty threat, and many an
+unmanly taunt at her shame. But all in vain; and as he would not yield an
+inch in their disputes, there was but little peace in the tent of the
+brave leader who ruled so sternly over the Legion of the Lost. The pair,
+indeed, went through the usual phases that accompany such bonds as those
+they chose to wear; but the changes were more rapid than common, as might
+well be expected, when their folly had not even the excuse of true
+affection on both sides. Valeria indeed tired first; for as far as the
+gladiator was capable of loving anything but his profession, he loved her,
+and this perhaps only embittered the guilty cup that was already
+sufficiently unpalatable to both. Weariness, as usual, followed fast on
+the heels of satiety, to be succeeded by irritation, discontent, and
+dislike; then came rude words, angry gestures, and overt aggression from
+the man, met by the woman with trifling provocations, mute defiance, and
+sullen scorn. To love another, too, so hopelessly and so dearly, made
+Valeria's lot even more difficult to bear, rendering her fretful,
+intolerant, and inaccessible to all efforts at reconciliation. Thus the
+breach widened hour by hour; and on the day when Hippias returned to his
+tent from the council of war before which Calchas had been brought,
+Valeria quitted it, vowing never to return. She had but one object left
+for which to live. Maddened by shame, infuriated by the insults of the
+gladiator, her great love yet surged up in her heart with an irresistible
+tide; and she resolved that she would see Esca once more, ay, though the
+whole Jewish army stood with levelled spears between them. After that, she
+cared not if she died on the spot at his feet!
+
+To get within the works was indeed no easy matter; and so close a watch
+was kept by the Romans on all movements between the lines of the hostile
+forces, now in such dangerous proximity, that it was impossible to escape
+from the camp of Titus and join the enemy behind the wall, though the
+Jews, notwithstanding the vigilance of their countrymen, were trooping to
+the besiegers' camp by scores, to implore the protection of the conqueror,
+and throw themselves on his well-known clemency and moderation.
+
+Valeria, then, had taken the desperate resolution of entering the city
+with the assault on the morrow. For this purpose she had adopted the dress
+and array of the Lost Legion. She would at least, she thought in her
+despair, be as forward as any of those reckless combatants. She would, at
+least, see Esca once more. If he met her under shield, not knowing her,
+and hurled her to the ground, the arm that smote her would be that of her
+glorious and beloved Briton. There was a wild, sweet sadness in the
+thought that she might perhaps die at last by his hand. Full of such
+morbid fancies--her imagination over-excited, her courage kindled, her
+nerves strung to their highest pitch--it brought with it a fearful reaction
+to learn that even her last consolation might be denied her--that the
+chance of meeting her lover once more was no longer in her own hands.
+What! had she undergone all these tortures, submitted to all this
+degradation, for nothing? And was Esca to die after all, and never learn
+that she had loved him to the last? She could not have believed it, but
+for the calm, hopeless misery that she read in Mariamne's eyes.
+
+For a while Valeria covered her face and remained silent; then she looked
+down scornfully on the Jewess, who was still on her knees, holding the hem
+of the Roman lady's garment, and spoke in a cold, contemptuous tone--
+
+"Bound and condemned to death, and you are here? You must indeed love him
+very dearly to leave him at such a time!"
+
+Mariamne's despair was insensible to the taunt.
+
+"I am here," said she, "to save him. It is the only chance. Oh, lady, help
+me! help me if only for his dear sake!"
+
+"What would you have me do?" retorted the other impatiently. "Can I pull
+down your fortified wall with my naked hands? Can you and I storm the
+rampart at point of spear, and bear him away from the midst of the enemy
+to share him afterwards between us, as the legionaries share a prey?"--and
+she laughed a strange, choking laugh while she spoke.
+
+"Nay," pleaded the kneeling Jewess, "look not down on me so angrily. I
+pray--I implore you only to aid me! Ay! though you slay me afterwards with
+your hand if I displease you by word or deed. Listen, noble lady; I can
+lead the Roman army within the walls; I can bring the soldiers of Titus
+into Jerusalem, maniple by maniple, and cohort by cohort, where they shall
+surprise my countrymen and obtain easy possession of the town; and all I
+ask in return--the price of my shame, the reward of my black treachery--is,
+that they will rescue the two prisoners bound in the Outer Court of the
+Temple, and spare their lives for her sake who has sold honour, and
+country, and kindred here to-night!"
+
+Valeria reflected for a few seconds. The plan promised well; her woman's
+intuition read the secret of the other woman's heart. A thousand schemes
+rose rapidly in her brain; schemes of love, of triumph, of revenge. Was it
+feasible? She ran over the position of the wall, the direction from which
+Mariamne had come, her own knowledge gained from the charts she had
+studied in the tent of Hippias--charts that, obtained partly by treachery
+and partly by observation, mapped out every street and terrace in
+Jerusalem--and she thought it was. Of her suppliant's good faith she
+entertained no doubt.
+
+"There is then a secret passage?" she said, preserving still a stern and
+haughty manner to mask the anxiety she really felt. "How long is it, and
+how many men will it take in abreast?"
+
+"It cannot be far," answered the Jewess, "since it extends but from that
+heap of brushwood to the terrace of my father's house. It might hold three
+men abreast. I entreat you take me to Titus, that I may prevail on him to
+order the attack ere it be too late. I myself will conduct his soldiers
+into the city."
+
+Valeria's generosity was not proof against her selfishness. Like many
+other women, her instincts of possession were strong; and no sooner had
+she grasped the possibility of saving Esca, than the old fierce longing to
+have him for her very own returned with redoubled force.
+
+"That I may rescue the Briton for the Jewess!" she retorted, with a sneer.
+"Do you know to whom you speak? Listen, girl: I, too, have loved this
+Esca: loved him with a love to which yours is but as the glimmer on my
+helmet compared to the red glare of that watch-fire below the hill--loved
+him as the tigress loves her cubs--nay, sometimes as the tigress loves her
+prey! Do you think I will save him for another?"
+
+Mariamne's face was paler than ever now, but her voice was clear, though
+very low and sad, while she replied--
+
+"You love him too! I know it, lady, and therefore I ask you to save him.
+Not for me; oh! not for me! When he is once set free, I will never see him
+more: this is your price, is it not? Willingly, heartily I pay it; only
+save him--only save him! You will, lady; will you not? And so you will take
+me direct to Titus? See! the middle watch of the night is already nearly
+past."
+
+But Valeria's plotting brain began now to shape its plans; she saw the
+obstacles in her way were she to conduct the girl at once into the
+presence of Titus. Her own disguise would be discovered, and the Roman
+commander was not likely to permit such a flagrant breach of discipline
+and propriety to pass unnoticed. If not punished, she would probably be at
+least publicly shamed, and placed under restraint. Moreover, the prince
+might hesitate to credit Mariamne's story, and suspect the whole scheme
+was but a plot to lead the attacking party into an ambush. Besides, she
+would never yield to the Jewess the credit and the privilege of saving her
+lover. No: she had a better plan than this. She knew that Titus had
+resolved the city should fall on the morrow. She knew the assault would
+take place at dawn; she would persuade Mariamne to return into the town;
+she would mark the secret entrance well. When the gladiators advanced to
+the attack, she would lead a chosen band by this path into the very heart
+of the city; she would save Esca at the supreme moment; and surely his
+better feelings would acknowledge her sovereignty then, when she came to
+him as a deliverer and a conqueror, like some fabulous heroine of his own
+barbarian nation. She would revenge on Hippias all the past weary months
+of discord; she would laugh Placidus to scorn with his subtle plans and
+his venturous courage, and the skill he boasted in the art of war. Nay,
+even Licinius himself would be brought to acknowledge her in her triumph,
+and be forced to confess that, stained, degraded as she was, his kinswoman
+had at last proved herself a true scion of their noble line, worthy of the
+name of Roman! There was a sting, though, in a certain memory that
+Mariamne's words brought back; their very tone recalled his, when he too
+had offered to sacrifice his love that he might save its object--and she
+thought how different were their hearts to hers. But the pain only goaded
+her into action, and she raised the still kneeling girl with a kindly
+gesture, and a reassuring smile.
+
+"You can trust me to save him," said she; "but it would be unwise to
+declare your plan to Titus. He would not believe it, but would simply make
+you a prisoner, and prevent me from fulfilling my object till too late.
+Show me the secret path, girl; and by all a woman holds most sacred, by
+all I have most prized, yet lost, I swear to you that the eagles shall
+shake their wings in the Temple by to-morrow's sunrise; that I will cut
+Esca's bonds with the very sword that hangs here in my belt! Return the
+way you came; be careful to avoid observation; and if you see Valeria
+again alive, depend upon her friendship and protection for his sake whom
+you and I shall have saved from death before another day be past!"
+
+So strangely constituted are women, that something almost like a caress
+passed between these two, as the one gave and the other received the
+solemn pledge; although Mariamne yielded but unwillingly to Valeria's
+arguments, and sought the secret way on her return with slow reluctant
+steps. But she had no alternative; and the Roman lady's certainty of
+success imparted some of her own confidence to the weary and desponding
+Jewess. "At least," thought Mariamne, "if I cannot save him, I can die
+with him, and then nothing can separate us any more!" Sad as it was, she
+yet felt comforted by the hopeless reflection, while it urged her to
+hasten to her lover at once.
+
+There was no time to be lost. As she looked back to the Roman sentinel,
+once more motionless on his post, and waved her hand with a gesture that
+seemed to implore assistance, while it expressed confidence, ere she
+stooped to remove the brushwood for her return, a peal of Roman trumpets
+broke on the silence, sounding out the call which was termed "cock-crow,"
+an hour before the dawn.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XIV
+
+                                  FAITH
+
+
+There is nothing in the history of ancient or modern times that can at all
+help us to realise the feelings with which the Jews regarded their Temple.
+To them the sacred building was not only the very type and embodiment of
+their religion, but it represented also the magnificence of their wealth,
+the pride of their strength, the glory, the antiquity, and the patriotism
+of the whole people--noble in architecture, imposing in dimensions, and
+glittering with ornament, it was at once a church, a citadel, and a
+palace. If a Jew would express the attributes of strength, symmetry, or
+splendour, he compared the object of his admiration with the Temple. His
+prophecies continually alluded to the national building as being identical
+with the nation itself; and to speak of injury or contamination to the
+Temple was tantamount to a threat of defeat by foreign arms, and invasion
+by a foreign host--as its demolition was always considered synonymous with
+the total destruction of Judaea; for no Jew could contemplate the
+possibility of a national existence apart from this stronghold of his
+faith. His tendency thus to identify himself with his place of worship was
+also much fostered by the general practice of his people, who annually
+flocked to Jerusalem in great multitudes to keep the feast of the
+Passover; so that there were few of the posterity of Abraham throughout
+the whole of Syria who had not at some time in their lives been themselves
+eye-witnesses of the glories in which they took such pride. At the period
+when the Roman army invested the Holy City, an unusually large number of
+these worshippers had congregated within its walls, enhancing to a great
+degree the scarcity of provisions, and all other miseries inseparable from
+a state of siege.
+
+The Jews defended their Temple to the last. While the terrible circle was
+contracting day by day, while suburb after suburb was taken, and tower
+after tower destroyed, they were driven, and, as it were, condensed
+gradually and surely, towards the upper city and the Holy Place itself.
+They seemed to cling round the latter and to trust in it for protection,
+as though its very stones were animated by the sublime worship they had
+been reared to celebrate.
