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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Unwilling Vestal, by Edward Lucas White
+
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+
+Title: The Unwilling Vestal
+
+Author: Edward Lucas White
+
+Release Date: July, 2004  [EBook #6070]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on November 1, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE UNWILLING VESTAL ***
+
+
+
+
+Project Gutenberg Etext The Unwilling Vestal
+by Edward Lucas White
+
+Project Gutenberg editor's note:
+
+First published in 1918, this book went through sixteen printings
+before it ceased to be a money-maker for its publishers. It provides
+a fascinating glimpse into a world most of us know nothing about.
+
+It has been slightly re-edited for ease in reading as an e-text.
+The author's spellings have been left alone even when they are
+incorrect in English English, American English, and Latin.
+
+End PG editor's note.
+
+THE UNWILLING VESTAL
+
+
+
+
+The Unwilling Vestal
+A Tale of Rome under the Caesars
+
+
+JACKET BLURB:
+
+
+
+EDWARD LUCAS WHITE
+Author of "El Supremo"
+
+This book presents, for the first time in fiction, a correct and
+adequate account of the Vestal Virgins, their powers and
+privileges, as well as of many strange Roman customs and
+beliefs.
+
+The author combines the power of writing a rattling good story
+with a sound and full knowledge of conditions of the life which he
+is depicting. Mr. White brings to the history of Rome all the
+picturesqueness and power which made his South American novel,
+"El Supremo," so remarkable. The result is a vivid pageant of
+imperial Rome and Roman life at the height of its power and splendor.
+
+End of Jacket Blurb
+
+
+PUBLISHERS' NOTE
+
+
+
+Readers of <The Unwilling Vestal> who are not acquainted at first
+hand with the lighter and more intimate literature of the Romans
+may be surprised to discover that the lights of Roman high society
+talked slang and were interested in horseracing. Most writers
+who have tried to draw Roman society for us have been either
+ignorant or afraid of these facts. The author of <The Unwilling
+Vestal> is neither. He presents to us the upper class Romans
+exactly as they reveal themselves in the literature of their day;
+excitable, slangy, sophisticated and yet strangely credulous,
+enthusiastic sportsmen, hearty eaters and drinkers, and
+unblushingly keen on the trail of the almighty denarius. In a word,
+very much like the most up-to-date American society of to-day.
+
+The Publishers feel that it is only fair that it should be made
+plain that the great difference between the Roman society folk
+of <The Unwilling Vestal> and those appearing in other novels
+is due to the author's thorough acquaintance with the people
+and the period about which he is writing.
+
+Incidentally, the Publishers wish to thank Mr. C. Powell
+Minnegerode, the Curator of the Corcoran Gallery of Art of
+Washington, D. C., for his permission to reproduce Leroux'
+beautiful painting "The Vestal Tuccia" for use on the wrapper of
+the volume.
+
+[wrapper not available - PG ed.]
+
+End of Publisher's Note
+
+
+PREFACE by author
+
+
+
+The title of this romance is likely to prejudice any reader
+against it. There exists a popular delusion that fiction with
+a classical setting is bound to be dull and lumbering, that it
+is impossible for it to possess that quality of bravura slangily
+denominated "punch." Anybody will be disabused of that notion
+upon reading this story.
+
+<<PG EDITOR'S NOTE: The slang is now, alas, over ninety
+years old. It now sounds even more stilted than the classical
+language does.>>
+
+On the other hand, after having read it, almost any one will be
+likely to imagine that a novel with so startling a heroine and with
+incidents so bizarre cannot possibly be based on any sound and
+genuine knowledge of its background; that the author has conjured
+out of his fantasy not only his plot and chief characters, but also
+their world; that he has created out and out not merely his Vestal,
+but his Vestals, their circumstances and the life which they are
+represented as leading: that he has manufactured his local color
+to suit as he went along.
+
+Nothing could be further from the actuality. The details of rule
+and ritual, of dress and duties, of privileges and punishments are
+set forth in accordance with a full first-hand and intimate
+acquaintance with all available evidence touching the Vestals;
+including all known inscriptions relating to them, every passage in
+Roman or Greek literature in any way concerning them, the
+inferences drawn from all existing or recorded sculptures and coins
+which add to our knowledge of them, and every treatise written since
+the revival of learning in Europe in which the Vestals are
+discussed. The story contains no preposterous anachronisms or
+fatuous absurdities. Throughout, it either embodies the known
+facts or is invented in conformity with the known facts.
+
+Any one to whom chapter twenty-one seems incredible should consult
+an adequate encyclopedia article or an authoritative treatise on
+physics and read up on the surface tension of liquids.
+
+
+End of Preface by Author
+
+
+Contents
+
+
+
+Book I
+
+The Rage of Disappointment
+
+I.                 Precocity
+II.                 Sieves
+III.                 Stutterings
+IV.                 Pestilence
+V.                 Escapades
+VI.                 Notoriety
+VII.                 Audience
+
+Book II
+
+The Revolt of Despondency
+
+VIII.         Scourging
+IX.                 Alarms
+X.                 Conference
+XI.                 Farewell
+XII.                 Observances
+XIII.         Perversity
+XIV.                 Amazement
+
+Book III
+
+The Rebellion of Desperation
+
+XV.                 Rehabilitation
+XVI.                 Vagary
+XVII.         Recklessness
+XVIII.         Fury
+XIX.                 Comfort
+
+Book IV
+
+The Revulsion of Delight
+
+XX.                Accusation
+XXI.                Ordeal
+XXII                Triumph
+XXII.                Salvage
+
+
+
+
+
+Book I
+
+
+
+
+
+
+The Rage of Disappointment
+
+
+
+
+Chapter I - Precocity
+
+
+
+"Brinnaria!" he said severely, "you will marry any man
+I designate."
+
+"I never shall marry any man," she retorted positively, "except
+the man I want to marry."
+
+She gazed unflinchingly into her father's imperious eyes, wide-set
+on either side of a formidable Roman nose. His return gaze was
+less incensed than puzzled. All his life he had been habituated
+to subserviency, had never met opposition, and to find it from his
+youngest daughter, and she a mere child, amazed him. As she
+faced him she appeared both resolute and tremulous. He looked
+her up and down from the bright blue velvety leather of her little
+shoes on which the gilt sole-edges and gilt laces glittered to the
+red flower in her brown hair. Inside her clinging red robe the
+soft outlines of her young shape swelled plump and healthy, yet
+altogether she seemed to him but a fragile creature. Resistance
+from her was incredible.
+
+Perhaps this was one more of her countless whims. While he
+considered her meditatively he did not move his mighty arms or
+legs; the broad crimson stripe down his tunic rose and fell slowly
+above his ample paunch and vaster chest as his breath came evenly;
+on his short bull neck his great bullet head was as moveless as if
+he had been one of the painted statues that lined the walls all
+about. As the two regarded each other they could hear the faint
+splash of the fountain in the tank midway of the courtyard.
+
+Her father, a true Roman to his marrow, with all a Roman's
+arbitrary instincts, reverted to the direct attack.
+
+"You will marry Pulfennius Calvaster," he commanded.
+
+"I will not!" she declared.
+
+He temporized.
+
+"Why not?" he queried.
+
+The obstinacy faded from Brinnaria's handsome, regular face.
+She looked merely reflective
+
+"In the first place," she said, "because I despise him and hate
+him worse than any young man I ever knew; I would not marry
+Calvaster if he were the only man left alive. In the second place,
+because, if all the men on earth were courting me at once, all
+rich and all fascinating and Caius were poor and anything and
+everything else that he isn't, I'd marry nobody ever except Caius.
+You hear me, Father. Caius Segontius Almo is the only, only man
+I'll ever marry. Nothing can shake my resolution, never."
+
+She was breathing eagerly, her cheeks flushed a warm red through her
+olive complexion, her eyes shining till tiny specks sparkled green and
+yellow in the wide brown of her big irises.
+
+Her father's jaw set.
+
+"I've listened to you, daughter," he said. "Now you listen to
+me. I have no objections to Almo; I rather like him. I have thought
+of marrying you to him; if Segontius and I had not quarreled, we
+might have arranged it. There is no possibility of it now. And
+just now, for some reason or other, Pulfennius is keen on arranging
+a marriage between you and Calvaster. His offers are too tempting
+to be rejected and the chance is to good to be missed. Our properties
+adjoin not only here and at Baiae, but also at Praeneste, at
+Grumentum and at Ceneta. With our estates so marvellously
+paired the marriage seems divinely ordained when one comes to think
+it over. Don't be a fool. Anyhow, if you insist on making trouble
+for yourself, it will do you no good. My mind is made up. You are
+to marry Calvaster."
+
+"I won't!" Brinnaria maintained
+
+Her father smiled, a menacing smile
+
+"Perhaps not," he said, "but there will be only one alternative.
+Unless you agree to obey me I shall go at once to the Pontifex
+and offer you for a Vestal."
+
+Every trace of apprehension vanished from Brinnaria's expression.
+She grinned saucily, almost impudently, at her father, and snapped
+her fingers in his face.
+
+"You can't scare me that way, Daddy!" she mocked him. "I know
+better than that. There can be only six Vestals. You can offer, if
+you like, but the Emperors themselves can't take me for a Vestal
+while the six are alive."
+
+The laugh muffled in her throat; she was fairly daunted. Never had
+she seen her father's face so dark, so threatening. Not in all her
+life had he so much as spoken harshly to her; she had been his pet
+since she had begun to remember. But now, for one twinkling,
+she feared a blow from him. She almost shrank back from him.
+
+He did not move and he spoke softly.
+
+"Rabulla died this morning before dawn," was all he said.
+
+Instantly Brinnaria. was fluttering with panic.
+
+"You aren't in earnest, Daddy!" she protested. "You can't be in
+earnest. You're only fooling; you're only trying to frighten me.
+You don't really mean it; oh, please, Daddy, say you don't really
+mean it!"
+
+"I really mean it," her father answered heavily. "I never meant
+anything more genuinely in my life. You know my influence with
+the Emperors and with the Pontifex of Vesta. You know that if I
+made the proposal they would disregard any rival petitioners, would
+override all unnecessary formalities, would have the matter
+despatched at once. Unless you obey me you will be a Vestal
+before sunset to-morrow."
+
+Brinnaria was now fairly quivering with terror.
+
+"Oh, Daddy!" she quivered, "you couldn't be so cruel. I'd rather
+die than have to be a Vestal. I couldn't imagine any life so
+terrible. Oh, Daddy, please say you are not in earnest."
+
+He frowned.
+
+"I swear," he said, "that I was never more in earnest. I say it
+solemnly, as sure as my name is Marcus Brinnarius Epulo, I'll
+have you made a Vestal unless you agree this moment to give up
+all thoughts of Almo, to obey me about marrying Calvaster, and
+to be properly polite to him and Pulfennius."
+
+"Daddy!" Brinnaria cried. "Only don't have me made a Vestal and
+I'll do anything. I'll forget there ever was an Almo. I'll be sweet
+as honey to Pulfennius till he loves me better than Secunda, and
+I'll marry Calvaster; I'll marry anybody. Why, Daddy, I'd marry
+a boar pig rather than be a Vestal."
+
+Her father smiled.
+
+"I thought my little daughter would behave properly," he soothed
+her, "and you are just in time. That may be your future husband
+and father-in-law coming now."
+
+In fact they were in a moment ushered in. Pulfennius was a tall
+man, lean and loose-jointed, with straggling, greenish-gray hair;
+a long, uneven head, broad at the skull and narrow at the chin;
+puffy, white bags of flabby flesh under his eyes; irregular yellow
+teeth and sagging cheeks that made his face look squarish. Calvaster
+was a mere boy, with a leaden complexion, shifty gray eyes, thin
+lips, and an expression at once sly and conceited.
+
+"You come opportunely," said their host after the greetings had
+been exchanged, "for you happen to find me alone with the very
+daughter of whom you and I were talking. This is Brinnaria."
+
+"This!" Pulfennius exclaimed. "This the girl we were talking about?
+Impossible! Incredible! There must be some mistake."
+
+"There is no mistake," his host assured him. "This is the girl we
+were talking about, this is Brinnaria."
+
+The visitor regarded her, respectfully standing now, her brown
+eyes down-cast, the flush faded from her olive-skinned cheeks, her
+arms hanging limply at her sides. She was tall for a girl and while
+slenderly built was well muscled, a fine handsome figure in her red
+robe.
+
+"This!" he exclaimed again. "Indeed. So this is Brinnaria. I am
+very glad to have seen her. And now having seen her, do you not
+think that our business would be better transacted by us three males
+together?"
+
+"Certainly, if you prefer," Brinnarius asserted.
+
+He patted Brinnaria and kissed her.
+
+"Run away now, little girl," he said, "and wait in the peristyle
+until I want you."
+
+Brinnaria, once in the rear courtyard, instantly called:
+
+"Guntello!"
+
+Her call was answered by a great brute of a slave, bigger even
+than her father, a gigantic Goth, pink-skinned, blue-eyed and
+yellow-haired.
+
+"Now listen to me, Guntello," his little mistress said, "for if
+you make any mistake about my errand you'll get me into no end of
+trouble."
+
+The Goth, manifestly devoted to her, leaned his ear close and
+grinned amiably. She repeated her directions twice and made him
+repeat them after her in his broken Latin. When she was sure that
+he understood, she despatched him with a whispered injunction:
+
+"Hurry! Hurry!"
+
+Meanwhile, in the gorgeous atrium, the fathers' conference had
+continued. The moment she had gone Pulfennius said:
+
+"I do not believe in discussing misunderstandings before females;
+evidently there is some misunderstanding here. I want for my son
+a bride younger than he is, even if he has to wait two or even
+four years to claim her. You assured me that your daughter
+Brinnaria was not yet ten years of age and you show me a grown
+woman and tell me that she is Brinnaria. What is the explanation?"
+
+"A very simple explanation," he was answered. "Merely that
+Brinnaria is unusually well grown and well developed for her age.
+I have seen other cases of early ripening in children and so must
+you."
+
+"I've seen girls grown beyond their years," Pulfennius admitted,
+"but no case comparable to this. Why, man, that girl who has just
+left us would be taken for over eighteen years old by any stranger
+at first sight of her, and no one on earth could look at her
+carefully and hazard the conjecture that she might possibly be
+under sixteen."
+
+"Quite so," his host agreed, "and the better you know Brinnaria
+the more you wonder at her. She not only looks sixteen or eighteen
+and acts as if she were that age, but she talks as if she were
+that old and thinks as if she were even older, and she is actually
+three full months, more than three months, to be precise three
+months and twelve days, under ten years of age."
+
+"Amazing!" spluttered Pulfennius, "astounding! inexplicable!"
+
+"Don't you believe me?" Brinnarius queried sharply.
+
+"Certainly I believe you," his guest disclaimed, "but I cannot
+realize that it can be true; I am bewildered; I am dazed."
+
+"Perhaps," the other suggested, "you would realize it better if
+Quartilla added her assurances to mine."
+
+"Oh," the other deprecated, "I do not require anybody's
+corroboration to your statement. But if her mother is at home,
+perhaps her presence would be as well for other reasons."
+
+When summoned his host's wife appeared as a medium-sized woman,
+neither plump nor slender, with a complexion neither brown nor
+white, with yellow-brown hair, gray-brown eyes, and in every
+outline, hue, and feature as neutral and inconspicuous a creature
+as could be conceived of.
+
+"Yes," Quartilla said, "everybody is surprised at Brinnaria's
+growth. I was scared, when she first began to grow so fast, and
+had special prayers offered and sacrifices made at the temples
+of Youth and Health. Also I had a Babylonian seer consult the
+stars concerning her birth-signs. Everybody said she was born to
+long life, good health and great luck. But I can't fancy what ever
+made her grow so. She was fed like her brothers and sisters and
+she never seems to eat any heartier or any oftener. Till she was
+two and a half she was just like any other child. But she has
+grown more in seven years than any other child I ever knew of
+ever grew in fourteen and she's so old for her years too. Not but
+that she plays with dolls and toys and jacks; and she runs about
+just like any other child of her age, in spite of her size; but
+she says such grown-up things and she has such a womanly mind. She
+understands the family accounts better than I do, is keen on
+economy and could oversee the providing for the entire household.
+She astonishes me over and over. But there is no doubt about her
+age. Both my sisters were with me when she was born and
+Nemestronia too. Ask any of the three. Or I can tell you a dozen
+other ladies who know just as well. Brinnaria will not be ten
+years old until the Ides of September."
+
+"Wonderful! marvellous!" Pulfennius exclaimed. "Madam, you amaze
+me. But if this is true so much the better. I had thought my boy
+must wait two years or more for a wife, as I am determined that
+no more of my sons shall marry wives of their own age, let alone
+older. If your daughter is so young, she will just suit me, and
+since she is already grown up we shall not have to wait for her
+to grow up. We can arrange for the wedding for this month."
+
+They chaffered a long time about the marriage settlement,Calvaster
+sitting silent, biting his lips, staring about him and fidgetting;
+Quartilla equally silent, but entirely placid, without the twitch
+of a muscle or any shift of gaze; the two men doing all the talking.
+Some of the talking was almost vehement, Pulfennius disclaiming
+promises which his host declared he had made. Once they came to
+a deadlock and then Brinnarius, his voice suddenly mild and soft,
+mentioned Rabulla's death and his notion of offering Brinnaria for
+her successor. At once Pulfennius became manageable and supple
+and all eagerness for the happiness of the young couple.
+
+When it seemed that they had reached an agreement on every point
+Quartilla had her say.
+
+"I think you will find Brinnaria everything you could wish as a
+daughter-in-law. The most uncanny thing about her precocious
+habits of thought is her tenacity of any resolve and her grave and
+earnest attitude towards all questions of duty and propriety. She takes
+clan traditions very seriously and is determined to comport herself
+according to ancestral precedents. You will have no fault to find
+with her respectfulness towards you and Herrania or with her
+behavior as a wife. She will be circumspect in her deportment
+towards all men and is sure to turn out an excellent housewife.
+She has lofty inherited standards to live up to and she is deeply
+devoted to them.
+
+"This is the more to be wondered at since she is strangely
+undignified in many ways. I trust this will wear off as she grows
+up. It is only in this respect that Brinnaria has ever given me
+any cause for concern. She is more like a boy than a girl in many
+ways. She not only plays with boys and plays boys' games and
+plays them as well as boys or better, not only climbs trees when
+she is in the country, and rides bareback and goes fishing and
+swimming in any stream or pool, and ranges the woods and cannot
+be restrained; but also she will indulge in the wildest pranks, the
+most unthinkable freaks, play rough practical jokes on anybody
+and everybody, laugh out loud, shout and yell, gesticulate and
+contort herself into undignified postures and act generally in an
+uproarious and uncurbed fashion. She keeps up that sort of thing
+even in town, and is boisterous and unexpected beyond anything I
+ever heard of in any young girl She is most docile in all really
+important things, but in respect to her jokings and shriekings
+and carryings-on she is really beyond my control. She is never
+openly disobedient, yet she is most ingenious at devising methods
+for avoiding obedience. Sometimes I lose patience with Brinnaria.
+But, when I really think it all over, there is no harm in any of it.
+Strangers, however, would think her a very terrible girl; she
+belies herself so. Any one becoming cognizant of some of her
+vagaries would form a very unfavorable judgment of her and most
+unjustly. In her heart she is anything but the wild creature she
+makes herself appear. Her squawks of merriment, her rude
+interruptions of her elders, her pert remarks, her sarcastic jokes,
+are all the manifestations of mere overflowing animal spirits, of
+warm-blooded youth and hearty health. She will tone down. She is
+the most startling and incalculable child I ever heard of. No one
+could anticipate her eccentricities. There is an originality of
+invention about her pranks which amazes me. But I am sure she
+will turn out all that I could wish."
+
+"I trust so, indeed," said Pulfennius dryly. "I am grateful to you
+for warning me; I promise not to misjudge her because of any
+childish freakishness. And now it seems to me that we should
+make the young lady herself a party of this conference and bring
+the matter to a final settlement."
+
+Brinnarius called a slave and bade him fetch Brinnaria.
+
+Almost at once the fellow, a dark-skinned, obsequious Lydian,
+returned looking scared and yet on the verge of laughter. He
+could barely control his merriment, yet was plainly afraid to utter
+what he had to say. His master ordered him to speak.
+
+"Instead of coming with me," he said, "the young lady sent a
+message. But I am afraid to give it to you. I am afraid of a
+thrashing if I give the message as she gave it to me."
+
+"Another of her jokes," her father growled. "You shan't suffer
+for any of her impudence. Repeat her exact words; I'll hold you
+excused, Dastor."
+
+Dastor, reassured, grinned with anticipated enjoyment and said:
+
+"She says she is sitting down and very comfortable where she is,
+that she will not stand up till she feels inclined, and that if you
+want to see her you can come to her, for she will not come to you."
+
+For a moment there was a tense silence.
+
+Pulfennius spoke first.
+
+"If this is a sample of the sort of deportment which my future
+daughter-in-law is expected to outgrow I might as well be shown
+just what this kind of behavior is like. Let us acquiesce and go
+to the little witch, if you do not object."
+
+
+"I don't object at all to going," his host replied, "but I object to
+her behavior; I'll make her smart for it. Come, let us have it
+over with; I'll show you a submissive Brinnaria or I'll know the
+reason why."
+
+They stood up and from the open atrium passed into a narrow
+passage lighted only from the two ends and so into the larger
+courtyard with gleaming marble columns at each end and long
+rows of them down each side. The tank under the open sky was
+much larger than that in the atrium and had two fountains in it.
+Pigeons cooed on the tiles of the roofs, and two or three of them
+strutted on the mosaic pavement among the columns.
+
+The party, dumbfounded and stunned, stood without voice or
+movement, gazing at the picture before them.
+
+The pavement was a cool grayish white in effect, for its mosaic
+work was all of pale neutral tints. Above it the background was
+all white,--white marble walls, the white marble polished pillars
+of the peristyle, white marble entablature above them, the general
+whiteness emphasized by the mere streak of red tiled roof visible
+against the intense blue of the sky.
+
+The only color in the picture was to the left of the tank and close
+to it, where there had been set a big armchair upholstered in blue
+tapestry. In it sat a tall, fair-haired, curly-headed lad, with
+merry blue eyes. He wore a robe of pale green, the green of young
+onion tops. Against that green the red of Brinnaria's gown showed
+strident and glary, for Brinnaria was sitting on his lap. His arms
+were round her waist, hers about his neck. She was slowly swinging
+her blue-shod feet rhythmically and was kissing the lad audibly and
+repeatedly. As her elders stood still, petrified, mute and
+motionless with amazement, she imprinted a loud smack on the lad's
+lips, laid her cheek roguishly to his and peered archly at them,
+saying:
+
+"Glad to see you again, Pulfennius; what do you think of me for a
+daughter-in-law?"
+
+"I do not think of you for a daughter-in-law," Pulfennius snarled
+furiously.
+
+He turned angrily to Brinnarius.
+
+"What does this mean?" he queried.
+
+His host echoed him.
+
+"Brinnaria!" he called, imperatively. "What does this mean?"
+
+"Mean?" she repeated. "It means that I am making the most of
+Almo while I can. I love Almo; I've promised to forget him, to be
+a good wife to Calvaster, and of course I'm going to keep my word.
+>From the moment I'm married to Calvaster I'll never so much as
+look at Almo, let alone touch him. So I'm touching him all I can
+while I have the chance."
+
+She paused, kissed Almo twice, lingeringly and loudly, and looked
+up again.
+
+"How's that for kissing, Calvaster?" she chirped. "Don't you
+wish it was you?"
+
+"Come, son!" Pulfennius spluttered, "let us be gone! This is no
+place for us. We are being mocked and insulted."
+
+"Nonsense, Pulfennius!" his host exclaimed. "Can't you see that
+I had no part in this, that the minx devised it all by herself
+expressly to thwart me? Don't let her have the satisfaction of
+outmanoeuvering both of us. Don't let a mere prank of a child
+spoil all our arrangements. She'll be a good wife as she says."
+
+"A good wife!" Pulfennius snorted. 'I much doubt whether she
+can now ever be a good wife to any man. I'm sure she'll never be
+a wife to my son. You'd never convince me that she's fit to be
+my son's wife. Make her a Vestal, indeed! She a Vestal? She's
+much more likely to be something very different!"
+
+"Do you mean to insinuate--" his host began.
+
+"I mean to insinuate anything and everything appropriate to her
+wanton behavior," Pulfennius raged.
+
+The two men glared at each other in a silence through which could
+be heard the cooing of the doves, the trickle of the two fountains,
+Brinnaria's low chuckle and the faint lisping sound of three
+distinct kisses.
+
+"I beg your pardon!" spoke a voice behind them.
+
+The four looked around.
+
+"What brings you here, Segontius?" Brinnarius asked.
+
+"One of my slaves brought me word," the intruder explained, "that
+my son had entered this house. I knew you had not changed your
+mind since you forbade him to cross your threshold, so I came here
+at once to disclaim any share in his intrusion and to take him
+home. I feared he might get into mischief."
+
+"He has," Brinnarius replied, sententiously, "as you may see."
+
+Brinnaria, entirely at her ease, hugged Almo rapturously and
+kissed him repeatedly.
+
+"And I thought," Segontius pursued, "that you would probably
+smash every bone in his body if you caught him."
+
+"I don't know why I haven't," spoke the big man reflectively.
+
+"I know," shouted Pulfennius, "I can tell you. It is because this
+whole comedy has been rehearsed between you just to make me
+ridiculous. I know your way, your malignity, your tenacity of a
+grudge, your pretence of reconciliation, your ingenuity, your
+well-laid traps. I'll be revenged for this yet!"
+
+"You won't live to be revenged," Brinnarius told him, "unless you
+get out of here quick. I'll break every bone in your body, for
+certain, if you address another word to me."
+
+"Come, son, said Pulfennius, and shambled away.
+
+"And now," spoke Segontius, "don't you think, Marcus, that you
+and I had best forget our quarrels and be friends again? These
+young folks were plainly meant for each other by all the gods
+who favor lovers. Let us not stand in the way."
+
+"Indeed, Lucius," spoke the big man, holding out his huge hand.
+"I am of the same mind. But both of them deserve some punishment
+for their presumption. They should wait four years at least before
+they marry. My girl is too young."
+
+"I agree," said Segontius, "and I'll send my boy to Falerii for
+the present. That will keep them apart and ensure propriety of
+behavior."
+
+"That is well," growled Brinnarius, "and I'll send my girl to her
+aunt Septima's."
+
+Brinnaria sprang up.
+
+"Aunt Septima's?" she cried. "Spinach and mallows and a tiny
+roast lark for dinner every day. I'll starve to death And prim!
+I'd almost as lief be a Vestal!"
+
+
+
+Chapter II - Sieves
+
+
+
+To her luxurious but austerely managed villa, Aunt Septima welcomed
+Brinnaria with heartfelt, if repressed affection. Until the second
+sunrise Brinnaria controlled herself. Then the good lady endured
+her overgrown niece for some strenuous days, suffered impatiently
+for a few more, but finally packed off to Rome "that unspeakable
+child." At home again Brinnaria demanded pork and cabbage.
+
+"My insides are as empty as the sky," she wailed. "Asparagus
+is all very well, but it's none too filling, even if you can eat
+all you want, and aunty says ten stalks is enough for any one meal.
+Chicken-breast is good, hot or cold, but aunty would never let me
+have a second helping. She wouldn't even let me have as much bread
+as I wanted and only one little dish of strawberries. I filled up
+on raw eggs, all I could find in the nests. But, my, six days of
+raw eggs was five days too many for me. I'm wild for cabbage,
+all I want, and pork, big hunks of it."
+
+She got it and slept a sound night's sleep.
+
+The next day she craved an outing on foot. Her mother, prone to
+the shortest cut to peace on all occasions, acquiesced at once and
+let her go out with her one-eyed maid, Utta.
+
+Utta, born somewhere beyond the Rhine, had been brought to Rome
+when a small child and had no memories except memories of Italy.
+She was the most placid and acquiescent creature imaginable. Her
+little mistress led her first of all to the nearest pastry-cook's
+shop where the two ate till they could not swallow another crumb.
+
+Brinnaria, like many eccentric children born to wealth and
+position, had special favorites, almost cronies, among the lowly.
+Chief among them was the old sieve-maker of the Via Sacra. To
+his shop she made Utta lead her. Utta interposed no objection.
+Utta never objected to anything. But in this case she was
+especially complaisant, since opposite the sieve-maker's was a
+fascinating embroidery shop, the keeper of which was entirely
+willing, when he had no customers, to let Utta lounge on one of
+his sofas and inspect embroideries to her heart's content. So
+lounging, rapt in the contemplation of Egyptian appliqu‚s, Syrian
+gold-thread borders, Spanish linen-work, silk flower patterns from
+Cos, Parthian animal designs and Celtic cord-labyrinths after
+originals in leather thongs, Utta could glance up from time to time
+and make sure that her charge was safe with the sieve-maker.
+
+Safe she would have been without any maid to watch her, for old
+Truttidius adored her. He was a small, hale, merry, wizened man, his
+seamed and wrinkled face brown as berry in spite of his lifelong habit
+of indoor labor and comparative inertia. He had more than a little tact
+and was an excellent listener. Brinnaria was entirely at ease with him.
+
+His shop was rather large for those days, nearly fifteen feet wide and
+fully twenty deep. It faced directly on the street, from which it was
+separated only by the stone counter which occupied all the front except
+a narrow entrance at one side. Above the counter projected the heavy
+shutters which closed the shop at night and which, being hinged at the
+top, were by day pushed upward and outward so as to form a sort of
+pent like a wooden substitute for an awning. The entrance by the end
+of the counter was closed by a solid little gate. Behind the counter
+was the low stool from which Truttidius rose to chaffer with
+customers, and on which, when not occupied in trading, he sat at
+work, his bench and brazier by his side, his tools hanging on the
+wall by his hand, orderly in their neat racks or on their neat
+rows of hooks. Except for the trifling wall-space which they occupied,
+the walls were hidden under sieves hanging close together; bronze
+sieves, copper sieves, rush sieves with rims of white willow wood,
+white horse-hair sieves whose hoops were stout ash, sieves of black
+horse-hair stretched in rims of clean steamed oak and linen sieves
+hooped about with birch. Sieves were piled on the counter, mostly
+fancy sieves with hoops of carved wood strung with black and white
+horse-hair interlaced in bold patterns, or copper sieves, polished
+till they shone, they being most likely to catch the eyes of the
+passing throng.
+
+Brinnaria, sprawled on the sofa against the wall behind the
+work-bench, surveyed her surroundings and sighed happily,
+entirely at home. Truttidius was beating copper wire, a process
+always fascinating to watch.
+
+"I've had an awful time in the country with Aunt Septima,"
+Brinnaria chatted, "and I had an awful scare before they sent
+me to the country. Daddy threatened to make me a Vestal."
+
+"In place of Rabulla?" Truttidius queried, glancing up.
+
+"Yes," Brinnaria answered, "but I got off; my, but I was scared
+though."
+
+"You didn't want to be a Vestal?" Truttidius asked, eyeing her
+over his work.
+
+"Not I!" Brinnaria declared. "I can't think of anything worse
+except being killed."
+
+"Well," mused Truttidius, "there is no accounting for tastes. Most
+girls would be wild with delight at the idea. But there would be
+no sense in being a Vestal unless you wanted to be one."
+
+"I don't," Brinnaria proclaimed emphatically, "but I have been
+thinking about Vestals ever since Daddy threatened me and scared
+me so; I've been thinking about Vestals and sieves. Did anybody
+ever really carry water in a sieve, Truttidius?"
+
+"Water in a sieve?" the old man exclaimed. "Not anybody that ever
+I saw. What do you mean?"
+
+"You must have heard the story of Tuccia, the Vestal," Brinnaria
+wondered, wide-eyed. "She lived ages ago, before Hannibal invaded
+Italy, when everything was different. They said she was bad and she
+said it was a lie and they said she could not prove it was a lie and
+she said she could. She said if she was all she ought to be the
+Goddess would show it by answering her prayer. And she took a sieve
+and walked down to the river, right by the end of the Sublician
+bridge, where the stairs are on the right-hand side. And the five
+other Vestals, and the flamens, and all the priests, and the Pontifex,
+and the consuls went with her. And she stood on the lowest step
+with her toes in the water and prayed out loud to the Goddess to
+help her and show that she had told the truth and then she stooped
+over and dipped up water with her sacrificing ladle and poured it
+into the sieve and it didn't run through, and she dipped up more
+and more until the sieve was half full of water, as if it had been
+a pan. And then she hung her ladle at her girdle-hook and took
+the sieve in both hands and carried the water all the way to the
+temple. And everybody said that that proved that she had told
+the truth.
+
+"That's the story. Had you ever heard it?"
+
+"Yes, little lady," Truttidius said, "I have heard it."
+
+"What I want to know," Brinnaria pursued, "is this:
+Is it a made-up story or is it a true story P"
+
+Little lady," spoke Truttidius, "it is impious to
+doubt the truth of pious stories handed down from days
+of old."
+
+"That isn't answering my question," said the practical Brinnaria.
+"What I want you to tell me is to say right out plain do you believe
+it. Did anybody really ever carry water in a sieve?"
+
+"You must remember, dear little lady," the sieve-maker said,
+"that she was a most holy priestess, most pleasing in the eyes
+of her Goddess, that she was in dire straits and that she prayed
+to the Goddess to aid her. The Goddess helped her votary; the
+gods can do all things."
+
+"The gods can do all things," Brinnaria echoed, her eyes flashing,
+"but the gods don't do all things, not even for their favorites.
+There are lots and lots of things no god ever did for any votary
+or ever will. What I want to know is this: Is carrying water in a
+sieve one of the things the gods not only can do but do do? Did
+anybody ever carry water in a sieve truly?"
+
+Truttidius smiled, his wrinkles doubling and quadrupling till
+his face was all a network of tiny folds of hard, dry skin. He
+put down his work and regarded his guest, his face serious after
+the fading of his brief smile. The soft-footed sandalled throng
+that packed the narrow street shuffled and padded by unnoticed.
+No customer interrupted them. They might have been alone in a
+Sibyl's cell on a mountain side.
+
+"Little lady," spoke the sieve-maker, "you are, indeed, very old
+for your age, not only in height and build, but in heart and mind.
+What other child would bother her head about so subtle a problem?
+What other child would perceive the verity at the heart of the puzzle
+and put it so neatly in so few words? To you an old man cannot help
+talking as to an experienced matron, because to you an old man can
+talk as to a woman of sense. You deserve to be answered in the
+spirit of the question."
+
+He reflected. Brinnaria, fascinated and curious, hardly breathed
+in her intentness, watching his face and waiting for his answer.
+
+"Little lady," he said, after a long silence, "the gods can, indeed,
+do all things. But as you have yourself perceived the gods do not
+do all things, even for their favorites. The gods work miracles to
+vindicate their votaries, but as you divine, each miracle is the
+happening by the special ordinance of the gods of what might happen
+even without their mandate, but which does not happen because it is
+only once in countless ages that all the circumstances necessary to
+bring about that sort of happening concur to produce so unusual
+an effect. What folks call a miracle is the occurrence, by the
+beneficent will of heaven, at just the right time and place, of what
+might happen anywhere to any one, but almost never does happen
+anywhere to any one, because it is so unlikely that all things
+should conspire to bring about so unlikely a result.
+
+"So of carrying water in a sieve.
+
+"Anybody might carry water in a sieve any day. But very seldom,
+oh, very, very seldom can it come to pass that the kind of person
+capable of carrying water in a sieve can be just in the condition
+of muscle and mood to do so and can at just that moment be in
+possession of just the kind of sieve that will hold water and not
+let it through. For an actual breathing woman of flesh and blood
+to carry water in a real ordinary sieve of rush-fibres, or linen
+thread or horsehair or metal wire, in such a sieve as pastry-cooks
+use to sift their finest flour; for that to happen in broad daylight
+under the open sky before a crowd of onlookers, that requires the
+special intervention of the blessed gods, or of the most powerful
+of them. And not even all of them together could make that happen
+to a woman of ordinary quality of hand and eye, with a usual sieve,
+as most sieves are."
+
+"Explain!" Brinnaria half whispered, "what kind of woman could
+actually carry water in a sieve and in what kind of a sieve, and
+under what circumstances?"
+
+"That's three questions," Truttidius counted, "and one at a time is
+enough.
+
+"In the first place, no god, not all the gods together, could give
+any votary power to carry water in a sieve, be it rush or linen or
+horse-hair or metal, of which the meshes had been first scrubbed
+with natron or embalmers' salt or wood-ashes or fullers' earth.
+Water would run through such a sieve, did even all the gods will
+that it be retained. No one ever dipped a sieve into water and
+brought it up with water in it and saw that water retained by the
+meshes. Once wet the under side of a sieve and water will run
+through to the last drop.
+
+"But if a sieve were ever so little greasy or oily, not dripping
+with oil or clogged with grease, but greasy as a working slave's
+finger is greasy on a hot day; if such a sieve were free of any
+drop of water on the underside, if into such a sieve water were
+slowly and carefully poured, as you say that Tuccia in the story
+ladled water into her sieve with her libation-dipper, then that
+water might spread evenly over the meshes to the rim all around,
+might deepen till it was as deep as the width of two fingers or of
+three, and might be retained by the meshes even for an hour, even
+while the sieve was carried over a rough road, up hill and down,
+through crowded streets.
+
+"But few are the women who could so carry a sieve of water or could
+even so hold it that the water would not run through at once."
+
+"How could the water be retained at all?" queried Brinnaria the
+practical. "What is the explanation?"
+
+Truttidius wrinkled up his face in deep thought.
+
+"You have seen wine spilled at dinner," he illustrated. "You have
+seen a drop of it or a splash of it fall on a sofa-cover, and you
+have seen it soak in and leave an ugly stain?"
+
+"Of course," Brinnaria agreed, "often and often."
+
+"And then again, not very often," the sieve-maker went on, "you
+see a patch of spilt wine stand up on a perfectly dry fabric and
+remain there awhile without soaking in, its surface shining wet
+and its edges gleaming round and smooth and curved, bright as a
+star. Well, the retaining of water in a sieve by the open meshes
+is like the momentary holding up of spilt wine on a woven fabric.
+I can't explain any better, but the two happenings are similar,
+only the not soaking in of the splashed liquid is far, oh, far more
+frequent, countless, uncountable times more frequent, than
+the sustaining of fluid in a sieve. But as the one can happen and
+does, so the other could happen and might."
+
+"I see," Brinnaria breathed. "You have made me see that. Now,
+next point: How must the sieve be held?"
+
+The old man smiled again.
+
+"You keep close to the subject," he chuckled. "You talk like a
+grandmother of consuls. You have a head on your shoulders."
+
+"That does not answer my question," Brinnaria persisted.
+
+"Your question is easily answered," he said. "For the miracle to
+happen, in fact, the sieve must be held as level as the top rail of
+a mason's T-shaped plumb-line frame, and as steady as if clamped
+in a vise. For a woman to carry water in a sieve the weather must
+be dry, for in damp weather the water would run through the meshes,
+even if the threads or wires were just oily enough and not too oily,
+even if the meshes were just the right size to favor the forming in
+each mesh of a little pocket of water underneath, like the edges of
+the upstanding drop of wine on a sofa-cushion. I don't know how
+it comes to pass, but somehow, if all the conditions are right, little
+bags of water form on the underside of a sieve, one to each mesh,
+like drops after a rain hanging from the edge of my shop-shutters,
+or from the mutules on the cornice of a temple. They are capable
+of sustaining one or even two finger-thicknesses of water on the
+upper side of the sieve-web. But if the sieve-web is unevenly woven
+or unevenly stretched, it will not retain water an instant, and if the
+sieve-web bags anywhere the water, even if the rest of the sieve-web
+promises to retain it, will run through at that point. And even if
+the sieve is perfect, the slightest tilt, the very slightest tilt, will
+cause the little bags of water to break at the lowest point, and
+so start all the water to running through. I know; I have tried; I
+have seen the sieve hold up the water for some breaths. But for
+the marvel to last any length of time, that would require the
+intervention of the gods; that would be a miracle. For a woman
+to hold a sieve so that it would retain water would mean that her
+hand was as steady as the hand of a sleep-walker or of the priestess
+of Isis in her trance in the great yearly mystery-festival. That
+could happen seldom to any woman; such a woman would be rare."
+
+"I see," Brinnaria barely whispered, so intent was she on the old
+man's words. "Now, what kind of woman could do such a wonder?"
+
+"A very exceptional and unusual kind of woman," the old man
+declared. "Women, the run of them, are not steady-handed.
+Even steady-handed women are easily distracted, their attention
+is readily called away from any definite task. Even a woman usually
+steady-handed would find her hand tremble if she were conscious
+of guilt, even a woman high-hearted with her sense of her own
+worthiness might glance aside at some one in a great crowd of
+people about her, might let her thoughts wander.
+
+"That is where the miracle would come in. Only a woman directly
+favored by the mighty gods could so ignore the throng about her,
+could so forget herself, could so concentrate all her faculties on
+the receptacle she held, could so perfectly control her muscles or
+could so completely let her muscles act undisturbed by her will,
+could possess muscles capable of so long tension at so perfect
+an adjustment."
+
+"I see," Brinnaria sighed. "The thing may have happened in fact,
+may happen again, but it could happen only once out of ten times
+ten thousand times ten thousand chances. I understand. It is a
+possibility in the ordinary course of events. It was a miracle if it
+ever took place; it will be a miracle if it ever comes to pass again.
+It is not impossible, but it's too improbable for anybody to believe
+it could be, in fact."
+
+"You have it," the sieve-maker assured her.
+
+"I'm glad I have," she said. "Now it'll go out of my head and quit
+bothering me. I've thought about it day and night ever since
+Daddy threatened me. Now I'll forget it and sleep sound."
+
+
+Chapter III - Stuttering
+
+
+
+When Brinnaria returned from her outing she found waiting for her
+her best friend, chum and crony, Flexinna, a girl four years older,
+not so tall, decidedly more slender and much prettier. Brinnaria
+was robustly handsome; Flexinna was delicately lovely, yet they
+did not differ much in tints of hair, eyes or skin and might have
+been sisters. In fact, they were not infrequently taken for sisters.
+
+They chatted of their girlish interests and of local gossip and
+family news, like any pair of girls, until Brinnaria described the
+escapade that led to her rustication.
+
+Flexinna's eyes were wide and wider as she listened.
+
+"D-d-do-you really m-m-mean," she stuttered, "that you had a
+c-c-chance to be a V-V-Vestal and d-d-didn't jump at it?"
+
+"Jump at it!" exclaimed Brinnaria. "I jumped away from it! I
+can't think of anything, except death, that would fill me with
+more horror than the very idea of being made a Vestal. It makes
+me shiver now just to speak of it."
+
+"You're a f-f-fool," Flexinna declared, "the f-f-foolest kind of
+a f-f-fool. This is the f-f-first f-f-foolish thing I ever knew you
+to d-d-do. I always th-th-thought you s-s-so s-s-sensible, t-t-too.
+And you've m-m-missed a ch-ch-chance to be a V-V-Vestal. I've
+n-n-no p-p-patience with you. Any other g-g-girl would j-j-jump
+at the ch-ch-chance."
+
+"Jump at it!" cried Brinnaria. "Why?"
+
+"Why?" sneered Flexinna, blazing with excitement. "Why, just think
+what you've m-m-missed! You're as wild as I am to see
+g-g-gladiators fight, k-k-keener than I am to see a real horse-race
+in the circus, and you'll have to wait until you're g-g-grown up,
+as I'll have to, before you s-s-see either. And you'd have g-g-gone
+to every spectacle, from the very day you were t-t-taken, and not
+have m-m-missed one. Think of it! F-F-Front seats in the circus,
+front seats in the amphitheatre, all your life, or for thirty years
+at least, for certain! And you've m-m-missed it. And that's not
+half. Your lictor to c-c-clear the way for you whenever you g-g-go
+out and your choice to g-g-go out in your litter with eight
+b-b-bearers or in your c-c-carriage, your own c-c-carriage, all
+your own, and the right to d-d-drive any where in the city any
+d-d-day in the year. Oh, you f-f-fool, you s-s-silly f-f-fool!
+A ch-ch-chance to be one of the s-s-seven m-m-most imp-p-portant
+women in Rome, one of the s-s-six who are on a level with the
+Empress, and you m-m-missed it! Fancy it; to b-b-be mistress of
+an income so large that it m-m-makes you d-d-dizzy to think of it,
+and you throw away the ch-ch-chance! To be able the m-m-moment
+you were taken, to m-m-make your own w-w-will! To have every
+legacy c-c-cadger in Rome running after you and m-m-making you
+p-p-presents and d-d-doing you favors and angling for your n-n-notice
+all your 1-l-life 1-1-long, and you m-m-miss the ch-ch-chance!"
+
+"Yes," Brinnaria admitted, reflectively, "I have missed all that,
+that's so. But that's not all there is to think of, when you think
+about being a Vestal. I've missed a lot of fine privileges, mighty
+valuable to any girl that would care for that sort of thing; but I've
+escaped a lot of things that would go with those privileges. I love
+bright colors, I always did and I look ghastly in white--I look like
+a ghost. And I'd have had to wear white and nothing else, even
+white flowers, like a corpse. And a Vestal has to keep her eyes on
+the ground and walk slow and stately and stand straight and
+dignified, and talk soft and low. I'd suffer, even if I could learn
+all the tricks they teach them as well as Gargilia has. And I don't
+believe I ever could. I'd keep my eyes cast down for a month or a
+year and then, right in the middle of a sacrifice, I'd see something
+funny, like the gander squawking under the feet of the pall-bearers
+at poor old Gibba's funeral at the farm last summer, and I'd wink
+at the head Vestal or roll my eyes at the whole congregation and
+spoil the prayers; or, after keeping meek and mum for a year or so
+I'd be so wild to laugh that I'd roar right out and break up the
+whole service. I think I'm the last girl alive to be a Vestal. A
+Vestal mustn't answer back or make a pun, no matter how good a
+chance she gets. I just can't help cutting in, if I see a chance;
+the words come out of my mouth before I know it, and, if I trained
+myself to keep still and look as mild as a lamb, I'd be boiling
+inside and sometime I'd burst out with a yell just to relieve my
+feelings or I'd jab a shawl-pin into the Pontifex to see him jump,
+or put out my toe and trip up somebody just to see him sprawl.
+I couldn't help it. The more I'd bottle myself up the farther the
+naughtiness in me would spurt when it burst through the skin.
+I know. No Vestaling for me! I wasn't born for that trade!"
+
+"Nonsense!" Flexinna disclaimed vigorously. "You'd g-g-get used
+to the whole thing in a m-m-month and be the most s-s-statuesque
+of the six in t-t-ten years. Think of it! I'm just raging inside at your
+f-f-folly. To have the right to an interview with the Emperor
+whenever you d-d-demand it, to see the m-m-magistrates' lictors
+lower their fasces to you and s-s-stand aside at the s-s-salute and
+let you p-p-pass whenever you m-m-meet them in p-p-public. To
+live in one of the finest p-p-palaces in Rome, one of the most
+m-m-magnificent residences on earth, to have the ch-ch-chance
+at all that and m-m-miss it; I've no p-p-patience with you!"
+
+"That's all very fine," Brinnaria countered, "but there's much to
+be said on the other side. I've been in the Atrium. Aunt Septima
+took me there to call on Causidiena. It's big, it's gorgeous, it's
+luxurious, that's all true. But I love sunlight. I'd loathe living
+in that hole in the ground; why, the shadow of the Palace falls
+across the courtyard before noon and for all the rest of the day
+it's gloomy as the bottom of a well. I heard Causidiena tell Aunt
+Septima how shoes mould and embroideries mildew and what a time
+they have with the inlays popping off the furniture on account of the
+dampness and about the walls and lamp-standards sweating moisture.
+I'd hate the dark, poky, cold place."
+
+"Oh," Flexinna admitted, "there are d-d-drawbacks to any
+s-s-situation in life, but, really the higher the s-s-station the
+fewer the drawbacks. The p-p-plain truth is that being a Vestal
+is the highest s-s-station in Rome except being an Empress. No
+g-g-girl dare aspire to be an Empress; it would be treason. If any
+g-g-girl d-d-dreams of it she k-k-keeps her d-d-dreams to herself.
+But any g-g-girl has a right to aspire to be a Vestal, if she is
+made perfect and is under ten and has her f-f-father and m-m-mother
+noble and alive. You've got all that and you are offered what any
+g-g-girl would envy you and you throw it away! I've no patience
+with you."
+
+"You forget," Brinnaria argued, "that I'm in love with Almo and
+I'd have to give up Almo."
+
+"Not f-f-forever," Flexinna retorted. "He's enough in love with
+you to wait for you, to wait for you! You could have pledged him
+to wait till your term of service was up and then you two could
+have married just the same."
+
+"Just the same!" Brinnaria echoed. "A lot of good it'd do me to
+marry after I'd be an old wrinkled, gray-haired woman of forty,
+dried up and withered."
+
+"Nemestronia," Flexinna cited, "has married twice since she was
+forty, and she's not withered yet, not by a great deal, even if she
+is gray-haired and has a wrinkle or two."
+
+"What's the use of arguing," Brinnaria summed up. "I hate the very
+idea of being a Vestal. I'd hate the fact a million times more. I'd
+hate it even if I were not in love with Almo, furiously in love
+with Almo. Daddy says I've got to wait four years to marry him.
+I roll around in bed and bite the pillows with rage to think of it,
+night after night. A fine figure I'd cut trying to wait thirty
+years for him. I'd swoon with longing for him and write him a note
+or peep out of the temple to see him go by and then I'd get accused
+of misbehavior, and accused is convicted for a Vestal; well, you
+know it. I'd look fine being buried alive in a seven-by-five
+underground stone cell, with half a pint of milk and a gill of wine
+to keep me alive long enough to suffer before I starved to death
+and a thimbleful of oil in a lamp to make me more scared of the
+dark when the lamp burned out. No burial alive for me. I'm in
+love. I'm too much in love to balance arguments. I'm not sorry I
+missed my chance, as you call it. I'm glad I escaped; the chance
+isn't missed for that matter. Rabulla's place hasn't been filled yet."
+
+"Do you know who is g-g-going to be ch-ch-chosen to fill it?"
+Flexinna asked. "You d-d-don't? The choice has about narrowed
+d-d-down to that execrable, weasel-faced little M-M-Meffia."
+
+"Meffia!" Brinnaria cried. "There's no one alive I despise as much
+as that detestable ninny. I've a mind to chuck Almo and ask Daddy
+to offer me, just to spite Meffia."
+
+"Why d-d-don't you?" Flexinna stuttered. "D-d-do it n-n-now, right
+n-n-now. You might be t-t-too late."
+
+"Oh bosh," Brinnaria groaned. "What's the use of talking nonsense?
+What would be the sense in my spoiling my life to spite Meffia? I
+hate her. I'll hate to see her putting on airs as a Vestal, but I'd
+hate worse to be a Vestal myself, and worst of all to lose Almo. I
+just couldn't give up Almo."
+
+"I wish I were you," Flexinna raged. "If I were only under ten and
+d-d-didn't s-s-stutter, I'd d-d-do all I c-c-could to g-g-get
+D-D-Daddy to offer m-m-me."
+
+"Bosh!" Brinnaria sneered. "You're in love with Vocco and you
+know you wouldn't even think of giving him up if you had the chance."
+
+"Just wouldn't I!" Flexinna retorted. "I love Quintus dearly. But
+if I had a ch-ch-chance to be a V-V-Vestal, I'd fling poor Quintus
+hard and never regret him. Not I. Think of the influence a V-V-Vestal
+has! Every man who wants p-p-promotion in the army or in the
+fleet, or who wants an appointment to any office would set his
+sisters and all his women relations to besieging me to use my
+influence for him. Every temple-carver and shrine-painter in Rome
+would have his wife showing me attentions. I know; I've heard
+the talk.
+
+"And b-b-besides, in all the Empire a Vestal is the nearest thing
+to a p-p-princess we have. We read a lot about Egyptian princesses,
+and Asiatic princesses and we hear about P-P-Parthian
+p-p-princesses, but the only p-p-princesses we ever see are the
+Vestals. They are the only p-p-princesses in the Empire, in Italy,
+in Rome, the six of them. And you had a chance to be one of the
+only six p-p-princesses in our world and you didn't take it. Oh,
+you f-f-fool, you f-f-fool!"
+
+They wrangled about their conflicting views for a long time.
+
+It was only as Flexinna was leaving that she inquired casually:
+
+"Have you heard what Rabulla d-d-died of?"
+
+"No," said Brinnaria. "what was it?"
+
+"Hadn't you heard?" Flexinna wondered. "It was the p-p-pestilence."
+
+
+Chapter IV - Pestilence
+
+
+
+Pestilence!
+
+Brinnaria heard the word often during the next few days. Rome
+talked of little else. It had begun with a few deaths along the
+river front in the sailors' quarters, and among the stevedores
+and porters of the grain-warehouses, southwest of the Aventine
+Hill in the thirteenth ward. Next it came to notice when there
+were many deaths along the Subura in the very centre of the city.
+>From there the infection had spread to every wind. Panic seized
+the people. There was an exodus of all who could afford it, to
+their country estates, to the mountains, to the seaside. Brinnarius
+and Quartilla discussed arrangements for their departure to his
+mountain farm in the Sabine hills above Carsioli. Their difficulty
+was to decide to whom to commit their great house in Rome. They
+had no slave whom they implicitly trusted, and no one certainly
+who would be willing to stay in the city. To close the house was
+to invite burglary, for in the general panic watchmen were
+unreliable and house-breakings were frequent. Into their
+consultation Brinnaria thrust herself uninvited.
+
+"Why don't you leave me in town?" she suggested.  "I hate the
+country and I hate it near Carsioli worse than any neighborhood
+I ever saw. I want to stay right here. I love Rome. And I'm not
+afraid of pestilence. Nobody can die more than once and nobody
+dies till the gods will it. There's more danger of dying of fright
+and worry than of pestilence. Anyhow a pestilence never kills all
+the people in a city, most of the towns- folk stay right at home
+and keep alive all right. Half the people that die scare or fret
+themselves to death. I won't fret or worry and I'll keep well here;
+but if you take me with you I'll be miserable and chafe myself ill.
+ I can run the house as well as mother can. Most of the slaves
+worship me and will obey me for love, the rest are deadly afraid
+of me and will not dare to disobey me. I'll keep order and I will
+not waste a sesterce. Can't I stay, Father?"
+
+Brinnarius knit his brows and looked at his wife. Her eyes
+answered his.
+
+"It would save a deal of trouble," he said, reflectively.
+
+"It would make a deal of gossip," Quartilla declared. "All my
+enemies would say that I am an unnatural mother, that I do not
+love my youngest child, that I hate her, that I am exposing her
+to certain death, that I am as bad as a murderess."
+
+"Nonsense!" her husband retorted. "We can't bother about all the
+malice of all the slanderers in Rome. Other people's daughters are
+remaining. Lucconius means to stay here in Rome with his family.
+If he ventures to keep Flexinna here we might venture to leave
+Brinnaria behind."
+
+"You might," that self-assertive child cut in, "and you know there
+is really no use in taking me if I do not want to go. You know
+how much trouble it will make for both of you."
+
+Quartilla sighed.
+
+"Perhaps we had best leave her," she said. "Certainly the house
+will be safe and the slaves kept in order. I shan't have an
+instant's anxiety about that. Then Brinnaria is so genuinely
+brave that she will really not dread the pestilence, and all the
+doctors say that there is nothing like that feeling to protect any
+one from the danger. She makes me feel that she will be safe. I
+don't believe I'll worry about that either."