+
+It was a little before the dawn, and the Outer Court of the Temple, called
+the Court of the Gentiles, was enveloped in the gloom of this, the darkest
+hour in the whole twenty-four. Nothing could be distinguished of its
+surrounding cloisters, save here and there the stem of a pillar or the
+segment of an arch, only visible because brought into relief by the black
+recesses behind. A star or two were faintly twinkling in the open sky
+overhead; but the morning was preceded by a light vapoury haze, and the
+breeze that wafted it came moist and chill from the distant sea, wailing
+and moaning round the unseen pillars and pinnacles of the mighty building
+above. Except the sacred precincts themselves, this was perhaps the only
+place of security left to the defenders of Jerusalem; and here, within a
+spear's-length of each other, they had bound the two Christians, doomed by
+the Sanhedrim to die. Provided with a morsel of bread, scarce as it was,
+and a jar of water, supplied by that spurious mercy which keeps the
+condemned alive in order to put him to death, they had seen the Sabbath,
+with its glowing hours of fierce pitiless heat, pass slowly and wearily
+away; they had dragged through the long watches of the succeeding night,
+and now they were on the brink of that day, which was to be their last on
+earth.
+
+Esca stirred uneasily where he sat; and the movement seemed to rouse his
+companion from a fit of deep abstraction, which, judging by the cheerful
+tones of his voice, could have been of no depressing nature.
+
+"It hath been a tedious watch," said Calchas, "and I am glad it is over.
+See, Esca, the sky grows darker and darker, even like our fate on earth.
+In a little while day will come, and with it our great and crowning
+triumph. How glorious will be the light shining on thee and me, in another
+world, an hour after dawn!"
+
+The Briton looked admiringly at his comrade, almost envying him the
+heartfelt happiness and content betrayed by his very accents. He had not
+himself yet arrived at that pinnacle of faith, on which his friend stood
+so confidently; and, indeed, Providence seems to have ordained, that in
+most cases such piety should be gradually and insensibly attained, that
+the ascent should be won slowly step by step, and that even as a man
+breasting a mountain scales height after height, and sees his horizon
+widening mile by mile as he strains towards its crest, so the Christian
+must toil ever upwards, thankful to gain a ridge at a time, though he
+finds that it but leads him to a higher standard and a farther aim; and
+that, though his view is extending all around, and increasing knowledge
+takes in much of which he never dreamed before, the prospect expands but
+as the eye ascends, while every summit gained is an encouragement to
+attempt another, nobler, and higher, and nearer yet to heaven.
+
+"It will be daylight in an hour," said Esca, in a far less cheerful voice,
+"and the cowards will be here to pound us to death against this pavement
+with their cruel stones. I would fain have my bonds cut, and a weapon
+within reach at the last moment, Calchas, and so die at bay amongst them,
+sword in hand!"
+
+"Be thankful that a man's death is not at his own choice," replied Calchas
+gently. "How would poor human nature be perplexed, to take the happy
+method and the proper moment! Be thankful, above all things, for the boon
+of death itself. It was infinite mercy that bade the inevitable deliverer
+wait on sin. What curse could equal an immortality of evil? Would you live
+for ever in such a world as ours if you could? nay, you in your youth, and
+strength, and beauty, would you wish to remain till your form was bent,
+and your beard grey, and your eyes dim? Think, too, of the many deaths you
+might have died,--stricken with leprosy, crouching like a dog in some
+hidden corner of the city, or wasted by famine, gnawing a morsel of offal
+from which the sustenance had long since been extracted by some wretch
+already perished. Or burnt and suffocated amongst the flaming ramparts,
+like the maniple of Romans whom you yourself saw consumed over against the
+Tower of Antonia but a few short days ago!"
+
+"That, at least, was a soldier's death," replied Esca, to whose resolute
+nature the idea of yielding up his life without a struggle seemed so hard.
+"Or I might have fallen by sword-stroke, or spear-thrust, on the wall,
+like a man. But to be stoned to death, as the shepherds stone a jackal in
+his hole! It is a horrible and an ignoble fate!"
+
+"Would you put away from you the great glory that is offered you?" asked
+Calchas gravely. "Would you die but as a heathen, or one of our own
+miserable Robbers and Zealots, of whom the worst do not hesitate to give
+their blood for Jerusalem? Are you not better, and braver, and nobler than
+any of these? Listen, young man, to him who speaks to you now words for
+which he must answer at the great tribunal ere another hour be past. Proud
+should you be of His favour whom you will be permitted to glorify to-day.
+Ashamed, indeed, as feeling your own unworthiness, yet exulting that you,
+a young and inexperienced disciple, should have been ranked amongst the
+leaders and the champions of the true faith. Look upon me, Esca, bound and
+waiting here like yourself for death. For two-score years have I striven
+to follow my Master, with feeble steps, indeed, and many a sad misgiving
+and many a humbling fall. For two-score years have I prayed night and
+morning; first, that I might have strength to persevere in the way that I
+had been taught, so that I might continue amongst His servants, even
+though I were the very lowest of the low. Secondly, that if ever the time
+should come when I was esteemed worthy to suffer for His sake, I might not
+be too much exalted with that glory which I have so thirsted to attain. I
+tell thee, boy, that in an hour's time from now, thou and I shall be
+received by those good and great men of whom I have so often spoken to
+thee, coming forward in shining garments, with outstretched arms, to
+welcome our approach, and lead us into the eternal light of which I dare
+not speak even now, in the place which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,
+nor the heart of man conceived. And all this guerdon is for thee, coming
+into the vineyard at the eleventh hour, yet sharing with those who have
+borne the labour and heat of the day. Oh, Esca, I have loved thee like a
+son, yet from my heart, I cannot wish thee anywhere but bound here by my
+side this night."
+
+The other could not but kindle with his companion's enthusiasm. "Oh, when
+they come," said he, "they shall find me ready. And I too, Calchas,
+believe me, would not flinch from thee now if I could. Nay, if it be His
+will that I must be stoned to death here in the Outer Court of the Temple,
+I have learned from thee, old friend, gratefully and humbly to accept my
+lot. Yet I am but human, Calchas. Thou sayest truly, I lack the long and
+holy training of thy two-score years. I have a tie that binds me fast to
+earth. It is no sin to love Mariamne, and I would fain see her once
+again."
+
+A tear rose to the old man's eye. Chastened, purified, as was his spirit,
+and ready to take its flight for home, he could yet feel for human love.
+Nay, the very ties of kindred were strong within him, here in his place of
+suffering, as they had been at his brother's hearth. It was no small
+subject of congratulation to him, that his confession of faith before the
+Sanhedrim, while it vindicated his master's honour, should at the same
+time have preserved Eleazar's character in the eyes of the nation, while
+his exultation at the prospect of sharing with his disciple the glory of
+martyrdom, was damped by the reflection that Mariamne must grieve
+bitterly, as the human heart will, ere her nobler and holier self could
+become reconciled to her loss. For a moment he spoke not, though his lips
+moved in silent prayer for both, and Esca pursued the subject that
+occupied most of his thoughts even at such an hour as this.
+
+"I would fain see her," he repeated dreamily. "I loved her so well; my
+beautiful Mariamne. And yet it is a selfish and unworthy wish. She would
+suffer so much to look on me lying bound and helpless here. She will know,
+too, when it is over, that my last thought was of her, and it may be she
+will weep because she was not here to catch my last look before I died.
+Tell me, Calchas, I shall surely meet her in that other world? It can be
+no sin to love her as I have loved!"
+
+"No sin," repeated Calchas gravely; "none. The God who bears such love for
+them has called nine-tenths of His creatures to His knowledge through
+their affections. When these are suffered to become the primary object of
+the heart, it may be that He will see fit to crush them in the dust, and
+will smite, with the bitterest of all afflictions, yet only that He may
+heal. How many men have followed the path to heaven that was first pointed
+out by a woman's hand? That a woman hath perhaps gone on to tread,
+beckoning him after her as she vanished, with a holy hopeful smile. No,
+Esca, it is not sin to love as thou hast done; and because thou hast not
+scrupled to give up even this, the great and precious treasure of thy
+heart, for thy master's honour, thou shalt not lose thy reward."
+
+"And I shall see her again," he insisted, clinging yet somewhat to earthly
+feelings and earthly regrets, for was he not but a young and untrained
+disciple? "It seems to me, that it would be unjust to part her from me for
+ever. It seems to me that heaven itself would not be heaven away from
+her!"
+
+"I fear thou art not fit to die," replied Calchas, in a low and sorrowful
+voice. "Pray, my son, pray fervently, unceasingly, that the human heart
+may be taken away from thee, and the new heart given which will fit thee
+for the place whither thou goest to-day. It is not for thee and for me to
+say, 'Give me here, Father, a morsel of bread, or give me there a cup of
+wine.' We need but implore in our prayers, of Infinite Wisdom and Infinite
+Mercy, to grant that which it knows is best for our welfare; and He who
+has taught us how to pray, has bidden us, even before we ask for food,
+acknowledge a humble unquestioning resignation to the will of our Father
+which is in heaven. Leave all to Him, my son, satisfied that He will grant
+thee what is best for thy welfare. Distress not thyself with weak
+misgivings, nor subtle reasonings, nor vain inquiries. Trust, only trust
+and pray, here in the court of death, as yonder on the rampart, or at home
+by the beloved hearth, so shalt thou obtain the victory; for, indeed, the
+battle draweth nigh. The watches of the night are past, and it is already
+time to buckle on our armour for the fight."
+
+While he spoke the old man pointed to the east, where the first faint
+tinge of dawn was stealing up into the sky. Looking into his companion's
+face, only now becoming visible in the dull twilight, he was struck with
+the change that a few hours of suffering and imprisonment had wrought upon
+those fair young features. Esca seemed ten years older in that one day and
+night; nor could Calchas repress a throb of exultation, as he thought how
+his own time-worn frame and feeble nature had been supported by the strong
+faith within. The feeling, however, was but momentary, for the Christian
+identified himself at once with the suffering and the sorrowful; nor would
+he have hesitated in the hearty self-sacrificing spirit that his faith had
+taught him, that no other faith either provides or enjoins, to take on his
+own shoulders the burden that seemed so hard for his less-advanced brother
+to bear. It was no self-confidence that gave the willing martyr such
+invincible courage; but it was the thorough abnegation of self, the entire
+dependence on Him, who alone never fails man at his need, the fervent
+faith, which could see so clearly through the mists of time and humanity,
+as to accept the infinite and the eternal for the visible, and the
+tangible, and the real.
+
+They seemed to have changed places now; that doomed pair waiting in their
+bonds for death. The near approach of morning seemed to call forth the
+exulting spirit of the warrior in the older man, to endow the younger with
+the humble resignation of the saint.
+
+"Pray for me that I may be thought worthy," whispered the latter, pointing
+upwards to the grey light widening every moment above their heads.
+
+"Be of good cheer," replied the other, his whole face kindling with a
+triumphant smile. "Behold, the day is breaking, and thou and I have done
+with night, henceforth, for evermore!"
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XV
+
+                                FANATICISM
+
+
+While faith has its martyrs, fanaticism also can boast its soldiers and
+its champions. Calchas in his bonds was not more in earnest than Eleazar
+in his breastplate; but the zeal that brought peace to the one, goaded the
+other into a restless energy of defiance, which amounted in itself to
+torture.
+
+The chief of the Zealots was preparing for the great struggle that his
+knowledge of warfare, no less than the words of his brother before the
+Sanhedrim (words which yet rang in his ears with a vague monotony of
+repetition), led him to expect with morning. Soon after midnight, he had
+woke from the slumber in which Mariamne left him wrapped, and without
+making inquiry for his daughter, or indeed taking any thought of her, he
+had armed himself at once and prepared to visit the renewed defences with
+the first glimpse of day. To do so he was obliged to pass through the
+Court of the Gentiles, where his brother and his friend lay bound; for in
+the strength of the Temple itself consisted the last hopes of the
+besieged, and its security was of the more importance now that the whole
+of the lower town was in possession of the enemy. Eleazar had decided that
+if necessary he would abandon the rest of the city to the Romans, and
+throwing himself with a chosen band into this citadel and fortress of his
+faith, would hold it to the last, and rather pollute the sacred places
+with his blood, than surrender them into the hand of the Gentiles.
+Sometimes, in his more exalted moments, he persuaded himself that even at
+the extremity of their need, Heaven would interpose for the rescue of the
+chosen people. As a member of the Sanhedrim and one of the chief nobility
+of the nation, he had not failed to acquire the rudiments of that magic
+lore, which was called the science of divination. Formerly, while in
+compliance with custom he mastered the elements of the art, his strong
+intellect laughed to scorn the power it pretended to confer, and the
+mysteries it professed to expound. Now, harassed by continual anxiety,
+sapped by grief and privation, warped by the unvaried predominance of one
+idea, the sane mind sought refuge in the shadowy possibilities of the
+supernatural, from the miseries and horrors of its daily reality.
+
+He recalled the prodigies, of which, though he had not himself been an
+eye-witness, he had heard from credible and trustworthy sources. They
+could not have been sent, he thought, only to alarm and astonish an
+ignorant multitude. Signs and wonders must have been addressed to him, and
+men like him, leaders and rulers of the people. He never doubted now that
+a sword of fire had been seen flaming over the city in the midnight sky;
+that a heifer, driven there for sacrifice, had brought forth a lamb in the
+midst of the Temple; or that the great sacred gate of brass in the same
+building had opened of its own accord in the middle watch of the night;
+nay, that chariots and horsemen of fire had been seen careering in the
+heavens, and fierce battles raging from the horizon to the zenith, with
+alternate tide of conquest and defeat, with all the slaughter and
+confusion and vicissitudes of mortal war.(22)
+
+These considerations endowed him with the exalted confidence which borders
+on insanity. As the dreamer finds himself possessed of supernatural
+strength and daring, attempting and achieving feats which yet he knows the
+while are impossibilities, so Eleazar, walking armed through the waning
+night towards the Temple, almost believed that with his own right hand he
+could save his country--almost hoped that with daylight he should find an
+angel or a fiend at his side empowered to assist him, and resolved that he
+would accept the aid of either, with equal gratitude and delight.
+
+Nevertheless, as he entered the cloisters that surrounded the Court of the
+Gentiles, his proud crest sank, his step grew slower and less assured.
+Nature prevailed for an instant, and he would fain have gone over to that
+gloomy corner, and bidden his brother a last kind farewell. The
+possibility even crossed his brain of drawing his sword and setting the
+prisoners free by a couple of strokes, bidding them escape in the
+darkness, and shift for themselves; but the fanaticism which had been so
+long gaining on his better judgment, checked the healthy impulse as it
+arose. "It may be," thought the Zealot, "that this last great sacrifice is
+required from me--from me, Eleazar Ben-Manahem, chosen to save my people
+from destruction this day. Shall I grudge the victim, bound as he is now
+with cords to the altar? No, not though my father's blood will redden it
+when he dies. Shall I spare the brave young Gentile, who hath been to me
+as a kinsman, though but a stranger within my gate, if his life too be
+required for an oblation? No! not though my child's heart will break when
+she learns that he is gone forth into the night, never to return. Jephthah
+grudged not his daughter to redeem his vow; shall I murmur to yield the
+lives of all my kindred, freely as mine own, for the salvation of
+Jerusalem?" And thus thinking, he steeled himself against every softer
+feeling, and resolved he would not even bid the prisoners farewell. He
+could not trust himself. It might unman him. It might destroy his
+fortitude; nay, it might even offend the vengeance he hoped to propitiate.
+Besides, if he were known to have held communication with two professed
+Christians, where would be the popularity and influence on which he
+calculated to bear him in triumph through the great decisive struggle of
+the day? It was better to stifle such foolish yearnings. It was wiser to
+harden his heart and pass by on the other side.
+
+Nevertheless he paused for a moment and stretched his arms with a yearning
+gesture towards that corner in which his brother lay bound, and, while he
+did so, a light step glided by in the gloom; a light figure passed so near
+that it almost touched him, and a woman's lips were pressed to the hem of
+his garment with a long clinging kiss, that bade him a last farewell.
+
+Mariamne, returning to the city by the secret way from her interview with
+Valeria in the Roman camp, had been careful not to enter her father's
+house, lest her absence might have been discovered, and her liberty of
+action for the future impaired. She would have liked to see that father
+once more; but all other considerations were swallowed up in the thought
+of Esca's danger, and the yearning to die with him if her efforts had been
+too late to save. She sped accordingly through the dark streets to the
+Temple, despising, or rather ignoring, those dangers which had so
+terrified her in her progress during the earlier part of the night. While
+she stole under the shadow of the cloisters towards her lover, her ear
+recognised the sound of a familiar step, and her eye, accustomed to the
+gloom, and sharpened by a child's affection, made out the figure of her
+father, armed and on his way to the wall. She could not but remember that
+the morning light which was to bring certain death to Esca, might not,
+improbably shine upon Eleazar's corpse as well. He would defend the place
+she knew to the last drop of his blood; and the Roman would never enter
+the Temple but over the Zealot's body. She could never hope to see him
+again, the father whom, notwithstanding his fierceness and his faults, she
+could not choose but love. And all she could do was to shed a tear upon
+his garment, and wish him this silent and unacknowledged farewell. Thus it
+was that Eleazar bore with him into the battle the last caress he was ever
+destined to receive from his child.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XVI
+
+                                   DAWN
+
+
+The day soon broke in earnest, cold and pale on the towers and pinnacles
+of the Temple. The lofty dome that had been looming in the sky, grand and
+grey and indistinct, like the mass of clouds that rolls away before the
+pure clear eye of morning, glowed with a flush of pink; and changed again
+to its own glittering white of polished marble, as its crest caught the
+full beams of the rising sun. Ere long the golden roof was sparkling here
+and there in points of fire, to blaze out at last in one dazzling sheet of
+flame; but still the Court of the Gentiles below was wrapped in gloom, and
+the two bound figures in its darkest corner, turned their pale faces
+upward to greet the advent of another day--their last on earth.
+
+But their attention was soon recalled to the court itself; for through the
+dark recesses of the vaulted cloisters, was winding an ominous procession
+of those who had been their judges, and who now approached to seal the
+fiat of their doom. Clad in long dark robes, and headed by their "Nasi,"
+they paced slowly out, marching two by two with solemn step and stern
+unpitying mien: it was obvious that the Sanhedrim adhered strictly to that
+article of their code, which enjoined them to perform justice without
+mercy. Gravely advancing with the same slow step, gradual and inevitable
+as time, they ranged themselves in a semicircle round the prisoners--then
+halted every man at the same moment; while all exclaimed as with one
+voice, to notify their completion and their unanimity--
+
+"Here in the presence of the Lord!"
+
+Again a deathlike silence, intolerable, and apparently interminable to the
+condemned. Even Calchas felt his heart burn with a keen sense of injustice
+and a strange instinct of resistance; while Esca, rising to his full
+height, and in spite of his bonds, folding his brawny arms across his
+chest, frowned back at the pitiless assembly a defiance that seemed to
+challenge them to do their worst. Matthias the son of Boethus then stepped
+forward from amongst his fellows; and addressed, according to custom, the
+youngest member of the Sanhedrim.
+
+"Phineas Ben-Ezra. Hath the doom gone forth?"
+
+"It hath gone forth through the nation," answered Phineas, in deep
+sonorous tones. "To north and south, to east and west; to all the people
+of Judaea hath the inevitable decree been made manifest. The accuser hath
+spoken and prevailed. The accused have been judged and condemned. It is
+well. Let the sentence be executed without delay!"
+
+"Phineas Ben-Ezra," interposed Matthias, "can the condemned put forth no
+plea for pardon or reprieve?"
+
+It was according to ancient custom that the Nasi should even at the last
+moment urge this merciful appeal--an appeal that never obtained a moment's
+respite for the most innocent of sufferers. Ere Calchas or Esca could have
+said a word on their own behalf, Phineas took upon himself the established
+reply--
+
+"The voice of the Sanhedrim hath spoken! There is no plea; there is no
+pardon; there is no reprieve."
+
+Then Matthias raised both hands above his head, and spoke in low grave
+accents--
+
+"For the accused, justice; for the offender, death. The Sanhedrim hath
+heard; the Sanhedrim hath judged; the Sanhedrim hath condemned. It is
+written, 'If a man be found guilty of blasphemy, let him be stoned with
+stones until he die!' Again I say unto you, Calchas Ben-Manahem, and you,
+Esca the Gentile, your blood be upon your own heads."
+
+Lowering his hands, the signal was at once answered by the inward rush of
+some score or two of vigorous young men, who had been in readiness outside
+the court. These were stripped to the waist, and had their loins girt.
+Some bore huge stones in their bare arms; others, loosening the pavement
+with crow and pick-axe, stooped down and tore it up with a fierce and
+cruel energy, as though they had already been kept waiting too long. They
+were followers of John of Gischala, and their chief, though he took no
+part in the proceeding, stood at their head. His first glance was one of
+savage triumph, which faded into no less savage disappointment, as he saw
+Eleazar's place vacant in the assembly of judges--that warrior's duties
+against the enemy excusing his attendance on the occasion. John had
+counted on this critical moment for the utter discomfiture of his rival;
+but the latter, whose fortitude, strung as it had been to the highest
+pitch, could scarcely have carried him through such a trial as was
+prepared for him, had escaped it by leading a chosen band of followers to
+the post of danger, where the inner wall was weakest, and the breach so
+lately made had been hastily and insufficiently repaired.
+
+John saw in this well-timed absence another triumph for his invincible
+enemy. He turned away with a curse upon his lips, and ordered the young
+men to proceed at once in the execution of their ghastly duty. It seemed
+to him that he must not lose a moment in following his rival to the wall,
+yet he could not resist the brutal pleasure of witnessing that rival's
+brother lying defaced and mangled in the horrible death to which he had
+been condemned. Already the stones were poised, the fierce brows knit, the
+bare arms raised, when even the savage executioners held their hands, and
+the grim Sanhedrim glanced from one to another, half in uncertainty, half
+in pity, at what they beheld. The figure of a woman darting from the
+gloomy cloister, rushed across the court to fall in Esca's arms with a
+strange wild cry, not quite a shout of triumph, not quite a shriek of
+despair; and the Briton looking down upon Mariamne, folded her head to his
+breast, with a murmur of manly tenderness that even such a moment could
+not repress, while he shielded her with his body from the threatened
+missiles, in mingled gentleness and defiance, as a wild animal turned to
+bay protects its young.
+
+She passed her hands across his brow with a fond impulsive caress. With a
+woman's instinct, too, of care and compassion, she gently stroked his
+wrist where it had been chafed and galled by his bonds; then she smiled up
+in his face, a loving happy smile, and whispered, "My own, my dear one;
+they shall never part us. If I cannot save thee, I can die with thee; oh!
+so happy. Happier than I have ever been before in my life."
+
+It was a strange feeling for him to shrink from the beloved presence, to
+avoid the desired caress, to entreat his Mariamne to leave him; but though
+his first impulse had been to clasp her in his arms, his blood ran cold to
+think of the danger she was braving, the fate to which those tender limbs,
+that fair young delicate body, would too surely be exposed.