+
+"Fine!" Brinnaria squealed. "I'm to stay."
+
+"Not so fast," her father rebuked her. "I haven't said yet that
+you may stay. But if I say so, then you must stay. I'll not have
+you changing your mind and deciding to leave Rome after we have
+arranged to put you in charge here. It would make trouble indeed
+to have you shutting up this house in a hurry and chasing after
+us to Carsioli."
+
+"Epulo!" his wife reproached him, "the child has her faults,
+but changeableness is not one of them. She is the most resolute
+child I ever knew. If you leave her, she will not fail us. If
+she gives her word she will keep it. I never knew Brinnaria to
+break an earnestly made promise."
+
+"Will you promise?" her father asked her.
+
+"I promise," Brinnaria shouted, "I pledge myself. I take oath.
+I swear by my love of both of you, by my respect for our clan, by
+my hopes of marrying Almo, that I'll stick it out here in Rome,
+going out only when necessary, unless you send for me to come
+away. If anything happens that makes me think I ought to leave
+the city I shall send a message to you, but I shall not cross
+the city boundaries nor relax my watch on this house without your
+permission. I swear."
+
+"That's enough, dearie," her father said, "enough and too much. If
+your judgment tells you that you ought to flee from Rome, you have
+my permission to send me a messenger; I know you will not resort to
+that without real need. I rely on your judgment. The gods be with you,
+child. You have taken a load of my shoulders, two loads, in fact."
+
+Thereupon preparations for departure were pushed and soon after
+sunrise on the next day Brinnaria found herself left to her own
+resources, responsible for the welfare of a large retinue of
+obsequious slaves, autocrat over them, and mistress of one of the
+ largest private houses in Rome. She acquitted herself well of
+her duties. She had been right in claiming that she was loved by
+most and feared by the rest. Certainly she was trusted and respected
+by all as if she had been five times her age. She made them as
+comfortable as town-slaves could be and they knew it. To her they
+accorded instant and implicit obedience. The life of the household
+went on as smoothly as if the master had been at home. And its life
+was not gloomy. Although the main subject of conversation was the
+ pestilence, open forebodings were not indulged in and the house was
+ outwardly cheerful.
+
+Equally cheerful was Flexinna, whom Brinnaria saw daily. Neither of
+them had the slightest fear of the pestilence and no member of
+either household had shown the slightest symptoms of any kind of
+ illness. Of the daily deaths among their large acquaintance or
+among the nobilities of the city, they talked calmly, without any
+ feeling of gloom or of dread, secure in the confidence of youth
+and health.
+
+On the tenth day after Brinnaria had been left to her own devices
+ Flexinna visited her as usual. Early in their talk she said:
+
+"D-D-Dossonia died last night."
+
+"The Chief Vestal?" Brinnaria queried.
+
+"Yes," Flexinna replied, a bright tear in each eye.
+
+"She couldn't live forever," Brinnaria said. "She was ninety-four,
+ wasn't she?"
+
+"Ninety-four years and eight months yesterday," Flexinna replied.
+"She had been Chief Vestal ever since C-C-Calpurnia P-P-Praetextata
+ died, and that's fifty- six years ago. She had been Chief Vestal
+longer than any ever and she had lived longer than any Vestal ever."
+
+"Well," said Brinnaria, the practical, "she ought to have been
+glad to go, and she stone blind for twenty years."
+
+"Yes, I know," Flexinna rejoined, "but she was such an old d-d-dear,
+she looked so much younger than her age, her face so healthy and
+pink, and b-b-beautiful even with all its wrinkles, so calm and
+placid and holy I loved to look at her sitting in her big chair
+like a great white b-b-butterfly, so plump and handsome and soft-
+looking. She always put out her hand to my face and recognized me
+at the first t-t-touch, almost, and gave me her blessing so
+b-b-beautifully. Sometimes Manlia let me read to the old dear,
+and she always seemed to enjoy it so much. I'm real shaken at her
+d-d-death. I really loved her."
+
+"Everybody loved her," Brinnaria declared. "But everybody loves
+ Causidiena too, and she's Chief Vestal now. She's not fat and
+placid like Dossonia, but she is wonderfully dignified. My, I
+admire that woman!"
+
+"I wonder," Flexinna reflected, "who will be chosen in her p-p-place."
+
+"Poor wretch!" Brinnaria commented. "I'm sorry for her, whoever
+she is. Just think, she'll have to pair with that unspeakable
+little muff of a Meffia. I hate that girl."
+
+"Whoever she is," Flexinna continued, "she is sure to be chosen
+and taken mighty quick. For with this p-p-pestilence in the city,
+and all the trouble the P-P-Parthians are making in the East, of
+the Marcomanni on the Rhine colonies, and the thunder-storms that
+have raged about lately, there'll be need felt for all the p-p-prayers
+ all the offer. They'll not leave the vacancy open long. I'll bet they
+ have it filled by d-d-day after to-morrow. Old B-B-Bambilio is a
+stickler for pious precision an observance of all ritual matters
+and the Emperors are with him."
+
+"Marcus is," Brinnaria agreed, pertly, "but Lucius doesn't care
+what happens so long as he has his fun."
+
+"You mustn't t-t-t-talk that way about the Emperors,"  Flexinna
+ cautioned her. "If you were overheard you'd get into no end of
+trouble. Anyhow, Verus defers to Aurelius in everything, so that
+ whatever Aurelius wishes is as if both wished it. And there never
+was a more p-p-pious Emperor than Aurelius. So the place is
+certain to be filled p-p-promptly."
+
+"At once, for sure," Brinnaria agreed. "I wonder who the victim
+will be? Do you suppose it will be Occurnea?"
+
+"It would have been Occurnea, I think," Flexinna said. "You know
+it was a chance for a while whether she'd get it instead of Meffia.
+But she's not eligible now. Her mother d-d-died yesterday."
+
+"Tallentia, perhaps," Brinnaria hazarded.
+
+"Impossible," Flexinna declared. "You remember how recklessly
+she rode and how her horse f-f-fell on her. She has limped ever
+since and always will."
+
+"Cuppiena?" suggested Brinnaria.
+
+"Not she," said Flexinna; "she has some k-k-kind of skin rash and
+has lost almost all her hair."
+
+"Sabbia," Brinnaria proposed.
+
+"Her mother's d-d-dead too," Flexinna reminded her; "has been for
+ months."
+
+"Fremnia," came the next suggestion.
+
+"She's off to Aquileia with her family," said Flexinna;  "they
+all left the d-d-day your folks went."
+
+"Eppia," ventured Brinnaria.
+
+"She's ten years old now," Flexinna demurred. "She celebrated
+her b-b-birthday three days before the Kalends. I was at the party."
+
+"Pennasia, perhaps," Brinnaria suggested.
+
+"D-d-deaf in one ear like her mother and grandmother," said
+Flexinna, "and you know it."
+
+"Licinia," Brinnaria ventured.
+
+"She'd be the last they'd choose on account of the b-b-bad luck
+Vestals of her family have had;" Flexinna reminded her. "The
+very name suggests disgrace. Anyhow, she's in Baiae with her
+p-p-people."
+
+"Rentulana," came the next conjecture.
+
+"Has a b-b-big wen on the side of her head," Flexinna proclaimed.
+
+"Numledia?" came next.
+
+"You've lost your memory, Brinnaria," said Flexinna, severely.
+"She's got a b-b-big purple birthmark on her neck."
+
+"Magnonia," Brinnaria proposed.
+
+"She's far away, in Britain, with her father and mother; might as
+well be out of the world."
+
+Brinnaria was at a loss. She meditated. "Gavinna!" she said at
+last.
+
+"She has a bad squint and you know it," laughed Flexinna. "Why
+don't you think of an eligible c-c-candidate?"
+
+They tried a dozen more names, all of girls out of the city or
+defective in some way, or with one parent dead.
+
+"But who will it be?" Brinnaria wondered. "It's bound to be
+somebody and quick."
+
+She jumped to her feet.
+
+She screamed.
+
+"They'll take me! They'll take me! Oh, what am I to do, what am I
+to do? I'm the only possible candidate in the city. And they'll be
+after me the moment they run over the lists and find no one else
+is in town."
+
+She stood a moment, considering, then she called Guntello, and a
+lean Caledonian slave called Intinco. She gave them each a
+written journey-order to show to any patrol that questioned them, told
+Guntello to take the best horse in the stable and to give the
+next best to Intinco, bade Intinco ride to Carsioli and Guntello
+to  Falerii, gave Guntello a letter for Almo and Intinco a letter
+to her father and told them verbally, in case the letter was lost,
+to make it plain that she was in danger of being taken for a Vestal
+and bid her father come quickly to interfere and her lover to ride
+fast to claim her in time. She enjoined both slaves to spur their
+ horses, gave them money in case they needed to hire fresh mounts
+and wound up:
+
+"Kill Rhaebus, kill Xanthus, kill as many hired horses as need be,
+ride without halt or mercy. Get there and get father and Almo here.
+Be quick. You can't be too quick."
+
+She watched them ride off at a sedate walk, for no man was allowed
+to trot a horse in the streets of Rome. Both had assured her that
+they would ride at full gallop from the moment they passed the gates.
+
+Then began for Brinnaria a tense and anxious period of waiting.
+Flexinna obtained her parents' permission and remained with her
+friend. The entire household continued in good health and there
+was nothing to distract t he two from their dread on the one hand
+that the Pontifex might come to claim Brinnaria before Almo and her
+ father arrived, and their hope on the other hand of seeing them
+come in time.
+
+On the whole the strain told on Flexinna more than on Brinnaria,
+ who never once shed a tear, attended to her housewifely duties
+calmly and steadily and talked little. Flexinna fidgeted constantly
+and talked a good deal.
+
+"If I were in your place," she said, "I shouldn't be waiting here
+inertly for Faltonius to come and claim me. Instead of dispatching
+messengers for your father and Almo, you ought to have left the
+city at once and made your best speed for Carsioli yourself."
+
+"I couldn't," Brinnaria declared, "and you know why. I passed my
+word to stay in this house and not so much as to go out unless
+some compelling necessity arose. I pledged myself not to leave here
+ unless I sent a messenger saying I needed to leave and received
+permission before I started. I took my oath not to cross the city
+ limits without Father's consent. I can't break my oath and I
+shouldn't break my word, even if I hadn't sworn in addition to
+promising."
+
+"You f-f-fool!" Flexinna declared.
+
+"All members of our clan keep their word," said Brinnaria proudly.
+"We do not ask whether it is advantageous to keep our word or
+pleasant; when we have passed our word we keep it. I've given my
+word and there's nothing to do but to wait for Almo and Daddy and
+hope that both, or at least a message from Daddy will get here
+before Faltonius."
+
+"There is something else you might do," Flexinna suggested. "You
+might easily arrange to be ineligible before Bambilio comes for
+you."
+
+"I shall," spoke the matter-of-fact Brinnaria. "The moment Daddy
+and Almo come, I'll be Alma's wife in less time than it takes
+to tell it and will be able to snap my fingers at Bambilio."
+
+"Suppose he comes before your father," Flexinna suggested.
+
+"I'd be a Vestal and all hope gone," said Brinnaria,
+
+"I mean," said Flexinna, "suppose Almo comes before your father."
+
+"I've thought of that," Brinnaria admitted. "But I'd hate to break
+the record of which our family is so proud. None of our women
+ever were so much as accused of any  misbehavior before marriage."
+
+"I've no p-p-patience with you," Flexinna raged. 'You'll throw
+away your life for a mere scruple. You risk being made a Vestal
+every moment. Faltonius may be on the way here now. If I were
+in your place I'd make sure. I'd not wait for Almo. Any lad would
+do for me. You c-c-could make sure, if you had sense. Almo would
+forgive you and marry you anyway. Your father would forgive you;
+he'd never approve, I know."
+
+"Not he!" Brinnaria proclaimed, "and he'll never have any such
+dishonor to forgive. No man of our clan ever had reason to be
+ashamed of his daughter or of his sister. I'll not be the first
+to disgrace the clan. If Faltonius comes he'll find me as eligible
+as the hour I was born, unless Daddy and Almo come in time for me
+to be married first."
+
+"At least," Flexinna persisted, "you might say no when he asks you.
+That would stall the whole ceremony and give you t-t-time."
+
+"Do you suppose," Brinnaria sneered, "that I haven't thought of
+that? I'm tempted, of course. But that would be to advertise
+myself a disgrace to the Pontifex during a solemn interrogatory."
+
+"At least," Flexinna pleaded, "you might say you are over age. You
+look sixteen to anybody, and no one would imagine you are under
+ fourteen. You could halt the proceedings, at least, and gain
+t-t-time."
+
+"Faltonius has the lists," said Brinnaria wearily, "with all the
+ birthdays sworn to by both parents for every girl on them and
+attested by four excellent witnesses, besides. He'd know I was
+lying and it would do me no good."
+
+Flexinna changed the subject.
+
+But when the next day dawned and neither Brinnarius nor Almo
+appeared, she returned to the attack. Brinnaria was very pale,
+very tense, but obdurate. She controlled herself, did not forget,
+did not express her feelings, but she posted a slave at each street
+ corner, right and left of the house-door, and had them look out
+ for what she hoped and what she feared.
+
+Dastor brought word that the Pontifex and his retinue were
+approaching; three litters, each with eight bearers, preceded by
+the lictor of the Chief Vestal.
+
+Brinnaria, pale and tense, did her best to look collected and
+ controlled. She succeeded well, heard calmly the announcement of
+ her august visitors, ordered them shown into the atrium, and
+received them with proper dignity. Her self-possession did not
+desert her when she recognized in the train of the Pontifex her
+rejected suitor Calvaster, sly, malignant and with an air of
+suppressed elation.
+
+Faltonius Bambilio, the Pontifex of Vesta, was a pursy, pudgy,
+pompous old man, immensely self-important, almost ridiculous in
+his fussiness, but clothed with a certain impressiveness by the
+mere fact of his religious office. He gazed about him, stared at
+Brinnaria, hemmed and hawed and threw himself into poses intended
+to be stately.
+
+With him was Causidiena, now Chief Vestal, a tall, spare woman
+of about forty-five, her austere face kindly and reassuring, her
+dark hair barely showing under her official head-dress, a statuesque
+ figure in her white robes of office.
+
+"My daughter," spoke Faltonius to Brinnaria, "Rome has but five
+Vestals. I have come to take you into the vacant place. You have
+been chosen, as best suited to this high dignity, from among those
+whose names were on the lists of those fit for the office. Was it
+proper that your name should be on the lists?"
+
+"I believe so," spoke Brinnaria, weakly, almost in a whisper.
+
+"Are you fit to be taken as a Vestal, my daughter?"
+
+"I believe so," came the answer.
+
+"Have you any blemish or defect of body, any impediment of speech,
+any difficulty of hearing?"
+
+Brinnaria's awe was wearing off, and the irritating pomposity of
+Faltonius was producing its usual effect of arousing antagonism,
+as it generally did in those he talked to. Brinnaria felt all her
+wild self surge up in her.
+
+"I'm sound as a two-year-old racing filly," she replied. "I'm
+clean as fresh curd; I hear you perfectly and you can hear me
+ perfectly."
+
+Bambilio bristled like a bantam rooster.
+
+"That is not the way for a Vestal to speak," he rebuked.
+
+"I'm not a Vestal yet," Brinnaria retorted, "and that was my
+answer to those questions. If you don't like it I don't care
+a shred of bran."
+
+"Come! come!" fussed Bambilio, "answer the interrogatories
+properly."
+
+"I have and I shall," Brinnaria maintained mutinously.
+
+"Are you fit in mind and in faculties to be a Vestal?" he continued.
+
+"Fit to be Flaminica or Empress," Brinnaria responded.
+
+"Are you pure?" came the next query.
+
+"As when I was born," said Brinnaria emphatically.
+
+"What is your age?" the Pontifex queried his victim.
+
+"I'll be ten on the Ides of next September," quoth his victim.
+
+"Are your parents both alive?" he asked.
+
+"They were the last time I heard of them," spoke Brinnaria flippantly.
+
+"When was that?" he insisted.
+
+"This is the twelfth day since they left Rome," said Brinnaria,
+"and I've not heard from them since they sent a messenger back
+from the ninth milestone on the road to Tibur."
+
+Faltonius was irritating her more and more, and she added:
+
+"They may both be dead by this time, for all I know."
+
+"This will not do," spoke Faltonius. "We must be sure that they
+are both alive."
+
+"Find out," snapped Brinnaria.
+
+Up spoke young Calvaster, his pasty face alight with a sort of
+malicious glee.
+
+"I passed Quartilla's travelling carriage at Varia last night.
+Quartilla was alive and well. I passed Brinnarius this morning
+at dawn, this side of Tibur. He was alive then and puffing."
+
+"How did you get here ahead of him?" Brinnaria interjected.
+
+"I am light built," Calvaster explained with obvious relish, "and
+I rode the best horse in Italy. His mount labored heavily under
+his load."
+
+"Both parents are then alive," spoke Faltonius. "I hereupon and
+hereby pronounce you in all respects fit to be taken as a Vestal.
+Are you willing?"
+
+"Not I!" Brinnaria fairly shouted.
+
+"Not willing!" Faltonius cried, incredulous.
+
+"Not a fibre of me!" she proclaimed emphatically.
+
+"Wretched girl!" expostulated the Pontiff. "Have you no sense of
+patriotism? Do you not realize your duty to your country, to the
+Roman people, to Rome, to the Emperor, to all of us, to the
+commonwealth? Do yon not realize Rome's need of you? Shall it be
+said that Rome has need of one of her daughters and that her
+ unnatural child refuses?"
+
+"I have not refused," said Brinnaria. "I only said I was unwilling."
+
+"It is the same thing," declared the bewildered ecclesiastic.
+
+"Not a bit the same thing," Brinnaria disclaimed. "I know my duty
+in this matter perfectly. Castor be good to me, I know it too well.
+I know that a refusal would avail me nothing, if I did refuse. I
+have not refused. I would not, even if I could escape by refusal I
+realize my duty. If I am taken I shall be all that a Vestal is
+expected to be, all that she must be to ensure the glory and
+prosperity and safety of the city and the Empire. I shall not
+fail the Emperor nor the Roman people, nor Rome. But I am
+unwilling, and I said so. Little good it will do me. But I am no
+liar, not even in the tightest place."
+
+"Stand up, my daughter," said Faltonius, rising himself, suddenly
+ clothed in dignity, a really impressive figure, in spite of his
+ globular proportions.
+
+Brinnaria stood, her eyes on the door to the vestibule, her face very
+ pale, trembling a little, but controlled.
+
+The Pontifex took her hand and spoke:
+
+"As priestess of Vesta, to perform those rites which it is fitting
+that a priestess of Vesta perform for the Roman People and the
+citizens, as a girl who has been chosen properly, so I take you,
+Beloved."
+
+At the word "Beloved," which made her irretrievably a Vestal,
+Brinnaria could not repress a little gasp. Her eyes no longer
+watched the vestibule door. She looked at the Pontiff. He let
+go her hand.
+
+"You will now go with your servitor to be clothed as befits your
+calling."
+
+He indicated one of Causidiena's attendants, a solidly built
+woman, like a Tuscan villager, who carried over her arm a mass of
+fresh white garments and robes.
+
+With her and Causidiena Brinnaria left the atrium; with them she
+ presently returned, a slim white figure, her hair braided and
+the six braids wound round her forehead like a coronet, above
+them the folds of the plain square headdress of the Vestals.
+
+"I thought," she said, "that my hair would be cut off."
+
+"That will be after you are made at home in the Atrium of Vesta,"
+spoke the Pontiff.
+
+"And remember," he continued sternly, "that you are now a Vestal
+and that young Vestals may not speak unless spoken to."
+
+Brinnaria bit her lip.
+
+At that moment they heard hoofs and voices outside, the door
+burst open and Brinnarius entered.
+
+"Too late, Daddy!" cried Brinnaria. "You can't help me now. I'm
+not your little girl any more; I don't count as your daughter;
+you don't count as my father; I'm daughter to the Pontifex from
+now on. I'm a Vestal."
+
+She was trembling, but she kept her countenance. Brinnarius
+uttered no sound, the whole gathering was still and mute, the
+noises of the street outside were plainly audible. They heard
+horse-hoofs again, again the door flew open wide. In burst Almo,
+wide-eyed and panting.
+
+At him Brinnaria launched a sort of shriek of expostulation.
+
+"Why couldn't you ride! You call yourself a horseman! And you've
+come too late! I mustn't even kiss you good-bye. And I mustn't
+speak to you, I mustn't see you, I mustn't so much as think
+of you for thirty years, for thirty years, <for thirty years>!"
+
+
+CHAPTER V - ESCAPADES
+
+
+
+WHEN Brinnaria found herself actually domiciled in the House of
+the Vestals she experienced an odd mingling of awe and elation.
+The mere size of it was impressive, for it was nearly two hundred
+feet wide and almost four hundred feet long. Also it stood alone,
+bounded by four streets. Besides, it gained much dignity from its
+location, near the southeast corner of the great Forum of Rome, that
+most famous of all city squares, and under the very shadow of the
+Imperial Palace, the walls of which towered nearly three hundred feet
+above it, where it crouched as it were, on a site scooped out of the
+huge flank of the Palatine Hill.
+
+Completely as it was dominated by the enormous bulk of the Palace
+it yet looked very large, having three lofty stories. Inside it was both
+spacious and stately. Brinnaria was habituated to space and stateliness,
+for her father's house had both, yet the Atrium of Vesta, as the House
+of the Vestals was officially denominated, impressed her as vast and
+splendid. That this immense and magnificent building was to be her home
+gave her sense of her own importance that thrilled her through and
+through. Its numerous retinue of deft and obsequious maid-servants added
+to this impression. Brinnaria's personal attendants, entirely at her
+beck and call and serving her alone, made up a considerable retinue by
+themselves. She found herself, like each of the other Vestals, served by
+a special waitress at table, by a waitress who had nothing to do but
+look after her wants. Then she had a sort of maid-of-honor, who had no
+duties except to act as companion, make herself agreeable, read aloud,
+if requested, accompany her on her outings and help to pass her leisure
+pleasantly. As she was a mere child in years she had a sort of governess
+to instruct her in all those subjects in which a Roman girl of good
+family was generally given lessons: correct reading; a smattering of
+mathematics, about equivalent to the simple arithmetic of our days; some
+knowledge of literature; a steady and efficient drill in reading and
+talking Greek; instrumental music, similar to the guitar-playing of
+modern times, and embroidery. She had a personal maid to bathe her,
+arrange her hair and otherwise make her comfortable; also a special maid
+to attend to her private apartment, which included what we would call a
+sitting-room, a tiny bedroom, and a large bath-room. The largest room
+was used mostly as a school-room for lessons with her instructress.
+Outside the Atrium Brinnaria had her private stable, her carriages, her
+coachman and ostlers, and her lictor, the red-cloaked runner, who
+preceded her carriage, announced its coming and cleared the way for it
+through the crowds of foot-passengers who thronged the streets of Rome.
+Life in the Atrium was austere and formal, but in no respect ascetic.
+The austerities extended only to attire and behavior. The decorations of
+the courtyard, of the corridors and stairs, of the two hundred rooms,
+were bewilderingly varied and overpoweringly gorgeous. Every appointment
+of the Atrium was luxurious to the last degree; the furnishings were
+beautiful and precious, every object a work of art; the bathrooms
+cunningly devised for comfort, the beds deep and soft, scarcely less so
+the sofas on which the Vestals reclined at their meals, the table
+service of exquisite glass-ware and elaborately chased silver, the food
+abundant and including every delicacy and rarity most appetizing and
+enjoyable.
+
+Except Meffia her co-Vestals were immediately liked and speedily
+loved by Brinnaria. Meffia, a month older than herself and looking six
+years younger, was a small, awkward, ungainly girl, with pale blue eyes,
+pale yellow hair and babyish pink complexion. She had never had an ill
+hour in her life, yet she always appeared ailing, shrank from any
+effort, hated exercise and exertion and at every necessity for movement
+asserted that she was tired, often that she felt weak. Brinnaria thought
+her merely innately lazy and a natural shirk. The more she saw of her
+the more her loathing for her and her hatred of her intensified.
+Quite the reverse with the others. Manlia was a large young woman of
+about twenty-two, a typical Roman aristocrat, her hair between dark
+brown and black, her complexion swarthy, her figure abundant. Gargilia
+was older than Manlia; a tall, slender creature with intensely black
+hair and piercing black eyes that looked straight at you out of a face
+healthfully tinted indeed, but of a whiteness which was the envy of half
+the beauties in Rome. Numisia Maximilla was much like an older Manlia,
+but sparer and of markedly haughty bearing and carriage. Causidiena,
+newly become Chief Vestal, was a woman of about forty-five years of age,
+mild, gentle, and charming, with cool gray eyes and glossy brown hair, a
+being who aroused affection, inspired admiration and compelled love from
+all her household.
+
+She won Brinnaria's heart at once by telling her that she herself, when
+she had first entered the Atrium of Vesta, had found it difficult to
+learn the etiquette of the order, had wanted to shout and sing and laugh
+out loud, to run up and down stairs instead of walking, to skip and
+jump.
+
+That Causidiena had triumphed over similar tendencies comforted
+Brinnaria and helped her to try to overcome her own. Most difficult to
+curb was her tendency to be rude to Meffia. This Causidiena noticed at
+once and set herself to obliterate. Brinnaria unbosomed herself and
+Causidiena listened so sympathetically that Brinnaria sat silent through
+the long lecture that followed and was very submissive during a
+searching interrogatory. She promised to comport herself as a Vestal
+should.
+
+"But," she said, "I shall suffer. That girl is unpleasant in ten
+thousand ways, but the smell of her is the most unpleasant thing about
+her. She's been tubbed and scrubbed and massaged and perfumed twice a
+day ever since I came here and she smells worse than a polecat, anyhow,
+all day long, even the moment after her maid has finished her toilet. A
+whiff of Meffia sets me frantic. I'd be capable of any crime to get rid
+of her."
+
+More lecturing followed.
+
+"But it's true!" Brinnaria maintained. "You can't help smelling her
+yourself; she smells like nothing else on earth. It isn't the smell of a
+dirty girl or of an ill girl, nor the smell of a girl at all or of any
+kind of a human being. I can't describe it, but it's a thin sour smell,
+sharp and shrill like the note of a cricket, if a sound and a smell can
+be compared. It's horrible; it's not human."
+
+More lecturing, a long session of lecturing, followed this outburst. At
+the end of it the victim was meek and pliable, or so professed herself.
+For at least five days Brinnaria kept up her effort to be comradely with
+Meffia. By the sixth day she was completely exhausted and the two
+avoided each other as before.
+
+Agonies indeed Brinnaria suffered in her efforts to live up to
+Causidiena's ideas of what she should be. On the whole she succeeded
+pretty well and committed few errors of deportment. Outwardly she
+controlled herself from the first; for, before her first cowed
+sensations had worn off, her adoration of Causidiena had gained full
+sway over her. Yet inwardly she suffered more and more acutely as time
+went on, partly feeling that she must burst out in spite of herself,
+partly dreading that she would.
+
+At last, after many days, she perpetrated her first and most
+undignified prank. It was a terrific occurrence, judged by the standards
+of the Atrium.
+
+The great peristyle of the House of the Vestals, including nearly
+three-fourths of the whole courtyard, was beautified with a splendid
+double colonnade, two tiers of pillars, one above the other, the lower
+of delicately mottled Carystian marble wavily veined with green streaks
+varying its whiteness, the upper of coral-red brecchia. Midway of the
+court was a tank lined with marbles and always filled with clear water.
+
+One morning Meffia, walking about the court, in her irritatingly
+aimless fashion, passed between Brinnaria and the edge of the tank.
+There was no earthly reason for her so doing, as Brinnaria was barely a
+yard from the margin of the pool, and on the other side of Brinnaria was
+the ample expanse of the pavement of the spacious court.
+
+Brinnaria was exasperated by Meffia's proximity, by her
+lackadaisical manner, by her shambling gait, by her sleep-walking
+attitude, most of all by the peculiar thin, sour odor which Meffia
+exhaled. At the sight of Meffia's elaborately disagreeable demeanor of
+isolation, all Brinnaria's natural self began to boil in her; at the
+whiff which assailed her nostrils she boiled over, all her uncurbed
+instincts surging up at once. She put out one foot and gave Meffia a
+push.
+
+Meffia, with a squall and a great splash, fell into the tank.
+
+She not only fell in, but she went under the water.
+
+She went under and did not come up.
+
+For an instant Brinnaria thought she was shamming to scare her;
+but, in a twinkling she realized that Meffia had fainted.
+
+Promptly she plunged in and rescued her victim.
+
+Numisia, hurrying to the sound of Meffia's squawk, was horrified
+at the sight of a dripping Vestal toiling up the steps of the tank
+carrying over her shoulder another Vestal, equally dripping and limp as
+a meal-sack, her arms and legs trailing horribly.
+
+Agitation at Meffia's prolonged insensibility postponed inquiry as
+to how she came to fall into the tank. It so happened that Causidiena
+first questioned some of the maid-servants, who all hated Meffia and
+liked Brinnaria. Therefore the ones interrogated told a story as much at
+variance with the facts as they saw fit.
+
+Brinnaria, after she was again dry-clad, quaked inwardly in
+anticipation of Causidiena's wrath and suffered a good deal more at the
+thought of her pained, silent displeasure. Hours passed, long hours
+passed and nothing was said on the subject. From none of her sister
+Vestals did she hear a word of reproach, not one of them behaved towards
+her any differently from what was usual.
+
+Finally one of the maids enlightened Brinnaria. Promptly she
+sought a private audience with Causidiena. First she made sure that none
+of the maids would suffer for their duplicity and partiality; then she
+confessed.
+
+The Chief Vestal was not wrathful, not even stern. She talked
+mildly and gently, yet made Brinnaria feel very much ashamed of herself
+and acutely penitent.
+
+The end of the interview was that Causidiena said:
+
+"You are such a robust child that you do not realize how frail
+Meffia is. She is perfectly healthy, but is very easily unnerved or
+exhausted. You have given her such a shock that she is unfit for duty.
+Any Vestal is allowed to be ill for two nights and one day, if the
+trouble seems trifling. But, if any Vestal is ill for a longer time, she
+is promptly removed from the Atrium for nursing. I fear that Meffia may
+not recover within the permitted time. I am most anxious that there
+should be as few as possible cases of recorded illness in the Atrium
+under my management. As you have caused the situation you must help me
+to avoid what I fear. Go to Meffia and nurse her out of this and get her
+about to-morrow morning."
+
+"Castor be good to me!" Brinnaria cried. "Smell that girl for a
+day and a night! Whew! Pretty severe punishment! But I deserve that and
+worse. And I'll do anything for you, Causidiena."
+
+Meffia hated Brinnaria cordially, yet she found her a deft,
+tactful and silent nurse. But the very sight of Brinnaria was to her
+an irritant tonic. She was entirely fit for duty the next day, not
+ a trace of slackness, unwillingness or sullenness.
+
+Causidiena early made up her mind that Brinnaria's intentions were
+good and that she was far from planning her outbursts. She had herself
+no prevision of what was coming, not an inkling of what was about to
+happen, she blurted out her shocking remarks without herself knowing what
+she was going to say and was overwhelmed with confusion when her own
+ears heard the totally unexpected words which she had uttered; she
+contemplated aghast the havoc she had wrought. Generally she made a
+pretty fair attempt at demeaning herself as a Vestal should; but, every
+once in a while, without warning, something of her old wild self surged
+up in her and the speech was spoken or the action completed before she
+realized she was about to speak or act at all.
+
+One such freak gave her a sort of notoriety, brought her name to
+the lips of every gossip in Rome.
+
+She was as pleased with her privileges as a normal child of her
+age with a set of new toys, as warily insistent on them as any
+aristocrat of her build and appearance.
+
+She learned the precise nature and extent of her prerogatives and
+did her utmost to enjoy them all. Being an adept at accounts she
+ascertained the character of the various estates and investments that
+went to make up the great property which was her jointure as a Vestal,
+made sure of the exact income from each of its components, also the
+total amount; both how far she was allowed to have her way in spending
+it and how soon she would be free of supervision in that respect. She
+made her will before she had been a Vestal for a month, leaving all her
+property to Almo, should she die before him; but the whole to the order
+of Vestals if he died before her.
+
+Of all her privileges the one she enjoyed most was the right to
+drive where she pleased through the city in her private carriage, with
+her lictor running ahead and clearing the way for it. Carriage-driving
+within the city limits was restricted in Rome by severe regulations
+rigorously enforced.* Ordinary travelling carriages might use only the
+great main thoroughfares leading to the city gates. The owner of one,
+unless he happened to live on one of those chief arteries of the
+traffic, might not step from his house door into his carriage but must
+have it halted at some point on the permitted avenues and must reach it
+on foot or by litter. But there was no street or alley in Rome wide
+enough for a carriage which a Vestal might not drive through; a. Vestal
+might drive anywhere. Brinnaria was first taken out driving by
+Causidiena and Numisia, then by the others in succession. Driving with
+Meffia was no pleasure to her, but it was the etiquette of the order
+that each Vestal in turn should offer the courtesy of her carriage to a
+new member of the sisterhood.
+
+        *In fact, wheeled vehicles except for those of the Emperor
+        and the Vestals were forbidden in the city during the daytime.
+
+After that formality had been complied with Brinnaria was
+permitted to drive where she pleased, with what guest she chose, or
+accompanied only by her official companion or by her maid.
+Systematically she drove everywhere, once alone with her maid, once with
+each of the other Vestals, often with her mother, often with Flexinna.
+It gave her great pleasure to drive up the long zigzag approach to the
+Capitol, where no human being save the Vestals and the Empress might be
+driven, and where few Empresses had ever ventured to drive, to have her
+carriage halted before the great Temple of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva,
+where no carriage except the carriages of the Vestals had been seen for
+more than a hundred years, to enter the temple and say her prayers. It
+gave her even more pleasure to take her mother or Flexinna with her, as
+was her privilege; to make them sharers in her right to be driven to
+Rome's chief temple, to which all other Romans, even the Emperors, must
+walk or be carried by litter-bearers.
+
+She discovered another privilege of her position. Roman women of
+the better classes never went out of doors alone. On the streets a lady,
+if not companioned by one or more equals, was always accompanied by a
+maid-servant. This had been the custom from time immemorial and had come
+to have the force of a moral law. The sight of a woman of wealth and
+position entirely alone in her carriage would have been startling, to
+see a lady in her litter without a maid walking behind the bearers would
+have been shocking: the spectacle of a lady alone on foot would have
+given scandal.
+
+But, by some survival of the simplicity of the manners in those
+primitive days in which the order originated, the Vestals were
+exceptions to this mandatory fashion. A Vestal might never go abroad on
+foot, except in one of the solemn processions. But, in her litter or her
+carriage, she might go anywhere in Rome unaccompanied, protected only by
+her lictor and her bearers or coachman. This privilege, like many
+others, marked the Vestals as being apart from and exalted above the
+rest of woman-kind.
+
+As soon as Brinnaria learned that she possessed this right she
+proceeded to exercise it. Though she felt lonesome when driving alone
+and enjoyed her outing far more when she had a companion, yet she drove
+alone day after day, merely because it was her prerogative.
+So driving she had, in one day, two thrilling experiences. She had
+told her coachman to drive where he pleased and hardly noticed where she
+was being driven.
+
+Suddenly turning from a side street into one of the main
+thoroughfares of the city, she encountered the co-Emperor Lucius Verus
+with his official escort. It was during the busy days preceding his
+departure for Antioch and his great campaign against the Parthians.
+Verus, roused from his devotion to sport and pleasure, was feverish with
+enthusiasm and full of mercurial energy. He bustled in and out of Rome,
+inspecting camps, presiding at ceremonials and keeping everything in a
+ferment.
+
+That day he was returning from an inspection amid a large and
+gorgeous retinue. Brinnaria had a blurred vision of splendid uniforms
+and dazzling accoutrements. Her vision was blurred because her eyes
+filled with tears; she turned hot and cold and almost fainted with
+emotion, when the Emperor's twenty-four lictors lowered their fasces,
+the whole procession halted, the escort and the Emperor himself swerved
+their horses aside to let her pass and remained at the salute until she
+had passed. The sudden realization of the importance of her official
+position overwhelmed her.
+
+As she drove on, when she recovered herself, she meditated on the
+experience, and told herself that she must live up to her exalted
+station, that she must never, never, never for such as one instant,
+forget herself or behave otherwise than as became a Vestal.
+On the very same drive, before she returned to the Atrium, she
+completely forgot herself.
+
+It was a hot, sultry afternoon and it suited her coachman to drive
+homeward along the Subura, that thronged and unsavory Bowery of ancient
+Rome. Three street urchins were teasing and maltreating a rough coated,
+muddy little cur. Brinnaria called imperiously to her lictor to
+interfere. He was too far ahead to hear her. Her coachman had all he
+could do to control her mettlesome span of Spanish mares. She spoke to
+the boys and they laughed at her. Before she knew it she had flung open
+her carriage door, had leapt out, had cuffed soundly the ears of the
+three dumbfounded gamins, and was back among her cushions, the dog in
+her arms.
+
+This escapade brought upon her a visit from the Pontifex of Vesta,
+the semi-globular Faltonius Bambilio, diffusing pomposity. From him she
+had to listen to a long lecture on deportment and to a reading of the
+minutes of the meeting of the College of Pontiffs which had discussed
+her public misbehavior.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI - NOTORIETY
+
+
+
+WITHIN a month she did far worse. She perpetrated, in fact, a deed
+with the fame of which not only the city, but the Empire rang; made
+herself notorious everywhere.
+
+It was on the occasion of her introductory visit to the Colosseum
+when, for the first time, she was a spectator at an exhibition of
+fighting gladiators. She was in a high-strung state of elation and
+anticipation. Going to the Amphitheatre, in itself, was a soul-stirring
+experience. Meffia, to Brinnaria's joy, had been on duty that day, along
+with Numisia. This alone was enough to put Brinnaria in a good humor.
+Meffia's presence spoiled for her any sort of pleasure. Then, besides,
+they drove to the Colosseum, not in their light carriages, but two by
+two in their gorgeous state coaches, huge vehicles, of which the
+woodwork was elaborately carved and heavily gilded and whose cushions
+and curtains were all of that splendid official color, the imperial
+purple. The name conveys to us a false impression, for the hue known
+then as imperial purple was not what we should call a purple, but a
+deep, dark crimson, like the tint of claret in a goblet.
+Against a background of this magnificent color, the Vestals,
+habited all in white, showed conspicuously. Their stately progress
+through the streets, gazed at and pointed at by the admiring crowds,
+was conducive to high spirits. Still more so was it to be ushered
+obsequiously through cool corridors and up carpeted stairs to the
+Vestals' private loge, a roomy space immediately to the right of the
+imperial pavilion. To be inside the Colosseum at last set her eyes
+dancing and her heart thumping; the anticipation of actually viewing the
+countless fights of many hundreds of gladiators increased her
+excitement; to be seated in front seats, with nothing but the carved
+stone coping between her and the arena was most exhilarating of all. She
+was delighted with her great, carved arm-chair, deeply cushioned and so
+heavy that it was as firm on its solid oak legs as if bolted to the
+stone floor. She settled herself in it luxuriously, gazed across the
+smooth yellow sand, glanced up at the gay, parti-colored awning, and
+then conned the vast audience, line after line of rose-crowned heads
+rising tier above tier all about her.
+
+She scanned the faces in the front row to left and right as far as
+she could make them out clearly. She peered across the open space of the
+arena, puckering her eyes to see better. When she caught sight of what
+she was looking for she turned timidly, leaned past Manlia and asked
+Causidiena:
+
+"May I wave my hand to mother?"
+
+"Certainly, my child," Causidiena assured her.
+
+Brinnaria waved her little hand and was seen, and felt the thrill
+of a general family handwaving in reply.
+
+Suddenly she experienced a qualm of bashfulness, as if every one
+in the enormous gathering were looking at her, watching her. She cast
+down her eyes, wrapped her white robe close about her, hiding her hands
+under it, and shrank into her arm-chair. For a while, for a long while,
+she fanned herself nervously, very slowly, and striving to appear calm.
+Gradually she became calm and laughed to herself at her own folly,
+realizing that nobody was noticing her.
+
+Nobody noticed her. Many spectators noticed the Vestals, but no
+one noticed her individually. This she realized acutely before the day
+was over.
+
+At about the time when she began to feel herself at ease the
+entrance of the Emperor and his suite distracted her attention from
+herself. When the trumpet blew, announcing the approach of the Imperial
+party, a hush fell on the vast audience and all eyes turned towards the
+grand pavilion. When the trumpet blew the second time, just before the
+Emperor came in sight, the hush deepened and the spectators watched
+intently. When his head appeared as he mounted the stairs the audience
+burst into the short, sharply staccato song of welcome, something like a
+tuneful, sing-song college yell, with which Roman crowds greeted their
+master. This vocal salute, a mere tag of eight or nine syllables, each
+with its distinctive note, was repeated over and over until the Emperor
+was seated.
+
+Then the audience settled themselves into their seats. Brinnaria
+had instinctively started to rise when she caught sight of the Emperor.
+Manlia had put out a restraining hand. The Vestals, alone of all Romans,
+remained seated in the presence of the Emperor, not even rising when he
+appeared.
+
+Marcus Aurelius was a tall, spare man of over forty years of age,
+with abundant hair curling in long ringlets over his chest and
+shoulders, and a full beard mingling with the carefully disposed curls.
+He was a serious-faced man, careworn and solemn.
+
+Brinnaria regarded him with interest. She had never seen him so
+close and she felt a sudden fellow-feeling for him from the sense of
+semi-equality with him that flooded through her at having remained
+seated. She recalled vividly the half-dozen times she had watched from
+balconies the passage of processions in which the Emperor took part, how
+her mother had made her stand up the moment he came in sight and had
+kept her standing until he was far away. Her sudden exaltation in social
+position was borne in upon her with startling emphasis. Not even her
+carriage rides had impressed her so tellingly with the sensation of her
+own importance in the great world of Imperial Rome.
+
+"How does he look to you?" Manlia asked. They were seated in the
+order of their seniority, Causidiena on the right, then Gargilia,
+Manlia next Brinnaria.
+
+"He looks crushed under his responsibilities and anxieties,"
+Brinnaria replied. "He looks depressed, even sad."
+
+"He is all that, poor man," her neighbor agreed, "and no wonder in
+these days. The Parthians are at us on the east, the Germans in the
+north, and there have been more than twelve deaths in the palace each
+day for twenty consecutive days now. This pestilence is enough to make
+anybody sad."
+
+"More than that," Brinnaria countered. "He looks irritated and
+bored. Everybody else is alert and keyed up with anticipation. His eyes
+are dull and he looks as if he wished that the show was over and he
+could go home."
+
+"You have read him right," Manlia told her. "He detests all kinds
+of spectacles, takes no interest in races and hates beast-fights. Most
+of all he loathes gladiatorial combats. Father has told me about it more
+than once and Causidiena says the same thing. I can't understand it. I
+never get tired of sword-fighting, myself. What I like about it is its
+endless variety. I never saw any two fights exactly alike, never saw two
+closely alike. Each fight is a spectacle by itself, entirely different
+from any other. I don't mean the difference between the fighters in
+respect to their equipment and appearance, though that contributes to
+the variety also; I mean the difference in posture, method of defense
+and attack, style of lunge and parry, and all that; and the countless
+variations in form in the men, the subtle differences of character which
+makes them face similar situations so very differently. You'll get the
+feeling for it in a half a dozen shows and be as keen on it as the rest
+of us.
+
+"But the Emperor is different. Perhaps it's because he is such a
+booky man and spends so much time in reading and study. But I think not.
+There never was anybody more of a bookworm than Numisia and she is as
+wild over the shows as any street-boy in Rome. Anyhow, whatever the
+cause is, that is the way he is. He was more than surfeited with shows
+before he was Emperor. While he was nothing but a boy, soon after he was
+adopted and made Caesar, he often had to preside in the Circus or here,
+when Hadrian was away travelling and Antonius and Verus were on the
+frontiers. He used to bring his tutors with him and have two of them sit
+on each side of him a little behind him. Then, after the shows had
+started, he would put a tablet on his knee and write a theme or work out
+a problem in geometry and when he had finished it, would pass it to one
+of his tutors for comment, or he would have them make out sets of
+questions on history or something else and he would write out the
+answers the best he could. Sometimes he would read. All this he did as
+calmly as if he were alone in a closed room with nothing to call off his
+attention. Yet he was most careful to seem to watch the shows and would
+look up every little while and gaze about the arena. But nothing ever
+distracted him from his lessons. That is the kind he is. He simply never
+cared for this sort of thing. He says that what oppresses him is the
+maddening monotony of gladiatorial shows. Fancy anybody thinking sword-
+fighting monotonous! But he does. He says every combat is just like
+every other. All he sees in a fight is two men facing each other and one
+being killed. He gets no thrills from the uncertainties of the outcome,
+no pleasure from the dexterity and skill of the fighters. To him it's
+just butchery, and the same kind of butchery over and over. He says he
+might get some enjoyment out of a show if something novel would happen,
+something he never saw before, something unexpected. But nothing ever
+does."
+
+Brinnaria regarded curiously this grave, earnest man, who derived
+so little pleasure from the most coveted position on earth. She
+continued to watch him until everybody turned to the procession around
+the arena of all who were to fight that day, the invariable preliminary
+of a gladiatorial show and always a splendid spectacle.
+When the fights began Brinnaria felt at first an unexpected
+tightening of the chest, as if a band were being drawn tight just under
+her armpits. Her breath came short and hard and her heart thumped her
+ribs.
+
+The first sight of blood made her feel faint and the horrible
+contortions just below her of a dying man, who writhed in strong
+convulsions like a fish out of water, made her qualmish and sick.
+But all that soon passed off. She was a Roman and the Romans were
+professional killers, had been professional killers for a thousand
+years. Success in hand to hand combat with any individual foe was every
+male Roman's ideal of the crowning glory of human life; the thought of
+it was in every Roman's mind from early childhood, every act of life was
+a preparation for it. Their wives and sisters shared their enthusiasm
+for fighting and their daughters inherited the instinct. Combat on the
+field of battle was felt as the chief business of a man, to which all
+other activities merely led up. By reflected light, as it were, every
+kind of combat acquired a glamour in the thoughts of a Roman. The idea
+of men killing men, of men being killed by men, was familiar to all
+Romans, of whatever sex or age. Brinnaria was not affected as a modern
+girl would be by the sight of blood or of death. The novelty revolted
+her at first, but only briefly. Soon she was absorbed in the interest of
+the fighting.
+
+Almost at once her eye was caught by a young and handsome fighter
+who reminded her strongly of Almo.
+
+His adversary was that kind of gladiator known technically as a
+secutor, a burly ruffian in complete armor, with huge shin-guards like
+jack-boots, a kilt of broad leather straps hanging in two overlapping
+rows, the upper set plated with bronze scales, a bronze corselet, and,
+fitting closely to his shoulders, covering head and neck together, a
+great, heavy helmet. He carried a large shield, squarish in shape, but
+curving to fit him as if he were hiding behind a section of the outer
+bark of a big tree. He was armed with a keen, straight bladed Spanish
+sword.
+
+Facing this portentous tower of metal was a gladiator of the sort
+known as a retiarius, equipped solely with a long-handled, slender-
+shafted trident, like a fisherman's eel-spear, and a voluminous, wide-
+meshed net of thin cord. His only clothing was a scanty body-piece of
+bright blue. His feet were small with high-arched insteps. Brinnaria
+particularly noticed his perfectly shaped toes. His bare legs, body and
+arms were in every proportion the perfection of form, the supple muscles
+rippling exquisitely under his warm tanned skin. His face was almost
+beautiful, with a round chin, thin curled lips, a straight nose, and a
+wide brow. Its expression was lively, even merry, almost roguish, his
+lips parted in an alert smile, his blue eyes sparkling. He seemed to
+enjoy the game in which he was engaged, to be brimming over with self-
+confidence, to anticipate success, to relish his foretaste of combat
+with a sort of impish delight.
+
+Roman children heard as much talk of gladiators as modern children
+hear of baseball or cricket. Brinnaria knew perfectly well that the
+betting on a set-to between such a pair was customarily five to three
+against the secutor and on the retiarius. Yet she felt the sensation
+usual with onlookers in such a case, the sensation purposed by the
+device of pairing men so differently equipped, the sensation that the
+mailed secutor was invincible and the naked retiarius helpless against
+him. She was keyed up with interest.
+
+In fact the combat was interesting. The secutor, of course, could
+have disposed of his antagonist in a trice, if he had only been able to
+reach him. But a clumsy, heavy secutor never could reach a nimble, agile
+retiarius. The one Brinnaria was watching was more than usually light-
+footed and skipped about his adversary in a taunting, teasing way. Again
+and again he cast his net intentionally too short, merely to show how
+easily he could recover it and escape his opponent's onset. He danced,
+capered, pretended to be lame and that he could not avoid being
+overtaken, led his pursuer on, out-manoeuvred him, derided him; twice he
+lunged through the flapping straps of his kilt and grazed his thigh. The
+secutor was barely scratched, but his blood trickled down his shin-guard
+and he was limping.
+
+Then, all in a flash, the retiarius pirouetted too rashly, slipped
+on ton the sand, fell sprawling, failed to rise in time, and was slashed
+deeply all down one calf. He rolled over in a last effort to escape, but
+the secutor kicked him in the ribs and, before he could recover, sent
+the trident spinning with a second kick and set his foot upon his
+victim's neck. So standing he rolled his eyes over that part of the
+audience nearest him to discover whether it was the pleasure of the
+lookers-on that the defeated man should be killed or spared.
+
+Now it so happened that nearly all the spectators in that part of
+the audience were watching a far more exciting contest farther out in
+the arena, where two Indian elephants, each manned by a crew of five
+picked men, were clashing in a terrific struggle No one, except
+Brinnaria, had any eyes for the plight of the young retiarius below them
+The secutor beheld indifferent faces gazing over his head The few thumbs
+he could see pointed outward. Brinnaria, to be sure, was holding out her
+right arm, thumb flat, and doing her best to attract the secutor's
+attention. She failed. He glanced, indeed, at the Vestals, but as three
+of them sat impassive he missed Brinnaria's imperious gesture.
+He prepared to put his foe to death. First, however, he looked
+further along the front rows to make sure that he had the permission of
+the general audience, since the occupants of the Imperial box and of the
+Vestals loge seemed to ignore him.
+
+Brinnaria perceived that he would probably not look again in her
+direction; that as soon as his roving eyes came back from their
+unhurried survey of the audience, he would deliver the fatal blow.
+She quickly knotted the corner of her robe to the arm of her
+chair, squirmed out of it, and threw it over the parapet. The robe of a
+Roman lady was sleeveless and seamless, rather like a very long pair of
+very thin blankets, all in one piece. Tied, as she had tied it, by one
+corner, it made a sort of rope as it hung. She had acted so quickly that
+no one noticed her, not even Manlia, who sat next her, staring
+fascinatedly at the spectacle of the wrestling elephants and their
+warring crews.
+
+Grasping her robe firmly with both hands, escaping by a hair's-
+breadth the despairing clutch of the horrified Manlia, Brinnaria half
+vaulted, half rolled over the parapet, swung sailor-fashion to the rope
+her robe formed, went down it, hand over hand, raced across the sand and
+faced the victorious secutor.
+
+He, although a foreigner and a savage, had been long enough in
+Rome to know perfectly what a Vestal was and he recoiled from her in a
+panic no less than he would have felt had the goddess Vesta herself come
+down from the sky to balk him of his prey.
+
+The next instant no one was regarding the death-struggle of the
+elephants, nor any other of the scores of fights ended, ending, under
+way or just begun. Every human being in the audience was staring at the
+amazing spectacle of a Vestal virgin, clad only in her thin, clinging
+tunic, standing over a fallen retiarius and facing an appalled and
+dumbfounded secutor.
+
+The place fell very still. So still that the shrill voice of a
+street-gamin, a boy from the Via Sacra, was audible throughout the vast
+enclosure from gallery to gallery. He yelled in his cutting falsetto:
+"Good for you, Sis!"
+
+But his neighbors silenced him at once and not even any other
+ragamuffin lifted his voice. The audience were startled mute. They were
+quite ready to applaud the girl's daring, but the shocking impropriety
+of her breach of decorum struck them dumb.
+
+The Emperor, roused from his meditations by the sudden hush,
+looked about him for the cause of it and saw the situation. He leaned
+forward, arm out, thumb flat against the extended fingers. The secutor
+sheathed his sword.
+
+Manlia, with great presence of mind, untied the dangling robe and
+dropped it over the parapet. One of the arena attendants carried it to
+Brinnaria and she put it on. But she would not stir and stood straddling
+the fallen lad until one of the Emperor's aides came out of one of the
+low doors in the arena-wall, crossed to her and assured her that the
+defeated retiarius would be spared and cared for. Then she suffered
+herself to be led back to her seat, by way of the door in the wall and
+passages and stairs never meant for any Vestal to tread.
+
+Not until they saw Brinnaria move off in charge of the staff-
+officer did the audience let loose their pent-up feelings. The place
+pulsated with a roar like that of a great waterfall in a deep gorge,
+salvo after salvo of cheers swelling and merging. The deep boom
+of their applause pursued Brinnaria and made her cower. The
+people would never forget her now. They were in ecstasy. She
+was their darling.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII - AUDIENCE
+
+
+ON the drive homeward from that unforgettable gladiatorial
+exhibition Manlia and Gargilia shared the second state coach:
+in the first sat Brinnaria by Causidiena.
+
+"My child," Causidiena queried, "what ever made you do it?"
+
+"I don't know," Brinnaria replied. "I did it before I thought."
+
+"Well!" said her elder philosophically. "It is done now and
+cannot be helped. But please try to remember that a Vestal is
+expected to control herself at all times, never to act without
+forethought, to reflect long before she acts, to do nothing
+unusual, to be very sure in each instance that what she is about
+to do is wholly becoming to a Vestal."
+
+"I'll keep on trying," Brinnaria replied mutinously, "but I was
+not constructed to be a Vestal. I always knew it; I know it now
+and I am afraid I'll continue my blundering through the conventions.
+I'm built that way."
+
+She had to endure a second long lecture from Faltonius Bambilio.
+She listened submissively enough, but vouchsafed not one word of
+self-defence, rejoinder or comment; and, when urged to speak, she
+was obstinately silent.
+
+"My daughter," Faltonius droned at her, "remember that, since
+your entrance into the order of Vestals, I stand to you in the
+relation of parent to his own child. You should confide in me as
+in your spiritual father."
+
+"I should do nothing of the kind," Brinnaria refuted him. "I know
+the statutes of the order better than that. Up to the days of the
+Divine Augustus, the Pontifex Maximus inhabited the house next to
+the house of the Vestals and stood in the closest relation of
+fatherhood towards them. But since he went to live on the Palatine
+and made us a present of his house we have occupied all this Atrium
+ which was built in the place of the two houses. Since then no one
+has been in the same intimate relation of control over us. The
+Emperors have always held the office of Pontifex Maximus and as
+such each Emperor has been the spiritual father of the Vestals.
+The Emperor is my spiritual father and you are not."
+
+"Your self-opinionated talk does you little credit," Faltonius retorted.
+"Since you know so much you must know also that for many years
+each Emperor has designated some priest as Pontifex of Vesta to
+be his deputy and to stand in the closest relation of parental oversight
+towards the members of your consecrated order; I am that deputy."
+
+"I have no desire to confide in a deputy," Brinnaria told him,
+"or to consider the deputy as my real spiritual father. If I feel
+ inclined to confide I'll make my confidences to my genuine
+spiritual father, not to his understrapper."