+
+"No, no," he said, "not so. You are too young, too beautiful to die.
+Mariamne, if you ever loved me--nay, as you love me, I charge you to leave
+me now."
+
+She looked at Calchas, whom she had not yet seemed to recognise, and there
+was a smile--yes! a smile on her face, while she stood forth between the
+prisoners, and fronted that whole assembly with dauntless forehead and
+brave flashing eyes; her fair slight figure the one centre of all
+observation, the one prominent object in the court.
+
+"Listen," she said, in clear sweet tones, that rang like music to the very
+farthest cloisters. "Listen all, and bear witness! Princes of the House of
+Judah, elders and nobles, and priests and Levites of the nation! ye cannot
+shrink from your duty, ye cannot put off your sacred character. I appeal
+to your own constitution and your own awful vow. Ye have sworn to obey the
+dictates of wisdom without favour; ye have sworn to fulfil the behests of
+justice without mercy. I charge ye to condemn me, Mariamne, the daughter
+of Eleazar Ben-Manahem, to be stoned with stones until I die; for that I
+too am one of those Nazarenes whom men call Christians. Yea, I triumph in
+their belief, as I glory in their name. Ye need no evidence, for I condemn
+myself out of my own mouth. Priests of my father's faith, here in its very
+Temple I deny your holiness, I abjure your worship, I renounce your creed!
+This building that overshadows me shall testify to my denunciations. It
+may be that this very day it shall fall in upon you and cover you with its
+ruins. If these have spoken blasphemy, so have I; if these are offenders
+worthy of death, so am I. I bear witness against you! I defy you! I bid
+you do your worst on those who are proud and happy to die for conscience'
+sake!"
+
+Her cheek glowed, her eye flashed, her very figure dilated as she shook
+her white hand aloft, and thus braved the assembled Sanhedrim with her
+defiance. It was strange how like Eleazar she was at that moment, while
+the rich old blood of Manahem mounted in her veins; and the courage of her
+fathers, that of yore had smitten the armed Philistine in the wilderness,
+and turned the fierce children of Moab in the very tide of conquest, now
+blazed forth at the moment of danger in the fairest and gentlest
+descendant of their line. Even her very tones thrilled to the heart of
+Calchas, not so much for her own sake, as for that of the brother whom he
+so loved, and whose voice he seemed to hear in hers. Esca gazed on her
+with a fond astonishment; and John of Gischala quailed where he stood, as
+he thought of his noble enemy, and the hereditary courage he had done more
+wisely not to have driven to despair.
+
+But the tension of her nerves was too much for her woman's strength.
+Bravely she hurled her challenge in their very teeth; and then, shaking in
+every limb, she leaned against the Briton's towering form, and hid her
+face once more on his breast.
+
+Even the Nasi was moved. Stern, rigid, and exacting, yet apart from his
+office he too had human affections and human weaknesses. He had mourned
+for more than one brave son, he had loved more than one dark-eyed
+daughter. He would have spared her if he could, and he bit his lip hard
+under the long white beard, in a vain effort to steady the quiver he could
+not control. He looked appealingly amongst his colleagues, and met many an
+eye that obviously sympathised with his tendency to mercy; but John of
+Gischala interposed, and cried out loudly for justice to be done without
+delay.
+
+"Ye have heard her!" he exclaimed, with an assumption of holy and zealous
+indignation; "out of her own mouth she is condemned. What need ye more
+proof or further deliberation? The doom has gone forth. I appeal to the
+Sanhedrim that justice be done, in the name of our faith, our nation, our
+Temple, and our Holy City, which such righteous acts as these may preserve
+even now from the desolation that is threatening at the very gate!"
+
+With such an assembly, such an appeal admitted of no refusal. The Seventy
+looked from one to another and shook their heads, sorrowfully indeed, but
+with knitted brows and grave stern faces that denoted no intention to
+spare. Already Phineas Ben-Ezra had given the accustomed signal; already
+the young men appointed as executioners had closed round the doomed three,
+with huge blunt missiles poised, and prepared to launch them forth, when
+another interruption arrived to delay for a while the cruel sacrifice that
+a Jewish Sanhedrim dignified with the title of justice.
+
+A voice that had been often heard before, though never so wild and
+piercing as at this moment, rang through the Court of the Gentiles, and
+seemed to wail among the very pinnacles of the Temple towering in the
+morning air above. It was a voice that struck to the hearts of all who
+heard it--such a voice as terrifies men in their dreams; chilling the
+blood, and making the flesh creep with a vague yet unendurable horror, so
+that when the pale sleeper wakes, he is drenched with the cold sweat of
+mortal fear. A voice that seemed at once to threaten and to warn, to pity
+and to condemn; a voice of which the moan and the burden were ever
+unbroken and the same--"Woe to Jerusalem! Woe to the Holy City! Sin, and
+sorrow, and desolation! Woe to the Holy City! Woe to Jerusalem!"
+
+Naked, save for a fold of camel's hair around his loins, his coarse black
+locks matted and tangled, and mingled with the uncombed beard that reached
+below his waist--his dark eyes gleaming with lurid fire, and his long lean
+arms tossing aloft with the wild gestures of insanity--a tall figure
+stalked into the middle of the court, and taking up its position before
+the Nasi of the Sanhedrim, began scattering around it on the floor the
+burning embers from a brazier it bore on its head; accompanying its
+actions with the same mournful and prophetic cry. The young men paused
+with their arms up in act to hurl; the Nasi stood motionless and
+astonished; the Sanhedrim seemed paralysed with fear; and the Prophet of
+Warning, if prophet indeed he were, proceeded with his chant of vengeance
+and denunciation against his countrymen.
+
+"Woe to Jerusalem!" said he once more. "Woe to the Holy City! A voice from
+the East, a voice from the West, a voice from the four winds; a voice
+against Jerusalem and the holy house; a voice against the bridegrooms and
+the brides; and a voice against the whole people!"
+
+Then he turned aside and walked round the prisoners in a circle, still
+casting burning ashes on the floor. Matthias, like his colleagues, was
+puzzled how to act. If this were a demoniac, he entertained for him a
+natural horror and aversion, enhanced by the belief he held, in common
+with his countrymen, that one possessed had the strength of a score of men
+in his single arm; but what if this should be a true prophet, inspired
+directly from heaven? The difficulty would then become far greater. To
+endeavour to suppress him might provoke divine vengeance on the spot;
+whereas, to suffer his denunciations to go abroad amongst the people as
+having prevailed with the Great Council of the nation, would be to abandon
+the inhabitants at once to despair, and to yield up all hope of offering a
+successful defence to the coming attack. From this dilemma the Nasi was
+released by the last person on whom he could have counted for assistance
+at such a time. Pointing to the prisoners with his wasted arm, the prophet
+demanded their instant release, threatening divine vengeance on the
+Sanhedrim if they refused; and then addressing the three with the same
+wild gestures and incoherent language, he bade them come forth from their
+bonds, and join him in his work of prophecy through the length and breadth
+of the city.
+
+"I have power to bind," he exclaimed, "and power to loose! I command you
+to rend your bonds asunder! I command you to come forth, and join me, the
+Prophet of Warning, in the cry that I am commissioned to cry aloud,
+without ceasing--'Woe to Jerusalem! Woe to the Holy City! Woe to
+Jerusalem!'"
+
+Then Calchas, stretching out his bound hands, rebuked him, calmly, mildly,
+solemnly, with the patience of a good and holy man--with the instinctive
+superiority of one who is standing on the verge of his open grave.
+
+"Wilt thou hinder God's work?" he said. "Wilt thou dare to suppress the
+testimony we are here to give in His presence to-day? See! even this young
+girl, weak indeed in body yet strong in faith, stands bold and unflinching
+at her post! And thou, O man! what art thou, that thou shouldst think to
+come between her and her glorious reward? Be still! be still! Be no more
+vexed by the unquiet spirit, but go in peace, or rather stay here in the
+Court of the Gentiles, and bear witness to the truth, for which we are so
+thankful and so proud to die!"
+
+The prophet's eye wandered dreamily from the speaker's face to those of
+the surrounding listeners. His features worked as though he strove against
+some force within that he was powerless to resist; then his whole frame
+collapsed, as it were, into a helpless apathy, and placing his brazier on
+the ground, he sat down beside it, rocking his body to and fro, while he
+moaned out, as it seemed unconsciously, in a low and wailing voice, the
+burden of his accustomed chant.
+
+To many in the assembly that scene was often present in their after lives.
+When they opened their eyes to the light of morning they saw its glow once
+more on the bewildered faces of the Sanhedrim; on the displeasure, mingled
+with wonder and admiration, that ruffled the austere brow of Matthias; on
+the downward scowl that betrayed how shame and fear were torturing John of
+Gischala; on the clear-cut figures of the young men he had marshalled,
+girded and ready for their cruel office; on Esca's towering frame, haughty
+and undaunted still; on Mariamne's drooping form, and pale patient face;
+above all, on the smile that illumined the countenance of Calchas,
+standing there in his bonds, so venerable, and meek, and happy, now
+turning to encourage his companions in affliction, now raising his eyes
+thankfully to heaven, his whole form irradiated the while by a flood of
+light, that seemed richer and more lustrous than the glow of the morning
+sun.
+
+But while the prophet, thus tranquillised and silenced by the rebuke he
+had provoked, sat muttering and brooding amongst his dying embers on the
+floor; while the Sanhedrim, with their Nasi, stood aghast; while John of
+Gischala gnawed his lip in impatient vindictive hatred; and the young men
+gathered closer round their victims, as the wolves gather in upon their
+prey,--Mariamne raised her head from Esca's breast, and, pushing the hair
+back from her ears and temples, stood for an instant erect and motionless,
+with every faculty absorbed in the one sense of listening. Then she turned
+her flashing eyes, lit up with great hope and triumph, yet not untinged by
+wistful mournful tenderness, upon the Briton's face, and sobbed in broken
+accents, between tears and laughter--
+
+"Saved! Saved! beloved. And by my hand, though lost to me!"
+
+Sharpened by intense affection, her ear alone had caught the distant note
+of the Roman trumpets sounding for the assault.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVII
+
+                             THE FIRST STONE
+
+
+                               [Initial B]
+
+But the young men would hold their hands no longer. Impatient of delay,
+and encouraged by a sign from their leader, they rushed in upon the
+prisoners. Esca shielded Mariamne with his body. Calchas, pale and
+motionless, calmly awaited his fate. Gioras, the son of Simeon, a
+prominent warrior amongst the Sicarii, hurling on him a block of granite
+with merciless energy, struck the old man bleeding to the earth; but while
+the missile left his hands--while he yet stood erect and with extended
+arms, a Roman arrow quivered in the aggressor's heart. He fell upon his
+face stone dead at the very feet of his victim. That random shaft was but
+the first herald of the storm. In another moment a huge mass of rock,
+projected from a powerful catapult against the building, falling short of
+its mark, struck the prophet as he sat moaning on the ground, and crushed
+him a lifeless, shapeless mass beneath its weight. Then rose a cry of
+despair from the outer wall--a confused noise of strife and shouting, the
+peal of the trumpets, the cheer of the conquerors, the wild roar of
+defiance and despair from the besieged. Ere long fugitives were pouring
+through the court, seeking the shelter of the Temple itself. There was no
+time to complete the execution--no time to think of the prisoners. John of
+Gischala, summoning his adherents, and bidding the young men hasten for
+their armour, betook himself to his stronghold within the Sacred Place.