+
+Bambilio was piqued and spoke sourly.
+
+"The Emperor," he said, "will be far from pleased with my report
+of you."
+
+"It will make no difference to me or to him what you report or
+whether you make any report or not," spoke Brinnaria. "I'm going
+to have a talk with him myself."
+
+"Doubtless," Bambilio meditated. "He has sent for you to rebuke
+you."
+
+"He has done nothing of the kind," she retorted vigorously. "He
+has more sense. And if he had sent for me I should not have gone.
+I know my rights. If he wanted to talk to me, he'd have to come
+to me here. But as, in this case, I wanted to talk to him, I have
+asked for an audience and the day and the hour have been fixed.
+I am to have an audience to-morrow morning. And now, as I am to
+talk to him myself, I see no reason why I should spend more time
+being bored by his deputy. If you please, I should be obliged if
+you would terminate this interview."
+
+Astounded and dumb, Faltonius bowed himself out.
+
+Causidiena suggested that she accompany Brinnaria on her visit to
+the Palace.
+
+"It would be lovely to have you with me," Brinnaria said, "and I
+am ever so grateful for your offer. You are a dear and I love you.
+I shall want you and wish for you all the way there, all the time
+I am there and all the way back. I shall be scared to death. But
+I must go alone. In the first place it is my right, if I were only
+six years old, to have audience with the Emperor alone whenever I
+ask for it and as often as I ask for it. I am not going to abate
+an iota of my rights merely for my own comfort. In the second place,
+I must go through this unhelped and unsupported all by myself. I know
+ it; I must fight it out alone and come through alone. He'll be
+sympathetic, if I deserve it. If I don't deserve sympathy from him
+I don't deserve it from you, nor your company and your countenance,
+either."
+
+Scared Brinnaria was, but even through her worst qualms of panic
+she was uplifted by an elating sense of her own importance. Not
+her encounter with Verus and his retinue, not her having remained
+seated when Aurelius entered the Colosseum had so poignantly made
+ her realize how exalted was a Vestal. She drove to the Palace
+alone, not in her light carriage, but in her huge state coach,
+feeling very small in her white robes amid all that crimson
+upholstery, but also feeling herself a very great personage.
+
+Her reception at the Palace made her feel even more so. The
+magnificence of the courtyard in which her coach came to a
+standstill, the ceremonial of turning out the guard in her
+honor, the formality with which she was conducted from corridor
+to corridor and from hail to hail, the immensity and gorgeousness
+ of the vast audience hall in which she was finally left alone
+with the Emperor; all these did not so much overwhelm her as exalt
+her. She felt herself indeed a princess.
+
+The Emperor greeted Brinnaria kindly, was as sympathetic as possible
+and put her at her ease at once. He soothed her, made her seat
+herself comfortably and said:
+
+"Don't worry about what you have done. You are certainly the most
+ startling Vestal since Gegania, but you have really done nothing
+actually wrong. So do not agitate yourself about what cannot be
+altered. The question which concerns me is, what will you do next?"
+
+"I think," said Brinnaria, "that the next thing I shall do will
+be to procure a good strong rope and hang myself."
+
+"My child," the shocked Emperor exclaimed, "you really should not
+speak so flippantly of so dreadful an idea!"
+
+"I'm not a particle flippant this time," Brinnaria declared. "I
+know I am often flippant, but not now, not a bit. I am just as
+serious as life and death. I have thought of nothing but suicide
+since Trebellius conducted me back to my seat. I can't get the
+idea out of my head and that is why I have come to you."
+
+"Tell me all about it from the beginning," the Emperor said,
+comfortingly. "What put the notion into your head?"
+
+"In the beginning," said Brinnaria, "you know that I didn't want
+to be a Vestal."
+
+"Yes, I know," he assured her.
+
+"Well," she went on, "now I am a Vestal and must serve out my
+thirty years, I'm really trying to do my best to be all I ought
+to be. I really am. I've tried hard to be sedate and grave and
+collected and reticent and slow-spoken, and all the rest of it.
+And I think I haven't done badly most of the time. But after all,
+I'm myself and I can't be changed. Every once in a while myself
+boils up in me under the scum of convention I've spread on top
+of the cauldron, so to speak. I don't mean to let go and be natural
+ and spontaneous. I've done the awful thing before I know I'm
+going to do it. I didn't mean to pour the pork gravy over old
+Gubba's head; but she looked so funny I just did it without knowing
+ what I was going to do. I didn't mean to throw Manlia's pet
+monkey out of the window on to Moccilo's head. But her shock of
+red curls looked to be just the place on which to drop little
+Dito, and I dropped Dito before I thought. It's just the same way
+about all the other dreadful things I do. I don't mean to do them,
+but I do do them."
+
+"Don't worry," the Emperor said, "you'll outgrow all that."
+
+"I trust I may," Brinnaria sighed, "but how about the harm I'm
+doing as I go along?"
+
+"You haven't done any harm, not any harm that matters," the
+Emperor soothed her.
+
+"Are you perfectly sure of that?" she persisted. "If you could
+make me perfectly sure of that, I should feel a great deal better.
+Are you sure?"
+
+"I can't see any real harm in your pranks," the Emperor said. "I
+certainly should not encourage you to continue or repeat such
+conduct or to revert to it, but I see no real harm in it."
+
+"You think I have not unfitted myself for my duties?"
+
+The Emperor meditated.
+
+"To a certainty," he said, "if your conduct was intentional, if
+you thought up these pranks of yours and perpetrated them, with
+deliberate consciousness of what you were about to do, I should
+hold you gravely unfitted for your position. But you are manifestly
+ sincere in your efforts to be all you ought to be and are trying
+genuinely to overcome your tendencies and to outgrow your
+coltishness. I am of the opinion that, if you curb yourself from
+now on, you have done no harm."
+
+"Do you think," Brinnaria insisted, "that if you called a meeting
+of all the colleges of pontiffs and put the question to them,
+that they would make the same answer you have made?"
+
+"You amazing child!" Aurelius exclaimed. "Why should you assume
+the attitude of advocate against yourself" Why suggest a synod to
+ discuss your conduct and express an official opinion on it? Is
+ not my opinion enough? Even if I saw fit to call a synod and
+all the members of it held the same views and expressed them never
+so cogently, do you not realize that, if my views were contrary to
+theirs, it would be my view that would prevail; that it would not
+ only be my privilege and my right but my imperative duty to
+override any opposition and to enforce my decision? Are you not
+satisfied with the opinions of the man who is at once Emperor
+and Chief Pontifex of Rome?"
+
+"But," Brinnaria persisted, "I am not at all sure that you are
+speaking as Emperor and Chief Pontifex. To me you seem to speak
+as a kindly husband and father very sympathetic towards another
+man's little daughter who comes to you in deep trouble of spirit."
+
+"You amazing child!" the Emperor repeated. "You talk as if you were
+ forty years old. Tell me precisely what is troubling you, for I must
+ have failed to fathom it, and be sure I shall reply officially as
+Emperor and Pontifex."
+
+"What troubles me," said Brinnaria, "is the dread that my wild and
+tomboyish behavior may be as displeasing to the Goddess as
+ coquettishness or wantonness. I am in terror for fear my
+ministrations may be unpleasant to her, may be sacrilegious, may
+not only fail to win her blessing upon Rome but may draw down her
+curse upon all of us. I never thought of that until I stood there
+all alone out in the arena, astraddle of that beautiful boy whom
+I just had to save, feeling all of a sudden horribly naked in my
+one thin, clinging undergarment, with two hundred thousand eyes
+staring at me. It came over me with a rush that I was not only
+never going to be fit for a Vestal but that I wasn't fit for a
+Vestal and I hadn't been fit for a Vestal; that I not only was
+going to do harm, not only was doing harm, but had done harm. If
+the Parthians are devastating the frontier along the Euphrates and
+ the Marcommani and the Quadi are storming the outposts along the
+Danube and the Rhine, perhaps that is because my presence in the
+Atrium is an offence in the eyes of Vesta, my prayers an affront
+to my Goddess, my care of her altar-fire an insult to her. I
+tremble to think of it. And I cannot get it out of my head. I
+wake up in the dark and think of it and it keeps me awake,
+sometimes, longer than I ever lay awake in the dark in my life.
+It scares me. I am a Vestal to bring prosperity and glory to the
+Empire, to pray prayers that will surely be answered. Suppose the
+Goddess is deaf to my prayers because I am unworthy to pray to her?
+Suppose that my prayers infuriate her because I am vile in her
+sight? Suppose I am causing disaster to the Empire? I keep thinking
+all that. Do you wonder that I think of suicide, of hanging myself,
+like the two Oculatas?"
+
+"My child!" Aurelius cut in. "You have not done anything that
+justifies your comparing yourself to the Oculata sisters."
+
+"We'll come back to that later," Brinnaria replied. "Just now let us
+ stick to the point. Do you think my fears justified or not?"
+
+"Decidedly not," the Emperor rejoined, without an instant's
+hesitation, "and I speak not as a soft-hearted parent who sees the
+soul of his own daughter looking at him out of the eyes of every
+little girl whose heart troubles her, I speak as the guardian of
+the interests of the Empire, as the warder of the destinies of Rome.
+
+"Your misbehavior has certainly been grave, I admit; and, if done
+ maliciously, would entail all the harm you imagine. But the Goddess
+can see not only your actions but your thoughts. Your scruples do
+you high credit. I will not say you are as pleasing to the Goddess
+as would be a grave and sedate ministrant, but I do solemnly decide
+and declare that you need have no further dread of any past, present
+or future harm to the Empire or to Rome from your past behavior,
+if you honestly try to err no more. This is my official decision.
+Be at peace in your heart."
+
+Brinnaria drew a deep breath.
+
+"You certainly comfort me," she said, "but I just know I'll boil
+over again and not once, but many times."
+
+"Vesta will comprehend," he said, "if your derelictions are less
+and less frequent and less and less violent; if you succeed a
+little better from month to month and from year to year. She will
+not be pleased with your lapses, if you lapse again, but she will
+be pleased at your struggles with yourself and with your good
+intentions. She will smile upon your ministrations and hearken to
+your petitions. Be comforted."
+
+"I am," said Brinnaria, "as far as that trifle goes, but now we come
+ to my real and chief concern. Suppose I am as detestable in the
+sight of my Goddess as the Oculata sisters were, and for a similar
+reason; suppose I ought to hang myself as dead as they hanged
+themselves. Oughtn't I, then, to hang myself?"
+
+"You incredible creature !" Aurelius cried. "I've met women by the
+ thousand, by the tens of thousands, but never a girl like you.
+What do you mean? What can you mean? You cannot mean what you seem
+to mean. Explain yourself. Be explicit. Tell me all about what is
+troubling you. I'll understand and put your mind at ease."
+
+"I trust you may," Brinnaria sighed, "but I dread that you cannot.
+I mean just what I seem to mean."
+
+"Impossible!" the Emperor cried, "a child of ten, but a few
+months out of her mother's care and those few months in the care
+of Causidiena! And I wouldn't believe it of you if you were twice
+your age."
+
+"Oh," said Brinnaria, "I haven't acted like Caparronia and the two
+ Oculatas, and I shouldn't if I were never so much left to myself.
+But you said yourself that Vesta can read my thoughts and I knew
+that without your telling me so. Suppose that my thoughts are as
+abominable in the sight of my Goddess as was the behavior of those
+three unfortunates? Oughtn't I to hang myself and be done with
+myself?"
+
+"Indubitably," said the Emperor, "if the facts were as your words
+imply. But you are just frightening yourself to death with vapors
+like a child afraid of its own shadow. Be explicit, be definite,
+and I can put you at peace with yourself at once and permanently."
+
+Brinnaria drew a deep breath.
+
+"To begin with," she said, "you know that, before I was taken for
+a Vestal, I was plighted to Caius Segontius Almo."
+
+"Certainly, I knew that," Aurelius replied. "All Rome knew of his
+ ride from Falerii and of his arriving just too late."
+
+"You knew I was in love with him?"
+
+"I assumed that," the Emperor told her.
+
+"Well," she said, a pathetic break in her voice, "I can't make
+myself stop loving Almo. I always have loved him, I always shall,
+I love him now."
+
+"I assumed that too," the Emperor said. "All Rome knows of his
+resolve to remain unmarried, to wait thirty years for you, to
+marry you the very day you are free. I assumed that he would not
+be so constant unless he believed you equally constant. No harm
+in that! You have a right to marry at the end of your service
+and a right to look forward to it."
+
+"That is what troubles me," Brinnaria said. "I cannot feel that
+I have a right to look forward to it."
+
+"Now listen to me," said the Emperor. "Few Vestals have left the
+Atrium at the end of their thirty years. Not every one that has
+left has married, the third Terentia withdrew at the end of her
+term and did not marry, nor did the only Licinia who ever completed
+ her service. But Appellasia married and so did Quetonia and
+Seppia. Others have married after their service, though it is
+thought unlucky. The right to leave the order implies the right
+to marry after leaving. The right to leave implies the right to
+mean to leave, to plan to leave, to look forward to leaving and
+ marrying. You have that right, like any other Vestal. Does that
+satisfy you?"
+
+"It does not," Brinnaria asserted. "I know a Vestal has a right
+to leave and marry and to plan to leave and marry. But, after thirty
+ years of service, or nearly thirty years of service, to plan to
+leave and marry and to look forward to it for a few days or months
+ appear to me very different from looking forward to it from the
+first hour of my service, and knowing not only that I mean to marry,
+but just the man I mean to marry, and loving him all the time, and
+ longing for him. I can't help it; I feel that way, and I dread
+that I am not an acceptable ministrant and I tremble for fear of
+the consequences to you and to Rome. I think I ought to hang myself
+and be done with it. You haven't comforted me a bit."
+
+The Emperor stood up.
+
+"Sit still !" he commanded, sharply.
+
+He paced up and down the huge audience hail; paced its full length
+three times each way.
+
+Then he reseated himself.
+
+"Do you sleep soundly?" he queried.
+
+"Like a top, mostly," said Brinnaria. "I go to sleep the instant
+I put my head on the pillow. Generally I sleep all night long
+until my maid wakes me up in the morning. Many nights, but not
+every night, nor most nights, I wake up with a dreadful start, as
+if I had had a nightmare, and lie there quaking for fear I am
+ruining Rome. But even then I generally go to sleep again pretty
+quick."
+
+"Do you think of Almo when you wake up in the dark?" he pursued.
+
+"Mighty little," she declared. "In the dark all I can think of is
+Rome and my duty. I often reflect how immediately and how greatly
+being taken for a Vestal changes a girl and alters, not only her
+outlook on life and her ways of thinking, but also her feelings.
+It has cooled and steadied me more than I could have believed.
+When Daddy quarrelled with Segontius and told me he would not let
+me marry Caius I used to feel as if I were going to suffocate, used
+to feel that way sometimes for hours at a time, used to suffer
+horribly, used to wake up in the dark and feel as if, if I could
+not get to Almo right then, at once, I should die, as if I should
+be choked to death by the thumping of my heart. I used to feel that
+way at dinner, when out visiting any time of day, for hours. I
+never feel that way now. And after Daddy and Segontius made up their
+ quarrel and it was arranged that I was to marry Almo, I used to
+feel as if it would kill me to wait four years, I used to grit my
+teeth to think of it, of waiting four years for him; used to think
+of it an day long, no matter what I was doing. And I used to wake
+up in the dark and roll round in bed and bite the bed-clothes
+with rage at the thought of the long waiting ahead of me. I wanted
+Almo the way you want a drink, just before noon of a hot day,
+when you have been travelling since before sunrise and the carriage
+creaks and jolts and the road is all dusty and there is no wind
+and you feel as if you would rather die than go any longer without
+ a drink. I used to want that way to be married to Almo.
+
+"I never feel that way now. I want him and I want to be married
+to him, but I look forward to it as I look forward to the next
+race-day at the Circus or the next fight of gladiators at the
+Colosseum, as a desirable and delightful time sure to come but
+by no means to be hurried, as something I can very well do without
+until the time comes. The thought of Almo is always somewhere
+back in my mind ready to come forward when I have nothing else to
+think of. But I think of him placidly and calmly and never when on
+duty nor when at my lessons nor when at meals. And at night, never."
+
+"My daughter," said Aurelius, smiling at her, "listen well to me. I
+ speak as Chief Pontifex and as Emperor of Rome. I command you to
+forget your qualms and to banish your fears. Officially as Chief
+Pontifex I judge you a ministrant most acceptable to your Goddess,
+as a most fit and suitable Vestal. I judge that no girl naturally
+ austere, frigid and self-contained could be half so pleasing to
+Vesta as a tempestuous child like you who curbs her temper and
+schools her outward behavior all she can in the effort to be all
+she ought to be; whose feelings even tame themselves without any
+effort of hers in the holy atmosphere of the Atrium.
+
+"Manifestly you are telling the truth about your acts, your
+impulses and your thoughts, 1 judge you a pure-minded, clean-hearted
+ Vestal, most suitable for her duties. Vesta understands and is
+glad of your good intentions and pleased with your struggles to
+ master yourself. You are most acceptable to her. You will bring
+no curses on Rome, but your prayers will be heard and you will
+bring many blessings on the Empire. Be comforted!"
+
+"I am," said Brinnaria simply, "and I shall stay comforted."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK II
+
+THE REVOLT OF DESPONDENCY
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII - SCOURGING
+
+
+
+AFTER her audience with the Emperor, Brinnaria felt more at peace
+with herself, succeeded better in curbing her native wildness,
+incurred less and less disapprobation and won increasingly the
+respect and affection of her elders. Her outbursts were less
+frequent and less violent; she learned to hold her tongue, to
+appear calm, to stand with dignity, to move with deliberation.
+Her admiration for Causidiena and Numisia and of their statuesque
+ attitudes and queenly movements helped her a great deal by both
+ conscious and unconscious imitation. It helped her more to find
+that she was succeeding better than Meffia. At first Brinnaria
+had been notably more prone than Meffia to assume gawky or ungainly
+postures, and, as she was the bigger of the two, she was the more
+conspicuous.
+
+Before long she began to improve in her bearing, but Meffia did
+not. Brinnaria held herself erect, head up and shoulders back.
+Meffia slouched and sagged along, a semi-boneless creature, her
+clothing hanging on her baggily and unbecomingly.
+
+The difference was particularly noticeable at meals.
+
+In the Roman world all well-to-do people lay down to meals
+luxuriously extended on broad sofas. Brinnaria had always had
+trouble about her meal-time attitudes, and her mild easy-going
+mother had often had to speak to her and bid her remember herself.
+In the Atrium she had found her legs kept up their old habits of
+getting into strange postures, her feet seemed distressingly in
+ evidence, and her knees always in the wrong place.
+
+Causidiena, tactful and sympathetic, solved the problem of how to
+influence her by getting her to watch Meffia and to contrast her
+with Manlia and Gargilia.
+
+They were almost as statuesque as their two elders, who reclined
+at table in attitudes scarcely less majestic than those of the
+Fates on the Parthenon pediment. Meffia sprawled uncouthly and
+was forever spreading her knees apart, generally with one up in
+the air. Her postures were so disgusting that Brinnaria was hot
+all over with determination not to be like Meffia.
+
+She succeeded.
+
+Great was her exultation when she perceived that it was no longer
+ Brinnaria and Meffia who gave cause for concern to Causidiena, but
+Meffia and Brinnaria, great her triumph when she made sure that
+Causidiena had ceased worrying about her, or worried only at long
+ intervals, but was perpetually solicitous concerning Meffia.
+
+Meffia was indeed a cause of solicitude. She was stupid, slow and
+idle about her lessons, tearful on the slightest provocation, inert
+at all times and generally ailing, though never actually ill. She
+never looked clean, no matter how faithfully her maid toiled over
+her; she could somehow reduce, in an amazingly short time, the
+neatest attire to the semblance of mussed and rumpled rags; she
+slouched and shambled rather than walked, she lolled rather than sat.
+
+Her hands were feeble and ineffective, her writing remained a
+childish scrawl, no matter how much she was made to practice, she
+ dropped things continually and frequently spilt her food at
+meal-time. Most of all was her awkwardness manifest in the temple.
+
+The temple was circular, its roof supported by eighteen splendid
+marble columns, the intervals between which were walled up to the
+height of not much more than five feet, the space from the top of
+the low wall to the roof being filled in with magnificent lattices
+of heavy cast bronze; so that the temple was a pleasant, breezy
+place on warm days, but very draughty in chilly weather and bitterly
+cold in winter. It contained no statue, nor any other object of
+worship, except in the center of its floor the circular altar on
+which burned the sacred fire, solemnly extinguished and ceremonially
+rekindled on each first of March, the New Year's day of the primitive
+ Roman Calendar, but which must never at any other time be permitted
+to go out, upon whose continual burning depended the prosperity of
+Rome, according to the belief implicitly held by all Romans from the
+earliest days until Brinnaria's time, and for centuries after. The
+extinction of the perpetual fire, whether by accident or by neglect,
+was looked upon as a presage of frightful disaster to the nation,
+as an omen of impending horrors, almost as the probable cause of
+national misfortunes. Without qualification or doubt the people of
+ Brinnaria's world believed that, as long as Vesta's holy fire
+burned steadily and brightly, Rome was assured the favor and
+protection of her gods; that, should it die out, their wrath was
+certain to be manifested in terrible afflictions involving the
+entire population.
+
+The care of the fire was the chief duty of Brinnaria and her five
+associates, as it had been of their predecessors for more than nine
+hundred years. As maple was the sacred wood in the Roman ritual,
+maple only was used for the holy fire. The size of the pieces used
+and their shape was also a matter of immemorial ordinance. Each
+piece was about a cubit long, about the length of the forearm of
+an average adult, measured from elbow to finger-tips. Each piece
+must be wedge-shaped, with the bark on the rounded side and the
+other two sides meeting at a sharp edge where had been the heart
+of the trunk or branch from which it had been cut. Each piece must
+have been clean cleft with a strong sweep of the axe. The pieces
+varied from sections of stout trunks to mere slivers from slender
+boughs. All were of dry, well-seasoned wood, carefully prepared.
+
+The placing of these on the fire was a matter of ritual and might
+be done no otherwise than as prescribed. It was quite a delicate
+art to lay the necessary piece in just the right place and at just
+the right angle; it required more than a little good sense and
+discretion to know just when a piece was required, for the fire
+must not burn violently nor must it smoulder, it must be steady
+but not strong. This discretion, this good sense, Meffia was slow
+to acquire. The art of laying the wood properly she acquired very
+imperfectly. She did it well enough under direction; but, even with
+Causidiena watching her, she was likely to drop the piece of wood
+on the floor, or, what was worse, to drop it on the fire instead
+of laying it on. The scattering of ashes on the floor of the temple
+was held unseemly, that live coals should fall from the Altar was
+ considered almost sacrilegious. Meffia, more than once, perpetrated
+such appalling blunders. Very tardily did she learn her duties; only
+ after four years could she be trusted to take her regular turn in
+care of the fire and to stand her watch of half a night each time
+her turn came between sunset and sunrise.
+
+During these four years she had grown into a not unpersonable young
+woman, for Roman girls were generally young women at fourteen years
+of age. She was never ruddy or robust, always pale, delicate-looking
+and fragile-seeming, never actually ill, but usually ailing, peevish,
+ limp and querulous. Life in the Atrium largely consisted in the
+effort to keep Meffia well, to make sure that she was not overtired,
+to foresee and forestall opportunities for her to blunder, to
+repair the consequences of her mistakes, generally to protect
+and guide her.
+
+In the same four years Brinnaria had developed into a muscular girl,
+tall, amply fleshed, robust, rosy, full of healthy vigor, lithe and
+strong. She was radiantly handsome, knew it, and was proud of it. Her
+ duties she knew to the last, least detail, and Causidiena trusted her
+ quite as much as Manlia or Gargilia.
+
+One spring night it was Mafia's watch until midnight, at which time
+Brinnaria was to relieve her. It was the custom that, at the end
+of her watch, the Vestal) on duty made sure that the fire was
+burning properly and then left it and herself waked her relief,
+it being entirely inconceivable that, under roof and protected all
+ round by bronze lattices, a properly burning fire could go out in
+the brief space of time required to leave the temple, enter the
+court-yard, cross it, ascend the stairs and for the relieving Vestal
+to reach the temple by the same path reversed.
+
+Brinnaria was a sound sleeper. She woke in the pitch dark with the
+instant conviction that she had slept long past midnight, with a
+sudden qualm of apprehension, of boding, almost of terror.
+
+She was a methodical creature for all her wildness, and very neat
+ in her habits. By touch, almost without groping, she dressed in
+the dark. Silently she slipped out of her room, noiselessly she
+closed the door, softly she groped her way to the stairs, down
+the stairs out into the courtyard to the corner of the colonnade.
+
+There, a pace or two beyond the pillars, under the open sky,
+she peered up.
+
+The gray light of dawn was faintly hinted in the blackish canopy
+of cloud above her.
+
+Swiftly she flitted the length of the court, whisking past the
+dimly-seen columns; swiftly she traversed the three small rooms
+at its eastern end, panting she plunged through the dark doorway
+into the dark temple.
+
+There was no flicker of fire-light on the carved and gilded
+panels of the lofty ceiling; the ceiling, in fact, was invisible,
+ unguessable in the gloom.
+
+There was no glow upon the altar, not even a glimmer of redness
+through the ashes.
+
+Brinnaria held her hand over the ashes. Nowhere could she discern
+more than the merest hint of warmth.
+
+On the back of her hands, as on the back of her neck, she could
+feel the chill of the faintly stirring dawn wind that breathed
+through the bronze lattices and across the temple interior.
+
+She felt among the wood piled ready, found a slender sliver of a
+cleft branchlet, and methodically ploughed the ashes across and
+across. She did bring to the surface a faint redness, but not
+even one coal which could have been blown into sufficient heat
+to start a flame on her splinter of dry maple.
+
+A sound assailed her ears.
+
+Meffia snoring!
+
+Guided by the gurgling noise she found Meffia crumpled in a heap
+on the mosaic floor against the base of one of the pillars.
+
+Brinnaria kicked her once viciously and shook her repeatedly.
+
+Slowly, dazedly, Meffia half awoke, whining:
+
+"Where am I?" she gasped.
+
+"In the temple!" Brinnaria replied.
+
+"Oh!" Meffia exclaimed, "what has happened?"
+
+"You went to sleep, you little fool," Brinnaria raged at her,
+"and the fire has gone out."
+
+"Oh! what shall we do?" wailed Meffia, "what shall we do?"
+
+"Do?" snarled Brinnaria. "It's plain enough what you have to do.
+Go to your room, go to bed and go' to sleep, stay asleep, keep
+your mouth shut, say nothing, pretend you woke me at midnight,
+pretend you had nothing to do with the fire going out, pretend
+you know nothing about it, keep your face straight, keep mum,
+leave the rest to me!"
+
+"But," wailed Meffia, "if they think you let the fire go out
+you'll be scourged for it."
+
+"Well," snapped Brinnaria, "what's that to you? Go to bed."
+
+"But," Meffia insisted, "I let it go out. I ought to take the
+blame, not you. I ought to be scourged with you."
+
+"You insufferable little idiot," Brinnaria hurled at her, "you
+never could stand a flogging, you'd die of it most likely. To a
+certainty you'd be ill, and have to be sent off to be nursed and
+kept away for a month or more to recover. I won't have Causidiena
+ worried with any such performances. And as sure as the fire is
+out, you'd behave like the poor creature you are. You'd scream
+and howl and faint and shame us all.
+
+"No flogging of you if I can help it!
+
+"Now, go to bed!"
+
+"But," protested Meffia, "why need either of us be flogged? I have
+ tinder and flint and steel in my room. We could light the fire
+and no one ever know it."
+
+"You imbecile child! You silly baby! You wicked, horrible, sacrilegious
+ girl!" Brinnaria stormed. "You irreligious, atheistical, blasphemous
+wretch! To save your hide you'd desecrate the temple, pollute the Altar,
+ anger Vesta, make all our prayers in vain, bring down curses without
+ count on Rome and all of us. Be silent! Don't you dare to speak
+another word! Off to bed with you!"
+
+"But," Meffia trembled, "you hate me; why do you take my
+punishment?"
+
+"I don't hate you," hissed Brinnaria. "I despise you! And I've told
+you why I'm going to take the licking. Off to bed with you !"
+
+"But," Meffia still persisted, "what will you do?"
+
+"Do?" whispered Brinnaria. "Do? Why I'll curl up where you've
+left a warm spot on the floor and go to sleep and sleep till
+some one finds me. I can sleep any time."
+
+"But think of the scourging!" Meffia insisted.
+
+"I shan't," Brinnaria maintained. "I shan't think of it a moment.
+I never did mind a licking. It's bad enough while it lasts, but
+soon over. No licking will worry me. I'll sleep like a top. Now
+to bed with you, or I'll break every bone in your worthless body!"
+ Meffia started to speak again; Brinnaria caught her gullet in one
+ strong, young hand, clutched her neck with the other, and craftily
+ pressed one thumb behind one of Meffia's ears.
+
+Meffia squeaked like a snared rabbit.
+
+"There!" Brinnaria whispered fiercely. "Now you know how badly I
+can hurt you when I try. If you let on that it was you and not I
+that let the fire go out what I did to you then won't amount to
+anything to what I'll do to you. I'll kill you. Promise you'll
+keep mum."
+
+"I promise," gasped Meffia.
+
+"Go to bed!" Brinnaria hissed.
+
+Meffia went.
+
+Brinnaria, left alone, did all she could to make the ashes on the
+Altar look like the remains of a fire that had died out of itself,
+to efface all signs of her efforts to find live coals under the
+ashes. She judged that she had succeeded pretty well.
+
+Then she composed herself on the floor and was asleep in ten breaths.
+
+There Manlia found her when the daylight was already strong.
+
+When wakened Brinnaria merely remarked:
+
+"It can't be helped. I always did sleep too sound." That day was
+a gloomy day in Rome. The report was noised abroad that the holy
+fire had gone out and a chill of horror spread through all classes
+of the population, from the richest to the poorest.
+
+The Romans were very far from being what they are represented to
+have been by unsympathetic modern writers on them. Practically
+all modern writers have been unsympathetic with the Romans, for
+the Romans were Pagans and all modern writers on them have been
+more or less Christians, chiefly interested in Pagans because most
+ Pagans were in the later centuries converted to Christianity. With
+that fact in the foreground of their thoughts and with the
+utterances of Roman skeptics and dilettantes well in view, most
+modern writers assert what they sincerely believe, that the Romans
+had only the vaguest and most lukewarm religious faith, and no
+vivid devout convictions at all.
+
+The facts were entirely the other way. There were agnostics among
+the cultured leisure classes, there were unbelievers of various
+degrees everywhere in the towns and cities. But the mass of the
+population, not only universally, all over the countryside, but
+collectively in the urban centers, believed in their gods as
+implicitly as they believed in heat and cold, birth and death,
+fire and water, pleasure and pain. Government, from the Roman
+point of view, was a partnership between the Roman people, as
+represented by their senate, and the gods. Under the Republic
+every election had appeared to the Romans who participated in
+it to be a rite for ascertaining what man would be most pleasing
+to the gods to fill the position in question. Under the Empire the
+ selection of a new Emperor, whether a confirmation by the senate
+of the previous Emperor's accredited heir, or an acclamation by the
+ army of the soldiers' favorite, appeared to the Romans as the
+ determination of the gods' preference for a particular individual
+ as their chief partner.
+
+The choice of war or peace, of battle or maneuvering for delay,
+seemed to the Romans the taking of the advice of the gods, who
+manifested their injunctions by various signs, by the appearance
+of the liver, heart, lungs and kidneys of the cattle and sheep
+sacrificed, by the flight of birds, by the shape of the flames of
+altar-fires, all regarded as definite answers to explicit questions;
+who also made suggestions or gave warnings by means of earthquakes,
+floods, conflagrations, pestilences, eclipses, by the aurora
+borealis, by any sort of strange happening.
+
+The extinction of the sacred fire in the Temple of Vesta was looked
+upon as a categorical warning that the behavior of the Romans or of
+some part of them or the conduct of the government was so displeasing
+ to the gods that the Empire would come to a sudden end unless matters
+ were at once corrected. All Romans believed that as implicitly as they
+ believed that food would keep them alive or that steel could kill them.
+
+Therefore the days after Meffia let the fire go out were gloomy days
+in Rome. The report of a great defeat for their army, with a terrible
+ slaughter of their best soldiers would not have depressed the crowds
+ more.
+
+The people were as dazed, numb and silent as after the first news
+of a terrific disaster. Every kind of public amusement or diversion
+was postponed, merry-making ceased everywhere, the wildest and most
+ reckless felt no inclination towards frivolity, even the games of
+ children were checked and repressed, gravity and solemnity enveloped
+ the entire city and its vast suburbs. The men talked soberly, as
+if at a funeral; while for women of every degree, but especially
+for the matrons of the upper classes, the three ensuing days were
+days of prayer and fasting.
+
+For the Pontiffs they were anxious and busy days.
+
+Both Emperors were away from Rome, Lucius Verus in
+Greece, on his way home from Antioch and the great
+victories of his three years' campaign against the Parthians,
+Marcus Aurelius in Germany hastening from point to point
+along the headwaters of the Rhine and Danube, desperately
+resisting the pertinacious attacks of the Marcomanni. The
+Pontiffs were without their chief and acted under the leadership
+of Faltonius Bambilio, Pontifex of Vesta, the busiest and most
+anxious of them all. In consultation with the august College of
+Pontiffs, hastily assembled at the Regia, a splendid building
+occupying the site of Numa's rustic palace, near the great Forum
+and close to the Temple of Vesta, he arranged for the necessary
+ceremonial of expiation and atonement.
+
+Besides the fasting of the women all over the city, besides their
+day-long and night-long prayers, besides the sacrifices which
+each matron must personally offer in her own house, besides
+the sacrifices which must be offered for the matrons in the
+Temple of Castor and in the less popular women's temples in
+every quarter of the city, there must he public sacrifices of cattle,
+sheep and swine, there must be solemn and gorgeous processions;
+every sort of ceremonial traditionally supposed to mitigate the
+wrath of the gods, to placate them, to win their favor, must be
+carried out with every detail of care, with the utmost magnificence.
+
+Meanwhile, and above all, the negligent Vestal must be punished;
+and at once the sacred fire must be ritually rekindled.
+
+The ritual rekindling worried and exhausted Bambilio not a little.
+
+The procedure was traditional and rigidly prescribed in every detail.
+The sacred fire might not be rekindled by anything so modern as a
+flint and steel, far less by anything so much more modern as a burning
+glass.
+
+The primitive fire drill must be used and the fresh fire produced by the
+friction of wood on wood.
+
+The ritual prescribed that a plank of apple wood, about two inches
+thick, about two feet wide and about three feet long, should be placed on a
+firm support, upon which it would rest solidly without any tendency to joggle.
+At its middle was bored a small circular depression, about the size of a man's
+thumb-nail and shallow. Into this was thrust the tapered end of a round rod
+of maple wood about as thick as a large man's thumb. The upper end of the
+rod fitted freely into a socket in a ball of maple wood of suitable size to be
+held in the left hand and pressed down so as to press the lower end of the
+rod into the hole in the apple wood plank. Round the middle of the rod was
+looped a bow-string kept taut by a strong bow. By grasping the bow in his
+right hand and sawing it back and forth, the operator caused the rod to whirl
+round, first one way and then the other, with great velocity. The friction of its
+lower end soon heated up the hole in the apple-wood plank, and round that
+were piled chips of dry apple-wood, which, if the operator was strong and
+skilled, soon burst into flame.
+
+Bambilio was fat and clumsy. Before he had succeeded he was dripping
+with perspiration, limp with weariness and ready to faint. But succeed he
+did. The quart or more of apple-wood chips burst into flame at last;
+Causidiena, standing ready with the prescribed copper sieve, caught
+the blazing chips as they were tilted off the plank, conveyed them to the
+Altar, placed maple splinters on them, and soon had the sacred fire
+burning properly.
+
+The punishment of the guilty Vestal was even more a matter of
+concern, of trepidation. She must be scourged that very night,
+and, as in respect to the rekindling of the fire, every detail of
+what must be done was prescribed by immemorial tradition,
+long since committed to writing, among the statutes of the order.
+
+The scourging must be done by the Pontiff himself.
+
+The scourge must be one with a maple-wood handle and three
+thongs of leather made from the hide of a roan heifer. In each
+thong were knotted the tiny, horny half-hoofs of a newborn
+white lamb, eight to a thong, twenty-four in all. These bits of horny
+hoof tore and cut terribly the bare back of the victim. It was
+prescribed that the scourge must be laid on vigorously, not lightly.
+
+The Vestal scourged must be entirely nude. As it would have
+been sacrilege unspeakable for a man to see the ankle or shoulder
+of a Vestal, let alone her entire body, it was enjoined that the
+scourging take place at midnight, in a shut room, and that a
+woolen curtain should hang between the Pontifex and his victim.
+
+Bambilio was terribly wrought up at the prospect of the
+perplexing and delicate duty before him. He was fat and
+short-winded and would suffer from the effort of laying on
+the blows. He was as pious as possible and quaked inwardly
+with the dread that, in spite of the dark room and the curtain,
+he might catch a glimpse of his victim and bring down the
+wrath of the gods on himself and on Rome. And, apart from all
+else, he was shame-faced and hot and cold at the idea of being
+in the same room, even in a darkened room screened by a
+curtain, with a naked Vestal. He blushed and shuddered. To
+be sure, it was prescribed that one other Vestal was to be in the
+room, on the same side of the curtain as the victim, to say
+when the scourging had continued long enough and the negligent
+Vestal had been sufficiently punished. But this comforted Bambilio
+very little.
+
+He wished the ordeal over.
+
+At midnight he stood in the dark, close to the curtain. The darkness
+was not as dark as he should have liked. Some ghost of a glimmer of
+starshine filtered into the room and he could make out the shape of
+the curtain. He waited, scourge in hand.
+
+Presently Numisia spoke, told him that Brinnaria was prepared
+for her beating, took his left hand and guided it in the dark. He
+felt the curtain's edge against his wrist, felt a warm soft elbow,
+grasped it, and at once gained a notion of the direction in which
+he was to lay on his blows.
+
+He struck round the other side of the curtain and felt that the
+scourge met its mark, but slantingly and draggingly. He tried
+again and seemed to do better.
+
+For the third blow he made the scourge whistle through the air.
+
+"Hit harder, you old fool," spoke Brinnaria, "you're barely
+tapping me!" That made him angry and Brinnaria experienced
+as severe a scourging as any fat old gentleman could have compassed.
+
+She did not shriek, sob or whimper: not a sound escaped her.
+She suffered, suffered acutely, particularly when one of the
+lamb hoofs struck a second time on a bleeding gash in her back
+or on a swollen weal. But her physical pain was drowned in a
+rising tide of anger and wrath. She felt the long repressed,
+half-forgotten tomboy, hoyden Brinnaria surging up in her and
+gaining mastery. She fairly boiled with rage, she blazed and
+flamed inwardly with a conflagration of resentment. It was all
+she could do not to tear down the curtain, spring on Bambilio,
+wrench his scourge from his hand and lay it on him. She kept still
+and silent, but she felt her inward tornado of emotion gaining strength.
+
+When Numisia spoke Bambilio let go Brinnaria's arm and stepped
+back a pace. "My daughter," he said, "you have been punished
+enough. Your punishment is accomplished. This is sufficient."
+
+Then Brinnaria spoke, in a voice tense, not with pain, but with fury:
+
+"You won't hit me again?"
+
+"No, my daughter," said Bambilio, "no more."
+
+"You have quite done beating me?" she demanded.
+
+"Quite done," he replied.
+
+Then, unexpectedly to herself, Brinnaria's wrath boiled over.
+
+"Then," she fairly yelled at him, "I'm going to begin beating you.
+Shut your eyes. I'm going to pull down the curtain!"
+
+Numisia made a horrified grab at Brinnaria and missed her.
+Brinnaria gave her a push; Numisia slipped, fell her length
+on the floor, struck her head and either fainted or was stunned.
+
+Bambilio, his eyes tight shut, the instant after Numisia's head
+cracked the floor, heard snap the string supporting the curtain.
+
+He shut his eyes tighter.
+
+He felt the scourge wrenched from his limp fingers, felt the back
+of his neck grasped by a muscular young hand, felt the impact of
+the twenty-four sheep-hoofs on his back.
+
+Through his clothing they stung and smarted.
+
+There came another blow and another. Bambilio tried to get away,
+but he dreaded unseemly contact with a naked Vestal and did not
+succeed in his efforts.
+
+The blows fell thick and fast. He was an old man exhausted by a
+long day of excitement and by his exertions while scourging Brinnaria.
+
+His knees knocked together, he gasped, he snorted: the pain of the
+blows made him feel faint; he collapsed on the floor.
+
+Then Brinnaria did beat him, till the blood ran from his back almost
+as from hers, beat him till the old man fainted dead away.
+
+When her arm was tired she gave him a kick, threw the scourge
+on him and groped for Numisia.
+
+Numisia had sat up.
+
+"My child," she said, "why did you do it?"
+
+"I don't know," snarled Brinnaria. "I was furious. I did it before
+I thought. Are you hurt?"
+
+"No," said Numisia. "Don't tell anyone you pushed me. I'll never tell.
+I don't blame you, dear." She fainted again.
+
+Causidiena, waiting under the colonnade of the courtyard, was
+appalled to descry in the gloom a totally naked Brinnaria, a mass
+of clothing hanging over her arm.
+
+"My child," she protested, "why did you not put on your clothes?"
+
+"I don't care who sees me!" Brinnaria retorted. "I'm boiling hot;
+I'm all over sweat and blood and my back's cut to ribbons."
+
+"What are you going to do?" Causidiena queried.
+
+"I'm going to bed," Brinnaria replied. "Please send Utta to me
+and tell her to bring the turpentine jug and the salt box."
+
+"My dear," Causidiena objected, "you'll never endure the pain!"
+
+"Yes, I shall," Brinnaria maintained. "I'll set my teeth and stand
+the smart. I don't mean to have a festered back. I'll have Utta
+rub me with salt and turpentine from neck to hips; I'll be asleep
+before she's done rubbing."
+
+"I'll come and see she does it properly," Causidiena said.
+
+"Better not," said Brinnaria. "Numisia and Bambilio need
+you worse than I do."
+
+"Why?" queried Causidiena.
+
+"After Bambilio was done beating me," Brinnaria explained calmly,
+"I beat him. Numisia tried to stop me and somehow fell on the floor
+and was stunned. She came to after I was done with Bambilio, but she
+fainted again. I beat him till he is just a lump of raw meat, eleven-twelfths
+dead, wallowing in his blood like a sausage in a plate of gravy."
+
+"My child!" Causidiena cried, "this is sacrilege!"
+
+"Not a bit of it!" Brinnaria maintained, a tall, white shape in the
+star-shine, waving her armful of clothing.
+
+"I have pored over the statutes of the order. It was incumbent
+on me to keep still and silent all through my licking. But I defy
+you or any other Vestal or any Pontiff or Flamen or either of
+the Emperors to show me a word on the statutes of the order or
+in any other sacred writing that forbids a Vestal, after her thrashing,
+to beat the Pontifex to red pulp. I have. You'd better go help him; he
+might die. And poor Numisia needs reviving. I'm all right; send me
+Utta and the salt and turpentine, and I'll be fit for duty in a day or two."
+
+"You terrible child!" said Causidiena.
+
+
+CHAPTER IX - ALARMS
+
+
+
+THE next year was the year of the great pestilence. Pestilence,
+indeed, had ravaged Italy for five consecutive summers previous
+to that year. But the great pestilence, for two centuries afterwards
+spoken of merely as "the pestilence," fell in the nine hundred and
+nineteenth year after the founding of Rome, the year 166 of our era,
+when Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus had been co-Emperors
+for a little more than five years and Brinnaria had been almost five
+years a Vestal. It devastated the entire Empire from Nisibis in upper
+Mesopotamia to Segontium, opposite the isle of Anglesea. Every
+farm, hamlet and village suffered; in not one town did it leave more
+than half the inhabitants alive; few cities escaped with so much as a
+third of the population surviving. Famine accompanied the pestilence
+in all the western portions of the Roman world, and from famine
+perished many whom the plague had spared.
+
+This disaster was, in fact, the real deathblow to Rome's greatness
+and from it dates the decline of the Roman power. It broke the
+tradition of civilization and culture which had grown from the
+small beginnings of the primitive Greeks and Etruscans more
+than two thousand years before. During all those two thousand
+years there had been a more or less steady and a scarcely interrupted
+development of the agriculture, manufactures, arts, skill, knowledge
+and power of the mass of humanity about the Mediterranean Sea;
+men who fought with shields and spears and swords, also with
+arrows and slings, believed in approximately the same sort of gods;
+wore clothing rather wrapped round them than upholstered on their
+bodies as with us; reclined on sofas at meals; lived mostly out of
+doors all the year round; built their houses about courtyards, and
+made rows of columns the chief feature of their architecture, and
+sheltering themselves in colonnades, sunny or shady according to
+the time of the year, the chief feature of their personal comfort. Up
+to the year of the great pestilence that civilization had prospered, had
+produced a long series of generals, inventors, architects, sculptors,
+painters, musicians, poets, authors, and orators. Everywhere men
+had shown self-confidence, capacity, originality, power and competence
+and had achieved success for two thousand years.
+
+The great pestilence of 166 so depleted the population that Rome never
+again pushed forward the boundaries of her Empire. Some lucky
+armies won occasional victories, but Rome never again put on the
+field an overwhelming army for foreign conquest, never again could
+fully man, even defensively, the long line of her frontiers.
+
+All classes of the people suffered, but most of all the rich, the
+well-to-do, the educated and the cultured classes of the towns and
+cities. And the main point of difference between the great pestilence
+and the others which had preceded it was the universality of its
+incidence. For two thousand years pestilence had occurred at intervals,
+but previously not everywhere at once.
+
+If one country suffered others did not; if half the Mediterranean world,
+even, was devastated, the other half escaped. From the immune regions
+competence and capacity had flowed into the ruined areas and
+civilization had gone on. But the great pestilence left no district
+unharmed. In six months it killed off all the brains and skill, all the
+culture and ingenuity in the Empire. There were so few capable men
+left in any line of activity that the next generation grew up practically
+untaught. The tradition of two thousand years was broken. In all the
+Mediterranean world, until centuries later, descendants of the savage
+invaders developed their new civilization on the ruins of the old; no
+man ever again made a great speech, wrote a great book or play or
+poem, painted a good picture, carved a good statue, or contrived a good
+campaign or battle. The brains of the Roman world died that year, the
+originality of the whole nation was killed at once, the tradition broke off.
+
+Of course, the survivors did not realize the finality of the disaster, but
+they did realize its magnitude. In Italy, fed almost wholly by imported
+food, the famine was most severe. In Italy the pestilence was most virulent.
+Men disputed as to whether the great army of Lucius Verus, returned
+home from its splendid victories in Parthia, had brought with it a form
+of pestilence worse than that of the five previous years, or whether the
+returned soldiers had merely been a specially easy prey to the pestilence
+already abroad in Rome. Whichever was true, the veterans died like
+flies. So did the residents of Rome. Whole blocks of tenements were
+emptied of their last occupier and stood wholly vacant; many palaces
+of the wealthy were left without so much as a guardian, the last inmate
+dead; the splendid furnishings, even the silver plate, untouched in every
+room; for the plague had so ravaged Rome that there were not even
+robbers and thieves left to steal To the survivors, since genuine piety
+as they knew it was all but universal among the Romans, it was some
+small comfort, a faint ray of hope, a sign that the gods were not
+inexorably wrathful, that, after Rabulla's death, there was no case of
+pestilence in the Atrium, not even among the servitors, that no Vestal so
+much as sickened. Through it all the six remained hale and sound.
+
+But when the plague abated, only Manlia had any living relations left her.
+The other five had lost every kinsman and kinswoman, to the ninth and
+tenth degree.
+
+Brinnaria's parents, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and cousins were
+all among the victims. This left her grave and sobered with grief, with
+no trace of her girlish wildness apparent.
+
+It also left her enormously rich, one of the wealthiest women in Rome.
+
+Not a tenth so wealthy, but still very rich, it left Almo, Vocco and Flexinna,
+all of whom survived.
+
+As the plague had been rife, worse each year, for some seasons before
+the year of the great pestilence, so, ebbing yearly, it continued for some
+years after its acme. As soon as the worst was manifestly over the life
+of Rome began to revive to some degree, the city dwellers plucked up
+heart, the refugees began to return to their town houses, hunger and
+terror were forgotten, industry and commerce rallied, bustle and activity
+increased from day to day, and, slowly indeed, but steadily, Rome
+returned to its normal activity and appearance. The survivors
+reconstructed their life on the old lines, the streets and squares
+were again thronged, the public baths, those vast casinos of ancient
+club-life, were daily crowded with idlers.
+
+The repopulation of the city brought into it many rich families from
+towns all over the Roman world.
+
+Their influx sent up the price of large residences and caused much
+activity in the renting and selling of properties suitable for the homes
+of people of ample means.
+
+Brinnaria, without a male relation of even the remotest degree, came
+to lean more and more on Vocco, the husband of her chum Flexinna.
+He was a young man of not unpleasing appearance and of courtly
+manners, but very haughty, reserved and silent by nature; and exceedingly
+spare, lean and wiry, with black hair and brows, a complexion as if
+tanned and weatherbeaten and an habitual frown. He was fond of Brinnaria
+and unbent to her more than to most of his acquaintances. She treated him
+as a sort of honorary cousin and turned over to him many details of the
+care of her large and scattered property. He took upon himself in her
+interest the sale or management of her distant estates, found for them
+capable overseers or purchasers at advantageous prices, bought slaves
+where they were needed, arranged for the marketing of the more
+important products and accounted to her for the proceeds.
+
+About her town properties he had more trouble and some exasperation,
+for he found the apparently practical and unsentimental Brinnaria oddly
+unwilling to disturb the contents of the palaces in which her kinsmen had
+lived and died. She was naturally a good business woman and all her
+instincts urged her to increase her capital and her income by every means
+within her power and at every opportunity. Yet, when Vocco came to
+her with offers of high prices for the various buildings which she had
+inherited he could induce her to arrange for the sale only of the smaller
+and less valuable houses, or of those tenements which had been owned
+merely to rent, but had never been inhabited by any members of the
+Brinnarian clan. At the suggestion of preparing for sale any of the
+palaces of her near kinsfolk she balked; from the barest hint towards
+moving the furniture in her father's home she recoiled in horror.
+
+Vocco found himself faced by invincible femininity, with the possession
+of which he would not have credited Brinnaria. At first he was irritated.
+As he missed sale after sale he became more and more aggravated. But
+he kept his temper, held his tongue and waited for Brinnaria's mood to
+alter. Her sentimentality gradually waned as the prices offered steadily
+mounted. After long hesitation she gave orders to sell at auction the
+furniture from the house of a distant cousin, and to rent the house. That
+broke the spell. One by one the late abodes of the Brinnarii were cleared
+and sold; sold furniture and all, cleared and rented, or rented furnished.
+
+The former dwellings of her aunts and uncles she was reluctant to disturb.
+She felt a sort of sacredness about these splendid houses where she had
+been merry as a child. When at last she made up her mind to part with
+one she would not give the order to sell it until she had gone over it herself
+and selected some pieces of furniture which she specially valued. Vocco
+tried to dissuade her, but she would not listen to him.
+
+Her visit to the vast, empty palace had a most depressing effect on her.
+All her grief at her countless bereavements rushed back over her in a
+flood and overwhelmed her. She would not allow a stick of furniture
+to be moved and withdrew her consent to the sale.
+
+Vocco was patient and silent.
+
+After a time this mood, too, wore off.
+
+She had that particular dwelling emptied and sold and, once that first step
+taken, under the pressure of hugely profitable offers, sold all the other
+properties.
+
+In each case she insisted on inspecting the houses room by room before
+anything was moved. After the first she had no hysterical qualms, did
+not show any outward emotion, selected what she meant to keep for
+herself, ordered the sale of the rest, remained calm through it all.
+
+Finally Vocco came to her with a most tempting offer for her childhood
+home. Brinnaria took a night to think it over.
+
+She had not entered the place since her father's funeral. He had been
+the last of the family to die, three months after his wife, and some days
+after his last surviving son. During the lengthy interval the palace had
+stood shut fast, cared for only by a few slaves, and those not lifelong
+family servants, but recent purchases; for the pestilence had carried
+off with their masters nearly all the home-bred house slaves.
+
+At the thought of going through the deserted halls and silent rooms
+Brinnaria winced. But she nerved herself up to it. She named a day
+on which she meant to face the ordeal, asked Vocco to order the
+palace swept and dusted, and announced to Guntello, almost the
+sole survivor of her father's personal servitors, that he was to
+accompany her.
+
+When the day came she set out, not in her carriage, but in her litter
+ with eight Cilician bearers, her lictor running ahead and Guntello
+and Utta walking behind.
+
+She began her survey accompanied by Guntello and Utta. But when she
+came to the nursery and schoolroom she sent the two away, told them
+to wait for her in the peristyle, shut herself in and had a long, hard
+cry; precisely as if she had been, as of old, a little girl hurt or angry
+or vexed. After she had wept till no more tears flowed she felt relieved
+and comforted.
+
+She called Utta, had her bring water, bathed her face and sent the
+maid away again.
+
+Then she resolutely examined room after room. The second floor took
+a long while, for there were many doors to open and close for the last time.
+
+There was a third floor, a feature possessed by few dwellings in Rome
+in ancient times. The Imperial Palace, which later towered to even
+seven stories, was unique in Brinnaria's time, in the possession of
+five superposed floors. The great palace of Sallust, near the Salarian
+Gate, had but three.
+
+To the third floor she mounted. Before she had investigated half the
+rooms she found a door fast. What was more, as she tried it, she
+thought she heard a sound, as of human movement, inside that room.
+
+Brinnaria was no weakling. Methodically she tried that door with her
+full, young strength, tried it all along its edge opposite its hinges, tried it
+at the middle, at the top, at the bottom. She made sure the door was not
+stuck or jammed; she was convinced that it was bolted within the room.
+
+She leaned over the railing of the gallery and called Guntello.
+
+The odd note in her voice brought that faithful giant up the stairs, two
+steps at a time; the beams of the house, even the marble steps of the
+stair, seemed to quiver under his tread.
+
+She had him try the door. He agreed that it was bolted.
+
+"Can you break it in?" she queried.
+
+Guntello laughed. "Without half trying, little Mistress," he replied.
+
+Brinnaria's voice came hard and sharp.
+
+"You in that room!" she called, "unbolt that door and come out, or
+it will be the worse for you. I'll count ten and then order the door
+burst open." She began to count.
+
+She heard the bolt shot back.
+
+She nodded to Guntello.
+
+He gave the door a push.
+
+Before them stood Calvaster, his attitude and countenance expressing
+cringing cowardice, cloaked by ill-assumed effrontery. He did not speak,
+trying to appear unconcerned.
+
+"What are you doing in my house?" Brinnaria demanded.
+
+"I do not wonder that you are astonished to see me here and angry
+as well," Calvaster replied, "but the explanation is simple. I learned
+that you were proposing to sell the property. I had a curiosity to see it
+as it is. I found means to slip in and go over the building. I counted on
+leaving before you arrived. I miscalculated, that is all. Awkward for
+both of us, but unintentional on my part."
+
+"I don't believe half of that rigmarole," snapped Brinnaria.
+
+"It is all true, nevertheless," Calvaster asserted with an air of injured
+innocence.