+The Sanhedrim fled in consternation, although Matthias and the braver of
+his colleagues died afterwards in the streets, as became them, under
+shield. In a few minutes the Court of the Gentiles was again clear, save
+for the prisoners, one of whom was bound, and one mangled and bleeding on
+the pavement, tended by Mariamne, who bent over her kinsman in speechless
+sorrow and consternation. The fragment of rock, too, which had been
+propelled against the Temple, lay in the centre, over the crushed and
+flattened body of the prophet, whose hand and arm alone protruded from
+beneath the mass. The place did not thus remain in solitude for long.
+Fighting their retreat step by step, and, although driven backward,
+contesting every yard with their faces to the enemy, the flower of the
+Jewish army soon passed through, in the best order they could maintain, as
+they retired upon the Temple. Among the last of these was Eleazar;
+hopeless now, for he knew all was lost, but brave and unconquered still.
+He cast one look of affection at his brother's prostrate form, one of
+astonishment and reproof on his kneeling child; but ere he could approach
+or even speak to her, he was swept on with the resistless tide of the
+defeated, ebbing before the advance of the Roman host.
+
+And now Esca's eye kindled, and his blood mounted, to a well-known battle-
+cry. He had heard it in the deadly circus; he had heard it on the
+crumbling breach; he had heard it wherever blows rained hard and blood
+flowed free, and men fought doggedly and hopelessly, without a chance or a
+wish for escape. His heart leaped to the cheer of the gladiators, rising
+fierce, reckless, and defiant above all the combined din of war, and he
+knew that his old comrades and late antagonists had carried the defences
+with their wonted bravery, as they led the Roman army to the assault.
+
+The Legion of the Lost had indeed borne themselves nobly on this occasion.
+Their leader had not spared them; for Hippias well knew that to-day, with
+the handful left him by slaughter and disease, he must play his last stake
+for riches and distinction; nor had his followers failed to answer
+gallantly to his call. Though opposed by Eleazar himself and the best he
+could muster, they had carried the breach at the first onset--they had
+driven the Jews before them with a wild headlong charge that no courage
+could resist, and they had entered the outskirts of the Temple almost at
+the same moment with its discomfited defenders. It was their trumpets
+sounding the advance that reached Mariamne's ear as she stood in the Court
+of the Gentiles, awaiting the vengeance she had defied. And amongst this
+courageous band two combatants had especially signalised themselves by
+feats of reckless and unusual daring. The one was old Hirpinus, who felt
+thoroughly in his element in such a scene, and whose natural valour was
+enhanced by the consciousness of the superiority he had now attained as a
+soldier over his former profession of a gladiator. The other was a comrade
+whom none could identify; who was conspicuous no less from his flowing
+locks, his beautiful form, and his golden armour, than from the audacity
+with which he courted danger, and the immunity he seemed to enjoy, in
+common with those who display a real contempt for death.
+
+As he followed the golden headpiece and the long brown hair, that made way
+so irresistibly through the press, more than one stout swordsman exulted
+in the belief that some tutelary deity of his country had descended in
+human shape to aid the Roman arms; and Titus himself inquired, and waited
+in vain for an answer, "Who was that dashing warrior, with white arms and
+shining corselet, leading the gladiators so gallantly to the attack?"
+
+But old Hirpinus knew, and smiled within his helmet as he fought. "The
+captain is well rid of her," thought he, congratulating himself the while
+on his own freedom from such inconveniences. "For all her comely face and
+winning laugh, I had rather have a tigress loose in my tent than this
+fair, fickle, fighting fury, who takes to shield and spear as other women
+do to the shuttle and the distaff!"
+
+Valeria, in truth, deserved little credit for her bravery. While
+apprehension of danger never for a moment overmastered her, the excitement
+of its presence seemed to offer a temporary relief to her wounded and
+remorseful heart. In the fierce rush of battle she had no leisure to dwell
+on thoughts that had lately tortured her to madness; and the very physical
+exertion such a scene demanded, brought with it, although she was
+unconscious of its severity, a sure anodyne for mental suffering. Like all
+persons, too, who are unaccustomed to bodily perils, the impunity with
+which she affronted each imparted an overweening confidence in her good
+fortune, and an undue contempt for the next, till it seemed to herself
+that she bore a charmed life; and that, though man after man might fall at
+her side as she fought on, _she_ was destined to fulfil her task
+unscathed, and reach the presence of Esca in time to save him from
+destruction, even though she should die the next minute at his feet.
+
+The two first assailants who entered the Court of the Gentiles were
+Valeria, in her golden armour, and Hirpinus, brandishing the short deadly
+weapon he knew how to use so well. They were close together; but the
+former paused to look around, and the gladiator, rushing to the front,
+made for his old comrade, whom he recognised on the instant. His haste,
+however, nearly proved fatal. The heavily-nailed sandals that he wore
+afforded but a treacherous foothold on the smooth stone pavement, his feet
+slipped from under him, and he came with a heavy back-fall to the ground.
+_Habet!_(23) exclaimed Hippias, from the sheer force of custom, following
+close upon his tracks; but he strained eagerly forward to defend his
+prostrate comrade while he spoke, and found himself instantly engaged with
+a score of Jewish warriors, who came swarming back like bees to settle on
+the fallen gladiator. Hirpinus, however, covered his body skilfully under
+his shield, and defended himself bravely with his sword--dealing more than
+one fatal thrust at such of his assailants as were rash enough to believe
+him vanquished because down. As more of the gladiators came pouring in,
+they were opposed by troops of the Jews, who, with Eleazar at their head,
+made a desperate sally from the Temple to which they had retired, and a
+fierce hand-to-hand struggle, that lasted several minutes, took place
+round Hirpinus in the centre of the court. When he at length regained his
+feet, his powerful aid soon made itself felt in the fray, and the Jews,
+though fighting stubbornly still, were obliged once more to retreat before
+the increasing columns of the besiegers.
+
+Valeria, in the meantime, rushing through the court to where she spied a
+well-known form struggling in its bonds, came across the path of Eleazar,
+at whom she delivered a savage thrust as she met him, lest he should
+impede her course. The fierce Jew, who had enough on his hands at such a
+moment, and was pressing eagerly forward into the thickest of the
+struggle, was content to parry the stroke with his javelin, and launch
+that weapon in return at his assailant, while he passed on. The cruel
+missile did its errand only too well. The broad thirsty point clove
+through a crevice in her golden corselet, and sank deep in her white
+tender side, to drink the life-blood of the woman-warrior as she sped
+onward in fulfilment of her fatal task. Breaking the javelin's shaft in
+her hands, and flinging the fragments from her with a scornful smile,
+Valeria found strength to cross the court, nor did her swift step falter,
+nor did her proud bearing betray wounds or weakness, till she reached
+Esca's side. A loving smile of recognition, two strokes of her sharp
+blade, and he was free! but as the severed bonds fell from his arms, and
+he stretched them forth in the delight of restored liberty, his deliverer,
+throwing away sword and shield, seized his hand in both her own, and,
+pressing it convulsively to her bosom, sank down helpless on the pavement
+at his feet.
+
+  [Illustration: Sank down helpless on the pavement at his feet.]
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVIII
+
+                           THE COST OF CONQUEST
+
+
+Mariamne turned from the still insensible form of Calchas to the beautiful
+face, that even now, though pale from exhaustion and warped with agony, it
+pained her to see so fair. Gently and tenderly she lifted the golden
+helmet from Valeria's brows; gently and tenderly she smoothed the rich
+brown hair, and wiped away the dews of coming death. Compassion,
+gratitude, and an ardent desire to soothe and tend the sufferer left no
+room for bitterness or unworthy feeling in Mariamne's breast. Valeria had
+redeemed her promise with her life--had ransomed the man whom they both
+loved so dearly, at that fatal price, for _her_! and the Jewess could only
+think of all she owed the Roman lady in return; could only strive to tend
+and comfort her, and minister to her wants, and support her in the awful
+moment she did not fail to see was fast approaching. The dying woman's
+face was turned on her with a sweet sad smile; but when Mariamne's touch
+softly approached the head of her father's javelin, still protruding from
+the wound, Valeria stayed her hand.
+
+"Not yet," she whispered with a noble effort that steadied voice and lips,
+and kept down mortal agony; "not yet; for I know too well I am stricken to
+the death. While the steel is there it serves to stanch the life-blood.
+When I draw it out, then scatter a handful of dust over my forehead, and
+lay the death-penny on my tongue. I would fain last a few moments longer,
+Esca, were it but to look on thy dear face! Raise me, both of you. I have
+somewhat to say, and my time is short."
+
+The Briton propped her in his strong arms, and she leaned her head against
+his shoulder with a gesture of contentment and relief. The winning eyes
+had lost none of their witchery yet, though soon to be closed in death.
+Perhaps they never shone with so soft and sweet a lustre as now, while
+they looked upon the object of a wild, foolish, and impossible love. While
+one white hand was laid upon the javelin's head, and held it in its place,
+the other wandered over Esca's features in a fond caress, to be wetted
+with his tears. Her voice was failing, her strength was ebbing fast, but
+the brave spirit of the Mutian line held out, tameless and unshaken still.
+
+"I have conquered," gasped the Roman lady, in broken accents and with
+quick-coming breath. "I have conquered, though at the cost of life. What
+then? Victory can never be bought too dear. Esca, I swore to rescue thee.
+I swore thou shouldst be mine. Now have I kept my oath. I have bought thee
+with my blood, and I give thee--_give_ thee, my own, to this brave girl,
+who risked her life to save thee too, and who loves thee well; but not so
+well, not half so well, as I have done. Esca, my noble one, come closer,
+closer yet." She drew his face down nearer and nearer to her own while she
+guided his hand to the javelin's head, still fast in her side. "I can bear
+this agony no longer," she gasped, "but it is not hard to die in thine
+arms, and by thy dear hand!"
+
+Thus speaking, she closed his grasp within her own, round the steel, and
+drew it gently from the wound. The blood welled up in dark-red jets to
+pour forth, as it cleared its channel, in one continuous stream that soon
+drained life away. With a quiver of her dainty limbs, with a smile
+deepening in her fair face, with her fond eyes fixed on the man she loved,
+and her lips pressed against his hand, the spirit of that beautiful,
+imperious, and wilful woman passed away into eternity.
+
+Blinded by their tears, neither Esca nor Mariamne were, for the moment,
+conscious of aught but the sad fate of her who had twice saved the one
+from death, and to whom the other had so lately appealed as the only
+source of aid in her great need. Dearly as he loved the living woman by
+his side, the Briton could not refrain from a burst of bitter sorrow while
+he looked on the noble form of Valeria lying dead at his feet; and
+Mariamne forgot her own griefs, her own injuries, in holy pity for her who
+had sacrificed virtue, happiness, wealth, life itself in his behalf, whom
+she, too, loved more dearly than it behoves human weakness to love
+anything this side the grave.
+
+But the living now claimed that attention which it availed no longer to
+bestow upon the dead. Calchas, though sadly bruised and mangled, began to
+show signs of restored life. The stone that stretched him on the pavement
+had, indeed, dealt a fatal injury; but though it stunned him for a time,
+had failed to inflict instantaneous death. The colour was now returning to
+his cheek, his breath came in long deep sighs, and he raised his hand to
+his head with a gesture of renewed consciousness, denoted by a sense of
+pain. Esca, careless and almost unaware of the conflict raging around,
+bent sorrowfully over his old friend, and devoted all his faculties to the
+task of aiding Mariamne in her efforts to alleviate his sufferings.