+
+"One thing is plain, anyhow," Brinnaria declared. "You bribed one
+of my slaves. Which one did you bribe?"
+
+Calvaster kept his lips pressed tight together.
+
+"March him downstairs, Guntello," Brinnaria commanded.
+
+Calvaster winced and made. as if to dodge. Big as he was Guntello
+was wonderfully quick. In a flash he had the intruder by the neck.
+Utterly helpless Calvaster was marched down the stairs.
+
+In the courtyard Brinnaria had brought before her the half dozen
+slaves who had charge of the empty house. They stood in a row
+fidgeting and glancing at each other.
+
+"Now," she demanded of Calvaster, "point out which one you bribed."
+Calvaster remained motionless and mute.
+
+"Hurt him, Guntello," said Brinnaria.
+
+Guntello applied a few. simple twists and squeezes, such as schoolboys
+of all climes employ on their victims.
+
+Calvaster yielded at once and indicated one of the suspects.
+
+"Throw him out, Guntello," said Brinnaria.
+
+When Guntello returned he cheerfully inquired, with the easy
+assurance of an indulged favorite.
+
+"Shall I kill Tranio, Mistress?"
+
+"No!" said Brinnaria viciously. "I wouldn't have a toad killed on
+the word of that contemptible scoundrel. Give Tranio a moderate
+beating and hand him over to Olynthides to be sold at auction
+without a character." Her survey of her former home and her
+selection of the ornaments, pictures, statues, articles of furniture
+and other objects which she desired reserved for herself she
+completed with an air less of melancholy than of puzzled thought.
+
+She was off duty for all of that day and night and was to dine with
+Flexinna and Vocco. In the course of the pestilence they had inherited
+a magnificent abode on the Esquiline. In particular it had a private
+bath with a large swimming-pool. The Vestals were the only ladies
+in Rome who might not enjoy the magnificent public baths, to which
+all Roman society flocked every afternoon, somewhat as we moderns
+throng a beach at a fashionable seaside resort. Brinnaria, who
+loved swimming, felt the deprivation keenly. The Atrium had
+luxurious baths, but no swimming-pool. Whenever Brinnaria dined
+with Flexinna she particularly enjoyed the swim the two always
+took together before dinner. On that afternoon, while they were
+revelling in the water, Brinnaria told Flexinna of her adventure.
+
+"I can't conjecture," she said, "what motive brought him there.
+I have been racking my brains about it ever since it happened
+and it is an enigma to me."
+
+"No riddle to me," Flexinna declared. "It's as c-c-clear as d-d-daylight."
+
+"If you are so sure," said Brinnaria, "explain. I have no guess even."
+
+"Why," expounded Flexinna, "he was there to c-c-collect evidence
+against you. He hates you because you wouldn't marry him and he
+is t-t-tenaciously resolved to be revenged. He is on the lookout for
+anything that might d-d-discredit you. He hoped to spy on an interview
+b-b-between you and Almo, for he surmised that you would arrange
+to have Almo meet you in the empty house!"
+
+"The nasty beast!" cried Brinnaria, shocked. "How dare he?"
+
+"Oh, b-b-be sensible," Flexinna admonished her. "You know the
+k-k-kind he is. He's b-b-bound to impute to everybody what he
+would d-d-do in their p-p-place. Any man under the same
+circumstances would jump at the same suspicions."
+
+"But why?" queried Brinnaria, bewildered and angry.
+
+"Think a minute," said Flexinna. "To suspect all women is a
+c-c-convention, almost an axiom, with most men. All men like
+C-C-Calvaster assume that every married woman is interested
+in some man b-b-besides her husband, or in almost any man,
+and if married women are under suspicion, on the assumption
+that one husband is not enough, of c-c-course you Vestals,
+who haven't even a husband, are doubly under suspicion."
+
+"Bah!" snarled Brinnaria, "you make me cross!"
+
+"Facts are facts," Flexinna summed up.
+
+Brinnaria did not retort. She had climbed out of the tank and
+was seated on the edge, the drops streaming off her in rivulets,
+watching the ripples her toes' made in the water.
+
+"Facts are facts," she echoed, "and conjectures are merely
+conjectures; what is more, conjectures ought to have some
+basis in fact. You assert, as if you know it to he true, that
+Calvaster expected Almo to meet me to-day. But Almo is
+at Falerii."
+
+"No, he's not," Flexinna retorted; "he's b-b-been in t-t-town
+t-t-ten d-d-days and has had the old house on the C-C-Carinae
+reopened. He's settling d-d-down to live in Rome."
+
+Brinnaria flushed.
+
+"I think," she said, scrambling to her feet, "that he might
+have had enough consideration for me to stay in the country."
+
+"So d-d-do I," said Flexinna.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X - CONFERENCE
+
+
+
+SOME months later, during one of the brief and infrequent
+breathing spells in his ten years' fight to beat off the raids of
+the Marcomanni and other Germanic tribes, Aurelius returned
+from the Rhine frontier to Rome. As soon as she was
+reasonably sure that the Emperor was rested from the fatigues
+of his journey and had disposed of the worst of his accumulated
+routine duties, Brinnaria sought a second audience with the
+chief of the nation.
+
+She was then a tall, grave girl of nineteen, looking and behaving
+like a woman of twenty-five. Very handsome she was, full-fleshed
+without a trace of plumpness, fun breasted without a hint of
+overabundance. Her brown hair, now grown long again after
+its ceremonial shearing at her entrance into the order of Vestals,
+was so dark that it was almost black. Arranged in the six braids
+traditional for Vestals and wound round her head like a coronet
+it became her notably. Her complexion was creamy, with a
+splendid brilliant color that came and went in her cheeks. Her
+expression of face was an indescribable blend of kindliness and
+haughtiness towards others, of austerity and cheerfulness
+inwardly, of intellectuality and comprehension towards life at
+large. She had acquired the statuesqueness of the conventional
+Vestal attitudes and movements, but she sat and stood so that
+all beholders felt a vivid impression of her vitality, of reserve
+strength, incomparably beyond anything possessed by her five
+colleagues.
+
+Her stately pacing as she walked always appeared the conscious
+restraint of what, of itself, would have been a swinging stride. She
+wore her clothes with an unanalyzable difference, with a sort of
+effrontery, as Calvaster put it in talking of her to his cronies.
+
+On her way to the palace, erect in her white robe amid the gorgeous
+crimson hangings of her gilded state coach, she meditated on the
+great dissimilarity between the feelings with which she had gone
+to her first audience with the Emperor and those with which she
+now approached his abode. Then she had been palpitating with
+conscientious scruples and childish dreads, now she was sure
+of herself and of her errand; then she had thought chiefly of her
+mother and of the traditions of her family and clan, now not
+only her mother was dead, but the whole family of the Epulones
+had perished except herself and the Brinnarian clan was
+represented by but three families, her relationship to which was
+fainter than any assignable degree of cousinship; then she had
+been full of elation at her lofty position in the world, now she
+was perfectly at home in her environment and felt no emotion
+at the thought of it.
+
+At the palace she found herself in the same vast room, alone
+with a somewhat older and graver Emperor, now sole ruler
+of their world since the death of his colleague, Lucius Verus.
+He greeted her kindly, with an air of effort to conceal his
+weariness, and when both were seated asked her errand.
+
+"In the first place," she said, "I want you to tell me whether
+you are satisfied with the reports you have had of me."
+
+Aurelius half smiled.
+
+"I am well pleased in respect to all your actions but one," he said.
+"You have certainly done better than I expected or hoped. You
+have curbed your wild nature so well that, of late years, you have
+behaved altogether as a Vestal should. Even earlier your conduct
+was creditable, since from the very day of your promise to me,
+your outbursts were less and less frequent and also less and less
+violent. Once only have you acted so that I felt displeased when
+I heard what you had done and feel somewhat displeased even yet."
+
+"I suppose," Brinnaria ruminated, "you mean my larruping Bambilio."
+
+"Yes," Aurelius admitted. "That was in a sense unforgivable. Had
+I been in Rome at the time I must have animadverted upon it with
+the greatest severity."
+
+"If you had been in Rome at the time," spoke Brinnaria boldly, "I
+should not have been flogged by any mere deputy Pontifex of Vesta.
+It would have been incumbent upon you, as Pontifex Maximus,
+yourself to give me my ceremonial scourging. To you I should
+have been, of course, as submissive after my beating as while it
+was going on. No harm would have been done."
+
+The Emperor smiled more than a half smile.
+
+"I am not sure," he said, "that any harm was done, anyhow."
+
+"What!" cried Brinnaria. "You excuse me? You defend me?"
+
+"Softly! Softly!" the Emperor caveatted, raising his hand. "I do
+not acquit you nor exonerate you. But I do make allowances.
+And we must distinguish. We must not confuse the causes of my
+disapprobation of what you did with my reasons for believing
+that no harm resulted. Nor, for that matter, must we confound
+with either of them those qualities in yourself and those
+circumstances of the case which make me feel, illogically perhaps,
+but very possibly, more inclined to thank you than to censure you."
+
+"Castor be good to me!" cried Brinnaria. "Am I dreaming?"
+
+"Don't interrupt, you disrespectful minx," the Emperor laughed;
+"this is a lecture. Hear it out.
+
+"In the first place you were technically right in saying that there
+is not one word in any sacred writing or in the pronouncements
+of the Pontiffs or the statutes of the Vestals to forbid a flogged
+Vestal from beating her scourger. Just as Solon in the code of
+laws which he drew up for the Athenians prescribed no penalty
+for the slayer of his father or mother, because, as he explained
+when the omission was pointed out to him, he had thought that
+no child would ever kill its parents; so no framer of rubrics ever
+foresaw the necessity of forbidding what no one conceived of as
+possible. All persons were assumed to be too much in awe of
+Pontiffs, for anyone to dare to raise a hand against any Pontiff,
+least of all a Vestal against her spiritual father. The world had
+to wait for a Brinnaria to demonstrate that the unimaginable
+could come to pass.
+
+"Yet the very fact that it was nowhere written down that you
+must not do it makes your act all the worse. It was monstrous.
+
+"But fortunately it was not sacrilegious. The person of the
+Pontifex of Vesta is not sacrosanct and a blow inflicted on
+him is not to be rated as impious. Your act called for no
+expiation, personal or official. It did not desecrate him, or
+you, nor the place where it occurred.
+
+"Besides, I cannot resist admitting to you,"--and the Emperor
+smiled an unmistakable smile--"that this particular Pontiff of
+Vesta is farther from being sacrosanct than any of his predecessors.
+As far as I can learn, Faltonius is a worthy man, pious and
+scrupulous. But he is absurdly unfitted for his office in appearance
+and in manner. The self-importance he assumes, the pomposity
+with which he performs his duties, would be too great even for
+an Emperor. He irritates all of us. All of us have wished, secretly
+or openly, many, many times, that Bambilio would be soundly
+thrashed. He has been. You did it. The story was too good to keep.
+It has not, of course, been allowed to leak out, and become
+common property. But it is known to all the Flamens, Augurs and Pontiffs.
+
+"I need not describe to you the feelings of my colleagues, nor my own.
+To hint them is perhaps too much; to particularize them would be
+unseemly. I may say, however, that just as street-boys acclaim you
+by shouting:
+
+"'That's the girl that saved the dog;' just as all over the Empire
+you are talked of as the lady who rescued the retiarius; so at any
+festival or ceremonial in which the Vestals take part, many a
+dignitary is likely to nudge his neighbor, indicate you and whisper:
+
+"'That's the priestess who walloped Bambilio!' You are not infamous,
+you are famous.
+
+"As for myself I am the more inclined to feel indulgent towards you
+because I understand how you felt. You were boiling with rage at
+being struck by any one, as any noble girl would be. Yet you
+would have controlled your fury but for the fact that you knew
+that you yourself had done nothing to deserve chastisement,
+that you were suffering for another's fault."
+
+"What!" cried Brinnaria.
+
+"Oh, yes," Aurelius continued, easily. "Causidiena and I are quite
+agreed on that point. Neither she nor I have questioned Meffia,
+and we do not mean to; partly because we are sure enough, without
+any admission from her; partly because the matter is best left as it
+is, without any further notice. But, with the exception of Meffia, it
+is quite certain that, from the Vestals themselves down to the last
+slave-girl, every resident of the Atrium believes that not you but
+Meffia let the fire go out, and that you took the blame due her.
+And we can all conjecture your motives, as we all applaud them.
+
+"Meffia might never have survived a scourging, might have been
+ailing for months. Rome wants no sick Vestals nor dead Vestals.
+Causidiena is grateful to you, all the Atrium is grateful, I am grateful."
+
+"But," said Brinnaria, wide-eyed, "I had supposed that, if Meffia
+was suspected, there would be an inquisition and testimony under
+oath and that it would be obligatory that the Vestal actually at
+fault must be scourged."
+
+"For once," the Emperor smiled, "you have failed to read
+accurately the statutes of the order. It is positively refreshing.
+I was beginning to feel that you were altogether too accurate.
+In fact the scourging of a delinquent Vestal is a mere
+disciplinary regulation, designed to assure the maintenance
+of the fire. It is not in the nature of a mandatory atonement.
+It has nothing in common with an act of expiation. It has
+nothing to do with placating or propitiating the Goddess.
+It has no likeness whatever to the punishment of a guilty Vestal."
+
+"That reminds me," said Brinnaria, "of what I came for.
+I'm as grateful as possible for what you have said to me,
+surprised that Causidiena and you so easily saw through my
+deception, delighted that you take it as you have, more than
+delighted to find you so kindly disposed towards me. I need
+all the kindness you can feel towards me. I want to come
+to the point, to the reason why I am here. I want you to
+answer me this question :'Suppose I were accused of the
+worst possible misconduct, formally accused before you,
+what then?"
+
+"Then," said Aurelius, "you would have a fair trial."
+
+"I believe I should," said Brinnaria. "You would be perfectly
+fair and entirely just. And a fair trial would be a novelty. Almost
+never has an accused Vestal had a fair trial."
+
+"Not even if acquitted?" the Emperor suggested slyly.
+
+"No," Brinnaria retorted vigorously. "Even most of those
+absolved were not tried fairly. Postumia was, if the records from
+so long ago are to be trusted. The first trial of the third Licinia
+was perfectly fair, the minutes are very full and there is no shade
+of bias in the discussion of her many interviews with Crassus,
+while the court was plainly genuinely amused at his greed for
+desirable real-estate and at his artifices to induce her to sell
+cheap. Fabia, in the same year, was justly treated. But most of
+the other acquittals were quite as bad as most of the convictions
+ to my mind. I can discover almost no trial where both sides
+had a full hearing, where the judges tried to get at the facts
+and kept their attention on the evidence, where the finding
+as the expression of the opinions rather than of the partiality
+of the Pontiffs. Almost every verdict on record, it seems to me,
+was dictated by favoritism or influence or prejudice or wrath."
+
+"You seem to think you know a great deal about the subject of
+trials of Vestals," Aurelius remarked.
+
+"I feel justified in thinking so," Brinnaria maintained. "Where
+the minutes of the court have perished, as, of course, in the case
+of all the trials before the capture and burning of the city by
+the Gauls, I have read what records remain. Where the court
+records are extant I have pored over every word of the minutes
+of the proceedings and of every document attached."
+
+"That is more than ever I found time to do," Aurelius meditated.
+"Your conclusions ought to be of interest. What are they?"
+
+Brinnaria drew a deep breath and went on. "I am convinced,"
+she said, "that sometimes the accused received what she deserved,
+but generally by accident. The judges were swayed by politics or
+expediency or clan-feeling or popular clamor or self-interest, not
+by reason.
+
+"Nobody could form any judgment, at this distance of time, about
+the guilt or innocence of Oppia or Opimia or Popilia or Porphilia
+or Orbilia or Orbinia or whatever her real name was, it all happened
+so long ago. But Minucia and Sextilia and Floronia and the rest
+were just victims of judicial ferocity, as far as I can make out."
+
+"You are then of the opinion," the Emperor asked, "that there never
+was a guilty Vestal?"
+
+"No," Brinnaria replied judicially, "I don't go as far as that. Varonilla
+was probably depraved and with her the two Oculatas. I don't think
+their suicides prove anything against them, for a woman is just as
+likely to hang herself because she despairs of a fair hearing as
+because she is conscious of guilt. What weighs with me is that they
+were brought up in the dissolute times of Messalina and Nero and
+that their relatives were leaders of the most profligate set in Rome,
+cronies of Vitellius and his coterie. But although Cornelia was bred
+and raised in the same social atmosphere, I am quite as sure of her
+innocence as all the world was the day she was buried and as
+everybody has been ever since. Domitian just murdered her without
+a trial, for political reasons and for moral effect. So likewise
+Marcia and the second Licinia were judicially murdered by that
+fierce old Cassius Longinus Ravilla. He was elected to convict
+them, not to try them, and he conducted the trial not to arrive
+at a fair verdict, but to force a conviction. He had some excuse,
+for their acquittal on their former trial had been brought about
+by idiotic bribing and family influence. On the face of the evidence
+at both trials they were clearly blameless. What ruined them was
+their trying to shield Aurelia, surely the worst Vestal on record,
+for she had everything in her favor, ancestry, upbringing and
+surroundings; she was beyond doubt innately vicious. She was
+the only Vestal ever justly convicted and justly punished, in my
+opinion. All the others were irreproachable women, doomed to
+a frightful fate by prejudiced judges. In general, an accused
+Vestal is as good as condemned, the whole population so dreads
+the results of acquitting an unclean priestess. And it is the
+easiest thing in the world for a Vestal to be accused. Refuse
+to sell a farm for half its value, snub a bore, order a slave
+flogged for some unbearable blunder, and the result is the
+same; false accusation with perjured witnesses and a quick
+conviction most likely to follow."
+
+"The subject seems to have occupied your mind a great deal,"
+Aurelius ruminated.
+
+"Do you wonder?" Brinnaria flamed at him. "What in all the
+tragic, dramatic history of Rome is half so dramatic or a tenth
+so tragic as the burial of a Vestal? In all our centuries of ferocity,
+what seems half so cruel?
+
+"I know that cruelty played no part in the invention of burial alive
+as a punishment for a convicted Vestal. I know that no caitiff could be
+found so vile as to dare to lay hands on a Vestal, no ruffian so reckless
+as to venture to end her life by sword or axe, by strangling or
+drowning. The most impious miscreant has too much fear of the
+gods to injure a consecrated priestess. The only way to dispose
+of a delinquent Vestal is to bury her alive. But the cruelty of it
+makes me choke. I think of the last hours of each of those who
+were punished, of their thoughts as the time drew near, of their
+feelings alone in the dark waiting for death to release them from
+their sufferings.
+
+"I think of these underground cells as they are now, out there
+under that awful unkempt, ragged waste lot by the Colline Gate.
+I think of the skeletons mouldering on the mouldering cots, of the
+bones, the fragments of crumbling bones, the dust of crumbled
+bones on the stone floors, as they have been for hundreds of years,
+as they will be for thousands of years to come. The cot cannot
+yet have decayed from under what is left of poor Cornelia; her
+bones must still be entire and in order on the webbing; Aurelia's
+bones must be whole yet and Licinia's and Marcia's; of Floronia
+there can hardly be left a trace by now, where Minucia died there
+can be only an empty stone cell. Do you wonder that the subject
+haunts me?"
+
+"I do and I do not," Aurelius replied. "I've let you relieve your
+mind by talking yourself tired. Now listen to me. I think I understand
+you perfectly. When you came to me before the novel responsibilities
+of your office had worn on your nerves and you were quivering
+with dread for fear you might be an unworthy priestess. Now the
+perils of your situation are wearing on your nerves and you are
+brooding over the possibility of accusation, trial, conviction and
+burial alive.
+
+"I sympathize with you. As an Emperor I am exposed to the
+perpetual danger of assassination. You would be amazed if I
+detailed to you my various narrow escapes from death at the hands
+of disappointed seekers after preferment, of incompetent officials,
+of knaves with grievances of every conceivable and inconceivable
+variety and of fools with no grievance at all. You would be
+astonished if I merely reckoned the occasions on which I have
+just missed being killed. It gets on my nerves, more or less, of
+course. But I strive to bear up and remain calm and I succeed
+more or less. I keep before me the fact that as an Emperor I
+am obnoxious to countless hatreds from fancied slights and to
+uncountable schemes of revenge. I reflect that the danger is
+inseparable from the state of my being an Emperor. I try to
+be philosophical about it.
+
+"So you must attempt to remain placid under the strain of the
+knowledge that you are exposed to perpetual danger of a horrible
+death from conviction on false accusation. It is part of the
+condition of being a Vestal. If anything goes wrong in the way
+of earthquake, flood, famine, pestilence, conflagrations or
+defeats, the populace are likely to cry out that some Vestal
+is unclean and bringing down on the Empire the wrath of the
+gods. That nothing of the kind has occurred during our recent
+afflictions has been clearly due to the holiness of Dossonia and
+Causidiena and to their reputation for strict discipline. But the
+danger of popular outcry is always real. Then there is the fact
+that far too large a proportion of our population are dissolute
+and that, among the dissolute-minded, all Vestals are under
+suspicion because they are the only women among our nobility
+who remain unmarried long after they have reached
+marriageable years. You must learn to take all this as a matter
+of course and to go sedately about your duties.
+
+"Of course, I lessen my danger by keeping about me many trusty
+guards. It is right that you should appeal to me in your anxiety.
+I shall do what I can to lessen your danger. I believe in you. If
+you were accused before me it would take notably plain and
+convincing evidence to make me believe anything against you.
+I shall put my opinion of you on record among my papers of
+instructions to my successor. I shall declare it to all the Chief
+Pontiffs. I shall verbally and in writing make it clear to all
+concerned that you seem to me all you should be, that you
+are in an unusually difficult and delicate position and that in
+case of accusation all presumption should be in favor of your
+innocence and against the sincerity of your accusers.
+
+"And now I think that ought to satisfy you and cover all the
+general considerations. Let us come to the special consideration
+that interests me chiefly. You have never come to me because
+you became gradually unnerved by brooding which had no
+specific origin or cause:
+
+"Tell me plainly and outspokenly what has happened to you
+lately to fill your mind with thoughts of buried Vestals, trials,
+accusations and terrors?"
+
+Brinnaria thereupon related her encounter with Calvaster
+and her conversation with Flexinna.
+
+The Emperor stroked his beard and reflected.
+
+"I have never liked Calvaster," he said, "and if I had been
+in the city to consider recommendations for appointments
+he would, assuredly, never have become a member of Rome's
+hierarchy. I deem him gravely unsuited for even the most
+minor grade of Pontiff. He appears to me to be mean-spirited,
+narrow-minded and base. I am inclined to believe of him all
+that you impute. But, even to such as Calvaster, we should be
+just. You complained, a while ago, that the judges of the
+Vestals had ignored both the facts and the evidence. Let us
+weigh the evidence and stick to the facts. The only fact you
+present is that you caught Calvaster lurking in your house.
+You confess that you were completely puzzled as to what
+motive brought him there. Your friend surmises an
+explanation which disgusts, insults and alarms you. You
+instantly credit it completely, think and act as if it were
+unquestionably true. I am prejudiced against Calvaster, as
+I have told you, yet I am by no means ready to admit that
+your beliefs about him are evidence against him, more
+particularly as they rest solely on Flexinna's ingenious
+conjectures. The notion is plausible and it is entirely
+congruent with Calvaster's character as I imagine it.
+Yet it is, after all, merely a plausible surmise. I am just
+as inclined to accept Calvaster's own explanation; he is
+an inquisitive busybody.
+
+"My verdict is that you need feel no alarm."
+
+"But I do," Brinnaria maintained; "I do not feel safe with
+Calvaster anywhere about."
+
+The Emperor reflected.
+
+"The peace of mind of a Vestal," he said, "is a matter of such
+importance to the state that I should not hesitate about ordering
+Calvaster banished to some comfortable and healthy island
+and there detained permanently, were it not that the fellow has
+made himself almost indispensable. The pestilence has carried
+off practically all the adepts at interpretation of the sacred
+writings, the prophetic books, the rubrics and rituals of the
+various temples, the statutes of the brotherhoods and other
+orders of the hierarchy. Only Numerius Aproniarius remains
+of the older experts, and he is afflicted by an incurable and
+loathsome disease which he cannot long survive. Of the
+younger men only Calvaster has displayed any aptitude for
+learning this delicate and complex art, only he has attained
+any reputation. He is, in the circumstances, indispensable, I
+cannot banish him merely to please you. You will have to
+endure Calvaster."
+
+Brinnaria pulled a wry face, as in her mutinous girlhood. She
+felt entirely at ease with Aurelius.
+
+"I perceive that I must endure him," she said, "but if you cannot
+banish Calvaster, perhaps you'll oblige me by banishing Almo."
+
+"Almo!" the Emperor exclaimed, "what can you have against
+that gallant lad? Have you turned against him? I thought you
+were unshakably resolved to marry him, thought you loved him
+unalterably!"
+
+"I shall marry him, if we both live," Brinnaria replied, "and
+most unalterably love him. But I love life and daylight and fresh
+air and my full meals even more. I have a splendid appetite, I
+loath stuffy places, I hate the dark. The idea of being shut in
+an underground cell to suffocate slowly or starve to death even
+more slowly goes against my gorge. I see myself in my mind's
+eye climbing down that ladder, like poor Cornelia, I see myself
+stretched out on my cot, watching the ladder being pulled up by
+the executioner, watching the workmen fitting in the last stone
+of the vault. I imagine myself staring at the wick of the lamp
+and wondering how long the oil will last and debating whether
+it would be better to blow out the light and save the oil to drink
+and so live longer in the dark, or to let the lamp burn out and
+have the discomfort of the light a little longer. I fancy myself
+conning over the trifle of bread, milk, fruit and wine left on
+the stone slab, and speculating as to how long they'll keep me alive.
+
+"Bah!
+
+"No burial alive for me.
+
+"Acquittal on a trial is a poor way for a Vestal to escape the
+worst possible fate, a last resort, at best, and an unchancy reliance,
+even as a last resort. A far better way is never to be tried, and the
+best way never to be tried is never to be accused. You've been
+good enough to tell me that if I were accused you'd be predisposed
+to favor me in all possible ways and that you'll give instructions
+as to your opinion of me. Any directions of yours would be respected
+by any heir of yours. But you yourself have just remarked how
+slender is an Emperor's hold on life or on power. I may survive
+both yourself and your son. I might be tried before men we should
+never think of now. I must arrange so that I shall never be tried
+at all, I must live so that I shall never be accused.
+
+"Now I am unlikely ever to be accused in relation to any man except
+Almo. Everybody knows I mean to marry Almo when my service is
+at an end, everybody knows he means to marry me, everybody knows
+we are in love with each other. That puts me in the most delicate
+position any Vestal ever was placed in. I have been extremely
+careful. I have never spoken to Almo since I was taken for a
+Vestal, have never met him except by accident, have never set
+eyes on him except against my will; have never even written a
+letter to him or received one from him. I have been, I think, wise,
+judicious and controlled. But Almo has not behaved well towards me."
+
+"Indeed!" Aurelius interjected. "You surprise me! What has he done?"
+
+Brinnaria flushed.
+
+"A girl in love," she said, "is a fool, but she has sense enough to
+conceal her foolishness. A man is different. I suppose men are
+made that way and can't help themselves. But a man in love is
+not only a fool, but he parades his foolishness. Almo sent me
+messages by all sorts of mutual acquaintances, by his people
+and mine, by Flexinna, by Nemestronia, by Vocco, begging me
+to exchange letters with him. I was angry and said so and
+repeatedly sent him word that he was most foolish and most
+inconsiderate. I sent him word that if he wanted to please me
+he'd ignore my existence and stay as far from me as possible.
+
+"He actually begged his father to be allowed to come to Rome.
+His father had the good sense to keep him at Falerii. Now that
+all his relatives are dead and he is his own master he has come
+to Rome. If he had any real consideration for me he'd go to
+Aquileia, at least he might be satisfied with a popular resort like
+Baiae or a place like Capua; Capua has enough baths and shows
+and horse-races and gladiators for anybody.
+
+"But he must come to Rome, when a spark of sense and decency
+would tell him to keep as far away as he could. It stands to
+reason that I could never be accused of misconduct with him
+if he had never been within a hundred miles of me since I was
+taken for a Vestal.
+
+"But he must needs come to Rome. He has opened his house on
+the Carinae and had it put in order and has settled down to such
+a life here as is usual with wealthy leisured idlers. He has bought
+additional furniture, as if his father's house wasn't stuffed with
+everything magnificent, he has bought curios and antiques and
+statuary and pictures and books. He spends most of his time in
+the barracks of his favorite gladiatorial company or at the stables
+of the Greens, and the rest of it at the afternoon baths. I sent
+Vocco to him to protest and to urge him to leave Rome for my
+sake. The selfish wretch said he loved me and always would,
+but he just could not live anywhere except at Rome. He stays
+here, in defiance of my wishes and against all reason."
+
+"That is not what I should have expected of him," the Emperor
+meditated. "I am surprised and far from pleased. I shall certainly
+find means to relieve your mind as far as he is concerned."
+
+"There is worse yet to tell," Brinnaria went on. "You'd think that,
+if he must stay in Rome he'd at least have the decency to keep
+away from me and from places where he is likely to encounter me.
+He does just the reverse. He haunts me, he waylays me. He prowls
+up and down the Via Sacra and the Via Nova, he stands in the
+moonlight and stares up at the outside windows of the Atrium;
+on festival days he waits outside of our entrance to the Colosseum
+or of the Circus Maximus to watch me enter; on any day he loiters
+about the portal of the Atrium to watch me come out to my litter
+or my carriage, he dogs me on my airings."
+
+"Hercules!" Aurelius exclaimed. "This is too bad!"
+
+"Too bad indeed," Brinnaria pursued; "it would be bad enough from
+anybody in his position, from him it is ten times worse than from anyone
+else. You know how individual Almo is, how almost peculiar he looks,
+how no one would mistake him for anyone else or forget him or fail to
+recognize him. I have often tried to analyze the factors that go to make
+him look so striking, but I cannot. He is perfectly proportioned in every
+measurement, yet, somehow, he has a long-armed and long-legged
+appearance different from that of any young man in Rome, he gives
+almost the effect of reminding one of a spider or of a grasshopper
+or of a daddy-long-legs. It makes him the most conspicuous, the most
+recognizable man in all Rome. Why, if your son were to mingle in
+a crowd, habited like any other boy in that crowd and Almo did the
+same, and nobody in the crowd had any reason to expect to see either,
+Almo would most likely be noticed sooner than Antoninus, recognized
+more generally, more readily, further off and quicker."
+
+"You are right," Aurelius mused, "I never thought of that, but Almo
+is unforgettable, striking and arresting to the eye beyond any lad in
+our nobility."
+
+"And being what he is," Brinnaria raged, "he must needs arrange
+that nearly every crowd I am in should see him at the same time as
+me. Already thousands of reputable Romans must remember seeing
+us at the same glance. Before long the majority will be ready to
+recall, if the subject is broached, that they have habitually seen
+him wherever they saw me. Some one will start the talk and presently
+all Rome will buzz with the gossip that we are continually seen
+together. A charming state of affairs for me if some busybody or
+some enemy of mine raises the question of my fitness for my holy
+duties! I have protested. I've had Vocco go to Almo and urge all
+these considerations on him, and the silly boy says he can't live
+without seeing me, that he longs for the sight of me so he cannot
+control himself. How's that for lover's folly? One minute he can't
+live away from Rome, he loves Rome more than he loves me; the
+next minute I'm the one object on earth which he must behold or
+die. I've no patience with such imbecility."
+
+"And I have very little," said the Emperor; "just enough to imagine
+a better way of disburdening you and of disposing of Almo than
+banishing him would be. The lad is far too good to be wasting his
+time with the horse-jockeys and charioteers and ostlers of the Greens,
+or brutalizing himself with the companionship of ruffianly
+prize-fighters, belonging to this or that speculator in the flesh of
+ferocious savages. He must find some outlet for his energies and
+interests and is carried away by the fashionable mania, which is
+corrupting our whole population, especially our young nobles, and
+which, even at his tender age, fills the thoughts of my son, to the
+despair of his tutors.
+
+"All Almo needs is worthy occupation. I'll put the sea between
+him and you and so put your mind at rest. I'll make a man of
+him at the same time. I'll appeal to his pride and his patriotism.
+Rome needs such keen-minded, capable youths on the frontiers.
+I'll not give him too hard or too unpleasant employment, not
+relegate him to Britain or Dacia or Syria. I'll send him to
+Africa to chase the desert nomads who are harrying the borders
+of Numidia and Mauretania. He can gain credit there without
+danger, can learn to command men and to know the great game
+of war. Nepte and Bescera are pleasant little cities--he will be
+comfortable between campaigns. I'll see he sets out the day after
+to-morrow, at latest."
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XI - FAREWELL
+
+
+
+Two days later, Brinnaria had a visit from Flexinna. Flexinna's
+eyes were dancing.
+
+ "G-G-Guess where I've been," she challenged.
+
+ "I'm not good at guessing," Brinnaria parried; "better tell me."
+
+ "I've b-b-been to the Palace," Flexinna revealed.
+
+ "What took you there?" Brinnaria queried, surprised.
+
+ "I was sent for," Flexinna declared, elated.
+
+ "Who'd you see?" Brinnaria enquired.
+
+ "The Emperor himself," proclaimed Flexinna triumphantly.
+
+ Brinnaria was very much astonished.
+
+ "Better tell me the whole story," she suggested.
+
+ "Not much story," said Flexinna. "Aurelius t-t-told me that
+he wanted t-t-to see you again and that, as a formal visit from
+the Emperor as P-P-Pontifex Maximus at the Atrium was
+unusual and was likely to c-c-cause g-g-gossip, whereas
+you Vestals are c-c-continually at the Palace to ask favors
+for all sorts of people who p-p-pester you to use your
+influence with the Emperor, he thought it b-b-best to suggest
+that you apply for an audience t-t-to-morrow. He said he
+wanted the intimation c-c-conveyed to you as unobtrusively
+as p-p-possible and d-d-desired p-p-particularly that no one
+should ever know or g-g-guess that it had b-b-been g-g-given.
+So he sent for me, as your b-b-best friend, since he was sure
+I would never t-t-tell anybody.
+
+ "B-B-Better send along your application for an audience. It
+was p-p-plain to me that he has something agreeable to t-t-tell
+you. His face was just as g-g-grave as usual but his eyes sparkled
+at me, as d-d-different as p-p-possible from their habitual dull filmed
+appearance. He was all k-k-kindliness and anticipation."
+
+ "I'm willing to take the hint, of course," Brinnaria replied.
+
+ Next morning she found Aurelius most cordial and informal in his
+greeting to her.
+
+ "I've been investigating Almo," he said, "and I am more than pleased
+with all I can learn of him. I see no reason for not telling you that, from
+the very day you were taken as a Vestal, some of the most expert,
+secret and trustworthy men in the employ of the information department
+have had no other duties than to keep close watch upon you and Almo.
+I have been over all the papers relating to him and to you, I have talked
+with the men themselves. They all assure me that never once have you
+and Almo met since he reached your father's house a half hour too late.
+They also report that, in the course of his injudicious moonings about
+your haunts, he has always kept at a respectful distance. And except
+for those same loverly danglings about places where he might catch
+glimpses of you, I can find nothing against the lad. Everybody speaks
+most highly of him. His former tutors and preceptors are enthusiastic
+in their laudations of his capacities, abilities, diligence and attainments
+in all matters pertaining to books and study. About Falerii he was
+regarded as a fine specimen of a young nobleman, huntsman and swimmer,
+good at all rustic sports, as haughty as the proudest when he was given
+good cause to assert himself, but habitually affable, unassuming and sunny
+tempered. Towards his father's tenants and slaves he was most kindly and
+nothing could be more to any man's credit than his downright heroic
+behavior from the very day the pestilence appeared on his estates, all
+through the frightful period of its raging about Falerii, until the
+neighborhood had somewhat recovered after the plague had abated.
+
+ "The most extraordinary feature of the reports about him is that they
+all agree as to his amazing devotion to you. All persons who know him
+or know of him are unanimous in the opinion that he has never taken
+the slightest personal interest in any human being except yourself; all
+are emphatic in stating that he has certainly never manifested any
+affection for anyone else. This is unprecedented. I never heard of such
+another case. There is nothing astonishing about a young Roman
+declaring that he would remain unmarried for thirty years in order to
+mate, ultimately, with the girl of his choice. There is nothing wonderful
+about his keeping his word. But any other youth I ever heard of would
+have consoled himself variously, and variedly. Almo's austere
+celibacy is a portent in our world and altogether marvellous. It lifts his
+affair with you out of the humdrum atmosphere of to-day and puts it on
+a level with the legendary stories of heroic times, with the life-long
+fidelities of the Milesian tales.
+
+ "Under the stress of such severe and unflinching self isolation I do
+not wonder that his broodings drove him to overstep the bounds of
+common sense, that he was irresistibly compelled to leave Falerii,
+to come to Rome, to loiter where he might, at least, behold you at
+a distance. I shall make sure that he does so no longer. This very
+day he sets out for Carthage, Theveste and the deserts to the south
+beyond the lagoons of Nepte. But I cannot be angry with him for
+being unable to restrain his longing at least to set eyes on you. And
+I see no reason why you two, who have not exchanged a word in
+more than nine years, should not meet here in this room and say
+farewell to each other before I put the Mediterranean between you."
+
+ Brinnaria sprang up.
+
+ "I see many reasons," she declared, "and my feelings are all against
+seeing Almo until my service as a Vestal is ended."
+
+ "I can well believe," came the answer, "that you feel that way at the
+first presentation of the idea. But I am your Emperor and also Chief
+Pontiff of Rome. I am engaged at present in solving the problem of
+ow best to ensure peace of mind to one of Rome's Vestals. To ensure
+her peace of mind I am about to relegate her future husband to
+important duties on a far frontier of the Empire. I judge that he
+will better perform his duties, that she will better perform hers, if
+she bids him farewell in my presence. I am a lover of wisdom and
+a student of wisdom.* I believe I possess some pretensions to wisdom.
+Will you not defer to me in this? I am of the opinion that he will worry
+less about you and you less about him if you see each other once
+before your twenty years of certain separation begins."
+
+        *The wisdom of Marcus Aurelius was recognized during
+        his lifetime and is highly regarded even today, over 1900
+        years later. His book, <Meditations>, remains in print
+        and is available through Project Gutenberg at
+        http://promo.net/cgi-promo/pg/t9.cgi?entry=2680&full=
+        yes&ftpsite=http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/
+
+ Brinnaria looked mutinous and gazed at the Emperor in silence. In
+silence he waited for her to speak. At last she said, curtly:
+
+ "I bow to your authority."
+
+ The Emperor struck his silver gong and a page appeared.
+Aurelius gave a brief order. A few moments later Almo was
+ushered in. After his formal salute to the Emperor he stood
+silent, his eyes fixed on Brinnaria.
+
+ They made a fine picture. The ceiling of the immense hall was
+a barrel-vault, of which the beams were stuccoed in cream-white,
+picked out with gilding, while between them the depth of each
+soffit was colored an intense deep blue, against which stood out
+a great gilt rosette. The mighty pilasters, whose gilded capitals
+supported the vaulting, were of many-veined dark yellow marble,
+polished and gleaming like the slabs of pale yellow marble which
+panelled the interspaces. The high-moulded wainscot was of red
+and green porphyry, somberly smooth and shining. Against it,
+below the wall-panels, were set great chests of carved and gilded
+wood, while about the bases of the pilasters were placed groups
+of settees and armchairs, similarly carved and gilded and richly
+upholstered. The floor was paved with an intricate mosaic of
+parti-colored bits of marble, its expanse broken only by the
+great gorgeous carpet before the throne, by the chair set for
+Brinnaria, by the onyx table, supported on sculptured monsters
+like griffons, beside the throne, and by the throne itself, a curule
+seat of ivory mounted with gold, its crimson cushion glowing,
+set far out in the room.
+
+ Before the throne stood Aurelius, his head bare, the long ringlets
+of his hair and beard sweeping his shoulders and his bosom, one
+foot a trifle advanced, the gold eagle embroidered on his sky-blue
+buskin showing beneath the crimson silk robes, lavishly embroidered
+with a complicated pattern of winding vines, bright blue and green,
+edged with gold, which the etiquette of the time imposed upon even
+a philosophically austere Emperor; on his right Brinnaria, erect
+and tense in her white official habit, her square white headdress
+all but hiding her coronet of dark braids, her veil pushed back
+from her flushed face; the tassels and ribbons of her head-band,
+her great pearl necklace, the big pearl brooch that fastened the
+folds of her headdress where they crossed on her breast, and the
+bunch of fresh white flowers which it clasped, rising and falling
+with the heaving of her bosom; facing her, splendid in the gilded
+armor and scarlet cloak of a commander of irregular cavalry, Almo.
+
+ "You know why I have sent for you," Aurelius reminded him.
+"Speak out."
+
+ Like a school-boy repeating a lesson by rote, Alma spoke.
+
+ "Brinnaria," he said, "the Emperor has remonstrated with
+me on my recent folly. I am sincerely ashamed of myself and I
+wish to apologize to you for my lack of self-control and for my
+lack of consideration for you. I leave Rome before sunset and
+shall not return until I may return without danger to you."
+
+ Aurelius looked at Brinnaria.
+
+ "Caius," she said, "I forgive you. I trust that you will win
+promotion and honor where you are going and I am sure
+that you will do your duty to the Empire. May the blessing of
+all the gods be on you and may you return to me safe and well."
+
+ "And may I find you safe and well when I return," spoke
+Almo. "Farewell, Brinnaria."
+
+ "Farewell, Caius," said she.
+
+ The Emperor nodded and Almo bowed himself out.
+
+ "Do you know," said Aurelius, when they were alone, "I have been
+thinking over what you said about Almo's peculiar notability of looks.
+It puzzles me as it puzzles you. He is not merely of distinguished
+appearance, he is unusual, striking, unforgettable, conspicuous.
+I have talked about it to several of my gentlemen-in-waiting,
+equerries and orderlies. They have seen him lately about the stables
+of the Greens. They all say that he is, in fact, as normally
+proportioned as any youth alive, but they confirm what you
+said about his long-legged appearance. Julianus used almost
+the same word you used, said Almo looked 'Grasshoppery.'
+They all say Almo is precisely the most unmistakable, the most
+readily and quickly recognizable youth in all our young nobility."
+
+Brinnaria rose to go. Aurelius bent on her a kindly smile.
+
+ "I have been talking about you with Faustina," he said. "We
+are both much interested by the strangeness of your fate, by
+the difficulty and delicacy of your situation and by the wonderful
+constancy of you both. Faustina and I are a most united pair,
+never happy out of each other's company and very proud of our
+domestic felicity. We are, if I may use the word, rather prone to
+gloat over it, and, while continually congratulating ourselves and
+each other, we cannot but mourn the infrequency of such happiness
+throughout our Italian nobility. There are few matrons in Rome as
+serenely happy as your friend Flexinna, few indeed who find all
+their happiness in children, husband and household. And of those
+who really enjoy their homes most are remarried after a divorce,
+or even after two or more. Our society suffers from a plague
+worse than the pestilence itself, a plague of greed for excitement,
+eagerness for novelty, of peevishness and fickleness.
+
+ "In this unhealthy atmosphere such households as Vocco's are
+most notable. And that you, who seem by nature fitted for just
+such blessedness as has befallen Flexinna, should have been
+robbed of it by a strange series of peculiar circumstances wins
+for you our interest and our solicitude. Still more are our hearts
+drawn towards you by your unwavering fidelity, alike to your
+present duties and all that they imply and to that love which you
+have had to put away and forget, to the ideal of that felicity
+which you have had to postpone so far.
+
+ "Faustina desires an interview with you. She is now in the amber
+gallery. I shall have you conducted there, if you do not object."
+
+Brinnaria could not very well object and after an equerry, very
+stately in his garb of duty, and two gaudily clad pages had escorted
+her through what seemed like miles of corridors, she found herself
+alone with the Empress.
+
+ The Empress she had so far seen infrequently and spoken with only
+seldom. It was impossible to be a Vestal, in the heyday of Rome's
+Imperial times, and not meet and know the Empress of Rome.
+Brinnaria had seen her whenever they were both present at the
+Circus or the Amphitheatre; had been close to her at all important
+state functions; had occasionally dined with her at formal Palace
+banquets, when the curved sofa about the Empress' table was
+always occupied by the Empress, the wives of the chief Flamens
+and the Vestals; but had hardly ever exchanged a word with her.
+
+ Faustina was endowed with the general healthiness with which
+Roman noblewomen were blessed. But she had had the bad luck
+to suffer from many and severe illnesses. These and her slow
+recoveries from them had kept her away from very many official
+functions and public festivals. Numerous had been the occasions
+on which Aurelius had appeared without her. When she was well,
+indeed, they were always together, if possible. A great proportion
+of his time, however, was occupied with official duties of such a
+nature that, according to Roman etiquette, no woman could
+participate in them. During such enforced separations Faustina
+sought amusement. And with the overflowing energy and abounding
+vigor which she displayed between her illness, she threw herself
+into the whirl of her pleasures with such impetuosity, there was
+so much rollicking and roistering about her favorite diversions
+that she attracted to herself and kept around her just those
+elements of Roman society with which the Vestals were least
+likely to mingle, professional idlers, and what we moderns would
+call the fast set. Naturally, therefore, Brinnaria and Faustina had
+never had any familiar intercourse. This was their first real
+conversation.
+
+ Faustina was not a large woman. She was of medium height,
+slender and graceful. She was noted for the originality of her
+coiffures, which made the most of her magnificent hair. Her
+hair Brinnaria noticed the moment her eyes fell on her.
+
+ Her habitual expression of haughtiness and boredom had
+vanished from the Empress's face and she was all kindliness and solicitude.
+
+ Faustina put her at her ease at once.
+
+ "I have always been so sorry," she began, "that I was ill the day
+you climbed over the balustrade of the podium and rescued the
+retiarius. I've missed many a sight I regretted, I miss so much by
+falling ill again and again, but I never missed a sight I regretted
+missing more than that. Nothing more worth seeing ever happened
+in the Colosseum."
+
+ "I was terribly ashamed when I found what I had done," said Brinnaria.
+
+ "Of course you were," the Empress agreed.
+
+ This broke the ice between them and Faustina led her into a long
+talk about all her past, her love affair, her life as a Vestal, her
+bereavements, her embarrassing circumstances, her future, her hopes.
+
+ Brinnaria left the Empress, feeling that she had found a real
+friend and also feeling comforted at heart.
+
+
+Chapter XII -Observances
+
+
+
+ BRINNARIA found that, with Almo definitely and permanently
+out of the way, she did not worry about Calvaster. She also found
+that she did not worry about Almo and that her glimpse of him
+had rather calmed her feelings. She confessed as much to Aurelius
+when she had a third audience with him before he left for the
+Rhine frontier, and she thanked him for his insistence.
+
+ With her mind at peace Brinnaria settled more and more into
+the routine of her life and enjoyed it more and more.
+
+ She came to feel keenly the spiritual significance of every
+detail of the ritual observances in which she took part. Besides
+the maintenance of the sacred fire, the Vestals had many
+obligatory duties. Every sacrifice of the Roman public worship
+involved the sprinkling of the sacred meal upon the head of
+the victim, if a live animal was offered, or upon the fire, if
+the sacrifice was bloodless. Early in each ceremony one of
+the small boys assisting the priest carried around to all the
+participants in the act of worship a maple-wood box
+containing the holy meal; from it each worshipper ladled
+a small portion into the palm of his right hand; at a specified
+point in the course of the ceremonial each participant
+sprinkled the meal as prescribed.
+
+The holy meal was made of very coarsely ground wheat, a
+sort of grits, salted and toasted. It was prepared by the Vestals
+according to immemorial custom. They were supplied with
+a sufficient quantity of heads of wheat, the best of the produce
+of two of their estates, one near Caere, the other near
+Lanuvium. These wheat ears were packed in baskets and
+stored on the farms in dry, airy barns. There they were
+kept drying and hardening their grains until the next spring.
+Then the allotted baskets were brought into Rome. On the
+seventh of May, after a ceremonial of prayer, the three elder
+Vestals began going over these wheat-ears, sorting out those
+entirely perfect, and placing them in larger baskets shaped
+like the big earthen jars in which the Romans commonly
+tored wheat, olives, oil, wine and other similar supplies.
+On the next day the wheat from the first day's selection
+of ears was separated from the straw, beards and chaff,
+was roasted and coarsely ground. The resultant groats
+were then put away in great earthen jars in the outer
+storeroom of the temple. On the third day they again
+selected wheat ears, on the fourth they again prepared
+wheat-grits, arid so on alternately for eight days. By the
+evening of the eighth day they had stored enough groats
+to make the sacred meal for one year's ceremonies of the
+entire Roman ritual.
+
+ The salt with which they salted the holy meal was prepared
+with similar invariable formality. Crude salt, obtained from
+evaporated sea-water out of the sand-pits on the seashore
+near Lavinium, was conveyed to the Atrium in small two-handled
+earthenware jars. This coarse, dirty, dark-colored salt was
+dissolved by the three younger Vestals in boiling water, which
+water might not be obtained from the lead pipes which
+connected the Atrium with the general water-supply of the
+city's aqueducts, but must be drawn by the Vestals themselves
+and carried by them in the earthenware jars from the famous
+fountain of Jaturna, at which Castor and Pollux were fabled
+to have watered their white horses after bringing to Rome
+the news of the victory at Lake Regillus. The solution was
+purified by repeated boilings, the impurities being gotten rid
+of by successive careful decantings of the liquid from one vessel
+into another, so that the sediment might be left behind as the
+top part was poured off. When sufficiently boiled down the
+solution was recrystallized in shallow earthenware pans.
+The resulting slabs of salt were harder than the pans and
+were freed from them by breaking the earthenware with
+an ancient stone hammer, said to have been captured by
+AEneas himself from a king of Ardea. The slabs of salt were
+sawed into pieces with an iron saw, the pieces were pounded
+in a mortar, the fine salt was thrown into an earthenware
+bowl and dried out in a kiln. When dried a little powdered
+gypsum was stirred through it to prevent it from again
+becoming moist. It was then stored in a tall jar with a tight
+lid, which was kept in the outer storeroom of the temple,
+along with the jars of meal. Three times a year, on the
+ninth of June, on the thirteenth of September and on the
+fifteenth of February, with solemn prayers the Vestals
+mixed the prepared salt with the prepared grits, the
+resultant mixture being the sacred meal.
+
+On each First of March the fire in the temple was allowed to
+go out and was solemnly rekindled by the friction of maple
+wood on apple wood, as when the fire went out by accident.
+The temple was then decorated with fresh boughs of green
+laurel, after the boughs put up the year before had been removed.
+
+On May fifteenth the Vestals were the chief figures in a solemn
+procession of the entire Roman hierarchy to the Sublician bridge,
+from which the Vestals threw into the Tiber thirty dolls made of
+rushes, fifteen representing men, fifteen women, each about two
+feet high.
+
+ This offering to the river of effigies of men and women
+commemorated the primitive human sacrifices by which the
+river was each year placated, that it might not drown more by floods.
+
+ On June fifth the inner storeroom of the temple was opened
+and its treasures inspected by the Pontifex wearing his antique
+vestments. With him entered always also the Chief Vestal clad
+in her austere habit with all her badges of office. They were
+attended by the other Vestals, who went through traditional
+pacings, haltings and prayers. The Temple of Vesta was an
+enclosure from which all men were rigidly excluded. The only
+exceptions to this immemorial taboo were a few of the more
+important Pontiffs, and they might only enter on specified festal
+days, and then must be in their full regalia. Also, in general, the
+temple was closed against all women except the Vestals and
+their assistants. It was open, however, from sunrise on the
+morning of each seventh of June until sunset on the evening
+of the fourteenth of June. During this period it was incumbent
+upon every Roman matron to visit the temple. And each
+worshipper must walk the entire distance from her home to
+the temple and must leave her house barefoot, barefoot she
+must walk from the temple to her home. Only illness excused
+a Roman woman from this religious duty. Few ever omitted
+it from indifference.
+
+ During these eight days the temple was thronged.
+
+ During these eight days also fell the great yearly festival of
+Vesta, on the ninth of June, on which day also all millers kept
+holiday, with processions and picnics to which the mill-donkeys
+were led decorated with wreaths of flowers and strings of tiny,
+crisp-baked rolls.
+
+ On June fifteenth the temple was ceremonially cleaned and the
+sweepings and the ashes collected from the sacred fire for the
+year past were solemnly carried in a stately procession to a
+prescribed spot on the slope of the Capitol where a great pit
+was closed by a heavy maple-wood door. In this pit the ashes
+were reverently buried.
+
+ Besides these observances of their special cult the Vestals took
+part in nearly every important sacrifice, procession and festival
+of the public worship of Rome. They were busy women and
+among them Brinnaria was anything but idle. She never found
+time hang heavy on her hands.
+
+ So busied with her duties she passed three peaceful years,
+contented and happy. There was but one drawback to life in
+the Atrium from Brinnaria's point of view. That drawback
+was Meffia. Meffia was never ill but never well. Everything
+tired her. It tired her to walk upstairs, to stand for any length
+of time, to do anything. She was forever sitting down to rest
+or lying down to rest. Excitement exhausted her totally. She
+was a perpetual worry to the other Vestals.
+
+ Otherwise Brinnaria was very happy. Through Flexinna
+she had frequent news of Almo. Ancient Rome had no institution,
+public or private, in any way corresponding to our post office.
+But routes of trade and travel by land and sea were well defined
+and traffic along them fairly regular, on the most used routes
+almost continual. There were private organizations, vaguely
+resembling our modern express companies, which forwarded
+merchandise along the main-travelled routes and even into
+remote regions. Their messengers took charge of bales, boxes
+and packages of all sizes and also of letters. The service on
+the roads of Africa, from Bescera, Nepte and Putea along
+the frontier of the desert, through Lambese, Capsa and
+Thysdrus, to Carthage, by well-built vehicles with frequent
+relays of horses on the excellent highroads was fairly good.
+The ships from Sicily plied with almost the regularity of our
+ocean-liners. Roads and road-service in Sicily were of a high
+quality of excellence. The transit to Italy at Messina was a
+sort of ferry. Italy was served by a network of roads always
+busy. Almo's letters to Flexinna were fairly regular and Vocco
+heard frequently from his friends among Almo's brother
+officers and sometimes from his military superiors.
+
+ Almo was an immediate and brilliant success as a leader of
+scouting expeditions, cavalry dashes, and, within a year, of
+raids in considerable force. His men adored him at once; his
+fellow-officers found him excellent company, unassuming and
+companionable, his commanders came early to rely on him.
+He won an excellent reputation and was universally regarded
+as a young officer of great promise, likely to rise to high position
+and not unlikely to become famous.
+
+ This kind of news delighted Brinnaria and promoted her
+peace of mind. In great contentment she went about her duties,
+loving them more and more from month to month, preparing
+the blessed salt, assisting at sacrifices, participating in processions.
+
+ Also interest in music and enjoyment of music came to play more
+and more a part in her spiritual life. As a child she had hated music
+and had been in continual conflict with her musical governesses.
+Even after she entered the Atrium her aversion to learning
+anything about music had given Causidiena a great deal of trouble.
+Later Brinnaria was docile, but the reverse of enthusiastic. Only
+after Almo's departure for Africa did music begins to mean anything
+to her.
+
+ But one keyed instrument was known to the ancients. That was a
+form of organ, in effect and appearance not very dissimilar to a small
+portable modern organ, with one bank of keys. Its mechanism, however,
+was very different in respect to the construction of the pipe stops and
+bellows. In particular, the steady flow of air to the pipes was obtained
+from the pressure of water, and a receptacle partly filled with water
+was an essential part of every Roman organ. From this feature it
+was called the water-organ. The Emperor Nero had been a notable
+performer on the water-organ and had interested himself in some
+improvements in its mechanism.