+
+In the meantime, the tide of battle surged to and fro, with increasing
+volume and unmitigated fury. The Legion of the Lost, flushed with success,
+and secure of support from the whole Roman army in their rear, pressed the
+Jews, with the exulting and unremitting energy of the hunter closing in on
+his prey. These, like the wild beasts driven to the toils, turned to bay
+with the dreadful courage of despair. Led by Eleazar, who was ever present
+where most needed, they made repeated sallies from the body of the Temple,
+endeavouring to regain the ground they had lost, at least as far as the
+entrance to the Court of the Gentiles. This became, therefore, an arena in
+which many a mortal combat was fought out hand to hand, and was several
+times taken and retaken with alternate success.
+
+Hippias, according to his wont, was conspicuous in the fray. It was his
+ambition to lead his gladiators into the Holy Place itself, before Titus
+should come up, and with such an object he seemed to outdo to-day the
+daring feats of valour for which he had previously been celebrated.
+Hirpinus, who had no sooner regained his feet than he went to work again
+as though, like the fabled Titan, he derived renewed energy from the
+kisses of mother Earth, expostulated more than once with his leader on the
+dangers he affronted, and the numerical odds he did not hesitate to
+engage, but received to each warning the same reply. Pointing with
+dripping sword at the golden roof of the Temple flashing conspicuously
+over their heads, "Yonder," said the fencing-master, "is the ransom of a
+kingdom. I will win it with my own hand for the legion, and share it
+amongst you equally, man by man." Such a prospect inspired the gladiators
+with even more than their usual daring; and though many a stout swordsman
+went down with his face to the enemy, and many a bold eye looked its last
+on the coveted spoil, ere it grew dark for ever, the survivors did but
+close in the fiercer, to fight on, step by step, and stroke by stroke,
+till the court was strewed with corpses, and its pavement slippery with
+blood.
+
+During a pause in the reeling strife, and while marshalling his men, who
+had again driven the Jews into the Temple, for a fresh and decisive
+attack, Hippias found himself in that corner of the court where Esca and
+Mariamne were still bending over the prostrate form of Calchas. Without a
+symptom of astonishment or jealousy, but with his careless half-
+contemptuous laugh, the fencing-master recognised his former pupil, and
+the girl whom he had once before seen in the porch of the tribune's
+mansion at Rome. Taking off his heavy helmet, he wiped his brows, and
+leaned for a space on his shield.
+
+"Go to the rear," said he, "and take the lass with thee, man, since she
+seems to hang like a clog round thy neck, wherever there is fighting to be
+done. Give yourselves up to the Tenth Legion, and tell Licinius, who
+commands it, you are my prisoners. 'Tis your only chance of safety, my
+pretty damsel, and none of your sex ever yet had cause to rue her trust in
+Hippias. You may tell him also, Esca, that if he make not the more haste,
+I shall have taken the Temple, and all belonging to it, without his help.
+Off with thee, lad! this is no place for a woman. Get her out of it as
+quick as thou canst."
+
+But the Briton pointed downward to Calchas, who had again become
+unconscious, and whose head was resting on Mariamne's knees. His gesture
+drew the attention of Hippias to the ground, cumbered as it was with
+slain. He had begun with a brutal laugh to bid his pupil "leave the
+carrion for the vultures," but the sentence died out on his lips, which
+turned deadly white, while his eyes stared vacantly, and the shield on
+which he had been leaning fell with a clang to the stones.
+
+There at his very feet over the golden breastplate was the dead face of
+Valeria; and the heart of the brave, reckless, and unprincipled soldier
+smote him with a cruel pang, for something told him that his own wilful
+pride and selfishness had begun that work, which was completed, to his
+eternal self-reproach, down there.
+
+He never thought he loved her so dearly. He recalled, as if it were but
+yesterday, the first time he ever saw her, beautiful and sumptuous and
+haughty, looking down from her cushioned chair by the equestrian row, with
+the well-known scornful glance that possessed for him so keen a charm. He
+remembered how it kindled into approval as it met his own, and how his
+heart thrilled under his buckler, though he stood face to face with a
+mortal foe. He remembered how fondly he clung to that mutual glance of
+recognition, the only link between them, renewed more frankly and more
+kindly at every succeeding show, till, raising his eyes to meet it once
+too often in the critical moment of encounter, he went down badly wounded
+under the blow he had thus failed to guard. Nevertheless, how richly was
+he rewarded when fighting stubbornly on his knee, and from that
+disadvantageous attitude vanquishing his antagonist at last, he
+distinguished amidst the cheers of thousands her marked and musical
+_Euge!_ syllabled so clearly though so softly, for his special ear, by the
+lips of the proud lady, whom from that moment he dared to love!
+Afterwards, when admitted periodically to her house, how delightful were
+the alternations of hope and fear with which he saw himself treated; now
+as an honoured guest, now as a mere inferior, at another time with mingled
+kindness and restraint, that, impassible as he thought himself, woke such
+wild wishes in his heart! How sweet it was to be sure of seeing her at
+certain stated hours, the recollection of one meeting bridging over the
+intervening period so pleasantly, till it was time to look forward to
+another! She was to him like the beautiful rose blooming in his garden, of
+which a man is content at first only to admire the form ere he learns to
+long for its fragrance, and at last desires to pluck it ruthlessly from
+the stem that he may wear it on his breast. How soon it withers there and
+dies, and then how bitterly, how sadly, he wishes he had left it blushing
+where it grew! There are plenty more flowers in the garden, but none of
+them are quite equal to the rose.
+
+It was strange how little Hippias dwelt on the immediate past--how it was
+the Valeria of Rome, not the Valeria of Judaea, for whom his heart was
+aching now. He scarcely reverted even to the delirious happiness of the
+first few days when she accompanied him to the East; he did not dwell on
+his own mad joy, nor the foolish triumph that lasted so short a time. He
+forgot, as though they had never been, her caprice, her wilfulness, her
+growing weariness of his society, and the scorn she scarcely took the
+trouble to conceal. It was all past and gone now, that constraint and
+repugnance in the tent, that impatience of each other's presence, those
+angry recriminations, those heartless biting taunts and the final rupture
+that could never be pardoned nor atoned for now. She was again Valeria of
+the olden time, of the haughty bearing, and the winning eyes, and the
+fresh glad voice that sprang from a heart which had never known a struggle
+nor a fall--the Valeria whose every mood and gesture were gifted with a
+dangerous witchery, a subtle essence that seems to pervade the very
+presence of such women--a priceless charm, indeed, and yet a fatal, luring
+the possessor to the destruction of others and her own.
+
+Oh, that she could but speak to him once more! Only once, though it were
+in words of keen reproach or bitter scorn! It seemed like a dream that he
+should never hear her voice again; and yet his senses vouched that it was
+waking cold reality, for was she not lying there before him, surrounded by
+the slain of his devoted legion? The foremost, the fairest, and the
+earliest lost, amongst them all!
+
+He took no further note of Calchas nor of Esca. He turned not to mark the
+renewed charge of his comrades, nor the increased turmoil of the fight,
+but he stooped down over the body of the dead woman, and laid his lips
+reverently to her pale cold brow. Then he lifted one of her long brown
+tresses, dabbled as they were in blood, to sever it gently and carefully
+with his sword, and unbuckling his corselet, hid it beneath the steel upon
+his heart. After this, he turned and took leave of Esca. The Briton
+scarcely knew him, his voice and mien were so altered. But watching his
+figure as he disappeared, waving his sword, amidst the press of battle, he
+knew instinctively that he had bidden Hippias the gladiator a long and
+last farewell.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XIX
+
+                       THE GATHERING OF THE EAGLES
+
+
+Shouting their well-known war-cry, and placing himself at the head of that
+handful of heroes who constituted the remnant of the Lost Legion, Hippias
+rallied them for one last desperate effort against the defenders of the
+Temple. These had formed a hasty barricade on the exigency of the moment
+from certain beams and timbers they had pulled down in the Sacred Place.
+It afforded a slight protection against the javelins, arrows, and other
+missiles of the Romans, while it checked and repulsed the impetuous rush
+of the latter, who now wavered, hesitated, and began to look about them,
+making inquiry for the battering-rams and other engines of war that were
+to have supported their onset from the rear. In vain Hippias led them,
+once and again, to carry this unforeseen obstacle. It was high and firm,
+it bristled with spears and was lined with archers; above all, it was
+defended by the indomitable valour of Eleazar, and the gladiators were
+each time repulsed with loss. Their leader, too, had been severely
+wounded. He had never lifted his shield from the ground where it lay by
+Valeria's side; and, in climbing the barricade, he had received a thrust
+in the body from an unknown hand. While he stanched the blood with the
+folds of his tunic, and felt within his breastplate for the tress of
+Valeria's hair, he looked anxiously back for his promised reinforcements,
+now sorely needed, convinced that his shattered band would be unable to
+obtain possession of the Temple without the assistance of the legions.
+Faint from loss of blood, strength and courage failing him at the same
+moment, an overpowering sense of hopeless sorrow succeeding the triumphant
+excitement of the last hour, his thoughts were yet for his swordsmen; and
+collecting them with voice and gesture, he bade them form with their
+shields the figure that was called "the tortoise," as a screen against the
+shower of missiles that overpowered them from the barricade. Cool,
+confident, and well-drilled, the gladiators soon settled into this
+impervious order of defence; and the word of command had hardly died on
+his lips ere the leader himself was the only soldier left out of that
+movable fortress of steel.(24)
+
+Turning from the enemy to inspect its security, his side was left a moment
+exposed to their darts. The next, a Jewish arrow quivered in his heart.
+True to his instincts, he waved his sword over his head, as he went down,
+with a triumphant cheer; for his failing ear recognised the blast of the
+Roman trumpets--his darkening eye caught the glitter of their spears and
+the gleam of their brazen helmets, as the legions advanced in steady and
+imposing order to complete the work he and his handful of heroes had
+begun.
+
+Even in the act of falling, Esca, looking up from his charge, saw the
+fencing-master wheel half-round that his dead face might be turned towards
+the foe; perhaps, too, the Briton's eye was the only one to observe a thin
+dark stream of blood steal slowly along the pavement, till it mingled with
+the red pool in which Valeria lay.
+
+Effectual assistance had come at last. From the Tower of Antonia to the
+outworks of the Temple a broad and easy causeway had been thrown up in the
+last hour by the Roman soldiers. Where every man was engineer as well as
+combatant, there was no lack of labour for such a task. A large portion of
+the adjoining wall, as of the tower itself, had been hastily thrown down
+to furnish materials; and while the gladiators were storming the Court of
+the Gentiles, their comrades had constructed a wide, easy, and gradual
+ascent, by which, in regular succession, whole columns could be poured in
+to the support of the first assailants. These were led by Julius Placidus
+with his wonted skill and coolness. In his recent collision with Esca he
+had sustained such severe injuries as incapacitated him from mounting a
+horse; but with the Asiatic auxiliaries were several elephants of war, and
+on one of these huge beasts he now rode exalted, directing from his
+movable tower the operations of his own troops, and galling the enemy when
+occasion offered with the shafts of a few archers who accompanied him on
+the patient and sagacious animal.
+
+The elephant, in obedience to its driver, a dark supple Syrian, perched
+behind its ears, ascended the slope with ludicrous and solemn caution.
+Though alarmed by the smell of blood, it nevertheless came steadily on, a
+formidable and imposing object, striking terror into the hearts of the
+Jews, who were not accustomed to confront such enemies in warfare. The
+tribune's arms were more dazzling, his dress even more costly than usual.
+It seemed that with his Eastern charger he affected also something of
+Eastern luxury and splendour; but he encouraged his men, as he was in the
+habit of doing, with jeer and scoff, and such coarse jests as soldiers
+best understand and appreciate in the moment of danger.
+
+No sooner had he entered the court, through its battered and half-
+demolished gateway, than his quick eye caught sight of the still glowing
+embers scattered by the Prophet of Warning on the pavement. These
+suggested a means for the destruction of the barricade, and he mocked the
+repulsed gladiators, with many a bitter taunt, for not having yet applied
+them to that purpose. Calling on Hirpinus, who now commanded the remnant
+of the Lost Legion, to collect his followers, he bade them advance under
+the _testudo_ to pile these embers against the foundations of the wooden
+barrier.
+
+"The defenders cannot find a drop of water," said he, laughing; "they have
+no means of stifling a fire kindled from without. In five minutes all that
+dry wood will be in a blaze, and in less than ten there will be a smoking
+gap in the gateway large enough for me to ride through, elephant and all!"
+
+Assisted by fresh reinforcements, the gladiators promptly obeyed his
+orders. Heaps of live embers were collected and applied to the wooden
+obstacle so hastily erected. Dried to tinder in the scorching sun, and
+loosely put together for a temporary purpose, it could not fail to be
+sufficiently inflammable; and the hearts of the besieged sank within them
+as the flame began to leap and the woodwork to crackle, while their last
+defences seemed about to consume gradually away.
+
+The tribune had time to lean over from his elephant and question Hirpinus
+of his commander. With a grave sad brow and a heavy heart, the stout old
+swordsman answered by pointing to the ground where Hippias lay, his face
+calm and fixed, his right hand closed firmly round his sword.
+
+"_Habet!_" exclaimed the tribune with a brutal laugh; adding to himself,
+as Hirpinus turned away sorrowful and disgusted, "My last rival down; my
+last obstacle removed. One more throw for the Sixes, and the great game is
+fairly won!"
+
+Placidus was indeed now within a stride of all he most coveted, all he
+most wished to grasp on earth. A dozen feet below him, pale and rigid on
+the ground, lay the rival he had feared might win the first place in the
+triumph of to-day; the rival whom he knew to possess the favour of Titus;
+the rival who had supplanted him in the good graces of the woman he loved.
+He had neither forgotten nor forgiven Valeria; but he bore none the less
+ill-will against him with whom she had voluntarily fled. When he joined
+the Roman army before Jerusalem, and found her beautiful, miserable,
+degraded, in the tent of the gladiator, he had but dissembled and deferred
+his revenge till the occasion should arrive when he might still more
+deeply humiliate the one and inflict a fatal blow on the other. Now the
+man was under his elephant's feet; and the woman left alone yonder,
+friendless and deserted in the camp, could not, he thought, fail
+eventually to become his prey. He little knew that those who had made each
+other's misery in life were at last united in the cold embrace of death.
+He had arrived, too, in the nick of time, to seize and place on his own
+brows the wreath that had been twined for him by the Lost Legion and their
+leader. A little earlier and Hippias, supplied by himself with fresh
+troops, would have won the credit of first entering the Temple; a little
+later, and his triumph must have been shared by Licinius, already with the
+Tenth Legion close upon his rear. But now, at the glorious opportunity,
+there was nothing between him and victory save a score of Jewish spearmen
+and a few feet of blazing wood.
+
+Leaning over to the unwilling driver, he urged him to goad the elephant
+through the flames, that its weight might at once bear down what remained
+of the barricade and make a way for his followers into the Temple.
+Ambition prompted him not to lose a moment. The Syrian unwound the shawl
+from his waist, and spread it over the animal's eyes, while he persuaded
+it, thus blindfolded, to advance. Though much alarmed, the elephant pushed
+on, and there was small hope that the shattered smouldering barrier would
+resist the pressure of its enormous weight. The last chance of the
+besieged seemed to fail them, when Eleazar leaped out through the smoke,
+and, running swiftly to meet it, dashed under the beast's uplifted trunk,
+and stabbed it fiercely with quick repeated thrusts in the belly. At each
+fresh stroke the elephant uttered a loud and hideous groan, a shriek of
+pain and fear, mingled with a trumpet-note of fury, and then sinking on
+its knees, fell slowly and heavily to the ground, crushing the devoted
+Zealot beneath its huge carcass, and scattering the band of archers, as a
+man scatters a handful of grain, over the court.
+
+Eleazar never spoke again. The Lion of Judah died as he had lived--fierce,
+stubborn, unconquered, and devoted to the cause of Jerusalem. Mariamne
+recognised him as he sallied forth, but no mutual glance had passed
+between the father and the child. Pale, erect, motionless, she watched him
+disappear under the elephant, but the scream of horror that rang from her
+white lips when she realised his fate was lost in the wild cry of pain,
+and anger, and dismay, that filled the air, while the huge quivering mass
+tottered and went down. Placidus was hurled to the pavement like a stone
+from a sling. Lying there, helpless, though conscious, he recognised at
+once the living Esca and the dead Valeria; but baffled wrath and cherished
+hatred left no room in his heart for sorrow or remorse. His eye glared
+angrily on the Briton, and he ground his teeth with rage to feel that he
+could not even lift his powerless hand from the ground; but the Jewish
+warriors were closing in with fierce arms up to strike, and it was but a
+momentary glimpse that Esca obtained of the tribune's dark, despairing,
+handsome face. It was years, though, ere he forgot the vision. The costly
+robes, the goodly armour, the shapely writhing form, and the wild hopeless
+eyes that gleamed with hatred and defiance both of the world he left and
+that to which he went.
+
+And now the court was filling fast with a dun lurid smoke that wreathed
+its vapours round the pinnacles of the Temple, and caused the still
+increasing troops of combatants to loom like phantom shapes struggling and
+fighting in a dream. Ere long, bright tongues of flame were leaping
+through the cloud, licking the walls and pillars of the building, gliding
+and glancing over the golden surface of its roof, and shooting upwards
+here and there into shifting pyramids of fire. Soon was heard the hollow
+rushing roar with which the consuming element declares its victory, and
+showers of sparks, sweeping like storms across the Court of the Gentiles,
+proclaimed that the Temple was burning in every quarter.
+
+One of the gladiators, in the wild wantonness of strife, had caught a
+blazing fragment of the barricade, as its remains were carried by a rush
+of his comrades, after the fall of Eleazar, and flung it into an open
+window of the Temple over his head. Lighting on the carved woodwork, with
+which the casement was decorated, it soon kindled into a strong and steady
+flame, that was fed by the quantity of timber, all thoroughly dry and
+highly ornamented, which the building contained; thus it had communicated
+from gallery to gallery, and from storey to storey, till the whole was
+wrapped in one glowing sheet of fire. From every quarter of the city, from
+Agrippa's wall to the Mount of Olives, from the camp of the Assyrians to
+the Valley of Hinnom, awestruck faces of friend and foe, white with fear,
+or anger, or astonishment, marked that rolling column, expanding, swaying,
+shifting, and ever rising higher into the summer sky, ever flinging out
+its red forked banner of destruction broader, and brighter, and fiercer,
+with each changing breeze.
+
+Then the Jews knew that their great tribulation was fulfilled--that the
+curse which had been to them hitherto but a dead letter and a sealed book,
+was poured forth literally in streams of fire upon their heads--that their
+sanctuary was desolate, their prosperity gone for ever, their very
+existence as a nation destroyed, and "the place that had known them should
+know them no more"! The very Romans themselves, the cohorts advancing in
+serried columns to support their comrades, the legions massed in solid
+squares for the completion of its capture, in all the open places of the
+town, gazed on the burning Temple with concern and awe. Titus, even, in
+the flush of conquest, and the exulting joy of gratified ambition, turned
+his head away with a pitying sigh, for he would have spared the enemy had
+they but trusted him, would fain have saved that monument of their
+nationality and their religion, as well for their glory as his own.
+
+And now with the flames leaping, and the smoke curling around, the huge
+timbers crashing down on every side to throw up showers of sparkling
+embers as they fell--the very marble glowing and riven with heat--the
+precious metal pouring from the roof in streams of molten fire--Esca and
+Mariamne, half suffocated in the Court of the Gentiles, could not yet
+bring themselves to seek their own safety, and leave the helpless form of
+Calchas to certain destruction. Loud shouts, cries of agony and despair,
+warned them that even the burning Temple, at furnace heat, was still the
+theatre of a murderous and useless conflict. The defenders had set the
+example of merciless bloodshed, and the Romans, exasperated to cruelty,
+now took no prisoners and gave no quarter. John of Gischala and his
+followers, driven to bay by the legions, still kept up a resistance the
+more furious that it was the offspring of despair. Hunted from wall to
+wall, from roof to roof, from storey to storey, they yet fought on while
+life and strength remained. Even those whose weapons failed them, or who
+were hemmed in by overwhelming numbers, leaped down like madmen, and
+perished horribly in the flames.
+
+But although steel was clashing, and blood flowing, and men fighting by
+myriads around it, the Court of the Gentiles lay silent and deserted under
+its canopy of smoke, with its pavement covered by the dead. The only
+living creatures left were the three who had stood there in the morning,
+bound and doomed to die. Of these, one had his foot already on the border-
+land between time and eternity.
+
+"I will never desert him," said Esca to his pale companion; "but thou,
+Mariamne, hast now a chance of escape. It may be the Romans will respect
+thee if thou canst reach some high commander, or yield thee to some cohort
+of the reserve, whose blood is not a-fire with slaughter. What said
+Hippias of the Tenth Legion and Licinius? If thou couldst but lay hold on
+his garment, thou wert safe for my sake!"
+
+"And leave thee here to die!" answered Mariamne. "Oh, Esca! what would
+life be then? Besides, have we not trusted through this terrible night,
+and shall we not trust still? I know who is on my side. I have not
+forgotten all he taught me who lies bruised and senseless here. See, Esca!
+He opens his eyes. He knows us! It may be we shall save him now!"
+
+Calchas did indeed seem to have recovered consciousness; and the life so
+soon to fade glowed once more on his wasted cheek, like an expiring lamp
+that glimmers into momentary brightness ere its flame is extinguished for
+ever.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XX
+
+                               THE VICTORY
+
+
+The Tenth Legion, commanded by Licinius and guarding the person of their
+beloved prince, were advancing steadily upon the Temple. Deeming
+themselves the flower of the Roman army, accustomed to fight under the eye
+of Titus himself, there was no unseemly haste in the movements of these
+highly disciplined troops. None even of that fiery dash, which is
+sometimes so irresistible, sometimes so dangerous a quality in the
+soldier. The Tenth Legion would no more have neglected the even regularity
+of their line, the mechanical precision of their step, in a charge than in
+a retreat. They were, as they boasted, "equal to either fortune."(25) Not
+flushed by success, because they considered victory the mere wages to
+which they were entitled--not discouraged by repulse, because they were
+satisfied that the Tenth Legion could do all that was possible for
+soldiers; and the very fact of their retiring, was to them in itself a
+sufficient proof that sound strategy required such a movement.
+
+Thus, when the Legion of the Lost dashed forward with wild cheers and an
+impetuous rush to the attack, the Tenth supported them with even ranks and
+regular pace and a scornful smile on their keen, bronzed, quiet faces.
+They would have taken the Temple, they thought, if they had the order,
+with half the noise and in half the time, so they closed remorselessly in,
+as man after man fell under the Jewish missiles, and preserved through
+their whole advance the same stern, haughty, and immovable demeanour,
+which was the favourite affectation of their courage. Titus had addressed
+them, when he put himself at their head, to recommend neither steadiness,
+valour, nor implicit compliance with orders, for in all such requirements
+he could depend on them, as if they were really what he loved to call
+them, "his own children"! but he exhorted them to spare the lives of the
+vanquished, and to respect as far as possible the property as well as the
+persons of the citizens. Above all, he had hoped to save the Temple; and
+this hope he expressed again and again to Licinius, who rode beside him,
+even until gazing sorrowfully on the mass of lowering smoke and yellow
+flame, his own eyes told him that his clemency was too late.