+
+ As with the modern organ, so with the Roman water-organ, the
+sonorous, sustained and resonant notes lent themselves naturally to
+the expression of religious emotion.
+
+ Religious emotions, Brinnaria, at this period of her life, felt to an
+overwhelming extent. She expressed them in long colloquies with
+Numisia and Causidiena, in a tendency to be unnecessarily careful
+about her duties, to pet her daily routine, as it were; and in an
+awakening to the charms of music in general and of organ music
+in particular. She developed into a capable performer on the
+water-organ, bought for herself the finest to be found in all Rome,
+had it set up in the Atrium in place of the old one which had
+belonged to the order of Vestals, and sat before it for hours
+at a time.
+
+ Her solitary communings with her favorite instrument became
+her chief solace when she was: low-spirited, which was seldom,
+and her favorite diversion when she was high-spirited, which was
+often. Moreover, her rendition of well-known airs and he
+ improvisings came to be a great pleasure to all the inmates of the
+Atrium, most of all to Causidiena.
+
+ Besides her many duties and her indoor amusements, Brinnaria
+found time for much activity outside the Atrium. She had kept up
+her girlish friendship for the sieve-maker Truttidius, and saw
+him occasionally, sometimes ordering her litter halted before
+his shop and leaning out to ask after his health and that of his
+family. Truttidius had an ailing household, though he himself was
+always well and never seemed to get any older.
+
+ From her talks with Truttidius she came to take a personal
+interest in the welfare of the countless tenants in her many
+properties in the poorer quarters of the city. She visited some
+of them-a sort of approach to modern slumming by the
+philanthropic rich. Such actions on the part of a landowner
+and such an attitude of mind from any rich person toward the
+poor was very unusual in the ancient world. Her behavior in
+this regard won Brinnaria a sort of fame among the poor, as
+if she were a live goddess moving among them.
+
+ She had a healthy love of mere enjoyment too. Except when she
+happened to be on duty watching the sacred fire, she never
+missed a theatrical performance, a gladiatorial display or an
+exhibition of chariot-racing in anyone of the vast race-courses
+flanked by tiers of stone-seats, which the Romans called circuses.
+At all shows, whether of scenic artists, fighting men or speeding
+horses, the Vestals had specified seats, as good as the best.
+
+ Besides these formal pleasures, she took great delight in mixing
+in society merely for society's sake. Moderns are likely to imagine
+that the Vestals of ancient Rome were nuns or something like
+nuns. They were nothing of the sort. They were maiden ladies of
+wealth and position whose routine duties brought them into
+familiar association with all the men important in the Roman
+government, hierarchy, nobility and gentry and with their wives
+and daughters. They were women of such importance in their
+world that their acquaintance was sought by all who had any
+pretensions to being entitled to meet them and by shoals of social
+bounders who had none. Their influence was so powerful that
+they were unremittingly sought, waylaid, pursued and besieged
+by persons who hoped to enlist their interest in the appointment
+or promotion of this, that or the other connection or relative; by
+the same persons they were continually overwhelmed with
+presents of flowers, fruit, delicacies, dainties, ornaments, laces,
+garments, pieces of furniture, horses, slaves, and of anything
+and everything capable of being made a present of in the Roman
+world; likewise with social invitations-chiefly to dinners, banquets
+and feasts. Invitations to banquets and dinners Brinnaria seldom
+declined, unless her duties made acceptance impossible or the
+invitation came from people beneath her notice. As she had said
+to Aurelius, she had an excellent appetite. She had an epicurean
+tendency from her early years and was fond of oysters,
+sweetbreads, eels, thrushes, turbot and other articles of food
+esteemed as delicacies by the Romans. But she was a hearty eater
+and consumed generous portions of roast meats, particularly of
+pork, which even in late imperial times was the staple of Roman
+diet. She never lost her childish relish for boiled pork and cabbage,
+for bacon, for ham, hot or cold. She was by no means a glutton,
+ate deliberately and daintily, and while she ate, joined in the
+general conversation or even led it. She had a quick wit and a
+sharp tongue and her sallies were acclaimed. She was sought
+after as a guest not merely because she was a Vestal, but for
+herself, for her gaiety and her unexpected utterances.
+
+ On the whole she preferred informal dinners to formal banquets
+and liked better to dine with her friends than with the most
+luxurious entertainers in Roman society.
+
+ With Vocco and Flexinna she dined frequently, three times a
+month at least and generally oftener. Brinnaria loved children,
+especially babies, and there was always a baby in the Istorian
+household--Flexinna's babies were all healthy and grew famously.
+Of the six children, Brinnaria could not have told which she
+loved or which loved her most. Her arrivals were always heralded
+with shouts of glee, her romps with the children always put her in
+a good humor, her swim with Flexinna sharpened an appetite
+which needed no edge, while the cosiness and informality of
+Flexinna's dining-room, where each of the three had undivided
+possession of one entire sofa, made it certain that nothing marred
+her enjoyment.
+
+
+ CHAPTER XIII - Perversity
+
+
+
+ABOUT three years after her farewell to Almo, on entering
+Vocco's house one afternoon, Brinnaria had a presentiment
+of something wrong. The children were as vociferous and as
+whimsical as usual, but there was a nameless difference in
+Flexinna's expression and bearing. As soon as they were
+alone in their bath, after she had had one good plunge in the
+pool, Brinnaria, treading water in the deepest part of the tank,
+shaking her head like a wet spaniel, demanded:
+
+ "What is the matter? There's something wrong. You might as
+well tell me."
+
+ But Flexinna put her off and laughed at her insistence.
+
+ To Brinnaria the laughter seemed forced and so did the talk
+at dinner. No sooner was the dinner over and the tray of figs,
+almonds and pomegranates and other fruit on the table, than
+she whispered to Flexinna:
+
+ "Tell the servants to stay out. I want to talk." Flexinna signed
+to Vocco and they exchanged glances.
+
+ "Why did you keep up the farce so long?" Brinnaria sneered.
+"I saw through it from the first."
+
+ "We were afraid," Vocco apologized, "that what I have to tell
+you would spoil your appetite."
+
+ "It would take something pretty bad to spoil my appetite,"
+Brinnaria reflected. "Is Almo dead?"
+
+ ?Not so b-b-bad as that," spoke Flexinna.
+
+ "Tell me, Quintus," Brinnaria breathed.
+
+ Vocco fidgeted.
+
+ "It's an amazing story," he began.
+
+ "All his story, all my story, all our story," Brinnaria cut in, "is
+amazing. Leave out the comments and tell the story."
+
+ "While Almo was away on the expedition against the nomads of
+the plateau," Vocco narrated, "Pennasius fell ill, was allowed to
+resign his governorship and Grittonius took his place. On Almo's
+return Grittonius complimented him most highly and promised
+him any reward he asked for. Almo amazed him by asking for a
+full and honorable discharge from the army. Grittonius
+expostulated with him but Almo held him to his promise. In
+spite of the governor's appeals to his pride and to his patriotism
+he insisted, and Grittonius gave him his full official discharge.
+At once Almo applied for permission to sell himself as a slave.
+This so astounded Grittonius that he made him repeat the
+application before witnesses and give his reasons. Almo
+explained that he had always been devoted to horseracing
+and that he wanted formally and regularly to article himself
+to one of the racing companies as a charioteer; that he had
+always craved that life and had longed for it more and more
+as his career as a soldier went on. He said there was no use
+in his continuing a life he detested, nor missing the happiness
+he anticipated as a charioteer.
+
+"Grittonius had him examined by a committee of the most reputed
+physicians of the province. They reported Almo entirely sane.
+Grittonius wanted to hold the matter over until he had special
+permission from the Emperor. Almo craftily maintained that
+Grittonius had been made governor with the fullest powers
+on all lines specifically to save the Emperor from being bothered
+about such trifles. Grittonius yielded. The necessary papers
+were drawn up, all the depositions were made out in duplicate.
+Every formality was fulfilled and Almo was publicly sold as a
+slave in the market place of Hippo."
+
+"What company did he enter?" Brinnaria queried.
+
+"Veppius did not state," Vocco replied; "he merely said that
+Almo sailed the next day for Spain."
+
+"The fool!" Brinnaria cried. "The three fools; a fool of a Veppius
+to write so vaguely, a fool of a governor to be persuaded so easily
+and Almo the biggest fool of all!
+
+"What a fool of a lover I have! Are all men like that?
+I'm as much in love with him as he with me and I can
+behave myself decently and keep outwardly calm and
+observe the conventions of life. Why can't he be decent?
+How can it comfort a man in love to throw away a
+splendid career, abandon a great income and vanish
+from the ken of all who love him? What madness is
+this with which the gods afflict him? Oh, I could tear
+my hair with rage!"
+
+To trace Almo everything was done that could be done.
+Vocco himself set out at once for Hippo. He found that
+Almo had been sold to a Greek slave-dealer named
+Olynthides, brother of the well-known dealer at Rome.
+He found Olynthides a small man with a club-foot. He
+said he remembered the matter, that he had been employed
+to buy Almo and resell him for cash, especially to conceal
+the real purchaser.
+
+When Vocco expressed astonishment Olynthides said:
+
+ "There is nothing to be surprised at, the thing happens every
+day. It is a regular feature of slave-trading. There are all
+sorts of reasons why a man wants a slave without any past.
+Such sales are customary and habitual."
+
+ When pressed further he retorted:
+
+ "Of course I did not ask the buyer's name; equally of course,
+I did not take any note of him, it was my business to forget him.
+I didn't notice him when he came into the courtyard, there are
+always knots of people coming in all day, looking over the slaves
+I offer for sale, and going out again. He came in like anybody else
+and looked over my stock. When he spoke to me he had a servant
+with him carrying a stout leather bag. He indicated Almo and
+asked his price. I named it.
+
+ "'Cash sale,' says he; 'no papers except a bare sale certificate.'
+
+ "'Done,' says I.
+
+ "He counted out the cash from his servant's bag and I gave him
+the customary certificate, with a description of Almo and the statement:
+
+ "'Sold on this day and date for cash' and my signature and seal.
+That was all there was to it."
+
+ When Vocco was persistent, Olynthides averred that he had
+"heard" that the purchaser's name was Jegius and that he
+came from Cadiz. Vocco could not discover anyone in Hippo
+who had ever heard of a slave-dealer named Jegius.
+
+ When Vocco returned to Rome with his report Brinnaria set in
+motion all the forces of her world which could be utilized under
+the circumstances. Aurelius was on the Rhine frontier, but
+Brinnaria had, by this time, a close acquaintance with all important
+court officers and was on terms of the utmost cordiality with the
+officials who governed Rome in the Emperor's absence. They
+sympathized with her and put at her disposal all the machinery
+of the government secret service. They agreed with her that the
+matter must be kept quiet, there must be no proclamations,
+posters, no rewards offered by crier or placard, no publishing
+of descriptions. With emphatic injunctions of secrecy they
+sent warnings to every provincial governor, to every local
+magistrate, to the aldermen of every free city, to institute
+unobtrusive investigations and to keep unostentatious watch.
+Brinnaria insisted that these mandates should be sent all over
+the Empire, pointing out that no one could conjecture what
+port of the Mediterranean or of the Black Sea might be the
+destination of any nameless trading ship. But, with special
+care, full orders were distributed throughout Spain.
+
+ Towards Spain, likewise, Brinnaria directed the energies of those
+organizations of the ancient world which were analogous to our
+modern private detective bureaus, and upon Spain she focussed
+the energies of the managers of the racing companies.
+
+ These great corporations were among the most important
+money-making enterprises of the Roman world. They maintained
+luxurious headquarters in the most congested business districts
+of the capital. They had offices adjacent to each of the circuses,
+they possessed huge congeries of buildings utilized as stables
+for their crack racers and barracks for their charioteers, and
+provided with spacious courtyards for training their teams.
+Outside of Rome they had similar offices and training-stables
+in every city and in most towns of any size or wealth. Besides
+they owned countless stud-farms, estates and ranches in
+every province of the Empire and maintained an army of
+herdsmen, ostlers and drovers to convoy their horses by land
+and whole fleets of ships to transport them by sea.
+
+ They were joint-stock companies, and while many smaller
+ones existed in various parts of the Empire and a few even
+at Rome, the small concerns were insignificant and generally
+ignored. When one spoke of the racing-companies one meant
+the six great companies whose central organizations were
+domiciled at Rome and whose ramifications penetrated every
+district of the Empire. These were known, after the racing-colors
+of their jockeys, as the Greens, the Blues, the Reds, the Whites,
+the Crimsons and the Golds. The Reds and the Whites were the
+oldest companies, the Crimsons and the Golds were companies
+established in the heyday of the Empire by coteries of millionaires,
+the Blues and the Greens were the largest, the wealthiest and
+the most popular, especially the Greens. In the Greens, somewhere,
+Brinnaria expected to find Almo, as he had been enthusiastic
+about the Greens from boyhood. He had been wearing their leek-green
+colors the day she had sat in his lap in her father's courtyard. He
+had haunted their training-stables during his brief sojourn at Rome
+before Aurelius sent him to Africa, he had inherited a big block of
+stock in the Greens. In the Greens, likewise, Brinnaria owned stock;
+and, having entered into inheritances from more than seventy
+different wealthy relatives who had died during the pestilence, she
+happened to own stock in every one of the six great companies. She
+had personal friends among the directors of each of the six.
+Therefore it was especially easy for her to enlist their help in her
+efforts to find Almo. It would have been easy, anyhow, since to be
+able to oblige a Vestal was a refreshing novelty for almost anyone
+at Rome and to find a Vestal seeking one's influence and one's help,
+equally novel and refreshing; generally the shoe was on the other
+foot--most persons in public life in Rome were used to attempting
+to enlist the help and the interests of the Vestals for their purposes
+and were generally utterly at a loss for any means of requital, if
+the interest of a Vestal was enlisted and her help obtained.
+
+ Consequently all that the racing-companies could do to find Almo
+was done as well as all that could be done by the private detective
+agencies and by government officials.
+
+ All that was done was utterly in vain. No trace of Almo could be
+discovered after he had sailed from Hippo with Jegius.
+No slave-dealer named Jegius could be found nor anyone who knew
+such a slave-dealer. No clue, no ghost of a clue came to light. The
+Greens, like the other companies, could find among their
+charioteers, their jockeys, their free employees, their slaves,
+no individual in the least answering to descriptions of Almo.
+All governmental efforts, all professional efforts, all private
+efforts, all Vocco's efforts, all Brinnaria's efforts, were
+completely baffled.
+
+ Almo had completely vanished.
+
+ When Aurelius, passing through Rome on his way from the
+Rhine frontier to Syria, was in his capital for a brief period,
+Brinnaria had an audience with him.
+
+ "Daughter!" he said, "it is all my fault. I should have given
+Grittonius explicit injunctions about the boy. But the assaults
+of the Marcomanni were particularly furious just at that time;
+I was feverishly hurrying from point to point along the frontier;
+I accepted the resignation of Pennasius; by letter. I appointed
+Grittonius by letter; I assumed that Grittonius would have
+sense; I assumed that Pennasius would impart to him his secret
+instructions. I erred by inadvertence; I should have set a special
+watch on the boy. But I never thought of it. He was doing so well
+and he seemed so interested in his work. He was wonderfully
+fitted for frontier duty along the desert. I was watching him
+with keen interest; each report of him gave me greater pleasure.
+I do not hesitate to tell you that I had him in my mind's eye to
+command this very expedition which I must now command
+myself, as there is no other man in the Empire fit to take
+charge of it.
+
+ "Is it not a shame that a man whom the Empire needs, who
+had before him so splendid an opportunity, who was fitting
+himself for so brilliant a career, should throw it all away from
+mere perversity? Yet I am not wrathful against him; I see
+many reasons for sympathizing with him.
+
+ "Rigid and unflinching celibacy affects different individuals
+very differently. Some it does not affect at all, apparently.
+It does not seem to affect you. You are as plump and rosy, as
+healthy and alert, as happy and normal a young woman, to all
+appearance, as could be found among matrons of your age in
+all the Empire. Celibacy seems to agree with you.
+
+ "Manifestly it did not agree with Almo. It got on his nerves somehow.
+That is the most probable explanation of his eccentric vagary. Don't be
+discouraged. He'll turn up somewhere, after a while, safe and sound
+and none the worse for his experiences."
+
+ Brinnaria, in fact, was not discouraged. She resolutely and
+unweariedly prosecuted her efforts to find Almo. Nor was she
+despondent. She scouted the suggestion that he might be dead.
+She kept up her spirits, did not mope or brood and never lost
+her hearty appetite. She was the life of the dinners she attended
+nd as talkative and witty as ever.
+
+ But the strain affected her greatly. She was outwardly
+controlled, statuesque and dignified, but the inward turmoil of
+emotion that surged through her manifested itself in an
+unremitting activity. She slept well and soundly, but rose early
+and kept on the go. Besides her duties, her music and her
+participation in social gatherings, she must needs find other
+outlets for her energy, other means to pass her time and
+distract her thoughts.
+
+ In the course of her dealings with the racing companies she
+became interested in them not merely as means towards locating
+Almo, but for themselves. She became particularly interested in
+their stables, their jockeys and their horses. There was no bar
+of religious tradition or of social custom which hindered a Vestal
+from freely mingling with men visibly in the open daylight in
+public. Visiting the stables of the racing companies had long been
+a fad with Rome's social leaders, men and women alike. Brinnaria
+availed herself of her freedom in this regard and followed her
+inclination. She haunted the training-stables of all six corporations,
+but mostly of the Greens, always in company with Manlia, or
+Flexinna, or Nemestronia or some other of her women friends;
+she visited the barracks almost daily, chatted with the charioteers,
+grooms and ostlers, watched the exercising of the teams,
+inspected the stalls, conned the racers.
+
+ She made herself an excellent judge of a jockey and a better
+judge of a horse.
+
+ She interested herself in the methods by which the companies
+obtained and selected their animals. She became an adept on
+the entire subject of horse-raising. It engrossed her thoughts.
+
+ Then she herself took over the management of several of her
+estates in the environs of Rome; of all, in fact, which were near
+enough for her to visit personally. She redistributed the force of
+slaves that managed them, sold some, bought others and fitted up
+the properties as stud-farms. Herself she selected the brood
+mares and stallions with which to stock these estates. She herself
+laid down the principles guiding their management and she herself
+dictated the methods of breeding them. She herself superintended
+the carrying out of her orders, visiting each estate frequently and
+inspecting everything carefully and intelligently.
+
+ Her first offering of two-year-olds sold at good prices. She was
+encouraged, felt herself completely an adept, and would take
+no one's word about anything relating to horses, relying solely
+on her own judgment.
+
+ All this would have subjected her to much reprehension had
+Faltonius Bambilio survived. But he had died just about the time
+of Almo's disappearance. His son, also named Faltonius Bambilio,
+had taken up a political rather than a priestly life and was not to
+be thought of as his successor. In his place Aurelius, on his way
+to Syria, had nominated Lutorius Rusco, a man who impressed
+everyone at first sight, and more and more the better anyone knew
+him, as the paragon of a Pontifex. He was not lacking in ecclesiastical
+unction, but did not wallow in it as had Bambilio. He was pious,
+but did not think it necessary to advertise it day and night unremittingly.
+He was not lax in religious matters, but he was no stickler for minute
+trifles. He inspired confidence by every characteristic of his appearance
+and behavior. He was a man somewhat over medium height, well built,
+neither heavy nor large, with an unusually dignified bearing and carriage,
+not a hint of self-assertion and with a genially comprehending smile.
+It was impossible not to confide in him and unthinkable that confiding
+in him should ever be regretted. Brinnaria confided in him and never
+regretted it.
+
+ Of Almo's disappearance she talked to him freely; freely also she
+talked of her feelings for Almo. He was as sympathetic and
+comprehending as the Emperor and Empress and he encouraged her
+to hope that Almo was yet alive, which she sometimes doubted.
+
+ Of her stock farms he said to her:
+
+ "I should certainly not have advised any woman to enter upon
+such an enterprise, least of all a Vestal. I know of no other member
+of our hierarchy who has any similar interests, except Calvaster,
+whose haunting of the gladiatorial schools and association with
+trainers of gladiators has given some scandal. Some people
+would call your horse-breeding unseemly for a Vestal. But I see
+no harm in it. I have talked with Causidiena and it is clear that
+you do not neglect or skimp your duties, that you give them full
+time and close attention. Your leisure is your own to do with as
+you please. And your immediate success appears an evidence
+that, to say the least, your undertakings give no offence to the gods."
+
+ During the latter months of Bambilio's oversight Brinnaria had
+felt restive and as if some inward force was forever driving her
+to feverish activities; under the care of Lutorius she became
+placid and thought less of her stock-raising, journeys to and
+fro to her estates, talks with grooms and such like activitie
+ and devoted herself with more cool ardor to her duties.
+
+
+ CHAPTER XIV - AMAZEMENT
+
+
+
+AURELIUS returned from Syria with his victorious army in the
+nine hundred and twenty-ninth year of Rome, 176 of our era,
+ten years after the great pestilence. He had merely crushed a
+local rebellion, but a vast coalition of nomadic Arab tribes of
+the desert had been allied with the rebels, and to the Romans
+it seemed that their Emperor had won a great victory in a mighty
+campaign. Aurelius humored their mood, and with good
+judgment, for they needed all the encouragement possible. He
+arranged to have his return celebrated by shows of all kinds,
+theatrical performances, fights of gladiators, beast fights,
+horse-races uncountable and above all, by that thrilling
+procession of a victor and his armed soldiers through the
+city along the Sacred Street, up to the great temple on the
+Capitol, which was the highest honor an army and a
+commander could receive at the hands of the Roman
+government, which signalized a notable victory over notable
+odds, which was called a triumph. Of triumphs Rome had
+seen fewer than three hundred in more than nine hundred years.
+Not one of the three hundred had been as magnificent as the
+triumph of Aurelius.
+
+ Its auxiliary spectacles were similarly magnificent. In particular
+the gladiatorial shows surpassed anything within the memory of
+the oldest living spectator.
+
+ Causidiena, whose eyes troubled her greatly, found that watching
+the triumphal procession caused her so much pain that she absented
+herself from the remaining shows. To all of these, races, beast-fights
+and combats of gladiators, she insisted that the other five Vestals
+should go together. The arrangement was unusual, but no one could
+object, for no one would hint or even think that the sacred fire
+would be in any danger of going out with such a Chief Vestal
+as Causidiena caring for it or that she needed any other Vestal to
+assist her. Likewise her five colleagues were genuinely pleased
+that not one of them would miss any part of the shows.
+
+ As the number was odd, Causidiena decreed that they should be
+conveyed to the spectacles each in her own state coach, attended
+by her maid of honor. The maids, of course, did not sit with the
+Vestals, but had seats far back with the populace.
+
+ In their luxurious private box in the Colosseum the five Vestals sat
+in the ample front row arm-chairs. They were seated not according
+to seniority, but Numisia in the middle, Meffia and Brinnaria, as the
+youngest, on either side of her, Gargilia next Meffia, and Manlia next Brinnaria.
+
+ In the Imperial loge near them Aurelius, now for more than a year
+a widower, presided over the games, clad in his gorgeous silk robes
+and attended by his fifteen-year-old son Antoninus, afterward known
+by his nickname of "Commodus." The four tiers of the Colosseum
+were packed with spectators, pontiffs, senators, nobles, ambassadors
+ magistrates and other notables in the front seats along the coping
+of the arena wall, lesser notables in the first tier, well-to-do persons
+in the second tier, traders and manufacturers and such like in the
+third tier and the commonalty in the fourth.
+
+ Besides the ninety thousand seated spectators* many thousand more
+stood in the galleries, in the openings of the stairways, in any place
+where a foothold could be found and from which a view could be
+obtained. The outlook from the Vestals' box was across the level
+sand to the gigantic curve of seats, all hidden under their occupants,
+so that the interior of the Amphitheatre was a vast expanse of
+flower-crowned heads, eager faces and waving fans.
+
+        *The author forgets himself. Earlier in the book he
+        describes an audience of 100,000 as Brinnaria tells
+        the emperor how she felt down on the sand in her
+        shift, with "two hundred thousand eyes" (implying
+        one hundred thousand people) staring at her. In fact,
+        the Colosseum could handle an audience of about
+        45 to 50 thousand. -- GB ed.
+
+
+ During that second day of gladiatorial fighting Manlia had several
+times said to Brinnaria:
+
+ "Is there anything wrong? Are you ill? You do not seem yourself!"
+Each time Brinnaria had positively denied that anything was wrong
+and had asserted that she was entirely herself.
+
+ About the middle of the afternoon, the arena was filled with pairs
+of gladiators, all the couples fighting simultaneously. Each pair had
+with it a trainer, called a lanista, who watched, guided or checked
+the fighting.
+
+ The contending pairs were of a kind much liked by the Romans,
+because of the excitement they afforded, each pair consisting of a
+light-built, light-armed, nimble expert pitted against a heavily built,
+heavily armed ruffian, the two supposed to be equally matched, the
+strength and weapons of the one fully balanced by the skill and
+agility of the other.
+
+ Viewing fights of this kind Manlia felt rather than heard or saw
+a change in Brinnaria next her, felt her stiffen and grow silent,
+rigid and tense. Manlia glanced at her, followed her gaze and
+became interested in the fight Brinnaria was watching. Before
+them, not immediately below them, but some distance out in the
+arena, fought a conspicuous pair of gladiators. One was a great
+hulking full-armored brute of a Goth, helmeted and corseleted,
+kilted in bronze-plated leather straps, booted, as it were, with
+ample shin-guards of thick hide, bronze-plated like the straps
+of his flapping kilt. He carried a big oval shield and threatened
+with a long straight sword his adversary, a Roman in every
+outline, a slender young man, barefoot, bare-legged, kilted
+with the scantiest form of gladiator's body-piece and apron,
+clad in a green tunic and carrying only the small round shield
+and short sabre of a Thracian. He wore a helmet like a skull
+cap with a broad nose-guard that amounted to a mask, above
+which were small openings for his eyes.
+
+ Conning this pair Manlia's attention was riveted by the slighter man.
+He was very light on his feet, jaunty of bearing and, as it were,
+ablaze with self-confidence.
+
+ Manlia, who was an expert judge of sword-fighting, perceived
+at once that he was a master of his art. His method for the
+moment was to hold back, lead his opponent on and bide his
+time. His attitudes and movements bespoke the most perfect
+knowledge of sword play in all its finest details. But what most
+held Manlia's attention was his beauty of form and a strange
+something about him, a long-armed, long-legged appearance.
+She turned to Brinnaria.
+
+ "I should have sworn," she said, "that there was not in all the
+world another man like Segontius Almo. But that Thracian is a
+duplicate of him, as like him as if he were his twin brother."
+
+"More like him than a twin brother," Brinnaria replied, her
+voice muffled and choked. "I've been watching him ever since
+he came in. I recognized him in the procession this morning.
+That is Almo."
+
+"Almo!" breathed Manlia, in a horrified whisper.
+
+ "Yes, Almo!" hissed Brinnaria.
+
+ "What shall we do?" quavered Manlia.
+
+ "Do?" snorted Brinnaria, "do nothing."
+
+"But we can pray," Manlia panted. "We can pray. Surely you
+are praying, Brinnaria?"
+
+"I am praying," came the answer, in a viperish whisper. "I'm
+praying he may be killed."
+
+"Killed!" Manlia gasped.
+
+ "Yes, killed," repeated Brinnaria, viciously. "Killing is what he
+deserves, mere killing is too good for him. If he wanted to commit
+suicide why couldn't he do it decently at once and privately
+without all this elaborate machinery of selling himself as a slave,
+and lying about his intentions and disgracing himself by becoming
+a prize-fighter and exposing himself to getting killed in public?
+Why couldn't he get killed at Treves or Lyons or Aquileia?
+Why must he humiliate me by this exhibition of himself before
+me and all Rome? The quicker he is killed the better. I'm praying
+he'll be killed at once."
+
+"Oh, Brinnaria!" groaned the horrified Manlia.
+
+ The Thracian was not killed in that first fight; he was never in
+any danger of being killed. He played with his man as a cat plays
+with a mouse; held him off without an effort, caught the attention
+of all the nearby spectators; won their interest by the perfection
+of his sword-play; and aroused their enthusiasm by that nameles
+ quality which marks off, from even the best drilled talent, the
+man who is a born genius in his line.
+
+ He pinked his victim between corselet and helmet, so lightly that
+only those spectators watching most closely saw the lunge, so
+effectually that the man died almost as he fell.
+
+ "You must have prayed for him to win; I did," spoke Manlia.
+
+ "I didn't," Brinnaria snapped. "I prayed for him to be killed. I
+wish he had been. I'm not the only one who has recognized him.
+Aurelius has and he has told Antoninus; I watched him."
+
+"How could you?" Manlia exclaimed. "How could you watch
+anything but Almo?"
+
+"I could and I did," Brinnaria asseverated. "I'm looking all
+ways at once, just now. The news is all over the Imperial loge
+already. They are looking at me as well as at him. I hope he'll
+be killed this next bout." The lanista, in fact, at once matched
+Almo with another full-armed giant. Again Almo gave an
+exhibition of perfect swordsmanship. The Romans were as
+quick to appreciate form in fighting as we moderns are to
+applaud our best bail players; they recognized pre-eminence
+in the swordman's art, as we acclaim the skill of a crack
+baseball pitcher or cricket bowler.
+
+ Almo caught the eye of spectator after spectator, till most
+of the audience on that side of the arena were watching the
+fight in which he took part to the exclusion of everything else
+that was going on. He displayed that perfect balance of all the
+mental and physical faculties, that instantaneous co-ordination
+of eye, brain and muscle, which only an occasional phenomenon
+can attain to. He made no mistakes, bore himself like a dancer
+on a tight-rope, circled about his adversary, warded off all his
+thrusts, lunges and rushes, turned aside his long sword with
+his small round shield without a trace of effort, and at his
+leisure found a joint in his body armor and pierced his heart
+with an ostentatiously difficult lunge delivered with the acme
+of apparent ease.
+
+ "There," sighed Manlia, "I prayed hard."
+
+"So did I," Brinnaria murmured, "but I prayed the other way.
+He ought to have been killed already. Numisia has recognized
+him and he has been recognized by three or four nobles along
+the coping. The rumor is spreading from each of them and
+running through the audience." Manlia, in fact, looking about
+ was aware of an unusual stir among the spectators, of notes
+being handed along and read, of whisperings, callings, signs,
+pointings; of messengers worming their way from row to row
+and from tier to tier.
+
+ Almo won his third bout. While it was in progress Manlia
+had seen one of the Emperor's orderlies enter the arena from
+one of the small doors in the wall and confer with the chief
+lanista, who directed the fighting.
+
+ By the time Almo began a fourth bout half the audience was
+looking at him or at Brinnaria. There were thousands present
+who had survived the pestilence, who had been present fifteen
+years before when she had let herself down into the arena and
+had rescued the retiarius. They remembered her spectacular
+interference and were curious as to how she would now comport
+herself. Brinnaria, erect and calm, fanned herself placidly.
+
+ Almo won his fourth bout.
+
+ By this time the arrangements of the lanistas had been so far
+modified that, instead of a great throng of fighters, there were,
+in the whole immense arena, not more than twenty pairs.
+
+ With scarcely a breathing space Almo was pitted against a
+fifth adversary. By the time he had disposed of him the entire
+audience, fully a hundred thousand souls, were as well aware of
+what was going on as was Brinnaria herself. She was pale, but
+entirely collected. To Manlia she whispered venomously:
+
+ "Castor be thanked, he is certain to be killed, Aurelius has
+attended to that." In fact the Roman sense of fair play was
+offended when the lanista gave Almo a mere moment of
+rest and then set against him a sixth antagonist. Murmurs
+ran from tier to tier, there were hoots and cat-calls.
+
+ Aurelius put up his hand and the people became still.
+
+ It was not often that the entire throng in the Colosseum
+focussed its attention on anyone fighter. That happened
+now. The dozen or more other pairs of fighters were
+ignored, all eyes were on Almo and his opponent--all eyes
+that did not stray towards Brinnaria.
+
+ Almo was not showing any signs of weariness, but he
+was plainly husbanding his strength. The sixth bout was
+tame--seldom had the Amphitheatre displayed so mild
+a set to. The heavy-armed man had seen Almo dispose
+of five like himself, he was timid; Almo was not timid,
+but he was cautious. The result was a tedious exhibition
+of fencing for position, each sword monotonously
+caught on the other shield. At the end Almo slashed his
+opponent's wrist, feinted, pretended to be unable to avoid
+a clumsy thrust, slipped inside the big man's guard and
+drove his sabre deep under his arm-pit.
+
+ The Colosseum rang with cheers.
+
+ Without so much as a sponging down or a mouthful of wine
+Almo was faced by a seventh fresh swordsman in complete
+armor. This time there were no caterwaulings or groans.
+Even the upper gallery had recognized Almo or been told
+who he was, even the populace had remembered or had
+been informed of the relation between Almo and Brinnaria.
+Everybody had recalled or been reminded of her rescue
+of the retiarius.
+
+ The audience collectively comprehended that Aurelius meant
+Almo to be defeated and put at an adversary's mercy before
+Brinnaria, that he was testing her.
+
+ The habitual hubbub, hum, and buzz of undertones was
+checked to a very unusual degree, the Amphitheatre became
+almost still.
+
+ But when Almo fairly duplicated his first bout and neatly,
+almost without effort, cut his victim's throat, the audience
+cheered him vociferously.
+
+ Louder, if possible did they acclaim his calm and adequate
+strategy against his eighth antagonist.
+
+ A ninth and a tenth were promptly put beyond power to
+hurt him by wounds ingeniously disabling, but far from deadly.
+
+ The eleventh bout was more tedious than the sixth.
+
+ Almo divined some greater strength or skill in this
+adversary and played him warily. When the audience
+was bored to the point of being almost ready to call
+for something diverting Almo slaughtered his man
+with a terrible wound between his corselet and kilt.
+
+ The twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth antagonists
+Almo plainly despised. He stood almost still, hardly
+altering the position of his feet except to turn as the
+huge barbarians circled ponderously about him. Each
+he brought down with his first lunge.
+
+ As the fifteenth bout began the audience was manifestly
+impatient and restive. But they were not bored. That one
+Thracian, almost without rest, should successively dispose
+of fourteen antagonists, in the fullest armor, was a notable
+feat. The perfect form of Almo's fighting was even more
+notable. At each victory the audience cheered him till
+they were hoarse. They seemed to cheer quite spontaneously
+and to need the relief for their feelings. But also they
+seemed to mean to give him as long a rest as was in
+their power. They were all for him.
+
+ But no man could go on fighting continually without fatigue.
+In his fifteenth bout Almo moved heavily.
+
+ The other man was unusually quick for a big man. He handled
+his big sword deftly. After much sparring he was too quick
+for Almo, and the point of his slender blade scratched Almo's
+splay vizor, nicked his chin, and tore a long shallow slash in the
+skin of his right breast.
+
+ Blood welling through it stained the green of Almo's tunic;
+blood dropping from his chin spotted the bright green.
+
+ The populace groaned.
+
+ Manlia prayed.
+
+ Brinnaria, under scrutiny of two hundred thousand eyes, sat
+erect, fanned herself steadily, and gazed straight before her.
+To all appearance she was as indifferent to Almo as if he
+did not exist.
+
+ After that Alma moved like a sleep-walker or a man in a
+dream, dully and dazedly.
+
+ The big man feinted and lunged cleverly. The point of his
+weapon ripped Alma's thigh on the outside above the knee.
+No man could stand up after such a wound. He went down,
+his shield under him.
+
+ From all around the arena, from every tier, automatically,
+thousands of arms shot out, thumb flat. Instantly every arm
+whipped back and was hidden under its owner's robe. All
+realized that expression of sympathy was not their business.
+A hush fell. Everybody looked at the Emperor and at Brinnaria.
+
+ Brinnaria sat erect in her arm-chair, fanning herself evenly,
+staring straight across the arena. The same instinct, the same
+curiosity which actuated the rest of the audience, restrained
+the Vestals from giving the sign of mercy. All felt that the
+matter concerned only Aurelius and Brinnaria, that for anyone
+else to interfere would be flouting the Emperor.
+
+ Brinnaria, white as a corpse, dizzy and numb, kept up the
+unvarying motion of her fan. Otherwise she was perfectly still.
+
+ The victor rolled his eyes along the rows of spectators. He
+got no inkling of their feelings.
+
+ He gazed at the Vestals. The audience saw him gaze that way.
+Brinnaria ignored him. Almo and all the world.
+
+ The victor looked toward the Emperor.
+
+ Aurelius held out his right hand, thumb out.
+
+ The lanista removed Almo's helmet. If anyone had doubted
+his identity the doubt was dispelled among all near enough
+to make out his face.
+
+ The victor put one foot on Almo's chest. Almo stretched his neck.
+
+ Brinnaria sat there, tense, pale, but as collected as if she had
+no interest in what was going on.
+
+ The savage standing over Alma glanced a second time towards
+the Emperor.
+
+ Aurelius was holding his arm at full stretch over the coping,
+thumb flat against the extended fingers.
+
+ Brinnaria knew that she had won, that Aurelius had put her
+to the test before all Rome, that she had stood the test, that
+all Rome was witness. Her fingers clutched the handle of
+her fan. She could hardly feel it in her grasp.
+
+ The big man took his foot from Almo's chest.
+
+ The audience broke into howls of applause, gust after gust
+of cheers, roaring like a storm wind in a forest.
+
+ Brinnaria saw the arena, saw the spectators, through a film
+of mist, through a gray veil, through a fog of blackness. She
+realized that, for the first time in her life, she was on the verge
+of fainting. Mechanically she looked about her. Her glance fell
+on Meffia crumpled in her arm-chair.
+
+ That steadied her. If Meffia had fainted, she would not, she
+would not.
+
+ She did not faint. She fanned herself steadily as she watched
+the lanistas help Almo to hobble from the arena. When he was
+gone her attention returned to Meffia. Gargilia and Numisia
+were trying to rouse her.
+
+ She remained crumpled, she collapsed, she slid off her chair
+to the floor of the box. She lay in a horrid heap unmistakable
+in its limpness. The excitement had been too much for Meffia.
+She was stone dead.
+
+
+ BOOK III
+
+
+
+ THE REBELLION OF DESPERATION
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XV - REHABILITATION
+
+
+
+ THE death of a Vestal, except from old age, was always regarded
+by the Roman populace as a sign of the gods' disfavor. The death
+of a young Vestal, sudden, unexpected and unexplained, could not
+but cause great uneasiness throughout all classes of the population.
+
+ Moreover, gladiatorial exhibitions were part of the Roman public
+worship, which largely proceeded on the naive assumption that the
+gods liked just about what men liked and that, the best way to please
+the gods and win their favor was to delight them with such spectacles
+as men enjoyed, acrobatic exhibitions, dramas, beast-fights, fights
+of beasts with men or of men with men, chariot-races and similar
+exciting displays, and so put the gods in a good humor. This
+underlying theory of diverting spectacles as a species of prayer
+and as the most effective kind of prayer was not so much definitely
+expressed by the Romans, as tacitly and unconsciously assumed.
+It was, nevertheless, entirely real and all Romans felt every public
+show as an act of public worship, as a hallowed function.
+
+ Most Roman rites were held to be entirely vitiated if a death
+took place among the worshippers during the course of the
+ceremony. To all solemnities at which only a few persons were
+present this applied without qualification and positively. Naturally
+a death among the crowd about a temple was held of much less import.
+
+ Still less could anyone regard a death amid the vast throng in the
+Colosseum or the Circus Maximus. So that Meffia's sudden end
+was not necessarily held a certain indication of the wrath of the
+gods. But, as the death of one of the most important functionaries
+present at the spectacle, it caused much concern. The dismay of
+the people the pontiffs tried to alleviate by all the means in their
+power, by consultation of the augurs, soothsayers and
+professional prophets, and by official consultation of the Sibylline
+Books. The general anxiety was somewhat allayed by their
+placards and proclamations, announcing that Meffia's death
+was wholly due to her personal weakness and was not to be
+regarded as a portent, in particular that it in no way indicated
+the wrath of the gods or their rejection of the petition for public
+safety embodied in the spectacles celebrating the triumph of Aurelius.
+
+ The Temple and the Atrium of Vesta made up an institution in
+which death was entirely disregarded. As no seriously ill Vestal
+was ever allowed to remain within the limits of the Atrium, but,
+as soon as alarming symptoms appeared, was removed from the
+Atrium and put in charge of relations or friends, so also the body
+of a dead Vestal was always turned over to the care of her family
+or connections. Though the Vestals, alone among Romans,
+possessed the privilege of being buried inside the walls of Rome,
+though their funerals were magnificent public processions,
+participated in by all the functionaries of the state and lavishly
+provided at the public expense, yet the death itself was held to
+be a concern of the family of the dead Vestal, not of her surviving
+colleagues. The Vestals might mourn but the Atrium was never
+in mourning. Its routine went on as if nothing had happened; no
+sign of grief was displayed or even permitted; visitors were
+received as usual.
+
+ Among the first visitors to the Atrium on the morning after
+Almo's fight and Meffia's death was, naturally, Flexinna.
+
+ At the first word Brinnaria cut her short.
+
+ "I don't want to hear his name," she declared. "I'm done
+with him forever. I don't love him any longer; I don't care for
+him, even; I hate him. It does not concern me whether he
+recovers or not. I'd rather he wouldn't recover. The best
+thing for both of us would be for him to die anyhow. I wish
+he were dead; I wish one of those heavy men had killed him."
+
+"B-B-Brinnaria!" Flexinna remonstrated, "you t-t-talk like
+a raving maniac! You look like a F-F-Fury!"
+
+"I'm furious enough!" Brinnaria snarled, "and I've plenty of
+good cause for being angry. Was ever woman on earth put in
+a position so invidious, so embarrassing? Everybody knew of
+my rescue of the retiarius, thousands had seen me rescue him.
+Everybody knew of my involvement with Almo before I was
+taken for a Vestal, of our love for each other, of my expressed
+intention to marry him at the end of my service. Everybody
+recognized Almo.
+
+ "And there I was with the one man on earth in the jaws of
+death before my eyes and I with the power to save him if I
+chose and a hundred thousand people watching me to see
+what I would do. And because I had once before rescued a
+man in that same situation everybody expected me to do
+something unusual and spectacular to save Almo.
+
+"If it had been any other man it would have been the most
+natural thing in the world for me to give the signal for mercy
+and nobody would have thought anything of it. But, because
+the man before me was the man I had expressed my intention
+of marrying at the end of my service, therefore, if I had tried
+to save him, that would be taken as a confession of my being
+actuated by the sort of interest which no Vestal has a right to
+feel for any man.
+
+ "A delightful situation to be placed in!
+
+ "And he must needs go out of his way to put me in that position!
+When all he had to do was to live the normal life of a Roman
+gentleman and all things would in time come right for both of
+us, he must needs strain the powers of human ingenuity, compel
+the forces of time and space, of wind and wave to conspire to
+produce that situation and make me suffer those unnecessary agonies!
+
+ "Furious!
+
+ "Of course I'm furious.
+
+ "Never name him to me!"
+
+When Lutorius Rusco, the new Pontifex of Vesta, called on her
+she was less explosive, but still fuming.
+
+ She received him in the large room at the east end of the peristyle
+of the Atrium, a sort of parlor which had on either side of it three
+very small rooms, the six, used as private offices by the six Vestals.
+There each had her writing desk, and the cabinets in which she
+kept her important papers, letters and such possessions.
+
+ After they had exchanged greetings Lutorius motioned towards
+Brinnaria's little sanctum. Brinnaria bridled.
+
+"I've nothing to say that we cannot say out here," she advertised,
+"and I do not want to hear anything that cannot be said out here."
+
+Lutorius was tactful and had his way. When they were alone, he
+said:
+
+ "You were magnificent! You behaved splendidly. You could
+not have done better. We are all proud of you, from the Emperor
+down to the lowest slumgullion, every single Roman of us. You
+are certainly the most popular woman alive and your popularity
+is now of a sort to last as long as you live, complete and
+unqualified. You were popular before, but with considerable
+reservations. The hierarchy liked you, but were not sure that they
+ought to approve a Vestal who had perpetrated such exploits as
+yours, particularly your trouncing poor old Faltonius. The nobility
+admired you, but shook their heads over your stock-farming. The
+populace were enthusiastic about you, but, like the upper classes,
+were uneasy because of your expressed intention to marry at the
+end of your service and to marry a specified man, who had been
+your boyish lover. All classes acclaimed you as a woman, but
+nearly everybody was dubious about you as a Vestal.
+
+ "Now nobody has any hesitation about feeling that you are all
+a Vestal should be, a priestess whose prayers are certain to be
+heard and answered."
+
+Brinnaria made a wry face.
+
+ "My prayers were not heard yesterday," she sighed. "Almo
+was not killed. I was praying hard to have him dead and have
+it all over with and done with forever."
+
+Lutorius turned on her a slow, benignant, indulgent smile.
+
+ "Daughter," he said, "you must remember that you are not
+the only Vestal. Four Vestals were praying that Almo be saved,
+each praying not only with her lips but with every fibre of her
+being. And your heart and soul were praying silently with them
+and against the fierce prayers of your lips."
+
+"It is not so," she denied. "Every fibre of me was praying as
+my lips prayed. My prayers were genuine."
+
+"I am sure you thought so," Lutorius agreed. "It was natural
+for you to feel that way. You were very angry. But your anger
+will wear off."
+
+"My anger may," Brinnaria admitted, "but never my
+resentment and my disgust."
+
+"Only time can prove whether your forecast is correct," the Pontiff
+soothed her, "but are you justified even in being resentful? Ought
+you not rather to be thankful that chance or fate or the direct
+intervention of the gods working through Almo gave you the
+precious opportunity to free yourself from the shadow of an
+imputation that lay upon you from your entrance into the order?
+Rome vaguely suspected you of too warm an interest in Almo.
+Much of Rome had seen and all Rome had heard of your theatrical
+rescue of a gladiator totally unknown to you. All Rome knew your
+impulsive nature. All Rome has now seen you perfectly controlled
+and outwardly calm with Almo on the verge of death before your
+eyes. Everybody has watched you ignore him and show less interest
+in his fate than you once manifested towards a casual savage.
+Your outward observance of the conventions under such trying
+circumstances has abolished any qualms the people felt because
+of your many past unconventionalities. This puts you in a very strong
+position toward any possible accusation or trial. You know how
+earnestly you have talked to me of your dread of such contingencies.
+Ought you not, after thinking it over, to forget your anger against
+Almo and to feel positively grateful for the opportunity so to exalt
+ourself?"
+
+"Perhaps I ought," Brinnaria mused. "The value to me of the
+results I had not thought of, but admit it now that you expound it.
+But I am not grateful. I suffered too much. I am still smarting
+with indignation.
+
+ "And, apart from any remains of anger, I ache with the humiliation
+of it all. Think of the infamy, of the degradation Almo has brought
+on himself!"
+
+Lutorius pursed his lips.
+
+ "There is a certain social stigma upon any man who has joined
+a prize-fighting gang," he conceded, "but the obloquy resulting
+from having been a gladiator has greatly attenuated amid the
+loose manners of our day. Nothing that becomes fashionable
+remains disgraceful. The social disgrace of it has greatly
+lessened as the thing has become more usual, and freemen who
+have been gladiators are rather acclaimed and sought after than
+condemned and shunned. They win a sort of vogue, if successful
+fighters.
+
+ "The treatment of such persons has greatly changed in recent
+years. Even since I began to remember there has been an all
+but universal alteration in the general attitude towards such
+cases--they have become too numerous for the old feelings to
+survive. Not only Roman citizens have entered gladiatorial
+schools, risen high in the profession, fought countless fights,
+served out their time as prize-fighters, and returned to their
+families, but noblemen have done so, even senators. Vescularius
+is as much a senator as if he had not won seventy-eight bouts
+in three years."
+
+"I know it," Brinnaria admitted, "and I have thought over all
+that. But I am old-fashioned in my feelings even if I have often
+been the reverse in my behavior. I am revolted at the thought
+of Almo as a professional cut-throat--I was insulted at the
+sight of him in the arena. I feel that by his abasement of himself
+he has obliterated my love for him. It is as if he had never existed.
+I shall not marry him, even if we both outlive my obligatory
+term of service. I shall never marry anybody. I shall die a Vestal."
+
+"You feel that way now, of course," Lutorius agreed, "but
+you will get over it, though you do not think so now."
+
+"I do not believe I shall ever get over it," Brinnaria declared.
+"So many things rankle in my thoughts, the small things even
+more than what is more important. I grind my teeth over the
+mere legal consequences of his having been a gladiator. He
+will forfeit half the properties he inherited and he can never
+hold any office, civil or military."
+
+"All that," said Lutorius, "the Emperor will attend to in full.
+And your thinking of such trifles shows that you even yet
+care more for Almo than you admit to yourself.
+
+ "You must let me tell you about him. He is in the care of the
+best physicians in Rome. They assure me that he will recover,
+that his face will show but the merest trace of a scar, no
+disfigurement whatever, and that he will walk without the
+slightest limp. He is comfortable and convalescing nicely.
+I am going to bring you news of him daily, whether you
+think you want it or not, and you are going to listen to me
+because I tell you to."
+
+Brinnaria, for once in her life, was submissive and silent.
+
+ Not many days later the Pontiff greeted her with a contented smile.
+
+ "Almo," he said, "is now practically recovered. He is well
+enough to have enjoyed brief visits from several of his former
+cronies. He is in his house on the Carinae, and it is besieged by
+all the fashionables of Rome, not only his boyhood friends and
+acquaintances, but people who never spoke to him. Everybody
+is rushing to call on him.
+
+ "He is a free man again. At an intimation of the Emperor's wishes
+Elufrius became as supple as possible and all willingness to oblige.
+He asked a huge price for Almo's release, and no wonder, for
+after the advertisement you gave him, Almo could have commanded
+fabulous fees for all future fights and the profits accruing to
+Elufrius must have been enormous. So Elufrius had to be paid a
+large sum, but nothing compared to even one year's accumulation
+of revenue from Almo's estates administered by his agents. So
+Almo will never feel that. The papers have all been drawn, signed
+and sealed. The cash has been paid. Almo is no longer a member
+of a gladiatorial band.
+
+ "And, at a word from the Emperor, the Senate framed and passed
+a decree relieving Almo of all the legal disabilities inhering in his
+past. He has been restored to his former rank in the nobility, has
+been confirmed in the possession of all inheritances which he might
+otherwise have forfeited, has been declared free from all stain and
+entirely fit to hold any office in the service of the Republic. The decree
+has been engrossed, sealed and signed by the Emperor. Almo is a
+nobleman as before. Are you pleased?"
+
+"I am," Brinnaria confessed.
+
+ Lutorius nodded.
+
+ "Now, do not take umbrage," he said, "at what I am about to ask.
+If you must say no, say no without being offended. May I tell the
+Emperor what you have said to me?"
+
+"Certainly," Brinnaria authorized him. "Aurelius is so good a
+friend to me that sometimes I think he is the best friend I have
+on earth."
+
+After an interval of some days the Pontiff hinted that the Emperor
+desired to see her. Brinnaria's disposition to stand upon ceremony
+and to insist on her full rights as a Vestal had waned as she grew
+to maturity. In her dealing with Aurelius she had long laid it aside
+altogether and likewise with Lutorius, both were so unassuming,
+so manifestly actuated by the sincerest regard for her. Now she
+obediently sent in her application for an audience with the Emperor.
+
+ It was accorded her about twenty days after Almo's fight.
+Aurelius came straight to the point.
+
+ "Daughter," he said, "I want you to tell me the entire truth. You can
+confide in me without reservation and you should do so without hesitation,
+since I ask it.
+
+ "What I wish you to tell me is this: Has your lover's behavior
+effaced your regard for him, as you asserted to Lutorius, or were
+you self-deceived? Is everything at an end between you and will
+you ignore his existence in future and remain a Vestal for life
+or have your feelings overcome your displeasure and are you again
+thinking of him and of your future as you did in the past?"
+
+"Castor be good to me," Brinnaria confessed. "I did think his
+folly had alienated me from him forever, but the more I brood
+over it all the more I realize that no matter what he has done
+or does or will do I love him just as genuinely as if he deserved it,
+and as far as I can judge I shall love him to the last breath I draw.
+I am ashamed of my weakness, but I foresee that, when my service
+is over, I shall be just as eager to marry him as if he had been all
+he ought to have been."
+
+"You please me," said Aurelius, "particularly in the way you put it.
+
+ "I am not in the habit of giving a second chance to any man. But
+Almo's case is so peculiar and the circumstances so unusual and
+my interest in him is so compelling that I am going to make an
+exception in respect to him. I shall give him another opportunity
+as an officer. I have reflected where to send him and I have
+concluded to relegate him to Britain. There, in the north, our
+frontier, pushed far beyond the former line, is ceaselessly
+attacked by the Caledonian savages. My predecessor's great
+earthwork needs larger garrisons. There Almo will find occupation
+and may rehabilitate himself. There he will be under the watch
+of Opstorius, who is a stern and scrupulous governor. He sets
+out this very day.
+
+ "Now is the time for me to speak to you of Calvaster. Calvaster,
+unfortunately, is as indispensable as ever, even more so. My
+impulse was to banish him, but I had to forego the idea. I contented
+myself with summoning him to my presence and telling him in so
+many words that the slightest suspicion of any further machinations
+by him against you or Almo would draw down on him the unescapable
+consequences of my severest displeasure. By that admonition, and
+by his chagrin at the unexpected and unwelcome outcome of his
+plot, I think him sufficiently punished. Also I think him thoroughly
+cowed. He will make no further attempt to trouble you.
+
+ "It appears that when he was touring Spain, inspecting the copies
+of the sacred books at all the chief temples of the five provinces, he
+recognized Almo in the arena at Corduba. He at once used all the
+influence in his power to arrange that Elufrius should bring his
+gang of fighters to Rome and that their bouts should be so managed
+that Almo would be saved to fight before you as he did. Almo
+himself found this out through Elufrius since he became again a
+free man and in control of his fortune, and it took a great deal of
+money and the participation of a great many experts to uncover
+and prove the facts. Proved they have been to my satisfaction
+and Calvaster's confusion.
+
+ "Almo had expected to serve his three years in Spain and was as
+dismayed as possible when he found he was to be transferred to
+Rome. But an articled gladiator has taken oath to submit to anything,
+specifying death, torture, burning, wounding, flogging and more
+besides, an articled gladiator cannot object to fighting anywhere.
+Almo had to acquiesce.
+
+ "And now, having heard that it was not wholly his fault that you
+were so cruelly tried before all of us, will you not agree to say farewell
+to him a second time?"
+
+In the flood-tide of her revulsion of feeling Brinnaria could refuse
+Aurelius nothing. The Emperor gave a signal and Almo was ushered
+in as he had been six years before.
+
+ Brinnaria's eager scrutiny could detect no limp in his gait, could
+barely descry the scar on his chin, even when she knew so well where
+to look for it. She noted that he looked well, vigorous and very
+handsome in his gilded armor and scarlet cloak. She contrasted their
+magnificent surroundings with the rough frontier to which he was
+going.
+
+ Almo tried to speak and choked.
+
+ "Caius," she said, "the Emperor has told me how it all came
+about. Don't ask me to forgive; I ask your pardon for misconceiving
+you; I have nothing to forgive in you. If you are what I believe
+you to be I shall never have to forgive anything from you. Go, and
+with the help of the blessed gods, prove yourself all you ought to
+be. Farewell!"
+
+And Almo, as he bowed, managed to say:
+
+ "Farewell!"
+
+
+
+Chapter XVI - VAGARY
+
+
+
+TERENTIA FLAVOLA, who was taken as a Vestal to fill Meffia's
+place, was a really beautiful girl.
+
+Her hair was golden hair in fact, not merely in name; her eyes were
+an intense, bright blue; her complexion was exquisite, the delicate
+texture and perfect whiteness of her skin emphasized by the healthful
+coloring which came and went on her cheeks. Every one of the Vestals
+fell in love with her at once, most of all Brinnaria.
+
+Besides her good looks Terentia had a charming disposition, a pretty
+unconsciousness of herself and a winning deferentialness towards her
+elders. The combination made her irresistible.
+
+Also she was an interesting child, being amazingly precocious, not
+as Brinnaria had been, in growth and behavior, for she was a complete
+child in all respects, but in being what moderns call an infant prodigy.
+Infant prodigies in ancient times displayed their unusual powers
+chiefly by recitations, mostly of poems, which they learned by rote
+and repeated with very little understanding of what they rehearsed.
+More than most of her kind Terentia comprehended what she
+declaimed, but she knew by heart many poems entirely beyond her
+childish grasp. At barely eight years of age she was able to reel off
+without hesitation or effort anyone of an amazingly long list. With
+little prompting she could recite some of the longest narrative poems
+in Latin literature and she needed prompting only to give her the
+cue words at the beginning of each book and of each important episode.
+
+Besides her amazing powers as a reciter she was already proficient
+in Greek, talked it easily and knew many poems in that language,
+which all educated Romans spoke and which was used more than
+Latin at Court.
+
+But her chief distinction came from her capability as a musician. In
+music she was not only an infant prodigy, but very much of a born
+genius. Her memory for any composition she heard once was unfailingly
+accurate; her rendition of anything she knew was more than perfect,
+since to perfection of rendition she added sympathetic interpretation.
+She was already reputed the best female performer on the lyre, the
+most popular instrument in ancient times. The lyre had an effect
+something between that of a guitar and a harp, with some of the
+characteristics of the modern banjo, zither and mandolin.
+
+Since the lyre was looked upon as frivolous and unsuited to the
+gravity of a Vestal, Brinnaria introduced Terentia to the organ.
+This instrument the child had heard, but had not learned to play,
+as organs were expensive in those days, whereas Terentia's
+family, although of the most ancient nobility, were in very
+straitened circumstances.
+
+To the organ Terentia took with great enthusiasm, and in performing
+on it she soon surpassed her teacher.
+
+Brinnaria's playing on the water-organ was similar to the piano
+music of a modern girl who has mostly taught herself and who
+plays largely by ear; Terentia played it as a born genius in our
+days plays her piano, with impeccable exactitude, inimitable
+individuality and compelling charm. Her organ recitals were soon
+a chief feature of the social life in the Atrium, each thronged by
+the most fashionable ladies in Rome, who competed for invitations.
+Her vogue in no way spoiled Terentia, who played with just as
+much zest for her co-inmates of the Atrium, or when she was
+entirely alone amusing herself at the organ. Teaching her, playing
+with her, listening to her, took up a good deal of Brinnaria's time
+and came to be a great solace and comfort to her.
+
+Even more was this abundance of good music a solace and a
+comfort to Causidiena, for, like Dossonia, her predecessor, like
+so many former Chief Vestals, Causidiena was going blind
+from some disorder slow, painless and obscure, altogether baffling
+to the best medical and surgical skill.*
+
+        *Clearly cataracts. As a matter of fact they WERE
+        sometimes treated even this long ago, but the treatments
+        did not meet with much success, and Causidiena probably
+        would not have cared to take the risk.
+
+For much of the ritual of Vesta and much of the participation
+of the Vestals in the public worship in general, the presence of
+the Chief Vestal was essential.
+
+She was the Vestal, the others were only her assistants and in training
+to succeed her. But as Causidiena became less and less able to see, all
+matters which could be attended to by others devolved more and more
+upon Numisia. Among her colleagues Numisia had greatest confidence
+in Brinnaria, so that Brinnaria's duties occupied her insistently.
+
+Besides her ritual duties and her music she kept up her interest in
+horse-racing; in fact, she became more and more devoted to this pastime,
+which Lutorius countenanced, but which her detractors characterized
+as indelicate.
+
+The success of her venture was notable. She became an important local
+dealer in racers. Her colts, sold at well-advertised auctions, were sought
+after, were competed for, brought fancy prices, won many races, came
+to have a reputation that spread beyond the city, over all Italy, even into
+the provinces. Her career as a stock farmer was brilliant, meteoric,
+phenomenal.
+
+Between her duties, her music and her horse-breeding Brinnaria's
+mind was pretty well occupied. She had no time to brood and passed
+six contented and almost happy years.
+
+She had reason for happiness in the fact that reports from Almo were
+uniformly good. To Flexinna he wrote at intervals and his letters
+reached their destination without much irregularity. In those days
+communication with Britain was by no means so easy as with Africa.
+Gaul was a country well Romanized and very populous, busy and
+prosperous. All across it were good roads, excellent bridges and
+frequent post houses. But between Italy and Gaul were the Alps,
+where the winter snows blocked the roads for months at a time and
+where avalanches and floods suspended traffic at unpredictable
+intervals at all times of the year. The only sure road uniting Italy
+and Gaul was not through the Alps but past them along the sea-coast,
+and that was roundabout.
+
+At the other end of Gaul the sea interposed a barrier which the
+Romans found annoying. In the state of seamanship in those ages
+a head-wind was an insuperable obstacle. As long as the wind
+blew the wrong way there was nothing to do but wait for the
+wind to change. High winds made navigation altogether impossible.
+Between storms and head-winds, on more than half the days in
+the year attempting the passage of the channel was not to be
+thought of. Moreover, bitter experience had taught the Romans
+that the weather-signs of the Mediterranean were not to be
+relied on when one dealt with Atlantic weather conditions. In
+particular they found that a clear sky, a light breeze, warm air
+and a calm sea in the morning not infrequently heralded a terrible
+storm before dusk.
+
+Consequently their attempts to cross from Gaul to Britain or
+from Britain to Gaul were restricted to occasions when, at and
+after sunset, the sky was clear, the sea calm and the wind
+favorable. Only under those circumstances could they be reasonably
+sure of the conditions remaining unaltered until the transit was
+accomplished. In practice about sixty-five nights in a year promised
+well for traffic. With sea transit so restricted, communication
+with Britain was infrequent, and news of Almo irregular.
+
+Besides his letters to Flexinna he wrote occasionally to Vocco.
+Vocco also had hopes of hearing from some of his comrades in
+arms. But as Valentia was a place of semi-exile for incompetent,
+illiterate, drunken and reckless officers, small reliance could
+be placed on any such channel of news.
+
+Therefore, with Brinnaria's knowledge and at her expense,
+Vocco had arranged to have an unremitting watch kept on
+Almo by skillful hirelings of the Imperial information department.
+These men sent messages whenever it was possible, and their
+reports were consistently favorable.
+
+The frontier of Caledonia offered no such opportunities for
+distinction and promotion as the outskirts of the Sahara had
+afforded. Military duty from the Forth to the Clyde was
+monotonous and wearisome. But, considering his environment,
+Almo did very well. He was liked by his companions, loved by
+his subordinates and worshipped by his men. What there was
+to do he did capably, and in his leisure, among comrades who
+guzzled wine and gambled like madmen, he was always sober
+and never abused the dice, which were an inevitable social
+feature of all Roman outpost existence.
+
+Aurelius spent the last four years of his life along the headwaters
+of the Danube and Rhine, where the rising tide of Germanic
+migrations beat incessantly at the outworks of the Empire.
+His death at Vienna occurred when Brinnaria was twenty-nine
+years old and had been nineteen years a Vestal. He was
+succeeded by his son Antoninus, whose obliging disposition
+and easy-going manners made him exceedingly popular with
+his cronies, the young fops, dandies and sports of Roman
+society, and led to his being known among them as "the good fellow,"
+which nickname of "Commodus" soon supplanted his given
+names and official titles, on the lips first of the Romans, then
+of the Italians, soon of all his subjects everywhere.
+
+Commodus was not in Rome when his father died and it was
+therefore not possible for Brinnaria to have an audience with
+him. She dreaded that a change of governors in Britain might
+work unfavorably for Almo.
+
+In consultation with Vocco she did what she could, through the
+city Prefect in charge of Rome during the Emperor's absence,
+and through other officials, to make sure that any new governor
+of Britain would be fully informed of the secret instructions
+which Aurelius had given Opstorius concerning Almo. She also
+did all that was possible to have Commodus reminded of the
+matter. This was difficult at a distance and a delicate undertaking
+at any time and in any place, no Emperor ever relishing the
+assumption that he need be reminded of anything, while the
+necessity for emphasis and secrecy at one and the same time
+taxed the best ingenuity. With the great influence possessed
+by the Vestals, they hoped that they had succeeded.
+
+But when Commodus had been Emperor a little over a year,
+Brinnaria, as she descended from her carriage at Vocco's door,
+felt a thrill of vague foreboding. On entering the house her
+premonition of something wrong intensified. At first sight
+Flexinna's face confirmed her suspicions. However, she asked
+no questions and worked off her feelings by a series of high dives,
+followed by fancy-stroke swimming under water. She came up
+from her tenth plunge sufficiently exhausted to feel to some
+extent soothed.
+
+As they composed themselves on the dining-sofas Vocco and
+Flexinna exchanged glances. Brinnaria did not wait for either to speak.
+
+"I am afraid," she said, "that my appetite is not as reliable as
+it was ten years ago. I think we had best eat our dinner first and
+discuss our bad news afterwards." Vocco and Flexinna looked
+distinctly relieved.
+
+Brinnaria's appetite seemed excellent. She ate abundantly, and,
+after the dinner tray was removed and the dessert tray brought
+in, she relished a half a dozen of her favorite purple figs.
+Savoring her glass of Vocco's exquisite Setian wine she asked:
+
+"What has gone wrong, Quintus?"
+
+"Just precisely what we feared has happened," Vocco replied.
+"In spite of all our efforts Hostidius appears to have known
+nothing whatever about Almo's peculiar past or of the special
+instructions Aurelius gave Opstorius.
+
+"Almo has practically repeated the vagary he perpetrated at
+Hippo. He induced Hostidius to give him a full, honorable discharge
+from the army and later wheedled the governor into authorizing
+him to have himself sold as a slave."
+
+"What maggot can he have in his brain," Brinnaria burst in,
+"that he is so fascinated with the idea of being sold as a slave?
+What earthly basis can there be for the enticement it holds out
+to him? Being sold as a slave is universally regarded as the
+worst fate that can befall a man in life. What makes the prospect
+of life as a slave so alluring to him?"
+
+"Flexinna and I have been debating that point," said Vocco, "but
+we cannot so much as think up a conjecture.
+
+"As to the facts there can be no doubt. He was publicly sold in the
+marketplace of Eboracum."
+
+"At least," Brinnaria breathed, "we have not lost track of him
+this time."
+
+"We have not," Vocco answered, "and I'll wager we shall not."
+
+"Is it prize-fighting again?" Brinnaria queried, "or is it really
+charioteering this time?"
+
+"Neither," said Vocco. "I must say it sounds like lunacy. But
+all Almo's words and all the small details of his behavior show
+no signs of derangement. Up to the last report he slept well, ate
+well, looked well, talked sensibly, in respect to all minor matters
+acted like a rational being, and seemed to thrive. But what he
+did in the large sense appears incredible.
+
+"He had himself advertised for sale as an expert farm overseer,
+was bought by a prosperous proprietor whose properties are
+situated in the southwestern part of Britain and there, near
+Ischalis, he has settled down to the management of a large
+estate; large at least for that part of the world. He was giving
+excellent satisfaction in his dealings with the slaves and by his
+knowledge of budding, grafting, transplanting and of all the
+mysteries of gardening, orchard lore, and of agriculture in general."
+
+"Yes," Brinnaria reflected, "he was keen on all that sort of
+thing while he was at the villa near Falerii. Such knowledge,
+gained in boyhood, sinks in deep and is never forgotten. He is
+not playing a part or pretending; he is really enjoying farm life.
+But what kink in his head makes him fancy that he prefers to
+enjoy it as a slave rather than as a free man? That puzzles me.
+Why be sold as a slave in order to bask in rural delights when
+he could buy the ten largest estates in Britain and never feel
+the outlay? When after his honorable discharge from the
+army he was at liberty to remain in Britain openly and to do
+as he liked? Can you see through it?"
+
+Flexinna and Vocco agreed that they saw no glimmer of light.
+
+"At least," Brinnaria summed up, "he is in Britain and we can
+arrange to prevent his leaving the island. Certainly we can have
+him watched, wherever he goes."
+
+Vocco at once set about making the arrangements to ensure
+that Almo would not leave Britain. Within a half year he had
+to report that their efforts had been futile.
+
+"We were too late," he said. "He did not remain at Ischalis a
+year. Egnatius Probus, of Fregellae, had been in Britain more
+than ten years as adviser to the tax-department. His health had
+given way and he was taking the waters at Aquae Solis. He was
+an acquaintance of Almo's owner and went down to Ischalis
+after his water-cure had had its effect and he felt better. While
+visiting and idling at Ischalis he took a fancy to Almo, offered
+a high price for him and bought him. He returned home by
+way of Marseilles and from there by ship to Puteoli. He is
+now on his estates near Fregellae and Almo is his head
+overseer, in charge of the entire place. He has been there
+three months already."
+
+Brinnaria fidgeted on her sofa, for, as on the previous occasion,
+Vocco had imparted his news after dinner.
+
+"Give me another goblet of that Setian you bought from Zaelis,"
+she said. "I'm getting to be a confirmed wine-bibber. At
+every piece of bad news I need a bracer."
+
+After she had emptied her glass, she burst out:
+
+"If Almo is acting as villicus of an estate near Fregellae he
+must be living with some slave-woman or other."
+
+"He is not," Vocco informed her. "I made careful inquiries
+on just that point and got my information from two different
+sources. Almo told Egnatius that he was a woman-hater
+and could not endure a woman about him. Egnatius
+humored him and he is acting villicus without any villica.
+The wife of the assistant overseer does whatever is
+necessary in the way of prayers and sacrifices and
+such duties of a villica. She and her husband occupy
+the overseer's house and Almo is living in the hut
+meant for the assistant villicus."
+
+"Did anybody ever hear the like!" exclaimed Brinnaria.
+
+Vocco's agents verified this news and made it quite certain
+that Almo was masquerading as a slave and as a villicus of
+a fine estate in lower Latium, near Fregellae, southeast of
+Rome on the Latin highroad, about half way between Capua
+and the capital.
+
+Brinnaria found herself very much in a quandary, and
+discussions with Flexinna and Vocco, however lengthy
+and however often repeated, left her just where she started.
+They could not decide whether it was best to do nothing or
+to interfere, and whether, if they were to interfere, what
+form their intervention should take.
+
+Should Vocco travel to Fregellae and force an interview with
+Almo and try to appeal to his better self? If so, should he do so
+without apprizing Egnatius of the real name and origin of his
+overseer? Or should they enlighten Egnatius under a pledge
+of secrecy and afterwards decide whether or not to make an
+attempt to recall Almo to his natural way of life? Should they
+do any of these things without appealing to the Emperor or
+would it be better first to inform Commodus? They debated
+over and over every line of conduct any one of them could
+suggest. After all complete inaction and entire secrecy seemed best.
+
+This view was confirmed when Brinnaria consulted Celsianus,
+the most reputed physician of Rome. She had already confided
+in Lutorius, who informed Celsianus, arranged for an interview
+and was present at it.
+
+The great man said: "Almo is not necessarily or even probably
+deranged. On the face of what you tell me the most unfavorable
+conjecture I could form would be that he has resolved to
+commit suicide. You will say that the idea is absurd, that suicide
+is easy and that the means are always at hand, which is quite true.
+
+"But there are cases, more numerous than you could fancy,
+of persons who make up their minds to bring about their end
+in some unimaginable manner, of which nobody but themselves
+would ever have thought. Then they lay complicated plans and
+by devious ways approach their purpose. If they are thwarted
+or diverted, they never end their lives in any other fashion than
+by the special method they have devised.
+
+"I am inclined to think that Almo's entrance into a gang of
+sword-fighters was caused by some such intention, that he is
+alive because the circumstances he looked forward to never
+conspired to give him just the kind of death he preferred. I am
+inclined to think that he is now working towards some unthinkable
+exit from life.
+
+"But I am not much disposed to think his such a case at all.
+It may be a mere whim of self-torment, or it may be spontaneous
+yielding to a genuine liking for the life he is living. What one
+human being likes cannot be realized by other human beings,
+in many cases.
+
+"My advice is to let him entirely alone. If you interfere you may
+precipitate his suicide, if he meditates suicide. By calling in the
+help of the Emperor or of his owner or both, you may destroy
+the chances, the very good chances, of his returning to his full
+senses. Men in his state of mind are often sane in all respects,
+and, if unsettled, are deranged only in one particular. They are
+generally wholly reasonable on all points except as to their fad
+of the moment. If that wears off they are entirely rational. Let
+him alone. Watch him, but take no other steps."
+
+This advice seemed simple enough, but carrying it out proved
+more of a strain than Brinnaria could have foreseen. The knowledge
+that Almo was in Italy, near Fregellae, actually in Latium and
+within seventy miles of Rome, that he was living in the hut of an
+under-farm-bailiff, that he perhaps purposed some eccentric method
+of suicide proved racking to her nerves. She became irritable and
+fidgety, her music failed to solace or comfort her and sometimes
+almost bored her. She groped blindly for something to distract
+her mind.
+
+First she had a brief but violent attack of solicitude for her pauper
+tenants. She found entertainment in visiting her slum properties
+and in endeavoring to alleviate the condition of their inmates. They
+were far from grateful. To have a Vestal, clad in the awe-inspiring
+dignity of her white robes, with all her badges of office, six braids,
+headdress, headband, tassels, ribbons, brooch and all descend from
+her dazzlingly upholstered carriage and invade the courtyard of their
+hive was thrilling but still more disconcerting to a swarm of slum
+spawn. They bragged of the honor for the rest of their lives and strutted
+over it for months, but they were unaffectedly relieved to see her depart.
+
+Her inquiries as to their means of livelihood were excruciatingly
+embarrassing. The Roman populace, all freemen with their wives and
+children, were legally entitled to free seats at the spectacles and to
+cooked rations from the government cook-shops in their precinct.
+They throve on their free rations. Of their own efforts they had merely
+to clothe themselves and pay the rent of their quarters. Cash for
+rent and garments they obtained in whatever way happened to be
+easiest, often by dubious means. As to their resources they were reticent.
+
+In particular, Brinnaria was unable to cajole any admission, by word
+or silence, from any dweller in one of her largest rookeries, and they
+were better off than any tenants she had, too. What was more, not
+one of their neighbors would impart any information about them. .
+
+Brinnaria's curiosity was aroused. She bethought herself of
+Truttidius, the sieve-maker, and of his intimate knowledge of
+all the dens and lairs in the city.
+
+She asked him. He laughed.
+
+"On the Fagutal?" he made sure, "at the second corner beyond
+the end of the Subura?"
+
+He laughed again.
+
+Then he tactfully explained that the tenants in that particular
+congeries of buildings were professional secret cut-throats,
+good enough husbands and fathers and amicable among
+themselves, but earning an honest livelihood by putting out
+of the way any persons displeasing to anybody able to pay
+for their services.
+
+Brinnaria abruptly ceased slumming.
+
+All the more she threw herself into her horse-breeding. She
+visited her stud-farms oftener; and, oddly enough, as the result
+of her overwrought state of mind, the management of the farms
+themselves came to mean less to her than the means of reaching
+them and returning. She paid close attention to the make of
+her road-carriage, to the speed and pace of her roadsters. She
+bought picked teams of blooded mares, selecting them especially
+for their ability to keep up a fast walk without breaking pace.
+She boasted that she had six spans of mares, any one of which
+could, at a walk, outdistance any team in Rome owned by
+anybody else.
+
+By specializing in fast-walking cattle she saved much time in
+passing from the Atrium to the city gates and in returning.
+
+Outside the city her mares displayed their capacity for other
+paces than the walk. She saw to it that her coachman kept
+them at their utmost speed. The sight of her tearing along a
+highway became familiar everywhere throughout the suburban
+countryside. She made a hobby of extremely fast driving
+and of buying fast mares.
+
+Also she fell into another fad, at the time all the rage, invented
+since the accession of Commodus and made fashionable by the
+young Emperor. Some popinjay had conceived a whim for travelling
+by litter instead of in his carriage. It was far less expeditious and
+far more expensive. But the notion took. All at once every fop in
+Roman society must needs take his country outings, go to his
+villa and come back from it, not in his carriage but in his litter.
+The plea was that a carriage jolted and that riding in a litter was
+less tiring. There was something in that, for carriage springs had
+not been invented in those days. But mostly it was just a craze
+among the very wealthy, as distinguishing them from people
+who could afford but one set of litter-bearers. An ordinary
+four-man litter could be used only for going about the city--longer
+distances were impossible, and excursions into the country
+soon tired out eight bearers. For road travelling one must have
+sixteen bearers, two sets relieving each other in turn. Brinnaria
+bought sixteen gigantic negroes and tested them on her
+inspections of her stock-farms. She tried German bearers,
+Goths and Cilicians. Her bearers became famous for their speed
+and endurance. If she heard of any squad reputed better than
+hers, she bought it at any price, until, not counting the teams
+of bearers belonging to the Palace, there was only one gang in
+Rome which she envied. She tried to purchase them but could
+not. They belonged to her mother's friend Nemestronia.
+
+Nemestronia always had been a wonder and was a marvel.
+She was one of the wealthiest women in Rome and had never
+been ill a moment in her life. A very beautiful girl, she had
+kept her looks and a wonderful singing voice, still clear and
+sweet when she was over sixty. She had been, since within
+a year after her first marriage, one of the social leaders of
+Rome. She had become the social leader of Rome, her influence
+almost equal to that of the Empress. She had outlived three
+empresses and had reigned unquestioned in the social world
+for over fifty years, yet had not an enemy in Rome. Everybody
+loved Nemestronia. At the time of the litter craze she had
+already celebrated her eighty-first birthday, was plump,
+rosy, merry and spry, always ready for any amusement, and
+was living happily with her fifth husband.
+
+She prided herself on her litter-bearers and with her unerring
+social instinct anticipated the caprice of her world and provided
+herself with three sets of carriers, sixteen to a set. One gang,
+of brawny Cappadocians, outclassed any but the Emperor's own.
+
+These Brinnaria tried to buy, tried in vain. Nemestronia was willing
+to exchange, if she could do so to her advantage. But sell she would
+not. Amid her opulence no sum could tempt her.
+
+Brinnaria fumed and drove her horses almost to death, urged her
+litter-men almost to exhaustion. But, with all her haste, care
+outpaced her steeds or carriers. She gnawed her heart out.
+
+Only at Vocco's house, amid Flexinna's bevy of youngsters, did
+she find peace of mind.
+
+Even there, at last, care followed her.
+
+When Alma had been more than a year at Fregellae, Brinnaria,
+visiting Flexinna about the middle of May, scented more trouble.
+As they lay down to dinner she said:
+
+"The occasion, I perceive, calls for an extra supply of wine.
+Let it be the old Falernian this time and have the mixture strong."
+After they had eaten, none any too heartily, Vocco told his news.
+
+Almo had left his master's estate without a permit, in plain words
+had gone off like any runaway slave and had thereby exposed himself
+to the penalties incurred by a fugitive. Egnatius had taken the usual
+steps to recapture him, but neither he nor the authorities had any
+clue to Almo's whereabouts. As far as they were concerned he had
+vanished.
+
+He had not, however, eluded the vigilance of Brinnaria's agents,
+of the men Vocco had employed to keep him in view. They understood
+that Egnatius was to be kept in ignorance of their activity, and gave
+no aid to the police of the neighborhood in their efforts to retake him.
+They had reported only to Vocco.
+
+Almo had money with him and at Arpinum had garbed himself decently
+for the road. He avoided the main highway and wandered along
+by-roads, zigzagging and circling about. He idled at inns, sometime
+for days in one place, often in small towns, oftener at road-houses
+between.
+
+He was then near Atina.
+
+At intervals during June and July Vocco gave Brinnaria reports
+about Almo. He seemed to enjoy the society of the casual travellers
+he met at small inns and of the local frequenters of them. He got
+on famously with everybody. Nowhere was he suspected of being
+a runaway slave and naturally, for he had the unmistakable carriage
+and bearing of a born freeman. The hue and cry Egnatius had set
+loose after him was active wherever he went, but he sat under
+placards offering rewards for his capture and no one applied the
+description to him.
+
+Early in June he was at Casinum and Interamna, before it ended
+at Fundi and Privernum. In July he passed through Setia, Ulubrae,
+Norba and Cora. Early in August he was idling at Velitrae,
+playing quoits in the inn-yard morning after morning.
+
+He seemed to like Velitrae. He stayed there longer than anywhere else.
+
+
+
+Chapter XVII - RECKLESSNESS
+
+
+
+ON the fifteenth of that same August, not long after noon,
+Brinnaria was much surprised by a call from Flexinna.
+
+"The most amazing weather that ever was," Flexinna stated.
+"I never heard of such, everybody says nobody ever heard of the
+like. Even Nemestronia says she never saw or heard of anything
+to compare to it. The densest imaginable fog, as white as milk.
+You c-c-can't see across a street, you c-c-can hardly see the
+bearers in front of your litter."
+
+"I noticed it in the courtyard," Brinnaria replied, "and it is
+thicker than usual. But we often have morning fogs and I
+have seen several almost as dense as this."
+
+"Nothing unusual in a fog d-d-down hereabouts and along the
+river," Flexinna admitted. "B-B-But this fog is most unusual.
+It is all over the whole city. I have lived on the Esquiline ever
+since I was b-b-born and I never saw a fog up there except
+p-p-perhaps a whiff just about sunrise and then only in wisps.
+This fog is high up on the Esquiline, as d-d-dense as along the
+river. I know the fog is all over the city b-b-because I sent two
+slaves to the P-P-Pincian and two to the Aventine, and they
+reported that it is just as b-b-bad everywhere as here and at
+home. And I met Satronius Satro, just b-b-back from B-B-Baiae.
+He slept at B-B-Bovillae last night and he says the fog is just as
+b-b-bad all the way from B-B-Bovillae. He says it is heavy over
+the whole c-c-country for miles. It amounts to a portent."
+
+"Flexinna," said Brinnaria, "you never came here and at
+this time of day, to talk about the weather."
+
+"I d-d-didn't know how to b-b-begin," Flexinna admitted.
+
+"What has Almo done now?" Brinnaria queried.
+
+"He left Velitrae day before yesterday," said Flexinna, "and
+went to Aricia. Yesterday he challenged the K-K-King of the
+G-G-Grove."
+
+"Just as Celsianus conjectured," Brinnaria groaned. "Some
+unthinkable method of suicide. Is he dead?"
+
+"No," Flexinna replied. "He's very much alive."
+
+"Then he is the King of the Grove!" Brinnaria cried.
+
+"They haven't fought yet," Flexinna informed her.
+
+"Impossible!" Brinnaria exclaimed. "Or there is something
+wrong with your information. There is only one way to challenge
+the King of the Grove and that is to enter the Grove with a
+weapon. Almost as many men as women go to worship at
+the Temple of Diana in the Grove by the Lake; the King
+of the Grove never notices any unarmed man. But let a
+man with a weapon of any kind, spear, sword, or what not,
+even a club, step over the boundary line of the Grove and
+that act of entrance there with a weapon constitutes a
+challenge to the King of the Grove; at sight of an armed
+man the King or the Grove attacks him. They fight then
+and there till one is killed. The survivor is the King of the Grove.
+
+"The challenger is supposed to pluck a twig from the sacred
+oak-tree and the act of picking the branch is supposed to be
+the challenge. But, in practice, the King of the Grove watches
+the sacred oak so carefully, that nobody remembers any
+challenger who succeeded in pulling a twig unless he won the fight.
+
+"That is the only way to challenge the King of the Grove.
+Everybody knows that."
+
+"That is just what I always thought," Flexinna confessed,
+"b-b-but, it seems we are b-b-both mistaken. There is another
+way to challenge the K-K-King of the G-G-Grove; that is to
+go to the Dictator of Aricia and enter formal challenge. In that
+c-c-case, the Dictator notifies the K-K-King of the G-G-Grove
+that he must face the challenger at midnight next d-d-day.
+Meanwhile, the challenger is entertained in the t-t-town-hall
+of Aricia. He is b-b-bathed, p-p-provided with fresh c-c-clothing,
+g-g-given whatever food he asks for and accommodated with a
+c-c-comfortable b-b-bed for the night after his challenge. Then,
+when he has had a g-g-good chance to sleep all night and has
+had at least four g-g-good meals, he is c-c-conducted by the
+aldermen to the G-G-Grove just b-b-before midnight. The
+aldermen t-t-take with them two ancient shields, p-p-precisely
+alike, and two ancient Amazonian b-b-battle-axes, also p-p-precisely
+alike, which are k-k-kept among the t-t-treasures in the strong
+room of the t-t-town hall at Aricia. The challenger plucks a
+t-t-twig from the sacred oak. Then he and the K-K-King of the
+G-G-Grove face each other in the open space b-b-before it. A
+shield and a b-b-battle-axe are handed to each. Then they wait
+for the word of the Dictator of Aricia. At the word they fight.
+
+"That is the other way to challenge the K-K-King of the
+G-G-Grove."
+
+Flexinna, as generally happened, had been shown at once up
+to Brinnaria's private apartment and had walked straight into
+Brinnaria's bedroom. In that small room they sat facing each other.
+
+"Then they fight at midnight to-night," Brinnaria deduced.
+
+"Yes," Flexinna corroborated.
+
+"How did you come here?" her friend queried.
+
+"In Nemestronia's litter," the visitor answered. "I b-b-borrowed it."
+
+"With her Cappadocian bearers?" queried Brinnaria.
+
+"Eighteen, of them," said Flexinna; "two extras."
+
+"How on earth did you come to do that?" Brinnaria wondered.
+
+"I had a notion," Flexinna explained, "of trying to get to the
+G-G-Grove by the Lake b-b-before the fight. I thought
+p-p-perhaps Almo would listen to me if I c-c-could see him in
+t-t-time."
+
+"Did you tell Quintus?" Brinnaria demanded.
+
+"Of c-c-course," said Flexinna. "He wanted to go alone,
+b-b-but I said Almo would not listen to him, so I p-p-persuaded
+him to let me t-t-try. I c-c-couldn't think of riding, of c-c-course,
+as I am. He wouldn't even hear of my d-d-driving, said I might
+as well hang myself and be d-d-done with it as risk the jar of
+a t-t-travelling c-c-carriage. I said I'd use my litter. He said our
+b-b-bearers c-c-could never g-g-get there in t-t-time for me to
+hope to d-d-do any g-g-good. I said I'd b-b-borrow Nemestronia's
+fastest gang. He said he c-c-could g-g-go and c-c-come b-b-back
+on a horse quicker than any litter c-c-could reach the G-G-Grove.
+I repeated that Almo would certainly p-p-pay no attention to him,
+b-b-but might listen to me. So I b-b-borrowed Nemestronia's litter.
+Shall I g-g-go? Shall I start at once?"
+
+"No!" Brinnaria cut her off. "Let me think. Sixteen miles?
+They could do it in a little over five hours, if everything went just
+right. They'd take at least eight hours for the return journey. You
+wouldn't be back at the Appian gate before sunrise. It would be a
+hungry job."
+
+"I thought of that," Flexinna informed her. "I'm always ravenous
+when I'm this way* and c-c-can never g-g-go from one meal to
+the next. I had a k-k-kid-skin of wine p-p-put in the litter and b-b-bread
+and cheese and fruit."
+
+        *In other words, she's pregnant. --PG ed.
+
+"You did!" cried Brinnaria. "Where is Vocco?"
+
+"On horseback b-b-beside the litter," said Flexinna, "waiting
+for your d-d-decision."
+
+"I've made it," Brinnaria proclaimed.
+
+"Shall I g-g-go t-t-try?" enquired Flexinna.
+
+"No!" Brinnaria fairly shouted, pulling off her headdress.
+
+"What shall I d-d-do then?" Flexinna queried.
+
+"Undress," Brinnaria ordered, "undress quick!" Flexinna
+stared at her, horrified.
+
+"What for?" she quavered.
+
+"Undress first and ask afterwards," Brinnaria commanded.
+"Undress, woman, undress!" She was tearing off her clothes
+as she talked.
+
+"Can't you see, you fool!" she hissed. "The gods have made it
+all easy. The densest fog Rome ever saw and all over the
+country-side, a curtained litter with the fastest bearers alive
+right at my door, my best friend on horseback beside it, drink
+and food enough and to spare, me off duty till to-morrow noon
+ and you here to change clothes with me. I put on your clothes
+and go save Almo."
+
+"You'll be outside Rome all night," Flexinna objected.
+"That's sacrilege."
+
+"Not a bit of it," Brinnaria retorted. "I know a regulation
+from a taboo. When the Gauls captured Rome the Flamen
+of Jupiter went up into the Capitol with the garrison. He might
+not leave Rome, it would have been impious. But the other flamens
+nd the Vestals left Rome, the Vestals were months at Caere. It
+is not impiety for a Vestal to be outside the city walls over
+night, it is merely forbidden by the rules. I'm going."
+
+"You might as well g-g-go b-b-bury yourself alive and b-b-be
+d-d-done with it," Flexinna protested. "You're certain to
+b-b-be found out. It's sure d-d-death for you."
+
+"Hang the risk!" Brinnaria snarled. "I never realized how
+much I loved Almo till you brought this news. I don't care
+whether I live or die or what death I die, if I can only save him.
+
+"And the risk is too small to think of. All you have to do is to stay
+abed and keep still. Utta will never tell and she won't let anyone
+in. Numisia will not suspect anything: any Vestal has the right
+to twenty-four hours abed and no questions asked, Meffia spent
+one day out of ten in bed. Manlia takes a day's rest a dozen times
+a year. Even I have done it several times, when I was sore all
+over with jolting too long at full gallop over our so-called perfect
+roads. I was abed all day about a month ago, and certainly I
+rove hard enough and long enough yesterday and I was in the
+Temple half the night. I'll be back here long before noon to-morrow.
+
+"Don't you see how easy it is? Flexinna has called on Brinnaria
+to-day, as usual, except the hour. And Flexinna often calls on
+Brinnaria at odd hours. Flexinna makes a short call and goes
+out to her litter. Flexinna makes an excursion into the country
+in a litter with drawn curtains, her husband riding by it. Nobody
+can take any notice of that. Flexinna returns from her outing, calls
+at once on Brinnaria, pays a brief call, goes out, gets into her litter
+and goes home. Brinnaria, refreshed by twenty-four hours abed,
+goes about her duties. The plan simply can't fail." She had on all
+Flexinna's clothes by the end of her explanation and was adjusting
+er two veils, one over her face, the other tied over the broad-brimmed
+travelling-hat, so that the edges of the brim, drawn down on either
+side, almost met under her chin and her face was lost in it.
+
+Flexinna continued to protest feebly, but Brinnaria made her
+compose herself in the bed.
+
+"You can have anything you want to eat," she reminded her,
+"and as much as you want, any time."
+
+Utta came at the first signal.
+
+"Now listen," Brinnaria instructed her, "I am in that bed
+and I am going to stay there until the lady who has just called
+on me comes back. That will be tomorrow morning. I am tired
+and need rest, the same as I did the day after the axle broke and
+I barked my knee in the gravel. I am not going out now; oh, no
+ the lady going out is the lady who called on me. Do you understand?"
+
+Utta understood.
+
+Flexinna, quaking in the bed, prayed under her breath.
+
+"For Castor's sake," was her farewell, "d-d-don't forget to
+s-s-stutter." In a fashionable costume of brilliant pink silk with
+pearly gray trimmings, feeling horribly conspicuous, but unaccosted
+and, as far as she could judge, unnoticed, Brinnaria descended the
+stairs, traversed the courtyard and passed the portal. Just outside,
+in the nook left by the angle of the wall enclosing the Temple, she
+found the litter set down clear of the throng that surged and jostled
+ceaselessly up and down the Holy Street. The bearers stood about it,
+one holding Vocco's horse; all, like the street-crowd, vague and unreal
+in the fog. Through the fog Vocco strode towards her and checked,
+amazed. She put her fingers to the folds of the veil over her lips.
+
+"C-C-Careful," she warned him, laboriously stuttering. "I am
+Flexinna come back. Now for Aricia, as fast as the b-b-bearers
+can hoof it."
+
+Vocco, dazed, helped her into the litter, gave the order and mounted
+his horse.
+
+Composed in her litter, Brinnaria's sensations were all of the strangeness
+of the outlook; fog blurring the outlines of familiar buildings; fog hiding
+the landmarks she looked for, fog wrapping her round till she could
+hardly see the front pair of carriers tramping ahead or even Vocco
+beside her on his horse; fog concealing all the wide prospect of the levels
+south of Rome, fog so thick that they positively groped their way through
+the towns along the road, fog so dense that she could not discern the
+gradations by which afternoon melted into evening and dusk into darkness.
+
+When they were clear of the city Vocco ranged his horse alongside the
+litter and expostulated with Brinnaria, talking Greek that the bearers
+might not understand.
+
+"The best thing you can do," he said, "is to give up this harebrained
+adventure and merely swing round through the suburbs for some hours
+and return to the Atrium by some other gate."
+
+"Not I," she replied in her hardest tone.
+
+"How do you expect to succeed in speaking to Almo?" he asked.
+
+"I leave that to you," she said; "you must manage to see the
+Dictator of Aricia and tell him that you have with you a lady in
+a litter who must speak to the challenger before the fight."
+
+"I'll attempt the commission," said Vocco, "and I'll do my utmost,
+but I hold it impossible."
+
+"In any case," spoke Brinnaria, "I keep on even if I have to expose
+myself and be recognized in Aricia."
+
+Vocco gave up the effort to influence her.
+
+The roads joining the Appian Way were paved with similar blocks
+of the same sort of stone. In the fog they went wrong three several
+times where side-roads branched off at a thin angle. In each case
+they failed to discover their mistake until they had gone on for some
+distance; in each case they had to retrace their steps for fear of
+getting wholly lost if they tried a cross-road; in each case they wasted
+much time.
+
+Twice the leading bearers were all but trampled on by the recklessly
+driven horses of careless drivers. Both times the mix-up delayed them.
+
+Just beyond Bovillae they had a third collision, in which one pole of
+the litter was snapped and two of the bearers injured. It barely
+missed resulting in a free-fight. All of Vocco's tact was needed to
+allay the feelings on both sides. By great good luck he succeeded
+in getting a substitute litter-pole from a near-by inn without too
+much publicity.
+
+The delays caused by missing the road and by collisions had cut
+down the margin of time they had hoped for at Aricia. This last
+misfortune delayed them so much that it seemed unlikely that
+they could reach the Grove until midnight.
+
+In fact, before they reached Aricia, the road was alive with parties
+of celebrants, men and women, but no children, every man carrying
+a lighted torch, nearly every man accompanied by a slave with an
+armful or a back-load of spare torches, all moving in the same
+direction with them.
+
+With torch-bearing crowds the streets of Aricia were jammed. From
+gate to gate of the town they crawled, wading slowly through the
+press of revellers. Along the road to the Grove they were as a chip
+floated along on a tide of torchbearers, for the parties of worshippers
+converging to their great local yearly festival from Tusculum, Tibur,
+Cora, Pometia, Lanuvium and Ardea formed a continuous procession,
+their pulsing torch-flames looking strange and blurred through the fog.
+
+When they reached the top of the ridge enclosing the Lake, Vocco
+dismounted and trusted his roan to one of Nemestronia's extra bearers,
+as horses were not allowed within the Grove or its precincts.
+
+Not much before midnight the bearers swung sharply at the brink of
+the cliff and plunged down the steep narrow road cut along its face.
+Brinnaria felt the dampness of the lake air on her cheek.
+
+By the Lake the fog was, if possible, more impenetrable than elsewhere.
+The Grove, the lodging for the cripples and invalids who thronged the
+place to be cured, the vast halls about the temple, the temple itself,
+all were doubly whelmed in the darkness and the mist.
+
+Brinnaria made out only the six channelled vermilion columns of the
+temple portico and the black boughs of the sacred oak. These, to right
+and left of the temple area, showed vaguely in the light of thousands
+of torches in the hands of the throng packed about it.
+
+Respect for a closed litter with sixteen bearers accompanied by a
+gentleman in a Senator's robes won them a way through the crowd,
+the torches surging in waves of flame as they ploughed through.
+
+When they reached the margin of the open space, Brinnaria, choking
+with the realization that she had arrived too late, peered between the
+drawn curtains of her litter and saw the pavement of the temple-area
+bright under the splendor of the torch-rays; saw a dozen young women,
+dressed in gowns of a startling deep orange, standing in a row clear
+of the torch-bearing crowd; saw the five aldermen of Aricia in their
+official robes, grouped about the square marble altar; saw before the
+altar a circular space of clipped turf midway of the area pavement,
+saw standing on it to the right of the altar the King of the Grove, clad
+in his barbaric smock of dingy undyed black wool, his three-stranded
+necklace of raw turquoises broad on his bosom, the fox-tails of his
+fox-skin cap trailing by his ears; saw facing him Almo, bare-kneed,
+his hunting-boots of soft leather like chamois-skin coming half way
+up to his calves, his leek-green tunic covering him only to mid-thigh,
+his head bare, his right hand waving an oak bough.
+
+After she recognized Almo and glimpsed the bough in his hand she
+hardly looked at him. She stared, fascinated, at the white marble
+altar on which, as an offering to Diana of the Underworld, the
+victor of the fight would lay the corpse of his victim.
+
+The Dictator of Aricia, chief of the Aldermen, raised his hand.
+>From somewhere in the darkness behind the dozen simpering
+wenches appeared two slaves, each carrying a small round shield
+and a double-headed battle-axe. The shields had painted on each
+a horse, the battle-axes were of the pattern always seen in pictures
+of the legendary Amazons. The blade of each axe-head was shaped
+like a crescent moon. From the inner side projected a flat, thick
+shank, by which the blade was fastened to the helve. The curve
+of each blade made almost a half circle, the tips of the crescents
+almost touched the haft between them, so that their outer
+cutting-edges made a nearly complete circle of razor-sharp steel,
+from which protruded the keen spear-head tipping the shaft.
+
+Two of the aldermen received these accoutrements from the slaves.
+Brinnaria noticed that one of the other aldermen held the broad,
+gold-mounted, jeweled scabbard containing the great scimitar
+with which the King of the Grove kept girt, waking or sleeping.
+She even noted how its belt trailed from his hands and the shine
+of its gloss-leather in the torch-rays.
+
+The two aldermen handed a shield and an axe to each contestant.
+One took from Almo the oak-bough and passed it to the Dictator.
+
+The two champions fitted the shields on their arms, balanced
+them, and hefted their battle-axes. Each assumed the posture
+that suited him best, his feet well under him. So they stood
+facing each other, waiting for the signal.
+
+The King of the Grove was a stocky, solidly-built ruffian of
+medium height and weight. Almo seemed much taller and
+very much slenderer and lighter. His delicate features and
+thin nose contrasted strangely to the high cheek-bones,
+small, close-set eyes, and wide, flat nostrils of his antagonist.
+
+The Dictator waved the oak-bough and shouted.
+
+The two champions warily approached each other.
+
+Each kept his left foot forward; each crouched, as it were,
+inside the shield tight against his shoulder; each held his
+axe aloft.
+
+Each struck, each dodged, Almo awkwardly, his axe trailing
+behind him after it missed.
+
+The stocky man thought he saw his chance and whirled his
+weapon, bringing it down in a terrible sweep. Craftily Almo
+caught it against his shield, just below the upper rim, horribly
+it grated against the bronze plating of the shield, with the full
+weight of the mighty swing it buried itself in the sod.
+
+The force of his blow carried the assailant with it so that he
+almost fell face forward on the sward.
+
+Before he could recover himself Almo's ready axe swung.
+
+Brinnaria saw it flash in the air. Then she saw the fox-skin
+cap in two halves, a horrid red void between.
+
+"Oh Vocco," she called, "t-t-take me home, t-t-take me home."
+At that volcanic instant, at the bitterest moment of her life,
+what kept back her tears was her tendency to laugh at the
+fact, that, ill the midst of her agony, she did not forget to stutter.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII - FURY
+
+
+
+ THE darkness of the night, the impenetrability of the fog and
+the weariness of the bearers all contributed to impede their
+return journey. While on her way and buoyed up by her wild
+purpose, Brinnaria had been able to rest herself by dozing
+along the roadway and had remembered to keep up her
+strength with food and wine. After they had turned back she
+could not have swallowed anything, if she had thought to try,
+and the nearest she came to sleep was an uneasy drowse
+which seemed a long nightmare. The Cappadocians, famous
+for their strength, endurance and indifference to wakefulness,
+exertion, hunger or thirst, were also astute foragers. On their
+way from Rome the reliefs had invaded every inn they passed
+and, lavishly provided with small coins by Vocco, had
+provisioned themselves abundantly. These supplies they handed
+over to their fellows when they took up the litter. All the way
+back the spare carriers, plodding behind, munched their
+provender and conversed in undertones. The bearers,
+necessarily flagging, trudged leadenly.
+
+ Through it all Brinnaria was haunted by her memory of
+two pictures.
+
+ One was of the row of saffron-clad hussies watching the fight.
+
+ The King of the Grove was the only legal polygamist in Italy.
+Concomitant with the barbarous and savage conditions
+determining his tenure of the office as High Priest in the
+Grove by the Lake of Diana of the Underworld, congruent
+with his outlandish attire and ornaments, he had the right
+to have twelve wives at once. Seldom had a King of the
+Grove failed to avail himself of the privilege; and, indeed,
+to have twelve wives was regarded as incumbent upon him,
+as necessary to his proper sanctity and as indispensable
+to maintain the curative potencies of the locality, which
+restored to health each year an army of sufferers.
+
+ He had the power to repudiate any wife at any time, to dismiss her
+and expel her from the Grove. Any former wife of his, when
+expelled or after leaving the Grove of her own accord, became
+a free woman with all the privileges of a liberated slave. Most of
+his ex-wives, however, elected to remain in the Grove and
+formed a sort of corps of official nurses for the sick who
+flocked there to be cured. In practice the King of the Grove
+usually repudiated any wife who lost her youthful charms.
+
+ His wives were commonly, like himself, truant slaves.
+
+ Fugitive male slaves were an ever-present feature of country
+life in all parts of the ancient world, as tramps are in modern
+times. A female runaway, however, was a distinct rarity. But
+the sanctuary afforded them by the Grove encouraged them
+about Aricia and many fled to it. If young and comely they
+became wives of its King. Also slave-girls were constantly
+being presented to him by grateful convalescents, who had
+come to the Grove as invalids or cripples and had left it
+hale and sound. Thus the twelve wives of the King were
+always as vital and buxom a convocation of wenches as
+could be found anywhere.
+
+ The spectacle they had made haunted Brinnaria.
+
+ They had been so utterly callous, so completely indifferent,
+so merely curious to see which contestant was to be their
+future master, so vacant-mindedly giggling and nudging
+each other. The impression they had made on her nauseated
+her, while the memory of their red cheeks, full contours,
+youthfulness and undeniable animal charm enraged her.
+
+ The other picture which had branded itself on her memory
+was the sight of Almo, straightening up after stooping over
+his butchered predecessor, clasping the triple turquoise
+necklace about his throat.
+
+ Almo was King of the Grove.
+
+ At that thought and at the recollection of the dozen jades
+wriggling and smirking, her blood boiled.
+
+ By the margin of the cliff Vocco had had much ado finding
+his horse. On the road back to Aricia they passed through
+many parties of belated worshippers. As the torch festival
+kept up until dawn that town was open all night. Unquestioned
+they passed in at a wide-open gate, through torch-lit, but almost
+deserted streets, out at another wide-set gate.
+
+ In the Roman world travelling by night was almost unexistent.
+Only imperial couriers and civilians driven by some dire stress
+kept on their way after sunset. In general travellers halted for
+the night at some convenient inn or town, or camped by the
+road if darkness overtook them far from any hostelry. But on
+the night of the yearly festival of Diana, many parties were
+abroad. Between Aricia and Bovillae they met several convoys,
+and about half-way they were overtaken and passed by a rapidly
+driven carriage, and somewhat tater by a troop of horsemen,
+trotting restrainedly, one of them on a white horse which showed
+rather distinctly, even in the fog and darkness.
+
+ Near Bovillae they overtook the same band of horsemen, halted
+about the wreck of two travelling carriages which had crashed
+together in the fog. Two of the horses lay dead on the stones,
+killed to put them out of their misery. From curb to curb the
+pavement was cluttered with pieces of wreckage and the carcasses
+of the horses. The roadway was completely blocked and the
+bearers, at first, could find no way around the obstacle.
+
+ Some women were wailing over a little boy whose leg had
+been crushed and who was uttering frightful shrieks. The
+child screamed so terribly that Brinnaria impulsively leaned
+half-way out of her litter, carried away by her sympathies.
+Close beside her she saw the white horse and astride of it,
+vague in the mist, but unmistakable in his lop-sided, bony
+leanness, outlined against the glare of the torches behind
+him, she recognized Calvaster.
+
+ Instantly she shrank behind her litter curtains.
+
+ Almost at once a relief bearer who had gone to scout
+reported a free path through the fields by the road.
+
+ They continued on their way.
+
+ Bovillae, not being one of the towns participating in the Festival
+of Diana, was closed for the night, its gates shut fast, its walls
+dark. Going round it was a trying detour over rough cross-roads.
+
+ After they were again on the Appian Road they were for a
+second time overtaken by the same band of horsemen. When
+their hoof-beats had grown faint in the distance ahead,
+Vocco ranged his horse alongside the litter and asked:
+
+ "Did you notice the man on the white horse?"
+
+ "I recognized him," said Brinnaria briefly.
+
+ The fog held all the way to the Appian Gate, which they reached
+as some watery sun-rays struggled through the mist, held until
+they reached the Atrium.
+
+ Out of her litter tumbled Brinnaria in Flexinna's rumpled finery,
+feeling unescapably recognizable, even inside her double veil and
+under her broad-brimmed, tied-down travelling hat.
+
+ But the heavy-built, sinewy slave-woman who guarded the portal
+of the Atrium passed her in without remark. She met no one on
+her way up to her suite, where she found Utta squatted outside
+her bedroom door.
+
+ Flexinna was incredulously delighted, pathetically overjoyed to
+see her.
+
+ "You have a wonderful larder here," she said. "Every single
+thing I asked for was b-b-brought me at once. I d-d-didn't
+have any appetite, b-b-but I had to have food. And I g-g-got it."
+
+Promptly she put on her own clothing and was gone.
+
+ In a trice Brinnaria was flat on her back in bed with Utta
+massaging her vigorously and methodically. After one
+comprehensive rubbing she went off for hot milk, hot
+wine, honey, barley-meal and spices. The posset she
+brewed she compelled her mistress to swallow. Then
+she gently massaged her until she was asleep. Thanks
+to these attentions Brinnaria, after some four hours
+abed, was able to reappear in the Temple looking not
+much unlike a Vestal who had enjoyed twenty-four
+hours of unbroken repose.
+
+ Numisia appeared to suspect nothing. Certainly she
+remonstrated with her and begged her not to exhaust
+herself so by hard riding.
+
+ After that first sleep, induced by fatigue and by Utta's
+ministrations, Brinnaria slept little. She tossed and turned.
+Before her eyes was continually the recollection of that row
+of saffron-clad minxes, of their exuberant health, heartiness
+and rollicking vivacity.
+
+ The memory of them suffocated her. In the Atrium she had
+to conceal her inward convulsions of rage, had to appear
+calm, placid and collected.
+
+ The effort made her the more explosive when she was at
+Flexinna's and could speak out. She stormed.
+
+ Flexinna let her talk herself hoarse. But no amount of talking
+relieved her. Whatever she said, no matter how often she had
+said it, she wound up the same way:
+
+ "Here I am, packed in ice, so to speak, for thirty years and
+there he is, King of the Grove, with twelve wives, twelve wives,
+<twelve wives>!"
+
+Jealousy, in its most furious form, is not a mild malady, even
+in our days, and in women of northern ancestry and cold blood.
+Brinnaria was a hot-blooded Latin and the pulses of her heart
+were earthquakes of fire. The Romans were a ferocious and
+sanguinary stock. Even among the most delicately nurtured
+women love turned quickly into hate and solicitude might in
+a brief time give place to the thirst for vengeance.
+
+ Brinnaria struggled with herself for some days.
+
+ Then she bade her coachman drive her to the Fagutal.
+Her appearance among her tenants caused general trepidation,
+as usual.
+
+ When the clustering drabs and brats discovered that she felt
+no present interest in women and children, but that she
+demanded speech with the men, the elder men, their dismay
+deepened into acute consternation.
+
+ Since she would take no denial some dotards and striplings
+were routed out and the patriarch of the clan was thrust
+forward. He looked senile from his slippered feet to the
+shine on his bald-pate, he was blear-eyed and hard of
+hearing, but he understood plain Latin when he heard it,
+he knew of old the signs he read in the flash of her eyes,
+the set of her jaw and every feature as she stood or moved.
+Also no dog ever had a keener scent for game than he
+for business.
+
+ He shouted in the slang of his caste.
+
+ The women and children vanished.
+
+ Promptly a chair was brought, carefully dusted and she was
+invited to seat herself. Before her cringed, in attitudes of
+obsequious deference, a group of as hulking, truculent, ruthless
+villains as could have been found anywhere on earth. Just out
+of earshot of a low-voiced conversation, stood younger men,
+sentinels, to keep all others at a distance.
+
+ The patriarch's son, recognized chief of the brotherhood,
+an appallingly inhuman brute, acted as spokesman.
+
+ At the first word their wary expression altered to one of
+brotherly comprehension. There was a man to be killed.
+Pride in their vocation shone all over them. Yes, they knew
+of the King of the Grove, who did not? and they especially,
+since the patriarch's grandfather, great-grandfather to the
+spokesman, had at an advanced age ended his life in the
+Grove, after years as its priest, having become King late
+in life, the last of a long series of challengers whom the
+Emperor Caligula had suborned against an insufferable
+and all but invincible hierophant.
+
+ Could they find a swashbuckler willing to assail the
+present incumbent?
+
+ Of a surety and what was more able to vanquish anybody.
+
+ Could it be arranged secretly?
+
+ No human being would ever suspect that she knew anything
+about the matter; what was more, the most inquisitive would
+never divine that they themselves had any hand in the change
+of priests at Aricia.
+
+ How could this be accomplished?
+
+ In countless ways. One might find a discontented slave, mighty
+and skilled with weapons, and reveal to him a means of bettering
+his condition, or one might bribe the owner of a capable slave
+to wink at his running away, or if no fit slave could be found,
+a suitable freeman might be induced to become a slave under
+a master also in the plot. It was easy, merely a matter of money.
+
+ How much money would be needed?
+
+ That would depend. If they could cajole a slave the job would
+call only for cash for the instigators!" expenses, for journey-money
+and for a good sabre for the challenger, and at the last a bonus
+for all concerned. If a slave-owner had to be bribed, more cash
+and more money for bonuses would be required. If a freeman
+had to be employed the enterprise would be still more expensive.
+It was all a matter of money, above all, of cash.