+
+Even then, leaving to his general the duty of completing its capture and
+investing its defences, he put spurs to his horse and rode at speed round
+the building, calling on his soldiers to assist him in quenching the
+flames, shouting, signing, gesticulating; but all in vain.(26) Though the
+Tenth Legion were steady as a rock, the rest of the army had not resisted
+the infection of success; and stimulated by the example of the gladiators,
+were more disposed to encourage than to impede the conflagration--nor, even
+had they wished, would their most strenuous efforts have been now able to
+extinguish it.
+
+Though fighting still went on amongst the cloisters and in the galleries
+of the Temple; though John of Gischala was still alive, and the Robbers
+held out, here and there, in fast diminishing clusters; though the Zealots
+had sworn to follow their leader's example, dying to a man in defence of
+the Holy Place; and though the Sicarii were not yet completely
+exterminated--Jerusalem might nevertheless be considered at length in
+possession of the Roman army. Licinius, leading the Tenth Legion through
+the Court of the Gentiles, more effectually to occupy the Temple, and
+prevent if possible its total destruction, was accosted at its entrance by
+Hirpinus, who saluted him with a sword dripping from hilt to point in
+blood. The old gladiator's armour was hacked and dinted, his dress
+scorched, his face blackened with smoke; but though weary, wounded, and
+exhausted, his voice had lost none of its rough jovial frankness, his brow
+none of the kindly good-humoured courage it had worn through all the
+hardships of the siege.
+
+"Hail, praetor!" said he, "I shall live to see thee sitting yet once again,
+high on the golden car, in the streets of Rome. The Temple is thine at
+last, and all it contains, if we can only save it from these accursed
+flames. The fighting is over now; and I came back to look for a prisoner
+who can tell me where water may be found. The yellow roof yonder is
+flaring away like a torch in an oil-cask, and they must be fond of gold
+who can catch it by handfuls, guttering down like this in streams of fire.
+Our people, too, have cut their prisoners' throats as fast as they took
+them, and I cannot find a living Jew to show me well or cistern.
+Illustrious! I have won spoil enough to-day to buy a province--I would give
+it all for as much clear water as would go into my helmet. The bravest old
+man in Syria is dying in yonder corner for want of a mouthful!"
+
+Returning through the court, in obedience to the prince's orders, to
+collect men and procure water, if possible, for the extinction of the
+conflagration, Hirpinus had recognised his young friend Esca with no
+little surprise and delight. Seeing Calchas, too--for whom, ever since his
+bold address to the gladiators in the training-school, he had entertained
+a sincere admiration--lying half suffocated, and at his last gasp, on the
+stones, the old swordsman's heart smote him with a keen sense of pity, and
+something between anger and shame at his own helplessness to assist the
+sufferer. He said nothing but truth, indeed, when he declared that he
+would give all his share of spoil for a helmetful of water; but he might
+have offered the price of a kingdom rather than a province, with as little
+chance of purchasing what he desired. Blood there was, flowing in streams,
+but of water not a drop! It was more in despair than hope that he told his
+sad tale to Licinius, on whom it seemed natural for every soldier in the
+army to depend when in trouble, either for himself or for others. Giving
+his orders, clear, concise, and imperative to his tribunes, the Roman
+general accompanied Hirpinus to the corner of the court where Calchas lay.
+Fallen beams and masses of charred timber were smouldering around, dead
+bodies, writhed in the wild contortions of mortal agony, in heaps on every
+side--he was sick and faint, crushed, mangled, dying from a painful wound,
+yet the Christian's face looked calm and happy; and he lay upon the hard
+stones, waiting for the coming change, like one who seeks refreshing
+slumber on a bed of down.
+
+As the kind eyes turned gently to Licinius, in glance of friendly
+recognition, they were lit with the smile that is never worn but by the
+departing traveller whose barque has already cast off its moorings from
+the shore--the smile in which he seems to bid a hopeful, joyful farewell to
+those he leaves for a little while, with which he seems to welcome the
+chill breeze and the dark waters because of the haven where he would be.
+Mariamne and Esca, bending over with tender care, and watching each
+passing shade on that placid countenance, knew well that the end was very
+near.
+
+His strength was almost gone; but Calchas pointed to his kinswoman and the
+Briton, while looking at Licinius he said, "They will be your care now. I
+have bestowed on you countless treasures freely yonder in the camp of the
+Assyrians.(27) This you shall promise me in return."
+
+Licinius laid his shield on the ground and took the dying man's hand in
+both his own.
+
+"They are my children," said he, "from this day forth. Oh! my guide, I
+will never forget thy teaching nor thy behest."
+
+Calchas looked inquiringly in the face of Hirpinus. The gladiator's rugged
+features bore a wistful expression of sorrow, mingled with admiration,
+sympathy, and a dawning light of hope.
+
+"Bring him into the fold with you," he murmured to the other three, and
+then his voice came loud and strong in full triumphant tones. "It may be
+that this man of blood, also, shall be one of the jewels in my crown.
+Glory to Him who has accepted my humble tribute, who rewards a few brief
+hours of imperfect service; a blow from a careless hand with an eternity
+of happiness, an immortal crown of gold! I shall see you, friends, again.
+We shall meet ere we have scarcely parted. You will not forget me in that
+short interval. And you will rejoice with me in humble thankful joy that I
+have been permitted to instruct you of heaven, and to show you myself the
+way."
+
+Exhausted with the effort, he sank back ere he had scarce finished
+speaking, and his listeners, looking on the calm dead face, from which the
+radiant smile had not yet faded, needed to keep watch no longer, for they
+knew that the martyr's spirit was even now holding converse with the
+angels in heaven.
+
+
+
+
+
+             PRINTED BY MORRISON AND GIBB LIMITED, EDINBURGH
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                FOOTNOTES
+
+
+    1 The dinner or _prandium_ of Rome was the first meal in the day.
+
+    2 A technical term for a school of gladiators trained by the same
+      master.
+
+    3 "_Sicarii_," or homicides--bands of assassins, regularly organised in
+      Judaea, who made a trade of murder.
+
+            4 "You may break, you may ruin, the vase if you will;
+        But the scent of the roses will hang round it still."
+
+    5 According to Pliny, the distinguishing sign of newly-arrived slaves.
+
+    6 About twelve pounds sterling.
+
+    7 The _sestercius_ was at this period about 13/4d., or rather more. The
+      _sestercium_, or thousand sesterces, about L7, 16s.
+
+    8 This inhuman practice was actually in vogue.
+
+    9 The form by which a gladiator, who had repeatedly distinguished
+      himself, received his dismissal and immunity from the arena for
+      life.
+
+   10 The well-known "Morituri te salutant!"
+
+   11 About forty pounds sterling.
+
+   12 "Christiani ad leones! virgines ad lenones!"--a sentence that found
+      no small favour with the Roman crowd.
+
+   13 The _clepsydra_, or water-clock--a Greek invention for the division
+      of time--consisting of a hollow globe made of glass, or some
+      transparent substance, from which the water trickled out through a
+      narrow orifice, in quantities so regulated, that the sinking level
+      of the element marked with sufficient exactitude the time that had
+      elapsed since the vessel was filled.
+
+   14 This game is played to-day with equal zest, under its Italian name
+      of "Morro." Perhaps its nature was best rendered by the Latin phrase
+      _micare digitos_, "to flash the fingers."
+
+   15 Domitian.
+
+   16 Hippicus, Phasaelus, and lovely Mariamne, for whom, in the dead of
+      night, the great king used to call out in his agony of remorse when
+      she was no more.
+
+   17 Josephus, _Wars of the Jews_, book v. sec. 5.
+
+   18 The first call of the Roman trumpets in camp, about two hours before
+      dawn, was distinguished by that name.
+
+   19 Now when he had said this he looked round about him, upon his
+      family, with eyes of commiseration and of rage (that family
+      consisted of a wife and children, and his aged parents), so in the
+      first place he caught his father by his grey hairs, and ran his
+      sword through him, and after him he did the same to his mother, who
+      willingly received it; and after them he did the like to his wife
+      and children, every one almost offering themselves to his sword, as
+      desirous to prevent being slain by their enemies; so when he had
+      gone over all his family he stood upon their bodies, to be seen by
+      all, and stretching out his right hand, that his action might be
+      observed by all, he sheathed his entire sword into his own bowels.
+      This young man was to be pitied, on account of the strength of his
+      body, and the courage of his soul.--Josephus, _Wars of the Jews_,
+      book ii. sec. 18.
+
+   20 Moreover, their hunger was so intolerable, that it obliged them to
+      chew everything, while they gathered such things as the most sordid
+      animals would not touch, and endured to eat them; nor did they at
+      length abstain from girdles and shoes; and the very leather which
+      belonged to their shields they pulled off and gnawed: the very wisps
+      of old hay became food to some; and some gathered up fibres, and
+      sold a very small weight of them for four Attic (drachmae).--Josephus,
+      _Wars of the Jews_, book vi. sec. 3.
+
+   21 This frightful supper is said to have been eaten in the dwelling of
+      one Mary of Bethezub, which signifies the House of Hyssop.--Josephus,
+      _Wars of the Jews_, book vi. sec. 3.
+
+   22 For a description of these portentous appearances, both previous to
+      and during the siege of Jerusalem, see Josephus, _Wars of the Jews_,
+      book vi. sec. 5, as related by the historian with perfect good
+      faith, and no slight reproaches to the incredulity of his obdurate
+      countrymen--that generation of whom the greatest authority has said,
+      "Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe."
+
+   23 The exclamation with which the spectators notified a conclusive
+      thrust or blow in the circus.
+
+   24 In bringing forward their heavy battering-rams, or otherwise
+      advancing to the attack of a fortified place, the Roman soldiers
+      were instructed to raise their shields obliquely above their heads,
+      and, linking them together, thus form an impervious roof of steel,
+      under which they could manoeuvre with sufficient freedom. This
+      formation was called the _testudo_, or tortoise, from its supposed
+      resemblance to the defensive covering with which nature provides
+      that animal.
+
+   25 "Utrinque parati."
+
+   26 Then did Caesar, both by calling to the soldiers that were fighting,
+      with a loud voice, and by giving a signal to them with his right
+      hand, order them to quench the fire; but they did not hear what he
+      said, though he spake so loud, having their ears already dinned by a
+      greater noise another way; nor did they attend to the signal he made
+      with his hand neither, as still some of them were distracted with
+      passion, and others with fighting, neither any threatenings nor any
+      persuasions could restrain their violence, but each one's own
+      passion was his commander at this time; and as they were crowding
+      into the Temple together many of them were trampled on by one
+      another, while a great number fell among the ruins of the cloisters,
+      which were still hot and smoking, and were destroyed in the same
+      miserable way with those whom they had conquered.--Josephus, _Wars of
+      the Jews_, book vi. sec. 4.
+
+   27 The ground occupied by the Roman lines during the siege.
+
+
+
+
+
+                            TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
+
+
+Variations in hyphenation have not been changed.
+
+Other changes, which have been made to the text:
+
+      page 9, exclamation mark added after "Jugurtha"
+      page 98, quote mark removed after "plans."
+      page 114, quote mark removed before "after"
+      page 137, "wel" changed to "well"
+      page 164, "Brition" changed to "Briton"
+      page 259, "inbibed" changed to "imbibed"
+      page 335, "Where s" changed to "Where is"
+      page 433, "Jeruslaem" changed to "Jerusalem"
+
+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GLADIATORS. A TALE OF ROME AND JUDAEA***
+
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