+
+ Cash was forthcoming.
+
+ Brinnaria returned to the Atrium by a circuitous drive out the
+Tiber Gate, round through the suburbs and in at the River Gate.
+She needed fresh air. All the way, all the afternoon, all the wakeful
+night, she was in an eery state of icy, numb exaltation. It was all
+over--Almo was a dead man, she had avenged herself, she had
+vindicated the proprieties, her wrath was righteous, her vengeance
+laudable. This tense condition of her nerves lasted for some days.
+
+ According to stipulation the messenger from the tenements on
+the Fagutal was a decently clad woman of inconspicuously
+respectable appearance. She came after an interval of about
+ten days. She was apologetic. Their first champion had perished.
+
+ Twice more she brought the same message. Then Brinnaria
+ventured a second visit to the unsavory locality. She was
+sarcastic. The chief was abashed.
+
+ This, he said, was evidently a task unexpectedly difficult.
+The more certain was it that they would measure up to the
+requirements. They felt that their time-honored reputation
+was at stake.
+
+ There followed for Brinnaria an exciting, a wearing autumn
+and winter. For some months messages came to her at about
+nine-day intervals, all of the same tenure. Towards mid-winter,
+on a mild fair day, she risked a third expostulation with her
+hirelings. On an apologetic and humiliated rabble she poured
+her scorn.
+
+ Thereafter the messages came thicker, about one every four
+days, but monotonously unwelcome. Brinnaria set her teeth
+and sent all the money asked for.
+
+ Meanwhile her wrath, her jealousy, her thirst for vengeance
+steadily waned and their place was largely taken by admiration
+for Almo's incredible skill and by a sort of pride in him.
+
+ But again and again the vision of the twelve baggages returned
+to her and she steeled her heart. One warm June morning she
+lost patience and burst in on her gang of cut-throats.
+
+ Inundated by a cascade of vitriolic denunciations and stinging
+sneers they hung their heads, too limp to utter a protest. The
+patriarch was weeping openly.
+
+ Turned from anger to curiosity she found the rookery was in
+mourning. Their chief, the apple of their eye, aghast at the failures
+of his minions, had himself undertaken to redeem their honor. For
+him they grieved. They owned themselves beaten. They had
+scoured Italy, had sent against Almo every promising bully in
+the fifteen districts. Their best young men had gone, lastly their
+adored leader. They could do no more; Almo was invincible.
+
+ Brinnaria, reflecting that, after all, she was to blame for their
+dejection and woe, that, after all, they had done their best,
+distributed what cash she had with her and promised them
+a lavish apportionment of gold.
+
+ As she went she realized, as they realized, that the place would
+never see her again.
+
+ Next morning she sent for Guntello. That faithful Goth, stil
+ huge, mighty and terrific, came, mild as a pet bulldog.
+
+ "Go kill him!" she commanded.
+
+ "Certainly, Little Mistress," he acquiesced, "but whom am I to kill?"
+
+She explained.
+
+ Guntello, always parsimonious, asked a moderate sum for the
+purchase of a sabre and for road-money. She gave him ten times
+as much.
+
+ When he was gone, she felt, as at first, a painful numbness of
+exaltation. Almo was now certainly a dead man.
+
+ This mood suddenly inverted itself into an uncontrollable passion
+f solicitude. Off she posted to Flexinna and confessed everything to
+Vocco. In a frenzy she demanded they again borrow Nemestronia's
+litter and that Vocco again accompany her to Aricia. To their
+expostulations she retorted that go she would, if not escorted by
+Vocco, then alone, if not disguised and in a borrowed litter, then in
+her own and openly, or openly in her carriage or afoot if need be;
+but go she would!
+
+ Flexinna succeeded in getting her to listen long enough to urge
+that there was no need for her to go personally, as Guntello would
+obey Vocco at sight of her signet ring, moreover that Guntello now
+had a long start and that only a swift horseman might hope to
+intervene in time. To these representations she yielded.
+
+ Vocco returned amazed and manifestly relieved. He had
+arrived too late. Guntello was dead.
+
+ That night Brinnaria wept long and bitterly.
+
+ "The poor, brave, harmless, faithful fellow," she moaned.
+"Out of the malignity of my heart, in my pride and callousness,
+I sent him to an undeserved death! Oh, I am a wicked woman!"
+Strangely enough Guntello's death seemed to divert her mind
+entirely from the idea of avenging herself on Almo. From
+hating him, she came to realize that she had really loved him
+all the while, that she loved him unalterably. From thinking
+that she desired his death she came to dread acutely that,
+exhausted in body by more than a hundred fights in ten
+months and worn by the strain of ceaseless anxiety and
+vigilance, Almo might succumb to even a chance-brought
+adversary.
+
+ In this new mood she confided in Lutorius.
+
+ The good man was horrified.
+
+ "And I never suspected anything wrong!" he exclaimed. "At
+least you have been outwardly collected. Nobody has
+suspected anything. But this is terrible. A Vestal should
+menace no man's life, should not desire any man's death.
+Far from it, her heart should be clean of hate, malice or envy."
+
+"Never mind what I have been," said Brinnaria.
+
+ "No disasters have befallen Rome. There is no sign of any
+wrathfulness of the gods, or of their displeasure, and I am no
+longer as I was. That is all over, I am chastened. I desire harm
+to no one. Quite the reverse. What fills my mind now is the
+thought that, sooner or later, Alma must perish at the hand
+of some challenger. I long to save him. I would move earth and
+sea to save him. Must a King of the Grove live and die King of
+the Grove? Is there no way to rescue him?"
+
+"Consult the Emperor," said Lutorius. "He is Chief Pontiff of Rome."
+
+
+ CHAPTER XIX - COMFORT
+
+
+
+ COMMODUS received Brinnaria in the same palatial room in which
+she had so often conferred with his father. The majestic impression of
+the magnificent hall was, however, marred by the evidence of the
+young Emperor's chief interests. On one of the great chests lay a
+pair of boxing gloves, on another a quiver of arrows and two unstrung
+bows, on a third a bridle; a fourth was open and from it protruded a
+sheaf of those wooden swords which the Romans used for fencing-practice
+as we use foils. Commodus could never wholly free himself from his
+absorbing passion for athletic sports.
+
+ He himself was a sort of artistic caricature of his father, being very
+like him in height, build, features and complexion, with similarly
+abundant hair and beard falling over his shoulders and bosom in
+long ringlets. But in place of the gravity, wisdom, intelligence and
+sympathy which had ennobled the countenance of Aurelius, his face
+wore an expression of boyish frivolity, silly vanity, vapid stupidity
+and impatient selfishness.
+
+ Brinnaria had seen him countless times and often near at hand, not
+only close to her when both occupied their official seats in the
+Amphitheatre or the Circus, at horse-races or other shows, but
+almost at arm's length at various religious functions, processions,
+sacrifices and other acts of public worship. Necessarily they had
+often exchanged formal greetings, but never yet any other words.
+
+ He greeted her effusively, with a comical mixture of hobbledehoy
+clumsiness and imperial dignity.
+
+ "I'm glad you demanded an audience," he said, as she sat down;
+"we should have had a good talk long ago. You lambasted old
+Bambilio. That is one for you. A juicier story I never heard. You are
+made of pepper. And you saved the retiarius, the year after I was
+born. I've often gloated over the story and wished I had been there
+to see. I was there when you had your embarrassing experience
+and came through it so gallantly. I was proud of you, like everybody
+else. I remember it well. And Father gave me special instructions
+about you, so emphatically that even scatter-brained as I am I have
+not forgotten them. I've been meaning to have a talk with you ever
+since I took up this Emperor job. But you know how it is. Every day
+there are ready and waiting for me to do more things I really want
+to do than anyone man could get through in anyone day, and
+three-quarters of them I have to forego doing because of the pressure
+of my official duties. I can never seem to get time for half the
+sword-exercise and archery drill and driving practice I need, let
+alone for chats with heroines.
+
+ "I trust you'll accept my apologies.
+
+ "There! That is all the talking I mean to do. I'm going to listen,
+now. Tell me what you want and I'll see your desire accomplished.
+I'll do anything for you, not only for your heroism and on account
+of Father's directions, but because of your horse-breeding. They
+say you're as good a judge of a horse as any man in Italy and I believe
+there are not a dozen to equal you.
+
+ I've driven several pairs of your crack colts and they are paragon
+racers, docile as lambs and mettlesome as game-cocks.
+
+ "There! I've gone on talking! But I am really going to stop now and
+listen. State your wishes."
+
+"I'll have to make a long story of it," said Brinnaria, hesitatingly.
+
+ "And one sixty times better worth listening to than ninety-nine out
+of a hundred of the long stories folks bore me with, I'll wager," said
+Commodus. "If it is long we'll get to the end quicker by beginning
+at once. And take your time, I'll talk to you till dark, if need be. You
+are entitled to all of my time you choose to claim." Brinnaria began
+at the beginning and rehearsed her story fully, Commodus listening
+without much fidgeting and interrupting only to say now and then:
+
+ "Yes, I know about that. I remember that." When she came to
+Almo's escape from Britain the Emperor slapped his thigh and
+emitted a sound between a grunt and a squawk.
+
+ "The joke is on me!" he guffawed. "Just like me! Father told me
+particularly about his injunctions to Opstorius, and Pertinax
+himself reminded me about Almo after Father's death. But it
+all went out of my head and I never thought of it from the
+moment Pertinax bowed himself out until this very instant.
+I'll make up to you for my forgetfulness, I promise you. Go
+on." Upon her telling of Almo's idling at inns after he ran away
+from Fregellae, Commodus cut in with:
+
+ "I liked Almo, what little I saw of him, but I had forgotten him.
+You make me remember him, make me recall trifling things about
+him, attitudes, smiles, tones of his voice, witty replies, quips. I liked
+him. But I like him better than ever from what you tell me of him.
+I understand him. I know just how he feels. I long, sometimes, to
+chuck Emperorizing and go off alone, with no responsibilities,
+and have a really good time hobnobbing with the good fellows
+the world is full of. I envy him. I dream of doing it, but he cut
+loose and did it. Good for Almo." At first mention of the King
+of the Grove Commodus leapt up from his throne, strode up
+and down the room and clapped his hands.
+
+ Two pages rushed in.
+
+ "Get out!" he shouted. "I wasn't clapping for you." He
+paced the room like a caged tiger.
+
+ "Think of it!" he exclaimed. "Think of it! Your lad certainly
+has fire in his belly, yes and brains in his head, too! Think of it!
+He thought it all out up there in the raw all-day mists, thought it
+all out, and he works towards his purpose like a pattern diplomat,
+like a born general, like a Scipio, like a cat after a bird! Has
+himself sold as a slave, bides his time, puts himself in the pink of
+condition, watches his opportunity.
+
+ "Think of it! Disconsolate because he couldn't marry you, moody
+because he has to wait so long, he seeks comfort in challenging the
+King of the Grove. Oh, I love him! Only a prince of good fellows
+would have thought of it. No ordinary adventure would divert him.
+He picks out the most hazardous venture possible. Oh, I love him!"
+
+When she narrated her interchange of clothing with Flexinna and
+her litter-journey, Commodus looked grave. The loutishness vanished
+from his attitude and expression. He became wholly an Emperor.
+
+ "Out of Rome, outside the walls, beyond the Pomoerium all night!"
+he exclaimed. "That sounds bad. You were fool-hardy, too reckless
+entirely. Why that is impiety. That amounts to sacrilege!" As with
+Flexinna Brinnaria reminded him of the Vestals' flight after the
+disaster at the Allia and of their sojourn at Caere, again emphasizing
+the contrast between their unreprehended departure and the scrupulous
+steadfastness of the Flamen of Jupiter."
+
+"You have me!" he acknowledged. "Your contentions are sound. But,
+all the same, even if it was merely a violation of rule, still, it is a mighty
+serious matter. It is a good thing for you that I like you, that my Father
+trusted you so notably, and gave me such explicit and emphatic injunctions
+about you, that you have made a clean breast of it all to me. If I had
+known nothing more about you than I know of Manlia or Gargilia,
+if I had learned of your escapade from anyone but you, I'd have had
+you formally accused, tried, convicted and buried alive with the
+utmost dispatch.
+
+ "As things are, after all Father had to say about you, after his
+detailing to me your several conversations with him, I understand,
+I sympathize, I am convinced of the innocence of your feeling for
+Almo, of the austerity with which you have banished from you all
+thoughts unbefitting a Vestal and have postponed your anticipations
+of marriage until your service shall have come to an end, I believe in
+the impeccable correctness of your attitude.
+
+ "But, without that, even having learnt of your prank from yourself,
+I should have thought it necessary to lay the facts before the College
+of Pontiffs and ask their opinion. It looks fishy, stravaging all over
+the landscape after dark with a cavalier beside your litter all night
+long. I comprehend, I condone, I judge that you have not impaired
+your qualifications for your high office. I have no qualms. But it is
+well for you that Father instructed me. Go on, tell me the rest."
+Over the fight he rubbed his hands and chirruped with delight,
+and, when she spoke of the King's harem, he burst into roars of
+laughter, rolling himself on his throne, slapping his thighs,
+holding his ribs.
+
+ "Oh you women," he gurgled, "you are all alike, you Vestals
+as much as the rest! The fire of womanhood smoulders under
+your icy composure like the fires of Etna under her mantle of snow.
+
+ "You more than most Vestals, of course. You are a real
+human being, you are! So you went out to save him, even
+if you lost your life trying, even if you were buried alive for
+it, and you came back hot, red hot, to have him killed, and
+the sooner the better, it couldn't be too soon for you.
+
+ "Oh, I'm glad you came. I haven't been entertained like
+this since I was made Emperor. Go on!" When she uttered
+the word Fagutal and told of her visit to the rookery he had
+another fit of laughter and exhausted himself with mirth.
+
+ When she narrated the repeated failures of the champions
+she had suborned and Almo's uniform success, Commodus
+was in ecstasy.
+
+ "He's the boy for my money," he cried. "He's worth all
+the trouble you've had with him. You'll get a husband
+worth waiting for. He's one in a million. One hundred
+and five bouts in ten months and victor in all of them!
+He's a jewel, a pearl I I'd do anything for you, as I told
+you, I'd keep myself on the rack day and night for you
+and him. You are a pair! There's not on earth the match
+for the two of you!"
+
+At the end of her story he said:
+
+ "You have not gone to all this trouble and taken up so much
+of my time and confided to me all the secrets of your heart merely
+to ease your mind. There's something you want me to do, some
+help you expect to gain from me. You have given me no inkling
+of what it is. What is it? Speak out!"
+
+"He is certain to be killed sooner or later," she said, wringing
+her hands. "I want you to help me to save him."
+
+"Save him!" Commodus echoed. "Isn't he competent to save
+himself? Hasn't he convinced you of his ability to protect
+himself--Sooner or later? Much later, very much later. And
+he's more likely to be killed by old age than by any weapon
+in the hands of any man.
+
+ "I'll never understand women. No man can, I suppose.
+You're bent, bound and resolved that he must die. You
+pour out gold like water to compass his death. You have
+Italy ransacked for dexterous cutthroats. He never turns
+a hair. It's easy for him as for a Molossian dog to kill
+wolves. He enjoys it; disposes of every man who dare face
+him. You can't find another bravo to take the risk, not for
+any money! Then, when he has proved himself the best
+fighter in Italy, you face about and all of a sudden you
+are in a wax for fear some one may kill him!
+
+ "Nobody will ever kill him. You and I saw him dispose
+of more than a dozen expert gladiators, one after the other;
+you saw how daintily and adroitly he did, it. You have just
+described his fight with his predecessor. It was over
+almost before it was begun. The incumbent was a dead
+man from the moment he faced Almo. Both knew it, too,
+and, since then he has done for the pick of the blackguards
+from all Italy. If Ravax and his gang could find no one to
+face him, there is none; if no man of that crew could best
+him, not Ravax himself, no man can best him. Don't you see?"
+
+"No, I don't," she said. "It will be just like his fights in the
+arena. No matter how often he wins, he is bound to lose at last."
+
+"Don't you believe it," Commodus argued. "I remember
+him well. I was wild over him just after Father's triumph
+and saw a good deal of him before he set out for Britain.
+I was then no such all-round expert at weapon-play as I
+have become since, but I was good for my age. I fenced
+with him repeatedly and I know his quality. I had all the
+best swordsmen in the capital pitted against him and not
+one of them was his match. Murmex Lucro did not come
+to Rome till after Father's death. So I never saw Murmex
+and Almo fence. But let me tell you this: Murmex is the
+only man alive who can fence with me for points and make
+anything like my score. And Almo is the only man alive,
+except me, who is fit to face Murmex on equal terms.
+There are only two men on earth who could kill Almo
+in a fight with any kind of weapons--Murmex is one
+and I am the other.
+
+ "Why, Almo is as safe in the Grove as I am in the Palace.
+Don't you worry about him. Nobody will kill him; take it
+from me, I know."
+
+Brinnaria, with a sharp intake of her breath, gazed about
+the room and collected herself to resume her argument and
+make her next point.
+
+ "Do you concede," she queried, "that I have the right to be
+solicitous about Almo's life?"
+
+"Father said so," Commodus replied, "and I never knew
+him to be wrong. I took that opinion from him and I see
+no reason to change it."
+
+ "Do you concede," she pressed him, "that I have the right
+to looking forward to marrying him at the end of my service?"
+
+"Like Father, I do," he admitted.
+
+ "How can I ever marry him," she demanded, "if he remains
+King of the Grove?"
+
+The young Emperor laughed merrily.
+
+ "Don't you worry about that, either," he said. "I told you I'd
+do anything for you and I meant it. I told you I'd do anything
+for Almo, and I meant that too. But, as things are, doing what
+you want and what is good for him will be doing just what I
+most want myself. I have a frightfully poor memory. Barely
+seven years ago my Father triumphed after what was
+thought a complete, decisive and crushing victory over
+Avidius Cassius and a huge confederation of nomadic
+tribes. Cassius was certainly abolished; he was buried.
+But after scarcely five years the desert nomads were as
+active as ever and they have grown so pertinacious and
+cocky that something must be done. I don't want to go
+myself, and I feel no confidence in my ability to
+accomplish anything if I went. I have been on the rack
+to decide whom to send. I can't afford to send some
+bungler who'd mismanage and let the sand-hills
+devour a half a dozen of my best legions.
+
+"My councillors and I have found no promising candidate.
+All the while I have been cudgelling my brains trying to
+remember something Father told me. I distinctly recalled
+that he said that he had in view the very paragon of a
+commander to dispatch against Avidius, but that some
+occurrence made it impossible to send him and he had
+to go himself. I couldn't for the life of me recollect what
+had happened to hinder the man going or what the man's
+name was. Since it was a verbal communication from
+Father I had no memorandum and no one else had
+ever known it.
+
+ "Now I remember that Almo was the man and that his
+infatuation with the life of a gladiator was what prevented.
+
+ "Do you see what I mean? I shall not have to go to Syria
+and I'll send the very best man for that job who can be found
+on earth. If anybody knows what I'm doing they'll say that
+Almo is a lunatic and I am another to send him. But nobody
+will ever know and if everybody knows, what do I care.
+Father knew a good man when he saw one. I'll take his
+word for it that Almo proved himself the greatest genius
+for desert fighting that the Republic has produced in a
+hundred years. And I'll follow my own intuition that a
+swashbuckler whose own thoughts prompted him to
+challenge the King of the Grove as a cure for tedium,
+who had the nerve to carry out the idea and the skill
+to win a hundred and six fights in ten months must be
+a good all-round man and a real man clear through.
+I take it that being put in supreme command of a great
+expedition will brush the cobwebs from Almo's brain
+and restore him to himself. Do you follow my idea?"
+
+"I cannot conjecture," Brinnaria replied, "how you
+expect to carry it out."
+
+"Simple enough," said Commodus. "I'm not the man
+my Father was, not by a great deal. I am a natural
+all-round athlete, but I was never born to be an
+Emperor. All the same, when I buckle down to my job,
+I'm not such a bad hand at it. If I have a talk with
+Almo I'll swing him my way without half trying."
+
+"But," Brinnaria interposed, "even you, even as
+Emperor and Chief Pontiff, cannot free a man
+who has become King of the Grove. There is no
+record of any form of exauguration for a Priest
+of Diana of the Underworld. There would be an
+outcry. Once King of the Grove a man must live
+out his life as King of the Grove."
+
+ Commodus grinned a school-boy grin.
+
+ "My dear," he said, "there are more ways of killing a
+dog besides choking him to death on fresh curds."
+
+Brinnaria stared.
+
+ "You talk," he said, "as if you had gone over all the records.
+Don't you recall two cases where a King of the Grove died
+without being killed?"
+
+"Yes," she admitted.
+
+ "Well," he continued, "what was done?"
+
+"Two challengers were brought forward," she said, "and
+they fought each other."
+
+"Just so," said he, "and don't you recall one case where a
+King of the Grove disappeared and was believed to have
+run away, but was never found, nor any trace of him?"
+
+"I remember that, too," she agreed.
+
+ "Well," he pressed her, "what was done in that case?"
+
+"Two challengers fought each other that time also,"
+she allowed.
+
+ "Well," he summed up, "that's what we'll have done now.
+Almo will vanish. He's good at it, he's had practice. Two
+challengers can be found easily enough."
+
+"But," she cavilled, wide-eyed, "there's all the difference
+in the world between egging on two challengers after the
+post is vacant and arranging to vacate the post. What
+you propose would be sacrilege, impiety."
+
+"Don't you worry about that!" he soothed her. "The priesthood
+at Aricia is no part of our hierarchy; the safety of Rome in no
+way depends on its sanctity. It is important enough for the nine
+towns that share the cult, but it concerns no others. It's an
+alien cult, anyhow. Whether Orestes brought it to Aricia
+or Hippolytus or who else makes no difference, nor the
+tradition that it is four hundred years older than Rome.
+It's a disgrace to Italy and it exists on sufferance. Father
+told me that Grandfather and he were both in half a mind
+to have it suppressed as the Bacchanals were suppressed.
+The curative repute of the Grove stood in the way. As for
+me, if it were not for the sporting character of the King's
+tenure, I'd see to it that Almo would be the last King. I feel
+free to do as I please in any matter that concerns it."
+
+Brinnaria said nothing.
+
+He resumed:
+
+ "Leave it all to me. I'll go to Aricia myself; I'll expostulate with
+Almo; I'll appeal to his manhood, to his pride, to his patriotism.
+Ten to one he's disillusioned by this time, sick of his job and
+ready to listen to reason. He'll promise to obey me and he'll
+obey me.
+
+ "The rest will be managed by men who will make no mistakes. They'll
+find two challengers each much like Almo in build and appearance.
+One dark night Almo will slip off in charge of the men I delegate for
+that duty; the two challengers will be guided so that each thinks he
+is fighting the King of the Grove. Whichever survives will be rigged
+up in the customary toggery. There will be a corpse properly offered
+on the altar. Nobody will suspect anything."
+
+About a month later Lutorius conveyed to her a hint from the
+Emperor. She at once applied for an audience.
+
+ Commodus was as expansive as a boy who has had a good
+day's fishing.
+
+ "It's all over," he said, "and everything went off just as I foresaw
+and planned. Almo was disgusted and tractable. We found two
+desperadoes of suitable make. While we steered them at each
+other Almo slipped out. Besides you, your two friends, your agents,
+Lutorius and myself, no one knows that Almo was ever King of
+the Grove. I had him brought to the Palace and Lucro and I had
+no end of good fun fencing with him. I had the Senate pass a
+decree relieving him of all and sundry legal consequences of
+having been sold as a slave in Britain. I had him choose a full
+staff of the best possible aides, orderlies and such. He is off to
+Syria. I did not send for you until I had word that he had not
+only sailed from Brundisium but had actually landed at
+Dyrrhachium. I anticipate that the job I have sent him on will
+take all of six years. Just about when your service is drawing
+to an end he will return to Rome covered with glory and loaded
+with loot. The nomads have been plundering our cities and have
+accumulated in their strongholds immense amounts of treasure.
+He'll get it back. Meantime your mind should be at peace."
+
+Brinnaria was properly grateful and expressed her feelings
+fervently.
+
+ "And now," said Commodus, "since I have done what you
+wanted and you are pleased, may I ask a favor of you? You
+can do something for me that no one else can and if you
+promise it will set my mind at rest to some extent."
+
+Brinnaria earnestly promised to do her best.
+
+ "I am troubled," said the Emperor, "very much troubled. You
+know how rumors get about among people, starting no one
+knows where; and how, when such a notion is abroad, nothing
+on earth can counteract it.
+
+ "Well, there's a story going about of an oracle, an oracle
+which says that the Republic reached its acme under Trajan,
+that the Empire kept up its prosperity under Hadrian and
+my Grandfather and Father, but that the glory of Rome is
+fated to fade and wane and that its decline will date from
+my taking over the Principiate.
+
+ "I am worried about it. I have sent to Delphi and Dodona
+and every other oracle from Olisipo to Pattala, but I can
+find no record of any such oracle having been uttered. The
+people, however, credit it as if it came from Delphi.
+
+ "I've had a hundred oracles consulted about the matter,
+Delphi too. They all hedge; not one is clear. But they all
+speak of an impending disaster that may be averted by
+watchfulness. And they all hint darkly at some danger to
+the Palladium; they all mention it somehow; most of them
+allude unmistakably to the Temple of Vesta; some of
+them manifestly refer to the Atrium; all of them speak of fire.
+
+ "Now I know that the sacred fire will be cared for by you
+and Manlia and Gargilia and Numisia as well as ever it
+was since Numa. Causidiena is too old to count and
+Terentia is too young, but in the four of you I have complete
+confidence as far as the fire is concerned.
+
+ "About the Palladium I don't feel so sure. The six terra-cotta
+chests are so exactly alike and the five counterfeits are so like
+the real statue that I am afraid the precautions taken to baffle
+an intruding thief might confuse you Vestals in a crisis.
+
+ "Do you know the real Palladium from the five dummies?"
+
+"I do," said Brinnaria; "we all do. When I had been a Vestal
+five years Causidiena showed me the Palladium. No Vestal is
+ever shown it until she is over fifteen. Like all other young
+Vestals I was made to spend hours in the inner storeroom,
+blindfolded, learning to recognize the real Palladium by touch.
+
+ "The differences between the original and the copies are very
+small, mostly in the carving of the folds of the gown. But every
+young Vestal is drilled until she can recognize the genuine relic
+by touch, one hundred times out of one hundred times, and until
+she can similarly discriminate the terra-cotta chest that contains
+it from the other five chests. I could tell the Palladium from the
+imitations instantly any time."
+
+"You relieve me," said Commodus. "I've wanted to talk about this
+to all you Vestals, but I've been ashamed to broach the subject.
+Since you confided in me I feel no hesitation about confiding in you."
+
+"I promise you," said Brinnaria, "that the Palladium will never
+be stolen, lost, or come to any harm if I can prevent it, and I
+believe I can. I pledge you my word."
+
+"I feel better," said Commodus.
+
+ "And I want to say," Brinnaria added, "that I have always felt
+a special interest in the Palladium. Ever since I was old enough
+to share all the duties and all the responsibilities of a Vestal,
+my feelings have been particularly engaged with the Palladium.
+There is something tremendous and crushing in the thought of
+being in charge of four of the seven objects on the safety of which
+depends the safety of Rome and the prosperity of the Republic.
+Whenever Causidiena has shown them to us younger Vestals I
+have felt the strongest emotions at the sight of the jar containing
+the ashes of Orestes, of the antique gold canister which protects
+the plain, gold-mounted ivory sceptre of Priam, of the lapis-lazuli
+casket which enshrines the tatters remaining of Ilione's veil; but
+more than at sight of them I have trembled with awe to look at
+that little statuette, no longer than my forearm, and to think
+that if it were destroyed the Empire would crumble and Rome
+would perish. You maybe sure I shall do all I can to keep safe
+the precious treasure committed to my charge."
+
+"I feel sure you will," said Commodus.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ BOOK IV
+
+
+
+ THE REVULSION OF DELIGHT
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX - ACCUSATION
+
+
+
+AFTER Almo's redemption and his departure for Syria Brinnaria
+calmed down. Her feverish activity abated and vanished. She
+ceased to take any interest in the speed of her litter-bearers or
+of her carriage-teams. She took her outings for their own sake,
+not merely to feel herself transported rapidly from somewhere
+to anywhere. She kept an oversight of her stock-farms, but she
+left the management of them almost entirely to her bailiffs.
+On music she spent more of her time and in it she took an
+intenser delight.
+
+ Life in the Atrium altered chiefly through the growing up of
+Terentia, whose fifteenth birthday was celebrated soon after
+Almo left Italy, and by the steady waning of Causidiena's
+eyesight. She could still recognize familiar persons when
+between her and the strong light of a door or window in
+the daytime; she could still place pieces of wood on the fire,
+if it was burning well. But she was plainly verging on total
+blindness. Except in so far as it was modified by pride in
+Terentia and solicitude for Causidiena, life in the Atrium
+flowed on as it had for centuries.
+
+ Reports from Almo were uniformly good. From the first
+he displayed all the qualifications requisite for a commander
+in chief. For him everything promised well.
+
+ Under these conditions Brinnaria throve. Her natural vigor
+had always been such that she never had showed any outward
+signs of the strain to which she had been subjected. Uniformly
+she had looked handsome and healthy. But now, if anything,
+she looked healthier and handsomer than ever. She was then
+thirty-two years old. At ten years of age she had looked
+eighteen, at eighteen she had looked twenty-four. At thirty-two
+she still looked no more than twenty-five. Her hair was
+abundant and glossy, her eyes bright, her cheeks rosy; she
+was neither slender nor plump, but a well-muscled, graceful
+woman, decidedly young-looking, and altogether statuesque
+in build and carriage, but very much alive in her springy
+suppleness.
+
+ About a year after Almo's departure for Syria Lutorius came
+to see her one morning, his face grave.
+
+ He indicated that they had best confer alone. In her tiny sanctum
+he came straight to the point.
+
+ "Daughter," he said, "my news is as bad as possible. You are
+formally accused of the worst misconduct."
+
+"Why look so gloomy?" said Brinnaria. "That is comic, not
+tragic. Who's the fool accuser?"
+
+ "Calvaster, as you might conjecture," he answered; "and
+ grieve to have to inform you," he added, "that this is no
+laughing matter."
+
+"Pooh!" said Brinnaria. "I'm not a bit afraid of Calvaster.
+Aurelius gave Commodus emphatic injunctions about me.
+And he went into details. Commodus can't have forgotten
+his reprimand to Calvaster nor his categorical threat."
+
+"I fear," said Lutorius, "that his father's instructions on
+that particular point are not well to the front of the Emperor's
+mind."
+
+"Well, anyhow," said Brinnaria, "everybody knows my
+preoccupation with Almo and everybody saw my behavior
+in the Amphitheatre. I feel pretty safe in respect to my
+general reputation. As to particulars, I've been vigilantly
+careful to keep away from Almo. Except twice, in the
+presence of Aurelius, I haven't been within speaking
+distance of him in twenty-two years. Between the fact
+that no one can prove that I have had anything to do
+with him and the improbability that anyone would suspect
+me of interest in any other man, let alone misconduct
+with any other man, I feel entirely secure."
+
+Lutorius wagged his head.
+
+ "You are accused of misconduct with another man," he said.
+
+ "Absurd!" said Brinnaria, "easy to confute. Who is the man?"
+
+"Not so easy to confute, I fear," said Lutorius. "The man
+named is Quintus Istorius Vocco."
+
+"Whew!" cried Brinnaria, springing to her feet and snapping
+her fingers. "That is ingenious! That will give me trouble!
+I didn't credit Calvaster with that much sense. I never thought
+of anyone looking askance at my relations with Quintus. I've
+never taken any precautions as to when I was with him or
+how long or where. I've treated him as an honorary brother,
+seeing I have no brothers of my own left alive. Flexinna has
+been such a sister to me, that we have disregarded Quintus
+almost as if he were a slave or a statue or a picture on the
+wall or another woman. Whew!"
+
+"You perceive," said Lutorius, "that the situation, in general,
+is very serious?"
+
+ "I do, indeed!" admitted Brinnaria.
+
+ "Serious as it is in general," he went on, "it is still more
+serious in particular. Your excursion to Aricia was by no
+means as much a secret as you have all along supposed.
+I, for instance, knew of it before you confessed it to me."
+
+"How was that?" Brinnaria inquired.
+
+ "Numisia," he explained, "saw you go out in Flexinna's
+clothes and recognized you. She entered your room and
+talked with Flexinna. She summoned me and we conferred.
+We both loved you and we both believed in you. We were
+solicitous for the cult, but we were nearly as much solicitous
+for you. We agreed that we were almost fully warranted in
+assuming your entire innocence of heart and that your
+impulsive behavior would not alienate the good will of
+the Goddess. We decided to take it upon ourselves to judge
+you blameless and to shield you. Utta was instructed never
+to let you know that Numisia had seen Flexinna; Flexinna,
+of course, fell in with our plans. Numisia made every
+arrangement that would prevent any more from learning
+the secret and would make your return easy.
+
+ "After you came back safe our decision seemed justified.
+I talked with Vocco and learned that nothing had occurred
+to render your exposure likely, except your encounter with
+Calvaster. As we heard nothing from Calvaster we felt
+entirely successful. It turns out that he was only biding
+his time. He has formally accused you before the College
+of Pontiffs, alleging in general your long-continued
+familiarity with Vocco, and, in particular, your having
+been outside of Rome after midnight in Vocco's company."
+
+"Whew," Brinnaria exclaimed, "this is indeed serious! I
+feel myself strangling or starving in a vaulted cell. What
+am I to do?"
+
+"See Commodus first of all," said Lutorius.
+
+ In the short interval since her former audience, those traits
+of which he had previously shown the merest traces had rapidly
+developed in Commodus into fixed characteristics. He had
+become what he remained until his end, an odd mingling
+of loutish, peevish school-boy, easy-going, self-indulgent
+athlete and superstitious, suspicious despot.
+
+ "To begin with," he said, "I want you to understand that I
+like you, that I haven't forgotten that you rescued the retiarius,
+whopped Bambilio and behaved like a trump when Father
+tested you. I'm for you. Your colts are the cream of Italian
+stud-farms. You are a wonderful woman, all round. But, as a
+Vestal, you have your weak points. I remember Father's
+instructions about you and I have all that in mind. Besides,
+I know that I, as Chief Pontiff, have the right to make my
+own decision about any such matter and to brush aside
+anybody else's opinion and anybody else's interpretation
+of the evidence. Also my impulse is to make use of my
+prerogative, dismiss the accusation against you, reiterate
+Father's warning to Calvaster and get the whole thing off
+my mind. I don't like Calvaster and I don't value him an
+atom. They say he's indispensable, but if he irritates me
+ever so little more I'll dispense with him and I'll wager
+the Republic will get on without him. You see that I am
+strong on your side and almost on the point of deciding
+in your favor.
+
+ "But I hesitate. This case of yours worries me more than
+anything that has come up since I took over the Principiate.
+I cannot make up my mind.
+
+ "I'm not the man I was a year ago. I'm shaken. Father told
+me that the most wearing feature of his being Emperor was
+his recurring escapes from assassination. I had my first
+escape just after your audience with me. It jarred me
+horribly. The fool barely missed finishing me. The
+experience made me take precautions and so no other
+miscreant has come so near to doing for me. But the
+repetitions have grown monotonous. I always thought
+highly of your lad, and I've often wondered how he
+managed to get any sleep or swallow any food while
+he was King of the Grove, but I think immeasurably
+more of him since I've been through something faintly
+similar. He deserves the best of life and I hope he'll get
+his heart's desire and marry you at the end of your service.
+
+ "You see how enthusiastically I am on your side.
+
+ "But there is much to be considered.
+
+ "If this were a question of judging a two-year-old filly
+I'd need no man's advice and I'd listen to no man's opinion.
+I'm better fitted to judge a horse than any man alive. It
+would be the same if it were a question of refereeing a
+sword-bout or a boxing-mill or a wrestling-match or
+anything of the kind. I know all about such things and
+I know that I am a judge superior to anybody on earth.
+I'm a born all-round athlete and everybody knows it and
+recognizes me as a past master.
+
+ "But as an Emperor, as Chief Pontiff, such is not at all the
+case. I feel a fumbler, a bungler. I grope. I suspect that the
+judgment of my advisers is better than mine. What is worse,
+I know that they think so. I am surrounded by men pre-eminent
+in their specialties, who look on me as a green boy placed by
+mere chance in a position which I fail to fill adequately. They
+watch me like hawks, they expect to see me blunder, they
+raise eyebrows at each other, they exchange glances. It
+rattles me. I wish I had Alexander's nerve. He was as young
+as I am and he brooked no opposition, but rammed his
+opinions down his councillors' throats from the hour
+when he became King. But I haven't his nerve, not by
+a long shot. I had as good teachers as he had, too. But,
+Hercules be good to me, I never could learn anything
+out of a book.
+
+ "As a charioteer, or a swordsman I'm as confident as a
+lion. As an Emperor I'm as cowardly as a jackal. It's the
+effect of the prophecies and auguries and oracles and such.
+They all hint at my impairing the prosperity of the Republic
+or diminishing the power of the Empire. It gallies me when
+I see two old bald heads wink at each other; I know they
+are thinking:
+
+ "'What did I tell you! Here's this young fool ruining Rome,
+just as the oracle prophesies.' "It gets on my nerves.
+
+"I daren't decide the matter on my own judgment.
+
+ "Besides, there's the danger of assassination hanging
+over me. All the men who have tried so far have been
+highly educated magnates of lofty principles. They
+seem to feel I am an unworthy Prince and that to kill
+me would be a service to the state. It galls me to think
+of it, and me doing my best for the Republic and the
+Empire, denying myself hours of pleasure daily, missing
+races and all kinds of contests and toiling over documents
+and estimates and statistics. But it is true. If I decide this
+case of yours, ten to one any number of self-righteous
+nobles will say to themselves:
+
+ "'Here is this lout on the way to destroy the foundations of
+Rome's greatness. Rome must be saved from him. My duty
+is clear. He must be put out of the way.' "Nice situation for
+me. I dare not let loose any such possible fanaticism for my
+own destruction.
+
+ "And apart from any qualms about my qualifications to judge,
+apart from any dread of the consequences to myself, of
+absolving you, there is my sense of duty to Rome. Here are
+these cursed ambiguous oracles hinting some harm to Rome,
+mentioning fire and the Temple of Vesta and the Palladium.
+Perhaps what they mean is just the possible wrath of Vesta
+at an unworthy priestess. How can I tell?
+
+ "You see why I hesitate?"
+
+Brinnaria nodded. She judged it no time to speak, and,
+had she wished to speak she could hardly have done so.
+
+ "I might not have hesitated," Commodus resumed, "if
+Calvaster had come to me. But he pops up in a full meeting
+of the College of Pontiffs and says he saw you, after midnight
+and before dawn, on the Appian Road, between Aricia and
+Bovillae, in a litter that didn't belong to you and with Vocco
+on horseback beside it. That puts all the Pontiffs in possession
+of the facts and on the watch to see how I'll decide, if I do
+decide. Calvaster made sure of proving those facts, for he
+had two highly respectable and respected nobles to swear
+that they were with him and saw Vocco and the litter and
+knew the litter for Nemestronia's. That he had any number
+of witnesses to swear to the frequency of your visits to
+Vocco's house, your habit of dining there and the freedom
+with which you treated him.
+
+ "My impulse was to tell Calvaster I disbelieved any story
+he fathered, that I had my Father's instructions discrediting
+him, that I knew all about your intimacy with Flexinna and
+her husband, that I knew all about your excursion to Aricia
+and why you went and that I approved and that was the end
+of it. I have told you why I hesitated.
+
+ "But I was inclined that way. I have talked with Lutorius and
+Causidiena and Numisia. They feel towards you as my Father felt.
+They believe in you and in your worthiness as a priestess, and
+they minimize your irregularities. I sent for Flexinna and talked
+with her. She deserves consideration, if only because she is the
+mother of the largest family to be found among our nobility, even
+among our gentry. She hoots at the idea of anything improper
+between you and Vocco, in act or thought. She evidently tells
+the truth. It is plain that she and Vocco are a devoted pair,
+that you and he never did anything wrong or thought of anything
+wrong. I sent for Vocco and talked with him. I am all but clear
+what I should do, but I am not quite clear.
+
+ "Now, there are only two ways to settle this: one is for me to
+settle it myself and out of hand. The other is to have a formal
+trial of you before the College of Pontiffs.
+
+ "If you are tried you'll be condemned. All you can say of the
+innocence of your intimacy with Vocco, all you can say of the
+innocence of your regard for Almo, all I can say of my Father's
+high esteem of you, of his injunctions regarding you, will not
+avail to save you. The Pontiffs will not heed the considerations
+which were so plain to Father and are so plain to me and
+Lutorius and Numisia. They will say it makes no difference
+whether you went to Aricia because of solicitude for Almo
+or on account of an intrigue with Vocco. They will hold
+that such a manifestation of interest in Almo proves you
+almost as unfit to be a Vestal as if it were certain that you
+were philandering with Vocco.
+
+ "In particular they will hold that there might be room to
+absolve you had you openly gone to save Almo in your full
+regalia and in your own carriage, or your own litter, with
+your lictor before you; but that while the fact of your being
+out of Rome all night in a litter is damning enough, the
+appearance of duplicity and underhanded secrecy given
+to the proceeding by your being disguised in another
+woman's clothing and carried in a borrowed litter
+makes terribly against you.
+
+ "Of course I could impose my will on the Pontiffs, but I
+should hesitate to override their decision, even more than
+I hesitate to decide the case myself, and for the reasons
+I have given.
+
+ "Yet I must say I could forget my dread of assassination
+and ignore any opinionated contempt I might evoke, if I
+could be sure in my own heart that I am doing what is best
+for Rome; I should be as arrogant an Emperor as ever Domitian
+was if only I felt confident that my instincts are right. My
+instincts all urge me to act as an Emperor and a Pontifex
+Maximus and settle this matter out of hand, once and for all.
+
+ "But I hesitate. I can't make up my mind. All I need is a sign
+that you are as acceptable to Vesta as I believe you are. I have
+tried to satisfy myself, to elicit some sign of the Goddess' will,
+but no sign has been vouchsafed me. I've had the Sibylline
+Books consulted, which is a trying matter with Calvaster left
+out of the consulting board; I have sent to every oracle within
+reach, have put questions to all the sibyls in all the caves of
+Italy, have called in a rabble of Etruscan soothsayers, every
+haruspex and auspex in Etruria, I believe. They all hedge.
+They are all vague. They are all indefinite. They give me no help!
+
+ "Now, I like you; I like Almo; I like both of you and I respect you;
+I believe in you. I'd hate to wake up and call for any breakfast I
+had a whim for and look at it and smell it and think of you, all
+alone in the dark in a vaulted cell six foot under the rubbish of
+that garbage-dump out by the Colline Gate. And I hate the
+thought of the bother and worry of a trial. I want to put my foot
+down and assert my will and be done with it all. But, as I've said
+a dozen times already, I hesitate. Chiefly I hesitate because I am
+resolute to do my duty to Rome according to my lights. I feel I
+am right, but I am not quite man enough to follow my feelings.
+If I could have some plain sign that Vesta understands and
+condones your past irregularities as I do, that Vesta approves
+of you and is pleased with you as I am, if I could feel Vesta
+corroborating my feelings, if I could evoke an unmistakable
+token of her will, I'd not hesitate. I'd scout the suggestion of
+a trial; I'd squelch Calvaster; I'd absolve you."
+
+Brinnaria looked straight into his goggling, bloodshot eyes.
+
+ "Would you consider it an unmistakable sign," she said, "a
+plain token of my acceptability to my Goddess, of her esteem
+for me, if Vesta gave me power to carry water in a sieve?"
+
+Commodus goggled his eyes at her even more than habitually.
+
+ "Carry water in a sieve," he cried, "as Tuccia did?"
+
+"There is a legend," said Brinnaria. sedately, "that some Vestal
+once proved her holiness by carrying water in a sieve. And the
+story is connected with Tuccia in popular tradition. But if it was
+ever done some other Vestal did it. Poor Tuccia was innocent,
+as far as I can judge from the minutes of her trial. But she was
+not absolved, by intervention of Vesta or of her judges. She was
+condemned and buried. You can read the verdict as well as the
+details of the proceedings in the records. And what is left of poor
+Tuccia is now in one of those tiny vaulted cells under the Wicked
+Field. You will find, along with the documents of her case, the bill
+for the wages of the mason who completed the vault after she
+had descended the ladder and the affidavits of the sentinels who
+patrolled the spot day and night for a month, according to custom."
+
+ "Never mind who did it or didn't do it, or whether it ever was
+done at all before," said Commodus, "if I saw you carry water
+in a sieve I'd hold it a plain sign of Vesta's particular favor to
+you, of your special acceptability to her, of the correctness
+of my intuitions about you and about this whole wretched
+business.
+
+ "Do I understand you to offer to demonstrate your innocence
+by carrying water in a sieve?"
+
+"That is my offer!" said Brinnaria.
+
+ "But," he protested, "the thing can't be done. It's impossible!
+Better stand your chance of a trial."
+
+"I am sure," said Brinnaria, "that my Goddess will not desert
+me. I know I am innocent and acceptable to her. She knows me
+and will give me the power to prove my worthiness. She will no
+ fail me. I know I can do it."
+
+"Do I understand you to offer to do it in broad daylight before me
+and the whole College of Pontiffs, Calvaster and all?"
+
+"In sight of all Rome," said Brinnaria, "if all Rome could crowd
+near enough to see."
+
+"Do I understand you," said the Emperor, "to stake your life on
+the venture, and, just as you would expect full absolution if you
+succeed, so to expect a rigid and severely stern trial before me
+and the College of Pontiffs, with your failure counting against
+you, if you fail in the attempt?"
+
+"That is my understanding," said Brinnaria, unflinching, her
+clear eyes on his face, her cheeks neither flushed nor blanched,
+her expression calm, her pose easy, her voice unfaltering.
+
+ "Hercules be good to me!" cried Commodus. "That is a first
+class game sporting offer! I like you, girl! I like the idea. I see
+my way to a decision. I glimpse a method of banishing my
+hesitation. I'll take you. If you agree, clasp hands, like a man."
+
+Brinnaria stood up and put out her hand.
+
+ "For life or death," said the Emperor.
+
+ They clasped hands.
+
+ "Done!' said Commodus.
+
+
+ CHAPTER XXI - ORDEAL
+
+
+
+ THE next day Commodus, officially, in his full regalia as Emperor
+and Pontifex Maximus, convoyed by a magnificent retinue of
+gorgeously apparelled gentlemen-in-waiting, equerries, aides,
+orderlies and pages, and of gaudily uniformed guards, paid a
+formal visit to the Atrium.
+
+ He was received by Lutorius, Causidiena. and Numisia, who
+had been in close conference most of the previous afternoon
+and until late at night and again most of the morning from
+dawn. Causidiena, on account of her failing sight, was escorted
+by Manlia and Gargilia.
+
+ After the exchange of ceremonious greetings Commodus asked:
+
+ "Where is Brinnaria? Why isn't she here?"
+
+"We thought best," Causidiena replied, "that she should not be
+present at our conference."
+
+"As to part of it I quite agree," said the Emperor. "Fairness to
+her requires that much of what we have to say should be said in
+her absence, as she must be free from any suspicion of
+participation in some of our arrangements. But part of
+what we have to say she must hear and some details I must
+talk over with her. Send for her, and meanwhile, sit down,
+all of you, sit down, I say."
+
+Manlia and Gargilia departed to summon Brinnaria.
+
+ When she came and had seated herself the Emperor said:
+
+ "I've been thinking over this matter ever since you left me.
+Precious little else did I do yesterday and mighty little sleep
+did I get last night. I'm not clear yet altogether, but I see
+daylight on several points.
+
+ "What you propose is more or less like interpreting the
+significance of the appearances seen in the victim's intestines
+after a sacrifice for a specific object; it amounts to asking a
+definite question of your Goddess and getting a yes or no answer.
+
+"That is one way to regard it and seems to me correct from
+the religious point of view.
+
+ "But there is another point of view and another way to regard
+it, not less correct, it seems to me.
+
+ "This is a sort of a sporting proposal, like a dicing contest,
+or any kind of match or wager.
+
+ "Now in such matters, it is important, it is of the utmost
+importance, that there should be no differences of opinion
+between the principals or among the backers or lookers-on
+after the contest or during its progress; particularly that
+no unexpected differences of opinion should crop up after
+starting the set of actions which determine the decision.
+To avoid all such untoward possibilities, every detail
+must be settled in advance before the matter comes to a test.
+
+ "Now, treating your appeal to Vesta not only as a solemn
+invocation of the Goddess, but also as a sporting chance,
+I intend to have a definite, unquestionable understanding
+beforehand on every debatable point.
+
+ "You see what I mean?
+
+ "Some of the points we others will settle without you, but
+we shall begin with those which you must settle or share in settling.
+
+ "I and Lutorius, Causidiena and Numisia are to be the
+witnesses to the stipulations and our agreement on any
+point is to prove that point. I propose to make it impossible
+for there to be any misunderstanding or disagreement
+among the four of us, to make it certain that we four
+think, speak and act unanimously on all points whatever.
+Nothing must be assumed, everything must be explicit.
+
+ "To begin with, is this a fair statement of your proposal?
+
+ "You maintain that you are a worthy priestess of Vesta
+and wholly acceptable to her. You propose to demonstrate
+this by asking of her the power to carry water in a sieve
+in the sight of the whole College of Pontiffs and of such
+other persons as I may see fit to have present at the test.
+If you fail you will expect to be tried for misconduct.
+If you succeed you will expect to be then and there
+absolved from all accusations and imputations
+connected with your deportment or behavior.
+
+ "Is that a fair statement of your proposal?"
+
+"It is," Brinnaria replied.
+
+ "What kind of water do you propose to carry?" Commodus
+asked. "Spring water, rain-water from a tank, aqueduct-water,
+or what?"
+
+"I assumed," said Brinnaria, "that I would carry water from
+the river, in accordance with the legend of my predecessor:
+Father Tiber being himself one of our gods, one of the sternest
+to evildoers, yet to the righteous most kindly and helpful."
+
+"Excellent!" said the Emperor. "My notion precisely.
+That is settled. I accordingly appoint as the place of your
+test the Marble Quay, since the porticoes flanking it shut
+out the mob and protect the Quay from intruding eyes,
+and since the space enclosed by them is ample for the
+assemblage of the College of Pontiffs, the Senate and the
+Court officials. Are you satisfied with that place?"
+
+"I am," said Brinnaria.
+
+ "In what kind of a sieve do you propose to carry water?"
+came the next question.
+
+ "A sieve," said Brinnaria, "is a sieve."
+
+ "Not at all," Commodus objected. "There are sieves
+and sieves."
+
+"Well, of course," Brinnaria reflected, "I do not mean a
+broken, worn-out or imperfect sieve, nor one incompetently made."
+
+"Just so," the Emperor amplified. "You propose to carry
+water in a sieve with a circular rim, without any hole,
+crevice or crack in it and with a web stretched taut on
+the rim, evenly woven and of the finest mesh."
+
+"That expresses my unformed idea," said Brinnaria.
+
+ "Did you mean a linen sieve," the Emperor asked, "or a
+horse-hair sieve, or a metal sieve?"
+
+"That," said Brinnaria, "can make no difference, if it
+fulfills the conditions you have just specified. I leave the
+choice of material to you."
+
+"That is the correct attitude for you," said Commodus,
+"and does you credit.
+
+ "And now I think we four will settle the other details
+without you. Do you agree to that?"
+
+"No!" Brinnaria objected. "I think I should be a party
+to the settling of several other details."
+
+"What are they?" Commodus queried.
+
+ "In the first place," said Brinnaria, "there should be the
+clearest understanding as to how much water I must carry."
+
+"What do you mean?" the Emperor asked.
+
+ "Well," Brinnaria expounded, "a drop of water the size of
+my thumb-nail would not be enough, I presume. That would
+not be considered as demonstrating my innocence. You
+would expect me to carry more water than that. On the
+other hand, to exact that I carry a sieve full of water to
+the top of the rim, as if it were a pan, would be unfair to me."
+
+"I see," said Commodus. "I should lay down the condition
+that the water must cover the web of the sieve entirely
+and touch the rim all round, and that it should be a
+finger-breadth deep. Deeper than that it need not be, that
+depth would prove the favor of your Goddess as plainly
+as if you carried all Tiber. Is that all? If not, what next?"
+
+"Next," she said, "it ought to be definitely agreed how far
+I must carry the sieve with the water in it."
+
+"You do not need to carry it at all," said Commodus. "If
+you stand up and hold the sieve of water as high as your
+chin, you will have proved the favor of your Goddess for you."
+
+Lutorius, tactful and bland, here spoke up.
+
+ "Your Majesty," he said, "I doubt whether that will confute
+Brinnaria's enemies or even convince the majority of the Pontiffs."
+
+"What does it signify?" the Emperor demanded, "whether
+anybody else is convinced, if I am satisfied?"
+
+"Nothing whatever, your Majesty," said Lutorius, "if
+you take that view of the matter."
+
+"Perhaps," Commodus admitted, "there may be
+something in your suggestion. Suppose we make
+the stipulation that she must carry the sieve of
+water from the brink of the river to the top of the steps."
+
+"The number of steps," Lutorius reminded him, "varies
+at different points along the Marble Quay."
+
+ "True," the Emperor admitted. "Let us specify the
+middle stair, which has seven steps, if I mistake not.
+Do you agree to that?" he asked Brinnaria.
+
+ "I agree," she concluded.
+
+ After Brinnaria had gone, Commodus resumed:
+
+ "Now we must decide," he said, "what kind of a sieve she
+is to use."
+
+Causidiena spoke up, her all but sightless eyes strained towards the Emperor.
+
+ "Lutorius and Numisia and I have talked over that question,"
+she said. "It seems to me that it would be unfair to her for us
+to decide on a metal sieve. They are always coarse and the
+apertures between the wires are comparatively large. It seems
+to us that no one could carry water in a copper sieve, not even
+by a miracle.
+
+ "The meshes of linen sieves are the smallest of any made, but
+the linen does not seem to have much sustaining power. We feel
+that with a linen sieve not only Brinnaria would be, as Lutorius
+expressed it, severely handicapped for water-carrying, but that,
+as he also said, I fear irreverently, that Vesta herself would be
+too much handicapped in respect to miracle-working."
+
+"A mighty sensible remark," Commodus cut in, "and one
+with which I concur. You are more of a sport than I thought
+you, Lutorius."
+
+"Considering only the construction of sieves," Causidiena
+continued, "we were of the opinion that a horsehair sieve
+would be the fairest. The hairs are coarser than linen threads
+and finer than copper wires and the apertures between are
+similarly of medium size, as sieves go.
+
+ "Besides, we have ascertained that horse-hair sieves are by
+far the most usual kind. We are told that in most sieve-shops
+in Rome all the linen sieves and copper sieves sold do not
+amount to one-third the horsehair sieves."
+
+"That ought to settle that point," said Commodus. "No one
+can cavil if we use the commonest kind of sieve, of medium
+fineness and of normal make.
+
+"As to the question of procuring one we must arrange that
+Brinnaria may feel wholly secure that it has not been tampered
+with by some enemy of hers, and, on the other hand, that all
+persons whatever, to whomsoever hostile or friendly, or
+wholly indifferent, may be at once and forever certain that
+neither Brinnaria nor any partisan of hers has had any access
+to it before the test. Have you any suggestions to make?"
+
+"Yes," Causidiena replied. "Lutorius and Numisia and I
+have debated that point and have come to a conclusion
+which we think you might approve. The best sieve-maker
+in Rome is Caius Truttidius Falcifer, a tenant of one of
+our shops on the Holy Street. Not only are his wares
+reputed the best-made sieves produced in Rome, but he
+sells more than anyone else and carries a larger stock
+than can be found in the possession of any other dealer.
+He is sieve-maker to the Atrium, like his father before
+him. His horse-hair sieves are the closest and finest of
+their kind. We use them to sift the flour for our ceremonial
+cakes. I had some brought to show you. Where are they,
+Numisia?"
+
+Numisia rose and took from an onyx console a flattish
+dish-like basket of gilt wicker, containing a number
+of square cakes. In size and on account of the ridges
+on them, each looked much like the joined four
+fingers of a man's hand.
+
+ Commodus took one, broke it and munched a piece.
+
+ "Very good," he said. "If the excellence of the pastry
+demonstrates the virtue of the sieve let us consider it
+proved. I do not see, however, what the cakes have to
+do with it. But I am entirely willing to agree that Brinnaria
+is to use a horse-hair sieve made by Truttidius.
+
+"Now, how are we to select the particular sieve so as to
+convince all concerned that it is a normal sieve chosen
+at random and not one doctored for the occasion ?"
+
+"Our idea," said Lutorius, "was to arrange that Truttidius
+be present with a number of horse-hair sieves, practically
+with his whole stock of his best, and that one of those be
+chosen before the whole College of Pontiffs, perhaps by
+your Majesty, perhaps by some one of the altar-boys,
+blindfolded, if you like that idea, or in any other manner
+which seems good to you."
+
+"That," said the Emperor, "is an excellent suggestion.
+But would not there be some difficulty in carrying to the
+Marble Quay so large a number of sieves at once,
+particularly just when it will be crowded with notables
+and the neighboring squares and streets choked, even
+jammed, with their equipages? We should not want
+to present a numerous gang of sieve-carrying slaves. But
+if more than two sieves are trusted to each slave, there
+will be danger of the sieves being damaged in transit.
+We might find it difficult to select one sufficiently perfect."
+
+"We have thought of that," said Lutorius, "and have devised
+a solution which we think you might accept. I have arranged
+to have Truttidius convey some eighty horse-hair sieves to
+the water-front of the Marble Quay in a flat-bottomed
+row-boat, such as are used for bringing vegetables to the
+quays of the Forum Olitorium. The oarsmen can keep the
+boat nearly stationary off any point of the Quay indicated,
+and the selection can be made in sight of the official
+assemblage of all the Senators and Pontiffs."
+
+"That," said Commodus, "is an excellent suggestion.
+Have it carried out and see to it that only we four know
+of it and that no one but the sieve-maker and his assistants
+have anything to do with conveying the sieves from his
+shop to the boat and that only the boatmen, the sieve-maker
+and his assistants are in the boat, that no one else has been
+in the boat. I'll detail any number of men you ask for to
+escort the sieve-maker and his convoy.
+
+ "I'll have the river policed and all possible traffic suspended.
+Any craft that are let through the cordons of police-boats
+will be made to follow the other side of the river. We'll have
+nothing off the Marble Quay except the boat-load of sieves
+and the patrol-boats." He sighed.
+
+ "I believe," he said, "that that is all except fixing the day
+and the hour."
+
+"I suggest," said Lutorius, "the day after to-morrow, the
+eighteenth day before the Kalends of September, the
+twenty-third anniversary of Brinnaria's entrance into
+the order of Vestals, and, I regret to say, the second
+anniversary of her night expedition to Aricia."
+
+"That suits me," said Commodus.
+
+ "And the hour?" Numisia queried.
+
+ "Noon," said the Emperor.
+
+ Accordingly it was settled that Brinnaria was to face her ordeal
+at midday on August fifteenth of the nine hundred and
+thirty-seventh year after the founding of Rome, 184 of our era.
+
+ That night Numisia, conferring with Brinnaria, concluded
+by saying:
+
+ "Truttidius enjoined me to remind you to be very careful
+not to touch the web of the sieve with your fingers. Also he
+says that, if anybody's finger touches the web of the sieve
+as it is being handed to you, you are to decline to accept it
+and to demand another."
+
+"I understand that already," said Brinnaria.
+
+ The Marble Quay was that part of the embankment along
+the left bank of the Tiber which was used by the Emperors
+of Rome for embarking on their state barges and for landing
+from them whenever they took part in one of the gorgeous
+river processions. Also it was used by all members of the
+Imperial household for starting on excursions by water or
+when returning from them. It was situated below the north
+corner of the Aventine Hill, not far from the square end of
+the Circus Maximus, close to the round Temple of Hercules
+and near the meat market. Every trace of it has long since
+vanished, its precious marbles having offered most tempting
+plunder for builders of every century since the fall of Rome.
+
+ In its glory it was a space about two hundred feet long and
+nearly a hundred feet wide, bounded by a gentle hollow curve
+along the river, and enclosed on the other three sides by
+magnificent colonnaded porticoes.
+
+ The shafts of the columns were of black Lucullean marble
+and fully forty feet high. Their capitals and bases were of
+green porphyry, the entablature they carried of red porphyry
+and the wall behind them of yellow Numidian marble. The
+area was paved with slabs of pinkish and light greenish marble
+while the copings of the Quay and the steps leading down to
+the water were of coral red marble, a building material
+extremely rare and very costly.
+
+ At noon on the fifteenth of August the area, lined all round
+just before the colonnade by a double rank of Pretorian
+guards, gorgeous in their trappings of red gloss leather,
+gilded metal and scarlet cloth, was thronged with Senators,
+Pontiffs and officials of the Imperial Court, to the number
+of nearly a thousand.
+
+ Midway of the crowd, near the head of the middle water-stair,
+a part of the pavement, ringed about by the lucky dignitaries
+in the front row of spectators, was left free. In it, by the
+water-steps, were grouped a selection of Pontiffs, all the
+Flamens, four Vestals and the Emperor. The yellow river
+was almost free of craft; along the other bank some barges
+were being warped up-stream; nearby only patrol boats
+were visible.
+
+ Brinnaria, standing alert and springily erect, her white
+habit dazzlingly fresh, fresh as the white flowers clasped
+at her bosom by her big pearl brooch, looked like a
+care-free young matron who had had a long night's
+sleep and a good breakfast. Commodus, looking her up
+nd down, mentally contrasted her easy pose and the
+rosiness of her smiling face with the tense statuesqueness
+and austere, almost grim countenances of her three
+colleagues. He noticed that her three-strand pearl
+necklace seemed to become her more than theirs
+became the other three and that she wore her square,
+white headdress with an indefinable difference, that
+there was a difference in the very hang of her headband
+and in the way its tassels lay on her bosom. He noted
+two unusual adjuncts to her attire; a long, rough towel
+through her girdle and a gold sacrificial dipper thrust
+in beside it.
+
+ "Are you ready?" he asked her.
+
+ She looked him full in the face and slowly raised her
+left arm, stiffly straight, hand extended, palm down,
+until her finger-tips were almost level with his face and
+not a foot from it. Holding it so at full stretch she asked:
+
+ "What do you think of that? Am I ready?"
+
+Commodus regarded her finger-tips, her face, and
+again her finger-tips:
+
+ "Hercules be good to me !" he exclaimed. "Not a tremble,
+not a waver, not a quiver. You are mighty cool. You've
+plenty of confidence. I take it you are ready."
+
+"I am," said Brinnaria. "Where is that sieve?"
+
+>From behind her spoke Calvaster. "I have a sieve here."
+
+Commodus rounded on him like an angry mastiff.
+
+ "Who authorized you to speak?" he demanded. "You act
+as if you were Emperor. You are merely a minor Pontiff.
+Remember that and speak when you are spoken to."
+
+Calvaster, abashed but persistent, stammered:
+
+ "I merely offered a sieve."
+
+"None of your concern to offer a sieve," Commodus
+growled. "You insult all of us and me most of all. Do
+you take me to be so unfair as to subject this lady to
+her test with a sieve brought and offered by her accuser?"
+
+Calvaster was dumb.
+
+ "Show me that sieve," the Emperor commanded.
+
+ Calvaster produced from under his robes a copper-hooped
+sieve strung with linen.
+
+ Commodus handed it to Brinnaria.
+
+ "What do you think of that sieve?" he inquired.
+
+ Brinnaria held it up to the light and looked through the
+web; held it level, upside down, and looked along the web.
+
+ "It is very irregularly woven," she pronounced; "some
+of the meshes are three times the size of others. It is
+very unevenly strung, it bags in two places." She held it
+up to her face a moment.
+
+ "Also," she concluded, "it has been scrubbed with
+wood-ashes and fuller's-earth. Vesta herself could not
+carry water in that sieve."
+
+"Give it back to me!" the Emperor ordered.
+
+ He eyed it as she had, sniffed at it like a dog at a mouse-hole,
+and glared over it at Calvaster.
+
+ "You advertise yourself to all the world," he snarled, "as
+an unworthy Pontiff and a contemptible caitiff. You attempt
+to entrap me into the meanest unfairness! You pose as a
+public-spirited citizen solicitous about the sanctity of the
+worship of Vesta and I find you a pettifogging wretch
+actuated by spite and malice. You desire not a fair test,
+but the ruin of a woman you are low-minded enough to
+hate. Eugh!" With one of his excesses of unconventional
+energy he flung the sieve far out over the river. It sailed
+whirling through the air, splashed in the water and sank
+out of sight.
+
+ "For the price of one dried bean, I'd order you thrown
+after it," said Commodus to Calvaster.
+
+ He beckoned one of his aides.
+
+ "Signal that boat!" he commanded.
+
+ A broad blunt-ended cargo-boat, rather guided than
+propelled by its four heavy oars, came drifting down
+with the current. Its gunwale was hung with horsehair
+sieves. Up from the thwarts stood many poles, each with
+cross-pieces, every cross-piece hung with sieves. Its
+oarsmen edged it nearer and nearer to the Quay and
+slowed its motion until it was almost stationary
+opposite the stair, scarcely an arm's-length from the
+lowest step.
+
+ When it was close the Emperor spoke to Numisia:
+
+ "Choose any sieve you see."
+
+Numisia indicated the sieve on the forward arm of the
+second cross-piece of the fourth pole from the bow.
+
+ Lutorius, at the Emperor's bidding, called the directions
+to Truttidius, who, bowed and bent with age until he looked
+almost like a clothed ape, wizened so that his leathery,
+wrinkled face was like a dried apple, was standing near
+the middle of the boat.
+
+ "Go down the steps," said Commodus to Brinnaria,
+"and yourself take the sieve from him." Brinnaria, on
+the lower step, reached over the water, and grasped
+the rim of the sieve which Truttidius held out to her. She
+held it up to the light. Its web was of black and white
+horse-hair, each thread alternately of a different color.
+It was made for bolting the finest flour and the tiny
+apertures between the hairs were all of a size and
+scarcely broader than the hairs themselves.
+
+ She scrutinized the sieve from several angles and
+then looked back at the Emperor.
+
+ "Are you satisfied with that sieve?" he queried.
+
+ "I am satisfied with this sieve," spoke Brinnaria,
+loud and clear.
+
+ "I want to see close," said Commodus, coming down
+the steps.
+
+ Brinnaria, holding the sieve in both hands, lifted it
+towards the blue sky. "O Vesta!" she prayed aloud,
+"O my dear Goddess, manifest your divinity, succor
+your votary! To prove me pleasing and acceptable in
+your eyes, grant me the miraculous power to carry
+up these stairs water from this river in the sieve
+which I hold!" She lowered her arms and holding the
+sieve in her left hand knelt on one knee on the lowest
+step, spread her towel over the other knee and took
+from her belt the sacrificial dipper. With that she
+scooped up half a ladleful of Tiber water. On the
+towel spread over her knee she carefully dried the
+bottom of the dipper.
+
+ Holding it just outside the rim of the sieve she glanced
+up at Commodus.
+
+ "Go on," he said.
+
+ She smiled.
+
+ "If you want to see me fail," she said, "talk to me. If
+you want to see me carry water in this sieve, let me alone."
+
+"I'm dumb*," said he.
+
+        *"Dumb" at this time meant unable to speak.
+                --PG editor
+
+ She eyed the sieve to make sure that it was level and
+steady. Commodus, also eyeing it, judged it both steady
+and level.
+
+ She brought the ladle over the rim of the sieve and lowered
+it until it all but touched the middle of the web.
+
+ She tilted the ladle slowly, slowly she poured its contents
+over its lip.
+
+ She lifted it clear:
+
+ On the web of the sieve lay a silver disk, as it were, of
+water, round-edged and shining.
+
+ "Hercules be good to me!" cried Commodus.
+
+ "Keep quiet!" she admonished him. "You'll put me off."
+She dipped up a ladleful of water, flirted half the water
+out, wiped the bottom of the ladle on her knee and brought
+it cautiously over the sieve, cautiously she lowered it until
+it nearly touched the shining disk of water, cautiously she
+tilted it, cautiously she let its contents flow over its lip.
+
+ The disk of water spread. She repeated the process. The
+disk of water spread.
+
+ Again and again she repeated the process.
+
+ The disk of water became a film hiding nearly all
+the web of the sieve.
+
+ Commodus noticed that, as she dipped up each ladleful
+of water, she watched the dipper out of the corner of her
+eye, as it were, with a sort of partial, sidelong glance, but
+that all the while her gaze was intent on the sieve.
+
+ He noticed other details of her procedure.
+
+ "You never pour twice in the same place," he commented.
+
+ Rigid as a statue, the sieve in her hand as unmoving as if
+clamped in a vise, Brinnaria spoke:
+
+ "If I take my eyes off the sieve," she rebuked him, "it will
+tilt in my hand and the water will run through. If you make
+me look round you'll destroy me. You are not fair."
+
+"I'm dumb," said Commodus again, apologetically.
+
+ As she poured in the next dipper-load, the film of water
+touched the rim of the sieve at one point.
+
+ Commodus heard a sharp intake of Brinnaria's breath.
+
+ The next half-ladleful she poured near the spot where
+the water touched the sieve-rim.
+
+ Round near the hoop she dribbled in half-ladleful after
+half-ladleful until the web of the sieve was entirely covered.
+
+ She had moved slowly from the first dip into the river.
+But now, since she could not see any part of the web of
+the sieve, she moved yet more slowly.
+
+ Commodus began to be impatient.
+
+ "That is plenty of water," he said.
+
+ "Do you, as Pontifex Maximus," she uttered, "certify
+that the water now in this sieve is as deep as you stipulated ?"
+
+"I," said Commodus in a loud voice, "as Emperor and
+as Pontifex Maximus, here certify before all men that the
+water now supported by the web of that sieve is enough
+to demonstrate the favor of Vesta towards you and your
+impeccable integrity."
+
+"Back away," said Brinnaria, "I'm going to stand up."
+She thrust the handle of the ladle through her belt,
+brushed the towel from her knee and with her right
+hand also she grasped the sieve. Holding it now in
+both hands, her eyes on it, she very slowly, inch by inch,
+rose to her feet. When she was erect, she very slowly
+drew back her left foot until her two feet were close together.
+
+ "Back away," she repeated. "I'm going to turn round."
+Slowly she pivoted on her firm feet until she was standing
+with her back to the river.
+
+ Commodus at the top of the steps stared down at her.
+
+ "Back away," she reiterated, "I'm coming up the steps."
+Up the steps she came, very slowly. Planted on her right
+foot she would almost imperceptibly raise and advance
+her left foot. When it was firm on the step, she would
+gradually shift her weight to that foot, would very
+deliberately straighten up and very carefully draw up
+her right foot until both feet were together. So standing
+she would breathe several times before she repeated
+the process.
+
+ When she was standing firm on the top step on the
+level of the Quay platform, she raised both hands until
+the sieve was level with her chin.
+
+ "You have won," Commodus exclaimed. "You have
+demonstrated your Goddess's favor. The test is over."
+
+An arm's length away stood Calvaster.
+
+ "It's a trick!" he cried. "That is not water."
+
+"Not water!" cried Brinnaria.
+
+ All the forgotten tomboy of her childish girlhood surged
+up within her. The obsolete hoydenishness inside her exploded.
+
+ "Not water!" she cried, and smashed the sieve over his head.
+
+ The rim on his shoulders, his head protruding from the torn
+eb, frayed ends of broken horse-hair sticking up round his
+neck, the water trickling down his clothing and dripping
+from his thin locks, from his big flaring ears, from the end
+of his long nose, his face rueful and stultified, he presented
+a sufficiently absurd appearance.
+
+ Commodus, like the overgrown boy he was, burst into
+roars of laughter. The Pontiffs laughed, the Senators
+laughed, even Manlia and Gargilia laughed.
+
+ "It's a trick!" Calvaster repeated.
+
+ On the face of Commodus mirth gave place to wrath.
+
+ "Isn't that enough water for you?" he roared. "Anybody
+would think, the way you behave, that I am the minor Pontiff
+and you the Emperor. I'll teach you!" He turned and
+beckoned a centurion of the guard.
+
+ With his file of men he came on the double quick.
+
+ "Seize that man!" the Emperor commanded.
+
+ Two of the Pretorians gripped Calvaster by the elbows.
+
+ "March him out there to the edge," came the next
+order, the Emperor gesturing towards the quay-front
+on his right.
+
+ At the brink of the platform the Pretorians paused.
+
+ "Grab him with both your hands," the Emperor commanded,
+"and pitch him into the river." Over went Calvaster with
+a mighty splash.
+
+ As all Romans were excellent swimmers he came to the
+surface almost at once. A few strokes in front of him was
+the boat with the sieves. To it he swam and Truttidius
+hauled him aboard and located him on a thwart.
+
+ After the general merriment had waned and the laughter
+had abated Commodus faced the assemblage and raised his hand.
+
+ Into the ensuing silence he spoke not as a blundering
+lad nor as a sportsman, but as a ruler. For the moment,
+in fact, he looked all the Emperor.
+
+ "We have all beheld," he said, "a miracle marvellous and
+convincing. As Prince of the Republic, as Chief Pontiff of
+Rome, I proclaim this Priestess cleared of all imputations
+whatever. Manifestly she is dear to Vesta, and worthy of
+the favor she has shown her. Henceforward let no man
+dare to smirch her with any slur or slander."
+
+
+ CHAPTER XXII - TRIUMPH
+
+
+
+ IN recognition of Brinnaria's complete and incontrovertible
+vindication Commodus decreed an unusually sumptuous
+state banquet at the Palace, inviting to it all the most important
+personages of the capital, including the more distinguished
+senators, every magistrate, the higher Pontiffs, the Flamens
+in a body and most of his personal cronies.
+
+ While old-fashioned households, such as that of Vocco and
+Flexinna, clung to the antique Roman habit of lying down
+to meals on three rectangular dining-sofas placed on three
+sides of a square-topped table, this arrangement had long
+been supplanted at Court by a newer invention. The mere
+fact that, from of old, it had been looked upon as the worst
+sort of bad manners to have more than three diners on a sofa,
+and as scarcely less ridiculous to have fewer than three, had
+made the custom vexatious in the extreme, as it constrained
+all entertainers to arrange for nine guests or eighteen or
+twenty-seven and ruled out any other more convenient
+intermediate numbers. In the progressive circles of society
+and at the Palace, the tables were circular, each supported
+from the center by one standard with three feet, and each table
+was clasped, as it were, by a single ample C-shaped sofa on
+which any number of guests from four to twelve could
+conveniently recline.
+
+ At the Palace banquet in honor of Brinnaria, three tables
+only were set on the Imperial dais at the head of the dining
+hall. On one side of the Emperor's table was that where
+feasted the higher Flamens and Pontiffs, the sofa of the
+other was occupied by the young Empress, by the wives
+of the higher Flamens, and by the four Vestals present.
+
+ Brinnaria declared that her appetite was as good as on the
+day when she had returned home from her exile to Aunt
+Septima's villa.
+
+ After two public advertisements of the Emperor's favor
+and esteem she was entirely free from any sort of worry.
+Her enemies were few, merely Calvaster and his parasites,
+and they were thoroughly cowed and curbed their tongues.
+Not only no defamation of her but not even an innuendo
+gained currency in the gossip of the city during the
+remainder of her term of service.
+
+ Quite the other way. Her fame as a Vestal whose prayers
+were sure to be heard, at first a source of natural pride
+and gratification to her, came to be a burden, even a
+positive misery. There was an immemorial belief that
+if a Vestal could be induced to pray for the recapture
+of an escaped slave, such a runaway, if within the
+boundaries of Rome, would be overcome by a sort
+of inward numbness which would make it impossible
+for him to cross the city limits, so that the retaking of
+such fugitives became easy, as it was only necessary
+to search the wards for them. City owners of escaped
+slaves besieged Brinnaria for years and as it was reported
+that her intercessions were invariably effective, her fame
+increased and petitions for her assistance pestered her.
+
+ She bore the annoyance resignedly, reflecting that, while
+she was in such repute, no one was likely to impugn her
+honor.
+
+ Life in the Atrium, for the ensuing six years, altered little.
+Causidiena, within three years after Brinnaria's ordeal,
+became totally blind. Care of her devolved particularly
+upon Terentia, of whom she was dotingly fond.
+
+ The routine duties of the maintenance of the sacred fire
+those two shared, for Causidiena, even stone blind, never
+required anyone's assistance to tell her the condition of the
+altar-fire and could care for it and feed it even alone, judging
+its needs by the sensations of her outstretched hands, never
+burning herself, never letting brands or ashes fall on the
+Temple floor. But in all other matters Causidiena and
+Terentia were concerned only when their participation
+was demanded by canonical regulations, Terentia devoting
+herself to attendance on Causidiena, while Causidiena
+officiated only when the presence of the Chief Vesta
+ was indispensable.
+
+ For Numisia, Gargilia, Manlia and Brinnaria, their main
+concern was to arrange that Causidiena should have as little
+as possible to do and that Terentia might devote as much as
+possible of her time to entertaining Causidiena. This was
+not easy to accomplish, for Causidiena's mind was perfectly
+clear, her knowledge of every inch of the Atrium enabled
+her to move about it unhesitatingly at all hours of the day
+and night, her sense of duty urged her to do all that she
+had ever done when her sight was perfect, and, like
+most blind persons, she resented any reference, expressed
+or implied, to her infirmity. Consideration for her called
+for almost superhuman tact and dexterity. To the best of
+their ability the four strove to shield her without her being
+able to perceive their sedulity. To the charm of Terentia's
+music she, moreover, yielded readily. Music, as never before,
+occupied the leisure of the Atrium.
+
+ During these years Brinnaria was almost entirely happy.
+Her duties, her solicitude for Causidiena, her affection for
+Terentia, her delight in her own and Terentia's music filled
+up most of her time.
+
+ Her horse-breeding continued to interest her, but her interest
+was milder and far from absorbing. She kept it up largely
+because she regarded her outings as imperatively necessary
+to maintain her health, while aimless outings bored her.
+
+ As when younger, she dined out very often and regularly
+with Vocco and Flexinna. But since Calvaster's accusation,
+she never visited Flexinna alone, always in company with
+another Vestal, usually Terentia, so that her dinners at
+Flexinna's became restricted to evenings on which she
+and Terentia were both off duty. Terentia, who was
+passionately fond of small children, revelled in her visits
+to Flexinna's house, where there were children of all
+ages in abundance, all ready to make friends, all diverting,
+all pleased at being petted, and, as Flexinna said:
+
+ "Not a stutterer among 'em."
+
+>From Almo news came frequently through Flexinna.
+
+ His campaign, deliberately prepared and relentlessly
+carried out, progressed evenly and without any reverse.
+
+ The nomads nowhere withstood his legions and their
+attendant cloud of allied cavalry; one after the other
+their strongholds were reached and stormed, methodically
+and unhurriedly he reduced tribe after tribe to submission,
+his prestige growing from season to season and from year
+to year.
+
+ When Brinnaria's term of service was drawing to an end
+and only about eleven months of it remained, all Roman
+society was convulsed by what was variously referred to
+as the Calvaster scandal, the great poisoning trial or the
+murder of Pulfennia.
+
+ Pulfennia Ulubrana, one of Calvaster's great-aunts, was a
+dwarfish creature, humpbacked and clubfooted.
+
+ She was an only child and her parents, in spite of her
+deformities, were devoted to her. They lavished on her
+everything that fondness could suggest, and, as they were
+very wealthy, she not only lived but enjoyed life in her
+way and to a very considerable extent.
+
+ To begin with she never had an ill hour or an ache or
+a pain from her earliest years. Then, like many cripples,
+she had great vitality and a wonderfully alert mind. Amid
+the small army of maids, governesses, tutors, pages,
+litter-bearers, and so on, with which her parents surrounded
+her she did not become merely peevish, exacting and
+overbearing, as might have been expected. Even the
+services of her personal physician, of three expert
+readers to read aloud to her and of a half dozen musicians
+to divert her whenever she pleased, did not spoil her. She
+was imperious enough, self-willed and obstinately resolute
+to have her own way in all matters, but she had a great
+deal of common-sense, realized what was possible and
+what impossible and was considerate of her entire retinue,
+even of such unimportant slave-girls as her three masseuses.
+
+ She was greedy of all sorts of knowledge and acquired an
+education altogether unusual for a Roman woman.
+
+ Withal she was feminine in her tastes, spent much time
+on embroidery and was justly proud of her complex and
+beautiful productions in this womanly art. She overcame
+her disabilities to a great extent and, with no lack of
+conveyances, became a figure almost as well-known in
+oman society as Nemestronia herself.
+
+ As she had an accommodating disposition, an excellent
+appetite and a witty tongue, she was a welcome guest
+at banquets and went about a great deal. Also she
+entertained lavishly.
+
+ She survived the pestilence and, like so many of the
+remnants of the nobility, found herself solitary and
+enormously wealthy.
+
+ Her vast estates she managed herself and she knew to a
+sesterce the value of every piece of property, the justifiable
+expenses of maintaining each, and the income each should
+yield. Self-indulgent as she was and moreover an inveterate
+gambler, she grew richer every year.
+
+ Like all childless Romans of independent means she was
+the object of unblushing and overwhelming attentions from
+countless legacy cadgers. She enjoyed the game, accepted
+everything offered in the way of gifts, services or invitations,
+and, moreover, played up to it, for she was forever destroying
+her last will and making a new one. Each was read aloud
+to a concourse of expectant and envious legatees. Each
+specified scores of legacies of no despicable amount, and
+yet more numerous sops to numerous acquaintances. In
+every will Calvaster, her nearest relative and favorite
+grandnephew, was named as chief legatee.
+
+ She kept on making wills, and, what was more, she kept
+on living. Naturally her wealth, her eccentricities, her amazing
+healthiness and her obstinate vitality were subjects of general
+remark by all the gossips of the capital.
+
+ One night, an hour or two after midnight, she was seized
+with violent internal pains, and, in spite of the ministrations
+of her private physician, died before dawn.
+
+ In Rome any sudden death was likely to be attributed to
+poison. In her case the indications, from the Roman point
+of view, all converged on the inference that she had been
+poisoned. No-one questioned the conclusion.
+
+ Calvaster was immediately suspected. The evidence against
+him would not suffice to put in jeopardy any one in our days.
+To the Romans it seemed sufficient to justify his incarceration
+and trial. He had more to gain by the old lady's death than
+anybody else. He had been chronically in need of money and
+there had been much friction between him and Pulfennia on
+this point. She had always provided for his necessities, but had
+always insisted on scrutinizing every item in his accounts, and
+on being convinced of his need for every sesterce she gave
+him. She had supported him, but by an irritating dole of small
+sums. He had joked with his cronies about her hold on life. He
+had been heard to say that he would be glad when she was
+gone. He had bought various drugs from various apothecaries,
+though none within a year of her death and none used merely
+as a poison. Under torture some of her slaves and some of his
+slaves told of his having tried to induce them to put poison in
+her food.
+
+ Roman society promptly divided into two camps on the question
+of his guilt or innocence. The subject was debated with vehemence,
+even with acrimony. He had been a disagreeable creature from
+childhood and had made many enemies. On the other hand, great
+numbers of fair-minded people asserted that no man, however
+distasteful to themselves, should be convicted on such flimsy evidence.
+
+ His trial was watched with great interest, and when he was
+convicted and an appeal was successful and a retrial ordered,
+upper class Rome seethed with altercations. The case, by
+common consent, was tabooed as a subject of conversation
+at all social gatherings; feeling ran so high that it was possible
+to mention the matter only between intimate friends.
+
+ Naturally Flexinna and Brinnaria, Terentia and Vocco
+discussed the case frequently. To her friends' amazement
+Brinnaria maintained that she did not feel convinced of
+Calvaster's guilt.
+
+ "I always despised him and hated him," she said, "and I
+despise and hate him as much as ever, if not more. He certainly
+has been my worst enemy and he came very near to ruining me.
+But I see no reason why hate should blind me in judging his case.
+I should be glad to have him plainly convicted and put to death.
+It would please me. But I am not pleased at his present plight. I
+am not convinced of his guilt. I don't believe any slave evidence
+given under torture. A tortured slave will say anything he thinks
+likely to relax his sufferings or please his questioners. And I see
+no proof of Calvaster's guilt in the other evidence. Everybody
+buys such drugs as he bought. And suppose he did joke about
+Pulfennia's tenacity to life, who wouldn't? I don't believe it is
+proved that she died of poison anyway. People who have never
+been ill are reckless eaters. Look at me, I am. She may have
+died of indigestion or stomach-ache or what not. I'd do anything
+I could to save him, now."
+
+"D-D-Do you mean to say," spoke Flexinna, "that if you
+encountered him being led out to execution, you'd reprieve him?”
+
+"A Vestal can't use her prerogative of reprieving criminals," said
+Brinnaria, "unless she encounters by accident a criminal being
+led to execution. She can't lay in wait for one. Any suspicion
+of collusion vitiates her privilege. The encounter must be unforeseen."
+
+"Suppose," said Flexinna, "you did meet C-C-Calvaster on his
+way to execution, wouldn't you g-g-gloat over him and watch
+him on his way and not interfere?"
+
+"No, I should not, I should interfere," said Brinnaria, "and
+anyhow, what is the use of supposing? Suppose the moon
+fell on your front teeth, would you stop stuttering?"
+
+In June of 191 Almo returned from Syria, completely
+victorious and much acclaimed. He brought with him
+his veteran legions and was received with every mark
+of the Emperor's favor. After his official reception he
+at once left Rome for Falerii, where he was to remain
+until the last day of Brinnaria's service.
+
+ Meanwhile his house on the Carinae was opened and
+put in order under Flexinna's supervision.
+
+ On August 14th, Lutorius, Causidiena, Numisia and
+Brinnaria had a long conference as to the details of her
+wedding, which was to take place on August 16th.
+
+ The subject needed not a little discussion, as the circumstances
+were unusual. Having no parents, nor indeed any near
+connections, it was inevitable that the wedding should vary
+a great deal from what was customary.
+
+ It was decided that on leaving the Atrium after her exauguration,
+she should spend one night as the guest of Nemestronia; that on
+the next day she should go to Vocco's house and be married
+from there; but that in the ceremonies, Lutorius, who had been
+her spiritual father for many years, should take the part which
+her own father would have taken had he been alive. It was also
+decided that the wedding feast should be at Almo's house,
+after the wedding-procession, instead of at Vocco's before,
+as it would have been if she had living parents and was being
+married from her home.
+
+ Lutorius, who had a warm personal affection for Brinnaria,
+had been hovering about her, as it were, for some days, and
+on this last full day of her service he kept, so to speak, fluttering
+in and out of the Atrium, repeatedly returning to confer about
+some trifle or other which he had forgotten.
+
+ So it happened that he was approaching the portal as she
+came out for her afternoon airing.
+
+ "You have your light carriage, to-day, I see," he said.
+"Yesterday you had out your state coach. Why the difference?"
+
+Brinnaria, settling herself among her cushions, leaned out
+towards him as he stood beside the vehicle, holding on to the
+tires, his arms stiff, a hand on each wheel.
+
+ "This," she said, "is merely a constitutional. Yesterday I
+took my last outing with all my special privileges as a Vestal,
+drove all over Rome in my state coach, drove up to the
+Capitol, and, in a fashion, said farewell to the advantages
+of my office."
+
+"How do you feel about it all?" he asked.
+
+ Brinnaria pulled a wry face and laughed a forced laugh.
+
+ "I am finding out," she said, "why so few Vestals ever
+leave the order. When I realize that, after to-day, I shall
+have no lictor to clear the streets for me, that I may go
+out in my litter daily, but even so without a runner ahead,
+that I may never again drive through Rome, that I have
+been driven up to the Capitol for the last time and may go
+there hereafter only afoot or in my litter, I am almost ready
+to change my mind, give up freedom and matrimony and
+Almo and all and cling to my privileges. When it comes
+over me that, as I go out to-day, the lictors of any magistrate
+will salute me, even the lictors of the Emperor, whereas after
+to-morrow noon there will be no salutes for me, I understand
+why most Vestals live out their lives in the order."
+
+"There is time still to change your mind and stay with us,"
+he said, smiling.
+
+ Brinnaria laughed a perfectly natural laugh.
+
+ "No danger," she said; "my heart is Almo's as always."
+
+"And now, if you have nothing urgent to discuss, I'm off!"
+
+"Where to?" asked Lutorius.
+
+ "I don't care," said Brinnaria, "I don't even want to know.
+Give the coachman any orders that come into your head,
+sketch a round-about drive for me. I'm in the humor to have
+nothing on my mind."
+
+Lutorius, with a comprehending smile, whispered to the
+coachman, who mounted his tiny seat.
+
+ Almost at once Brinnaria was lost in thought and jolted through
+the streets oblivious to her surroundings, not even seeing what
+was before her eyes.
+
+ From her muse she was roused by the halting of the carriage.
+
+ Amazed, she looked up.
+
+ Still more amazed, she recognized, standing near the head
+of the off-horse, the state-executioner.
+
+ This repulsive public character, tolerated but despised and
+loathed, was the last living creature in or about Rome who
+would dare to approach a Vestal.
+
+ At sight of him she was inundated with a hot flood of wrath.
+She was about to call to her lictor, to demand why the carriage
+had stopped and rebuke him for being so negligent as to
+allow so unsavory a being to come so near her.
+
+ Then she saw between her and the executioner, just in front of
+that official, a kneeling figure.
+
+ She recognized Calvaster.
+
+ Also she saw the guards and executioner's assistants
+grouped about the two.
+
+ It came over her that she had encountered, wholly by accident,
+this gloomy convoy, and that before her, beseeching her for a
+reprieve, begging for a mere day and night more of life, knelt
+her inveterate, furtive enemy.
+
+ She raised her hand and looked the executioner full in the eyes.
+
+ "Send him back," she commanded. "He is reprieved until
+this hour to-morrow." The guards dragged off Calvaster,
+babbling his pitiful gratitude.
+
+ "Drive home," said Brinnaria to her coachman.
+
+
+ CHAPTER XXIII - SALVAGE
+
+
+
+ THE exauguration of a Vestal, by which canonical ritual she
+was formally released from her obligations of chastity and
+service and became free to go where she liked and to marry
+or to remain unmarried as she preferred, was a brief and
+simple ceremony. But it required the presence of all the
+Vestals, of the major Flamens, of many Pontiffs, of the entire
+College of Augurs and of the Emperor himself as Pontifex
+Maximus. Commodus, who was impatient of anything
+which curtailed the time he might lavish on athletic
+amusements, arrived precisely at noon, at the very last
+minute. The moment he had entered the Atrium he hurried
+the ceremony. It was soon over and Brinnaria no longer a
+Vestal, but a free woman.
+
+ It had been arranged that immediately after her exauguration
+her successor should be taken as a Vestal there in the Atrium
+by Commodus himself as Chief Pontiff. Little difficulty had
+been encountered as to selecting a candidate, since a most
+suitable child had been offered by her parents, people of
+xcellent family and of unblemished reputation. Her name
+was Campia Severina, and she was a small girl, just seven
+years old, plump, with a round full-moon of a face, a
+leaden-pasty complexion, and a most un-Roman nose,
+flat, broad and snub.
+
+ Commodus, prompted by Lutorius, droned through the
+required questions and showed manifest relief when he
+pronounced the word "Beloved" and the second ceremony
+was over.
+
+ He was, however, not wholly a loutish and unmannerly
+Emperor, but could be tactful and gracious when his interest
+was aroused. He took time to speak to each of the Vestals;
+complimented Terentia on her music and spoke of the
+Empress's admiration of her organ-playing, had a brief but
+kindly commendation for Manlia and Gargilia; praised
+Numisia highly for her efficient discharge of the duties
+devolving on her, and condoled with Causidiena on her
+blindness and feebleness, wording what he said so
+dexterously that she could not but feel cheered and comforted.
+
+ Then, aside from the assemblage of Pontiffs, Augurs, Flamens
+and the rest, he spoke privately with Brinnaria:
+
+ "I'm sorry to lose you," he said; "I felt comfortable about the
+Palladium as long as you were a Vestal. Numisia is a woman
+to be relied on too, and Gargilia and Manlia are capable
+creatures, but not one of the three is your equal in any respect
+and they are but three; the others are a corpse, a doll and an infant.
+
+ "Understand I'm not growling at your departure, I am trying
+to convey to you how highly I esteem you. I'll advertise it to
+all the world by having you and your husband, the moment
+you are married, put on the official roster of my personal
+friends who have the right of access to me at all times and
+can go in and out of the Palace at their pleasure.
+
+ "As to your wedding, I'm sorry I gave you my promise to
+stay away from it. I think that this recent notion of yours
+that the marriage of an ex-Vestal is an ill-omened occasion,
+like a funeral, is morbid and baseless. Every Vestal has a
+right to leave the order at the end of her term of service
+and to marry if she pleases. The right is indubitable. Nothing
+that is right is ill-omened. I think that an ex-Vestal's wedding
+ought to be regarded precisely as the wedding of anybody
+else. The most I'll concede is, that it might be likened to the
+wedding of a widow, considering her service as a sort of
+first marriage. That is my judgment, not merely as a man
+but as Chief Pontiff.
+
+ "My impulse is to revoke my pledge and to do all I can
+to make your wedding a grand affair. But I'm too good
+a betting man to break a promise. Besides, though I
+impugn your arguments as an ex-Vestal, I respect your
+personal preference for a quiet wedding. I'll not insist
+on being invited to the banquet, and, so far from taking
+part in the procession, I'll not even peep at it down a
+side street. I'll keep inside the Palace.
+
+ "But I want you to release me from my promise in one
+small detail. I want to be present at Vocco's to see you two
+break and eat the old-fashioned cake, and I want to be
+first to sign your marriage register. I promise to leave as
+soon as I have signed the register."
+
+Brinnaria, of course, could not but acquiesce.
+
+ "Good for you!" said the Emperor, "and thank you too.
+I'll keep away from the procession, but that won't make
+any difference in the throngs you'll find along your route.
+They'll jam the streets and you'll have to plough your way
+through. No Emperor could ever call out more sight-seers
+than will the wedding of Brinnaria the water-carrier."
+He then went out into the street which his escort blocked,
+and departed, accompanied by his coterie of boxers,
+wrestlers, swordsmen, jockeys and such-like, convoyed
+by a large and gorgeous retinue of pages, runners, guards
+nd lictors.
+
+ Immediately after his departure Brinnaria said her farewells
+and set out for Nemestronia's.
+
+ Next morning, as she descended from her litter at Vocco's
+door, a Vestal's carriage drove up and Gargilia got out.
+
+ "You're surprised to see me at this hour," she said, "and
+I don't wonder." When they were indoors and seated with
+Flexinna she explained:
+
+ "We have been having a terrible night at the Atrium and
+the worst sort of luck this morning. That little fool of a
+Campia is the most complete cry-baby and the most
+homesick little wretch I ever saw or heard of. She
+has sobbed herself ill and screamed us all out of a night's
+sleep. Terentia and Manlia were up half the night with her
+and she waked me and Causidiena.
+
+ "The result is that Causidiena has had one of her semi-fainting
+spells and is in her arm-chair for the day, poor Manlia has one
+of her splitting headaches and Terentia is almost as bad. I never
+saw the Atrium in such a state. Campia goes to sleep off and
+on from exhaustion, but she wakes up howling and keeps
+blubbering and whining and sniveling. I left both Terentia
+and Manlia in tears. They are so vexed to think that to-morrow
+they will be entirely well, but for to-day there is absolutely
+nothing for it but they must both keep abed and in the dark.
+
+ "Numisia sent me to tell you that she will be at your wedding,
+will walk in the procession and will be at the banquet, but that
+I must be on duty in the Temple. So we'll just have to have our
+chat now and when I leave we shall not see each other again
+for the present."
+
+As she climbed into her carriage she said:
+
+ "I'm sorry you haven't a bright wedding day."
+
+"So am I," said Brinnaria, glancing up at the gray canopy
+of rainless cloud which hid the sky; "any day is a good day
+to be married on, but I hoped for sunshine."
+
+Commodus, faithful to the spirit of his promise, came to
+Vocco's house with the smallest possible official retinue.
+He was in the best humor, affable and genial, and cast no
+chill of formality over the ceremony. He was the first to
+set his signature to the marriage register, signing in his
+sprawling school-boy hand. Then he stood aside and
+looked on while Flexinna, as matron of honor, led
+Brinnaria to Almo and joined their right hands, while
+they seated themselves side by side on the traditional
+cushioned stools, while the Flamen of Jupiter offered
+on the house-altar the old-fashioned contract-cake,
+and said the formal prayers for the happiness of the
+bride and groom; while the Flamen's assistant, one
+of Flexinna's older boys, carried the cake to Almo
+and Brinnaria and each broke off a piece and ate it,
+she uttering the old-time formula:
+
+ "Where you are Caius I am Caia."
+
+Above the voices of the guests Commodus' could be
+distinguished shouting with them:
+
+ "Good luck! Good luck!"
+
+In the silence that followed he warned:
+
+ "Now, no rising, no bowing. I'm not here to spoil this
+wedding, I came to enjoy it. No bowing, I tell you, no rising.
+Let me get out like an ordinary man."
+
+Into the gathering dusk he vanished with his retinue.
+
+ As soon as he was gone the arrangement for the procession
+began, the slaves lit their torches and grouped themselves
+outside the house-door, the flute players struck up a tune,
+Flexinna's thirteen-year-old boy lit his white-thorn torch at
+the altar-fire, her eleven-year-old and nine-year-old, as pages
+of honor, caught Brinnaria by the hands and led her out at
+the door. So led by the two little boys, their brother with the
+white-thorn torch walking before her, she passed through
+the streets to Almo's house, Nemestronia and Flexinna
+on either side of Almo, close behind her, Vocco and the
+other guests following.
+
+ The people made good the Emperor's prophecy.
+
+ From house-door to house-door the streets were packed
+with crowds eager to see her pass and loud to acclaim her.
+Through cheers, good wishes, loud jokes, merry longs and
+cries of "Talassio! Talassio!" she passed along the upper
+part of the Fagutal, and past the flank of the Baths of Titus
+to the Carinae.
+
+ Her bridal dress of pearl-gray, with the flame-colored bridal
+veil, reminded her more than a little of that costume of
+Flexinna's which she had worn to Aricia and back, only
+that was mostly pink, this mostly gray.
+
+ She looked well in it and wore the six braids and the headband
+more naturally than most brides, having been habituated to
+them for thirty years, since all Vestals always wore the bridal coiffure.
+
+ At the doorway of Almo's house, the bearer of the white-thorn
+torch halted and faced about inside the door, his two little
+brothers let go her hands, Almo himself caught her up clear
+of the pavement and swung her clear of the door-sill. As he
+held her in the air, nestling to him, she repeated the formula:
+
+ "Where you are Caius, I am Caia."
+
+ When he set her down inside the house she was at last a
+married woman.
+
+ She turned and watched the scramble for the white-thorn
+torch which its bearer first put out and then threw among
+the crowd after the slaves had also put out their torches.
+
+ So watching, Almo's arm about her, she became aware of a
+strange something in the look of the crowd and of the street.
+
+ "What makes it so light?" she asked Almo. "Why are the
+tops of their heads all bright that way?"
+
+Lutorius, who was near them, explained:
+
+ "There is a big fire somewhere the other side of the
+Capitol. I noticed it at the top of the street. The Capitol
+stood out black, the outline of both temples plain as in the
+daylight, against the red smoke behind it."
+
+"Send some of the slaves," said Brinnaria, "to find out
+where the fire is, and let us lie down to dinner. I'm as
+hungry as a wolf." And like a true Roman she began
+with a trifle of three hard-boiled eggs, merely to take
+the edge off her appetite.
+
+ There were six tables set in Almo's dining-room and
+an ample crescent-shaped sofa to each. The sixty guests
+made the big room buzz with talk and echo with laughter.
+
+ Nemestronia called across to Brinnaria:
+
+ "Now you have what you've always wanted. You're a
+married woman at last."
+
+"And I'll soon have what I've wanted almost as much,"
+Brinnaria replied.
+
+ "What's that?" several voices called.
+
+ "Two desires," Brinnaria explained, "haunted me all the
+while I was a Vestal. One was the longing for a horseback ride.
+I used to revel in galloping bareback. I haven't been astraddle
+of a horse for thirty years. It won't be many days now before
+I shall enjoy a good canter on a good horse.
+
+ "Then, by to-morrow night, I trust, I shall have had a fine
+long swim with my husband and six hundred other couples
+in the big basin of one of the City Baths.
+
+ "Words could not tell you how I have longed to go swimming
+in the public baths with the rest of my kind, as a lady should."
+
+The messengers returned with the news that the fire had started near
+the round end of the Flaminian Circus, close to the Temple of
+Bellona. Before a strong wind it had spread both ways, had caught
+everything in the north slope of the Capitol between it and Trajan's
+Forum: the silver-smiths' shops were all ablaze; to the south it had
+crept between the slope of the Capitol and the theatre of Marcellus
+and was sweeping over the booths of the Vegetable Market.
+
+ "It is the biggest fire in our time," said Lutorius.
+
+ "Where will it stop?" queried Numisia.
+
+ Both sent their lictors to make further report.
+
+ Before the dinner was half over they returned, with messengers
+from the Atrium. The conflagration was roaring up the Vicus
+Jugarius and Gargilia was alarmed.
+
+ Lutorius and Numisia hastily excused themselves, called for their
+shoes and went off; he in his litter and she in her carriage.
+
+ As Brinnaria was about to cut the wedding cake her former
+lictor, Barbo, thrust himself into the dining-hall, frantic with
+concern, and narrated how the fire was beyond any hope of
+control and was already devouring the Basilica Argentaria
+and Basilica Julia.
+
+ "Lutorius has had the sacred fire carried out of the Temple
+in a copper pan by Gargilia and Manlia," he said, "and Terentia
+and Numisia, with little Campia, were helping Causidiena
+along the Holy Street. Causidiena had an earthenware
+casket in her arms. I saw them turn the corner to their right
+into Pearl-Dealers Lane. They are safe in the Palace by now."
+
+"Safe in the Palace?" Brinnaria echoed.
+
+ "Yes," Barbo repeated. "Safe in the Palace. They say that the
+Temple and the Atrium must burn, nothing can save them."
+
+"The Temple!" cried Brinnana. "Fire! And everybody ill
+except Gargilia and Numisia! And all they could think of
+would be saving that dear old blind saint and that contemptible
+cry-baby. Ten to one they have missed the Palladium and
+taken one of the dummies by mistake!
+
+ "O, Almo, I must go save the Palladium!"
+
+Of course Almo protested.
+
+ "Don't hinder me," she begged. "Go I must, whether you
+object or not. We'd never forgive ourselves if to-morrow
+we learned too late that the Vestals missed the true
+Palladium in the confusion, whereas I might have saved
+it if I had tried. They may have taken the real Palladium;
+ I may be too late now to save it if they made a mistake,
+but I am bound to try."
+
+He shut his lips, but she read his eyes.
+
+ "That is like my hero," she said. "Patriotism first, self last.
+
+"Barbo," she called, "run before me and clear the way as
+if I were still a Vestal. It's illegal, but it will work."
+
+ She started for the house-door and then paused.
+
+ "Have you any fire buckets?" she asked Almo. "Then have
+two of the slaves each fill a bucket and keep close behind us."
+
+Amid the prayers and blessings of the wedding-guests, they
+went out hand in hand, the two slaves with leather
+water-buckets behind them, Barbo ahead, bellowing:
+
+ "Room for Brinnaria Epulonia! Room for Brinnaria
+Epulonia!" At the street corner, before they started down
+the slope of the Carinae, they had before them a wide
+view over the city directly towards the Capitol. Between
+them and the Capitol Hill they could see the buildings
+about the Great Forum all one sea of flames.
+
+ "The Basilica AEmilia is on fire," said Brinnaria, "and
+the Temple of Augustus is just catching. We shall be in
+time; our Temple won't catch before we get there.
+
+ "Run, let's run."
+
+Run they did, the crowds making way at Barbo's loud
+adjurations. In their wedding finery, she with her veil
+wrapped round her head like a market-woman's shawl,
+they ran, hand in hand between the great Temple of Venus
+and Rome, black on their right hand against the reddened
+clouds, and the vast Colosseum on their left, all orange
+in the glare, the gilding on its awning poles glimmering.
+
+ Up the Sacred Street they passed, running when they could,
+ploughing through the crowds when the crowd was too thick.
+
+ By the time they passed through the Arch of Titus they
+were running, panting and gasping, through a hail of warm
+ashes, hot cinders, glowing embers, blazing bits of wood,
+flaming brands.
+
+ At the corner of the Pearl-Dealers Exchange Almo halted,
+detaining her by her gripped left hand.
+
+ "It is no use," he said; "we are too late. You might pass
+the portal of the Atrium alive, but you'd never get back
+alive. And I doubt if you could reach the portal through
+this heat. You'd scorch to death."
+
+"I shall reach the portal," Brinnaria declared, firmly. "But
+I'm not coming back through it. Listen to me and don't
+forget. I'm going to make a dash for the portal. I can reach it,
+our Temple has not caught yet, the bronze-tile roof will hold
+the fire off the beams some time. This end of the Temple of
+Augustus has not blazed yet; I can see the cornice.
+
+ "Once inside the Atrium I'll not try to come back this way,
+I'll find the Palladium or make sure it is not there; then I'll
+run upstairs to the south-east corner. Those rooms are on
+a level with the pavement of the New Street."
+
+"But," Almo interrupted, "there isn't an opening towards
+the New Street. The outer wall of the Atrium towards the
+Palace is all blank wall to the cornice, not even a
+ventilation hole anywhere."
+
+"I know," she rebuked him; "keep still and listen. I'll run
+into the third room from the corner. All that end of the
+Atrium is of brick and cement, not a beam anywhere and the
+ceilings are vaulted; the fire will be a long time reaching me
+there. You go up Pearl Dealers' Lane to the corner of the
+New Street. From the corner measure thirty-eight feet along
+the New Street. At that point have a hole smashed through
+the wall. There are hordes of firemen about with their axes,
+sledge-hammers and pick-axes. They'll hack a hole through
+for you in no time. The wall is thin there; we had a temporary
+door made there three years ago for the plumbers when they
+were putting in the new bath-rooms.
+
+ "Now, every moment is precious. Hold my hand and help
+me to make my dash for the portal, but drop my hand and
+turn back at the portal; no man may enter the Atrium,
+except a Pontiff or a workman. When I squeeze your fingers,
+drop my hand and make your dash back.
+
+ "Don't try to check me, husband; self last and patriotism
+first, for every Roman of us all. We have waited thirty
+years for each other and we've hardly had time for three
+kisses yet. But if we must lose each other to save Rome,
+then we must.
+
+ "If I fail, good-bye!" Then she turned and called the
+trembling slaves to come nearer.
+
+ She ordered:
+
+ "Dash that water over us, one over him, one over me.
+Don't waste any, pour it on our heads. Now go where you please!"
+
+Dripping, hand in hand, they ran over the cinder-strewn
+pavement, under the rain of blazing fragments, up the
+Sacred Street, between the furnace-hot walls.
+
+ Under the long arcade they were safe.
+
+ At its further end she had to face a dash of some ten yards
+through the blazing brands, the very air seeming on fire.
+
+ "I'm afraid I" she cried. "Be brave, Almo, and give me
+courage!" Her fingers pressed his, their hands parted.
+
+ Her hands over her face she dashed forward.
+
+ He saw her vanish through the portal.
+
+ He ran back.
+
+ Inside the Atrium Brinnaria turned to her right, passed
+through a small door, traversed four dark rooms and groped,
+kneeling on the floor.
+
+ Her fingers found five earthenware caskets in a row.
+
+ Swiftly she felt them.
+
+ The third she opened.
+
+ Carefully she fingered the statuette inside, running the tips
+of her finger-ends along the carved folds of the gown, over
+the helmet, over the fingers clasping the spear.
+
+ With the statuette in her hands she stood up. Tearing off her
+veil she wrapped the statuette in it.
+
+ Back she went to the peristyle, and ran round it to her right.
+Under the roof of the colonnade she was safe from the rain
+of brands, but even in there the heat was appalling. She felt
+as if the very marble columns must crumble beside her as she ran.
+
+ At the far corner of the courtyard she dashed through a door
+and ran up two flights of stairs; a short flight in front of her,
+and a longer flight to her left from the landing of the first.
+At the top of the stairs she passed through four rooms. In
+the fifth, lighted from behind her through a door by an orange
+glow from the glare of the conflagration, she sank down on
+the floor against its farther wall.
+
+ Almost at once she was on her feet, recoiling from the wall.
+It quivered with the shock of blows from the outside.
+
+ A shower of plaster and bits of brick stung her face and
+spattered all over her.
+
+ She saw the point of a pick-axe shine an instant in the
+fire-glare.
+
+ "I'm here," she called. "I'm safe. Take your time. It's not
+hot in here yet." The excited blows thudded on the wall.
+The sledges broke a hole as big as her head, four times as
+big as her head.
+
+ "Take your time!" she repeated. "There is no hurry now."
+Soon she could see the torches outside, the faces of the
+firemen, Almo's face.
+
+ "No!" she said, "I won't be dragged through a crevice.
+There is plenty of time. Dig that hole bigger!" When it was
+large enough to suit her she bade her rescuers back away.
+
+ "No man must touch what I carry," she warned.
+
+ Outside, in Almo's arms, she was hurried through winding
+alleys, up narrow stone stairways, to the Palace.
+
+ At the end of a deep, dark passageway between high walls
+Lutorius, with some of the Emperor's aides, was waiting
+for them at a small door. He guided them to where they
+were eagerly expected. As they threaded the corridors,
+they heard, at first far off, then closer and closer, the
+sound of a child wailing, bawling, blubbering. Even in
+the Palace, Campia was an irrepressible cry-baby.
+
+ In the chapel of the Statue of Victory they found the
+Vestals, the Empress and the Emperor.
+
+ "I've got it safe," Brinnaria proclaimed.
+
+ "I'm a frightful-looking bride," she added, "wet as a
+drowned pup, scorched all over, all my hair burnt off;
+I must look a guy."
+
+"Never mind that," said Commodus; "you can't get home
+to-night, the conflagration is still spreading. I doubt if the
+firemen can save the Colosseum. It would take you till daylight
+to work your way round the districts which are in confusion.
+You'll sleep here. I've had Trajan's own private suite made
+ready for you two, as soon as the first messenger told me
+of your gallantry. You'll find an army of maids and such
+waiting for you. Go make yourselves comfortable.
+
+ " The bedroom of Rome's greatest Emperor is none too
+ood for you. Nothing is too good for you, Brinnaria.
+
+ "You've saved the Palladium, and me, and the Empire
+and the Republic and Rome."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE UNWILLING VESTAL ***
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